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I recently argued that return-to-office mandates aren’t really about productivity; they’re about control. Ironically, my article published smack-dab in the middle of a September inflection point of increasing office time requirements, a phenomenon Owl Labs dubbed “hybrid creep.” And now, perhaps shockingly, I’ve started a new job with a team that (gasp!) has an office. When I wrote my argument against RTO, I had no inkling that I would soon be back in an office (part-time) myself. I am now basically in a live experiment. So far, it’s changed how I feel about the idea of going into an office. It hasn’t changed my view on RTO. A lab for truly flexible work My new team has a completely flexible work-location approach. There is an office, and we can come in if we want to. But there’s no requirement or badge-swiping. Those of us who are local also collaborate daily with colleagues in drastically different time zones—Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC). So our overall team is distributed enough that in-person work can’t be our organizing religion. That makes my current situation a fascinating window into what happens when people are free to optimize their work model to their life needs, versus an imposed framework of what a workday is mandated to look like. When in-person time is voluntary, rhythms emerge instead of rules I’m seeing that when location is genuinely a choice, people start building rituals. There’s a weekly team meeting for which many people choose to be in the office. There are social opportunities like an annual holiday party and happy hours. And the office itself is an uplifting, interactive place where dogs are allowed, there’s a bar in the kitchen area, and people play music throughout the day. A few teammates come in more often simply because that’s what works best for them. If someone is visiting from another location, the office fills up as people come in to see them. In-office time also doesn’t have to be a full day. Many of us have early calls with EMEA, so we take those from home, head into the office midmorning, and leave before rush hour to finish up from home again. A main team meeting is midday, on purpose, to make that flow possible. A morning Slack that’s more than a status report Another ritual I love is a deceptively simple morning Slack each person sends sharing where they’ll be that day and whether they’ll be offline at any point. On the surface, it sounds like basic coordination. In reality, it feels like a daily “good morning” and a window into each other’s lives. The messages aren’t just “I’ll be online 9-to-5, WFH.” They’re things like “We had a loss in our family, so I’ll be taking the day off”; “My puppy was sick last night, so I’m working from home”; and “Headed to a workout midday and will be back online by 2.” These tiny updates are powerful because they keep us connected and normalize being a human with a life outside work. They also give us opportunities to respond and help cover for each other. How I’m using the office now I’m going into the office about two days a week, with my Tibetan terrier Basil trotting alongside me, eager to greet everyone when we walk in. My colleague keeps a laser pointer at his desk; Basil goes wild chasing the dot when we need a laugh break. I’m trying to schedule one-on-ones for days when others are in, so they’re in-person catch-ups, not just agenda boxes checked off. We get the power of group thinking around a table, friendly greetings, and the ability to take a walking meeting instead of more staring at a screen. All of this feels like support, not surveillance. No one is proving they exist by punching a proverbial time clock. We go in by choice, which gives me gratitude for the option versus dreading going to an office. So, has this changed my view on RTO? Absolutely not. If anything, it’s reinforced my original point that dictating office time is a sign of poor leadership. The benefits I’m witnessing wouldn’t exist in the same way if they were forced rather than organic. The difference isn’t “office versus remote.” The difference is a culture of empowerment versus a culture of control. In a control culture, leaders start with mandates such as how many days people must come in, and then try to retrofit culture. Any sense of flexibility is granted like a favor. In an empowerment culture, leaders start with trust and clarity: Here’s what we need to achieve, here’s how we’ll communicate, here are your options of where you can work. Then they let people design their own patterns inside that useful guidance. In the first model, the office is a compliance tool. In the second, the office is a resource people leverage when it helps. A growing body of research on RTOs exists We’re far enough past pandemic-forced flexible work to start seeing how different work-location models perform and their impacts. For example, a large study done at Baylor University tracked the LinkedIn histories of workers at S&P 500 firms and found that when companies imposed RTO mandates, turnover jumped by about 14% and hiring took longer. Even more concerning, turnover was more likely among top talent and those important to diversity (especially women, whose turnover rate was three times that of men). A separate two-year study of more than 800,000 employees by Great Place to Work found that productivity stayed stable or improved after moving to remote work; what mattered most was leadership quality and trust, not where people sat. I expect that in the long term, companies that don’t empower their team members with flexible work location will experience enough brain drain that it will be difficult to remain competitive. There must be a better way, and I believe I’m experiencing a version of it. What leaders can draw inspiration from You may not be able to copy our exact setup, but you can borrow from these themes: Replace mandates with rituals. Instead of dictating fixed in-office days, anchor around events such as weekly team meetings designed for collaboration, planning on-sites, and celebratory events that people actually want to attend. Design for life needs. If you want in-person time, schedule office-based meetings to avoid peak commutes and respect caregiving schedules. Start micro-updates. A daily or weekly “Where I’ll be” check-in across the team takes only a minute for each person and creates a real sense of presence and care. Foster inclusion. The office should be a place where everyone feels invited. Ensure that people who are typically remote feel this too. They get invites to all major happenings like holiday parties, a CEO visit, etc. And when someone from another office or region visits, others know so they feel invited to come in. Make the office earn its gravity. If your office isn’t a place people want to be (no dogs, decent spaces to collaborate, or sense of warmth), fix that before you fixate on policies. Many keep asking, “How do we get people back to the office?” That’s the wrong question. The better questions asked by true leaders are “How do we give people the autonomy to choose the best place to do their best work while making the office one of those places?” and “How do we foster a culture that invites people in?” My current experience is proof that when you take these approaches, the in-office magic happens, no mandate required. View the full article

His enthusiasm for big business and foreign intervention is more Reaganite than populistView the full article

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Fund paid $81.6mn dividend to another group company controlled by the billionaire financierView the full article

Increased activity comes amid reports Moscow has sent submarine to escort vessel to its territoryView the full article

Massive shake-up is a show of force after corruption scandal last year weakened Ukraine’s governmentView the full article

The island is geologically analogous to Canada and countries in northern EuropeView the full article

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. In today’s article, we’re sharing the full results from the Q4 2025 Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey. To conduct our real estate agent survey, ResiClub partnered with Zoodealio, a cash-offer platform, and iBuyer-management software designed for real estate agents. Among the 204 agents who took the survey, half (51%) have been real estate agents for 15 years or longer. The survey was fielded from November 17 to December 29, 2025. Respondents included real estate agents spanning all regions of the U.S., giving us a ground-level view of buyer urgency, seller motivation, leverage shifts, commission structures, and expectations for the next 12 months. Here’s what the results revealed. Buyer urgency cools and leverage continues to shift away from sellers Nationally, a majority (55%) of agents say buyer urgency is lower than it was 12 months ago. The pullback is most pronounced in the Southwest, where no agents reported seeing buyer urgency pick up, and 65% reported seeing lower urgency. This slowdown is underlined by a continued downturn of buyer demand, with 52% of U.S. agents reporting lower homebuyer demand relative to 12 months ago. As buyer demand softens and inventory continues to build, 54% of U.S. agents now say sellers outnumber buyers, with 64% of agents in the Southeast noting the trend, reinforcing that buyers are gaining negotiating power as they move less urgently. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of agents across all regions (82%) agree that the leverage continues to shift toward homebuyers in their local housing markets. As buyer urgency fades, seller urgency is rising. Nationally, 45% of agents say seller urgency is higher than it was 12 months ago, led by the West (51%), Southwest (48%), and Southeast (46%). In these regions, fewer sellers appear willing to wait for conditions to improve. By contrast, the Northeast looks more stable: 55% of agents there say seller urgency is about the same as a year ago. Agents’ expectations for 2026 In Q4 2025, 39% of agents surveyed expected home prices in their local market to increase over the next 12 months, up from 28% in Q3. The shift is driven by a rise in expectations for prices to stay flat or see slight appreciation, with only 2% of agents anticipating price increases of 5% or more. Mortgage-rate expectations have dipped lower over the past quarter. Earlier in 2025, many agents were still bracing for a higher-rate outcome by the end of the year. As the year progressed, that view softened: Throughout Q4, most agents reported their expectations shifted toward a mid-6% end point, with far fewer expecting rates to remain in the 7% range. Overall confidence is weak, but agents see growth coming from existing homeowners Some 60% of real estate agents surveyed describe their business outlook for the next 12 months as optimistic, led by those in the Southeast (67%). Where do agents think the pie can grow the most in 2026? They say more homeowners are looking to downsize. Roughly 43% say downsizers will be the fastest-growing client segment, followed by move-up buyers (20%). First-time buyers trail well behind (15%), reflecting ongoing affordability constraints. Agent commissions are holding up—but they’re still mad at NAR Sentiment toward the National Association of Realtors remains weak: 57% of agents describe their view as “somewhat unfavorable” (26%) or “very unfavorable” (31%), while only 13% express a “somewhat favorable” (10%) or “very favorable” opinion (3%) of the organization. Agent compensation structures remain largely similar to the way they were prior to the March 2024 NAR settlement: 88% of sell-side deals and 82% of buy-side deals still use fixed-percentage commissions, mostly in the 2% to 3% range. Alternative structures are more common on the buy side but remain a minority. Meanwhile, about 10% of U.S. agents say they have discussed iBuyer cash-offer options with clients “very often” in the past year. These conversations are most common between agents and clients in the Southwest and the Southeast. Big picture The Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey results from Q4 2025 show a market moving in the same direction, but with more clarity than in Q3. Buyer urgency has cooled further, seller urgency has picked up, and the majority of agents say sellers outnumber buyers, reinforcing the ongoing shift in negotiating power toward buyers. At the same time, expectations around home prices have firmed modestly, with fewer agents anticipating declines and more expecting flat to slight growth in the next 12 months. As in Q3, agents expect activity to be driven primarily by existing homeowners—particularly downsizers and move-up buyers. Meanwhile, post-settlement agent sentiment toward NAR remains poor, and commission structures remain largely unchanged. View the full article

Fast Company is now accepting applications for our annual Best Workplaces for Innovators awards. This marks the eighth year we will be recognizing companies and organizations around the world that most effectively empower employees at all levels to improve processes, create new products, or invent whole new ways of doing business. In addition to honoring the world’s overall Best Workplaces for Innovators, we will recognize companies in 19 categories, including a brand-new category, Skilled Labor, singling out companies that depend heavily on talented employees with the kinds of increasingly coveted technical expertise acquired through votech training and trade schools. New Best Workplaces for Innovators categories In addition to Skilled Labor, other new categories this year include: Cybersecurity and Enterprise Software Industrial and Manufacturing Technology and Science Advertising, Marketing, and PR Biotech, Healthcare, and Life Sciences Financial Services and Fintech To select winners, the editors of Fast Company carefully review and score every application. An outside panel of industry experts then assesses the finalists to help determine the top 10, while the editors compile category winners based on application scores. “At a time of intense competition for talent, when elite prospects are receiving unprecedented compensation packages, companies with robust innovation cultures have a real edge,” says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Best Workplaces for Innovators allows our editors to identify organizations that most successfully encourage all their employees to be creative, to experiment, to invent.” Recognition in the fall issue Companies selected as Best Workplaces for Innovators will appear in the fall 2026 issue of Fast Company magazine and on fastcompany.com in September. For more information and details, see the FAQs. Last year’s Best Workplaces for Innovators issue honored nearly 200 diverse organizations from around the world, including Motorola Solutions (No. 1), Mattel (No. 7), Genentech (No. 25), and the only two companies that have made the cut every single year—Siemens (No. 10) and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (No. 50). What differentiates Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators awards from other best places to work lists is that it’s the only major business magazine recognition program that emphasizes innovation as the primary workplace perk. Any organization that can demonstrate a serious and sustained commitment to building a culture of innovation that yields tangible results is eligible to apply—public, private, or nonprofit. For more information or to apply, visit fastcompany.com/apply/bwi. For more than a decade, Fast Company has been recognizing outstanding achievement with its awards programs. Our Most Innovative Companies list celebrates organizations that are transforming industries and shaping society through paradigm-shifting products, insights, or services. Innovation by Design focuses on individuals and firms that are addressing some of the world’s most intractable challenges through design solutions. World Changing Ideas highlights emerging initiatives that aim to enhance life for all of us. Brands That Matter and Next Big Thing in Tech shine a light on the world’s most relevant brands and highlight the most potent emerging developments in technology. View the full article

At a time when it seems like everything’s getting more expensive, Ikea keeps making cheaper and cheaper USB-C chargers. Its newest—the 20-watt, single-port Sjöss—sells for $3.99. You’d pay more than four times that for Apple’s 20-watt, single-port USB-C charger, priced at $19. Charging cables for both are sold separately. Ikea has moved more aggressively into home electronics since last year. The company released a revamped range of smart home products in fall 2025 and opened pilot in-store pop-up shops in select U.S. Best Buy locations, meaning the brand now shares kiosk space with tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Meta. Its strategy: selling products that are designed to be simple, stylish, and, above all, affordable. Ikea already sells a 65-watt charger for $25 and a 30-watt charger for $8; its newest and smallest model is also its cheapest. Priced not to break the bank if you leave one behind in the hotel room and need a replacement, Ikea’s charger comes in just one colorway: white and light mint green, but each includes colored stickers to personalize. Not content to sell us only Billy bookcases, Ikea’s push into home tech ranges from smart lights and wireless speakers to kitchen appliances and now ultra-cheap chargers. Everyone’s favorite Swedish furniture company has quietly become something of a tech company on the side. View the full article

On the edge of Boulder, Colorado, a remarkable convergence of mutually beneficial collaboration is underway, and it could reshape how housing gets built, who builds it, and who is able to afford it. This is all happening inside BoulderMOD, a new modular housing factory built by the city of Boulder for use by the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate and powered by the labor of apprentice modular home builders from area public high schools. The students come to the factory several hours a day for hands-on education in advanced home building, working on actual modular homes that are now being installed in a section of Boulder devastated by flooding. At full capacity, the factory could produce up to 50 homes per year. BoulderMOD is a joint venture between the Boulder Valley School District, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, and the city of Boulder, and each of the three partners is tallying very tangible returns. The school district gets to offer an advanced trade-based curriculum that prepares its students for careers they can start immediately. Flatirons Habitat for Humanity gets to streamline and multiply its housing production capabilities, and the city gets to chip away at a deeply ingrained housing affordability crisis. “It’s game-changing,” says Dan McColley, executive director of Flatirons Habitat for Humanity. “It is a complete reinvention of the way we are serving families and meeting the needs of our community.” This innovative partnership has its roots in tragedy. In 2013, devastating floods washed through the Boulder valley. One of the hardest-hit areas was the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park, a 68-unit community of permanently placed mobile homes, and though no lives were lost, many of the homes were heavily damaged. In a city where the median home price currently hovers around $1 million, Ponderosa was a rare place of affordability, and seemed on the verge of being lost completely. The city stepped in and, working with the community, annexed the mobile home park in 2017 and upgraded its infrastructure to prevent future flooding. It partnered with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild housing for any resident who wanted to stay, and committed to preserving the community’s affordability in perpetuity. Getting that done was going to require an unconventional approach. “At the time, the Flatirons Habitat affiliate was building maybe three or four homes a year and looking at replacing 70-ish mobile homes,” says McColley. “It was going to take us a long time if we used our traditional model.” New skills, new homes In 2019, the city approached the school district about following through on those commitments. Factory-built modular housing was identified as the most efficient way of rebuilding damaged homes. The city had funding for the rebuilding effort in its affordable housing fund, and a willing builder in the Habitat for Humanity. But it didn’t have the factory. So city officials reached out to representatives at the Boulder Valley School District, which had recently opened a trade-focused campus called Apex that offers career pathways to high school students. One of its programs was centered on construction. The city asked the district if that program could expand in a new direction. “[The city] had this aspirational vision of what would happen if they were able to partner with the school district, build a facility, and then in a meaningful way take moves to help with the affordable housing issues in our community,” says Rob Anderson, superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District. After five years of planning, that facility came online. The city built the $13 million BoulderMOD facility using funds from its affordable housing program, with some state and federal grants and private foundation money. Construction of the facility was finished in late 2024, and the space was then outfitted with about $1 million worth of construction tools and equipment. Flatirons Habitat for Humanity staffed the facility, and the school district created a curriculum to support the production process. Production started in February 2025, with around 30 high school juniors and seniors in the factory every week, working on every stage of construction, from framing, electrical, and plumbing to drywall and roofing. The first two duplexes were placed on the Ponderosa site in November and December. “It felt like the right thing to do for our community, for our kids. But man, it’s exceeded expectations,” Anderson says. The Habitat projects are also helping support the community in other ways, including tapping into local suppliers for energy-efficient building materials. For example, Alpen, a high-performance window manufacturer located near Boulder, is providing all the windows for the Ponderosa homes. McColley says the pace of construction will increase as the teams refine their processes and as the students gain more hands-on experience. The duplexes being built for the Ponderosa project are particularly conducive, as they use a single and relatively simple design for each three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom unit. “At full production, the house will take about eight weeks to move from one end of the factory to the other, and then we’ll have about four, maybe five weeks of site work to do before the family can move in,” says McColley. “We’ll be cutting our construction timeframe from 9 to 12 months to about 12 weeks.” It’s so fast that it’s tweaking one of the standard elements of the Habitat for Humanity building process, which requires homebuyers to contribute to the cost of their home via 200 hours of sweat equity during construction. Homes built at BoulderMOD will progress so quickly that a homebuyer’s sweat equity will likely extend into someone else’s home. McColley says building the 70 or so homes for the Ponderosa project will occupy BoulderMOD for the next few years, but his organization is already looking at using it for other Habitat for Humanity housing projects across the Boulder region. Every home built there will be sold as an affordable housing unit, and McColley expects about 90% of its production to be modular from this point on. “Everything about what we do is different because we’re doing it this way. We’re building houses faster and we’re giving them out to families much more quickly in a much higher volume than we’ve done before,” McColley says. “So we’re tackling the affordable housing crisis in the near term through a different production process, but we’re also tackling it in the long term by training a new generation of construction professionals.” The school district is already planning to expand the size of BoulderMOD to accommodate more students, even those not explicitly using it as a career path. “I see kids who plan on attending competitive four-year colleges and universities not even interested in construction signing up for this,” Anderson says. Whether or not it turns into a job, the students at BoulderMOD are doing more than just learning construction skills. “They are learning how to build. They’re not working on bird houses or dog houses to learn their construction techniques. They’re working on people’s houses, and that’s something that is not lost on them,” McColley says. “They understand at a level that I frankly did not expect the community impact that they are having by building these homes.” View the full article

The Swiss company Punkt has released its latest handset, the MC03, a cellphone that merges minimalist hardware design with a matching UX experience that promises total privacy protection against greedy corporations who want to track you and own your data for their own benefit. This thing got me at “DeGoogled From the Core,” which is one of the phone’s declared core selling points. According to founder Petter Neby, “Punkt is about using technology to help us adopt intelligent habits for less distracted lives.” In 2015, Punkt launched its first phone, the MP01, as a secure device that supported only text and calls. No apps. No tracking. Punkt later released the MP02—an even simpler phone that had a small screen and physical buttons—and the MC02, a secure phone with basic encrypted apps like email and calendar. The new MC03 acknowledges that while people might appreciate this obsession with monastic simplicity, security, and privacy, there is clearly a need for some extra features from time to time, like ordering food, getting a cab ride, or wasting time on Instagram. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Punkt MC03 UX design divides your phone experience into two environments: One is a distraction-free, fully protected private environment called the Vault; the other is called the Wild Web, and it’s where all the Android apps you want to install live. The Vault is the phone’s main screen. Here you’ll find the core built-in apps and services, all designed with safety and privacy from the ground up, with encryption, no third-party tracking, no data profiling whatsoever. Stuff like mail, messaging, calendar, contacts, or your file cloud live here. They’re featured on a white-on-black home screen in Helvetica type that’s meant to recall the iconic design aesthetic of Dieter Rams for Braun (an influence that permeates all of Punkt’s products). The Wild Web features a fully customizable “external” screen, where you’ll find your standard rows of icons (white over black square buttons) over a white background. It’s clearly distinct from the Vault so it changes your mindset: Security is not guaranteed here, although each app lives in a privacy bubble. According to the company, the phone runs each app in its own walled playground, with no access to other data or hardware on the device. Punkt says this ensures your data privacy and limits third-party tracking from app to app (although if you use the same Gmail credentials to log into each app, Google will be able to track you on the server side). Ending “you are the product” The secret sauce behind this phone is AphyOS, a custom operating system that severs the umbilical cord that typically tethers Android phones to Mountain View’s data-harvesting servers. While a standard Android device “calls home” to Google every 4.5 minutes to report your location and habits, AphyOS uses “hardened code.” This OS core has been reinforced to block attacks and close security loopholes—assisted by what the company calls a “bank-grade ‘Secure Element’ chip” that keeps your data on the device. It cuts out the bloatware and hidden background services that drain your phone’s battery and your privacy, giving you what Neby calls “a modern, premium device without the need to compromise.” All of this digital sovereignty comes with a price tag, but that’s exactly the point that Punkt is trying to make: Do you want to pay with your private life or do you want to pay to keep your life private? The MC03 includes a 12-month subscription to AphyOS, after which you will have to pay roughly $10 per month to maintain it. By paying for the operating system, you become the customer rather than the merchandise sold to advertisers. As Andy Yen, founder of partner company Proton, puts it: “People deserve choice. Choice over the phone they use, the software they rely on, and who they share their data with.” The monthly subscription price is not to use the phone but to pay for the services. The subscription bundles 5 GB of cloud storage, email, messaging, and calendar into a single secure package. But the real power comes from its integration with Proton. The phone comes with Proton Mail, Drive, Calendar, VPN, Wallet, and Pass, effectively replacing the entire Google Workspace with an encrypted alternative.​ For messaging, Punkt has preinstalled the cross-platform encrypted client Threema directly into the MC03’s Vault, ensuring your chats have “rigorous data protection and rock-solid security” right out of the box, the company claims. It also includes a VPN called Digital Nomad, which protects your connection on sketchy public Wi-Fi networks. Unlike standard VPN apps, this one is integrated directly into the operating system for better performance and requires no extra setup or third-party subscription.​ Finally, the phone forces you to confront the cost of your digital life with the Data and Carbon Ledger. Punkt says this dashboard doesn’t just let you manage app privacy permissions in real time; it actually tracks the energy consumption and carbon footprint of every app you use, pushing you to make smarter, more sustainable choices about how you use your device. The ledger also gives you “full transparent control over app data flow,” allowing you to see and restrict app-specific privacy permissions. Nice hardware too The object itself is a solid piece of industrial art designed in Switzerland and manufactured in Germany. Solid, matte gunmetal finish. Simple. Nothing added for effect. Just a metal-and-glass slab with a 6.67-inch OLED screen with the usual high-end 120Hz refresh rate standard. One of the best features, however, is its removable 5,200mAh battery, which, oh boy—in an era where phones are sealed shut like tombs, allowing users to swap their own power source is a radical act of repairability that extends the device’s life indefinitely. I missed this from the old ’90s candy phones, and now I want it. The MC03 doesn’t skimp on the modern specs required for the Wild Web. It sports a 64-megapixel main camera that the company claims can capture sharp images in low light, backed by an ultrawide lens for landscapes and a macro lens for close-ups. Like most phones, it’s water and dust resistant, and supports wireless charging. Priced at $699, it’s shipping in Europe later this month and hitting North America in the spring. View the full article

The federal government signaled a new direction in federal funding this week when it announced plans to put as much as $150 million into a private semiconductor startup. Instead of a grant or a loan, the government would take an equity stake. It’s a meaningful departure from how federal funding has traditionally operated. For years, federal R&D support came structured as non-dilutive grants and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards that didn’t require equity concessions. An early-stage company proves its idea with federal support, investors wait for validation, and the company grows. If the government begins converting grants into equity stakes, that calculus changes fundamentally. A quiet shift The semiconductor deal is the latest in what has otherwise been a relatively quiet shift taking place inside the federal funding system as the The President administration considers treating some grants like venture investments. For founders, this creates genuine uncertainty. The government has not yet defined the rules of engagement for what ownership in a startup means. There are no clear answers about how much equity might be taken, how dilution would work over time, when the government expects a return, or who would manage these positions. Startups already struggle to keep their capitalization tables clean enough for private investment. Adding a federal agency to the picture introduces new friction. While experienced investors routinely ask about investor composition before committing capital, even seasoned ones may hesitate if the answer includes “the United States government.” History lessons There is instructive history here. Twenty years ago, the state of Texas launched the Emerging Technology Fund with the goal of supporting high-growth technology companies through a venture model. The fund encountered structural problems—including non-dilution clauses that prevented it from being fairly diluted alongside other investors—that ultimately undermined its portfolio companies’ growth. New investors wouldn’t fund them because the risk was not shared fairly. The lesson is clear: Public capital can be valuable, but if it ignores downstream market dynamics and investor expectations, it can choke off the very growth it intends to catalyze. The timing of this equity push is particularly concerning given that SBIR and STTR programs—historically the backbone of non-dilutive federal support for early-stage companies—expired on September 30, 2025, and remain unauthorized. With traditional grant pathways frozen and equity stakes emerging as the new model, founders face unprecedented uncertainty about federal funding structures. The scale of this disruption is significant: These programs typically distributed approximately $4.73 billion annually to support scientific progress and early company formation. That scale alone makes it essential to understand how any replacement federal support structure would function. Program officers are experts in research evaluation and scientific merit. They are not trained to make venture-style assessments about valuation, equity terms, or long-horizon return timing. Asking them to perform both roles simultaneously creates tension. Conversely, finance-oriented staff who understand investment models are not necessarily equipped to evaluate frontier science. These programs do not operate like traditional venture funds. Ripple effects If the federal government proceeds with equity investments, it must understand the implications for early-stage companies and the ripple effects that follow. If federal agencies become equity holders, they will need to establish clear standards: How are positions structured? Who holds them? When is liquidity expected? How does the relationship evolve as companies raise capital? How are equity percentages, dilution rights, and board representation determined? These decisions cannot be improvised. They determine whether private investors engage or walk away. Startups also need to reconsider their assumptions about federal programs. If equity or royalty components begin appearing, founders must decide what they are prepared to trade for early capital. They’ll need to understand how those terms affect later fundraising rounds and how private investors react to a federal stakeholder at the ownership table. Digital health and medtech founders already have to navigate a complex landscape of regulatory pathways and clinical validation procedures. Having to decipher unclear investment rules from an early funder is more likely to stymie growth than accelerate it. Eyes wide open That’s not to say startups should avoid federal funding if equity is introduced. They may simply need to approach it with clear-eyed expectations about the long-term implications. There is opportunity here if the federal government establishes clear rules. Beyond Texas, other states have experimented with public venture approaches—some that helped companies grow, others that created lasting complications. If policymakers systematically study both categories, they can avoid repeatable mistakes. The worst outcome would be moving forward without a framework and discovering too late that the system discourages private capital, slows company formation, or generates new burdens on innovators, investors, and taxpayers. Policymakers have a responsibility to design federal equity participation that is predictable enough that companies aren’t blindsided by unclear terms, and transparent enough that private investors understand the government’s expectations and governance role. Otherwise, having Uncle Sam on your capitalization table may come with complications no one is prepared to manage. View the full article

Google Ads quietly implements a powerful multimodal AI that improves Google's ability to catch fraudulent advertisers. The post Google Ads Using New AI Model To Catch Fraudulent Advertisers appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Since exercise can make you smarter, less stressed, and happier, Google decided to find ways to help employees exercise more often. The research team assigned employees to one of three groups: People in one group were asked to pick a convenient two-hour window, and to follow a strict routine: something along the lines of “work out at 6 p.m. every day.” They then received a financial reward every time they worked out. People in a second group followed a flexible plan, working out whenever they wished. They also received a financial reward every time they worked out. People in the third group (the control group) were simply “encouraged” to work out more: no routine, no plan, no financial reward pay. Unsurprisingly, getting paid to exercise worked a treat: People in the “routine” and the “flexible” groups worked out more often than those in the control group. More surprisingly, after four weeks—when the exercise habit was theoretically established, and the researchers stopped paying participants—the flexible group (the people who followed a plan) were more than twice as likely to keep working out than the strict group (the people who had established a rigid routine). Sound odd? Possibly, since high achievers love to talk about consistently following their rigid (especially morning) routines. Problem is, routines are great until something disrupts that routine. In fact, the more rigid your routine, the more likely your routine will occasionally get disrupted. Something comes up, and you have to miss today’s 6 p.m. workout? There goes your routine for the day—and since habits are a lot easier to break than form, tomorrow’s workout is also in peril. (Decades into exercising regularly, if I miss two workouts in a row, it’s still really hard to make myself work out on the third day.) The flexible group? Their exercise wasn’t tied to a specific routine or time. They often worked out when they planned, but sometimes they worked out when they could. Or they squeezed in a shorter workout. They wanted to work out, and taking a flexible approach gave them the latitude to figure out how to make it happen. The difference? A somewhat flexible approach isn’t a routine; it’s a practice. Here are a few examples of the difference: Making cold calls every day between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. is a routine. Making 10 cold calls by the end of every day is a practice. Holding an all-hands Zoom call every day at 10 a.m. is a routine. Checking in with one or two employees by the end of every day to see if they need help is a practice. Eating broccoli and a sweet potato for lunch every day is a routine. Getting four or five servings of vegetables every day is a practice. Routines are what you do. Practices are also what you do, but more important, they shape who you are. Can’t make cold calls at 4 p.m.? If you truly believe sales cures all and you make selling a practice, you’ll catch up later. Or make a few calls earlier in the day. Can’t hold an all-hands Zoom call at 10 a.m.? If you truly believe your job is to motivate and develop employees, you’ll make checking in with employees a practice. You’ll stop by and chat with someone on your way to your office. Or you’ll spend a few minutes pitching in on the shop floor. If what you want to do is important, you’ll find a way. As Ryan Holiday writes about routines and practices: The difference is in the flexibility. One is about daily rhythm. The other is a lifelong pursuit. One can be ruined by something as simple as hitting the snooze button one too many times or getting called into work unexpectedly. The other can adapt accordingly. One (a routine) is something you made up. The other (a practice) is something you do. Routines are fine, but if something happens to disrupt your routine, take a step back and focus on the goal your routine is designed to help you achieve, and then just achieve that goal in a different way. Never lose sight of the fact that every element in a routine is goal-driven, and there are a variety of ways to achieve a goal. To grow sales. To check in with employees. To monitor performance. To get customer feedback. To do almost anything. If you can follow a certain routine, great. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. That’s easy. The only way it’s hard is if I let myself run out of protein bars. In most cases, though, routines are tough to consistently follow. That’s where practices come in. I want to live a longer, healthier life, so I try to work out every day. Most days, that’s around 4 p.m. But sometimes it’s as late as 7 p.m., and other times earlier in the day. Most of the time that involves an hour or so of lifting, but if I can’t get in a full hour, I’ll modify what I do. If I can’t use weights, I’ll do bodyweight exercises. If lifting was a rigid routine, having to adapt would be irritating, and maybe even feel defeating. Since lifting is a practice, having to adapt is actually fun. (The other day I only had 30 minutes or so to work out, so I did 400 pushups and 400 vertical leg lifts.) As Holiday would say, working out isn’t something I made up. It’s what I do. Exercise is a lifelong pursuit. And I can keep doing it because, instead of a rigid routine, it’s a flexible practice that allows me to adapt to whatever the day might bring. —Jeff Haden This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

Decades after selling Americans on the idea of jumping through transactions with online strangers, Craig Newmark is trying to get them to hold off on clicking through. Last September, the Craiglist founder-turned-philanthropist and tech-policy activist launched Take9, a program pushing a nontechnical response to the complex problems of online scams and frauds. Traditionally, security advice has focused on tools: Install security updates promptly, use a password manager, enable multifactor authentication, and upgrade to passkey logins if you can. But phishing scams, misinformation campaigns, and other digital attempts to part people from their money, or their account credentials, evolve constantly. They usually retain one common element, though: They aim to provoke a response rooted in fear or anger, not thought. In fewer words, they’re targeting your lizard brain. Take9’s advice doesn’t involve any software or settings: Simply take a nine-second pause and think before you click, download, or share. Newmark has been working on the problems of digital security for a long time. But his previous efforts were aimed more at professionals. Take9 is aimed at individuals with fingers poised over a touchscreen, a mouse, or a keyboard, uncertain of what to do next. “No one is looking out for regular people—and that’s how I identify, if nothing else because I’ve been a customer-service rep for the great majority of my work life,” Newmark says on a video call. “We all need a hand in terms of protecting ourselves, our families, our homes.” The federal government seems less likely to lend that hand after the The President administration’s deep cutbacks of federal cybersecurity staffing and programs. With Take9, Newmark is trying to help people help themselves in a low-tech way. Please hold up Waiting can give your noggin a chance to downshift. That’s the core advice of Take9. “There’s some behavioral research which suggests you wait a little while, and they typically cite 9 or 10 seconds before you actually go in and click things,” Newmark says. He cites his own past misadventure rushing to buy some knockoff Ray-Ban sunglasses: “I only realized after that I gave bad people my credit card number.” Compromised credit cards are relatively easy to fix. A hacked email account or social media presence can, by contrast, leave a much wider blast radius. And the messages trying to spoof or scare us into giving up critical credentials keep coming, because the attackers know that few of us can resist the urge to click. “It’s an ongoing problem with certain members of the family, but I will not disclose specifics, because Mrs. Newmark would yell at me,” Newmark says. As secondary steps to learning to take a beat before a click, the Take9 site offers pointers on the usual technological countermeasures, such as using a password manager and upgrading to passkey logins. (We would take exception with the site’s recommendation to avoid public Wi-Fi; the advent of nearly universal encryption between sites and browsers should relegate that outdated advice to tech-myth status.) It also invites visitors to sign up for a mailing list for updates on its campaign, partners, and “useful resources.” Incremental improvements Newmark isn’t counting only on more self-aware behavior to slow the flood of attacks. “I think progress is being made,” he says, pointing first to the rise of more secure domain-name-service systems that encrypt lookups of site names to prevent an attacker from shunting a visitor to a hostile look-alike. He’s also optimistic about threat-sharing partnerships such as Global Signal Exchange, launched in October by Google and the industry groups DNS Research Federation and Global Anti-Scam Alliance. GSE, which Newmark supported with a $1 million contribution in December, lets member firms share data about attackers and attacks confidentially to coordinate responses and research into future threats. Newmark says he’s already benefited from Google’s addition of on-device AI to screen calls and messages from noncontacts for likely scam patterns, demoed at Google I/O two years ago and initially shipped in March. Of course, AI is a weapon that can point either way: AI-generated people can now convincingly imitate real ones. And this attack isn’t just a problem for IT hiring. Businesses have been scammed out of millions of dollars by AI deepfakes. Newmark suggests that families agree on “a code word that only they would know” but allows that “there might be something better.” Many security experts think there is. They recommend that if you’re in doubt about a call from somebody who sounds like a friend or family member, hang up and call them back directly. Or ask the caller about something that only the real person would be in a position to know. What does success look like? Can a project with a goal as subjective as making people a little more street-smart online have a definable finish line? Real success would look like ransomware scammers simply giving up “because protections were that good,” Newmark says. “Scammers would find other crime to exploit.” But he also allows that those are impossible metrics. “Those are examples of the perfect, and we’re not going to get there,” he says, noting that he’s in it for the long haul. Newmark says he still gets angry about the idea of somebody trying to rip off his customers. “I take it personally, and I think everyone involved in any kind of platform should feel the same way,” he says. “It should piss them off.” View the full article

Ellie Ghassali was on a plane back to the U.S. from Sydney when he spilled red sauce on his new phone. The phone still had its screen protector on, so he just peeled it off, and the red sauce was gone. At this very moment, an idea popped into his head: What if you could “peel off” your dinner plate in a similar way? Ghassali, who lives in New Jersey, is now the founder and CEO of Peelware, a company that makes disposable, “peelable” dinnerware that is biodegradable and compostable. Plates come in stacks of 15, meaning that you eat on the top layer, peel it off and compost it when you’re done, then eat anew on the next layer (the 14th). And then the next layer (the 13th), and so on. This reduces the need for single-use plastic plates, which are wasteful and often end up in a landfill. The concept is also more sustainable than the typical plant-based disposable plate, because it uses even less material per plate (considering one “plate” is basically as thin as parchment paper). The leakproof material, which took three years to develop and is now FDA-approved, feels a bit like parchment paper, but it’s more pliable. And each layer is made of plant-based wood pulp and sugarcane, with a sand-based coating. There is no wax, plastic coating, or PFAS (forever chemicals), which some parchment paper is treated with. And plates are just the beginning. Convenience has long fueled the American market. By some estimates, the U.S disposable tableware industry was worth $10 billion in 2025, and is showing no signs of slowing in the near future. While plastic ruled the industry for years, many brands are now rushing to make more sustainable alternatives, like World Centric or Repurpose, which make plant-based compostable plates and cutlery from annually renewable plants like sugarcane or bamboo. Peelware is part of that ecosystem, though it also comes with a reinvented UX. A paper plate made with 12 tons of pressureShortly after Ghassali got off the plane, he rushed home to make a prototype in his garage. The first prototype consisted of two regular plates that he ran over with his car in order to test how they would bond when compressed under immense pressure. Three years and 12 different models later, Peelware plates are now made by compressing layers with a hydraulic press. Ghassali explains that there are no additive layers or glues between each layer. What holds them together is simply 12 tons of pressure, as well as a cleverly designed edge that folds down to prevent layers from coming apart. “There’s nothing like this paper,” he says. “You can’t get it anywhere else.” Since Peelware launched in July, the company has sold 6,000 units. Earlier last year, the company had launched with a white version that Ghassali ended up retracting, as it was bleached with chlorine. His team couldn’t fulfill the first batch of orders, which left many customers angry enough to vent on Reddit. But Ghassali says the company has now reverted to a natural, unbleached material, and is back in business and fulfilling orders. They can ship internationally, thanks to collaborations with paper mills around the world. At-home testing has mixed (but mostly good) resultsWhen I tried the plates at home, I was a little skeptical. The layers were so thin I couldn’t believe my knife wouldn’t slash through the paper. I also worried that saucier foods would leak through to the bottom layer. So I decided to stress-test them with two of the oiliest foods I had in my fridge: first, leftover noodles with chili crisp; then, gnocchi with pesto. I also poured a spoonful of olive oil and left it sitting on the plate for two hours. The result took me by surprise. No amount of scratching cutlery against the plate did any damage. None of the olive oil seeped through. The pesto dish left the underneath layer slightly more wrinkled than it was, but none of the oil had actually leaked through. The only meal that appeared to pose a slight challenge was the noodle dish, which showed a couple of oily patches on the layer below. That night, the underneath layer smelled like chili crisp, but the smell was gone by the following morning. (Ghassali says the company will soon be releasing a new version in which each layer is 25% thicker, which may remedy the problem.) For now, Peelware sells peelable plates, which it calls Peelplates. In spring 2026, the company will also launch Peelbowls with the same folded edge, and later on, Peelcups and Peeltrays. Peelable cutting boards are also in the pipeline, which Ghassali sees as a safer alternative to the countless plastic boards out there that release microplastics when you run a knife through them. To be sure, wooden cutting boards remain your best bet, and ceramic dinnerware isn’t going anywhere. But next time you’re throwing a casual party with 20 people busying around in your kitchen, peelable plates just might be your new best friend. View the full article

This first release of 2026 brings Site Kit by Google insights into your Yoast SEO Dashboard. After introducing the integration in phases throughout 2025, we are pleased to share that the rollout is now complete and available to all Yoast customers using WordPress. What you can see in your Yoast SEO Dashboard You can now view key performance data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics via Site Kit in your Yoast SEO Dashboard, without changing tools or tabs. These insights include search impressions, clicks, average click through rate, average position, and organic sessions, which are combined with your Yoast SEO and readability scores so you can better understand how content quality relates to real search performance. Find opportunities faster The integration also surfaces your top performing content and search queries, helping you quickly spot which pages and topics are driving results and where improvements may have the most impact. Connecting Site Kit by Google is straightforward. Once connected, insights become available immediately, giving you faster access to the data you need to guide your SEO work. If you are interested in the technical background of this integration and our collaboration with Google, we share the full story on our developer blog. Get started Update to Yoast SEO 26.7 to start using Site Kit by Google insights in your Dashboard and streamline your workflow with key performance data in one place. For step by step guidance on enabling the integration, see our help center guide. If you would like to share your experience, you can provide feedback through our survey to help guide future improvements. The post Site Kit by Google integration available for all Yoast customers appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

Americans are likely to have spent a record $1 trillion-plus this holiday shopping season alone, and about $5.5 trillion in retail sales in all of 2025, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation. That includes many unhappy returns for retailers: And when it comes back to them, a lot of the $850 billion in returned merchandise is often cheaper to discard than to inspect, sort, and resell—adding millions of tons to landfills every year. “This is a massive ecological problem, as well as a financial problem for these companies,” says Ryan Ryker, CEO of rScan. Based in South Bend, Indiana, the startup has developed software and logistics services to help transfer these products from the beleaguered original sellers to resellers more eager to do the work of making money on a returned product. “There’s a lot of people who are looking to make side cash,” says cofounder and chief logistics officer Julian Marquez about their small-business clients. But it’s not easy. Instead of getting, say, a shipping pallet of all the same product, such as a power tool, resellers have to sort through a mishmash that can contain dozens of different items—including many one-offs. rScan’s offering for them sounds simple: a barcode-scanning app. But behind that is an entire data infrastructure to help resellers understand what they’ve got and how to sell it. Scanning the UPC barcode on a box pulls up the item’s product name and brand, images, detailed descriptions, and manuals. Resellers can first ascertain the product’s condition and whether everything that should be in the box is. If they decide it’s worth selling, rScan can pull from its database the dozens of product attributes required by online marketplaces and format complete product listings tailored to venues such as Amazon, eBay, or Shopify. The company regularly scrapes these sites to survey what products are selling for and estimate a price for the reseller’s listing. rScan charges 30 cents per month per unique item that is scanned and in their catalogue for as long as it’s listed for sale online. (So selling 10 of the same product would cost 30 cents per month, total.) The company also takes a percentage of monthly sales, from 1% to 3.9% on a sliding scale that ramps up as vendors sell more. Clients range from newbies working out of a garage to what Ryker calls, “sellers that are doing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.” Retailers from High School For Ryker, rScan was tailored to the challenges he’d personally encountered. “Resale is something I previously dabbled in prior to the pandemic. From there, there was a lot of returns going on with COVID, the rise in e-commerce sales, things of that nature,” he says. But his retail experience goes back to high school in the 2010s when he and Marquez established their own apparel brand, called Culture Clothing, which ran for a couple years and grossed about $45,000 in its best year. They mostly sold at concerts and show venues, but also called on another classmate, Rod Baradaran, to set up an ecommerce site. In 2021, the three reunited to cofound rScan. Baradaran reprised his tech role, coding the app and the online services, developing the price-setting algorithm, and serving as COO. (A fourth cofounder, Michael Altenburger, joined a few months later.) The company—which was bootstrapped by the founders—now has 36 employees. Taking on a Clunky System It’s not that returned goods would all go into the trash without rScan. “The real advantage of being able to get this online faster and on ecommerce [platforms] is that you have a much wider market where these products can be distributed and actually used,” says Baradaran. The three seem especially proud of helping side-hustlers make ends meet. Marquez also works in the RV manufacturing industry around South Bend—which has taken a hit in recent years, with hundreds of layoffs in 2025 alone. He helped one of his coworkers get into online resale as a safety net when his earnings dropped. “If he didn’t have rScan at the time, he would have had to either sell something or lose a part of the lifestyle that he was already used to living with,” says Marquez. He was able to take advantage of rScan’s physical as well as virtual services. The company runs a warehouse to receive returned goods from retailers, hold them for small clients who don’t have their own storage space, and help arrange shipping to buyers. It was also a chance to test and refine the software by running their own resale business. “We kind of dogfooded our own product when we first started,” says Baradaran. In May 2025, rScan upgraded to a 53,000-square-foot warehouse in South Bend. Living Up to Values While they have eschewed outside investors so far, rScan recognizes it may need to go that route to scale up. “We want to make sure that they share the same vision as us, and as long as that’s aligned—absolutely,” says Baradaran. Helping not just sellers but the planet is a key part of that vision. By its own accounting, rScan says it has saved over 840,000 pounds of products from going into the trash. After rScan scales more, the founders plan to seek independent verification of their ecological impact in the process of becoming a Benefit Corporation. To be certified as a B Corp, a company has to pass an initial and ongoing evaluation by the nonprofit B Lab of its environmental impact, social responsibility, transparency, and accountability to all stakeholders—not just investors. “Ultimately, our goal is to democratize entrepreneurship,” Baradaran says in an email. “In doing so, we drive sustainability by extending the lifecycle of consumer goods that would otherwise end up in landfills.” View the full article

Remember that scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda Priestly silences Andy Sachs with a perfectly delivered monologue about a cerulean blue sweater? Andy had dismissed it as trivial—just another fashion detail. But Miranda’s lesson wasn’t about the sweater. It was about power: When you think you’re outside the system, you’re actually reinforcing it. You can’t opt out of the fashion system. You can only choose whether you’re aware of it. In an era obsessed with authenticity, what we wear is the first language we speak. Yet most leaders remain unconscious of this language’s strategic power. They treat their closets like personal decisions rather than professional assets. They should reconsider. The Hidden Cost of Misalignment Leaders are increasingly discovering what fashion psychologists have long known: Appearance isn’t superficial. It’s foundational. What you choose to wear tells people—in milliseconds—about your authority, perspective, and influence. It encodes identity, status, belonging, and intent. For leaders managing organizational stress, navigating role transitions, or recovering from burnout, this matters far more than aesthetics. Jennifer Heinen, a fashion psychologist who works with organizational leaders, puts it plainly: Clothing functions as a semiotic system. Your wardrobe sends signals whether you intend to or not. As Heinen likes to remind us, “Clothing is not the solution to everything—but it is the first layer of contact.” The question isn’t whether you’re communicating through fashion. It’s whether you’re doing it consciously or by default. The problem emerges when there’s friction between your internal reality and external presentation. When someone emerges from burnout but is still wearing the costume of their old role, for instance, they create internal discord. The nervous system feels the mismatch. They perform coherence while experiencing fragmentation. This triggers constant self-monitoring—the exact nervous system stress that deepens burnout. The 3 R’s: A Framework for Intentional Alignment Heinen has developed a recognition-regulation-repair framework that gives leaders a practical road map. It’s designed not as a makeover strategy, but as a nervous system intervention. Recognition addresses identity. It’s about feeling seen and contextually understood rather than misread or self-edited. When a leader transitions into a new role, the first step is recognizing what’s no longer accurate about how they’re being perceived. Often, they’re still dressed for the identity that once kept them safe. Regulation focuses on the nervous system itself. This is where fashion psychology becomes a strategic tool. By intentionally shifting clothing choices—removing restrictive or sensory-overloading pieces, choosing fabrics and fits that support rather than stress the body—leaders can influence their own emotional stability and cognitive clarity. When a leader feels supported by what they’re wearing, decision-making under pressure improves. Fatigue decreases. Emotional resilience strengthens. Repair addresses transition. It involves intentionally marking the end of one phase and the beginning of another—not just cognitively, but physically and emotionally. This prevents the kind of liminal anxiety in which people aren’t quite ready to let go of old identities. By curating a new look that reflects who they’re becoming, leaders give their nervous system permission to integrate change rather than resist it. Moving From Performance to Presence Here’s the tension most leaders live in: They invest heavily in mental health and physical fitness, yet they largely ignore emotional recovery. During times of economic uncertainty—when leaders manage layoffs, absorb team stress, and navigate complex organizational change—the emotional toll is significant. Yet corporate wellness conversations rarely address it. Fashion psychology fills that gap. Clothing choices become a strategic intervention for emotional resilience—one of the most accessible tools available. When appearance and identity align, you eliminate the energy drain of code-switching. You move from constant self-monitoring to coherent presence. You show up as yourself rather than performing a version of yourself. This is what I call “inside-out leadership.” It’s an authentic way of guiding teams in which leaders tap into personal experience and intuition, and encourage their teams to do the same. It requires vulnerability—a willingness to signal, through how you show up, that you’re genuinely aligned with what you’re doing. Your wardrobe either supports this or undermines it. The Real Power: Magnetism Over Beauty Tina Turner distinguished between beauty and magnetism in a way that reframes this entire conversation. In the mid-1980s, she spoke openly about self-confidence—owning her attractiveness and presence—as her source of power in an industry shaped by sexism and racism. Attractiveness, she understood, isn’t about conventional beauty standards. It’s about magnetism: the pull that comes from excellence and authentic confidence in your craft. Fashion psychology operates the same way. It doesn’t create something false. It amplifies what’s already true about a leader’s capability. The real power isn’t in looking good. It’s in looking aligned with what you actually do well. Your wardrobe strategy becomes a competitive advantage rooted in authentic capability, not superficial polish. 3 Actionable Steps for Leaders If you’re ready to treat your closet like a strategic asset rather than a personal preference, start here. 1. Audit for alignment. Spend a week noticing which pieces make you feel most capable, clear-headed, and present. Which ones trigger self-monitoring or discomfort? Which ones feel congruent with who you’re becoming (not who you were)? Document patterns. Your nervous system already knows what’s working. 2. Identify your identity markers. Work with a stylist or simply journal through three words that represent the essence of how you want to show up as a leader—confident, accessible, bold, precise, or whatever resonates. Then test every wardrobe decision against these markers. If a piece doesn’t align with all three, it doesn’t belong. 3. Mark your transitions intentionally. If you’re moving into a new role or emerging from a difficult period, resist the urge to stay in old uniforms. Curate one or two anchor pieces that signal the new phase. Make it physical. Make it visible. Let your nervous system know you’re really moving forward. The wardrobe you choose is a form of leadership communication. Make sure you’re saying what you mean. View the full article

How do you really know if your likes, comments, and shares are “good enough”? It’s easy to stare at your own numbers in isolation and feel unsure. Sometimes, your social performance only makes sense when you can stack it up against businesses similar to yours. In this article, I’ll walk you through the latest social media benchmarks across five major platforms, giving you a clear, grounded sense of where you stand and where you can grow. I’ve used data from the following Buffer reports: Buffer’s best times to post on social media — which analyzed one million posts sent through BufferBuffer’s Instagram benchmarks — calculated using aggregated data from over 27 million posts from 273k active Instagram accounts with over 13 billion engagements.Buffer’s Facebook benchmarks — calculated using aggregated data from over 52 million posts from 213k active Facebook accountsBuffer’s best content format on social platforms — based on an analysis of millions of social posts from multiple platformsBuffer’s guide to social media frequency — our data-backed recommendations on how often to post on each platformBuffer’s engagement rate data for eight social media platforms⚠️ Before we get into the data: a caveat “Good” looks different for everyone. Your brand might not need a massive audience to hit its goals. Maybe your content is highly localized, maybe you publish less often but with more depth, or maybe your audience behaves differently from industry norms — and that’s OK. Social media benchmarks are not here to put you under pressure. Each study pulls data from different companies, niches, and posting volumes, so treat these numbers as a helpful guide, not a commandment. Use what serves your strategy, and leave the rest behind. [callout] Our data is updated with new benchmarks each month so you can be sure you have the latest numbers to compare against. Learn more about our research and analysis methodology for uncovering social media insights. Jump to a section: What do social media industry benchmarks mean? Which social media metrics should you care about? Breaking down social media benchmarks by platform Social media benchmarks at a glance Social media benchmarks for Facebook Social media benchmarks for Instagram Social media benchmarks for TikTok Social media benchmarks for Twitter (now X) Social media benchmarks for LinkedIn How to use social media benchmarks to your benefit So, how did your socials stack up against these social media benchmarks? More social media insights FAQ about social media benchmarks What do social media industry benchmarks mean?Social media benchmarks are a lever against which you can measure your own performance. Comparing your social media performance to relevant benchmarks can help you: Set ambitious but achievable goalsReport a 360-degree picture to leadershipPinpoint areas of growthWhich social media metrics should you care about?The X-axis is your industry. Which metrics should you look for in the Y-axis? Here are four social media marketing metrics to keep an eye on: 1. Posting timesThere’s no universal right time to post on social media, but there are certain times when you might get more engagement than others. Benchmark data helps you understand the best time to post based on patterns spotted from millions of posts. 2: Post typeMany social networks today have a ton of content formats — images, stories, carousels, videos, etc. Understanding which type of post works best for which platform helps you repurpose content efficiently and prioritize the best content types for your social media calendar. 3: Posting frequencyPosting frequency is the number of times you should post on a social media platform over a certain time period. There’s an ideal post frequency for every network to get the most engagement, but it’s not always consistent across industries. Some niches might need to post more because their industry has a lot of competition on social media, while others might not need to be so strict with how often they post. 4: Engagement rateEngagement rate is typically calculated as the total number of likes, comments, and shares divided by the total number of followers multiplied by 100. Why should you care about social media engagement rate? The number of interactions your posts receive determines whether your target audience resonates with your social media content. The higher the engagement rate, the more your followers like your social media posts. ⚠️ More caveats I’ve shared four key metrics here, but the benchmark data you care about can vary depending on your social media goals. For example, if your goal is to increase your follower count, you might also want to do a competitive analysis of follower growth in your industry. If your aim is to improve brand awareness, you might also want to monitor impressions and reach. [callout] There are many more social media metrics you can track depending on your goals. Check out these 12 social media metrics and see which of them apply to your social media strategy. Breaking down social media benchmarks by platform Here at Buffer, we’re always looking for ways to help you grow on social media. The good news is that we have plenty of information (and some seriously smart people) to provide data-driven insights that will help get you there. I’ve collated some of the information for you to break down the social media benchmarks for five popular social media sites. Social media benchmarks at a glance Platform Best time to post Best type of post Median monthly posts Median engagement rate Facebook 5 a.m. on Mondays Picture 35 3.6% Instagram 3 p.m. on Fridays Reels 17 4.3% TikTok 8 p.m. on Sundays Video 8–9 4.86% Twitter (X) 9 a.m. on Wednesdays Text 9 2.15% LinkedIn 11 a.m. on Thursdays Carousel Unknown 6.5% Social media benchmarks for Facebook Best time to post 5 a.m. on Mondays Best type of post Picture Median number of posts (monthly) 35 Median engagement rate (in percent) 3.6 Best time to post on FacebookSorry, night owls; the best time to post on Facebook is 5 a.m. on Monday, according to Buffer’s analysis of more than a million posts. 🐦Just because early morning posts tend to perform the best, that doesn’t mean you need to start every Monday with the sparrows. A tool like Buffer allows you to plan and schedule your posts to catch the worm so you don’t have to. Best type of post on FacebookVideo may have killed the radio star, but according to our research, pictures get the most engagement on Facebook, earning 35% more engagement than text posts and nearly 44% more than videos. Median number of posts (monthly) on FacebookOur Facebook benchmarks data pegs the median Facebook posting frequency at 35 posts per month, so 1-2 posts per day. Median engagement rate on FacebookAccording to Buffer’s analysis of 52 million Facebook posts across 213k accounts, the median Facebook engagement rate is 3.6%. But who wants to be average? It’s important to remember that averages only tell part of the story. The more useful insight comes when you compare your own performance to accounts of a similar size, which you can do right here. Social media benchmarks for Instagram Best time to post 3 p.m. on Fridays Best type of post Reels Median number of posts (monthly) 17 Median engagement rate (in percent) 4.3 The best time to post on InstagramBuffer’s analysis of over 2 million posts found that the best time to post on Instagram is generally 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. Fridays at 3 p.m. took the top spot. The best type of post on InstagramOur research of over 2 million Instagram posts found that the best content format for maximum reach is Instagram Reels. Median number of posts (monthly) on InstagramThe average Instagram posting frequency on Instagram is 17 posts per month, so a post round about every second day. Median engagement rate on Instagram The median engagement rate on Instagram is 4.3%. Again, I recommend filtering the data (nifty, right?) to show accounts with a similar size to yours for a more accurate comparison of your content performance. For example, accounts with less than 1k followers averaged 5% engagement, while those with 10–50k followers got a 3.7% engagement rate. Social media benchmarks for TikTok Best time to post 8 p.m. on Sundays Best type of post Video Median number of posts (monthly) 8–9 Median engagement rate (in percent) 4.86 The best time to post on TikTokAccording to our data, the best time to post on TikTok is Sunday at 8 p.m. Generally speaking, views tend to pick up later in the day, with peak time slots at 1 p.m. or later. The best type of post on TikTokNo surprises here. Based on Buffer’s analysis of over 1 million posts, videos on TikTok get the most views. Median number of posts (monthly) on TikTokRivalIQ’s 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report found that the median number of posts across all industries is 1.97 per week, or 8–9 per month. In the graph below, you can also see how your posting cadence stacks up against your industry norm. SourceInterestingly, our study revealed some interesting findings related to TikTok posting frequency. Median views per post stay roughly flat (~500 views) regardless of posting frequency — meaning posting more doesn’t necessarily mean more views, but we found that it does increase your chances of a viral post. The median number of posts associated with the best efficiency gain is 8–20 posts per month (2–5 per week). This range yields the greatest improvement in performance without diminishing returns — offering the biggest lift in potential views and viral opportunities while maintaining stable median views. Median engagement rate on TikTokOur most recent engagement study found an average TikTok engagement rate of 4.86%, an increase from the 4% engagement rate the year prior. Social media benchmarks for Twitter (now X) Best time to post 9 a.m. on Wednesdays Best type of post Text Median number of posts (monthly) 9 Median engagement rate (in percent) 2.15 The best time to post on XOur analysis of over 1 million tweets (can we still call them that?) found that the best time to post on X is 9 a.m. on Wednesday. In general, posting mid-morning every weekday tends to yield solid engagement, as you can see on the heatmap below. The best type of post on XText is still best on X. According to our 2025 data, text-only posts beat out videos, images, and links, and even images in median engagement. Median number of posts (monthly) on XAccording to RivalIQ’s 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, X users averaged 2.2 posts per week (around 9 posts a month). This is a massive decline from the average of five posts per week in 2021, suggesting people aren’t as invested in X as they once were. (Elon Musk acquired Twitter and started making some big changes in 2022.) SourceMedian engagement rate on XX dropped from 3.47% in January 2024 to 2.15% in January 2025, largely due to algorithm changes and platform instability. Social media benchmarks for LinkedIn Best time to post 11 a.m. on Thursdays Best type of post Carousel Median number of posts (monthly) Unknown Median engagement rate (in percent) 6.5 The best time to post on LinkedInIt shouldn’t come as a surprise that the best time to post on LinkedIn is during working hours. Buffer’s analysis of 5.5 million posts found that posts that go live between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays perform best. Posts shared at 11 a.m. on Thursdays get marginally more engagement. The best type of post on LinkedInLinkedIn has evolved into a creator-friendly platform complete with its own video feed, but while video still gets solid traction, it’s no longer the engagement powerhouse it was during the early 2024 surge. As the algorithm settled and more creators embraced video, one format consistently rose to the top: PDF carousels deliver the highest median engagement on LinkedIn (by far). Median number of posts (monthly) on LinkedInAlthough we don’t have recent median post frequency data, Buffer’s research of over 2 million posts from 94k+ LinkedIn accounts shows that posting two to five times weekly on LinkedIn is the sweet spot for improving reach and engagement without overwhelming your schedule. Pro tip: LinkedIn’s posts have a longer shelf life than other social media platforms. This means your LinkedIn posts can appear in your audience’s feed for weeks after you’ve shared them, so it pays to create an intentional LinkedIn strategy. Quality > quantity, so find a frequency you can stick to. Median engagement rate on LinkedInBuffer’s analysis of millions of posts found a median LinkedIn engagement rate of 6.5%, outpacing all the other platforms we measured. This median uses data between January 2024 and January 2025. When we dug a little deeper, we saw how LinkedIn engagement jumped from 6% to 8.01% in that time period. 💬Looking for a low-lift way to improve LinkedIn engagement? Get this: Replying to your comments on LinkedIn boosts engagement by 30%.How to use social media benchmarks to your benefitNow that you have some social media benchmarks data, how can you use the numbers I shared above to inform your marketing strategy? Here are three ways: 1. Use social media benchmarks to set goalsSocial media benchmarks help you understand where you’re winning, or maybe where you’re falling short. Use social media benchmarks to guide your KPIs and make them more realistic. 2. Use social media benchmarks for reporting the true pictureAt first blush, a 3% engagement rate on Twitter (now X) might seem bleak to your stakeholders. Will that lead to a good growth rate? Should you practice more retweets or increase the number of posts? But presenting that number alongside benchmark data (the median is just over 2%) can help you see the whole picture. In this case, maybe you’re not doing so badly after all. 💡Buffer is an all-in-one social media management tool that provides detailed social media performance analytics along with a host of helpful features like post scheduling, managing multiple accounts under one roof, and responding to comments without ever leaving the tab. Sign up for free today.3. Use social media benchmarks as an aspirational vision boardIf your social media metrics leave a little to be desired, let benchmark data serve as an inspiration and something to work towards by varying content type, positioning, frequency, or wherever you think improvements can be made. ⚠️ But here comes one of those caveats again Even benchmark data points keep shifting under the whims of algorithms, competition, and other factors out of your control. And what one study calls ‘benchmarks’ depends on its own methodology and sample size — it can differ vastly from one research report to another. Take every benchmark with a grain of salt and use it in conjunction with your past performance metrics and audience feedback. So, how did your socials stack up against these social media benchmarks?If you’re feeling clearer about where you stand, that’s exactly what these social media benchmarks are for. Maybe you discovered you’re posting at the right times? Maybe you spotted a few gaps or opportunities you hadn’t considered before? Either way, you now have data you can actually use. And remember, the only numbers that matter long-term are the ones that move your goals forward. Benchmarks give you direction; your strategy gives you momentum. Pair the two, and your social presence will be stronger and smarter going into 2026. More social media insightsThe Best Time to Post on Twitter/X: Based on Data from 1 Million PostsReplying to Comments Boosts Engagement by 5-42% on These Major Platforms17 Threads Stats You Need to Know in 2026 (+ What They Mean for Your Strategy)The Best Time to Post on TikTok in 2026 — New DataWhat Is a Good Facebook Engagement Rate? Data From 52 Million+ PostsDo Posts with Links Affect Content Performance on X?FAQ about social media benchmarksWhat are social media benchmarks?Social media benchmarks act like a compass for your strategy. They show how your posts, engagement, and posting frequency compare to similar accounts, helping you understand what “good” looks like without the guesswork. Why should I care about social media benchmarks?Benchmarks help you set realistic goals, report meaningful results to your team or stakeholders, and identify areas where you can improve your social media performance — without stressing over every like or share. Which social media metrics matter most?Some of the key metrics to watch are engagement rate, post type, posting frequency, and posting times. These give insight into how your audience interacts with your content, which formats work best, how often to post, and when your content gets the most visibility. What type of posts perform best on each platform?Different platforms favor different content. Pictures perform best on Facebook, Instagram Reels get the highest reach, TikTok rewards videos, text posts win on X (Twitter), and LinkedIn sees the most engagement with carousels or PDFs. When is the best time to post on social media?The optimal posting times differ across platforms. On Facebook, 5 a.m. on Mondays performs well. Instagram sees the most engagement around 3 p.m. on Fridays. TikTok posts do best at 8 p.m. on Sundays. X (Twitter) favors 9 a.m. on Wednesdays, and LinkedIn engagement peaks at 11 a.m. on Thursdays. But the best time to post is when your audience is online, which you can find out in your Buffer analytics. What is a good engagement rate for social media?Median engagement rates vary by platform. Facebook averages 3.6%, Instagram 4.3%, TikTok 4.86%, X (Twitter) 2.15%, and LinkedIn 6.5%. These numbers provide a helpful reference point for evaluating your own performance, but must be considered in the context of your audience size and your industry. How should I use social media benchmarks?Benchmarks can guide your strategy in three main ways. They help you set realistic goals, give context when reporting performance to stakeholders, and inspire improvements in content type, posting frequency, and timing. Are benchmarks the same for every business?Benchmarks are guides, not rules. Your niche, audience, and goals can change what “good” looks like for your brand. Use benchmark data to inform your strategy, but always consider your own performance history and audience behavior. 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Uncover insights on the state of AEO as AI-driven discovery reshapes strategies for enterprise organizations in 2026. The post The State of AEO & GEO in 2026 [Webinar] appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Internship offered me a special project but now I can’t get any answers about it I’m a college student who recently finished a remote internship at a prominent company in a fairly niche field (the company has maybe 10-15 full-time employees). My main task was fairly generic — think setting up a filing system or similar — but I also got a lot of experience in the actual field. Towards the latter end of it, I had a great talk with the CEO about what I wanted out of the internship, and what was really exciting was that he said that he thought a good next step for me would be designing an accessory for one of their products. That sounded great to me, and I said so. He told me to get back to him with some ideas for products that I wanted to make an accessory to, and that he would meet in a week or two with some of the designers to talk about what they thought and hash out the plan for this. That was about one and a half months ago. I sent some messages after that attempting to follow up. Initially he just hadn’t gotten around to the meeting yet, which was fine, and said I should send him what product I was interested in working on, but then he didn’t respond to that. Once my internship wrapped up I sent a message thanking him for the internship, and saying that I would be more busy but still available during the school year and would love to work on other projects with the company. He replied saying it was great to have me there for the summer, but also that he was not sure what would be next with regards to project work as they are still figuring out what things will look like in 2026. I sent one more message a week and a half later, saying that I’d love to talk more about the accessory design project and once again affirming that I am free despite being in school, which I haven’t gotten a response to. I have been in intermittent contact for other reasons with one of the designers who was my boss during the internship, and a few weeks ago I asked if the CEO had gotten a chance to talk to him and the other designer about the design opportunity, or if plans had changed. He said he would remind the CEO about it … and I haven’t heard anything about it since. Should I send yet another message to the CEO asking about this? I don’t want to come off as pushy or badgering, considering I’ve already sent him at least four messages about it, but this would also a really exciting opportunity for me. I think it’s very possible that plans changed or he realized that he wouldn’t be able to actually offer me this opportunity, at least not right now, which I would understand. But in that case, I would just like to at least hear that, rather than continue getting radio silence. It’s probably not happening right now, for whatever reason. You shouldn’t continue to message the CEO since four messages makes your interest really clear and the ball is now pretty firmly in his court. The one thing you could do, though, is to message your boss from the internship again and say something like, “I’m not going to keep bothering Cecil about this since I haven’t heard back and I’m guessing it’s just not something he can move forward with right now, but if you do think there’s anything else I should do on my end, please let me know! I’d love the opportunity if it might still be possible, but I realize it might not be.” But after that, I’d assume they’re just not able to make it come together right now. 2. Should we not hire candidates with wet t-shirt contest photos online? I’m hiring for the restaurant and bar at a golf course, and we recently have had two openings for servers. We’ve had trouble finding suitable candidates until recently, when two university students who are both friends applied and interviewed back to back. They are literally the perfect candidates who we believe have the skills to help our team. Upon checking their online history, however, we found out that last year they were overseas at a hostel and they joined a wet t-shirt contest. The hostel and nightclub posted some images on their website, with them both showing off their butts in thongs and also removing their shirts entirely, showing their breasts to the crowd. They actually finished first and second in the contest, and kudos to them! Personally, I don’t have an issue with this and I see it as good fun. I don’t see how this would impact the reputation of our golf course in any way, as the customers will not know and, even if they did, it’s not like they would view this as something the golf course was then up too. I really don’t think it matters. Neither does the other hiring manager, but they are hesitant because they “just know if you find something like that, you are not supposed to hire them.” Do you think we should just hire these wonderful women who seem to be the right fit for our job openings or do you think the fact that their butts and boobs happen to be on a hostel website from overseas matter and we should pass? I personally think in today’s times that this sort of thing is okay and I think the other manager is living 20 years ago still. You should hire them. Tell the other manager that the advice she’s heard is outdated and it only ever applied to certain types of jobs anyway (like jobs like teaching, where public image has traditionally been a big concern). It never applied to the majority of jobs, and it has zero bearing on their ability to do the work you need done. 3. Can I ask to use a “free” day off at a different time? I work full-time in local government, in a small office of 12. Recently, our boss sent out an email announcing that as a thank-you for our hard work over the past year, she was giving us all one “free” day of personal vacation. We were all told to look at the calendar to see which day we were assigned to take off. While I appreciate the thought, I was actually hoping I could bank the day off and use it towards a vacation later in the month I was already approved to take. Alternately, I wanted to ask to use my “free” vacation date on my birthday, also later this month. Would you advise asking our boss if I could use the free day she is giving us towards another vacation or on another day? I don’t want to seem ungrateful or look at gift horse in the mouth, but the day I am assigned to be off is not a day I want to be off. She has never done anything like this before, at least since I have worked with her. She’s normally pretty tough about granting time off requests, so her willingness to randomly give us an extra free day took me by surprise. Sure, ask! “Would it be okay for me to use this for January 30 instead? That’s my birthday and I’d love to use this to take it off.” Or you could ask to use it for your already-scheduled vacation, but there’s more chance she’ll feel like you’re turning what was meant to be a feel-good perk into something more administrative since you already have that time scheduled — which doesn’t make logical sense, since it would mean you had an additional day to use down the road, but I suspect the birthday would be more in keeping with the spirit of what she’s trying to offer. 4. Should my exempt employees be using PTO for appointments? I’m a faculty member at a university, and I supervise some staff members. These staff members are all exempt and have all been in their roles since before I became a supervisor. I’ve noticed that they will use a few hours of annual leave in order to take a pet to the vet or for various other things that might require coming in late or leaving early. They will also sometimes “make up” hours in the evening if they had to come in late or leave early during the week. Their roles are 8 am – 4:30 pm positions that require at least one of them in the office during this time. From following your site, I was under the impression that, as exempt employees, they don’t need to be taking leave for these incremental hours of time they aren’t working. This all gets a little more complicated, because technically I supervise one person, and she supervises the other two employees. I have deferred to her on how she wants to manage office coverage and their tasks. She’s also been supervising employees for much longer than me, so I deferred to her on how leave is supposed to be used and reported. (Remember, this is a university, so I went from a regular faculty role with incredible flexibility to a supervisory role without being given any real information on how HR-type rules work. Academia!) Ultimately, my question is whether these employees are unnecessarily using their leave. Should they be able to come in late (if approved) and not use leave? And if so, is this something that I legally need to fix? Would we be in legal trouble if it came to light that exempt employees were being required to use leave in this way? So, first, the law on exempt employees doesn’t say anything at all about how they need to use their leave; it is exclusively concerned with their pay. Specifically, exempt employees be paid their full salary for any week in which they do any work (with a few narrow exceptions, like if they’re working a partial week because it’s their first or last week of work). But the law doesn’t care if that money is coming from their paid leave or not; it only cares that they are paid. So there’s no legal issue here. What does matter are your employer’s personnel policies, and maybe also what’s common practice in your department. Some employers (and some managers) strictly require that people use PTO for the sort of thing you describe (or make up the time). Others are much more flexible and figure there’s a give and take, and as long as people’s work is getting done, they’re not going to nickel and dime them on PTO. So the question for you, first and foremost, is what your university’s policy is on this and, if it’s fairly strict, whether you as a manager have standing to choose to implement more flexibility on your team. 5. Can I apply at an organization that’s not hiring? How do I write a speculative application to an organization that isn’t hiring right now? Is that even something I should try? I really want to get out of my current job (law enforcement) and have found an NGO that I’m a perfect fit for. Unfortunately they’re not hiring at the moment, but I’d like to send them my resume in case it’s something they’d consider now or in the future. I’ve never sent a speculative application before. Is it a good idea? How should I structure it? Do I turn the email into a cover letter, or write a separate cover letter and attach it like I would for a listed job ad? I wouldn’t be considering this if I weren’t certain that I’d be a great asset to the organization, and this level of self-confidence isn’t typical for me. But I don’t want to make a fool of myself and blow my shot in case it hurts my chances in the future. What would you advise? You definitely can try doing this! There’s no guarantee it will lead to anything, of course, but there’s no reason you can’t give it a shot. You’d make your email your cover letter, explaining why you’re contacting them and what you could offer them — and why you’re so interested even outside of any specific position being available — and then you’d say, “I’m attaching my resume so you can see my full professional background, and I’d love to talk if you’re ever hiring someone to do X.” People do this a lot, especially with nonprofits (because they tend to attract a lot of people who want to work for that cause, specifically). It won’t hurt your chances for the future at all (if anything, it could help them). The post I can’t get answers about a special project, candidate with risqué photos online, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

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The President administration signals support for proposal to divvy up sanctioned Russian company’s international businessesView the full article