21 Hats Podcast

This week, in part because Loren’s on vacation, we’re offering a replay of an episode we recorded more than two years ago. It was one of our early episodes, and it was recorded shortly after George Floyd was murdered. In the episode, Karen Clark Cole, William Vanderbloemen, and Dana White talked about how they viewed their responsibilities as business leaders at such a fraught moment. What, if anything, were they saying to their customers? What were they saying to their employees? It started as a conversation, but Dana took the lead quickly and powerfully. She talked about what it’s been like to so often be the lone Black voice in the room. She talked about what it’s like for African-American employees to come to work and wonder where their company and their colleagues stand. She drew a line in the sand. “Why is it hard,” she asked? “You’re either over here, or you’re over there.” Even if you’ve already heard this episode, we recommend listening again—especially given that business leaders are again being asked where they stand on social and political issues, whether it’s about race or abortion or the climate or democracy. If you haven’t already heard the episode, we doubt you will soon forget it.

This week, in episode 121, Shawn Busse, Jay Goltz, and Liz Picarazzi discuss their succession options and—if they could go back in time—what advice they would give their early-stage selves. Liz would tell herself to get some help with administrative tasks, Shawn would tell himself to find a mentor (although he’s not sure he would have listened to the advice), and Jay would tell himself that there’s an obvious solution to the chaos caused by fast growth. Plus: How Liz changed the narrative after Citibin’s bout with bad publicity. And we have suggestions for a listener who asks: How do you know when it’s time to quit the day job?

This week, Gene Marks and Loren Feldman talk about the rise of “quiet quitting,” the new term for when employees contribute the bare minimum. They also discuss the phenomenon of bosses who come into the office to set a good example even as their employees phone it in from the beach. But most importantly, Gene points out what few others have noted, which is that the Inflation Reduction Act extends a huge tax break for business owners that was nearing expiration. And that’s just one of many aspects of the bill that Gene applauds. So would he have voted for the bill? You might be surprised.

This week, in episode 120, Shawn Busse and Paul Downs talk about what they’ve learned from their worst client experiences. Shawn, for example, tells us that he’s come to think about taking on a client much the way he thinks about hiring an employee. And Paul stresses the importance of watching what he says about difficult clients to his employees, because he doesn’t want to encourage a cynical attitude. From bad clients, our conversation shifts to bad partnerships. Even though their own partnerships ended poorly, both Shawn and Paul emphasize that having a partner can be invaluable in getting a business off the ground. In fact, Paul says he might even consider taking on a partner again. Plus, both Shawn and Paul explain why all the talk of recession is not giving them second thoughts about their ambitious marketing plans.

This week, John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, an advocacy group for entrepreneurs and businesses, talks about what businesses can expect from the legislation coming out of Washington, D.C.—not just the climate, tax, and health care bill, but also the CHIPS and Science Act. In many instances, the benefits to business owners will come indirectly, he says, but they will come nonetheless.

This week, in episode 119, Liz Picarazzi tells Jay Goltz and Sarah Segal about her first brush with bad publicity. Liz’s debacle started with a negative post that appeared in a prominent local blog. It was about a Times Square pilot program for which her business, Citibin, is supplying trash bins. The problem? The bins were not being maintained properly, and there were photos to prove it. At the time we recorded this conversation, Liz was bracing for additional stories in both the New York Post and The New York Times. Both of those stories have since been published—we’ll talk about them in a coming episode—and you can find links to all of the coverage in the show notes. For Liz, perhaps the biggest challenge was defending her company without trashing her client.Show Notes:Here’s the Streetsblog post: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/07/20/gross-clean-curbs-bins-show-growing-pains-in-times-square/Here’s the New York Post story: https://nypost.com/2022/07/30/nyc-citibins-leaking-garbage-left-open-in-times-square/And here’s The New York Times story: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/nyregion/new-york-city-garbage-containers.html

This week, Gene talks about how he recently had a mild case of COVID but worked right through it, no problem, which got him to wondering why employees—in his view—do not seem to be similarly dedicated. In fact, Gene believes that employees are using “COVID hysteria” as a pretext to avoid work and catch up on their TV watching. Plus, Gene explains why he thinks Wawa, a chain of convenience stores, is a good model for his own business. And he tries to make sense of a recessionary economy that produced more than half a million jobs in July.

This week, in episode 118, Jay Goltz tells Shawn Busse and Karen Clark Cole about a dream he had recently. It was a dream, of all things, about this very podcast, and on it, someone—it was a guy—was talking about how his business was faring: “I think I’m screwed,” he says in Jay’s dream. But who was it? And why was he screwed? Jay woke up before those answers were revealed. So we did some interpreting on this week’s real podcast. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t that hard to interpret! Plus: Shawn explains why he thinks his website is no longer performing. Karen explains why she thinks it’s actually easier to onboard an employee who will work remotely. And Jay and Karen discuss whether it’s time to give up on things going back to the way they were.

This week, Gene Marks and Loren Feldman try to make sense of where the economy is headed and what it means for business owners. Plus, Gene explains why he thinks some business owners may be fooling themselves about whether their business is growing. He also talks about a CRM tool that Google is giving away for free, as well as what you need to know to start a business.

This week, in episode 117, Paul Downs, Sarah Segal, and Laura Zander discuss their daily routines, how those routines have been affected by the pandemic, whether they think they’re working too much or too little, and whether they would join a peer group where they would be exposed to owners who are working harder and, perhaps, having greater success. Plus: Laura places her bet on influencer marketing, Paul says his new marketing campaign has already paid off, and Sarah explains why none of her employees have ever asked her for a raise.