Right About Now with Ryan Alford
Business News: The Real Opportunity w/ AI - Creating Leverage - Real Estate Market Softening
Fri, 02 May 2025
SUMMARYIn this episode of Weekly Business News, hosts Ryan Alford and Chris Hansen delve into current business and economic trends as of May 2025. They discuss the impact of tariffs, the cooling real estate market, and rising interest rates. The conversation highlights the migration patterns affecting community dynamics and the influence of multinational corporations on the middle class. They also explore the introduction of Meta's new AI assistant app and its potential applications. The episode blends analysis with personal reflections, encouraging listeners to stay informed and optimistic while navigating the evolving economic landscape.TAKEAWAYSCurrent economic climate and trends as of May 2025Discussion on tariffs and their impact on business conversationsAnalysis of the real estate market, including price reductions and migration patternsEffects of demographic changes on local communities and economiesThe role of multinational corporations in shaping the middle classThe influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration trendsConcerns about economic disparities and job outsourcingIntroduction and potential applications of a new AI assistant app by MetaImportance of focusing on local issues amidst global challengesEncouragement to maintain a positive outlook and prioritize community well-beingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of this business news podcast?
What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news. Our first news of May 2025 here on The Second. It will be May the 4th on Sunday. May the 4th be with you, Chris. What's up?
I'm sitting here just thinking April flowers, May showers. I don't know why.
April showers bring May flowers. It's been rainy here, so hopefully that's the case. It's been rainy and warm, which is nice.
Not here. Sunny and breezy. It's been beautiful.
Chapter 2: What are the current economic trends and tariff impacts in May 2025?
Yes, it's been good. Our weekly business news. We're going to hit all the headlines. Try not to talk too much about tariffs. I never, Chris, I never imagined tariffs. That I would have a moment in my life where I use the word tariff in a sentence as often as I have or read it. Definitely not weekly. I know. I don't know if it's a sign of my age, a sign of the times, a sign of the way news is.
Is it all of the above?
I don't know. Maybe lack of all of the above.
Yeah. I'd rather talk about a lot of other things, that's for sure. I know. So we're going to attempt to do that. Some of the market data is not wonderful, but I think it's early in the season. I think there's some cooling going on of all the banter a bit. I think... The reality is we live in a world where you're never going to get the straight talk.
It's always going to have the spin of one side or another, you know, kind of compounding whatever that news might be, one direction or the other. You know what I mean, Chris?
Yeah. I mean, everyone will never always think alike. Yeah.
Yes. And everyone has a voice now with social media. And hey, we got our own voice here on our platform. But it's like everything gets cut. I just got to tune it out. I do think we've talked about it. I think we've got to tamper down the negativity and the all-out war on some of our allies. I think you're seeing softening of that language and it's brought some people to the table.
I think sometimes we've talked about this. The means might be correct, but the way that things are happening might be the way that you get them done. But I think sometimes you can go a little further than intended with impacting overall sentiment. And I think you're feeling that a little bit with kind of like people feeling a little uneasy.
And I think hopefully we can start to get on the other side of that and focus on the data because the numbers are still like, It's all relative, right? It's not like we suddenly stopped commerce completely. It's just we're in this really weird funk where this has caused just enough of a stir combined with the real estate market and interest rates and battling inflation.
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Chapter 3: How is the real estate market softening and what does it mean for Greenville, SC?
So what happens, though, is what happens to market like ours when you get an influx of different personalities, beliefs, etc.? And I'm not saying we're all so different, but it can change the makeup. Yeah. I mean, the makeup and the fabric of the city. Yeah. And not because, you know, everything was right about old school Greenville. You know, like, no, we needed some growing up.
But what is the true impact of that, both socially, economically, et cetera, right?
I think we're in a time I would almost call like a financial migration, right? It's crossing cultural boundaries. And like you said, people aren't necessarily living where they want to live anymore. People are living where they can afford to live. And I think you're right. Even with COVID, for example, that was a mass migration. Or maybe that was the beginning of a lot of financial difficulties.
I know it was for many small businesses, of course. If you couldn't operate in certain states... Um, cause even down here in Florida, you know, all the towns I've lived in, you know, and growing up here, they've all had a large change because there's way more out of state people migrating in. Yeah, exactly.
And so we'll see how that goes. I was communicating if Greenville as an, as sort of a proxy for other cities, this size, uh, you know, I'd throw in like little towns in Arkansas that are kind of seeing their heyday from some social media and some of the shows that have been on. Bentonville and places like that. I mean, Austin is a different place altogether and larger tech scene.
But how all this, the interest rates in the real estate market, and I continue to beat this drum, just it drives money in the market when you've got good amount of real estate turning and refinancing and all that stuff. And so that's what we need these inflation numbers to go down. And that's where I choose to believe. And I've been, Chris and I both been pretty transparent, you know, like,
I claim myself to be an independent. I think you do as well, Chris, for the most part. We don't necessarily wear a color on our sleeves, but we voted a certain direction. And I choose to believe that there's a game of chess being played and a game of checkers being played. And I think there's some chess going on overall that I think is going to net out where we like it.
but it's going to continue to be a little rocky. And I said this on a post that you'll see later today where it's uncomfortable to get the change that you need. It's not always comfortable. And we've been conditioned to be very comfortable. And, you know, COVID in a strange way, and, you know, part –
putting aside the major impact medically, I'm not saying like, but it made us comfortable, those of us that were not impacted by it directly with the money in the market, everything's good. And then we had an administration where it was just kind of like they lull you to sleep with everything's fine. But We've got to suffer a little discomfort to get to the change that's needed.
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Chapter 4: What are the effects of migration patterns on small and mid-sized cities?
Yeah. I mean, we've been in decline for a long time and I would say we've been very comfortable and complacent and this is the result of that, unfortunately, you know, and I hate it because it's, if you look at historical timelines, like we're over the hump of the greatness of this empire and that's just history. And I think we're trying to save it, but it's not going to be an easy turnaround.
And the wealth may be too consolidated at this point, but the reality is, is these fuckers that have been buying yachts and mansions for the last 30 years, it's because they started producing these goods elsewhere to get higher profit margins. I mean, that's it.
Bingo. And so you're going to have a little pain to get to the other side of it to bring some of those jobs back. I just saw where... $4 trillion in investments come back in in the last 100 days.
It should motivate you. Yeah. Like, you know, figure some shit out. Use the internet. YouTube.
Yeah. Man, that's what I talked about last week or the week before. Like, all these things are there. Like, you could run leaner than you ever had to. Like, your barrier to entry as a solopreneur has never been lower. Yeah.
And I say that not because everybody's meant to be a solopreneur, but if you can't find work or can't find something else or you're struggling with where you're going to find the job and do all that, then you've got an option to turn to. Tools are there. But you've got to... You got to have that want to, Chris. You know? It's in short supply these days, that want to. You know?
I used to think everybody had the same amount. I don't think that anymore.
Yeah, no.
And I mean every sort of like... reasonably driven human being. I thought it kind of had average. I'm not talking about everybody has their ups and downs. You have people on substance and you like throw out the kind of health and anomalies. I thought everybody kind of in the middle had the sort of all the same. Nope. Nope. That was a biggest, like my biggest learning lesson in the last 10 years.
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Chapter 5: How have multinational corporations impacted the middle class and jobs?
Yeah, stealing your joy. Your joy, your energy, your focus. Yeah, your presence with the people you're actually around. You know, it's like life isn't that bad when you turn off all the negativity coming through the media.
Focus on the day and focus on you.
What can you control?
Exactly. That's it. And look, we're going to give you some tips right here. Free AI tools. Facebook parent Meta launches AI Assistant app, further competing with OpenAI and Google, and it's free. I was just playing with it for 30 seconds before we got on here. I'm a chat GPT guy. I've said that. I'll go ahead and just say that. But it's pretty slick.
I like the calming voice that came on and told me things, Chris. She was very pleasant, very just calming is what I would say. But look... You got to use these tools, especially when they're free. Shortcuts research, shortcuts information. It can process things way faster than you can looking things up. And when you're working on any project of any type, you should be leveraging these tools.
It's going to be interesting how... Also, being Facebook, it integrates with your Facebook accounts. It's pulling in knowledge already about you. Before everybody gets the conspiracy theory, gets scared, we already just told you what to worry about, what not to worry about. Use this for your advantage. Don't worry about it.
If you're worried about pulling something from your Facebook, you shouldn't have posted it to Facebook to begin with.
You're in too deep already.
Exactly. So I wanted to pull all my stuff. I don't have any... Has there been a post or two occasionally where I'm like, I should have got in that company? Sure. But 99.9, I don't care. Use it. Help me. You learn more about me so you can help me do my job better, learn better, be a better parent, be a better husband. I mean, there's knowledge and calculating all that stuff. But
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Chapter 6: What role does mindset and personal drive play during economic uncertainty?
Yeah, language learning. I wish I had a different name.
Language integrated, you know, I don't know.
Ask me anything. Language learning, ask me anything. There it is. It's a large language model. That's probably what the large language, ask me anything. We're going to start making up acronyms. It boasts enhanced reasoning, multilingual capabilities, and better efficiency. And wife-pleasing recommendations. I made that one up.
You can use it for that, too.
Exactly. If you were me. Look, I'm going to give you a prompt. A free prompt. Free prompts. People pay for prompts, Chris. I know. Pretend that I'm a husband. And this is you're talking to your GPT here. Pretend I'm a husband that's fucked up a few times with my wife. Nothing salacious, but just like, hey, it's been a bad month. Made some bad decisions. Wife's not happy at me.
And you were trying to find innovative ways to make her feel better about you. And you have kids, so you have to keep that in mind. You have a busy schedule. How would you handle this situation? Could you give me five suggestions for a man in that situation? Just ask it, and the answers will be yours. Yep. There you go.
There's your husband.
Luckily, he's a perfect husband. I've never had to ask that, but you can. You've thought about it, though. Yeah. Tongue firmly in cheek, as said. But that's the crazy thing. It could be your assistant for all kinds of things. And it's fun. The app will offer personalized responses using context from a user's Facebook and Instagram accounts. We talked about that. That's good.
Integrate with Meta AI's glasses and merge with its existing companion app. Have you ever used, have you seen Meta glasses?
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Chapter 7: Why should listeners focus on their local community instead of global negativity?
That's their market analysis.
Yeah, I was expecting something a little more interesting than that. Finax opened the first trading course store in London on Regent Street, Purpose is marketing and a model for entrepreneurs. It's all about showing people what the store should look like and how it should work. So they're essentially showing Europe how trading card stores should operate. So then you get spinoffs from that.
Fanatics overall revenue expected to hit $9 billion this year and $11 billion in 26. Fanatics will gain exclusive rights to the English Premier League trading cards and stickers in June 2025. Taking over from Panini. Panini and Topps were just like, I would back and forth. They needed to figure out a merger. I don't know why they did. It's not good for the business.
It's like, it's the stupidest shit. But now that I'm in it, I'm seeing all of it. And I see, you know, Chris, this is what happened. This year, like for NFL, Panini's had the exclusive rights to the NFL. So what that means is Tops cards this year doesn't have any logos on it. So you'll get like... you know, Josh Allen, but it has no Buffalo Bills logo.
It says Buffalo and it says Bills, but there's no logos on their helmets or their jerseys. It's odd. And it's like unnecessary. I'm like, why can't you sell more than one license to both companies? If they both want to make cards, then, you know, double it up here. But like starting next year, Topps is going to have a Panini wand and their cards won't have logos. It's just dumb. It's dumb.
It's not good for the, you know. It's not good for the culture. No. It's like... And it keeps me from buying a cert card.
It looks stupid. Yeah, well, if you want it, it's probably not worth as much, too.
Well, the Tops, see, that's the thing. They go to these other measures to make it. They get the autographs agreements with some of the hottest players. So then if you want that player's card as a rookie with an autograph, you have to buy the Tops first, and he has no logo on his helmet.
Because Panini doesn't have his autograph. It's like, you can't get the best of all worlds. I want to borrow it and the autograph.
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