Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Being a freelance designer has its perks, but pay transparency is not one of them. Designers are constantly forced to second-guess themselves: Should you charge a day rate or a project fee? Are you earning as much as your peers? Is AI taking work/jobs away from you? Today we’re launching a new, data-driven effort in partnership with the American Institute of Graphic Arts to help you answer those questions and more with confidence. It’s called the Design Pricing Transparency Project, and it’s dedicated to helping freelance designers understand how much they should be charging for their work. We’re asking designers across the industry—graphic design…

Being the children of Francis Ford Coppola had a profound impact on the filmmaking sensibilities of Sofia and Roman Coppola, but their mother, Eleanor Coppola, may have played a larger role in nurturing their creative pursuits. “She taught me how to be in charge without being loud, and the importance of being real,” Sofia writes in her introduction to Two of Me: Notes on Living and Leaving, Eleanor Coppola’s posthumous memoir, published by A24 on November 11. Sofia and Roman convened in New York City last week for a conversation about the book and their mother, who died in April 2024 at the age of 87. One of Eleanor’s last wishes was to have Two of Me, which she wrot…

Business leaders love to talk about innovation. But for all the energy poured into frameworks and strategy decks, most teams rarely experience what innovation actually feels like. Real innovation is uncertain, emotional, iterative, and profoundly human. That’s why Cliff has spent the past several years guiding organizations through songwriting experiences—yes, literal songwriting—to unlock the emotional and relational capacities that innovation demands. And as someone who works at the intersection of story, leadership, and transformational design, Tony sees this as more than a clever workshop: it’s a reorientation. The same skills it takes to write a compelling song—…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. A company’s corporate brand name should be its hardest working marketing asset. Nothing will be used more often or for longer than the company’s name. And in a world where competitors can copy almost everything else, they can’t duplicate your name. However, sometimes the original name, chosen long ago, no longer fits and it’s time to rebrand. Rebranding a company is not just a superficial exercise; th…

The holiday season is merry, bright, and hectic. It’s hard to cram every moment of cheer into just four weeks and keep your sanity. If you find yourself behind and needing to grab last-minute presents, run errands, or pick up a stick of butter on Christmas Eve, know that you are only human. After taking a couple of deep breaths, read on to see which stores are open and closed on the night before the big night. Are banks open on Christmas Eve? Christmas Eve is not a federal holiday, so most banks are open. Some may choose to have reduced hours, so it is a good practice to check with your local branch ahead of time to save you the potential headache. I…

When the confetti settles and the ball has dropped, many Americans will wake up on New Year’s Day—Thursday, January 1, 2026—with errands to run, groceries to buy, or just the urge to grab coffee. But because New Year’s Day is a federal holiday, the holiday clock affects a wide range of services differently: Some go dormant for the day, others hum along with normal or modified hours, and a few offer the convenience you might need as you kick off the new year. Here’s what to expect if you’re planning to be out and about—or just need to know whether that store you’re counting on is open. Will I get mail on New Year’s Day? Thursday is a full federal holiday, w…

Thanksgiving is a beautiful day filled with family, loved ones, and good food. All that merriment takes copious amounts of labor and planning ahead. It is almost inevitable that something will fall between the cracks and a last-minute store run will be necessary. But is that even possible? Here’s a quick breakdown of what is open and closed on Thanksgiving 2025 to help you out in a pinch should you have a missing cranberry sauce crisis. But first let’s take a look at everyday services: Is Thanksgiving a federal holiday? Yes, Thanksgiving is a federal holiday celebrated annually in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. This makes Novem…

At SXSW 2026, the creator economy moved firmly into the spotlight as a defining force in modern marketing. Creators are no longer viewed as content producers alone. They are business owners, cultural drivers, and trusted voices with direct relationships to engaged communities. SXSW’s creator-first approach reflects a broader evolution across marketing. Creators aren’t just a marketing channel; they’re becoming the primary way brands build relevance and connection. As the SXSW Creator Economy track made clear, creators now sit at the intersection of culture and commerce, shaping what people buy and how they discover and engage. For brands, this means moving beyond …

As our attention spans and cognitive abilities are increasingly damaged by digital overuse and AI-mediated shortcuts, the ability to focus deeply and learn something in depth is quickly becoming a critical skill. Never have we had such broad access to information. And never have so many people felt unable to concentrate long enough to truly master anything. Learning is everywhere, yet depth feels elusive. In a world where artificial intelligence can retrieve, summarize, and recombine information faster than any human, what remains valuable is the capacity to incorporate it. And for that to be possible, you need to stay with a subject long enough for it to transf…

The narrative that women entrepreneurs receive less than 2% of venture capital (VC) funding has been widely circulated. It stems from data provided by Pitchbook, a respected research firm that delivers insights on global capital markets. However, a closer examination of their data reveals a more nuanced perspective. Pitchbook only studies investments funded by VC firms, which is a big part of the market but does not include the very substantial investments made by angel investors. Significant progress has been made in these early stages of the venture market. Twenty years ago, a mere 3% of angel-funded startups were led by women. Fast-forward to today, and women now acco…

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…

One recent rainy afternoon, I found myself in an unexpected role—philosophy teacher to a machine. I was explaining the story of the Bhagavad Gita to a leading large language model, curious to see if it could grasp the lessons at the heart of one of the world’s most profound philosophical texts. The LLM’s responses were impressively structured and fluent. They even sounded reflective at times, giving a sense that the AI model knew that it was itself part of this millennia-long conversation. Yet there was something fundamental that was missing from all the answers the machine gave me—the lived experience that gives wisdom its true weight. AI can analyze the Gita, but it d…

After more than two decades as a psychosexual therapist, I have learned to listen carefully for what people are not saying. When vulnerability is close to the surface, uncertainty shows up quickly. Am I doing this right? Do I belong here? What am I allowed to ask for, and what will it cost me if I do? At its core, psychosexual therapy is not really about sex. It is about how humans relate when the stakes are high, when power is present, and when much of what matters remains unspoken. It is about noticing how meaning is made in moments of vulnerability and choosing how to respond rather than react. What continues to surprise me is how familiar these same dynamics f…

The Cold War lasted 45 agonizing years. Daily life in the Soviet Union was a mixture of dread and horror—children taught to report their parents’ whispered doubts, families queuing for hours for bread, dissidents vanishing in the night. November 8, 1989, was just another day of knowing World War III might pop off at any time. But on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. No tanks. No gun battles. No sabotage. Just a peaceful, surreal collapse. The empire fell both slowly and suddenly. Gen Xers and boomers remember the disorienting feeling of watching the impossible happen on evening news broadcasts. With the benefit of hindsight and declassified records now avai…

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point Wednesday for the third time since September, bringing its key rate to about 3.6%, the lowest in nearly three years. Before September, it had gone nine months without a cut. The benchmark rate is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another, and the Fed has two goals when it sets the rate: one, to manage prices for goods and services, and two, to encourage full employment. The benchmark rate also affects the interest rates consumers pay to borrow money via credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and other financial products. Typically, the Fed might increase the rate to try to bring down infla…

At 12, I was walking around a very affluent neighborhood with my father and he said, “Mikey, all these people in these nice houses, not one of them could run a gas station.” That stuck with me. The gas station test isn’t about intelligence or ambition, it’s about aptitude for running a successful business. As a strong student, then an investment banking analyst, then a private equity associate, I was in this jetstream towards a career in investing. But can investors run gas stations? Does it matter? This concept was always in the back of my mind. I dove so deep into business details as an investor that my interest actually inhibited my performance. I was propelled into …

Another round of Epstein files—approximately three million documents—was released January 30, and this batch included a lot of prominent names. That list included philanthropist and business magnate Bill Gates, entrepreneur Elon Musk, and author, doctor and longevity influencer Peter Attia. They were all allegedly connected to Epstein in different ways, and as a result, their mentions in the documents are varied. But it’s their responses that offer lessons to others in the business world about how to respond when faced with a crisis. Dealing with one of this magnitude is no easy feat, and it requires absolute trust between a client and a crisis manager, Beverly Hills cel…

April 2025 was a busy month for space. Pop icon Katy Perry joined five other civilian women on a quick jaunt to the edge of space, making headlines. Meanwhile, another group of people at the United Nations was contemplating a critical issue for the future of space exploration: the discovery, extraction and utilization of natural resources on the Moon. At the end of April, a dedicated Working Group of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space released a draft set of recommended principles for space resource activities. Essentially, these are rules to govern mining on the Moon, asteroids and elsewhere in space for elements that are rare here o…

As a home business owner, understanding the implications of legal decisions on prediction markets can directly affect your content monetization strategies. How do you think this ruling could impact your approach to creating engaging content? The NFL is taking a significant step by urging the Supreme Court to rule on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. This move could reshape how content creators engage with their audiences and monetize their platforms. Why does this matter? Prediction markets allow users to bet on the outcomes of various events, including sports. If the Supreme Court decides to regulate these markets, it could lead to stricter guidelines on h…

As a home business owner, understanding the dynamics of major media mergers can provide insights into the evolving landscape of content monetization. How do you think this merger will impact independent creators and their opportunities in the market? The Landscape Shift: The recent merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. signals a significant shift in the entertainment industry. This consolidation of power raises questions about content distribution and monetization strategies that could affect everyone from large studios to independent creators.Opportunities for Creators: With fewer players in the game, content creators may find new avenues for collaboration or face i…

It’s a story that sounds almost too outrageous to be true. Deel, a $12 billion company in the HR tech space, is facing serious allegations of corporate espionage, according to a lawsuit filed by its competitor, Rippling. The lawsuit—filed earlier this month in a California court—claims Deel orchestrated a “multi-month campaign to steal a competitor’s business information with help from a corporate spy.” Rippling alleges that Deel planted an employee to infiltrate its operations, targeting customers in an effort to lure them away. According to the suit, the alleged spying lasted over four months. During that time, the employee (identified in court documents only by…