ROI Podcast—the business show that doubles as a comedy roast—returns with Law Smith and Eric Readinger riffing on TikTok, attention spans, and why horoscopes are basically astrology's version of fantasy football. This episode tackles: TikTok's addictive algorithm vs. China's "education-only" version. Why social media feels like narco-terrorism for your brain. The trader who used TikTok comments to turn $84K into $42M. Comedy, drag shows, group dances, and why dudes just don't vibe with them. A DIY college fantasy football league idea that could flip into billions. If you like your business podcasts with more laughs than LinkedIn posts, hit subscribe and join the world's #1 comedy-business podcast. Eric Readinger 0:02 Okey, dokey, Law Smith 0:06 Whoo, yeah, ah, I wear, I wear my DMX goggles, yeah. I mean, this is, like, the why is that? DMX, no, but it's like a guy. This is Malibu's Most Wanted. That's what this guy sounds like. Eric Readinger 0:27 Yeah, maybe I don't know. He's not real. So can to be whatever you want him to be in your mind, Law Smith 0:32 so he is. So I'm right, yes, you're right. I'm gonna do this like a chick, yeah, see, I'm right, Eric Readinger 0:36 right, because I can't be proven wrong. I'm right. Law Smith 0:40 I was telling a friend, it made me underthink, like dudes, it's much, much better Eric Readinger 0:46 life. Uh huh, yeah, not everything you think is right. Law Smith 0:52 Well before this turns into no man from Eric Readinger 0:55 your children's club. Law Smith 0:58 You know, we can only call that shit out because we empathize with that play. Welcome to ROI podcast, because this is the number one comedy business podcast in the world. Sometimes we talk about emo stuff like Eric Readinger 1:12 that. Oh yeah. Are we gonna get into it? Nah. Law Smith 1:15 Oh, come on. No, no, no, it's too fresh. Too fresh, okay, fresh wounds. But I did. Eric Readinger 1:23 I'm gonna go ahead and just point out the echo Enos. That's my bad when we rip Law Smith 1:28 it up the floor in the studio, fix it in post. We got some tools. Well, hey, man, we should tell everybody, because I like giving resources out. I'm the Suze Orman of digital resources. That's what I want to be. What? Yeah, Adobe has a podcast Audio Enhancer. It'll take out background noise. It'll take out we have a little buzz I could hear right now that we had two episodes ago or an episode ago that it took outably your headphone. No, when I listened to it later. One of the previous episodes we Eric Readinger 2:02 did. Okay, this is definitely the kind of entertainment people want to hear. Well, maybe Law Smith 2:06 I'm just saying, if you have audio you need to clean up. You can, it's for podcasts, they say. But you could probably use it. If you had audio you needed to clean up, like in a loud room or a conference or, you know, any kind of meeting or something, you can right? But I just like the easy, you know, drag and drop it in, boom, come back out. Five minutes. Eric Readinger 2:24 You're good, yeah, AI is great, loyal part. Law Smith 2:29 But like it, it AI, the LLM, you know, those language learning models of like Chad, GBT and Claude and perplexity, large Eric Readinger 2:39 language, excuse me, what did I say? Learning? Used to Law Smith 2:45 whatever rewind I got. There's too many acronyms in my head or abbreviations, but it's one of those things where it it's a whole to do, like you have to know, how do you hold to do? What happens was. And I think everybody's having this issue, I kind of try to push through it, because I know that outcomes of what you want to get out of it, like, organize this document for me. Like, instead of me having to do it, that's great. That's like, I love that part of it, right? And that's intuitive. But there's some things that aren't intuitive on how to talk to it. Yeah, nicely, you can be mean to it. I don't know if it affects it. Eric Readinger 3:29 Well, not yet. You go on their list, their robot Law Smith 3:33 list, that's fair. So you know, I would just say I like the easy things like that. Like, for this podcast I'll use, there will be a word counter that sem rush, I think, has out there that's just its own website. You can drop a whole paragraph in. It'll pull the keywords for you if you want that are most important. It'll, you know, do stuff like that. I like those kind of little tools. And if we do anything on the show, if we're if we add any value besides our guests wisdom that come on the show, we show you how to be a tool. It's some resources to be a tool. Perfect Circle, exactly. Good album, yeah. You know, I don't know if I want to get into the fantasy football stuff. Eric Readinger 4:19 I know. I mean, I thought we were gonna talk about something else, I'll tease it. Law Smith 4:23 Well, we were, you and I off air. Were bitching about tick tock and how I don't think either of us really like Eric Readinger 4:30 it. I don't ever go Law Smith 4:32 into talk well, I don't, I don't like I don't like reels, I don't like show. I don't unless I'm like, going to Eric Readinger 4:39 look for something, right, right? It's not, we weren't talking just about Tiktok what? Law Smith 4:43 But I mean, Facebook reels, when I open those apps, it's like, abrasive with the video. You know? It's like, oh, sometimes the sound is like, way high, like an old TV commercial where the audio is like, doesn't that still happens, right? And it's so. Well, it's like, when I open up those apps and it goes right to video, it's like, oh, and I'm usually already listening to something, right? I've realized that's on me a little bit as far as like, I don't, I'm not people send me videos. I'm like, I'll get to that later. And I just never, yeah, I know it a lot of the time, but that's not because I didn't want to watch it. And I do like that. People will send me stuff. They go, Oh, they're thinking of you. They go, Oh, it's Eric Readinger 5:28 nice in general, to me, the interface is just a pain in the ass. Did you see the videos I sent you? Oh, you sent more than one. Oh, my God, gotta back out, because I go back in like, Law Smith 5:38 it's just stupid, and then I might be a comedy snob at the same time, exactly. And so that Eric Readinger 5:44 isn't funny. Isn't funny. Why are you sending me out? And then Law Smith 5:47 so I was kind of thinking about it, when we talked about it, like last week, just kind of shooting the shit. And I was like, Why does Tiktok kind of annoy the shit out of me? And it part of it. Once I found out that the Chinese algorithm for their people is wildly different than the one over here. I think that was my trigger point to go. I don't want to be on that. That. And at the same time, my mom, friends that are like our age in their 40s, they were telling me they're wasting two hours a night on there every night, and they're like, I'm so addicted. Like, when it was really popping. Like, you know, 2021 I don't know 22 we're not the first movers on this, but the laggard, older people, yeah, and so, like, I was like, I want that. I don't have enough time. I feel like, but you're Eric Readinger 6:41 acting like the Tick Tock algorithm is that much worse than any other social media algorithm. They're all doing the same thing. Law Smith 6:47 Well, I think they do they I think they do it the best it seems like. Because it seems like, yeah, maybe I don't know, man, just from general chatter I hear in my life. But also, when I'm listening, I listen to a dick loader comedy podcast all day, because, you know, marketing, marketing work is like, once you know how to do it, you can kind of be on autopilot a little bit. And so it's one of those things where the chatter is like, it is they have, they got it dialed in, they got you screwed in, buddy. And that's, that's, that's really, they're the best at Eric Readinger 7:27 it that. But it's like we're on neither of us are on it. To know if it's better or worse. I'm on it enough. I Oh, here we go. Now we get the truth. Law Smith 7:36 Well, I need to know, well, marketing, we're in marketing, so it's like, I need to know enough, right? And I need to know a user perspective of it, right? I can't. I usually just try to stick to, like, outside research, well, yeah. But I'm always like, I like, put it away, like, it's like, a Ebola virus or something, okay, you know, I'm like, Oh, I don't want, that's good. That's really, yeah, but I also like timely reference. So the thing was like, Yeah, it's like, the Black Plague. And so I think, like, when? But really when it was like, okay, the algorithm for China and the Chinese people definitely got some pro China stuff going on there, right? That's, that's just good marketing within the country, right? Educational outside of that, it's only educational stuff. Eric Readinger 8:29 Now here, what is the education about, Law Smith 8:31 like, science and like things of that nature, probably revisionist history, I'm sure. But I'm sure it has a whole glaze of propaganda over it, yeah, but at the same time they're doing that, but over here, they're like, let these dummies get dumber. That's what. That's my like, Eric Readinger 8:50 yeah, I don't think that's a wild No, that's not wild at all. I agree with you, and Law Smith 8:56 I compare it to Narco terrorism of like, you know, they say there's a lot of fentanyl that gives through Mexico from other countries to go up, up to the United States to kind of hurt, yeah, oh, no. This is, and that's happened on the Russian Eric Readinger 9:12 border without better than Narco terrorism, bro. Well, it's it. This is the Idiocracy. This is Lee, yeah, it's legal, right? Law Smith
