Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

At one point in my life, I managed a team of seven. My days consisted of 1:1 calls, performance reviews, and running interference between the team, other departments, and customers. I thought that’s what I wanted: the perceived power and responsibility of being a manager. But in reality, it was very stressful. Today, I have been a solopreneur for three years. The assumption is that solo businesses are a starting point. You launch alone, build momentum, hire employees, and scale. That’s the entrepreneur’s playbook, right? But over 80% of small businesses in the U.S. have no employees, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. For many of us, tha…

The venerable business case study method got its start in 1921 at the Harvard Business School. The method became standard at the school throughout the 1920’s and since then Harvard has a near-monopoly grip on the business, selling its cases to over 4,000 rival schools. Cases can be useful and informative, but recognize that they aren’t reality. The companies featured typically require that the case writer submit the case to them for approval. That introduces survivor bias—whoever is still around at the time of publication gets to dictate how the narrative is told. Another issue is that the companies selected and held up as exemplars are subject to the halo effect. This …

Is it lawful to call boneless chicken wings ‘wings’? According to a U.S. District Judge, yes. On Tuesday in Illinois, Judge John Tharp reached a verdict in a case brought against Buffalo Wild Wings alleging that the wings aren’t wings and shouldn’t be referred to as such on the restaurant chain’s menu. The suit, which was first brought by customer Aimen Halim in March 2023, claimed the business had violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act by referring to the product as “boneless wings” instead of something the plaintiff deemed more fitting, such as “chicken nuggets. In the end, the judge didn’t feel the case had any bones. In a 10-page ruling, Tharp wrote, “Bonel…

Walgreens will lay off hundreds of employees as the pharmacy chain continues to struggle with increased competition and higher-than-desired costs. On top of this, the newly private company is expected to close at least another few dozen retail stores in 2026. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Walgreens has announced that it will cut at least 628 jobs across two states, according to communications it sent to the states in question earlier this month. A Walgreens spokesperson confirmed the layoffs with Fast Company when reached for comment. News of the layoffs was first reported by Bloomberg. The job cuts include 469 positions in the company’s ho…

The worst days of the pandemic are long behind us, but the world is still reeling from its aftereffects. For some people, this has driven a dramatic reprioritizing of what’s important in their lives, including where they work and the kind of energy they’re prepared to give to the company that employs them. According to a new survey, one result of the pandemic aftershocks in the workforce is a sharp rise in how much people want to take time off to travel. Younger Americans are so keen to vacation, in fact, that they’re putting off big life decisions and even going into debt. Not only could this shift in priorities affect your business if you’re trying to attract young cus…

OpenAI, the maker of the most popular AI chatbot, used to say it aimed to build artificial intelligence that “safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” mission statement. But the ChatGPT maker seems to no longer have the same emphasis on doing so “safely.” While reviewing its latest IRS disclosure form, which was released in November 2025 and covers 2024, I noticed OpenAI had removed “safely” from its mission statement, among other changes. That change in wording coincided with its transformation from a nonprofit organization into a business increasingly focused on profits. OpenAI currently faces several lawsuits related to i…

Those in steady employment in 2026 might feel like they won the lottery, as the number of job openings dwindles at the same time as layoffs continue to hit. This has caused some recruiters to shift their focus from employers to the unemployed: Instead of companies hiring recruiters to find and place talent, job seekers are now the ones enlisting recruiter services to help get a foot in the door, coughing up hefty fees (either a flat rate or a cut of the candidate’s first-year salary once they land a job). The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the trend which has come to be known as “reverse recruitment.” One boutique agency the Journal spoke with, Th…

It’s hard to tell AI news from AI hype at the best of times, but the most recent surge around agents, triggered by many developers embracing Claude Code a couple of months ago, feels like something different. With the viral freakout over Moltbook, the agent social network, and the Super Bowl ad slap fight between OpenAI and Anthropic, AI has escalated to a new level of mainstream attention. Everyone’s forgotten about the AI bubble and is instead dancing around the AI “inflection point,” when AI in general and agents in particular begin to take over huge swaths of knowledge work, with massive consequences for the economy and the workforce. The recent sell-off of SaaS stoc…

In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, technology is transforming how money moves—making payments of tomorrow faster, smarter, and easier than ever before. Consider this snapshot of the near future: You’re in a taxi on the other side of the world. You pay your driver with the same digital wallet you use at home, and he receives the money in his wallet linked to the local instant payments network. He’s set a rule in his bank app—“send 30% of every payout to my family back home”—and funds are converted immediately to a third currency and delivered to relatives in a country thousands of miles away. Nobody needs to download a new app or think about payment methods. AI-p…

For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time. Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children’s mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families. Two trials are now u…

Behind its glittery facade, Claire’s is a financial mess. The tween retail icon behind millions of ear piercings and Y2K accessories filed for bankruptcy in August 2025, closing hundreds of stores and selling its North American business for just $104 million. So how does a brand with $1.4 billion in global sales end up with more than $500 million in debt? Fast Company staff writer Elizabeth Segran has been covering the company’s ups and downs for years. In this episode of FC Explains, she breaks down the full Claire’s story, from its mall-era dominance and surprising pandemic comeback to its failed IPO, crushing debt load, tariff difficulties, and the rise of sleeker…

By now, the so-called “Staples Baddie” may have crossed your feed with her tutorials and informational videos exploring her workplace. TikTok creator @blivxx, known online as Oblivion, started getting attention in January for highlighting niche services and products offered at Staples. It’s a distinctly Gen Z approach to social media. Videos from Staples Baddie (whose real name is Kaeden) feature ASMR, heavy slang, and an authenticity that has viewers—and brands—hooked. Comments on Kaeden’s videos range from tame (“Staples better give you your flowers asap” on a January 21 post about business cards) to unhinged (“Staples did my BBL” on a February 6 video about the…

Below, George Newman shares five key insights from his new book, How Great Ideas Happen: The Hidden Steps Behind Breakthrough Success. George is an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and he has spent his career trying to unravel the mysteries of what creativity is and where it comes from. His research has been featured in the New York Times, The Economist, BBC, Scientific American, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. What’s the big idea? Most of us think great ideas are conjured from within—some mysterious well of genius possessed by a special few. But if you listen closely to history’s most celebra…

The human brain is engineered to ignore most of what it sees and hears, according to the neuroscientists I interviewed for the audio original Viral Voices. If that’s the case, how are you supposed to make a memorable impression? The empowering news is that if you understand how the brain works, what it discards, and what it pays attention to, you’ll be far more persuasive than you’ve ever imagined. Persuasive people have influence in their personal and professional lives. BRAIN RULES FOR THE WORKPLACE “The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things,” says John Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington and author of the bestseller Brain Rul…

At first glance, it could be the trailer for a new Hollywood blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. “This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2,” Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson clarifies in a caption on X of the 15-second clip, which shows two of the industry’s biggest stars locked in a fistfight on a crumbling rooftop, complete with sweeping camera angles and crisp sound effects. This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2. If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked guys are cooked too idk. pic.twitter.com/dNTyLUIwAV — Ruairi Robinson (@RuairiRobinson) February 11, 2026 The viral AI-generated clip has garnered more than 1.8 milli…

You may be loyal to United, but the airline really wants you to show your loyalty by carrying around a United MileagePlus credit card or debit card. Chicago-based United Airlines announced a major overhaul to its frequent flyer program on Thursday, with better benefits arriving soon for its cardholders. While the airline cheerily billed the changes as giving travelers “new reasons” to have one of its credit or debit cards, the changes mean that non-cardholders will soon accrue fewer rewards than they currently do. The biggest change is that starting on April 2, United MileagePlus cardholders can earn up to four times more miles on travel booked with the airline th…

West Virginia’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday accusing the iPhone maker of knowingly allowing its software to be used for storing and sharing child sexual abuse material. John B. McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of protecting the privacy of sexual predators who use iOS, which can sync images to remote cloud servers through iCloud. McCuskey called the company’s decisions “absolutely inexcusable” and accused Apple of running afoul of West Virginia state law. “Since Apple has so far refused to police themselves and do the morally right thing, I am filing this lawsuit to demand Apple follow the law, report these images, and stop re-v…

In December 2025, Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, invited white men to file more sex- and race-based discrimination complaints against their employers. “Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the @USEEOC as soon as possible,” she wrote in a post on X. In February 2026, the EEOC began to investigate Nike on what the agency said was suspicion of discrimination against white workers. Both initiatives followed the EEOC’s March 2025 characterization of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to gather on stage as part of a commitment to build more “inclusive and multilingual” AI around the world. And they did. But what caught some of the audience’s attention, and later went viral on social media, was an awkward interaction between two rival tech leaders: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Modi, host of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, clasped hands with those closest to him — Altman to his left and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to his right — and beckoned all 13 tech leaders to lift their hands up in a chain, like …

Figma’s fourth-quarter earnings report arrived on Wednesday afternoon with a notable claim from one of its top executives: AI should “complement,” not replace, employees. It’s a bold statement from the leader of a tech company at a moment when many are scaling back. “We don’t see it as a tool that replaces our talent, but rather how can we augment the team that we already have,” Figma CFO Praveer Melwani said during Figma’s earnings call. “So we will continue to hire, but we will be able to complement that with efficiency gained by some of the tools out there as well.” The comment came in response to an analyst’s question about how AI might impact Figma’s res…

From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, many executives think that bringing employees back to the office is the secret to restoring productivity. But they’re wrong. That’s not what’s happening in those newly populated offices. Instead, your employees are more likely to be joining video calls from company desks and wearing noise-canceling headphones while doing work they could have done at home. Only now they’re paying $20 to commute and eating sad desk salads to get through the day. The timing couldn’t be more ironic. A new wave of return-to-office (RTO) mandates arrive just as companies pour millions into AI initiatives designed to automate work, eliminate roles, an…

Picture a jazz quartet mid-performance. The bassist anchors the rhythm with meticulous precision—years of practice evident in every note. The saxophonist, meanwhile, closes her eyes and ventures into uncharted melodic territory, responding to something she heard in the drummer’s improvised fill three bars ago. What you’re witnessing isn’t chaos, nor is it rigid execution. It’s something far more valuable: the dynamic interplay between discipline and imagination that produces work no one has ever heard before. This is exactly the capability that distinguishes organizations that merely survive disruption from those that shape it. In an era defined by the rapid-fire shifts…