Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

When you think of leaders you admire, you likely imagine them as authentic, at least in the sense of seeming genuine, real, and trustworthy. Science confirms this is usually the case. For example, data tells us that trustworthy leaders stand out for their “no thrills” patterns of behavior: They are, in other words, predictable, reliable, and unlikely to shock their employees or followers with erratic or excitable behavior that freaks them out. Furthermore, the best meta-analysis (quantitative review of hundreds of independent top studies) on personality and leadership tells us that one of the most consistent predictors of whether someone emerges as a leader,…

Residents living near SpaceX headquarters in Boca Chica, Texas, will soon have a new public body through which to raise concerns about everything from road maintenance to garbage collection. Earlier this month, more than 200 residents voted to establish the city of Starbase, Texas—a 1.5-square-mile community governed by three elected officials, all of whom have ties to SpaceX, the space exploration company based in the area. Of the 218 people who voted in the election—many believed to be SpaceX employees—only six opposed incorporation. The news marks a win for Musk, who has wanted the area around his company’s headquarters to become a city since at least March 202…

The news landed quietly, tucked into a letter from MIT Sloan’s dean to colleagues: After 67 years, MIT Sloan Management Review is shutting down. Future insights, the letter explained, will live on via “digital newsletters, short-form video, social-first content, and podcasts.” This is a strategic inflection point for management thinking. It will have a major impact on the entire ecosystem through which serious management ideas travel from researchers to the people who run organizations. That ecosystem was already fragile. Winner-take-all dynamics MIT Sloan Management Review and similar journals were classic two-sided market propositions. They offered management…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is tightening or heating up. Since the national Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country that shift …

At the Winter Olympics, skiers, bobsledders, speedskaters, and many other athletes all have to master one critical moment: when to start. That split second is paramount during competition because when everyone is strong and skilled, a moment of hesitation can separate gold from silver. A competitor who hesitates too much will be left behind—but moving too early will get them disqualified. Though the circumstances are less intense, this paradox of hesitation applies to daily life. Waiting for the right moment to cross the street, or pausing before deciding whether to answer a call from a number you don’t recognize, are daily examples of hesitation. Importantly, some ps…

Zohran Mamdani is entering his streamer era. The NYC mayor launched a series on Twitch, titled “Talk with the People,” on May 21. The series has Mamdani answering questions from New Yorkers live on the stream. He announced the series in an Instagram post this morning, featuring a photo of himself and one of a Franklin D. Roosevelt “Fireside Chat.” Mamdani’s campaign was unique in its engaging deployment of social media, and he has continued to create shortform video content since taking office. So it comes as no real surprise that the 34-year-old mayor is utilizing another popular social platform to increase his direct access to constituents. This is the first…

“APPstinence,” which as you may have guessed, refers to abstaining from using your apps, is a movement encouraging people to get off social media and become less attached to their smartphones. It was founded by Harvard graduate student Gabriela Nguyen. The 24-year-old, who grew up in the center of Big Tech in Silicon Valley, realized she was addicted to both social media and her phone, probably from an early age, so she decided to something about it and started a club at the Ivy League school for her fellow students, along with the website APPstinence. Aimed at her Gen Z and Gen Alpha peers — although it applies to everyone who feels they have an unhealthy relationshi…

Fashion weeks around the world are dominated by four main shows: New York, Paris, Milan, and London. But in 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) made a bold move that helped it garner attention. It launched a framework with nearly 20 sustainability standards that fashion brands must meet to participate. The choice came at a time when fashion’s sustainability practices were under increased scrutiny. Every year the industry contributes up to 10% of global carbon emissions, pollutes billions of cubic meters of clean water, and produces metric tons of textile waste. Copenhagen’s fashion week was applauded for its forward-thinking approach. However, over the nex…

It’s a familiar frustration: You miss your connection because of a delayed flight. The line at the customer assistance desk is 30 people deep. The airline app offers little help, and the call center puts you on hold for half an hour. Will you ever escape Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)? Enter Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) Assist, a new generative AI travel agent that helps customers with post-booking travel questions, changes, and disruptions. HTS assist was built by Hopper, the mobile-only travel-booking platform that’s known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and for predicting flight prices with near-flawless accuracy and pinging users when i…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. CEOs and other business leaders are scrambling to understand how customers might respond to financial uncertainty brought on by tariffs and other factors roiling the markets. Early signs are not great: the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index in April fell for the fourth straight…

Below, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein shares five key insights from her new book, The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us. Goldstein is an award-winning philosopher, writer, and public intellectual. She is the author of 10 books of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction and has held various visiting professorships and fellowships at elite academic institutions. Her first novel was The Mind-Body Problem. What’s the big idea? We all want to feel connected to others and know that we matter. The ways we go about making our lives matter shape who we are, the meaning we find, and the mark we leave on the world. Listen to the audio version …

For years, global stars have traveled to West Africa as ambassadors of humanitarian and anti-corruption efforts: Rihanna in Senegal urging world leaders to donate aid, Bono in Ghana championing transparency as “the best vaccine against corruption.” All the while, Vincent Bolloré, the billionaire power broker who wields significant influence over the parent company behind their music labels, was busy building an industrial empire in those same countries. That empire is now at the center of corruption trials, sexual abuse allegations, and a sweeping criminal complaint filed by West African nonprofits. “Vincent Bolloré stole money from our communities and used it…

Square, the popular business technology platform known for its Point of Sale (POS) systems, has launched a new device designed to allow sellers to ring up various kinds of purchases and perform other tasks without carrying around the extra weight of bulkier hardware. The Square Handheld, with a screen that is slightly bigger than a cellphone, is less than an inch thick, thin enough to fit in your back pocket. Handheld card readers currently on the market are bulkier, requiring sellers to use lanyards or handstraps to carry them around. The Square Handheld frees up hands for a more seamless integration into the user’s workflows. The device supports a full range of…

If I had a dollar for every time a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum has been charged with fraud, I’d have $5. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it has happened five times. By now, the Forbes “curse” has been well documented, from Charlie Javice’s JPMorgan fiasco (who was on the Under 30 list in 2019) to crypto poster boy Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrating one of the biggest financial frauds in history (he appeared on the list in 2021). This week, another honoree has been hit with federal charges. Gökçe Güven, the 26-year-old founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, faces 52 years in prison after being charged with fraud, accused of cheating investors out of millions. …

Minnesota continues to be the beating heart of nationwide anti-ICE movements with The Day of Truth and Freedom. Today, January 23, hundreds of businesses across the state are closing their doors in protest after community groups, faith-based organizations and unions came together to call for an “economic blackout.” “Minnesotans are coming together in moral reflection and action to stand together against the actions of the federal government against the state of Minnesota,” a declaration reads on the organizing website, ICE Out of MN. The day-long protest follows a series of tragedies that stem from the Department of Homeland Security’s January 6 deployment of…

Imagine you’re watching a basketball game. You’re not focused on the stat sheet—you’re watching how the players read the court, pivot when a play breaks down, and celebrate their teammates. Those moments tell you a lot more about how someone performs under pressure than any metric ever could. I think about hiring the same way. Like a stat sheet, a résumé might list someone’s achievements, but it won’t show how they adapt under pressure or support a team. Yet in the age of AI, companies often overlook that, prioritizing technical skills instead. According to a 2024 report from Microsoft and LinkedIn, 71% of employers said they would choose an AI-fluent candidate wi…

Authoritarian acolytes will tell you that, to be strong, a country must “demonstrate force.” White House advisor Stephen Miller recently put that worldview plainly on CNN, arguing that “the real world…is governed by strength…by force…by power”—a claim belied, as it were, by history. America did not become a superpower primarily by proving it could dominate. It became a superpower by proving it could partner. After World War II, the United States stood unrivaled militarily. Yet it did not rely on force alone to secure its position. Instead, it invested in rebuilding a shattered world. The Marshall Plan was not charity—it was a strategy, linking economic recover…

Peloton is pushing off with a new strategy for making workouts personal and more useful. The at-home fitness company today unveiled a turnaround strategy that it says will overhaul and improve its offerings by relying on AI-powered features. The company’s ultimate goal? Leveraging technology to increase personalization and create a more sticky workout experience and prevent churn, create communities between members that will bind them to the program. The new strategy comes after a rocky few years for the company. Peloton went public in 2019 at a price of $27 per share, but is now trading at $9 after incorrectly predicting demand for its products after a…

A Pennsylvania police officer responding to a tip from the manager of a McDonald’s testified Tuesday about confronting Luigi Mangione during the intense manhunt last year for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer. As soon as Mangione doffed his medical mask at the restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Officer Joseph Detwiler said, “I knew” he was the suspect whose face had been all over the news since the shooting five days earlier on a Manhattan sidewalk. “It’s him … I’m not kidding. He’s real nervous, and he didn’t talk too much,” Detwiler told a supervisor by phone from the restaurant parking lot moments after meeting Mangione, according to the officer’s …

Anthropic is turning to a Biden administration alum to run its new Beneficial Deployments team, which is tasked with helping extend the benefits of its AI to organizations focused on social good—particularly in areas like health research and education—that may lack market-driven incentives. The new team will be led by Elizabeth Kelly, who in 2024 was tapped by the Biden administration to lead the U.S. AI Safety Institute within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Kelly helped form agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic that let NIST safety-test the companies’ new models prior to their deployment. She left the government in early March, and in mid-…

Two papal tailors and no conclave orders. The conclave that begins next Wednesday to elect a successor for Pope Francis is the first in 46 ½ years for which the Vatican hasn’t ordered a set of cassocks for the new head of the Catholic Church — at least from the two best-known papal tailors. That isn’t stopping Ranieri Mancinelli, who opened his ecclesiastical tailoring shop near the Vatican in the 1960s, from making three simple white cassocks just in case: the traditional small, medium and large sizes to cover all possible heights and girths. “I’m doing this on my own to be able to present these cassocks for the next pope, without knowing who he will be,” Man…

Just because a startup fails doesn’t mean it can’t cash out big. According to a report by Forbes, defunct companies are selling their digital footprints to AI companies as training data—and making real money from it. Shanna Johnson, the CEO of now-defunct software company cielo24, told the publication that she was able to sell every Slack message, internal email and Jira ticket as training data for “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” This isn’t a one-off scenario. SimpleClosure, a startup that helps companies like cielo24 shut down, told Forbes that there’s been major interest from AI companies trying to get their hands on workplace data. Because of this, SimpleC…