Morning Brew Daily

On the last episode of Business Casual, I spoke with HR legend and former head of Goldman Sachs human capital management, Edith Cooper.

Edith explained in no uncertain terms just how important diversity and inclusion are in corporate America—from both moral and financial perspectives. But to my team and me, that’s just scratching the surface of the conversation about equity of opportunity, racial gaps, and workplace culture. 

So today, we’re digging even deeper. Edith gave you the 10,000-foot view. How about experiencing first-hand how policies that make the workplace work for all are actually created?

On this episode of Business Casual, say hello to Morning Brew’s own head of people operations, Kate Noel.

Kate’s giving us an honest account of what it’s like to build a culture at a startup—and it’s about way, way more than serving snacks and offering unlimited PTO. 

In the episode, Kate explains the urgency of fostering diverse and inclusive workplaces, plus gives a master class on things like tokenism and code switching. If you don’t know what those are, you need to listen to this episode.

At the end of the day, people are more motivated to do good work for a company that allows them to be their full selves. And we all know that hasn’t always been the case. From hiring to promoting to continuing education, Kate walks us through exactly what makes work work for all.

Don’t miss this episode—you’re going to love Kate as much as we at Morning Brew do within the first minute.

If you’re a business decision maker...diversity matters.

If you’re an entry level employee...diversity matters.

If you haven’t even entered the workforce yet...diversity matters.

Because companies that prioritize diversity do better. According to McKinsey, in 2019, companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity financially outperformed those in the bottom quartile for diversity by 36%.

But how do we put that 36% in context? And how do we, as individuals, make sure we’re holding corporations accountable for diversity and inclusion efforts?

This week on Business Casual, I speak with Edith Cooper to figure it out. Edith, who our producer Marilyn aptly called a “corporate badass,” is the former head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs, a board director at both Etsy and Slack, and cofounder of personal and professional development startup Medley.

Also? Edith was named to Black Enterprise’s 2017 “300 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America” list, among many other awards and honors.

Edith’s candor and insight will push you to think differently and ask more questions about diversity in the workplace, like...

If you want to stay relevant as a corporation today, you need to open doors for everyone—not just for prospective employees who look like you. Young consumers notice when businesses aren’t woke, and they’re voting in a new guard with their ballooning purchasing power.

If you had the opportunity to become excellent right now, immediately—why would you turn it down? When corporations don’t hire from diverse backgrounds and promote Black workers, they’re doing just that...leaving excellence on the table, as Edith puts it.

What other aspect of a business’s success would be okay to sidestep for this long? Not even the most promising of startups could put off something like a path to profitability forever. So how come we’ve allowed corporate leaders to put off diversity—something we know contributes to long-term financial success—for centuries?

Edith begins to offer answers, but the truth of the matter is that this has to be an ongoing conversation. How are you going to make sure that this time, it’s different?

Listen now to get started.

They might not fall for anything, but they definitely won’t win over consumers who are presently armed with more information than ever before.

The big picture: Today, it’s not enough for brands—from fledgling startups to multinational corporations—to just sell goods and services for a profit. They have to take a stand, from supporting Black Lives Matter to championing frontline health workers to saving the world from climate change. 

You know exactly what I’m talking about. How many times have you heard a brand tell you it’s “there for you” in the last three months? For me, it’s 7 billion, give or take.

While we might perceive an overload of marketing emails touting donations made and support lent, it makes sense from the brands’ perspectives to speak out (sometimes).

Because today more than ever, we’re being faced with a serious proposition: voting with our dollars, even before we can vote with our ballots. And no one should vote uninformed.

So today on Business Casual, I’m speaking with the undisputed branding wizards of the startup scene, Red Antler co-founders Emily Heyward and JB Osborne. Their firm is behind the design and go-to-market strategies for the kinds of companies synonymous with “strong brand,” from Allbirds to Casper.

Emily and JB bring a unique perspective to the branding conversation, one typically dominated by pie-in-the-sky musings on consumer psychology and nonsensical acronyms. Their POV? It’s not about playing by rules—it’s about playing by values.

And when a brand takes on values and purpose beyond being in the black next quarter, the dollars we feed it take on far more meaning than just lining the pockets of startup founders.

So...if you’ve ever thought picking a font and a color scheme was the extent of building a brand, you need to listen to this episode. Check it out now.

Imagine it: Your doctor tells you, “Take a magic mushroom and call me in the morning.”

It’s...probably not all that realistic. But the promise of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy? Definitely realistic. And definitely an intriguing business prospect.

That’s why this week on Business Casual, we’re talking to the preeminent expert in the controlled use of psychedelic drugs: Dr. Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (aka MAPS).

Rick has spent nearly four decades at MAPS championing the uses of psychedelics and marijuana in clinical settings. The treatment possibilities, as he sees them, range from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression to addiction.

Sounds promising—but there’s always a but. The larger pharmaceuticals, biotech, and insurance industries aren’t quite ready to wholly buy into psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Or psychotherapy of any kind, for that matter.

Along with earning a spot in the regulatory good graces of U.S. officials, educating business decision makers presents a challenge for Rick and his peers in the psychedelics space. But if the trend of microdosing (ahem, Silicon Valley) is any indication, interest is growing from both venture capital and consumer POVs.

Money, though, is harder to come by—in the episode, Rick shares the experience of fundraising as a nonprofit.

The tl;dr? It’s really, really hard.

Listen now to expand your mind.

Rick generously offered to answer other business-related questions. Get in touch with him at [email protected].

Every first Friday morning of every month at 8:30am ET, we partake in a long honored tradition—poring over one very specific set of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That data is the monthly jobs report, and it’s become an essential part of our assessment of the U.S. economy. 

Because having a job means supporting yourself and your family, a basic human need just like clothing and shelter and food. But right now, millions of Americans are without that basic human need. 

40 million to be exact. That’s how many people have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began. But how are we to put a number that enormous in context? And how are we to understand who bears its impacts the most? And how are we to determine when 40 million shrinks to zero?

This week on Business Casual, we’re doing our best to answer those questions with Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn and labor market expert. Hearing her masterfully simple explanation of the U.S. labor market is like seeing Bigfoot...you’ve always wanted to experience it, but you weren’t sure it ever existed.

Karin also illustrates the stark disparity at play in the labor market at any given moment...and why this particular moment is exacerbating those disparities.

One race issue: Unemployment has been widespread during the pandemic and economic crisis, but minorities including black and Latino Americans have carried the burden of the downturn more than any other group...and that’s not helping today’s unrest. Per Karin, “I think here you're seeing people feel like they went overnight from feeling like they had a lot of promise and opportunity to having nothing.”

One gender issue: With most schools and summer programs closed, unemployment is affecting women at a considerably higher rate than men.

The big picture: As Karin sees it, unemployment and hiring rates are the best metrics for understanding when the economy can get back on its feet. And that’s a question we’d all like an answer to.

Listen to our episode with Karin now and let us know what you think.

+ The Bureau of Labor Statistics’s May jobs report comes out the day after this episode hits the wires. We’re pregaming already. Start your own pregame with these stats: 

April jobs report—unemployment rate surged to a record 14.7% and payrolls dropped by a historic 20.5 million workers

May jobs report expectations, per Refinitiv—unemployment rate of 19.8% with about 8.5 million jobs lost

Place your bets now.

Today, instead of listening to our usual 45-minute episode, we’re asking you to take that time to listen, read, or watch content that elevates black voices, black stories, and black-owned businesses.

Podcasts:

The 1619 Project from the New York Times Magazine is a multimedia initiative that began last August to mark the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It reframes American history by exploring the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans. Check out the entire project on the Times’s site, and listen to the podcast portion, simply called 1619.

We’re also huge fans of NPR’s Code Switch. The podcast covers what they call “overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting.”

The Ringer’s show Higher Learning has an episode titled “The Importance of the Nationwide Protests Over George Floyd’s Death.” If you want insight on where we go from here, this has it.

Books:

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo has been recommended online endlessly over the last several days, and there’s a reason for that. The book explores why white people feel so uncomfortable talking about race.

For a better understanding of the historical challenges of being black and doing business, read Hannibal Johnson’s Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District.

Read some of the classics by black authors including Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou.

Videos:

Rachel Cargle’s YouTube video titled “Public Address On Revolution: Revolution Now” is a moving assessment of today’s reality. 

On Netflix, check out 13th from Ava Duvernay to understand the U.S. prison system’s history of racial inequality.

You can also support black businesses. Find great compilations of those businesses on WeBuyBlack, The Black Wallet, and Official Black Wall Street.

Finally, if you’re in the position to give, consider donating to one of the many reputable organizations helping further anti-racism causes.

For more information about anti-racism or resources for further learning, look here, here, and here.

We get it. Custom made meals served in biodegradable bowls and ordered through an app or over a sneeze guard are really good and really convenient.

And plenty sell each year—the fast casual sector posted an 8% sales gain in 2018, and traffic jumped 3% in the space despite the fact that total U.S. foodservice traffic was flat as a board. You can thank a confluence of factors from the ’08 financial crisis to rising rents for the industry’s recent ascent.

But not even the fast casual space, home to relatively fast, relatively cheap, and relatively healthy food we’ve seamlessly integrated into our lives and diets, is safe from COVID-19. The sector, much like fine dining and the rest of the hospitality space, has been brought to its knees by shutdowns designed to keep us all safe...and at home.

So today on Business Casual, we’re exploring what makes fast casual tick, what’s changed since the coronavirus set in, and what comes next for the Chipotles of the world. Most importantly? We’re pinpointing exactly what it is that helped fast casual thrive through the last recession—and determining which of those lessons can help us get through today.

This episode features two entrepreneurs in different stages of building their businesses: Nicolas Jammet of famed salad company Sweetgreen and Chef JJ Johnson of Harlem’s new(ish) rice bowl shop Fieldtrip.

We decided to bring in not one, but two experts to show differing perspectives on building moats around a business. 

For Nicolas and Sweetgreen, the biggest competitive advantage is white label tech that’s made the chain the envy of both fast casual restaurants and Silicon Valley alike.

For JJ and Filedtrip, the biggest competitive advantage is a tight-knit community that’s served as the best marketing tool imaginable. 

The insight the two bring...to the table...is unbeatable. They’re operating and more importantly adapting during an unimaginably difficult time for business and in a sector notorious for razor-thin margins. 

Listen now to get their perspectives. 

+ FYI, this is Part II of our two-part exploration of the restaurant industry in a post-COVID world. If you want to hear Part I, go check it out. It features fine dining czar Chef Marcus Samuelsson and tackles issues like government funding, small business, furloughs, and so much more.

COVID-19 makes it easy to do just that. Sure, we’d be a lot more capable with a paring knife or a turkey baster. But at what cost?

Restaurants are the backbone of small business in communities across the country. Without decent spots to grab a bite or celebrate an accomplishment, what good are barber shops or clothing retailers? If restaurants flounder, so too do the small businesses they help bolster.

That’s the world according to Marcus Samuelsson, famed restaurateur, Iron Chef competitor, Chopped judge, and owner of more than a handful of restaurants around the world. 

This week on Business Casual, we spoke with Chef Marcus about his experience operating restaurants and strategizing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The long story short? It’s been really, really hard.

Restaurants have been suckerpunched by the coronavirus and the requisite shutdowns robbing them of business. And that means big changes for a lot of people:

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry employs 15.6 million people in the U.S. and was on track to do $899 billion in sales for 2020.

The sad reality is that an enormous chunk of those 15.6 million people are now being furloughed or laid off. In NYC, restaurant spending dipped 90% in late March compared to a year earlier.

But businesspeople like Chef Marcus don’t just stop when things get tough. They pivot—to delivery, to making meals for frontline workers, to lobbying on behalf of the industry at large. Because as far as Chef Marcus sees it, the government is going to step in and give his business the help it needs.

In this episode, we explore exactly how COVID has expedited those strategic shifts, plus what they mean for the broader hospitality industry. Listen now.

And tune in to Business Casual’s next episode to hear Part II of our exploration of the restaurant space in the COVID-19 world. We’re tackling fast casuals with two of the brightest minds in the industry. Subscribe so you don’t miss out.

“I don’t think we’ll ever go back to what we had before.”

That’s what Barbara Corcoran thinks of commercial real estate’s future. In Part II of Business Casual’s interview with the star of ABC’s Shark Tank and real estate mogul, she makes several bold predictions about the ways commercial real estate come out of today’s pandemic and recession. 

Chief among them? Compromise is the new open floor plan. Barabara says that today’s widespread WFH will illustrate the futility of giant office spaces, while also highlighting some of the difficulties of remote employment. That puts a few lucky commercial real estate players in pole position. 

What else does Barbarba see in her crystal ball? Fewer bank foreclosures than you might think. A renewed appreciation for the layers upon layers of leverage in the commercial real estate market. Some unpleasant ripple effects of rent forgiveness. Retail’s death knell.

If you want to understand all of that, plus the important role the commercial real estate market plays in the broader economy...

Listen now. And FYI: This is the second part of a two-part interview. Go check out Part I, which centered on the residential real estate market, if you haven’t already.

So much of business is clinical, scientific even—balance sheets either add up or they don’t. But in the housing market, emotions are as important as 1s and 0s.

And today, many of us are walking an emotional tightrope made all the tighter by the fact that we’re staring down the barrel of a recession. So how do we understand what comes next for the residential real estate industry—a space characterized by physical, in-person dealings—when we’re mostly homebound and mostly short on disposable income?

This week on Business Casual, we get the answer from Barbara Corcoran—star of ABC’s Shark Tank, real estate icon, and (apparently) budding philosopher.

In Part I of our interview with Barbara, she walks us through the intricacies of the housing market today, from buyer to seller to broker. Curious about prices? Wondering what virtual home tours are like? Barbara’s got you.

And she’s serving up the insight in several flavors:

The optimist’s case: The spring buying spree residential real estate typically enjoys isn’t canceled, but rather postponed. Once we get better COVID-19 testing mechanisms in place, we’ll come out of hibernation to what Barbara expects to be a “vibrant” midsummer market.

And the pessimist’s case: For the housing market, it doesn’t matter how many trillions of dollars the U.S. government passes in stimulus and relief bills. Can you think of anyone who would spend their unemployment benefits, no matter how expanded, on a new home?

Listen now. We’ll cover the commercial market in depth (yes, we’ll talk about WeWork) with Barbara in Part II of the interview, out next from Business Casual. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it.