What Works

How do you prepare your small business for economic ups and downs? Is a recession inevitable? And what even is a recession? In this episode, unpack why the economy cycles through periods of boom and bust. I also demonstrate how a similar cycle is at play in the online business space. And I offer some strategies for making sustainable business decisions—no matter what happens with the economy.Footnotes:Gates of the Arctic National ParkCaribou population cyclesFloating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Sea by Bathsheba DemuthBeargrassMast fruitingBraiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer“Are recessions normal?” on Make Me SmartEconomic cycles on InvestopediaSpotted lanternfly and tree of heavenTimothy Snyder on the Ezra Klein Show“The best of all possible worlds” from CandideA history of recessions in the 20th and 21st centuriesRana Foroohar on the Ezra Klein ShowArticle versions of episodes are posted at explorewhatworks.com every Thursday. To get those articles delivered straight to you, free of charge, go to explorewhatworks.com/weeklyHave a question about an episode of What Works? Is there something you've noticed online, in the news, or in your business that you're curious about? Go to zipmessage.com/whatworks! Leave me a message, and I'll try to respond in a future episode! ★ Support this podcast ★

Personal brand development is now a mainstay of college career preparation. Young social media influencers are well-versed on the language of personal branding. It seems cultivating your personal brand is a prerequisite for navigating the 21st-century economy. Public image has a long history, of course. But how has our relationship with ourselves changed since we started to put so much effort into emphasizing the most marketable parts of our identities? This episode tackles the history of personal branding, the labor of self-branding, and why so much value is being created in the “social factory.”Footnotes:“Sentimental ‘Greenbacks’ of Civilization”: Cartes de Visite and the Pre-History of Self-Branding by Alison Hearn (The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture)“Cartes de Visite,” Art Gallery of New South Wales (YouTube)The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler“Meat, Mask, Burden: Probing the Contours of the Branded Self” by Alison Hearn (Journal of Consumer Culture)The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles by David HarveyEP.385: Who do you work for? on What WorksConnect with Tyler McCall on Twitter“On the internet, we’re always famous” by Chris Hayes (The New Yorker)“The Problem with Personal Brands and the Labor of Authenticity” by Tara McMullinEssay versions of each episode are available every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. To get them delivered straight to your inbox, sign up free at explorewhatworks.com/weekly ★ Support this podcast ★

“You could make money with that!” That’s probably the first thing you hear when someone discovers you’re an excellent baker, or designer, or potter. Even if your hobby is collecting super hero figurines, someone has probably suggesting “monetizing” that interest. There is all sorts of historical, economic, and sociological context for this. But in this episode, I talk with someone who typifies not getting paid for what you love to do: my husband, Sean McMullin. You’ll hear how Sean’s extended family in Utah and Montana, as well as his time living in an Iñupiat village in rural Alaska, shaped how he thinks about work he doesn’t get paid for.Footnotes:More about the Iñupiat people “I grew up in a church led by a prophet” by Meg ConleyYellowHouse.MediaSean McMullin on Instagram  Essay versions of each episode are published every Thursday at explorewhatworks.com. Get the delivered straight to you by signing up at explorewhatworks.com/weekly   ★ Support this podcast ★

“Positive thinking” comes in many forms: New Thought, the prosperity gospel, manifestation teaching, self-help guides, and more. It’s hard to argue with thinking positive thoughts! But when positive thoughts become a substitute for curiosity and inquiry about real challenges, positive thinking can lead us away from real solutions. In this episode, I explore my own encounters with the world of positive thinking and how facing reality has actually given me more hope.  Footnotes:More about Mary Baker EddyMore about Ernest Holmes and The Science of MindMore about Norman Vincent Peale* The Power of Positive ThinkingMary Kay Ash on YouTubeConfidence Culture by Shani Orgad and Rosalind GillRhonda Byrne on YouTube“Farm-To-Table: Reciprocity in Every Seam” (Christy Dawn ad)“Manifestation, eugenics, and flower oil” by Meg ConleyCultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda MontellAt The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah BakewellHope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit  Essay versions of each episode are available at explorewhatworks.com each Thursday. Get them delivered straight to you by signing up at explorewhatworks.com/weekly ★ Support this podcast ★

Who doesn’t love to get paid? So we’re going to talk about how that actually happens. Not the dollars and cents of getting paid, but the form and structure. In the previous two episodes, we examined our relationships to work—both paid and unpaid. And it got me thinking about how we actually account for the ways paid work, well, pays—and especially how that impacts business owners and independent workers. I’m talking the difference between wages and profit, how surplus labor creates profit, and specifically how I structure my own pay in order to have a better perspective on my work.Footnotes:Surplus Labor in Radical EconomicsKarl Marx via The School of Life“The ‘Cult’ of Passive Income” via Tiffany Ferguson   ★ Support this podcast ★

It seems like every business owner or freelancer I know wants to quit social media. But very few people are actually doing it. It seems easier to imagine the end of your business than the end of social media, to paraphrase Mark Fisher. There’s something about our relationship to social platforms that makes them feel inescapable. And, perhaps without even noticing, it’s started to see like we’re working for them more than working for ourselves. In this episode, I unpack our relationship to platforms and who profits from our labor. And it starts in an unusual place: the recent Etsy strike. Footnotes:“Etsy sellers will go on strike in April and ask customers to boycott” on The Verge“Why Etsy sellers are going on strike” on Yahoo Finance“16,000 shops join Etsy strike” via KERORob Kalin speaking to the World Economic ForumMark Zuckerberg testifying before the House Energy & Commerce Committee“How Facebook (Meta), Twitter, social media make money from you” via InvestopediaTyler McCall on Instagram and Twitter   ★ Support this podcast ★

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 ★