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340. Thirty Minute Thursday: Suzana Somers of Pop Culture Data Breaks Down Dancing With the Stars Ratings, Social Media & Predictions

October 15, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:14 Ding, ding! Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets, 30-minute Thursday edition. I am back with David Ardwin, and we have a special guest joining us here in 15 minutes halfway through. Susanna Summers, Bachelor Data, pop culture data, talking all things about the analytics of Dancing with the Stars. Who's getting the most followers? Who is likely to win based on the success she's seeing so far? And all the hard-hitting questions like, is Dancing with Stars ranked? Does there some other things going on? There's a lot of bullshit conspiracies out there. Susanna is going to answer all those.
00:46 But before we get to her, David, how are you doing, my man? Doing good, doing good. Coming off a great weekend, seeing you, some late nights, a little too late for our blood, but some, you know, when you're having great conversations at 3 a.m. around a table, it's always a good fun time in New York City that we had. And we're just, I feel like everyone's back after a holiday weekend. The week's just seemed busier. They go by faster.
01:07 But always great to be on the ones and who's with you, excited for Bachelor of the A to come on the show. I feel like we made the decision that I think we said this to each other. We looked at each other and just kind of said it. For the rest of our life, we're not going to do it often. It's not going to be every day, not every week, not every month. But until we're dead, we're going to party. Like, we're like those once in a while times we get out together. Like we're going to throw down.
01:28 We had, for the people at home, we had an amazing conversation sitting on the top of a booth at 3 a.m. at town nightclub. And it was eight years ago, almost to the day that we were, eight feet away at a different table when Jason first got off the bachelor. And eight years before that was his Jason's senior year of Geneseo when we were at Geneseo together. And we were having this crazy moment of like unbelievable fun party that just like slowed down and time slowed down.
01:59 And we were just talking about how fast life goes by and eight year segments. And if you're lucky enough to live to 80, that's 10, eight year segments. We just talked about three. And you're staring at the place that you were eight feet away eight years ago and how much time has gone by. It was, it was crazy. It's nothing better than when we can just party and also appreciate time and where we are and where we've gone through and what we've been through, which is Kendra Scott's episode in a nutshell. Kendra Scott's episode in a nutshell. One last thing before we get into Kendra Scott's episode is I think another good theme that I had or something
02:30 I learned in the last week was before we planned the 40th party for having to call me, he goes, I'm not excited about my birthday. I don't want to have a birthday party. I don't know what to do. I haven't planned anything. What do I do? And I just, I've never really thought about it. I sat there for a second. And I said, and one word, what do you want this part? What do you want it to be? And he's like, I don't know. I said, well, can I tell you what I think it should be? And he said, fun. I go, we, we, we are whole lives, if you think about like the fun memories, like the good memories we have, like the ones we always refer to. We're just having fun. It's not a fancy steak dinner with a martini and wine. It's not like the hard restaurant to get into or, You know, that we're eating this thing that's so big time or we have a fancy ride.
03:16 It's the times you just have fun. So it's like, if that's what you want, throw some freaking wings in pizza, your favorite food in this nice little sweet, have some drinks. Let's go out. And he's like, that's what I want. I want to have fun. You're right. It was so that too.
03:30 It was so great. Well said, playing beer pong. We were playing card drinking games that we did when we were in college day. It made me ride the bus. Absolutely ran me over on that card game. So well done, Jay. and maybe rigged against me. Like we'll talk about
03:42 with Dancing with the Stars. Is that rig? We'll talk about that. But it was exactly that. It was one of those ones. It was like, hey, we're at a house party. Do we have to leave and go to the bar? Because the house party's more fun.
03:51 But the bar was just as fun too. It was good. Exactly. And I think, honestly, we talk work here. We talk life. I think it's a good thing. Like, when you have a meeting, when you're having people over,
03:59 when you're hosting dinner with six people, whatever it is. What is one word you want? Maybe it's just comfort. Maybe it's relaxed. Maybe it's energetic. Think about that one word you want to achieve for that one thing. And hey, you know, that could change the trajectory of what you do and how you do it.
04:13 But let's get into Kendra Scott. David, very curious. Shark from Shark Tank, you know, built an absolute fortune from next to nothing and has done it in a way that so many households have Kendra Scott in their jewelry boxes and look up to everything that she has done. And not so many households, not only so many households, but we now have a new full-time shark at Shark Tank. What do you think? I don't really know where to start, actually, because this is one of the episodes where, and maybe it was coming off Jesse James Decker, and now you have Kendra Scott. We're talking about two powerhouses. And you're a rich BFF right before that. Exactly.
04:51 Who made $8.2 million last year on content. These are powerhouse individuals in the world. And anyone who listens to this man, woman, child, teenager, whoever, you can't help but be inspired because the people, like Kendra who are so inspiring is because they're so relatable because, I mean, how many different times did she talk about something that we've all been through, whether it was her divorce at the time where she had a one and a three-year-old and she only had $200 and how she's going to get groceries. She talked about her hat business failing. She talked about the reason she made the hat business and then losing the person that, the reason that she started the hat business and
05:30 how dark those times were. She talked about, you know, all those things. My favorite quote, kick it to you because I'm curious your reaction on that was when she talked about how we talked about diamonds and how important diamonds are because they're all unique. Every diamonds are created from pressure and everyone is created from their own pressures and experience and who you are is shaped from them. And so everyone's unique. So she talked about like, so use that and bust through the door and see what life has to offer you. And I thought that that was really, really interesting. Yeah, it is that it's kind of like a weird way to reverse engineer that the hardest worst days or the worst times in your life can be the definition of what your life becomes.
06:09 And it's really hard to think about that, that like, oh, nothing's going my way or it's a shitty day or things cost too much. I don't have this. It's like those are the moments that can dictate literally like the title on your tombstone. Perspective is reality. And Jesse James Decker talked about that when her mom was stretching the rice with milk and they were so poor. And but it was like, I was so happy because my mom was happy. And you only know what you know. And I got to say this because it's something that hit me like a train when it happened. And it kind of put life in perspective to me. When my grandma died, my nona, it was the saddest day in my life. I couldn't even give the eulogy because I was crying so much. And it took me a little bit while to realize,
06:46 like, why is this happening to me? Why is this happening? And the reality is, and Kendra talked about it too, like how short life is, like you're a grain of sand. The reality is, if you're on this planet, you're meant to experience emotions. Experiencing emotions is the only way to truly know and realize that you're living. And you're supposed to be on this planet to experience all the emotions, the highest of the highs, the celebrations, the weddings, the moments of that. But you're also put here and lucky enough to put here to experience all of the emotions that come with sadness and grief.
07:20 And that makes you realize that you're still alive. And I'll never forget that realization of perspective. And I think no matter what, you have to appreciate everything that you're going through, but also learn and experience it and be able to mold in who you are. So she is an extreme example of that. And I just found it so when I talk about relatability, that's how it's relatable to me. Yeah, I mean, if you think about what separates a human from every other living creature, right? It's things like obviously the basics of, okay, we have language and we think differently, abstract thinking and culture.
07:52 But like one of the biggest things is that we have emotional intelligence. That's what separates us. That's what that is one of the beauties of living is the emotions that are connected to us as humans. And yeah, I think you're exactly right. It goes by so short. It's so easy to be so negative or pessimistic thinking with your things that don't work out. But just to hear her and a lot of our guests lately just talk about this reoccurring theme that like your shitty moments are the moments that end up becoming the best things in your life, if that makes sense, which is crazy. It is.
08:30 And she talked about the reason why she knew she had a concept. with jewelry that was going to be lasting is the need for human connection. She talked about when it was COVID and it got, no one's going to shop anymore. Brick and mortar is dead. Human connection is so important. And when you lose it, you start losing the value or the worth of whatever that experience is. And she's absolutely crushed it because she doubled down on changing the jewelry shopping experience and valuing human connection. And she's absolutely blown up from it. And we talk AI, we talk robots. You know that that stuff freaks me out more than anything. But sometimes I lose faith in human. sometimes I'm like, no, we'll be okay because we do crave human connection.
09:07 I think it's the most important thing ever. And I've talked about it for weeks on the podcast. I talked about it with you. I am just so in the mode right now of trying to slow things down and appreciate things and talk about these things and make me and those who I'm talking to realize that, you know, we're lucky enough to be here and these moments we're sharing together. And I think this episode really hit me hard because she articulated that and how she's taking those experience and learned from that and not shied away from who she is
09:32 and what she's been through to create what she's created. Are there any curiosities from the Curious Canadian? Like anything you're wondering that we talked about that you were trying, you were like thinking about or made you question or wondering behind the scenes, any of those curveballs? Not really, to be honest. Like I thought some were really interesting. I loved her line when she was finally,
09:50 PE got involved and the valuations were starting. And they were talking about a B word. And she was like, Billy and I'm used to bankrupt. She talked about taking $5 million as her first investor in 2012. She's still a 20% shareholder, which when you're talking billions, obviously is a lot of money.
10:07 I loved. Here's my takeaway for you. It got to a point where she talked about the manifestation masterclass for entrepreneurship. She took at MIT, four girls, 65 people. And the biggest advice that she took was she came out of that knowing who she needed to hire as her CEO.
10:25 And you started drilling down on some questions about how she knew that was the right person. And I've always been hard on you about like, Jay, you're the man, you're smart, you're more business savvy than I'll ever be than I'll ever want to be honest, to be honest. But I always think that like you are stretching yourself too thin. You need to do what you're great at.
10:42 It'll make you a little more fulfilled, a little joy we do. And if you hire someone to take care of the stuff you don't, it's going to maximize your profit, your brand. And when she said, you were asking questions and she said, hire a CEO to do the things you loat so you can do the things you love. And I was like, oh my God.
10:58 And then you're like, so how do you compensate that person? Are you asking for yourself? I was like, what kind of resume? Yeah, exactly. Tell me more about it. No, that was, it was, yeah, I always love the episodes where I feel like I'm getting a masterclass. They always know that someone listening will also get a master class. And just so, so wildly impressive, what she's done, how far she's come.
11:19 Now a full-time shark on Shark Tank. I mean, that is someone that was, if I was pitching to them, that is someone I would want on my side. And her history is pretty fun. She's had 13 deals, 2.3 million, 11 active, 84.6% success rate. That is hard to do on Chartank, but she has done it. Now, David, before we transition out of this episode, anything else you got? Because boy, oh, boy, was it a hot start to this week in Nashville that we got to talk about? Yeah.
11:49 No, listen, I'm up to my eyeballs and work stuff. So anything I can keep talking about Kendra Scott-wise, podcast-wise, or what's going on in Nashville in your life? I'm all yours. Let me live in your world. a little mayhem. I'm saying Monday night football watching the Buffalo bills back and forth. We're in overtime.
12:03 We made the Miss Fugel go, wow, are they going to come back? There's no way it's impossible. John Gurney, I need you to take me the hospital. What? My stomach is killing me. Okay, I'll be right there. Left the house.
12:14 Take their gurney to the hospital. What a shit show at this hospital. Dude, dude, he had this nurse. I think she was a nurse. Actually, I don't know if she was a nurse. She's working the front desk. And she's like, we got to take your blood. And he's like, I don't like that.
12:28 And they're like, and I sat in the other room. I'm like, yeah, I'm getting better with needles, but might as well say over here. Then she goes, you have great veins. She takes three shots at his veins misses. And he's like, hey, like, what's going on? She's like, oh, I'm struggling with this. And she goes, I don't even know if I'm qualified to do this. And John's like, can you get someone that is?
12:47 Finally, they get someone who is. They then take him in the back. I'm with them there in the back. He's going through a lot of excruciating pain. He's like the worst pain I've ever been in my life. So they bring in morphine and an IV bag, right? So they put it all in And then she's to the nurses
13:00 She's so sweet But she's like hey do you want a pillow He's like yeah like a pillow So she goes to get a pillow Comes back puts the pillow in And I think she was about to leave And I'm like hey The IV drip is not dripping
13:12 Like you gotta turn this on He's got to get this morphine Like what? My goodness Crazy and then he ended up getting a CTS CT scan to determine That he was having an appendicitis And then he had it
13:24 And they still didn't put him in surgery For another three four hours And his appendix burst, for God's sakes. Either way, he got out of that doing well. He's back. He's discharged. Everyone know that John Gurney is happy and healthy now. But what a wild start.
13:36 And then was in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday. And I spoke at the headquarters with the head of marketing and social media and media, all for Coca-Cola. I mean, what a massive brand. So cool start to the week. And then tonight, Catherine and I are kicking off at Nashville SC. Wags and Wags and Walks is doing something with Nashville Soccer Club here, MLS team. And we're doing something with an national. inaugural kickoff. So we're looking forward to tonight. Busy start over here.
13:59 Love it. I'll be on a plane to Chicago, got a hockey weekend in Chicago, taking off tomorrow. I did say in my classic curiosity and not fully explaining myself when it happened in the, when you said you were doing that with John. I said, what's an appendicitis? But not what is a dependent sinus? I just didn't know, Jay. What is the pain like? How do you know it's appendicitis? If it bursts, do you die? What are the signs? How do we not know more about this? What does your appendicit appendix do? What is this? What is this like chicken pox?
14:28 It happens to everyone once. And what's it happens? It doesn't happen again? Like, was it a ticking time bomb? Like, what the hell? I'm the guy who doesn't go to the doctor. So if I start having a pain, then I'll be good.
14:36 Yeah. Let me give you a quick thing. My brother got it when we were a kid. And I'll never forget to this day when we went to the primary care physician. And the doctor pushed on his right area. It's like a, he went like us, hang on one second. And he pushed down right on his lower right area. And boom, my brother screamed in pain.
14:52 Okay. And the doctor goes, take him to the hospital right now. I think it's an appendicitis. They did the same thing to John. Popped it. He was like, oh, my God, it's the worst pain I've ever been in it. So the way John described it is it feels like a ton of pressure in your stomach. It's a pressure pain, not a nausea pain, not a, you know, he did throw up on the way to the hospital.
15:14 He was hungover. It's all good. For the record, he wasn't. Just so people know he was. No, but it's a pressure pain. It just feels like a pressure like so. loaded, so pressured, just intense, intense pressure starts at the belly button and then slowly makes its way down to the right area.
15:28 If it bursts, you can die. It's poison, literally being thrown into your body. John has had a miracle recovery. So my biggest thing to take away, and I'll probably say this on social and I haven't yet, if you're not feeling good and you need someone to talk to, call them, call them. It's in the middle of a bill's game. And he said, hey, I need to go hospital. There's no messing around.
15:48 Lean on the people that you need to lean on. Don't feel like you need to be a warrior and strong. Go to see a doctor when you need to see a doctor. And the people that care about you will drop anything in the world to make sure you're okay. And that's a huge life's lesson for anyone, especially no matter what age you are. Your chest is feeling a little tight. Something's off. Don't fuck around.
16:06 Go to the hospital. Before we bring in Susanna Summers, S&P 500 drops 1% today. And that's because it was dragged down by hot inflation data. That is coming out today Wednesday, the day before this is released. the consumer price index rose 0.6% in September month over month with its year-over-year gain coming in at 3.7%. While the former was in line with expectations, the later was hotter than expected than economists really didn't expect it to be this high. And so now the S&P 500 is down 1%. So there's some blood in the streets. But that being said, it is time to take it from Kendra Scott, who was an unbelievable guest.
16:45 From Kendra Scott, we're talking life and finance. And now we are back. in the pop culture realm. We have Susanna Summers back on the show. A friend of Trading Secrets has been on several times. Bachelor data, pop culture data. And if you are looking to learn anything with Excel, you got to go to her bio and go check out rethink data. There is so much to cover here because you are the hottest topic I think in dancing
17:10 with the stars. Susanna, thank you so much for being back on Trading Secrets. It's so good to be back on. I think this is what third, fourth time? third, fourth time, at least. Things must be busy for you right now with this show. We always talk about we can't believe the way this show has blown up over the years. What is going on with Dancing with the Stars?
17:30 This is the biggest season yet. And it's been great to see as somebody's been watching Dancing with the Stars for so long. Ratings have been going up after the pandemic lull. There were some pretty bad seasons around then with ratings. But this season so far, we are up about 18%. after last season's record setting season. So it has been so busy as far as things on my end, it has been absolute chaos.
17:55 I'm analyzing more data than I've ever analyzed in a season, let alone in this short amount of time. It is so, so cool what you're doing. Everyone literally stop what you're doing right now. Go to pop culture data. Give her a follow. These slides, the things you're talking about, even answering is Dancing with the Stars rigged.
18:13 This stuff is unbelievable. What we saw that make a move at Charlie Demi, We saw, obviously, a move with Taylor Frankie Paul as a potential bachelorette. That didn't work out getting someone with social media following. Then they go to Alex Earl and hit a whole next level of TikTok influence, Gen Z influence. When the cast came out for this season of Dancing with the Stars, based on the analytics you had, did their selections meet the criteria that you expected? Or were you thinking with this cast, maybe it won't achieve what it did last season given that it was record setting?
18:45 You know, I thought that this cast was really interesting. We had some very, very big names, but also some who are these people kind of names. I think personally, Julia Stiles feels like one of the biggest names they've ever gotten. And if you look back at the older seasons of Dancing with the Stars, we've had people like Kim Kardashian Zendaya, which are now big names. But at the time when they were on the show, they hadn't hit the level of stardom that somebody like Julia Stiles has. And I think casting is really just killing it in the most recent years with getting people from different niches, from different generations that will pull in different viewers. I think they're just killing it. But yeah, Julia Stiles this season, I think, was one of the biggest gets that they've gotten. And I think that's just a testament to the big names from last season. And I also wouldn't discount. Riley Arnold was a big casting decision that led to the growth of this show. While she wasn't somebody who had millions of followers before she was cast, She was the first pro that was really making a lot of TikTok content that first off, the other pros were like, we got to start using TikTok and then brought that generation in after the Charlie Demilio season. One question I got for in, David, I know you got a bunch. So I'll let you have it after this one. Okay. But this one, when you said the Riley comment, I was like, I got to get this out in the short period of time that we do. From my standpoint, it feels like, now listen, this is not a discount at any of the start.
20:14 The stars are all incredible in their own right. So this is more of a blanket statement, and it's not specific to this season or other seasons. It's just a blanket statement that feels real. It feels like some of the dancers are becoming bigger stars than some of the stars on the show. And when you analyze their engagement on social media, their social media growth, the brand opportunities they're having, the TV opportunities. It feels like is it like someone just sitting back watching here or there? that feels like it's becoming a reality. Is there anything to that comment I just said? Absolutely. And I think that that's a big decision that stars make with big names about who they
20:53 request to be their pro. It's not only their history of winning, but also do they have a big social media following? It wouldn't surprise me. We haven't heard yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if Connor requested Riley. He's a big influencer. He knows that getting somebody who's also a big influencer is going to help his game. You know, Mara requesting Mark, obviously they were on traders together, but he has a really great history of winning this show. And I mean, he's tied with Val for second most winning pro of all time. But they're becoming incredible, incredibly famous people in their own right. And even this season, if you look at Tatiana and Jan, for example, there are certain weeks where the pro is driving more of their combined social media growth
21:37 than the star themselves. Crazy. Times are changing. David, I know you're sitting over there with a few questions. Fire away. I got two quick ones. One, it surprises me that it is the biggest season by far.
21:49 18% growth is crazy because my algorithm's not feeding me as much as I'm used to. So I was really wondering about that, which was interesting. You talked about the dark days after COVID and now it's really exploded. Do you think that is a product of getting the guests on, the stars on? Or do you think it's more a product of them really leaning? into social media. It could be both. But to me, I hear that. I'm like, Charlie DeMelio fixed the show because it forced their hand and getting such a big star from a big, you know, generation,
22:17 amazing dancer at that to who end up winning the show and also kind of showed these pros like, hey, you want to be as big and famous as me? Go ahead. Here's the blueprint. You know, I think it's interesting how everybody's social media algorithms work because for me this season, I'm seeing more content on Dancing with the Stars than I've ever seen. But I think what's interesting is I'm seeing people who normally don't talk about this show have been jumping on the bandwagon last season and this season. And it's just becoming more and more popular to the point where we're seeing Derek Huff on each episode. He's doing silly things in the background to have this. He has this silly beef with a content creator who covers the show and gives her thoughts.
22:55 But it is definitely the biggest season in recent years. If you look at actual numbers, so the number of millions of viewers who watched, obviously back in the old days, the first few seasons of this show, more the quantity of people watching was actually larger. But as far as demo and how the show is performing compared to other shows, it is doing better right now. I think an interesting stat that you guys are going to like that I pulled up for today is that this season, there was an episode that actually went head to head with the Yankees Red Sox playoff game and Dancing with the Stars won. So Dancing with the Stars, Dancing with the Stars had 7.3 million viewers, while the game had 7.31 million viewers.
23:38 Oh my gosh, that is crazy. That doesn't surprise me as much as you may think as a sports guy. It also makes me want to double down with the fact that when we talk about The Bachelor and the comeback that the Bachelor may or may not make, doing it in real time is so important to get the eyeballs because it's all spoiled before it happens. My next and maybe last question, because 30 minute Thursdays, we got five minutes, I don't want to steal your thunder. You've talked about the guests that's kind of helped them bring back.
24:02 You say, you know, we have the social media stars, the Alex Earls, the Charlie Demilios. Now you're talking about Julia Stiles, an OG celebrity dancer, celebrity actress. In your expertise, which is an expertise, who do you think's out there left that they could get? That's the right time, the right guest to get the eyeballs to keep growing the show to make sure the next year and the next year is kind of the next biggest year. Sorry to put you on the spot. You know, I don't think that it would be crazy that in a couple years we get somebody like, one of the Kelsey brothers or, you know, anybody from that family. I think the show is just getting so big. But that being said, I think that they have a big problem on their hands. I think this season
24:46 more than ever, everybody's feeling how negative the fan base is online. I will tell you, I thought the Bachelor fan base was rough to deal with. Danty of the Stars is a different beast. I have to sometimes ignore my comments because of how mean they get talking about some of the people on this show. So I think that's going to be a big problem that they're going to face with casting, that we're starting to see, like, Derek made a video about, you know, remember, let's be kind. And we're seeing a lot of, but I think there are some big names out there. I think also there's people who are campaigning now. We're seeing people like Simul Liu, who is from the Marvel World, a Marvel superhero. He's like, I would love to go on the show. We're starting to see more and more people talking about wanting to
25:28 go on the show that I think it'll be interesting to see what names we're going to get next year. As we see this intersection of like A-list celebrities, right, and like Hollywood true celebrities and A-list wanting to dive into social to strictly steal an audience back to keep them A-list in everything, social media and their worlds, I think this space of Dancing with the Stars is that perfect center way for them to come in, make a huge impact to a nude audience, take that community, go back and continue to live their success. So I too think that in the upcoming years, there will be bigger names than I think the show has ever seen before. That's a prediction.
26:07 I have a great tip, too, of something that I've noticed because I sometimes hear insider information on people that they're signing for the following year the year. Keep an eye out to who's in the audience. Because like Alex Roel, for example, when she was in talks with the show to sign for the following year, she actually flew out with her family to watch an episode in the audience that year. Now, it's not always, I mean, people know, like, you go to go see the show and, like, you haven't been on. And, you know, there are people going to support their friends and whatnot. But a lot of times they're flying people out who are going to be on the next season. So keep an eye out and he's in the audience.
26:43 Brilliant. I want to see a couple's edition. I want to see a couple's edition where the pro is the actual teacher, almost like America's got talent, something like that. I don't know, maybe in the off season, neither here nor there. But another question I got for you as we're wrapping up is everyone right now. I mean, you go on Kelsey and you can bet on this. Everyone is talking about predicting who's going to win, who's not going to win. As far as KPIs, like key performance indicators, which do you think has a bigger impact
27:10 on whether someone will advance? Is it social media growth or is it the scores from their dance that week? So it's a big combination between, so there's two models that I'm using to predict who's going to go home every week. And I just want to say none of those gambling websites had Guillermo and their bottom. three this week, but I did. Oh, wow. Let's go. Shotsfire. I do not like the game. I'm all about sports gambling. Sure, go ahead and do that for that. But once it's left the sports world, I'm not a huge fan of it. But one of the big factors. So I have two models that I use. It's one that I
27:42 post before the episode and then a model that I use as the scores come in. So you can only predict as then the judges go crazy that night with their scores. But it comes down to what did the scores look like the previous week, plus a combination of social media growth, YouTube views, and then social media engagement. So who's getting the most views, the most interactions on their content? That's how I am calculating things. Now the exact percentages I'm not going to be sharing, but those are going to be the main predictors. And a lot of people are wondering, why are you using YouTube views? Nobody watches YouTube. They do. The point of using so many social media platforms to calculate that is that not everybody that's voting is just a TikTok user. Not everybody who's
28:26 voting is just an Instagram user. You want to pull that across all the platforms to try to see who's growing the most and then who's getting the most engagement. It's not who has the biggest audience, though. Interesting. It makes perfect sense. If you were like on the cast, suppose you're trying to cast based on David's question, you're thinking about who should be the next person. would you use a similar equation to see before the show who would be a good fit or what kind of things would you look for before to see if someone's potentially a good fit for the show? Yeah, I think social media engagement is the biggest one. You can have a very big audience, but if your view counts are low, you're not going to be somebody
29:03 that's great for casting. Like Giato was a great example of that. But I think that coupled with if you have a really good story, like Ezra this season, for example, he has a great story. Robert Irwin had a great story. that's just going to be the perfect storm for casting. And it's almost like that it's relevance, but man, that timing of relevance feels so important. Of course, Sierra is still extremely relevant and in a star in her own right just killing it.
29:27 But, you know, that we have seen so many things pop since then, right? That was like four or five months ago. And I was almost like if that happened right before the season started, she'd probably still be in it. So there's so many moving factors there. One we have to ask about because you even covered it on your social media. There's a lot of conspiracies out there on Dancing with the Stars. and who goes further and why. You got the banana bowl theory.
29:49 All these people are saying it's potentially rigged from the expert herself. What's your take on that? There's so many people who are going to still keep their tinfoil hats on. And what I come back to is we can talk about the federal laws. There are federal regulations that oversee these types of shows. Whether or not this falls into the exact legal definition of that law, regardless, Disney does have broadcast standards and practices executives that oversee judges briefings, for example, to make sure that they're staying in line with that federal law.
30:17 But when it comes down to it, if you try to have a conspiracy theory and put that tinfoil hat on, the conspiracy theory is they're just keeping around people who benefit Disney. But Disney gets the most benefit when somebody who on this show has a very big fan base who's going to keep watching and keep voting. So if the show was to be rigged, they're going to rig it to keep the people with the biggest audiences. because that's why in the last 10 years, they're increasing the number of people in the finale from three to four to five.
30:48 They want more people continuing to watch the show all the way to the end. So if they're going to rig it, they would have an audience voting component to keep people around, and it wouldn't just be a dance competition. So when you try to do these conspiracy theories, it's just in Disney's benefit
31:03 to keep people with the biggest stardom. And Jackson does have a big fandom that watches the show to vote for him. they're just not people that are showing up on TikTok as much. So people have those theories because they're not seeing that audience where they are. Especially when you consider the risk associated, if that were the case, which it isn't, right? If that were the case, the risk associated with that is endless. It's so catastrophic. And the reward, like you said, intuitively doesn't make sense. If they put people on the show that people are voting for because their social engagement is strong,
31:38 their dancing is good and they're bringing ratings. Why would they want them off the show for a benefit of something like a banana ball? To me, I agree with that. I think it makes perfect sense. We are wrapping up here. But David, before we wrapped up, I just want to see if there's anything else you wanted to ask. I got two quick questions. They're one word answers. Okay. Is the hot doctor going to save the bachelor franchise? Yes or no? No. He's been dating somebody. Good, good answer. Okay. Question two. A.I. In your. Excel world. Has it helped business or heard business? It has helped me like crazy. And it's also helped business. It's helping people with cleaning data faster with testing ideas. Personally for me,
32:18 it's helping me test my data, my ideas faster. I still go and check everything myself because just like you still got to test this stuff to make sure it's running things properly. But being able to test my ideas for data visualizations, it's just so much faster. So then I can spend my time actually building what's worthwhile and not building something and realizing halfway through. It's not going to make sense for people. Wonderful. Just great. Just great having her on. David, great questions. Thank you. I like the one where you've never done that. It was a new trick to pulled out. The one word and the clock. I'm sorry, I got the ring light on. I got the heat on staring at the clock. Thursday. It's put it
32:51 at the buzzer, but special exemptions. Special exempts and a little bit of overtime here, but we're going to wrap with that. So, Susanna, where could everyone find everything you have going on? And is there any of courses or consulting or anything like that that you can plug at this time for anyone that wants a little bit more of what you're doing? Yep, pop culture data across Instagram and TikTok, and I am going to be releasing a code for my course. I have courses on Excel and Google Sheets. I am going to be dropping my data from this season of Dancing with the Stars. So if you want to learn Excel or you want to learn Google Sheets, you get to use my actual data to learn alongside the course. Yeah, and I think behind that data, there's so much you can do with these courses.
33:32 Everything. Now, especially with AI and the way that you can help people, it's like scrubbing what people make in certain industries, understanding what you should pay for things, how you could even invest. I think when you learn the basic mechanics of Excel and understanding data, it touches every single area your life. And Sussex has been doing this for years and years and years and is an expert at it. So everyone, give her a follow, check that all out. And we're looking forward to hearing more about the course. Once you have the link for the course, let us know. We'll throw it on our show notes. And this was impromptu. We talked this morning. But thank you so much for coming on this episode of 30 minute Thursdays.
34:07 Thanks for having me, guys. David, you got anything before we wrap? We're great. Great episode. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trank Secrets, hopefully one you couldn't afford to miss.