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How To Tell Women TikTok Is For Girls | ROI Podcast™ Ep. 494
09/11/2025
How To Tell Women TikTok Is For Girls | ROI Podcast™ Ep. 494
ROI Podcast—the business show that doubles as a comedy roast—returns with Law Smith and Eric Readinger riffing on TikTok, attention spans, and why horoscopes are basically astrology’s version of fantasy football. This episode tackles: TikTok’s addictive algorithm vs. China’s “education-only” version. Why social media feels like narco-terrorism for your brain. The trader who used TikTok comments to turn $84K into $42M. Comedy, drag shows, group dances, and why dudes just don’t vibe with them. A DIY college fantasy football league idea that could flip into billions. If you like your business podcasts with more laughs than LinkedIn posts, hit subscribe and join the world’s #1 comedy-business podcast. Eric Readinger 0:02 Okey, dokey, Law Smith 0:06 Whoo, yeah, ah, I wear, I wear my DMX goggles, yeah. I mean, this is, like, the why is that? DMX, no, but it's like a guy. This is Malibu's Most Wanted. That's what this guy sounds like. Eric Readinger 0:27 Yeah, maybe I don't know. He's not real. So can to be whatever you want him to be in your mind, Law Smith 0:32 so he is. So I'm right, yes, you're right. I'm gonna do this like a chick, yeah, see, I'm right, Eric Readinger 0:36 right, because I can't be proven wrong. I'm right. Law Smith 0:40 I was telling a friend, it made me underthink, like dudes, it's much, much better Eric Readinger 0:46 life. Uh huh, yeah, not everything you think is right. Law Smith 0:52 Well before this turns into no man from Eric Readinger 0:55 your children's club. Law Smith 0:58 You know, we can only call that shit out because we empathize with that play. Welcome to ROI podcast, because this is the number one comedy business podcast in the world. Sometimes we talk about emo stuff like Eric Readinger 1:12 that. Oh yeah. Are we gonna get into it? Nah. Law Smith 1:15 Oh, come on. No, no, no, it's too fresh. Too fresh, okay, fresh wounds. But I did. Eric Readinger 1:23 I'm gonna go ahead and just point out the echo Enos. That's my bad when we rip Law Smith 1:28 it up the floor in the studio, fix it in post. We got some tools. Well, hey, man, we should tell everybody, because I like giving resources out. I'm the Suze Orman of digital resources. That's what I want to be. What? Yeah, Adobe has a podcast Audio Enhancer. It'll take out background noise. It'll take out we have a little buzz I could hear right now that we had two episodes ago or an episode ago that it took outably your headphone. No, when I listened to it later. One of the previous episodes we Eric Readinger 2:02 did. Okay, this is definitely the kind of entertainment people want to hear. Well, maybe Law Smith 2:06 I'm just saying, if you have audio you need to clean up. You can, it's for podcasts, they say. But you could probably use it. If you had audio you needed to clean up, like in a loud room or a conference or, you know, any kind of meeting or something, you can right? But I just like the easy, you know, drag and drop it in, boom, come back out. Five minutes. Eric Readinger 2:24 You're good, yeah, AI is great, loyal part. Law Smith 2:29 But like it, it AI, the LLM, you know, those language learning models of like Chad, GBT and Claude and perplexity, large Eric Readinger 2:39 language, excuse me, what did I say? Learning? Used to Law Smith 2:45 whatever rewind I got. There's too many acronyms in my head or abbreviations, but it's one of those things where it it's a whole to do, like you have to know, how do you hold to do? What happens was. And I think everybody's having this issue, I kind of try to push through it, because I know that outcomes of what you want to get out of it, like, organize this document for me. Like, instead of me having to do it, that's great. That's like, I love that part of it, right? And that's intuitive. But there's some things that aren't intuitive on how to talk to it. Yeah, nicely, you can be mean to it. I don't know if it affects it. Eric Readinger 3:29 Well, not yet. You go on their list, their robot Law Smith 3:33 list, that's fair. So you know, I would just say I like the easy things like that. Like, for this podcast I'll use, there will be a word counter that sem rush, I think, has out there that's just its own website. You can drop a whole paragraph in. It'll pull the keywords for you if you want that are most important. It'll, you know, do stuff like that. I like those kind of little tools. And if we do anything on the show, if we're if we add any value besides our guests wisdom that come on the show, we show you how to be a tool. It's some resources to be a tool. Perfect Circle, exactly. Good album, yeah. You know, I don't know if I want to get into the fantasy football stuff. Eric Readinger 4:19 I know. I mean, I thought we were gonna talk about something else, I'll tease it. Law Smith 4:23 Well, we were, you and I off air. Were bitching about tick tock and how I don't think either of us really like Eric Readinger 4:30 it. I don't ever go Law Smith 4:32 into talk well, I don't, I don't like I don't like reels, I don't like show. I don't unless I'm like, going to Eric Readinger 4:39 look for something, right, right? It's not, we weren't talking just about Tiktok what? Law Smith 4:43 But I mean, Facebook reels, when I open those apps, it's like, abrasive with the video. You know? It's like, oh, sometimes the sound is like, way high, like an old TV commercial where the audio is like, doesn't that still happens, right? And it's so. Well, it's like, when I open up those apps and it goes right to video, it's like, oh, and I'm usually already listening to something, right? I've realized that's on me a little bit as far as like, I don't, I'm not people send me videos. I'm like, I'll get to that later. And I just never, yeah, I know it a lot of the time, but that's not because I didn't want to watch it. And I do like that. People will send me stuff. They go, Oh, they're thinking of you. They go, Oh, it's Eric Readinger 5:28 nice in general, to me, the interface is just a pain in the ass. Did you see the videos I sent you? Oh, you sent more than one. Oh, my God, gotta back out, because I go back in like, Law Smith 5:38 it's just stupid, and then I might be a comedy snob at the same time, exactly. And so that Eric Readinger 5:44 isn't funny. Isn't funny. Why are you sending me out? And then Law Smith 5:47 so I was kind of thinking about it, when we talked about it, like last week, just kind of shooting the shit. And I was like, Why does Tiktok kind of annoy the shit out of me? And it part of it. Once I found out that the Chinese algorithm for their people is wildly different than the one over here. I think that was my trigger point to go. I don't want to be on that. That. And at the same time, my mom, friends that are like our age in their 40s, they were telling me they're wasting two hours a night on there every night, and they're like, I'm so addicted. Like, when it was really popping. Like, you know, 2021 I don't know 22 we're not the first movers on this, but the laggard, older people, yeah, and so, like, I was like, I want that. I don't have enough time. I feel like, but you're Eric Readinger 6:41 acting like the Tick Tock algorithm is that much worse than any other social media algorithm. They're all doing the same thing. Law Smith 6:47 Well, I think they do they I think they do it the best it seems like. Because it seems like, yeah, maybe I don't know, man, just from general chatter I hear in my life. But also, when I'm listening, I listen to a dick loader comedy podcast all day, because, you know, marketing, marketing work is like, once you know how to do it, you can kind of be on autopilot a little bit. And so it's one of those things where the chatter is like, it is they have, they got it dialed in, they got you screwed in, buddy. And that's, that's, that's really, they're the best at Eric Readinger 7:27 it that. But it's like we're on neither of us are on it. To know if it's better or worse. I'm on it enough. I Oh, here we go. Now we get the truth. Law Smith 7:36 Well, I need to know, well, marketing, we're in marketing, so it's like, I need to know enough, right? And I need to know a user perspective of it, right? I can't. I usually just try to stick to, like, outside research, well, yeah. But I'm always like, I like, put it away, like, it's like, a Ebola virus or something, okay, you know, I'm like, Oh, I don't want, that's good. That's really, yeah, but I also like timely reference. So the thing was like, Yeah, it's like, the Black Plague. And so I think, like, when? But really when it was like, okay, the algorithm for China and the Chinese people definitely got some pro China stuff going on there, right? That's, that's just good marketing within the country, right? Educational outside of that, it's only educational stuff. Eric Readinger 8:29 Now here, what is the education about, Law Smith 8:31 like, science and like things of that nature, probably revisionist history, I'm sure. But I'm sure it has a whole glaze of propaganda over it, yeah, but at the same time they're doing that, but over here, they're like, let these dummies get dumber. That's what. That's my like, Eric Readinger 8:50 yeah, I don't think that's a wild No, that's not wild at all. I agree with you, and Law Smith 8:56 I compare it to Narco terrorism of like, you know, they say there's a lot of fentanyl that gives through Mexico from other countries to go up, up to the United States to kind of hurt, yeah, oh, no. This is, and that's happened on the Russian Eric Readinger 9:12 border without better than Narco terrorism, bro. Well, it's it. This is the Idiocracy. This is Lee, yeah, it's legal, right? Law Smith 9:19 And we and another bigger if we back, really back out, like the the future where everything takes over, like, you know, all agency is lost for people, right? And at 1984 it was about like, everything coming at people to take over society. We're willingly giving it away with our time data, you know? Eric Readinger 9:45 Yeah, we just keep letting them do whatever. You know, it's man. It sucks. So older I get, the more I'm like man they are. They are probably trying to control Law Smith 9:55 us. Look, it's not all bad. But as our buddy in the. Uh, all star guest, Dean Akers, who's, come on, he's, I'm surprised when we had breakfast the other day, he didn't bring it up. But because I think he's brought it up every breakfast we've had the last, you know, two years, he goes, You know what the new cigarettes are? And I'm like, what? And he's like, it's the bone. And I'm like, I know that one. I actually can answer right? When he is a teaching, he's a he's a teaching kind of mentor, yeah? Eric Readinger 10:28 So like, when Dean comes on here, and he'll ask us questions, and then we get all nervous and try to think of the right answer, and then one of us gets it right, and the other, he does the same thing at breakfast. And we the same way in real life. He's no different, yeah. We act the same way. Law Smith 10:41 So he keeps score, but he that's like, his favorite, you know, kind of angle, and he's right, because he, he was telling me people were wasting two hours as well. And I was like, whoa. I mean, he, he looks up Eric Readinger 10:54 that stuff. Yeah, that's not even now. That's, I thought that was obvious. Law Smith 10:58 Is it all bad? No, it it provides entertainment for people, right, right? You can get information from it. I just don't know how I feel, like you, like we talk about with news outlets, we'd be doing a lot more work to figure out if, if this, this thing on my feed, is actually true. But most people don't take that extra step, including myself, and a lot of the times just go, oh yeah, that's okay, right? Just move on, Eric Readinger 11:27 right? I think they annoying, most annoying dances I even get to that the dances, they're not as annoying. I don't think the food food, try this viral. Try this viral recipe. First of all, if that's obviously throwing a word viral into all the food, right? It's viral. It's viral. Whatever chocolates you know, like you, but the way they do the thing is, like, here, let me do a quick, sharp, snap, cut all, like, of the ingredients that you gotta, like, pause your phone. Like, they don't give you any measurements on what you're doing. Like, there no, it's just like you barely kind of got to guess what they're doing. And yet, there's still people are still trying Law Smith 12:06 to do it. I went on a mom date. I had to go on a date with my mom for lunch once a month. Law loves mom. I love my mama and and she was saying, I was I was saying the same thing. I was like, I don't like any recipe online that doesn't give you the ingredients first. I know that's because that's another bunch into it. And you're like, I don't have, oh, fuck man, I don't have basil. I don't have that kind of basil here. No. But I Eric Readinger 12:34 mean, whatever happened to the websites that just give you the recipe? Well, you'll have to write a fucking Law Smith 12:39 story about it. They're all trying to game it. So, like, they know that's going to be too boring, and people don't want to see that at the beginning. But when you really, actually want to use the information for recipe, and you don't know, I don't I, admittedly, I'm not. I don't know offhand how to bake or cook really well. I can grill, okay, right? But like, I look everything up and just follow whatever the directions are Eric Readinger 13:04 exactly. And when the directions start with, I remember when I was nine years old, it's like, what are you doing, right? I don't even, I don't even see them. Where are you taking me? Yeah, bro, it's a whole thing. Everybody's got to get their SEO in. Law Smith 13:17 So 25% of the users are 18 to 2425 34 is about 30% and our swing and Dick group is about 20 Okay, I just, I wanted to pull some stats up, because I was like, I was curious how really even spread. So it started in 2016 and it's become this. It's grown quicker, more more adopted users, more daily active users than any of them in such a short amount of time. That seems suspect to me, right? Because I was like, how did it grow like that? And I can't get any of the any of the AI apps to tell me Eric Readinger 14:00 really, I know, I think there's absolutely, well, whether it's an app or a person like that, get propped up and put in the spotlight and be made to be, you know, a household thing. It's like we were talking about like a guy like Sean Ryan. Yeah, who the fuck was Sean Ryan before he started getting every top tier podcast guest, yeah? Like, yes, I understand he Law Smith 14:27 was, you know, he was a journalist. He was, he Eric Readinger 14:31 was a counter Intel guy. Law Smith 14:33 Wait, whom? I'm thinking of, the hot wings guy, the hot ones guy. What's that guy's name? Who gives a shit? Now, I'm thinking of Sean Kelly, but, all right, who's Sean? Who Sean? Eric Readinger 14:48 What? Sean Ryan? Law Smith 14:49 There Is he cute. He's a bald headed man. Well, I mean, there's so many audiences we don't know about. There's so many like popular things. Like, when people come up to you, especially like comedy, you think you have a finger on the pulse. Like, you ever heard of this guy? He has a billion people that follow on me. Like, never heard of him? Eric Readinger 15:10 No. I mean, 4.8 3 million subscribers, right? Law Smith 15:14 I don't know if I even know this guy. Well, I thought you were talking about the hot ones. Guy off air. Eric Readinger 15:19 I mean, you just see he's got, you know, Law Smith 15:23 he's is, Eric Readinger 15:25 uh, sets. Let's see if I can imagine being able Law Smith 15:30 to build up. My God, how unprofessional. Whatever you don't do premium down, um, Eric Readinger 15:36 but anyways, I think there's guys that just like, get put into the spotlight to push a narrative, you know, like, just get certain people on there. Like, we're gonna give you a bunch of money for marketing because, like, somebody like, I just don't have no problem with the guy, Sean Ryan, he killed me in the sleep. But like, I don't necessarily think he's a great interviewer, or, like, has a fantastic recall of information, or anything, you know, Law Smith 16:07 well, that doesn't mean, I mean that it's entertainment at the end of the day. So it's Eric Readinger 16:13 not easy. Like, there's just a couple of them that are puzzling to me. Law Smith 16:17 He created and show ran several. Oh, that's, I think that's a different guy. That is absolutely a different guy, former Navy SEAL in CIA, contractor. So that's pretty interesting. Right off the Eric Readinger 16:29 bat, exactly what I'm saying, bro, and then he just jumps into the spotlight like Law Smith 16:34 that. No, okay, so there are, if you're talking about, like, podcasts, where there's, like, how did uh, these podcasts land on the top 10 list? It's like they have PR for that now, it's like you pay to get on that shit. Eric Readinger 16:50 Sure, I understand that. I'm just saying there's certain ones that I hear them and then just the way they are. It's very fishy. Law Smith 16:57 He, uh, became a CIA contractor enemies, so maybe had some cash to spend from that. Yeah. And then founded vigilance elite and 20 vitamin company to teach tactical skills to civilians law enforcement. So maybe money, some money there. If you have money, you can, you can, you can get that many people, even Eric Readinger 17:20 if you suck. Well, anybody who's been in the CIA, but not Law Smith 17:25 us, we're doing it lean on purpose, right? Yeah. So you got, or even it's for this is brought to you, for viewers like you. I don't have that the end of PBS stuff Eric Readinger 17:39 when they play best, get damp. Sure that's the right sound. Law Smith 17:43 Whenever where they go. This TV show, this program, is brought to you by and they give a bunch of, oh, I got it. I got the reference. But, and then they'd say viewers like you at the end, Eric Readinger 17:54 yeah, I know. Did you get it? Yeah, I still get it. Still get it. Law Smith 17:58 I tried to get back to tick tock. I tried to get the list of words that will demonetize you or give you, oh, let's read those aloud. I've wanted to, that was what I was gonna do. I was just gonna start reading them without with no segue into it. But I can't get them. I can't get a list of them. It's like, secret. Eric Readinger 18:17 Well, I know the kids. Oh, visit. Is it one? Well, you can't talk about that. Can't talk about unaliving yourself. Law Smith 18:25 And Tiktok, I think, is the most prude out of all of them. Like you can't say sex, you say SIGs with, like, eggs with an S on right? Yeah, or the one on YouTube, and Tiktok is on alive yourself instead Eric Readinger 18:42 of, did you hear me just say Law Smith 18:44 that? Oh, no. Okay, good. Eric...
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