The Basics of Financial Security + Can American Small Business Compete Again?

Scott Galloway lays out the financial basics that come before investing, tells a small manufacturer when to consolidate, sell, or move upstream, and explains why dating in your forties works better offline. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to [email protected], or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Plus, you can now call or text Scott a question at our new Office Hours hotline: ‪(201) 472-3656‬. 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  You know that feeling, too many updates, too many meetings, too many things falling through the cracks. Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform designed from the ground up for people and agents to work side by side and deliver more together. Drafting the brief, flagging risks, running a competitive scan, your agent can do it all. And the best part, anyone can build one, even you. Try it. Create your first Monday agent today at monday.com.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them, that's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

• 0:47Speaker 01

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 1:01Speaker 03

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1:36Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Office Hours of Prof G. This is the part of the show where we answer a question about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofprofjimedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofprofjimedia.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it on our next episode. Our first question comes from a listener who emailed us. Hi, Scott. I feel like the basics of financial planning, adequate life insurance, disability insurance, wills, et cetera, go entirely unaddressed, even though the implications of getting it wrong can be disastrous. Thinking of a young, upper-middle-class family, what's a checklist of non-investing to-dos to best set your family up for success, no matter what life brings? Huh.

• 2:19Scott Galloway?

  I'm not sure I'm going to be able to read you a checklist. I just think there's some basics. I'm going to talk a little bit about the algebra of wealth, and that is focus. What do I mean by that? Find something you're good at. Don't fall into this notion of pretending that your passion is everything. People mistake their hobbies for their passions. Find something you're really good at and devote the thousands of hours and the grit and the camaraderie and the kindness such that you become great at it. And the accoutrements of being great at something, relevance, camaraderie, prestige, money are all wonderful. So focus, find something you're good at and try to become great at it, too. Live below your means. I call it stoicism, but it's really, it's living below your means. Figure out a way to get money out of your hands before you even touch it.

• 3:04Scott Galloway?

  Automated savings, tax-advantaged vehicles, just every month. Like you're a millionaire or you're worth $3 or $5 million if you start saving 100 bucks a month at the age of 21, right? And then by the time in your 30s, you gotta save 600. And then, you know, if you wait till your 40s, you gotta save 6,000 or 8,000 a month. So starting early, right? Living below your means. Being rich. The way to wealth isn't making a lot of money. It's making more than you spend. My father died a near-millionaire and he never made more than, or, you know, he was making $48,000 a year, but he spent 46 or 45 and he was investing and saving money even when he died. So living below your means. And then letting time take over, compounds, starting early.

• 3:48Scott Galloway?

  You know, get in stocks, get in things early. Low-cost index funds. Don't try and be a hero. Maybe take 20 or 30% of your income and have some fun. Find some companies, look for asymmetric upside and then figure out that you can find it. And then diversification. As soon as you get to a certain point of assets, make sure that you're diversified across not only asset classes, but geographies. In terms of the other stuff, okay. You know, until you have some economic security, try and find reasonable health insurance that can bankrupt you. I think health insurance is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. I don't have health insurance because I don't need it, because I can survive a health shock. You probably cannot. I'm probably a believer, if you're young,

• 4:32Scott Galloway?

  at going with minimum coverage or the high deductible because the reality is the insurance industry is basically a scam that transfers money from young, healthy people who basically never go to the doctor unless they're pregnant to old people who go to the doctor several times a week or a month.

• 4:48Scott Galloway?

  I would ask AI for tax advice. I would, if you have kids, start thinking about powers of attorney and HIPAA for when, you know, and trusts to make sure that your tax advantage for them and it's called 509. Find out what education savings, tax-advantaged savings, education. I put $5,000 in, I think it was called a 529 or a 509. Was it $10,000? It was the $5 or $10,000 when my kid was born 18 years ago and he's going to UVA and it's now worth $90,000. So obviously, if I had done it every year for four years, which I did not, I just did it the year he was born, I probably would have been able to pay for the majority of his education. That's, there's, there's, almost every state offers some sort of education. Ask AI about what trusts you need to make sure,

• 5:33Scott Galloway?

  you know, if something happens to you. Limited amount of high deductible insurance for a disastrous health issue. But more than anything, look, I, how do you set your family up for success?

• 5:47Scott Galloway?

  You're trying to establish economic security. You be the adult. You establish a lifestyle that you can, where you can make more than you can save. You're trying to almost immediately get six to 12 months of cash in a disaster fund in case, in case you lose your job or the economy goes into a tank. But it's the soft stuff that pays off. If you have kids, try and be really good to their, to their, I'm assuming you're a man, I don't know this, but if you're a man, I think the best thing you can do for kids, especially sons, is be really good to the mom. Try and create, try and regulate your emotions. Be really kind. Try and spend as much time as you can without recognizing there's always going to be a tension between that and trying to establish economic security. And try and create a loving, secure household

• 6:31Scott Galloway?

  where you're generous with your partner and have boundaries for your kids, recognize. I mean, parenting's a whole different ball of wax. Don't do what I did and try and think you're their friend. You're not, you're there. Quite frankly, I'm an asshole a lot to my sons such that they're not assholes later in life. I try to have difficult conversations with them when they do something where, you know, I say, don't be ridiculous or, or stop it or don't behave that way. It's mostly around their phone and how they, how they treat their mother. But I have, have those hard conversations. I'm going way far afield here. Ask AI, give AI your exact situation, your financial situation and ask what wills, trusts, powers of attorney, you know, DNRs if you're a little bit older in case something happens to you.

• 7:16Scott Galloway?

  But mostly, it's the basics, boss. Start saving early. Try and find a really good, competent partner if you want to have kids. If you're the dad, the best thing you can do for your kids is be really good to the mother, be generous, be the source of emotional regulation and strength and consistency. You know, that's where I've gotten the most reward is feeling like I'm the protector. And I know that sounds, well, it probably sounds very 50s, even though my partners have always worked in many periods of my life. My partner was making more money than me because I was teaching and my,

• 7:50Scott Galloway?

  my partners have been very successful. I'm drawn to that. Some guys are drawn to like the nice woman who doesn't have a job. Some guys are, I'm, I've always been drawn to women who have it professionally going on. That, I don't know if I have a better term, turns me on. And try and get alignment with your partner around finances, your approach to spending, approach to saving, approach to child rearing. But look, it sounds like the fact you're even thinking this way means you're probably tracking. It's a bit of a word salad. Spend less than you make. Start saving early. Live below your means. Diversify. And if you just start early and start saving or disciplined about it, when you're my age,

• 8:33Scott Galloway?

  you'll have this incredible gift of economic security. And that's not the gift. The gift is that it frees you up or takes the anxiety away or the layer of stress away such that you can just enjoy your relationships. Thanks for the thoughtful question. I'm sorry I wasn't able to come up with a checklist.

• 8:51Scott Galloway?

  Question number two comes from a listener who texted us. I've owned a small custom manufacturing business for over a decade. I find it very hard to be competitive when overseas businesses are so heavily subsidized by governments, especially China. Margins are getting tighter and clients expect more for less. Locally, we are under the thumb of shareholder-driven economics, high prices on materials, shipping, et cetera. The question is, is it possible for American middle-class small businesses to become robust again versus a fool's errand?

• 9:16Scott Galloway?

  That's a tough one. So foreign subsidies shape global market share. From, to your point, from 2005 to 2024, Chinese firms received an average of three to eight X more government support than firms in OECD countries. So their products are being subsidized. Amongst, or among firms that expanded globally between 2005 and 2023, government subsidies accounted for roughly 22% of the market share they gained. For Chinese firms, that number was nearly 60%, meaning the majority of their market share gains were attributed to state support. This is, the biggest business story anyone's talking about right now is China's now engaging in AI dumping. The majority of tokens being consumed in the US right now are from open-weight Chinese models and that are 70% less expensive. This is the biggest story in business that very few people are talking about.

• 10:00Scott Galloway?

  Research analyzing over two and a half million US and Chinese firms found that sectors subsidized under China's five-year plan saw a surge in new firms while corresponding US sectors saw declines in output, employment, and earnings. US import dependence is concentrated. The US imports $3 trillion of manufactured goods annually. Roughly 1.4 trillion of US imports are concentrated, meaning the US relies on fewer than four economies to supply a given product.

• 10:23Scott Galloway?

  So recent shocks exposed what this dependence costs. During the pandemic, our supply chain was just, had no slack on it because everything was focused on cost. And when Shenzhen closed down, I was on the board of Urban Outfitters, 80% of our tops weren't in stock. And when you can't sell tops at a specialty retailer in casual apparel, you're just kind of screwed.

• 10:45Scott Galloway?

  Since imposing, and also tariffs makes no sense. Since Trump opposed tariffs, the US has lost almost 100,000 manufacturing jobs and the industry's hire rate is now lower than the onset of the pandemic. Let me be clear. Trade policy asymmetric, trying to restore asymmetric trade makes sense. I believe that Trump got it right and said that China's taking advantage of us. The way you do that, though, is through negotiations that say, okay, if you're, you have to buy our products and let our products into the market. And by the way, if you let your products in for lower than their cost and try and consolidate the market as you did in the steel market in the 80s and you're trying to do with AI now, we're going to put a fairly healthy tariff. You've got to be thoughtful and strategic about these things. Trump has raised or lowered tariffs on China 17 times. So what are they doing? They're just diversifying away from us.

• 11:30Scott Galloway?

  It used to be 24% of the exports came to us. Now I think it's diving towards 10. And to be clear, global trade or trade with China increases when it's done thoughtfully, when they're not allowed to disrupt industries. Americans like it. 88% of toys under the Christmas cheer are from China. The majority of goods that China ships into the US, Americans don't want to make. We don't want to, we don't want to make Nikes, we want to wear them. So when the good folks in Beaverton, Oregon, design, market, do the advertising, the distribution and the strategy for Nike, that's the white meat of the business and they capture the majority of the margin and those jobs are high-paying jobs. Making Nikes is something we should do in Vietnam because making shoes for three bucks

• 12:14Scott Galloway?

  instead of 13 would have cost in the US, that additional $10 a margin can be reinvested in new startups and more higher productive places in the economy. That's how America, because of our lack of protectionism, one of the ways it's grown faster and then we, you know, capitalism says, hey, you're going to go out of business if you're not holding your own. Now, in terms of your specific case, oftentimes it just, you know, so your business may does not work. You have to acknowledge that. You have to look, get a kitchen cabinet of people or a board and say, does my business work? But it also might be going up the food chain. It might also be a business of scale. Is there another subscale company doing what you do where you guys should merge and potentially

• 12:55Scott Galloway?

  have one back office, one CFO, you know, and quite frankly, just become more efficient? Are there more upstream things you should be doing in terms of maybe helping these firms find other manufacturers or what? Generally speaking, the American economy has forced people to go upstream into marketing, product, design, consulting, strategy, services. If you own the relationship, the question is, how can I better serve or better monetize this relationship? And if you're in a business where the product is being, where the, quite frankly, the margin is under compression from foreign competitors, you need to think about either consolidating,

• 13:36Scott Galloway?

  finding other smaller firms where you can get efficiencies on the backend, or you need to think about selling to a bigger player, or you need to think about reconfiguring the product so that you can, you know, go upstream and grab more margin, if you will. I did a, I started a market research firm and right out of business school and slowly but surely, technology came up with ways to do automated phone calling and get better market research for less than I could offer. So I slowly but surely found that people didn't want the research, they wanted interpretation and essentially they wanted strategy. And that if you establish a good relationship with a senior-level executive or a CEO, you use other people's research and then what they really valued was advice and that that

• 14:17Scott Galloway?

  was much more, or less margin-sensitive, much less elastic, if you will. So this is like, there's no, or also, it might be that it's not working. What you need is a kitchen cabinet to tell you, give you advice, and then you're going to have to make a decision from there. But I think this is happening to a lot of people.

• 14:40Scott Galloway?

  And without knowing the nuance of the specifics and the financials, I don't feel like I can definitively tell you what to do here. What I can tell you that I'm confident about is you need a group of people who know enough about your business and can be, or, you know, are smart, you can be transparent with, who can give you kind of no mercy, no malice advice. Thanks for the question.

• 15:01Scott Galloway?

  We'll be right back after a quick break.

• 15:11Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from NetSuite. They say every day your business is late to AI, you might fall two days behind. So how do you keep up with the competition when they're only moving faster? Enter NetSuite Next. You probably know NetSuite, the AI-powered business management suite that securely connects all your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth, trusted by over 44,000 customers. NetSuite Next is the next big leap in how business gets done because AI is built into everything you do. It automatically surfaces customer insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. And anytime you have questions about anything, you can ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague.

• 15:54Scott Galloway?

  NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industries, so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for NetSuite Next, where your business meets AI. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get our free business guide, Aligning for the Agentic Era: How AI is Changing Everyday Work, at netsuite.com/profg. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com/profg. netsuite.com/profg.

• 16:28Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Upwork. Trying to scale your business? At some point, you're probably going to hit a point where you need some help. Sometimes the best way to break through that is bringing in the right talent at the right time. Upwork can help. Upwork is a one-stop platform where you can find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across more than 125 categories. Whether you need specialized skills for a single project or extra support to keep up with demand, it's easy to connect with experienced professionals, review their work, and find the right fit. You can move faster without taking on the commitment of full-time hires. And for businesses that need the very best talent, Upwork Business Plus provides access to the top 1% of freelancers on the platform. AI-powered matching connects you with qualified candidates in under six hours, cutting down the time spent searching.

• 17:11Scott Galloway?

  Upwork also takes care of contracts, payments, and other administrative tasks, so you can spend less time managing logistics and more time focused on what's next. Visit upwork.com/profg right now and post your job for free. That's upwork.com/profg to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U P W O R K dot com slash prop G. Upwork.com slash prop G.

• 17:38Scott Galloway?

  Support for the show comes from Vanta. As AI adoption grows, so does your company's security risks and requirements. New frameworks, audits, and vendors keep piling on, but your team isn't getting any bigger. Most compliance tools promise automation, but you're really stuck doing all the work by hand, chasing screenshots, validating controls, and playing catch-up when audit season comes around again. Vanta works differently. The Agentic Trust platform is built to scale with you, not slow you down. With over 1,400 automated tests across 400-plus integrations, Vanta collects evidence and monitors your controls year-round, cutting your audit prep by 82%. Plus, you can access the Vanta agent everywhere you work, whether your team is in Vanta every day or living in tools including Claude or Cursor. Want proof?

• 18:23Scott Galloway?

  Over 16,000 fast-growing companies like Ramp, Ryder, 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 prop G for $1,000 off.

• 18:48Scott Galloway?

  Welcome back. Question number three comes from Rob Shuffles on Instagram. Seems pointless with the state of the world, but I'm in my early 40s and struggling with online dating. Got any tips?

• 19:00Scott Galloway?

  Oh, brother. Stop online dating. Or, look, the biggest trend in the consumer economy is IRL, and that is people going to concerts, people going to church, you know, people going to the movies right now is back in vogue. Some of the best performing media stocks have actually been theater stocks. Who would have thought that? Look, generally speaking, there is a phenomena where it becomes winner take all in a digitized environment. When we digitized retail, Amazon controlled 50% of the online market. When we digitized social media, or connection, quote unquote, you saw social media get, or

• 19:42Scott Galloway?

  meta get 73%, search 93%. Digitizing mating, if you will, has resulted in a bit of a winner take all environment where, and you've seen the stats, that a disproportionate number of women online will show the majority of their attention to a minority of the men online. This has been going on for millennia. If you talk to couples who have dated for longer, or been together longer than 30 years, they almost always say the same thing. One of them was much more interested in the other in the beginning. There's very few romances where it's love at first sight on both ends. Men typically have lust at first sight much more often, and women tend to fall in love much more slowly, if at all. They have much

• 20:26Scott Galloway?

  more, a much finer filter than men, right? Men want someone who's cute, who's nice to be around, is nurturing, and would agree to be physical with them. That's sort of most men's criteria. Women are looking for something a lot more nuanced. If this sounds sexist, it is, and I have data to back it up. But, you know, the three things that women find attractive in men. Number one, signal resources. We don't like to talk about it because it makes both sexist, sound crass, but women instinctively believe they might need to gestate at some point, and that their kids will be vulnerable, and they need someone strong to protect them. In a capitalist society, strength is equated with resources and money. Now, showing up with a Range Rover and a Panerai does signal resources, but it's not

• 21:11Scott Galloway?

  everything. The key word in this is signal, and that is if you're a dude who has your act together, and it goes home, and doesn't order another drink, because you have shit to do in the morning, and you're disciplined, and thoughtful, and smart, and organized, that is attractive, because you're signaling at some point, you will have resources. Number two, intelligence. The person who makes the best decisions for the family makes it more likely that family will survive. The fastest way to communicate intelligence is humor. And you can't tell someone to be funny, right? That's kind of something, that's a gift you either have, you don't have. But you can tell them to have a good sense of humor, and that is a willingness to laugh out loud, a willingness to smile, a willingness to laugh at yourself, a willingness to take stuff in stride, a willingness to try and de-escalate uncomfortable situations with humor, right? And appreciation for humor. That's a good

• 21:55Scott Galloway?

  sense of humor. And then the number three, most under-leveraged weapon in your quiver, and this is the cheat code that most men don't realize, the number three source, or the number three criteria that women find attractive in a potential mate, is kindness. They want someone who they think, when they're vulnerable during gestation, or moments of vulnerability, that will be kind. And I believe that you're not, you know, some people are just born kind, but I think it's like anything else. I think it can be a learned behavior. And I think a kindness practice is really powerful. Get used to being kind and trying to go out of your way for people who can do nothing for you. A real red flag in anyone you're dating, male or female, is people who are not nice to service staff. People

• 22:39Scott Galloway?

  who are not nice to strangers. People who are overly nice to people that they think can help them out. That's just, it comes across as inauthentic. And I think every day, trying to go out of your way, and leverage that kindness muscle, builds the muscle stronger, and it becomes, it just becomes a natural muscle memory. Now, back to you dating in your 40s. I think the key is to put yourself in the company of strangers in real life, right? If you're in the top 10%, if you're over six feet, you know, photographed well, and your Rolex accidentally slips into the profile picture, and you graduated from MIT, you're going to do great online. If you're the other 90% of us, what you need is that,

• 23:22Scott Galloway?

  again, going back to the couples who survive longer than 30 years, what you found is it was almost the man who was more interested in the beginning, but the man had a venue to demonstrate excellence. I liked the way he treated his parents at church. He was so funny. I liked his friends. I liked the way he danced. We went out a bunch of times with friends, and I liked the way, I loved his sense of humor. He was kind. He was so outstanding at work. By the way, one in three relationships begin at work. You want to get, you want to put yourself in environments with as many strangers as possible, say yes to as many invitations as possible, and then get comfortable with no. Are you willing to go up to strangers at a bar and introduce yourself, and try and say something nice, and establish a rap, recognizing that many, if not most of the times, they're not going

• 24:07Scott Galloway?

  to reciprocate your attention, or reciprocate your interest, and you're going to have to deal with that. Can you deal with that? If not, learn how to deal with it. So, I would say, look, if online dating, I'm not saying give it up, but think of it as a smaller part of your chemistry set, or your toolkit, and try and find as many opportunities to meet people in real life. Be aggressive, be assertive, walk up to strangers, get used to no. And I think over time, and also, you know, you're in your 40s, so you've probably got your shit, hopefully, already figured out. What I tell young men is, I ask them a straightforward question. I say, would you have sex with you? Are you attractive? Do you take care of yourself? Do you work out? Do you have a plan? Do you try and dress well? Are you

• 24:52Scott Galloway?

  kind? Do you listen? You know what the biggest turn on is, I think, for women? Follow-up questions. When I was a young man, I just sat there trying to figure out what she would like, and I just fucking blathered on all the time with this constant, what I call, controlled boasting around how awesome I was, as opposed to just occasionally being comfortable with silence, and asking her questions, and then asking follow-up questions. This is a lot. Anyways, my brother, get offline, do more stuff in real life, be kind, be generous, be smart, have a plan, and be willing to endure rejection. That is everything. And also, it never hurts to consistently be working on yourself, and be asking yourself consistently, what could I do to be more attractive to others? That may sound a little bit superficial,

• 25:37Scott Galloway?

  but, you know, welcome, welcome to the dating world. You know, someone who is economically and emotionally viable, and a decent person and kind, I think the market is there for you, or the market is coming to you, if you will. Thanks for the question.

• 25:55Scott Galloway?

  That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Or, if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we might feature it in an upcoming episode.

• 26:12Scott Galloway?

  This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Laurence Nair. Kami Rika is our social producer. Brad Williams is our editor. And Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from Prop G Media.

• 26:31Speaker 05

  They're running a cover two D fast, but you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go-to restaurants, or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.