Marcus shared his philosophy on what it really takes for any business, including a law firm, to deliver value to the people it serves.

I always philosophically knew that the people mattered, and the process of how you run your business mattered, and the product mattered.

But I'll, I'll take an extra minute and sort of break it down for people.

When I talk about people, process, and product, it's really quite simple, and I wanted to dumb it down for educational purposes so that people can hear it and see it and swallow it in a way that's digestible But the layman's version of it is you can't be in a business and sell a product or a service that people don't need or can't relate to.

And the silliest example would be if I told you that I was gonna open up a company and sell 8-track cassettes.

I'm gonna have an amazing supply chain process.

My people are spectacular.

If you look back on that, w- are there certain key decisions that you've made that you can attribute this, let's say, sustainable growth and profitability to?

Mm

...

the average credit score.

See if there's a trend.

See if there's a trend by the products that they buy.

See if there's gaps where I'm not meeting certain people.

Understand who the competitors are in that area.

Yeah.

I know.

And then we stop for a week, and then nobody really talks about anything, and then we get mad again.

"I'm gonna punch you." And what happens is the market is starting to not be bothered by what the punch could do.

It's by the instability of what the threat of the punch could do.

Oil prices up, oil prices down.

Bond yields up, bond yields down.

And I think at some point we need some level of predictability for long-range planning.

How do you feel about that and just general, um, operations in California right now?

Right.

It happens every single year.

So I wanna make sure that we're doing apples to apples there.

Secondly, if it lasts two more months, I think we have a bigger problem, and we can say that it, it's $1.50, uh, $150, excuse me, but I think the bigger issue is how much longer can the consumer withstand what's happening right now? Because those things are gonna start to transfer into more than just prices at the pump.

It's what happens to the barrel is what happens to the boat, which is the supply chain, which is what happens to the basket, which is what the consumer's buying, which ultimately leads into the balance sheet.

And so we saw good first quarter numbers out of a lot of companies.

Mm-hmm

... and, and things that aren't necessary in their business, because AI is exposing them.

Mm-hmm.

So I wanna make sure that we're doing apples to apples there.

Secondly, if it lasts two more months, I think we have a bigger problem.

And we can say that it, it's $1.50, uh, $150, excuse me, but I think the bigger issue is how much longer can the consumer withstand what's happening right now? Because those things are gonna start to transfer into more than just prices at the pump.

It's what happens to the barrel is what happens to the boat, which is the supply chain, which is what happens to the basket, which is what the consumer's buying, which ultimately leads into the balance sheet.

And so we saw good first quarter numbers out of a lot of companies.

Mm-hmm

... and, and things that aren't necessary in their business, because AI is exposing them.

Uh-huh

... because of 230, and it basically said that the, that all these folks are not responsible for the content.

And for years, people were able to build platforms and be held, I think, clean of any liability regarding content.

What happened this week is m- it was m- the ruling was more important than the financial piece.

I was happy to see the 375 as it related to children because I wanna hit you across the head with anything that is gonna compromise children.

But when you look at the, uh, smaller ruling in California, it was really the court saying, "You are responsible for the form and the methodology in which you build your platform." And it's not about the content anymore.

We're saying, "230, you're good," but have you built something that lures me in? And I started to draw a parallel behind tobacco and other things that are addictive.

Great question.

Uh-huh

... because of 230, and it basically said that the, that all these folks are not responsible for the content.

And for years people were able to build platforms and be held, I think, clean of any liability regarding content.

What happened this week is m- it was m- the ruling was more important than the financial piece.

I was happy to see the 375 as it related to children because I wanna hit you across the head with anything that is gonna compromise children.

But when you look at the, uh, smaller ruling in California, it was really the court saying, "You are responsible for the form and the methodology in which you build your platform." And it's not about the content anymore.

We're saying, "230, you're good," but have you built something that lures me in? And I started to draw a parallel behind tobacco and other things that are addictive.

Great question.

And it's over the president coming out saying that he's having talks with Iran, and they're not gonna hit infrastructure for five days.

Yeah.

It's a little confusing for me 'cause I love the fact that we took the situation in Iran so seriously, and we all knew that there were financial consequences, which we can get to in a minute.

I'm a little confused by we're having strong talks with the folks in Iran, and on Friday there's nobody to talk to.

So I just wanna make sure that we're just finding some stability and finding our feet here.

There are real lives and real situations at play.

I think the president was right to go in and solve the situation in Iran or at least attempt to solve the situation in Iran.

Tell me how you feel about all this.

Right.

But I want Americans to clearly hear this.

This war is not about oil, and I've heard many people, particularly on the left, saying that this is a money grab and we're capitalistic and we're trying to make this about oil.

This is about protecting lives across the globe and protecting our Americans.

This is not about money.

Money un- unfortunately is always the byproduct.

The tension between all of those things and the oil prices are real.

and Mrs. Jones on a 401[k] it's a worry who wanna fill up their gas tank on a leased car, but what about others?

Like, let's say JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, that's who you mean?

Yeah, and I don't wanna wake up on Tuesday and find out that banks are being sued and, and Fed chairs are being removed.

Here's the, here's the issue that I have.

I truly admire President Trump's thought process around negotiating, around leverage, around wanting to bring more jobs back to the States, ar- around wanting to make cars and houses and food more affordable.

But I think there's got to be some consistency in the messaging, and he is such a bright man-

Mm-hmm

... is right in principle.

There are a couple of issues that, that I think exist.

But what, what makes this more challenging than other years?

Well, 2025, when we entered 2025, we did not know about Liberation Day.

We thought there were gonna be more aggressive rate cuts.

Those two things ended up being different than what we thought they were gonna be.

The economy isn't terrible.

I wanna stop talking about affordability, and I wanna start talking about cashflow.

That's what affordability is the result of.

Gone.

How do you feel about that?

And I commented last evening on it, that in my opinion, there has to be a balance between two, if there...

Today, there's four beefy quarterlies, those are called Qs.

And for the annual year, you do what's called a K, that sort of summarizes everything.

To move to two times a year would be okay.

I don't know what they would call it.

But what information are you providing to the market inside of those stub six months? Are you gonna have to flash revenue? Are you gonna have to flash gross profit? What are you gonna have to show people? 'Cause six months is a long time not to give any information, and 90 days is too short of a period that every 90 days I'm revving up.

Right.

Minimum wage, too?

Uh, it's not a, it's not a labor issue.

A lot of people came after me and said, "You don't wanna pay people the right amount of money." I have no problem paying people more than they're worth.

No problem.

It's all the other layers of expenses that are out there.

Instead of Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom, uh, coming out and saying, "Hey, I don't agree with your position.

I think you're wrong about these five things.

By the previous administration?

Actually, uh, for those who missed it, what is he gonna do?

Oh.

Yeah.

So, uh, there was a discussion on Friday where President Trump talked about investigating the importing of furniture from around the globe, and I think what he's really looking for is have people been trying to circumvent the tariff process, have they been trying to take stuff to Canada, around the horn, around the water, and making sure that there is a very specific process around furniture.

The idea is, in Michigan, a lot of commercial furniture's made.

Grand Rapids, you go up, you see Steelcase, Kendall, Kimball.

You go into North Carolina, that's where Hickory is, all the, uh, furniture that's built there.

Minimum wage, too?

Mm-hmm.

The suppliers are gonna take some of it.

And unfortunately, the consumer is gonna take some of it.

The question is how much and what's that impact gonna be? So the reduction in rates for homeowners or, or individuals is gonna lower the dem- the amount of interest expense that they're paying on their home, their car, whatever other variable piece they have.

I would assume that if I was a, uh, fly in the room, that somebody would say, "A reduction of interest rates gives me more discretionary dollars, more discretionary dollars to offset the trade-"

Mm.

And I, what I have found more than anything, 'cause I've been making it for 10 years, is I'll meet kids that were in high school or college that I'll find on the street that'll say to me, "We used to watch this show in, you know, my, my economics teacher's class.

Then I opened a business.

And, s- Marcus, speaking of those walls, of those brick walls or maybe those smaller walls in different states, um, who are you helping? Who are you talking to? What are you seeing out there right now in, in 2025?

2025?I think it's about a little bit of everything, right? So businesses are, are...

I, you know, for years when I made The Profit on CNBC, I used to talk about three things; people, process and product.

It's no different.

Like, the philosophy doesn't change.

Uh, the businesses that I'm meeting with are your, your prototypical small businesses, uh, audiovisual, uh, s- uh, place in Long Island, uh, an ice cream place in New Jersey, a dog grooming place in Los Angeles.

And really wanting to demonstrate for the American entrepreneur and for the business enthusiast the basic blocking and tackling that happens in business.

... finally, Mar- (laughs) wh- what resources do you tell people to search for if they are in that gr- that early growth phase? What do you, what's your best advice for anybody listening to you right now, um, who's either starting or feels like they just maybe bit off more than they can chew? I it a, is it a government resource? Is it something else?

I hope it's not saying, "I can't be perceived to be giving into pressure from the White House, so I'm not gonna do it," because they had two officers say, "I don't agree with leaving things unchanged."

Well, I think there's a balance, right? I, I think there is a balance of necessity for independence, and I don't think anybody disagrees with that on both sides of the house.

I think the real challenge is, is that when you talk to business leaders that are really driving the economy, that are hiring people, that are borrowing money, that are spending money on CapEx, they will all tell you that they're in a wait-and-sea mode.

And the wait-and-sea mode isn't about tariffs.

We understand generally what that tariff scope is.

We just heard Jamie Dimon talk about it.

And so for most businesses, it's gonna be slightly impactful and the, the absorption will happen.

Do, does that, is that something that gratifies you?

I hope it's not saying, "I can't be perceived to be giving into pressure from the White House, so I'm not gonna do it," because they had two officers say, "I don't agree with leaving things unchanged."

Well, I think there's a balance, right? I, I think there is a balance of necessity for independence, and I don't think anybody disagrees with that on both sides of the house.

I think the real challenge is, is that when you talk to business leaders that are really driving the economy, that are hiring people, that are borrowing money, that are spending money on CapEx, they will all tell you that they're in a wait-and-sea mode.

And the wait-and-sea mode isn't about tariffs.

We understand generally what that tariff scope is.

We just heard Jamie Dimon talk about it.

And so for most businesses, it's gonna be slightly impactful, and the, the absorption will happen.

Do, does that, is that something that gratifies you?