Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

You might remember ZenBooths—Amazon’s contribution to corporate well-being. These were booths installed in the middle of warehouses, equipped with a fan, a potted plant, and a monitor playing meditation videos. The company called them mindful practice rooms. Employees called them despair chambers. The internet called them coffins for workers—workers who, incidentally, didn’t even have time to use the bathroom because of crushing productivity demands. ZenBooths are, I think, a fitting metaphor for modern corporate wellness. According to Gallup, employee engagement dropped to 20% in 2025—the lowest it’s been since the COVID-19 lockdowns. Companies are pouring money into…

At First Women’s Bank, we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the care economy. What we have observed is that the healthcare sector has emerged as more than just a category; it is a cornerstone of the modern, mission-based women’s economy. We see the immense value women physicians contribute to their communities, while also recognizing the challenges that can come with traditional employment models. While studies estimate female physicians earn $2 million less than male physicians throughout their respective careers, we consider both the social impact of this gap and where economic improvement is possible. The surge of women starting their own practices signals that …

When I first launched my business, I believed growth meant saying yes to everything. Every client who reached out, every opportunity that landed in my inbox, every late-night email that felt urgent. It all felt like momentum. I had spent years in the finance industry learning how to be reliable, responsive, and endlessly available. So when I went out on my own, I brought those habits with me. I believed boundaries were something you earned later, once you’d proven yourself. To make matters worse, there’s an unspoken belief in founder culture that “serious” entrepreneurs are always available, always hustling, always willing to sacrifice their lives for their businesses…

After a long day in the office, you catch a sight of yourself in the bathroom mirror: Hair, frizzy. Skin, dry. Eyes, puffy. “Office air” has claimed yet another victim. The term, which has recently gone viral on TikTok, puts its finger on a complaint office workers have suffered in silence for years. Coined by content creator Noa Donlan, her videos documenting the phenomenon have recently amassed millions of views across TikTok and Instagram. “I first noticed it as a student, but it became unmistakable once I started working full-time four years ago,” Donlan told People in a recent interview. “I’d leave the house feeling put together, then catch myself in t…

Last September, OpenAI and Shopify made an announcement that sent ripples throughout the retail industry: They were partnering to launch Instant Checkout—a feature that would let people complete purchases directly within ChatGPT. Within months, the AI giant promised, we would be able to ask ChatGPT for Mother’s Day gift ideas or top-rated lightbulbs, and then click to buy products instantly. Shopify’s president, Harley Finkelstein, declared this the “the new frontier” of retail. But if you’ve tried to shop on ChatGPT recently, you know that this future never arrived. OpenAI quietly killed Instant Checkout in March. The official story, according to OpenAI’s blog p…

In New York, lawmakers are considering a pied-à-terre tax on second homes worth $5 million or more. It’s part of a growing wave of legislation focused on taxing the rich. But some wealthy people aren’t too happy about it. On an earnings call this week, Steven Roth, chief executive of Vornado Realty Trust, likened the rhetoric around taxing the rich to hate speech. Steven Roth Roth was specifically referring to what he called a “spat” between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin. Mamdani recently filmed a video saying he would “tax the rich” outside Griffin’s multimillion-dollar penthouse. (The building, as noted …

In the not-so-distant past, the biggest question I’d get as a CEO was cut and dry: “What’s our plan?” Today, leaders across industries face a different, core question: “Are we built for change?” Unprecedented disruption is upon us, and just about every organization needs to transform quickly, in a big way. Having led five organizations, I have always architected and executed change as a core part of my remit. After decades of this work, I can confidently say that the formulas and frameworks that have worked for decades are no longer what we need. Because these unprecedented times call for something new, here are my top six tips for leading through change today. …

Mother’s Day is Sunday, and it’s not too late to get that perfect gift for Mom–time for herself. We conducted a survey through the Rutgers Center for Women in Business and asked 288 mothers to choose their ideal Mother’s Day gift from the following popular options: time for yourself, a family activity, or a physical gift, and then compared their responses to the 292 fathers we asked about Father’s Day. Overall, most parents want to celebrate their day by spending time with their families, with 69% of mothers and fathers choosing a shared family activity as their ideal gift. While the concept sounds heartwarming, it is less heartwarming that nearly 40% of mothers r…

Below, Piera Gelardi shares five key insights from her new book, The Playful Way: Creativity, Connection, and Joy Through Everyday Moments of Play. Gelardi is a creative entrepreneur. She cofounded the media brand Refinery29 and, more recently, the creative wellness company NoomaLooma. What’s the big idea? Playfulness means being curiously, creatively, and courageously engaged with life. Being playful isn’t the easy choice. It requires showing up authentically, risking looking silly, and trying something that might not work. In a world that rewards performance and polish, choosing play is a quiet act of courage that will help you feel alive. Listen to the a…

BlackBerry revivalist phones have been appearing in various forms over the last few years, but the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is the most credible option yet. The small-scale Chinese boutique-of-sorts Unihertz has spent years refining its formula to balance modern Android capabilities with legacy tactile hardware. In 2026, it’s finally landed on a device that makes the most of its own identity. The naming convention here is admittedly a little confusing. Last year’s Titan 2 was a rugged, wide-format device clearly inspired by the BlackBerry Passport—it was, in every sense, “titanic.” But this new Elite successor isn’t a turbo-charged version of that phone; it’s a complete…

Burger King’s slogans have long emphasized personalization, like “Have It Your Way” and “Your Rule.” Now there’s a text generator that lets you personalize its logo, too. A new Burger King logo font generator lets users customize the red, rounded letters that sit between the logo’s burnt-orange-colored buns. It’s by Pixel Frame, a website that makes album cover and logo text generators for everything from Drake’s discography to Dragon Ball Z and Donkey Kong. Just a few words will render big and bold in the logo generator, but the text will become increasingly squished and stacked as you add more text, with one line stacked on top of the other like hot-off-the-gril…

Artificial intelligence is constantly in the news, and it’s one of the most talked about topics among our Fast Company Impact Council members. Its use and acceptance levels are changing daily, with company direction on how to approach it changing alongside that. Boards, leadership, teams, and customers are also reassessing AI usage in the workplace and in the work product. We asked our Impact Council members what kinds of attitude changes toward AI they are seeing in their ecosystem. This question drew an onslaught of replies—clearly a topic everyone has thoughts about. We are sharing 26 of their responses, ranging from the theoretical to unusual use cases. 1. MOVE AW…

For a long time, we thought we were doing our part. Our firm gave generously, supported causes we believed in, and showed up when asked. But over time, it became clear that something was missing. Our giving wasn’t balanced. It was concentrated. It didn’t always reach far enough into the communities where we live and work. And it didn’t always invite everyone to take part. That realization led us to rethink how we engage—and why our Day of Giving program matters so deeply. MG2’s Day of Giving is not about a single project or a single group of people. It’s about participation. Once a year, every MG2 employee is invited to step away from their work and spend a day servin…

Inside Ikea’s movie studio-size marketing and production facility at the company’s headquarters in Älmhult, Sweden, a corner of a vast soundstage is piled with a multicolored array of what look like props from some fantastical children’s show. There’s a bench that rocks from side to side, a bright blue lamp that hides two transformative elbows in its skinny post, a glass vase with jug ears sticking out from its sides, and a clock on the end of a curvaceous red tube that looks like a worm wiggling its way out of the dirt. These whimsical items are all part of Ikea’s new PS collection, a once-in-a-while recurring product drop that the company uses to stretch its exp…

There are many ways to measure the success of CompanyCam, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based startup unicorn that popularized a photo-focused construction tracking app that’s become popular within the roofing industry. But one of the clearest signs that its design, utility, and functionality are hitting the mark is the variety of users the app continues to attract. There are shipbuilders who use it to track how vessels are built and to certify the strength of a hull. Retail merchandisers love the ability to showcase product setups and track subcontractors. Property managers use it to oversee buildings. “We have some aestheticians—which I think our terms of service say th…