Heroes

From 60-year old Coach bags to Delta’s first passenger plane, take a trip down memory lane at some of corporate America’s most well-known brands.

Take a tour of some of businesses' biggest archives

In the archive, we have over 25,000 items. This includes all the original catalogs, all the handbags, all the ready to wear pieces, anything that has a coach stamp on it comes through the archives. Behind me is Delta's first passenger service. Airplane carried five people had wicker seats and was not pressurized. Think about how much laundry has changed over the past 200 years, you know, doing laundry in a tub with bars of soap to then using early powders and flakes and you know, the beginning appliances to then moving to liquids to then moving to pods, still similar chores, but better technologies. And we want to make sure that we capture that evolution in the archives. A lot of the larger companies, particularly those with long histories have both archives and museums and that is to inspire employees to make them feel like they belong to something bigger to themselves. And it's also a way to guide the C SUITE when they're having to do decision making. And that can include things like how was a crisis handled a decade ago. It serves also innovation. So whether you're a designer, a coach or somebody trying to find a new twist on shaving cream at PNG. And so it's a mix of both and that's why companies invest money and hire actually real historians with masters and doctorates in history. Delta has both a museum that's open to the public and is actually a very popular tourist attraction in Atlanta as well as archives. It has things like press releases, minutes from board meetings, presentations from strategy sessions, etcetera, etcetera that are important for the corporate history aspect of it. As the manager of the archives, I take care of Delta Airlines corporate archives that they have been collecting um since the 19 fifties. This is actually a piece of glassware. This is from Delta's first alcoholic beverage service. So this would have held champagne in the late fifties. Delta started, they called Royal Beverage Service and this is such a fun menu. Delta started as a crop dusting company actually in Macon, Georgia, which a lot of people don't realize in 1925 quickly moved to Monroe Louisiana and the name Delta was actually coined by Catherine Fitzgerald. She was known as Miss Fits. So she was the longtime assistant to the principal founder of Delta Ce Woolman. Delta started passenger service in 1929 then this kind of airplane. Um we actually have one, a similar one in the museum behind me is the travel air and it was Delta's first passenger service. Airplane carried five people had wicker seats and was not pressurized. I'm Kelly Moore, executive Director of the Delta Flight Museum here in Atlanta, Georgia. In my opinion, the most interesting piece is Spirit of Delta A 767 aircraft ship 102 that was purchased by employees, friends and members of the community and donated to Delta. She was dedicated on December 15th, 1982 and she flew for 30 years and we are in the first-class cabin which doesn't look anything like the first-class cabins of today. She has IFE that is on a screen mounted to the front of the cabin. We no longer use overhead projectors. One of my favorite things about uh, this airplane that you don't see anymore are the telephones and I can remember seeing people use them. You would slide your credit card and I can't remember what it was per minute, but it was some crazy amount per minute. So behind me, we have then and nail. We have the first class seats from the 19 sixties conveyor 880. You can see the bucket seats from the sixties and then behind me on this side, on my left is the life flat seats of today on the A 350. I prefer the life flat. This is my absolute favorite Delta uniform. It's dubbed the Huntsman 1969 to 70 summer uniform. You can see it comes with its own smock, its own belt, its own hat coach was founded in 1941. It started as a men's wallets and briefcase company originally from a baseball glove, leather, from a baseball glove that was repurposed. Of course, over the decades that has evolved its single against category are women's handbags. And it really hit the big time in the sixties when they hired a designer called Bonnie Cash and who absolutely revolutionized coach and brought it closer to the world of luxury and fashion and not just, you know, functional well made wallets. She was an absolutely trailblazing designer with the locks on her bags that continued to inspire design to this very day. This is the turn lock which was created in the 19 sixties by Bonnie Cash in. And the fun fact about this is that she was inspired by her 19 forties convertible and that the turn lock was what kept the top on of her car. So she redesigned it and placed it on a bag and that's why we have this today. My name is Ryan Borg and I am the manager of the coach archives in the archive. We have over 25,000 items. This includes all the original catalogs, all the handbags, all the ready to wear pieces, anything that has a coach stamp on it comes through the archive. The archive is primarily used by our design teams. They will come down here and look at all the bags for inspiration and that could be from proportions of the bag constructions of the bag and how they were constructed back in the sixties or seventies, but also for color and for the structure and the integrity of the leather. So in this case, here, we start with our 19 forties and 19 fifties collection. Uh when Miles Kahn first started coach um and that continues in this whole case with our 19 sixties, which is when Bonnie Cash and first started in 1962. Uh This is her first bag that she did for us. The shopping bag she did not like seeing women carrying around a brown paper bag down Fifth Avenue. So she designed this more lux shopping bag for people to carry their luxury items in one task for the archivist at coach to do is to source out bags that are rare to find bags that we don't have yet or currently looking for. And one bag in particular is the chubby clutch from 1964 where I recently found this through outside vendors who are willing to part with it. So this is our case of the 19 seventies bag collection. Bonnie Cashen designed up until 1973. At this time. In my opinion, she made one of the most iconic bags for coach, which is the devils. As you can see here. This is a bag that we still design and create today with little to zero modifications. You see how the handbags both reflect and push fashion as you get a sense from the sixties to now, it's really a lot of fun. Um, you know, you obviously have to be there with somebody, but I can match on my own. I could easily spend hours looking at all these products. Procter and Gamble has been around for decades and is the largest consumer products manufactured in the United States. They're behind all sorts of products, Tide and Charmin Gillette, etc, Procter and Gamble is a giant and has always had innovation in its blood. There's a lot more competition now for conser products. And so the pressure to innovate more quickly is great. The P and G Heritage Center collects preserves and shares all the great stories and objects and products and innovations from our past as a catalyst to inspire the employees as they work on the future. My name is Shane Meeker. I am the P and G company historian and corporate storyteller. The origin story of PNG really goes back to two people, an English candle maker named William Proctor and an Irish soap maker named James Gamble. And they end up coming over to Cincinnati, looking to start up their respective businesses and ended up actually becoming partners because they married sisters and it was their father in law's idea that they should join forces. And in 1837 they officially became Proctor and Gamble selling both soap and candles. Not only do we have the original partnership agreement, but we've got some very old handle cases including also some original bars of soap too from around that time period. So a day in the life in the Heritage Center is not only virtual and online requests coming from our employees but also employees just stopping in looking through the artifacts, going through the timelines asking about the stories. And we're pulling everything from photos to content to information that we then can send to them, so they can use that to research the projects that they're doing now. So we have a lot of great artifacts here. But one of the most fun is one of the mock ups of the original prototype for the Swiffer Wet Jet. And that story honestly goes back to consumer. As boss for us, we had started doing some in-home research around mopping. And while watching a consumer mop, she looked at the researchers and said, hey, I tell you if you really want to clean up something, please clean up the closet that I have to put all this mopping stuff in that then became the insight that would turn into creating this great all in one solution that we call Swiffer wetjet. And when you look at the prototype, it's really fun because it leverages areas of our expertise in different categories. Our hard surface cleaning expertise with Mr Clean while also leveraging our absorbency and non woven expertise in pampers, diapers and always pads. The wall of failures is one of our most popular exhibits in the archives and it's really centered around a growth mindset way of thinking because, you know, quite honestly, if you're not failing, you're probably not innovating. And so, you know, being around for 187 years, we try to save all of the projects that we can and all the learnings from them. And just because an idea fails, doesn't mean it's a bad idea. You know, there's so many things that could have influenced that from everything, from habit to technology, to business model, to consumer behavior, to whatever. And so for example, Tide Pods I pod is an incredible success for us that we launched in 2012. But believe it or not, the first actual unit dose detergent that we launched was called Tide Ready Packs in 1960 and that failed. So what you're looking at is 52 years of learning from failure and tempting new and different innovations to get there, just like in other spheres of life, history tends to repeat itself. And I think these archives and these museums really guide companies in harnessing their history so they can continue making products that are contemporary. I think what this shows though is that things move in cycles, what is old is new again if you do it intelligently and in a well guided way, which is what I think all these facilities help these companies to do.

A year into the job, David Risher talks innovation at Lyft, plus lessons learned from the recent earnings error.

Lyft's CEO says the company will be profitable soon

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph provided by Lyft.

David Risher talks innovation at Lyft, plus lessons learned from the recent earnings error.

Brands are so interesting and reputations are so interesting because they take a long time to build and once you've got them, they actually persist for, for many years. So I was just by the way at fortune, we know that for sure, hard to, hard to kill a good brand. Once, once you are, you guys trying? No, we're not anymore. But there probably been times in our past when we were trying. Pretty hard. Welcome to leadership next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, this is a hyper competitive business. You're like Coke and Pepsi or maybe more like Hertz and Avis or something. And, you know, I know when I'm, when I'm getting a car, I just want the car to be there fast. I don't care who it comes from. So what is the nature? It's a fairly undifferentiated pro uh product. What, what, what can you do? What is, what, what, how do you really make ground against Uber in this battle? Yeah, it turns out you can do a lot and it's interesting because so first of all, you know, really focusing on the customer really makes a difference. So I'll give you some examples. When I started, the company had started to focus a little bit too much on Wall Street and a little bit too little on its own riders and drivers. And so, you know, if I'm honest, we were paying our drivers not quite uh competitive rates. We were uh charging our riders a little bit more, uh under the hopes of making more money faster. Just a bad strategy. Just because to your point, a lot of people, they'll say, you know, who's going to get me there less expensively, who's going to get me there faster. So when I, when I look forward, you know, over the year, you know, just fixing some of the basics really, really helps and I'll give you, you know, an example a year ago our of what we call our pin eta difference. So let's say the gap between how fast you might be picked up and the other guy versus us might have been three or four minutes, which is significant if you're in a hurry now, it's 10 seconds. Now it's 10 seconds. So when you get to the point where it's 10 seconds, now, you can start to compete on other things, you can start to compete on women Plus Connect, which we launched, which is a product that's women, choose women. You can start to compete on faster airport pickup where people are very stressed about getting to the airport. So it's sort of a couple stage thing. You got to make sure you're focused on your customers. You gotta fix the basics to give yourself permission to do some of the other more innovative things. And then you can start to innovate and give people a real reason to choose one or the other instead of having them. Think it's kind of the same thing is, uh, transparency part of it too. I mean, I, I would assume that drivers care very much about that. Have you made changes there? Absolutely. Absolutely. And in fact, that's exactly it. So I have AAA public email address. Uh It's David at lyft.com and, and, and drivers, right? And they're very clear about what it is that they like and they're also very clear about what bugs them. And so, but again, customer obsession, right? So our drivers are our customers. So we have to pay attention to what bugs them and the lack of transparency really bothers them, you know, they start to kind of come up with all sorts of theories of what's going on. So now, and this again is a relatively new feature where actually I just rolled it out over the last, you know, six weeks or so. At the end of every week, you, you get a full statement that, that literally starts with how much riders pay because that was the thing that would bug them so much is they would say, you know, I got a, a, you know, a trip where a rider paid me 50 bucks and I only made 10 and it's like, but what, what is that? So anyway, so now we show them, you know, the complete statement, uh, literally everything that rider paid, everything that they got, all their tips, all the tools, all the different, you know, things. And then again, if it's ever less than 70% after those pass through fees, we literally send them a check, we send them a check. And again, this driver group, I talked to the other day, they said I couldn't believe it. The first time I got a rebate, you know, it was sort of like getting a tax rebate. It was, it was great. So David, you're, you're, you're focusing on customers, you're focusing on riders, you're focusing less on shareholders. But at the end of the day, you do have to make money and you haven't yet. Uh uh How do you feel about progress towards that goal? And the reason is because our, our mantra is customer obsession drives profitable growth. So, you know, let's look at the other numbers for a second. So, um, so first on the growth side, you know, the first quarter that I was, uh CEO we grew about 10% year on year, then we grew about 17% then we were about 20% then we grew about 26%. So those are the first four quarters. So we're growing. So then the question is, what are we doing it profitably? Well, as you point out, we haven't made gap profitability yet, but it is absolutely on the, you know, on the road map, we were free cash flow positive last quarter. That's Q four of 2023 we will be free cash flow positive this entire year. Absolutely. We've promised it to Wall Street and when you look at our losses, they are diminishing to the point where they're really quite small right now. And most Wall Street analysts show us turning a profit quite soon. So we are absolutely on that path. Some of it was very hard decisions. You know, one of my first decision was, was obviously very difficult uh involving cutting about 26% of our staff, which is very difficult to do incredibly hard, uh you know, kind of heart wrenching uh work, but you, you have to do it if you're gonna be able to lower your prices and pay drivers more, you know, and, and, and, and now we're being very disciplined, very disciplined quarter after quarter. Our listeners would never forgive us if we didn't ask you about the EBITA mistake because it was such a fascinating moment. It was a misplaced zero in a press release that caused the, the stock to soar came back down. You now have class action lawsuits. What did you learn from that? Did you learn anything? Was there we were there any? Oh Yeah, we learned, we learned a lot. Yeah, I mean, the first thing I have to say and I said this before, I'll say it again. That's on me, that's on me. And I want people really to understand that when you're a leader of the organization, no, makes a mistake. It's your problem. And so now I will also say, man did our team hustle and, and what happened, what happened literally was an extra zero that got inserted into an early version of the press release and it just rolled forward. And this despite literally no exaggeration of hundreds of people's hundreds of people's eyes, including my own seeing it over and over again. But what happened, it was in a forecast piece which gets a little less scrutiny than the backwards looking stuff, the basis point versus percentage. I mean, they are very, very different words, but unfortunately, they mean something very, very different. And so, and we literally found it in real time as we were reading out the, um the, the, the sort of earnings report and we changed it within two minutes, I think. And all of a sudden our legal team again and actually our policy team jumped into action so very, very quick response. Absolutely fantastic. And I certainly learned how fast the team can work when it, when it is under that kind of pressure. Now, uh what have, what have we also learned? Well, we've learned that even though we have really exactly the same process that every other public company has all sorts of eyes, it wasn't sufficient, it wasn't sufficient. So, what are we doing? We actually now have a process. We're just about to go through this as our next earnings come out where we take all of our materials. We now give them to an outside third party we've hired to do exactly this and what they do is without having any other context. They look, not just to sort of double check the numbers, but they try to build the model that our press release and earnings statement is suggesting they build and then look at what that model results in. And then we compare that back to our internal models. And if those models are vary by anything that significant, we know there is a problem along the way.

Jim Rowan says his company is on track to go all-electric by 2030, despite nonlinear electric car adoption.

Volvo's CEO says EV innovation is like smartphones replacing feature phones

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph courtesy of Volvo Cars.

Volvo’s CEO says EV innovation is like smartphones replacing feature phones

I'm guessing that the emails were a little bit different at Dyson as important as vacuum cleaners are, they probably weren't saving lives. I, I I'm pretty emotional about my V 11 animal back here and I don't travel without my hair dryer. So, welcome to leadership next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia you have set really ambitious goals, turning your fleet entirely electric by 2030. Are you on track to meet that goal? I know there's, there's been some progress fairly recently as well and some excitement but, but tell us where you feel you're at right now. Yeah. So we're making really good progress. So what we gave is we gave guidance that we, we expected to be fully elected by 2030 that we expected to have half of sales, um, fully elected by 2025. We're probably going to go into a double s curve as we pick up. I see in the US right now, the west coast electrifying extremely quickly. Even the east coast, large parts of the east coast electrifying quickly and then in the interior of the US, it's, that's taken longer, but we're in a really privileged position because we have mixed technology. We have really good plug in electric hybrids. We have, we have mild hybrid technology as well as pure electric so we can service all of those customers. And that gives us a really strong bridge to full electrification. And so that's maybe some of the difference. I'm really confident that we can get to where we need to get to by 2030 but it won't be linear. Uh We'll pick up a lot of that soon and then we'll see it transition slowly in other parts. Countrywide, things are really slowing down. Uh The US auto companies seem to be concerned about their goals which are more 2035 focus and you have uh companies like Hertz, the rental car company that had said it was going to build a big electric fleet and then it backed off. Uh the charging stations building is going really slow and you say it's not going to be linear. But do you really feel like 2030 is a, is a realistic goal? There are really two industries within one industry, you have mass market and you have premium when you're selling it and we're selling into the premium market. And the success factors for premium are very, very different from mass mass is basically based on price. Um And there's much, much less customer loyalty or brand loyalty. When you look at premium, you're selling to customers that generally have more than one car, especially in the US. And that means there's options for them to have a bed or a plug in electric hybrid as their second car. They may still want to have a full petrol car as their main car. And as they go through that adoption curve, but we can still sell them a pure electric car or we can sell them a plug in electric vehicle. And we see that more and more frequently. The other thing is when you're selling to the premium sector and the majority of cases they have their own homes, which means they have their own charge infrastructure, which means they don't rely on public charge infrastructure. And so that adoption to bed becomes much, much easier. What we find as well as in the US. Specifically, there's a lot of three car families, especially in the premium sector. That third car, more and more and more is becoming a bed because generally it's maybe for their Children and their Children are saying, hey mom, I want an electric car. So I think when you dissect the industry and remember as well, and we have 1% of the total car industry Volvo and we can get to 2% we will be massively successful. So I'm not chasing volume and I think there's enough customers around the world that want safety sustainability, you know, Scandinavian design uh that want full electric. And that's why by 2030. I think we can find enough of those customers to buy and large be a full electric. What are some of the learnings that you took away from your years at Blackberry? Oh, man, that is, that is such a good question. I mean, it really is because the reason I think it's such a good question is because I actually talk about it and in fact, the guys who are probably fed up me talking about the parallels to that, but just think about that industry, you're going through a massive transition, you're going from feature phones to smartphones. You have Nokia, you have Motorola, you have Sony Ericsson, you have HTC and of course, you have Blackberry really good at that stuff. Two years that transition took 2, 2.5 years as you went from feature phone to smartphone. And the guys who came at the back end of that as the winners weren't even in the game to start with. It was I Os and Android. In fact, it wasn't, it wasn't a hardware play that made the difference of the software and it was the software architecture of I Os and Android. And then of course Android that re enabled people like, like Samsung to get back in the game. And, and that's what I see right now. People are talking about electrification as the change profile within the auto industry, the missing the entire point, its software, it's, it's silicon probably more importantly, silicon, it's connectivity, real time, connectivity with zero latency and it's data and if you want to fit its energy management, but those four things come together. So and I'll give you an example. When I started with the company, we had to make some quick decisions around. Did we want to buy in technology or build that? So what do you build versus what do you buy very quickly? I looked at the silicon architecture and said, and that is a pretty good company. They understand core compute technology. If we're going to move to a co compute architecture, we should go, we should go make sure we talk to the video guys because I think these guys know exactly what they're doing in terms of high computational silicon. And then we've got Qualcomm and what a fantastic partner they are on the entertainment stack. So we say we're gonna buy that technology and we're going to partner with these great technology companies. And we also then partner with Google in terms of Android Auto and we partner with Apple in terms of Apple car because I don't think we need to be making those things when 7 billion people have either got an Android or an Apple phone. They just want to connect the phone seamlessly to a car, but we did want to own electrical propulsion. That's at the core of what we do. And we did want to own the safety stack. So although we're using NVIDIA Silicon, uh we are building the whole software stack from the silicon layer to the application layer of cameras and radars and lights and so on because we really wanted to make sure we understood that software.

Lead Bank CEO Jackie Reses, a former Square executive, bought the Kansas City–based bank to address compliance and technology challenges facing fintechs.

Why one of fintech’s most powerful women bought a 95-year-old community bank

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photo courtesy of Lead Bank.

What made it really easy for us for people to say like, of course, you did like go, you, I'm not surprised. Of course you bought a bank, Jackie. It's one of those very funny things that I like if I tell people, they'll say like you, you bought a bank, like just, you know, unless you know me from square, it's such a weird thing to say like, yes, I own a bank. I went and bought a bank. But when you understand the story of like having built one from zero, you know, from an idea that I had it kind of feels obvious welcome to leadership next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm mia people who know you will associate you with fintech and Square in particular. Um But not necessarily with a, you know, nearly 100 year old community bank in Kansas City. So explain the strategy because not every fintech company has a bank. In fact, none of them do. Ironically, it's very hard to merge the two because the strategy around both of them are almost diametrically opposite in both in both business lines. So for me when I was at square, one of the things I experienced was extreme pain and frustration and working with bank partners. And what most people don't realize is the financial infrastructure products that they have in their wallets every day. So debit cards, credit cards, you know, loans that they might take out 100% of them are built in the banking system. There's always an underlying bank involved with every transaction with the evolution of fintech. People think of fintech is like the front end of that relationship. Like you have a relationship with a firm, you have a relationship with, you know XYZ fintech company, it could be paypal square chime ramp, you name it. And so um that's the way people think about it. But underneath there is the infrastructure that helps build those products. And so that's what we do. And so that's where I had this challenging situation where we would connect with banks that were very traditional banks and they weren't used to dealing with technology partners like us. And so I decided that I would go by a bank to do this with the technology angle and the substance of compliance knowledge from the environment of like what is it like to be a customer? What is it like to be involved and support what regulators are asking of us but translate it through the lens of understanding both sides of that puzzle so that we could deliver a really unique experience to our clients, our clients are, you know, huge fintech and consumer companies or are scaling fintech where they all want to run highly compliant programs because they are highly successful companies. But they want someone who can operate at the same speed that they can. And so that's how I've merged the two sides of the business. You know, we have a really strong team that sits in compliance and legal, really strong team in finance, really strong team in engineering and product. And the engineering and product piece is usually the piece that most community banks don't have. And our engineering team is second to none in the banking industry. They're fantastic. Um And they understand how to build primitives to support banking in a way that most, you know, most banks don't have. It's, it's pretty cool. I have to say what we're doing is pretty unique in the United States. What kinds of other products, tech products and tech products are you currently developing? Like where, where are you focusing your energy? It always sounds really silly to say because it's like master the obvious, I feel like I'm talking about products that have been around for 5000 years. First of all, they're all API S. So they're direct connections with our clients through API S and they are around core banking primitives in lending, in money movement in issuing. And so it sounds kind of funny to say like, oh, we focus on money movement. That's kind of what we do. But it's, and, and just to clarify though, you're talking about API S, you're developing tools that your customers can use to develop their own tools basically. And they embedded into the, the products you would never know that we exist. Except for if you look at the back of a lot of people's debit cards and credit cards. This is why it's one of these funny businesses like everyone uses us, but no one realizes they do. If you look at the bottom of a debit card or credit card, you're like, oh, issued by, huh? There's some bank on there. And interestingly a lot of the banks that those cards are issued on are usually small banks located in the middle of the country. And so we're one of those small banks located in the middle of the country.

Joe Kiani, cofounder and CEO of med tech company Masimo, opens up about the company’s ongoing legal battle with Apple over alleged patent infringement and trade-secret theft, as well as the proxy battle he's currently embroiled in with his board. Note: Apple continues to deny Masimo’s IP claims.

The inventor behind Apple’s watch shutdown discusses lawsuit and proxy battle

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photo provided by Masimo.

Joe Kiani, cofounder and CEO of med tech company Masimo, opens up about the company’s ongoing legal battle with Apple over alleged patent infringement and trade-secret theft. Note: Apple continues to deny Masimo’s IP claims.

Joe Kiani, cofounder and CEO of med tech company Masimo, opens up about the company’s ongoing legal battle with Apple. 

I'm, your affiliation has changed a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just say I don't buy Apple products anymore. Welcome to Leadership. Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, I uh started Massimo in 1989 in my condominium that had an attached garage. So I guess it was a real garage start up. I had just gotten my masters in the area of adaptive filters and A I signal processing. And before starting Massimo, I had a consulting job where I was working for another company to make a, a low-cost pulse flexy while I was trying to develop this cheap pulse oximetry for them. I realized when I moved with the probe on my finger, my oxygen saturation would go from 98 to 100% 70 or 60%. And I knew my physiology hadn't changed. It was just a small motion of my hand. I set out to solve that problem. I know I knew about a class of filters known as adaptive filters that could figure out uh what frequencies to let in and what frequencies to block. Kind of like your noise canceling headphones. Um And I thought I could use that to get rid of this NBA noise where my motion was in the same bandwidth as the signal we were looking for. I took a $40,000 loan on my condominium. Uh and then friends and family invested another $80,000 several months later. And with that, we created basketball. And today we're a publicly traded company with nearly $2 billion in revenue and about 10,000 employees. I'm gonna ask you the Apple question. I know your company, you and your company have come up against some, some pretty significant challenges. And, and I want to hear uh again a little bit of an origin, origin story of just uh the, the legal battle with Apple and how that started. Take us back if, if you don't mind, we introduced a product called IP 02, which was the first pulse oximetry for the smartphones. A few months later, we got a call from Apple uh saying, hey, we want to meet with you, you guys are the platinum of noninvasive monitoring and we'll sign an ND A come tell us everything we want to work with you. So I was excited. I really wanted to work with Apple and I went there personally with a couple of my team members and spent half a day with them. Uh The meeting went really well and I thought we're gonna work together. But unfortunately, a few months later uh I learned that they're trying to recruit my team. They ended up taking 25 of my team members or CTO. Fast forward. In 2019, I saw six patents issued to Apple. All impulsive symmetry, all with our chief technical officer that used to work for our sister company, uh Willow Circle Corps and one of the, the disclosures, well, all of them were on our stuff. One of them was a trade secret. It wasn't even something we patented. So at that point, we decided to sue them for trade secret and later patent infringement. Fortunately, the uh it's not, I can't say it's a happy ending because we're not done, done yet, but we got a win, a major win at the ITC Apple's watches with Pulse Symmetry were enjoined in the US. Um And they're appealing it, I don't think they're gonna win the appeal. We have a really strong case. Uh But uh we're waiting for that. That's probably about a year away, but there's still a couple of trials left to go and uh hopefully we'll ultimately get our justice. There's this ongoing proxy battle now, um which we can get into, I'm sure you love this topic. Um But, but tell me first about the acquisition because it's a really interesting one for you guys. I mean, audio in general, um which you just talked about, I think would surprise some people. But how did the acquisition come about for Sound United. We've been working on our wearables and the Hears for many, many years, maybe 15 years as it was emerging, ready to come out. We try to create our own team, uh president of Consumer Business salesforce and it was daunting slow. And finally, one of our board members, Julie Simer. She said, Joe, if you really are serious about these products, you're gonna have to acquire a company that's already in the consumer space. We ended up buying Sound United because it had not only some of the features, we were looking for a team that had a focus on sales and marketing to consumers, about 3 400 people, engineering uh team that was really good at audio and we were getting into the hears. So we wanted that but they also had relationships across the world with retailers in the consumer space like Best Buy, we ended up buying them for about one time revenue with positive cash flow. It was non diluted from day one and uh we loved some of the products they had, they were iconic brands, high-end brands that we thought would sustain for maybe a century if needed to. Your shareholders weren't as enthusiastic about this acquisition. Did that catch you by surprise? What did you make of it? It did, it did because I'm not new to this. I just, we're celebrating our 35th anniversary and it's not the first time I took on a giant and we beat them and we won. So I believe my track record would put them at ease that I haven't lost my mind. There's a new large opportunity. We're gonna go from a $10 billion.10 total available market to like 100 and $50 billion.10. And with good reasons why we should be a major player in those spaces like continuous monitoring. Why people buy these wearables most of the time they're buying it for the health sensing and there's about a third of the population that buy these smart watches that have chronic illnesses. So I thought once we explain where we're going and I knew we're going to consumer space and they understood why we bought it. They would appreciate it. Um, unfortunately, yeah, you're right. They did not. I think uh I learned the hard way that while we have some shareholders that may have been with us for a decade, they make that decision on an annual basis. It's not like they decide they're going to be in it for 10 years. If it keeps raising the price goes up on the stock, 10 15% a year, they're happy and they keep staying in their stock. They didn't want to take a step back to jump 10 steps forward. Uh So I think there's a mismatch. I run Massimo as though it's gonna be around another 100 years and I need to figure out how to make sure it's there 100 years from now. And I think our investors invest in Massimo thinking about the year ahead and uh that kind of took them. Um I think out of that mode because they knew there would be some investment period before we would uh come out with great results.

Axios and Politico cofounder Jim VandeHei discusses the origin of his smart-brevity methodology, and why he decided to write his new book "Just the Good Stuff."

2 hacks that keep Axios CEO Jim VandeHei balanced and productive

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photo provided by Axios.

2 hacks that keep Axios CEO Jim VandeHei balanced and productive


Jim, I have a really important last question here. I have not read your new book. Uh It's still on preorder and you didn't send me a review copy, but I need to sell books. But I'm looking at the table of contents here and there are a lot of chapters. But I know they're very short chapter 48 and 49 are called Bad Bosses and Good Bosses. Which chapter am I in? You know, you know, Alice Allen was a great boss. He hired me, he hired me when I was a young kid. Nobody else would have hired me to do that job. Welcome to leadership. Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, I wanna talk about the, the your second start up axios because you started it on. The concept was a simple two words, smart, brevity. And I think about that all the time because it really goes against the grain of journalistic culture. I mean, we're here at Mahal knows this. Well, we're here at Fortune which has had a hard time, the transition from a magazine to digital. We've done it now. But it took a long time. And that was partly because the reporters and writers here thought that the highest form of journalism was a 11,000 word magazine story. And the notion that you can be brief and, and feed people information that they need in a very smart way at the same time, uh may sound pretty straightforward to people, but it's not, it's not in our business at all. One of the things I taught myself to do is stop writing or thinking about journalism the way that I want it to be and start listening to the customer. And I was watching what was happening in terms of consumption with people in positions of power or just ordinary consumers. And I noticed that almost no one was reading anything and they were, they were hunting and pecking and they were often reading the first couple of paragraphs or they were gravitating towards newsletters instead of stories even when they were paying a premium to buy that product. And so by the time we started, we said, listen, like there is like there's an efficiency revolution. People want their information tighter. Uh But they also are going to need to know more across more topics. If they want to be really successful professionally, they need to, they're gonna have to understand technology and information consumption and politics and cultural trends. And so that's where the smart brevity came up with. We need really intelligent coverage on on important topics but delivered as efficiently as humanly possible. And we were pretty confident that that was gonna work almost instantly. It did like it, it, it, it instantly kind of just hit the sweet spot of where especially people who are in the professional class, who are consuming content. It just met the moment and I remember like knowing that we like we were on to something bigger than I realized in the first couple of months, I was getting hundreds of emails from readers saying thank you, you're saving me time. You're respecting my intelligence trying to make me smarter faster. I was like, damn, those are the exact same words we're using internally. I never communicated that externally. And it showed that we, we had product market fit and you know, that blossomed into, you know, a book on smart brevity. It blossomed into a company that we split off where we, we, we train companies to be able to communicate internally using smart brevity. And we now use A I to power that. And so like that, one kind of fundamental observation led to a lot of different kinds of enterprises which has been like really fun and and adventurous having worked with you 25 years ago. I'm not at all surprised that you went on to uh to found two successful media companies, but I am a little surprised to see you become a self help guru. Uh you know, and it's not just leadership. It's like life hacks, diets, meditation, what's going on there. Uh You're not the only one who's surprised. I'm kind of surprised by that. To be honest, it's, it started with, we were trying to figure out a way to work with our audience on things that weren't so heavy. So we started ending the night with this thing called Finish line where it's like something fun, something uplifting because you're doom scrolling all day. As part of that is, I started to write a couple of columns about lessons learned, being a, being a manager and having kept those notes and the response was just humbling. It was like overwhelming. It, it was clear people were interested in it. And so I just sort of kept going with that. And most of it is about how to get ahead of work, how to get ahead in your profession, how to be a better manager, how to be a better leader. But like the older I get, um, you know, Alan, you and I aren't spring chickens anymore, right? You start to think of a lot younger that surround it, right? That like I'm only really good as a CEO if I've got my crap together with my wife and my family and my, my health and my diet. So I, I have started to write a little bit more about that. I, you know, again, part of it is because like I'm a writer to your question. Earlier, the, you know, I have this weird spinal disorder where over time my spine is gonna turn into one, one fused brick. It's run in my family for generations. And so I've had to become maniacal about, about fitness. And so I've used that to be, you know, whatever, that kind of sucks. But here's the things that, like, I've been able to do that aren't medicinal that are able to, like, help, continue to be really healthy uh at my age. So I'll pass that along, seems to resonate. I pass a little bit more along. And so, yeah, that, that wasn't a twist that I expected and, and, and, you know, I didn't expect to write a book on all this stuff. But given that it does seem to be helpful to some people and like in, in all seriousness, like the high school college stuff, like having been such a bad student, having come from kind of just a normal small town in the Midwest. I part of writing the book is to hopefully get it to people that aren't in New York and Washington and to say, hey, listen, you could be wherever the hell you are going to a community college because of how awesome this country is. Like, you could go on to start companies or be a CEO or interview a president. Like if I could, I guarantee you, you're more impressive as an 18 year old than I was. And so like, it's possible and that's a, that's a big theme of the book. Can you talk a little bit more about some of the packs that, that have worked for you and just maintaining that, uh, wellness, I guess, and, and the kind of, um, you know, balance that you need to do your job as a CEO. Well, I mean, I think all this stuff is particular to your passions and your own habits and your own circumstance. But like, for me, I've realized like, listen, if I'm gonna run a company and I'm going to be the chairman of another technology company and I'm gonna try to write books. I can only do that if I'm performing optimally. And so like, for me personally, I created what my, my wife always rolls her eyes when I say this. But like my happiness matrix, which is I have this idea of, ok, I work best if like my relationship with my wife is good. My relationship with my kids is attentive. My relationship with my parents is strong. If I'm working out, I'm getting enough time to fly fish. If I'm spending enough time on my face and whenever I'm off, I know that if I, one of those buckets is off and so I'm constantly in my mind doing an inventory if I feel off. Like, oh man, I guess I haven't like, paid enough attention to the kids or I haven't paid enough attention to going off and golf or fly fish or whatever it is that gives me, uh, sanity. And so I think that more than anything has really helped. Uh, and then two is just who you surround yourself with. Like, we've all been at companies where you work with people who just suck the life out of you. And if there's one thing I'm most proud of about axios is at 550 people, we don't have any of those people. I've become really good at being able to sniff out even high achievers who are bad people and, and, and executing them, like getting them out of the company as quickly as possible. And it has this weird effect where like when your energy is all positive and you're dealing with smart people who are high achieving, but they're in it for the right reasons. It just has a psychic effect on you because you're not spending your time going like God, why was that person? A jerk or man, that person is a drag or I don't want to be anywhere near that person. And when you don't have that, I think the combination of those two things has helped me, like, really enjoy the work that I do. But I think be better at the work that I do.

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky shares his insights around the job market and talent shifts in a landscape increasingly—and rapidly—shaped by automation.

These are the skills LinkedIn’s CEO thinks will be most valuable in an AI future

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn.

You know, to, again, to maybe reframe this one a little bit. Um I'm two for two. I'm reframing both your questions now. So, thanks. Uh We're, we're so excited that that's, that's what the people we interview do all the time. We're really just props the questions we ask are your relative and when you reframe a question, it helps you provide the kind of answer you wanted to provide. So, yeah, go ahead. What do you have? Uh Do you have a question for my answer? Welcome to leadership. Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, you know, there are lots of people who are worried that A I is gonna eliminate jobs, maybe their job. There are others who say, oh, it'll eliminate some jobs, but it'll create even more. And all of us are just speculating but you have the data. So what is your data show where, where are skills and jobs uh in less demand and what skills and uh are in more demand as we move into this profound technological change. It's really important for people to change the way you think about jobs jobs historically been thought about as a title. Um But fundamentally, if you can take a different view, which is jobs as a set of tasks, your job is a set of tasks. My job is a set of tasks. Everybody's job to be done is a set of tasks. And when you can start to really break down, every job is a set of tasks, you can then take the next step to understand where technology can help either augment uh or make certain tasks more efficient or certain tasks are going to be just completely automated. Then you start to realize that, oh, you know what, like if your job is just a set of tasks that is going to be automated, you need to start looking for a new job. So one of the things that we're doing across linkedin is taking every role in the world and doing a score of certain jobs as tasks and, and understanding that, hey, there's certain jobs like, you know, a lot of copywriting or translation type jobs where the majority of the task to do those jobs are tasks that can be automated. So, you know, it's important to start thinking about a new job. The majority of jobs though in the world are the types of jobs where you know AAA specific portion of those tasks will be automated and you need to learn how to leverage those tools to help in that part of your job. But still a lot of human skills are needed for uh for the majority of the job. Yeah. So give us some examples of skills that you think are going to be more valuable in the future because of what's happening now. First and foremost, it, it is really important to learn, learn, learn your way into using these A I tools. It's only going to help you in whatever job that you're doing to, you know, be able to leverage these tools to help you be more productive. My big bet is on people skills. Um you know, learning how to build people skills, communicating, um knowing what to do when your camera falls off of your computer during a podcast interview, which, which is just so our listeners know just happened to run and he did a total of glimpse right in the middle of the interview is gone. Yeah. Uh EQ communication, collaboration, creativity. That's a place where, um you know, I, I would be putting a lot of time and effort. Um if I was just entering the workforce or thinking about what the future might look like. And then I think that there's this concept which is for so long we've been taught or thought about the importance is to build for stability. And I think the future is more about building for agility instead of stability, uh being able to adapt, being able to, you know, take on something new the way I did my job last year is gonna be the way I'm gonna do my job this year. So I think a lot of that goes into what I would at least be thinking about right now entering the workforce, or at least I'm thinking about for myself transitioning, you know, through a leadership job that's always changing as well. So, what role do college degrees play in all of this? Are they important for different reasons? Because, um it's not just the skills that you accrue through a degree, maybe not just a four year degree. Um But, but it's also eq right, the last part is spot on, especially on the EQ side. And, you know, I'm not sure that outside of um being with a group of people doing work or being with people at a school, et cetera, there, there's been a real strong way to teach, um you know, a lot of people skills besides just kind of being in that environment. But I think it's an area of opportunity that, you know, society, we need to really figure out um in terms of, you know, college degrees in general, I think degrees are uh important in so far as they contain the set of skills that are really important and necessary um to be productive in society. Historically, recruiters would use degrees as you know, the the way to assess or find talent because we had no better view to do it. So for example, you, you see a lot of recruiters do things like, well, I just want to see candidates that, you know, went to Princeton, someone went to Princeton. They must be smart. Um, or they have, you know, you know, or, or previous company, this person used to work at Google, they must be smart as well. And when you only look at, I don't know the, the degree or the pedigree on its own as, as the post goes underneath it, two things happen. Number one, everyone's looking at the same group of talent because all the recruiters do the same search some people who, you know, used to work at Google and went to Princeton, like everyone's looking at this tiny group of people which does not create a very equitable or efficient labor market. Um And number two, it turns out that, you know, often times those degrees alone aren't signal enough for what needs to be, you know, done inside of the job. So we've been pushing a lot on, you know, skills are the currency, the actual skills that need to be done and it falls in line really well with this idea of the future about looking at jobs, set of tasks, as opposed to just the job title itself. I think across the board requiring require ourselves to go a level deeper in terms of what are the actual, you know, skills or tasks to be done instead of just relying on the, you know, the name of the degree alone. But, um, I really think you're on to something that with the EQ point and that's something we need to figure out.

Sumit Singh compares Chewy’s customer service to “the best hospitality resorts.”

Why Chewy’s CEO leads with a Disney mindset: “You just feel like you're part of a dream world”

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph courtesy of Chewy.

We get to see our pets every day at work. It's pretty awesome. Everyone brings when it comes to the office. I mean, the amount of we, we were, you know, we were thinking, how are we going to get any work done? And, and how do you kind of keep all these pets in check? But believe it or not, it's, it's everybody behaves and it just works like sheer chaos. We've had, we've had, you know, besides dogs and cats, we've had potbellied pigs and we've had hamsters and welcome to leadership next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, the Chewy was founded as a food and supplies company. We would serve you your food, we would, you know, ship you your dog collars and beds and all that stuff. But there's much more to a pet's journey than that pet's life cycle than that. There's an entire health vertical, there are non healthcare services. And then what, why just pet parents think about the community that services, pet, right? You're, you're the veterinarian, the groomer, the trainer, the dog park friend, right. Looking for content servicing pet, et cetera, et cetera. And we said, well, why should we only be stand for customers? Let's stand for partners. And what that tells you is from a business mindset. What it was saying was we should be a B to cab to B company, et cetera. So if you put that together, Alan, you not only get a mission and purpose that people can get behind, you get the strategy of the organization and at any point, you can look at that and say, well, where are you trending in fulfilling that, that, that this, this journey? And it's meant to be enduring. So, over the last six years, we've really built out our health vertical and so we're very proud of that. So we've connected food supplies and health. We've built out B to C services, B two B services for veterinarians. And so we're super proud and so we, and we've just entered Canada as our first International Forest. We all know Ecommerce is a tough business. Um Just tell us a little bit more about your philosophy, the underlying philosophy for customer service and customer loyalty. You know, I'm a product of consumer tech experience forward companies, Dell being one, you know, Amazon being the other. And so when I got to Chewy, right, I was like, well, great. It's just a customer service or customer care team. And this is the journey. Sometimes you as a leader need to observe and evolve to be able to truly assimilate through what is a gold nugget in the foundation or the growth of a company stage? And I looked at our customer care and I experienced it and as I experienced our customer care, you know, I did not think about any customer care organization. I thought about Disney, my experience when I walked through a Disney Park and how we feel in the way that, you know, you, you just feel like you're a part of a dream world, like being welcomed. I compared Chuy to the best hospitality resorts in the way that you are served in the way that you are treated in the way that you received and in the way that you're you're respected when you walk through the best hospitality resorts. So that's the mindset in the way that we approach customer service, right? So if I were to summarize this from a business point of view, I would say Chewy is uh you know, we are delivering the scale and convenience of e-commerce, but at the best personalized service or a high touch, personalized service, you should expect that the best local neighborhood pet store. Can you share the story real quick of um this incident? That kind of went viral where somebody is a customer's pet died and you send a message and tell the story. We have what we call surprise and delight uh moments uh where we want to be with the customer's life cycle or journey through the highs and lows of pet parenting. And this moment that you're referring is a low of pet parenting when somebody's pet passed away and when that happens, right. I we, we get to know we send flowers, right. We send, because at that moment, we are sympathetic, empathetic, we send flowers, we send greetings, handwrit cards. And you know, that moment is a very special moment because most companies will not invest, you know, X number of dollars to be able to pick up flowers to send to customers and be there right in that moment for them and posts like these. That's not the only thing we do. We send you handwrit birthday cards, we send you welcome cards. We will send you surprise and delight. We work with over 1000 local artists where we will send you hand drawn pet portraits which you cannot buy from us. They will show up to your doorstep, surprise and delight. And let me tell you this when you get a hand drawn pet portrait of your beloved pet. I have you for life on the customer service side for a company. That's so, you know, so much of your DNA and and your culture is around customer loyalty and it's really like high touch customer service. You're talking about handwrit notes, like not a lot of e-commerce companies do that. How do you look at the opportunities with some of these A I powered chat bots A I agents um help with customer service without diluting everything that you guys stand for. It is natural to assume that technology and personalization or technology and creativity are are conflicting with each other. And I think what we have to realize is that human beings are great at creativity, they always will be and technology is great, is great at delivering scale. And so you have to marry these up smartly, right? Our our local artists or our handwrit notes in a way that we assimilate through the language, right? Is, is a very personalized mechanism that we are seeking to keep. At the same time, I can automate all of the segmentation of customers, the targeting of customers, the identification of those cohorts. I can also automate how I pick up the right portrait when a customer uploads a pet profile and pass it on to my artist pretty digitally and pretty seamlessly. So I've essentially eliminated process waste without really taking out creativity from the system. I want to, we're, we're developing something called uh a tool like uh which is called CS R buddy. It is meant to be a friend to the customer service uh or the customer care team and what it's essentially AAA Prompter tool, it downloads, it has all information about the customer. It has a knowledge base which will marry content to, to let them have more intelligent conversations. We try not to hire from deeply ingrained CS contact centers because because we we, we, because we have to untrain them to get them to unlearn the bad habits of getting the customer off the phone. We want to pick up your phone in two rings or less. Right. And so we, we, we tell our agents just have a conversation.

Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost explains that in order to build 96,000 affordable homes by 2030, we need to leverage industrial processes powered by artificial intelligence.

How AI can help solve housing supply challenges—and do it sustainably

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph courtesy of Autodesk.

So we actually did a project with MBH architects and a, an industrial manu construction company called Factory Os for a West Oakland housing development that not only was cheaper and Modu built, but it's actually a beautiful building and some of the sidings, some of the, the cladding, the curtain walls are actually made out of mushrooms fungus. All right. Ok. That's very California. It's a material that stores carbon. All right, it's very durable and can actually be shaped into anything you want it to be rather than using a plastic facade or something like that. It's actually a wonderful material. And can you eat it? I wouldn't recommend it. Ok. It's an industrial fungus. We've been doing these for a long time. I do not believe I've ever heard those two words put, put together before industrial fungus. So I'm gonna have to think about that one for a long time. Welcome to leadership. Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, a lot of what your product is used for is very creative, right? From designing buildings to special effects like you said. Yeah, totally. So, so on that on that front, you know, how far can this go? And what do you see on the creative side, the design side, what's the role of, you know, 10, 20 years out? What are humans still doing? How are, how are we still in the picture? Yeah. So we, we see a very collaborative future between A I and the human user. We do not, we do not see an adversarial relationship here. Does the A I ultimately put fewer people on each project. I guarantee you there will be fewer people on each project that builds or make something in the world in the future, but we'll be able to do more projects. And I think that matters over the next 20 years, you look to the future, the world is gonna be somewhere between eight and 10 billion people depending on which, which estimate you take right now. If, if you look at that, we're gonna be adding anywhere between 35 and 45 Tokyo's to the world every year between now and then. OK, that, that's a lot of new people, that's a lot of new infrastructure. So fundamentally, the industries we serve have a massive capacity problem and that capacity problems connected to. There's not enough money people or material to make and remake everything that needs to be made and remade without either destroying the planet or not being able to make it at all. Because you, you just can't have the capacity So we're very much focused on that capacity problem. And I'm gonna just share this stat from, from auto desk from you guys. Um that says that by 2030 96,000 new affordable homes must be built every day. So I'm curious actually on a more global level, what that looks like and tell us a little bit more about just the role that you think auto desk can play here that you're getting to the concept of why it's so important to apply industrial processes, these things. Because right now, if we try to make all those buildings with the current wasteful processes, we're, we're going to do some pretty damaging things with all of that housing required and one it, it's going to be expensive as well. Now, by the way, just to be perfectly clear, the cost of building a business isn't all that goes into making a particular housing project expensive. There are other things that come in there. However, the cost of building something is a big driver. So when you have to drive down the cost and you have to minimize the amount of material used because there's just not enough material to build all these things in a sustainable way. So if we can help people make repeatable choices that don't make the building ugly because this is the tension between the architecture profession and, and some of the things that we want to do with design technology is the goal is not to standardize everything and make it look like the same thing over and over again. Heaven forbid the goal is to help people minimize what they're doing and make choices that actually minimize the amount of material or the type of material in, in really interesting ways and drive down the cost per unit. You did an interesting interview with our fortune colleague, Diane Brady. Uh last year, she was working at a, at a different f publication at the time. But uh one of the things you said, really caught my attention, you said that that governments have a tendency to swing hard left or hard, right? And you're worried that they may try and slam the nail on A I and let other parts of the world run off with the innovation. Uh How do you think we're doing on that front? I, I think we're doing absolutely nothing. OK. Uh You know, and this is a, this is a problem here. OK? Because, you know, I'm not anti regulation. I think we need some regulation. We need rational regulation. Europe tends to overregulate the US, tends to under regulate when Miha and I talked, I, I told her that I thought the advertising model was one of the worst things that ever happened to tech. And there was a real reason why I said that and it's important as we think about A I when the advertising model started to create these tech giants and bigger isn't always better. Let's be very clear here. Just because something creates a huge tech company doesn't necessarily mean it's awesome. Ok, when the ads model took over, it created a disconnected for a long time, hadn't existed, it separated the needs of the end user from the needs of the customer. Most tech had been directly focused on the needs of the end users for its entire history. Then all of a sudden the customer was now the advertiser, not the end user. So here we are, we're heading into the world of A I. We already have this disconnect between the human using the technology and the person who is uh who is being uh the source of income for the technology. And now we're gonna lay our A I on and A IA I can either be a force for enhancing humanity or can be disconnected from the goals of humanity. I'm very nervous in the structure we have around certain large tech companies right now that there's going to be an increasing disal between the human centered needs and the the needs of the people that are funding the machine.

The Aflac duck doesn’t have a salary but is "king of the place," Amos says.

Aflac CEO Dan Amos explains why he bet the company on a duck

Photograph by Kendrick Brinson for Fortune

Much too much. Well, our advertising agency was in Central Park just sitting on the bench and they heard ducks and they noticed that it sounded like a light. And so the quack quack like a became the idea and that's how we got in it. The survey showed us that he was wonderful and people enjoyed him and he continued to, he's king of the place, but he doesn't have a salary. He really doesn't do anything but he'll send you the bills. Ok. Warren Buffett would be a Fortune 500 CEO that I look up to. He's the most tenured CEO and he's given fabulous returns to the shareholders. It's been a lot of fun. Uh, goal setting is what A CEO has to do. And achieving those goals is a lot of fun. So I've enjoyed it. Well, I've been CEO for 34 years and I've seen a lot and I think when you work with a good organization, you have to stay with them. And Aflac has been a great place to work.

Priscilla Almodovar, CEO of housing giant Fannie Mae, and the only Latina CEO running a Fortune 500 company, talks about her experience on Wall Street.

Fannie Mae CEO says she never considered her gender as an obstacle when working on Wall Street; “I just did my job and did it well”

Photo illustration by Fortune. Photograph courtesy of Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae CEO says she never considered her gender as an obstacle when working on Wall Street

When did it first occur to you that you could be CEO of one of the 3030 largest companies in the country. You know, I guess I never thought of. I'm going to be a CEO if I'm honest, I always, even from a young age, thought I would be leading something. I didn't know what. Yeah, I think II I tell, you know, I tell this funny story. I um it's a bit embarrassing but at six years old, I had an attache case as, as my bag. So I think, I think that says it all. Welcome to leadership next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. I'm Alan Murray and I'm Mia, we are a B to B company so we don't deal directly with the consumer. So right there, the consumer directly does not know us. Uh we deal with our lenders and they deal with the consumer so that by definition is always an issue. Um but most consumers don't understand that the lender who probably originated that mortgage is not the one who continues to own that mortgage. It's probably not the one who is servicing the mortgage. Um I think what we are trying to do is build that awareness through our home education programs. More and more we are filling that void for the consumer and we're leading into our mission and our charter, I mean, our duty to serve is to make the housing system more fair, more equitable. And I think the consumers are starting to become aware that something is changing. So for example, when I think about our strategy today, first of all, number one job is liquidity in the market and the pandemic is just a great example of why that is so important. But our two strategic objectives are how do we make the housing system more fair and more sustainable? And we look at everyone from renters to home buyers, to homeowners and it's about sustainable whatever you might have a renter or a homeowner. And uh we are making it more fair by using technology. So for example, before, if you were a renter in this country, your rent did not count today through technology. Fannie Mae is taking that at risk. And if we, if the consumer shows it through their bank statements, we can tell what probably is a rent payment, the regularity of that payment and we could make that consumer eligible. So it's huge and that's you can qualify people instead of a credit score, qualify them on a rent that did not exist two years ago. And it's something Fannie may led the charge. We started with renters, we went to our landlord partners and said, we're willing to pay for it because what are the tests that the concept? And today, I'm happy to say over 500,000 rental units are reporting their rent payments. Um On the home ownership side, we have qualified for 5000. Now, homeowners that did not have cio scores, those that didn't have a FICO score, have one today and those that did have seen an increase of like 38 points that's quite meaningful. So, you know, one thing we've learned is that housing payment is a housing payment, whether it rental payment or principal and interest payment and we're making that count. So it's those types of innovation that I'm hopeful. Job number one for a CEO is to make sure your story is told and people understand that and I am very committed to doing that. You are the only Latina CEO on the Fortune 500. So tell us more about your background and how it informs your leadership today at Fanny Mae. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I'm I'm the only but I I'm so I'm so um it won't be for long because again, the Latino cohort is and women also, but the Latino cohort is having a lot of gains educationally and otherwise. So as I mentioned, I grew up in, in Brooklyn, my family there. I am Puerto Rican. My parents came to the mainland in the 19 fifties, like many Puerto Rican, the Puerto Rican diaspora for a better life. And I grew up in a very optimistic household and, and at my kitchen table, I heard like probably many American families do today, talked about a good job. Education was like, you know, that's why neither of my parents at the time had gone to college. So an education and saving for a home. And I still remember when I was five years old, um they bought their first home. I still remember the first night I slept in my room and I think that's informed a lot of what I do. You must have had moments along the way, coming up through Wall Street where you were sitting in a room surrounded by a bunch of guys and where you said to yourself, this system is never gonna allow me to get to the top. That's, that's not true. And, you know, it's the kind of thing where again, um look, I um in 19 nineties, there were very few women um in finance and law and banking and I, I never saw that as a, as an obstacle. You know, if anything, I was in the room, I worked so darn hard. I was really trying to figure out the man woman thing. I just did my job and did it well and did project finance for the 1st 10 years. And then I went to J PM. I, I ran a state housing finance agency for three years then went to JP Morgan had an incredible career there. You know, were there times when I was the only woman in the room. Absolutely. But I still did my work really well. And I think if anything, one of the great things of my position now at my age, you know, I could, I could help change how people think the face of leadership is changing. And I am just so excited to be part of that.

Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi lived and went to school in an oil refinery in Iran in the 1950s.

This CEO immigrated to America with “nothing” before scaling a $12.6 billion energy empire

You, you grew up in Iran, you were educated, began your education in Iran. Yes, I was educated in that. I went to a special school which was for six years, which was actually the school was in a refinery and we lived in the refinery. That's why I know the oil and gas business pretty well in a refinery. Yes, our school was right in the middle of the refinery in, in a city of a dark, the purpose of that school was to train people who knew enough about the refinery to become future managers. We are talking about 19 fifties now. But you left Iran. I left Iran in 1966. I came to the United States. I was very fortunate. I went to Stanford University and I started working in the United States. I am married to a lovely lady which we are still married for 55 years. But she was very curious to see the culture in the country. I was born and we went there in 1971. I taught at the university there for two years. And then I ended up working for the government and I was put in charge of developing the steel industry for the country. And then in 1979 when the turmoil happened, that wasn't a place for me and my wife to live in because my wife happens to be Jewish and I left everything behind and came to the US with nothing. And we started from scratch.

Founders Forum 2023

Jona founder Leo Grady thinks pairing A.I. capabilities with the evolving science around the microbiome can lead to big health improvements—and be the basis for a successful business.

A.I. is uncovering the secrets of your body's microbiome

Jona founder Leo Grady thinks pairing A.I. capabilities with the evolving science around the microbiome can lead to big health improvements


I think if you're not continuing to learn and continuing to grow as, as both a person and as an entrepreneur, then you're probably in the wrong place. Jonah is building these large language models on the microbiome specifically because the microbiome is so complex and the science is evolving very quickly. Every single month, more than 2000 papers are being published in PUBMED on the microbiome. No human being can read all of those papers but a large language model can and what these papers are showing is that the microbiome really underpins so much of human health, not just G I and autoimmune conditions, but cancer, obesity, liver disease, diabetes, even Parkinson's Alzheimer's depression anxiety. And so we have the opportunity to really bring this world's knowledge to interpreting a microbiome test and evolve that toward the clinical mainstream. So we're starting with a wellness product that is cash pay. And so selling that really through two channels. One is through uh concierge medicine, integrated medicine, functional medicine where patients are are paying cash for excellent services that really go beyond the normal mainstream of of clinical medicine. And then we're also selling direct to consumer on our website. As we move forward, our goal is to go beyond the current literature and build a whole platform of microbiome data and an A I layer on top of that. And then from that platform, be able to build whole new diagnostics, whole new therapeutics and uh and really work with the life sciences industry, the BioPharma industry, even the food and beverage industry to take this information to make better medications and better food. So I've had a number of people in my family who have Crohn's disease, colitis, celiac undiagnosed G I issues. And as I've watched them go on this journey of, of trying to get a diagnosis or even when they have a diagnosis, trying to manage these diseases, trying to understand what they can eat, what drugs are going to work for them. The demand and the need out there is, is real. And I think it's something that's very energizing and motivating for both myself and the team. You know, the funny thing is I've never actually been at the earliest stage of a company before. You know, when I joined, when I finished my phd, I joined Seamen. It was 400,000 employees, right? The ninth largest employer in the world. And then heart flow. When I joined, there were 50 when we grew to about 500. When I joined page, there were about 15 and we grew to about 100 and 70. But this stage is actually quite a bit different. And so my, my comfort zone is probably like, you know, a year from now when, when we have a little bit further, we're a little further along with processes. So just, you know, all of that initial stuff, setting up payroll in the beginning and, and all of that, um, were things I hadn't done before. I think you need conviction on what you're doing and it needs to be something that you wake up every day and, and want to do.

Nasrin Mostafazadeh and Omid Bakhshandeh are the founders of Verneek.

This couple is on a mission to create helpful A.I., and they are starting in the grocery store

This couple is on a mission to create helpful A.I

We've been obsessed with making human language, the new machine language and we literally couldn't let go of it. And I'm so thrilled that the technology is finally working. Our mission is to build the most helpful A I that augments human knowledge for anyone anywhere at any time. What we have done is to build this A I platform that can basically make these very seamless interfaces that you can put on top of any digital environment, any data that you have in any shape or form and make you as a consumer to make better, faster decisions using voice and text interfaces. So the very first use case that we could spin off of our platform happens to be in the shopping domain. So in the commerce, so e-commerce or physical retail and brick and mortar stores. So what Quin shopping A I does is it follows, it helps you get answer to your personalized questions with the most accurate up to date. In, for example, uh Mama four can ask, what is the healthiest peanut butter I can buy that costs under $4 in this particular store. And then Quinn literally immediately spontaneously gives you the very particular peanut butter. That is why health metrics, the healthiest, the questions could range from that being about product as store to any store questions, just customer service questions like when you close the store, what is your return policy could be about? Recipes could be like, I'm looking to cook, you know, meal that costs under $20 and my kids hate fish. So something that we have found is that in the places that it has been launched right now is most loved by store associates themselves. They love it. And this is helping them to do the real job better, make the store run, better manage the inventory better. So, so bringing that gap of like knowledge and helpfulness all together, it just helps everyone. The hardest problem for A I is actually the easiest one for human being. So there's this thing called paradox that tells you that's language capabilities and doing basic reasoning that a three year old child can do is the easiest for humans, but the hardest for machines. So we including myself, I switch gears, working on language A I ever since. And so the rest of this kind of history, we like all, all of our time, like all the time that we had back in Iran, we were like kind of working extremely hard to make sure that we can like accomplish like the biggest thing that we can accomplish. We were always like looking for the what is the biggest opportunity and biggest opportunity for us was the hardest problem. And the hardest problem just, just going after the hardest problem every time that we could, we thought that we might be able to solve that problem that we came to us 10 years ago to do our phd and kind of go after our dreams. And right now we are sitting here say that having started a company, especially in the middle of the pandemic has been the hardest thing we've ever done. And the most rewarding one as well at the same time, it's just been incredibly satisfying to go through this roller coaster that it is to uh basically navigate your way to, to start something from scratch. And if you really don't love it, you will fail. The only reason we are doing what we are doing is that we obsessively love it. If you don't love it every day that you wake up, it's gonna be a tough journey.

Founder and CEO Uzoma Orchingwa says making it easy and affordable for inmates to communicate with people outside of prison will cut recidivism and ultimately reduce the prison population.

Startup Ameelio believes helping inmates succeed after prison starts with a simple phone call

CEO Uzoma Orchingwa says making it easy and affordable for inmates to communicate with people outside of prison will cut recidivism

Ameelio believes helping inmates starts with a phone call

I had no experience in startups. I was a philosophy undergrad. I didn't know anything about running a business. All ideas seem crazy before you succeed. Emilia is a non profit technology company that is working to fundamentally transform incarceration. So what we do is we build a free to use communication and education, software and hardware that we provide to incarcerated people, completely free of charge. A communication suite, a full communication suite and that includes video calls, voice calls, e messaging. But the unique thing about what we do because often get questions like, hey, can zoom do this. One of the biggest challenges in this space is that every security is of vital importance to the primary correction clients we work with. So we have to build in a ton of security features that allows them to, you know, safely manage their facilities, enabling access to the outside for the incarcerated has been proven to reduce recidivism. There's an abundance of studies that show that more contact with love. One can have an up to 56% reduction in incarceration. So imagine, you know, someone's incarcerated, they're away from their families. They're in an eight by 10 cell and they can't be able to communicate with their families. It causes an extreme amount of distress. But you also learn that it's one of the real major cause of in prison violence and future recidivism is idle time and lack of hope. My parents were both college educated, college and education was always something that I was expected to do and accomplish. But a lot of my friends were from single parent households, parents who had been incarcerated, brothers have been incarcerated, or the vast majority of them actually ended up being incarcerated. And that really kind of set me off on this path, this academic path to understand the system, understand what's going wrong. And to figure out solutions to solve it. As a nonprofit, we need to find of philanthropic capital, get off the ground. So in the early days, you know, especially with Criminal Justice Foundation, it was almost impossible to get funding because their assumption was that this, this industry is so predator or so monopolized that, you know, what is a small tech nonprofit going to be able to do? But the way we actually crystallized it was COVID hit prisons had to shut down on prison visitation. So remote communication, virtual communication became so vitally important and we were able to break in. And then we're because we had that, that use case a case study, we were then able to kind of expand into other departments and other counties across the country. One piece of knowledge that I wish I knew back when I was starting. Emilio is to not dwell in the uncertainties because you're going to learn it. You know, if you really want to be a fund, you really have a passion and vision to build something. Be relentless all the way through. Ok.

Air Protein CEO Lisa Dyson's mission is to find a sustainable solution to the world's demand for protein.

This company is transforming air into meat

The way that we make food today. It has led to the clearing of an amount of land equivalent to the size of South America and Africa combined and it emits more greenhouse gasses than the entire transportation sector. So how do we make food as we continue to grow in our population in a way that doesn't break the planet air protein is focused on being a part of that solution. In 2005, I was one of the many people who went to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina hit and that experience impacted me in many different ways. One of the ways is that I knew that my work had to have an impact in this world and fast forward a few years, the fact that I'm trained as a scientist I began to think about and study what the climate, climate scientists have been saying about the fact that these types of weather events were going to be more intense and more frequent seeing when I was there in 2005. Just how that affected people's lives directly made me want to be a part of the solution. So ultimately, we built Air protein as a way to try to be a part of the solution. We were very creative with the science, but with the name, we're very straightforward, we make protein from air. And so how does one do that? You might ask? Well, it's based on work done by NASA during the space program where they were trying to figure out how to feed astronauts on long space journeys. This is back in the sixties and seventies during the Apollo Space Program. And as you can imagine, if you're on a long journey to Mars or a distant planet, you don't have acres and acres of farmland to deal with. So you have to figure out how to feed astronauts in a way that's super resource efficient use what you have available and it can grow quickly, very quickly, very fast. And so the process that we have, we are commercializing based on their pioneering work is a process that's very similar to fermentation. But the difference is there's no agricultural inputs whatsoever. We use elements of the air, air, water and energy and we make protein from that, we have raised 107 million to date in the beginning. People ask is this science fiction, you know, is this real? Can it be real? How can you make protein from air? So we had to prove it. So the challenges are always initially around demonstrating that this was actually possible. And once we demonstrated it, it was possible. That's when we were able to start building this ecosystem and that we're getting more and more companies and partners as is really around the table to help us create the future that we're working to create. And we've just opened our first air farm in San Leandro, California where we're excited to bring to the world a way of making nutritious proteins with no arable land, no farmland, no agricultural inputs required whatsoever. George Bernard Shaw has this quote that goes something like the reasonable person adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable person persists in trying to adapt the world to him or herself. And therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable person. As a founder, we're doing things that haven't been done before. And so as there are these highs and low lows along the way, it's important for founders to keep their eyes on the prize and inspire the people around them and tap into what inspire them and bring them along on the journey. The only way to predict the future is to create it. And so the future that I'm working to create is a future where more and more and eventually all of our protein is sustainably sourced. The first day when I was able to take a bite of air protein was a day that I realized that this can have the impact that we wanted to have

Kathryn Minshew tackled the problem by building The Muse, a website originally designed for job seekers.

What to do when your dream career is not so dreamy

I could write a book on the mistakes that I made as an early stage founder. And I imagine if most founders were being very candid, they could to, I grew up thinking for several years that I wanted to go into foreign service or the CIA or something kind of international and global. And my family had moved to the Washington DC area when I was 12, 13. And I just got it in my head that I knew what I wanted to do. Um that television show alias starring Jennifer Garner was very big at the time and I thought I want to be her in 2007. I had the chance to work at a US Embassy in Nicosia Cyprus in the Regional Security Department. It was what I thought the job of my dreams. And I realized very quickly this is not actually what I thought it was this this job while I have so much respect for, it probably isn't as great of a fit for my personality and my aspirations. And so I spent, you know, a few months feeling really lost and adrift, like a lot of people do early in their career and I was trying to figure out what is it that I want. And online job sites were so transactional. They were incredibly boring. They just, they just had lists of jobs and what I was interested in was like, what does a company really like to work for it? And so I started the muse to help give other people access to the resources and the information and the insight about companies that I didn't have. Myself. I started working on the business in the summer of 2011. And we launched that fall, we had a very, very simple site at the beginning because we had no money. You know, I was 25 with a big dream and very very few resources to pull it off. And so the very first version of the news that was called the Daily News, it actually just had career advice and then we added in the company profiles a few months later and job listings a few months after that today, the Muse has 5 to 7 million people every single month who come to the dot com to apply to jobs, research companies and get career advice. And we work with about 20% of the Fortune 500. I wish I could tell my younger self, you know, uh it, it's just really hard to build a business, it's really hard to raise capital. And so just because it's hard for you doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. I think I took on a lot of, you know, self blame because I felt like, oh, if I could just find the right thing to say, it would be, it would be easy. Also, you know, when I was raising for the first time in 2011, 2012, even for a few years around, then people weren't very open about the challenges. So a lot of the entrepreneurs on stage would say, you know, oh, I had this great idea and then I just raised a bunch of money and, you know, now look, we're successful and I've loved the trend towards entrepreneurs, being more honest about the challenges. I also think that I have a really high degree of comfort with being wrong. You know, I recognize that there's a lot that I don't know. And so I think that's both allowed me to pivot and adapt quickly. It's allowed me to learn from others and to create space for other people to come together and contribute their ideas. For me. I think being really, really open to what you're not good at or you're, you're not an expert in is a very powerful thing when you're trying to build something new.

In The Ground Up we sit down with entrepreneurs to get the story on how they were able to build a successful business.

The Ground Up

On store shelves, customers might only see a bright yellow smile waiting to add some shine to the kitchen. But, behind the iconic ridges and gleaming eye holes are years of sweat and machine grime for Aaron Krause, 54, Scrub Daddy’s Founder and CEO. Today, Scrub Daddy has made over $220 million in sales for 2023. But, Aaron said his sponge empire is just getting started. 

How I made over $220M in sales as the daddy of the Scrub Daddy

On store shelves, customers might only see a bright yellow smile waiting to add some shine to the kitchen. But, behind the iconic ridges and gleaming eye holes are years of sweat and machine grime for Aaron Krause, 54, Scrub Daddy’s Founder and CEO.

On store shelves, customers may see a yellow smile waiting to add shine to the kitchen. Behind the ridges and gleaming eye holes are years of sweat for Aaron Krause, 54, Scrub Daddy’s Founder and CEO.

Jenny Nguyen was sick of watching women’s games on mute at sports bars, so she opened her own. The Sports Bra bar in Portland, Ore. shows only women’s sports. In just 9 days, she raised $50,000 to open the bar.

How I raised $50K in 9 days to open a bar showing only women’s sports

The Sports Bra bar in Portland, Ore. shows only women’s sports.

How I raised $50K in 9 days to open a women's sports bar

How I Raised $50K In 9 Days To Open A Bar Showing Only Women’s Sports

My name is jenny Win. I'm the founder and owner of the sports bra here in Portland Oregon. It's a women's sports bar. When you walk into a sports bar, traditional sports bar, you expect 24 7 coverage because there is 24 7 coverage of men's sports. Statistically 95% of all sports that are on tv or men's sports. And so our goal here is to take the 5% that is on tv and just put it on blast. I just knew I wanted to feel familiar. I wanted people to walk in and just feel like it was a regular sports bar. It's just a lot of decor stuff, memorabilia and that kind of that warmth of being in a familiar sports bar kind of dark, a little bit cozy. But then you change what's represented, you change what's on the tv. These are women's team flags. All the athletes are female athletes. That kind of stuff. When people say women's sports aren't popular. It's because people aren't seeing it. It's a bit of a catch 22. It's like, well nobody's watching women's sports. Well, no women's sports remain shown. It's really difficult. It's really difficult. It's like you have to be in an Internet detectives in order to find where to watch women. I was trying to stream the national team game the other day at work with some friends and we couldn't find it. I love the idea that if this place was packed, people driving by walking by talking about it would see that there are women's sports fans and they would see it. They'd hear about it and they'd be like, oh, people are into it. It shouldn't be a novelty, but it is a novelty. There's been women's athletics that have been agreeable on media for years. You know, women's tennis has always been an agreeable sport, you know, that people watched. And I think what, what I saw happen is that I saw women's basketball. Uh and ESPN really developed a strong relationship and we began to see more and more women's basketball. Um you also have that sec, you have the PAC 12, you have so many of those networks now that need more content. And so there's much more women's content available for about 14.5 years. I played pickup basketball with this hodgepodge group of women, we shared a love of sports and so we would go out before or after, um pick up and try to watch games and it was always a chore, you know, always trying to find Bar that was big enough to take a group of 12 and then also who would change the channel for us. And then not only that, but some of the people in our group are vegan, those dietary restrictions are really hard to find at sports bars. And then a large portion of our basketball group are queer folks or non binary folks. And so looking the way we do kind of feels unsafe in a lot of the traditional sports bars, There was one particular moment that stands out in my mind when it kind of clicked and it was in 2018 when our basketball group went to go watch the N. C. Double A women's championship. And I think there was like three seconds left, the game was tied and eric takes one dribble and launches a three pointer right at the buzzer and it goes in. So here we were like a dozen of us just going crazy on our own. I threw my hat across the bar and while I was standing, I realized that no one else in the entire bar was watching our game. So everybody's staring at us like we're absolutely bonkers. Anyway, we're leaving the bar and we're kind of like milling around the parking lot still kind of just high off of the game. And I was just like, oh my God, that was the best game I've ever seen. And one of my friends was just like, yeah, it would have been so awesome if the sound had been on, I hadn't realized that we'd watched the whole game with no sound. Right. Then I said, the only way we're ever going to watch a women's game in its full glory is if we had our own place. And I remember driving home and I was like, oh, we had our own place, what we call it, you know? And the very first name that popped into my head was the sports bras. It just made so much sense. All you're doing is you're taking a sports bar and you're changing the channel on the tv. So it's like a tiny switch and then it just became an inside joke. Whenever we went out to sports bars and we were frustrated with something, we'd be like, oh at the sports bra, this game would be on, oh, it's a sports bra. You know, they have gluten free buns for my burger with the sports bra. We'd never run out of toilet paper in the women's restroom or like all the things that, you know, sports bars kind of fall short on all the time. We got to talking about how when we were kids, if our parents had taken us to a place like a sports bra, how much of a difference that would have made in our lives to have a place that we walked into and felt represented or felt seen once I launched the Kickstarter, it was the first time that I put it out into the world. And by day three I was getting emails from all across the country right away. I had people coming up and being like, thank you for doing this, thank you for being an asian woman who opened a business and then people coming up and being like, oh a lesbian owned bar. I didn't think about it. I was just so focused on the sports bra and getting this off the ground. I created a space that I want to be in. So it is me in the end, but when I was conceptualizing it, I didn't think about it like that. I just wanted it to be a place that I felt good. I thought being a chef would help and I think it has, I mean, I think it's helped me like 0.5% 99 point whatever, 95% I don't know anything about. That was hard reaching out to people asking for help learning as much as possible. I mean, the learning curve for me was like a straight up and down wall for like the last year, I would say doing things with intentionality was really huge for me. And so I thought about how women's sports is underrepresented. And then I thought about what else is underrepresented. And if you want to create a space that's for everybody, you gotta try to represent everybody if we can do that through our menu. If we can do that through our physical space, let's do it. At the very beginning, I reached out to like network streaming services, All these things to get permission to play a bunch of different things that on top of trying to open a business was a lot of work. I felt like it was somebody else's full time job to try to find content. So just women's sports is a national sports media company and they have like hundreds and hundreds of hours of digital media on Youtube. So I reached out to them and I just told them about the sports bra, this concept and they're like, we love what you're doing, what do you need from us. And I was like, I'd love to have your digital content and they were like, okay, what else? Like literally that's how it went and like my heart like burst out of my chest. And then I reached out to ESPN and the same thing happened. I was on a call with seven like female executives from ESPN W and they were just over the moon with the concept. But once the word got out, the roles got reversed, then it was networks streaming services, all of these other things reaching out to us asking us to play their stuff at the very beginning, we definitely had some issues with haters. There was some like right wing blog that came out and I probably got like 45 1 star reviews saying things like oh they wouldn't let me in because I had a beard or oh they spent my burger when they found out I was a man or you know, like just all kinds of ridiculous stuff. One of them said that I held them down and made them watch the W. N. B. A. Playoffs. I would read the comment, I'd be like, oh what do I say back to this guy. And as I was thinking it like 16 other people responded with like way better things than I could have said. And I was just like, Oh the community has got this and that's how it's always been. We were able to be there on their opening night and I think that that was the moment that you could see that Portland was here to lift jenny and her organization up. I get tingles when I think about that night because the line went around the corner, there's definitely a community that just kind of I think was already here and now has a place to gather at the bronze, which is really nice. It feels like a place that I feel really comfortable in a place where I can be myself and watch things that actually are interesting to me and have that not be something that is viewed as an inconvenience to other people, but it's celebrated. People ask me jenny, why hasn't anyone done this before? Seeing how difficult it was for me to get open and get the content and all the, all the stuff that we need to make it a success so far. I don't think it would have been possible five years ago with the content that was on tv or with the investment or the interest in women's support. And I think timing was just right now for it to happen. I honestly think in the next 10 years women's sports could overshadow men's sports as far as popularity goes. I think a company like the sports bra is proving too many other companies within Portland's or outside of Portland that you can have a successful business focusing on women's sports. You know, like the, the NWSL championship game was played on broadcast on CBS and like a ton, almost a million people tuned in and that's a really big deal. So like, it's nice to finally see that. I think the kind of powers that be in sports economics are paying attention to women's sports and starting to recognize the value and we don't need to question whether it's a good idea or not and just commit to supporting women in athletics for real cultural change to happen. And I think women's sports is about cultural change, real cultural change takes, you know, according to Gloria steinem takes about 100 years. And so I think we're about halfway through that as women's sports are shown over time, we get a chance to fall in love with the athletes the same way that we do for men's sports. You know, so we can show women's sports and we can be able to prove that women will watch, men will watch families will watch women playing sports. I've had, I don't know, maybe 70 people reach out asking to open a sports bra in their town or city, um, multiple investors, just hordes of interest. Um, but besides that I've had people reach out who want to open their own thing. That is a women's sports bar. I've had sports bar owners reach out and ask how they can incorporate more women's sports into their sports bar. And so all of these things to me is part of the mission jenny. And the people around this saw a need and they're like, well, we're not gonna wait for anyone to do it, we're just gonna make it happen. So much of what we experience is, what is in existence, right? It's hard to know what the possibilities are if you can't see it. And so I think that having created this space when people come in here, I feel like it opens up a whole new set of possibilities to introduce a women's sports bar where the culture is built around celebrating and empowering and supporting women's sports. It's about time take one

Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole dives into her story of how she came up with a provocative way to sell vegan food and turn it into a $100 million brand from the ground up. The Ground Up showcases founders and entrepreneurs who worked their way up with a business ideas and turned it into a success story.

How I started a $100 million fast casual restaurant called Slutty Vegan

Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole dives into her story of how she came up with a provocative way to sell vegan food and turn it into a $100 million brand from the ground up.

Because of my confidence, I got me at least paying $1,200 in a 650 square foot space. And at my grand opening, I had about 1200 people, I couldn't believe that so many people would stand out in line to support me and that's when I knew I had something really big. I was on the front page of the New York Times in the food section. Like we built a multimillion dollar business and that was game changing for me. Yeah, Hey, what's up? It's pinky cole. I'm 35 years old and I'm the founder and ceo of the world famous $100 million brand, slutty vegan A. T. L. Born and bred in Atlanta Georgia, having a television background. I said, you know what, I know what people watch when they watch tv, they want stuff that's in your face, racy raunchy, that's going to make them pay attention. But when you think about veganism, veganism has always been known to be pure flavorless, clean, very clean, very green. And I said the two most pleasurable experiences in life is sex and food. If I can make people think about sex and think about food at the same time, I know that I can peel the layer back and educate you about veganism in a way that you've never seen it before. I'm originally from Baltimore Maryland. I grew up in a single parent household. My father did 23 years in prison while my mother worked multiple jobs to make sure that she took care of the family. I can remember my mom working so many jobs and learning how to cook with my grandmother because my mother was always gone working or pursuing her own entrepreneurial endeavors as a musician. My father was and is an entrepreneur even behind bars, he would call me and tell me books to read, he would teach me about stocks, he would teach me how financial independence was the most important thing in this world and I became a hustler at a very young age, I used to throw parties, I used to sell candy, I would sell food when I graduated from college, I didn't have any job lined up except for teach for America and I'm like, I don't want to be a teacher, no shade to the teachers, but I knew that it was in the middle of a recession and I had to figure it out. So I packed up my bags and moved to Houston texas to work at teach for America. I was out there for five days and I realized that I do not want to do this and my friend gave me $40 and I went to the airport and I can remember sitting in the airport with my yorkie Rudy and a guy walked up to me and I was bawling crying and was like, what's wrong with you? And I'm just like, I'm not happy, I don't want to be a teacher inside of the classroom, I'm gonna in other ways and he said I'll be right back. Do you know this man walked away from me and he came back and he gave me $240 just enough money to get me and my dog Rudy home and I never looked back after that. I moved to los Angeles California to be an actress and then I started doing background work and I thought that I was good at it. But then one of my sorority sisters said, listen, you were broke, you need some money, I'm gonna give you a job working in television while I was working at the Maury show. I had this bright idea to open up a jamaican restaurant and don't ask me why I just like a Jamaican restaurant, let's do it. I actually took over somebody's lease and I was paying $2400 a month, which is crazy now because you can barely $2400 a month, that's a light bill. Now. I went to Google and Youtube and I started learning everything I could learn about the restaurant industry, I barely knew what I was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I barely knew what I was doing. I had the restaurant for about two years and then I had a grease fire and literally lost everything in the grease fire. My car got refold, I got kicked out of my apartment, I went flat broke, I got an opportunity to work in tv again, I was working as a casting director and I was done with restaurants, I was working on a Tv show, they had a hiatus and I started delivering for doordash and while I was delivering for doordash, I'm like okay, cool ghost kitchens, I've never heard of ghost kitchens, but I see it happening in L. A. I realized I was just preparing for what I was about to create just a couple of months later and when they asked me to go to Atlanta temporarily to work on the show, it hit me like a light bulb and I came up with this crazy as concept called slutty vegan. I didn't have anything written down, I didn't have a blueprint, I didn't have a business plan, it was just an idea that sounded good. I started slutty vegan as a ghost kitchen, It was like a $5,000 startup cost to start slutty vegan. So I had to get my permits, I had to get the facility which was like $1,200. I had to order my food. I had to get my first employees, I had to set up all of my online digital delivery platforms. A lot of entrepreneurs don't realize that if you really want to grow a company, you have to reinvest everything. When I tell you every single time I was reinvesting, I was not taking any money for myself. At first I was just making sure that my employees were paid and that I had food in my business. The reason why I started a food truck is because the facility told me that I had too many people coming to the building so I had to go, so they put me in a parking lot and I had to find a food truck on the fly, didn't know anything about a food truck. The food truck was $45,000, so I had to put $10,000 down and every single week I was paying like $3400 every single week to make sure that I could pay it off and I paid that off in like like two months, two or three months. I got a DM from somebody on Instagram and he told me that there was a restaurant that they were leaving the restaurant and it was available if I wanted to rent it because of my confidence, I got me at least paying $1,200 and 650 square foot space. And at my grand opening I had about 1200 people. I couldn't believe that so many people would stand out in line to support me and that's when I knew I had something really big. It's the people who are the meat eaters that come to slutty vegan most because one, they want to learn what the hype is about to, they have an idea that they can try this vegan thing and if it's good, maybe I can continue on this path and three slutty vegan is a vibe. Uh I'll be honest, I wasn't the most savvy business person when I started study vegan, but when it came to like price and I'm just like, okay, $16 sounds like it would make sense, that's the price. Like I didn't do any like extra calculations, but I grew as a business owner, I actually met the ceo of shake shack first randy Geraghty and I reached out to him, I'm like, hey, randy, you don't know me, but I got a really popular restaurant in Atlanta and I would love to be able to sit down with you because one thing about pinky cole is, I'm gonna shoot my shot, He responded, we went to lunch and and we built a friendship and ever since then he has been such a great mentor to me. And then a few months later I get a call saying that Danny meyer came to slutty vegan on a late night with a few of his friends and he loved the experience and they wanted to talk. It took a long time to get the investment. It took about nine months slutty vegan will be a billion dollar company from my mouth to everybody's ears is listening to this. Four years ago, slutty vegan was just a ghost kitchen concept and four years later the company is now valued at $100 million when you come to slutty vegan, it's a party, The atmosphere is just amazing, the music is booming through the speakers, the employees are dancing, everybody wants to be a part of that. The fact that I have $100 million business, I still pinch myself every day. Like I'm not talking about a million, I ain't talking about five million, I'm talking about a black woman who owns $100 million business. Forget the fact that I'm just a black woman, a woman, a minority owned business, A woman whose family is from Jamaica who comes from humble beginnings who literally has never had a silver spoon in her mouth. Like you are looking at the new american dream, I don't care if you're black, white, blue, yellow, green, funny vegan, it's for everybody.

Award-winning songwriter Barry Dean and brother Jered Dean cofounded LUCI, a company that's changing an industry by turning “dumb wheelchairs into smart wheelchairs.”

How we started a company helping 500,000 people In wheelchairs

Photograph by Ted Willis and Corey Shepherd for Fortune

LUCI is changing an industry by turning “dumb wheelchairs into smart wheelchairs.”

How LUCI is helping 500,000 people In wheelchairs

Rhiannon is active, she races in the winter special olympics every year she likes to play indoor soccer, she wants that full life. And so for her to have that full book of memories, she's got to be able to get out and do things and lucy makes it easier and easier and the easier something is, the more we can pack into a day. Lucy is truly an innovative product by the most innovative product I've seen in about 10 years that can really impact clients functionally help them to either drive a power chair where perhaps they couldn't do that at all before or certainly drive it with much better confidence, competence and safety. So it's very exciting. Were the first company in this industry to ever make a smart connected device. Our ability to push out over the air update and have lucy keep getting smarter and smarter over time is a completely new idea in this industry. So lucy is an add on accessory for a power wheelchair that turns a dumb wheelchair into a smart wheelchair. We add sensors in the brain and connectivity to the power wheelchair so that the user has increased independence. That helps not run into things. Not drive off things, connects the user to their team and to the modern world. Obviously its mission. All we're you know, we're dealing with my daughter, his niece going, we need to solve a problem and all her friends, you know that are in the same boat. She has cerebral palsy. She gets a power chair when she's maybe five or about to be five and she touched the trigger. And it the speed had not been a justice. And it took off you know six miles an hour straight into a wall and she was fine. But I then promptly parked in the garage because I was like this is too scary. I wish I could say we sat down and said we're going to start a company. It was absolutely not that it was weird solve a technical problem, build the I. P. And the prototypes and then surely there will be companies that you know that that will do this. My basement became the headquarters of lucy for a while about a year later. I think we got our first three employees and then got an actual space. But yeah Catherine's been the north star from the beginning and then we've added two and met so many amazing people. Rhiannon was born with a rare birth defect called skit successfully. So it's a development delay in the brain and it affects her motor and verbal. Um So she's highly intelligent but you know she's not able to walk. My name is I am 16. I am my high school junior with her skits and hopefully she also has spasticity. So when she's trying to make her body do something sometimes the body will go the opposite direction or her tone will kick in and she'll go full forward and you can see the scars around the house where the chair would get up against and nothing slows it down. There's a lot of injuries in the wheelchair space more than there are people having motorcycle injuries and ending up in the er, 175,000 year. People ending up in the er, because of wheelchair injuries using a power chair is actually tougher than I think a lot of people think it takes learning in order to operate this very heavy device within an environment. These wheelchairs cost as much as a car. They weigh 3 to £500 without the person in them, but there's no modern technology on them. I mean, it's really kind of a boat, battery, some wheels and a joystick. Uh and good luck. The only safety stuff on a wheelchair would be a seatbelt. I mean, we we did crash testing with one of the top independent facilities in the country and they're saying that just running into a wall in one of these chairs at full speed violates the laws set up for cars and forward crashes and there's no bumper, the knees, the feet, your toes, That's the bumper in a wheelchair. I have had some clients I've worked with who have tipped over a chair and maybe broken an arm or injured their head. So, these are very, very serious concerns, Lucy is always looking looking for the clear path and if there's no clear path, it just brings you to a stop. We're seeing now with the users, we have, we're preventing over 10,000 collisions or drop offs, tip overs every week. This is the alpha prototype, the very first prototype, March 2017. It's off the shelf sensors, just whatever I could get from spark fund and find in the garage. It proved the theory that we could do it. So we really quickly went to a beta prototype about a month later. Katherine used this data prototype for a year and a half and during that time we tracked all the data from it learned where it worked and what didn't work well. And so we took all the stuff we learned here and developed what lucy product is without today. So lucy product looks like this. We call this the smart frame and this mounts onto a power wheelchair. And so you take this smart frame mounted down there, it plugs in between the joystick or the drive method and the motors and adds multiple kinds of sensors. So we have cameras um, one on each side of the user and one in the back. And then we have our own type of ultrasonic sensor that we develop and then hidden in here and down on the foot plate of the wheelchair. We have our own proprietary millimeter wave radar. And so take all that put it on the chair and that means your chair doesn't run into things. Doesn't drive off things is connected to the modern world. You can interact with lucy through Alexa through your phone. So turns it into a modern device. So when I first heard about lucy, I have to admit the first time I heard about it all I thought this can't possibly be true. And then when I learned more about it, started seeing some videos and had a chance to finally see lucy, I was really quite amazed that it worked as well as it did. It's an extremely sophisticated system. I was also excited because I work with very complex clients and anything that I can bring to them that helps them to be more functional than they are. I'm all in. We were hoping that it would be safer but it it is so much more with all of the independence and the confidence and watching Ryan and smile as she heads out the back door by herself and just her and ninja her dog and they're just off and they're gonna go for a walk and you're just not worried. It's fantastic Lucy has given me so much confidence. I am able to be more independent and do the things I want to do. She's 16 years old, she doesn't want mom and dad looming over all the time. Now she can go act like a teenager, we have a saying internally which is, life is a team sport. We have different clinicians, we have activity, people, we have specialists involved and doctors, so we set up the, my lucy app so that people can actually set up a team and choose what information to share the right or the driver of the chair can decide. This information needs to go to my doctor. This information needs to go to my caregiver. They can share uh battery status so that an alert goes out and let people know, hey, um, you know, Katherine's at this location, her battery's low, She may get stranded soon. You might want to check in right. One of the next things that we're working on. It sounds really simple, but it's just a pressure monitor for air cushions. That's not a hard tech list. That is just a knowing that there's a problem and getting the tech into the hands of the people that need it. Now that you actually have a computer and connectivity and a smart wheelchair. It becomes a freeing device not just for mobility but also for health. One of the things I'm really excited about that we just announced is the pediatric solution. Now you can get a wheelchair for a very young child with lucy on it once kids start crawling their vision and visual perceptual skills really explode all sorts of the area areas of the brain. Just like if kids don't have this ability to have independent mobility before the age of five, it changes the whole waterfall of development of possibilities for them for their whole life. You can't get that back. I think this is going to really change a lot of people's lives. So lucy is right now getting funded by insurance and Medicaid and the V. A. But usually there's some pushback because it's new technology. So if I recommend a power chair for a client, it's being paid for by an insurance company or by a state Medicaid program or perhaps a federal Medicare program. Well, the problem is something new comes along and there's not room in our current construct for how do we deal with a truly new product once these funders see it that first time in real life, what it can do for that user, we found that people tend to flip pretty quickly to, oh this actually makes a lot of sense. I think they're starting to come around especially on the lucy device because they're starting to see what long term It actually will save them money. Rhiannon is priceless but her equipment around her is $30,000 every time she rolls out the door and goes somewhere. So you obviously you don't want it bouncing off of things. It's been an interesting learning curve for us to learn how to combine the fact that there's that passion, there's that personal need That has built a real company that's really doing things in a real market now. We're at that place of raising our first funding and doing all that and that's going very well. But it's a very different path I think than most companies go on because it's already for sale. It's already in 40 states, you know, I mean hundreds of users, a lot of people see this and it is a mission all company. We have a cause, you know, we talk about moving at the speed of the need, you know, the internally those kinds of things. But the fact of the matter is although suddenly realized this is a real incredible business opportunity as well. There's an assumption that wheelchairs are a real niche that there's not very many people using wheelchairs in the world. And that assumption is wrong. Uh, there's, you know, a million more people in wheelchairs in the US than there are electric vehicles in the US. We have a lot of these conversations about equity. But what is sometimes left off of that scale are people with disabilities. It's a broad range of people. Some of those people will require a power wheelchair to be as independent as possible. It's easy to look down upon people who are less functional than ourselves. And I think we need to remember that one of the beauties of assistive technology. One of the reasons that I enjoy assistive technology so much is it levels the playing field. So now someone who didn't have mobility before can be mobile. You look five years down the road and I think this will be um, inevitable that this technology is on every power wheelchair sold and you'll start seeing a lot of interesting new health and wellness options for wheelchair users, manual and power. There we go, Oh, now you're giving love.

On The Clock

<p>I've had many jobs in my life and I got to say that that designing Lego models is definitely by far the best. You really can build anything with these little bricks. I'm Eric Hunter. I'm 53 years old. I'm a professional LEGO artist. Welcome to the art of LEGO. This is my kitchen and here are a few portraits I've designed out of LEGO. This is a mosaic of penny, my roommate. And down here, here's one of me, this is my studio as well. Back here, this whole first floor is one giant room that's been converted into several smaller areas. I actually sleep here. We've got the dining room and then back here is where all the fun happens. This is where I I I store my office right next to my living room. Actually, more like in my living room, I've had models in the 10,000, 90,000 range. And now just last week, I got my biggest commission to date. Actually, a six figure budget. This is the beginnings of a 1 to 1 scale 1968 Camaro S S for the estimate I calculated 245,000 Lego bricks to complete this model. Most of my clients models would probably fall in the between, I'd say 1200 to $3000 range. The budget doesn't have to be that large. If you can make a car this big or you know, as big as you want anything, it's all about scale and then about detail, thousands. As far as how the money is spent, I have three different rates. You of course have to buy the Lego and I have design time and then I have build time and miscellaneous time, which is basically buying organizing and shipping time. I've actually returned money to a client because it didn't cost as much as I thought it was. I'm not here to get rich, you know, I'm here to do what I love this tiny little walkie talkie piece is now usable as an actual walkie talkie human size. What I love about my job is seeing the final model. I love to see it to hold it. It's tangible and then it's done. I don't have to work on it, believe it or not. When I am not working, I will build a Lego set to relax. I like to look at the instructions and flip through the pages and build the model that somebody else designed. Takes the pressure off me. The most challenging thing with working with LEGO models is lighting every brick has a tiny little hair space in between it and it becomes a real challenge to have a fully lit model look good. I think a car is, is definitely the most popular. Just my freelance since 2013, I'd say I've designed between cars and trucks. Probably 2025 different different vehicles. I think people love their cars and they want to immortalize them on their desk. Now, I have a potential client. They want a model of a truck. I ask them to make model in the year, what color they want? After a client has ordered a model, I'll go and digitally design the model in the computer. I usually use a program called LEGO Digital designer. It's a free program by LEGO. After you design the model in there, you can basically rebuild it piece by piece. Once it is approved, I will then go and order the lego. I order from brick link, brick link is basically like ebay for lego. It's anything lego you need. It's new lego or lego. Here in my studio. I personally chose to not keep too much LEGO on hand. I order LEGO as needed for each project as I go and each project ends up with a little over and slowly builds my collection. As everybody knows, storing lego can be a challenge. I choose open top bins and bin cups. I use some like tackle box and tiny drawer storage as well. The building is the fun part. Of course, I glue the models I use methyl ethyl ketone, which is actually any K for short and it's, it's a solvent, it melts the Lego together. It doesn't really glue it together. It's pretty impermeable and very durable. So a model should pretty much last forever. I use many different tools. You name it. I mean, I use belt Sanders, drill presses, planers, Lego rulers. This ruler is a vertical ruler. This ruler is for horizontal measuring. I use glue clamps, I use anything industrial. It really depends on the model on the inside of many of the Lego models I design. There will be infrastructures, there might be a steel frame, there might be access panels, mounting points. But the trick is, it's all on the inside. It's pretty much hidden away the tool that I use most here. Good old mallet, save my fingertips. I have been going with Lego since I was, I would say four years old. This is a book that really inspired me to get more into LEGO as an adult in the back. It shows a picture, a picture that was really inspirational to me. It shows a group of ladies actually who are all the model designers for Lego land in Denmark. They were only accepting creative resumes. And I thought, well, I found a product, what product might I be? And rice crispies? Was it because Eric and Rice, this was a perfect fit. I got a job at Legoland California back in 2005 as an associate, a model associate. It was a dream come true for me. Within about a year's time, I went from associate to designer. At that point, I started designing buildings for Miniland and doing life size sculptures of people and anything else. Legoland Parks might need the tallest Lego model. I was a part of was the Lego Land, Malaysia Petronas Towers model which took about six months. I had 1000 an hour budget to design that I was then responsible for managing and guiding the team to build it. At one point, I believe we had 23 or 24 people in the model shop all working on the same project. I think we ordered 100 and 20,000 Lego one by two pieces for the windows. The final model ended up being just under 33 ft tall for about a four year period. I believe it was the world's tallest Miniland structure. So I actually had a world record. Unofficially after I left Legoland in 2013, I decided to start a Lego design company. My friend Penny, who was actually my roommate in college way back in the late eighties. She said, hey, why don't you come out to Connecticut? I found this really unique place that used to be a mechanic shop for a buick dealership. And it is now my home and my Lego studio. Since I started my company, I have made, I would say upwards of 400 LEGO models for, for clients. Some of my corporate clients have included names like Microsoft New York Life. My latest is Children's Hospital. They really enjoy adding LEGO into their, their world. Back in 2013, it was a one man operation as it is again today. At one point I had eight employees. I really do enjoy being a one man operation because it allows me full control, but it's very limiting. Ultimately, I see growing my company into having a model shop with several employees full time, constantly building all of the designs that I am designing. And of course, I'd help build too when and if I could, I kind of see a little young Richard Nixon in here. So this is actually Pee-wee Nixon.</p>

Eric Hunter is a professional Lego artist who designs and builds Lego models for private and corporate clients, including Microsoft, New York Life, and Children’s Hospital. Before starting his own company, The Art of LeGogh, in 2014, he worked as a model designer at Legoland California Resort for eight years. 

How I make a living as a professional Lego builder

Eric Hunter, owner of The Art of LeGogh, designs and builds Lego models professionally for clients, such as Microsoft, New York Life, and Children’s Hospital.

Eric Hunter is a professional Lego artist and owner of The Art of LeGogh, under which he designs and builds Lego models for private and corporate clients, including Microsoft, New York Life, and Children’s Hospital.

Eric Hunter is a professional Lego artist and owner of The Art of LeGogh. He designs and builds Lego models for clients, such as Microsoft, New York Life, and Children’s Hospital.

I've had many jobs in my life and I got to say that that designing Lego models is definitely by far the best you really can build anything with these little bricks. I'm Eric Hunter. I'm 53 years old. I'm a professional LEGO artist. Welcome to the art of LEGO. This is my kitchen and here are a few portraits I've designed at a LEGO. This is a mosaic of penny, my roommate. And down here, here's one of me, this is my studio as well. Back here, this whole first floor is one giant room that's been converted into several smaller areas. I actually sleep here. We've got the dining room and then back here is where all the fun happens. This is where II I store my office right next to my living room. Actually more like in my living room, I've had models in the 100,000 range. And now just last week, I got my biggest commission to date. Actually, a six figure budget. This is the beginnings of a 1 to 1 scale 1968 Camaro Ss for the estimate I calculated 245,000 Lego bricks to complete this model. Most of my clients models would probably fall in the between, I'd say 1200 to $3000 range. The budget doesn't have to be that large. If you can make a car this big or, you know, as big as you want anything, it's all about scale and then about detail thousands. As far as how the money is spent, I have three different rates. You of course, have to buy the Lego and I have design time and then I have build time and miscellaneous time, which is basically buying, organizing and shipping time. I've actually returned money to a client because it didn't cost as much as I thought it was. I'm not here to get rich, you know, I'm here to do what I love this tiny little walkie talkie piece is now usable as an actual walkie talkie human size. What I love about my job is seeing the final model. I love to see it to hold it. It's tangible and then it's done. I don't have to work on it, believe it or not. When I am not working, I will build a Lego set to relax. I like to look at the instructions and flip through the pages and build the model that somebody else designed. Takes the pressure off me. The most challenging thing with working with lego models is lighting. Every brick has a tiny little hair space in between it and it becomes a real challenge to have a fully lit model look good. I think a car is, is definitely the most popular. Just my freelance since 2013, I'd say I've designed between cars and trucks. Probably 2025 different different vehicles. I think people love their cars and they want to immortalize them on their desk. Now, I have a potential client. They want a model of a truck. I ask them to make model in the year, what color they want? After a client has ordered a model, I'll go and digitally design the model in the computer. I usually use a program called LEGO Digital designer. It's a free program by LEGO. After you design the model in there, you can basically rebuild it piece by piece. Once it is approved, I will then go and order the lego. I order from brick link, brick link is basically like ebay for lego. It's anything LEGO you need. It's new lego or lego. Here in my studio. I personally chose to not keep too much LEGO on hand. I order LEGO as needed for each project as I go and each project ends up with a little over and slowly builds my collection as everybody knows, storing lego can be a challenge. I choose open top bins and bin cups. I use some like tackle box and tiny drawer storage as well. The building is the fun part. Of course, I glue the models I use methyl ethyl ketone, which is actually any K for short. And it's, it's a solvent, it melts the Lego together. It doesn't really glue it together. It's pretty impermeable and very durable. So a model should pretty much last forever. I use many different tools. You name it. I mean, I use belt Sanders, drill presses, planers, Lego rulers. This ruler is a vertical ruler. This ruler is for horizontal measuring. I use glue clamps. I use anything industrial. It really depends on the model on the inside of many of the Lego models I design. There will be infrastructures, there might be a steel frame, there might be access panels, mounting points. But the trick is it's all on the inside. It's pretty much hidden away the tool that I use most here. Good old mallet, save my fingertips. I have been going with Lego since I was, I would say four years old. This is a book that really inspired me to get more into Lego as an adult in the back. It shows a picture, a picture that was really inspirational to me. It shows a group of ladies actually who are all the model designers for Lego land in Denmark. They were only accepting creative resumes. And I thought, well, I found a product, what product might I be? And rice crispies? Was it because Eric and Rice, this was a perfect fit. I got a job at Legoland California back in 2005 as an associate a model associate. It was a dream come true for me. Within about a year's time, I went from associate to designer. At that point, I started designing buildings for Miniland and doing life size sculptures of people and anything else Legoland Parks might need the tallest Lego model. I was a part of was the Lego Land, Malaysia Petronas Towers model which took about six months. I had 1000 an hour budget to design that I was then responsible for managing and guiding the team to build it. At one point, I believe we had 23 or 24 people in the model shop all working on the same project. I think we ordered 100 and 20,000 Lego one by two pieces for the windows. The final model ended up being just under 33 ft tall for about a four year period. I believe it was the world's tallest Miniland structure. So I actually had a world record. Unofficially after I left Legoland in 2013, I decided to start a Lego design company. My friend Penny, who was actually my roommate in college way back in the late eighties. She said, hey, why don't you come out to Connecticut? I found this really unique place that used to be a mechanic shop for a buick dealership and it is now my home and my Lego studio. Since I started my company, I have made, I would say upwards of 400 lego models for, for clients. Some of my corporate clients have included names like Microsoft New York life. My latest is Children's Hospital. They really enjoy adding LEGO into their, their world. Back in 2013, it was a one man operation as it is again today. At one point I had eight employees. I really do enjoy being a one man operation because it allows me full control, but it's very limiting. Ultimately, I see growing my company into having a model shop with several employees full time, constantly building all of the designs that I am designing. And of course, I'd help build too when and if I could, I kind of see a little young Richard Nixon in here. So this is actually P Nixon.

Toshihiro Saito, the assistant director of F&B operations at Hotel Barrière Fouquet's New York, delves into what it takes to become a certified cicerone, also known as a beer sommelier. He also shows us how to pair five different beers with food. Please note: The following beers are not sold at Hotel Barrière Fouquet's New York and prices may vary.

What it's like drinking beer on the job as a cicerone, or beer sommelier

Toshihiro Saito of Hotel Barrière Fouquet's New York delves into what it takes to become a certified cicerone, or beer sommelier.

Being paid to drink beer as a cicerone, or beer sommelier

Toshihiro Saito, the assistant director of F&B operations at Hotel Barrière Fouquet's New York, delves into what it takes to become a certified cicerone, also known as a beer sommelier. He also shows us how to pair five different beers with food. 

Toshihiro Saito, the assistant director of F&B operations at Hotel Barrière Fouquet's New York, delves into what it takes to become a certified cicerone, also known as a beer sommelier.

Bye, slight bitterness but not anything extreme. I am a certified C, it's also known as I think the very first idea of beer or c sort of comes off as a person who's drinking beer all day. Unfortunately, it's, it's not as glamorous as that. There's actually a lot of leg work that actually goes into it before the beer actually ever gets presented to the guest. You need to start doing tastings, you need to start doing pairings, you need to start building out beer menus, finding the right glassware, getting the right chillers. I was working at Gastro Pub at the Venetian. There weren't too many people in Las Vegas that actually had such a wide selection of beers. They had a actually on our staff when I started talking to him. I, I started figuring out, you know what, there's so much more to learn about beer than I actually already knew. I knew about IP A si knew about ports. I knew about stouts, but to start talking about beer in a way that was almost like so romantic to become a, I think you really just sort of need to be a beer nerd. At heart, you need to start picking up books. You need to actually start doing your research, your knowledge about all the different styles of beer. You have to know about the srm, the gravity of each beer, how it's been brewed, how it's been made, the history behind it. What it's supposed to taste like being able to talk about it, almost like wine. I think I've tasted about 500 beers now. Maybe even more. There has been one or two instances where I have become slightly inebriated, opening up magnums of chime or doing these fantastic beard tastings, beard dinners. It's just one of the first of the job becoming Saron was probably one of the most difficult tests and exams that I've actually ever come across. There's actually four different certifications. Each one has to be completed before you can go on to the next level. The exam was actually the course of an entire day. It was tasting for a major portion of it. The knowledge and theory portion of it was probably over 50%. And then beer pairing was, I think another 25% of the actual exam. It was an extremely arduous test but very fulfilling. Rewarding. Even after everything was done today, we're here at Hotel Barrier Phuket and we're going to be trying five different beers. We have a really nice, beautiful assortment going from light to dark. This is Gaffle cos this is a very unique solid beer that actually hails from the region of cologne in Germany. Think of champagne. Ok. I would pair this with fried chicken. It would be really nice carbonation just to go ahead and cut through the fat on the chicken. This is Dupont. There's a really nice malt background to it. It is a farmhouse ale so it has a little bit of like a barnyard y sort of characteristic to it. But phenomenal. One of the best pairings of my entire life was actually done with the ce on. I had this particular style with a triple cream cheese, a little bit of honey comb and with a really nice crusty baguette. And that was the absolute moment where the light bulb went off. And I said, wow, pairing beer and food is such a magical experience. This beer is, is trace Fontaine from dust translation. It means three Fountains. The style is an oat goose is actually a blend of three different lambic. One year, two year, three year lambic from Linda. It actually pairs extremely well with a hot lobster roll the butter, the bread, the sweetness of the lobster itself, extremely delightful pairing. This is, it is a Flemish bread coming from Belgium. However, this beer itself is actually brewed in Italy is triple fermented first time in stainless steel and then a in cognac barrels. This beer pairs extremely well with barbecued meats such as brisket and also strawberry cheesecake. So this beer is poo. It's an Imperial Baltic porter hailing from the region of Estonia, it actually comes from the area of the Baltic Sea. Yeah, is much more malt driven. So you have flavors of coffee, chocolate, even really nice rich molasses. This particular beer pairs extremely well with say a coffee crusted steak or even a flourless chocolate cake. When I first started. I thought that 300 beers was the crazy exorbitant amount for a beer list. Now, in days, I mean, I've come across places that are even over 506 100 different skews for beers. CS are definitely more in demand. Now, people are much more in tune to what's in their glass. They want to know more. They want to be able to go ahead and find these fantastic beers and they're asking the right questions. Is there a time that's too early that I drink beer? No, I come from Las Vegas. Absolutely not.

I love being around horses for so many reasons. I was the child who was the "horse girl." And my love affair with horses started probably before I can remember. My name is Leah Goldman and I am an equine coach. Equine coaches are relatively new to the coaching industry. So turn his head to the left. Head to the left. They're not coming to learn how to ride. They're just coming to learn about themselves in a very unique and different way. What makes this work really powerful is the horse as the mirror. The exercise for you is about creating space, right? And creating boundaries and keeping those boundaries in place. Back, back. Are we having fun? And stop. You can maybe qualify for some of these larger therapeutic programs, which are so wonderful, or you could be interested in riding horses, but there wasn't anything in the middle. This really is quite a long journey of how I got here. I entered into a relationship and spent three years with this man who I thought was going to be my lifelong partner. He had been living a double life and had been in a relationship with somebody else for the entire time that we had been together. And it was a life-altering moment. Two weeks before I had found that out, I hadn't been around horses in a while and was really missing it. And I started riding when I was six. I found a horse that I signed on to lease for the summer. It just all started to come together. So while I was grieving the loss of not only this person who I loved, but you know the loss of this life that I thought I was going to have, I had this space to go to. A lot of what I just needed was somebody to be with me, right? And that somebody was a horse. That's really where my own healing started to begin. I was mentored and trained under a master coach out in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There's five horses. Every single one of them was laying down, except for one. I was like, I just, I think that's the horse that I'm the most connected to. And he walked right by me. And I was like, oh. I was like, of course, like I'm not good enough. And yeah, why would he come over here? And then all of a sudden, I kid you not, he turned around, circled in front of me, dropped to the ground, and dropped his head in my lap. I just, I lost it. I just completely broke down. It does something for you that sometimes people can't give you, right? You're looking for answers or you're searching for something. You're just searching for it and you can't get it you can't find it. And all of a sudden, you have this like powerful, majestic being giving you exactly what you need. And it was just like the two of us in that moment. And it was just like, everything's gonna be okay. I get a lot of people who have lost spouses, some people who have lost pets, and they need a place that they come to where they feel a sense of comfort and safety Let's head into the indoor today. Okay, come on, Booboo, we got some work to do. So before you do that, you know, remember, we want to always set the intention of what we're doing. So to conjure up or bring up things that really fill you with joy, right? That make you feel light, that make you feel warm, and go see what happens. C'mon Boo. When I try to explain it to people, they're often like, "You're not riding the horse?" Like no, I'm not riding—I'm never gonna ride the horse. I've never ridden a horse. It's not about that. It's about the being, not the doing. I am a psychotherapist. I sought Leah out because it was the middle of COVID I was seeing 40 patients a week, which is way too many. So getting out of my head, not thinking about my patients. Not wondering about COVID. Not worrying about my kids and all the things that they were missing. I didn't have to do any of that here in any way. It was just about finding peace in myself. I think the lesson for me is that I don't need to hold other people's things quite as tightly as I do sometimes. And as soon as I get here, I'm just centered. Thank you. They're not going to be able to take Saint home. But the hope is that you have a felt sense experience that will remind you when you're not on the farm, and life gets tough or chaotic or stressful, and you can have this moment of like, "Okay, let me just pretend like I'm in the field with Saint and I'm breathing with Saint." And I actually have many people who keep photos of Saint as a reminder, right? To slow down, to breathe, to just take a moment for yourself. I was mid-pandemic diagnosed with a rare chronic illness, called idiopathic subglottic stenosis. Essentially, my body will suffocate itself. I have always told Leah that the doctor saved my life, but Leah and Saint saved my soul. I have my fourth surgery coming up on Monday. Just really trying to get myself in a good position where I'm in the zone and really focused on myself, so I can come back even stronger. There's science behind it, and why this works that I can explain to you. But there's also this other side of it where things happen that I can't explain. Those are the moments, those magical moments a lot of the time that make a huge difference for people. So I'd already earned my credential, my ICF-credential as a certified professional coach, which is the International Coaches Federation, and spent about a year and a half going through that. The equine piece was really just taking my 30 plus years of horse knowledge, and just combining them together. So I had that idea, the summer of 2018. And by 2020, I was launched and ready to go. I mostly see women, although men are welcome to come. It just for whatever reason seems like women are more drawn to this space than men. I have worked with anyone, you know, as young as 18, all the way up to women in their 70s. Somebody who is an equine coach has to be incredibly observant. They have to be incredibly thoughtful. You have to be able to hold both the human heart and the equine heart masterfully. The client has to lead it because I'm here to help them. You'll always hear me check in with the client, "How are things going? How have you been? You know, we talked about this last time." I have probably like 10 to 15 go-tos that I use. Some of them are super short, really simple. Others take a lot longer. Saint is my heart horse. He is a manifestation of a horse that I have dreamed of since I was an adolescent. I remember thinking to myself as a child, "Someday, I am going to have a horse who has 16 one-hands, who is a chestnut, a gelding, a Warmblood. He's going to have a white blaze, and he's going to have white socks. When I started looking for a horse, I had posted in a Facebook group and a woman messaged me and she said, I think I have the perfect horse for you. And she sent me some photos of him and I was like, 16 one-hands, chestnut horse, gelding, Warmblood, white blaze, white socks. And I was like, "What's his name?" She goes, "Saint." And I was like, I can't—I mean, you can't make this stuff up if you tried. It's the perfect name for a horse that's doing this work. Heart Math is a research organization. What they did was they basically discovered that horses sync their heartbeats with one another. So essentially, if a horse is heart rate goes up, it kind of pings to another horse, and that's like, "Oh, do we need to be on alert? Do we need to be worried about something? Should we start moving?" What they found was that horses can sink their hearts with humans as well, from up to four feet away. But what that does is it can lower our heart rate. It can also lower our blood pressure, and basically puts us in this state of neutrality, which is just a place of ease. This job has changed my life in every way. In every way. I'm doing what I'm passionate about. I've always wanted to help people. I've always loved horses, I get to combine those two things and I get to give this to others. That's what makes it so worthwhile. You know, when I'm here and I'm doing something for myself, that's when the positivity comes out. Like when I'm with this guy. It kind of just melts everything away.

Leah Goldman is a self-described “horse girl” who turned her passion into a career after a devastating breakup. Goldman founded Fika Coaching to offer equine coaching sessions for personal growth and development. She draws on her skills as an International Coaching Federation–certified professional coach and more than 30 years of experience with horses. 

How horses healed my heartbreak and led me to an equine coaching career

Leah Goldman is a self-described “horse girl” who turned her passion into a career after a devastating breakup.

How horses and heartbreak led me to a coaching career

12, 12. Yeah, I love being around horses for so many reasons. I was the child who was the horse girl and my love affair with horses started probably before I can remember. My name is Leah Goldman and I am an equine coach. Equine coaches are relatively new to the coaching industry. So turn his head to the left head to the left. They're not coming to learn how to ride. They're just coming to learn about themselves in a very unique and different way. What makes this work really powerful is the horse as the mirror, the exercise for you is about creating space, right? And creating boundaries and keeping those boundaries in place back back. Uh Are we having fun and stop? Can maybe qualify for some of these larger therapeutic programs which are so wonderful or you could be interested in riding horses? But there wasn't anything in the middle. This really is quite a long journey of how I got here. I entered into a relationship and spent three years with this man who I thought was going to be my lifelong partner. He had been living a double life and had been in a relationship with somebody else for the entire time that we had been together. And it was a life altering moment. Two weeks before I had found that out, I hadn't been around horses in a while and was really missing it. And I started riding when I was six. I found a horse that I signed on to lease for the summer. It just all started to come together. So, while I was grieving, the loss of not only this person who I loved, but you know, the loss of this life that I thought I was going to have, I had the space to go to a lot of what I just needed was somebody to be with me, right? And not somebody with a horse. That's really where my own healing started to begin. I was mentored and trained under a master coach out in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There's five horses. Every single one of them was laying down except for one. I was like, I just, I think that's the horse that I'm the most connected to. And he walked right by me. And I was like, oh, I was like, I was like, of course, like I'm not good enough. And yeah, why would he come over here? And then all of a sudden I kid you not, he turned around, circled in front of me, dropped to the ground and dropped his head in my lap. I just, I lost it. I just completely broke down. It does something for you that sometimes people can't give you right. You're looking for answers or you're searching for something you're just searching for it and you can't get it, you can't find it. And all of a sudden you have this, like, powerful majestic being giving you exactly what you need. And it was just like the two of us in that moment and it was just like everything is going to be ok. I get a lot of people who have lost spouses. Um some people who have lost pets and they need a place that they come to where they feel a sense of comfort and safety. Let's head into the today. Ok. Come on, boo boo. We got some work to do so before you do that, you know, remember we wanna always set the intention of what we're doing so to conjure up or bring up things that really fill you with joy, right? That make you feel light that make you feel warm and go see what happens. Come on when I try to explain it to people, they're often like I, you're not riding the horse. I'm like, no, I'm not riding. I'm never going to ride the horse. I've never ridden the horse. It's not about that. It's about the being not the doing. I am a psychotherapist. I sought Leah out because it was the middle of COVID. I was seeing 40 patients a week which is way too many. So getting out of my head, not thinking about my patients, not wondering about COVID, not worrying about my kids and all the things that they were missing. I didn't have to do any of that here in any way. It was just about finding peace in myself. I think the lesson for me is that I don't need to hold other people's things quite as tightly as I do sometimes. And as soon as I get here, I'm just centered. Thank you. They're not going to be able to take Saint home. But the hope is that you have a felt sense experience that will remind you when you're not on the farm and life gets tough or chaotic or stressful. And you can have this moment of like, OK, let me just pretend like I'm in the fields of Saint and I'm breathing with Saint. And I actually have many people who keep photos of Saint as a reminder, right? To slow down, to breathe, to just take a moment for yourself. I was mid pandemic diagnosed with a rare chronic illness called idiopathic subglottic stenosis. Essentially, my body will suffocate itself. I have always told Leah that the doctor saved my life, but Leah and Saint save my soul. I have my fourth surgery coming up on Monday, just really trying to get myself in a good position where I'm in the zone and um really focused on myself so I can come back even stronger. There's science behind it and why this works that I can explain to you. But there's also this other side of it where things happen that I can't explain. Those are the moments, those magical moments, a lot of the time that make a huge difference for people. So I had already earned my credential, my IC F credential as a certified professional coach, which is the International Coaches Federation and spent about a year and a half going through that the equine piece was really just taking my 30 plus years of horse knowledge and just combining them together. So I had that idea the summer of 2018 and by 2020, I was launched and ready to go. I mostly see women, although men are welcome to come. It just for whatever reason seems like women are more drawn to this space than men. I have worked with anyone, you know, as young as 18, all the way up to women in their 70's. Somebody who is an equine coach has to be incredibly observant. They have to be incredibly thoughtful. You have to be able to hold both the human heart and the equine heart masterfully, the client has to lead it because I'm here to help them. You'll always hear me check in with the client. How are things going? How have you been? You know, we talked about this last time. I have probably like 10-15, go to that I use. Some of them are super short, really simple. Others take a lot longer. Saint is my my heart horse. He is a manifestation of a horse that I have dreamed of since I was an adolescent. I remember thinking to myself as a child someday, I am going to have a horse who is 16, 1 hand who is a chestnut, a gelding, a warm blood. He's going to have a white blaze and he's going to have white socks. When I started looking for a horse, I had posted in a Facebook group and a woman messaged me and she said, I think I have the perfect horse for you. And she sent me some photos of him and I was like 16 1 hands chestnut horse gelding, warm blood white blaze, white socks. And I was like, what's his name? She goes saint. And I was like, I can't, I mean, you can, you can't make this stuff up if you try. And I'm like, it's the perfect name for a horse that's doing this work. Heart Maths is a research organization. What they did was they basically discovered that horses think their heartbeats with one another. So essentially, if a horse's heart rate goes up, it kind of pings to another horse. And that's like, oh, do we need to be on alert? Do we need to be worried about something we start moving? What they found was that horses can sink their hearts with humans as well from up to 4ft away. But what that does is it can lower our heart rate. It can also lower our blood pressure and basically puts us in this state of neutrality, which is just a place of ease. This job has changed my life in every way, in every way I'm doing what I'm passionate about. I've always wanted to help people. I've always loved horses. I get to combine those two things and I get to give this to others. That's what makes it so worthwhile. You know, when I'm here and I'm doing something for myself. That's when the positivity comes out. Like when I'm with this guy, it kind of just melts everything away.

Anna Leigh Waters is the top female pickleball player at 16 after becoming a professional player at 12. Waters won eight triple crowns in 2022 and is coached by her mother Leigh Waters, who is also her doubles partner. According to her rep, she now earns a high-six-figure salary and is sponsored by Fila, Paddletek, and Carvana among others. 

Meet this pro pickleball player earning six figures at 16 years old

Anna Leigh Waters is the top female pickleball player at 16 after becoming a professional player at 12.

Teen pickleball player Anna Leigh Waters earns six figures

At the beginning of the year. This was my first ever triple crown at the end of the year. This is actually my eighth triple crown of 2022. This is the biggest trophy I have ever received. I'm Anna Lee Waters. I'm 16 years old and I'm the number one female professional pickle ball player. Mhm. Pickle ball has become so popular because anyone can play, any age can play and any skill level can play. You can have fun, you can be competitive. It's just a sport for everyone with the first pick in the 2023 major league pick a ball draft. The new Jersey fives select Anna Lee Waters so good everywhere on the court. There is no weakness in this young lady, Anna Lee was unquestionably the number one pick I think for everybody in the draft, people are picking men and women and to have a number one pick that was a female player and to have more women's picks in the top 10 than men was really remarkable and says something about pickle ball. She is a young phenom ranked number one in the world, both in singles, mixed doubles and women's doubles. She is the most dominant player in the game at the tournament of champions. I won the most or had the most points in that tournament. I was ranked the number one women's singles player at 14 years old. I feel like the achievement that I'm most proud of didn't actually happen this year. It happened in 2019 when I won nationals with my mom. I remember after we won the match, she like jumped and then she started like running around the court and I was like chasing her, like wanting to hug her and like celebrate with her waters and waters. It was our first huge tournament that we went together. I think I had an out of body experience. We had reached a goal that, you know, that we had set because I never thought of pickleball as a job. But at the same time, like, I guess it kind of is, it's a very fun job, especially this year. A lot of big companies have gotten into the sport. I've also seen a big growth in like celebrity pickleball. I've had a lot of sponsorship opportunities. I have an agent now. I am so young and to, you know, learn as many things as I'm learning and, you know, be a part of sponsorship deals and learning about contracts. Sometimes I'll see like the checks that come in and I'm like, save it. I'm saving, I'm put in the bank. I try not to spend my money. You see someone like Michael Jordan who can like design their own shoe and then I'm sponsored by. So I'm kind of designing a shoe with them. It's just kind of cool that I can be kind of grouped into like an athlete that's making their own shoe, which, which is amazing. Annie and I started playing pickle ball at the exact same day, the exact same second, we evacuated our home in Florida due to a hurricane and we went to visit my father who lived in Pennsylvania and he asked us, you know, do you want to go play pickle ball? And at first we were kind of like, no, because we didn't know what it was. And I was pretty young. I think I was 10. So we thought it was an older person sport, but we went and from the moment we stepped on the court, we were, we were hooked. First time I hit the ball, I was like in love with the sport. We played like three times a day for like two weeks straight while we were up there. From when I first started playing, I played with my grandfather and my mom and I can still play with my grandfather and my mom. It's fun, but it's also embarrassing. Uh, as I got older and older, obviously, I got worse and worse and as she got older, she got better and better. Unfortunately, at the previous national tournament Lee was injured. So when Anna Lee was going into a finals match, she had nobody to warm her up. So I actually warmed her up. I really don't know the outcome of the success of the warm up, but she won. So I guess I did something right. Anna Lee and I play a few times a week. Some of that is playing, some of that is drilling, watching Annaly compete. She's feisty. She's an animal. She's an absolute beast on the court. I'm a full time student, but I am also a full time professional pickleball player. So hopefully I'm gonna make a career out of this. You got that right on his mic. Can you send it to me? Yeah, when I'm home, I usually play pickle ball five days a week. I usually drill like two times a week and then I'll play games three times a week. If I'm drilling, it's around two hours. And if I'm playing games, it can be anywhere from like 2 to 3 hours. And I'm usually in the gym five days a week as well. I would say average in a day, I'm working out like four hours and even on my off days, I'm doing either some kind of cardio or walking. She started off as a soccer player and tennis player converted, I think at 11 and she learned the game went pro at 12 lightning quick hands. Great court awareness, great court coverage. I have a lot of different skill sets from different sports for soccer. It was, it's definitely like the footwork and the fast sprinting and the lateral movement and stuff for tennis. It's definitely the form. The form is very similar if you watch tennis and pickle ball. But there is a big difference between like strategy and pickleball and tennis. So I had to learn that Anna Lee and I had come from tennis and the minute I stepped on the court, I just wanted to hit the ball hard and everybody kept telling us like you're not playing correctly. This isn't how you play. You have to hit soft, you have to hit these dinks. But it's just what came so true to, to me and Anna Lee was this power game. So we just continued with our game. And the next thing you know, we were winning national championships at the pro level and we were known for our aggressive style of play. A lot of people ask the question like, how do you guys play on the court together? Isn't it hard that she's your mom and that she's your daughter is in the dynamic. Weird. But I feel like for us it's the opposite. Like we have this mother daughter intuition where we know where the other one's gonna be on the court. And if we miss a shot, we know the other person is not going to be mad at us. So we just feel like you know, we can play how we want to play. We don't have to worry about disappointing our partner because no matter what happens on the court, we're a family and that's what families do. They stick together. I travel with not only my mom but also my dad win or lose. Me and my family always go out to eat and I have a really special bond with my grandmom. She's been home schooling me from third grade on, I'm in 11th grade. Even before I started playing pickleball, I was home schooling and it just really worked out because I couldn't travel and do all the things that I'm doing with pickleball right now becoming a professional athlete. I am so proud of Anna Lee. Her coaches and her other sports have always told us what an athlete she was and what potential she had. But you still don't necessarily go to like, oh professional athletes. This is probably a very futuristic goal, but I want to play pickle ball in the Olympics one day I grew up watching the Olympics and I think it would be really cool to represent my country. And I also want to see pickleball grow like in other countries. I also want to see pickle ball grow in like high schools and get younger kids involved. And that's something that I'm working on now. So in the beginning of this year, one of my goals was to get a triple crown and I ended up getting eight this year, which was amazing. If I've accomplished the goal, there's still something better you can do. So I feel like next year I'm gonna try to get nine triple crowns, uh, which would be, might be difficult, but I'm gonna try to do it. I'm just really, you know, enjoying the ride and I wanna keep going as long as I can. Uh When we came home, we decided we were going to get a ping pong table. I think we played about two weeks before Anna Lee got so good that nobody wanted to play with her anymore. And I don't think we've played ping pong since.

All right, so this is our studio. This is [Studio] 3K and this is where everything happens. I'm Janice Huff. I'm the chief meteorologist at NBC News 4 New York. We are the station scientists, even when it's not the weather, even when it's earthquakes, even when it's—anything that has to do with science, NASA, space, whatever. You have to be a scientist and a presenter, both. We don't use a script because the graphics that we show, like the satellite pictures, radar, and all the other graphics with all the fronts and things and the 10-day and all that—we're basically telling it through through the pictures. I've been doing this job here at NBC in New York for 28 years. I've been in television, weather broadcasting, probably closer to 40 years. This is one of our touchscreen monitors. We can use this for weather, as well as this large monitor right here, also useful. And then over here is our green screen. We stand here and do weather here. It's a big studio with lots of monitors that we take full advantage of. These are not all my clothes. Only this stuff is mine. But we have lots of weather anchors here. So six of us. And between the six of us, we all have clothes back here and lockers, and places to put our shoes. People do recognize me, people always have something to say about the weather. We are extremely accurate, but that's not what people remember. They always remember the one time when you may not get the snowfall right, or you may not get the area that gets the rain versus the snow. And everybody always remembers those times, of course. Blizzards are our big thing here on the East Coast. Forecasting itself is probably one of the biggest challenges. And we are most accurate, at least 90 to 95% of the time. There's very few times when the forecast is doesn't turn out the way we had hoped or the way we have predicted it. There's 10 meteorologists in our family that are helping each other all the time and collaborating, especially when there are big, big storms. We probably have the biggest team of anybody here in this area, we're the envy of most. Janice has such a rich history here. She is so kind and warm and welcoming to everyone. It is just so easy to work with her. And the person you see on camera who's so inviting and warm and welcoming to the viewers, someone who really cares—she's like that off the air. When we have the breaking weather situations, a lot of times that can be serious, but kind of we just watch her and it's just—it comes so easy to her. So I would say kind of, we watch an awful lot of us because it just rolls right off the tongue. She's a pro. She's really ready for anything at any time. We are in the Storm Team 4 Weather Center for NBC. It's right behind our studio walls. Our studio is just on the other side of this wall. It's a team effort. It takes a lot of people to get this act together every day. We have several shows throughout the day, starting with our morning news at 4 a.m. We also have an 11 a.m. newscast. This is where all of the work gets done every day for all of our weather casts that go into each and every newscast. That's all of the forecasting. That's all of the graphics that gets done for the actual weather cast, and all the discussion. And we have our lunch here. We live here pretty much. There are people here practically 24/7. There's only a couple of hours at night when no one's here. We collaborate with Janice. It's pretty much an ongoing conversation between the members of the weather team. We use Microsoft Teams to basically keep everybody abreast of any changes in the forecast. Any interesting tidbits in the forecast that one of us is saying, we'll put it into a team's note so that everybody can see it. Janice is pretty much on call 24/7. I go home and about 11:45 Every night and get right back up at 9:40 in the morning and start all over again. That's interesting. I knew I wanted to be a meteorologist when I was about 10, I think. I discovered the word "meteorology" by reading the encyclopedia because back then we didn't have computers at home. That's when I figured out what a meteorologist does. And I loved the weather since I was a little little kid. And so I decided then when I was 10 that that's what I was going to study when I went to college. My degree is a Bachelor of Science in meteorology from Florida State University. My minor is mathematics. Graduating from college, I was the first person in my family to do that. Even though it was many years ago, I still look back on that as a major accomplishment. And to also get a degree in meteorology, which is a major accomplishment for anybody. Once I got to interview President Obama. A bunch of meteorologists, including myself, were picked to come to the White House when he was president and talk about the climate report, the climate assessment. And it was amazing to be there and actually speak to the President about the state of the climate and the weather and be at the White House which is really cool. Definitely as a woman of color, I didn't see people who looked like me doing weather on television when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. There were a handful of women, one being June Bacon-Bercey, who actually broke that barrier before I did, and became the first African American woman with a degree in meteorology to actually do the weather on TV back in the '70s. So there were a couple of people that came before me. Yet, I never saw her on TV when she was actually on television back then, because she was in Buffalo, New York, and I was in South Carolina. So I didn't see anyone who looked like me doing what I do. That's why I never thought about having a career on TV doing it. I bought this when I was in Tanzania in the Serengeti. We went on vacation. It was more than just going on vacation. It was kind of symbolic, in a way. I've never been to Africa, so. And since the majority of my roots are in Africa, not from that country. But it was my first trip to the motherland, as you say, and it was quite the experience of being in a country where practically everybody looks like you. But that's the flag of Tanzania. And I've wear it all the time. I never take it off. That was in 2018. It's just just a reminder of my trip and when it meant to be there. We expect it to be quiet night tonight. The fun part about this job is just being able to do what I love. It's not really work when you do what you love, right? Most people are never going to be able to say they've worked anywhere for 28 years. But to say that I've worked at 30 Rock for 28 years is a tremendous accomplishment. Of course, there's a little bit of luck involved and things that I have no control over. But that's a huge deal now when I think about it, and I'm really happy that I've been able to be here this long. If you want to be a meteorologist, focus on your studies, math and science.

Chief Meteorologist Janice Huff shares a behind-the-scenes look at how weather forecasting at NBC 4 New York comes together. She delves into her successful journey of nearly 40 years in the field, from wanting to be a meteorologist at age 10 to meeting President Barack Obama. She also honors June Bacon-Bercey, the first on-air Black female meteorologist in the U.S.

Meet this NYC meteorologist who's been predicting weather for 40 years

Chief Meteorologist Janice Huff shares a behind-the-scenes look at how weather forecasting at NBC 4 New York comes together.

Meet this NYC meteorologist predicting weather for 40 years

Bye. All right. So this is our studio and this is where everything happens. I'm Janice Hoff. I'm the chief meteorologist at NBC News for New York. We are the station scientist even when it's not the weather, even when it's earthquakes, even when it's anything that has to do with science, NASA Space, whatever you have to be a scientist and a presenter. Both we don't use a script because the graphics that we show like the satellite pictures, radar and all the other graphics with all the fronts and things and the 10 day and all that, we're basically telling it through, through the pictures. I've been doing this job here at NBC in New York for 28 years. I've been in television. Weather broadcasting probably closer to 40 years. This is one of our three monitors. We can use this for weather as well as this large monitor also use. And then over here is our Green Street. We stand here and do weather here. It's a big studio with lots of monitors that we take full advantage of. These are not all my clothes. Um Only this stuff is mine, but we have lots of weather anchors here. So, uh, six of us and between the six of us, we all have clothes back here and lockers and places to put our shoes. People do recognize me. People always have something to say about the weather. We are extremely accurate, but that's not what people remember. They always remember the one time when you may not get the snowfall, right? Or you may not get the area that gets the rain versus the snow. And everybody always remembers those times. Of course, blizzards are our big thing here on the east coast forecast itself. Probably one of the biggest challenges and we are most accurate at least 90 to 95% of the time. There's very few times when the forecasts doesn't turn out the way we had hoped or the way we have predicted it, there's 10 meteorologists in our family that are helping each other all the time and collaborating, especially when there are big, big storms. We probably have the biggest team of anybody here in this area. We're the envy of, of most Janice has such a rich history here. She is so kind and warm and welcoming to everyone. It is just so easy to work with her and the person you see on camera who's so inviting and warm and welcoming to the viewers, someone who really cares. She's like that off the air when we have the breaking weather situations. A lot of times that can be serious, but kind of, we just watch her and it's just, it comes so easy to her. So I would say kind of, we watch in all a lot of us because it just rolls right off the tongue. She's a, she's really ready for anything at any time. We are in the storm. Team four weather center for NBC. It's right behind our studio wall. So our studio is just on the other side of this wall. It's a team effort. It takes a lot of people to get this act together every day. We have several shows throughout the day, starting with our morning news at four AM. We also have an 11 AM news cast. This is where all of the work gets done every day for all of our weather casts that go into each and every newscast. That's all of the forecasting. That's all of the graphics that gets done for the actual weather cast and all of the discussion. And we have our lunch here. We live here pretty much. There are people here practic 24/7 and there's only a couple of hours at night when no one's here. We collaborate with Janice. It's pretty much an ongoing conversation between the members of the weather team. We use Microsoft teams to basically keep everybody abreast of any changes in forecasts, any interesting tidbits in the forecast that one of us is seeing. We'll put it into a team's note so that everybody can see it. Janice is pretty much on call 24 7. I go home at about 1145 every night and get right back up at 9:45 AM and start all over again. That's interesting. I knew I wanted to be a meteorologist when I was about 10. I think I discovered the word meteorology by reading the encyclopedia because back then we didn't have computers at home. That's when I figured out what a meteorologist does. And I love the weather since I was a little, little kid. And so I decided then when I was 10, that that's what I was going to study when I went to college. My degree is a Bachelor of Science in meteorology from Florida State University. My minor is mathematics. Graduated from college. I was the first person in my family to do that even though it was many years ago, I still look back on that as a major accomplishment and to also get a degree in meteorology, which is a major accomplishment for anybody. Once I got to interview President Obama, a bunch of meteorologists including myself, were picked to come to the White House when he was president and talk about the climate report, the climate assessment. And it was amazing to be there and actually speak to the president about the state of the climate and the weather and be at the White House, which is really cool. Definitely as a woman of color. I didn't see people who looked like me doing weather on television when I was growing up in the sixties and seventies, there were a handful of women, one being June Bacon Bey, who actually broke that barrier before I did and became the first African American woman with a degree in meteorology to actually do the weather on TV, back in the seventies. So there were a couple of people that came before me yet. I never saw her on TV when she was actually on television back then because she was in Buffalo, New York and I was in South Carolina. So I didn't see anyone who looked like me doing what I do. That's why I never thought about having a career on TV, doing it. I bought this when I was in Tanzania in the Serengeti. We went on vacation. It was more than just going on vacation. It was kind of symbolic in a way, I've never been to Africa. So, and since the majority of my roots are in Africa, not from that country, but it was on my first trip to the motherland, as you say. And it was quite the experience of being in a country where practically everybody looks like you. But that's the flag of Tanzania and I wear it all the time. I never take it off. That was in 2018. It is just a reminder of my trip and what it meant to be there. We expect it to be a quiet night tonight. The fun part about this job is just being able to do what I love. It's not really work when you do what you love. Right. Most people are never going to be able to say they've worked anywhere for 28 years. But to say that I've worked at 30 rock for 28 years is a tremendous accomplishment. Of course, there's a little bit of luck involved in things that I have no control over. But that's a huge deal now, when I think about it and I'm really happy that I've been able to be here this long if you want to be a meteorologist. Focus on your studies, math and science.

Fortune Well

Eve Lewis Prieto, director of teaching at Headspace, explains the difference and shares tips for starting a mindfulness practice.

Meditation vs. mindfulness—and how to get started

Hi, I'm Eve and I'm a meditation teacher and the director of teaching at headspace. You may have heard these two words, meditation and mindfulness used interchangeably before. But there is a difference. Mindfulness is a quality of mind and it refers to paying attention on purpose with a soft and open attitude. So often in life, we're distracted, caught up in the busyness and stress of life. And this creates a lot of tension in the mind and body. And we miss so much of what life has to offer. When we pay attention. In this way, we start to understand our feelings and our emotions in more detail. So now meditation, meditation is the practice and this is where we take some intentional time out of our busy day. Could be three minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes to practice and cultivate mindfulness. And by training the mind to be more present, open and at ease, we tend to experience greater calm clarity, 10 and compassion in our lives. Just a few tips to help you get settled and set up. So first, and this is probably the most important piece you're not trying to switch off the mind or clear the mind of thoughts. In fact, you're learning to observe thoughts, observe the mind without judgment. Sometimes your focus will wander. In fact, it will wander a lot or you will forget to follow your breath. That's ok. It's part of the experience. It's actually in noticing the mind wandering and bringing it back that builds that mental strength and resilience. Second, learning to meditate is like learning any other skill, think of it like exercising a that you're working at like any other muscle, that's a part of your body. It takes consistent practice to get comfortable. And with meditation, it's usually easier if you have a teacher to guide you. And lastly, it can take some time to get comfortable sitting with the mind. There might be obstacles or setbacks along the way, but that's all part of the practice. It's a part of life. We're learning to be comfortable sitting with uncertainty, sitting with a busy mind and starting small is totally ok. It's actually much better to be consistent at the beginning to build the habit. And really you're doing great just showing up.

Tom Hale, CEO of Oura—creator of the eponymous sleep-tracking ring—walks us through the small things he does to keep his health on track.

Oura CEO: 'Health should be a daily practice'

Health should be a daily practice for everyone. And that's partially because it's important for you to make preventative changes in your life to increase your health span. I tend to wake up pretty early. Um Usually sometime between four and five and in the morning, uh my health routine is pretty simple. Uh I take some supplements and then my routine is to have a kind of a quiet, calm moment between five and six before jumping in the shower. And when I jump in the shower, I make sure I do 10 breathing exercises as I'm finishing up my shower and getting ready for the day. I tend to avoid caffeine, which I think is befitting of a sleep CEO but I also will on occasion, maybe take a small hit of an espresso or sometimes if I'm feeling naughty. A latte exercise is such a critical part of your health and wellness, but it's also really important for your mental health. Uh You can get inside of your body, you can do a workout kind of, you know, transport yourself away from the daily cares of the world. I started rowing during COVID, I was looking for ways to exercise at home and I had a treadmill and I was running on the treadmill, but I was starting to run out of the appetite to continue on the treadmill. So I decided to mix it up and got a rower and it turned out to be a really great decision because being able to, uh, change your exercise routine actually is really important because you fall into a routine, you fall into a rut. So I like to say, you know, what's the best exercise you should do today? It's the one you didn't do yesterday. I try and row about half an hour almost as many days of the week. I can, I don't get all seven days, especially if I'm traveling. But I do have a rower and I will try and get that in every, every day I can for a short amount of time, you know, 15 to 20 minutes. You can actually get quite a lot of workouts, a full body workout and then I'll do some weights and, and I think this is important maybe for everyone to know that you should be trying to balance cardio and strength training. And, and so I try and, you know, strike a nice balance. Um, in each session, I'll do a little bit of cardio and a little bit of weights. Um and resistance training is, is really great. It's great for your longevity. It's great for your energy and it's great for your metabolism. But it's also really just a great thing to do to build strength and feel comfortable in your body.

Eve Lewis Prieto, director of teaching at Headspace, walks us through a quick guided meditation.

Try this one minute guided meditation you can do anywhere

Try this one-minute guided meditation you can do anywhere

Today, I wanted to share a really short one minute meditation with you. So let's get started. I'm sitting in a chair, but you can sit on the couch, you can lie down for this, whatever is going to be most comfortable for you. So take a moment to get comfortable, you can close your eyes or rest your gaze downward, softening the jaw, relaxing the shoulders as best you can. I didn't go with any tension in the body, maybe feeling the feet on the floor. Let's take a slower deeper breath breathing in through the nose and out through the mail. And for the next few moments focusing the attention on your breathing. So noticing where in the body you feel that movement, not breathing in any special way, just following each in breath and each out bra when the mind wanders, which it will just gently returning the attention to the breath. It's ok if you have to bring the mind back every second, it's actually in noticing and bringing the mind back that we build that mental strength. So I didn't go with any focus on the bride, perhaps feeling your feet on the floor. Noticing sounds around you and in your own time you had your eyes closed, generally opening them. So thank you for pausing and practicing with me today. Sometimes all it takes is just a minute or two. And I really hope you learned something new and that you'll come back again to try it.

Try this recipe from the Olympic Village menu, designed by Jeff Leidy, senior executive chef at Sodexo Live!

Eat like an Olympic athlete: Try this farro salad with roast summer squash

Hello, I am chef Jeff. I am an Olympic chef heading to the Paris 2024 Olympics. I am going to give you a sneak peek at the dishes served in the Athletes Village at this year's Olympics in Paris. Today, I'm going to prepare for you a faro salad with roast summer squash. We start the dish, we have king oyster mushroom and micro squash, grape seed oil, roasted chickpeas. We have roasted summer squash and cremini mushroom, toasted walnuts, pomegranate seed and our cooked farrow. The great part of this dish is it can be a plant based dish. 30% of the food at the Paris Olympics in the athletes village will be plant based added. Today, we have the Lena, which adds an element of protein and calcium. Today, we're going to start with a little cooked fo it's an ancient grain. It's easy to cook. It has a great nutty flavor and we're gonna add our roast summer squash and cami mushroom. These have been oven roasted on a just wonderful, ok. We'll give this a toss, add a little bit of our grape seed oil. The vegetables have a really wonderful aromatic quality to them. Add a little salt. It's ok. This dish is great for pre workout. Carbs are great in the dish and it helps athletes boost energy. Then we are gonna add a little bit of our roasted chickpeas and then we are gonna add our Lena and then to that, we're gonna add our pomegranate seeds and finish it with toasted walnuts and king oyster mushroom. And there you have it. One of the great reasons why I love this dish is how clean it eats, especially for an athlete as they're preparing for their event. Now, the best part we get to try it with the Lena and pomegranate seed just so refreshing. Amazing.

Chrystal Ramos, mental health coach at Headspace, shares tips to make mindfulness part of your daily routine.

5 tips to integrate mindfulness into your life

Whether it be for decreasing work, stress and anxiety, improving sleep, and even calming nerves around public speaking. I will often recommend mindfulness training such as meditation when trying to tackle various life challenges. In this case, all you really need is 1 to 5 minutes a day, any time of day and a space where you can focus for that length of time. Nothing fancy a chair, a car, a walk outside, either of those work perfectly. Here are five tips that can be helpful in integrating a mindfulness practice into your day to day life. First. If you're getting started with meditating, it's helpful to add it to an existing routine like having a cup of coffee or tea in the morning or even after breakfast. Second, you may find it helpful to schedule a reoccurring meeting in your calendar every day for a few minutes. Just to meditate. You can also try working in a midday meditation or mindfulness session to help give your mind a break. After a few hours of working and thinking in our increasingly overstimulated lives. Our brains have more information to process than ever before and with so much going on finding and keeping our focus can be challenging in a busy tech connected world. But if we can be calm and clear headed, it's easier to find that sweet spot. A relaxed focus that keeps us learning and retaining new information. When people take routine breaks, it can actually make them more productive and focused for the next tip meditating before a big meeting or exam can help with calming jitters and keep you focused. When the stakes are high, the emotions usually match and with the emotions swirling, it's not easy to sit down and focus. And finally, for the fifth tip at the end of the day, it can be helpful to wind down with the meditation to help transition ourselves out of our work mindset. Unlike our electronics, humans aren't hardwired to power off with the push of a button. We're not meant to stay amped up all day and then drop into sleep in an instant, try slowing down with a short sleep meditation to relax the body and the mind. I hope this was helpful and encouraging to start your own mindfulness and meditation practice.

Eat like an Olympic athlete: Try this easy summer citrus salad recipe

Hello, I am chef Jeff. I am an Olympic chef heading to the Paris 2024 Olympics. I am going to give you a sneak peek at the dishes served in the athletes village at this year's Olympics in Paris. Today, we're going to make a summer citrus salad with watermelon and pearl mozzarella. We're going to show you the ingredients that we have. We have ruby grapefruit. It's pre sliced, we have blood orange that we pre sliced as well. Purple basil, opal basil sumac florida, roasted pistachios, pearl mozzarella. We have a little citrus vinaigrette crest lemon zest and we have watermelon. The benefit to this dish is everything you prepare ahead of time. It makes it very easy to prepare. Once you're ready to eat. We're gonna start this dish with our ruby grapefruit place down. This dish is great for athletes post workout and we're gonna take a few mozzarella and watermelon and then this dish we're gonna layer the ingredients and build it out. We have our pearl mozzarella and then we are gonna add a little blood orange, love the color on the orange. We're going to take a little sumac Sprinkle that around. This gives us some really good tart flavor. I finish with a little Fleur de C toasted pistachio. And then this is Press Love this herb. It's got some good flavor call and then we'll take some basil. One of the great benefits of this salad is with the citrus. It adds that vitamin C and antioxidant quality, which is great for athlete recovery. And then the other added benefit is with the pearl mozzarella. We have higher protein which helps athletes prepare for their next event. A little extra pearl mozzarella. And then we finish this salad with a little additional lemon zest, little opal basil, regular basil, some toasted pistachios, little sumac. And then we will take our citrus vinaigrette, top it with that and then finish with a tiny bit of grape seed oil and that's it. It's a lovely dish good for recovery for athletes. So let's give it a try. Fabulous.

Dr. Jenna Glover, chief clinical officer of Headspace, shares tips for being more present and mindful throughout the workday.

3 ways to practice mindfulness at work

For many people, the work day is spent dealing with constant deadlines, distractions and other stressors all competing for attention. At the exact same time. Research shows that work stress in particular can have a dominating effect on people's lives, impeding their ability to fully show up to work, maintain healthy relationships and properly care for their minds and bodies. If we that chronic stress unaddressed, it can lead to lost productivity, employee burnout attrition and substantial excess health care cost through mindfulness training, we can condition our brains to respond to stress in a way that protects our health, our well being and performance. Here are three simple ways to practice mindfulness at work. First, take regular breaks. Most people don't think they can afford the time to take a break, let alone regular breaks. But a well known productivity study found among a group of employees, the 10% who were the most productive had an ideal work rhythm of 52 minutes of work followed by a 17 minute break. If you want to start incorporating breaks into your day, try setting a timer on your phone to ring every hour when the timer rings. Take a break. It could be as short as one minute at your desk or as long as you can spare, no matter how you spend them, regular breaks can be particularly effective and rejuvenating. Number two, actively listen, try being fully present and mindful of what others are saying throughout the work day. Instead of just automatically nodding. As you wait for your turn to talk, you'll benefit from learning to quiet the internal chatter in your head and creating a space and openness to process what your coworkers are trying to tell you lastly use your commute to mindfully unwind. It's important to unplug at the end of a work day and set boundaries. So you can be truly present at home. The commute can be an ideal time to make this transition. I think many of us can relate to the fact that in this hyper connected world, we're experiencing increasing levels of stress, whether at work in our personal lives or social media, why stress itself is not innately bad? If left unattended, it can develop into overwhelming or chronic stress which radically increases a risk of debilitating mental and physical ailments by setting people up for success and helping them achieve their goals around health and happiness. We can take a step in the right direction to inspire cultural change that has a ripple effect, not just throughout the company but across everyone employees interact with on a daily basis.

From capsules and pills to herbs and powders, consumers can often feel overwhelmed by the abundance of supplements available on pharmacy aisles. Here are a few things the smart consumer should keep in mind before choosing a dietary supplement.

5 things to know about supplements

Consumers can often feel overwhelmed by the abundance of supplements available on pharmacy aisles. Here are a few things you should keep in mind before choosing a dietary supplement.

Quality sleep is critical for both physical and mental health. Tom Hale, CEO of Oura—creator of the eponymous sleep-tracking ring—guides us through the habits and behaviors that factor into getting a good night’s sleep.

5 tips for better sleep hygiene

Tom Hale, CEO of Oura—creator of the eponymous sleep-tracking ring—guides us through the habits and behaviors that factor into getting a good night’s sleep.

Sleep is critical. Imagine if I was able to give you a drug that would improve your mood, increase your energy, make your immune system stronger, reduce your appetite. Have you live longer? Reduce the chances of you getting type two diabetes or heart disease or maybe even Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. Would you take that drug? Of course you would, anyone would. Uh And the thing is is that that drug is for free. It's called sleep. And all you need to do is to know how to do it and to practice it intentionally tips for a good night's sleep. One of the classic uh sleep hygiene tips is to sleep in a cooler bedroom. So you might try that out and see if that improves your sleep. If you have a wearable that tracks sleep, you'll have a objective measure to know whether or not the change that you made. The experiment that you ran will affect the outcome of your sleep. Another tactic this is very common obviously is to use white noise. Some people prefer a fan. Some people like a white noise generator or a pink noise generator or a brown noise. There's all these different kinds of noise. You choose what that is that really works for you and you stick with it. Another tactic that people often use for sleep is sleep supplements. Uh Melatonin, it's the chemical that your body releases in order to kind of start everybody off on the process of going into this glorious symphony of sleep. I personally, I like to take LCN nine and magnesium. I take a kind of a sleep cocktail of three or four pills every night and their supplements, they're just compounds that are both relaxing and restful but also are very conducive to staying asleep. So magnesium is, I think a tried and true tactic for many people definitely works for me. Keep your room quiet and dark. It's not always possible. So, you know, sometimes you can isolate your own uh hearing with earplugs or with an eye mask to keep it dark if you can't keep the room itself dark. And then the last one and this is somewhat, I think counterintuitive for people sleep regularity increasingly is demonstrating that it is an important part of quality sleep. Think about the routine you had as maybe as a baby where your sleep and wake cycles were incredibly, you know, regimented and your body knew how to behave around those. And of course, you have your own sleep cycle, it's called your circadian cycle. But if you are regular and you're hitting that sort of window of falling asleep at the right time every night and waking up at the same time, you're actually going to do a great job of convincing your body your body how to sleep more effectively.

Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar couldn’t run a mile until she started running at 45 and challenged herself to run her first marathon. Since then, she says she’s found parallels between the sport and her own experience as a business leader.

This CEO started running at 45 and now runs multiple races a year

Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar couldn’t run a mile until she started running at 45 and challenged herself to run her first marathon.

And I still remember my first half marathon. I'm like, holy cow. Everyone showed up at five in the morning and it was New York City at its best. And I ran my first half did better than I had expected and have since then have run three marathons and too many halves to count. I love running. I discovered running at 45 years old and maybe it's because I like having a goal or I like having a challenge. I could not run a mile when I first started, started running. What I love about running is, first of all, it's an amazing community. Number two, you're competing with yourself. It's about you setting a goal, whether it's a time goal, whether it's finishing a race, whether it's seeing a new city. So it's all about you and you're sharing with so many others. And what I love about running is it's all ages, all body types. It's young, old coming together for one thing of, of running and to me, wellness is very important. So running to me has been something that I'm not a particularly good runner, but it's something that I feel better after I after I've been on a run, it sounds corny. But I was one of the proudest moments for me when a New York road runners board member, I asked to join their board because I learned how to run at 45. And there are a lot of elite runners on the board, but they thought I was a poster child for running and how great running could be for health, for wellness and just the camaraderie DC is my new hometown. I have been at Fannie Mae for a year, so I have not run a race in the last year. But thanks to the Fannie Mae employees, they told me about the 10 mile Cherry Blossom race in April coming up in DC and I am training for a 10 miler. Come this April.

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