In my conversation with Robert Dippell, CEO of Morning Brew, I wasn’t looking for a polished pitch or a viral soundbite — I was looking to understand how someone leads a media company in 2025 without getting swallowed by noise, distraction and industry cliché. What I got was a grounded perspective from someone who seems far more interested in building responsibly than chasing attention.

Morning Brew’s rise is well-documented — what started as a college project and a newsletter has turned into podcasts, daily shows, video series and events. Dippell, formerly their COO and CRO, took over as CEO in early 2025. He didn’t pretend that leading a media company today is easy. Ad models are unstable, audiences are fragmented, and the pressure to grow is constant. But he wasn’t cynical either. The core idea seemed to be that if you’re honest about who you are as a company — and you empower your team — you can still produce valuable content without selling out or burning out.

Related: Lessons from Macmillan’s CEO on Leading Through Change Without Losing Your Why

We talked a lot about media fatigue, from clickbait overload to algorithm-choked social feeds, and how younger professionals are demanding more from their content and the companies that produce it. Not necessarily more volume, but more clarity and personality. Morning Brew, according to Dippell, is trying to meet that moment with a voice that feels like a smart coworker, not a corporate PR blast.

Dippell didn’t carry himself like someone trying to reinvent the wheel, and that came through in how he talked about his role: not to overhaul, not to hype, but to stay focused on what works and guide a team that already understands its audience well. One theme that stuck out: You can’t just chase scale. Dippell described the trap of media businesses growing for the sake of growing, without clear monetization or audience loyalty. Instead, he’s focused on sustainable business models that prioritize direct relationships over anonymous traffic. It’s less glamorous, but more durable.

Related: What Quiet Leadership Looks Like in a Loud World — and How It Took This Company to $3B in Revenue

Dippell didn’t try to make himself the center of the story. There was no ego in how he described his team or Morning Brew’s strategy. That restraint, in a media landscape full of founders-as-personalities, was refreshing. If you’re leading any kind of business in 2025, there’s something to take away from that mindset. In an era of constant noise and hype, maybe clarity, consistency and humility go further than we think.

It’s August. Your inbox is full of OOO replies, Slack pings have slowed to a whisper and if you’re lucky, you’re halfway through a bottle of overpriced rosé on someone’s porch.

But if you’re just now starting to think about your Q4 strategy? You’re not behind — you’re already in trouble.

Q4 isn’t just another quarter. It’s the Super Bowl of marketing. And while most teams are sleepwalking through summer, this is your chance to take the lead. The ones who win Q4 are laying down the groundwork now. The ones who don’t? They’re scrambling come October, wondering why their revenue flatlined.

Here’s how to avoid becoming a cautionary tale.

Planning ahead isn’t a luxury — it’s survival

When I started The Go! Agency, I thought being 30 days ahead meant I was being proactive. I had calendars, content and what I thought was control.

In reality, I was just managing chaos with a pretty spreadsheet.

Now? We’re finalizing Q4 deliverables in August and testing campaigns by early September. That way, when the holiday madness hits, we’re not creating — we’re executing.

And this isn’t just an enterprise strategy. Whether you’re a DTC startup, a B2B SaaS company or a one-person marketing team, planning early gives you the one thing your competitors won’t have: momentum.

Related: 3 Marketing Trends You Need to Capitalize on Now Before Your Competition Beats You to It

What smart Q4 prep looks like in August

If you’re in marketing, here’s what you should be doing right now:

• Reviewing Q1–Q3 performance to cut what’s not working and double down on what is
• Updating last year’s holiday campaigns while there’s still time to test new angles
• Writing your email flows and SMS sequences so they’re ready by October
• Locking in vendors, platforms and partnerships before placements fill up
• Coordinating team bandwidth to avoid last-minute scrambles

This isn’t overkill. This is what the winners do.

Don’t just “check the budget” — work it like a lever

Most teams treat budgets like static numbers. You get a number then go spend it. Smarter teams ask: Where did we get the best return last year and how quickly can we shift budget if something pops off?

One of our clients, a global beverage brand, set a modest ROAS target for Meta campaigns last fall. When performance started to surge, we were able to reallocate budget mid-month. Result? A 135% ROAS over-delivery and more than $30,000 in incremental revenue — in November alone.

If you don’t know where your flex is, you can’t take advantage of the spikes.

Audit your channels before you sink more money into them

Now’s the time to pressure-test what’s really working. Start with the basics:

• Where’s your traffic coming from — and more importantly, where’s it converting?
• Are your email flows actually performing or are they just coasting?
• Are you reusing the same holiday sequences from 2022?

Last year, we helped a premium pet brand revamp their email strategy in August. By the end of Q4, they had generated $47K in placed orders from email alone. And their best-performing email? It went out in February — and brought in another $7K.

The lesson: strategy beats panic every time.

You can’t launch big if half your team is out

Your Q4 calendar is only as strong as your team’s availability.

Every year, brands plan big November launches — only to realize their lead designer is in Italy until the 12th and the social media manager is at a conference. That’s how good ideas turn into half-baked campaigns.

Plan around real availability. Who’s in-office when? Who can step in if needed? Have you onboarded freelance or contract support in case things scale?

You don’t need a massive team. You need a present, prepared one.

Learn from last year — then upgrade it

If you haven’t analyzed last year’s Q4 data, you’re flying blind.

What channels converted best? Which campaigns flopped? Which subject lines actually got opened?

Find the patterns. Then improve them.

Maybe your BFCM sale crushed it but your remarketing ads underperformed. This year, rebuild your mid-funnel strategy and refine segmentation before crunch time.

Q4 is not the time for trial and error. That’s what August and September are for.

Don’t coast into January — accelerate into it

Here’s what no one talks about: January is a goldmine.

If your business touches wellness, finance, productivity or anything “new year, new me” adjacent, start building those campaigns now.

Your competition will be crawling out of the holiday fog. You’ll already be converting.

Related: Why Your Old Marketing Tactics Are Killing Your Growth in 2025

Marketing isn’t optional — it’s the main engine

Too many teams treat marketing like a side hustle — something to turn on when sales slow or revenue dips.

But marketing isn’t an accessory. It’s the engine. It’s what gets you seen, heard, clicked and remembered.

So while everyone else is “planning to plan,” do the smart thing.

Plan now. Lock it in. Execute early. Optimize often. Win more.

Because by the time your competitors realize Q4 has started, you’ll already be two laps ahead.

Days after announcing that its hybrid employees would have to return to the office (RTO) four days a week starting Jan. 5, NBCUniversal is offering an alternative to its mandate — accept a buyout.

According to internal documents obtained by Business Insider, NBC is offering employees who don’t want to return to the office the following severance package: eight weeks of pay, plus medical, dental, and vision benefits for three months after their departure. Employees will also receive a full bonus if eligible.

The package does not add additional compensation based on the employee’s tenure. Workers have to ask their HR managers about the severance offer by Oct. 3 to get the offer, BI learned.

Related: What Is ‘Task Masking’? Young Workers Retaliate Against Return-to-Office Mandates With a Viral Strategy.

The severance package only applies to NBC employees at the vice president level or below who currently work a hybrid schedule and are located in the U.S. and the U.K. They will be required to work through Dec. 31 on the company’s payroll and transfer their responsibilities to other employees before they leave. According to PitchBook, NBC has nearly 60,000 employees worldwide.

NBCU workers previously followed a hybrid schedule, coming into the office three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), according to Variety. The new four-day policy would require them to come in on Mondays as well.

Many companies are implementing RTO mandates across a variety of fields. Buy now, pay later company, Klarna, announced earlier this week that it would require workers to work from the office three days per week starting September 29. Klarna began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday and employed 3,422 workers as of the end of 2024.

Microsoft is also requiring its employees to work from the office at least three days a week starting in February. Microsoft’s worldwide headcount as of June 30 was 228,000 employees, with 125,000 workers located in the U.S.

Related: Verizon Tries to Steal ‘Top Talent’ From Rival AT&T With Email Promoting Its Hybrid and Remote Roles

Other companies, like AT&T, JPMorgan, and Amazon, have already implemented RTO mandates this year, despite employee pushback.

A survey conducted by Bamboo HR last year found that around one in four C-Suite executives hoped strict RTO policies would prompt some employees to quit, calling the RTO orders “layoffs in disguise.” According to the study, around 40% of managers had to implement actual layoffs when fewer employees quit than expected after the RTO mandate.

Though executives have touted the benefits of in-person work for strengthening company culture and helping employees grow their careers, hybrid work also has its benefits.

A study published in the scientific journal Nature last year revealed no differences in productivity, performance, or promotion when comparing employees who went to work fully in-person for six months, and those who followed a hybrid schedule.

Related: Dropbox’s CEO Is Still in Favor of Remote Work

College students today have “more resources available to you in your phone than anybody in the history of everything,” said Mark Cuban earlier this week at the All-In Summit. And that’s exactly the advice he tells his college-aged kids.

Cuban told the audience that he is advising his three kids (two are in college) to shy away from looking for a job at a big company. In the joint interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Cuban said getting a job at a large corporation now is tougher than ever — especially as these companies integrate AI into everyday workflows.

“I got two kids in college, and what I tell them is if you were looking for a job at a big company, you’re not going to get it,” said Cuban, whose net worth is reportedly around $6 billion.

Related: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says Older Workers Need to Embrace AI — or Face Losing Their Jobs

Instead, he told them to look for a smaller-to-medium-sized company that could benefit from hiring Gen Z employees who are AI-native.

“The small to medium-sized companies need all the help they can get from AI natives,” Cuban explained. “Because walking in and understanding AI and being able to implement [it] for that company is a huge step forward [for] them. That’s one way we will adjust.”

Cuban could be on to something. Despite many executives and even the “Godfather of AI” predicting mass unemployment due to artificial intelligence implementation, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seems equally excited about what this all means for current students and recent graduates.

Related: Here’s What ‘Terrifies’ OpenAI’s CEO About Financial Institutions Today: ‘This Is a Huge Deal’

Altman told the “Huge Conversations” podcast in August that if he were 22 years old and just finishing college, he would “feel like the luckiest kid in all of history” because of the new opportunities, from starting new companies to writing code, that AI can provide.

“You have access to these tools that can let you do what used to take teams of hundreds,” Altman said.

This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Shanaz Hemmati, COO and co-founder of ZenBusiness, a $1.7 billion company that provides an all-in-one platform helping small businesses become official, stay compliant, manage finances and more. Her co-founder is Ross Buhrdorf, who serves as CEO. The piece has been edited for length and clarity.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of ZenBusiness. Co-founder and COO Shanaz Hemmati.}

I always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I never really thought about going off and starting my own business.

At the University of Texas at Austin, I studied computer engineering, starting with hardware design before pivoting to software engineering. I truly love technology, and especially software engineering, because you’re coding to solve problems — I still love solving problems.

Related: This Mom’s Creative Side Hustle Started As a Hobby With Less Than $100 — Then Grew Into a Business Averaging $570,000 a Month: ‘It’s Crazy’

My husband’s an entrepreneur who’s always had his own businesses. He’d encourage me to start my own business, but I was too concerned. Sometimes women can think too hard about doing something; that’s what held me back from becoming an entrepreneur.

For women in male-dominated fields, it’s important to seek out mentors who can help you from their experience, even if their journey looked different from yours. You can bounce ideas off them and ask them questions. Mentorship pushes you, but it also gives you assurance and confidence.

Over the course of my career, I learned so much, which helped me when I made the leap to founder.

“Small businesses are what keep the economy growing.”

I first met my ZenBusiness co-founder Ross Buhrdorf when we worked at Excite.com, a web portal company founded in 1994. Several years later, I joined HomeAway, a vacation rental marketplace, where I stayed for 11 years until the company was acquired by Expedia.

Later on, Ross and I met up for coffee, and he started talking about this idea of building something to help entrepreneurs and people who are starting small businesses. I was intrigued and excited. I’d always been passionate about that category in the market: Small businesses are what keep the economy growing and going.

Related: I Walked Away From a Corporate Career to Start My Own Small Business — Here’s Why You Should Do the Same

So Ross and I founded ZenBusiness in 2017.

When it comes to a fast-growing company like ours, we have so many things on our to-do list, but we don’t always have the resources to get them done at the same time, so we have to prioritize.

AI has been one of those priorities. Everybody in business should be using it these days. It’s a great tool that saves time once you get employees on board and using it based on their role and function. Our personalized AI assistant, ZenBusiness Velo, is included with every LLC formation and helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

Related: Two-Thirds of Small Businesses Are Already Using AI — Here’s How to Get Even More Out of It

“It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company.”

For a long time, I’ve had this mantra that’s helped me succeed as a business leader: Be fearless, be ethical, be passionate.

Being fearless means recognizing that nothing is ever going to be perfect, but you just do it anyway. Being ethical means always being honest, to yourself, to your co-workers, to anyone. And being passionate is everything. Loving your work and doing the best job possible will help you progress in your career and build your business.

It all comes down to this — people are at the center of any great company. Anything you do is all about people, whether they’re employees, customers or the community.

ZenBusiness puts this rule into action by hearing and supporting its employees.

For example, we became an early adopter of remote work. The company sent employees home when the pandemic hit, but as we continued to grow and hire more people, we listened to employees who said that they preferred working from home. Remote work gave them the chance to spend time with their families, cut down on commute hours and be more productive.

Related: A CEO Who Runs a Fully Remote Company Has an Unusual Take on Employees Starting Side Hustles: ‘We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves’

“Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out.”

All aspiring entrepreneurs should avoid the pitfall of thinking about a business idea for too long before they take action: Do it sooner rather than later.

You don’t have to drop everything else you’re working on to start. Maybe you launch as a side hustle to test it out. Talk to the people you’re trying to solve a pain point for because those conversations will give you a lot of information.

Every day, you’re learning something new, and being able to pivot fast can be the difference between driving your business in the right direction or not. There are always going to be surprises along the way. So remember, it’s all about the people who are around you — it’s all about the people you bring in to help you go through your business journey.

This article is part of our ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.

Workers are taking more mental health leaves now than they were in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic started.

According to data collected by behavioral health services provider ComPsych, the percentage of workers taking a leave of absence increased by 30% from 2019 to 2024, while mental health leaves increased by 300% in the same time frame. ComPsych analyzed data from over six million global employees.

ComPsych’s Chief Clinical Officer Jennifer Birdsall told CNBC that mental health leaves have increased “so tremendously” due to factors like uncertain economic conditions. In addition, the pandemic lessened the stigma around asking for mental health support and allowed people to understand their options better, she explained.

Related: AI Is Transforming Drug Matching for Cancer, Rare Diseases — Here’s How

The data showed that employers should rethink how they approach managing absences and handling employee well-being, said ComPsych CEO Paul Posey.

“The pandemic fundamentally reset norms in absence management for employers,” Posey said in a press release.

The data shows that the levels of employees taking a leave of absence have begun to stabilize in recent years, indicating a “new normal,” Posey stated. Numbers were up 33% from 2022 to 2023, but then flattened out from 2023 to 2024. The number of leaves of absence in general was also flat from 2023 to 2024.

A survey from business consulting firm Mercer, released earlier this year, asked more than 500 organizations what they were doing to support employee behavioral health. Nearly 80% said they have taken action or plan to take action in 2026 to provide digital resources for stress management, and 20% said they conducted anti-stigma campaigns for mental health.

Related: This Former Marine Beat Death Twice and Turned His Wake-Up Call Into A Wellness Business

As entrepreneurs know, running a business is both exciting and challenging. With markets constantly growing and changing, it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve and competition. This is why many consider hiring a business coach to lean on for guidance and support.

If you’re thinking about hiring a coach, there are several factors to weigh when deciding on who may be the best fit.

Related: 9 Qualities You Need to Look for in a Business Coach

Expertise and experience

Similar to any hiring situation, one of the most important things to look for in a business coach is experience and expertise. You should look for someone who is familiar with businesses similar to yours and has a true understanding of both the challenges you face and opportunities for growth. You want to hire a coach with a proven track record of success who can share specific examples and results they’ve helped their clients achieve.

Questions to ask:

• What is your experience working with businesses like mine?

• Can you provide some examples of businesses you’ve helped, and the results you helped them achieve?

A proven process

Your prospective business coach should have a clear and structured process for working with clients. This process should be able to be tailored to you and your company’s specific needs and goals, providing a clear roadmap for achieving success.

Questions to ask:

Accountability and support

A business coach should hold you accountable for achieving goals and provide ongoing support to help you stay on track. Look for coaches who are committed to your success and who will hold you to a high standard of accountability.

Questions to ask:

• How do you structure check-ins or milestones to monitor client progress?

• Do you have any resources outside of your knowledge that I can leverage?

• How do you provide ongoing support to help your clients stay on track?

A collaborative approach

When looking for a business coach, look for someone who will be a partner in your success, working side by side with you to develop strategies and solutions to help achieve your goals. They should be willing to listen to your ideas and input, and open to both feedback and collaboration.

Questions to ask:

• How do you work with clients to develop strategic plans and customized solutions?

• How do you incorporate feedback and input from clients into your coaching process?

Related: Executive Coaching For Entrepreneurs: Here’s How You Can Differentiate Between Corporate Snake Oil And The Real Thing

Focused on long-term success

A coach should be focused on helping you achieve long-term success, instead of just short-term gains. Having the drive is important, but also the experience of scaling a company — a business coach should be able to grow with you and your company. If their knowledge is limited to a specific area of business or a certain-sized company, they might not be the best fit for you long-term.

Questions to ask:

With that context in mind and an understanding of how to find a business coach that’s the best fit for you and your company, you also need to ask yourself some internal questions in regard to the current state of your business.

What are your top priorities for the next quarter?

This question helps you focus your efforts and ensures you’re prioritizing the most important and timely tasks. By identifying your top priorities, you and your coach can develop a plan to help you stay on track and achieve your goals.

What challenges are you currently facing?

By identifying the specific challenges you’re currently facing, you can work with your coach to develop strategies that will help you overcome them and make sure your business is running smoothly.

Do you have a plan for growth?

Whether you’re looking to explore new revenue streams, grow your team, enter new markets or expand your product or service offerings, it’s important to have a plan of what that road map looks like.

Together with a business coach, you can identify opportunities for growth and develop a plan to help you achieve success.

How are you managing your cash flow?

Managing cash flow is critical if you want to run a profitable business. By discussing your current cash flow situation and identifying areas for improvement, your coach can help you ensure that your business is financially healthy.

How are you measuring success?

You should have a clear picture of what success looks like for you and your business. By identifying key performance metrics and benchmarks, your coach can help you measure and track the progress you are making toward the finish line.

What skills do you need to grow in order to achieve your goals?

As a business owner, you should be continually developing your skills and knowledge. You can work with your coach to uncover areas where you need to improve and develop a plan to help you acquire or further develop the skills you need to grow and succeed.

Related: How a Business Coach Can Help You Lean Into Your Strengths and Become Successful

How are you balancing your work and personal life?

Running a business can consume your life 24/7, which is why it may take extra effort to maintain a balance between your work and personal life. Chat with your coach about your current work-life balance and what you would like to change so you can live a healthy and fulfilling life both professionally and personally.

Choosing the right business coach can be a game-changer for your business. Partnering with someone who has diverse experience, a structured process, a collaborative approach and a commitment to long-term results — while also keeping you accountable and supported — can help elevate your business to the next level.

Not sure where to start? Consider exploring your local Chamber of Commerce or asking trusted colleagues for referrals to business coaches in your area. A great coach might be closer than you think!

Most major marketing shifts don’t announce themselves with a press release; they strike with a shock that scatters the chessboard. I witnessed this firsthand during the dot-com boom — a tectonic event that substantially rewired my profession.

And yet, the disruption we face today from artificial intelligence represents a shift of even greater magnitude. It isn’t simply a new tool; it feels more like an extinction event for an entire way of working. As a result, the professional environment is changing at breathtaking speed, and for marketers, the choice is the same as in nature: adapt or disappear.

The split creates two paths. One leads to obsolescence, where marketers cling to tasks machines now execute better and faster. The other leads to enduring relevance, where the human skills of strategy and orchestration will define the future of the industry.

Related: How to Turn Your ‘Marketable Passion’ Into Income After Retirement

The paradox of infinite output

The first casualties of AI are the very functions we once considered core to our daily work, such as ad production, content creation and analytics reporting. Any task that follows a predictable loop is now on the path to automation. But here lies the paradox: as the cost of content creation plummets to zero, so does its strategic value. We are hurtling toward a future saturated with infinite, interchangeable output. A sea of sameness.

And the backlash to this future is already visible. Consumers are proving masterful at tuning out formulaic messaging, and their innate “spidey sense” for spotting bot-generated content is only becoming more acute.

This powerful human response means the very tools designed to make marketing more efficient now risk making it entirely invisible. Infinite output creates zero distinction — a battle that these machines, for all their power, are unequipped to win.

Related: AI Has Limits — Here’s How to Find the Balance Between Tech and Humanity

The rise of the ‘Human Choreographer’

But this is precisely where human marketers will reassert their value. In a world where anyone can generate an ad, the advantage shifts from making to meaning. AI, for all its brilliance, lacks true sentience. This reveals itself in AI’s inability to grasp the why behind the what. It can execute a step flawlessly, but it doesn’t know which dancers to put on stage, what music fits the moment, or how the performance should make the audience feel.

Therefore, the marketer of the future must evolve from an operator into an orchestrator — a human choreographer who shapes culture, senses customer emotion and navigates organizational nuance that machines cannot even see. This new role rests on three irreplaceable pillars that form the unautomatable core of modern marketing leadership:

1. Discernment: AI can generate a hundred options, but much of it is derivative or even hallucinated. The human edge is judgment — distinguishing signal from noise, knowing when to act and when to wait. In an age of abundance, value doesn’t come from more ideas; it comes from the human ability to filter, prioritize and place the right bet.
2. Empathy: At its core, marketing is about building relationships, and brands are built on trust. A machine can analyze sentiment, but it cannot grasp the unspoken emotional cues that forge genuine connections. This single deficiency is what elevates empathy to the ultimate currency of brand loyalty in a world of automated messages.
3. Creative leap: AI predicts by extrapolating from the past. But the most powerful ideas that reshape cultures come from breaking patterns altogether. This leap of imagination, the spark that reframes a category or captures the zeitgeist, still belongs uniquely to the human mind.

Taken together, these three pillars of discernment, empathy and creativity are what allow human leaders to create meaning in a world of automated noise. But possessing these skills isn’t enough. To remain essential, marketers must prove their value in the only language the business understands: impact.

Related: How AI is Reshaping Work While Reinforcing the Need for Leadership, Empathy, and Creativity

Redefining the scorecard for success

For too long, marketing has hidden behind the comfortable shield of vanity metrics — endless charts of impressions and clicks, along with creative awards that mean little to the C-suite. These outcomes may comfort us, but they don’t convince anyone holding the purse strings. My litmus test is simple. Could I put this metric in front of my CFO and have them immediately grasp its connection to enterprise value?

Answering that question forces an overhaul of our dashboards, anchoring our performance to the metrics that truly matter:

• Customer Economics: A clear view of customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), and retention.
• Revenue Contribution: Tracking qualified demand that converts into pipeline, not just raw lead volume.
• Brand as an Asset: Measuring growth in awareness, preference and trust as leading indicators of future success.

By aligning our work with these measures, marketing transforms from overhead into an undeniable engine of growth.

Related: How to Tell If Your Marketing Is Driving Real Business Results

The marketing department, reimagined

The next wave of marketing won’t be defined by disappearing roles as much as emerging ones. The most forward-thinking organizations are already reinventing their teams with new specialities, such as: AI Prompt Architects who master the art of shaping models, Ethics and Trust Stewards who safeguard brand credibility and Integration Orchestrators who fuse data science and creativity into a cohesive story.

Ultimately, the result will be a department with fewer executors and more choreographers. The marketing team of the future sheds its skin as an assembly line to become more of a control tower for growth and customer experience.

The leaders who thrive will be those who evolve beyond traditional marketing to become choreographers of meaning, trust and growth. For them, adaptation isn’t optional — only the speed of transformation is.