Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:19
All right, episode 124, we’re back. Rob.
Rob Broadfoot 0:21
124, 124,
Don Mock 0:24
can you believe we’ve done 100. I always said that last time I said, Can you believe we’ve done 101 and here we are at 124 of these
Rob Broadfoot 0:30
124 I don’t have anything witty to say about 124.
Don Mock 0:32
Well, you know why? Because it’s 10,000 degrees outside, and we record this in our kick ass studio. That’s always very it’s hot in here. Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 0:40
well, we have big boosters in here.
Don Mock 0:42
I know, I know. And it’s, you know, It’s scorching. I think I saw that it’s gonna be 100 degrees today.
Rob Broadfoot 0:46
And if it does reach 100 then I think they I’ve read, maybe what you were reading, but it was, it would be the hottest day in five years,
Don Mock 0:53
five years, exactly, which surprised me, actually, really, I guess they’re talking
Rob Broadfoot 0:57
does global warming surprise you.
Don Mock 0:58
No, no, I think about heat index versus the actual temperature. You know, the whole like, oh, it’s only 97 degrees, but it feels like 115 because we’ve got the thick, thick, wet humidity here, right? it may only be 93 but it feels like 105, you know that type of thing.
Rob Broadfoot 1:18
It’s hot out. I mean, it’s hot.
Don Mock 1:21
Yeah, it is. So you had mentioned, let’s shift to today’s topic. you mentioned these damn scooters that are all over town.
Rob Broadfoot 1:32
I know where this we sound like bunch of curmudgeons, I
Don Mock 1:35
know, but like, but there’s for those that don’t know, or living in a rural environment, right? And in Atlanta, I want it. What was it? Was it two years ago? How long ago was it’s been a while.
Rob Broadfoot 1:44
I think it was longer than that. Because time is weird, because the pandemic, yeah. So I feel like it was like, 3-4 years
Don Mock 1:53
maybe, yeah, we had bird, the brand bird, yeah, bird scooters all over the boom, overnight, boom. We got scooters everywhere and
Rob Broadfoot 1:59
everywhere in the country. Well, a lot of the big metropolis,
Don Mock 2:02
and it was like, remember, the whole the news thing? Was like, Hey, we’re not asking for permission. We’re just gonna drop scooters off in every city and just figure out the rules later. Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 2:12
there was no reaching out to municipalities to discuss whether this was okay or even legal or anything. Yeah, it
Don Mock 2:20
was great. And it was like, oh, there’s no helmets. There’s it’s just, hey, zap it with your phone. You pay whatever, a buck or a buck or two, and you ride your little scooter.
Rob Broadfoot 2:27
And there was no like, because they didn’t deal with municipalities or anything like that. It was like, do I ride on the sidewalk? Yeah, nobody. Do I ride on the street? Well, do I
Don Mock 2:35
here we are, how many years later, and they still don’t. We still don’t know.
Rob Broadfoot 2:39
They are the doctors best friends. They love the scooters.
Don Mock 2:43
Man. Have you seen someone wipe out on them? dude, I’ve seen a couple bad accidents.
Rob Broadfoot 2:49
Have you ever ridden one?
Speaker 1 2:53
No, no. I think, I think my daughter and I from an old Atlantic United game, we’re gonna ride him back, but I couldn’t get it to work or something. I don’t know what to do. She rode one and I was, yeah, I’ll just walk. You know, I don’t think I’ve actually zapped one and no, because I was like, Dude, the last thing I need is another app to like, although that ties into exactly what we’re about to talk about. I don’t know, have you been on one and zipped around?
Rob Broadfoot 3:13
I have not been on one, but my stepson, Ian, shout out to Ian, broke his arm in half on one.
Don Mock 3:21
Oh, that’s right,
Rob Broadfoot 3:22
it was not a bird scooter. It was one that he got for Christmas.
Don Mock 3:27
I remember that
Rob Broadfoot 3:27
middle of the oh, he snapped his arm in half.
Don Mock 3:30
Dude that photo was brutal.
Rob Broadfoot 3:32
Was gnarly, yeah.
Don Mock 3:34
Well, we’re here by Georgia Tech as frequent listeners of the podcast now. And we see Tech students on listings all the time, all the time, I mean, and there’ll be two people on one of those things, or it’s like, Oh, I’ve got, like, bags of groceries hanging out.
Rob Broadfoot 3:48
Yeah, you got to balance the weight.
Don Mock 3:49
Yeah, I got a backpack. I got, you know, smoking a cigarette, drinking a 32oz
Rob Broadfoot 3:56
It’s like, motorcycles in South Carolina, there’s no helmet.
Don Mock 3:59
They don’t exist. No helmets. So, yeah, over here on Spring Street, I saw somebody flying down only to realize, Oh, it’s a red light, you know, and, and the traffic is going the opposite way, so they tried to slam on the brakes. I mean, this was like, I don’t, you know, eight o’clock in the morning, seven to 730 and it’s, I’m gonna call it a single scooter accident. I mean, they didn’t hit anybody else.
Rob Broadfoot 4:21
Was it violent?
Don Mock 4:22
But it was, oh, you slammed on the thing. It’s starting to swerve, and you just kind of went head over little, little handlebar thing, and just ate pavement in front of everybody. Well, all of us are stopped. I mean, everyone’s at a full stop, and you just came rushing in at 25-30 miles an hour, and then, boom, just bit it. And then little road rack shout out to David Torres, we were up in Charlotte years ago. So, you know, I mean, I can’t remember. So obviously, these things have been around for a while. And we saw, while we were in Charlotte, the Panthers were playing the Patriots, coincidentally enough, and there were Patriots fans out and about. Out, and they had had some cocktails, and they just, like, full steam right like, on the street, full steam right into the curb. Boom.
Rob Broadfoot 5:08
Just one guy. Single Rider
Don Mock 5:10
yeah, single rider. But what a pack of them. But one of them, one of them ate it, you know what I mean? And it was like, Oh, dude, you’re, you’re going to the hospital.
Rob Broadfoot 5:17
There may be some teeth knocked.
Don Mock 5:18
This is bad. Oh, this is really, bad.
Rob Broadfoot 5:20
Well, so they came in, they dumped them, yeah, they dumped them all over, all over the city, I mean, I mean, everywhere. And then you had, you know, and then you, then you, then you had pickup trucks full of scooter because you get paid to go charge them,
Don Mock 5:34
dude, my wife signed up to be a bird scooter charger but it was right at the tail end, and didn’t really work it was, it was like
Rob Broadfoot 5:41
what did you have to do? Did you buy a charger? Or they gave you a charger?
Don Mock 5:43
No, they gave you the stuff, and then you had a window to go pick them up, to go pick them up, you know. But it was, it was like a battle of the first come first serve. Oh, yeah. So everybody else is out there fighting each other off to try to get the scooters, you know?
And they were like modified pickup trucks that had, like, rock rack scooters, yeah
it wasn’t like the mom minivans. It was like
Rob Broadfoot 6:04
no. It was like, I’m gonna make a business out of this and they were everywhere. And the problem with them too, well, there were a lot of problems with them, but part of the problem was just, there was just an eyesore, because they were, people would leave and they were just fall over. They’d just be littered all there was no place to again, because they didn’t. There’s no plan. They just leave them on the sidewalk.
Don Mock 6:26
Yeah, it’s the modern day. It was just abandoned shopping carts. Yeah, just everywhere. Yeah, littering, you know? And then it’s like, you can’t get around to the sidewalk. They’re in your driveway. You can’t get you know? And it was, oh, I wrote it from here to my house, and then I just dumped it in front of my yard, because it’s not mine, you know what I mean. And then maybe someone comes and picks it up days later.
Rob Broadfoot 6:45
You know, it’s very strange but now then I guess I don’t know what happened from a from a
Don Mock 6:53
legal perspective?
Rob Broadfoot 6:54
don’t know if they ever figured out, or didn’t figure out
Don Mock 6:58
what we were going to talk about, though, is, is, you know, nature, you know, deplores a vacuum, right? So when there’s one, there’s always another one, yeah, right? And sort of natural opposites, or call it the spirit of competition, or battle, the brands, whatever you want to call it, right? So it was, oh, bird came in and took over. So boom, we need the competition to bird, yeah, which is lime
Rob Broadfoot 7:23
there were a few other ones that came in, but lime was the one that kind of rose to the top. Yeah, true. The Challenger, yeah.
Don Mock 7:30
And lime has now gotten a capital infusion from Uber, so it’s probably not going anywhere anytime soon. I don’t know what the deal is with with bird.
Rob Broadfoot 7:38
All I see are limes.
Don Mock 7:40
They kind of went away, and now they’re back but it’s lime. Lime.
Rob Broadfoot 7:44
Is all Lime I don’t see the birds as much. Anyway
Don Mock 7:48
I think, you know, how does this tie to advertising and design and stuff? I think, I think the thought was kind of funny that, like, there’s always the enemy, right? You’ve got, you know, the the Ford, Chevy, the Coke, Pepsi, Microsoft, Apple, but then you get the weird Sirius and XM, right? Like, now
Rob Broadfoot 8:08
Now we play nice together
Don Mock 8:08
But now they’re a thing, right? And there is no opposite, I guess, I guess, you know, the natural competition to that would be, you know, Spotify or streaming, right, instead of actual satellite, right? Yeah. But just sort of the interesting aspect of, you know, you can never only have one. You kind of always, and even our laws, our anti trust laws, and our monopoly law, you know, you know, you can’t just have one. You always got to have.
Rob Broadfoot 8:33
Well, what are some examples? Because we think about like, you know, your Coke versus Pepsi, although Pepsi, Pepsi wasn’t it Pepsi that dropped and is now not the number two, didn’t it?
Don Mock 8:44
I don’t know.
Rob Broadfoot 8:45
Well, there’s breaking news. Dr Pepper, okay. Dr Pepper has been steadily, steadily, steadily, steadily, yeah, because it’s awesome.
Don Mock 8:49
Dr Pepper is delicious, absolutely delicious. I don’t understand all of their diet. Dr Pepper, Dr Pepper 10, all the extra off shoots of Dr Pepper, they all taste exactly the same as they’re delicious. No, you don’t think so? Well, remember Dr Pepper 10 was like Dr Pepper for dudes. Remember that campaign with the guy and the eagle and the whatever campaign? But dude, are you telling me that you can taste the difference between diet Dr Pepper and Dr Pepper? Because it’s pretty damn close.
Rob Broadfoot 9:21
I don’t know
Don Mock 9:23
You don’t know. Okay
Rob Broadfoot 9:25
I know that I’ve ever had a diet Dr. Pepper
Don Mock 9:28
This is a shout out for Kathy. But have you ever had a Dr. Thunder?
Rob Broadfoot 9:33
No, sounds like a wrestling move.
Don Mock 9:36
Dr. Thunder I believe it’s the Walmart private label brand.
Rob Broadfoot 9:45
Have you had it?
Don Mock 9:45
Yes, yeah, my mother in law, back in the day, used to buy it. It’s fine. Would you drink an RC Cola?
Rob Broadfoot 9:53
No.
Don Mock 10:00
within striking distance.
Rob Broadfoot 10:01
I don’t drink a lot of soda anyway anymore. I used to. I don’t drink a lot of soda anymore anyway. And I suppose, if I were in the mood for a soda, and there happened to be RC Cola, then sure when I sip on it,
Don Mock 10:15
well, when you’re in Florida, and it’s 1000 degrees outside, and the only free, the only thing in the fridge is a nice cold 12 pack of Dr thunders, and you’re behind enemy lines. Guess what you’re doing?
Rob Broadfoot 10:28
Like a Marvel comic,
Don Mock 10:31
you’re drinking, Dr thunder
Rob Broadfoot 10:32
Oh yeah Spider Man, yes. Dr thunder,
Don Mock 10:34
yeah. He’s an evil villain who controls the weather. Yeah. Is what it is. Yeah. Well, so you were saying, you were saying Coke and Pepsi,
Rob Broadfoot 10:41
yeah? And just the notion that you have, you know, at the top right, in different across different industries, you have, like, your Ford Chevy, right? And they’re, they’ve been duking it out for ever since cars were invented, yeah? And they’ll duke it out probably until the end of time, yeah. And
Don Mock 10:55
there are other American car manufacture, like, but really, we’re talking about just the, we’re talking about the two, brand versus brand. Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 11:02
you know. But I was trying to think of instances where, so, so those guys will go on forever. Apple and Microsoft have been battling since they were both invented, and we’ll go for the foreseeable future, yeah. What are instances where, where a top dog has crushed, has crushed the competition? Like you’re out
Don Mock 11:22
like, we’re done here, and now you don’t exist anymore?
Rob Broadfoot 11:24
Like a product analogy would be VHS and beta, right? In the 80s, they competed. Beta was actually the superior product but somehow VHS won, yeah, because somebody picked it, and one of the movie studios picked it, I guess, and decided that’s the way they were gonna go and then beta overnight was dead.
Don Mock 11:41
Well, that’s how, that’s how blu ray came to exist, yeah, because it was, and that was a nice, do you remember HD DVD? Yeah, because that was a competitor blu ray. But blu ray backed by Sony, who owns some movie studios, right? And was like, Oh, we also own all the equipment in your house, like your, you know, your disc players. And we just made a large investment in, yeah, and we and we have PlayStation, which we’re gonna put all those games, you know? So it was like, Okay, we’re going with blu ray.
Rob Broadfoot 12:08
Yeah. We also own 40% of blue rays stocks, we’re probably gonna lean in that direction. Blu-ray died. Who still watches blu ray? laser disc? Do you have a laser disc player in your house, too?
Don Mock 12:23
I like to pause the movie halfway through and flip it over. No, I think blu ray exists more from a gaming perspective, you know, through, okay. And I think if you want media, you know, if you go to like, I mean, when you go to Target and it’s like, oh, here’s like, the new movie that’s you know, it’s gonna be a Blu Ray, like, so blu ray still exists, but, yeah, I mean, for the most part, it’s just streaming and that type of stuff, you know, physical, I don’t know. I mean, I
Rob Broadfoot 12:49
mean, did lime destroy bird? Is bird dead?
Don Mock 12:53
I don’t see any birds around here. No birds. Yeah, weren’t they all carrying some type of microchip anyway, birds or something, or, no, I don’t I think birds still exist. I think there’s a scooter or two here around but to go back to your question about what has obliterated the competition, you know, I don’t know the answer to that. I mean, I was just thinking about gaming.
Rob Broadfoot 13:18
I mean, Nintendo still exists.
Don Mock 13:20
I was gonna say Nintendo still exists. But all the other guys, you know, there’s no Sega Genesis anymore, yeah, you know, there’s no turbo graphics 16, you know, but you still have Xbox and PlayStation, Sony versus Microsoft, right? So there are others that have filled the void, right versus complete obliteration. If we had done a little show notes, maybe we could.
Rob Broadfoot 13:40
Would you say that roller skates have beat out roller blades?
Don Mock 13:47
Well, I am incredibly athletic and keep up with all of this stuff. So, yeah, roller is rollerblading still a thing? I mean,
Rob Broadfoot 13:58
if you go to a skate rink, okay? You can rent rollerblades, yeah, you can rent both.
Don Mock 14:06
Okay, that’s interesting. I mean, I wouldn’t have known that, you know, it’s interesting that skateboarding has still survived, you know. Now this, this isn’t brands, though, now we’re just in categories.
Rob Broadfoot 14:18
Yeah, we’ve gone off topic, but, but, yeah, yeah, skateboarding still is alive. And, well,
Don Mock 14:24
yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, snowboarding came in and took over, but it didn’t replace skiing, if anything, it just added more people to winter sports, right? I mean, yeah, or, you know, or correct me if I’m wrong, I mean, I don’t know that’s more of a you thing that you’re a skier, right? But, like, I’ve never skied in my life. Did skiers abandon skiing in favor of snowboarding?
Rob Broadfoot 14:49
Some did. It depends on your age, when snowboarding really took off, when it went so depending on where you were, age wise, a lot of people jumped over on snowboard instead
Don Mock 15:01
don’t know, I’m sitting here rocking my brain, treading water, trying to think of something where one brand absolutely destroyed another brand.
Rob Broadfoot 15:09
and we’re not talking about acquisitions
Don Mock 15:12
I understand.
Rob Broadfoot 15:13
We’re talking about just shut them down.
Don Mock 15:15
Yeah, I can’t think of anything off top my head, but I’m sure that they’re out there. I think really it’s more attrition, you know, and replacement, yeah, than pure domination, you know, like, you know, there are, there are plenty of car companies, but we always just talk about Ford, Ford versus Chevy, you know, the big, you know, American battle, I guess, right, you know, I don’t know, it’s an interesting question.
Rob Broadfoot 15:41
You’re a Ford man,
Don Mock 15:43
I’m a Ford Man, yeah, I love fords. So I will say, though, I do have a sweet spot for like, 62 Corvettes. So I mean, if I was ever to buy a Chevy, it would be an old classic Corvette,
Rob Broadfoot 15:55
Corvette. It’s hard to beat.
Don Mock 15:57
Yeah, yeah. Don’t love the new Corvettes, but that’s fine.
Rob Broadfoot 16:00
The mid engine
Don Mock 16:01
yeah, the system, not my, not my jam, yeah, you know, after the 70 stingrays, like, I don’t need any, any Corvettes,
Rob Broadfoot 16:08
they’ve started to, they’ve all kind of, like, like, a lot of those sports cars now, kind of just…
Don Mock 16:14
I’m not that, like, anti, I mean, dude to 57 Chevy is pretty badass, man, yeah, Im not like screw Chevy, yeah, I’m not the, like, I don’t have the sticker of Calvin peeing on the bow tie, right? Yeah? Like
Rob Broadfoot 16:28
do people still have those?
Don Mock 16:29
I’m sure they do. I’m sure they do. But, yeah, we do have our brand allegiances, you know, and the brands that we favor, but, but I again, nature absorbs a vacuum and wants, you know, you always want to have that competition. And, you know, I love Marvel Comics. I’m more of a Marvel zombie, but I never want DC Comics to ever go away, even though they… because, like the talent acquisition and the drive to be number one is what keeps things going
Rob Broadfoot 17:00
That’s what I was gonna say. The competition is what makes you better.
Don Mock 17:04
I mean, DC has, you know, DC has kind of been the pimple on the elephant’s ass in terms of, like, acquisitions, right? Because they were their own thing. Then they were part of Time Warner, right? Time, Warner was bought by AOL. Like, there’s been all this crazy, you know that AT&T is involved, you know, like, Why does AT&T have anything to do with DC Comics? Makes no sense, right?
Rob Broadfoot 17:24
Do they still?
Don Mock 17:25
So there’s been years, yeah, somehow it’s all part of the big, you know, mega Goliath, you know, on enterprise. I can’t even keep up with everything anymore, because now everybody buys everybody, right? But like, having Disney buy, you know, Fox and that library and Star Wars and Marvel and all the sport and all, like, I don’t know that that’s necessarily great for all those individual brands, right? But like, like, you know, the DC line of products has thinned out tremendously. I mean, it’s like a leaflet compared to the, you know, Encyclopedia produced. So it’s always been like, oh, they should buy them. You know, one company should buy the industry. No, no, no, no, no.
Rob Broadfoot 18:01
Well, it’s just like any industry when a when a bigger company, you know, acquires somebody, they lose their independent spirit, you know, yeah, kind of lose a little bit of what got you there.
Don Mock 18:10
Yeah, you don’t take the risks anymore, either.
Rob Broadfoot 18:12
Speaking of library acquisitions, did you see, I saw the other day that Queen is selling their catalog. Do you know how much they got for their catalog? Queen the band
Don Mock 18:21
yeah. I mean, all three… Freddie Mercury is gone, but the rest of Brian May and everybody else,
Rob Broadfoot 18:29
they’re all still with us. What do you think that their catalog, Sony bought it. What do you think their catalog went for?
Don Mock 18:35
400 millions?
Rob Broadfoot 18:36
No, higher.
Don Mock 18:37
Really? higher than that. Okay, 600.
Rob Broadfoot 18:41
higher.
Don Mock 18:43
Are you gonna tell me it’s a billion dollars, higher than a bill.
Rob Broadfoot 18:46
1.2 billion dollars for their catalog.
Don Mock 18:51
That is crazy, yeah. Take it from me. How old are those guys? I mean, they got to be in their 70s, at least, right? So, like, yeah. Well, I mean, they’re in every single We are the champions. I mean, they’re in every single sporting event you’ve ever thought
Rob Broadfoot 19:01
You have to imagine that, because all those deals are a little bit different, right? So, so I have to imagine that that is a comprehensive deal, meaning all of the licenses that Queen participates in, right? Or other companies that license, and they get all of the, I think they get, it’s not just the music catalog. I think they get everything, all the licensing, all the everything, all the everything, but $1.2 billion I saw that the other day I was like wow
Speaker 2 19:04
Well, I mean, and you’ve got three remaining band members, and then I don’t know, are there some hanger honors? I mean, is there, like the engineer and the other other, you know, like the fifth Beatle.
Rob Broadfoot 19:42
I’m sure, I’m sure there other people that have equity somehow
Don Mock 19:46
that’s insane. I wouldn’t have guessed that for Queen
Rob Broadfoot 19:48
Well, you didn’t guess that for Queen. What I wonder is, how long in Sony’s model, like, how long do they anticipate
Don Mock 19:58
being able to be profitable on that?
Rob Broadfoot 20:00
When do they become profitable on that, on that? I mean, how long does that take them to turn a profit on a billion dollar investment in Queen?
Don Mock 20:06
I have no idea. Yeah that seems insane. You know, that seems absolutely insane.
Rob Broadfoot 20:12
And I’m sure part of that too is just a, we’re Sony, we own Queen, you know, yeah, you buy the big catalog for the name brand, right? It’s crazy. Crazy. Well, this was kind of a meandering conversation which is good and fine, but yeah, competition is healthy. Competition kills competition. Competition does a lot of things. Makes brands become stronger and forces them to be more creative in what they do.
Don Mock 20:38
I know, isn’t it weird, though, that we don’t have any competition?
Rob Broadfoot 20:41
It is, well, sometimes, I mean, you know…
Don Mock 20:46
I’m just kidding
Rob Broadfoot 20:48
yeah, pure dominance really over a marketplace, yeah, yeah. Well, they want to try and break us up because we’re a monopoly.
Don Mock 20:54
This is true.
Rob Broadfoot 20:55
It’s weird. So listen, I’m gonna say today, the PSA for the day is, if you’re gonna scooter, ride safe, wear a helmet, eyes on the road, obey the traffic laws and be aware of your surroundings. Awareness.
Absolutely. Take your earphones out.
Take your ear pods out or air pods. My kids get mad at me because I never I call them ear pods.
Don Mock 21:18
Ear pods? I kind of like ear pods actually kind of makes sense.
Rob Broadfoot 21:21
Yeah. Speaking of awareness, Don where can the people find us?
Don Mock 21:26
Oh, flipping the script. I like it. I like it. People can find us on all the socials and online @mock the agency and www.mocktheagency.com
Rob Broadfoot 21:38
we will talk at you on what’s going to be a very, very exciting episode, 125
Don Mock 21:44
it’ll be 125 Yeah, it’s exciting. All right, thanks. Everybody.
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