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In this episode of 'The 50 Cups Hot Takes,' the hosts kick off with some light-hearted banter and a discussion about a special tea blend inspired by the spring season. They delve into an intriguing conversation about the recent wave of anti-Tesla protests, exploring theories around whether these actions are financially motivated. The discussion shifts to the complex and often frustrating world of healthcare, highlighting personal anecdotes about the moral dilemmas in medical treatments vs. life expectancy. The hosts also tackle the disruption caused by neighborhood parties and the rising issue of credit card fees. The episode concludes with an inspiring story about a miraculous rescue during a shark attack, emphasizing the power of community and divine intervention.
00:00 Welcome to The 50 Cups Hot Takes
01:10 Springtime and Sweet Tea
02:30 Tesla Controversy and Car Protests
08:10 Healthcare Challenges and Personal Stories
18:19 Neighborhood Party Etiquette
19:53 Morning Cleanup and a Funny Story
23:05 Credit Card Fees and Payment Systems
32:23 Shark Attack Miracle
37:37 Tea and Merchandise
Creators and Guests
Host
Jim Baker
Author of "The Adventure Begins When The Plan Falls Apart" Converting a Crisis into Company Success, Jim is a husband and father of 4, Baker has spent the last 30 years in the business world as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He had a successful exit in 2014 after owning and managing a CRO and functional services company, Ockham, specializing in Oncology. During that time prior to exit, Baker grew ASG and then Ockham both organically and through M&A. Over time Baker has experience in acquiring and selling companies, working with investment bankers, private equity, and mezzanine debt funding. In addition, has vast experience in business branding and managing and leading people. After the sale to Chiltern International, Baker started Sumus Development Group, an advisory business focused on operational excellence, exit strategy and marketing. In addition, Baker is an active investor in the business community.
What is Hot Takes: 50Cups?
United We Sip – Dive into the fascinating world of American culture with "Hot Takes: 50Cups." Join founder Jim Baker as he shares his hot takes on everything from day to day life, business trends and societal shifts, uncovering how we are all more united than we think.
At 50Cups, we believe in the power of community and the shared goal of living a healthy, fulfilled life. Our mission is to inspire you through organic, great-tasting teas, education, and awareness, uniting us all in our quest for better living.
Each episode of "Hot Takes: 50Cups" features Jim's candid and insightful commentary on the challenges, triumphs, and everyday experiences that shape our collective journey. From entrepreneurial wisdom, cultural observations, to health topics and nutrition this podcast offers a fresh perspective that will leave you inspired and enlightened.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a business leader, or simply curious about the threads that bind us, this podcast is your gateway to understanding and connection.
Subscribe now and join the conversation!
17 - Hot Takes
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[00:00:00]
Bill LuMaye: ladies and gentlemen. Another episode of The 50 Cups Hot Takes and I do this just for the tea. I just do. And the, the brilliant monologue that Jim has with every one of these hot takes, and Jim Bakker, of course, is the owner of the tea company, but also just a phenomenal human being, very successful entrepreneur, Jim.
It's always good to see him. And I'm kidding. I, I do this for the content, not necessarily the tea, but let me lead off by saying hello and what do you got in the way? Tea.
Jim Baker: Thanks for hosting again and, um, always looking forward to our [00:01:00] discussion today. Clearly we had a sleepover last night. Yes.
We watched a little, Netflix had a little popcorn and we both decided to wear gray blazers today. That's right. So, um, it's always good to bond with you. Um, yes. Yeah. So today we have, due to the beautiful spring in our neck of the world, yes. That's spewing. Clouds of pollen everywhere. Amazing. Yeah. A black car is now a yellow black.
Yes. And we had some rain last night, which was great. Yes. But now I have yellow sps all over my car. I was hoping it would wash it all off. But it's okay. I mean, the pine pollens are bursting and we have pollen everywhere and it's spring us in the air man. Yeah. It's two year, two week type of situation.
But I thought to honor that we would go with good old fashioned. Don't say it's green tea. My mom's recipe sweet tea. Oh good. It's a little black tea, little organic, not a lot sugar and some freshly squeezed lemons. And that's why I'm gonna pour it out.
Bill LuMaye: Oh, terrific.
Jim Baker: And I think you'll like it. I think it's way better than any folks, any [00:02:00] brand that, um, is out there commercially at this point in time, so enjoy.
Bill LuMaye: Well, I'm gonna give it a shot here. I have yet to taste any of your teas that I did not like. They've all been fabulous, and I'm not just saying that. But this is spectacular. This is great. You've been holding out Jim. Yeah. Yeah. How about that? You know, interestingly enough, those of you watching you could join us on a cup of tea right now.
All you have to do is go online, right? Yeah. And order it. You make a very easy Pepsi tea.com,
Jim Baker: right? Yeah,
Bill LuMaye: beautifully. Um, have you noticed something, Jim, I'd love to get your take on this, and that is, um, recently there's been a lot of folks who. Have disliked a particular car brand and they seem to be protesting against it.
But even going beyond that, you know, and burning it and threatening people, I'm, I'm just wondering to get your take on it, how do you motivate people to do that? Or is this even people being motivated or rather paid? I mean, what, what are your thoughts? It's unbelievable. Um, it is,
Jim Baker: and I used to make fun [00:03:00] of my friends who had Teslas because.
You know, some of them were in love with the technology, thought it was kind of cool, cell phone on wheels, you know, kind of thing, right? And it, self-drive and everything else. And others truly bought the car because they felt like they were in effect saving the environment. You know, with these electric cars, they, I don't think they dug too deep to understand how much energy is gonna be needed to, for charger stations and, to charge these cars in general going forward. And then most of our power plants today are coal, natural gas, or Yeah. Um, you know, good old fashioned oil to that obviously has to continue to perpetuate in order to be able to, you know, charge these cars right then, right. On top of that, I don't think a lot of people thought about, well, what happens when the batteries, um, need to be changed and disposed of, you know, where does that lithium go?
Um, all that good stuff, but nonetheless, um, they [00:04:00] were devoted car base, so to speak. And it just blows my mind that, um, people out there whether they're paid or not, I personally think they are paid, um, to go out and destruct, um, and these cars, and it's one thing to protest, but it's another thing altogether to, to vandalize or burn brand new, you know, inventory just simply because they don't like.
The, the person who invented the Tesla company. And so I'm thinking they have to be paid and they clearly must be given legal Oh, protection as well, um, you know, as a backup. But it's weird because, you know, the Tesla was supposed to be this, this brand is number one brand in the world. Um, by the way, over in China and elsewhere, it's still.
Doing great, and it'll continue to do great here in the US once we get over the speed bump, I'm sure. Um, but you know, if the, it seemed like everybody [00:05:00] loved the Tesla more so on the environmental side probably than the on the technology side. So these same people who probably would protest for, you know, a greener country are also the same people who are actually burning these cars.
And what happens when you burn the car? Well, it
Bill LuMaye: The, all the chemicals go right up in the air. Yeah, it's right up in the air. I believe they're deadlier than cow. Is it flatulence? I'm trying to use the appropriate word there, but I Yes, yes. It's, it's,
Jim Baker: I mean, it's ironic. Worse than methane I'm sure. And yes, I'm sure it is.
You know, so if you think about it, I mean, what are we doing? Like, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Um, you know, if they really wanted to, I guess, hurt the brand, then they'd come up with their own competing brand. That maybe it could go 500 or 600 miles before it needs to be charged as opposed to 300.
Now, um, maybe it could be a hundred percent self-driven. Um, who knows, right? To me, that's the way you, I think you fight, right? Something that you [00:06:00] dislike. Um, you, you give the consumer a better choice. In this case, destroying, it only shows weakness, in my opinion. Just simply means that, um you, you can't fight it.
Therefore let's try to destroy it. But what's the, I guess the reaction to that? You know, like someone like me, I'm actually considering buying a Tesla, hi,
Bill LuMaye: not Tesla. I was gonna say, you're gonna get the, the folks who think that climate change is a scam buying Teslas now.
Jim Baker: Yeah. And politics aside, I, I'm not, you know, I, I, I like Elon Musk.
I don't love him. Yeah, I do too. I think he's flawed just like everybody else is in this world. Um, but he's done great things for our country and, um, you know, I, I just don't understand what's wrong with trying to save money in a government. Especially when you and I and everybody else that's gonna watch this pays taxes every single day.
Now, could he do it better? And in terms of his messaging and could he be kinder, I'm sure. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, does that still, with all that said, it [00:07:00] just makes zero sense to me why somebody wanna burn inventory. Um, it just doesn't make any sense.
Bill LuMaye: Well, it doesn't, especially if you're trying to take the company down and.
Once you burn one Tesla, the insurance company comes in and has to replace it by buying another Tesla. So I'm not sure how much headway you're making there. I don't know if the message plays well either. I, I think most Americans, regardless a political affiliation, look at that and just shake their head and said, this is beyond stupid and nuts, don't you think?
Jim Baker: Yeah, I agree. I don't, I don't think it's working. And guess, guess what too? You know the people that are in the market. They had a chance to rebuy Tesla at 50% of its stock price a couple weeks ago. Oh yeah. Yeah. They're doubling down. They're gonna buy more stock stock's gonna eventually go up again, and so the rich are gonna continue to get richer.
So, you know, what's, what's the end game, I guess, is what I'm trying to figure out with some of these, you know, crazy things that, that go, go on these days?
Bill LuMaye: Well, you know, I feel a little better knowing they're actually [00:08:00] more than likely anyway paid, rather than having people motivated to do it purely, I.
My opinion for
Jim Baker: crazy stuff. Yeah. I'm sure there's some volunteers out there, but I'm sure there's a lot that are paid.
Bill LuMaye: Well, another area where people are, and I, I actually just talked to a couple of people who have tried to fix this, and that is healthcare in particular. If you don't mind me moving to the next subject, I, they're kind of related in the sense that you know, it's the, the industry itself.
There was actually a bill that I, I believe was, um, presented in California. It's named after the guy who killed the healthcare CEO. So they're actually going down that route. There's that sentiment about healthcare insurance particularly, and insurance and healthcare itself. They're all tied together. Jim, and you've had a guest on even not that long ago.
What? You have a liver transplant, is that what it was? Yes. Yeah, Ted Phillips. So I mean, you got a perspective on this and I have a daughter going through cancer treatment and the expenses. [00:09:00] Beyond anything I could ever imagine. So what's your take on this? Yeah,
Jim Baker: so this is a little less about insurance and a little bit more about just in general medical decision making.
Mm-hmm. Um, but I'll digress for one second where it's kinda like the Tesla thing. Why is the victim in the United Healthcare murder, the actual murderer and not the person who was murdered? I mean, it literally. Boggles my mind. Um, whereas you look at who was murdered and the victim in this case, he's a father.
Um, he had kids, um, he didn't come from a lot of money like the shooter did. Mm-hmm. The shooter was a very privileged individual who went to a very good school. Who was smart, um, he had advantages. And whereas the victim, I don't think had as many advantages, and yet he was self-made and he achieved great things.
Now, I'm not saying the insurance [00:10:00] industry is perfect, that by no means is, but where in this world do we have bills named after the shooter? Um, and not the victim like it, it's, it's,
Bill LuMaye: we're upside down these days. And that's the tie in with Tesla. 'cause you wonder, you have women who want to date and marry him.
I mean, they're attracted to, I guess, the bad boy. But again, you're choosing something that is, um, in this case, a murderer. But the Tesla and what you're doing in destroying them is a, is a felony as well, right? I mean, you're, you're, you're actually celebrating something that most of us. At least in the past felt repulsed by, right?
Sure. So how do we get here? How, why is this happening? It's
Jim Baker: crazy. And all these people that, um, hate insurance companies. Great. Um, I get it. You know, let's try to fix it. Let's not murder somebody though. And you know, those same people though, if that happened to one of their family members? They would not be singing that same tune that they are right now.
But let me get back to what, what the original thought was. [00:11:00] Um, somebody I interviewed Ted Phillips, right? If you haven't seen it, it's a very good interview. He had a, a liver transplant about four or five years ago. Thankfully, he's doing really well right now. Good. But to get on a transplant list, you have to have a, they call it a Melton score, and it has to be close to 30.
I, I have no idea how they, you know, score you, but nonetheless, um, the higher the score, the more critical you are and the faster, hopefully you can get a, a transplant. And there's, I think seven or eight centers throughout the country, um, where you can get these, it's all region based and everything else where you can get these transplants.
Um, so my brother-in-law. Has was diagnosed with bile duct cancer, which obviously is, affects the liver. And, um, so he, you know, based on his prognosis and his diagnosis and treatment and et cetera, et cetera. Um, you have to go through certain steps and all that time you're being, you're being scored.
Okay. [00:12:00] And I think his original score might have been closer to 20, um, but as he went through three or four rounds of chemo, um, and doing some holistic things on his own, he went and got scanned in February and. He calls us up and says, Hey, just wanna let you know, you know, the tumor shrunk. but the oncologist said that the treatment that you're under isn't designed to cure you.
It's simply to make sure it doesn't metastases. 'cause if it metastases, you're not on the list anymore. It's all over. But the crime, um, but to, you know, keep you basically in that. Bullpen, so to speak, to get this transplant. So he goes, so the good news is my tumor shrunk. He goes, the bad news is my Melton score is now eight.
Oh, no. So it's dropped. Now. Most people would be like, wow, that's great. Um, so he's, but the prognosis is the same. Prognosis potentially is the same. Right. And also. Where he might've been, according to the [00:13:00] oncologist, months away from getting the liver transplant, he's now one to two years away. Oh my. So then he says, well, what's the next steps?
And the oncologist says, we're gonna keep doing treatment, we're gonna keep doing chemo, then we're gonna go to radiation. And then after radiation, we're gonna go to immunotherapy. Well, how long is that gonna be? I don't know. We're gonna just keep doing it.
Bill LuMaye: In order to pro prolong his life and upset, he eventually gets a liver, which could be years down the road.
So
Jim Baker: what I'm getting at though is that in most cases, if you're on prolonged chemo, the chemo actually kills you before the cancer kills you.
Bill LuMaye: Oh, I didn't know
Jim Baker: that. So he's experiencing neuropathy in his feet, for example. You know, he's got a lot of side effects with the chemo, just like most people do that Sure.
Are bombarded. So where the paradox, you know, comes into play is. Great. His Melton score dropped. Now he can't get the liver transplant, which by the way will cure [00:14:00] him according to the doctors. Um, he has to wait longer, but now he's in this longer treatment path, which potentially could harm him more. So the puzzlement for me is.
How do, how what? I don't understand this whole process because no good news basically begets more treatment, which could end up killing you, harming him, or killing him. Mm-hmm. And he could get the liver down the road, let's say a year or two. But once he's recovered from the liver, he might not be able to walk.
Or he might not hear anymore because of the chemo. He might not see anymore because of the chemo. 'cause he was on this. Bombardment of, of chemicals for too long. So that's where I get frustrated with the medical community. And the bigger issue really is there's nobody out there right now giving him a direct path, you know, where there could be a balance between the [00:15:00] treatments and the wait list in order to get on this.
To get the transplant finally.
Bill LuMaye: But they had to give him treatment in order to stop it from metastasizing. Absolutely. Which would eliminate his, um, option as for a liver transplant. But you'd like to think they wouldn't what? Give him enough enough to stop one thing, but it almost feels like maybe you should have rolled your dice and just kind of went with it for a couple of months with no treatment and see where your score would be.
I don't know. I don't know enough about this, Jim, but. I see your frustration, but he, he's in a position now where obviously it would've been better to get the higher score and get the liver transplant. It's almost right. That's kind of why I think about
Jim Baker: it. It's almost as if you would kind of hope the chemo would not work, right.
You would kind of hope whatever else he's doing holistically would not work. So his score stays high and he gets the transplant faster. And I'm [00:16:00] thinking, who, who? Heck, nobody wants a transplant. Right? That's. It's great you have a new lease on life and everything else, but that's a, if you watch the podcast, I mean there's almost a year's worth of difficult recovery after a liver transplant.
You don't just come home five days later and you know, you're running a marathon, you got tubes, you can't move, you gotta have some help. You gotta have 24 7 help. Um, I mean, it's hard and um but I think, you know, once you've gotten a diagnosis, you obviously. We'll pretty much do anything to get fixed.
Sure. Um, but I'm just in a, a puzzled situation right now with the doctors, and unfortunately nobody, these guys, I don't know, they, I think when they have to go to med school, they should take nutrition courses, number one, which they don't in most cases. Number two, they should take a communication course, how to communicate.
Right. They just, they're busy. I get it. They have a million patients a day, they're cranking through. Um, but I think they lose sight of what, what actually is that? That person who's going through that treatment actually [00:17:00] thinking, he's an athlete too. It was an athlete. It's almost like, hey, you know what?
You ran a mile and you just finished the mile. Oh, by the way, you gotta run 70 more miles at the same pace. Mm-hmm. And then after that, you know, maybe you could finish a race. So it plays with your mind and it also plays with your body. That's a great
Bill LuMaye: point though, having gone through it myself with a member of my family, usually when you get cancer, it's the first time you've gotten cancer.
You know nothing about cancer, right? You know nothing about the treatment. So I get it, a doctor seeing a cancer patient one right after the other. But for that cancer patient, it's their first time. And, um, that's information I would've liked to have known. Now, I'm not sure you have an option or not, but, um, communication sometimes is lost in the healthcare industry.
There's no question about that. Yeah. I think the
Jim Baker: biggest takeaway, which I've encouraged him to do, but he has yet to do it. Go get a second opinion. Mm-hmm. You believe it or not, as a patient, still have rights. Yes. Um, and he's in an area of the country that has a [00:18:00] lot of people, um, that could treat him that may confirm, you know, what's going on right now or may offer him a different path, but nonetheless, go ask the questions, go talk to other people.
Not one person knows everything. Oh, I absolutely
Bill LuMaye: agree with that. Especially when it's your life on the line. Absolutely. . I dunno how to segue from that into something that is more of an irritant rather than a a, a life ending issue. And that is. I know you have these all the time, Jim. I, I hear about 'em.
I'm never invited to 'em, but the big neighborhood party is another one of your hot takes. Yeah. This will take five seconds. But it was a tough transition for the professional host to go from. But in any case, um, well, you got a, you got a problem with neighborhood
Jim Baker: parties. I actually don't in most cases.
Yes. Um, it's just more about, um, not necessarily policing the neighborhood party, but um. Being responsible and accountable for the neighborhood party once it's over. So I live on the [00:19:00] street. It's pretty long street. There's probably 30 or so houses on it. And on Sunday somebody had a big party where the cars were parked probably for, you know, three tenths to four-tenths of a mile up the road.
And of course they were parked in front of my house, no big deal. Um, and it was an early party. It didn't, it's not like I could hear it at 11 o'clock at night or anything like that. I think it ended, you know, probably around nine or so. But there's a lot of people and parked on both sides of the street and everything else.
So the next morning. Um, I'm leaving to go to the YMCA at five 30 in the morning and I notice napkins, cups, plates, just littered along people's front yards. Um, probably where the cars were parked. And it just struck me that, you know, people have parties, which is great, but you also gotta be responsible for the neighborhood.
Mm-hmm. And, you maybe should go out in the morning and just make sure there's no litter anywhere [00:20:00] that needs to be cleaned up. And I had a funny story. We host a Christmas party every year. Sorry you didn't get invited. Yeah, I didn't get invited to that host, Chris Party of year and Joe, did you get invited?
No, I remember the next morning, you know, just going out, emptying trash, cleaning up, and I always check, you know, to see if somebody didn't do anything crazy. Right. And, um, there's a wallet, you know, sitting on, on the side of the road. So I obviously picked it up and it was a guest at the party and we kind of made fun of her because we, we gave her the MVP for basically.
She took some cookies home and on the way out on a paper plate, there was like a cookie trail to where the wallet was at the end of the day. So I don't think she ever ate any of the cookies, but we gave her the MVP. Thankfully she secured her wallet again with all her IDs and cards and everything else.
Um, but I'm just encouraging homeowners or apartment renters or whatever you are, if you get a host. Just go [00:21:00] out the next day and kind of just do a little reconnaissance just to make sure that your your neighbors are not putting away trash from your party.
Bill LuMaye: Now, I'm, I'm just gonna push back a little bit, not because I haven't been invited to any of your parties, but you get up at five 30 in the morning.
I'm guessing the people from that party didn't, so they may have
Jim Baker: later. No. So I didn't, didn't pick it up at five 30. I waited till. The afternoon evening to see if anything would be picked up in the same, I stand corrected then litter was still there, so I did be in a good Samaritan this morning before recycling and trash came.
I did stick it into the barrels and um, it's clean now, but I shouldn't be the one cleaning it up.
Bill LuMaye: Oh, I think that's point. I'm sure my neighbor
Jim Baker: drove up in that street three or four times yesterday. Oh, it happened recently, Sunday. I could tell there was, there, there was a sense of passion in your voice.
Yeah. Two days ago.
Bill LuMaye: But I've noticed that in other occasions too. So I thought I'd just bring that up today. Did it ever enter your mind [00:22:00] into picking up the trash and putting it on his lawn to make a statement? It did, but that's way too much. You're much,
Jim Baker: yeah. Yeah. We gotta move on in life. I mean, there's, yeah, that's true.
I'm not going to heaven for doing that. So, um, you know, some things you fight over, some things you don't.
Bill LuMaye: Yeah. Well, you're not gonna be burning any Teslas that I'm never gonna work for Jim Bakker there. [00:23:00] another issue that's out there, and I know there's some things that have changed too, and that is with credit cards, you know, the kinds of fees you're, you're being paid or being charged and, and.
Even real re retailers now asking for certain credit cards or debit cards, I'm charging you more if you use your credit card. Is that your beef about it, Jim, or do you have a different That
Jim Baker: and just the whole payment thing, which I'll get to in a second. So when I had 50 cups retail Yes. A wildly unsuccessful endeavor.
Well, that's one of the few, the, the point of sale merchant did give us the option to be able to. Charge the consumer the credit card fee. And by law you have to have some type of signage near the point of sale, the register in this case to let them know they're being charged. Therefore, the [00:24:00] consumer has the option to either go cash or or credit.
Now, if you use a debit card in most cases you're not charged any, any fees. We opted not to do that, um, because we thought that might be discouraged the the customers from, from coming in, buying our products. However, I've noticed more and more it seems to be catching on everywhere, um, over the last seven or eight months or so.
And, um, it's kind of annoying, you know? Yeah. Because, you know, I think this whole payment society is really trying to push you, push everybody to go digital. Um, but now they're charging you to go digital. Nobody really wants to process cash anymore. Um, but you're rewarded for still using cash. You're penalized now for using a credit card.
And I will say that the credit card companies are. Are either really smart or they're also their own worst enemies. Because most of these cards, [00:25:00] there's 400 different cards everybody's offered. You gotta get, you got your airline cards, you have, you know, points to, you do whatever, Amazon, everybody's got a card, right?
And, but the more. Rewards, so to speak, that the consumer gets the more the merchant is actually charged, you know, for the card to use it. So the average fee is around 2%, but some of those cards sometimes would whack the merchant three or 4%. So I could see where they would want to turn around and pass that back, back, pass that charge back on the consumer.
Sure. Because that could into your profit. Um, and especially in retail, there's not a lot of profit to begin with. The. Frustrating piece of this whole thing is everybody is trying to push everybody, again, as I said earlier, to go digital. Um, but we're being penalized for it. So then what happens, I think at the end is that if I'm gonna be charged an extra $2, um, then I'm probably gonna take $2 off the tip.
So now you're hurting, you know, the [00:26:00] server. Mm-hmm. You know, in this case as well. So I just don't see, I. Any logical reason, um, why these fees have to be pushed back onto the consumer and also think there needs to be something done from the credit card world where these credit card companies, these banks just can't keep charging more and more higher, higher fees, you know,
Bill LuMaye: to their merchants.
Oh, I mean, I'm not a banker or a credit card company. I don't know how much it costs to actually process a credit card. It can't be any. More costly can it than processing a debit card?
Jim Baker: No, I think what's happening is there's, I don't think it's a process fee anymore. I think it's more of, if I know you're gonna get, you know, once you spend $20,000 with me, I'm gonna give you 20,000 points and then you can go get a free airline ticket.
Right. Well, in effect, the bank is paying for that airline ticket. Right. And that's how they recoup it. So they, yeah. So they don't want to, they don't want to, they want you to pay for your own ticket with the points. Or they want the merchant to [00:27:00] do it. Yes. They don't wanna do it themselves to entice you to use their card.
So
Bill LuMaye: what's the solution? What if um, merchants just said no. Well that's the position you were in. You, you you were worried. I guess they can, yes. So
Jim Baker: merchants can go just accept
Bill LuMaye: cash
Jim Baker: only.
Bill LuMaye: Yes.
Jim Baker: Right. And if I'm them, I would put, and I thought about this, put an ATM in the um. In the business,
Bill LuMaye: right?
Jim Baker: And then if you own that ATM, you get the extra fee so you can make money on the ATM machine. Um, because again, if you're a Wells Fargo customer, for example, and it's just a a generic terminal, then Wells Fargo's gonna charge a couple bucks for you to go get money. Right. Right. So, but again, the consumer's still getting hurt.
Yes. Because the consumer's not walking around with cash because they don't need to. 'cause they have Venmo and they have everything on their phone and they have a couple credit cards. Um, then for them to get cash is gonna cost [00:28:00] them money also. But yes, the merchant could take accept cash. Mm-hmm. They could accept debit cards only.
Or they can just get rid of their entire electronic payment system, which. Would probably kill them, um, because everybody's dependent upon it these days and you know, so there really is no solution other than yes, you can go to a couple states, um, where they probably tax you, like there's no tomorrow, but, um these states, maybe some don't.
But it's illegal in Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas where you can't charge credit card fees. So, but my bigger point is this, my mom mm-hmm. Who's 86 years old, she has an HOA in her neighborhood, and HOAs, by the way, are absolutely torture to deal with.
Yes. So she's been writing the check, getting the invoice every month and paying her monthly dues. Well, they did away with all of that [00:29:00] and they said, Hey, go online and you have three different ways to pay. You can pay through an A, CH. No fees. Or you could pay the credit card, use your credit card, but there's a fee for that.
And then there's even a fee for a debit card in this case as well. So I don't know about a lot of 86 year olds, but especially my mom, she hates going online 'cause they always ask for passwords and that two thing identification you gotta do now. Oh yes. Verification thing. Yes. Um, drives her nuts as well.
So anyhow, I go online, set it all up and. Somehow the payment doesn't get there for months. So she's getting calls, where's the money? Et cetera, et cetera. She calls 'em back finally, and they say, well, she goes, I set it all up. And they said, well, we were changing banks the same day. You set it up. Oh man.
So you need to redo it again. In the meantime, you need to pay your late fees and everything else. What? What? So I'm thinking, are you kidding me? We're [00:30:00] trying to. Get people to pay electronically again. Yes. And you, the merchant in this case, change banks don't even notify the customer and you're still charging late fees and interest because you missed an HOA payment.
Mm-hmm. Which wasn't their fault. And so what is the ultimate, what's the merchant actually, what behavior are they dictating to an 86-year-old person? I'm just gonna go ahead and mail you a paper check 'cause you're not gonna charge me right. Every single month. 'cause now I can't trust your a CH system.
Right? So they've basically, through their behaviors and their lack of empathy to the customer, they are in effect creating the same behavior that they were trying to get rid of before.
Bill LuMaye: It's completely nuts. I was a big Superman [00:31:00] comic book fan. I don't know if you were, but there was a series of bizarro world where the, everything was upside down.
It was the bizarro superman taken on the regular Superman. And I feel like I'm living at Jim. There's two completely different worlds here. It's, I remember when they actually were warning about a digital currency and eliminating the cash society because it would give control to, you know. Corporations and government that would control it.
Yeah. And here we are. Here we are and and we're complaining about it. And they can't even do it right because No, they can't even do it right now. I've been looking at this on the list for the whole show and I should have probably brought it up, but hold on one more thing. Oh, okay. I can't
Jim Baker: say it. You gotta stick around for this.
Go ahead. Don't get Euros, by the way, if you go to Europe, 'cause basically they don't exist anymore over there and they don't. No. In fact, in some countries, Portugal one, if you pay. A hundred dollars in cash to anything you are considered a terrorist really. So be careful with [00:32:00] how much cash you use in Europe, and that's obviously more extreme than here, but clearly over there.
They're really pushing everybody to get on a digital payment system. Makes me wonder why, Jim. Yeah. That's a different talk for a different time.
Bill LuMaye: It is. It's it is. Okay. I've been dying to talk about this one. I don't know why it's at the bottom of the list. If it were my show, I would've put it at the top.
You ready for this shark attack? Yeah. Now, did you actually have a shark attack? No. Do you know somebody who had a shark attack?
Jim Baker: No. So. This morning I'm listening to a preacher. His name is Louie Giglio.
Bill LuMaye: Okay.
Jim Baker: Passion City is his church. It's out of Atlanta and Washington, dc So he is talking about salvation and how you could be saved.
And this is a 45 minute talk. I'm listening to it. I, as I'm on my run and he's going through lots of stuff, um, about being saved and basically good works isn't [00:33:00] gonna get you there. Um, you truly have to believe in the Lord and Savior. But nonetheless he cites this shark attack. So there's a girl last year, a high school kid, 15 years old.
Her name is Lulu, and she is swimming off on the coast of Rosemary Beach in the panhandle in Florida. And she's with her mom and her twin sister. And there's a guy in the water with three daughters. Um, there's two doctors that happen to be in the water at the same time. Then there's a nurse, and according to the nurse, she says that she had a dream the night before that God told her you will be part of a helping somebody who got attacked by a shark.
Now she's at the beach, so maybe she's, I don't know, they could read about sharks. I don't know. Um, that you'll be, um helping somebody that got attacked by a shark. Here's what you need to do. You know, you need to get five beach towels. You need to put 'em in a box. Excuse me. Put 'em in a [00:34:00] square. Um, you need to take a drawstring from a, a men bathing suit, you know, for a tourniquet, et cetera, et cetera.
Right? Right. So she's got this stuff. And then lo and behold God told her that God told her that this isn't her dream. God told her, all right, this girl, Lulu, gets attacked by a shark. This father of three who's in the ocean with his daughters not related to Lulu, doesn't even think twice goes out, sees it.
Grabs, Lulu brings her back to shore. Wow. Her hand is off her arm at that point in time. Oh damn. And she's bleeding as an arterial bleed in her leg. So what? Blood's everywhere. Bring her to shore. Just so happens that two doctors are there at shore that can provide real time treatment. Right. Nurses there, you know, she had this premonition.
She's helping basically a community of people. She gets airlifted to the nearest trauma center, and then [00:35:00] 70 other people work on her over the next, you know, two or three days. Then she goes into rehab, et cetera, et cetera. So a year later she does this, um, you know, thanking tour, you know, where she goes back and says, thank you to everybody and, and so on and so forth.
Um, and she's doing great. She has a prosthetic hand. Um, but she's golfing. She's surfing again. She lost a ton of blood. So rehab was a long time. But they were able to, obviously had an arterial bleed. She lost three quarters of her blood. Wow. And she survived. And amazing. So it's a good news story. Um, but it's it's amazing how, you know, through the Lord and through people in general that this kid was saved 'cause everybody happened to be at the right place.
At the right time. And I don't look at that as a coincidence.
Bill LuMaye: Neither do i. I think a lot of people call those god winks as well. There's lots of different ways you'd describe it, but you know, sometimes I'd love to do a show where we talk about reality and how I. [00:36:00] What we don't see sometimes impacts at all.
And I, I, I happen to be a believer in that as well. All we have to do is recognize it, I guess, sometimes. And we refuse to as humans, a lot of us do anyway.
Jim Baker: Yeah. And I also think it too, if that was me when my kids were young and I was in the water
Bill LuMaye: Yeah.
Jim Baker: Would I have automatically just gone to save that girl or have I made sure my kids got the shore but I ran to the shore with them?
Yeah. Would I've watched, like what would I have done? So, you know, that guy's obviously a hero, you know? 'cause without him, doctors can't do anything. The nurse can't do anything. Um, he risked his life. Risked his kids' lives. 'cause if he missed, you know, maybe the shark lets go and goes after his kids. I don't know.
Right? But he ends up saving a life then didn't even think twice about it.
Bill LuMaye: It's amazing. I'd like to think that I'd be. Up to that. But one never knows until you're placed in that situation. Since you're hesitant, I hope someone else is there if I'm in that position. No, I'm [00:37:00] kidding. I I think you're the kind of man that wouldn't hesitate.
And I love that kind of story though. I really do because it's, it's bigger than all of us, isn't it? It sure. Beats pounding a toy Tesla to death.
Jim Baker: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's a much
Bill LuMaye: bigger story. If you wanna know
Jim Baker: more about the story, you can go just do Google, search Rosemary Beach and put in Lulu, LULU.
And you know, there's a million stories. She's been on Fox News, she's been on People Magazine, she's been in local press and everything else. So thankfully she's doing great. Um, but it's a, just a testament to how the Lord and how we work.
Bill LuMaye: Amen. Um. This tea is wonderful by the way, and it's too bad you're not, you don't have it yet.
There is a way to get it. Jim. How do they get this wonderful tea? Yeah,
Jim Baker: well, if you go to 50 cups tea.com
Bill LuMaye: Yep.
Jim Baker: Um, we are sold out on a couple of products right now, but there's others that you can get and this is just a blend of English breakfast tea [00:38:00] along with some sugar and some lemons and I, but you can personalize your tea any way you want.
It's great. Hot or a cold and
Bill LuMaye: it's good for you. It is. I noticed that cap there. I don't wanna put you on the spot, but that's a pretty cool cap. Do people buy that? Cap them out? What do you do? They can. Beautiful, but
Jim Baker: I, I, I usually give it away on monthly specials. In fact, I gotta do the april. Do you give
Bill LuMaye: it away to the people you invite to the parties?
Is is that kind of a party? Fake. I use it as a trash collector. Beautiful. Jim always is a pleasure, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have
Jim Baker: a great day.[00:39:00]