This is Nick. This is Jack. We came back from vacation bearing lingering sunburns…but no tattoos. Turns out a record high 32% of Americans are inked these days. And for those under age 30, about 40% can say “Want to see my sick tat.” Is that SpongeBob on your bicep? No, it’s Billie Eilish’s Crocs...

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1) Singer Taylor Swift Just Broke Movie Records

Taylor Swift is coming to a theater near you on October 13 with the most anticipated movie of the season: The Eras Tour Concert Film.

…Ready for it? Swift’s already breaking records:

• She raked in $26M in the first 24 hours of movie ticket pre-sales just at AMC.

• That number leaves Marvel and Star Wars records in the dust (NBD).

• And the movie doesn’t come out for another month. Taylor knows her hype cycle…All Too Well.

Swift’s method? It’s a tried and true media strategy called “windowing,” aka publishing creative work across different media at different times to maximize revenue. For Swift’s Eras, the revenue flows like this: music → concert tickets → movie sales.

The Takeaway →

Every medium requires a new methodology. This film won’t just be a camera pointed at the stage like you’re watching your high school friend’s older sister’s Instagram story. Taylor knows that for her content to succeed in a new medium, it needs a new methodology…which is why she’s hired a Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning director to adapt Eras from a concert to the big screen.

2) The Hidden ‘Swipe Tax’ Credit Card Fee Is Going Up 

There’s a secret credit card fee that’s reportedly about to jump this October: “the Interchange Fee.” Spooky season just got spookier.

We call it “The Swipe Fee.” It’s the 1–3% fee credit card companies charge merchants for every transaction. And it’s powering a huge hidden economy that we shoppers can’t see. Visa and Mastercard made nearly $100B from these swipe fees last year (up 3x from 10 years ago).

What makes it so spooky? Credit card companies are keeping these fees on the DL (Boomers, please see end of story). The swipe fee profits are lurking in the shadows (read: They’re not highlighted in earning reports, they’re buried in the footnotes of them).

The Takeaway →

The swipe fee is actually a secret sales tax…on all of us. It’s not listed on your receipt, but merchants are passing on the extra cost they’re paying to Visa via your higher priced smoothie (or Frostee—pick your poison). Research from The Fed and Stanford proves it.

“On the DL” → Down-low, hush hush, discreet

3) It’s Prime Time for Colorado’s College Football

Deion Sanders has made the University of Colorado’s football team the one to watch this season. And “Coach Prime” offers one key lesson for business leaders.

Yeah, we’re talking about that Deion Sanders →

• In the ’90s, Sanders played in both the NFL and the MLB. And we can’t even win our pickleball league…

• Sanders earned the nickname Prime Time as the only player ever to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series.

Fast-forward to today: 57 players just transferred to the U. of Colorado to play on a team that had 1 win and 11 losses last season—yep, a losing record wooed 4.5 dozen elite athletes. Why? They wanted to play for new Coach Deion.

The Takeaway →

The best coaches used to be players and the best CEOs used to be employees. Before Deion was Coach Sanders, he was forcing turnovers in gold tights for Florida State University (that was before his two Super Bowl rings). After hanging up his helmet, Sanders picked up a clipboard to coach. The most respected and prolific leaders in business have walked in their workers’ shoes, too:

• 🎥 Disney CEO Bob Iger: began as weatherman on Disney-owned ABC.

• 🚗 GM CEO Mary Barra: began as a worker on a Pontiac assembly line.

💊 We're running out of Adderall as students heading back to school look for refills.

🐝 Match with a Bumble bully? The dating app is “taking a stand” on ghosting/no-shows in new community guidelines.

🪲 Invasive species apparently cost $423B per year in estimated losses to the global economy. Time to step it up with those spotted lantern fly smackdowns.

🇰🇵 Kim Jong Un is visiting Vladimir Putin. This will be the North Korean leader’s first time outside of the country in four years.

🪶 Robinhood buys back $600M in stock that Sam Bankman-Fried once owned.

🏀 Steph Curry invests in Israeli cybersecurity firm valued at $300M. That’s a big drop in the Penny Jar.

On the pod today: New York City is cracking down on Airbnb—a new law is expected to eliminate over half of NYC’s Airbnbs. We break down how, why, and who benefits.

And one more thing. What ink are you rockin’? We need inspo.

—Nick & Jack