Chef Eric LeVine doesn’t do filters, not in his kitchen, not on a podcast mic and not in life.

He’s a Food Network Chopped champion, author of multiple cookbooks and a James Beard-nominated chef with decades in the industry.

But none of that matters, he says, if you’re not being real. “I’m not trying to impress anyone,” he tells Shawn Walchef, host of Restaurant Influencers. “I’m trying to matter.”

Related: How a ‘Finance Guy’ and ‘Restaurant Guy’ Joined Forces to Invest in Over 55 Companies

That kind of honesty isn’t a branding strategy. It’s survival.

LeVine has beaten cancer six times, shed 186 pounds and finished a marathon on a blown-out knee. Through it all, he’s learned that authenticity is as essential as it is admirable.

However, reaching that point required more than physical resilience. It meant burning away ego, something LeVine calls the most dangerous ingredient in any kitchen, business or life.

“Ego is the worst part of people,” he says. “It keeps them from learning, from growing, from being honest with themselves. Ego will kill you faster than failure.”

He didn’t just face the diagnosis; LeVine beat it. And in doing so, he began to rebuild every part of himself. He lost weight, reconnected with his health and ran a marathon despite a serious injury. The finish line wasn’t about glory. It was about proving to himself that he could do hard things for the right reasons. Not ego, but purpose.

Related: How a Jersey Kid Grew His Restaurant Business Into a West Coast Powerhouse

Living in the moment

Somewhere along that journey, LeVine stopped hiding behind the grind. “I was never really present,” he says. “I was always chasing the next. My wife helped me realize that the moment we’re in is the most powerful one we have.”

That shift in perspective now drives everything he does, from leadership to speaking engagements to writing cookbooks. “I hate writing cookbooks,” he admits, “but I love what they represent. They’re real. They’re a connection.”

That connection is what sets LeVine apart. He doesn’t try to be the loudest voice in the room — just the most real. He tells his story not to highlight pain, but to showcase what’s possible when you stop pretending and start being genuine.

Related: Most Creators Are Doing Brand Deals Wrong — And This Sponsorship Expert Has Some Advice for Them

“I’m not afraid to make mistakes,” he says. “And I’m not afraid of what my past was like. It doesn’t define me. It built me.”

In a world of polished branding and performative leadership, LeVine is betting on something different. Something human. Something honest. Something real.

Related: This Chef Is Convinced One Cuisine Will Be the Next Big Thing in Fast-Casual Dining: ‘I’m Betting My Career’

About Restaurant Influencers

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The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “junk fees” ruling, which was passed in December 2024, goes into effect on May 12. The new law requires businesses selling tickets and short-term lodging to “clearly” show all fees (like service and cleaning fees) at the time of purchase.

On Monday, Airbnb announced in a statement that it is getting started early.

All Airbnb guests globally will now automatically see the complete cost of their proposed stay, including all fees (before taxes), when looking at search result listings.

Related: ‘I Can’t Get Everyone to Move Here’: Why Airbnb’s CEO Is Sticking With a Once-a-Month Hybrid Schedule

“With the global rollout of total price display, we’re making it easier for guests to better understand the price they’ll pay, and for hosts to succeed in a more transparent marketplace,” the company said. “We believe these improvements will continue to create positive guest experiences from search to stay while also supporting the growth of the Airbnb community around the world.”

Parts of Europe, Canada, Korea, and Australia have already had total pricing transparency since 2019, following those countries’ individual regulations.

The total price feature has been optional in the U.S. for two years, Airbnb notes, and 17 million guests have opted to use the feature. Meanwhile, the option for full price disclosure actually helped lower cleaning fees imposed by hosts.

In its Q4-2023 and full-year financial results, Airbnb noted that after enabling the feature, nearly 300,000 listings removed or lowered cleaning fees, while 40% of active listings eliminated it completely.

“Guests everywhere will now see the total cost of their reservation, including all fees before taxes,” the statement reads. “We know that clear, upfront pricing improves the Airbnb experience for both guests and hosts.”

Related: Airbnb’s New ‘Icons’ Cost Less Than $100 Per Night, Including the House from ‘Up’ and Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’

It costs millions of dollars to be polite to AI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed last week that OpenAI’s electricity bill is “tens of millions of dollars” higher due to people being polite to ChatGPT.

Last week, an X user posted: “I wonder how much money OpenAI has lost in electricity costs from people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to their models.” The post has been viewed 5.7 million times as of press time.

Altman replied the following day: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know.”

tens of millions of dollars well spent–you never know

— Sam Altman (@sama) April 16, 2025

A survey released in February by the publisher, Future, found that 67% of people who use AI in the U.S. are polite to the chatbot. Nearly one out of five respondents of that group (18%) stated that they say “please” and “thank you” to AI to protect themselves in case of a possible AI uprising. The remaining 82% said they were polite simply because it was “nice” to be that way to anyone, AI or human.

Being polite to AI may serve a functional purpose. Microsoft design director Kurtis Beavers noted in a Microsoft blog post that “using polite language sets a tone for the response” from AI. In other words, when you’re polite to AI, it is likely to respond in kind.

Related: New Google Report Reveals the Hidden Cost of AI

However, that politeness has an energy cost. According to a May 2024 report from The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), it takes 10 times more energy to ask ChatGPT a question or send it a comment than it takes to run a standard Google search without AI overviews summarizing results at the top of a search page.

Researchers at financial advice site BestBrokers found that ChatGPT needs 1.059 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity on average every year. That would amount to an annual expenditure of about $139.7 million on energy costs alone for the AI chatbot.

AI also requires substantial amounts of water to cool the servers that power it. Research from the University of California, Riverside shows that ChatGPT requires up to 1,408 milliliters of water, or about three 16.9-oz bottles worth, to generate a 100-word email. It takes 40 to 50 milliliters of water to generate a three-word “You are welcome” response from ChatGPT.

Related: Is ChatGPT Search Better Than Google? I Tried the New Search Engine to Find Out.

Meanwhile, OpenAI can afford the tens of millions of dollars in AI electricity costs. Earlier this month, the startup raised $40 billion at a valuation of $300 billion in the biggest private tech deal ever recorded. OpenAI noted at the time that it had 500 million global weekly users, up from 400 million in February.

Readers of a certain age are acutely aware of the wild ride the music industry has been on over the past few decades — from vinyl to cassettes to CDs to mp3s to streaming, the way we listen to (and buy) music has changed dramatically.

And now, with the advent of AI, the way that music is created has experienced a seismic shift, as well. And as much change that we’ve seen in recent years, we haven’t seen anything yet, says Helmuts Bems, CEO of studio monitor and headphone calibrating company Sonarworks.

Related: ‘We Do Not Allow Lazy Money to Have Control’: How This Music Company Unlocked Creativity for Its Team Members

Bems’ company recently conducted a wide-ranging study called AI in the Music Industry – Should You Fight It, Ignore It, or Embrace It? Based on interviews with more than 100 industry professionals and music consumers, the goal of the study was to take a snapshot of where the industry is now so that those working in it can “be better prepared for what’s to come.”

Here are Bems’ thoughts on what the study’s data reveals about the current state and future of music.

Entrepreneur: What findings were you surprised by from your study?
Helmuts Bems: For me, the biggest surprise was just how widespread the use of AI tools already is in the professional music industry. Those on the frontlines who have to meet deadlines for commercial projects have mostly tested AI systems and have found them to be helpful. There were many anecdotes about artists submitting AI-generated songs as their own and labels not being able to detect them. Everybody thinks that it gives them a professional edge, and maybe rightly so. However, the most surprising is that these same people do not want to publicly talk about it. The consensus is that AI is an extremely potent technology and already very, very good at creating content, however, you are somehow a villain if you use it.

What were the biggest disruptions in the music industry in prior decades to AI’s ascent?
Here are two massive disruptions that stand out. In the ’90s, CDs replaced tape recordings as a format. CDs brought more focus on album releases and, interestingly, enabled skipping songs. CDs also brought a lot of economic benefits as they were cheaper to produce but were sold for more than tapes. They also created a recording revolution as digital editing became an inherent part of the production/creative process.

Related: Cheap Trick’s Legendary Guitarist Rick Nielsen Invites Fans to Drink — and Invest In — His Award-Winning ROCK’N Vodka

From 2005 to 2020, there was a period of extremely violent industry disruption that ended with the dominance of streaming as the new music consumption standard. This disruption was truly incredible as the industry lost 70% of its CD revenue. Most importantly, streaming has completely changed the rights-based payout structure. Streaming has brought about the age of playlists and singles, replacing the album concept. And it killed the music retail store. But it has brought ever more recording to ever more consumers, inspiring a massive boost in creativity.

How is AI-generated music affecting musicians’ ability to make money?
First, let’s make the distinction of what is meant by musician. There are many stakeholders in making music: Composers/producers, professional musicians, and hobby musicians.

We believe that producers and composers will be the big winners in the AI era. They will be able to deliver more content than ever, without depending on others to deliver their parts. While commercial musicians may see reduced opportunities in areas like background music or advertising, hobbyists and indie artists will be empowered by AI to create without needing expensive gear or technical training. It enables more people to express themselves musically, but it also floods the market, making it harder for individual artists to stand out or make a sustainable income.

Related: A 74-Year-Old Musician Makes a Million a Year From an Unpopular Song Written Nearly 50 Years Ago. Here’s How.

In this new landscape, creativity alone isn’t enough — artists must also become curators, strategists, and technologists to thrive. In the long run, I am afraid about the potential for AI to discourage young people to even go into music. If AI gets really good at creating music with a click of a button, it might discourage people to try learning to play an instrument.

We believe pure AI-generated content is the big danger for musicians. The economic shift favors those who adapt — producers, composers, and creators who embrace AI tools to boost their efficiency and output. But it also means that royalties and revenue from streaming and licensing could increasingly go to platforms and AI developers instead of artists.

Where do you see the music industry in one, five, and ten years?
In 1-3 years, we’ll likely still see a hybrid world where AI tools assist creators more than replace them. Vocal and instrument transformation, AI synthesizers, mixing and mastering assistants and AI-assisted ideation will become increasingly common in professional workflows. The conversation around AI rights and licensing will heat up, especially as lawsuits from rights holders against AI companies start influencing legal frameworks.

In five years, assuming a medium disruption scenario, we expect AI-generated content to rival human-generated music in volume and quality. Streaming platforms might increasingly serve algorithmically composed content tailored to individual users in real-time. But we also anticipate a backlash — a demand for human connection, emotional depth, and authenticity. Vinyl could continue its rise, and live shows might become even more experiential and immersive.

By ten years out, real-time AI music generation based on context, like your mood, biometrics, or environment, could be mainstream. To look that far into the future, one must answer deeply psychological questions about human nature and the nature of musical expression. Even though I do believe AI will dominate some areas of the music industry, there will be domains left where humans will still be in charge. I am personally a big fan of live jazz improvisations in a very underground environment. I am convinced that 10 years from now, I will still be able to enjoy these shows, and it will still be humans performing there.

As global trade tightens, you can seal more deals with international clients by streamlining communication when you speak the local lingo. Start speaking faster and more confidently when you learn through the scientifically-backed Babbel Method. Score an exclusive discount from StackSocial to get lifetime access to all 14 languages hosted on Babbel. Usually $599, you can purchase a lifetime Babbel Subscription for just $129.99 with the coupon code LEARN40.

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Get a personalized, ad-free experience with Babbel when you get a lifetime subscription. Learn business essential languages including Spanish, Russian, and German with AI-powered conversation partners that adapt to you. Speech recognition technology can give you real-time feedback on pronunciation and accent.

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Easter 2025 is on Sunday, April 20, and a slew of companies, from retailers to restaurants to grocery stores, will be closed in observance of the holiday.

For some businesses, however, closures will be location-specific (Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Applebee’s, and Wendy’s, for example). Check with your local stores before heading out.

Here’s what we know so far about what is open and closed for Easter 2025.

What’s closed on Easter?

Major retailers, including Costco, Target, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, Apple stores, and Best Buy, are closed.

If you’re planning a last minute shopping trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and T.J. Maxx, wait until Monday. These stores will all be closed.

Related: Starbucks CEO Tells Corporate Employees to ‘Own Whether or Not This Place Grows’

When it comes to food, Aldi, Chick-fil-A, and Publix are all closed.

Chipotle and Cava will also be closed.

What is open on Easter?

Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, will be open, a spokesperson has confirmed to numerous outlets. And so will Home Depot, but with limited hours. Hours will be posted online.

Most Whole Foods are open as well, but are closing early at 6 p.m. in many locations, per USA Today. Check with your local store.

Kroger’s stores and Harris Teeter stores will be open.

Related: Fans of Costco’s $1.50 Hot Dog Combo Are In for a Big Surprise

Wegman’s stores and Winn-Dixie stores will be open regular hours on Easter.

Trader Joe’s will be open.

CVS will also be open, but a spokesperson told Nexstar that some stores will have limited hours and to should check with your local location.

Petsmart will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

^{This list will be updated.}

How much time could your marketing team save by generating your content with artificial intelligenice (AI)-powered assistance? Gathered estimates from Databox pin it between 25% and 74% of their time.

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Take the same focus and determination that makes you a shark in the office out on the golf course when you use Mind Caddie to up your mental golf game. Packed with short audio lessons, guided exercises, and performance tracking, the Mind Caddie app helps you hone in on the mindset that makes you a successful golf player. This usually $209 app is now just $99.99, so don’t miss this undervalued investment in your success.

On the course and off

Getting a round in with your colleagues is about more than seeing who makes it under par. It’s the time that puts a social face on your business connections. It’s the much-needed movement in a week spent sitting before screens and reports. It can also be a mental exercise in focus and confidence when using Mind Caddie for performance coaching on and off the course.

Golf is as mental as it is physical. When you tap into the Mind Caddie app’s proven coaching methods from Karl Morris — a performance coach for Ryder Cup captains and PGA Tour, European Tour, PLGA, and Ladies European Tour winners — you learn the tools to help yourself achieve success. The program is structured in a way that helps you track your improvements and build mental resilience, all backed by scientific study.

Using the app to improve your game

You’ve already tried tutorials and swapping clubs. Now it’s time to use the simplest tool you’ve got: your listening ears.

Listen to the short audio golf lessons to practice mental strategies. Use guided exercises to build confidence and focus. Follow the step-by-step course to develop yourself as a player. Then, track your performance — what gets measured gets improved, after all. You’ll see the proof in your own performance increases. Transform your mind, transform your game.

A better golf game is out there, and you can play it for just $99.99 with Mind Caddie, now discounted by 52%.

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I didn’t start my business on my own. Sure, I’m the only founder, and I conceived the ideas that my company, Jotform, is built around.

But it’s also true that I would not be where I am today without the mentors I looked to for advice and guidance. Some of the rules I credit with Jotform’s success — for example, that I hire only when I’ve got a year’s salary already in the bank — were lifted directly from other founders who showed me the way.

I’ve always believed mentors are indispensable for anyone looking to start a business. But I’ve also come to realize that mentoring others is equally important and can help your business in surprising ways. Here’s how.

Related: I Mentor First-Time Entrepreneurs — These Are the 4 Unseen Benefits I Gained By Giving Back

You discover new ways of thinking

One of the worst things you can do as a founder is surround yourself with people who think the same way you do. That’s one of the reasons I mentor other founders — I’m constantly surprised by how much I learn just by talking to them.

I’ve been building my own products for two decades, but that doesn’t mean I know everything. I’m constantly learning — I dedicate time each day to reading blogs and listening to podcasts to ensure I’m keeping up with what’s going on in my industry. Still, talking to my mentees about how they’re using tools like AI gives me a fresh perspective I can’t get from consuming media alone. By helping them think through how to integrate new technology into their products, I’m thinking through how I can apply those lessons, too.

Being a mentor also requires me to constantly reevaluate my own beliefs. In general, my knowledge has accumulated over years of hard-earned experience. Even so, the process of explaining why I think how I do is incredibly beneficial, either to reinforce those beliefs or challenge me to update them.

You can grow your own star performers

Everyone wants to hire a superstar. But I’ve always preferred to create them by promoting them from within. Mentoring employees within your organization provides a crucial opportunity to get to know their future aspirations, grow their confidence and help them feel more engaged with the company’s mission.

At Jotform, we call our new-hire mentorship program The New Grad Training Program. Basically, we hire people fresh out of school who show lots of promise but lack hands-on experience. They start out by doing support tasks, which range from quality assurance testing to user feedback analysis to answering customer support questions. One day per week, these new hires work with a mentor who can show them the ropes of a given department — maybe they’ll attend meetings with a data analyst or shadow a JavaScript developer. Every six months, participants can interview for the position they want. This program is a great way to develop raw talent and turn our new hires into top performers.

It’s tempting to wonder what happens if you spend time mentoring an employee, only to have them leave for a shinier opportunity elsewhere. But this is short-term thinking: Studies show that internal hires are not only high performers, they’re also more likely to stay with the organization for the long haul, while high-performing external hires are more likely to leave. My own experience confirms this: At Jotform, our annual churn rate is only 5%.

And anyway, as Henry Ford put it, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

Related: 4 Lessons I Gained from Mentorship That Elevated My Startup Journey

You can pay it forward

Many of the world’s most accomplished people are quick to note that they wouldn’t be where they are without the support of their mentors. Richard Branson, for example, already had experience as an entrepreneur under his belt when he founded Virgin Atlantic. That didn’t stop him from enlisting the help of Sir Freddie Laker, the founder of the low-cost airline model, for support. “I have always been a huge believer in the inestimable value good mentoring can contribute to any nascent business,” Branson has said.

Even for someone as well-regarded as Branson, success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I know mine didn’t. That’s part of why mentoring is important to me — I want others to not only learn, but also feel like they’re not on their journey alone. There are few forces as powerful as having someone believe in you, which also leads to a deeper sense of belonging. According to Gartner, “Belonging is a key component of inclusion. When employees are truly included, they perceive that the organization cares for them as individuals — their authentic selves.”

Everyone needs a mentor. However, I firmly believe that mentoring others is equally important. Mentoring gives you the chance to learn new things and challenge your beliefs; it also builds relationships with employees who will often grow into top performers. But most importantly, it lets us reach out through the darkness and offer light to someone who needs it, allowing them to chart their own success.

At my company, Jotform, our intern program is serious business.

When a new class of interns signs on to work with us, their first week is spent in training, getting them up to speed on who we are, what we do and how we do it. Then, we team them up with experienced staff and get them working on their own projects. By the time they depart our offices to return to the classroom, we’ve planted the seeds to make them successful employees.

Working with interns is a time- and resource-consuming proposition. But it’s also an investment. Some of our best employees are former interns; standout workers who we knew had the potential to learn and grow into bigger roles.

Sometimes, it might be easier to hire candidates with the experience we’re looking for. To me, that’s a prime example of short-term thinking, a mindset that can seriously harm your company in the long run. By nurturing young employees, we not only save money on recruiting a prestige hire that may or may not work out; we also develop the talents of someone we already know we want on our team.

Too often, though, leaders go with the easier-sounding option; the one that sounds most appealing right now. Here’s why that’s a mistake.

Related: Why Long-Term Strategic Planning is the Lifeline Your Business Needs Right Now

Focus on sustainable growth

If your company, like mine, is built around Software as a Service (SaaS), building a subscriber base requires a lot of time — and a lot of happy customers — to reach sustainability. This is one of the hazards of taking outside investment — it creates the illusion of success without actual organic growth.

The cautionary tale that looms largest in my mind is that of Theranos, the doomed blood-testing startup that was valued at $9 billion. Theranos was subsumed by hype, but in the end, the technology the company was theoretically built around didn’t even exist. Eventually, Theranos evaporated into a giant cloud of fraud allegations and even a lengthy prison sentence for its founder, Elizabeth Holmes.

Theranos is an extreme case of VC funding gone awry, but it does show what can happen to a founder under extraordinary pressure to produce results quickly, and the mirage of success that VC funding can create.

Rather than taking outside funding, I advocate for bootstrapping. It’s less glamorous, sure, but it also fosters real, sustainable growth, enables innovation and builds resilience. Most importantly, you have the freedom to operate on your own timeline, gather user feedback and focus on developing a product that really works.

Related: Focusing on Speed When Building Your Company is a Mistake. Here’s Why.

Beware of the scarcity mindset

Short-term thinking doesn’t just come from a desire for instant gratification. It can also come from fear.

In particular, the scarcity mindset, an idea developed by Princeton University psychology and public affairs professor Eldar Shafir and Harvard University economist Sendhil Mullainathan, explains how having limited resources — be it time, capital, etc. — narrows our mental bandwidth, creating a tunneling effect that allows only the space to focus on short-term goals.

“Every psychologist understands that we have very limited cognitive space and bandwidth,” Shafir explained. “When you focus heavily on one thing, there is just less mind to devote to other things.”

Founders, especially in the early days of starting a business, are constantly at risk of developing a scarcity mindset. After all, who ever really feels like they have enough resources? But the consequences of caving to scarcity can be grave: Short-term thinking not only stifles creativity, it can lead to knee-jerk, ill-conceived decisions you wouldn’t have made if you were thinking clearly.

Don’t let a scarcity mindset become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, practice cultivating an abundance mindset. A great place to start is by focusing not on what you don’t have, but on what you do. If you’re a bootstrapped founder, you have the greatest of all resources: Time. Give yourself the luxury of trying out different ideas, and not beating yourself up if they don’t work out the way you hoped. The best ideas come from experimentation.

Remember also that change is incremental, so don’t assume you can overhaul your way of thinking in a single day. Pick one area in which you feel like a scarcity mindset is holding you back, and start there.

Related: This Is How Thinking About Abundance Has Helped Me Build a Success Mindset

Envision the future

Short-term thinking is an easy trap when the future seems so theoretical. Maybe you love pizza — sure, you know it’s not great for your health. But when presented with the opportunity to enjoy eating it today, your future self has a way of dimming from view.

Researchers have found that those with the ability to see and empathize with their future selves possess the quality of “self-continuity.” In other words, if you can see your future self as clearly as your present self, you’re more likely to make decisions that are beneficial in the long term.

So how do you make the future seem less abstract? Try conducting a self-interview. You can do this by envisioning sitting down with your Future Self, and asking them where they would advise your Present Self to focus your time and attention. What do you want to accomplish in 10 years from now? In 20 years? In 50 years? By identifying these long-term goals, you can start to plan accordingly in the present.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of short-term thinking. But by focusing on sustainable growth, practicing an abundance mindset and making the future as tangible as the present, you can make decisions that will serve you in the long run and keep your business growing for years to come.