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: The Todd Herman Show is one disapproved by big pharma
technocrats and tyrants everywhere from the high 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.
Speaker 3: Now here's the thing, Zach, this is for the people.
Speaker 1: This is too You'll get the real pay their fair share,
always for the people. 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 plainest language possible.
Not that it'll sway any votes, 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?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 4: Now? 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 it 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 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 oh 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 I'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 tiny
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 op sects. 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 talked 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 who you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then they've got their primary residence, which is insane
and not far from those three homes, And he went
through some math.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what his plan here at a second
we're talking.
Speaker 1: I was Zac Abraham, chief invest Officer Capital Managements, and
you know who you're describing, Crookshank.
Speaker 3: So Tim Krukshank's got a coffee company, Bone Frog Coffee.
Speaker 1: And by the way, brother listen, friend to friend, brother
to brother buy and I've been telling people not to,
but he's going to stock up because my wife went
and bought a hunter bags of the Spirit of seventeen
seventy six coffee because it is the best, the best
roast they've ever had. Make sure you get this two
hundred and fiftieth year Happy Birthday America. Bonefrog Coffee dot
com slash todd use promo code Todd. He's the guy
they target. Tim's already looking at opening a retail store
over here in Idaho. Why would he stay? He can't
issue stock I mean, bone Frog's not to that point yet.
Why would he stay. They lose his employees. They use
his bono attacks. We gained that over here and in
the same year that they do the Spirit of seventeen
seventy six brand again. Bone Frog Coffee dot com slash
todd promo codta. So it's talking to his friends and
apparently you've met him. So maybe mutual friend, and I'm Zach.
These houses he has, they are two of them are
on a spit, so they've got water on both sides.
Just phenomenal. Then the house above its 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 nonprofit entities, So giving them to his church.
So now they can house pastors and people who come.
Speaker 3: And visit with the church. Okay, look at that. Then
they come over here and buy and they're gone.
Speaker 1: 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
your dictator, Bob ferguson a note saying you win.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, And here's the killer. You know.
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 Constutions says all taxes in Washington State income must
be leveled equally against everybody.
Speaker 4: Yep, yeah, basically saying that there will never be ethically
amplicantly 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 excize 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 frie Linz, who wanted to be a boss lady
up in Canada. Listen to this or watch this.
Speaker 4: What sort of a financial deal should Obama be seeking
to strike when he traveled to China next month.
Speaker 6: No, I think this would be the time, because you
really need to bring China into the creation of a new.
Speaker 4: World order, financial world order.
Speaker 6: So I think you need a new world order that
China has to be part of the process of creating it,
and they have to buy in, they have to own it.
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 6: 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 remain rather weak, China will emerge as the motor
replacing the US consumer, so there would be.
Speaker 4: A slow.
Speaker 6: 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. Gavin Newsom's not that smart. He funds
guys like this, and here he is saying that a
managed decline of the US dollars not only necessary but desirable.
Speaker 3: Okay, A, how do.
Speaker 1: 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 4: No, 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 age, old age, old trick.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: We're going to defer all that to the quote unquote
reacent 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. Yeah, where we sit now, for economic reason,
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 weaker dollar. If they don't have a weaker dollar,
bringing back manufacturing here isn't viable.
Speaker 3: Case.
Speaker 1: Got to explain that because we've been taught our whole lives.
We want a strong dollar. 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. Yes, with all his foundations and and
you know, open air drug use and prosecutors to what
prosecute crime. So when I hear that coming out of
his mouth, then I want to My instant instinct is, Okay,
that's him speaking evil. But you are not the same, dude.
You're a guy who follows the Lord and abides and
you don't want evil, So you gotta you gotta explain this.
Speaker 4: 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. Then the
next question is is it politically viable. Right, like's if
we work inside of that constraint.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: 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 drounding 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.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: And at the same time, one of the biggest impediments
to bring 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 fin item 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 right. So the way you
get out of all the debt, there's two ways to
handle this from a from a 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 what we're taking is
the other way you deal with too much debt is
you decrease the value of the dollar you buy. Then
you flip side. Is you ramp up GDP on 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 freeze 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 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 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 I 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.
Speaker 3: And it's live a.
Speaker 1: Put an explanation put in 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 to go.
And she and I used to be good friends. She's
a little older, fifteen years older than me, but we
were good friends. 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.
Speaker 3: And schools on curricula.
Speaker 1: And at a high level question, she goes, here's what
I truly don't understand. Why does the business every need
to earn a profit?
Speaker 3: That's that's that's and that was.
Speaker 1: A legit question. She did not understand what profits were
or why you would incentivize businesses to be able.
Speaker 3: To earn them. That's the level of.
Speaker 1: Incompetence that 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 importantly, what do you think led to
the collapse of the Soviet Union? You had a lot
of businesses that didn't create profits?
Speaker 3: Are right?
Speaker 4: 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 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 who they're going to sell to the big boys, right,
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
there where you live, and they were all available at
the same time, do you think it's going to be
individual first up to go buy those things.
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: No, you're talking.
Speaker 1: About millions and millions and millions of dollars of real estate,
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.
Speaker 3: So and we are you know this is Zach. That
one of the big things.
Speaker 1: You might hear this from time and sometimes in business
you might hear business owners say, look, church's church, business
is business.
Speaker 3: So I'll go out and.
Speaker 1: 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
as a man, right, not as a Christian. So we'll
dig into this yere to second with Zach Abraham. I
was speaking to that the Christian reality of running a business.
You know, our friends at renew Healthcare and u Dot
Healthcare in port of out to Mexico, they were approached
about using fetal stem cells. And the answer was not
even a we'll look at it or we'll think about it.
It was a hard no, can't, won't one or know
why because Steve Anderson, the managing partner there is the
product of adoption out of a he was not adopted young.
Speaker 3: He was in an orphanage.
Speaker 1: He was in an orphanage, and he was adopted out
of orphanage I believe when he's four or five years
old and ended up living with a family who became
his mom and dad. And this is in Iowa, so
hard no for him. Likewise, he's being offered all sorts
of money to relocate renew up here. Okay, look, you've
got the system, you've got the template, you're the most
successful in North America. Just come up here and do it.
No hard, no why because he himself would not put this.
Them cells that are availed the United States allographs in
his body and he gets stem cells. He just got
a treatment because his back was so messed up. He
couldn't play his you know him in golf. He couldn't
play golf. So Steve just went down. He got the
treatment basically you got, but with more vertebra Zach. So
he was offered that and no, can't do it. So
his spirituality, his guidance, his knowledge of his own body
keeps him down in port of our New Mexico. Which
is to tell you that the stem cells up here
I would not put in my body.
Speaker 3: Look, guys, I had an opportunity to start.
Speaker 1: A stem cell clinic up here, Okay, and I'm talking
about money in I wouldn't have had to put any
capital down, just promote it. I can't so whether it's
something cosmetic like instead of getting cow toxins in your
face botox, get the stem cells in your face, regrow
the cells, male pattern bald this same thing ed, same
thing to stuff that limits movement, like your back like
Zach had and I had. It's renewed and you et
healthcare renew r e and you eat healthcare. Please you
to tell him you're part of the tod Her Michelle family. So,
Zach Abraham, chief investment officer Bulwerck Capital Management, joins us
and Zach, this is a news story out of your region.
Speaker 3: I want are in the whole thing.
Speaker 1: 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 5: I think now it's happening again, another major round of
layoffs and now says morning by.
Speaker 4: Seattle based Amazon. Steve is at the Live dust tracking
the overnight developments and how this will affect workers around
the globe.
Speaker 5: And if you're watching reridit over the past couple of weeks,
you've likely seen that this was coming and was expected today.
So live pictures coming in from the Amazon spheres. This
is in Seattle's Southlak Union neighborhood. The company confirming earlier
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 5: 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 and looks to expand its adoption of artificial
intelligence tools. Are we expected to affect workers and 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 Christians even get
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. There's it's never one thing, yeah, right,
But what I think is that and 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 we shouldn't? Okay,
you know what I mean. 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,
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.
Speaker 3: To us, to the individuals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if we 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, ye'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 understand. I'm sitting there going, you, guys,
you are making yourself ground zero for people leaving, for
people losing their jobs. Yeah, like just you keep passing
wave Starbucks and shutting down locations Starbucks is probably right.
These are companies that are from Seattle. Why are they
doing this? Because they need to because they've got to
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 gone.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So yep, 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 and his creativity.
Speaker 3: So and also, as a Christian, I question whether Christian
business owners can fully give into AI.
Speaker 1: 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.
I mean, Zach, your guy who abides with God, you
know you, you know God has blessed you guys, And
you're in a business where how many how many quants
in 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and so and the point 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?
Because I don't want to be around you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we start making those trades. I'll tell you why, Zach,
is because I know some of your team. Yeah, 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 its because they'd don't have God 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 perfect people like, what do you mean the Bible
talks about specifically it. 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?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: 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, 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 ideas, doing all that kind of I
can't do that with AI, right.
Speaker 1: 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, right right. 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.
Speaker 3: Here so I'm writing.
Speaker 1: 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 reconized
national radio talk show host, Christian.
Speaker 3: I gave it a good, solid prompt.
Speaker 1: 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 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 the repeated parables the host is sharing and some
of the themes, would you like them 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. I always say, can this AI, this
AI do this? And when I started to act that way,
it backed off. 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 AI assist in this. 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.
Speaker 3: Written in forty hours.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 3: As a Christian man, can I do that? And as
a Christian man, can you ever back?
Speaker 4: Would you?
Speaker 3: 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 I'm 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. 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.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So 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 with just one reason only, right, Yeah, my.
Speaker 1: Job is to build the kingdom, right, Yeah, I do
this to build the kingdom. Here's where I drew the line,
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 at New
Yors 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.
Speaker 3: To complement what you're saying with the word of God?
Speaker 1: And I wrote back and said no, because to me,
that crosses a significant line.
Speaker 3: Because yes, I could go back.
Speaker 1: And edit, but am I really smart enough to go
check everything it's trying to do that piece frightened me
to be fully blunt, because do I want the ais theology.
Speaker 3: I want the theology of the Bible.
Speaker 1: I'll have my advisors read it, my pastor reader, I'll
ask you to read it. I'll ask other you know,
people farm over true in the faith. Also people an
American Family radio to read it before it's ever published.
But that crossed a lot. 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 that there's no studio.
Speaker 3: They don't make shows.
Speaker 1: They just say do a podcast based on this topic
in my voice. So if that's the world we're in
it not of it, 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
managed by black Rock or by or by Vanguard or
what like? What are you doing right? Like? You know,
I don't necessarily think that those companies are like the
nexus 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 nexus.
Speaker 4: Of evil if fair enough, And I'm not going to
argue with it, but so I use it as an
example though, because I think that we all need to
be very purposeful. Where are we set our attention? Where
are we sending our dollars and not even with our
money with their minds?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: What are we listening to? We know that there is
more false doctor and being priests. We know that there
is more idiotcy being peddled. So what should we do?
We should be more We should be more purposeful and
more earnest regarding 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: I hope 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.
Speaker 3: That was great.
Speaker 1: But she's been in the world now and said, you
know what I think I've 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'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.
Get your vegan cafe, have your cat section where people
can go pet real live 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, have
the ingredients available. Do your arts in front of people, because,
like you, Zach, I think that the world's going to
be so awash in AI stuff. Imagine being brought into
a studio to watch people write a song, like real
artists go through the writing process. If you've ever watched
that on a documentary, imagine.
Speaker 4: Being there, Hey, 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 people people are we are it's
it's I'm trying to think of the term, but we
are nostalgia, right. We want real life connections.
Speaker 3: 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 your if 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 gonna 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 were 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 and craiz 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. Everybody had been saying that CDs would kill music,
that didn't happen. People just bought CDs, and then CDs came,
and then MP three's came, and that's going to kill it,
and then it is going to kill live. You know,
no one's going to go to concerts anymore. And then
when you had high quality audio, now you had you know,
digital audio, full spectrum HG audio.
Speaker 3: Well, now no one's going to go to concerts. Uh,
and why would you?
Speaker 1: And you could watch them online and and no one's
going to do that. And then yes, Vinyl's back at
a friend of mine I grew up next door to.
He has a record store, and 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 people
who think they're the brilliant people that they've got everything
figured out, they can't always know how stupid they look
to some of us. This happened when we were in
an internetrated Man, I wish I'd known you in the
internet radio days.
Speaker 3: You and I would have had such a blast.
Speaker 1: So we had our our studios built up on Queen
Anne Hill, and we had these beautiful with a beautiful
centerpiece radio studios 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, great great song.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Elvis.
Speaker 1: Was there, Declan McManus, and this is real name, and
I'm a huge fan of Elvis Cassel.
Speaker 3: 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 he
I got to meet him in the lobby and I
walked up and said, mister McManus.
Speaker 3: What a pleasure to see her here, and he looked
at me.
Speaker 1: 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
say the whole time, but I regret that I can't.
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, said, you'd be
kind of have to play some songs for us. And
there was a woman in there from Salon dot com.
Remember Salon that never made a prophet 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 the song was too slow?
Speaker 1: Zack, without looking at her, without making eye contact with her,
I said please leave, and she goes. We are the
sponsors of this segment. I said, not anymore, Yeah, please leave,
and I looked at it. I shook his hand and said,
I apologize. He go, 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 Chadow 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 1: And and you know, trend maker, trend breaker. 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 tek that.
Speaker 4: Was that Arianna Huffington's deal. No dot commerce was something different.
Speaker 3: Yea or yeah, I can't remember what it was either anymore.
It was, oh the huffing Post huff po. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So for all to talk about.
Speaker 1: AI and all this that can seem very very scary,
God uses this as simple things to shame the wise.
And in that case, it was a guy named Declan
McManus with an acoustic guitar.
Speaker 4: And 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 God. I don't care. 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 on your faith.
And I'm just telling you, man, there's magic that happens
there and it just God loves it. I'm just convinced, and.
Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 4: 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 the Todd
Hermit Shaw. Please go, be well, be strong, be kind,
Please make every effort to walk in the life of Christ.