Scott Galloway

Scott Galloway is ubiquitous. He appears is so many media that I can’t avoid him, not that I’m trying to. My introduction to him was in May 2018, when I read his book The Four.[1] It predisposed me to like him, so when a friend suggested that I listen to his podcast, I embraced the opportunity.

His podcast is called The Prof G Pod (Galloway invariably refers to his podcast as a “pod”) and comes in four chunks. The most consistently interesting is his lead-in. Each podcast starts with him riffing on some (usually) business subject. He is a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business[2] and has an irreverent take on many topics. For instance, he considers Mark Zuckerberg, the most dangerous man in the world. He talks about big issues that are occurring, like covid and its impact on markets, on issues that should happen, like Peloton being acquired by Nike, or, well, really on just about any subject that strikes his fancy and impacts the financial world.

The most inconsistent piece of the show is also the largest: his interviews. Some are outstanding, best of breed. I especially like it when he discusses global issues with experts like Ian Bremmer, whose big picture look at the world is sensible and well informed. Another especially good one was with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the lessons that we have or should learn from the covid-19 pandemic. But some are a bit too much in the weeds for me. He recently discussed the psychedelics industry – really, it’s an industry. And he often has guests who are involved in the crypto or NFT (non-fungible token) space, which is interesting writ large, but not when they delve into technical aspects of the technology.

The third part of the podcast is Office Hours. As any self-respecting professor should, he accepts, indeed encourages, questions and he answers them (according to him) impromptu. This part of the podcast is so popular that it has been spun into its own entity, so the podcast now has only three parts with the Office Hours chunk produced and available separately. More Galloway pod for the same money – none.

The final part of the podcast is the Algebra of Happiness, when Galloway talks about some aspect of personal life and its importance to general well-being. He is clearly devoted to his two sons and often asks guests about ways to be a better parent. Another fixture is to ask guests what advice they would give their younger selves. Niall Ferguson had two especially good answers: listen to young people (because they get trends) and read more.

That’s just the podcast. He also has Chart of the Week,[3] which highlights many different issues, including religiosity, college enrollment, love, and covid. The only problem with “chart” is that is comes with a mandatory (if short) video that explains the chart. I just want the charts, which invariably present interesting information.

He has another podcast Pivot that he co-hosts with Kara Swisher. I haven’t listened to that one – there are only so many podcast hours in a week. Chartable says they “make bold predictions, pick winners and losers, and bicker and banter like no one else.”[4]    

And he has newsletters and speaking engagements. And classes.  And No Mercy/No Malice.[5] He really is everywhere, including recently being added to the staff at CNN, which describes him as “a serial entrepreneur, business professor, and bestselling author.”

And I don’t think he does it for the money. I mean, sure he gets paid. But he has what he describes as independent wealth from various business ventures. This enables him a certain level of freedom, which he takes advantage of. He attacks any perceived injustice, but reserves much of his disdain for higher education, which he described as “one of the most corrupt cartels in the world.” He doesn’t tell us who else is on the list.

He believes the goal of higher education should be to expand opportunities, which makes sense to me. He does that himself by teaching at NYU and offering classes at Section4, his start-up that “is here to equip curious, ambitious thinkers with the business know-how they need to excel.”[6] And Galloway excoriates elite schools for not expanding opportunities, calling them “halo” or luxury brands and “ossified.” And he believes that the companies that hire their graduates “fetishize” the top 100 colleges and universities. He is nothing if not irreverent.

Galloway has many tics, most of which are endearing. For instance, when a guest has raised an intriguing argument, he prods them with “say more.” And he likes to say “if it sounds like I don’t know what I’m talking about, trust your instincts,” “if it sounds like a commercial, trust your instincts.” I agree that there is wisdom in trusting your instincts.

And through it all, the many venues and products for delivering content, Galloway offers up plenty of gems. For example: “The good news is I know how to get you rich. The bad news is slowly” and “if you aren’t paying and you aren’t the customer, then you are the product.” There is much to be learned, from both host and guest. Steve Schmidt described a way to make decisions, called the OODA loop – which stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. Galloway himself defines the valuation of a publicly traded companies as 70% narrative plus 30% numbers.

And finally, Galloway is self-deprecating to the core. He frequently comments on his youthful (and not so youthful) follies and says things like “I’m just getting started, elevator up, then elevator down. I don’t know what I mean by that.” And he describes his own forays into startups (and those of many others) as suffering from a proximity bias, meaning that rich white guys solve rich white guy problems because those are the problems they are most familiar with (think concierge health care).

Scott Galloway is informative, entertaining, and available is a format that is just right for you.  I recommend that you give him a chance to educate you.

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[1] I wrote about the book on June 9, 2018 – see The Four is a great book — https://www.notesfromnokomis.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=844&action=edit&calypsoify=1

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Galloway_(professor)

[3] https://profgmedia.com/chart-of-the-week/

[4] https://chartable.com/podcasts/too-embarrassed-to-ask

[5] https://www.profgalloway.com/apple-thief/

[6] https://www.section4.com/about