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In this episode, Bill Scherkenbach, one of W. Edwards Deming's closest protégés, and host Andrew Stotz discuss why leadership decisions shape outcomes far more than frontline effort. Bill draws on decades of firsthand experience with Deming and with businesses across industries. Through vivid stories and practical insights, the conversation challenges leaders and learners alike to rethink responsibility, decision-making, and what it truly takes to build lasting quality. Bill's powerpoint is available here. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussions with Bill Scherkenbach, a dedicated protégé of Dr. Deming since 1972. Bill met with Dr. Deming more than a thousand times and later led statistical methods and process improvement at Ford and GM at Dr. Deming's recommendation. He authored the Deming Route to Quality and Productivity at Deming's behest and at 79, still champions his mentor's message: Learn, have fun, and make a difference. The discussion for today is, I think we're going to get an answer to this question. And the question is: Where is quality made? Bill, take it away.   0:00:44.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Where is quality made? I can hear the mellifluous doctor saying that. And the answer is: In the boardroom, not on the factory floor. And over and over again, he would say that it's the quality of the decisions that the management make that can far outweigh anything that happens on the shop floor. And when he would speak about that, he would first of all, because he was talking to the auto industry, he would talk about who's making carburetors anymore. "Nobody's making carburetors because it's all fuel injectors," he would say. And anyone who has been following this, another classic one is: Do you ever hear of a bank that failed? Do you think that failed because of mistakes in tellers' windows or calculations of interest? Heck no. But there are a whole bunch of other examples that are even more current, if you will. I mean, although this isn't that current, but Blockbuster had fantastic movies, a whole array of them, the highest quality resolutions, and they completely missed the transition to streaming. And Netflix and others took it completely away from them because of mistakes made in the boardroom. You got more recently Bed Bath & Beyond having a great product, a great inventory.   0:02:51.4 Bill Scherkenbach: But management took their eyes off of it and looked at, they were concerned about stock buybacks and completely lost the picture of what was happening. It was perfect. It was a great product, but it was a management decision. WeWork, another company supplying office places. It was great in COVID and in other areas, but through financial mismanagement, they also ended up going bust. And so there are, I mean, these are examples of failures, but as Dr. Deming also said, don't confuse success with success. If you think you're making good decisions, you got to ask yourself how much better could it have been if you tried something else. So, quality is made in the boardroom, not on the factory floor.   0:04:07.9 Andrew Stotz: I had an interesting encounter this week and I was teaching a class, and there was a guy that came up and talked to me about his company. His company was a Deming Prize from Japan winner. And that was maybe 20, 25 years ago. They won their first Deming Prize, and then subsidiaries within the company won it. So the actual overall company had won something like nine or 10 Deming Prizes over a couple decades. And the president became...   0:04:43.5 Bill Scherkenbach: What business are they in?   0:04:45.5 Andrew Stotz: Well, they're in...   0:04:47.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Of winning prizes?   0:04:48.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I mean, they definitely, the CEO got the distinguished individual prize because he was so dedicated to the teachings of Dr. Deming. And he really, really expanded the business well, the business did well. A new CEO took over 15 years ago, 10 years ago, and took it in another direction. And right now the company is suffering losses and many other problems that they're facing. And I asked the guy without talking about Deming, I just asked him what was the difference between the prior CEO and the current one or the current regimes that have come in. And he said that the prior CEO, it was so clear what the direction was. Like, he set the direction and we all knew what we were doing. And I just thought now as you talk about, the quality is made at the boardroom, it just made me really think back to that conversation and that was what he noticed more than anything. Yeah well, we were really serious about keeping the factory clean or we used statistics or run charts, that was just what he said, I thought that was pretty interesting.   0:06:06.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Absolutely. And that reminds me of another comment that Dr. Deming was vehement about, and that was was the management turnover. Turnovers in boardrooms every 18 months or so, except maybe in family businesses. But that's based on the quality of decisions made in the boardroom. How fast do you want to turn over the CEOs and that C-suite? So it's going to go back to the quality is made in the boardroom.   0:06:50.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I think maybe it's a good chance for me to share the slide that you have. And let's maybe look at that graphic. Does that makes sense now?   0:07:00.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure, for sure.   0:07:02.2 Andrew Stotz: Let's do that. Let's do that. Hold on. All right.   0:07:15.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, okay, okay. You can see on the top left, we'll start the story. I've got to give you a background. This was generated based on my series of inputs and prompts, but this was generated by Notebook LM and based on the information I put in, this is what they came up with.   0:07:48.6 Andrew Stotz: Interesting.   0:07:50.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Based on various information, which I think did a fairly decent job. In any event, we're going to talk about all of these areas, except maybe the one where it says principles for active leadership, because that was the subject of a couple of our vlogs a while ago, and that is the three foundational obligations. And so the thing is that quality, even though Dr. Deming said it was made in the boardroom, one of the problems is that management did not know what questions to ask, and they would go, and Dr. Deming railed against MBWA, management by walking around, primarily because management hadn't made the transition to really take on board what Dr. Deming was talking about in profound knowledge. And that is, as you've mentioned, setting that vision, continually improving around it, and pretty much absolutely essential was to reduce fear within the organization.   0:09:25.9 Bill Scherkenbach: And so management by walking around without profound knowledge, which we've covered in previous talks, only gets you dog and pony shows. And with the fear in the organization, you're going to be carefully guided throughout a wonderful story. I mentioned I was in Disney with some of my granddaughters over the holidays, and they tell a wonderful story, but you don't ever see what's behind the scenery. And management never gets the chance because they really haven't had the opportunity to attain profound knowledge. So that's one of the things. I want to back up a little bit because Dr. Deming would... When Dr. Deming said quality is made at the top, he only agreed to help companies where the top management invited him, he wasn't out there marketing. If they invited him to come in, he would first meet with them and they had to convince him they were serious about participating, if not leading their improvement. And given that, that litmus test, he then agreed to work with them. Very few companies did he agree to on that. And again as we said, the quality of the decisions and questions and passion that determine the successfulness of the company. And so.   0:11:40.0 Andrew Stotz: It made me think about that letter you shared that he was saying about that there was, I think it was within the government and government department that just wasn't ready for change and so he wasn't going to work with it. I'm just curious, like what do you think was his... How did he make that judgment?   0:12:00.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, it wasn't high enough. And again, I don't know how high you'd have to go in there. But quite honestly, what we spoke about privately was in politics and in the federal government, at least in the US, things change every four years. And so you have management turnover. And so what one manager, as you described, one CEO is in there and another one comes in and wants to do it their way, they're singing Frank Sinatra's My Way. But that's life….   0:12:49.3 Andrew Stotz: Another great song.   0:12:50.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Another, yes.   0:12:52.1 Andrew Stotz: And it's not like he was an amateur with the government.   0:12:57.5 Bill Scherkenbach: No.   0:13:00.3 Andrew Stotz: He had a lot of experience from a young age, really working closely with the government. Do you think that he saw there was some areas that were worth working or did he just kind of say it's just not worth the effort there or what was his conclusions as he got older?   0:13:16.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, as he got older, it might, it was the turnover in management. When he worked for Agriculture, although agriculture is political, and he worked for Census Bureau back when he worked there, it wasn't that political, it's very political now. But there was more a chance for constancy and more of a, their aim was to do the best survey or census that they could do. And so the focus was on setting up systems that would deliver that. But that's what his work with the government was prior to when things really broke loose when he started with Ford and GM and got all the people wanting him in.   0:14:27.0 Andrew Stotz: I've always had questions about this at the top concept and the concept of constancy of purpose. And I'm just pulling out your Deming Route to Quality and Productivity, which, it's a lot of dog ears, but let's just go to chapter one just to remind ourselves. And that you started out with point number one, which was create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs. One of my questions I always kind of thought about that one was that at first I just thought he was saying just have a constancy of purpose. But the constancy of purpose is improvement of product and service.   0:15:13.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, yes and no. I mean, that's what he said. I believe I was quoting what his point number one was. And as it developed, it was very important to add, I believe, point number five on continual improvement. But constancy of purpose is setting the stage, setting the vision if you will, of where you want to take the company. And in Western management, and this is an area where there really is and was a dichotomy between Western and Eastern management. But in Western management, our concept of time was short-term. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And he had a definite problem with that. And that's how you could come up with, well, we're going to go with this fad and that fad or this CEO and that CEO. There was no thinking through the longer term of, as some folks ask, "what is your aim? Who do you think your customer base is now?" don't get suckered into thinking that carburetors are always going to be marketable to that market base. And so that's where he was going with that constancy of purpose. And in the beginning, I think that was my first book you're quoting, but also, in some of his earlier works, he also spoke of consistency of purpose, that is reducing the variation around that aim, that long-term vision, that aim.   0:17:19.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Now, in my second book, I got at least my learning said that you've got to go beyond the logical understanding and your constancy of purpose needs to be a mission, a values and questions. And those people who have who have listened to the the previous vlogs that we've had, those are the physiological and emotional. And I had mentioned, I think, that when when I went to GM, one of the things I did was looked up all the policy letters and the ones that Alfred Sloan wrote had pretty much consistency of three main points. One, make no mistake about it, this is what we're going to do. Two, this is why we're going to do it, logical folks who need to understand that. And to give a little bit of insight on on how he was feeling about it. Sometimes it was value, but those weren't spoken about too much back then. But it gave you an insider view, if you will. And so I looked at that, maybe I was overlooking. But I saw a physiological and emotional in his policy letters.   0:19:00.7 Bill Scherkenbach: And so that's got to be key when you are establishing your vision, but that's only the beginning of it. You have to operationalize it, and this is where management has to get out of the boardroom to see what's going on. Now, that's going to be the predictable, and some of your clients, and certainly the ones over in Asia, are speaking about Lean and Toyota Production System and going to the Gemba and all of those terms. But I see a need to do a reverse Gemba and we'll talk about that.   0:19:49.6 Andrew Stotz: So, I just want to dig deeper into this a little bit just for my own selfish understanding, which I think will help the audience also. Let's go back in time and say that the, Toyota, let's take Toyota as an example because we can say maybe in the 60s or so, they started to really understand that the improvement of product quality, products and service quality and all that was a key thing that was important to them. But they also had a goal of expanding worldwide. And their first step with that maybe was, let's just say, the big step was expanding to the US. Now, in order to expand to the US successfully, it's going to take 10, maybe 20 years. In the beginning, the cars aren't going to fit the market, you're going to have to adapt and all that. So I can understand first, let's imagine that somebody says our constancy of purpose is to continuously improve or let's say, not continuously, but let's just go back to that statement just to keep it clear. Let's say, create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs.   0:21:07.2 Andrew Stotz: So the core constancy in that statement to me sounds like the improvement. And then if we say, okay, also our vision of where we want to be with this company is we want to capture, let's say, 5% of the US market share within the next 15 years or five or 10 years. So you've got to have constancy of that vision, repeating it, not backing down from it, knowing that you're going to have to modify it. But what's the difference between a management or a leadership team in the boardroom setting a commitment to improvement versus a commitment to a goal of let's say, expanding the market into the US. How do we think about those two.   0:21:53.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well as you reread what I wrote there, which is Dr. Deming's words and they led into the, I forget what he called it, but he led into the progression of as you improve quality, you improve productivity, you reduce costs.   0:22:33.6 Andrew Stotz: Chain reaction.   0:22:34.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, the chain reaction. That's a mini version of the chain reaction there. And at the time, that's what people should be signing up for. Now the thing is that doesn't, or at least the interpretations haven't really gone to the improvement of the board's decision-making process. I mean, where he was going for was you want to be able to do your market research because his sampling and doing the market research was able to close the loop to make that production view a system, a closed-loop system. And so you wanted to make sure that you're looking far enough out to be able to have a viable product or service and not get caught up in short-term thinking. Now, but again, short-term is relative. In the US, you had mentioned 10 or 20 years, Toyota, I would imagine they still are looking 100 years out. They didn't get suckered into the over-committing anyway to the electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids, yes, hybrids yes, very efficient gas motors, yes. But their constancy of purpose is a longer time frame than the Western time frame.   0:24:27.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, that was a real attack on the structure that they had built to say when they were being told by the market and by everybody, investors, you've got to shift now, you've got to make a commitment to 100% EVs. I remember watching one of the boardroom, sorry, one of the shareholder meetings, and it's just exhausting, the pressure that they were under.   0:24:55.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Yep, yep. But there... Yeah.   0:25:00.0 Andrew Stotz: If we take a kid, a young kid growing up and we just say, look, your main objective, and my main objective with you is to every day improve. Whatever that is, let's say we're learning science.   0:25:17.3 Bill Scherkenbach: You're improving around your aim. What is your vision? What are you trying to accomplish? And that obviously, if you're you're saying a kid that could change otherwise there'd be an oversupply of firemen.   0:25:38.5 Andrew Stotz: So let's say that the aim was related to science. Let's say that the kid shows a really great interest in science and you're kind of coaching them along and they're like, "Help me, I want to learn everything I can in science." The aim may be a bit vague for the kid, but let's say that we narrow down that aim to say, we want to get through the main topics of science from physics to chemistry and set a foundation of science, which we think's going to take us a year to do that, let's just say. Or whatever. Whatever time frame we come up with, then every day the idea is, how do we number one improve around that aim? Are we teaching the right topics? Also, is there better ways of teaching? Like, this kid maybe learns better in the afternoon and in the morning, whereas another kid I may work with works better in another... And this kid likes five-minute modules and then some practical discussion, this kid likes, an hour of going deep into something and then having an experiment is when we're talking about improvement, is the idea that we're just always trying to improve around that aim until we reach a really optimized system? Is that what we're talking about when we're talking about constancy of purpose when it comes to improving product and service?   0:27:14.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a whole process that I take my clients through in coming up with their constancy of purpose statement. And the board should be looking at what the community is doing in the next five years, 10 years, where the market is going, where politics is going, all sorts of things. And some of it. I mean, specifically in the science area, it's fairly well recognized that the time of going generation to generation to generation has gone from years to maybe weeks where you have different iterations of technology. And so that's going to complicate stuff quite honestly, because what was good today can be, as Dr. Deming said, the world could change. And that's what you've got to deal with or you're out of business. Or you're out of relevance in what you're studying. And so you have to... If you if you have certain interests, and the interests are driven... It's all going to be internal. Some interests are driven because that's where I hear you can make the most money or that's where I hear you can make the most impact to society or whatever your internal interests are saying that those are key to establishing what your aim is.   0:29:25.7 Andrew Stotz: Okay. You've got some PowerPoints and we've been talking about some of it. But I just want to pull it up and make sure we don't miss anything. I think this is the first text page, maybe just see if there's anything you want to highlight from that. Otherwise we'll move to the next.   0:29:43.0 Bill Scherkenbach: No I think we've we've covered that. Yeah, yeah. And the second page. Yeah, I wanted to talk and I only mentioned it when the Lean folks and the Agile folks talk about Gemba, they're pretty much talking about getting the board out. It's the traditional management by walking around, seeing what happens. Hugely, hugely important. But one of the things, I had one of my clients. Okay, okay. No, that's in the the next one.   0:30:29.4 Andrew Stotz: There you go.   0:30:30.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, yeah. I had one of one of my clients do a reverse Gemba. And that is, that the strategy committee would be coming up with strategies and then handing it off to the operators to execute. And that's pretty much the way stuff was done in this industry and perhaps in many of them. But what we did was we had the operators, the operating committee, the operations committee, sit in as a peanut gallery or a, oh good grief. Well, you couldn't say a thing, you could only observe what they were doing. But it helped the operators better understand and see and feel what the arguments were, what the discussions were in the strategy, so that they as operators were better able to execute the strategy. And so not the board going out and down, but the folks that are below going up if it helps them better execute what's going on. But vice versa, management can't manage the 94%, and Dr. Deming was purposely giving people marbles, sometimes he'd say 93.4%. You know the marble story?   0:32:37.5 Andrew Stotz: I remember that [laughter]. Maybe you should tell that again just because that was a fun one when he was saying to, give them marbles, and they gave me marbles back.   0:32:45.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he said there was this professor in oral surgery that said there was a an Asian mouse or cricket, whatever, that would... You put in your mouth and they would eat all of the... Be able to clean the gums of all the bacteria better than anything. And described it in detail. And that question was on the test. Okay, please describe this mouse procedure. And he said all of the people, or a whole bunch of people except one, gave him back exactly step by step that he had taught. And one said, Professor, I've talked to other professors, I've looked around, I think you're loading us, that's what Deming said. And so he made the point that teaching should not be teachers handing out marbles and collecting the same marbles they they handed out. And so to some extent, he was testing, being overly precise.   0:34:12.8 Bill Scherkenbach: He wanted people to look into it, to see, go beyond as you were speaking of earlier, going beyond this shocking statement that there perhaps is some way that that really makes sense. So he wants you to study. Very Socratic in his approach to teaching in my opinion. And any event, management can't understand or make inputs on changing what the various levels of willing workers, and you don't have to be on the shop floor, you can be in the C-suite and be willing workers depending on how your company is operating. Go ahead.   0:35:12.0 Andrew Stotz: So let me... Maybe I can, just for people that don't know, Gemba is a Japanese word that means "the actual place," right? The place where the value is created.   0:35:23.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure.   0:35:26.2 Andrew Stotz: And the whole concept of this was that it's kind of almost nonsense to think that you could sit up in an office and run something and never see the location of where the problem's happening or what's going on. And all of a sudden many things become clear when you go to the location and try to dig down into it. However, from Dr. Deming context, I think what you're telling us is that if the leader doesn't have profound knowledge, all they're going to do is go to the location and chase symptoms and disrupt work, ultimately...   0:36:02.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Get the dog and pony shows and all of that stuff. And they still won't have a clue. The thing is...   0:36:08.6 Andrew Stotz: So the objective at the board level, if they were to actually go to the place, the objective is observation of the system, of how management decisions have affected this. What is the system able to produce? And that gives them a deeper understanding to think about what's their next decision that they've got to make in relation to this. Am I capturing it right or?   0:36:40.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a lot more to it, I think, because top management, the board level, are the ones that set the vision, the mission, the values, the guiding principle, and the questions. And I think it's incumbent on the board to be able to go through the ranks and see how their constancy of purpose, the intended, where they want to take the place is being interpreted throughout the organization because, and I know it's an oversimplification and maybe a broad generalization, but middle management... Well, there are layers of management everywhere based on their aim to get ahead, will effectively stop communication upstream and downstream in order to fill their particular aim of what they want to get out of it. And so this is a chance for the top management to see, because they're doing their work, establishing the vision of the company, which is the mission, values and questions, they really should be able to go layer by layer as they're walking around seeing how those, their constancy, their intended constancy is being interpreted and executed. And so that's where beyond understanding how someone is operating a lathe or an accountant is doing a particular calculation, return on invested capital, whatever.   0:38:47.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Beyond that, I think it's important for management to be able to absolutely see what is happening. But the Gemba that I originally spoke about is just the other way. You've got the strategy people that are higher up, and you have the operations people that are typically, well, they might be the same level, but typically lower. You want the lower people to sit in on some higher meetings so they have a better idea of the intent, management's intent in this constancy of purpose. And that will help them execute, operationalize what management has put on paper or however they've got it and are communicating it. It just helps. So when I talk about Gemba, I'm talking the place where the quality is made or the action is. As the boardroom, you need to be able to have people understand and be able to see what's going on there, and all the way up the chain and all the way down the chain.   0:40:14.4 Andrew Stotz: That's great one. I'm just visualizing people in the operations side thinking, we've got some real problems here and we don't really understand it. We've got to go to the actual place, and that's the boardroom[laughter]. It's not the factory line.   0:40:31.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yes. Absolutely. And if the boardroom says you're not qualified, then shame on you, the boardroom, are those the people you're hiring? So no, it goes both ways, both ways.   0:40:46.8 Andrew Stotz: Now, you had a final slide here. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about some of the things you've identified here.   0:40:53.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, that's getting back to, in the logical area of this TDQA is my cycle: Theory, question, data, action. And it's based on Dr. Deming and Shewhart and Lewis saying, where do questions come from? They're based on theory. What do you do with questions? Well, the answers to questions are your data. And you're just not going to do nothing with data, you're supposed to take action. What are you going to do with it? And so the theory I'm going to address, the various questions I've found helpful in order to, to some extent, make the decisions better, the ability to operationalize them better and perhaps even be more creative, if you will. And so one of the questions I ask any team is, have you asked outside experts their opinion? Have you included them? Have you included someone to consistently, not consistently, but to take a contrarian viewpoint that their job in this meeting is to play the devil's advocate? And the theory is you're looking for a different perspective as Pete Jessup at Ford came up with that brilliant view of Escher's.   0:42:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Different perspectives are going to help you make a better decision. And so you want to get out of the echo chamber and you want to be challenged. Every team should be able to have some of these on there. What's going to get delayed? The underlying theory or mental model is, okay, you don't have people sitting around waiting for this executive committee to come up with new things, time is a zero-sum game. What's going to get delayed and what are they willing to get delayed if this is so darn important to get done? Decision criteria. I've seen many teams where they thought that the decision would be a majority rule. They discuss and when it came down to submit it, they said, "no, no, this VP is going to make the decision." And so that completely sours the next team to do that. And so you have to be, if you're saying trust, what's your definition of trust? If the people know that someone is going to make the decision with your advice or the executive's going to get two votes and everyone else gets one, or it's just simple voting.   0:44:35.3 Bill Scherkenbach: The point is that making the decision and taking it to the next level, the theory is you've got to be specific and relied on. Team turnover, fairly simple. We spoke about executive turnover, which was a huge concern that Dr. Deming had about Western management. But at one major auto company, we would have product teams and someone might be in charge of, be a product manager for a particular model car. Well, if that person was a hard charger and it took product development at the time was three and a half years, you're going to get promoted from a director level to a VP halfway through and you're going to screw up the team, other team members will be leaving as well because they have careers. You need to change the policy just to be able to say, if you agree that you're going to lead this team, you're going to lead it from start to finish and to minimize the hassle and the problems and the cost of turnover, team turnover. And this is a short list of stuff, but it's very useful to have a specific "no-fault policy."   0:46:20.6 Bill Scherkenbach: And this is where Dr. Deming speaks about reducing fear. I've seen teams who know they can really, once management turns on the spigot and says, let's really do this, this is important, the team is still hesitant to really let it go because that management might interpret that as saying, "well, what are you doing, slacking off the past year?" As Deming said, "why couldn't you do that if you could do it with no method, why didn't you do it last year?" but the fear in the organization, well, we're going to milk it. And so all of these things, it helps to be visible to everyone.   0:47:23.0 Andrew Stotz: So, I guess we should probably wrap up and I want to go back to where we started. And first, we talked about, where is quality made? And we talked about the boardroom. Why is this such an important topic from your perspective? Why did you want to talk about it? And what would you say is the key message you want to get across from it?   0:47:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: The key message is that management thinks quality's made in operations. And it's the quality of the... I wanted to put a little bit more meat, although there's a lot more meat, we do put on it. But the quality of the organization, I wanted to make the point depends on the quality of the decisions, that's their output that top leaders make, whether it's the board or the C-suite or any place making decisions. The quality of your decisions.   0:48:28.9 Andrew Stotz: Excellent. And I remember, this reminds me of when I went to my first Deming seminar back in 1990, roughly '89, maybe '90. And I was a young guy just starting as a supervisor at a warehouse in our Torrance plant at Pepsi, and Pepsi sent me there. And I sat in the front row, so I didn't pay attention to all the people behind me, but there was many people behind me and there was a lot of older guys. Everybody technically was pretty much older than me because when I was just starting my career. And it was almost like these javelins were being thrown from the stage to the older men in the back who were trying to deal with this, and figure out what's coming at them, and that's where I kind of really started to understand that this was a man, Dr. Deming, who wasn't afraid to direct blame at senior management to say, you've got to take responsibility for this. And as a young guy seeing all kinds of mess-ups in the factory every day that I could see, that we couldn't really solve. We didn't have the tools and we couldn't get the resources to get those tools.   0:49:47.9 Andrew Stotz: It just really made sense to me. And I think the reiteration of that today is the idea, as I'm older now and I look at what my obligation is in the organizations I'm working at, it's to set that constancy of purpose, to set the quality at the highest level that I can. And the discussion today just reinforced it, so I really enjoyed it.   0:50:11.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, that's great. I mean, based on that observation, Dr. Deming many times said that the master chef is the person who knows no fear, and he was a master chef putting stuff together. And we would talk about fairly common knowledge that the great artists, the great thinkers, the great producers were doing it for themselves, it just happened that they had an audience. The music caught on, the poetry caught on, the painting caught on, the management system caught on. But we're doing it for ourselves with no fear. And that's the lesson.   0:51:11.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Well, I hope that there's a 24-year-old out there right now listening to this just like I was, or think about back in 1972 when you were sitting there listening to his message. And they've caught that message from you today. So I appreciate it, and I want to say on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, of course, thank you so much for this discussion and for people who are listening and interested, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And of course, you can reach Bill on LinkedIn, very simple. He's out there posting and he's responding. So feel free if you've got a question or comment or something, reach out to him on LinkedIn and have a discussion. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and it doesn't change. It is, "people are entitled to joy in work."

We welcome Moody's Mark Zandi, Moody's Chief Economist and one of the most influential and trusted macroeconomic voices shaping markets, policy, and business strategy worldwide. Zandi begins by explaining how today's consumer landscape is defined by a widening K-shaped economy—an income and wealth split decades in the making and now intensified by rising asset values and post-pandemic dynamics. Households at the top of the income spectrum are spending freely, while middle-class consumers remain pressured and those at the bottom struggle to keep up, borrowing to sustain purchases.Zandi also connects the affordability crisis to structural issues like housing supply, wage pressures, labor shortages, and the unpredictable impact of tariffs—which are simultaneously slowing job creation, lifting inflation, and clouding retailers' pricing strategies. He warns that delayed tariff pass-through may soon accelerate and that upcoming legal decisions could radically alter retail margins.Perhaps most striking is Zandi's analysis of AI's fingerprints on the labor market. He highlights rapidly rising unemployment among younger workers and the risk that productivity gains arrive faster than hiring can adjust—potentially tipping the economy toward recession just as retail faces profit pressure, concentration of growth among a handful of giants, and shifts in category performance.Before joined by Zandi, Steve and Michael dig into the retail headlines: strong BFCM e-commerce results , Buy Now Pay Later surging again, and evidence that AI-driven traffic is now materially influencing online demand. They examine the evolving performance of dollar stores, with Five Below delivering standout comps, the ongoing stampede to value, and whether the end of de minimis rules may reshape the bargain landscape.They then break down Macy's mixed but improving traction, tariff lawsuits led by Costco, and the broader retail question of whether top-line growth is increasingly profitless prosperity—a theme reinforced by margins squeezed across beauty, off-price, and specialty retail formats.In a quick recap of the most remarkable stories of the week Steve is stunned that Meta still invests heavily in the metaverse—even while shrinking budgets Michael questions whether defunct brands like Bed Bath & Beyond can meaningfully return in the Canadian retail market dominated by TJX, HomeSense, and IKEA.Expect the annual game of holiday discount chicken to intensify as promotions escalate, plus intriguing experiments like Netflix House in former department-store spaces—potentially hinting at new opportunities for mall real estate. SPECIAL OFFER for our listeners! SAVE 20% on registration for the all new Shoptalk Luxe event in Abu Dhabi January 27-29.For more info go to https://luxe.shoptalk.com/page/get-ticket and then register using our special code : RRLUXE20 About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

In many East Asian cultures, childbirth marks not just a beginning, but a sacred period of recovery known as Zuò Yuè Zi, or “sitting the month.” Rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, this postnatal confinement practice emphasizes rest, warmth, and nourishment to restore balance and vitality after delivery, which is said to deplete the mother's qi, or vital life force. In the modern and busy world of working mothers with unpaid maternity leave, is it possible to incorporate facets of an ancient rejuvenating practice into the home?In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Kristal Lau, MBBS, MPH, BMedSc. Dr. Lau is a board-certified physician with over a decade of experience, the leading postpartum wellness consultant, author of 'Postpartum 30' (double winner at the NYC Big Book Award), and the founder of Bridges in Health and Mama's Wing Woman, a consulting company that creates wellness experiences for individuals and families and provides postpartum planning, coaching, and wellness programs to new parents and their families.Dr. Lau received her MBBS from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, MPH in Health Care Organization and Policy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and General Medicine residency in Australia. Dr. Lau has then become an expert in postpartum practice, having served as an Advisor and the Co-Chair of the Women's Health Lifestyle Medicine Initiative at European Lifestyle Medicine Organization, Postnatal Retreat Development Consultant at Sanu, Family Resiliency Expert at the United States Army, and Director of Education at the Military Birth Resource Network & Postpartum Coalition. Dr. Lau has been featured on Goop, Medium, CEO Weekly, KTLA, Exeleon Magazine, EIN Presswire, and ABNewswire.Follow Friends of Franz Podcast: Website, Instagram, FacebookFollow Christian Franz (Host): Instagram, YouTube

Ione spills the tea on the never-released short film she cp-directed with Sofia Coppola and Andrew Durham.For more info and more on Andrew's new film FAIRYLAND visit us at http://weirdertogether.substack.com

The Weekly News RundownThe episode opens with a fast-moving retail update. New DataWeave analytics reveal that Nike has raised prices significantly — by 17 percent for footwear and 14 percent for apparel — as tariff cost mounts, potentially disrupting their turnaround plans. Steve and Michael then examine the continuing U.S. government shutdown and its potential economic ripple effects. Despite flagging consumer confidence, September retail sales surged 5.4% year-over-year, led by sporting goods and apparel, while big-ticket categories such as furniture and home improvement stalled. They turn next to Adobe's holiday sales forecast, calling for 5.3 percent online growth — the slowest in years. AI-driven shopping, meanwhile, is expected to grow fivefold, underscoring how rapidly technology can reshape consumer behaviour.The Interview — Scot Wingo on Agentic CommerceReturning guest Scot Wingo brings a veteran entrepreneur's perspective on the next leap in retail innovation. Leveraging his ChannelAdvisor roots to his latest venture, ReFiBuy.ai, Wingo describes how AI agents are poised to reshape the shopping journey — from research, to finding, and buying — through "agentic commerce." He details how ChatGPT's new checkout feature effectively turns it into a merchant-friendly marketplace and why this could challenge Google and Amazon's ad-tax models. Wingo explains how Google is evolving from a search engine to an "answer engine," already costing retailers organic traffic, and outlines the steps brands must take to prepare their catalogues for AI-driven visibility. He also explores how personal-shopping agents and vertical AI start-ups in fashion and re-commerce are creating hyper-custom experiences, while warning retailers not to block "good bots" in their fear of AI scraping.Stories That Spread and A Peek Around the CornerIn their closing segment, Steve and Michael discuss some recent remarkable stories including the revival of brands like Bed Bath & Beyond, Toys "R" Us, and Forever 21, as well as Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's latest shot at his former company. They close by discuss what's on their mutual radar screens for the weeks ahead. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Bed Bath & Beyond's comeback is making headlines—but not in California.Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis says the company won't open new stores in the Golden State, citing high taxes, strict regulations, and rising costs.Governor Gavin Newsom wasn't amused. His office fired back with a sarcastic jab, questioning the retailer's relevance after its bankruptcy. Lemonis, in turn, extended an olive branch—offering to meet with Newsom to discuss how to fix California's business climate.

The California Parole Board sends Erik Menendez back to prison -- but not for reasons you might think. Newsom wins on his redistricting battle (for the moment) and still finds the time to blast Bed Bath & Beyond for its refusal to reopen in California. California Democrat Representative Robert Garcia's rising national prominence embodies the left's confusion on energy and wealth formation. Music by Metalachi.Email Us:dbahnsen@thebahnsengroup.comwill@calpolicycenter.orgFollow Us:@DavidBahnsen@WillSwaim@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:Erik Menendez to remain in prison after decision by California Parole BoardObama endorses Newsom's redistricting proposal as a ‘responsible approach'‘He's trying to rig the election.' Newsom bashes Trump as redistricting campaign kicks offCalifornia Supreme Court clears way for Newsom's redistricting planGut and Amend AB 604: From “inactive voter registrations” to “new maps”Gut and Amend SB 280: From “prohibition on contributions in state and local government office buildings” to “new elections”Gut and Amend ACA 8: From “automatic election of unchallenged incumbent judges” to the “Election Rigging Response Act.”How will California's congressional gerrymander attempt play out in the long run?California Common Cause advisory board members quit in gerrymandering falloutKamala Harris swears in Rep. Robert Garcia as top Democrat on Congressional Oversight CommitteeWhose oil money?While not great, Long Beach roads have gotten better, as alleyways continue to sufferMan sleeping on sidewalk killed when truck rolls over him, Long Beach police saySilicon Valley lawmakers want to decriminalize homelessnessDowntown Sacramento cafe discouraged after instances of public defecationCalifornia, epicenter of the nation's housing crisis, is finally getting a housing agency‘Overregulated, expensive, and risky:' Retail giant's CEO slams California

(0:00) Bestie intros (1:59) What's new with the All-In Summit (9:02) AI Mania hits the brakes: sign of a bubble or a healthy correction? (30:49) Meta's AI hiring freeze: are the AI talent wars slowing down? (39:09) Gavin Newsom is the early favorite to be the 2028 Democratic nominee (54:03) Russia/Ukraine: Trump's two summits, what endgame to expect? Join us at the All-In Summit: https://allin.com/summit Summit scholarship application: http://bit.ly/4kyZqFJ Get The Besties All-In Tequila: https://tequila.allin.com Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://x.com/autismcapital/status/1958566758719398351 https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/openai-sam-altman-warns-ai-market-is-in-a-bubble.html https://www.theverge.com/command-line-newsletter/759897/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-social-media-google-chrome-interview https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/technology/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai.html https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-hiring-freeze-fda6b3c4 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/19/meta-tried-to-buy-safe-superintelligence-hired-ceo-daniel-gross.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/technology/meta-scale-ai.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/sam-altman-says-meta-tried-to-poach-openai-staff-with-100-million-bonuses-mark-zuckerberg.html https://polymarket.com/event/democratic-presidential-nominee-2028 https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000198-c46f-da96-abff-d66f4c1e0000 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250820615513/en/Statement-from-Marcus-Lemonis-Executive-Chairman-of-Bed-Bath-Beyond https://news.gallup.com/poll/693203/ukrainian-support-war-effort-collapses.aspx

Join Nate Thurston and Charles 'Chuck' Thompson on another episode of Good Morning Liberty as they discuss a range of topics including the controversial Cracker Barrel rebrand, Trump's flag burning executive order, misconceptions about 55 million U.S. visas, Hitler comparisons, and much more. From political blunders to corporate decisions, this episode has it all! Don't miss the Dumb Bleep of the Week! (00:00) Intro (02:51) Gavin Newsom and Bed Bath & Beyond (10:00) Kroger Store Closures (18:20) Nina Turner and Gerrymandering (23:27) Joy Reed's Controversial Comments (30:51) SNAP Benefits and Health (34:38) ADL and America First (39:21) Conservative Reactions to Gun Laws (39:40) Debate on Gun Possession and Crime (40:42) Thomas Massey's Stance on Gun Rights (41:37) Libertarian Views on Gun Ownership (42:17) Critique of Government Policies (45:45) Trump and Putin Assassination Comments (49:32) Trump's Executive Order on Flag Burning (53:13) Andrew Yang's Mobile Voting Proposal (56:07) Cracker Barrel Rebranding Controversy (01:06:35) Misconceptions About Visa Holders (01:13:17) ESPN's Barry Sanders Mix-Up (01:18:02) Concluding Remarks and Voting   Links: https://gml.bio.link/ YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3UwsRiv Check out Martens Minute! https://martensminute.podbean.com/ Follow Josh Martens on X: https://twitter.com/joshmartens13 CB Distillery 25% off with promo code GML cbdistillery.com Join the Fed Haters Club! joingml.com secure.thomasmassie.com/donate

Phil, Brett, & Raymond are joined by Theresa Payton to discuss Texas Republicans winning the redistricting fight against Democrats, Bed Bath & Beyond roasting California's insane policies, Cracker Barrel being roasted over logo redesign, and Trump ordering the southern border wall be painted black to make it hotter.   Hosts:  Phil @PhilThatRemains (X) Brett  ⁨@PopCultureCrisis⁩  (everywhere) Raymond @raymondgstanley (X) Serge @SergeDotCom (everywhere) Guest: Theresa Payton @TrackerPayton  

The episode spotlights the Trump administration's D.C. crime crackdown, with FBI Director Kash Patel reporting 550 arrests in one week, including 41 in one night. White House heavyweights J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller visit National Guardsmen at Union Station, dismissing protesters as “crazy communists.". Miller calls the Democratic Party an “extremist organization” on Fox News, protecting “terrorists and criminals.” Trump's Truth Social post targets the Smithsonian for its 2020 “toxic whiteness” infographic, among other items. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem details painting the border wall black to deter climbers. A video of an illegal alien, previously arrested for child s*xual assault, being tackled in D.C. is celebrated as justice. Israel plans a Gaza City operation against Hamas. Corporate news includes Cracker Barrel's rebrand and Bed Bath & Beyond's California exit due to overregulation. A poll on IVF reveals 67% of listeners view it as immoral, with thoughtful X comments on its ethical complexities.   D.C. crime crackdown, Kash Patel, FBI arrests, DEA ATF US Park Police, J.D. Vance, Stephen Miller, National Guard, Smithsonian woke controversy, Trump Truth Social, Kristi Noem, border wall, illegal alien arrest, Israel Gaza operation, Cracker Barrel rebrand, Bed Bath & Beyond California, IVF moral debate, realamupdate

One of Mayor Adams' advisors tried to bribe a reporter by giving her a bag of potato chips with cash in it. Eric Adams would've been the Democratic nominee for Mayor if Andrew Cuomo had not been in the race. MSNBC may have issues with fundamentals, such as staffing and facilities, now that Comcast has spun them off. Mark interviews economist Steve Moore. Steve and Mark talk about a new deal Intel has with the U.S. government. How will the semiconductor chips sector turn out for the USA and other countries in the world? Data centers are in demand in our country. The NY appeals court has thrown out a $500 million dollar penalty against President Trump initiated by AG Letitia James, regarding her civil case. California governor Gavin Newsom should be a senator and not a governor. Gavin reacted to the company Bed Bath & Beyond refusing to open stores in California. SiriusXM has allegedly had enough with Howard Stern, and Netflix so far looks like a top place for him to land. However, sources are saying that SiriusXM allegedly doesn't want to get rid of him and is using this news story as a hoax. Mark interviews Jimmy Failla - WOR Weeknight host of 'Fox Across America'. Jimmy gives his take on the rebranding of MSNBC. MSNBC's primetime shows are just Trump derangement syndrome hours. We get an update on the candidates' personalities and plans so far for the mayor of New York. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The NY appeals court has thrown out a $500 million dollar penalty against President Trump initiated by AG Letitia James, regarding her civil case. California governor Gavin Newsom should be a senator and not a governor. Gavin reacted to the company Bed Bath & Beyond refusing to open stores in California. SiriusXM has allegedly had enough with Howard Stern, and Netflix so far looks like a top place for him to land. However, sources are saying that SiriusXM allegedly doesn't want to get rid of him and is using this news story as a hoax. Mark takes your calls! Mark interviews Jimmy Failla - WOR Weeknight host of 'Fox Across America'. Jimmy gives his take on the rebranding of MSNBC. MSNBC's primetime shows are just Trump derangement syndrome hours. We get an update on the candidates' personalities and plans so far for the mayor of New York.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The NY appeals court has thrown out a $500 million dollar penalty against President Trump initiated by AG Letitia James, regarding her civil case. California governor Gavin Newsom should be a senator and not a governor. Gavin reacted to the company Bed Bath & Beyond refusing to open stores in California. SiriusXM has allegedly had enough with Howard Stern, and Netflix so far looks like a top place for him to land. However, sources are saying that SiriusXM allegedly doesn't want to get rid of him and is using this news story as a hoax.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This discussion delves into the significant voter shift happening in the United States, with a New York Times analysis showing a swing of 4.5 million voters from the Democratic to the Republican party between 2020 and 2024. The hosts attribute this shift to a perceived "mask slip" by Democrats, who they claim, for the first time, were unable to hide their true beliefs and policies from the public. The conversation also links this political trend to business decisions, highlighting how companies like Bed Bath & Beyond are reportedly choosing to close stores in California due to what they describe as an "overregulated, expensive, and risky" business environment. The hosts argue that these events are all part of a larger narrative where a disconnect between public sentiment and political/corporate actions is leading to a major realignment in both the political and economic landscape.

This comprehensive analysis weaves together several interconnected themes to paint a picture of a nation undergoing a profound shift. It begins with the jarring statistic of a 4.5 million voter swing from the Democratic to the Republican party between 2020 and 2024, a phenomenon the hosts attribute to the rise of free speech on platforms like X. This uncensored flow of information, they argue, is revealing a "woke" corporate and political agenda that is out of touch with mainstream America. The discussion provides examples of this disconnect, including the plummeting stock prices of companies like Target, Bud Light, and Cracker Barrel, which are criticized for prioritizing political correctness over customer satisfaction. It also details a business exodus from California, with companies like Bed Bath & Beyond and In-N-Out Burger citing the state's "unfriendly" business environment and crime as reasons for their departure. The transcript further delves into the immigration debate, highlighting recent federal crackdowns on illegal immigrants with criminal records and the differing policies of state governors. This is framed as a critical component of a broader effort to restore law and order and to protect American citizens and jobs. The hosts conclude by asserting that the "woke" movement cannot survive in a free media environment and that the public is finally seeing the "real" consequences of these policies.

This segment discusses the Trump administration's plan for a significant increase in deportations, with a goal of deporting up to 500,000 people per month. The hosts then transition to a discussion about a "California exodus," citing several examples of businesses and wealth leaving the state. They highlight the decision by the CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond to not reopen any physical stores in California, a move he attributed to the state's "unfriendly business environment." They also mention In-N-Out Burger's decision to move its corporate headquarters from California to Tennessee. The hosts use data from Zillow and a demographer's analysis to show that seven of the ten most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S. are now in Florida, while only three remain in California, reflecting a major shift of wealth from the West Coast to the Sunshine State. The hosts argue that these trends are a result of California's policies and that even some legal and illegal immigrants are leaving the state. They conclude by asserting that Democrats are now relying on "criminals" to remain in California to boost census numbers and voter rolls.

This segment argues that the shift of 4.5 million voters from the Democratic to the Republican party is a direct result of free speech on platforms like X. The hosts claim that for the first time, Americans are getting access to "real news" that the mainstream media and censored social media platforms would have previously suppressed. The discussion points to several trending stories as evidence, including Bed Bath & Beyond's refusal to reopen stores in California due to its business environment, an illegal immigrant truck driver who fled to California after killing three people in Florida, and the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman in Oklahoma by two illegal immigrants. The hosts state these stories are exposing the negative consequences of certain liberal policies, which they claim is causing a widespread change in public opinion and corporate strategy. The segment concludes by linking Target's stock decline and Cracker Barrel's business decisions to the same phenomenon of businesses losing customers by prioritizing "woke" ideology over market demands.

In Episode 161, we dive into today's biggest stories: Trump's stunning victory as a New York appeals court voids the $454 million fraud penalty in Letitia James' case over Mar-a-Lago valuations. We unpack the Smithsonian controversy sparked by Trump's call for a museum review, accusing displays of bias. Cracker Barrel's stock takes a hit amid new CEO rebranding woes, while Bed Bath & Beyond's CEO champions capitalism. The FBI admits the Mar-a-Lago raid lacked legal grounds, vowing to investigate rogue agents. A woman protests a 15-hour volunteer requirement for $2,000 monthly food stamps, igniting welfare debates. ICE sets sights on Boston as the mayor defends sanctuary city policies, and CNN's Harry Enten reveals core Democrats' plans to resist Trump. Join us for sharp insights on these headline-making issues! Please take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, X, Instagram, GETTR,  TRUTH Social and YouTube by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. And, consider becoming a sponsor of the show by visiting my Patreon page!

Novia Scotia going too far with a ban on being in the woods, President Trump says homeless should leave DC "immediately", Bed Bath & Beyond is re-opening under a "new" name, a 17-year-old was arrested after allegedly shooting three people in Times Square, entitled Americans abroad, a peek inside the world of sororities, a North Korean man's daring escape from tyranny, and a blustering boss gets a mob style wake-up call...

Fires explode overnight in California amid record-breaking heat. And the impact of President Trump's sweeping tariffs. Plus, Bed Bath & Beyond is back! The company is opening its first new store today since filing for bankruptcy – what the big return means for those coupons you may still have.

“Am I in trouble?” “Am I secretly bad?” These are questions Meg Josephson, a therapist and author, grew up asking herself. She was constantly trying to anticipate other people's needs, worried that she was letting other people down. And it wasn't until she found herself standing in the aisle of a Bed Bath & Beyond, trying to remember her favorite color, that she realized her desire to please everyone was eroding her sense of self.On this episode of Modern Love, Josephson talks about how that realization led her to confront her tumultuous childhood, and what it took to stop “people pleasing.” She then reads the Modern Love essay “My Three Years as a Beloved Daughter” by Erin Brown, about a woman who found a type of love in her best friend's parents that she had never experienced before, and what that taught her about her own parents.Josephson's book, “Are You Mad At Me?,” is available Aug. 5, 2025.Find new episodes of Modern Love every Wednesday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“Am I in trouble?” “Am I secretly bad?” These are questions Meg Josephson, a therapist and author, grew up asking herself. She was constantly trying to anticipate other people's needs, worried that she was letting other people down. And it wasn't until she found herself standing in the aisle of a Bed Bath & Beyond, trying to remember her favorite color, that she realized her desire to please everyone was eroding her sense of self.On this episode of Modern Love, Josephson talks about how that realization led her to confront her tumultuous childhood, and what it took to stop “people pleasing.” She reads the Modern Love essay “My Three Years as a Beloved Daughter” by Erin Brown, about a woman who found a type of love in her best friend's parents that she had never experienced before, and what that taught her about her own parents.Josephson's book, “Are You Mad At Me?,” is available Aug. 5, 2025.Here's how to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times.Here's how to submit a Tiny Love Story. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In this episode of The Next Level Health & Fitness Podcast, we dive into a surprising topic: the potential dangers of relying too heavily on ChatGPT and other AI tools—especially when it comes to nutrition, fitness, and critical thinking. AI can be helpful, no doubt. But when it replaces real thought, personalization, and context, it can actually set people back. We break down where things go wrong—particularly in the nutrition space—and how blindly trusting AI advice can lead to confusion, misinformation, and poor results. We also explore new research showing that overuse of AI tools may be affecting brain development and reducing critical thinking skills in students and young adults. What You'll Learn: Why generic nutrition advice from AI can do more harm than good The importance of nuance and context in health and fitness How AI might be rewiring the way we think—and not in a good way How to use ChatGPT as a tool without outsourcing your brain The difference between information and wisdom—and why it matters This one's a call to stay sharp, think critically, and remember: technology is a tool—but you're the driver.   Free Guides: Eating Out Guide - Get The Guide Hight Protein Fast Food Orders - Get the Guide Macro Food Options Guide - Get The Guide   Join Us On Patreon - Join Here   Submit your questions to be featured on our Q&A episodes.   Order from Cured Supplement Order from Legion Supplements and get 20% off your first order by using discount code: keynutrition   Connect with us on Instagram Host Brad Jensen – @thesoberbodybuilder Next Level Nutrition – @mynextlevelnutrition   Episode Timestamps 00:00:00 – Brad Jensen welcomes listeners to the Next Level Podcast and jokes about being the "first listen" of the day. 00:00:46 – Craig notes he's present and joins in on the "first listen" banter. 00:01:02 – Brad and Craig discuss when the podcast episode drops and their international listeners. 00:01:32 – Brad recounts technical errors with episode drops and not wanting to point fingers. 00:02:10 – Craig brings up common phrases like "no disrespect" or "can I be honest?" and their impact on communication. 00:03:07 – Brad and Craig discuss better ways to offer feedback or express concerns, emphasizing open communication. 00:03:28 – Brad shares a personal story about being asked if he was ready to receive tough feedback and the benefits of postponing tough conversations. 00:04:17 – Craig dives into the importance of welcoming communication, asking permission, and setting the stage for productive conversations. 00:05:14 – The hosts shift into lighthearted banter about T.J. Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, and store nostalgia. 00:06:23 – Brad tells a story from a police show about honesty and the surprising confessions of a man pulled over. 00:07:39 – Brad introduces the main topic: the uses and flaws of ChatGPT and other AI tools like Gemini, comparing them to Google. 00:09:52 – Brad discusses the bias of ChatGPT's answers, how prompts affect responses, and examples of biased answers. 00:11:33 – Craig talks about the danger of losing critical thinking skills due to overreliance on AI for quick answers. 00:13:59 – Brad highlights how AI content lacks "soul" and why personal writing and human connection matter, especially for coaches and entrepreneurs. 00:20:12 – Brad shares a cautionary story about a client using AI for advice on anabolic steroids and the risks of poorly sourced AI information.  

Women Are Making Major Moves On The Pickleball Court   Move over, fellas! Women are making major moves in pickleball, and The Debbie Nigro Show just got the inside scoop from two powerhouse ladies leading the charge—Alita Friedman and Catherine Barton. If you haven't caught the pickleball bug yet, let me break it down for you: It's fast, it's fun, and it's the ultimate social sport. And now, thanks to these two trailblazers, women finally have their own place in the game with the launch of the National Women's Pickleball Foundation which joins the National Women's Pickleball Association.   The Power of Pickleball: Fun, Fitness & Philanthropy Alita and Catherine are turning their love of the game into a movement. Here's how: Bringing Women Together – Pickleball is for all ages, and women are loving the camaraderie. It's competitive, but it's also social—so whether you're in it to win it or just there to meet new friends, it's a win-win! Giving Back Big Time – The National Women's Pickleball Foundation is partnering with major charities like the Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and even the Girl Scouts to make an impact beyond the court. Creating a Membership Club for Women – The National Women's Pickleball Association is launching with events, exclusive benefits, and ways to keep the community connected.   Why Pickleball Is the Hottest Sport Right Now If you thought pickleball was just for retirees, think again! The sport is growing at lightning speed, with indoor courts popping up everywhere—even in old Bed Bath & Beyond stores! (Now that's a makeover we can get behind.) And if you're worried about injuries (hello, ER stories!), the ladies have some pro tips:  *Stretch first. Seriously, don't skip this.  *Wear the right shoes. No, your running sneakers won't cut it.  *Take a lesson. Learn the basics before diving in!   Pickleball Lingo You Need to Know Want to sound like a pro? Here are some must-know terms: Stay out of the kitchen – Not the one in your house! This is the no-volley zone near the net. Dink – A soft shot that makes your opponent scramble. Pickled – When your team scores zero points in a game. Ouch! Shake & Bake – A killer combo move that leaves your opponent in the dust.    The Big Event – Join the Fun in Boca Raton, Fla! Want to see this movement in action? The National Women's Pickleball Association is hosting its launch event in April at the stunning Boca West Country Club. Expect:

Movie Meltdown - Episode 639 (For our Patreon "Horror Club") The horror club gets together to discuss ghosts, monsters and the immigrant horror stories contained in Santiago Menghini's No One Gets Out Alive. And while we try to figure out which attempted murders are real and which are fake, we also delve into… slacker pioneers, weird residual ghost pains, Aztec weaponry, Bed Bath & Beyond coupons, dream logic, the new Property Brothers, Willem Dafoe, I gotta good work ethic, he's having death, how much of the budget was candles, experimental camera moves, goddess in the box, they only did the murders to get out of school, spooky fingers, you should be out the door by now, things that could be happening in the basement, that's a nice coat, snow sucks, a ghost story, sacrificing the little people to the corporations, the ancestors that gave up, it weaves this way into her memories, interchangeable horror titles, someone give this poor girl a break for once, the monster can't fix your mental health problems, her second mouth, dealing with family trauma and Nosferatu's facial hair.  Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for “No One Gets Out Alive”, so watch it before you listen. Oh yeah, also spoilers for the entire "Scream" franchise. “It just seems like monsters are eating ghosts… and that's not fun for anyone.”

On this episode of The Zach Show, Chris Cooper and Zach discuss Chris' debut fiction novel 'Crazy By Conscious,' how Chris saved his brother's life in the hospital, the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the collapse of Bed Bath & Beyond, Chris' firsthand New Jersey drone/UAP experience, and more.  Guest bio: Chris Cooper is an award-winning writer, novelist, and performance coach. SUPPORT THE AUXORO PODCAST BY SUBSCRIBING TO AUXORO PREMIUM (BONUS EPISODES & EXCLUSIVE CONTENT): https://auxoro.supercast.com/ CHRIS COOPER LINKS:Crazy By Conscious: https://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Conscious-Chris-Cooper/dp/1960882163Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coopd88/The Coop Gym: https://www.instagram.com/_thecoop_gym/Finn Almost Buys A Goldfish: https://expatpress.com/finn-almost-buys-a-goldfish-chris-cooper/Thirst: https://themetaworker.com/2023/10/09/thirst-by-chris-cooper/The Swim: https://acrossthemargin.com/the-swim/ AUXORO SOCIAL LINKS: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auxoroYouTube: https://bit.ly/3CLjEqFFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/auxoromagNewsletter: https://www.auxoro.com/thesourceYouTube: https://bit.ly/3CLjEqF To support the show, please leave a review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This nudges the algorithm to show The AUXORO Podcast to more new listeners and is the best way to help the show grow. It takes 30 seconds and the importance of getting good reviews cannot be overstated.  Thank you for your support: Review us on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/458nbhaReview us on Spotify: https://bit.ly/43ZLrAt   

If anyone has been affected by the LA wildfires please reach out to NAVA and the Redcross! https://navavoices.org/cal-fire-request-fund/ https://www.redcross.org/  Welcome to Voice Acting Stories! On this week's episode, we have Part 2 featuring Michigan native Katie Jostock. She has done work with clients such as KFC, Bed Bath & Beyond, explainer videos, dubbing, and video games. Listen as you do chores, commute to work, or any other way. A huge shout out to VA for VO for sponsoring today's episode. If you need help with your VO business check them out at https://www.vaforfo.com/! https://www.katiejostock.com/ https://navavoices.org/ Facebook Podcast Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/631972061329300  Facebook Podcast Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082776574281 Instagram Podcast: @voiceactingstories If you want a The Voice Straw check out these affiliate links. Thanks! https://voicestraw.com/?ref=ctQaTgfR https://voicestraw.com/discount/VERONICABARRERA?ref=ctQaTgfR

If anyone has been affected by the LA wildfires please reach out to NAVA and the Redcross! https://navavoices.org/cal-fire-request-fund/ https://www.redcross.org/  Welcome to Voice Acting Stories! On this week's episode, we have Michigan native Katie Jostock. She has done work with clients such as KFC, Bed Bath & Beyond, explainer videos, dubbing, and video games. Listen as you do chores, commute to work, or any other way. A huge shout out to VA for VO for sponsoring today's episode. If you need help with your VO business check them out at https://www.vaforfo.com/! https://www.katiejostock.com/ https://navavoices.org/ Facebook Podcast Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/631972061329300  Facebook Podcast Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082776574281 Instagram Podcast: @voiceactingstories If you want a The Voice Straw check out these affiliate links. Thanks! https://voicestraw.com/?ref=ctQaTgfR https://voicestraw.com/discount/VERONICABARRERA?ref=ctQaTgfR

Send us a textIt's always a good time to talk Wisconsin cheese, and returning guest Julie Hartigan has some great recipes and entertaining ideas using the world's most awarded cheese!Julie Hartigan is a trained chef, recipe creator, hosting expert, and culinary travel guide who helps people enjoy the good life with cooking, entertaining, and travel tips! A former engineer whose career changed into the culinary world, attending the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC and later working at Food Network and Saveur magazine; Julie is a regular on your favorite morning and lifestyle shows and has published 1000's of recipes and hosting tips for Food Network, Weight Watchers, Real Simple, Shape Magazine, Pop Sugar, Bed Bath Beyond, and more. A fun-loving person and natural born host; Julie loves sharing easy recipes and entertaining ideas so you can kick back and enjoy your party too.  You can learn more at JulieHartigan.com.

On today's episode of Startup to Storefront, we sit down with Woodie Hillyard, the co-founder and CEO of W, the antiperspirant line created in collaboration with Jake Paul. Woodie is a seasoned leader in the Consumer & Retail industries, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his time as Head of eCommerce for Casper and Chief Revenue Officer at Safely, Kris Jenner's safe cleaning products brand. At Safely, he successfully launched and scaled the eCommerce business while securing nationwide placement in major retailers like Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond. Before his journey building top consumer brands, Woodie worked in private equity and investment banking at Deutsche Bank and TowerBrook.      Today, he's here to talk about W's mission to keep you fresh all day long with their antiperspirant that combines sweat protection with skin-nourishing ingredients like Magnesium and Vitamin D, all while leaving out harmful chemicals. Whether you're breaking a sweat or just living your everyday life, W's innovative formula is here to keep you smelling great around the clock.   On this episode, you'll learn:    • How Jake Paul harnessed the power of AI to break the internet and amplify his brand's reach in ways no one saw coming.    • Why bar soap is making a major comeback in the personal care industry and how it's reshaping consumer habits.    • How Jake Paul's massive following played a pivotal role in launching W, turning fans into loyal customers and building a brand with unstoppable momentum. Let's dive into Woodie's journey, how W came to life, and what it takes to build a successful brand in the highly competitive world of personal care.  

In this episode, Dave Nielsen, President of Beyond Inc., shares his journey from his early career as an analyst at Payless ShoeSource to leading a major e-commerce company. He reflects on how his experience at BYU's business school sparked his fascination with retail and the lessons he learned from navigating challenges in the industry, like the importance of balancing data-driven decisions with intuition. Nielsen discusses the acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond's IP, the future of retail, and the need to adapt to changes in consumer behavior post-pandemic. He emphasizes the importance of listening to critics, learning from feedback, and making tough decisions as a president.    

Talking Short Stocks with Kelly Kirk Financial Literacy Enthusiast - Walter the Vault's Director of Content & Innovation  Go to www.thejasoncavnessexperience.com for the full episode and other episodes of The Jason Cavness Experience on your favorite platforms. Sponsor CavnessHR delivers HR companies with 49 or fewer people with our HR platform and by providing you access to your own HRBP. www.CavnessHR.com Partners Message your customers - https://www.tawk.to/?pid=byo1znq Payroll - https://offers.everee.com/cavness-hr Sales CRM for small business - https://refer.close.com/100cqlbfcgg5 Health Insurance and Benefits - https://www.peoplekeep.com/refer Kelly's Bio Kelly Kirk is an enthusiastic educator, entrepreneur, and content creator with a passion for financial literacy. With over a decade in international education, Kelly has honed her skills in making learning memorable, effective, and engaging. From founding a private acting school for international students in Shanghai to freelance acting with educational apps, Kelly's journey has been marked by creativity, leadership and innovation. Her experiences have shown her the power of immersive teaching methods, transforming textbooks into captivating experiences. Returning to the USA, Kelly's curiosity led her to explore finance and investing even more than ever before, resulting in making big moves on her own with impressive returns on investments like Netflix and Dogecoin - this allowed her to invest in "Walter the Vault" an iconic character to help families to learn about money. Over the past 3 years she's worked building out this business, paid in sweat labor, ownership and encouragement. She's 100% driven to share simplified financial literacy knowledge for families, believing that financial education should be a fundamental part of everyone's life from a young age. In addition to building out educational financial content, Kelly boldly advocates for retail investors, proudly holding positions in GameStop, AMC, and "the former" Bed Bath and Beyond. She sees these investments as incredible opportunities to challenge financial norms and empower individuals. To be clear, Kelly is not a financial advisor, nothing she says is financial advice... she encourages you to do your own research and not consider any of this conversation anything more than speculation. It's similar to celebrity gossip, but business gossip that Kelly is invested in and excited about, chatting about. Don't read into it more than that. Do your own research.  Kelly's passion for "Walter the Vault's" success qualified her as a finalist for "Rising Leader" among the 2023 Women in Toys, Wonder Women Awards. She is also currently studying for her EMBA at Quantic University (and really enjoying the experience!) Driven by her desire to create impactful content, Kelly is focused on leaving a lasting legacy of knowledge and empowerment. We talked about the following and other items Financial literacy and leadership with a focus on personal growth and team building.  Teaching kids about money through online classes. Investing in stocks and making money through short selling. Investing in Netflix and Dogecoin, with mentions of short selling and hive mind.  Investing in crypto, stocks, and personal finance with various YouTubers and their advice.  Investing in cryptocurrency and stock market, with a focus on Bitcoin and GameStop. The potential of video games and cryptocurrency. Shorting stocks, potential company failures, and financial literacy. Ryan Cohen's business ventures and background. Economic recession and potential bailouts.  Financial literacy, economic systems, and global power dynamics. Investing and personal values, with a focus on luxury items and corruption in the stock market.  Wall Street and the stock market, with mentions of Gamestop and AMC.  Banks' risky bets and potential for financial loss. Investing in stocks, with a focus on education and responsible use of resources. GameStop and AMC stocks, with a focus on a new website tracking their performance.  Personal growth, financial advice, and dreams of creating TV shows. Education system's shortcomings and potential solutions. Generational wealth, investing, and financial literacy. Stock market and investing with a focus on Tin Foil Hat subreddit. Potential financial announcements for Bed Bath & Beyond and Gamestop. Customer service and predatory practices in the business world. Poor customer service, pricing strategies, and company policies. Education, finance, and politics. Homelessness and investing in stocks.  9/11 conspiracy theories and the role of whistleblowers in exposing the truth.  Politics, government secrecy, and diversity in America. How to handle impending doom (asteroid impact) with a focus on globalism and personal freedom. Creating educational content for kids, including TV shows and classes.  Creating educational content for kids, focusing on financial literacy and school experience.  Using art and music to promote a business. Generational differences, financial struggles, and the impact of technology on society. Trust in AI and medical diagnosis accuracy. Class system and rebellion on a train. Debt, economics, and potential solutions. Economic instability and potential solutions. Personal growth, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. Kelly's Social Media Kelly's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkwtv/

Jonathan Johnson, former CEO of Overstock, shares his insights from his two-decade tenure at the company. He discusses his transition from being a lawyer to taking on various business roles, including CFO and eventually CEO. Jonathan highlights key moments, such as winning a major contract with Palm and rebranding Overstock by acquiring Bed Bath & Beyond. He also explores the challenges and strategies in the e-commerce and liquidation industries, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and innovative marketing.  

This Day in Legal History: Ronald Reagan Fires Air Traffic ControllersOn August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan made a landmark decision to fire over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers. These federal employees, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), had initiated a strike on August 3, demanding better pay, shorter working hours, and improved working conditions. The strike posed significant risks to national air travel safety and disrupted the aviation system.President Reagan responded with a firm stance, citing the controllers' sworn oath not to strike against the government. In a nationally televised address on August 3, Reagan warned that if the controllers did not return to work within 48 hours, they would face termination. When the deadline passed without compliance, Reagan followed through on his ultimatum, effectively dismantling PATCO.The mass firings had profound implications for labor relations and federal employment policies in the United States. It underscored the government's commitment to maintaining uninterrupted air traffic services and demonstrated a strict enforcement of federal labor laws. This event marked a pivotal moment in the Reagan administration, showcasing its determination to curb union influence and assert governmental authority. The firings also led to long-term changes in air traffic control, with the federal government embarking on extensive recruitment and training programs to replace the dismissed controllers.A political action committee (PAC) supported by Elon Musk is under investigation in Michigan for potential legal violations. The Michigan Secretary of State's office confirmed the inquiry on Sunday. The Musk-backed America PAC has been collecting detailed voter information through its website, prompting scrutiny from state authorities. Although America PAC is a federal entity, Michigan officials are reviewing its actions to determine if state laws have been breached. If violations are found, the case may be referred to the Michigan Attorney General. The investigation is in its early stages, and specific focuses have not been disclosed.Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has previously stated he created a PAC to support candidates but denied making specific pledges. He has publicly supported Donald Trump and criticized various Democratic policies and initiatives.Neither the Michigan Attorney General's office nor America PAC has commented on the investigation. Musk also has not responded to requests for comment. The situation underscores concerns about how PACs use personal information collected from citizens, particularly in voter registration efforts.Musk-backed PAC under investigation for potential violations of Michigan laws | ReutersThomas V. Girardi, the famed attorney behind the landmark $333 million Pacific Gas & Electric settlement featured in the film "Erin Brockovich," faces a criminal trial for wire fraud in Los Angeles federal court. At 85, Girardi has been disbarred and bankrupt, charged with misappropriating $15 million in settlement funds intended for his clients over the past decade. This trial could mark the end of his distinguished legal career, tainted by allegations of unethical conduct and questionable ties to the state's lawyer disciplinary agency.Plaintiff's attorney Jay Edelson emphasizes the broader implications for the legal community, suggesting it could either prompt reform or be dismissed as an isolated incident. Girardi also faces additional fraud charges in Illinois, and numerous civil lawsuits. His once-celebrated career has become a cautionary tale of legal misconduct.Prosecutors allege that since 2010, Girardi diverted millions from his firm, Girardi Keese, for personal luxuries and to fund EJ Global, an entertainment company of his estranged wife, Erika Jayne. Girardi's defense argues that he was not responsible for financial mismanagement, attributing it to the firm's CFO, Christopher Kamon, whose trial has been separated. They also claim Girardi's cognitive decline impairs his ability to have intentionally defrauded clients.Girardi's case stands out not just for the legal drama but also for its celebrity connections, given his marriage to a reality TV star, influencing public and juror perception. The trial will focus on whether Girardi's cognitive state affects his culpability for the alleged crimes committed during his competent years. The court's ruling on his competency to stand trial, despite cognitive impairments, adds a layer of complexity to this high-profile case.Thomas Girardi's Legal Drama Approaches Its Hollywood EndingFormer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has sued GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen and his company, RC Ventures LLC, seeking to recover $47 million from alleged insider trading in 2022. Cohen, also the founder of Chewy Inc., allegedly used nonpublic information to trade Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) stock profitably between January and August 2022 while serving as a statutory director. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims Cohen and RC Ventures made numerous profitable trades of BBBY securities, which were executed within a six-month period. Under Section 16(b) of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, the company seeks to reclaim these short-swing profits because Cohen and RC Ventures owned more than 10% of BBBY's common stock and had access to inside information through their board appointees.This legal action is part of a broader effort by the bankrupt company and its plan administrator, Michael Goldberg, to recover funds for creditors. Goldberg has also filed a separate suit to reclaim $19 million in tax credits from a New Jersey agency and is pursuing over $300 million from Hudson Bay Capital Management for trading profits related to a failed financing plan.RC Ventures is GameStop's largest shareholder with an 8.7% stake. Bed Bath & Beyond, now operating as 20230930-DK-BUTTERFLY-1 Inc., is demanding monetary damages and legal costs. Cohen and RC Ventures have not commented on the lawsuit. The case is titled 20230930-DK-BUTTERFLY-I Inc. v. Cohen.GameStop CEO Sued by Bed Bath & Beyond for Insider Trading (1)The demand for transactional legal work is recovering after nearly three years of decline, according to the Thomson Reuters Institute's Law Firm Financial Index. The report shows a 2.2% increase in corporate transactional work, including contract drafting, real estate deals, and bank financing, in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year. This rise contributed to a 2.4% overall increase in law firm demand.Additionally, U.S. law firms have seen a 6.6% increase in billing rates and a 5.3% rise in direct expenses, putting them in one of their strongest financial positions in the last decade. Profits per equity partner have increased by 8.8% over the past year.While transactional practices are rebounding, counter-cyclical practices like litigation and bankruptcy continue to drive significant demand. Litigation demand rose by 3.4% and bankruptcy by 2.4% in the same period. These trends provide law firms with greater stability by diversifying their revenue streams.However, the gains are not uniform across the industry. The Am Law 50 firms have not seen the same increase in litigation demand as other firms, and midsize firms have not experienced the same growth in transactional demand as Am Law 100 firms.Overall, the second quarter of 2024 has been positive for the legal sector, with significant improvements in demand and profitability.Law firm transactional work rebounds after 3-year slump, report says | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

This week on Getting Rich Together, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the incredible Nancy Tsuei. Nancy is a force in the retail world, having built businesses and been at the forefront of brands like Bed Bath & Beyond, Millerknoll, Gap, and West Elm. But what many people don't know is her financial prowess and the inspiring ways she's evolved throughout her lifetime to create change, especially in the space of women and wealth. In this episode, we dive into how Nancy's parents shaped her relationship with money, the missteps and lessons she learned early in her career, and how she built multiple streams of income that work together to build on each other.  As she enters her "third phase" of life, Nancy is focused on exiting the corporate world to be of service to others and is working on developing frameworks for deeper human connection. I hope you find Nancy's story as moving and motivational as I did. Her wealth of experience and wisdom is something we can all learn from, no matter what stage of our financial journey we're in.      Key Topics: How Nancy's immigration story influenced her childhood Starting to build businesses as soon as possible Navigating financial trauma and learning to respect money from a young age Dealing with the ebbs and flows of finances right out of college Why everyone should invest in their 401k if they have it When Nancy started taking bigger risks with money Creating a “double helix” of income Moving into the third phase of her career away from corporate Money does not = happiness Nancy's approach to money conversations with her kids Spending on travel and experiences The role allyship will play in Nancy's legacy Connect with Nancy online: Instagram: @ntsuei LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-tsuei-2906321/ Articles: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hollycorbett/2024/02/29/the-great-wealth-transfer-what-it-means-for-women-and-for-the-world/?sh=64eb43cb6525 Find more from Syama Bunten: Instagram: @syama.co, @gettingrichpod Website: https://scalingretail.com/, https://syamabunten.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scalingretailconsulting  

Kelly Kirk Financial Literacy Enthusiast - Walter the Vault's Director of Content & Innovation Go to www.thejasoncavnessexperience.com for the full episode and other episodes of The Jason Cavness Experience on your favorite platforms.  Sponsor CavnessHR delivers HR companies with 49 or fewer people with our HR platform and by providing you access to your own HRBP. www.CavnessHR.com Partners Message your customers - https://www.tawk.to/?pid=byo1znq Payroll - https://offers.everee.com/cavness-hr Sales CRM for small business - https://refer.close.com/100cqlbfcgg5 Health Insurance and Benefits - https://www.peoplekeep.com/refer Kelly's Bio Kelly Kirk is an enthusiastic educator, entrepreneur, and content creator with a passion for financial literacy. With over a decade in international education, Kelly has honed her skills in making learning memorable, effective, and engaging. From founding a private acting school for international students in Shanghai to freelance acting with educational apps, Kelly's journey has been marked by creativity, leadership and innovation. Her experiences have shown her the power of immersive teaching methods, transforming textbooks into captivating experiences. Returning to the USA, Kelly's curiosity led her to explore finance and investing even more than ever before, resulting in making big moves on her own with impressive returns on investments like Netflix and Dogecoin - this allowed her to invest in "Walter the Vault" an iconic character to help families to learn about money. Over the past 3 years she's worked building out this business, paid in sweat labor, ownership and encouragement. She's 100% driven to share simplified financial literacy knowledge for families, believing that financial education should be a fundamental part of everyone's life from a young age. In addition to building out educational financial content, Kelly boldly advocates for retail investors, proudly holding positions in GameStop, AMC, and "the former" Bed Bath and Beyond. She sees these investments as incredible opportunities to challenge financial norms and empower individuals.  To be clear, Kelly is not a financial advisor, nothing she says is financial advice... she encourages you to do your own research and not consider any of this conversation anything more than speculation. It's similar to celebrity gossip, but business gossip that Kelly is invested in and excited about, chatting about. Don't read into it more than that. Do your own research. Kelly's passion for "Walter the Vault's" success qualified her as a finalist for "Rising Leader" among the 2023 Women in Toys, Wonder Women Awards. She is also currently studying for her EMBA at Quantic University (and really enjoying the experience!) Driven by her desire to create impactful content, Kelly is focused on leaving a lasting legacy of knowledge and empowerment.  We talked about the following and other items Education, parenting, and career experiences. China's education system and content creation. Teaching English in China, viral content creation, and dealing with rumors. Financial literacy, investing, and personal growth. Manipulating companies for profit through insider trading and consulting groups. Stock market manipulation and conspiracy theories. Personal finance, debt, and investing. Work-life balance, parenting, and screen time for children.  Public vs private schools, with personal experiences and criticisms. The effectiveness of college education and the influence of powerful individuals in shaping the system. Entrepreneurship, creativity, and content creation. Education system, improv, and comedy. Improving financial literacy for children through social media. Personal finance, investing, and cryptocurrency. Networking events, pitching, and social anxiety. Entrepreneurship, funding, and life in Seattle. Entrepreneurship, hosting events, and networking. Entrepreneurship, networking, and mentorship. Entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and business ideas.  Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy, conspiracy theories, and financial analysis. Financial crisis, debt relief, and misinformation. Economic and social issues, including immigration, education, and technology. Future tech, including the metaverse and mind-reading, with a focus on accountability and the balance between digital and real-life experiences. Financial literacy for kids and entrepreneurship.  Parenting, education, and bullying. Education, work ethic, and economic uncertainty. AI, automation, and its impact on society, jobs, and leadership.  Student loan debt and its impact on individuals and society. Kelly's Social Media  Kelly's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkwtv/  Company Website: https://walterthevault.com/ Company X: https://twitter.com/walterthevault Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walterthevault/ Company TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@walterthevault Kelly's Advice  I always say if you're gonna be late, be great. So if you're ever running late to anything, decide, okay, you know what? I'm late. Embrace it. So when I get there be awesome.

Operational Efficiencies and Customer Experience Enhancements:Beyond is rolling out a new platform aimed at enhancing operational efficiencies and improving the customer experience. Despite initial challenges from vendor responses and system integration, the company has made significant progress, with sales surging to over $250,000 on several days, a substantial leap from $50,000 a day a few months ago, as stated on the earnings call.Core Category Focus and Profitable Growth:The company is strategically realigning toward its core categories, such as bedding, bath, and kitchen, which delivered industry-leading results with triple-digit GMV growth in Q1. CEO Chandra Holt emphasized that building on brand equity while modernizing the customer experience is the formula for delivering differentiation and long-term profitable growth, as mentioned on the earnings call.Strategic Investments and Cost Management:Holt acknowledged the near-term challenges in achieving positive contribution but clarified that the delta between previous expectations and current performance is not due to a lack of cost management. Instead, it is a function of allocating capital intelligently to build the right foundation, as stated on the earnings call.Customer Activity and Order Fulfillment:Beyond has witnessed a 26% increase in active customers and a 27% rise in orders dispatched. However, a 21% decrease in average order value reflects a shift in consumer preferences toward lower-value items, prompting a reevaluation of the product strategy, as acknowledged on the earnings call.Zulily Acquisition and Market Segment Capture:The acquisition of Zulily represents a targeted approach to capturing the dynamic market segment of working moms, offering competitive deals and a stress-free shopping experience, which is expected to bolster Beyond's standing in the retail arena significantly, as stated on the earnings call.Strategic Reevaluation and Brand Reinforcement:Despite the enthusiasm for legacy and home care categories, a strategic reevaluation is underway to ensure alignment with evolving customer needs and behaviors. Beyond is poised to reinforce its three cornerstone brands—Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily—through investments in technology, customer experience, profitable customer relationships, and vendor consolidation, as mentioned on the earnings call.Realistic Outlook:While Beyond is committed to fostering growth, improving operational efficiency, and transitioning towards sustainable profitability, the challenging retail landscape and the company's strategic investments may continue to impact near-term financial performance. A realistic approach and careful execution of the outlined strategies will be crucial for Beyond's long-term success. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theprompt.email

Jon from Contract Diagnostics discusses the impact of hospital and clinic closures on employees, comparing the situation to retail franchise closures like Kmart or Bed Bath & Beyond. He highlights potential outcomes for physicians, such as reassignment or termination, based on the terms of employment contracts. Jon emphasizes the importance of understanding contract stipulations regarding termination pay, benefits, notice periods, non-compete clauses, and tail insurance. He advises healthcare professionals to be fully aware of their contract details at signing to prepare for possible closures, terminations, or relocations, ensuring they know their options and risks.  Jon invites individuals to contact Contract Diagnostics through phone, chat, or email for personalized assistance, visit www.ContractDiagnostics.com

If we want a business that has raving fans and constant referrals, events are non-negotiable, but that's only if you do the work after everyone goes home.   If you don't have a follow-plan in place, all the hard work, value and momentum of the gathering goes down the drain. Many real estate professionals think they can get by on digital strategies alone, but the online stuff can't work if we don't invest in face-to-face interactions.   The truth is, we need to get people to an event to complete the cycle that kicks off when they see us online. Post-event follow up gives us a reason to have conversations, which leads to conversions and ultimately more contracts.   How do we use technology to maximize our post-referral momentum? In this episode, I'm joined by co-founder of Fox Homes and author of “Six Weeks to Real Estate Success”, Dustin Fox. He shares the follow up sequence that has generated $400 million in sales in just 3 years.    The digital and video works because they feel like they're getting to know you and it's repeat exposure, but you still have to get them to an event. -Dustin Fox    Three Things You'll Learn In This Episode     -The power of an $8 Costco holiday throw  Don't underestimate the effect of a gift. How does one cozy and thoughtful item make us the first agent they want to call?    -How to turn event excellence into digital domination  What are some high-level, genius tech hacks Dustin and his team are using to get the most out of every client interaction at events?   -Hyper-local, micro-famous  How do we use YouTube ads, Google reviews and other online tools to turn us into local celebrities people are clamoring to work with?   Guest Bio   Dustin Fox is the co-founder of Fox Homes and author of Six Weeks to Real Estate Success. Before venturing into real estate, Dustin Fox amassed 15 years of experience in big box retail management, including leadership roles at Bed Bath & Beyond and Pottery Barn. This background fostered an acute understanding of customer service, which he has seamlessly transferred into his real estate career. As a fifth-generation DC Metro area resident, Dustin offers more than just transactional know-how; he delivers a lifetime of community insight. Raised in Oakton, VA, Dustin combines small-town heart with big-city results in his real estate practice. Together with his high school sweetheart, Devon, Dustin co-founded Fox Homes. Their mission is clear: to provide an unparalleled real estate experience that blends remarkable results with genuine care. Dustin's philosophy is consistently people-first. Dustin leads the number one Google-reviewed team in the DC Metro area, boasting over 1,600 reviews. His team has already closed an astonishing $160 million in sales in 2023, with almost 250+ transactions year-to-date. These remarkable achievements have consistently landed him on Northern Virginia Magazine's and Washingtonian's Best Real Estate Agent lists from 2018 to 2023, as well as earned him the Best of Zillow status for exceptional performance and customer experience. Go to https://www.foxessellfaster.com/ and follow @dustinmfox on Instagram.    Episode: 337 Title: The $400 Million Follow Up: How to Maximize Your Post-Event Referrals w/Dustin Fox Host: Michael J. Maher

Overpriced JPEGs - Courthouse Edition! The FTX trial might be over, but the legal drama of crypto is NOT.  Last week, the DOJ and SEC BOTH came after notorious crypto fraud, SafeMoon, which reminded me of one of my favorite internet stories: Dave Portnoy being sued by SafeMoon investors for ~supposedly~ shilling the token.  I break it all down, while explaining what all this has to do with Ryan Cohen, GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and the new meme economy.  @carlypreilly on Twitter  #safemoon #safemoonnews #safemooncoffeezilla #crypto #cryptocurrency #daveportnoy #ryancohen #thomassmith #johnkarony #kylenagy #bedbathbeyond #bedbath&beyond #bbby  OPJ Gin Bottle Redemption: https://overpricedjpegs.cc/gin OPJ NFT Link: https://overpricedjpegs.cc/buy-opj-nft OPENSEA | STUDIO Check out the latest drops in OpenSea: https://overpricedjpegs.cc/OpenSea WEB3SENSE | DEMO Find out more + get a demo today: https://overpricedjpegs.cc/web3sense

September is a little rocky, Apple issues in China, Bed Bath & Beyond 401(k) woes, and setting a retirement date in your 80's…maybe. Plus be careful of inheritance taxes, bags of money in the parking lot and the exciting but possibly turbulent money date!

Part One: "A scrappy kid from Canada makes it big in America" Building Chewy into an e-commerce giant made Ryan Cohen a hot commodity on Wall Street, but jumping into the online frenzy around GameStop and Bed Bath & Beyond transformed him into an icon for a generation of individual investors hell-bent on turning American finance upside-down. In Part 1 of this two-episode podcast, CNBC Documentaries digs deep into Cohen's unorthodox background and the bold, often controversial moves that earned him nicknames such as Papa Cohen and the Meme-Stock King.

The news to know for Thursday, June 29, 2023! We're telling you about ongoing air quality issues in some parts of the U.S. as smoke spreads from the wildfires in Canada. Also, new estimates show the U.S. population is older than it's ever been while people in South Korea just became a year or two younger. We'll explain. Plus, there's another company taking the Bed Bath & Beyond name, an update about Madonna's condition after she was rushed to the hospital, and an unexpected consequence of the rising popularity of pickleball. See sources: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes Sign-up for our bonus weekly email: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/email Become an INSIDER and get ad-free episodes: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider This episode was sponsored by: AG1: https://www.drinkAG1.com/NEWSWORTHY To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to sales@advertisecast.com

Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy this week. We're talking to retail analyst Neil Saunders about what went wrong, why hundreds of other stores are closing this year, whether the days of free online returns may be coming to an end, and so much more!  Learn more about our guests: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes Sign-up for our bonus weekly email: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/email Become an INSIDER for ad-free episodes: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to sales@advertisecast.com #BedBathBeyond #Shopping #Retail  

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Friday April 28, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Brady Report - Monday April 24, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday briefing: Abortion pill ruling; Sudan evacuations; Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial; Bed Bath & Beyond; and moreRead today's briefing.

Special guest Nimesh Patel joins the pod to discuss his comedy career and the power of TikTok. Then, Dee and Anand dive into the latest in business news: Fed's Jerome Powell says the hiring surge highlights the challenges in fighting inflation, Zoom announces it will lay off 15% of its staff and CEO slashes salary, Wedbush lowers its price target for Bed Bath & Beyond, and Google unveils its ChatGPT rival. Tune in for insights and laughs on this episode of the pod. - written by ChatGPT Timeline of What Was Discussed: A Group Chat exclusive interview with comedian Nimesh Patel. (1:46)  The Chatty Kathy Discord is popping! (34:19)  The markets are like erections, they just go up! (35:03)  Layoffs keep coming. (42:23)  The Bed Bath & Beyond sham. (47:35)  Ad Break: Aarke. (51:03)  ChatGPT or bust! (52:23)  Related Links/Products Mentioned  How Nimesh Patel Made Friends With the TikTok Algorithm  Chatty Kathy Club  Fed's Jerome Powell Says Hiring Surge Shows Why Inflation Fight Could Be Difficult  Zoom to Lay Off 15% of Staff, CEO Slashes Salary  Chipotle earnings misses estimates on revenue, earnings, same-store sales  Wedbush has lowered its price target on Bed Bath & Beyond, $BBBY, to $0. - unusual_whales on Twitter  Aarke Official Website **Promo code GROUPCHAT for 25% off**  Google unveils its ChatGPT rival  Connect with Nimesh!  IG: @findingnimesh  TikTok: @findingnimesh  YouTube  Website  Connect with Group Chat! Watch The Pod #1 Newsletter In The World For The Gram Tweet With Us Exclusive Facebook Content We're @groupchatpod on Snapchat

Had no idea Mike was a cross chain guy (00:00:10). Steve Snell is hated by all the right people (00:04:00). Kirk challenges a random Twitter account over the death of Bed Bath & Beyond's CFO (00:18:00). Justin needs to pick up his beautiful cooler (00:32:00). LIV Golf generates the most buzz to date at their tournament over the weekend (01:00:00). Mike found a great new restaurant, Aries Spears & Tiffany Haddish created quite the video in 2014 & more.