Speaker 1: Everything Seattle's promised to do for the little people is
going to screw the little people. Zach Abraham joins us.
We'll talk about this with the help of renew dot
Healthcare and God Almighty.
Speaker 2: But Todd Herman Show is one percent disapproved by big pharma,
technicorrats and tyrants everywhere from the hind mountains of Free America.
Here's the Emerald City exile, Todd Herman.
Speaker 1: Today is the day the Lord has made, and these
are the times through which God has decided we shall live.
And everything the Seattle Communists China model people are promising
to do for the little people is going to screw
the little people.
Speaker 3: Zach Abraham joins me on the Todd Herman Show. Welcome,
my brother.
Speaker 1: How are we doing, sir, great, because I live in
a state that's not going to go out and create
a tax that is custom crafted to just come in and.
Speaker 3: Crush the little guy. You guys, your Seattle tax.
Speaker 1: There's a proposed income tax in your separate country of Washington.
It would be eighteen percent in Seattle. It would be
the top income tax in the country. Now here's the thing, Zach,
this is for the people. This is too you'll get
the rule pay their fair share always.
Speaker 3: For the people.
Speaker 1: But you were bringing up to me that there is
an asterisk in this in relation to let's see, not
mom and pop restaurants but Google, not mom and pop
repara shops, but Microsoft, Facebook, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So what is this?
Speaker 4: So let me put this in the planet language possible.
Not that it'll sway any boats, right, I won't sway
anybody's opinion because to believe in these things you got
to be insane already. So but let me lay this out,
like buy the numbers right straight fast. I got my
camera ears falling down a little bit. So perfect example
of this would be looking at a small business in
LLC and your income is what your income is? What?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 4: What I will expect to see is I will expect
to see Amazon. The big tech companies are probably boeing
change their vesting policy. And here's why. Currently most of
them are virtually everyone i've seen vests on a five
year schedule. Let's say you've got a two million dollar
compensation package. Most of these tech companies will probably pay
you somewhere between four to six hundred thousand dollars a
year in income, right, the rest of your comp will
be paid out in stock comp via RSUs restrict restricted
stock units. The RSUs are taxed income as they vest. Okay,
So let's say you've got a four hundred thousand dollars
a year salary. I'm actually basing this off of a
good friend of mine's exact Complant and Microsoft, so this
is very realistic. He makes about one to one point
five million a year. Okay, So on average, i'd expect
him paying that ten percent tax on three to five
hundred thousand dollars been coming year. Okay, so about forty
percent of his comp on an annual basis is salary.
The rest of is paid in stock comp. That comp
vests on a five year schedule. So you just sit
down and do the mask. He can make one and
a half million dollars a year, and because he's getting
paid in stock comp, which the company also receives benefits from,
because the company doesn't have to realize or pardon me,
it doesn't hit their cash and it sort of artificially
inflates their earnings and they basically pass that cost on
via delution to the shareholders. Okay, So basically I'm looking
at a tax policy that will hit the biggest and
richest corporations in the world that happen to be stationed
here in Washington, not at all. And this is a
tax that ninety five percent of it will be burdened
and parried by the middle class and small business family
with small business owners. It's just plain and simple, that's
what it is. Why because we don't have the ability
to issue common stock and get caught our comp via
that way. This is another classic example. And when I
say classic example, I'm really having camera issues. They'll have
to forgive me. When I say classic example, I mean
this is how all of these economic policies that the
left passes. It's so many of their followers and a
lot of the politicians, right, it sounds good on the
face of it. We're gonna you look as legislation and
economic legislation and all these things get passed. What's happened.
The gap between the rich and the poor continues to expand.
At some point, you've got to sit there and go, guys,
the road to hell is paid with good intentions. I
don't think that the majority that's key. I don't think
the majority of you intend these outcomes. But you have
to quit adhering to dogma and look at the reality
on the ground. And here's what's going to happen, Todd.
None of those people will pay the tax. This tax
will end up being revenue neutral to revenue negative. And
here's why very few people people are gonna actually pay
the tax. A lot of guys like me that don't
have the the ability to play the billionaire game and
issue shares of RSUs and dance around the compensation deal.
We don't have the ability to do that. So what
are we gonna do. We're gonna leave. Guess what we're
gonna take with us our B and O and our
excise taxes. Okay, so you're gonna get virtually no new
revenue via this tax because all the people that have
to pay it are gonna leave and can virtually all
of them. But you are gonna lose all of their
B and O and excise taxes. For me at Bulwark,
B and O and X SiZ taxes added up to
I don't know the exact number, but I want to
say it was about three to three hundred and fifty
thousand last year. So they're not gonna get my quote
unquote millionaires tax and they're gonna lose three to three
hundred and fifty thousand B and O and excise taxes.
Speaker 1: That's that's we'll come back and say, well, now we
need to have two percent raises of this. Now we
need it to be a twenty five percent millionaire tax,
and then we're gonna take it down to the seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars level. Then they're going to
be coming at people who not yet they're paying two
hundred and fifty thousand in bono taxes.
Speaker 4: Yes, then they're gonna raise V and O tax yes,
right right, and xis tax because we're not getting enough.
And you look at him and go, oh my god, guys,
you are the worst pattern recognition people in.
Speaker 3: The world, or the best or the best.
Speaker 4: Or the best. I really think the vast majority of
these people in the state of Washington, I don't think
that they have I don't think that they are nefarious enough.
I think maybe Ferguson understands it, but I really think
that this is just idiocy, cutting their nose off to
spike their face. I don't think it's part of a
grand master plan, because you're just they're gonna do they're
gonna do nothing other than just latch out tax revenue.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, but what if I could come with a
video from way back in two thousand and nine. What
if I could come with a video of a guy
who has made a little bit of money investing tuddy
bit and he talked about a managed decline. What if
I could come in maybe throw that out there for
your consideration. Okay, yeah, okay, So because I'll tell you something,
I'll tell you about a case that I happen to
know where you live now, I can't say, and we've
been played a bunch of opscs. For instance, that screen
behind Zac that's not real. You know, Zach's out on
a yacht in the ocean, that's not real. But where
you actually do live? I talk to a guy who
owns three of the most beautiful Airbnb properties you've ever
seen on that same body of water, and he asked
me the same exact question.
Speaker 4: And I know, I know, I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they've got their primary residence, which is
insane and not far from those three homes, and he
went through some math. I'll tell you what his plan.
Here At a second, I'm going to go down to
renew Healthcare in Mexico. This time it's not because of
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Speaker 3: So I'm talking to.
Speaker 1: His friends and apparently you've met him, so maybe mutual friend,
and I'm Zach.
Speaker 3: These houses he.
Speaker 1: Has, they are two of them are on a spit,
so they've got water on both sides.
Speaker 3: Just phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Then the house above it view has a few of
this house. Then they're primary residents. They've done so well
in real estate. He is looking at leaving, selling those
houses done or giving them to nonprofits. Okay, so now
they're nonprofitentities, So giving them to his church, so now
they can house pastors and people who come and visit
with the church.
Speaker 3: Okay, look at that.
Speaker 1: Then they come over here and buy and they're gone,
except they're going to keep a tiny little apartment next
to the church that they help run. And so now
they're paying you know, one thousand bucks a month for
a tiny little studio apartment, and he wants to send.
Speaker 3: Your dictator, Bob ferguson a note saying you win.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, No, here's yeah, and here's the killer.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I don't want to leave, I know, but but like
I told Brandy, our good friend, Brandy Cruz, I said,
so this tax is a different one to me, and
this one is a deal breaker for me. And the
reason why is like, and there's plenty of example to this,
so it's not like this is new. Yeah, but this
in particular tax is a direct violation of the constitutional
law Washington State.
Speaker 1: The constitution says all taxes in Washington State and income
must be leveled equally against everybody.
Speaker 4: Yep, yeah, basically saying that there will never be basically
am implying that there will never be an income tax.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So they are in direct violation of the law. A
that is I've got a problem with that. And then
b there, I told Brandy, I said, this pushes it
over the edge for me because this is no longer
a financial or a business decision. It's a moral decision
because I will not let you illegally take from me
what is mine to use against me and those that
I love and against my values. I will not arm
the gun that you would use to kill me in mind,
I won't do it. You will lose my revenue. I
am gone. I will maintain my beautiful home here so
I can spend the five months out of the year here.
And you will lose my excise tax. You will not
get one ounce of my income. You will lose my
b and O and you win. Just like your buddy said,
right done. I will not pay this tax.
Speaker 1: And they don't see this coming, but they should because
some of the people who fund their campaigns. This is
back in the day two thousand and nine. George Soros,
a world economic firm, young global leader. He's talking with
Christoph FRIELNZ who wanted to be a boss lady up
in Canada.
Speaker 3: Listen to this or watch this.
Speaker 4: What sort of a financial deal should Obama be seeking
to strike when he travels to China next month.
Speaker 5: No, I think this would be the time, because you
really need to bring China into the creation of a
new world order financial order. So I think you need
a new world order that China has to be fought
of the process of creating it, and they have to
buy in.
Speaker 4: They have to own it.
Speaker 5: And I think this would be a more stable one
where you would have a coordinated policies.
Speaker 4: Given this continued weakness in the US economy, are people
right to start to be concerned about the dollar?
Speaker 5: An orderly decline of the dollar is actually desirable. A
decline in the value of the dollar is necessary in
order to composite for the fact that the US economy will.
Speaker 4: Remain rather weak.
Speaker 5: China will emerge as the motor replacing the US consumer,
so there would be a slow decline in the value
of the dollar, managed decline.
Speaker 1: Zach, I mean, I guess the thing is that I
would ask, is this guy funds a bunch of their campaigns.
You said that your dictator, Ferguson might know what's going on.
I think he does because he's probably the most dangerous,
second only to Waltz governor in the country, most dangerous
because he's smart.
Speaker 3: Gavin Newsom's not that smart.
Speaker 1: He funds guys like this, and here he is saying
that a managed decline of the US dollars not only.
Speaker 3: Necessary but desirable.
Speaker 1: Okay, A, how do you respond to a guy who
says that in two thousand and nine and b you
don't think this is locked into some of their ideas.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 4: I think it certainly is, but I don't think. I
think you've got to kind of look at it in
a by a bipolar way, for lack of a better term, meaning,
I think there are those that do see what you're
talking about in the intentionality behind it and the purpose
behind it. But I think the vast majority of them
go along with it because it passes this. It sounds good, right,
like we want to live in an imaginary world. Well, yeah,
let it, we need more revenue, but let the rich people, right,
the vast majority of them to go along with it,
because it's you know, the old age, old trick, right.
We're just going to defer all that to the quote
unquote reason people. What he said about the dollar, what's
funny to me is that he said it in two
thousand and nine, meaning he was clearly way out ahead
of the curve where we sit now. For economic reasons,
we actually do need to appreciate the value of the dollar,
because that's really going to be the Trump said yesterday
he's in favor of a strong dollar. He said that
simply because the dollar got freaking kneecapped. I mean, we
were down one point four percent in a single day.
That is the dollar getting pounded. The administration can say
whatever they want. I am telling you behind the scenes,
they would concur for different reasons, at a different pace
and a different rhythm, but they would concur. We want
a weeker dollar if they don't have a weaker dollar,
bringing back manufacturing here isn't viable.
Speaker 1: Casey got to explain that because we've been taught our
whole lives we want a strong doll or I hear sorrows,
and I hear a guy who hates our country wants
to see it destroyed. Now he has said America needs
to be taken down a few notches. He is actively
seeking to destroy this country.
Speaker 3: Yes, with all his.
Speaker 1: Foundations and and you know, open air drug use and
prosecutors to what prosecute crimes. So when I hear that
coming out of his mouth, then I want to My
instant instinct is, Okay, that's him speaking evil.
Speaker 3: But you are not the same, dude.
Speaker 1: You're a guy who follows the lord and abides, and
you don't want evil, So you gotta you gotta explain.
Speaker 4: This so this doesn't look there's the ideal way of
handling it, in my opinion, and there's gonna be a
lot of debate around that. Then there's the practical way,
right injecting the politics and things that we know have
to take place. Meaning you know, there's always this thing
in government where it's like, hey, okay, we've got this issue,
We've got a way to solve this issue. We can
fix it, and we can fix it in ten years.
The next question is is it politically viable, right, Like,
if we work inside of that constraint, right, So what
I mean by that is saying, if we do not,
if the dollar is not weaker. The other thing I
think we have to acknowledge is the dollar is very
much right now on the high side of historical norms. Okay,
it really is. It's weird to say, but everybody needs
to understand that inflation is not necessarily the dollar losing power.
Like with the kind of inflation we're having right now,
virtually every currency of losing purchase and power. Okay, So
the dollar is not losing compared to other currencies. It
has been a little bit recently, but like I said,
you look at the high range. I mean, we were
coming off of a dxy level the Dollar Index at
one fifteen, with the highest range in the last couple
of years. Okay, you go back to the year two thousand,
The highest level over the last twenty five thirty years
for the DXY is like one twenty three, So you're
really far up there. If you want to bring manufacturing back,
you've got to have the dollar weaker against other currencies
or it won't be viable to It won't be viable,
meaning the cost to produce things here will outpace any
economic advantage you get by producing them here. They will
be too expensive for people to buy in other places. Right,
So it's why people were outsourcing to China anyway. So
what you need to do now. Then, on top of it,
you've got this weird scenario where we're drownding in the
most amount of debt we've ever had, one hundred and
thirty percent debt to GDP. We're running seven percent fiscal
deficits per year, which is out of this world, right,
And at the same time, one of the biggest impediments
to bringing manufacturing back to the United States is the
dollar being strong, right, So it's a weird world that's
been created by central banks printing money out of thin
air to boost the economy. The reason the dollar's been
strong is it's the only economy that could print in
adam finitam and not suff for currency degradation. So think
about it. If you have a reserve currency that is
the one currency that everybody has to own, therefore making
it the one currency that can print as much as
it wants. In a weird perverse world, that currency becomes
the most highly valued.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So, the way you get out of all the debt,
there's two ways to handle this from an economic point
of view. You do it the hard way, meaning you
cut back spending and based on the orgy of spending
that we've had over the last twenty five years, that
will undoubtedly cause a nasty recession, which isn't going to
be politically viable. Whoever does that will get it bousted
out office because nobody wants to deal with it right.
Or you take the path, which's what we're taking. Is
the other way you deal with too much debt is
you decrease the value of the dollar by then you
flip side. Is you ramp up GDP on an you know,
on an inflation adjusted basis that doesn't go higher but
you see nominal growth rates between seven and nine percent.
You try to hold spending steady and you grow the
economy versus the spending. And now that's easy to say,
how often does it work. It never works as good
as you lay it out, because the government's very rarely
freees spending, right, So what you usually end up having
these types of dynamics are what typically leads to hyperinflation.
So look, I mean, at the end of the day,
the dollar being worth zero is an inevitable outcome. Every
Fiat currency goes to zero eventually. I don't think that
that is anywhere near in the future. But the flip
side is is, at least on a financial level, that's
a really easy risk to hedge. So you know, it's
it's despicable. But where I was going with that when
I said that, I don't think that the average person
understands what we just laid out right there. That's pretty
thick in the weeds economic ways of thinking about it, right,
It's pretty wonkish the average person. You know, even when
I listen to a Bob Ferguson talk, he doesn't understand
what I'm just talking about. I'm convinced of that, and
The reason why I say this thought is that you
get involved in enough of these conversations, and I think
it's a referendum on our education system. Honestly, when you
sit down with a lot of these very intelligent, very educated,
especially liberal leaning people, and you get into the world
of finance and economics, what you quickly understand is they
know only sound bites. They are economically illiterate. And I
don't say that as a dog on them, right, I
don't say that ripping them. I say it because it's
one of those things where, look, I hear again there
are the bad actors that have nefarious intentions the vast majority.
I hear them talking, and I go, I understand what
it is that you're trying to do. You do not
understand that you are going to engender the exact opposite
outcome that you think you're going to get. And here's
why you don't understand the way economics work. And it's
let me.
Speaker 1: Put an explanation put on this. At least you know,
from a simpleton's perspective, there was a woman who married
into our family and this is you know, decades ago,
and she and I used to be good friends.
Speaker 3: She's a little older fifteen years older than me. But
we were good friends.
Speaker 1: And then politics entered and there was a divorce, and
you know, and she left the family, and you know,
I don't believe her friends anymore. On a Facebook argument
that went to a private message, So this isn't things
other people were seeing, she said to me about high
income taxes. I was talking about profits. She said, here's
my question. By the way, Zach, this woman has two
master's degrees, okay, from Stanford too. She consults companies on hiring,
and she consults colleges and schools on curricula, and at
a high level question, she goes, here's what I truly
don't understand. Why does a business everything's earn a profit?
That's that's that's And that was a legit question. She
did not understand what profits were or why you would
incentivize businesses to be able to earn them.
Speaker 3: That's the level of incompetence.
Speaker 1: It exists within that. And I had to write back
to her and say, why do you think people are
in business?
Speaker 4: Well? Why, more more importantly, what do you think led
to the collapse of the Soviet Union? You had a
lot of businesses that didn't create profits are right now
you want to look I want to look at her
and go, ma'am. The world you just described is a
liberal's worst nightmare. Nobody has anything. There is zero productivity.
Everything is falling apart. When when you see, and here's
the problem, the all of their legislation, inadvertently, and I
think for the vast majority of them, it's unintended. All
of their legislation does it not only squeeze small business,
it keeps giving the massive corporations the advantage. And they
and the majority of those politicians do not get it.
And I'm like, guys, they're the So what are you
going to do when those businesses leave the state of Washington.
Guess who's going to fill in their place? The massive
corporations that will get larger. Guess what a lot of
Guess what a lot of small family owned farms are
going to do. And ranchers are going to do. They're
going to sell out tod who they going to sell
to the big boys. And they they don't get it.
And the big boys can summach it because if it's
one of the thirty eight locations they have nationwide. Yeah, right,
that's fine. We'll make a little less profit over here,
but we'll make up for it over here. The mom
and pop can't do that.
Speaker 1: And you know, and I know that if our mutual
friend were to sell their four homes on the water
near where you live, and they were all available at
the same time, do you think it's going to be
individuals first up to go buy those things?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: No, you're talking about millions and millions and millions of
dollars of real estate.
Speaker 1: And you'd have one of the bigs coming and go, oh,
looks like we've have to do four new Airbnb locations.
One of them we can split up into four. Now
we'd have eight brand new Airbnb locations. And that's exactly
what they do. So there's another story that came out
of the separate country of Washington State. And I want
to look at this from I think the most challenging perspective,
which is as a Christian business owner. So and we
are you know this is Zach that one of the
big things you might hear this from time. Sometimes in
business you might hear business owners say, look, church's church
businesses business. So I'll go out and be a Christian
when I'm out in church and doing those things. But
when it's behind the scenes and it's running my business. Hey,
I need to handle that as a man, right, not
as a Christian. So we'll dig into this yet a
second with Zach Abraham. My friend Tim Krukshink is doing
the Coffee Crush Giveaway, the Great Coffee Crush Giveaway.
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giveaway bone Frog on social media. So Zach Abraham, chief
investment officer Bow Capital Management, joins us and Zach, this
is a news story out.
Speaker 3: Of your region.
Speaker 1: I want to run the whole thing because there were
people who found out about this or the news. I
know people who work at Amazon. They did not get
the email, they got the news story.
Speaker 6: I think now is happening again, another major round of layoffs,
and now says morning by Seattle mas Amazon Stave is
at the Live.
Speaker 4: Dust tracking the overnight developments and how this will affect
workers around the globe.
Speaker 6: And if you're watching right at over the past couple
of weeks, you've likely seen that this was coming and
was expected did today so live pictures coming in from
the Amazon spheres. This is in Seattle's Southlake Union neighborhood.
The company confirming early this morning it is cutting sixteen
thousand jobs worldwide and the second major round of layoffs
at the Seattle based company in just the past three months.
So one of the company's executives confirming the move in
this new letter. This was posted on Amazon's news website
early this morning.
Speaker 4: So let's dig into the numbers here.
Speaker 6: Those new layoffs are Amazon's biggest since twenty twenty three,
when the company cut twenty seven thousand jobs. Last October,
will remember Amazon slashed fourteen thousand white collar jobs that,
combined with this new round of layoffs this morning, represents
a small portion of the company's one point six million employees,
but nearly ten percent of its corporate workforce. The move
comes as Amazon restructures after over hiring during the COVID
nineteen pandemic. It looks to expand its adoption of artificial
intelligence tools. The latter we expected to affect workers in
Amazon Web services.
Speaker 1: So then they mentioned the AI overstaffing during the COVID
lockdowns because of course everyone's gone back into physical shopping,
which I don't believe, and then looking to invest in AI.
So number one, you are on this, you track AI.
You're doing this in your webinar coming up January twenty nine,
three point thirty. How much of this in your intel
is about AI. And then I want to look at
this from a perspective of a Christian business owner and
AI being a reality, should we as.
Speaker 3: Christians even give into this? So do you think this
is related AI?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Look, I think the corporate corporate moves like this always. Yeah,
you and I talk about this. It's never one thing. Yeah, right,
But what I think is that, and this is the
argument I've been making about the moves that Washington State
is doing. They're making it too easy to leave, They're
making it too easy to eliminate employees. Meaning if you're
looking at Amazon right now, and let's say we're sitting
in that boardroom with them, yeah, it's not should we
do it? Does anybody have a reason shouldn't? Okay, you
know what I mean. And and when you're passing the
kind of legislation that this state is passing, they already
chase the founder of Amazon out of the state effectively,
right you're looking at Yeah, you're looking at Amazon and going, guys, look,
it's very clear that the legislature, the legislature here isn't
favorable to us, to the individuals. Yeah, I like, for instance,
if you're Amazon and you want to trim staff because
of AI and all that kind of stuff. Where are
you gonna where are you gonna trim? They got places
all over the world. I'm gonna trim here.
Speaker 1: So okay, this is an important point. So why why
not trim around the world. We're gonna trim here because
they hate us here, because they make it easy here,
because the math doesn't work here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, and and it's and it's you know,
the other thing you look at is it's a place
for the really highest standard of living. So all the
people that you have here are probably your highest paid employees. Right, So,
like you're looking at and go, and that's what these
people don't under I'm sitting there going you, guys, you
are making yourself ground zero for people leaving, for people
losing their jobs. Like just you keep passing wave Starbucks
and shutting down locations Starbucks and probably these are companies
that are from Seattle. Why are they doing this because
they need to because they've got a fiduciary responsibility to
their shareholders. And you're sitting there looking at those companies, going, guys,
why do you have a presence in a state that
is determined could drive you out, like capitulate, like you said,
like your buddy said, send the note to the governor
and say you win.
Speaker 3: I'm done.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is something that I look at a
lot now with AI, because you know, my producer, Alex
is sitting across from us, is a very good friend
of mine, and he's been with me since the radio days.
He was kind of enough to come to me and
say one day, you know that you could replace a
lot of what I do with AI. And I said, yeah,
but not your soul something like that, Not your talent,
not the time we spend together in the studio, not
someone who helps me think through segments or puts up
great story suggestions. A couple of things you know we're
doing this week only came from Alex's mind.
Speaker 3: And his creativity.
Speaker 1: So and also as a Christian, I question whether Christian
business owners can fully give into AI. Even if an
AI could sit in the studio and edit things and
steer the cameras in the right way, or I didn't
even need to go into the studio.
Speaker 3: I mean, Zach, your guy who abides with God. You
know you've you know, God has blessed you guys.
Speaker 1: Oh and You're in a business where how many how
many quants.
Speaker 3: And people could you replace with AI?
Speaker 4: Truthfully, and I've thought a little bit about this. By
deploying AI, and if I was looking for just pure efficiency,
I could probably knock seven hundred and fifty thousand a
year off my payroll. Yeah. Yeah, and so and thet.
Speaker 1: I have my money with you, most of my money.
Why am I not saying will Zach do that and
return the savings to me?
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you why. Can I tell you why?
Speaker 1: Because I don't want to be around you, Yeah, making
those trades. I'll tell you why, Zach is because I
know some of your team. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you further, I don't trust Ai.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I want to be with you
is because you have the struggle. Other people don't have
the struggle. Maybe it's because they don't have God in
their life.
Speaker 4: Well, it's also because of what you what you referenced
earlier about you know, what is a Christian business owner?
And you know there's my church life and there's my
business life. With all due respect to everybody that thinks
that I get where you're coming from, I just think
that that is one hundred percent backwards. I think the
Bible talks about it very specifically, and I'll give you
a perfecting to people, What do you mean the Bible
talks about specifically? You know, it lifts up people that
are the most productive. It does. But you're forgetting a
certain verse where it talked about when your crops are overflowing,
do you build up another storehouse? Right? So I look
at cutting back headcount for AI, that's building up another
storehouse in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Well, and you can also look at it as withholding
wages from the workers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's that too. The other thing is is
that and I firmly believe this, and I think this
is going to be the true. I think this is
going to be true for investing probably into perpetuity, I think,
with some exceptions, but the team aspect of things cannot
be overlooked in my opinion, you know, and I think
we all know this, right, yeah, just because everything always
looks so neat on spreadsheets, dollars and cents, more profit,
all that kind of stuff, But what about the collaboration.
You know, how many times I probably spend between an
hour and a half to two hours a day just
sitting in an office with my guys and just talking
about things, right, just throwing around is doing all that
kind of I can't do.
Speaker 1: That with AI, right, right, And it's not good that
man is alone. And it's fools that make decisions on
their own. A wise person seeks wise counsel and the
wise counsel of fellow human beings.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But look, here's here's a reality that as a guy
who tries to put God's word at the center of
everything we do, tries to get out of my way
trying to do this here. So I'm writing a book
and I speak forty hours a week or more. So
there's a bunch of content I've spoken. And I found
out that there is a transcription service I'm using, so
I put the audio up there and Alex helped me
introduce me to this, so it listens to the audio,
it transcribes it. I put it into an AI and
I said, here's your task. I gave it a good prompt.
You are a ghost writer working with a nationally recognized national.
Speaker 3: Radio talk show host, Christian I gave it a good.
Speaker 1: Solid prompt. And you are taking this and not changing
it just to change it, but you're taking an audio
presentation and making it more presentable for reading, and zach
what it spit back at me was actually pretty good.
And then I said, the asides and the things that
this host draws during the program, those are not bugs.
Those are features of the way he does his show.
And it so changed that it went back and said, okay,
and now it change it. Now I'm looking at this
going that sounds like me. And then Zachett said this
after a couple of chapters, and it came back and said,
would you like and it says me to highlight some
of the repeated motifs that are appearing in this and
some of.
Speaker 3: The repeated parables the host is sharing and some of
the themes.
Speaker 1: Would you like him to highlight it? And then the
AI said this because what you're writing is very important.
It's really personal. It's really going to help a lot
of people. It's not just a book. It's a way
of thinking about living for God. This isn't this is
this is software speaking to me. And it's crazy, dude,
It is crazy, And I refuse to call it you.
Speaker 3: I always say, can this, I AI? This, AI do this?
And when I started to act that way, it backed off.
Speaker 1: It just began doing the tasks until I got like
six or seven chapters in and went back, can this
AI analyze the body of work compared to this? And
then it started to interact with me again, or you know,
pretend to interact. So here's where I'm at with my heart.
I can't release this book without telling people there was an.
Speaker 3: AI assist in this.
Speaker 1: But I also cannot imagine a world where I would
completely surrender to AI because Zach I could have put
everything up there. I could have the book done by now.
Oh yeah, okay, but I see ads every day on
Facebook have a book written in forty hours. And I
had someone get in touch with me who said, given
the massive content you have, if you would just let
me write an algorithm and crawl the database of your content,
I know I could come out and write three books
for you, and I could have it done in a
matter of weeks. As a Christian man, can I do that?
And as a Christian man, can you ever back? Would
you ever back me doing that?
Speaker 4: It depends on how you did it. I mean meaning
if you edited it carefully and really ensured and went
through and made sure it was really your words right,
Because all the AI is going to be doing is
scrubbing for you. So effectively, the AI is doing the
job of just consolidating a bunch of things. You said,
I would have no problem with that personally, being a
friend and a listener of yours. It wouldn't stop me
from reading it. Yeah, I wouldn't have a problem with
that at all. Now there there goes a point, and
I think that this is really kind of a you know,
there's this this this sticky part about understanding the way
that we're you know, we have to be in the world,
but not of it. Right, So if if now, if
we flip around and you just start feeding it every
source of content you've ever given it, and the goal
is to punch out as many things as you can
possibly sell. Now, I think that you're not being a
genuine provider of content to your listeners. And more importantly,
I think now we're hustling. If you did that, why
did you do that?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: You did it for one reason only, right from.
Speaker 3: My job is to build the kingdom, right, Yeah, I
do this to build the kingdom. Yeah, here's where I
drew the line.
Speaker 1: And I'd like to know what I don't want to
expand this little bit into the greater economic picture with
Zach Abraham. You can learn more about Zach Atnewyors podcast
dot com. Here's where I really drew the line. The
AI wrote back to me and it said, would you
like me to add more scripture to each chapter to
complement what you're saying with the Word of God? And
I wrote back and said no, because to me, that
cross is a significant line, because yes, I could go
back and edit, but am I really smart enough to
go check everything it's trying to do?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 1: That piece frightened me to be fully blunt because do
I want the AI's theology. I want the theology of
the Bible. I'll have my advisors read it, my pastor
read it. I'll ask you to read it. I'll ask
other you know, people farm over true in the faith.
I lost the people at American Family Radio to read
it before it's ever published. But that crossed a line.
So let me ask you about an economic line. Christian
business owners, if we're in the world or not of it,
but the other businesses in the world are all AI driven,
Like there's no admins. Like if I'm making an email
appointment with your people, you don't have people that an
intake sales phone call is not a human and other
people are operating with those margins, and that I know
for a fact. There's podcasters who are already putting their
faces and audio and stuff into databases and they're not
even gonna make podcasts. Yeah, it'll be a talking computer head.
There's no studio. They don't make shows. They just say
do a podcast based on this topic in my voice.
Speaker 3: So if that's the world we're in it, not of it.
Speaker 1: They have ninety percent margins, we have ten. Is that
where we're going as Christian business owners?
Speaker 4: You know what's funny is I could be wrong, but
that particular aspect of this I think is going to
backfire because as the world becomes more and more artificial,
real content and real people become inherently more valuable.
Speaker 3: I hope so, right, and and it will.
Speaker 4: It'll be the case, And I think that it's something
that all of us need to keep in mind. I
think it's something that we need to keep it the
four You know, I hate talking about this because this
is so self serving, right, But at the same time,
to me, it's really analogous to my business, right, meaning, look,
there's plenty of other places like me that you can
go to. But if you're a if you think like
we do, if you're a Christian or a conservative or
libertarian or whatever the case may be, and you have
your money managed by one of the big Wall Street banks,
what are you doing right? Again? You are arming that
you are arming the guys that seek to do you
harm and that do not share the same values with you.
I don't use that as an example to try to
strong arm all your listeners into calling us. It's true.
I mean I look at people all the time, and
I'm like, you're a conservative and you got your money
manage by Black Rock or by or by Vanguard or
what like? What are you doing right?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: You know, I don't necessarily think that those companies are
like the next sus of evil, but they're not aligned
with what you want. Why are you putting money in
their pocket?
Speaker 3: I happen to think they're right next to the nextus
of evil?
Speaker 4: Fair enough, and I'm not going to argue it. But
but so I use it as an example, though, because
I think that we all need to be very purposeful.
Where are we sending our attention? Where are we sending
our dollars? And not even with our money, but their minds. Right,
what are we listening to? We know that there is
more false doctor and being preached. We know that there
is more idiocy being peddled. So what should we do?
We should be more We should be more purposeful and
more earnest regarding of our sources. Where do we go?
Where is our time being allocated? Where are our dollars
being allocated? So I think the people that are delivering
really good content, like you, I think that the real
folks are going to benefit from this, and I think
that people are going to want to go where there's
real content and real people.
Speaker 3: That's true, you know, I really do hope that's true.
Speaker 1: And Zach, I tell my daughter, because my daughter is
an artist and she's she's going to be going now,
she's going to go through full college because she went
to art school that was great. But she's been in
the world now and said, you know what, I think
I'm made for more. There's some greater things I want
to accomplish, but it's still very art focused. And she
she will she will have nothing to do with AI.
And I haven't yet told her that AI is helping
with this book, but I'm telling you this is going
to be very close to her and veganism because she's
a vegan. And I'm telling you it is a barrier
between she and I because she knows that consume meat.
Speaker 3: I mean it is, it's it's a little barrier.
Speaker 1: And this is going to hurt her that I've used
an AI for this, because she, being a creative person,
is frightened. And what I've told her is, look, honey,
be a person that creates your art front of other people.
Speaker 3: Get your vegan.
Speaker 1: Cafe, have your cat section where people can go pet
real life cats. But have sessions where you cook in
front of people. She's an incredible cook. Let them see
you cook. Teach while you're cooking.
Speaker 3: Have the ingredients available.
Speaker 1: Do your arts in front of people, because, like you, Zach,
I think that the world's going to be so awash.
Speaker 3: In AI stuff.
Speaker 1: Imagine being brought into a studio to watch people write
a song, like real artists go through the writing process.
And if you've ever watched that on a documentary, imagine
being there, hey.
Speaker 4: Here and here here's a perfect example. And I think
you should tell us to your daughter. You don't want
one of the biggest trends right now in audio and
music is what vinyl Yeah, vinyl records right, look at
classic cars. Yeah, people people are, we are it's it's
I'm trying to think of the term, but we are nostalgia.
We want real life connections.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The thing, the thing I would tell every young person
is any moment you spend worried about ais a wasted moment.
Perfect your craft, own your craft, work your tail off.
Strive every day to be excellent. And if you do
that and you stay close to God, I am telling
you you will find your purpose. You will find your place,
and you will have an impact. If you don't, if
you're all you, if you're worried about all these other things,
if you're worried about all AI and how it's gonna
impact me and all that kind of stuff, you're going
to live an ineffective life. You're going to live a
life of what we call quiet desperation. Yep, right, don't
pay attention to the noise, put your hand in God's,
pursue your passions, pursue your loves, do it with wild
and reckless abandon and just blow. There are always reasons
every generation has faced the people. It's got to be
different this time. This generation is gonna make it. This Hey,
you know, look at the world of finance. Everything's more automated,
everything's going to paths of investing. And in the space
of ten years we've built a billion dollar from Yeah, like,
praise God for it. I'm not taking the credit. What
I'm telling you is that it is doable. Don't listen
to those people.
Speaker 3: Yes, well said beautiful advice.
Speaker 1: And I would add this just as a lifetime of
weird experiences.
Speaker 3: Everybody had been saying that CDs would kill music. That
didn't happen. People just bought CDs and that.
Speaker 1: And then CDs came, and then MP three's came and
that's going to kill it, and then it's gonna kill live.
Speaker 3: You know, no one's gonna go to concerts anymore. And
then when.
Speaker 1: You had high quality audio, now you had you know,
digital audio, full spectrum hgid. Well, now no one's going
to go to concerts, uh and why would you? And
you could watch them online and no one's going to
do that. And then yes, Viny's back at a friend
of mine I grew up next door to. He has
a record store and I was thinking I'd selling my records,
and I thought, what am I doing. I've got like
three thousand records. Uh, why would I sell? I'm selling
one by one an eba if I was going to
do that. But remember this, all the.
Speaker 3: People who think they're the brilliant people.
Speaker 1: That they've got everything figured out, they can't always know
how stupid they looked at some of us. This happened
when we were in an internetrated man, I wish i'd
known you on the internet radio days.
Speaker 3: You and I would have had such a blast. So
we had our our studios built up on Queen Anne Hill,
and we had these beautiful with a beautiful.
Speaker 1: Centerpiece radio studio so that investors could come in, board members, advertisers, partners,
you know. It was a showcase, right yeah, And we
had you know, Elvis Costello is great, great song. Okay,
So Elvis was there, Declan McManus and this is real name,
and I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 3: Of Elvis Casselo. So I didn't get.
Speaker 1: To be in the interview all the time, but I
was there when the most important thing happened. So a
I got to meet him in the lobby and I
walked up and said, mister McManus, what a pleasure to
see her here, and he looked at me. I said, yes,
Declan McManus and shook his hand, and it's an honor
and gosh, I loved your music. So cool to meet you,
and very self effacing. I can't stay the whole time,
but I regret that I can. So we go into
the studio and the guy who's doing the interview sitting
up and Elvis hits across from him, and Elvis has
his guitar and we talk about music and digital and
we talk about CDs and streaming, and then I said,
the host said, hey, CID, you'd be kind of have
to play some songs for us. And there was a
woman in there from Salon dot com. They remember Salon
that never made a profit, yep, so they were the sponsors.
They sponsored this. They promoted the heck out of Elvis
being there. Elvis gets out his guitar and he plays.
Speaker 3: Alison.
Speaker 1: Remember the kind of country song. Ah, listen, I know
this world is killing and he plays this and I'm chilled.
I'm legitimately standing there with chicken pox skin. Elvis Costello
is playing Alison in my studio. He gets done, and
the room is chilled, and we're clapping. The lady from
Salon dot Com says, could you did that one more time?
Speaker 3: More quickly? More quick My song was too slow?
Speaker 1: Jack, without looking at her, without making eye contact with her,
I said, please leave, and she goes, we are the.
Speaker 3: Sponsors of this segment. I said, not anymore. Yeah, please
leave that, and I looked at it.
Speaker 1: I shook his hand and said, I apologize. He goes, well,
why mate, I've got a story for a lifetime.
Speaker 4: I saw him live. You saw Elvis, Yeah, I saw
he and his wife together. My wife is a huge
fan of his wife. Yeah, And so we went up
to uh Chadoau Saint Michelle and saw he and his
wife up there.
Speaker 3: Oh, I bet that was brilliant.
Speaker 4: His wife's an incredible jazz musician too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And for my money, he's probably one of the top
three lyricists in and just what a performer.
Speaker 4: And he's just a musician, man, He's just a musician,
he is.
Speaker 3: And and you know, trend maker, trend breaker.
Speaker 1: But when I watched that, human beings say that to
that man, and that's the same human being that was
you know, thinking that Salon dot Com would be the
new HBO.
Speaker 3: So let's tak that.
Speaker 4: Was that Arianna Huffington's deal. No dot commerce was something
different order.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't remember what it was either anymore. It was,
oh the Huffing Post HuffPo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: So for all to talk about.
Speaker 1: AI and all this that can seem very very scary,
God uses as simple things to shame the wise. And
in that case it was a guy named Declan McManus
with an acoustic guitar, And can I.
Speaker 4: Can I throw one other thing in there and everybody
take this with a grain of salt and put some
thought behind it, because I don't mean this in a
bombastic way at all. But the other thing that I
have found is that the more confident we are about
those things, the more that we just surreptitiously turn a
blind eye to it and just say, look, man, I'm
following on. I don't care. Yeah, I don't care. I
know what my good things happen, good like, and it
can feel reckless. And I'm not talking about being vindictive
about it, but I'm just saying, yeah, I hear you,
I just don't. I'm just not going to listen to
you because those rules don't apply to me. I'm not
worried about what man thinks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4: The more you can thumb your nose at that stuff
in a polite way, and the more you lean on
your faith and we I'm just telling you, man, there's
magic that happens there and it just God loves it.
I'm just convinced, and I couldn't agree more. Give it
a test, man, give it a test.
Speaker 1: Seek not the approval of man, but the approval of God,
Almighty great to have. Why it's cancel with you, my brother, God,
bless you and stay safe and we will oh we
join each other next week. This is a Todd Hermitshell.
Please go, be well, be strong, be kind, Please make
every effort to walk in the life of Christ.