Developing Independent and Well Informed Opinions

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So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at Microsoft.com/slash M365 Copil ot. Megan Rapino here. This week on a touchmore, our Captain America Hillary Knight is joining us to talk about her storybook career. And the March Madness bracket is out, and we have thoughts and predictions to share. Plus, we're also taking a look at the NWSL's Blockbuster opening weekend. Check out the latest episode of a touchmore wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube. Welcome to Office Hours of Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions 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 officehours at propgmedia.com. Again, that's office hours of Proptu Media.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode. First question. Hey Scott, my name is Jonathan. I'm a longtime listener and follower of your work. Going back to the L2 days and the winners and losers You also wrote a really moving piece about losing your mother and I lost my mom this year and then my found myself returning to that post several times. It genuinely helps, so thanks a lot. Here's my question. Lately it feels like everything is for sale. Courses, retreats, digital products, life systems, often wrapped in promises of transformation, friendship, belonging. If you just pay enough, you can get these things. I understand the need to earn a living, but it increasingly feels like profit is crowding out genuine generosity and service. You clearly monetize your work, but it rarely feels extrative or grift How do you think about the line between sharing your gifts and talents in a meaningful way and building a business around them? And how do you personally distinguish between people who are genuinely trying to help others from those who are mostly selling aspiration. Thanks again for your incredible work and for modeling how to do this without becoming a part of what feels like a growing grifter econom y. Uh first off, Jonathan, uh hey man, I'm really sorry about your mom. I I don't care . I knew my mom was dying. I knew she was gonna die. She'd led a pretty good life. She did die too early. She was six nine. But when it happens, if you're close with your mom as it sounds like you are, it's just devastating. I I joke that I'm a middle-aged man who hasn't gotten over the death of his mother from twenty one, twenty-two years ago now. And I used to think, oh, okay, there's something fucked up about me. Now I think, well, I hope my sons feel the same way about me. I hope when they talk about me, they get choked up because I meant so much to them. Um and, you know, uh anyways, uh, I'm sorry, but that's not what your question's about. So uh you're being really generous. I'm a capitalist. We we advertise, I'm very focused on money. I think it's a great scorecard. I enjoy capitalism. I enjoy building companies. I'm in the really fortunate position now where it's now my number two priority. It used to be my number one priority. How do I build this? How do I build enterprise value and sell this company so I have economic security? Now I want to do something great that has a positive impact. I do want to make more money. I'm not, you know, I'm not a selfless person, but I also want to make the people around me, I want to provide them with economic security. I take a lot of pride in, I think we compensate somewhere between 50 and 100% above market. And we're able to do that because quite frankly, we're monetizing my brand. I make a shit ton of money speaking and have a pretty big social footprint. But also it's a virtuous upward spiral because if you pay people well, they stick around. What kills a company is constant churn when your good people leave. If your best people leave all the time, you're just fucked. Whenever I talk to a service person, they say, You've been able to sell companies, uh, I'm having trouble scaling my company. I'm like, show your show me your cap table. And they're like, what's a cap table? I'm like, who owns what? And they're like well I own the company, but I pay people. I'm like, okay, that's your fucking problem. You want people to act like owners, but you're not giving them equity. And the only way to hold on to great people is to give them equity and say, okay, this is the plan, and I'm gonna sell the company for three or five years, I have a liquidity event, and you're gonna make this much money. So I'm not answering the question. Uh we have advertising. We do have some standards. I'm a capitalist. If we're on the fence, I'll usually take their money, but we don't do crypto. Um we try to be, you know, some of the stuff that feels really grifty. So I appreciate you saying that, but I still fall victim to some of the capitalist traps of other people. And I do think that that wanting to make money and help people are not mutually exclusive. I think there are a lot of people who do really good work and make a really good living doing it. And capitalism is created a series of incentives that says I can help you while you help me. And it might be an exchange of services or an exchange of money for goods or whatever it is. And that you know, the butcher and the baker don't trade bread and meat be out of philanthropy, they do it because they're specialized and they can offer each other something like this. So how do you model not being a grifter? You try to be authentic, you try not to take advantage of people, pay your people well , you know, don't sell I don't know, too many grifty wellness supplements. Is that right? I th well, I think some of the shit's okay. I don't know. Oh God, I'm really flailing and struggling with this question. Um I would say just be transparent about your advertisers in the podcast business. But I wouldn 't, you know, I wouldn't be to o I don't think you need a purity test here. I think most people sense if you're trying to help them and as long as you're transparent about the cost of something, the benefits or risks of something, I don't see any reason why you can't make really good money while providing a service or helping other people, as long as you're genuine about it and you're authentic and it's a product or a service you believe in. I don' t you know I think that's the basis of why capitalism works. And uh I think 95% of businesses do that. And the incentives of capitalism are you've got to figure out a way to add value to people. Um, otherwise, they're not going to buy your product. Uh, and you can generally tell when people are bad actor s. So having a set of standards, trying to stick to those standards. And then charity begins at home. Pay your people really well and be transparent about how you're making money. Maybe that's it. Be transparent about how you're making money and discl ose um when you have financial incentives such that if you're in the media business, people don't feel like they've been had that you weren't transparent about your incentives I appreciate the questi on. Question number two. Question number two comes from Goose Tavo 2013 on Reddit. They say, Hey there Propchi, how do you go about teaching your kids about the value of money? My oldest is eight years old and likes to doing extra work and chores around the house for some cash Oh my God. You're tracking. He's eight and he's connecting chores to work to something he likes. Can I hire this kid? Like at the age of eight, if he's been able to connect, this is what you want. You want them to conne ct I I feel like my job as a father is I'm a prefrontal cortex, right? Which is the off on executive decision CO of the brain. Okay, you realize you need shoes to go to school, right? You realize you need the spot this sp this time waits for no man. If you don't get up right now, you're gonna not be able to catch the tube and get to work or get to school on time. And if I get another tardy notice from your teacher, I'm gonna lose my sh it. Right. I'm their prefrontal cortex. Also, um, what I've tried to do is conne ct uh discipline and short term sacrifices to long-term benefit. You know, let's let's study every day for two or three days, an hour a day, and then let's we're taking them test on Thursday. Oh my gosh, you got a B plus or an A minus. It was the hour we did three days ago. I feel as if everything in our economy is focused on immediate gratification. And I'm trying to implement this thing of slopa. And that is efforts that provide a dope a hit three days from now when you come home and tell your dad your quote unquote meeting on your civics um or your civilization study. They they have these weird grades here in London. Anyways, uh trying to do that. And also I'm trying to connect uh effort and expertise to money. One of my sons, I'm just so fascinated by this, has been buying and selling Pokemon cards and uses AI to try and determine the value and then goes online and tries to connect them and buy buy cards. And I've said, I will finance this. I will, here's a hundred pounds, show me what you can do. And then he does it for a few weeks, buys and sells, and we add up the cost to buy, the cost to ship to a seller and how much you made and trying to connect the effort and then I say, okay, I'm gonna take this money and upload your green light card and you can do more delivery or whatever it is you want to do or you know, trying to connect money to effort and also to connect um money and the power of investing. And that is, I started, I told my son that for every dollar he invested in the market, I'd match it. So I think he invested he got up to about eight hundred or nine hundred dollars. And then we checked the markets every day to watch it. And I'm trying to teach him not to trade to only buy companies he wants to hold for five or ten years that um trading would be, you know, uh eats up all its fees. Anyways, I'm trying to conne ct small acts of discipline every day to long-term dopa and also connect investing or connect the long-term mindset with investing and wealth creation and also make the connection between effort and risk and making money and then being able to spend money on really cool stuff. I'm trying to make those. I'm a prefrontal cortex and I'm the connective tissue. I'm trying to make connections, if you will. But if you have an eight-year-old that's already figured out, I want to do chores. First off, they say chores and sports are kind of the two building blocks of character. But if you have an eight-year-old that's already connected chores with money and getting to do something they want , I mean, trust me on this, your kid's gonna be mentoring us. Congratulations, you're doing something right. We'll be right back after a quick bre ak. Support for today's show comes from IAM8. It's not easy to get all the vitamins and minerals you need in a day, and I am 8 wants to keep things simple with their daily ultimate essentials drink. My colleague Ed Elson, another user experience from someone who signs the back of checks? It is living off daddy. I tried it and I did love it. And I do love it. I am 8, I use it pretty much every day. It's hydration. It makes me feel healthy. I can't tell if it's actually making me healthier, but it's making me feel healthier and that is what matters the most. But big fan of IMA. That sounds nice. So let me just say your complexion is sublime, Matt. Start feeling your best self every day with I am eight, go to IM8Health.com slash prop G and use code PropG for a free welcome tick. Five three travel sachets plus ten percent off your order. That's I am number eight h-e-a-l-t-h dot com slash prop G, code PropG for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus ten percent off your order. I am8health.com slash prop G code Prop G. These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any dise ase. Support for the show comes from built rewards. No one's gonna pat you on the back for paying your rent on time every month. But you can earn rewards on your rent with Bilt, which is like a pat on the back but for your wallet. BILT is the loyalty program for renters that rewards you monthly with points and exclusive benefits in your neighborhood. With Bilt, every time you pay your rent, you can earn points that you can put towards flights, hotels, lift rides, Amazon.com purchases, and so much more. And now it's not just for renters. They've recently expanded to allow built members to earn points on mortgage payments too. 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Hey Scott, I'm a big fan. As I listen and absorb your thoughts as well as the rest of the m news I consume, I was wondering what your best process is for balancing your own malleability to people's opinions. I found that the most recent piece that I consume, read, listened to, et cetera, becomes my strongest opinion towards a topic. I want to be flexible to opinions, but also decisive and more opinionated myself. I'm a twenty three year old male, recent college grad to give you some background. Thank you. Really thoughtful question. I have, you know, people's brains are like pillows, and that is the last person or piece of media that sits on it that they leave that impression. A lot of people say our president's one of our president's biggest flaws is his decisions are based on the last person he spoke to. So first off, you want to find multiple media sources. I made a really stupid move the other day. I saw a story on Gavin Newsom saying that he agreed with the strikes and I reposted it, and then my podcast co-host, uh, Kara Swisher said, This is fake news. You got to take this