Budget Cuts, Diversity Initiatives, Job Market Shifts, Skills-Based Hiring, and the Future of Workplace Culture

[00:00:00] Alright, I want to talk to you for a moment about retaining and developing your workforce. It's hard. Recruiting is hard. Retaining top employees is hard. Then you've got onboarding, payroll, benefits, time in labor management. You need to take care of your workforce and you can only do this successfully if you commit to transforming your employee experience.

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[00:01:15] Hey, what's going on everybody? Ryan Leary, William Tinkup here with The BARF. This is the look at the week that was, so you can be prepared for the week that is.

[00:01:25] William, there is another person on the screen for those that are watching.

[00:01:29] This is exciting. Video.

[00:01:30] And she's on video. We just learned a really interesting fact and you don't use video.

[00:01:36] I don't. Yes, this is Katie Achille from the Devon Group here to crash the party this week.

[00:01:41] Yeah. And yes, on video for once.

[00:01:45] Wow. Wow.

[00:01:45] I am a big believer in this thing called the phone, but up until five years ago, everybody was totally okay with.

[00:01:51] Yeah.

[00:01:52] And yeah, you don't need to see me at all times.

[00:01:55] So what have you done for the last five years?

[00:01:56] Yeah.

[00:01:57] Talked.

[00:01:58] Talked.

[00:01:59] No phone.

[00:01:59] No video.

[00:02:00] Listened.

[00:02:00] Yeah, listened.

[00:02:01] Yeah.

[00:02:02] Listened and talked.

[00:02:03] And you know, sometimes I hop on, but very rarely.

[00:02:07] Yeah.

[00:02:07] Yeah.

[00:02:07] So this has been a hell of a week.

[00:02:09] We've had a lot happen this week, right?

[00:02:11] We've had the culmination of the elections, which we don't need to get into.

[00:02:15] We don't need to run down that path.

[00:02:17] Oh, I will say.

[00:02:19] I would say 90% of the calls we've had this week have been therapy calls.

[00:02:26] Mm-hmm.

[00:02:26] We didn't actually get to the topics we needed to talk.

[00:02:29] And then we're talking like recordings too.

[00:02:31] Yeah.

[00:02:31] Like it was just one of those weeks.

[00:02:33] So anyhow, Katie went swimming in the ocean last night in New Jersey, which is pretty awkward

[00:02:39] because-

[00:02:40] In November.

[00:02:40] Yeah.

[00:02:40] In November.

[00:02:41] That's insane.

[00:02:42] Yeah.

[00:02:43] Yeah.

[00:02:43] So we have a little different format this week.

[00:02:46] A little different format.

[00:02:47] We're not just going to jump into all the news and acquisitions and all that stuff.

[00:02:52] Katie's here for a reason.

[00:02:53] She is going to be talking about some cool stuff and some findings and some trends and

[00:02:58] stuff like that, that she's been following and some recent travels.

[00:03:03] So let's kick us off.

[00:03:05] William, you want to do the honors?

[00:03:07] No.

[00:03:08] Katie, go.

[00:03:11] I was trying to make it not super awkward for her.

[00:03:14] It's not awkward.

[00:03:15] No.

[00:03:15] She's good.

[00:03:15] She's fine.

[00:03:16] I'm used to you two.

[00:03:17] We've done this before.

[00:03:20] So I'm here to talk about events.

[00:03:22] Yeah.

[00:03:22] Yeah.

[00:03:22] I'm here to talk about events.

[00:03:24] You know, we've reached almost the end of the fall conference season, I'll say.

[00:03:28] Almost.

[00:03:28] Dangerously close.

[00:03:28] I know there's a few more coming up.

[00:03:30] But for the most part, I'd say we're like 85, 90% done through the conference season,

[00:03:35] which means everybody's trying to figure out what 2025 looks like and, you know,

[00:03:41] what conferences they want to be at and how much they want to spend and all of that.

[00:03:47] So I came to talk to you guys.

[00:03:49] You've been at a lot of the shows recently to compare notes and see what y'all are thinking.

[00:03:54] I was shocked to, and this is talent acquisition vendors at Unleash, Transform, and HR Tech.

[00:04:03] All of them are just pulling out of conferences next year.

[00:04:09] Wow.

[00:04:10] Like, and I almost named names.

[00:04:12] Just those conferences.

[00:04:14] Okay.

[00:04:15] They want to go and try and find the talent acquisition buyer, which I don't, you know,

[00:04:20] that's pretty hard to find.

[00:04:21] And there's not a lot of, you know, great events for those folks, especially leadership,

[00:04:26] whom they want to sell to.

[00:04:28] And they just, they're kind of fed up with going to the more HR Tech related, which is

[00:04:36] great, work tech related, a broad swath of HR, of which talent acquisition is a spoke.

[00:04:43] And they're just like DQing conferences.

[00:04:47] Yeah.

[00:04:47] Overwhelmingly.

[00:04:48] Yeah.

[00:04:49] It's insane.

[00:04:49] I'm not going to lie.

[00:04:51] I'm seeing a similar, similar from what I'm hearing from my clients.

[00:04:54] And mine are not all talent acquisition tech.

[00:04:57] I represent broadly HR Tech companies, a few other verticals as well.

[00:05:01] What I'm hearing is budgets for 2025 are flat.

[00:05:05] So those big shows, yeah, are not being prioritized in the same way they would have been.

[00:05:11] Right.

[00:05:11] Right.

[00:05:12] The folks that are going are thinking about downsizing their booths, you know, 10 by 10,

[00:05:17] 10 by 20 maybe.

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:20] And yeah, they're looking at more of these either bespoke events or they're looking at

[00:05:27] just shorter events.

[00:05:29] You know, I've been to a few recently.

[00:05:32] I went to the conference boards, people 2030 last week in Brooklyn.

[00:05:37] It's a day and a half.

[00:05:39] So as opposed to three, four, five days out of the office, you know, that's an easier,

[00:05:44] you could just do one full day and call it or you could do, you know, the overnight.

[00:05:49] But that seemed to get a lot more of those decision makers out than I think we're seeing

[00:05:55] with the big traditional conferences.

[00:05:56] So that's one sort of anecdote I can share.

[00:06:02] What do you guys think?

[00:06:03] I mean, in terms of you mentioned TA Tech specifically, which events do you think are

[00:06:07] under consideration for those vendors?

[00:06:11] Breakfast?

[00:06:12] Show of talent?

[00:06:13] Well, yeah.

[00:06:14] Eerie.

[00:06:16] Eerie.

[00:06:16] I think it's kind of a standard.

[00:06:20] I think most of the folks that we've talked to at the shows, you know, there's everyone's,

[00:06:27] I mean, this is just kind of an age old thing.

[00:06:30] When you're at a show, let's say you're at Transform and you're talking to a vendor,

[00:06:34] they're always disappointed in traffic.

[00:06:37] Always.

[00:06:37] It doesn't matter if there's 14,000 people at their booth, they're going to be disappointed

[00:06:42] in the traffic.

[00:06:43] However, this year we felt different conversations because it was like, these aren't just,

[00:06:49] yeah, there's traffic.

[00:06:50] These aren't the right people.

[00:06:52] That's a big, I heard that too about, you know, I was speaking with a marketing lead

[00:06:56] from a TA Tech company the other day that's a client and they had gone into HR Tech thinking

[00:07:02] it was going to be like their big show of the year.

[00:07:04] Right.

[00:07:04] And then they had gone to Gartner Reimagined thinking it was going to be a terrible show

[00:07:07] for them.

[00:07:08] And it actually ended up being the opposite.

[00:07:11] They got not just more marketing qualified leads at Gartner Reimagined than at HR Tech,

[00:07:17] they got like tenfold the number of qualified leads.

[00:07:21] So that's a really, when you're measuring ROI and William, I know you and Ryan and I have

[00:07:26] talked about this repeatedly with events.

[00:07:29] You know, that's when you go to your CFO with the budget and they say, you know, where's

[00:07:34] what we're going to do?

[00:07:35] If you're comparing 60 leads to 600, you know, that's a very big difference.

[00:07:43] I also think it's a matter of how the company's looking at the event itself.

[00:07:49] Yeah.

[00:07:50] Why are you going to HR Tech or why are you going to Unleash or why are you going to SHRM?

[00:07:56] Brand versus demand.

[00:07:58] Exactly.

[00:07:58] Yeah.

[00:07:59] And we've, William and I, we've had these conversations since the, you know, we'll call it September,

[00:08:04] early October timeframe with a lot of the marketing and events teams who were very upset.

[00:08:10] Even on the floor, they were talking with us and they were upset.

[00:08:12] And they all, it depends on who you talk to, but for the most part, they come back and say,

[00:08:18] look, we no longer look at these as demand gen shows.

[00:08:23] These are partner shows.

[00:08:23] They never should have.

[00:08:24] They never should have.

[00:08:25] Yeah.

[00:08:26] Well, that was, you know.

[00:08:27] Right.

[00:08:28] These are partner shows.

[00:08:30] We're seeing our customers.

[00:08:31] We're seeing our partners.

[00:08:32] We're looking around to see what new partners are out there.

[00:08:35] So for that, from that respect, fantastic.

[00:08:39] Great consultants.

[00:08:40] But do you need a 40 by 40 booth?

[00:08:42] Yeah.

[00:08:43] To do that.

[00:08:44] Plus the activation, plus the party, plus the seat.

[00:08:48] Because all of this starts to add up.

[00:08:49] And I know, you know, I had another, again, anecdotal conversation with one of the analysts

[00:08:54] recently who said that they were talking to a CEO at one of the big shows this fall.

[00:08:59] And the CEO, they threw a party and they looked around the room and they were like, I know

[00:09:04] everyone in here.

[00:09:05] Right.

[00:09:06] You know, like, why am I throwing a party for who are essentially like my friends?

[00:09:11] Quote unquote.

[00:09:11] Quote.

[00:09:12] You know, that's not, there is no ROI on that other than, you know, we continue to be

[00:09:16] friends.

[00:09:16] But I shouldn't have to feel like I'm buying the good one.

[00:09:20] Right.

[00:09:21] Thanks for the liquor.

[00:09:22] Yeah, exactly.

[00:09:23] Yeah.

[00:09:23] We could have just gone around the corner.

[00:09:25] Yeah.

[00:09:26] You don't need, you don't need to spend 30 grand on a bar tab for someone to talk about

[00:09:30] you to someone else that they're already talking to them about you for.

[00:09:34] The other thing.

[00:09:34] Parties and dinners are tricky.

[00:09:37] The after hours.

[00:09:38] Yes.

[00:09:39] Are tricky because everyone leading up to six months leading up to it.

[00:09:44] It's invite only.

[00:09:46] It's very special.

[00:09:48] You have to be qualified.

[00:09:50] And about three days before they panic.

[00:09:54] Every single one of them panic and like, tell your friends.

[00:09:57] I don't know.

[00:09:58] Get some homeless.

[00:09:58] Put flyers in there.

[00:10:00] Yeah.

[00:10:00] But then, but then that's when Ryan doesn't get allowed in.

[00:10:03] Like what happened at the greenhouse party at HR Tech.

[00:10:06] I know.

[00:10:07] I know.

[00:10:07] I know.

[00:10:08] And I love, we love greenhouse.

[00:10:09] We love.

[00:10:10] Yeah.

[00:10:10] No, no, no.

[00:10:10] That was a very successful.

[00:10:12] That was an overly successful party.

[00:10:14] It was a great party.

[00:10:15] I enjoyed it.

[00:10:17] Yeah.

[00:10:17] No, I, I didn't make it this year, but that it's, it's historically been one of my

[00:10:21] favorite events and, you know, Dina and her team do a great job.

[00:10:24] That's right.

[00:10:24] Send me a sweatshirt and I'll be just as happy.

[00:10:28] Ryan, Ryan forgot the first rule of entering a club.

[00:10:31] I know.

[00:10:32] That's like you own it.

[00:10:34] Hell yeah.

[00:10:35] Yeah.

[00:10:35] Like, like literally, I mean, I had the, the sash from, from HR Tech and I had my

[00:10:41] badge on, threw on my backwards.

[00:10:43] And I talked to the hostess.

[00:10:45] She goes, it's full.

[00:10:46] I'm saying, oh, so we need to wait for some people to come out.

[00:10:49] And she goes, no, no, no.

[00:10:50] It's they're not letting anybody else in.

[00:10:52] We're at capacity.

[00:10:53] And she turned her head for a second.

[00:10:57] And I'm like, yeah, I've been here before.

[00:11:01] I was a little further back and I didn't make it in.

[00:11:04] Yeah.

[00:11:05] Yeah.

[00:11:05] So the other, the other thing.

[00:11:07] It was full.

[00:11:08] Yeah.

[00:11:08] I'm sure.

[00:11:08] I'm sure.

[00:11:09] Like I said, I didn't make it that day.

[00:11:10] I had had a very long day running the press room.

[00:11:12] Um, but, uh, you know, the other thing I wanted to point out about events that I've heard,

[00:11:17] and I've heard this, um, again, I went to people, 2030, um, HR Tech.

[00:11:22] I was also at hacker ranks, um, AI skills summit at the Plaza hotel in New York a couple of weeks

[00:11:27] ago.

[00:11:27] So I had the chance to, um, you know, from the attendee perspective, talk to some of the

[00:11:32] folks at the end of the sessions at, um, the conference board and hacker ranks events.

[00:11:36] And, you know, one thing that popped up is everyone is with, when it comes to the content,

[00:11:43] there seems to be something that's missing right now, um, in these sessions.

[00:11:47] And it's the how I was in a session last week about skills-based hiring.

[00:11:53] You know, everyone has heard that term.

[00:11:55] It's been beaten over all of our heads all year.

[00:11:58] Yeah.

[00:11:59] And it was a session with a very big American company.

[00:12:03] They might be based in Bentonville, Arkansas.

[00:12:06] Um, and they were talking about, they were talking about, you know, their, their approach

[00:12:12] to skills-based hiring session was 30 minutes long.

[00:12:15] They talked for like 27 of them, which left one time, one, you know, one question.

[00:12:20] And the, this person got up at the beginning, at the front of the room and said, you know,

[00:12:25] I think it's great that you've adopted skills-based hiring.

[00:12:28] Can you tell me how?

[00:12:30] Yeah.

[00:12:30] And the gentleman on stage stood there and this is where his, his PR team would have been

[00:12:37] going nuts.

[00:12:38] And, um, he, you know, stammered a little bit and he could give one example.

[00:12:43] And his one example was that, um, they are taking associates and putting them on the transportation

[00:12:49] track.

[00:12:50] And that is because they have the largest private fleet in the U S through that.

[00:12:55] So that's one, one example that was not mentioned anywhere in the presentation.

[00:13:00] So we need, we need con event content that actually, it goes back to that case study model

[00:13:06] where, you know, the attendees are learning how your technology works, not why you should

[00:13:12] buy it, not what benefits you're putting in your marketing copy, how it actually works.

[00:13:17] Well, it's, it's, it's, uh, it gets to the essence of why, what is the conference?

[00:13:21] What is it?

[00:13:22] Was it, what are you trying to achieve during your conference?

[00:13:24] And most of the conference from SHRM all the way across, and it's not just a U S thing.

[00:13:29] Uh, most conferences are designed to attract practitioners via content.

[00:13:35] And then by, by attracting those practitioners, they attract vendors that can sell to those

[00:13:42] practitioners.

[00:13:43] Yep.

[00:13:44] But the, the, uh, Brian will use a fishing metaphor.

[00:13:48] The bait to get people to come to the conferences is getting less effective.

[00:13:55] So, and which, which impacts everybody, because if you don't bring in the practitioners, it

[00:14:01] ripples to the vendors.

[00:14:03] They're like, okay, this isn't good for us because we can't sell to anyone, which is all

[00:14:08] whole goal for them to be there.

[00:14:10] Is to sell.

[00:14:11] Is to sell.

[00:14:12] So is, is, is the solution then not so much content?

[00:14:16] Is it taking a, taking a page out of other industries like CES or something like that,

[00:14:24] where you're going and you're just getting thousands of vendors, you're shopping, you're

[00:14:29] seeing what is new, you're seeing what's hot.

[00:14:32] I mean, HR tech's not sexy like that.

[00:14:34] I get it.

[00:14:35] But is there a page we can take out of all these, you go to the fix the, the fishing expos that,

[00:14:40] you know, they'll, they'll put 20,000 people in them.

[00:14:42] Yeah.

[00:14:43] They'll do demos.

[00:14:45] They'll, you know, they'll go through lessons and workshops.

[00:14:47] You can attend though, to find out which lure you should be using.

[00:14:50] Oh, no, no, they do.

[00:14:52] They do.

[00:14:52] The hunting and gun shows here in Texas are the same.

[00:14:54] Like no one goes to the content.

[00:14:56] Yeah.

[00:14:56] Just go to the expo.

[00:14:57] They just walk around.

[00:14:57] Yeah.

[00:14:58] But, but they, but they are the ones that do have them.

[00:15:01] They're interactive.

[00:15:02] Like you're actually, you're, you're doing like workshops.

[00:15:06] Yeah.

[00:15:06] Yeah.

[00:15:06] Yeah.

[00:15:07] I think practitioners still need workshops.

[00:15:09] They still need to be hands on.

[00:15:10] Yeah.

[00:15:11] The how.

[00:15:11] It gets back to the how.

[00:15:13] It's the how.

[00:15:14] Less.

[00:15:14] Less content.

[00:15:15] Well, that's what I think we're seeing.

[00:15:16] I think to, you know, kind of bring the events conversation, you know, full circle.

[00:15:22] I think what we're seeing for 2025 is if budgets are going to remain somewhat the same as they

[00:15:28] were in 2024.

[00:15:29] And, you know, HR tech marketing teams need to make decisions.

[00:15:33] I think there's going to be less priority on the big shows.

[00:15:37] And we're going to start to see people trying some of the smaller shows.

[00:15:41] Yeah.

[00:15:41] You know, there are other players in the space who, you know, I'll use from day one as an example.

[00:15:48] They've been around for a number of years.

[00:15:51] They're starting to make more moves.

[00:15:53] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:54] They're attracting bigger brands, both on their content side and the attendee side.

[00:15:59] I talked to a friend who went to their event in Brooklyn last week and she was naming, you

[00:16:03] know, CHROs and VPs of talent acquisition that she was sitting next to in sessions.

[00:16:08] And it was, again, it was from 830 to 530 in Brooklyn.

[00:16:12] You know, there are other events.

[00:16:13] There are other events are in Chicago, Miami.

[00:16:16] They're in these big cities.

[00:16:17] So they're easy for people who are based in those markets or, you know, anywhere near

[00:16:23] them to take the train in for a day, you know, and then you're back in the office the following

[00:16:28] day.

[00:16:28] So I think we're going to see more of that.

[00:16:30] The road trip model, the dinner trip model, those things have worked forever.

[00:16:35] Like they've never not worked.

[00:16:38] Like you just drop into a city, take down the nicest restaurant.

[00:16:41] This goes back to what was Pinstripe?

[00:16:45] Sue Marks at Pinstripe.

[00:16:47] The first time I went to one of those was in Cambridge.

[00:16:50] She noticed on Foursquare that I was in Boston and she invited me to this dinner.

[00:16:55] I'm like, all right, cool.

[00:16:56] Get there.

[00:16:57] And there's 12 people.

[00:16:58] It's her, me and 10 global heads of talent.

[00:17:03] And we didn't talk about work.

[00:17:05] We literally drank and ate.

[00:17:07] Yeah.

[00:17:07] And it was just one of these bits.

[00:17:09] It was a real fancy restaurant.

[00:17:11] And, you know, so like that's all we did.

[00:17:13] And I went to a bunch of them afterwards.

[00:17:15] I'm like, this is a, this is a great model.

[00:17:17] I think we're going to see more and more of that.

[00:17:20] In addition to this, the shorter conference format, I think we're going to see more of

[00:17:23] those dinners.

[00:17:24] We're also, I mean, the user conferences are making a big return.

[00:17:28] We saw that in 2024.

[00:17:29] And analyst days.

[00:17:31] Analyst days are coming back.

[00:17:33] The, you know, pre-COVID where, you know, all of, all of y'all were getting wined and dined

[00:17:40] as part of these user conferences.

[00:17:42] I think that's, it's going to be more of, more of what we see in 2025.

[00:17:46] I'll tell you what, we've, we've been to two user conferences in the last month.

[00:17:51] Right.

[00:17:51] So, I mean, we've been to the ISOF ones.

[00:17:54] They kick ass.

[00:17:55] And they had to pivot, didn't they?

[00:17:56] Because of the hurricane?

[00:17:57] They did.

[00:17:58] Yeah.

[00:17:58] That team is amazing though.

[00:17:59] So.

[00:18:00] They are.

[00:18:00] They did an amazing job.

[00:18:01] Yeah.

[00:18:02] But they pivoted early.

[00:18:04] Yes.

[00:18:04] They did.

[00:18:04] They were smart.

[00:18:05] On Saturday, before it actually, we knew which way it was going to go, they pivoted early.

[00:18:10] Yeah.

[00:18:10] Yeah.

[00:18:11] Yeah.

[00:18:11] But, but their, their events are chocked full of learning.

[00:18:15] It's great.

[00:18:16] They put a couple hundred people in there and they do their own thing.

[00:18:19] They don't need to impress the world.

[00:18:21] Right.

[00:18:22] Indeed, another one.

[00:18:23] And we were just at Indeed Future Works and they're not paying their attendees to go.

[00:18:29] They're not paying them to say great things.

[00:18:31] And they were just overwhelmed and floored with the content.

[00:18:34] Yeah.

[00:18:35] I think, I think.

[00:18:36] And that one actually coincided with HR Tech this year.

[00:18:38] It did.

[00:18:38] So I know there was a little bit.

[00:18:40] Yeah.

[00:18:40] From the press and analyst perspective, it was a little tough because people needed to divide

[00:18:43] their time.

[00:18:44] Next year, they're in different weeks.

[00:18:45] Are they?

[00:18:45] They are a week apart.

[00:18:48] But there's always some overlap, you know, that time of year.

[00:18:51] But.

[00:18:51] Yeah.

[00:18:52] I know, I know there's overlap and I know it's not contentious.

[00:18:55] But that just goes to show if HR Tech and some of these larger show really, truly mattered

[00:19:01] to the vendors, they would know when the event is and they wouldn't plan their event.

[00:19:06] Well, some of the conferences, they'll publish like five or six years of dates in a row.

[00:19:10] I know three years.

[00:19:11] And I think if you go to the Unleash website, the HR Tech website, they've got their future

[00:19:15] dates because they're in multi-year contracts with their event spaces typically.

[00:19:19] Right.

[00:19:20] So, yeah, I mean, again, though, I think 2025 is going to be a very different event

[00:19:25] landscape from 2024, you know, pending no global pandemics or things that I can't forecast

[00:19:31] for where I'm sitting here in November.

[00:19:32] I think the way that I'll think of that, Katie, is flat is the new up for 2025.

[00:19:41] That is.

[00:19:42] Don't say that.

[00:19:44] Well, it's not a bad thing.

[00:19:46] No.

[00:19:46] They'll have the same budget.

[00:19:47] They'll just have to rearrange.

[00:19:48] So, peanut butter spreading is what one of my marketing leads keeps saying, that that's

[00:19:52] her goal for 2025 is she's peanut butter spreading her budget.

[00:19:56] Get it to the edges, baby.

[00:19:57] To make sure that the brand is in, you know, the most impactful places it can be without

[00:20:01] losing footing at, you know, some of the bigger shows where I think there's, you know, there's

[00:20:06] some FOMO too that the big shows have cultivated over the years.

[00:20:10] 100%.

[00:20:10] If you're not there, what's wrong with you?

[00:20:13] Yeah.

[00:20:13] We've had several vendors through the years where that's come up.

[00:20:17] It's like if you're not there in some way or another.

[00:20:20] Now, that's the question.

[00:20:22] Do you need the 40 by 40 or can you get away with a 10 by 10?

[00:20:25] You're there, but you're just not spending as much as on a 40 by 40.

[00:20:30] And you're not doing a party and you're not doing a dinner.

[00:20:32] You're just, you're going.

[00:20:33] And you're not flying the whole team out to be in the 40 by 40 because you got to make

[00:20:37] it look crowded.

[00:20:38] There's a lot that goes into all of it.

[00:20:41] You know, one of the other things I wanted to mention, you know, as we wrap up the events

[00:20:45] conversation and Ryan, you're involved in this.

[00:20:48] I just wanted to get a quick plug in.

[00:20:50] And that's, we have a program open right now for HR tech marketing teams called the Clear

[00:20:55] Communicator Awards.

[00:20:57] This is HR tech marketing teams opportunity to submit themselves for a little praise.

[00:21:03] We know how hard y'all work to differentiate yourselves in a very crowded market.

[00:21:09] So there's more information at the Devon PR website, which is devon, D-E-V-O-N-P-R.com

[00:21:15] in the news section.

[00:21:17] And there's, the submission form is super short.

[00:21:20] What's the deadline?

[00:21:21] What are we doing with it?

[00:21:22] The deadline is, the deadline is Wednesday, November 20th.

[00:21:24] There are three categories.

[00:21:26] It's campaign, event, or brand.

[00:21:28] And again, it's a super short submission and they're free because it's the inaugural year.

[00:21:34] I am not a judge, but Ryan is one of our judges.

[00:21:37] As you should be.

[00:21:38] Being an expert on all things HR tech marketing.

[00:21:41] Yes.

[00:21:41] So I do encourage anyone who's listening who is on an HR tech marketing team to check that.

[00:21:46] I love that.

[00:21:47] This will be fun.

[00:21:48] I would be a bad PR person if I didn't get that plug in.

[00:21:51] The best part about that is then you can say you're award-winning software.

[00:21:54] Exactly.

[00:21:55] Who doesn't want to be award-winning?

[00:21:56] Award-winning.

[00:21:57] As opposed to leading.

[00:22:01] Award-winning is, it just sounds.

[00:22:03] I want to be award-winning one day.

[00:22:06] Yeah.

[00:22:06] I want an award.

[00:22:07] Give me an award.

[00:22:07] I want an award this year and you don't know how quickly I changed that, Lincoln.

[00:22:13] I want an award-winning profile.

[00:22:14] Yeah.

[00:22:15] Award-winning PR specialist?

[00:22:17] Yes.

[00:22:18] Great.

[00:22:18] Something like that.

[00:22:19] And the award is actually sitting on my mantle because you know what?

[00:22:22] It's the closest I'm ever going to get to an Oscar.

[00:22:24] Did I just make William do a spit take?

[00:22:26] You did.

[00:22:27] It was close.

[00:22:28] That's an award win right there.

[00:22:29] You said it was on your desk.

[00:22:32] Yeah.

[00:22:33] Nice, nice.

[00:22:33] Good luck.

[00:22:34] We ready to break into some news?

[00:22:37] Let's do some news.

[00:22:38] Are you ready?

[00:22:38] Let's do it.

[00:22:39] We're keeping Katie on.

[00:22:40] Katie's going to help us give some insights here.

[00:22:42] All right.

[00:22:43] Let me start with Boeing.

[00:22:45] So two things happened with Boeing this week of note.

[00:22:48] One is the machinist, the strike.

[00:22:50] They're set to return to work after voting for a contract with a 38% increase in pay.

[00:22:58] I kind of feel like they should just find new people to work there.

[00:23:03] We haven't had good luck with these people.

[00:23:04] We're the robots.

[00:23:04] Doesn't that go against retention, though?

[00:23:07] I'm guessing.

[00:23:08] Is it retention a thing?

[00:23:10] Boeing is – okay.

[00:23:12] So the other story, in the same week, mind you, they dismantled their global diversity, equity, and inclusion departments.

[00:23:21] The DEI office, if you will, will be combined with another human resources team focused on the talent or employee experience.

[00:23:32] So they thought the strike news would – like they could just slip that in real quick on –

[00:23:37] So that's exactly what I – first of all, you can look at the strike ending.

[00:23:44] You can find that on the Wall Street Journal, and you can find more about the DEI on Reuters.

[00:23:48] So if you want to see those things.

[00:23:50] So initially, kind of I thought like, okay, is this going to sound like some type of conspiracy theory?

[00:23:59] But are these stories related?

[00:24:02] And why I asked both of you, it's like 38% raise, that cost has to come from somewhere.

[00:24:09] So you think it came from the DEI department?

[00:24:12] Are they cutting the people, or are they just moving people into different roles?

[00:24:16] Well, they said the word dismantled.

[00:24:20] That does sound like a synonym for layoffs.

[00:24:25] Yeah, maybe.

[00:24:26] If they said moving or dispersed or another word –

[00:24:30] They're not killing the office, not the people.

[00:24:31] Yeah, they're not killing the people.

[00:24:32] I think they might come with the furniture, though.

[00:24:34] Yeah.

[00:24:34] You know?

[00:24:35] If you dismantle the desk, you're getting rid of the legs.

[00:24:38] True.

[00:24:38] Boeing has – this was Reuters.

[00:24:41] Boeing has dismantled its global diversity, equity, and inclusion departments.

[00:24:49] I need to go to like layoffs at FYI and see if Boeing is listed.

[00:24:53] Yeah.

[00:24:53] Again, I don't know its causation or correlation.

[00:24:56] I don't know if these things are even in the same thing.

[00:24:58] However, both of them happened this week.

[00:25:00] So there you go.

[00:25:01] Well, there we go.

[00:25:02] All right.

[00:25:04] U.S. employers add a measly 12,000 jobs in October.

[00:25:09] This is the lowest since 2020.

[00:25:13] My God.

[00:25:14] So we added 12,000 jobs in October.

[00:25:17] The expectation was 100,000 jobs.

[00:25:20] Yeah.

[00:25:20] There's 12,000 people in my neighborhood.

[00:25:22] So we're a little under that.

[00:25:26] Unemployment, though, has remained at 4.1, right?

[00:25:29] Okay.

[00:25:30] But the number of unemployed rose to 7 million.

[00:25:34] So we have some movement.

[00:25:36] Now, here's – I don't – I mean, all right.

[00:25:40] You guys need to school me on this.

[00:25:41] The reason – one of the reasons, one of the driving factors in this is the hurricanes and the major strikes contributed to this subdued growth.

[00:25:54] I do not believe that.

[00:25:56] Well, when someone's on strike, they're so employed.

[00:25:59] Yeah.

[00:26:00] So those numbers stay constant, and it turns out hurricanes happen from May to November every year.

[00:26:09] So I think that's –

[00:26:11] There were back-to-back ones in October, however.

[00:26:13] There were.

[00:26:14] There were.

[00:26:15] Yeah.

[00:26:15] Did that help?

[00:26:16] Yeah, but that wasn't across the country.

[00:26:18] No, it was only a specific – it's the southeast.

[00:26:22] It's only the southeast that was impacted by that.

[00:26:24] Yeah.

[00:26:25] But it was bad, no doubt.

[00:26:26] I'm not –

[00:26:27] Yeah, no, not diminishing the impact of the hurricanes.

[00:26:31] How many jobs were added in September?

[00:26:33] Do you know that?

[00:26:34] I do not know that.

[00:26:35] Do not know that.

[00:26:36] No, but it was in 100.

[00:26:37] It was –

[00:26:38] It was over – yeah.

[00:26:39] I just –

[00:26:39] Yeah, it was well over 100,000, yeah.

[00:26:42] You know, if they're not going to give more context, then –

[00:26:47] Hurricanes, we're going to stay behind hurricanes and strikes.

[00:26:51] Hurricane strikes and strikes.

[00:26:52] We'll throw in elections just for the hell of it.

[00:26:55] Do you know?

[00:26:56] Why not?

[00:26:57] Why not?

[00:26:58] If I were BLS, though, I might be concerned.

[00:27:01] I would be, too.

[00:27:01] I would be absolutely getting my resume career updated.

[00:27:07] All right.

[00:27:07] So this is from Bloomberg.

[00:27:09] Equity is the most triggering word in the DEI acronym.

[00:27:14] So some companies are looking to rebrand diversity efforts without the equity to tamp down potential backlash.

[00:27:24] Writes Johnny C. Taylor of Sherman.

[00:27:26] No.

[00:27:28] He doesn't like diversity.

[00:27:29] So this is the bit, right?

[00:27:31] So at one point, this is probably the height.

[00:27:34] Yeah, that's right.

[00:27:35] So why is equity the most triggering, and who says?

[00:27:38] Again, we can go on Bloomberg and find out exactly where they're coming from.

[00:27:43] However, if you go back to the height of probably the pandemic, everyone was talking about diversity, equity, equality, inclusion, and belonging.

[00:27:53] Five terms.

[00:27:55] And SHRM, Johnny, distanced itself from diversity to just inclusion.

[00:28:02] That's why conferences call it inclusion.

[00:28:04] And just let's back away from diversity and let's just focus on inclusion.

[00:28:07] Now we find out that equity is under attack.

[00:28:12] It's triggering.

[00:28:14] So I think, you know, again, I think there's dark days ahead for anybody that cares about any of these initiatives.

[00:28:21] I think the next farm, next four years are going to be difficult because I think they're going to be under attack.

[00:28:28] So whatever you call it, which got me to think about animal pharma.

[00:28:32] Do y'all remember reading Animal Farm?

[00:28:33] George Orwell.

[00:28:34] Do you remember this?

[00:28:36] When the pigs started changing the words, right?

[00:28:40] So one of my favorites out of that bit is for all animals are equal.

[00:28:46] Changes to all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

[00:28:54] So that's what it reminds me of.

[00:28:57] I'm like, they were just changing words, but this is serious.

[00:29:01] It's like, we have friends that work in this space and care deeply about this stuff.

[00:29:07] And it's like, they're going to be under, those folks that we care about are going to be under attack.

[00:29:12] Like absolutely under attack for the next four years at least.

[00:29:15] And already have been for this year.

[00:29:16] And it's, yeah, it's, we're at the beginning, not the end.

[00:29:20] 100%.

[00:29:20] You know.

[00:29:22] There we go.

[00:29:23] Okay.

[00:29:23] I've got one here for a company called Bolt.

[00:29:27] Bolt drivers win in the UK tribunal that they had a claim for workers' employment status.

[00:29:37] So.

[00:29:38] Classification.

[00:29:39] Classification, right?

[00:29:40] So it's just getting complicated now.

[00:29:42] This is going to cross over, I think, into the US as well.

[00:29:44] So let's start off with the fact that employers may need to reassess everything they're doing with how they're hiring or working with drivers, gig workers, delivery, on-demand apps, all of that.

[00:29:59] Right.

[00:29:59] So drivers for Bolt, which is, so if you don't know, is a ride sharing app.

[00:30:03] They call it a ride hailing app, right?

[00:30:06] I guess they're still throwing their hands up.

[00:30:08] Careful.

[00:30:10] I know.

[00:30:11] Yeah.

[00:30:12] In Germany, they call it something different.

[00:30:14] My bad.

[00:30:16] Well, that just went dark.

[00:30:18] Next story.

[00:30:19] So they've been legally recognized as workers.

[00:30:25] Not gig workers.

[00:30:26] Not condor.

[00:30:27] Workers entitling them to benefits and pay and a guaranteed minimum wage.

[00:30:33] So this whole bit, they have 150,000 clients.

[00:30:37] Bolt does.

[00:30:38] They have 150,000 clients.

[00:30:39] And they've been ordered.

[00:30:41] This could potentially mean that they need to pay back 200 million pounds, which is about 260 million.

[00:30:47] Would it be retro?

[00:30:48] From the start of a lawsuit or something like that?

[00:30:51] I believe so.

[00:30:52] Yeah.

[00:30:52] That's so that it's 259 million in US dollars for those like me that can't do that commercial.

[00:30:58] Yeah, dude, the cow kid.

[00:30:59] Did you ask Chet GPT to translate that for you?

[00:31:01] No, the article did that for me.

[00:31:03] Okay.

[00:31:05] Pounds?

[00:31:05] Kudos to that journalist.

[00:31:08] Yeah.

[00:31:09] So yeah, they did that.

[00:31:10] So that's pretty crazy because we've seen this a lot in the US.

[00:31:14] They haven't actually gone this distance.

[00:31:16] Yeah.

[00:31:18] Yeah.

[00:31:18] The minimum wage thing.

[00:31:19] Well, first of all, you start with all drivers.

[00:31:22] Let's say Uber or Lyft.

[00:31:23] All drivers have to have background checks.

[00:31:26] That was a fight.

[00:31:27] All background drivers have to have fingerprints.

[00:31:31] So, okay, all that stuff.

[00:31:33] And then there was a fight for them to become employees.

[00:31:37] But I think that's been pretty much squashed up till now.

[00:31:41] For now, yeah.

[00:31:42] Up till now, DoorDash has, last year, they began to change how they offer jobs to the drivers, the delivery drivers.

[00:31:53] Right.

[00:31:53] You have an option.

[00:31:54] You can take a guaranteed minimum per hour or you can do a per delivery.

[00:32:00] I don't know what that means in terms of what I'm selecting versus not, but you get to choose.

[00:32:07] Well, if they just give you the higher number.

[00:32:09] Oh, that would make sense.

[00:32:12] For the driver, anyway.

[00:32:13] Why do I have to choose?

[00:32:14] Well, actually, no.

[00:32:15] I think it does.

[00:32:16] It gives you, so I think the minimum at the time, I think it's different in each area.

[00:32:20] Yeah.

[00:32:21] But it's like $14, you know, an hour, say.

[00:32:23] You're guaranteed $14 plus your tips.

[00:32:27] Or if you go per ride in an hour, maybe you only get, you know, $10.

[00:32:31] Could be $5 a ride or it could be, yeah.

[00:32:34] Yeah.

[00:32:35] You're guaranteed.

[00:32:36] Yeah.

[00:32:36] So they're guaranteeing you that minimum.

[00:32:38] And what we're going to see at least in the first two years of this election is pro-business.

[00:32:45] It's going to be extremely pro-business.

[00:32:47] So anything that you think would be, that would happen under a regime like this.

[00:32:54] It'll happen after the midterms.

[00:32:56] It might happen after the midterms.

[00:32:58] Right.

[00:32:59] Do you think we're going to see less of like the fractional work?

[00:33:03] I don't.

[00:33:03] Because that's been such a big trend this year.

[00:33:06] I don't think that will change because I think that's based on the people wanting to work a certain way.

[00:33:14] So I think that like they –

[00:33:17] Because that's been trickling down, you know, from C-suite to other employment classifications.

[00:33:22] So I was kind of wondering if we were seeing kind of the end of the employee or approaching, you know, the end of the employee.

[00:33:29] But, you know, different administration now.

[00:33:31] RTO.

[00:33:32] Yeah, I think we'll see soon enough when the job market comes back to where it's a candidate-driven market at this point.

[00:33:41] At that point, if the people who swear by these gig jobs and, you know, all the fractional work, if they hold true to their work.

[00:33:50] But if there's ample jobs and candidates can go get jobs and they can be guaranteed a salary of $120,000, are they going to work five gig jobs to get to that salary, right, and have to manage all their own stuff?

[00:34:05] I think that's when we'll – I don't think it's going to be in time soon, but we'll – that's, I think, when we'll see either the trend is going to stick or it's going to fall off.

[00:34:13] After the midterms.

[00:34:14] After the midterms.

[00:34:15] After the midterms.

[00:34:17] All right.

[00:34:18] Let me – this is a New York story, New York Times.

[00:34:21] So librarians across the country face a burnout epidemic as their jobs increasingly require them act as de facto mental health or emergency response workers to patients that are experiencing hardships like homelessness and addiction and mental illness.

[00:34:41] So the first thing that – because when I was at Bama, I worked at two libraries the whole time I was there for three years.

[00:34:48] I worked at the general library and I worked at the medical library.

[00:34:52] So I had two jobs.

[00:34:53] They were both part-time, you know, student jobs.

[00:34:56] But I could study and I loved it.

[00:34:59] I loved being around librarians because they're just smart.

[00:35:03] They can find shit.

[00:35:06] So it was like I loved being – and, you know, it was also just a fun job because I could study while I was there that those folks that I was around back then, they would not fare well in this environment of homeless addiction and mental health.

[00:35:23] So the first thing I thought of is deuces.

[00:35:25] Different job.

[00:35:26] I didn't sign up for this shit.

[00:35:27] I'm out.

[00:35:29] Now, secondly, I think it made me think of sociology majors in college.

[00:35:36] There's only so many sociology jobs available on a given year, in a given year, after graduation.

[00:35:42] There's only so many of them.

[00:35:43] Most people stay – if they get a job, they stay forever.

[00:35:46] They stay to death.

[00:35:48] So if you blend sociology with a little bit of library science, you could have an absolutely wonderful career path because you already have the skills of sociology and the skills of library science.

[00:36:03] So there is a silver lining, I guess, but you're going to lose – they're going to lose a lot of these librarians that have been around for a while.

[00:36:11] They didn't sign up for that.

[00:36:12] I mean, you're also assuming libraries are going to be kept open.

[00:36:15] Good point.

[00:36:15] And that there's going to be funding.

[00:36:17] Yeah.

[00:36:17] For those –

[00:36:19] I take it.

[00:36:19] You know.

[00:36:19] I think that's the bigger point is they're not going to have a job anyway.

[00:36:23] So, wow.

[00:36:26] Boom!

[00:36:26] I'm just saying they're librarians.

[00:36:29] How many books are you reading?

[00:36:31] I thought I was being harsh, Ryan.

[00:36:32] A little duck hunting.

[00:36:33] Here we go.

[00:36:34] Look, there's three people on screen.

[00:36:36] Only one of us has books.

[00:36:38] Well, that's definitely – yeah, that's Katie.

[00:36:40] One of us has art.

[00:36:41] One of us has books.

[00:36:42] And one of us has nothing.

[00:36:43] Nothing.

[00:36:44] Right?

[00:36:45] I have read 70 years.

[00:36:46] I have 75 books so far this year.

[00:36:48] Oh, that's insane.

[00:36:49] And yes, I keep track every year.

[00:36:51] That's nuts.

[00:36:51] I'm a nerd.

[00:36:52] Yeah.

[00:36:53] Where do you get your list?

[00:36:54] What do you mean?

[00:36:55] Where do I get my – where do I –

[00:36:56] Yeah.

[00:36:56] Are you a New York Times bestseller person?

[00:36:58] I go – I have the Libby app for my local library.

[00:37:02] And then I'm also a member of my local book co-op and I buy books there.

[00:37:06] Yeah.

[00:37:07] Okay.

[00:37:07] You know, reading is fundamental.

[00:37:10] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:37:11] Do you read multiple books at the same time?

[00:37:13] Yes, because I also – I do read some audio books because I listen to them while I walk

[00:37:18] my dogs.

[00:37:18] And yes, that is considered reading because it's what works in my schedule.

[00:37:22] So, yeah, I'll –

[00:37:23] I read audio books.

[00:37:24] I listen to audio books.

[00:37:25] That's like saying I'm watching the podcast.

[00:37:28] Are we not on video right now?

[00:37:31] Yeah, but the words are –

[00:37:33] I understand, but I mean –

[00:37:36] I count it.

[00:37:37] I count it.

[00:37:37] I count it.

[00:37:38] Yeah.

[00:37:39] I count it.

[00:37:39] I will – I usually have like one trashy novel, one nonfiction, and then one business

[00:37:45] book going at any given time.

[00:37:47] Oh, nice.

[00:37:47] Okay.

[00:37:48] And then I'm also known to bring books with me on my travel and then just leave the ones

[00:37:52] I don't.

[00:37:54] You get a chapter in?

[00:37:56] We'll leave this for the cleaning crew.

[00:37:58] As a book reader, do you feel that you have to finish the book or –

[00:38:04] Not with library books.

[00:38:06] Okay.

[00:38:06] With library books, I'll just return them because that's easy.

[00:38:09] Yeah.

[00:38:09] If it's a book that I own, I typically will at least skim my way to the end.

[00:38:14] You're going to grind it out.

[00:38:15] I'm going to grind it out.

[00:38:16] I paid my 20 bucks, bitch.

[00:38:17] I'm getting my money's worth.

[00:38:19] Well, sometimes it's also like – I feel like with physical media too, it's like somebody

[00:38:22] told me to read this for a reason or somebody gave it to me for a reason.

[00:38:26] Right.

[00:38:26] Maybe it's page 664 that that's on.

[00:38:31] Yeah, maybe.

[00:38:31] So I'll commit.

[00:38:33] Maybe.

[00:38:34] All right.

[00:38:34] Maybe.

[00:38:39] There was a person who was inside of an agency called the EEOC.

[00:38:52] Hmm.

[00:38:53] They didn't like what was happening with their hiring process.

[00:38:57] So they put a claim out.

[00:39:00] They took them to court, the whole bit.

[00:39:02] So anyway, this is in 1971.

[00:39:04] So it was a widespread discrimination claim against Black and Hispanic workers, iron workers,

[00:39:11] I should say, in recruitment, training, and referrals for jobs that were coming through

[00:39:17] the union.

[00:39:19] In 1978, the court approved a consent judgment that barred Local 580 from discriminating based

[00:39:26] on race.

[00:39:28] Okay.

[00:39:28] Okay.

[00:39:29] So they had a court-appointed judgment that they needed to keep track of their hiring

[00:39:36] process, and they needed to monitor this.

[00:39:38] They're hiring, how many people they're interviewing, how many they're hiring, what race, nationality,

[00:39:43] the whole bit, right?

[00:39:45] Like they had to track everything.

[00:39:46] This is from 78 on.

[00:39:49] Well, they haven't done that very well, and they've been tracked, and when they weren't

[00:39:53] being audited, they didn't do it, right?

[00:39:56] Or at least they don't have the records.

[00:39:58] So anyhow, there's a court-appointed special master.

[00:40:02] I hate that name for this.

[00:40:04] Special master.

[00:40:05] Just the master.

[00:40:07] Yeah.

[00:40:07] Doesn't do well.

[00:40:08] It just sounds outdated.

[00:40:10] Yeah.

[00:40:11] It's like when I say moist in front of my wife, she gets really pissed off.

[00:40:15] I was thinking it sounded antiquated, but sure.

[00:40:17] Yeah.

[00:40:17] Antiquated.

[00:40:18] Does the job come with a whip?

[00:40:21] So David Raff, right, of Raff and Becker.

[00:40:24] Anyway, he...

[00:40:25] Local 580 is probably in some trouble, I'm guessing, for not producing the records.

[00:40:31] Local 580 needs a PR team.

[00:40:33] Well, listen, I'm a union wife, and I can tell you from dealing with my husband's local,

[00:40:38] everything is still done on paper.

[00:40:40] 100%.

[00:40:40] By hand, and it drives me bananas.

[00:40:44] Oh, yeah.

[00:40:44] Motion notes.

[00:40:45] So I'm guessing, I don't know if I know anybody in front.

[00:40:47] I do know some iron workers in the city, so I don't want to offend them, but I'm guessing

[00:40:50] 580 has...

[00:40:51] Yeah, there might be post-it notes.

[00:40:53] You know.

[00:40:54] That's about what they're...

[00:40:55] Jason Everbrook would say digital transformation.

[00:40:57] Digital...

[00:40:58] Yeah.

[00:40:58] No, we're talking about carbon copies, and there's fax machines somewhere.

[00:41:04] All right.

[00:41:05] Yeah.

[00:41:05] Let's all get on computers.

[00:41:08] Yeah.

[00:41:08] There's this thing.

[00:41:09] Plug it in.

[00:41:10] It's called a word processor.

[00:41:12] Yeah!

[00:41:13] Hell yeah!

[00:41:15] Oh, Lotus Notes.

[00:41:16] Looks, yes.

[00:41:17] Oh, there we go.

[00:41:18] Yeah.

[00:41:19] There we go.

[00:41:19] Clippy is somewhere.

[00:41:20] Yeah.

[00:41:21] Let's move over to Microsoft Word.

[00:41:23] Yeah.

[00:41:24] Done.

[00:41:24] Okay.

[00:41:24] Clippy.

[00:41:25] Sounds great.

[00:41:25] Perfect.

[00:41:26] All righty.

[00:41:27] Alphabet executives donning Halloween costumes faced questions from concerned employees at an

[00:41:35] all-hands meeting on Wednesday, day after election, following comments on the company's

[00:41:40] earning call suggesting that more cost cuts are coming.

[00:41:44] So, first of all, they had an earnings call.

[00:41:47] On Halloween?

[00:41:48] On Halloween.

[00:41:50] That sounds...

[00:41:50] So, there's that.

[00:41:52] Then they have an all-team, you know, an all-hands meeting the next day.

[00:41:57] All right.

[00:41:58] So, I looked at this two ways.

[00:42:00] So, the first thing that I thought...

[00:42:01] This one's CNBC.

[00:42:03] But...

[00:42:03] So, the first thing I thought is, okay, file this under smart people doing stupid shit.

[00:42:07] Check.

[00:42:08] Then the next file was know thy audience.

[00:42:11] So, you know, I think it's a good thing for employees to listen to earnings calls.

[00:42:17] I think it actually should be...

[00:42:19] They should get paid to listen to earnings calls so they know what's going on with the business.

[00:42:24] And I think management should always encourage them to do that.

[00:42:29] However, I think showing up as a grim reaper on a call...

[00:42:34] We're about cost cutting?

[00:42:36] We're talking about cost cutting?

[00:42:38] That's just not a good look.

[00:42:39] That's just...

[00:42:40] That's not a good look.

[00:42:42] So, there's some scheduling stuff in there.

[00:42:44] Yeah.

[00:42:44] The IR team probably should have talked to, like, the HR team or whoever was in charge of scheduling the all-hands.

[00:42:51] And...

[00:42:51] Yeah.

[00:42:52] Internal...

[00:42:53] And at a company like Alphabet, I would assume they have enough layers that...

[00:42:57] Why can't they just have a fun culture and get dressed up?

[00:43:00] Well, yeah, you can.

[00:43:02] They can.

[00:43:02] They can do that on different days, though.

[00:43:05] Yeah.

[00:43:06] Yeah.

[00:43:06] Yeah.

[00:43:06] Our names call, they have to happen.

[00:43:08] That's a Wall Street thing.

[00:43:09] Yeah.

[00:43:09] Got it.

[00:43:10] Halloween, you know, okay.

[00:43:12] Do some stuff for Halloween.

[00:43:13] Great.

[00:43:13] Check.

[00:43:14] Got it.

[00:43:16] All-hands meetings.

[00:43:17] Okay.

[00:43:18] Cool.

[00:43:18] Got it.

[00:43:19] But, like, maybe scheduling these things in a different way.

[00:43:23] Yeah.

[00:43:24] Like, you know, in New Jersey and parts of the country, we celebrate Mischief Night on October 30th.

[00:43:29] Ah, okay.

[00:43:30] Ryan, do you guys do that?

[00:43:31] Yeah.

[00:43:32] Yeah.

[00:43:32] I haven't gone out in three years.

[00:43:34] Yeah, I haven't.

[00:43:35] It's been a long time.

[00:43:36] And I know, I think it's called Goosey Night in some area.

[00:43:38] It's, yeah, it's a regional thing.

[00:43:39] But, you know, they could have.

[00:43:40] You don't have that in Texas?

[00:43:41] No, it's, it's regional.

[00:43:42] I think it's like Michigan and in New Jersey and like part of the Northeast.

[00:43:45] It's very niche.

[00:43:48] But, you know, like, you could have done your all-hands on October 30th and celebrated Mischief Night or something.

[00:43:53] And like that was when you dressed up and then did earnings the next day or, you know, something like that.

[00:43:59] Just someone being on this.

[00:44:01] I think, Katie, I think you nailed it.

[00:44:03] All of these different people getting them in a room or on a call and going, oh, good.

[00:44:08] Slack or, you know.

[00:44:12] It's a modern technology.

[00:44:13] It's called texting.

[00:44:15] Yes.

[00:44:16] She can't keep these people together.

[00:44:17] So I'm reading it going, just doesn't seem like the team was together on this.

[00:44:22] No, no, a little disparate in terms of organization and planning.

[00:44:25] There you go.

[00:44:26] All right.

[00:44:27] Alphabet.

[00:44:28] I just look at it as a fun company.

[00:44:30] You guys are boring.

[00:44:31] Anyhow, something even more boring than that.

[00:44:34] But.

[00:44:35] Can't wait.

[00:44:36] Slow news week, apparently.

[00:44:37] It is slow news week.

[00:44:38] Right.

[00:44:39] Great lead.

[00:44:40] Great lead.

[00:44:41] Oh, my God.

[00:44:43] You think that story sucked?

[00:44:45] All right.

[00:44:45] Let's listen to this one.

[00:44:46] No, this is actually well-deeded if you're a healthcare person.

[00:44:51] So healthcare is overly complex, to say the least.

[00:44:56] Right.

[00:44:56] Like you go through open enrollment, you got to, you know, pull up your checklist and see

[00:45:00] the column A, column B, column C, compare your plans and all that stuff.

[00:45:05] There's an issue with healthcare.

[00:45:06] We know that.

[00:45:07] It's open enrollment season.

[00:45:08] And so I thought, why not bring this story to the lovely group that's here on the call?

[00:45:12] Now, the challenge with healthcare has been, outside of cost and all that stuff, is that

[00:45:20] plan members do not use their plan accordingly for what they selected.

[00:45:27] Right.

[00:45:27] They use it when they go to the ER.

[00:45:29] They use it if they have to go to the, what do you call those clinics?

[00:45:35] The urgent care clinics.

[00:45:36] Yeah.

[00:45:37] Urgent care.

[00:45:39] That's when they use it when they have to, but they're not using it for routine, you

[00:45:43] know, medical or healthcare maintenance.

[00:45:45] They're not using it for any of that stuff, right?

[00:45:47] Preventative care.

[00:45:49] So Aetna launched back in 2018, they launched something called Simple Pay with the idea that

[00:45:56] they're going to create a process or a plan in healthcare that's easier for people to take

[00:46:04] part in, whether it's payments, whether it's, you know, invoicing, whatever it is, right?

[00:46:08] Just to use it.

[00:46:09] So now it's gone mainstream.

[00:46:11] Now they're pushing it out into the masses.

[00:46:13] And since it's open enrollment time, it makes sense.

[00:46:16] But the big difference here, Simple Pay, you don't have any upfront costs.

[00:46:21] It gets rid of co-insurance.

[00:46:23] It gets rid of deductibles, all of that stuff.

[00:46:25] So all great for people.

[00:46:28] And you don't have any upfront payments when you go to get the treatment, whether it's emergency,

[00:46:34] whether it's preventative, regular care, or just something done.

[00:46:38] Payment plans are over 12 to 18 months and they're interest free.

[00:46:42] So whatever your portion is, you know, 500 bucks, you have 12 to 18 months to pay that

[00:46:48] back and they invoice you monthly on that.

[00:46:50] Oh, that's kind of cool.

[00:46:51] Yeah.

[00:46:52] I like it.

[00:46:52] I like the deal.

[00:46:53] I'm not sold on it because I'm sure there's something I'm missing there, but I like the

[00:46:57] idea of making it more, more available for people.

[00:47:00] Now, Katie already knows about this because it has impacted her life this week.

[00:47:06] A 600-member New York Times Tech Guild walked off the job at midnight on Monday.

[00:47:14] That would be the day before the election.

[00:47:17] Yes.

[00:47:17] And for an open-ended, it was an open-ended strike.

[00:47:20] What they're really fighting for is remote roles and hybrid work protections and pay equity.

[00:47:30] This was reported by the Wall Street.

[00:47:32] You can't even get it out without a laugh.

[00:47:33] It was – who were thrilled to report on this, I'm sure.

[00:47:37] Giddy.

[00:47:37] I am – I will say – so another nerd alert here.

[00:47:41] I do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day.

[00:47:44] As you should.

[00:47:45] And I have now broken my streak in solidarity of the tech workers because I do think that

[00:47:50] what they're fighting for is 100% legitimate.

[00:47:53] 100%?

[00:47:53] An open-ended strike, though, is mildly terrifying.

[00:47:57] I think my brain is starting to atrophy already.

[00:48:00] They're not tracking your strike on Wordle and you just ruined all this.

[00:48:07] But you're tracking it.

[00:48:09] I'm trying to divest of bad relationships.

[00:48:11] But you're just a great person.

[00:48:13] No.

[00:48:14] No.

[00:48:14] Hardly, but.

[00:48:15] In solidarity, I stopped Wordle.

[00:48:18] I did.

[00:48:19] I did.

[00:48:19] For a day.

[00:48:20] Wordle.

[00:48:20] I do all of them.

[00:48:22] Yes.

[00:48:22] It's, like, really sad every morning.

[00:48:23] I do all of them.

[00:48:24] My wife –

[00:48:25] Gotten into strands.

[00:48:26] I like strands.

[00:48:27] Oh, I don't know that one.

[00:48:28] Oh, that's the newest one.

[00:48:30] That's not the one with letters?

[00:48:31] It's, like, a word search, kind of, and you have to find the words and, like, yeah.

[00:48:35] This is what really intelligent people do?

[00:48:37] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:48:38] Hardly.

[00:48:44] Wall Street Journal put that article out.

[00:48:47] Like –

[00:48:48] They might have had it pre-written.

[00:48:50] You know how obituaries are already, like, celebrity obituaries are already under construction?

[00:48:54] They might have been waiting for this one.

[00:48:57] I just had to go to a quick, quick run by the ethics board and to the editors and upload.

[00:49:04] But, you know, kidding aside, if you're going to strike, you historically do it when you have the most leverage.

[00:49:11] Now, now that we know the election results, this story might not age well.

[00:49:17] That's my only fear.

[00:49:19] Did you hear something happened with connections?

[00:49:21] Or was it Wordle the day after the election?

[00:49:24] Right.

[00:49:24] People were not happy about the choice, I believe, of answers.

[00:49:30] Yeah.

[00:49:30] Yeah.

[00:49:31] Again, it's impacting a lot of people.

[00:49:33] But, again, if you're going to strike and you – they're not striking for more money.

[00:49:37] That's not the – I mean, at least that wasn't listed.

[00:49:40] They're striking because they want remote and hybrid and flexibility and pay equity.

[00:49:44] Those aren't bad things.

[00:49:46] Like, you know.

[00:49:47] I'm all for autonomy.

[00:49:48] Yeah.

[00:49:49] You know.

[00:49:50] But, yeah, I've only believed –

[00:49:51] I think you're right.

[00:49:52] They're striking to get remote work?

[00:49:54] You get remote work and hybrid work protections.

[00:49:59] Guarantees, I think.

[00:49:59] Protections.

[00:50:00] I think, yeah.

[00:50:01] That's exactly right.

[00:50:02] Well, listen, in the return to office battle royale, I could see why you would want to protect

[00:50:08] your flexibility.

[00:50:10] That's right.

[00:50:10] It's the remote – because some of them are remote and hybrid, but they just want the protections

[00:50:17] that they can stay remote.

[00:50:17] They don't need to be in the newsroom.

[00:50:19] You know?

[00:50:20] These are the puzzle creators.

[00:50:22] These are not – yeah.

[00:50:23] Right.

[00:50:24] Right.

[00:50:24] The solution is go to work.

[00:50:27] Katie, you're absolutely right.

[00:50:28] Wall Street Journal had the finger on the button just waiting.

[00:50:32] Just like Ryan did right there where he's like moving on.

[00:50:35] 12-01.

[00:50:36] Go to work.

[00:50:37] 12-01.

[00:50:37] Shut your mouth and go to work.

[00:50:39] How about that?

[00:50:39] They went on strike at 12, and 12-01, the article went live.

[00:50:44] There you go.

[00:50:45] All right.

[00:50:45] Last story on the news side is OpenAI CEO Sam Alton.

[00:50:50] He was on a podcast, VC 30 Minutes, whatever the heck it's called, and he basically advocated

[00:50:57] for a hiring approach that prioritizes talent over age, emphasizing the importance of managing

[00:51:04] a diverse workforce that it combines both experienced professionals and promising young talent.

[00:51:11] This was on MSN.com.

[00:51:14] So when I first read this headline, the first thing I thought is like – I thought that's

[00:51:20] what we were doing.

[00:51:22] I thought that was what we were doing already.

[00:51:25] Like I thought that was the bit.

[00:51:28] So it's funny, but it's not funny actually because Silicon Valley has long since valued

[00:51:35] younger talent, and he said it out loud.

[00:51:39] Oops.

[00:51:41] Well, and there's some of that cost-cutting too.

[00:51:44] That is correct.

[00:51:45] You know what?

[00:51:46] Yeah.

[00:51:46] More people said things out loud.

[00:51:48] Oh, yeah.

[00:51:49] No, 100%.

[00:51:50] Isn't that how we got to where we are, Ryan?

[00:51:53] Probably.

[00:51:54] Good point.

[00:51:55] Yeah.

[00:51:55] I don't know that that's a good thing.

[00:51:57] Probably.

[00:51:58] Ryan, are you going to build a wall?

[00:51:59] I'm going to build – 12 foot.

[00:52:02] 12 foot.

[00:52:03] Dude, like do you know the cartels already have like – the wall is not going to stop

[00:52:07] anybody.

[00:52:08] No.

[00:52:08] No, no.

[00:52:10] Cartels have 20 years of the highest start on this deal.

[00:52:13] Yeah.

[00:52:13] Sorry.

[00:52:14] Yeah.

[00:52:14] Building a wall.

[00:52:15] Yeah.

[00:52:15] You keep the Girl Scouts out.

[00:52:17] Says the Texan.

[00:52:18] All right.

[00:52:19] We ready to talk some acquisitions here?

[00:52:21] No.

[00:52:21] We're going to let Katie go.

[00:52:23] Oh.

[00:52:24] No.

[00:52:24] Someone got a choir this week?

[00:52:26] Yeah.

[00:52:27] Actually, we can talk about it if you want to.

[00:52:31] Sure.

[00:52:31] Why not?

[00:52:32] I must have missed this.

[00:52:33] Let's do some acquisitions.

[00:52:34] You go first.

[00:52:36] Big Time expands platform with WorkRails acquisition to enhance CPQ and workflow automation for professional

[00:52:44] services.

[00:52:45] Is that bigtime.net?

[00:52:47] I guess they couldn't get the .com.

[00:52:49] Anywho, it's a big win in terms of the acquisition.

[00:52:53] It's a big win for professional services firms.

[00:52:55] That's their clientele.

[00:52:56] Both companies' clientele.

[00:52:59] They'll be more efficient and profitable because it's basically making them more efficient.

[00:53:04] So, good acquisition.

[00:53:07] I like it.

[00:53:08] I like it.

[00:53:08] There you go.

[00:53:09] All right.

[00:53:09] Salesforce is on the board.

[00:53:11] Now, they haven't fully announced this acquisition.

[00:53:14] Right.

[00:53:15] So, back in September, they announced that they've signed a definitive agreement to acquire 10X.

[00:53:21] Is it 10X?

[00:53:23] Is that how you say it?

[00:53:24] T-E-N-Y-X.

[00:53:25] I call it 10X.

[00:53:26] Anyway.

[00:53:26] It's a story.

[00:53:28] What's that?

[00:53:30] I'll make it up.

[00:53:31] It's an AI-powered voice agent mainly used in customer service.

[00:53:36] I remember this one.

[00:53:36] Yeah.

[00:53:37] So, they're supposed – the reason I'm bringing it back up is because they're supposed to announce it this quarter, this upcoming third quarter, which is – I'm sorry, in fiscal year and for Salesforce is October 31st.

[00:53:51] Oh, really?

[00:53:51] Gotcha.

[00:53:52] Okay.

[00:53:52] Yeah.

[00:53:52] So, they're supposed to bring it up or announce it now.

[00:53:55] They haven't.

[00:53:56] So, I wanted to put it back on our radar because I think this is actually pretty significant.

[00:54:00] Do you think they're going to carry it over to the next year?

[00:54:04] What do you mean?

[00:54:05] The acquisition.

[00:54:07] Yeah.

[00:54:07] No, no.

[00:54:08] They've already announced it, but the acquisition itself.

[00:54:10] The closing of the acquisition.

[00:54:11] The closing of the acquisition.

[00:54:12] I have no clue.

[00:54:14] Did they do their earnings already?

[00:54:15] Yeah.

[00:54:16] That would have been –

[00:54:17] Yeah.

[00:54:17] Yeah.

[00:54:18] They did that.

[00:54:19] Yeah.

[00:54:19] Yeah.

[00:54:20] They might just sneak it in.

[00:54:22] So, this might be – this is one of your type of stories, William, where could be, couldn't be.

[00:54:27] But I think they have a play here in talent acquisition.

[00:54:31] Oh, yeah.

[00:54:32] They own 22% of the CRM market already.

[00:54:37] They integrate with Bullhorn deeply.

[00:54:39] They integrate with Pardot deeply.

[00:54:43] They're the king of automation, right?

[00:54:44] They've got all the makings to come in and do.

[00:54:47] And a lot of companies use them.

[00:54:49] They use them for talent acquisition.

[00:54:51] They use them as an ATS or they combine it with –

[00:54:54] And you're talking about Tennex?

[00:54:56] No, no.

[00:54:57] Salesforce.

[00:54:57] Salesforce.

[00:54:58] Salesforce has tried to come into HR and recruiting specifically six different times.

[00:55:04] Yeah.

[00:55:05] They haven't been successful.

[00:55:06] All failed.

[00:55:06] Yeah.

[00:55:06] But I think this is another push.

[00:55:10] I think with this company, now they're able to do a lot of different things.

[00:55:14] So, I'm like that.

[00:55:15] The struggle has been you have to build off the Force.com platform.

[00:55:21] Correct.

[00:55:21] So, if you're going to do it like you build an ATS or whatever the bit is, you've got to build off their platform.

[00:55:27] So, and a lot of people have tried that and not fared well.

[00:55:33] Yeah.

[00:55:33] So, good luck for them.

[00:55:34] Yeah.

[00:55:35] Now, let me roll another one that we've talked about before.

[00:55:37] Yeah.

[00:55:38] One more big one.

[00:55:39] First Advantage completes acquisition of Sterling Check for $2.2 billion.

[00:55:45] Globalnewswire.com.

[00:55:46] We reported on it because they announced it in March.

[00:55:51] However, now, this week, they've actually closed the transaction.

[00:55:55] Correct.

[00:55:55] It's completed.

[00:55:56] Et cetera.

[00:55:57] Now, your take, both yours and Katie's on this, how close is that to the monopoly rule with those two being combined?

[00:56:07] It was already subject to review.

[00:56:09] Right.

[00:56:10] Full disclosure, First Advantage is a client of mine.

[00:56:12] Yeah, yeah.

[00:56:13] But they've already gone through all the processes, obviously, which is why it was announced way back when.

[00:56:18] And, you know, they were seen as distinct enough in their offerings.

[00:56:22] Okay.

[00:56:22] And First Advantage also rebranded as part of – did do a little bit of a rebrand.

[00:56:26] Oh, cool.

[00:56:27] Reflective of this.

[00:56:28] Okay.

[00:56:29] Well, let's – you know what?

[00:56:30] Putting those two together, first of all, it's fantastic for all the customers involved.

[00:56:36] It's just I wonder because they're so big.

[00:56:38] They are so big.

[00:56:38] Mm-hmm.

[00:56:39] It's like – yeah, there's a ton.

[00:56:41] There's thousands of smaller ones.

[00:56:43] So maybe –

[00:56:43] Right.

[00:56:43] I think historically they've focused on different verticals, which is part of what made First Advantage and Sterling distinct enough that they could come together.

[00:56:52] I love it.

[00:56:53] I love it.

[00:56:54] I bet right.

[00:56:54] Huge global reach.

[00:56:56] Well, it's – I mean, when we saw it in – I think it was March 3rd when we did the barf on this one.

[00:57:03] Mm-hmm.

[00:57:04] We saw it.

[00:57:04] We're like, oh, this is cool.

[00:57:05] Mm-hmm.

[00:57:06] I mean, it's just – this is just great for everybody around.

[00:57:08] This one, once it finally got complete, I looked back into it.

[00:57:11] I'm like, okay, out of all the global players, how big does this make them?

[00:57:16] And obviously it doesn't come close to the threshold.

[00:57:18] So good.

[00:57:19] Right.

[00:57:19] Good for them.

[00:57:20] All right.

[00:57:21] Research.

[00:57:21] We're on to some research stuff.

[00:57:23] This is the fun part, Katie.

[00:57:25] If you could stay.

[00:57:26] We're just getting started with the fun part, guys?

[00:57:28] We have some stupidity to talk about today.

[00:57:31] All right.

[00:57:32] I like stupidity.

[00:57:33] Confessions of an Office Workhorse Study.

[00:57:38] It's on sidehustles.com.

[00:57:40] This is a study.

[00:57:41] I can't make this shit up.

[00:57:42] This is fascinating because it relies on how people see themselves and their value.

[00:57:49] And historically, I've always thought that people overvalue the things they do.

[00:57:53] So I've always come into this like, you think you're adding a lot of value.

[00:57:58] I don't think you're adding the same amount of value.

[00:58:00] So I've been very cynical as it relates to this.

[00:58:03] They've got a whole study about it.

[00:58:04] So 61% of, I'll give you three stats.

[00:58:07] 61% of employees consider themselves workhorses with Gen X 64% being the most likely to identify

[00:58:17] as workhorses and Gen Z 52% the least likely.

[00:58:21] That's one stat.

[00:58:22] 55% of workhorses feel that their contributions are undervalued.

[00:58:29] 55%, same number, of workhorses feel stuck in their current positions.

[00:58:35] And 51% feel burnt out.

[00:58:39] So first of all, what do y'all think about the workhorses?

[00:58:45] I think that spoke volumes.

[00:58:49] It did.

[00:58:50] This is almost going to be as good as my next one.

[00:58:53] All right.

[00:58:53] Okay, go, go, go.

[00:58:54] All right.

[00:58:55] So Gen Z, you ready for this?

[00:58:58] Gen Z stressing the fuck out of their managers.

[00:59:01] Yeah.

[00:59:01] So this, they're using different words.

[00:59:06] How old are their managers?

[00:59:07] Exactly.

[00:59:08] They're millennials.

[00:59:09] Because no, no, no, no.

[00:59:10] If it's Gen X again, I got a lot to say there.

[00:59:13] But you know.

[00:59:13] Oh, 100%.

[00:59:14] So this gets into challenges managers face when overseeing Gen Z employees, right?

[00:59:20] Setting the stage here.

[00:59:22] So this caught my attention because it highlights the different generations, which we love to talk about.

[00:59:28] Oh, yeah.

[00:59:29] Anyhow, I read this as managing Gen Z requires more time and resources.

[00:59:34] Okay.

[00:59:36] Leading to increased stress and frustration among managers.

[00:59:41] That was how I wrote it.

[00:59:43] Listen to these stats though.

[00:59:44] This is where I think Katie's going to chime in.

[00:59:47] Yes.

[00:59:47] 18% of managers have considered quitting due to the stress of managing Gen Z employees.

[00:59:55] But wait, there's more.

[00:59:57] Additionally, 51% have experienced frustration and 44% have felt stressed in this context of why are they in my office?

[01:00:09] I feel like these numbers could have just been like 10 years ago.

[01:00:13] So this study could have come out 20 years ago.

[01:00:16] The numbers would have been exactly the same.

[01:00:18] It's like young career entrants, difficult to manage, require more of their managers.

[01:00:24] Recycle that article.

[01:00:26] I think this was written about millennials in 2009.

[01:00:28] It was written about Gen X.

[01:00:31] It was.

[01:00:31] It was.

[01:00:32] This is the stupidity that's out there in the world of research.

[01:00:36] Like people are getting paid to do this.

[01:00:38] I know.

[01:00:39] Well, the thing is, is I can see the challenge, but it's, it's the same challenge that other people have had before.

[01:00:46] And you get over the challenge.

[01:00:47] If you're a true leader, you get over the challenge because you're like, oh, okay.

[01:00:51] Well, if you're a true researcher, you go back and see if this has been done to death.

[01:00:56] That's right.

[01:00:56] That's my problem with it.

[01:00:58] I mean, there's that.

[01:00:58] Really difficult to manage people from different generations.

[01:01:02] No, I think what, no, no.

[01:01:04] What this is, is the managers are not receiving the training they need.

[01:01:08] Yes.

[01:01:08] Because that's part of this is that onboarding and training we're doing less of.

[01:01:13] Manager training pretty much non-existent.

[01:01:17] So you're supposed to be taking time out of your day to help out, you know, these people who need help.

[01:01:22] Yeah.

[01:01:23] They didn't get the training or the onboarding they needed.

[01:01:26] You didn't get it.

[01:01:27] And the cycle is just vicious and repeating itself.

[01:01:29] I have a fucking headache.

[01:01:31] Yes.

[01:01:32] Exactly.

[01:01:32] It is specifically the barf that has made me unhireable.

[01:01:37] Ever.

[01:01:37] Ever.

[01:01:38] If I need to get a job.

[01:01:38] This is what made you unhireable?

[01:01:40] All these years, right?

[01:01:41] I think working with me probably had some of the things that I know.

[01:01:45] Someone's going to look back and be like, how are you going to work with our employee population?

[01:01:49] Not.

[01:01:50] I think between the three of us, though, when was the last time any of us had like a corporate.

[01:01:54] A job job?

[01:01:55] Yeah, it's been a while.

[01:01:56] A job job.

[01:01:56] It's a job.

[01:01:57] No.

[01:01:57] It's been a while.

[01:01:58] Yeah.

[01:01:59] Yeah.

[01:01:59] It's a new generation by now.

[01:02:01] Yeah.

[01:02:01] Yeah.

[01:02:02] I did when I was at the end.

[01:02:05] This was by 2008.

[01:02:06] 2008.

[01:02:06] So a long time ago, I made one of my interns cry.

[01:02:11] And not on purpose.

[01:02:12] Not on purpose, obviously.

[01:02:14] But I...

[01:02:15] Kill her at all.

[01:02:16] No.

[01:02:17] She was...

[01:02:18] Yeah.

[01:02:18] Young millennial workforce entrant.

[01:02:20] Okay.

[01:02:21] Young millennial.

[01:02:22] She's right out of TCU.

[01:02:24] And great gal.

[01:02:25] She was writing stuff for me.

[01:02:27] And it was an open office, right?

[01:02:30] So four walls, lots of chairs, whatever.

[01:02:32] She pulls up a chair at my desk.

[01:02:36] And she gives me the article.

[01:02:38] And I'm reading it.

[01:02:39] I'm just looking down, reading it, going...

[01:02:41] She printed out a copy to give to you because it's that long ago.

[01:02:44] It's 2008.

[01:02:45] Did it have...

[01:02:46] It's double space.

[01:02:47] Did it have holes?

[01:02:48] Times New Roman, size 12 font.

[01:02:51] Did it have holes?

[01:02:51] Did it have holes on the side of the paper?

[01:02:54] Yeah.

[01:02:54] Like...

[01:02:55] Dot matrix.

[01:02:56] Yeah.

[01:02:56] Dot matrix.

[01:02:57] Come on.

[01:02:59] So she's sitting across from me.

[01:03:01] And I'm not looking at her.

[01:03:02] I'm looking down.

[01:03:02] I'm like, this is the fucking worst shit I've ever read in my fucking life.

[01:03:06] Red pen.

[01:03:06] Pen in hand.

[01:03:07] No.

[01:03:08] I didn't even have a pen.

[01:03:09] I'm like, are you fucking high?

[01:03:10] This is crazy.

[01:03:11] And I'm not looking at her.

[01:03:12] And then all of a sudden, I can hear her sniffling.

[01:03:15] And I'm like...

[01:03:16] And I looked up.

[01:03:16] And she's on full-on fucking makeup's ruined the whole bit.

[01:03:20] I'm like, oh shit.

[01:03:21] I'm sorry.

[01:03:22] Oh, you were sitting there the whole time.

[01:03:26] I...

[01:03:27] First of all, I thought, touch of autism.

[01:03:30] Anywho.

[01:03:31] So here's the deal.

[01:03:32] I'm sorry.

[01:03:33] I should have asked you how you like your feedback.

[01:03:37] So, great gal.

[01:03:38] I mean, we're still friends to this day because we can laugh about it now.

[01:03:41] But that's something like with another Gen X person.

[01:03:45] That would have been just normal.

[01:03:47] This is why you...

[01:03:48] He asked me all the time.

[01:03:49] How do you like your feedback?

[01:03:50] When he says that...

[01:03:51] I do.

[01:03:51] That's where that comes from.

[01:03:52] You know there's something...

[01:03:54] Exactly.

[01:03:54] Have you ever watched that movie Wine Country?

[01:03:56] With like Amy Poehler and it's...

[01:03:58] May I offer you some feedback?

[01:03:59] Is like the running joke throughout the movie.

[01:04:02] May I offer you some...

[01:04:03] And you know she's just going to tell you you're being...

[01:04:05] 100%.

[01:04:06] Yeah.

[01:04:06] 100%.

[01:04:07] Rachel, cratch.

[01:04:08] I'm going through some money.

[01:04:10] Two fundings.

[01:04:11] All right.

[01:04:11] Craft with two Ts.

[01:04:13] A New York City-based provider of a platform built on decentralized infrastructure for the

[01:04:20] modern workforce.

[01:04:21] Raised $2 million in seed funding.

[01:04:23] That's Craft with two Ts.

[01:04:26] Dot X, Y, Z.

[01:04:29] Is it a K or a C?

[01:04:31] No, it's with a C.

[01:04:32] I think I'm hungry at this point.

[01:04:33] It's like a Prince song.

[01:04:35] Did I hear a Niner in there?

[01:04:36] It's a macaroni and cheese.

[01:04:40] So anyhow, it's actually...

[01:04:42] Go to their website because it is actually really cool looking.

[01:04:44] But they're building a frictionless thing for work.

[01:04:47] For decentralized infrastructure.

[01:04:49] The platform.

[01:04:50] It's actually really...

[01:04:52] You know, outside of all the jokes.

[01:04:53] It's actually really cool.

[01:04:55] And it's enabling kind of a modern workforce.

[01:04:58] So anyhow, that's Craft with two Ts.

[01:05:02] Beautiful.

[01:05:03] Next, Algorized.

[01:05:04] An AI platform pioneering advanced people sensing and positioning software.

[01:05:11] People sensing.

[01:05:12] That's a lot of P's.

[01:05:14] I know.

[01:05:14] I know.

[01:05:15] 4.3 million in seed funding.

[01:05:17] This is on vcnewsdaily.com.

[01:05:20] So you can look at there.

[01:05:21] People sensing.

[01:05:23] Not as sexy.

[01:05:24] So people sensing.

[01:05:25] Think of like you're in your Tesla.

[01:05:26] And you can see cars on the side of you.

[01:05:29] Little boxes of cars.

[01:05:31] Sensing in an industrial situation.

[01:05:35] So somebody's creeping up behind me in a warehouse?

[01:05:37] Right.

[01:05:37] You can see people.

[01:05:39] In the back of my head.

[01:05:40] Oh, no.

[01:05:41] No, this is...

[01:05:42] When you go to the website, you're going to trip out.

[01:05:44] So like people sensing not as sexy.

[01:05:47] They can do people sensing through walls.

[01:05:50] Oh.

[01:05:51] Big Brother is watching.

[01:05:52] And this is...

[01:05:52] Oh.

[01:05:53] It is so awesome.

[01:05:54] Terrifying.

[01:05:55] It's like you're on your forklift and you can see that there's people over there behind

[01:06:01] the rolls of whatever it is.

[01:06:02] From a safety perspective, it makes sense.

[01:06:05] It makes a lot of sense.

[01:06:06] It just...

[01:06:06] I'm thinking I'm in my closet hiding from the serial killer and they can see me from the

[01:06:12] next house.

[01:06:12] Yeah.

[01:06:13] Yeah.

[01:06:13] Yeah.

[01:06:13] Your panic room is no longer safe.

[01:06:16] No, that...

[01:06:17] Those are thermal scopes.

[01:06:18] I don't know if you'll ever look through...

[01:06:19] We're changing the subject.

[01:06:20] But thermal scopes on rifles.

[01:06:22] Mm-hmm.

[01:06:22] You can drive around your neighborhood and see people in their house.

[01:06:26] I need to build a bunker.

[01:06:28] I don't feel like we should edit that out.

[01:06:30] But it might have one.

[01:06:31] It's like $9,000.

[01:06:33] He paid roughly $9,000 for a thermal scope.

[01:06:37] And we drove around my neighborhood.

[01:06:40] Just looking at people in their house.

[01:06:41] Texas is very different than New Jersey.

[01:06:42] So awesome.

[01:06:43] It is.

[01:06:44] You can see everything.

[01:06:46] It's great.

[01:06:47] So awesome.

[01:06:48] How are we 50 states operating as one as well?

[01:06:50] I ask myself most days.

[01:06:52] Well, that's the thing.

[01:06:52] We're not operating as one.

[01:06:54] There you go.

[01:06:55] It's not going to operate very efficiently after this.

[01:06:58] Algorized.

[01:06:59] So it's A-L-G-O-R-I-Z-E-D.

[01:07:01] Well, congrats to Kraft and Algorized.

[01:07:04] Right.

[01:07:05] Right.

[01:07:05] Raising money is tough.

[01:07:06] Crazier to raise money, so...

[01:07:08] 100%.

[01:07:09] People sensing.

[01:07:10] Nah.

[01:07:11] People sensing and decentralized.

[01:07:13] Well, there you go.

[01:07:14] We are done.

[01:07:16] We're all wrapped up for today.

[01:07:17] We have.

[01:07:18] We barfed.

[01:07:19] So Katie, first time on.

[01:07:21] A little different format today, but...

[01:07:23] I had a blast.

[01:07:24] There you go.

[01:07:25] I really did.

[01:07:26] It was a good way to end the week.

[01:07:27] She's going to go swimming in the ocean tonight and...

[01:07:30] I did think about it.

[01:07:31] There is a great white off of New Jersey right now, though.

[01:07:34] Oh, no way!

[01:07:34] He's 1,600 pounds.

[01:07:36] Is that...

[01:07:37] What's her name?

[01:07:38] No, it's not Mary Jane or Mary Ellen or whatever that one is.

[01:07:41] This is a boy, which is...

[01:07:43] Oh, come on.

[01:07:44] Bring him in.

[01:07:46] He can't be...

[01:07:47] He can't be really aggressive or anything.

[01:07:49] We've had a lot of whales and dolphins lately.

[01:07:50] They actually found a butchered dolphin by my house the other day.

[01:07:53] Someone actually, like...

[01:07:54] Like, the FBI is involved.

[01:07:56] It's...

[01:07:56] Anyway.

[01:07:56] Wow.

[01:07:57] The world is terrifying, but thank you for this.

[01:07:58] You live in a harmful place.

[01:08:01] You got the...

[01:08:01] The ocean is scary, so...

[01:08:03] Turns out...

[01:08:04] I think...

[01:08:05] I think the deep ocean is scarier to...

[01:08:07] It's scarier to me than space.

[01:08:10] Yeah.

[01:08:10] Like, what's...

[01:08:10] We might know more about space.

[01:08:11] What's down there?

[01:08:13] Like, in the deep ocean part.

[01:08:15] Yeah.

[01:08:15] Like, a really, really deep ocean part.

[01:08:17] That...

[01:08:17] Whatever the hell is down there, I'm more...

[01:08:20] Have you guys ever watched Spooky Lake Month?

[01:08:22] It just concluded, but...

[01:08:23] No.

[01:08:23] I'm going to plug Spooky Lake Month real quick.

[01:08:25] So here.

[01:08:26] Fun thing to look at on TikTok or Instagram.

[01:08:28] Whatever you prefer.

[01:08:30] Yeah.

[01:08:35] She talks about all the terrifying bodies of water.

[01:08:38] Oh, very nice.

[01:08:40] Every day she does a different one.

[01:08:41] Little...

[01:08:42] Oh, I like this.

[01:08:42] Go back and watch this October.

[01:08:44] You'll learn a lot of stuff.

[01:08:45] Spooky...

[01:08:45] What's it called?

[01:08:46] Spooky Lake Month.

[01:08:47] It's every October she does it.

[01:08:49] I'm down.

[01:08:49] I'm down.

[01:08:50] Share it with your kids.

[01:08:51] It's very cool.

[01:08:52] Lake Baikal.

[01:08:53] Have you ever heard of Lake Baikal?

[01:08:55] It's in, like, Siberia, I think.

[01:08:57] Yeah.

[01:08:58] Terrifying things exist on this planet.

[01:08:59] It's just bodies.

[01:09:00] Bodies are bodies down there.

[01:09:02] I'm going to have to look it up there.

[01:09:03] There you go.

[01:09:03] We have a small little lake by me that I won't go on by myself.

[01:09:08] Really?

[01:09:09] It's small.

[01:09:09] Is it haunted?

[01:09:10] I mean...

[01:09:10] It feels haunted.

[01:09:12] You have to go back in this path, and there's, like, a campground on the one side, but it

[01:09:16] always has fog on it.

[01:09:18] And it's only seven foot deep.

[01:09:21] I'm going to take you to Caddo Lake.

[01:09:22] When you come back to Texas, I'm going to take you to Caddo Lake.

[01:09:25] I don't like...

[01:09:26] Is that where your lake house is?

[01:09:27] No.

[01:09:28] It's the only natural lake in Texas.

[01:09:32] Oh.

[01:09:33] Every other lake in Texas.

[01:09:34] There's only one natural lake in Texas?

[01:09:35] One.

[01:09:35] One.

[01:09:36] What's wrong with you people?

[01:09:37] And it's in East Texas.

[01:09:38] Well, we have, like, 600 lakes, so we're good.

[01:09:40] I live on a lake.

[01:09:41] I don't know if y'all know that.

[01:09:42] I didn't know that.

[01:09:43] By the beach.

[01:09:43] No.

[01:09:44] I live on a lake by the beach.

[01:09:45] It's brackish.

[01:09:46] So it's on both sides?

[01:09:47] It's brackish.

[01:09:48] Okay.

[01:09:48] I live on a peninsula.

[01:09:50] Yeah.

[01:09:51] So, yeah.

[01:09:52] I live...

[01:09:52] Oh, that's cool.

[01:09:53] Very nice.

[01:09:54] And right now it's real low because it hasn't rained in two months.

[01:10:00] Yeah.

[01:10:00] So seawater can come in.

[01:10:02] So you've got some animals in there that can do fresh and seawater.

[01:10:06] We have a lot of snapping turtles.

[01:10:07] They lay their eggs in my yard every year.

[01:10:10] Oh, wonderful.

[01:10:10] Dude, I love those animals that can actually do both.

[01:10:14] Yeah.

[01:10:14] Well, there's a lot of them.

[01:10:16] It is.

[01:10:17] They adapt.

[01:10:17] Technology to nature.

[01:10:19] We've got to end it there.

[01:10:21] I love animals that can do both.

[01:10:23] I don't know.