What would be some of the things that you would flag as this is what you need to pay attention to, this is what we can bring to the table for what it is that you're going to be facing?

Sure.

So we have two kinds of clients and they're very different.

One is IT vendors, those who make software and services.

And the other is like the CIO of Coca-Cola kind of client.

And so when we're dealing with the vendors, the very first thing we do is tell them what is our perspective.

We're all former Gartner analysts.

How nervous do you think I should be? How confident are you with AI and all, you know, a tool that can be used for good or bad? How confident are you in our ability to outrun the bad guys, so to speak? Because it seems like an insurmountable task at times as fast as they're able to go.

Rob, if you were a federal CIO or a program executive officer today and you were reading this strategy, what would you be scratching your head over? What is the biggest mismatch, I guess, between the cyber resilience that the government says it wants and the way it currently manages those operational systems that you're talking about?

I mean, in the end of the day, it's wrong how it's being done.

And we've done this for 40 years.

So for 40 years, it was right.

And it's not like we've been doing it wrong for 40 years.

It's just because of how AI is.

And with all the recent news of AI being used to penetrate businesses and governments, times have changed.

Again, how should leaders today think about this balance between building the next thing that this strategy suggests and securing the things they already have with your policeman analogy?

Rob, if you were a federal CIO or a program executive officer today and you were reading this strategy, what would you be scratching your head over? What is the biggest mismatch, I guess, between the cyber resilience that the government says it wants and the way it currently manages those operational systems that you're talking about?

I mean, in the end of the day, it's wrong how it's being done.

And we've done this for 40 years.

So for 40 years, it was right.

And it's not like we've been doing it wrong for 40 years.

It's just because of how AI is.

And with all the recent news of AI being used to penetrate businesses and governments, times have changed.

Again, how should leaders today think about this balance between building the next thing that this strategy suggests and securing the things they already have with your policeman analogy?

Mm-hmm.

Sonos, very user-friendly.

Um, you put something like Control4 with it and now we've tied them all together and yeah, we have one simplified app for it, but now we have a- another piece to the puzzle.

Um, and that's when costs start to really get, get expensive.

If a client wants, wants to say, "I wanna hit one button, my lights are gonna turn on, my shades are gonna lift, my TV's gonna go to this channel," all of that, yes, we're gonna get into to a good system.

If they say, "Hey Rob, at 7:30 in the morning I want my shades to automatically come on, my lights to automatically come on, um, and I'm gonna turn on my Sonos" or, or, "I'm gonna have this song come on," we can now simplify that down for them and do that without breaking the bank.

Um, and we're seeing it more and more every day.

[laughs]

What would be some of the things that you would flag as this is what you need to pay attention to, this is what we can bring to the table for what it is that you're going to be facing?

Sure, so we have two kinds of clients and they're very different.

One is IT vendors, those who make software and services, and the other is like the CIO of Coca-Cola kind of client.

And so when we're dealing with the vendors, the very first thing we do is tell them what is our perspective.

We're all former Gartner analysts.

I don't know if you're familiar with Gartner, but Gartner is the largest IT analyst firm.

And five years I had enough of working for Big Brother, so I split off and did my own thing.

How nervous do you think I should be? How confident are you with AI and all, you know, a tool that can be used for good or bad? How confident are you in our ability to outrun the bad guys, so to speak? Because it seems like an insurmountable task at times as fast as they're able to go.

Well, Rob Smith at Aviva said the industry has been proactive, but in order to be more effective, he's calling for a centralized system that would allow insurance companies to share information with each other about fraudsters.

We need more joined-up thinking.

We need to be able to exchange information within the industry about these criminals that are operating, and unfortunately, at the moment, we're, we're restricted from doing that under GDPR regulations.

So if today we at, in Aviva identified a ghost broker operating and selling insurance, we're prohibited, unfortunately, from sharing this information with other industry members.

So what we need is that legislated for.

We need a central hub where we can legitimately share information and warn other people about potential criminals that are trying to manipulate their customers.

The fraudsters know we operate in silos, so the only way we can counteract that is operating together and to s- and to ch- exchange information.

What are the trends that we're now seeing going into the rest of 2026 and beyond?

Hi Julian, so yes indeed we spoke a little bit last time about this sort of shift but also the growth of AI from just chatting to AI agents that are capable of actually completing tasks.

The sort of first big use case for that was really around computer programming and that's where we still see a huge amount of growth in software development and the application for that.

But what we've seen so far this year is the movement of broadening out of that, I guess, to more types of activity and tasks, not just development.

So we see Anthropix, Claude Work as an example of that, and as well also Microsoft Copilot Agents.

And there are other various applications that allow people to take advantage of that.

AI being able to complete tasks now.

Where are we on that? Is it actually happening or is it still sci-fi and we're looking at 10 years from now?

Allora, ho iniziato

a scrivere per un magazine di musica e cultura irlandese chiamato Hot Press, facendo un blog di football per loro da 15 anni fa, 10-15 anni fa, e mi è piaciuto fare questo, e ho avuto un buon leggere e i numeri sono stati buoni.

Quindi mi è piaciuto fare questo, quindi ho domandato poco fa, potrei scrivere qualcosa che mi interessasse e che potrebbe un giorno diventare un libro? E' iniziato un paio di anni fa, in 2011 ho scritto un libro chiamato Camp Now, un titolo ufficiale, un breve storia sull'Europa's greatest football stadium, ma l'ho perso, l'ho ricostruito su un computer e l'ho rilasciato randommente circa due anni fa.

E questo mi ha rinunciato a un fuoco, perché sono un grande fan dei Bocca Juniors.

E ho pensato a me stesso, sai cosa? Ci sono molti libri sui Bocca Juniors.

ma molto pochi in inglese capiscono la storia corretta, quindi ho scritto un libro di Bocca Junior e ho lavorato con alcuni grandi storici in Buenos Aires che mi hanno verificato molti fatti, solo cose minori, ma penso che siano importanti.

Un esempio è, e potete notare, c'è un mito che dice che i colori di Bocca vengono dalla prossima nave sveglia che è arrivata a Buenos Aires e era una nave sveglia.

su di me no, no, no, è vero, è vero c'è qualcosa di altro che vuoi lasciare ai nostri ascoltanti? o amico, mi interessa se hai un viaggio che arriva per tornare a Buenos Aires è solo un tempo lungo per tornare in Argentina e tornare a Oaxaca? no, no, mi piacerebbe tornare a Oaxaca la prima volta che ero lì, la

Well, that's not what Claude told me.

So, actually about two years ago, we started the process, and we're using it at the corporate office now.

We're using Claude, we're using ChatGPT, we're using Copilot, and we're using it, we've housed all our financials, we've housed all our sales and star reports, we've housed all our trip reports, so now, you know, I can go into Copilot and say, I'm heading over to X hotel.

And within three, four minutes, it gives me a full overview of what's been done, different areas of the trip reports, financials.

We should say that you have a tech lab kind of at the home base and stuff like that, which is kind of giving you the ability to go into what you're going to say now.

Yes.

So what our team came back and they said, Rob, if you look at the franchise community over time, and let's pick McDonald's as a great example, 99% of innovation doesn't come from the corporate office.

It comes from the field.

Yeah.

He, he was really nice.

But yeah, I've not been to Borehamwood before, so get up to Borehamwood.

It's kind of like a satellite commuter town of London.

It's very Jewish.

There was a kind of "We stand with Israel" sign when I got there.

Um, I got a bacon sarnie, not, not a very kosher breakfast.And yeah, Duncan's based in this, like, don't wanna be offensive to them, quite dumpy office by the train station.

Mm-hmm.

Where does tech enter the picture of this?

That's a question that's on a lot of people's minds.

And we focused a lot on AI.

We recently had a GM summit down in Lake Conroe about a month ago.

Technology should be something that enables us to spend more time with the guests.

Like I hate, for example, AI generated phone calls.

I hate when I call and I'm not talking to a human being.

What do you think is some work in the hotel business that just should be kind of automated with AI or with technology? Because I hear what you're saying, and then I'm kind of curious, in your take, what might be some of those areas?

lot,

Josiah.

If you look at hotel companies that are 100 hotels or more, they're sub-3, and we're 4.4. And it's intentional.

We've grown 11 spots in the last 18 months because we're really committed...

I actually had a, I was interviewing somebody who wanted to join our organization and he said, I'm impressed you just look at that.

And I look at it every day because I want to know what people are saying about whether or not they like working with us.

Because that's another thing I learned working offshore, right? It's people, in my opinion, yes, money's important.

What's inspiring you these days?

So a lot's been kind of talked about, but I'm very curious on your perspective, Rob, kind of what have you been seeing on kind of the macro level unfold recently? Kind of what's your point of view into all this? You

know, the market's way different.

In the last two years, We've picked up about 35 hotels, which is a lot of growth in two years.

Every single one of them were management changes.

And typically in our business, you pick up a hotel through acquisitions.

When a hotel sells, you partner with a buyer and you're able to acquire a hotel.

Oftentimes in our business, we lose hotels because part by when a hotel sells, because it's part of our job to make sure that we succeed in the owner's investment thesis and that they're ready to exit.

What's behind this top line growth? Like what are you kind of doing differently that that's causing outperformance?

But on a personal level first, how did you make that work for yourself?

It was a huge step to make the decision.

Of course, it's exciting to go to the Caribbean.

But at the same time, I moved down there knowing no one.

My career was my biggest objective.

I was first and foremost inspired because the people that work there, you know, tourism is 92 cents of every dollar.

And when you start in a hotel, most likely you're going to work in that hotel or a hotel your entire career.

Do you feel like there's something there that informs the work that Stonebridge is doing now as a third party operator that might be different from other operators out there?

You know, walk us through this.

Well, yeah, I guess one drill which is always good for, for new players, but that even pros practice it, I mean, when you're talking about able-bodied tennis, we always say about being in a good ready position.

Now, wheelchair, y- a ready position is very different, but me, when I speak to players, a ready position is actually keeping the chair moving.

So mobility, that is being ready.

So a, a drill that I've always done, I know it's probably called something different in the USA, which, uh, Jason will go through after, it's, I think we call it the hub drill.

And all it is, it's, it's a basic drill, and it can be done at all levels.

Uh, you can do it by throwing a tennis ball, then moving into hitting.

coaches.You're, like, reading my mind there, Rob, 'cause my question was gonna be: how do you help coaches maybe who aren't coaching wheelchair players to feel confident to do this drill? What are some tips? Or maybe just in general, starting with a wheelchair player when they've worked with the able-bodied side their whole career.

Like, what, how did that come to be coming out of 2024?

Well, yeah, it, it started long ago, and that's where I was gonna go with the history.

You know, I've, I've been covering PGA Championships, this will be my 14th year.

And in the 2010s, the PGA made a lot of investments to, you know, bring connectivity to devices, just to let people use their phones and, you know, download scores.

I mean, that was the first use case.

And when connectivity became more ubiquitous and 4G and 5G and being able to watch live video through all these great apps, you know, the, the challenge for us became real.

It wasn't a premium feature for us to offer at these events to get people connected and have these experience, but it was a requirement.

Maybe give us an example of, hey, what, what's the impact, right? What does a fan care about what you've discovered, what you built in '25, and maybe where it goes from here?

Rob Smith, where are we with this war, do you think?

You know, where are we right now? It, it's, it's very confusing, I gotta tell you, because I don't believe that we're really getting a lot of good reporting from anybody across the aisle, uh, uh, about this war.

Uh, you know, on one hand you will have President Trump saying that we're in peace talks, on the other hand you will have Iranian officials saying that these things don't exist.

On one hand, you know, you've got, you know, the, the, the videos of, of all the bombings and stuff happening.

On the, the other hand, you've got a lot of stuff that's unverified on X. I think that fundamentally, you know, and I've been vocally opposed to this war, and I think that fundamentally I just do not understand what is happening right now.

All right? And I think that the vast majority of the American people, should they want to admit it, likely feel the same.

We really do not know where we are.

What would you say to that, Rob?

And the problem with that is it lends itself, obviously, to furious speculation.

All right, uh, Piers, let me make...

Uh, thanks for having me.

Let me make a couple of points here.

First, m- my first point is this.

The concern over the Jeffrey Epstein case and the Epstein files and all of this stuff doesn't really seem to be a concern of the everyday American that voted for Donald Trump.

It seems to be an exclusive concern of the types of people, uh, you know, myself included, as one of my, my side jobs, uh, that speaks on camera or podcasts or spends time on social media every single day.

... maraud around invading sovereign democratic European countries, or can you?

Yeah, I mean, Rob Smith, um, first of all, thank you for your, your service. Obviously you're a decorated Iraq veteran. I have great respect for that. Um, what people seem a bit baffled by, me included, is that you can be, uh, putting pressure on Ukraine to come and do a peace deal for obvious reasons that make a lot of sense. I, I actually think that Trump's overview of where the war is is completely accurate. Um, I, I think he genuinely wants to forge peace here. What people have been taken aback by is that he's quite happy to call Zelenskyy a dictator and then withdraw that, and, uh, keep attacking him and humiliate him in the Oval Office and so on, whilst maintaining a position of never appearing to criticize Vladimir Putin at all, despite the fact that it was Putin, of course, and his Russian forces who invaded three years ago.

Well, I will say this. First of all, um, thanks for having me, Piers. Uh, first of all, uh, it's not probably, um, a good choice to criticize and to be really hard on the person that has the, basically the upper hand, uh, between Ukraine and Russia, which is Putin, right? So that's first of all. And second of all, I think that what people need to understand is that the people that were, quote unquote, taken aback, uh, by Trump's behavior towards Zelenskyy, by Trump's behavior towards the Ukraine, um, seem to be, political commentators seem to be people that were in support of just never ending this war, okay? I am somebody that voted for Trump, and I voted for this. I voted for strong leadership. I voted for somebody to hold Zelenskyy accountable. I voted for somebody to stop this endless sea of, um, American taxpayer dollars that have been going to Ukraine for the past three years to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The only people that are surprised by this behavior are the people that have become used to weak leadership in this country, the people who have become used to somebody like, uh, President, former President Biden and a lot of the people that were advising him being run all over by Zelenskyy, by the people of Ukraine, by the people that supported this nonstop funding of American tax dollars to this country. President Trump has said very strongly and has sent very strong signals through his words and through his actions that not only does he want this war to end, but that we will not continue to send endless amounts of American taxpayer dollars to this country.

Now this caused a lot of outcry, not least in the UK, because obviously the two countries so far who've indicated they would send troops are the UK and France, um, and both of them have been heavily involved in military action with America, uh, certainly within the last 30 years. Iraq, Afghanistan. Um, a lot of outrage in the UK. Graham Stuart, an elected m- member of Parliament said, "We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset. If so, Trump's acquisition is the crowning achievement of Putin's FSB career, and Europe is on its own." So, look, I don't think that is the case at all. However, was it ill-advised of JD Vance to use that phraseology about, uh, a random country which hasn't fought for 30 years given the two countries so far that have said they'll put troops there both have done so?

No, I don't believe so, and I think that the reason that so many people are shocked and outraged and all of this stuff... So I want to tell you, Piers, there is this, this circle that happens, all right? And we see it over and over again. This is what happens. President Trump actually stands up for America and American interests. Either it's President Trump or it's Vice President Vance or it's somebody that is supposed to speak for this country. So they actually stand up to American interests when the rest of the world is used to us being weak and, in Benny's words, basically rolling over. Then there is all of this outrage from the usual suspects. There's outrage from people in these different countries. There's outrage from the people that want things to continue to be the way that they have been for the past 20 to 30 years that have gotten us into the geopolitical position that we are in right now. So there's that outrage cycle. And then what ends up happening is that what Trump says or what JD Vance says, whoever the surrogate says, ends up being true, factual, and accurate. Um, think about, uh, the fact that, uh, you know, everybody was outraged about the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky, um, about this mineral deal, and now Zelensky is all ready to sign this deal, right? So we see this over and over again. Piers, a lot of people are gonna be shocked. A lot of people are gonna be surprised. A lot of people are gonna be outraged. This world needs shock and surprise and outrage from this country because they need to know that we are no longer a country that is just going to roll over for the rest of the planet. We are no longer a country that is just going to send hundreds of billions of dollars to our, of our taxpayer dollars all across the world. It's just not gonna happen anymore, Piers. And you're, you're talking to somebody that is a fairly new Republican. You know, Trump 1.0 is what brought me into the fold so I can understand, uh, where a lot of Americans right now are frustrated with the status quo. So you're not talking to somebody that is just used to how things have been going for the past 20, 30, 40 years. I'm somebody that came into the fold back during Trump 1.0 because I knew that there needed to be a change in this country so I am not shocked by these things. I am not surprised by these things. I am delighted by these things because your other guest made a, um, analogy earlier. He said that Trump is taking a sledgehammer to everything. The, what has been happening over the past 20, 30, 40 years in this world needs a sledgehammer taken to it because we can not continue to survive in this way. Not only can the world not continue to operate in this way, but I know certainly America, the country that I put on a uniform and fought for, the country that I love, the country that I've sacrificed so much for and by the way has provided me more opportunity than somebody who came where I come from could ever dream of, we are done with this and it is time-

Yeah.

So, this is all politics. And what it speaks to me, and this is the reason that DeSantis got destroyed in the primary, it's the reason that honestly, a lot of people that were on Team DeSantis are so dead in DC and MAGA world right now, is because they do not read the room. They're all about politics. Now, Florida politics is very insular in the way. And, and I understand that Byron is running for governor of Florida as well, so he said what he said. But when Byron Donalds made the point, number one, it came up, he was prompted to, to say this. Like, somebody asked him the question. He didn't lead with it. And he said, "Look, if, you know, the attorney general in Florida wants to investigate this and he finds something, I support him in that," right? But like I said, this is all coming from DeSantis world. Look, DeSantis has been a great governor in Florida. I was very much a, a fan of his, still is, in terms of what he does in Florida, but this is naked politics. And this is also Team DeSantis trying to run to the left of anything that they see as sort of unseemly or any cultural figures that are very powerful in MAGA world. This is the reason that they are dead in DC. This is the reason that Ron DeSantis, uh, spent a lot of his political capital running against Trump. I do not think that there's any real particular reason why they wanted to pick this fight other than to try to look good or more moderate or to the left of, of what they see as hardcore MAGA or, or even Trump in some ways.

Okay. So this happens simultaneously. Elon Musk, Rob, um, response, I believe, 'cause remember I mentioned Ģ%$#^@!@! Uh, Elon Musk takes ģ$%$#^@!@! 200:7$#!$#@!@! He says, "Something to think about." He tweets this video out to 290 million followers on X, and says, "This is something to think about." Newsweek says Chauvin's serving a 20, 20-and-a-half-year sentence for second-degree unintentional murder, and a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd's civil rights, though Shapiro noted in a video that Trump's pardon power only applies to the federal charge, saying that Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the woke movement in American politics. Rob, your thoughts on this story?

I hate this so much. And I'm gonna tell you exactly why I hate this. Number one, there is absolutely nothing beneficial that pardoning Chauvin would do for the Trump administration, for this country, for race relations, for anybody else. It is absolutely destructive. It makes no sense. And so for me, when I first saw this, generally conversations that happen w- come from the ground up. Usually, there, there's some sort of murmuring on under, and then it kind of, like, bubbles up, and then it becomes a national conversation. This seems to be a very top-down conversation that comes from somebody with an enormous amount of influence. This is nothing that anybody was talking about or thinking about. So, it really makes me question, why is this conversation happening right now? It makes me question, why did Ben Shapiro want to start this conversation right now? Who does this benefit? Doesn't benefit Trump, doesn't benefit America, doesn't benefit race relations. It doesn't benefit anything. And the last point I'll make on it is this. (clears throat) There are very few people that can actually really speak to, in-depth, what was going on in that trial, what, how Derek Chau- excuse me, how George Floyd actually died, et cetera, et cetera. There's probably five people that have, you know, spent the bulk of their day on a podcast set every single day, like Ben Shapiro, like maybe two or three other people, that can really talk to you in-depth about this. So, then they're positioning themselves to say, "No, listen to me. I'm the one who really knows about this." So what? Trump's agenda is supposed to be derailed? Where we're at as a country right now is supposed to be derailed because these leftists and these Democrats are looking for a reason to have another race war? That is what they love. So why this conversation is happening right now, I have no idea.

(laughs)

So, thank you for quitting and honestly... Okay, so look, my degree is in journalism from Columbia, right? My, I got my master's at Columbia. And I think that people have no idea. We think that we know that these people are whiny libs and leftists or whatever. There is this entire pipeline in mainstream media of these people, even to when I was at Columbia and I was, I was not even conservative at that point. Um, I was kind of like independent asking questions because surprise, surprise, I thought that, that's what you were supposed to do, um, in J school, in a J school master's program, right? And the looks that I would get when you would just ask basic questions about immigration, et cetera, things that you weren't supposed to ask. And people do not understand that these people are literally taken from, you know, your Columbias, your Northwesterns, wherever, and they are in all of these newsrooms across the country. They are not curious. They don't see their job as journalists as to ask questions. Their job is to promote the liberal propaganda that they were born and raised with. And so yes, they're doing us all a favor to quit because I believe, um, in, I believe in journalism, I believe in legacy media pieces, they need to be saved, and I think that Bezos is trying to save The Washington Post. But yeah, those people are doing us all a favor when they reveal themselves and they exit stage right.

Is f- is Facebook just liberal?

No. Oh, no, no. Okay, so here's the thing about Meta, o- and Facebook. So, I got a Facebook page with like 10 to 600,000 followers or something like that, and I- I put a steady stream of content every single day. And m- what I- this is what I say about Facebook. Facebook is like the Fox News of the internet for me, uh, because all of those people, I used to do a lot of Fox new- I still love Fox. Um, used to do a lot of hits back in the day, don't- I- I'm focusing energy on doing more things right now, but I do a lot of content on Facebook Meta. And I'm like, all those people that are those, um, kind of like, you know, older, we'll- we'll say 45 to 50 plus older, like- like, conservative people, a lot of those people find me on Facebook and- and they love the- the reaction videos to like the Trump and Zelensky stuff today, uh, the Joy Reid stuff. They love that stuff. Uh, but I do get a lot of libs that find that page and a lot of libs find me on Instagram to the point I don't even read the comments on Instagram anymore, uh, because, I mean, they just- they are so impotent right now. These people have literally zero power. They have no power in DC. Uh, the power, even in the mainstream media is waning, so all they can do is just scream.