We all want to perform at our best and be successful, creative, and happy at work. Yet these days, with the COVID-19 pandemic, work is a major source of stress. People are worried not only about getting sick, but also about the impact on their business, career, and future. Many people have lost their job or fear they will. In addition to concerns about job security, people have to adjust to new work environments and working from home. Workers at all levels in wide-ranging fields are seeking advice to help them deal with this unprecedented, stressful situation. What can we do to become more effective and feel more fulfilled at work as a matter of course, but especially as the COVID-19 crisis lingers? Many experts focus on obvious factors, such as motivation and networking. Yet, few recognize or understand the more subtle environmental prompts and everyday habits that have a significant impact on our work. Things we typically overlook—from workspace fixtures, such as lighting, to commonplace gestures—can have a big influence on performance and well-being at work Joining us for our discussion on A Happy Office is Thalma Lobel who is on the phone from her Tel Aviv office. Thalma E. Lobel is an internationally recognized psychologist and expert on human behavior. A former chair at the School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University and director of the Adler Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy, she has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and a visiting scholar at Tufts University, the University of California at San Diego, and New York University. Her previous book, Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence, was published in 15 countries. Lobel is a sought after speaker who regularly keynotes events in top research institutions and corporations around the world. Her new book is Whatever Works: The Small Cues That Make a Surprising Difference in Our Success at Work—and How to Create a Happier Office Welcome to Mastering Your Money, Thalma Lobel .

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Today we are going to talk about estate planning in the time of coronavirus. If ever there was a time for people to get their affairs in order, this is it. No one is immune from this virus. Many of us are already feeling some anxiety about the state of our estate planning and may not be sure of the things we should be doing. Todays show is about Covid-19 Estate Planning. We’re not going to talk about estate planning in its entirety. Instead we’re going to focus on what can be done right now to offer some immediate protections. Later, when there is more time, and travel restrictions have been lifted, you can come back to your estate plan and fill in the gaps. But for right now there are several things you can and should do. We know you have a lot going on in your life right now, but this is important. Today I hope to help you understand the urgency of getting certain documents done, whether you are doing it for the first time, or updating them in light of this vicious virus that now makes the possibility of serious illness and even death more real. Joining us for this discussion is Markeith Gentry who is the WNCU’s Production Assistant and makes sure Mastering Your Money is available to our listeners. Welcome back to Mastering Your Money, Markeith Gentry

Not everyone is cut out to start a business. In fact, starting a company is an irrational act. Most successful Founders bring a unique combination of drive, determination, product knowledge, creative problem-solving skills, business acumen, stamina, and a keen sense of timing, to their fledgling enterprises. And the best of these know how to communicate with a variety of audiences by telling a great story. A Founder has many audiences that compete for attention—The Core Team, Investors, Suppliers, and Customers to name a few. Each is critical to the success of a new enterprise and the ability to prioritize, communicate with them, and engage them at just the right time, is essential to the success of any start-up. With limited resources, failure to engage with any one of these important audiences at the right moment can be the difference between success and shutting down. Most successful Founders bring a unique combination of drive, determination, product knowledge, creative problem solving skills, business acumen, stamina and a keen sense of timing to their fledgling enterprises. The key to a successful start-up is solving a high value problem that customers care about and will pay for a level that provides the business outcomes desired by the product owner. In addition to sound advice for managing your product and business relative to competing products, you must get to know your customers, understanding the problem along with changing requirements and designing solutions that customers will appreciateNot everyone is cut out to start a business. In fact, starting a company is an irrational act. Most successful Founders bring a unique combination of drive, determination, product knowledge, creative problem-solving skills, business acumen, stamina, and a keen sense of timing, to their fledgling enterprises. And the best of these know how to communicate with a variety of audiences by telling a great story. A Founder has many audiences that compete for attention—The Core Team, Investors, Suppliers, and Customers to name a few. Each is critical to the success of a new enterprise and the ability to prioritize, communicate with them, and engage them at just the right time, is essential to the success of any start-up. With limited resources, failure to engage with any one of these important audiences at the right moment can be the difference between success and shutting down. Most successful Founders bring a unique combination of drive, determination, product knowledge, creative problem solving skills, business acumen, stamina and a keen sense of timing to their fledgling enterprises. The key to a successful start-up is solving a high value problem that customers care about and will pay for a level that provides the business outcomes desired by the product owner. In addition to sound advice for managing your product and business relative to competing products, you must get to know your customers, understanding the problem along with changing requirements and designing solutions that customers will appreciate.

We’re all trying to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and protect those at risk and philanthropists are in a unique position to help — but only if they have the ability to mobilize quickly, appropriately and effectively. If this global pandemic is teaching us anything, it’s that we can be responsive and flexible in the face of adversity—at a massive scale. Regardless of a philanthropist's focus, there are effective ways to soften the curve of crisis for grantees working to advance change. Now, the best known philanthropist are usually billionaires because their gifts have a lot of zeros. Robert F. Smith who paid off all the student loans of the graduating from Morehouse College, Warren Buffett who is giving away his fortune to the Gates Foundation and John Rockfeller whose foundation is about the well being of humanity in the world. The definition of philanthropist is to love humanity. Today, philanthropy means generosity in all forms. It is often defined as giving gifts of the 3 Ts (time, talent and treasure) to help make life better for other people. You do not have to be a millionaire or billionaire to be philanthropist. You can practice philanthropy by making a monetary gift, such as a donation to a cause you believe in.

Before the coronavirus epidemic, Amazon had been consuming some 2% of all U.S. household income, a percentage that has assuredly risen since the outbreak’s onset, particularly among the company’s more than 150+ million Amazon Prime members. While 51% of American households attend church, 62% have Prime memberships. In the best of times, the company’s presence in our daily lives is inescapable. As Amazon gains many invaluable lessons from the Covid-19 outbreak, the company will only become more ubiquitous in the decades ahead. Soberly aware of Amazon’s staying power, the CEO quipped to employees in 2018: “I predict one day, Amazon will fail. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be thirty-plus years.” At the time he made that comment, Amazon was twenty-four-years-old. Bestselling Good to Great author Jim Collins says Amazon needs to build a new mechanism for growth. That mechanism—a virtuous cycle “flywheel” that used data to attract more buyers and sellers whose new data contributions could then be harnessed by the flywheel—was championed by Bezos and today has been made to accelerate even faster using Amazon’s massive AI engines. As the author argues, Amazon is a business where AI is increasingly making the decisions that humans used to make and keeps getting smarter on its own. Rivals have taken notice. This why some companies, such as Walmart and Alibaba, have chosen to steal from Amazon’s playbook while others have tried to identify the few things the Seattle juggernaut can’t do and excel at them. Bezos has built one of the most efficient wealth-creation machines in history, a juggernaut. This convenience, however, will come at a cost. It will lead to massive job disruptions and our lives being affected by technology in ever more invasive ways. Joining us for our discussion on The Amazon Effect is Brian Dumaine who is on the phone from his New York office. Brian Dumaine is an award-winning journalist and a contributing editor at Fortune magazine. His latest book is Bezonomics: How Amazon is Changing our Lives and What The World's Best Companies Are Learning From It. Welcome to Mastering Your Money, Brian Dumaine .

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