Esther: Welcome to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. We're helping your business kick it up a notch better than Emeril ever could. We're your hosts, Esther Steinfeld -

Katie: And Katie Laird.

Esther: - welcoming you into our kitchen of our entrepreneurial goodness.

Katie: Well put, Chef Esther.

Esther: Thank you.

Katie: This Overtime Show No. 34, woo hoo, how sweet it is, finds us covering some web-related things that you, your employees and your family should be aware of in Chapter 3 but don't be scared. Knowledge is power and the Overtime gals are here to make it all better.

Esther: Make you feel safe at night.

Katie: That's right.

Esther: Then in Chapter 2 we'll be chatting with Rishi Narayan, Founder of Underground Printing on life as a printer in the age of the Internet.

Katie: But first let's see what's on our Business Week in Review menu this week.

Esther: Yum, yum.

Katie: Yum, yum. Well, sort of. [Laughter]

Esther: So - yeah, I know. Wah wah.

Katie: Bank of America.

Esther: Actually - well, actually this is good. This is good news.

Katie: You know it is.

Esther: Especially for me as a Bank of America customer.

Katie: Oh my goodness. Okay, okay. So usually we're here shaking our fists at, sometimes at the banking industry in general, but especially at Bank of America as a former Bank of America customer.

[Laughter]

Esther: Yeah, they were pretty shady for awhile, I have to say.

Katie: Yes they were. But Bank of America is now changing their overdraft practices.

Esther: It's pretty good.

Katie: In a few months. A recent Consumer Reports article says that Bank of America has announced a new plan to deny so-called point-of-purchase transactions if the account is actually too low to cover the costs.

Esther: So basically, no more overdrafts.

Katie: Well, the thing is, you can still get overdrafts, like if you still have checks pending or you know, I mean there are things -

Esther: You can't use your debit card, though?

Katie: You cannot - if you don't have the money to cover a purchase, you cannot - it'll - you'll be declined. Which, to me, in my brain, not in practice, 'cause I'll admit it has happened a couple times - but in practice, I thought that that's how it was always supposed to be. But apparently, in the last decade or so, the majority of major banks have let things slide and it really makes sense, given that the banking industry makes $38 billion a year in overdraft fees.

Esther: It's a big moneymaker for them.

Katie: It really is.

Esther: And I find something that is said in the article hilarious. They say, "We listened to our customers and they don't want us to take money out that they don't have." Oh.

Katie: [Laughter]

Esther: That sounds smart. I mean, are you serious?

Katie: Yeah. Well, but here's what kind of -

Esther: Gimme a break.

Katie: - is weird to me. Bank of America is allowing customers to be at the ATM and actually say, "Yes, I know I don't have the money in my account. Charge me the $35.00 but still give me the cash, please." So they're still letting -

Esther: I bet people, a lot of people, will do that.

Katie: They still will and you know, I understand -

Esther: It's all about transparency, right?

Katie: Yeah, I understand like if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and something weird happens and you need to get cash out, like, I guess I get that but really, they're still giving us rope to hang ourselves with or, ourselves meaning, you know, people that aren't keeping an eye on their bank account.

Esther: You know, I think they actually lost a lotta customers over this overdraft situation because in the past years, they have allowed the overdrafts to get out of control. I mean you could get charged significant interest. I mean in the 200's, 300's of dollars based on one little overdraft.

Katie: I mean a -

Esther: And a lotta people defected from Bank of America because of it -

Katie: Yes.

Esther: - and switched banks so I think they finally realized it end- you know, even though they were making billions of dollars in overdraft, they were losing billions of dollars by customers leaving and going to other banks.

Katie: It's just not worth it.

Esther: It wasn't right. It wasn't worth it anymore.

Katie: Exactly. Well, and this is also the bank that in the summer of 2009 do you remember that extra overdraft penalty that they added?

Esther: Uh huh.

Katie: So it was the $35.00 if you overdrafted and then an additional $35.00, making for a grand $70.00 total and depending on the circumstances, they could still keep charging more on a daily basis. They had all these weird little equations. I mean it's just - it's slimy.

Esther: Yeah, it's gross.

Katie: And finally - and granted, this isn't like Bank of America's executives saying, "Hey, you know, we really wanna make people happy today - there has been a lot of federal pushing on these banking practices. So - but at least changes are happening.

Esther: Yes, finally.

Katie: Finally. [Laughter]

Esther: Better than nothing.

Katie: Yes.

Esther: So another very interesting bit of news in the financial world. How 'bout this? Hollywood futures market? Basically, that means you can bet on the success of a movie. There will -

Katie: Or a celebrity.

Esther: Or a celebrity. There will be a way - right - there will be a way for you to actually place a bet on whether or not you think at movie's gonna make a million dollars at the box office. It's insane.

Katie: Exactly. So, if you've ever harbored dreams of financing Hollywood motion pictures, like this is sort of -

Esther: This is your in.

Katie: - your chance, kind of? [Laughter]

Esther: Yeah, so Cantor Futures Exchange, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, expects to open an online futures market next month. So that's gonna allow studios, institutions and moviegoers to place bets on the box office revenue of Hollywood's biggest releases. It's pretty crazy.

Katie: That is pretty crazy and actually if you go to a website www.hsx.com the site is already alive and thriving but in kind of a test mode. So there's over 200 -

Esther: You can't place real money.

Katie: - exactly. It's what they call, like Hollywood Bucks or something. So there's over 200,000 users and until things are federally approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on April 20th, you are kind of using play money but, I mean, eventually you're gonna be seeing Hollywood insiders and just crazy film buffs playing together and, you know, trying to predict what's gonna happen with the movie industry.

Esther: It's really interesting and what has already happened. They've shown that these futures markets are not very good at predicting the outcome of a movie because Avatar was a horrible indication because the public thought it was gonna flop -

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: - and it ended up being the largest grossing movie in the history of the world. So, if people had been betting real money on Avatar they would have taken a serious hit.

Katie: Yes. Whoopsies.

Esther: You know? But you know, I do see major implications on word of mouth marketing for movies. This is gonna be huge. Can you imagine if you put money on the success of a movie or actor? What you would say to your friends and family to try to get them to go see that movie that weekend?

Katie: Exactly. [Laughter]

Esther: Oh my gosh. That's huge. That could be huge for movies. That could be huge for marketing of movies.

Katie: Well, exactly and I mean they - so the Hollywood Stock Exchange is only looking for a number, like the first few opening weeks. So you're gonna see probably a lot more of a push for people to get there, you know, the first couple of weeks that a film is out.

Esther: It's gonna really change the film industry.

Katie: I think so.

Esther: It could.

Katie: So, speaking of completely random celebrities. Esther, you found an absolutely fascinating, ground-breaking news piece on -

[Laughter]

Esther: I wouldn't call it ground-breaking but it is quite hilarious.

Katie: I know. You wanna tell us about it?

Esther: So, this involves a poodle with a tinfoil hat.

[Laughter]

Katie: I wish all of our news stories started like that.

Esther: I mean, you know it's gonna be good when it starts "poodle and tinfoil hat." So, Dale Blank runs a Facebook page devoted to accumulating as many fans as possible for a picture of a beloved poodle, named Bitsy. Bitsy is wearing a tinfoil hat and there's like this cheesy American flag in the background. It's like this awful Photoshop job and basically, his intention was to try to get this tinfoil hatted poodle more fans than Glen Beck on Facebook. That was the point, trying to kind of combat these talking heads and their conspiracy theories and all this junk. Well, he did get a ton of fans. So apparently, on February 18th the Facebook Police came around and, as the article says, broke up the party. So his page wasn't removed but he was publish blocked, meaning he couldn't post anything on the page, couldn't post it to his profile, he couldn't do anything with the page. It still was there. Couldn't get more fans and he had no idea why. So it was kind of this funny situation. He was trying to combat conspiracy theories and yet here they are coming in and shutting his Facebook page down. He has no idea why. They give him no explanation. Time goes by. He's waiting, waiting. He's trying to figure out. He's reading the entire Facebook rulebook -

Katie: Which is extensive.

Esther: - trying to figure out - oh it's huge.

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: Trying to figure out how and why this would have happened to him.

Katie: What line did Bitsy cross? [Laughter]

Esther: Exactly. What did poor Bitsy do? We'll have to post the picture of the, the poodle in the Facebook page.

Katie: It's pretty awesome. [Laughter]

Esther: It's really hilarious. It's cute. It's a cute poodle. So now we come to another segment that we absolutely love - and this is actually one of my all-time favorite quotes that we've ever found.

Katie: Me too. [Laughter]

Esther: Ever. It's amazing. So our segment is CEO's Say the Darndest Things and they really do. They just say some crazy crap.

Katie: They do. They do.

Esther: I mean, come on. Katie would you like to tell us who's saying what crazy stuff this week?

Katie: Absolutely. So the CEO of Tribune Company, which of course is an enormous media empire. A fella named Randy Michaels, while you would think that at this time, the struggle - his company's trying to emerge from bankruptcy - there's some sort of $8 billion buyout that's gone bad that he probably should be paying attention to - has had some other ideas on things that he would like to be focusing his CEO time on. Specifically, he has come up with a list of words and phrases - and not just like a top 10 list - a list of 119 words and phrases that must never ever, ever be spoken by any of his anchors or his reporters -

Esther: He sounds like he's off his rocker.

Katie: - on the radio. Yeah, I'm serious.

Esther: He's lost - a couple screws are loose there.

Katie: Yeah, exactly. So what Michaels is saying is that these are - it's a list of forbidden newspeak words and phrases. He wants his reporters to be taken seriously and not to speak in such common terms or, you know, something like that. Which I just can't even imagine the CEO of a major institution like this - even during good times - I mean unless it was during happy hour and it was a joke [Laughter] with his Board of Directors.

Esther: See if you cannot say any of these words.

Katie: Exactly! Okay, so let's go through some -

Esther: And if you do, you have to take a shot.

Katie: - exactly. Maybe this is where it started, you know? It was a bet gone wrong. [Laughter]

Esther: It was a joke.

Katie: So some of the words that reporters - now keep in mind reporters are people that report on the news. These are the things that they cannot say. They cannot say "yesterday" in a lead sentence. They cannot say "after these commercial messages" or "after the break". They cannot say "auto accident, behind bars, behind the podium." They can also not say "death toll," they can also not say "in the wake of (unless it's a boating story)." [Laughter] So I mean definitely, put a Google out there and we'll have a link on our Facebook page, facebook.com/theBusinessMakers, of these 119 words that you cannot say. And I'm sorry, I'm just gonna keep going. "perfect storm." They can't say "perpetrator." They can't say "really," R-E-A-L-L-Y. They can't say really. They can't say that.

Esther: So what can they say, I wonder?

Katie: I really just - I have no idea.

Esther: How 'bout this. This is amazing. So, Ian Chillag on his NPR blog writes a post entitled "In Which I Try to Use All of WGN's Newly-Banned Words In One Sentence."

Katie: [Laughter]

Esther: And he does. It's phenomenal. It's a very, very long sentence and he says finally at the end, "I think that's all of them. Honestly my mind is now too numb to go back and check."

Katie: Yeah, that was a drinking game. That happened at happy hour. [Laughter]

Esther: Yeah, for sure. In other news, stay tuned, because in our top story tonight, some really good (or bad) news: as expected, in a su - it's really long. You'll have to go on and read it. It's pretty funny.

Katie: So I've come up with the top five words that an Overtime show host should never, ever say and these really have nothing to do with professionalism or anything. It's just words that bother me.

Esther: [Laughter]

Katie: Or words that it would be hard for me not to say. So -

Esther: Oh God.

Katie: All right, ready? Number one -

Esther: I'm sure they're all words I say.

Katie: Yeah. I think we both say them. Number one is "funnest" or its more popular derivative "most funnest" and yes I realize grammatically that these aren't actually words that should be put together and funnest is not, in fact a word but I like to say it a lot so by forbidding myself, I'm hoping that I stop saying it. Number two, "strategerie." Obvious reasons. Number three, "synergy." We're not consultants. Screw the synergy.

[Laughter]

Esther: Yeah, I think that's actually a really good one to cut out.

Katie: Yeah. Number four and five also consultant-speak, "mission critical" and "turnkey" I just hate those words.

Esther: Oh my gosh.

Katie: And here's a bonus, number six, 'cause I can't even follow my own directions. Number six - the sixth word that we will not say as an Overtime Show host is "Worcestershire."

Esther: Why, 'cause it's impossible to say?

Katie: Bec- it's really hard to say! I don't even know if I said it right that time.

Esther: Worcestershire.

Katie: so Worcest- Worcestershire. So we are never, ever gonna speak that word, ever.[Laughter] And I say if a guest says Worcest- that word - if the guest says that word, the W word, we should do something terrible.

[Laughter]

Esther: You are off the show.

Katie: Exactly! We're shuttin' down.

Esther: We'd rather have no guest than you. [Laughter] Wow. This is a good list. I -

Katie: This -

Esther: - I'm in- I'm impressed.

Katie: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Esther: Very impressed.

Katie: I feel like I'm CEO material already.

[Laughter]

Esther: On that note I guess that wraps up Chapter 1.

Katie: That was a very fun Business Week in Review.

Esther: That was - yeah. This is going well so far. It's only gonna get better because we have Rishi Narayan next on the show. Gonna chat with him. He's wonderful. And so stay tuned for that. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld -

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: - and we will be right back with Chapter 2 with Rishi Narayan.