Valuetainment - May 28, 2026


＂Companies Will Become Universities＂ - Why MBA Programs Are On LIFE SUPPORT


Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

189.19118

Word count

2,580

Sentence count

215


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.040 Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice.
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00:00:30.000 A story comes out by Wall Street Journal, Rob.
00:00:33.640 I don't know if you have it in here or not.
00:00:34.920 I don't think you do.
00:00:35.840 No, I didn't ask you to put it in there.
00:00:37.420 So a story comes out by Wall Street Journal saying MBAs are on a fire sale.
00:00:44.060 Okay, MBAs, Masters in Business Administration, are on a fire sale.
00:00:50.260 Okay, fire sale.
00:00:51.500 Now, when you read this article, Rob, I don't know if you have all the way down to go through the article.
00:00:56.700 If it's not going to allow you, it does allow you.
00:00:58.260 Okay, a few things you need to know about the story.
00:01:00.320 More business schools are giving steep discounts on tuition
00:01:02.720 than can save students up to $50,000 or tens of thousands of dollars.
00:01:07.380 So people are like, why are MBA programs getting cheaper and cheaper?
00:01:10.860 Keep going lower and see what's happening here.
00:01:12.720 Okay, keep going lower to the stats.
00:01:14.340 Purdue University, right there, Rob.
00:01:15.660 Please go a little bit up, one paragraph up.
00:01:17.680 Purdue Mitchell Daniels School of Business is knocking 40% off its tuition for next fall.
00:01:21.780 Okay, which makes the 48-credit-hour program $36,000 for out-of-state students
00:01:26.920 down from $60,000, okay?
00:01:30.520 Then UC Irvine, tuition is down 38% from $48,000 to $30,000.
00:01:35.660 If you go a little bit lower, there's more stories.
00:01:38.080 John Hopkins, Cary Business School, is given a 50% scholarship
00:01:41.200 on graduates from a Maryland college this spring
00:01:44.720 and enter on one of specialized master's programs.
00:01:47.160 So they're also going down 50%.
00:01:48.920 Now, why is this?
00:01:49.960 Why are they doing this?
00:01:51.840 Here's a couple things they've noticed.
00:01:53.340 They've noticed that Google, Amazon, Apple are no longer hiring MBA program students like they did before.
00:01:59.180 On top of that, McKinsey, that would hire 71, I think it was from Chicago, Booth of School.
00:02:05.280 Now they're down to 33.
00:02:06.540 Stay on that article, Rob, if you could.
00:02:07.880 Go back to the article you're on.
00:02:09.500 This continues to go, if you go a little bit lower.
00:02:11.780 A couple of the stats that I really liked in this article, Rob, if you go lower, is this one here.
00:02:17.420 The number of graduate students in management who receive financial assistance has been soaring.
00:02:21.520 Watch this.
00:02:21.980 Last year was 47%.
00:02:23.860 47% of incoming students are receiving merit-based scholarships,
00:02:28.140 up from 32% a decade ago,
00:02:30.660 according to Graduate Management Admissions Council,
00:02:33.140 which, by the way, Tom said something very interesting two weeks ago.
00:02:35.840 Did you see the article that came out that said
00:02:37.600 more students are getting A's today than ever before?
00:02:40.580 I don't know if you saw that article.
00:02:42.180 Everyone's getting A's.
00:02:43.740 Oh, my God, we're getting smarter.
00:02:45.940 No, we're not.
00:02:46.620 It's these language learning models.
00:02:48.180 But guess what number dropped?
00:02:50.840 Grades went up.
00:02:51.980 But guess what test scores drop?
00:02:53.540 Go ahead, Tom.
00:02:54.060 National test scores and SATs.
00:02:55.800 So let me get this straight.
00:02:57.000 So we're getting better GPAs, but our SAT scores are dropping.
00:03:01.080 So what does that tell you?
00:03:03.160 You can't use Chad GBT and SAT.
00:03:05.300 You cannot use Chad GBT while you're taking the stats.
00:03:08.280 So if you want to go a little bit lower in the top.
00:03:10.000 But you feel really good in your little home classroom.
00:03:12.320 Yeah.
00:03:12.840 But if you go a little bit lower, Rob, keep going lower, keep going lower, keep going.
00:03:15.640 Is that it?
00:03:16.240 Oh, my God.
00:03:16.680 There were so many great stats about this NBA program, what's going on.
00:03:20.360 Tom, your thoughts when you see this, MBAs.
00:03:23.560 I have four kids.
00:03:24.880 You got a couple of them.
00:03:25.980 We just had dinner with my niece who got her MBA program.
00:03:31.220 She gave a phenomenal – not MBA program.
00:03:33.100 She got valedictorian.
00:03:34.160 She gave a phenomenal speech at the school's valedictorian,
00:03:38.420 which shout out to Dylan for screaming the way he was screaming.
00:03:40.800 Everybody was screaming to make sure they knew who was the most special person
00:03:44.440 in that room to us.
00:03:45.860 But MBAs, a parent is asking, Tom, is it worth for me to spend $250,000
00:03:54.120 to send my kid to get an MBA program for two years?
00:03:57.440 Not normally.
00:03:58.820 $250,000.
00:04:00.260 Look, the MBA programs have come up in price, and they've gone parabolic.
00:04:04.660 They've gone crazy over the last 15 years.
00:04:07.480 If you look at the cost of tuition.
00:04:09.320 And what happened was there is the student loans were available.
00:04:12.740 So I could go get student loans to get my MBA.
00:04:15.340 number one. And with getting that student loan now, guess what? It's like the government's
00:04:22.140 almost underwriting the high cost from the school. So if the government makes it easier,
00:04:27.620 Vinny, for me to get a student loan and you're the college, what's your incentive to be competitive
00:04:32.400 on price? It's not just go get a student loan, just go get a student loan. And then they find
00:04:37.360 out what happens is terrible. So prices have been under control, uncontrolled, number one,
00:04:43.620 But the elite MBA schools used to get these big signing bonuses on Wall Street,
00:04:48.380 but now we're hearing that some of those are getting pulled back.
00:04:51.620 Now some of these kids are coming in for financial aid, and now guess what's happening?
00:04:57.980 The schools are having to look at it.
00:04:59.460 Wow, a lot of these kids are applying for financial aid.
00:05:02.140 How are we going to do this?
00:05:03.380 So they would rather sell something for $60,000 a year than sell nothing with the price on the window that said $85,000 a year.
00:05:15.420 So that's one of the things that's happening.
00:05:17.880 And also, to people that are out there, look, it's why are you getting the MBA and what are you putting inside it?
00:05:24.420 There are programs, and I'm not going to pimp for any of them now by mentioning the schools, but there are schools right now.
00:05:30.300 No, what I mean is if I mention the school, then people are going to say I'm trying to say something.
00:05:36.720 It's not.
00:05:37.500 Some of the MBA programs out there, what they're doing is they're saying, hey, the MBA courses will be this,
00:05:46.580 but some of the business operation courses will be replaced by option courses, and option courses in AI, management of the AI systems.
00:05:58.020 See?
00:05:58.420 That's what's going on.
00:05:59.400 And so I think some of that is happening is good.
00:06:02.360 But right now, right now, we are seeing that the gold rush for MBAs is slowing down
00:06:11.780 and the economic impact is coming back down on the schools.
00:06:15.400 By the way, no joke.
00:06:17.180 I really thought you were about to go into Drew Down, you know, the song.
00:06:21.340 I don't know if you remember or not.
00:06:22.860 Of course.
00:06:23.760 Drew Down, Pimp of the Year.
00:06:24.620 Do you remember that song?
00:06:25.600 I remember that song.
00:06:26.340 What do you mean?
00:06:26.760 He was the Pimp of the Year.
00:06:27.960 No.
00:06:28.360 Tom, Biz, Doc, Ellsworth.
00:06:30.340 Let me give you a couple of stats.
00:06:31.440 Drew and I used to sit in the front row at the Knicks games,
00:06:33.640 but I never remember talking about this.
00:06:35.680 Well, Drew Down was – if you know Drew Down,
00:06:37.420 you had some good memories in your life if you listened to him.
00:06:40.280 Let me give you some crazy stats, Tom.
00:06:41.180 And it was West Coast.
00:06:41.980 We always got heat when we were at the Knicks games
00:06:43.800 because all the West Coast people were saying,
00:06:45.240 what are you doing here, man?
00:06:46.900 Thug life.
00:06:47.760 Let me share this with you.
00:06:49.300 You ready for this?
00:06:50.240 Tom, check this out.
00:06:51.740 21% of Duke.
00:06:53.620 Can you give me the best MBA grad degrees you can get?
00:06:57.120 What schools can I get MBA degrees from?
00:06:58.900 That's very important.
00:06:59.880 You go to Wharton.
00:07:00.280 Wharton.
00:07:00.900 I'll give you the 5A and you're Penn.
00:07:02.660 So it's anything Harvard next to it, anything Yale next to it,
00:07:05.780 anything MIT next to it.
00:07:07.140 Tom, go ahead.
00:07:07.940 They are right there.
00:07:08.580 Wharton, HBS, HBS, HBS, Stanford, anything Stanford.
00:07:13.300 All right, so check this out.
00:07:14.160 Let me give you stats.
00:07:14.780 Florida State, 21% of Duke.
00:07:17.000 Yeah, there they are, number 85.
00:07:18.420 21% of Duke MBA graduates were still seeking employment
00:07:25.400 three months after graduating.
00:07:28.000 So this is Duke.
00:07:28.800 Duke is like a top school.
00:07:30.720 Look at Michigan.
00:07:31.600 15% of University of Michigan MBA grads
00:07:34.020 still looking for a job
00:07:35.060 three months after getting their degrees.
00:07:37.320 That does mean 85% got jobs.
00:07:38.900 That's right.
00:07:39.560 But 15% means didn't.
00:07:41.540 Harvard, 20% of their 2023 grads
00:07:47.140 seeking jobs three months later.
00:07:49.100 You know what that 20% is of Harvard?
00:07:51.380 You know what that number was, Tom, in 2021?
00:07:53.920 8%.
00:07:54.400 92% of jobs.
00:07:55.900 It went from 8% to 20%.
00:07:58.840 And then if you go a little bit deeper with the numbers,
00:08:01.800 it also breaks down what the average salary is if you get an MBA,
00:08:05.620 what kind of money you can make.
00:08:06.820 This is what I think is going to be happening.
00:08:08.420 This is my opinion long-term of what's going to happen with education, Vinny.
00:08:11.200 You ready?
00:08:12.560 Tom, I think what will happen with education is companies will become universities.
00:08:18.420 The other day, let me tell you what happened.
00:08:21.240 Our BDC team sat down with our finance team,
00:08:24.960 and our finance team went through what exactly looks like
00:08:27.400 to look at a balance sheet.
00:08:29.480 New recruits that are coming to the consulting firm
00:08:31.540 is going through the balance sheet.
00:08:32.700 Here's what it looks like.
00:08:34.200 And then our VP of finance, Casey, sat down
00:08:37.740 and went through the whole thing with our finance department.
00:08:40.040 You're going to see companies start off an MBA program.
00:08:43.320 So I'm going to come to a company, and guess who becomes your professor?
00:08:45.940 Tom Ellsworth's your professor once a week or once a day for one hour.
00:08:49.660 Big pimp.
00:08:50.100 No, but of course, with good music.
00:08:52.200 But Tom is your professor, right?
00:08:53.680 Tom, what did you do today at 7 o'clock in the morning on Memorial Day, not Labor Day?
00:08:57.400 What did you do this morning?
00:08:58.820 An elite group of eight of our sales reps.
00:09:01.800 Can you just give their first names, please?
00:09:03.660 Yeah, it was Brandon, Taylor, Antonio, Anthony, Daniel, Luis.
00:09:07.860 They're saying, hey, we're going to be here today because we're working on things.
00:09:11.640 And maybe Memorial Day, we're going to respect it.
00:09:14.060 Tom, on Memorial Day morning, they ask if you're still going to have their 7 a.m. meeting with them.
00:09:18.100 Now, here's a question.
00:09:18.880 Exactly right.
00:09:19.620 What did you cover with them this morning?
00:09:21.080 What was the discussion?
00:09:22.440 Oh, we covered core.
00:09:23.440 We covered the five-line P&L a little bit more.
00:09:26.840 And we also covered the psychology of what owners are going through in this economy
00:09:32.760 and what they're probably thinking and what they want to know, where they want to go.
00:09:36.700 And then we took from around the room, what are you hearing?
00:09:39.620 And then their own personal confidence in presenting it.
00:09:43.560 You know what's going to happen, Vinny?
00:09:44.600 So say you're working for Valuetainment and we offer an MBA program internally, okay?
00:09:48.560 We can call it whatever we want.
00:09:50.580 And if you go there and you finish it within the company, one, higher raises, higher promotions,
00:09:57.820 you're indoctrinated in the culture of the company, you're learning what we're doing,
00:10:01.900 we're able to teach you with the values and principles that we have.
00:10:05.120 I think these schools are starting to realize there's a massive disruption coming around the corner.
00:10:09.280 Would you rather learn from a professor that's not an operator or would you rather learn from a Tom?
00:10:13.420 Tom, 1,000%.
00:10:14.320 1,000%.
00:10:14.960 Who also was a professor.
00:10:16.000 That's right.
00:10:17.140 He's a doctor of business.
00:10:18.600 But I think that's the direction we're going to.
00:10:21.000 We officially have our speakers for the vault conference finalized.
00:10:25.440 And I waited to the last one.
00:10:26.900 And the last one, I literally got the confirmation last night at 8 p.m., 7 p.m.-ish,
00:10:32.380 when I got the texts that were done, done.
00:10:34.560 And I wanted to make sure we put an event together where we talk about everything that's going on with AI.
00:10:40.160 The good, bad, the ugly, and how to leverage it.
00:10:42.320 One of the biggest names on AI we're bringing, are you going to know who he is?
00:10:45.640 Many of you will.
00:10:46.380 I wanted to talk about the importance of having running mates.
00:10:50.040 Because for me, winning at the highest level, you need a running mate.
00:10:53.320 Tom is a running mate.
00:10:54.340 You go faster when you find your running mate.
00:10:56.860 So I brought two people that ran together and won multiple championships together.
00:11:02.100 And then I wanted to bring somebody that your sons,
00:11:04.320 a lot of you guys are bringing their sons and their kids on social media
00:11:06.940 to be able to know how to build a brand.
00:11:08.760 Maybe the guy that was able to do this at the highest level
00:11:11.280 and he's one of the biggest names right now on social media,
00:11:14.680 who's very successful, made a lot of money as well.
00:11:17.120 And last but not least, one of the biggest podcasters in the world
00:11:20.760 who does it in a way that's very different than everybody else,
00:11:24.520 and he's killing it.
00:11:25.360 He's got almost 20 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
00:11:28.060 With that being said, these are the speakers at the Vol Conference.
00:11:30.260 2026, MGM Grand Arena.
00:11:33.100 Go ahead, Rob.
00:11:37.000 The beautiful thing about these events,
00:11:40.460 you know how quickly it goes?
00:11:44.680 I've helped over 10,000 business owners grow and scale their companies.
00:11:56.680 I'm just passionate about watching entrepreneurs create great business.
00:12:00.680 When you get guys like Jerry Rice, that was his work ethic.
00:12:05.680 We were able to challenge Jerry.
00:12:08.680 The single most important trait I had was a healthy dose of delusion.
00:12:12.680 bartlett and i always refer to self-belief coming from uk when i can do something
00:12:19.060 that i love that is good
00:12:21.180 and i can get content out of that's my trifecta
00:12:25.120 that's so cool
00:12:28.660 that's a great lineup
00:12:30.260 good for you
00:12:30.860 it's a phenomenal phenomenal lineup vault conference mgm grand arena if you haven't yet registered
00:12:40.780 Listen, CO tickets, which there's only 500 of, less than 100 left.
00:12:45.060 Go to vault2026.com, vault2026.com.
00:12:50.340 Get your tickets.
00:12:51.540 We have companies that are bringing, one company from France is bringing 500 of their sales reps from France.
00:12:57.700 Did you hear what I just said?
00:12:58.640 Oui, oui.
00:12:59.040 From France.
00:12:59.580 Oui, oui.
00:13:00.080 Yes.
00:13:01.180 So some of you guys are on the sales team.
00:13:03.280 You have your executive team.
00:13:04.340 A lot of guys bring their family, their partners.
00:13:06.220 and also with some of you that want to have your kids learning
00:13:10.420 on how to create content the way that Logan and Jake Paul have
00:13:14.260 and they became who they are today with their businesses,
00:13:16.740 you may want to bring your kids as well.
00:13:18.100 So go to vault2026.com, get registered.
00:13:21.060 We cannot wait to see you.
00:13:22.960 It'll be the greatest vault conference we've ever had.
00:13:25.700 Cannot wait to see everybody there.
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