the hawk tuah flop comeback

Summary

Podcast Summary: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) - Episode: "The Hawk Tuah Flop Comeback"

Release Date: April 29, 2025
Host: Jamie Loftus (Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts)

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Sixteenth Minute (of Fame), host Jamie Loftus delves deep into the tumultuous journey of Haley Welch, also known as "Hawk to a Girl." This episode meticulously unpacks Haley's ascent to internet fame, her entanglement with the crypto scam "Hawk Coin," and the subsequent fallout that jeopardized her burgeoning career. Through a blend of reported segments, interviews, and Sharp insights, Jamie navigates the complexities of viral fame in the digital age.

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Background: Haley Welch’s Rise to Fame

Jamie begins by revisiting the origins of Haley Welch’s internet prominence. Haley became a viral sensation after her interaction with the YouTube/TikTok duo Tim and D, where she humorously responded to their question about a move in bed that makes a man go crazy. This moment encapsulated the nature of 2024's viral fame—fast-paced, fleeting, and often merciless.

Notable Quote:

"Hayley Welch went viral last year in a way that is barely possible anymore after being featured without her consent."
(00:54)

---

The Emergence of Hawk Coin and the Crypto Scandal

As Haley’s fame surged, she was introduced to Jake Paul, a pivotal figure in the influencer landscape known for pioneering modern viral strategies. Under Paul's network, Haley launched "Hawk Coin," a meme cryptocurrency intended to capitalize on her newfound fame. However, the venture spiraled into what Jamie describes as one of the "most high-profile catastrophic rollouts" in crypto history.

Key Points:

• Jake Paul's Influence: Transitioned from Vine to LA-based influencer empire, setting the stage for new monetization paths in internet fame.
• Hawk Coin's Failure: Poor execution and allegations of it being a pump and dump scheme led to significant financial losses for investors.
• SEC Investigation: Triggered by widespread defrauding claims, resulting in years of legal scrutiny.

Notable Quote:

"Jake Paul was so busy with being a right-wing influencer that he was actively looking to find other influencers to host a shitty video podcast on his crypto sports betting app."
(10:55)

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The Leaked Podcast Episode and Fallout

A pivotal moment unfolded when a planned podcast episode between Haley Welch and FaZe Banks—an outspoken crypto critic—was leaked prematurely. This leak exposed attempted damage control measures by Haley’s team, including a botched apology and ongoing attempts to salvage Hawk Coin's reputation.

Key Points:

• Interview Leak: Intended to be an apology and explanation, it was leaked amidst an SEC investigation, undermining Haley’s credibility.
• FaZe Banks’ Critique: Publicly condemned the crypto scam, adding pressure on Haley and her associates.
• Insider Trading Allegations: Spike in Hawk Coin’s trading volume suggested possible insider manipulation tied to the podcast leak.

Notable Quotes:

"This botched ending to an attempted apology tour does not work, and the team once again goes silent until March 25th."
(47:41)

"Haley's team appeared to consider coming on this show for two full weeks."
(13:18)

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Reactions from Crypto Critics and the Community

The episode highlights responses from prominent figures like Coffeezilla, who played a crucial role in exposing the Hawk Coin scam. Coffeezilla's investigative journalism not only brought widespread attention to the fraudulent activities but also highlighted inconsistencies in Haley’s team's narratives.

Key Points:

• Coffeezilla’s Exposé: Detailed the mismanagement and deceptive practices behind Hawk Coin, garnering over 4 million views.
• Faze Banks’ Involvement: Initially critical, Banks later appeared on the leaked podcast, further complicating Haley’s public image.
• Public Opinion: Split between those empathetic to Haley's predicament and others viewing her as complicit in the scam.

Notable Quotes:

"This is one of the most miserable... horrific launches I've ever seen in my life."
(20:35)

"Faze Banks knew what's happening, and he was ensuring the episode shouldn’t be released until the investigation was over."
(50:32)

---

Haley Welch’s Attempted Comeback

Following months of silence and negative press, Haley made a brief return to social media with a cryptic TikTok sketch depicting her perceived image crisis. This marked an attempt to rebrand and regain some semblance of her former fame, though reactions remained largely negative.

Key Points:

• TikTok Sketch: Showcased Haley waking from a "nap," symbolizing her rebirth from the scandal.
• Public Reception: Mixed, with many mocking the attempt as insincere or humorous in the face of the serious allegations.
• SEC Resolution: Eventually, the SEC closed its investigation without findings against Haley, allowing her to avoid legal repercussions officially.

Notable Quotes:

"Imagine running a crypto fraud scheme and then coming back three months later acting like it never happened."
(58:52)

"The SEC closed the investigation without making any findings against or seeking any monetary sanctions from Haley."
(59:31)

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Concluding Thoughts and Future Outlook

Jamie concludes the episode by reflecting on the broader implications of Haley Welch’s saga. The case underscores the volatile nature of internet fame and the precarious balance influencers must maintain between seeking attention and maintaining ethical standards. As Haley plans a documentary and considers stepping away from cryptocurrency, Jamie teases future discussions on her attempted career relaunch and its inevitable challenges.

Notable Quote:

"Hayley is being used as a pawn to some extent, but her whole business operation is willfully defrauding the public and then working overtime to deny it unless confronted with irrefutable evidence."
(56:15)

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Key Takeaways

1. Viral Fame’s Fragility: Haley Welch’s rapid rise and fall exemplify how fleeting and precarious internet fame can be, especially when intertwined with controversial ventures.
2. Influencer Responsibility: The association with figures like Jake Paul highlights the potential dangers when influencers engage in unethical monetization strategies.
3. Impact of Investigative Journalism: Figures like Coffeezilla play a critical role in holding influencers accountable, shaping public perception and influencing outcomes in high-stakes scenarios.
4. Legal and Ethical Boundaries: The SEC’s involvement underscores the importance of adhering to legal frameworks, even in the seemingly unregulated world of cryptocurrency.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Stassi Schroeder:
  "Stassi Schroeder: And is she wrong? But for all of what followed, the clickbait fame followed by the modern template of what viral fame looked like at this very particular moment in time."
  (05:29)

• Jamie Loftus:
  "I do have a lot of empathy for Haley at the time she was pulled into this predicament..."
  (56:15)

• Coffeezilla:
  "I have questions. I have questions. I'm raising my hand."
  (20:35)

• Faze Banks:
  "Hawk to a girl's back with a released podcast that was immediately disavowed by nearly everyone in it..."
  (49:05)

• Haley Welch:
  "Does this podcast make you happy? Of course it does..."
  (35:45)

---

Conclusion

This episode of Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) serves as a compelling case study on the intersection of internet fame, cryptocurrency, and ethical dilemmas faced by influencers. Through detailed reporting and insightful commentary, Jamie Loftus provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of Haley Welch's rise and fall, offering broader lessons on the complexities of modern digital notoriety.

Transcript

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Daci]

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[Stassi Schroeder]

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[Stassi Schroeder]

No purchase necessary. VGW Group Void where prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Media hello 16th minute listeners. Jamie here with a special announcement. I am going to be going on tour across the US in just a couple of weeks to promote the paperback release of my book Raw the Naked Truth About Hot Dogs. If you don't know about raw Dog the Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, let me tell you it is a book about hot dogs that I wrote. It is the only book that I know that is strictly about the history of hot dogs from a leftist perspective. Meaning that I love hot dogs, but we have to talk about how they're produced and the labor that it requires to produce them. I'm going to be going around the country, going to independent bookstores and giving free chats about the book. So if you want to come out talk 16th minute talk hot dogs, you can come talk to a me Jamie in the following cities. Los Angeles, May 13 Louisville, Kentucky May 14 Cambridge, Massachusetts May 15. That's going to be a rough couple of days on a plane. Portland, Maine May 19 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania May 20 Richmond, Virginia May 21 Petaluma, California May 22 and Larkspur, California May 31. I will be releasing other dates as the summer goes on, so feel free to reach out and complain. I love it. You can reserve your tickets for free at the link in the description. I'm really looking forward to seeing you. And of course I am wearing a little outfit. Okay, Enjoy the episode.

[Coffeezilla]

16.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Minutes welcome back to 16th minute, the podcast where we talk to the Internet's main characters to see how their moment in the spotlight affected them and what that says about us and the Internet. And just when you thought the story of Haley Welch, aka Hawk to a girl the main character of 2024 had made her grand exit from the public consciousness. Well, this is the consequence of me covering main characters of recent history. It's never true. I'm always wrong. There's more to say. So this is the first episode that we've done of this kind, but it's one that I felt was necessary because earlier this year I did a multiple part series on Haley Welch who went viral last year in a way that is barely possible anymore after being featured without her consent as we get into in that series on a Man on the Street YouTube/TikTok channel in which she became famous for saying, you must give.

[Daci]

Him that Hawk too and spit on that thing.

[Stassi Schroeder]

And is she wrong? But for all of what followed, the clickbait fame followed by the modern template of what viral fame looked like at this very particular moment in time. It was a lot and it kind of sucked. But for those who listened to that series a few months ago, we have, as you know, undergone a million historical catastrophes since then. And so I do want to just refresh your mind a little bit. So come with me if you dare to December 2024. Fortunately, we have been here recently, not just in calendar linear time, but because recently talked about this specific period of a few weeks in our Dr. Ali Lukes episode. But this is where we left off at the end of the Haley Welch series. To summarize, 21 year old Haley Welch went to the Broadway district in Nashville, Tennessee. Tennessee being the state she Grew up in with her best friends after seeing a country music festival and were beckoned over by a man on the street. Aspiring social media douchebag bro duo called Tim and D, who asked them this inspired question. What's one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time? And well, they asked this question to many women and I will qualify that with many drunk women, always drunk women who can't quite give consent. Nothing weird going on there. While most of these women answered with a version of the same thing, one woman answered it the funniest. And that woman was Hayley Welch, whose interaction with Tim and D alongside her best friend Chelsea lasts much longer in the original video. But during the age of the TikTok clip, it boils down to this.

[Daci]

Aw, you gotta give him that huck too. And spend all that night.

[Stassi Schroeder]

You get me? And what Hailey experiences from this moment on is uniquely 2024. Sort of a collage of what the viral online experience experience could look like at the highest level at this particular moment. She gets the classic overnight fame treatment, one characterized by near instantaneous online headlines and fame. But it's long past the days where this fame is easily parlayed into where her viral foremothers landed. You know what I'm talking about. The 2010s move to LA version of viral fame. The go talk to Hollywood agencies, do a couple guest spots on sitcoms and try to figure out how you might fit into a more traditional media culture. But that really didn't exist by the time Haley became famous in 2024. And in fact, you could argue that Internet culture had since eclipsed that traditional media structure. No, by the time Haley's moment came along, a new path for monetizing virality had been forged. And while some influencers weren't able to make the jump from the Internet pandering to Hollywood to the Hollywood pandering to the Internet era between the mid 2000s and now, a couple did. Think of them as the girls who made the jump from the silent pictures to the talkies. If the girls who made the jump from the silent picture to the talkies were a pair of adult blonde brothers with very dark spirits, I of course am referring to the Paul brothers, specifically Jake Paul. We need to change from Kamala Harris to the Republican candidate Donald Trump, who is the younger brother of Logan Paul. Give a fight your brother, not in real life. You practiced a little bit.

[Ryan Seacrest]

We've never even sparred, but I was.

[Coffeezilla]

Willing to step in for Mike Tyson when Tyson got sick and we actually.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Ran it up the chain in Netflix, who I promise to mention as little as humanly possible in this episode, but they just weasel their way into so many corners of Internet history. Since we have last recorded this show, they have attended Trump's second presidential inauguration with Theo Vaughn. Kill me. Kill me with a gun. But Jake Paul, who brought Haley Welch and her best friend Chelsea, along with the entire Hawk, to a crew that had assembled, consisting of managers, publicists, lawyers, the list goes on onto the better network, a podcasting sports betting application. Jake Paul knows the online fame game better than nearly anybody. The Pauls were a big part of observing this major change in what influencing looked like. They started on vine, an app that no longer exists. They moved to LA when that was the thing to do. They pioneered the idea of moving a bunch of influencers into a mansion and then ruining the mansion back up. Wow.

[Coffeezilla]

I never thought I would say this, but welcome home, Jake Paulers.

[Stassi Schroeder]

We made it, mom.

[Coffeezilla]

We flipping made it.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Good morning, Jake Paulers.

[Stassi Schroeder]

What's flipping Gucci? Today is off to a flipping amazing start.

[Coffeezilla]

We're moving in to the new Team 10 house.

[Stassi Schroeder]

It is genuinely hard to find a douchebag influencer thing that these men have not done. In the mid 2010s, they were doing bad rap battles with their fellow influencers. They shamelessly hawked merch. But as the first Trump administration dragged on, they were part of this evolving influencer grift. And I think you'll recognize what I'm talking about here. The new influencer grift, which consists of this sinister blend of bad long video podcasts, weird products marketed at children, pivoting to hard Republican, out of nowhere, pay per view boxing, sports gambling apps, and of course, cryptocurrency. So by the time Hayley Welch came along, Jake Paul wasn't just a whole new kind of influencer. He had been a part of creating what this influencer was going to look like. So no longer living in the Team 10 house or doing whatever I blocked from my YouTube feed in the mid 2000s, at this point in 2024, Jake Paul was so busy with being a right wing influencer that he was actively looking to find other influencers to host a shitty video podcast on his crypto sports betting app so that he could spend more time. Say it with me. Fighting a rapist on pay per view boxing. And this is the path to fame monetization that Hayley Welch was launched into. And her first major platform was a video podcast that strictly featured guests with massive social media followings and usually video podcasts of their own. This was and is the podcast known as Talk to A, which is objectively a really good name for that podcast. But that doesn't mean that it was a good podcast necessarily. Haley at the beginning is very uncomfortable on Mike and that is not a criticism of her. She literally became famous a couple weeks earlier.

[Daci]

Make sure you hit follow on talk to her wherever you get your podcast. We're releasing episodes every Tuesday. And for those of you watching on YouTube, be sure you like, comment and subscribe. Subscribe to that thing.

[Stassi Schroeder]

No Riz, but this podcast of course gets a lot of press because of how close it happens to her moment of massive virality. And it even spawns an irony pilled reaction podcast called Talking Talk to A. Welcome to Talking Talk to A the.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Official companion podcast to Talk to A. I'm Peter. And I'm Cam and we're your hosts here.

[Jamie Loftus]

To the only official companion podcast.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So Talk to A does what it was supposed to do, get a lot of attention and sell Jake Paul's Better crypto sports gambling app to her relatively young audience. Even if the ad reads left something to be desired.

[Daci]

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[Stassi Schroeder]

I'm sold. But it's only a matter of time before Haley Welch's team was approached about starting a meme coin on their own. They were already so adjacent to crypto, and they were approached by a man named Doc Hollywood. I'm not joking. To use a service called Pump Fun. I'm also not joking. Pump Fun is a service that allows influencers to mint their own crypto coin and basically make a quick buck. And while casual followers of Hayley Welch may have found this pivot to crypto to be very confusing if you were paying close attention to how her social media had developed since this first moment of fame and signing with an agency. The scene had been set for this for months as Twitter became a confirmed cesspit for crypto speculators and scammers, Hayley Welch's team set up a Twitter account for her that exclusively spoke in crypto memes. Meanwhile, over on Hailey's personal account on Instagram, she was acting like a normal young woman in her 20s. There was a huge narrative voice difference between these two accounts. And so a lot of people asked Haley on Twitter, is this you? Is this Your team. Who is this? And in response, there would be front facing videos of Haley insisting that no, this is her. She's very into crypto.

[Daci]

It's me, bitch. What do you fucking mean?

[Stassi Schroeder]

I do want to add that we had to pull that clip from a previous episode of 16th Minute because all of these videos were deleted and it will become clear why in a second. Haley now readily admits that she was asked to film these videos, but she was absolutely not running the Twitter crypto meme account because she didn't know anything about crypto and she's too young to have any interest in Twitter. But all throughout the lead up to the early December 2024 launch of what was known as Hawk Coin, Hayley Welch played along in spite of admittedly knowing very little about how crypto actually worked, much less how to or if it's even possible to work with it ethically. And this led to her, depending on how you feel, either being willfully or being tricked into a pretty massive scam by a man named Doc Hollywood. So let's say this man named Doc Hollywood has convinced you that you'll make a shitload of money on a crypto pump and dump scheme, but the only catch is that you need to post videos of you as if you totally understand what's going on. This is a strategy that of course went south very quickly, and if you want more details about how this exactly went down, go ahead and listen to earlier parts of this series. I hope these are things you already know, but it does feel important to remind you of what actually happened in this case. Because in recent months, and since I last wrote about this story, key players involved have begun to characterize the events that I painstakingly for some reason, tracked in the first run of these episodes and have changed the narrative to better suit their own interests. Because in recent months, a lot of the key players in this story, both Haley and the people who worked in her general orbit during this time, have begun to mischaracterize the events I just described, and if you have access to the original posts and timelines, it just doesn't match up at all. Why might that be in Hailey's case? I'll give you the generous reading first, when big weird stuff happens to you and is covered extensively in the media, that, regardless of what you did right or wrong, is definitely overwhelming and possibly traumatizing. Something I think about with Hayley Welch is that this appeared to suddenly put her in the position of being the breadwinner for her family and the employer of her best friend in an industry that not only she didn't understand, but barely anyone understood. Because the way that online influencing and all of these weird crypto situations work seems to change every two minutes. If I were to give a less generous reading. This is something we've seen from Hayley Welch before. Or more specifically, Hayley Welch and company as we'll get into in this episode. Hayley Welch has made it clear that she is interested in remaining in the public eye, regardless of how compromising the thing that got her in the public eye was, and that she's down to exploit others and to be exploited again. So we're in. December 2024. Trump has just been reelected. A united health care executive is assassinated by someone I read the Reddit board, you guys, I apologize for my enthusiasm. And Jamie Loftus forces her fiance to take the day off work to see Wicked and iMax, and for the first and only time in human history, saw straight couples in the theater where the woman was loudly explaining the plot to the man. It was incredible. And Ms. Haley Hawk to a Welch releases what appears to be the final episode of her podcast, Talk to A on Jake Paul's Better Network, which and I always laugh when I see this is ominously titled how not to Get Canceled. And then the feed goes completely dark because Hayley Welch got canceled. Because it was at this time that the now infamous Hawk Coin, a meme coin many correctly pointed out, should have been called spitcoin. Missed opportunity. But at least they thought of Talk to a But Hawk Coin was released to a crypto consuming public in one of the most high profile catastrophic rollouts to date, if crypto journalists reaction was any indication.

[Faze Banks]

I have questions. I have questions. I'm raising my hand.

[Daci]

Hey, guys, copy Zilla.

[Faze Banks]

Hey.

[Coffeezilla]

This is one of the most miserable.

[Faze Banks]

Horrible launches I've ever seen in my life.

[Daci]

Okay, why the fuck are you on?

[Stassi Schroeder]

You've heard this voice on the show before. This is the voice of Steven Findason, aka Coffeezilla, the journalist and extremely successful YouTuber who is at the forefront of calling out Hawk Coin for what it was, a crypto scam, which isn't uncommon, but Coffeezilla has a massive audience and he correctly called out that this wasn't just a scam. It was a tremendously lazy scam, which when you add the most memeable face of the year to it, meant a lot more press than most common pump and dump schemes of this nature would pull in. And then he goes on to make a very viral YouTube video about it. This then makes it public knowledge that the meme coin is a huge scam, and it all but craters Hayley Welch's fledgling career. But among people who were interested in this story, the real question was, how aware was Hayley that this was a huge scam? But we wouldn't get the answer to that question for months. Because after the crypto scandal, not only is an SEC investigation announced into the issue, but Hayley Welch and basically everyone in her orbit go completely silent. They go dark on social media for months. Talk to Us stops, Haley stops posting publicly. And everyone assumes that her moment in the spotlight has ended in sort of the most humiliating way possible. The reason, largely speculated for this sudden silence, wasn't humiliation, though. It was very much the lawsuit filed with the SEC in New York from people who had been defrauded to the tune of six figures by Hawk Coin, leading to millions of dollars in defrauding. But investigating these cases takes some time, and the Internet famously has no patience. And so almost immediately, we start to see lazy clickbait video essays saying things.

[Coffeezilla]

Like this, what's going on with that Hawk Tua check?

[Stassi Schroeder]

She going to jail? What happened to Hawk 2?

[Ryan Seacrest]

That's my girl?

[Stassi Schroeder]

Which like, no, she obviously wasn't going to jail. And there was never a chance that she would have because it was the orchestrators of the crypto coin named in the lawsuit, the doc Hollywoods, not the young woman being used as the face of the scheme. And that kind of content is a whole cottage industry of taking a recently relevant person, often a woman, and painting them in the worst way possible. And while Haley absolutely up, she is painted in a pretty misogynist and slut shamy way. In a lot of these videos, the.

[Coffeezilla]

Hawk to a girl just got violated on Instagram. You see, she posted a reel inviting Trae Young to be on her podcast, all because he plays for the Atlanta.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Hawks, so it would fit well with her brand. And the Atlanta Hawks Instagram account commented.

[Coffeezilla]

Saying, we good as Trey probably wants.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Nothing to do with her. And congratulations, you're caught up.

[Doc Hollywood]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report hello darlings.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Pack your suitcase for a new season of the Hulu original reality series Vanderpump Villa. Let's do this. Ciao. It's Stassi. Of course. Lisa brought in her favorite to be resident chaperone of the castle.

[Daci]

Stassi is an icon.

[Stassi Schroeder]

She's my eyes and ears. I love this. Get ready for the luxury and drama that awaits us in Italy. Cheers to all the toxic couples in the castle. Season 2 of Vanderpump Villa is now streaming on Hulu. Click fast and save big shopourblinds.com Spring Cyber Monday sale happening right now and elevate your space. Brand new Custom window treatments today, blinds.com is the number one online retailer for custom window treatments, offering you professional support and styles that fit any budget, from classic shutters and bamboo shades, even motorized shades for your outdoor space. Blinds.com has something for everyone with honest upfront pricing and no hidden fees. DIY or let us handle everything from measure to install. Blinds.com makes it easy with free virtual consultations. Our design experts will help guide you from start to finish, with free samples.

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[Daci]

Anywho, I'm gonna go to bed and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Outside of a Twitter post saying that she is completely cooperating with the SEC investigation, that's the last we hear from Haley Welch in 2024. But early in 2025, as Trump's second inauguration approaches, something interesting happens. And by something interesting, I mean something really embarrassing and very depressing. From January 17, 2025, three days before he took office, as Donald Trump was preparing for his inauguration, those close to him were also hard at work launching a new cryptocurrency. I would not be surprised if you had already forgotten this happened. It was a thousand press cycles ago now, and it already feels very quaint compared to what the administration is currently doing. But Trump launched a Meme Coin. I mean, crypto folks seem to agree that it was a less sloppy pump and dump than hock coin, but that's not saying much. Coffeezilla can explain it better than I can.

[Faze Banks]

Trump just launched a Meme Coin. Welcome back to the void. This is not how I wanted to start my 2025. Let me tell you that right now. Here's the tweet. My new Donald Trump official meme is here. It's time to celebrate everything we stand for.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Winning.

[Faze Banks]

Join my very special Trump community. Get your now go to get TrumpMemes.com when you go there, you join the Trump meme, which is buying something and hoping it goes up in value.

[Stassi Schroeder]

The story within the story that a lot of people missed as Trump was launching a Meme Coin was that during the week of the inauguration, it seemed that virtually everyone in Trump's orbit was signing up for Pump Fun and trying to make their own Meme coin. Even the pastor hired to speak at the inauguration, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Let's talk about him. He is from 180Church in West Detroit. The town's newspaper had a write up on him via the Daily Beast. Just hours after he delivered that speech For President Trump, Rev. Sewell announced the launch of his own crypto token dubbed Lorenzo.

[Stassi Schroeder]

This one is nuts. You just, you have to laugh at this one. This is Pastor Lorenzo Sewell and in this video he is literally still wearing the outfit he just swore Trump in wearing. If nothing else, I have never seen someone so acutely aware that they have 12 minutes of relevance left. It's very funny.

[Coffeezilla]

I need you to do me a favor right now. I need you to go buy the official Lorenzo Sewell Coyne. I want you to be able to see politics become manifest, not just in.

[Stassi Schroeder]

A way where we're praying over political.

[Coffeezilla]

Gatherings, but we're seeing us become the.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Hands and the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Coffeezilla]

Would you help me? Would you help us in this endeavor? Would you go and purchase the coin.

[Stassi Schroeder]

In order for us to do what we need to do in the ministry? And with the state of the world being what it is, the Trump meme coin is very successful and basically prints money for him, leaving some of the world's most noxious Internet personalities to praise him and essentially enter the Jake Paul school of right wing grifting, as so many did in 2024, ruining the reputation of podcasts permanently. Oh, no. Here's an example of someone doing just that. This is a 35 year old man named Faze Banks, who also pivoted to crypto and was investigated by the SEC for scamming crypto, who, I regret to inform you, becomes relevant to our story very shortly.

[Coffeezilla]

And then you get booted out of the phase house and your life's falling apart. You're sleeping on an air mattress and Faze rugs calling you to check in every other day and adapt. And Keemstar, your only friends gotta get the up and you gotta go do something. Yeah, you have to.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So while some crypto speculators, including people who appeared on this show, seemed hopeful that the Hawk Coin scandal might mean that doc Hollywood & Co would be made an example of in one of the few pump and dump schemes to make it all the way to the national news. When Trump was in office doing literally the same thing as Hawk Coin did, a few weeks later, it became clear that there was no way that was going to happen. And in the meantime, I, Jamie Lou Loft, as your little host, along with producer Ian Johnson, was trying to see if there was a chance in hell that Haley's team would ever let us interview her for the show. And to everyone's shock, we actually received a reply in January, and Haley's team appeared to consider coming on this show for two full weeks. Which indicates to me that in terms of media strategy, they must have been really flying by the seat of their pants. But while the SEC investigation dragged on, it was also unclear whether Hayley Welch was going to get out of this predicament with her business relationship with Jake Paul intact, which is a nice way of saying whether Jake Paul and company thought they could make any more money off of her. It seemed unlikely that Talktua was ever going to return on the better network, but I still didn't know why that was. This became clear in early February when news dropped that made it clear that not only had Team Hawk decided against engaging with my sorry ass in spite of the fact that I bravely paid for their ugly, uncomfortable hat, thank you very much, but this news also offered an explanation as to why the Jake Paul relationship fell apart. I present you the evidence a leaked unreleased episode of Talk to a about the crypto scand.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, not everyone who.

[Doc Hollywood]

Handles your personal information is going to be as careful as you are, and it only takes one mistake to expose it to hackers and identity theft. Maybe that's why there's a new victim of identity theft every five seconds in the United States. Fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen. A LifeLock US based restoration specialist will help solve identity theft issues on your behalf, guaranteed or your money back. Plus, all LifeLock plans are backed by the million dollar protection package, meaning LifeLock will reimburse you up to the limits of your plan if you lose money due to identity theft. You can't control how diligent others are with your personal information, but with Lifelock you can help protect it. Act now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code IHEARTRA or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Hello darlings. Pack your suitcase for a new season of the Hulu original reality series Vanderpump Villa. Let's do this. Ciao. It's Stassi. Of course. Lisa brought in her favorite to be resident chaperone of the castle.

[Daci]

Dassi is an icon.

[Stassi Schroeder]

She's my eyes and ears. I love this. Get ready for the luxury and drama that awaits us in Italy. Cheers to all the toxic couples in the castle. Season 2 of Vanderpump Villa is now streaming on Hulu.

[Haley Welch]

Does this podcast make you happy? Of course it does. That's why you're here. But it only comes out once a week for happiness. Every night. You need Adam and Eve.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Yes.

[Haley Welch]

I'm talking about sex toys. It's cool. It's cool. You have earbuds in, right? Adam and Eve, America's most trusted source for adult products, has been making people very happy for over 50, with thousands of toys for both men and women. Just go to AdamAndEve.com now and enter code IHEART for 50% off. Almost any one item, plus free discreet shipping. That's AdamAndEve.com code IHEART for 50% OFF.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So it's a little unclear exactly when this was filmed, but I would assume it was sometime in January 2025. They are still on the better network. Talk to Us set with guest and I hate to say that he's back already. It is Faze Banks. And while Faze Banks is a total scumbag who is fully in Jake Paul's orbit, his being chosen as the guest is not without reason. Because while he could at best be described as a crypto enthusiast who hasn't been under federal investigation in the last two calendar years, FaZe Banks was actually on that famous Twitter Spaces press conference. The same press conference that Haley Welch.

[Daci]

Said, anywho, I'm gonna go to bed.

[Stassi Schroeder]

The same press conference that Coffeezilla used to essentially take down the scam in the first place. He was there. Here's a clip of him from that moment responding to one of the Hawk Coin crypto guys.

[Coffeezilla]

Haley, I'm going to talk to you directly right now, because if you really own 10 of the supply of this token and it's locked up for a year and it's vested over three years, you got scammed harder than anybody involved. This, a hundred percent, was a mismanaged mislaunched. Like this. This is took what coffee Zillow said. I would. I would label this a scam as well.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So in some ways, Faze Banks's initial criticism of the hawkcoin scam could make Haley's team putting him on the show look like an attempt to make her seem like she's willing to engage with detractors. Of course, this isn't actually true. Faze Banks is just another crypto guy. And like a lot of crypto guys, he was someone who was involved in any number of alternatively loserish or scary activities prior to being a crypto guy. Not only does he stem from the same generation of millennial influencer vloggers turned crypto dirtbags like Jake Paul Faze Banks also has a long standing relationship, positive and negative, with the Paul brothers, including some romantic history that I cannot commit to memory to save my life. And after getting into crypto, developed plenty of experience feigning neutral authority over some bullshit he's selling like crypto. And don't worry, he has been accused of assaulting a woman. He's a terrible person. So two things need to be true here, folks. He is a scumbag and he is the kind of guy who would be happy to publicly forgive a crypto scam because he's the kind of guy to do a crypto scam. The podcast episode starts like this.

[Daci]

Hello, guys. I'm back with another episode of Talk to and I'm here with Banks.

[Coffeezilla]

There he is.

[Daci]

How's it going?

[Coffeezilla]

It's going good. Life's crazy right now. I don't know. I say no to every single podcast. I the ongoing joke on impulsive that I stood them up four or five times. I this isn't necessarily my thing, but you're in an interesting position right now and I feel like it's my duty to come on here and talk to you. You seem like a sweet enough girl and I feel like I. I know more or less what happened with you. We're going to get into all that. I brought a couple crypto nerds with me. We're going to sit down and talk.

[Daci]

Teach me.

[Coffeezilla]

Yeah, yeah. No, I feel good. How do you feel?

[Daci]

I don't know. I'm still a little shook up about it.

[Stassi Schroeder]

And I was able to pull this audio from a re upload of this interview. It's 40 minutes long. But technically this was never formally released on the Talk to a YouTube channel because it shouldn't have been released until after the SEC investigation was closed, per an agreement that the Hawk team had with the Faze Banks team. And at the time this was recorded and leaked, the SEC investigation was very much not over, according to Banks. And who wouldn't trust Faze Banks? Haley's team intentionally leaked this interview to get some sympathy and potentially to push and benefit from some insider trading on the coin, assuming that the interview would be positively received in the public. I do believe that. But by February, the interview was out there, and Haley's team mysteriously didn't seem to have a vested interest in getting it offline. So I have seen this episode and there are some things I want to share with you about it. The approach Haley had no idea what was Happening. It's all Doc Hollywood's fault and she is like, so very sorry. Please trust her again.

[Daci]

I want to start by saying thank you to all my true fans and all the people that actually watch my stuff and they keep up with me. We're trying to sort out all the pieces and stuff to like, get all this figured out and make everything right. Oh my God, I'm going to cry. It was supposed to be like what they call it, a long term coin. And the guy that ran the account, he was like, oh, we're gonna change, like the way everybody thinks of crypto. Crypto is going to be a good place and I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it and it just didn't go the way I planned.

[Stassi Schroeder]

And I know you're going to call me a sucker, but I do believe some of what Haley is expressing emotionally here. You don't have to care. But given that if you know about this young woman and I talked about and spent a lot of time with literally everything she said in the public in the previous series, this is the same person who locked herself inside for two weeks after going viral without giving her consent. And so the fact that Haley was mortified and scared after the Hawk coin scandal does make sense to me. But regardless of what I felt was at least partial emotional sincerity on her part, what's clear here is that this episode is going to be an attempt to retcon all of the bad press that this whole crypto scam has caused and intends to distance Haley from it. And again, as Faze Banks later says, the episode was not to be released until he approved and the investigation was closed. And it's not just a roundabout apology ish excuse for how everything went down. According to Faze Banks and the three extremely random aging hypebeasts that he brought with him, they're still defending crypto and they are encouraging Haley to do crypto the right way this time. It is nuts.

[Coffeezilla]

Basically what Frank just said in normal people terms is you take every dollar that you made on this and you mark it by this token and you lock it up, you walk away from it. You don't ever see that money. You can never touch it again. And you say, I'm not going to. Maybe I'm not going to talk about this every day, whatever, whatever. But I'm going to stand on business. I put my face on this. I'm accepting responsibility that this happened. And hopefully, you know, everybody is made whole at some point where you guys do what you want. With this, at this point, this is me kind of like, you know what I mean? And what that does is it kind of shows your intentions, right? Like I just want. I just want to do right by, by this and everybody who participated in this, etc.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Throughout this, Haley is sitting there and nodding. But as the podcast continues, Faze Banks and the random aging hypebeasts are more talking to Haley's off screen lawyer than her. And it is very, very awkward to watch. They mention in the interview that Faze Banks spoke to Coffeezilla ahead of the interview and wants to present a number of questions that Coffeezilla passed along. And I guess I'm glad that he spoke to an actual journalist. But this whole time Faze Banks is sort of posturing as if he is a journalist and not who he is. It just feels worth restating.

[Coffeezilla]

I use that opportunity. I got investigated by the SEC for like two years over this. It cost me way more money than I made. It was one of the most miserable experiences of my life because. Because that moment got me into crypto.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Which leaves me with the question, what? But this is clearly a very softball interview that is also intended to push crypto. Faze Banks and the random guys are moralizing and the grift is strong. They have it both ways. They forgive Haley, as it were, on behalf of other crypto scammers who have gotten away with it and got better at scamming, I guess. And they're ostensibly asking her to get better at scamming for next time. This is something that they describe as stand on business. There is a real menace about the phrase standing on business. Never trust someone who claims to stand on business. So while this interview is teeming with bullshit, the impression of the episode was that if it had been released as promised after the investigation closed and Faze Bank's team approved it, both parties would have felt that it was mutually beneficial. But the episode, quote unquote, leaked. And we'll get into what we mean by that. But before we knew anything about the circumstances of the leak, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Faze Banks was sure what had happened.

[Jamie Loftus]

He tweets so in an attempt to hear Haley Welch's side of the crypto scam story, I agreed to do her first podcast back. I had heavy stipulations, including one, not allowing markets to be manipulated by leaking this episode's existence before a resolution was found. Two, her team finding a real solution regarding the money she made, where that should go, and what to do with the Hawk project moving forward. These were Non starters. And we were told this episode would only ever see the light of day if we explicitly greenlit it. These incompetent leaked and or inside traded the token. We noticed a random spike in volume on the coin 2 2, along with random messages asking us if we did the PI broadcast. Very clearly her team was not as solid as they claimed to be. They completely blew it. And we called the episode off right then and there. Now, today, the episode randomly gets leaked. The price of Hawk is pumping. And they completely fumbled the bag yet again. What a fucking mess. Poor girl. It's a wonder how she found herself in this position the first place. Now, Hayley Welch, I'm going to speak to you direct and say the exact same thing I said to you on spaces that night. Fire, everybody. Your team's fucking the bleeps.

[Stassi Schroeder]

There are not swear words. They are, in fact, slur words. Fuck Faze banks. But what really sticks out to me about this leaked episode isn't that this was the botched ending to an attempted apology tour, but that the Hoktu A team seemed so convinced that this was going to work that not only did they have to weather accusations of insider trading, they also kept an ad they recorded for sports betting app gametime inside of the leaked episode. The apology was monetized.

[Daci]

All right, you guys only got one sponsor left because there's some real ones. And they've stuck with me since every bit of this started. Game Time believes in me, y'all, and I believe in them. Game Time's more loyal than most of.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Yalls mans out here.

[Daci]

Yeah, some of those guys just leave it the first opportunity they get, not Game Time.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So suffice it to say, the leak does not go well. And it's unsurprising that one of the first people to comment on this whole fiasco is Coffeezilla. He releases a second and to date final video addressing the Hawk coin crypto scandal, more or less right after all of this happens and the Faze Banks episode is leaked. And he puts a lot of context about the leak and research he had been doing behind the scenes into the video.

[Faze Banks]

Hawk to a girl's back with a released podcast that was immediately disavowed by nearly everyone in it who said, oh, we think there might have been insider trading involved. The podcast was not supposed to go live. They it up every step of the way. They leaked the podcast and then they.

[Coffeezilla]

Posted it when it was supposed to be canceled. They it up twice, and the third.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Was the launch itself, because Coffeezilla is capable and willing to actually do research. There is a lot of useful information in this. First, that Faze Banks did reach out to Coffeezilla. Imagine saying that to someone in 1782. But faze banks reached out to Coffeezilla to see if he could pass along some of his questions. And apparently within the interview, Faze Banks tried to. But none of them were answered to his satisfaction or even appeared in the edited leak video that came out. And I would assume that the reason Faze Banks did that is because it turns out Coffeezilla was Hayley Welch's team's first choice for a returning guest on Talktua. Likely because having the sound clips of the person who most successfully blew up your crypto scam coming onto your turf could have been a good look for her. But Coffeezilla, after being reached out to by Hayley's lawyer, said no. He explains why here I want to.

[Faze Banks]

Go through it because yes, we do get mentioned in it, sort of as the boogeyman of crypto. We're gonna get you if you rug a coin, you know, we might come after you.

[Daci]

Coffeezilla got on there. Scary guy, let me tell you. Don't ever want to have a conversation with him.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Whoa.

[Faze Banks]

Don't ever want to have a conversation with me. Guys, I'm not intimidating. I don't know what's the problem here.

[Stassi Schroeder]

What he goes on to explain. And I'll link this video in the description because if I have to understand another crypto concept, my brain is going to start leaking out of my nose. But what Coffeezilla says is that he views both the leak and the content of the interview to be very insidious for a couple reasons. First, because as Faze Banks offensively explained, he and his three crypto musketeers were told that they would have to give the okay for the episode to be released. And after they got wind of potential inside trading within Haley's team, they didn't want to release the episode. Because I'll remind you, just before this video was leaked, it appeared that someone with insider information started reinflating or pumping the value for Hawk Coin, again, assuming that the episode's release would increase its value. And even the likes of Faze Banks knows it's a bad look to be within a country mile of insider trading. Quite that obvious. But what I find to be more interesting for the purposes of looking at Haley's predicament specifically, is that Coffeezilla lays out how the victim narrative doesn't fit the situation when the facts are put together. So while again I do believe the emotional sincerity and the upset that Haley is putting forth in this video. It doesn't seem like the math is mathing in terms of how much money did she actually receive. After receiving a leaked document, Coffeezilla learned that Hayley Welch's team, who claimed that she had earned a relatively small upfront fee but wasn't cut into the millions of defrauded dollars in the scam, had probably not been telling the truth about that. And when Coffeezilla confronted Hayley's lawyer over DMs about this, the lawyer didn't even bother to deny it.

[Faze Banks]

So this literally drives me crazy. And then he goes, where is this from, if you don't mind me asking? I say, well, it's an insider chat, allegedly between Doc and the team members. And then he says, you're right that as it stands, she may be entitled to whatever amounts. However, she was supposed to have mutual approval on tokenomics. Her not being given the opportunity to approve the transaction fee, staffs and pre sale identities led to the end result.

[Stassi Schroeder]

So.

[Faze Banks]

So, so literally he's admitting what? That he's been not telling the truth about how much money they stood to make? You are right. She may be entitled to millions of dollars from a scam like what?

[Stassi Schroeder]

And it's really saying something when Faze Banks technically ends up being on the right side of this by not wanting the podcast to be released. At the end of the day, it seems likely that Haley and her team may have made way more money off of the crypto scam than they originally admitted to and were evasive when asked to show paperwork by both Faze Banks and Coffeezilla. So the allegations of insider trading ahead of the leak looks bad. And adding that to Faze Banks conceptually. And an ad still mysteriously making it into a leaked video makes the whole attempt kind of transparent. But I've gotta hand it to her. Haley ends this episode the same way she would end any episode of Talk.

[Daci]

To A. I feel like it wouldn't be an episode of Talk to if I didn't ask my last question. Do I ask it three times?

[Stassi Schroeder]

Just ask it.

[Daci]

I'll go around the room. What's one move in bed that makes a woman go crazy?

[Stassi Schroeder]

Unhinged. Way to end the apologizing for embezzling millions of dollars episode no Notes. And while this episode was not technically released, this leak gets a lot of attention. People were waiting to hear what she was going to say after this scam, especially after Faze Banks released that poetic rebuttal.

[Jamie Loftus]

Here are Some headlines Hayley Welch Update Hawk to a Girl Tearfully Addresses Crypto.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Scandal in Leaked Podcasts Faze Banks calls out Hayley Welch for talk to a Podcast controversy Hawk to a girl Hayley.

[Jamie Loftus]

Welch and her lawyer explain Meme Coin.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Dumpster Fire by the way, a number of these articles do not censor the R word slur, but do go out of their way to make sure the reader knows that Faze Banks job title is CEO of Faze Media, a subsidiary of Faze Clan, which cannot possibly be a real job anyways. Coffeezilla's video on the second round of the Hawktua crypto scam receives around 4 million views to date, more than any individual episode of Talktua has ever gotten, I fear. Here is his conclusion on the situation.

[Faze Banks]

Hayley Welch's team this whole time has been acting like so unbelievably dishonest in how they're framing all this to try to make her look like as sympathetic as possible instead of admitting like actually we did have some complicity in this, maybe we should have asked more questions. We did stand to make way more money than we've let on in a lot of these interviews and with journalists.

[Stassi Schroeder]

And again, I do have a lot of empathy for Haley at the time she was pulled into this predicament as I talked about at length in the first round of this series. And sure, Hailey is being used as a pawn to some extent, but her whole business operation is willfully defrauding the public and then working overtime to deny it unless confronted with irrefutable evidence. So even if Hayley is just the face of that, the situation is really bad. So if the goal with this leak was to get some public goodwill around Haley, this did not work and the team once again goes silent until March 25th, until after the second round of extremely negative press in two months died down. But this period of silence does not last as long. Six weeks later, Haley posts to Instagram for the first time in months with a genuinely bizarre short film Breaking news.

[Coffeezilla]

Haley Welch has been shot.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Haley Welch, the hawk to a girl has died.

[Doc Hollywood]

The hawk to a girl.

[Faze Banks]

No one knows finance quite like Ms.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Tua get your ass up. We got stuff to do. Okay, I will tell you what happened in that clip audio medium. It is captioned what did I miss? And this is basically a TikTok sketch that sees Haley waking up from her nap, get it? And then dreaming about all of the different tabloid scenarios and rumors that circulated around her during this near four month absence from the public eye. We see her dreaming that she actually is pregnant, that she actually is in jail, that she actually is dead, and it ends with her best friend Chelsea saying we got shit to do. Egot commenters are split on this return, which remains consistent in her work going forward. Of course, there are a thousand versions of the same bad she finally woke up from her nap joke, but there's also a lot of variety. Here are some examples.

[Jamie Loftus]

I already forgot about you. Tbh.

[Stassi Schroeder]

You woke up. They can never make me hate you.

[Jamie Loftus]

Imagine running a crypto fraud scheme and then coming back three months later acting like it never happened.

[Stassi Schroeder]

Yeah, a gradient of reaction. But what this post's very existence indicated to me, without saying it explicitly, was that the SEC investigation was probably over and that Haley was cleared to post again. And most interestingly to me, this post tells us she still wants to be famous. But before we get there, let's close the book on the investigation, which is finally resolved on March 27, 2025. And you won't believe what they decided.

[Jamie Loftus]

Hawk to a Crypto Update Us SEC Closes Investigation, Finds no Evidence Against Haley Welch Hayley Welch tells us, quote, for the past few months I've been cooperating with all the authorities and attorneys and finally that work is complete. The SEC closed the investigation without making any findings against or seeking any monetary sanctions from Haley, said James Sala, Welch's attorney. Because they did not bring any action against her, there are no restrictions on what she can do in regards regards to crypto or securities in the future. According to sources, Welch is looking to leave this episode behind her and is likely planning a documentary. They added that the 22 year old won't venture into the cryptocurrency or meme coin projects anymore.

[Stassi Schroeder]

And with that, they got away with it, leaving Hayley Welch and her team to relaunch her career by if this teaser was to be believed, any means necessary. And next time on what I Promise is our final episode on the Hawk to A Saga, we take a look at what came next, why this relaunch is not working, and how the falloff lines up with so many who came before her. That's next time on 16th Minute. 16th Minute is a production of Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted and produced by me, Jamie Loftus. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans. The Amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor. Our theme song is by Sad13. Voice acting is from Grant Crater and Pet Shout outs to our dog producer Anderson. My cats Flea and Casper and my cat Pet Rock Bird who will outlive us all. Bye.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report do you own a business that's ready to thrive?

[Coffeezilla]

It's time to let Intuit QuickBooks take things like unpaid invoices and tracking expenses off your plate so you can take.

[Stassi Schroeder]

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[Coffeezilla]

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[Stassi Schroeder]

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[Coffeezilla]

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[Stassi Schroeder]

Movement services are provided by Intuit Payments, Inc.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Licensed as a money transmitter by the.

[Coffeezilla]

New York State Department of Financial Services.

[Haley Welch]

Does this podcast make you happy? Of course it does. That's why you're here. But it only comes out once a week for happiness. Every night. You need Adam and Eve. Yes, I'm talking about sex toys. It's cool. It's cool. You have earbuds in right? Adam and Eve, America's most trusted source for adult products, has been making people very happy for over 50 years with thousands of toys for both men and women. Just go to AdamAndEve.com now and enter code IHEART for 50% off. Almost any one item plus free discreet shipping. That's AdamAndEve.com, code IHEART for 50% OFF.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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