What Works

I grew up expecting to love what I did for a living. I was encouraged to choose a career that I was passionate about. But when I did, I bumped up against the stark reality that work I loved didn’t pay the bills. At least not in any straightforward way. In this episode, I explore the context of “doing what you love” and how it shapes the way we build our businesses or careers today.Footnotes:Analysis of wages during the 90s (BLS)Eupsychian Management by Abraham MaslowTarget Commercial: “Come in for workout gear, leave feeling empowered.”Dan Olsen on The Ezra Klein ShowThe Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord“The Passion Paradigm: Professional Adherence to and Consequences of the Ideology of ‘Do What You Love’” by Lindsay DePalma“Down with Love: Feminist Critique and the New Ideologies of Work” by Kathi WeeksWork Won’t Love You Back by Sarah JaffeMore about Lou Blaser and Midlife Cues“To My Brothers and Sisters In The Failure Business” by Seymour KrimWorks Progress Administration   ★ Support this podcast ★

“Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in America. It shapes the way we approach work, family, and society. And rugged individualism has a direct impact on the decisions we make about our businesses and careers. In this short Extra Context bonus, I unpack where rugged individualism comes from and highlight a different way forward.Footnotes:Rugged Individualism Monologue by Terry Smith "The Myth of Rugged Individualism” by Robert Reich“We’d Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover” from AnnieIndividualism and Economic Order by Friedrich HayekHope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit“The Philosophers: Loneliness & Totalitarianism” on Vox Conversations   ★ Support this podcast ★

No one likes being asked for a refund. In fact, I find the thought of it stomach-churning. And when what’s being refunded is the product of your time, experience, and expertise… it’s tempting to put every obstacle you can think of between a customer and a refund. In this episode, I’ll take you on a journey from the 17th century all the way through the modern era of online business refund policies to answer the question: What makes for a fair refund policy?Footnotes:About Josiah Wedgwood“Josiah Wedgwood: An Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur in Salesmanship and Marketing Techniques” by Neil McKendrick“Beyond The Pottery: The Creative Giant, Josiah Wedgwood” on YouTube“They Broke It” by Judith Flanders“What a Hundred-Year-Old Department Store Can Tell Us About the Overlap of Retail, Religion and Politics” by Tobias Carroll“Many (Un)happy Returns? The Changing Nature of Retail Product Returns and Future Research Directions” Journal of RetailingOnline Outlier & Regina AnaejionuMore on “caveat emptor” (the buyer beware)“Is the customer always right?” The Merck Report, June 1915“Is the customer the enemy?” by Chris MacDonald“The Customer As Enemy” by Michael SchrageKaye Publicity & Dana Kaye    Full written versions of each new episode are available on Fridays or sign up for What Works Weekly to receive them in your inbox.   ★ Support this podcast ★

At the end of 2021, I stepped away from my business: left our community, off-boarded my employee to another company, and focused on my mental health. Over the next 4 months, I wrote a book and thought about what might be next for me and my work. In this episode, I share what I’ve been up to in that time and what I might do in the months to come. Resources: * What Works: A Comprehensive Framework For Changing The Way We Approach Goal Setting* NYU’s Intro To Creative Nonfiction course* Catapult’s Writing Pitches That Land Bylines* How Your Personal Priorities Shape The Way You Design Your Business Essay versions of new What Works episodes are posted on Thursdays. Sign up for What Works Weekly to get it in your inbox! ★ Support this podcast ★

I’m sure you’ve heard it before: underpromise and overdeliver. But is that really the best way to do business? Or does it just give us a permission slip for self-exploitation? When does overdelivering become overcompensating? And when does being generous just morph into entrepreneurial martyrdom? I sat down with sales coach Allison Davis to talk about overdelivering, generosity, and when it all gets to be too much. We talk pricing and scope of work—but we also talk about familiar relationship patterns and how they play out in our expectations for ourselves or others. Resources: * Allison Davis* Down Girl: The Logic Of Misogyny by Kate Manne* Kate Manne on Forever35* Living A Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed* EP 371: How does emotional labor impact our work? ★ Support this podcast ★

I’m bringing our Time & Money series to a close this week by exploring why we choose squeezing more in over taking time off. I share how The Squeeze works, why work gets more intense over time, and some of the economic incentives that keep us from making different choices. Resources: * “Feeling The Squeeze? Why Your Business Feels So Tight” by Tara McMullin* “Busy vs Squeezed: How To Tell The Difference & Why It Matters” by Tara McMullin* “Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren” by John Maynard Keynes* Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher* Protestant Ethic & The Spirit Of Capitalism by Max Weber* “When Time Is Money: Contested Rationalities of Time and Challenges to the Theory and Practice of Work” by Barbara Adam* Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen* Wintering by Katherine May Love the show? Share What Works with a friend: pod.link/whatworks Or leave a tip! ★ Support this podcast ★

A lot of the work we do today doesn’t much look like “work.” The divide between work-life and life-life is flexible and porous. So what does that mean for the way we spend our time? Or how we earn a living? In this episode, I share designer, coach, and consultant Anne Ditmeyer’s story of rethinking how she works thanks to a big move to Paris. And, I argue that perhaps we need a radically different way of thinking about what work is—instead of a better “work-life balance.” Resources: * Learn more about Anne Ditmeyer* Lost In Work, by Amelia Horgan* Episode 349 with Brittany Berger ★ Support this podcast ★

The systems we operate in all have different incentive systems: our business models, the social media platforms, our economy, the culture at large… And many of these incentive systems have become simplified and gamified—changing the way we view the results of our work and the goals that we hold. In this episode, I explore how the philosophy of games can help us identify when we’re just trying to “game the system” instead of taking effective action based on our own values and goals. Resources: * C. Thi Nguyen at the Royal Institute of Philosophy* Nguyen on The Ezra Klein Show* How Twitter Gamifies Communication* *What Tech Calls Thinking* by Adrian Daub* *Games: Agency As Art* by C. Thi Nguyen ★ Support this podcast ★

Most of us learn the value of our time in our first jobs. Even as we get more experience and our hourly jobs turn into salaried jobs or freelance projects, the specter of selling your time for a particular wage looms. In this episode, I talk with Wealth Over Now founder & Money Files host Keina Newell about how she thinks about the intersection of time and money. I also offer up a light history of wage work and how that history influences as business owners. Resources: * Wealth Over Now — Keina Newell* Money Files — Keina’s podcast* What is the domestic system?* What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?* Further reference: Labor writers Kim Kelly & Sarah Jaffe in conversation* EP 341: Taking Better Care Of Each Other with Kate Strathmann* Games Against Humanity: C Thi Nguyen on the Conspirituality podcast ★ Support this podcast ★

I’ve been talking about the “new economy” since about 2010. But more and more, I recognize that the economic possibilities created through the internet aren’t nearly as new or innovative as I’d first thought (and hoped). It seems that the old economy is just making itself over as the not-so-new economy. In this episode, I explore 3 processes of the old economy—speculation, financialization, and liquidation—to pinpoint how they’re showing up in our digital world of independent work. I weave together the housing market, creator economy, Great Recession, and crypto promises to help you situate yourself in this strange, not-so-new world. At times, it’s a bleak story—but ultimately, understanding where we’re at gives us a better opportunity to make different, more humane choices. Resources: * CNBC Interview with NewNew Founder Courtne Smith* Investopedia on financialization* *The Big Short* by Michael Lewis* Michael Lewis on 60 Minutes* “How the financial crisis changed jobs” from Marketplace* Gig Economy explainer via Marketplace* NFTs explainer via Marketplace* “How Money Became The Measure Of Everything” by Eli Cook* “The complicated reality of doing what you love” by Marian Bull* Greater Fool Theory on Investopedia* “I crowdfunded a novel using cryptocurrency” by Elle Griffin ★ Support this podcast ★