There are brief moments when Annisa Faquir forgets that the Little Red Hen Coffee Shop, the Altadena diner her grandmother founded a half century ago, burned down in the Eaton Fire.
You think, I can go grab somethingoh wait, its in ashes, said Faquir, who has worked at the shop since her mother, Barbara Shay, took over the family business seven years ago.
The women want to rebuild the diner loved by neighbors for its shrimp and grits, catfish, and Shays secret house coffee blend. They knew they’d need help, but were surprised when Paris Hilton called to offer it to them.
The Little Red Hen Coffee Shop is one of 50 women-owned businesses impacted by the Eaton Fire receiving a recovery grant of up to $25,000 from Hiltons nonprofit 11:11 Media Impact and GoFundMe.org.
These women are the backbone of their communities, the reality TV star said in a statement. Through this powerful partnership, were not just helping them rebuildwere investing in their futures, their families, and their neighborhoods.
Faquir said the significant grant and the ease of the process was helpful, especially compared to tougher questioning for smaller grants from other donors who asked for an arm and a leg. They saw us, she said. They heard our story.
More than 1,800 businesses were located in the Eaton and Palisades fire zones, according to Los Angeles Countys Economic Development Corporation. They employed 9,600 workers and generated $1.4 billion in annual sales. The county estimates subsequent losses in economic output, income reductions, and tax revenue will be in the billions.
Making sure they stay afloat now is supercritical so that we can even talk to them about long-term recovery, Kelly LoBianco, director of L.A. Countys Department of Economic Opportunity, said of those businesses.
Businesses generally struggle to reopen after catastrophes. In 2023, three-quarters of small businesses were underinsured, according to the insurer Hiscox, and less than half had property insurance.
In the L.A. fires, many business owners also lost their homes. Some are still repaying loans from the COVID-19 pandemic. The county is distributing about $20 million in emergency grants, but LoBianco said much more will be needed.
After applications flooded in for its own program, 11:11 Media Impact and GoFundMe.org expanded it from 11 to 50 grants. The recipients include childcare centers, bakeries, bookshops, dance studios, and salons.
Seeing the overwhelming response from women entrepreneurs in need of support showed us how important and urgent the need is to help this community rebuild, said Hilton.
The money will boost entrepreneurs who worried the Eaton Fire had destroyed their futures, said Lizzy Okoro Davidson, director of the Pasadena Womens Business Center, which is partnering on the grant program. The money can help pay back-rent after long closures, secure new spaces, and replace equipment. In some cases the $25,000 will be the bridge to get them to 100% of what they need, said Okoro Davidson.
Renata Ortega, owner of Orla Floral Studio, used to run her floral design company out of a converted garage next to the home she shared with her husband and three dogs in the Altadena foothills.
Since the Eaton fire destroyed their property, Ortega has been working from a shared workshop in downtown L.A. lent to her by a fellow floral designer. It was a kindness Ortega deeply appreciates, but she knows she’ll eventually need her own space.
I really didnt know if we were going to make it or how long we were going to make it, having to start from scratch, so this grant is really giving me hope right now at a time of uncertainty, she said.
Ortega will use the money for a deposit and rent on a studio while she and her husband rebuild their property. She also needs to replace all the vases, shelving, and tools she lost.
I can continue a business that was once just a dream for me, said Ortega, adding that she will be forever grateful to Hilton. Now were going to make it.
The Pasadena Womens Business Center will also receive $25,000 to provide no-cost advising to local business owners. Okoro Davidson said entrepreneurs will need lots of encouragement to keep going.
Were really at the beginning of the beginning of the rebuild process, she said, adding that reimagining businesses will come next. Companies that never even had websites might now sell their products online, she said, or restaurants could convert to food trucks while theyand their customersrebuild.
The grants came largely from GoFundMe.orgs Wildfire Relief Fund, which has raised $7.7 million from 43,000 donors so far. Hilton, whose Malibu home burned in the Palisades Fire, donated $150,000 to the Wildfire Relief Fund.
Her nonprofit, which normally focuses on protecting children and amplifying female voices, raised $1.2 million in the first week after the fires.
Faquir said she and her mom will put the money toward building the restaurant, replacing equipment, and finally buying the land their diner has stood on for the last 53 years. Its our family legacy, said Faquir. We have to uphold what her mom started.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Associated Press
Protesters against billionaire Elon Musks purge of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump demonstrated outside Tesla dealerships throughout the U.S. and in some cities in Europe on Saturday in the latest attempt to dent the fortune of the worlds richest man.
The protesters were trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musks role as the head of the newly created Department of of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he has gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. The biggest portion of Musks estimated $340 billion fortune consists of his stock in the electric vehicle company, which continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
After earlier demonstrations that were somewhat sporadic, Saturday marked the first attempt to surround all 277 of the automakers showrooms and service centers in the U.S. in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the companys sales.
By early afternoon crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds of protesters had flocked to Tesla locations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota, and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Pictures posted on social media showed protesters brandishing signs such as Honk if you hate Elon and Fight the billionaire broligarchy.
As the day progressed, the protests cascaded around the country outside Tesla locations in major cities such as Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Seattle, as well as towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Smaller groups of counterprotesters also showed up at some sites.
Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go! several dozen people chanted outside a showroom in Dublin, California, about 35 miles (60 miles) east of San Francisco, while a smaller cluster of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street.
A much larger crowd circled another showroom in nearby Berkeley, chanting slogans to the beat of drums.
We’re living in a fascist state, said Dennis Fagaly, a retired high school teacher from neighboring Oakland, and we need to stop this or we’ll lose our whole country and everything that is good about the United States.
Anti-Musk sentiment extends beyond the U.S.
The Tesla Takedown movement also hoped to rally protesters at more than 230 locations in other parts of the world. Although the turnouts in Europe were not as large, the anti-Musk sentiment was similar.
About two dozen people held signs lambasting the billionaire outside a dealership in London as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support.
One sign displayed depicted Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salutea gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Trump’s January 20 inauguration. A person in a Tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk’s straight-arm gesture that said, You thought the Nazis were extinct. Dont buy a Swasticar.
We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that were facing, said Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest.
Tesla Takedown was organized by a group of supporters that included disillusioned owners of the automakers vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas.
Im going to keep screaming in the halls of Congress. I just need you all to make sure you all keep screaming in the streets, Crockett said during an organizing call this month.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, showed up at a protest in Seattle, which she represents in Congress.
Musk backlash has included some vandalism
Some people have gone beyond protest, setting Tesla vehicles on fire or committing other acts of vandalism that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as domestic terrorism. In a March 20 company meeting, Musk indicated that he was dumbfounded by the attacks and said the vandals should stop acting psycho.
Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance of Saturdays protests remaining peaceful.
But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Teslas in northwestern Germany in the early morning. It was not immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the protests.
In Watertown, Massachusetts, local police reported that the side mirror of a black pickup struck two people at a protest outside a Tesla service center, according to the Boston Herald. The suspect was promptly identified by police at the scene, who said there were no serious injuries.
Musk maintains that the company’s future remains bright
A growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk took over DOGE have been looking to sell or trade them in, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from him.
But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in new sales in the March meeting, during which he reassured the workers that the companys Model Y would remain the best-selling car on Earth again this year. He also predicted that Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about seven million currently.
There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting, Musk said.
After Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musks alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars.
That optimism helped lift Teslas stock by 70% between the election and Trump’s January 20 inauguration, creating an additional $560 billion in shareholder wealth. But virtually all those gains have vaporated amid investor worries about the backlash, lagging sales in the U.S., Europe, and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE.
This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent research note.
This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of the surname of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, which appeared in an earlier version.
Michael Liedtke, AP business writer
Associated Press writers Terry Chea, Mustakim Hasnath, and Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report.
For most baseball fans, hope springs eternal on Opening Day.
Many of those fansmore than you might thinkare women.
A 2024 survey found that women made up 39% of those who attended or watched Major League Baseball games, and franchises have taken notice. The Philadelphia Phillies offer behind-the-scenes tours and clinics for their female fans, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees offer fantasy camps that are geared to women.
The number of women working professionally in baseball has also grown. Kim Ng made history in 2020 when she became the first woman general manager of an MLB team, the Miami Marlins. As of 2023, women made up 30% of central office professional staff and 27% of team senior administration jobs. In addition, 43 women held coaching and managerial jobs across the major and minor league levelsa 95% increase in just two years.
As a fan and scholar of the game, Im happy to see more women watching baseball and working in the industry. But it still nags at me that the girls and women who play baseball dont get much recognition, particularly in the U.S.
Women take the field
In the U.S., baseball is seen as a sport for boys and men. Girls and women, on the other hand, are supposed to play softball, which uses a bigger ball and has a smaller field.
It wasnt always this way.
Women have been playing baseball in the U.S. since at least the 1860s. At womens colleges such as Smith and Vassar, students organized baseball teams as early as 1866. The first professional womens baseball team was known as the Dolly Vardens, a team of Black players formed in Philadelphia in 1867. Barnstorming teams, known as Bloomer Girls, traveled across the country to play against mens teams from the 1890s to the 1930s, providing the players with independence and the means to make a living.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by Philip K. Wrigley in 1943, also offered women the chance to play professionally. The league, which inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own, enforced rigid norms of femininity expected at the time. Players were required to wear skirts and makeup while playing and were fined if they engaged in any behavior deemed unladylike. Teams were open only to white women and light-skinned Latinas. Black women were not allowed to play, a policy that reflected the segregation of the Jim Crow era.
Three Black womenConnie Morgan, Mamie Peanut Johnson, and Toni Stonedid play in the otherwise male Negro Leagues in the early 1950s. However, their skills were often downplayed by claims that theyd been signed to generate ticket sales and boost interest in the struggling league.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, and by the late-1950s womens participation in baseball had dwindled.
Starting in the 1970s, many girls who wanted to play baseball were encouraged to play softball instead. [Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images]
Girls funneled into softball
Softball was invented in Chicago in 1887 as an indoor alternative to baseball.
Originally aimed at both men and women, it eventually became the accepted sport for girls and women due to its smaller field, larger ball, and underhand pitching styleaspects deemed suitable for the supposedly weaker and more delicate female body.
The passage of Title IX in 1972 further pushed the popularization of fast-pitch softball, as participation in high school and college increased markedly. In 1974, the National Organization for Women filed a lawsuit against Little League Baseball because the leagues charter excluded girls from playing. The lawsuit was successful, and girls were permitted to join teams.
In response, Little League created Little League Softball as a way to funnel girls into softball instead of baseball. As political scientist Jennifer Ring has pointed out, this decision reinforced the gendered division of each sport and cemented the post-Title IX segregated masculinity of baseball.
Girls can still play baseball, but most are encouraged to eventually switch to softball if they want to pursue college scholarships. If they want to keep playing baseball, they have to constantly confront stubborn cultural beliefs and assumptions that they should be playing softball instead.
A global game
You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. fields a national womens baseball team that competes in the Womens Baseball World Cup. But they receive scant media attention and remain unknown to most baseball fans.
In a 2019 article published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, I argued that the U.S. has experienced inconsistent success on the global stage because of a lack of infrastructure, limited resources, and persistent gendered assumptions that hamper the development of womens baseball. Other countries such as Japan, Canada, and Australia have established solid pathways that allow girls and women to pursue baseball from the youth level through high school and beyond.
That being said, opportunitie for girls to play baseball are increasing in the U.S. thanks to the efforts of organizations such as Baseball for All and DC Girls Baseball.
Approximately 1,300 girls play high school baseball, and a handful of young women play on mens college baseball teams each year. In recent years, numerous womens collegiate club baseball teams have been established; theres even an annual tournament to crown a national champion.
Pro league in the works
Momentum continues to build.
MLB recently appointed Veronica Alvarez as its first girls baseball ambassador, who will oversee development programs such as the Trailblazers Series and the Elite Development Invitational. A new documentary film, See Her Be Her, is touring the country to celebrate the growth of womens baseball and raise awareness of the challenges these athletes face.
Perhaps most significantly, the Womens Pro Baseball League announced that it is planning to start play in summer 2026 with six teams located in the northeastern U.S. Over 500 players from 11 countries have registered with the league, with a scouting camp and player draft scheduled for later this year.
Should the league have success, it will mark a revitalization of womens professional baseball in the U.S., a nod to the rich history of the womens game and a commitment to securing opportunities for the girls and women who continue to defy cultural norms to play the game they love.
Callie Maddox is an associate professor of sport leadership and management at Miami University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Less than a month after the mortgage giant Rocket Companies moved to absorb the real estate platform Redfin, the company has already struck another major deal: This morning, Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT) announced it has reached an agreement to acquire its home loan competitor, Mr. Cooper Group Inc. (NASDAQ: COOP), in an all-stock transaction valued at $9.4 billion.
According to a press release, the proposed acquisition will expand Rocket Companies servicing portfolio to $2.1 trillion in unpaid principal balance across 10 millions clientsmeaning, by combining forces with Mr. Cooper and integrating its seven million clients, Rocket Companies will represent one in six mortgages across the U.S. The transaction has been unanimously approved by both Rocket Companies and Mr. Coopers Board of Directors, and is predicted to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
News of the potential deal has given Mr. Cooper shares a sizable boost. This morning, the companys stock jumped nearly 25% in premarket trading, and as of this writing, its up more than 16%. Meanwhile, Rocket Companies shares have taken a hit: The stock is now down by nearly 8%.
Rocket Companies’ mission to become a one-stop-shop
The Mr. Cooper deal is the next step in Rocket Companies plan to become a giant one-stop-shop for homebuyers.
Earlier this month, Rocket Companies (the parent company to subsidiaries including Rocket Money and Rocket Mortgage) moved to acquire Redfin in another all-stock transaction valued at $1.75 billion. The deal was designed to incorporate Redfins rental listing and real estate agent ecosystem with Rocket Companiesessentially making it easier for new homebuyers to search for a home, connect with a real estate agent, and secure a mortgage all under one corporate roof.
Incorporating Mr. Cooper will allow Rocket Companies to expand its client base and data set as it works to become more of an all-in-one platform. Rocket Companies reported that it expects the acquisition to drive higher loan volume and lower client acquisition costs.
“Mr. Cooper has been on a journey to transform the homeownership experience, and we have built the most advanced servicing platform in the mortgage industry, Jay Bray, Mr. Cooper Group Chairman and CEO, said in a press release. Bray is set to become president and CEO of Rocket Mortgage. “By combining Mr. Cooper and Rocket, we will form the strongest mortgage company in the industry, offering an end-to-end homeownership experience backed by leading technology and grounded in customer care, he added.
After debuting to the public for the first time this morning, stock for the cable news firm Newsmax shot up by over 500%.
Last Friday, Newsmax announced that it had successfully closed its initial public offering at $75 million, selling 7.5 million shares for $10 each. The stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker NMAX this morning.
As of midday Monday, Newsmax stock was up by 532%, and shares were trading at a whopping $63.20 apiece. The spike has been so intense that trading was halted for volatility five times in the first 30 minutes after market opening, Bloomberg reports.
Newsmax, a conservative news company with the tagline Real News for Real People, has built its audience through a combination of cable news shows, podcasts, and online livestreams. Its primary competitor is Fox News.
According to data from the audience measurement firm Nielsen, only three cable networks averaged more than one million viewers in primetime in 2024 (Fox, ESPN, and MSNBC) compared to 19 networks, which surpassed that viewership marker back in 2014. Newsmax did see a sizable viewership bump of 31% in 2024 compared to 2023, likely attributable to the presidential election.
As cable declines, many users are turning away from pay TV to streaming. Last July, streaming accounted for a record-breaking 41.4% of all TV usage in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Cable came in as a distant second with 26.7%, while broadcast TV accounted for 20.3%.
Newsmaxs business model may be primed for the current shift in viewing habits. In an interview with CNBC on Newsmaxs public debut this morning, Christopher Ruddy, the company’s founder and CEO, said that he believes the cable news ecosystem is going down, but that Newsmaxs live sports and live news will allow it to remain a vibrant business.
I think [legacy media] is dying, Ruddy said. Even though were on a legacy platform with cable, we also have an incredible streaming channel, we have a plus service, were doing amazing things on podcast now. Our view at Newsmax is, dont be legacy media where you fall in a rut; do all platforms.
New volunteers get trained in Lexington, Ky., to help out at CASA of Lexington in April 2023. AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel
As gerontologistssocial scientists who study aging populationswe envision a future in which older people leave a doctors visit with a prescription to go volunteer for something.
Does that sound far-fetched? Theres scientific research backing it up.
Good for your health
While spending more than a dozen years researching what happens when older adults volunteer with nonprofits, including churches, weve found that volunteers consider themselves to be in better health than their peers who dont. In addition, their blood pressure is lower, and they appear to be aging more slowly than other people of the same age.
Other researchers have found that volunteering is associated with a lower risk of having a heart attack.
The mental health benefits are just as striking.
Volunteering is tied to having fewer symptoms of depression and being more satisfied with your life. It often brings an instant boost in moodalong with a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.
Even engaging in whats known as informal helpinglending a hand to friends, neighbors, or community members in need, without getting paid or participating in an organized programcan help you in similar ways.
There are also health benefits for those who start volunteering much earlier in life.
Children and teens who volunteer tend to have better health and lower levels of anxiety and fewer behavioral problems than those who dont volunteer.
Changing demographics
The number of U.S. adults at least 62 years oldthe earliest age at which you can claim Social Security retirement benefitshas grown by nearly 35 million since 2000, while the number of children and teens under 18 has fallen by nearly 1.5 million. There are now about 76 million Americans over 62 and 71 million under 18.
This change has been gradual. Following a long-term demographic shift, record numbers of Americans are reaching retirement age.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FWpvb/1
Benefits for society and the economy
The benefits of volunteering arent just for the volunteers themselves.
The total value of the hours of unpaid work volunteers put in totals an estimated U.S.$170 billion each year, according to AmeriCorps, the federal agency focused on national and community service.
And participating in community service programs can lead to better job prospects for volunteers, that same agency has found.
AmeriCorps Seniors, which focuses on engaging volunteers ages 55 and older, runs programs that offer major benefits to their communities. These include the Foster Grandparent program, which connects older adult mentors to children, and the Senior Companion program, which connects volunteers to older adults seeking some help to continue living independently in their own homes.
A current AmeriCorps Seniors pilot program is helping adults 55 and up, who can have more trouble landing new jobs than younger people, gain new job skills through their community service.
People of all ages can get together through volunteering. Some organizations intentionally encourage this kind of intergenerational cooperation, including CoGenerate and Generations United.
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Rebuilding communities
Researchers have also found that volunteering may increase trust within a community, especially when it brings together people from different backgrounds.
It can strengthen social cohesion, a term researchers use to describe how much people bond and help each other, and reduce prejudice.
Volunteers views on social issues may change through their work, too: More than 4 in 5 adults over 55 who tutored public school students to strengthen their reading skills in the national Experience Corps program, for example, stated that their views on public education evolved as a result. Those volunteers expressed more support for public education and said theyd be more likely to vote in favor of spending on schools.
An American pastime
Our findings are backed by science, but they also have roots in American history.
Alexis de Tocquevillea French philosopher and diplomat who arrived in the United States in 1831 to study the new nations penal systemwas so impressed by the scale of volunteering in the U.S. that he wrote about it in his 1835 book Democracy in America.
Tocqueville observed that Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds were likely to unite in many kinds of groups or associations.
More recently, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has said that volunteering can strengthencommunities, and that community is a powerful source of life satisfaction and life expectancy.
If you arent volunteering today, here are a few ideas to help you begin.
Start small. Try joining an organization or association in your community, taking part in neighborhood cleanups, or volunteering at your local senior center, animal shelter, or museum. Love gardening? You can take care of local parks, conservation areas, community gardens, and more.
Once youre ready for a bigger commitment, consider becoming a mentor through programs such as OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring or Big Brothers Big Sisters.
And consider a more extensive level of commitment to organizations or causes you care deeply about. This might include joining a nonprofit board of directors, volunteering more hours, or taking on a volunteer leadership role.
At a time when trust is eroding and divisions seem insurmountable, volunteering offers something rare: an evidence-backed way to reconnect with communities, institutions, and each other.
Reach out to your favorite nonprofit, visit Volunteer.gov or VolunteerMatch.org, or connect with a nonprofit resource center, a regional United Way or a community foundation to find volunteer opportunities near you.
Cal J. Halvorsen is an associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis.
Seoyoun Kim is an associate adjunct of sociology at the University of Michigan.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Melody Wilding is a professor of human behavior at Hunter College and was recently named one of Insiders most innovative career coaches. Her background as a therapist and emotions researcher informs her unique approach, weaving evidence-based neuroscience and psychology with professional development. She is the author of Trust Yourself.
Whats the big idea?
Do you feel stuck navigating office politics, micromanagement, or being overlooked at work? In Managing Up, human behavior professor and executive coach Melody Wilding reveals how to subtly teach those above you to respect your ideaswithout needing a title change. Through real-life stories and research-backed strategies, she breaks down 10 key conversations that help you build influence, set boundaries, and operate from a position of power. Packed with actionable scripts and expert insights, this book is a must-read for anyone ready to take control of their career.
Below, Melody shares five key insights from her new book, Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge. Listen to the audio versionread by Melody herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Managing up is not about making your bosss life easier. Its about taking control of your own work experience.
We often equate managing up with sucking upknowing your bosss coffee order, agreeing with everything they say, jumping at their urgent requests. Turning yourself into a professional yes-person may have been enough to get ahead 10 or 20 years ago, but things have changed. Were working in a world of hybrid teams, instant messaging, and four generations collaborating side by side. Your leader might be younger than you, expertise matters more than hierarchy, and face time happens through Zoom.
In this new reality, you need to get buy-in for your ideas even when budgets are tight, and to have strong boundaries when yet another task is dumped on your plate. Lets face it: There will always be managers who are scattered, conflict-avoidant, or terrible at giving feedback. But when you master managing up, youre no longer at the mercy of their limitations.
This is why managing up is NOT about your boss at all. Its about you doing your best work and securing the resources, opportunities, and recognition you deserve. Your career growth and peace of mind at work depend not only on how you perform your responsibilities but also on how effectively you advocate for yourself, influence decision-makers, and design the conditions for your success.
The moment you shift from How can I please my boss, how can I stay in their good graces? to How can I partner with my boss to achieve my goals and theirs? new possibilities open. By stepping out of the order taker role and into a respected advisor mindset, youre leveling the playing field.
2. Theres a method to managing up.
If youve been told that you need to get better at influencing upward, then youve probably received some of this advice: Come with solutions, not problems! Build trust with leadership! Anticipate their needs! Make them look good! Be proactive!
These pithy one-liners sound good but tend to be oversimplified and fall apart the minute things get complicated or dont go as planned. Which, if were honest, might be often. You dont have time to duct tape and shoestring scattered strategies together . . . and its not going to work for long.
When you master managing up, youre no longer at the mercy of their limitations.
Thats precisely why I developed the 10 conversations frameworkto give you a comprehensive, systematic road map to master the skill of managing up, where each step conversations build on the next.
When I say conversations, this includes the overlooked opportunities and interactions we have every day to shape our leaders perception of us, like those two minutes before everyone else joins the meeting when its just you and the VP making small talk.
The book begins with the most foundational conversations:
Alignment: How do I know which tasks are most crucial to focus on?
Styles: How can I work with different personalities?
Ownership: What can I do to presentand go aftermy ideas without overstepping?
Boundaries: What do I say when my manager dumps yet another task on my plate?
Feedback: How do I voice my opinion and deliver criticism up the chain of command?
These conversations give way to more advanced ones later in the booknetworking, visibility, advancement, money, and eventually even the quitting conversation.
3. Psychology is your secret advantage.
You know those moments that make you want to pull your hair out? Your boss needs three meetings to make a decision that feels obvious. Your brilliant idea gets shot down because you didnt build enough consensus. Your promotion gets delayed despite your teams record-breaking quarter.
Its tempting to throw your hands up. To label your boss as difficult. To take it personally. But heres what my career as a researcher and coach has taught me: When we say someone is difficult, what we often mean is theyre different:
They process information differently than we do.
They make decisions in a way that feels foreign to us.
They have pressures and priorities we cant see.
Until you understand what actually drives decisions at the topthe hidden incentives, the competing agendas, the unspoken fearsyoure just throwing tactics at the wall and hoping something sticks. Every strategy in this book is grounded in the science of persuasion, trust-building, and more. As you rise in your career, how you handle the people dynamics around you gives you an edge:
Instead of getting frustrated that your big-picture boss cares about the details, you lead with the vision.
Instead of feeling dismissed when your risk-averse leader seems resistant, you address their concerns before they voice them.
Instead of getting frustrated when an action-oriented executive shoots down ideas mid-sentence, you lead with the bottom line and save the context for follow-up.
4. Go beyond your boss.
Think about your last major project. You probably had to coordinate with stakeholders across three different departments. Your resources might be controlled by someone youve never met. That promotion you want? Its likely being decided by a committee. The truth is, your boss might be your biggest advocate, but theyre just one voice in a chorus of decision-makers shaping your career.
I see this reality check hit hard when people come to me frustrated: I dont get it. My boss loves me. So why do I keep getting passed over? Nine times out of ten, its because theyve invested everything in that one relationship while ignoring the broader network ofsenior leaders who influence their success. Todays workplaces are a complex web of dotted lines, matrix reporting, and cross-functional teams.
When it comes to internal networking, focus on connecting with three groups: decision-makers who control resources and opportunities, power peers who are rising stars across the organization, and behind-the-scenes operators who make everything actually happen (assistants, HR, IT).
Before you can ask for career sponsorship or resources, ask for information.
Use what I call the info-ask strategy. Before you can ask for career sponsorship or resources, ask for information. Maybe its best practices from that VP whose project you want to join, insights into how approvals really happen from that senior director, or vendor recommendations from that influential peer. This approach does three powerful things: it signals respect for others expertise, demonstrates a genuine desire to learn (not just take), and creates natural follow-up opportunities to share how their advice helped.
5. You teach people how to treat you in the workplace.
Its easy to feel powerless at work. The latest reorg shifted your role. Your teams headcount got frozen. Your skip-level keeps scheduling over your focus time. During the past few years, the number of professionals who believe they have little to no control over their careers, futures, and work relationships has doubled. A staggering 40% of workers grapple with a sense of helplessness.
But heres what most people miss: Every interaction is a chance to subtly shape how others treat you.
When your boss dumps a last-minute project on your team, you have a choice. You could just say yes (and reinforce that your time doesnt matter), or you could say, I can take this on, but it means pushing back the Q2 planning work we discussed. Which would you prefer I prioritize? This simple trade-off shows youre strategic, not just accommodating.
When an executive criticizes your work in front of the team, you could stay quiet (teaching them this behavior is acceptable), or you could say, Could we discuss these concerns one-on-one? It would help me better understand your expectations. This shows youre professional while setting a clear boundary about how you expect feedback to be delivered. You have more power than you realize to shape the dynamics around you.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Americas craft brewers already have enough problems. Hard seltzers and cocktails are muscling into beer sales. Millennials and Gen Z dont drink as much as their elders. Brewpubs still havent fully recovered from the shock of COVID-19 five years ago.
Now theres a new threat: President Donald Trumps tariffs, including levies of 25% on imported steel and aluminum and on goods from Canada and Mexico.
Its going to cost the industry a substantial amount of money, said Matt Cole, brewmaster at Ohio-based Fat Heads Brewery. Trumps trade war will be crippling for our industry if this carries out into months and years.
The tariffs, some of which have been suspended until April 2, could impact brewers in ways big and small, said Bart Watson, president and CEO of the Brewers Association, the trade group for craft beer. Aluminum cans are in Trumps crosshairs. And nearly all the steel kegs used by U.S. brewers are made in Germany, so a tariff on finished steel products raises the cost of kegs. Tariffs on Canadian products like barley and malt would also increase costs. And some brewers depend on raspberries and other fruit from Mexico, Watson said.
At Port City Brewing in Alexandria, Virginia, founder Bill Butcher worries that hell have to raise the price of a six-pack of his best-selling Optimal Wit and other brews to $18.99 from around $12.99, and to charge more for a pint at his tasting room.
Are people still going to come here and pay $12 a pint instead of $8? he said. Our business will slow down.
For Port City, the biggest threat comes from the looming tariff on Canadian imports. Every three weeks, the brewery receives a 40,000-pound truckload of pilsner malt from Canada, which goes into a 55,000-pound silo on the brewerys grounds. Butcher said he cant find malt of comparable quality anywhere else.
Trumps tariffs also hit Port City in a roundabout way: The levy on aluminum, which went into effect March 12, is causing big brewers to switch from aluminum cans to bottles. Port City, which bottles 70% of its beer, found itself unable to get bottles.
Our bottle supplier is cutting us off at the end of the month, Butcher said. That caught us by surprise.
Fat Heads Brewery gets its barley from Canada. Cole said it could shift to sources in Idaho and Montana, but the shipping logistics are more complicated. And Trumps tariffs, by putting Canadian barley at a competitive disadvantage, would allow U.S. producers to raise domestic prices.
Fat Heads is trying to mitigate the impact of the tariffs. Anticipating higher aluminum prices, for instance, the brewery stockpiled beer canswhich it gets from a U.S. supplierand now has three million cans in its warehouse, 30% of what it needs annually. It has also shifted production to painted cans, which are cheaper than those with shrink-wrapped film sleeves.
In Arizona, some brewers are already eliminating or reducing the beers they offer in aluminum cans to cut costs, said Cale Aylsworth, the director of sales and relations at O.H.S.O. Brewery and Distillery and president of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild.
This is a blow to Arizona craft. I hate to see less local options on the shelf, Aylsworth said.
Some brewers have also lost access to store shelves from one big customer: Canada, which is the top foreign market for U.S. craft beer, accounting for almost 38% of exports. But Canadians are furious that Trump targeted their products, and Canadian importers have been cancelling orders and pulling U.S. beer off store shelves.
The tariffs come at an already difficult time for brewers.
After years of steady growththe number of U.S. breweries more than doubled to 9,736 between 2014 and 2024the industry is struggling to compete with seltzers and other beverages and to win over younger customers. In 2024, brewery closings outnumbered openings for the first time since the mid-2000s, Watson of the Brewers Association said. He estimates that U.S. craft beer production dipped 2% to 3% last year.
Craft brewing had a period of phenomenal growth, but we are not in that era anymore, he said. Were in a more mature market.
Port Citys production peaked in 2019 at 16,000 barrels of beerequivalent to 220,000 cases. Then COVID hit and hammered the companys draft beer business in bars and restaurants. The comeback has been slow. Butcher expects Port City to produce 13,000 barrels this year.
The brewery seeks to set itself apart by emphasizing its award-winning brews. In 2015, Port City was named small brewery of the year at the Great American Beer Festival. But it isnt easy with import taxes threatening to raise the cost of ingredients and packaging.
Its hard enough to run a small business when your supply chain is in intact, he said. And the erratic way that Trump has rolled out the taxesannouncing them, then suspending them, then threatening new oneshas made it even more difficult to plan.
The unpredictability just injects an element of chaos, Butcher said.
Aylsworth, in Arizona, said big brewers have whole teams of people to calculate the impact of tariffs, but smaller brewers must stretch their resources to navigate them. That’s on top of the other complexities of running a brewery, from zoning laws to licensing permits to labor shortages.
But for many brewers, the heaviest burden right now is lower sales as customers cut back on beer, Aylsworth said. That’s why many brewers are trying hard not to raise prices.
In todays world, with the economy and the high level of uncertainty, people are spending less, Cole said. Beer is an affordable luxury, and we want to make sure we dont lose that.
Dee-Ann Durbin and Paul Wiseman, AP business writers
Apple was hit with a 150 million euro ($162.4 million) fine by French antitrust regulators on Monday for abusing its dominant position in mobile app advertising on its devices via a privacy control tool.
The finethe first by any antitrust regulator over Apple’s App Tracking Transparency toolcomes a year after the European Union hit the company with a 1.8 billion euro antitrust fine for thwarting rival music streaming services on its App Store.
The head of the French Competition Authority dismissed worries that the decision would prompt retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap fines on EU countries fining U.S. companies.
“We apply competition law in an apolitical manner,” Benoit Coeuré told a press conference.
“But what we have heard . . . is that they (U.S. authorities) intend to apply antitrust law to the big digital platforms as strictly as their predecessors. So in terms of antitrust, I don’t see any controversy between the United States and Europe on how we apply the law,” he said.
The ATT tool lets iPhone and iPad users decide which apps can track their activity. Digital advertising and mobile gaming companies complained it made it more expensive and difficult for brands to advertise on Apple’s platforms.
“While we are disappointed with today’s decision, the French Competition Authority has not required any specific changes to ATT,” Apple said in a statement.
Coeuré told reporters the regulator had not spelled out how Apple should change its app, but that it was up to the company to make sure it now complied with the ruling.
The compliance process could take some time, he added, because Apple was waiting for rulings on regulators in Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania who are also investigating the ATT tool. The French case, which covered the period 2021 to 2023, was triggered by complaints from several associations for online advertisers, publishers and internet networks accusing Apple of abusing its market power.
“While the objective pursued by ATT is not in itself open to criticism, the way it is implemented is neither necessary nor proportionate to Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data,” the regulator said in a statement.
It added that the privacy tool “particularly penalized smaller publishers,” as they depend to a large extent on the collection of third-party data to fund their businesses.
Alliance Digitale, the Syndicat des Regies Internet (SRI), the Union des Entreprises de Conseil et d’Achat Média (Udecam), and the Groupement des Éditeurs de Services en Ligne, which had complained to the French watchdog, said the decision was a significant victory for advertisers.
($1 = 0.9239 euros)
Florence Loeve and Foo Yun Chee, Reuters
U.S. immigration officials are asking the public and federal agencies to comment on a proposal to collect social media handles from people applying for benefits such as green cards or citizenship, to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump.The March 5 notice raised alarms from immigration and free speech advocates because it appears to expand the government’s reach in social media surveillance to people already vetted and in the U.S. legally, such as asylum seekers, green card, and citizenship applicantsand not just those applying to enter the country. That said, social media monitoring by immigration officials has been a practice for over a decade, since at least the second Obama administration and ramping up under Trump’s first term.Below are some questions and answers on what the new proposal means and how it might expand social media surveillance.
What is the proposal?
The Department of Homeland Security issued a 60-day notice asking for public commentary on its plan to comply with Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The plan calls for “uniform vetting standards” and screening people for grounds of inadmissibility to the U.S., as well as identify verification and “national security screening.” It seeks to collect social media handles and the names of platforms, although not passwords.The policy seeks to require people to share their social media handles when applying for U.S. citizenship, green card, asylum, and other immigration benefits. The proposal is open to feedback from the public until May 5.
What is changing?
“The basic requirements that are in place right now is that people who are applying for immigrant and nonimmigrant visas have to provide their social media handles,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, managing director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program at New York University. “Where I could see this impacting is someone who came into the country before visa-related social media handle collection started, so they wouldn’t have provided it before and now they’re being required to. Or maybe they did before, but their social media use has changed.”“This fairly widely expanded policy to collect them for everyone applying for any kind of immigration benefit, including people who have already been vetted quite extensively,” she added.What this points toalong with other signals the administration is sending such as detaining people and revoking student visas for participating in campus protests that the government deems antisemitic and sympathetic to the militant Palestinian group HamasLevinson-Waldman added, is the increased use of social media to “make these very high-stakes determinations about people.”In a statement, a spokesperson for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service said the agency seeks to “strengthen fraud detection, prevent identity theft, and support the enforcement of rigorous screening and vetting measures to the fullest extent possible.”“These efforts ensure that those seeking immigration benefits to live and work in the United States do not threaten public safety, undermine national security, or promote harmful anti-American ideologies,” the statement continued. USCIS estimates that the proposed policy change will affect about 3.6 million people.
How are social media accounts used now?
The U.S. government began ramping up the use of social media for immigration vetting in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In late 2015, the Department of Homeland Security began both “manual and automatic screening of the social media accounts of a limited number of individuals applying to travel to the United States, through various non-public pilot programs,” the nonpartisan law and policy institute explains on its website.In May 2017, the U.S. Department of State issued an emergency notice to increase the screening of visa applicants. Brennan, along with other civil and human rights groups, opposed the move, arguing that it is “excessively burdensome and vague, is apt to chill speech, is discriminatory against Muslims, and has no security benefit.”Two years later, the State Department began collecting social media handles from “nearly all foreigners” applying for visas to travel to the U.S.about 15 million people a year.
How is AI used?
Artificial intelligence tools used to comb through potentially millions of social media accounts have evolved over the past decade, although experts caution that such tools have limits and can make mistakes.Leon Rodriguez, who served as the director of USCIS from 2014 to 2017 and now practices as an immigration attorney, said while AI could be used as a first screening tool, he doesn’t think “we’re anywhere close to where AI will be able to exercise the judgment of a trained fraud detection and national security officer” or that of someone in an intelligence agency.“It’s also possible that I will miss stuff,” he added. “Because AI is still very much driven by specific search criteria and it’s possible that the search criteria won’t hit actionable content.”
What are the concerns?
“Social media is just a stew, so much different informationsome of it is reliable, some of it isn’t. Some of it can be clearly attributed to somebody, some of it can’t. And it can be very hard to interpret,” Levinson-Waldman said. “So I think as a baseline matter, just using social media to make high-stakes decisions is quite concerning.”Then there’s the First Amendment.“It’s by and large established that people in the U.S. have First Amendment rights,” she said. This includes people who are not citizens. “And obviously, there are complicated ways that that plays out. There is also fairly broad authority for the government to do something like revoking somebody’s visa, if you’re not a citizen, then there’s steps that the government can takebut by and large, with very narrow exceptions, that cannot be on the grounds of speech that would be protected (by the First Amendment).”
Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
