AI transcript
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0:00:49 It’s not always easy to harness the power potential of AI
0:00:51 for all the talk about its revolutionary potential.
0:00:53 A lot of AI systems feel as if they’re designed
0:00:56 for specific tasks that are only performed by select few.
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0:01:10 than any model before.
0:01:13 You can discover how Clod can transform your business
0:01:15 at Anthropic.com/clod.
0:01:23 Support for this podcast comes from Anthropic.
0:01:26 It’s not always easy to harness the power
0:01:28 and potential of AI.
0:01:30 For all the talk around its revolutionary potential,
0:01:33 a lot of AI systems feel like they’re designed
0:01:36 for specific tasks performed by a select few.
0:01:40 Well, Clod by Anthropic is AI for everyone.
0:01:43 The latest model, Clod 3.5 Sonnet,
0:01:46 offers groundbreaking intelligence at an everyday price.
0:01:49 Clod Sonnet can generate code, help with writing
0:01:51 and reason through hard problems better
0:01:52 than any model before.
0:01:55 You can discover how Clod can transform your business
0:01:58 at Anthropic.com/clod.
0:02:03 – Welcome to the PropG Pods Office Hours.
0:02:05 This is the part of the show where we answer your questions
0:02:07 about business, product, entrepreneurship
0:02:09 and whatever else is on your mind.
0:02:11 If you’d like to submit a question,
0:02:14 please email a voice recording to OfficeHours@PropGmedia.com.
0:02:17 Again, that’s OfficeHours@PropGmedia.com.
0:02:18 I have not seen these questions.
0:02:21 So, no matter who knows.
0:02:23 – Hi, PropG.
0:02:24 This is Ben from Chicago.
0:02:26 I work in consulting for a well-respected firm
0:02:29 and want to get your perspective on brand deterioration.
0:02:32 Specifically, how long and what needs to occur.
0:02:35 Thanks for the great work and advice every week.
0:02:38 – So, who ranks poorly in terms of brand reputation?
0:02:41 According to the 2024 Axios Harris poll,
0:02:44 100 reputation rankings, meta ranks number 97
0:02:49 in overall reputation with a very poor score of 59.6.
0:02:52 That’s just three spots above the Trump organization
0:02:54 and two spots above X.
0:02:56 And one spot above Spirit Airlines.
0:02:59 So, what do these companies all have in common?
0:03:01 Brand is synonymous with differentiation.
0:03:05 I got five different brands of frosted flakes.
0:03:06 Which one is different from the other
0:03:09 and why am I gonna pay kind of unearned margin,
0:03:10 if you will.
0:03:11 Or differentiation equals margin.
0:03:14 In addition, a brand is sort of trust.
0:03:15 And that is you have to trust
0:03:17 it’s gonna deliver against its promise.
0:03:20 And the end user wants to feel like they can trust the brand.
0:03:23 And the thing that all of these companies have in common
0:03:26 is that people don’t trust Spirit Airlines
0:03:30 to kind of not to deliver.
0:03:32 People I think are worried when they got on Spirit Airlines
0:03:35 that they’re just gonna have a shitty experience.
0:03:38 The Trump organization I think has developed
0:03:40 a reputation for its vendors
0:03:44 and people not being able to trust the organization.
0:03:47 X has been in the news for destroying
0:03:49 a lot of shareholder value,
0:03:54 a lack of safety standards and just overall vitriol.
0:03:57 So, it kind of comes down to trust how you handle crises,
0:04:00 whether you’re seeing this treating your customers well,
0:04:02 whether you’re seeing this being honest,
0:04:03 all that kind of good stuff.
0:04:05 Who’s doing it well?
0:04:08 Right now it’s NVIDIA followed by 3M and Fidelity.
0:04:09 That’s interesting.
0:04:11 I wouldn’t have guessed Fidelity.
0:04:15 So NVIDIA, nothing helps a brand like success.
0:04:17 And I guess people trust NVIDIA because of its success
0:04:22 and beating expectations are always.
0:04:24 And I think Jensen is seen as a fairly good person
0:04:27 and the firm feels future forward.
0:04:29 So I think a lot of that just comes down to success.
0:04:33 3M is seen as somewhat of a paternal company
0:04:34 that’s good to its employees
0:04:36 and constant history of innovation.
0:04:39 Very sort of American, if you will.
0:04:40 I think people feel good.
0:04:42 It’s, I think their headquarters is in Minnesota
0:04:46 and people just like those Minnesotans.
0:04:47 Fidelity, I don’t know why.
0:04:48 I guess Fidelity handles money
0:04:52 and people feel pretty good that they’re good fiduciaries.
0:04:55 Look, brands are hard to kill.
0:04:57 They’re just becoming what I’d call less relevant.
0:04:58 What do I mean by that?
0:05:02 The algorithm for printing cash was to come up
0:05:06 with a mediocre car, shoe, salty snack, sugary drink
0:05:08 and wrap it in amazing brand codes
0:05:11 using this incredibly cheap and efficient
0:05:13 brand building infrastructure called broadcast television
0:05:15 where 60% of America was watching
0:05:17 one of three channels every night.
0:05:19 Then broadcast media became very splintered,
0:05:22 very expensive and people started cutting out the middle man
0:05:24 and going to content that didn’t,
0:05:26 but it wouldn’t be pelted by commercial telling them
0:05:29 they had restless legs and their social graph
0:05:31 and their new weapons of mass diligence,
0:05:33 including Google, their social graph,
0:05:35 TripAdvisor said you don’t need to always defer
0:05:39 to the mass diligence or the shorthand of a brand as often.
0:05:41 Now, having said that, it’s very rare
0:05:43 that an individual purchases anything
0:05:44 they haven’t heard of before.
0:05:47 Think about your inclination to return an email
0:05:49 from someone you’ve never heard of before
0:05:51 and someone you have heard of, right?
0:05:53 It’s exponentially greater likelihood
0:05:55 you’ll respond to the latter.
0:05:57 And the same is true of brands.
0:06:01 So just a general level of awareness is really meaningful
0:06:03 and then you infuse it with associations,
0:06:05 hopefully has self-expressive benefit.
0:06:07 Probably the best brand attribute after trust
0:06:09 would be scarcity and that is this notion
0:06:11 that it’s a limited supply.
0:06:15 So now let’s talk a little bit about B2B.
0:06:17 I think right away you need to identify
0:06:18 what the culture is gonna be
0:06:20 and to a certain extent the culture is your brand.
0:06:23 When my first firm in business school,
0:06:24 I started a chemical profit when I was 26,
0:06:27 I used to say we have a passion for brand,
0:06:29 attention to detail and a sense of camaraderie
0:06:32 and give people a sense of what those core associations are.
0:06:37 But at the top, these firms are delivering across
0:06:40 the two points of a brand and that is the promise
0:06:43 and then the performance has to match the promise.
0:06:45 So when we say we’re proud of our progress
0:06:48 as Cheryl Sandberg said at Facebook,
0:06:53 we found out that she was lying over and over and over.
0:06:55 Thanks for the question.
0:06:57 Question number two.
0:07:00 – Hi Prop G, Naomi here from Sydney, Australia.
0:07:03 We were in my late 20s working in finance
0:07:05 and I just made the big move to New York City this year,
0:07:08 taking your advice to get to a big city.
0:07:11 Now here’s the thing, in the midst of meeting
0:07:14 all these new people, both personally and professionally,
0:07:18 I’ve hidden unexpected and rather awkward problem.
0:07:24 My name, I share it with a very popular adult show star
0:07:28 who is very, very famous for her book fetish content.
0:07:30 And while I doubt that any reasonable person
0:07:34 would confuse my accomplishments with her accomplishments,
0:07:37 it’s wreaking absolute havoc on my personal brand.
0:07:40 I realize, of course, that I can’t win an SEO battle
0:07:43 against the adult entertainment industry,
0:07:46 but before my name becomes collateral damage
0:07:50 in the pursuit of a rebrand, I’d love to get your take.
0:07:53 Given how seamlessly you have integrated your name
0:07:57 into your personal brand, what would you do in my shoes?
0:08:02 And more broadly, how would anyone approach a name change,
0:08:04 whether it’s from marriage or divorce
0:08:07 or immigrant simplifying non-ango names?
0:08:09 How should they think about this?
0:08:12 Anyway, I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts
0:08:14 and thank you Scott for all the work that you do.
0:08:17 – God, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting this one.
0:08:20 Okay, I had sort of a similar issue
0:08:24 when I first developed a bit of a public footprint,
0:08:24 if you will.
0:08:28 Initially, being the narcissist I am,
0:08:30 I’d always Google my name and what came up first
0:08:33 about 10, 12 years ago, a gentleman named Scott Galloway
0:08:37 who played for the West Marine Mariners
0:08:39 or the New Wales Mariners of football,
0:08:42 a soccer player in Australia.
0:08:43 And he was just more famous than me.
0:08:45 So he came up and I’m like, ah, fuck,
0:08:46 there’s someone else named Scott Galloway
0:08:48 that’s more famous than me.
0:08:50 But over time, if you’re good at what you do,
0:08:52 eventually, especially I would imagine
0:08:56 an adult film star, that career wanes.
0:08:59 I imagine feet age better than most parts of your body,
0:09:02 but the thing about being an athlete, a musician,
0:09:03 a model, all the vanity industries,
0:09:05 and I would imagine being a porn star
0:09:06 is the reason these industries suck
0:09:08 is you get worse at them as you get older.
0:09:10 If you’re an accounting and 98% of industries,
0:09:12 you get better as you get older.
0:09:16 I would imagine this adult film stars brand is gonna wane.
0:09:17 And if you’re good at what you do
0:09:21 and you have a strong social footprint and you keep at it,
0:09:22 and this is what happened to me.
0:09:24 Now, if you do a search, you know,
0:09:27 Scott Galloway, the Australian football player,
0:09:29 comes up way, way down the list
0:09:32 because nothing builds your brand like excellence
0:09:33 and continuing to do good work.
0:09:35 Now, in terms of practically,
0:09:39 what you might wanna do on your social media handles
0:09:43 is maybe even jokingly say your name and then open paren,
0:09:47 not the foot fetish woman or not the adult star,
0:09:51 or always make sure, you know, like add something.
0:09:54 I say prof G, so people know I’m a professor.
0:09:58 Professor has a really nice, really nice connotation to it.
0:09:58 And at the end of the day,
0:10:01 I think of myself as a teacher, so it fits well.
0:10:02 It’s easy to say.
0:10:04 If you were to go through the hassle of a name change,
0:10:06 which I don’t recommend,
0:10:09 what you want is something that is easy to spell
0:10:11 and that there aren’t that many other people
0:10:12 with the same name.
0:10:13 And those two are in contradiction with each other.
0:10:16 Again, though, the key to anything
0:10:20 is just having, doing good work constantly.
0:10:23 That’s over the long term, what builds brands.
0:10:26 Anyways, interesting question.
0:10:29 We have one quick break before our final question.
0:10:30 Stay with us.
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0:11:31 Sorting through the crowd to find the perfect match
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0:13:47 – Welcome back, question number three.
0:13:48 – Hey there, Prof. G.
0:13:51 This is Glenn calling from beautiful Brooklyn, New York.
0:13:53 I recently turned 39 and decided
0:13:55 to create a pre-40 bucket list
0:13:56 as a way to challenge and inspire myself
0:13:58 heading into middle age.
0:14:00 I’m a senior software engineer and musician,
0:14:02 have a decent financial plan full in motion,
0:14:05 and I’m unmarried, although I have a lovely partner
0:14:07 and neither of us are interested in having children.
0:14:09 My question for you, Scott,
0:14:11 is have you ever created bucket lists
0:14:12 either for a specific milestone like age
0:14:14 or simply before death?
0:14:16 And do you have any advice for someone like me
0:14:18 to set myself up for happiness after 40
0:14:20 that isn’t just work and play hard?
0:14:23 Love the pods and thank you for taking my question.
0:14:25 – Jesus, Glenn, I immediately started searching
0:14:26 for something more profound,
0:14:29 and the reality is my only bucket list
0:14:31 was really just to be rich and awesome
0:14:33 in that order when I was your age.
0:14:35 I grew up not with a ton of stress,
0:14:37 ’cause I was never in poverty,
0:14:41 but my mom, I was raised by a single immigrant mother
0:14:42 who lived and died a secretary,
0:14:44 and money was a real issue for us.
0:14:46 We were never hungry or anything like that,
0:14:48 but it was just, I don’t know,
0:14:49 just from a very early age,
0:14:52 I connected the dots in a capitalist economy.
0:14:53 So my only goal, quite frankly,
0:14:57 was to have economic security.
0:14:58 I did have a goal around meeting somebody.
0:15:01 I wanted, I always thought I’d be a really good boyfriend,
0:15:02 and I was younger.
0:15:04 I didn’t have a lot of experience with women.
0:15:06 I caught up fast after,
0:15:10 I was kind of a late bloomer sexually and romantically,
0:15:13 but I was tall, skinny, with bad skin,
0:15:14 so I didn’t get a lot of opportunity.
0:15:17 And then my skin cleared up, I joined crew,
0:15:19 I got ripped, started making some money,
0:15:20 and all of a sudden I’m like,
0:15:23 “Wow, this whole mating thing,”
0:15:25 or at least practicing to mate is a lot of fun,
0:15:28 and I really enjoyed that through my 20s.
0:15:31 But I never really had a really solid relationship
0:15:34 like you have until I was older.
0:15:36 This is kind of an existential question
0:15:39 that I think you wanna talk to some of your friends about.
0:15:42 If you have economic security and you’re with a family,
0:15:44 or you have a good partner,
0:15:46 then the question becomes more of a,
0:15:49 “All right, time is gonna go really fast.”
0:15:54 And you’re gonna be at the end sooner than you think.
0:15:59 I just had a big birthday, I just turned 50, 60,
0:16:03 and I was your age, what felt 40 to 60 just flies by.
0:16:04 And the question is,
0:16:06 what will you have wanted to accomplish?
0:16:10 Will you want a set of experiences that are extraordinary?
0:16:12 Will you want to have established domain expertise
0:16:13 around something?
0:16:15 Will you want to have helped others?
0:16:19 Will you want to be the best in the world at something?
0:16:21 Will you want to have, at that point,
0:16:24 your parents will probably be older towards the end,
0:16:26 have a better relationship with them?
0:16:28 Do you really wanna explore
0:16:30 having a very deep and meaningful relationship
0:16:31 with your spouse and your partner?
0:16:32 Do you wanna give back?
0:16:35 I mean, just sort of sit down and say, “Work backwards.”
0:16:38 But it sounds to me like you’re tracking.
0:16:40 I mean, I’m just, I’m trying to squeeze the shit
0:16:42 out of this line called life.
0:16:44 And for me, getting to a certain level
0:16:46 of economic security, I saw as paramount in that.
0:16:48 And that’s probably a bit of an overstatement.
0:16:50 You can still have an exceptional life without
0:16:51 having a crazy amount of money,
0:16:54 but you do need a certain level of economic security.
0:16:56 And it feels like it’s there.
0:16:58 And then the thing I love,
0:17:00 and is finally kicked in for me,
0:17:01 and it didn’t till later in life,
0:17:04 but something I get tremendous gratification from,
0:17:05 is planting trees the shade of which
0:17:06 I will never sit under.
0:17:09 And that is getting involved in nonprofits
0:17:13 and trying to help and provide time, treasure, and talent
0:17:14 to affect change and improve the lives of people
0:17:16 who I will never meet.
0:17:17 That makes me feel very strong.
0:17:20 These are deeply personal issues.
0:17:23 I work through and I try and limit it to two or three things
0:17:26 ’cause once you get beyond two or three things,
0:17:28 you know, you forget the first one
0:17:31 and also maybe even work with somebody around this stuff.
0:17:34 But my brother, this is the mother of all good problems,
0:17:35 the fact that you were thinking this way.
0:17:38 99% of the world’s population is trying to figure out
0:17:40 how to keep the lights on, pay the rent,
0:17:41 make sure their kids are safe,
0:17:44 have decent healthcare, put food on the table.
0:17:48 So just take stock of your blessings as indicated by
0:17:51 that this is a quote unquote really, really good problem.
0:17:53 Glenn, I appreciate the question.
0:17:56 That’s all for this episode.
0:17:57 If you’d like to submit a question,
0:17:58 please email a voice recording
0:18:00 to officehours@proptimedia.com.
0:18:03 Again, that’s officehours@proptimedia.com.
0:18:05 (upbeat music)
0:18:14 This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez
0:18:16 and Caroline Shagren and Drew Burroughs
0:18:17 as our technical director.
0:18:19 Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod
0:18:20 from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:18:23 We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice
0:18:24 as read by George Hawn.
0:18:27 And please follow our PropG Markets Pod
0:18:29 wherever you get your pods for new episodes
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0:00:47 Support for PropG comes from Anthropic.
0:00:49 It’s not always easy to harness the power potential of AI
0:00:51 for all the talk about its revolutionary potential.
0:00:53 A lot of AI systems feel as if they’re designed
0:00:56 for specific tasks that are only performed by select few.
0:01:00 Well, Clod by Anthropic is AI for everyone.
0:01:02 The latest model, Clod 3.5 Sonnet,
0:01:05 offers groundbreaking intelligence at an everyday price.
0:01:08 Clod Sonnet can generate code, help with writing
0:01:09 and reason through hard problems better
0:01:10 than any model before.
0:01:13 You can discover how Clod can transform your business
0:01:15 at Anthropic.com/clod.
0:01:23 Support for this podcast comes from Anthropic.
0:01:26 It’s not always easy to harness the power
0:01:28 and potential of AI.
0:01:30 For all the talk around its revolutionary potential,
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0:02:03 – Welcome to the PropG Pods Office Hours.
0:02:05 This is the part of the show where we answer your questions
0:02:07 about business, product, entrepreneurship
0:02:09 and whatever else is on your mind.
0:02:11 If you’d like to submit a question,
0:02:14 please email a voice recording to OfficeHours@PropGmedia.com.
0:02:17 Again, that’s OfficeHours@PropGmedia.com.
0:02:18 I have not seen these questions.
0:02:21 So, no matter who knows.
0:02:23 – Hi, PropG.
0:02:24 This is Ben from Chicago.
0:02:26 I work in consulting for a well-respected firm
0:02:29 and want to get your perspective on brand deterioration.
0:02:32 Specifically, how long and what needs to occur.
0:02:35 Thanks for the great work and advice every week.
0:02:38 – So, who ranks poorly in terms of brand reputation?
0:02:41 According to the 2024 Axios Harris poll,
0:02:44 100 reputation rankings, meta ranks number 97
0:02:49 in overall reputation with a very poor score of 59.6.
0:02:52 That’s just three spots above the Trump organization
0:02:54 and two spots above X.
0:02:56 And one spot above Spirit Airlines.
0:02:59 So, what do these companies all have in common?
0:03:01 Brand is synonymous with differentiation.
0:03:05 I got five different brands of frosted flakes.
0:03:06 Which one is different from the other
0:03:09 and why am I gonna pay kind of unearned margin,
0:03:10 if you will.
0:03:11 Or differentiation equals margin.
0:03:14 In addition, a brand is sort of trust.
0:03:15 And that is you have to trust
0:03:17 it’s gonna deliver against its promise.
0:03:20 And the end user wants to feel like they can trust the brand.
0:03:23 And the thing that all of these companies have in common
0:03:26 is that people don’t trust Spirit Airlines
0:03:30 to kind of not to deliver.
0:03:32 People I think are worried when they got on Spirit Airlines
0:03:35 that they’re just gonna have a shitty experience.
0:03:38 The Trump organization I think has developed
0:03:40 a reputation for its vendors
0:03:44 and people not being able to trust the organization.
0:03:47 X has been in the news for destroying
0:03:49 a lot of shareholder value,
0:03:54 a lack of safety standards and just overall vitriol.
0:03:57 So, it kind of comes down to trust how you handle crises,
0:04:00 whether you’re seeing this treating your customers well,
0:04:02 whether you’re seeing this being honest,
0:04:03 all that kind of good stuff.
0:04:05 Who’s doing it well?
0:04:08 Right now it’s NVIDIA followed by 3M and Fidelity.
0:04:09 That’s interesting.
0:04:11 I wouldn’t have guessed Fidelity.
0:04:15 So NVIDIA, nothing helps a brand like success.
0:04:17 And I guess people trust NVIDIA because of its success
0:04:22 and beating expectations are always.
0:04:24 And I think Jensen is seen as a fairly good person
0:04:27 and the firm feels future forward.
0:04:29 So I think a lot of that just comes down to success.
0:04:33 3M is seen as somewhat of a paternal company
0:04:34 that’s good to its employees
0:04:36 and constant history of innovation.
0:04:39 Very sort of American, if you will.
0:04:40 I think people feel good.
0:04:42 It’s, I think their headquarters is in Minnesota
0:04:46 and people just like those Minnesotans.
0:04:47 Fidelity, I don’t know why.
0:04:48 I guess Fidelity handles money
0:04:52 and people feel pretty good that they’re good fiduciaries.
0:04:55 Look, brands are hard to kill.
0:04:57 They’re just becoming what I’d call less relevant.
0:04:58 What do I mean by that?
0:05:02 The algorithm for printing cash was to come up
0:05:06 with a mediocre car, shoe, salty snack, sugary drink
0:05:08 and wrap it in amazing brand codes
0:05:11 using this incredibly cheap and efficient
0:05:13 brand building infrastructure called broadcast television
0:05:15 where 60% of America was watching
0:05:17 one of three channels every night.
0:05:19 Then broadcast media became very splintered,
0:05:22 very expensive and people started cutting out the middle man
0:05:24 and going to content that didn’t,
0:05:26 but it wouldn’t be pelted by commercial telling them
0:05:29 they had restless legs and their social graph
0:05:31 and their new weapons of mass diligence,
0:05:33 including Google, their social graph,
0:05:35 TripAdvisor said you don’t need to always defer
0:05:39 to the mass diligence or the shorthand of a brand as often.
0:05:41 Now, having said that, it’s very rare
0:05:43 that an individual purchases anything
0:05:44 they haven’t heard of before.
0:05:47 Think about your inclination to return an email
0:05:49 from someone you’ve never heard of before
0:05:51 and someone you have heard of, right?
0:05:53 It’s exponentially greater likelihood
0:05:55 you’ll respond to the latter.
0:05:57 And the same is true of brands.
0:06:01 So just a general level of awareness is really meaningful
0:06:03 and then you infuse it with associations,
0:06:05 hopefully has self-expressive benefit.
0:06:07 Probably the best brand attribute after trust
0:06:09 would be scarcity and that is this notion
0:06:11 that it’s a limited supply.
0:06:15 So now let’s talk a little bit about B2B.
0:06:17 I think right away you need to identify
0:06:18 what the culture is gonna be
0:06:20 and to a certain extent the culture is your brand.
0:06:23 When my first firm in business school,
0:06:24 I started a chemical profit when I was 26,
0:06:27 I used to say we have a passion for brand,
0:06:29 attention to detail and a sense of camaraderie
0:06:32 and give people a sense of what those core associations are.
0:06:37 But at the top, these firms are delivering across
0:06:40 the two points of a brand and that is the promise
0:06:43 and then the performance has to match the promise.
0:06:45 So when we say we’re proud of our progress
0:06:48 as Cheryl Sandberg said at Facebook,
0:06:53 we found out that she was lying over and over and over.
0:06:55 Thanks for the question.
0:06:57 Question number two.
0:07:00 – Hi Prop G, Naomi here from Sydney, Australia.
0:07:03 We were in my late 20s working in finance
0:07:05 and I just made the big move to New York City this year,
0:07:08 taking your advice to get to a big city.
0:07:11 Now here’s the thing, in the midst of meeting
0:07:14 all these new people, both personally and professionally,
0:07:18 I’ve hidden unexpected and rather awkward problem.
0:07:24 My name, I share it with a very popular adult show star
0:07:28 who is very, very famous for her book fetish content.
0:07:30 And while I doubt that any reasonable person
0:07:34 would confuse my accomplishments with her accomplishments,
0:07:37 it’s wreaking absolute havoc on my personal brand.
0:07:40 I realize, of course, that I can’t win an SEO battle
0:07:43 against the adult entertainment industry,
0:07:46 but before my name becomes collateral damage
0:07:50 in the pursuit of a rebrand, I’d love to get your take.
0:07:53 Given how seamlessly you have integrated your name
0:07:57 into your personal brand, what would you do in my shoes?
0:08:02 And more broadly, how would anyone approach a name change,
0:08:04 whether it’s from marriage or divorce
0:08:07 or immigrant simplifying non-ango names?
0:08:09 How should they think about this?
0:08:12 Anyway, I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts
0:08:14 and thank you Scott for all the work that you do.
0:08:17 – God, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting this one.
0:08:20 Okay, I had sort of a similar issue
0:08:24 when I first developed a bit of a public footprint,
0:08:24 if you will.
0:08:28 Initially, being the narcissist I am,
0:08:30 I’d always Google my name and what came up first
0:08:33 about 10, 12 years ago, a gentleman named Scott Galloway
0:08:37 who played for the West Marine Mariners
0:08:39 or the New Wales Mariners of football,
0:08:42 a soccer player in Australia.
0:08:43 And he was just more famous than me.
0:08:45 So he came up and I’m like, ah, fuck,
0:08:46 there’s someone else named Scott Galloway
0:08:48 that’s more famous than me.
0:08:50 But over time, if you’re good at what you do,
0:08:52 eventually, especially I would imagine
0:08:56 an adult film star, that career wanes.
0:08:59 I imagine feet age better than most parts of your body,
0:09:02 but the thing about being an athlete, a musician,
0:09:03 a model, all the vanity industries,
0:09:05 and I would imagine being a porn star
0:09:06 is the reason these industries suck
0:09:08 is you get worse at them as you get older.
0:09:10 If you’re an accounting and 98% of industries,
0:09:12 you get better as you get older.
0:09:16 I would imagine this adult film stars brand is gonna wane.
0:09:17 And if you’re good at what you do
0:09:21 and you have a strong social footprint and you keep at it,
0:09:22 and this is what happened to me.
0:09:24 Now, if you do a search, you know,
0:09:27 Scott Galloway, the Australian football player,
0:09:29 comes up way, way down the list
0:09:32 because nothing builds your brand like excellence
0:09:33 and continuing to do good work.
0:09:35 Now, in terms of practically,
0:09:39 what you might wanna do on your social media handles
0:09:43 is maybe even jokingly say your name and then open paren,
0:09:47 not the foot fetish woman or not the adult star,
0:09:51 or always make sure, you know, like add something.
0:09:54 I say prof G, so people know I’m a professor.
0:09:58 Professor has a really nice, really nice connotation to it.
0:09:58 And at the end of the day,
0:10:01 I think of myself as a teacher, so it fits well.
0:10:02 It’s easy to say.
0:10:04 If you were to go through the hassle of a name change,
0:10:06 which I don’t recommend,
0:10:09 what you want is something that is easy to spell
0:10:11 and that there aren’t that many other people
0:10:12 with the same name.
0:10:13 And those two are in contradiction with each other.
0:10:16 Again, though, the key to anything
0:10:20 is just having, doing good work constantly.
0:10:23 That’s over the long term, what builds brands.
0:10:26 Anyways, interesting question.
0:10:29 We have one quick break before our final question.
0:10:30 Stay with us.
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0:11:29 can also apply to hiring.
0:11:31 Sorting through the crowd to find the perfect match
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0:13:47 – Welcome back, question number three.
0:13:48 – Hey there, Prof. G.
0:13:51 This is Glenn calling from beautiful Brooklyn, New York.
0:13:53 I recently turned 39 and decided
0:13:55 to create a pre-40 bucket list
0:13:56 as a way to challenge and inspire myself
0:13:58 heading into middle age.
0:14:00 I’m a senior software engineer and musician,
0:14:02 have a decent financial plan full in motion,
0:14:05 and I’m unmarried, although I have a lovely partner
0:14:07 and neither of us are interested in having children.
0:14:09 My question for you, Scott,
0:14:11 is have you ever created bucket lists
0:14:12 either for a specific milestone like age
0:14:14 or simply before death?
0:14:16 And do you have any advice for someone like me
0:14:18 to set myself up for happiness after 40
0:14:20 that isn’t just work and play hard?
0:14:23 Love the pods and thank you for taking my question.
0:14:25 – Jesus, Glenn, I immediately started searching
0:14:26 for something more profound,
0:14:29 and the reality is my only bucket list
0:14:31 was really just to be rich and awesome
0:14:33 in that order when I was your age.
0:14:35 I grew up not with a ton of stress,
0:14:37 ’cause I was never in poverty,
0:14:41 but my mom, I was raised by a single immigrant mother
0:14:42 who lived and died a secretary,
0:14:44 and money was a real issue for us.
0:14:46 We were never hungry or anything like that,
0:14:48 but it was just, I don’t know,
0:14:49 just from a very early age,
0:14:52 I connected the dots in a capitalist economy.
0:14:53 So my only goal, quite frankly,
0:14:57 was to have economic security.
0:14:58 I did have a goal around meeting somebody.
0:15:01 I wanted, I always thought I’d be a really good boyfriend,
0:15:02 and I was younger.
0:15:04 I didn’t have a lot of experience with women.
0:15:06 I caught up fast after,
0:15:10 I was kind of a late bloomer sexually and romantically,
0:15:13 but I was tall, skinny, with bad skin,
0:15:14 so I didn’t get a lot of opportunity.
0:15:17 And then my skin cleared up, I joined crew,
0:15:19 I got ripped, started making some money,
0:15:20 and all of a sudden I’m like,
0:15:23 “Wow, this whole mating thing,”
0:15:25 or at least practicing to mate is a lot of fun,
0:15:28 and I really enjoyed that through my 20s.
0:15:31 But I never really had a really solid relationship
0:15:34 like you have until I was older.
0:15:36 This is kind of an existential question
0:15:39 that I think you wanna talk to some of your friends about.
0:15:42 If you have economic security and you’re with a family,
0:15:44 or you have a good partner,
0:15:46 then the question becomes more of a,
0:15:49 “All right, time is gonna go really fast.”
0:15:54 And you’re gonna be at the end sooner than you think.
0:15:59 I just had a big birthday, I just turned 50, 60,
0:16:03 and I was your age, what felt 40 to 60 just flies by.
0:16:04 And the question is,
0:16:06 what will you have wanted to accomplish?
0:16:10 Will you want a set of experiences that are extraordinary?
0:16:12 Will you want to have established domain expertise
0:16:13 around something?
0:16:15 Will you want to have helped others?
0:16:19 Will you want to be the best in the world at something?
0:16:21 Will you want to have, at that point,
0:16:24 your parents will probably be older towards the end,
0:16:26 have a better relationship with them?
0:16:28 Do you really wanna explore
0:16:30 having a very deep and meaningful relationship
0:16:31 with your spouse and your partner?
0:16:32 Do you wanna give back?
0:16:35 I mean, just sort of sit down and say, “Work backwards.”
0:16:38 But it sounds to me like you’re tracking.
0:16:40 I mean, I’m just, I’m trying to squeeze the shit
0:16:42 out of this line called life.
0:16:44 And for me, getting to a certain level
0:16:46 of economic security, I saw as paramount in that.
0:16:48 And that’s probably a bit of an overstatement.
0:16:50 You can still have an exceptional life without
0:16:51 having a crazy amount of money,
0:16:54 but you do need a certain level of economic security.
0:16:56 And it feels like it’s there.
0:16:58 And then the thing I love,
0:17:00 and is finally kicked in for me,
0:17:01 and it didn’t till later in life,
0:17:04 but something I get tremendous gratification from,
0:17:05 is planting trees the shade of which
0:17:06 I will never sit under.
0:17:09 And that is getting involved in nonprofits
0:17:13 and trying to help and provide time, treasure, and talent
0:17:14 to affect change and improve the lives of people
0:17:16 who I will never meet.
0:17:17 That makes me feel very strong.
0:17:20 These are deeply personal issues.
0:17:23 I work through and I try and limit it to two or three things
0:17:26 ’cause once you get beyond two or three things,
0:17:28 you know, you forget the first one
0:17:31 and also maybe even work with somebody around this stuff.
0:17:34 But my brother, this is the mother of all good problems,
0:17:35 the fact that you were thinking this way.
0:17:38 99% of the world’s population is trying to figure out
0:17:40 how to keep the lights on, pay the rent,
0:17:41 make sure their kids are safe,
0:17:44 have decent healthcare, put food on the table.
0:17:48 So just take stock of your blessings as indicated by
0:17:51 that this is a quote unquote really, really good problem.
0:17:53 Glenn, I appreciate the question.
0:17:56 That’s all for this episode.
0:17:57 If you’d like to submit a question,
0:17:58 please email a voice recording
0:18:00 to officehours@proptimedia.com.
0:18:03 Again, that’s officehours@proptimedia.com.
0:18:05 (upbeat music)
0:18:14 This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez
0:18:16 and Caroline Shagren and Drew Burroughs
0:18:17 as our technical director.
0:18:19 Thank you for listening to the PropG Pod
0:18:20 from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:18:23 We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice
0:18:24 as read by George Hawn.
0:18:27 And please follow our PropG Markets Pod
0:18:29 wherever you get your pods for new episodes
0:18:31 every Monday and Thursday.
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0:19:32 you
Scott discusses brand strategy, specifically why some brands have strong reputations while others don’t. He then advises a listener who shares a name with an adult film star and is struggling with those SEO implications. He wraps up with his thoughts on bucket lists and advice to a listener turning 40 years old.
Music: https://www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic
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