← The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Why Podcasts Are the New TV, Careers After 50, and Divorce With Kids
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Scott Galloway
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To organize every room in your home from your garage to your attic, visit home depot.com how doers get more done welcome to Office Hours with Prof. G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to office hours of propertymedia.com Again, that's officehoursof teammedia.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode. Question number one first question comes from Solar Surfer 7 right on, dude. On Reddit they say, I just had an epiphany that podcasts are moving to video. Not because people want to watch full length podcasts on video, because it gives you short clips that can go viral on apps including TikTok and Instagram and thus landing more subscribers. Do you agree with this take? Have you seen a higher growth on the podcast after moving to video format? Thanks for the question. So, just some data. According to Spotify, 42% of podcast listeners discover new shows through social media channels like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. So Word. The clips on video platforms are fantastic means of marketing. That's reason enough to do it on its own, but it's not the primary reason. I'll come back to that. Consumer surveys show that almost half of users on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube shorts watch podcasts through short clips. The same study found that One third of consumers engage with podcasts by watching video clips on social media. An industry report by Edison Media found that 80% or 4/5. Isn't that amazing? I can do that in my head. 80%, 4/5. What a guy. What a guy. Anyway, so Gen Z podcast listeners discovered new shows via TikTok. But even beyond short clips, there's also evidence that people are engaging more with podcasts visually. Roughly half of Americans age 12 and over 51% have watched a podcast. Spotify reports that one of three US monthly active users engage with video podcasts. Okay, every year I like to have for the business a strategic mandate. Our strategic mandate in 2025 was the same as 2024, and that was in one word, video. There are 600,000 podcasts that put out weekly content. 1.5 million podcasts in total. I bet the top 600 are the only ones that are economically viable. I'm not Even sure the 500th most listened to podcast is economically viable. The top 100 are amazing businesses because once you get beyond a certain point, the gross margin or the incremental revenue is almost all margin. These things aren't that expensive to produce. If you look at the top 100 podcasts you're going to see or have seen just in every 12 or 24 months, 50 rotate in and 50 churn out. Essentially, the problem with Hollywood is the following. It's the means of production has become too expensive. And that is if you want to film a series. And I'm doing this right now, we're doing this original scripted drama on Netflix. Jesus Christ. Between unions, talent, the caterer, the foam supervisor, the food designer. Oh my God. It is a lot of money. And I'll use Colbert as an example. I think Stephen Colbert is one of the great talents in media. His show supposedly costs 100 million to produce and makes 60 million because fewer and fewer people are watching late night television. The amount of people watching late night television is off by 90%. People aren't watching linear TV. They're not watching the clips as much. They actually, that's not true. They'll watch the best 60 seconds of any of those shows. But. But that's not enough to sustain the business model. Basically, the business model's been starched by those video players you're talking about. And they do get something back in terms of what you're talking about in terms of marketing. But the churn in and out is the arbiter of that churn is who has the best video game. And this is what's happening? Colbert will eventually move to podcasting and all of the band, the union players, will probably get on the arc to podcasts. And he'll be able to have an amazing podcast, not doing 100 million, but maybe doing 10 or 20 million with six people instead of the 200 people that currently work on his show. And it's going to make, you know, 10 million in profits off that 20 million because he's such an extraordinary talent. But basically, what are podcasts? Podcasts are 80% of television shows in terms of product and production quality for 10% of the price. That's what podcasts are. And that is a really well done podcast feel like television. But they don't need to make 40, 60, $100 million to be sustainable. They need to make a lot less because the means of production are so less expensive. And let me get, I'll use Pivot as an example. Pivot is between our audio listens about 300,000 and our video views 100,000. So 400,000 impressions. We'll get a blended. You get a lower CPM for the video views. Audio creates more intimacy and advertisers like it more. We get a blended CPM probably about 30 to 40 bucks. 45 bucks for the audio CPM, 30 bucks for the video. So call it blended of 40. CNN right now is getting 15. Why? The average age I think of a CNBC viewer is now well into their 60s. So what do we have? What's the advantage of podcasts or a Pivot? We have Whereas cable news, 30% are in the core demographic, I.e. 25 to 54 year olds who advertisers love because they're stupid and they buy high margin Range Rovers and coffees and go to movies, still, they love those. And 30% of cable news now is in the core demo. 70% of listeners to Pivot are in the core dem. So if we do 400,000, we're getting about 280,000 in the core demo. The average CNN program is lucky if it gets 40 or 60,000 people in the core demo. So what are you getting here? You're getting the great taste of more people in the core demo, which advertisers love with the low calories of a much lower means of production. So if Pivot does 12 to 14 million dollars this year in top line revenue, which would be a modestly successful TV show, not a successful one, but the difference is 8 or 10 of that will drop to the bottom line. Now we gotta pay Box some money to sell our ads. But as you can imagine, it's a very, very profitable business. But it's a little bit like the NBA in the sense that there's a couple million kids playing high school basketball, and I think only five are still in the NBA after three years, and they make an extraordinary amount of money. But your chances are like, almost the same, like, getting to go into space someday. Podcasting, somewhat similar. The numbers I use in the LGI use is crew at UCLA. There's been 2,800 oarsmen and oars women in the history of UCLA crew. I was one of them, thank you very much. Easily the worst varsity athlete in the history of UCLA. But anyways, 2,800 people have rowed crew at UCLA. 10 have gone to the Olympics. So what is that? Approximately 0.3% conservatively. Not conservatively. Generously, 0.1% of podcasts make money. So at UCLA Rowing, I was three times more likely to go to the Olympics than I was to have an economically viable podcast. So, mama, don't let your kids grow up to be podcasters. If you want to get into podcasting, do it, but use it as a means. Or start out initially thinking of it as a means of marketing another core product. For example, our videos initially at L2 were meant to raise awareness among our client base, and we did an amazing job of them. And it ultimately led to a newsletter that we turned into a media company, C above profit Media. But right now, if you're going into podcasting, you should be doing it for personal consumption or to market another product, because the economics or the likelihood of breaking through to the top 100 are again, sort of like, your kid may be an amazing basketball player, which means there's like a 1 in 5,000 chance that he will end up with a sustainable income in the NBA. And podcasting is somewhat similar. Anyways, the clips, yeah, fantastic marketing. But generally speaking, more broadly speaking, podcasts are becoming the new TV with a strong audio overlay. So we're all trying to raise or the smart ones are investing more and more in video. You're going to see more and more podcasts on TV screens, and you're going to see more and more visual graphics, production values, lighting, all that stuff to try and level up. Anyways, thoughtful question. Thank you. Question number two also comes from Reddit. Dwyn Dolvack asks, with the average tenure of a job being about four years, how can those of us in our early to mid-50s who have been impacted by layoffs but cannot yet retire convince companies to take a chance on us. If I hear you're overqualified once more, I'm going to shove a TikTok of some millennial Snapchat. Yeah. So what you're feeling is real. There's some data here. The job stability and the disruption is being felt by, I'm gonna say older, mid career. A major 2018 study found that more than half of workers in the early 50s who had long term jobs were laid off after age 50. Many others struggled to find steady work again or saw their pay drop by 50% or more for years. So first off, ask yourself a question. Can you not get a job or can you not get the job that you expect that you should have right now? You might have to take a cut and pay, boss. Even college educated workers were hit at similar rates, showing the risk cuts across education levels. And just back to the notion that can you get a job or can you just not get a job you want to. No one ever thinks they're overpaid. Nobody at Profg thinks they're overpaid. And let me tell you, they are. I'm on AI. I try to pay people between 30 to 50% above market, but no one thinks they're overpaid. They just think, oh, okay, I won't leave. But no one sits around and says, hey mom, I'm overpaid. No one ever feels overpaid. And just statistically, and I can prove this to you, 50% of the time in your career you were overpaid and 50% you were underpaid. And almost zero percent of the time was it calibrated exactly. And going to the next job, the natural kind of progression or instinct is, oh, I should make the same amount or more at my next job. Maybe not. I think the workplace has become increasingly ageist as I sit here with a swollen face from my just having my eyes done. And it's really strange. A lot of times when people like my content, they reference my age as a means of being critical. And I remember at L2 I hired a systems engineer who was I think in his 40s or 50s and the vibe was, dude, what happened? I think if you're in technology and you're a male and you're in your 40s or 50s and you're not running the place, you're not already a multimillionaire. The general you is like, oh my God, you fucked up. I think you're just going to see a boom in cosmetic surgery and Botox and all that shit amongst men who are feeling the same ages and women have had to endure for a long time. You're in a tough spot. I don't want to sugarcoat it. And I also think that the hard part about looking for a job in your 50s is you're not willing to eat as much shit. My companies right now would be more successful if I were more aggressive and less arrogant. And my arrogance has been a bit of a function of my age. And that is, I think I could go out and get a million dollars in incremental advertising if I was willing to go have dinner or not play golf, but socialize with ad buyers or brands. I CMOs reach out to me all the time. Let's get together. I'm like, I don't want to hang out with you. I'm gonna hang out with my kids. And I don't feel, I don't do pre calls. I don't, I don't, I don't take advantage of 90. I know, I know, I'm boasting right now, but it's true. I don't take advantage of 98% of the opportunities thrown my way because I'm at a point in my life where I'm like, I'm just not willing to hang out with some 35 or 40 year old that I wanna hang out with. I find that the key to getting a job is how social you are. Study done at Google, they put out a job opening 200 cvs within like 60 minutes. They shut it down, they bring in the 20 best candidates and 70% of the time the person they end up hiring has an internal advocate. So one a boss. If you're in your 50s, it doesn't matter if in your 50s or your 20s. The advice we would give your 22 year old self, you got to make a bunch of calls. You got to get out a big spoon and eat shit. Call people you don't want to call, follow up. Which sucks when you're older, which means you're bothering people that don't want to hear from you. Be willing to ask other people for help. Reach out for copies. Hey, do you know anyone? I'm looking. But also be as social as possible because what I have found is that when I hear from a friend that they're looking that my antenna go up and I start trying to. I need to do a better job of this, of identifying potential opportunities for them. When I see them recently and they call me and say, hey, do you know anyone at Salesforce? I'm interested in this position. I'm more inclined to return the email or Leverage one of my contacts to try and help them. And you know, it's like finding a, finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend or friends or it's like, kind of like finding a job. It's a little bit, it's a lot of it is serendipity. And you want to create serendipity by putting yourself in a position around as many other mammals as possible. So it sucks to be in the position where I'm sure you've been good at what you did. You think at this point your momentum and your skills would open doors. I found even the most robust economies. It's never easy to get a job, but I think you have to do whatever it is to make yourself feel, you know, build your self esteem. Because every day, boss, every night you got to write down a list of three or six things you're doing the next day when you grab that spoon to eat shit. Emailing people, going on LinkedIn, going out, networking. I do just think it's a numbers game. I don't think there's a silver bullet here. Also, some of the ageism you might be feeling, some of it's real, but some of it is also probably self inflicted. And that is, it's probably not as bad as you think. You're just, you just start to get self conscious about it. Unfortunately you're in a bad part of the cycle. The way you describe the labor market right now is no hire, no fire companies. The whole AI tsunami of layoffs has not really happened outside of tech. Who are the early adopters here? Does that presage more layoffs? Probably. But also firms aren't hiring because they want to see what happens to the economy. It's like the housing market right now. There's just a lack of transactions, there's very few buyers and very few sellers. And the labor market right now is kind of no higher, no fire. So yeah, it's bad, but it's been worse. And again, I just go back to the same things, get ready to eat shit and be as social as possible. And also I literally, when I was younger, used to stand in front of a mirror and say, I know I can make someone happy. You know, because I was constantly single and really wanted a girlfriend. I know I can add value to a company. I was constantly starting companies failing. I know I can add value to a company. You know, I was always trying to like manifest and tell myself that I had value. And I think that, I think that's really important. And also if you're feeling any anxiety, action, absorbs anxiety. Write down a list and just start sending out emails and making appointments and calling on people. Sorry for the word salad here. Thanks for. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.
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Scott Galloway
The good news is that there are.
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Scott Galloway
Welcome back onto our final question. Hey Scott, I'm a big fan of yours. Thanks for all the insight and information and entertainment. I'm reaching out because I'm in my early 40s and I've heard you talk about how this is a really hard time of your life and I agree. I'm about to enter a divorce. We have a young child and it's a lot of grief and sadness and just confusion and I think that you've been divorced and you've got kids and just lay it on me. What, what should I know? What would you have told yourself as you were starting to cross the Rubicon? Thanks so much and hope to hear from you. Oh, first possible. I'm sorry, I can just hear in your voice how sad you are and let me give you bad news and good news. The bad news is you're in for a rough ride for at least you think you feel better after 12 months. I found after my divorce I didn't really start feeling normal again till after 24 months and maybe you need to double that because you have kids. I didn't have kids when I got divorced and I think kids just are. I would imagine rub salt in the wound so there's just no getting around it. This is a shit sandwich and you should be able to mourn and I would lean on your friends and talk openly about it. And feel the sadness and the grief, but also recognize you're going to wake up, I don't know, 6, 12, 24 months, maybe 36 months, you're going to think, oh, I kind of feel normal again. I'm okay again. Okay, so just some thoughts. The first is, and this comes from experience as a child, divorced parents. Whatever you do, do not weaponize the kids in the divorce. Oftentimes in divorce there's a lot of anger on both sides or on one side. And it's very tempting to weaponize the kid. No, you're late, don't pick the kid up. Complaining about your ex spouse to the kid, this is no joke. What happened to me? Let's bring this back to me. My mom used to tell me when my dad would come pick me up every other weekend when he was still living in LA. Tell your father I was 8. Tell your father if the child support check isn't here by Tuesday, I'm calling his boss and telling him that he's a deadbeat dad. I would digest my entire stomach the entire weekend knowing I had to tell my dad this. And I would finally wait till the last five minutes before he dropped me off and I'd tell him. My dad would fucking freak out and say, tell that bitch I'm not sending the check. And I'd have to walk back into my $200 apartment with my mom in Tarzana in the Valley and say, dad said tell the bitch that he's not sending child. I mean, it was just. I mean, my parents had a lot of good qualities, but sophistication and understanding the nuance of divorce and kids was not one of them. Do not weaponize your kids. And even going beyond that, I think, I don't know if you have a daughter or son. I guess it doesn't really matter. But especially for sons, I think one of the best things you can do for sons, especially sons, is treat their mom really well. I think it just sends the right signal around their approach toward women. You know, I really try to defer and show a lot of respect for my son's mom. And I never, I always have her back, even quite frankly, when I think she gets it wrong and constantly talk her up to her kids. And by the way, I think the same is true in divorce. I think that you are always complimentary and supportive and even when it hurts, even maybe when it's not true of talking up their mom and showing a great deal of respect. Kids remember and unfortunately what happens unless you're doing the whole co Parenting thing. Awesome. I think they call it nesting now, where they have the kids stay in one house and the parents rotate through the house. You have to have resources to do that. I don't know if you're doing that or if it's logistically possible, but oftentimes what happens is the parent who has primary custody becomes sanctified. Think dad's the bad guy. Sometimes it can go the opposite way because dad is scarce and he gets romanticized. But usually it's one is the bad guy and one's the saint because they have trouble processing just what the fuck happened. And think there must be a victim and there must be an oppressor here. So hopefully you and your wife have come to an accommodation that has said, okay, what is our first priority here? Our first priority is to ensure that our kids are healthy, emotionally stable, and feel a source of love and support and consistency from us. Both of us. What does that mean? It's not only about our relationship with them, it's about our relationship with each other. And let me know if there's anything I can do, but I need you to do it as well. We need to be model parents post divorce. And what does that mean? It's showing love and affection for our kids, but it's showing a great deal of respect and generosity for each other. Because that just. There's just no way to get past the trauma or not forcing the kids to sanctify or demonize one or both of you. If for whatever reason, you give in to the hurt and anger of a divorce. I do remember I demonized my father. Cause he did, in fact, leave. And he was financially very, very difficult with me and my mom. He immediately went on to upper middle class. We immediately dove to the lower middle class. And I was in him for a long time. But I also, as I got older, realized that he tried. Just remember that everything you do right now, everything, every little thing, whether it's when you drop them off. My dad would drop me off. My mom wouldn't come out to the car because she didn't want to see his car. I would have to walk to the front of my apartment complex alone because she didn't want to see his car. That's how bad it was. They will remember when they're older everything you did and everything you didn't do and how you handled. There's kind of moments of truth. People remember how people behave in stressful, emotionally charged situations. And just keep in mind, the next 12 months, your kids are going to have a memory of your behavior to a greater extent than the following 12 months. Anyways, I'm going to try and summarize here. 1. I'm really sorry. This is a shit show, especially with kids. It's ugly, it's awful. There's no getting around it. You are going to get past this. You are going to get past this. Half of people who get married end up divorced. This is nothing new. Nothing new. 2. Do not ever weaponize the kids. That's the easy shit. What's harder is demonstrating affection to the extent you can respect and admiration for your ex, even when it really hurts and you have to swallow hard. And also, just keep in mind every ounce of incremental effort you make with your kids. Now, they're going to remember. They're going to remember. But let me just circle back to I think it was point number two. Trust me on this, brother. At some point you're going to wake up and you're going to think, you know what? I feel. Okay? That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursoffertymedia.com that's officehoursoffertymedia.Com or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode. This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez. Our associate producer is Laura Gennar. Cami Reek is our social producer. Rose is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the profg pod from Prof. G Media.