Post Corona: The Four

Scott Galloway gives the state of play on The Four post corona and also sits down with Senator Michael Bennet to discuss politics during a pandemic, relief packages, and Tiger King Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Scott Galloway?

  The Tiger King. What bullshit. Step up to the mic and party with the Dog King. DJ Griffin, hit it.

• 0:19Scott Galloway?

  This is our sixth episode. Today, we do a rant on the four. We then bring it up a notch in terms of credibility and do our interview with a hero of mine, the senior senator from Colorado, Senator Michael Bennett. And we also answer your questions in office hours and wrap up with algebra of happiness. Let's light this candle. Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, how do these titans of technology fare post Corona? Well, no shocker here, they're going to come out of this even stronger. As we've said several times, COVID-19 isn't changing anything. It's only accelerating. The future is just happening faster. So what does every hedge fund manager have as a static part of their screens right now? Trying to find alpha or dislocation?

• 1:04Scott Galloway?

  Simple, tons of cash on the balance sheet because nothing is as painful as seeing a company go to zero. So let's talk about cash on the balance sheet and let's talk about Google. Google has enough cash on their balance sheet to buy the skies. Specifically, they could buy Boeing and Airbus just with their cash. What will happen to Facebook and Google through the crisis? They are going to see a big hit to top line revenues. Specifically, keywords and ads are off 20 to 40%. If you go online and try and purchase keywords or buy advertising on Facebook, you're going to have a welcome surprise as a manufacturer's brand or an advertiser. In that, you will register much lower prices.

• 1:45Scott Galloway?

  That's actually an opportunity if you have a business that's in decent shape right now, an opportunity to get off your heels and on your toes. For example, we're looking at my company, Prof G, or our company, Prof G, which is online education. We're experimenting with LinkedIn because ad rates have come down there. So customer acquisition online, good for manufacturers' brands, bad for Facebook and Google who see their prices decline precipitously, but... But what will happen to these companies? You're going to see the ultimate V here. You're going to see a violent turn down and the rip back upwards is going to be equally bloody and violent. Why? Let's look at the offline prey, the carrion, the carcasses they're going to feed off of. Radio, $17 billion in the US now up for grabs. Why?

• 2:30Scott Galloway?

  iHeartRadio and Cumulus Media, the two largest radio companies or terrestrial radio companies, will likely be Chapter 12 within 12 months. Why do I say Chapter 12? Because they were Chapter 11 just a few years ago and unfortunately came out of the restructuring with still too much debt. Word is some of these agencies and some of these radio firms, their business is off 70%. Radio is projected to decline 14% in 2020. COVID-19 has a mortality rate of around 4% in the US. Note, this is likely dramatically lower as we figure out and get our act together around testing and we find that the denominator is bigger. But among US media firms, the death rate from COVID-19 will be more like 10 to 20% and that is 1 to 4, 1 to 5.

• 3:13Scott Galloway?

  Media firms just never get out of the ICU here. Firms ranging from Condonast to Viacom are furloughing or laying off people as Facebook and Google ramp up hiring. Let's talk about that. They are off their heels and under their toes. Who are the best people at Condonast? Who are the most talented people at Viacom? Easy. Just look for the new faces at Google and Facebook's cafeteria, June 1. These companies are taking advantage of weakness in old media and going in and scooping up the best people with the most talent and the strongest relationships. These firms are absolutely going to rip back. Let's talk a little bit about Apple. Apple was recast as a stock through 2019, increasing from a price earnings multiple

• 3:58Scott Galloway?

  of 12 to 24. So essentially it didn't even really increase its earnings that much. What it did do is it saw its stock price double, double, without a material increase in earnings. Now, why is this? You could argue, well... Renewed growth, or they cauterized the decline in the iPhone. Everyone was worried that the most profitable product in history with the margins of Ferrari and the production volumes of Toyota was in fact waning, and it wasn't. A lot of people say that Apple isn't that innovative, they haven't come up with a new product. What bullshit. The only product that matters is the iPhone, and they continue to innovate around it, as evidenced by the fact that it's growing again. However, however, will a product that will set you back one month's household income in Turkey continue to experience the type of sales?

• 4:42Scott Galloway?

  You could make an argument for, I would make an argument that it's likely we're going to see delays in purchases or your own upgrade cycle be extended, if you will. And I do think that Apple takes a bit of a hit. So let's move to the last of the four, or should I say the first of the four? And that is the company that is going to be the first $2 trillion company, you guessed it, Amazon. Now, let's imagine that President Trump owned nothing but Amazon stock, and we know that he's corrupt, we know that he's a criminal. With Trump, there have been so many violations of basic decency and criminal behavior, it's no longer a crime, it's just a statistic. Yeah, bring it on, you Trump bitches. Anyways, having said that, having said that, what if Trump decided, okay, I need Amazon

• 5:26Scott Galloway?

  stock to go up 50%? And maybe he owned a little bit of Walmart. What would he do? He'd come up with $2.5 trillion in rescue packages and stimulus, put it in the hands of consumers, be a PPP and other means and bailouts. And then, I know, who are the people who are most likely to get the lion's share of that revenue? Well, the two largest retailers in America, Walmart and Amazon. Whoopie. If Doug McMillan and Jeff Bezos said to Trump, I need you to take our stocks up 20%, 30%, 50% in the next six months. I need you to create tremendous stimulus, like historic stimulus. Boom, he's done that. But wait, we want our stocks to go up, not 50%, we want our stocks to go up 70%, 80%, 90%. I know, President Trump, could you close, give everyone stimulus, put money in everyone's

• 6:11Scott Galloway?

  pockets to... A large portion of which we will recognize. And by the way, could you mandate the closure of 98% of our competition? Think about this. They've given everyone anywhere between $1,200 and $5,000, depending on how you look at it, every household in America. And, and they've closed 98% of retail. But who's open? The good folks from Amazon and Walmart. Amazon is not only not being hurt by this crisis, there's more wind at their sails. Anyway, anyway, Amazon comes out of this stronger. They reinvest some of that in what will be their healthcare efforts, uh, delivery of COVID-19 tests in the UK. They come out of this, they're not even running through the tape.

• 6:55Scott Galloway?

  It's as if Ben Johnson, all juiced up on tax avoidance, cheap capital, excellent execution, shows up to 100 meter dash. But his gun off goes first and he gets to start 10 meters behind. And when the gun goes off, he's already at a full sprint when he gets to the starting line. That's what we're talking about when this quote unquote economy reopens. Uh, Amazon is just absolutely gonna come out of this again, just totally juiced up. Uh, but the thing is they won't get kicked off the medal stand like Ben Johnson was. They won't have their medals taken away unless we make what would be the smartest investment for our economy moving forward. And that is to double and triple the budgets, which by the way, would be a fraction, a fraction. We're talking less than 1% of the money we are helicoptering right now.

• 7:38Scott Galloway?

  The best investment we could make in the health of this economy post-corona would be simple, tripling the budgets of the DOJ and the FTC. Are these good people helping us through the crisis at Google, Facebook and Amazon? And less so Facebook? Yes, they are good people. Or should they be broken up immediately post-corona? The answer is yes. Support for the show comes from Superhuman. The pace of modern work can be relentless. You're getting a constant influx of messages from a ton of different apps. You haven't closed all your browser tabs in a year. Everything seems urgent and staying on top of it all feels like an impossible task. Superhuman Go is an AI chat that's always there when you need it, already aware of what you're doing and doesn't ask you to start from zero. Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly,

• 8:23Scott Galloway?

  help you be the best version of yourself at work. It handles the repetitive stuff so you can focus on the work that only you can do. Whether you need to summarize an endless email thread or prep for a meeting that's happening in five minutes, Superhuman Go works inside the tools and sites you already use, your browser, inbox, docs, and your project tools. And its AI chat is available on the side of your browser, and it's always ready. No new tabs, no switching apps, no losing your place. This is AI that works with you, not on top of you, so that you have the time and brain space to solve the problems that matter. Check it out. Find out more at superhuman.com.

• 9:03Scott Galloway?

  So after I published the book, The Four, number five on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction list. Thank you very much. Anyways, what started out as a love letter turned into a cautionary tale. That's my book. It did well. The timing was really, was really good there. And I had a lot of public officials reach out to me. You know, your book resonates when you hear from the offices of Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz. And I spent more time in Washington than I've ever spent talking to our elected officials about big tech as they contemplate how to regulate or how to break them up or how not to do either of those things. And one guy invited me down and immediately stopped the conversation and said, "Give me 10 ideas to restore the health of the middle class." And we had about a two-hour conversation. And this guy just, there was just no faking it.

• 9:46Scott Galloway?

  You could tell this guy was really concerned about economic policies that would restore or repair, if you will, the middle class. And he was taking notes, followed up, and super smart, pushing back. Spending a couple hours with this guy just made me feel better that we elect such incredibly talented, smart people who are obviously so concerned with the middle class and so genuinely concerned about the middle class. That person is the senior senator from Colorado, Senator Michael Bennet, Denver school superintendent, ran for president. I was fortunate enough to get involved in his campaign. He didn't get the kind of traction we had hoped. I think he's too substantive and not prone

• 10:30Scott Galloway?

  to 15-second clips on Facebook when the Democratic National Committee decided to let any Joey Bagadonuts entrepreneur or spiritual counselor on the stage, which was, in my opinion, a crime against American discourse. But anyways, Senator Michael Bennet makes you feel better about America, full stop. Here's our interview with the senator.

• 11:01Scott Galloway?

  Senator, where does this podcast find you?

• 11:04Speaker 01

  You find me in my home office in Denver, Colorado. My, my whole family is here with me.

• 11:09Scott Galloway?

  How does your job change in a pandemic like this? How is, what has been the biggest change in terms of how you're allocating your, your time?

• 11:17Speaker 01

  I don't have to hang out with Mitch McConnell as much, which is

• 11:20Scott Galloway?

  There you go.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  I suppose an upside to it, but it, it changes, it's just made it virtual. You know, on the one hand, the constituent service part of my job, which is always part of my job, has become, you know, 80% of my time, which is making sure that we're supporting local communities as they try to get through this brutal patch. It's, it makes it hard to have a negotiation like we ordinarily would if we were all together in Washington. But I think we're figuring out how to do that.

• 11:53Scott Galloway?

  So Senator, the rescue and relief packages, what did we get wrong? What did we get right? And what would you like to see more of moving forward in terms of economic relief?

• 12:01Speaker 01

  I think what we got wrong was that it wasn't big enough. I think what we got right was the general contours of the package, which was a big effort for small businesses. So what I think we should see out of the next package is a refinement of what we already passed to make sure that the small business program is actually getting out to the businesses that need it most, not the ones that are necessarily best connected to the banks. And then we've got to have more relief for state and local governments to preserve the critical local services that are, that our people need.

• 12:36Scott Galloway?

  So looking at this on a more meta level, we, we being the US, we had more time to prepare for this. We spend more money on healthcare than any nation in the world. We now have more infections in Spain, Italy and China combined. We didn't level up to what was expected of us. It feels like we just got this. Got this wrong. First off, do you agree with that? And what can be done to ensure the next time this happens? We handle it better and can raise our heads a little bit higher?

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I totally agree. I think we were unprepared and I think Donald Trump has made matters worse. So let me take those in order. On the unprepared question, we spend more than twice any other industrialized country in the world spends on healthcare, but we get a worse result. We don't cover everybody. We don't have the kind of primary care or investment in a public health infrastructure that other places have. I would add on to that two other things that over the years have driven me completely nuts. And I think are part of the reason why we were unprepared. One is since 2001, we've borrowed $5 trillion from other countries, principally the Chinese, for the privilege of giving mostly the wealthiest people in the country tax breaks.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  We've spent $5.6 trillion on two 20-year wars in the Middle East, none of which we paid for, all of which we borrowed. And the flip side of that is we didn't invest in our country. You know, that's 11 or 12 trillion dollars we could have invested in the country and we didn't. We haven't educated our kids adequately. We haven't had a healthcare system that's worked terribly well for 50 years. So even though we are the most innovative ecosystem in the world, I still believe that we have not invested in the basic architecture of our society and infrastructure. I mean, human capital as well as physical capital. So I think all that added together is why we were unprepared. And then Donald Trump has made matters worse. What do I mean by that?

• 14:30Speaker 01

  He literally came to the podium at the White House. This was months ago and he said, "I'm glad to see the states competing on the open market for personal protective equipment because that'll give us price transparency." Ridiculous. We have complete scarcity of supply. So what's happened is a result of every single governor having to compete for PPE, every single hospital, including the VA hospital in every one of our states, having to compete with every single hospital. All that's happened is because things are scarce. Prices have been driven up and and we've increased the scarcity. So we've actually compounded the lack of preparation that we had. I fear we're about to do it all over again because

• 15:16Speaker 01

  we we desperately need to have a robust regime of testing to be able to open the the country in a way that can, you know, reduce the risk of having to close it again. And the president is saying that's a matter for the governors, just as he has said for the equipment of our hospitals. They need to figure out the test.

• 15:35Scott Galloway?

  When this specific pandemic burns out, and the terrible thing about crises is they always happen, the wonderful thing is they always end. When this burns out, what forward leaning investments would you make such that we don't end up paying two and a half trillion dollars and borrowing against our kids' futures repeatedly? Where do we need to allocate more capital?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  I would so first of all, I would cut our expenditure on healthcare as a proportion of GDP. And I believe we can do that. I don't think that's Pollyannaish. I mean, when we're spending more than twice what every other industrialized country is spending, I believe as the, you know, a former school superintendent that we've got to invest in education and higher education. We've got to do it in a way that reflects the 21st century reality we're living in, not the 19th or 18th century reality where we we created our our school systems to begin with. We've neglected our our kids and our teachers for far too long. We're not able to attract and retain people to the teaching profession. And we're not able to say, you know, as a country

• 16:34Speaker 01

  that when a kid graduates from high school, they graduate able to earn a living wage, not just the minimum wage. We can do that in this country by making investments in ourselves.

• 16:45Scott Galloway?

  Your school superintendent for Denver Public Schools, do you think schools are going to reopen in the fall?

• 16:51Speaker 01

  I don't know. Nobody knows because we don't know whether we're going to have the testing infrastructure and regime in place to follow up, to be able to put out hotspots when they happen, to be able to distinguish between folks that are bending the curve and other parts that aren't. So I think as long as we don't have visibility into that, then all we're going to be engaged in is a game. Of wishful thinking on the part of the president about, okay, it's going to be Easter. Okay, it's going to be May 1. Okay, it's going to be the governor's faults if we don't reopen. We got to do better than that. And unfortunately, I regret this, but the only people that can really get us on that pathway is is the administration. I hope they're listening to, you know,

• 17:35Speaker 01

  people like Scott Gottlieb, who was the FDA commissioner in the Trump administration, a really, really smart, thoughtful guy who's laid out very clearly a set of steps that, you know, if we follow them, we could say to you, I could, the answer could be yes. And that school might reopen. It's not going to reopen exactly the same way. Guests may not be as close as they once were, the same with restaurants and other kinds of things. But at least we'd be on the path to recovery, which is what we need to, we need to do. And it's not going to be binary. It's not going to be everything opens at the same time. You know, we, this economy can't stay closed forever.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  And I think all we need to reopen it is to get through the worst of it and to have the tools in place to reopen in a way that's smart.

• 18:24Scott Galloway?

  So I'm going to make a statement or propose a thesis that I think you're going to agree with, and then get to how we make this happen. And that is the best way to ensure this doesn't happen again, at least with this type of collateral damage, would be to get Vice President Biden elected in the fall. I worry that he is visibly absent. Shouldn't the Vice President get off his heels, onto his toes, maybe appoint a Vice President, a cabinet, and start, I don't want to call it punching back, but offering a different vision for how to handle this. I'm worried that he is visibly absent and we are losing ground. Any thoughts?

• 18:57Speaker 01

  Beating Donald Trump is critical and having Joe Biden beat him and win is critical. And it is also critical for the Democrats to win a majority in the Senate. We have got to send Mitch McConnell, you know, either into the minority leader position or back to Kentucky if we have any hope. Of investing in the country again, both are doable. I agree that the vice president's got to be visible. He's got to do what he could do to make sure that people know he's going to have the kind of people around him that are going to be the kind of world beaters that the American people should reasonably expect serve in government. I think all of that will help and I'm sure it will come.

• 19:37Scott Galloway?

  So you ran for the Democratic nomination for president and I would, it was, you didn't get the traction that you'd hoped for, I imagine. What, what, as you look back on the race, what was the biggest surprise to the upside and the biggest surprise to the downside around running for president of the United States?

• 19:55Speaker 01

  I would say, first of all, I appreciate your noticing that I ran. So I didn't, I didn't.

• 20:04Scott Galloway?

  I was there, boss. I was with you.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Saying that I didn't get traction is a really polite observation. I'm, I, I'm, I'm really glad I ran and, and here's one reason. Colorado is a third Democratic, a third Republican, a third independent. I was the only candidate in this race who had won two national elections in a swing state. And it gave me the opportunity to test whether or not those swing state politics were where America was. Or maybe America was in a totally different place. The surprise on the upside was America, I think, is absolutely where Colorado is, where that swing state is. It's a country that's looking toward the future.

• 20:50Speaker 01

  It doesn't want to be defined by the past in terms of what our ambition can be for the future. It's an innovative country. So that was the biggest surprise on the upside. I'd say the biggest surprise on the downside is how hard it is to go from 1% to 2%. I've got to figure out if I'm going to do it again, which I hope to have the chance to do, how to, how to, how to do this in a, in a moment where, you know, celebrity politics feels like something that we've kind of glommed on to and where social media is, I would say prematurely deciding who's, who's viable and who's not.

• 21:32Scott Galloway?

  So you're a father, you're a husband, you're one of the 100 members of arguably the greatest legislative body in, in the history of modern civilization. You've run for president, you may run again. What's your message during this time of crisis to the American people? What would you want to get across?

• 21:50Speaker 01

  My message is that your responsible citizenship is needed, whether we're business owners, entrepreneurs, innovators, schoolteachers, politicians, it doesn't matter. And we've all got a piece of the rock. Every single person in our society has a piece of the rock. We call that pluralism, I think. And we're stronger the more diverse it is, and we're stronger, the more opportunity people have to exercise their franchise. So Scott, what that all comes down to me for is we got to do the right thing by our families, we got to do the right thing by the people that we have responsibility for, the people in our businesses that we have responsibility for. And we've got to have responsibility for this democracy.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  And the best thing each of us can do is make sure that we're getting other people to the polls, exercising their right to vote. That's the most important thing we can do.

• 22:45Scott Galloway?

  Michael Farren Bennett is an American businessman, lawyer, and has served as a senior senator from Colorado. Senator Bennett, thanks so much for joining us and stay safe out there, Michael.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  Thanks Scott, you too.

• 23:00Scott Galloway?

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• 23:45Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Rider, and Harvey save time and resources while scaling fast with Vanta. Learn more at vanta.com/profg and get $1,000 off. That's spelled V-A-N-T-A dot com slash prof G for $1,000 off.

• 24:15Scott Galloway?

  And now, office hours.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  Hey, Professor G, Michael Brown here. Hey, I know you're a strong advocate of Peloton and their position in the marketplace. I was on Twitter the other day where a good friend of mine was asking about SoulCycle's new launch. I thought that was a really good question. How does that stand to hurt Peloton? How does it stand to help SoulCycle? Do you think it's going to matter? Are they too late to the game? What are your thoughts?

• 24:42Scott Galloway?

  Michael Brown, you sound like a rap star. Is that racist? Michael Brown, rap star, is that racist? Anyways, Michael, thoughtful question. SoulCycle's effort into the home or connected fitness space is dead on arrival. You have, they're competing against a company that has access to extraordinarily cheap capital, a technology mindset, a direct-to-consumer mindset. These are not competencies you develop overnight. There's no way they can, they can compete with the type of massive investment that Peloton is making in marketing. The amount of attention Peloton gets because it was a public company was really more of a branding event than a financing event. And Peloton just has, for lack of a return, you know, I don't want to say a running start,

• 25:26Scott Galloway?

  but a cycling Peloton-like start from SoulCycle. And SoulCycle's primary point of differentiation or advantage was multi-channel. What do I mean by that? They understood the terrestrial experience and could probably sign up or acquire customers at a low rate and say, here's a trial, $10 off your first experience SoulCycle at home. Create a community. When you use products across mediums, whether it's you go into a pottery barn and then buy pottery barn through their catalog, or go on into a Williams-Sonoma store and then buy off the internet, you become a much more loyal consumer and spend more. So, multi-channel is very powerful, and that was SoulCycle's primary point. Of differentiation, also some clout cover as they're owned by the same people that

• 26:08Scott Galloway?

  own Equinox who are good in fitness. So a great company, fantastic in-store feel. The problem is that leg of the stool has been kicked out from under them because of COVID-19 and the fact that nobody wants to sweat next to somebody 24 inches from them. So that is an unexpected severe kick in the nuts and they're just not going to recover to the extent that they can compete with a publicly traded multi-billion dollar organization like Peloton. Does that mean SoulCycle goes away? No, they're still, they have rabid fans, they do a great job, they'll still have profitable locations, but Peloton continues to pull away and SoulCycle will likely recover but won't recover to pre-COVID

• 26:52Scott Galloway?

  levels whereas Peloton continues to zoom. I would imagine they'll shut down the online or the connected fitness effort as they have to regroup and kind of retrench to their core. Thank you for that question, Michael.

• 27:05Speaker 03

  Hi Prof G, my name's Christina and I just graduated in February 2020 with my MFA in Creative Producing from Columbia University. Now that the pandemic has put physical film production on pause, I'm considering moving to Canada because I'm a citizen and I've been advised that it will bounce back from this virus stronger and sooner than the US. Do you agree with this? Do you think Canada is going to come out of this in a better shape than the States? And would you recommend pursuing a career in Toronto over New York? Thank you.

• 27:43Scott Galloway?

  Thank you Christina. How do you get 100 drunk fraternity guys out of your pool in Canada? Hey guys, could you get out of the pool?

• 27:54Scott Galloway?

  Canadians are so nice. I love Canadians. And by the way, I think that's technically bigoted to make a stereotype about Canadian people, but come on, Alan Thicke, Wayne Gretzky, Michael J. Fox, how can you not love Canadians? Literally some of my best friends are Canadians. I go to Formula One in Montreal every year, Montreal most underrated city in the world, little slice of Europe and North America. Anyways, you are blessed, you're coming out with a great degree. There is so much cheap capital going into content creation that if you have the ability... To if you can be a great storyteller, if you can understand the collision between technology and storytelling, there's tremendous opportunity in both nations, hands down. And Canada has, I think, a very aggressive film board that basically subsidizes filming

• 28:39Scott Galloway?

  in Canada and creates a lot of jobs. I'm sure they've done the math on it. And meanwhile, the US has the most robust creative media industry in the world, full stop. I think there's going to be a ton of opportunity in both. And I think you're going to see post-COVID it not go away, but shift. For example, I am launching, or we are launching a show on Vice. Why do you launch a show on Vice? Because Netflix didn't call us back. But anyways, that's another point. That's another point. We're filming this TV show out of my house. And you're going to see a lot of that. And it's going to create a ton of opportunity. It's going to lower the cost of production because people's people's expectations have come down. But it's going to open up an entirely new world of media

• 29:20Scott Galloway?

  production for people who understand technology and remote filming. Now, as it relates to your question, I don't think you need to go meta on this. I don't think at your age, you need to try and figure out which nation state prospers or doesn't prosper, or who comes out of the crisis bigger and better. They're both great countries. America still is, in my opinion, the greatest place to be a young, talented person. I would make it a micro decision. And that is, you know, where where's the opportunity first and foremost? I have a lot of kids come to me and say, should I go to work for Google or Amazon? I'm like, well, do you have offers from both? And they'll say, no. I'm like, well, okay, get out of my office and come back when you have offers from both. So see where the opportunity

• 29:59Scott Galloway?

  is. Apply for jobs in Toronto, and Los Angeles, and New York, and Vancouver, and see where the opportunity is. If you're blessed enough to have the opportunity to make that decision, then I would make it more based on personal attributes. Where do you want to live? Do you want to? Do you want to make a life in Canada? Or do you want to make a life in America? Because what happens in your 20s, and I assume you're in your early or late 20s, is you start collecting spouses and kids and dogs. And wherever those people show up, you have a tendency to stay. So one, find out where the opportunity is. Both fantastic countries, you know, tied for number one in my in my book. And to see where, see where, you know, make the decision around where, where you,

• 30:44Scott Galloway?

  Christina, want to live. Don't try and figure out the big picture stuff. None of us know what the fuck is going on. Christina, it is great to be you. An MFA in creative producing from Columbia University. What a wonderful time to be Christina. Thanks for the call. Our next question.

• 30:59Speaker 04

  Hi, Scott. Don Rose here. Current economic uncertainties have turned an opportunity into a conundrum. Granted, this is in the category of a first world problem, but it may be of interest to you or your listeners. The missus and I are planning to collapse our 30-plus-year existence in suburban Boston into a riverfront condo in Cambridge. We have now demolished the apartment and its renovation is on pause now due to the obvious. Meanwhile, we have just been offered an adjacent unit at an agreeable price, and we believe there is compound value there for us when combined, not to mention more flexible area for living in place through our retirement. The expense would be a stretch for us, especially

• 31:42Speaker 04

  in the context of troubled times, including concern that residential properties may also be hit in the downturn. However, the purchase could be financed debt-free by liquidating our position in Spotify, a residual holding from co-founder shares earned in 2006 startups and sold to Spotify prior to their IPO. Spotify is market dominant, and I love the service as a user, but it faces big barrel competition, the biggest imaginable, as you know. However, that position is practically the only swing-for-the-fences hold in our retirement fund. No worries, Professor. Though I'm a fanboy, I won't rely entirely on your advice, but

• 32:25Speaker 04

  would appreciate your input for perspective. Thank you. P.S. This must be said, you are so wrong about Roger Moore as the best Bond. Don't get me started.

• 32:39Scott Galloway?

  Dude, The Saint. Have you seen, have you seen Roger Moore in The Saint? That guy is a tall drink of lemonade. That guy is literally one of the most handsome people to roam the earth in the 20th century. Everyone goes for Sean Connery, that's the obvious one. A lot of people like Daniel Craig, the physicality of Daniel Craig. But I'm going with Roger Moore.

• 32:59Scott Galloway?

  This is a great question, Mr. Rose. In sum, do you liquidate Spotify and move into real estate? And the smartest thing you said was that you weren't going to rely on me for this advice. And you need to speak to a lot of people smarter than me around portfolio management and risk based on where you are in your life and how much money you have and the kind of risk tolerance you're willing to endure. What I will do is tell you what I would do. If I were a little bit older and had Spotify stock, but had an opportunity to take that stock and liquidate it and move into real estate, I'm actually thinking of doing that. I've owned big tech for 10 years and have done well. But I'm sick of the roller

• 33:41Scott Galloway?

  coaster. There's a bit of a psychic cost or a reduction in your psychic return that comes from owning stocks. And then you have to market every day. And that is, I check my stocks two or three times a day. It's a terrible habit. And if I'm up X, I'm happy. And if I'm down Y, I'm not happy. And I'm kind of sick of being on that hamster wheel as I get older. I also own some rental real estate, and I love it because it's cash flow, it's consistent, I like my tenants. It's just, I just like that business a lot. Now, it's real estate is all about the cap rate. And that is, if this condo costs you 100 grand, and you're getting somewhere, call it above 5% or 6% cash on cash return after maintenance,

• 34:24Scott Galloway?

  after upkeep, which is the same as maintenance, after property taxes, then you're talking about a pretty decent residential real estate. I would, I would assume that the sellers also know that it's a crisis and not be afraid to ask for additional money off. But it sounds like there's some synergy there in terms of owning an adjacent property. Cash flow is a wonderful thing as you get older. A lot of it comes down to the leverage. But if you're in a position where you have a good cap rate, if you're in a position where you don't have to borrow 90% to finance this thing, I think perhaps getting out of big tech and moving into cash flow residential real estate at your point in life is, is actually a pretty good idea. I know that's what I'm thinking about doing. In terms of

• 35:06Scott Galloway?

  Spotify, I love Spotify. I thought it was going to be the fifth horseman. I predicted that two years ago when the stock was at 150. I think it's at 140 now. Unfortunately, I think it is being slowly but surely. Bled to death by the monopolies, Apple and Amazon, who have inferior music offerings but own the rails. So, Mr. Rose, thank you so much for the thoughtful question. Continue to ask other people about it, but in sum, I'm effectively doing what you're doing, and that is transitioning out of equities and into real estate. We love your questions. Please submit them to [email protected].

• 35:50Scott Galloway?

  So, going to Europe over Thanksgiving, that's what me and my co-founder at LTU used to do. Me and Maureen Mullen used to get on a plane on Tuesday or Wednesday of Thanksgiving week and schedule a ton of meetings in Europe, Thursday and Friday, while everyone was eating turkey here in the United States. And is that because we don't like our families? Or is that because we don't want to give thanks? No, it's because we were in a startup and we saw an opportunity to lap the competition while they were all sitting on their hands eating turkey. And I think there are certain moments in time where you can apply functional speed professionally. What do I mean by functional speed? That's a term I learned from Jerry Rice, or about Jerry Rice, the iconic Hall of Fame wide receiver from the San Francisco 49ers.

• 36:35Scott Galloway?

  And everyone used to say that he wasn't the fastest guy on the field, but he had functional speed, and that is, he knew when to turn it on, if you will. And I think this is a time to turn it on professionally. And that is, while everyone is panicked, while everyone is sitting on their hands, while everyone is, especially corporations, focused on getting bailouts instead of focus on their own product. I think this is a huge opportunity to go to Europe during Thanksgiving, if you will. I know personally, I am working harder than I have in a long time, because there are opportunities when you can apply functional speed and absolutely lap the competition. So, this is what you need to do. Look at your industry, figure out what you can do remotely, figure out what aspect of your professional career you could create differentiation around, whether it's content

• 37:19Scott Galloway?

  creation, whether it's getting in good shape physically such as your stronger work. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I think this is actually a decent time to be stronger. I think being stronger helps you professionally, because you have more endurance and you feel better about yourself and you're less prone to depression, which all of those things add up to economic growth. But this is a time, this is a time to call on that functional speed. And if you're blessed enough that your family is safe, if you're blessed enough to know that the people around you are healthy, then this is the time to turn your gaze to your professional life and not think of this as time off. Think of this as time to lap the competition. Go to Europe over Thanksgiving.

• 38:01Scott Galloway?

  Our producers are Griffin Carlberg and Drew Burrows. If you like what you heard, please follow, download and subscribe. Please hit subscribe right now. We're off to an amazing start. We're not The Hobbit, we're not Middle Earth, but we're six episodes in. We want a seven, we want a seven. Thank you for listening. We'll catch you next week with another episode of The Prof G Show from Section Four and the Westwood One Podcast Network.

• 38:30Scott Galloway?

  Sheltering in place with your three daughters, what TV are you watching?

• 38:35Speaker 01

  We watched that Tiger King show.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Have you watched that?

• 38:42Scott Galloway?

  Oh, are you kidding? That guy's living his best life. A gay, a gay, a gay polygamist with a mullet. I mean, what's not to like about that guy?