Richard

Young professionals need to start saying “CYA” — that is, “Cover Your A**.” Why? Because it’s the best way to avoid being taken advantage of, being taken for a ride and being taken for granted. In one study, 46% of employees said they took on tasks simply because they couldn’t say no. Once you understand the importance of taking care of yourself and the work you do, you’ll be untouchable in the eyes of someone who wants to make you, the young professional, their scapegoat. I know. It happened to me early in my career.

My hope for all of humanity is that we each have positive role models and mentors who help us along our path. Finding good mentors can be difficult. Unfortunately, many seasoned professionals do the opposite. Some reasons could be that they feel threatened by the younger workforce coming up the ranks. Or perhaps they feel a need to teach in a tough way — to put people through the same stress they felt early in their careers. Hurt people hurt people, after all. And let’s be real, it’s easy to pin problems or blame on a young person who might not yet have the guts to speak up for themselves. I like to think I speak for the youth.

In my personal life, I experienced a situation where, as the youngest person in the office, I was unknowingly chosen to be the go-to for all the angry phone calls we received (and, believe me, we had quite a few in my customer-facing role). My job was to either approve or not approve applications based on numbers generated by a computer — without regard for the actual picture of the person behind that number.

I learned quickly that the department that actually made the final decision was telling applicants “I” wasn’t approving the application … I was bombarded with angry emails and phone calls and even some frightening walk-in appointments at times. When I realized what was happening, I was furious and I started saving all of my paperwork to show the applicants I was on their side. I had to cover my own you-know-what. And I’ve been doing it ever since.

Related: 8 Steps to Surviving Workplace Bullying and Salvaging Your Reputation

Cover yours today

The professional world is like a sporting event. You must play on the offense. This does not mean to be offended or to be offensive in an obscene way. I mean you must be playing offense at all times. Be able to back up your work and defend your decisions. For example, double-check or fact-check any details in your writing or research before sharing notes with your boss or with clients. The last thing you want is someone to undercut you in a meeting and make you look unprepared. Back up your info with solid data. Keep it in your back pocket should you ever need to answer to anyone looking to question your credibility.

Another tip: Save your emails. In fact, leave a paper trail when you can. If you are looking for clarification on what’s been said or requested of you, ask for it via email so you can reference back to it in writing. So, if someone decides they want to go back on what they’ve said, you’ll have it in writing. It really all comes down to being prepared with confidence. When you can confidently say, “CYA” to your supervisors or to clients at times, you not only are developing a habit of always being ready for what’s ahead but you’re also establishing your work ethic in front of leaders — positioning yourself as a leader as well.

Use your resources

Whether you’re writing, creating content or anything else, be sure to use every resource available to you to make sure your work is up to the standards it needs to be. Tools such as Grammarly can help keep you on track with particular writing styles and proofreading. Other tools, like GPTZero or QuillBot, can protect you against accusations of plagiarism or the overuse of AI-generated content. These days, there really isn’t an excuse to not use the endless amount of tools on a regular basis. And if you don’t have access to what you need, ask for it. A good leader recognizes the initiative and the courage it takes a young professional to ask for tools and resources that will make them better at their job.

Related: How to Protect Your Career From Those Who Try to Undermine You

Your reputation — your name — is on the line

At my company, Bear Icebox Communications, we have been challenged before about how content is developed. I get it. We are in a generative AI era, and anyone, anywhere can log into ChatGPT and have it spit out words that pretty much make sense. But we, just like other agencies in the content creation space, need to be on our toes and buttoned up about how we leverage these tools. It’s a question of our integrity as an agency.

The truth is that AI is changing the way agencies function as well as the expectations of the clients we serve. For a young person entering the workforce, my biggest advice is to keep your name clean. You’ll move from job to job. You’ll ask for letters of recommendation. You will have a list of references as you apply for new jobs. Your name is everything. How are you prepared to defend it? Think about this with everything you do.

Follow your company’s policies, and document that you did it. And keep a vigilant eye on your superiors. Identify people who are willing to mentor and guide you. Build upon those types of relationships. Likewise, identify when someone doesn’t have your best interests in mind — someone who doesn’t respect you or talks down to you. Learn it now and be able to say “CYA.”

Related: 8 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Work Reputation

Feeling underpaid and undervalued at work? Gabrielle Judge, the creator of the Lazy Girl Jobs movement, is here to fix that. She’ll share her best strategies for accelerating your earnings and getting the raise or promotion you deserve.

Register now for our upcoming livestream to gain insights on topics including:

• How to maximize your time and money in the workplace

• Leveraging pay transparency to get more money

• What to do if you feel undervalued and underpaid

• Strategies for getting a raise through job hopping

About the Speaker:

Gabrielle, as the visionary CEO and content creator behind Anti Work Girlboss, leads a social revolution reshaping the future workplace landscape. Her pioneering concept of the “lazy girl job” has captivated millions monthly, offering both relatable content and career inspiration. Her areas of expertise extend across work-life balance, branding for Gen Z employees, and forward-thinking perspectives on the future of work. Esteemed platforms like NPR, BBC, and TEDx have recognized her innovative contributions, inviting her to speak on her insights. Gabrielle’s groundbreaking ideas have also been spotlighted in over 10,000 global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, and 60 Minutes Australia, underscoring her influential role in redefining career norms.

AI is shaking up industries — and software engineering is no exception.

In a leaked recording of a June fireside chat obtained by Business Insider, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman reportedly told employees that AI is changing what being a software engineer means —and essentially changes the job description.

“If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time — I can’t exactly predict where it is — it’s possible that most developers are not coding,” Garman said, adding later that the developer role would look different next year compared to 2020.

^{Matt Garman, CEO of AWS. Photo Credit: Amazon}

Garman took over as CEO of AWS on June 3 after nearly two decades in the division. He joined as a full-time product manager in 2006 when AWS had just three people on its worldwide sales team.

In the leaked chat, Garman said that innovation will replace coding, which means developers will have to think more about the end product.

Related: How to Find the Right Programmers: A Brief Guideline for Startup Founders

“It just means that each of us has to get more in tune with what our customers need and what the actual end thing is that we’re going to try to go build because that’s going to be more and more of what the work is as opposed to sitting down and actually writing code,” he reportedly stated.

AWS currently has about 130,000 employees, having laid off several hundred people in April in its sales, marketing, and global services divisions.

Marco Argenti, the CIO of Goldman Sachs, expressed a similar sentiment in April — technical skills alone were not enough to handle AI.

To keep up with the technology, Agenti encouraged future engineers, including his own college-age daughter, to study philosophy in addition to engineering.

Philosophy would give engineers the reasoning abilities and mental framework to keep up with AI, detect hallucinations, and challenge its output, according to Argenti.

Related: Goldman Sachs CIO Says Coders Should Take Philosophy Classes — Here’s Why

As AI technology and programs like ChatGPT evolve, the way venture capitalists think about investing in startups is changing.

Investor Leah Solivan, the founder of freelance marketplace TaskRabbit, which sold to Ikea in 2017, has been working as a venture capitalist for the last eight years. She currently works with startups building AI products as a general partner at early-stage fund Fuel Capital.

The process to build an AI company is “very expensive,” she says.

^{Leah Solivan. (Photo by Chance Yeh/WireImage)}

“[AI] is a big game-changing technology, but the costs are still so high to launch something,” Solivan told entrepreneur Jeff Berman last week. “Startups need to raise a lot more money to get started right now.”

Related: How to Start a Multi-Million Dollar Company, According to an IBM Engineer Turned Founder

AI models can take upwards of $100 million to develop, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Solivan says the cost of AI is changing where a smaller, early-stage fund like Fuel Capital invests. Big industry players like Microsoft and Nvidia, which have invested billions of dollars into AI companies, can afford to invest in expensive AI startups — but smaller, early-stage funds might not see the return on investment they’re looking for.

So smaller funds could strategically choose to pass on AI startups because of the steep price, even if those startups are developing cutting-edge technology.

Related: Is the AI Industry Consolidating? Hugging Face CEO Says More AI Entrepreneurs Are Looking to Be Acquired

“It’s almost like when we used to look at hardware companies and we were like whoa this is going to take way too much capital, the ROI on our investment, the math just doesn’t work for our fund,” Solivan explained. “You need really, really deep pockets to be successful. I think it’s harder for the small funds to play here.”

In 2023, AI was one of the best industries for growth in unicorns, or startups with at least a billion-dollar valuation.

AI was also the sector with the biggest jump in funding last year, with AI startups collectively raising $50 billion, even though the year was tough as a whole for startup fundraising.

Related: ChatGPT Is Writing Lots of Job Applications, But Companies Are Quickly Catching On. Here’s How.

Nuclear fusion has the potential to provide centuries of nearly limitless, renewable power to the world. But there’s one problem – the ideal fuel to make nuclear fusion a reality, Helium-3, is only accessible on the moon.

That hasn’t stopped Chris Salvino and his team at Lunar Helium-3 Mining (LH3M) from planning a moon mission and patenting the technologies to make it successful. Better yet, you can invest in the company as they prepare.

Here’s why this is more than just an exciting moon mission, but a strategic investment in the future of energy worldwide.

Lunar Helium-3 Mining, LLC’s clean energy vision.

Until now, the main way we’ve used nuclear energy has been dirty, unsafe, and dangerous. Nuclear reactors can explode, as seen with the disasters at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011. Additionally, radioactive waste from these reactors must be stored for up to 100,000 years. This method is not the answer to green energy.

However, there is another process called nuclear fusion, which has a key advantage: it cannot explode. The ideal fuel for fusion reactions is Helium-3. When used in nuclear fusion, Helium-3 is said to produce more energy than other options, cause much less harm, and doesn’t create waste that needs long-term storage. Future nuclear fusion reactors powered by Helium-3 could be our first true green energy source – safe, with a high energy yield, and no hazardous waste.

Helium-3 can’t be made on Earth and comes from the sun, getting trapped in our atmosphere. Luckily, there are more than an estimated 1 million tons of Helium-3 on the moon, enough to power green nuclear fusion reactors for hundreds of years.

And Lunar Helium-3 Mining, LLC has just the man to tap into this $40 trillion nuclear fusion market opportunity.

Meet LH3M’s future-forward founder.

Chris Salvino, founder and CEO of Lunar Helium-3, has seen it all – from a high-pressure career in trauma surgery to the cutting-edge field of space mining. With more than 30 years of experience as a trauma surgeon and director, Salvino is accustomed to navigating complex problems and making critical decisions.

With degrees in Biology, Engineering, Aerospace Medicine, and Mining Engineering, Salvino is now pursuing a Ph.D. specifically in lunar Helium-3 mining at the University of Arizona. A variety of expertise in aerospace engineering, planetary geology, and mining makes him just about the only candidate qualified to lead LH3M’s lunar mining mission.

The company has already achieved significant milestones under Salvino’s leadership. Specifically, they’ve filed for seven patents with an eight coming soon and have received notice from the patent office that their first two applications have been approved. LH3M has also assembled a team of experts and has short term plans on expanding its patent portfolio with 10 to 20 additional patents. LH3M feels that a robust patent portfolio will increase company valuation and strength for future strategic partnerships.

With global investments in fusion technology climbing, the demand for Helium-3 has the potential to soar in the not-so-distant future. Seize this exclusive opportunity to partner with a visionary team poised for success.

The Lunar Helium-3 investment opportunity.

The global nuclear fusion market, is projected to reach an astounding $40 trillion as fusion technology becomes commercially viable. LH3M’s strategic approach to mining Helium-3 positions it to capture a significant share of this emerging market.

This is a rare chance to invest in a company that is not merely dreaming of the future but actively building it.Their mission aligns with global efforts to combat climate change and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. With Chris Salvino’s leadership and the company’s innovative technology, this is not just a dream but an achievable goal.

Learn more on how you can invest in LH3M and be involved in a project that is set to transform the energy landscape for generations to come here.

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Lunar Helium-3 Mining, LLC Reg CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.lh3m.com/.

It’s the season 11 finale of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, and contestants are fired up for their final chance at winning life-changing money from our board of investors.

Watch as hopeful entrepreneurs step into our elevator and have just 60 seconds to pitch their big ideas. If our board of investors likes what they hear, the elevator doors open, and negotiations begin. But if the investors don’t like what they hear, the elevator heads back to the ground floor, game over. “I’m not in the business of wasting time,” says investor Rogers Healy, owner and CEO of Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners.

Yes, it can be brutal, but don’t get it wrong — investors might quickly turn down pitches, but when they see something they like, they pounce. “I cannot wait to see what happens if he gets into the boardroom!” says investor Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, after hearing one particularly intriguing concept. Here’s the thing: In the entrepreneurship game, when big money meets big ideas, everybody wins.

Related: Here’s the One Word That Makes Investors Want to Hear More About Your Business

Find out who scores and who strokes out — plus learn how to get featured on a future episode. “I can’t wait to see who shows up next season!” says serial entrepreneur and investor Kim Perell. Think you have what it takes to win in the elevator? Apply now!

Season 11, Episode 8 Board of Investors

Season 11, Episode 8 Entrepreneurs

• Kyle Schiedemeyer, founder of Birdie Bombs, grip-n-rip alcohol shots made for golfers
• Brian Horowitz, founder of Creative Wagons, a veteran-owned small business that makes creative, functional outdoor gear
• Brian Wholeman, founder of EZ Shade, an inexpensive and easy way to hide bare bulbs

Related: Is This Business Idea Too Good Not to Steal? Find Out on This Episode of ‘Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch.’

How to Watch

Season 11 of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is presented by Amazon Business. New episodes stream on Wednesdays on Entrepreneur.com and EntrepreneurTV. Follow Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch on Facebook, YouTube and IGTV.

3 Benefits of Owning a Kumon Franchise:

1. Recognized as Entrepreneur magazine’s #1 education franchise, enhancing business credibility.
2. Globally recognized brand with a long standing reputation for delivering effective educational programs.
3. Comprehensive support with training, marketing, and materials provided to drive business success.

Kumon Math & Reading Centers provide children with after-school learning opportunities, focusing on self-learning and mastering math and reading through a unique method that develops key skills such as focus and confidence. As a franchise owner, you contribute positively to the community by nurturing academic growth and building a business with the support of a proven global educational brand. Click Here to connect me with Kumon.

Key Facts:

• Minimum Initial Investment: $73,783
• Initial Franchise Fee: $2,000
• Liquid Capital Required: $70,000
• Net Worth Required: $150,000
• Veteran Incentives: $10,000 toward build-out/grand-opening costs

Alex Cooper, famed for her candid discussions on sex and relationships on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast, is leaving Spotify for a lucrative engagement with SiriusXM, according to several sources.

The deal reportedly spans multiple years, possibly three, and is worth more than $100 million, per Bloomberg, while other reports say closer to $125 million. Cooper’s Spotify deal was worth $60 million.

^{Alex Cooper attends The Prelude To The Olympics on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France. Photo by Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis | Getty Images}

Related: This Is the Winning Formula for Starting a Successful Podcast, According to a New Analysis

The new deal reportedly gives exclusive advertising and distribution to SiriusXM, plus the right to host additional content and events branching from Cooper’s brand.

“Call Her Daddy” was positioned as Spotify’s No. 2 most listened-to podcast in 2023, second to “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Other offerings under the Unwell Network umbrella include “Hot Mess with Alix Earle” and “Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy.”

Despite the shifts, Cooper, who skyrocketed to stardom after her 2018 debut, has assured her audience, known as “The Daddy Gang,” that they “will always be my top priority, and with SiriusXM, we will continue to find new ways to evolve and provide my listeners the best experience.”

Related: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Consider Starting a Podcast

If your emails are getting lots of spam reports, you’ve probably developed the reputation of a spammer. Email service providers (ESPs) may start to filter your emails into spam folders, reducing your engagement metrics. What’s more, coming across as a spam sender can erode the trust your audience has in your brand. That can lead to lost customers, negative word-of-mouth, and, ultimately, a decline in your business growth.

But how do you know if you’re receiving too many reports? Large ESPs like Yahoo and Gmail have established a clear benchmark: your spam complaint rate shouldn’t exceed 0.3%, with the ideal metric being 0.1%.

For many companies, it’s easy to rack up reports:

• Some subscribers may find it more convenient to report your email as spam instead of unsubscribing.
• Others mark your emails as spam by mistake.
• 78% of consumers report an email as spam simply because “it looks like spam.”

If your spam complaint rate looks worrisome, it’s in your power to correct things and maintain good email deliverability. So, where do you start? Here are six common mistakes that could be causing your emails to be marked as spam.

Related: 5 Simple Tweaks for Better Email Deliverability

1. You never asked for permission

Sending emails without permission is one of the riskiest things you can do in your business. People don’t appreciate receiving emails they didn’t sign up for, and they’re likely to mark them as spam. This can quickly tarnish your reputation and hurt your deliverability.

To avoid this, get explicit permission before adding someone to your email list. Use the double opt-in method where subscribers confirm their email addresses so you can be sure they’d like to get emails from you. Respecting your subscribers’ preferences helps you build a long-lasting relationship with them.

2. People can’t unsubscribe

It’s a common reason consumers will mark an email as spam: they can’t find a way out. So, make it simple for recipients to unsubscribe if they no longer wish to get your emails.

“You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to stop receiving unwanted messages from a particular email sender,” wrote Neil Kumaran, Google’s Group Product Manager, Gmail Security & Trust. Furthermore, he added that unsubscribing “should take one click.”

In February 2024, Google and Yahoo established new email-sending rules stating that:

• All emails must have a visible, functional unsubscribe link.
• User should be able to unsubscribe with just one click.
• Senders must remove unsubscribed email addresses from their lists within two days.

While common-sense in the email industry for decades, these guidelines are now hard rules if you send emails to Gmail and Yahoo users.

3. You use misleading subject lines

Your subject lines are the first impression your emails make in someone’s inbox, so it’s natural you want to make them catchy. But if they’re misleading or don’t match the email content, people will feel deceived and report your email as spam.

To avoid confusing your subscribers, think of subject lines as newspaper headlines. What’s the most newsworthy or compelling element in your email? Capture that in the subject and also remember to add preview text. Oftentimes, the preview text — which is the copy that goes right after your subject — can entice clicks more than the subject line itself.

4. You’re sending too many emails

Bombarding your subscribers with too many emails can overwhelm and irritate them, so they’re even more likely to hit the “mark as spam” button. Find a balance in your email frequency to keep your audience engaged without being intrusive.

An easy way to determine the number of emails you send is to go back to what you promised your subscribers when they signed up. If they opted in for your weekly newsletter, avoid sending them a deluge of additional promotional emails.

5. You send everyone the same email

Sending generic emails to your entire list without considering their preferences or behaviors can lead to disinterest and spam complaints. If subscribers don’t feel like your emails are speaking specifically to them, you’ll lose their attention within seconds.

Segmenting your list and creating more personal experiences for each group of customers and prospects is a much better approach. Once you set up these segments, you can easily continue adding new prospects to your funnels and sending them relevant emails.

Related: Inboxes Are Getting Overloaded. How to Keep Your Emails Out of Spam.

6. Your email design needs a revamp

It takes just seconds for someone to form a first impression about your email, and every element matters. Poorly designed emails with excessive images, no clear call-to-action, or too much text can appear unprofessional and trigger spam filters.

To avoid coming across as a spammer, pay attention to details like your sending email address, branding, layout and the image-to-text ratio. If you don’t love your email templates, chances are your subscribers won’t either. Consider revitalizing your design, ensuring everything is on brand, and making your emails easy to read.

Final tip: remove complainers immediately

I’m always astonished when a company emails me again after I report an email as spam. It’s a big no-no, as the only possible result is yet another spam report. So, set up a process that removes complainers from your mailing list right away. Stop reaching out to people who let you know your emails bother them and instead focus on those who open and click through your content. This is how you achieve better email deliverability and more successful email campaigns.

Living with regret is one of the greatest fears we all share. Even those who seem to have a careless way of navigating life are no doubt compensating for a fear of living in conformity. But what do you do when the way you approach business — or even your identity as a business leader — shifts so much that you lose your equilibrium?

Here are three strategies to help you keep your balance even if the core of your motivation — your “why” — changes.

Redefine your vision of success

Socrates is quoted as saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It’s important to reevaluate your core values on a regular basis and make sure they line up with the goals you are diligently pursuing. You get to define what success looks like, so make sure you aren’t following someone else’s blueprint. I knew from my early years that I would not be happy crunching numbers in a cubicle or writing lengthy articles in a coffee shop. My happy place is helping people, and my job in broadcast media allows me to do that regularly.

Knowing your personality and your preferences is only half the battle, though. When life happens, you may need to alter your original vision. Having a family, for example, may mean taming the thrill-seeker or the trophy hound in you. Navigating a disability may impose limitations, but you may also need to get out of your comfort zone, overcome your fears and take the stage.

It’s important to recognize when your model for success isn’t working and adjust. I’ve learned that every business is a process, and the road to success is not always a straight line. Along the way, my team and I have found the rhythm, whether filming a television show or preparing for a keynote speech. Be willing to adjust as your experiences inform you.

Related: Why You Are So Resistant to Change — And How to Overcome It

Network with people who challenge you

Just as you don’t have to build Rome in a day, you also don’t have to build it yourself. Once your business is up and running, make it a habit to connect with a variety of people who can help you analyze what is working and what is not working for your company. Although you certainly can’t take everyone’s advice, be willing to listen to what they have to say. You may discover a key to a problem in a single conversation.

One of my biggest dreams was to become a corporate keynote speaker. I worked really hard reading everything I could on how to captivate an audience, how to build a following and so on. A media coach told me, “Nancy, you can’t have it both ways,” meaning that my business wasn’t keynote speeches; my business was me. My uniqueness was my journey through life and business navigating vision loss. It’s vital that you know what makes you stand out, but you should be ready to seize that bit of magic dust — or good advice — that will take a good idea and manifest it into a great career.

One way of encountering transformative ideas is to get out of your comfort zone and network with people who are not in your field. Tech gurus sharing their insight with creatives; management checking in with the employees on the front lines; marketing working with accounting to devise a program to track expenses — a single key concept can revolutionize the way we think about a business plan. If you’re launching a new initiative, don’t be afraid to run it by friends or find mentors who could help you avoid costly delays or confusion.

Related: Why Discovering Your ‘Why’ Is the No. 1 Business Move

Have a “nothing is sacred” attitude

We’ve all worked for bosses who couldn’t give up tradition for more effective ways of doing business. If we’re not careful, we can hold onto “sacred cows,” or particular methods of doing business rather than staying open to change.

This stubborn need for stasis can be reflected in the goals you set when you started your business. Your original dream may have been to open the biggest drive-in-only restaurant chain when you first started. But in the age of online order and delivery services, you might have to pivot.

I was a real estate agent in Los Angeles when my vision began to rapidly deteriorate. This revolutionary change meant I could no longer drive. It also meant that on the day of an open house, I had to take multiple buses across town and arrive several hours early to memorize the layout of the place. Soon, I had to admit to my clients that not only was I unable to drive, but I also might need their help navigating sunken living rooms or rough terrain.

Related: Bouncing Back After Tragedy Isn’t Impossible — Three Ways I Found Meaning Again as a Legally Blind CEO.

Eventually, I had to come clean and share my disability with my clients. To my surprise, they volunteered to drive us around the neighborhood or help me gather yard signs. Your willingness to become vulnerable will inspire others to help you; it will also free people to share their own struggles. When people in business connect at this level, it is often a most productive environment because every staff member and every client feels they are being heard.

As in life, your perspective in business will shift many times, and it is important to sense the new season. When the winds change direction, you may have to find your “why” all over again. This kind of self-evaluation is an opportunity to think about where you started, how far you have come and whether your original destination is still a place you want to go.