David T. Scott has spent his career blending corporate expertise with entrepreneurial drive. Now, as the CEO of Evil Genius Games, he is focused on a bold mission: positioning tabletop role-playing games as a major force in mainstream culture. For David T. Scott, TTRPGs are more than a niche hobby. They are the future of interactive entertainment, and his vision is to help elevate them to the same cultural prominence as film, streaming, and video games.
A decade ago, I was deep in the corporate grind of brand management in Los Angeles. This meant long hours, endless meetings, and constant stress. I worked 12-hour days, chasing approvals, but I felt unfulfilled. With an autoimmune condition that flares under stress, a vacation to Steamboat Springs, Colorado- where my phone wouldn't stop pinging - was the breaking point.
I was once a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado, and I was frustrated with my headset tangling every time I went to make a call on my phone. So I drove to a nearbyJoann Fabrics store and glued a couple of huge clothing buttons to the back of my tiny little iPhone so I could wrap my headset around them. I got made fun of for how ridiculous it was, but over the course of about a year and many, many prototypes, I miniaturized it, and eventually launched a business out of my garage in the mountains of Boulder in 2014.
Born in Chicago, Bobbi Brown, 68, studied theatrical makeup and photography at Emerson College, Boston. In 1980, she moved to New York to work as a makeup artist. She launched Bobbi Brown Essentials in 1991, sold it to Estee Lauder four years later, and built it into a global brand. Having left the business in 2016, she launched a new one, Jones Road Beauty, in 2020.
These roles gave him a close view of how businesses operate, as well as the challenges they face in balancing growth with costs. In 2020, Brewer relocated to Las Vegas to launch Greenhub, a merchant services company. His vision was simple but ambitious: help companies in retail, e-commerce and B2B sectors streamline payment processing and eliminate hidden costs. Under his leadership, Greenhub has earned a reputation for transparency and innovation in an industry often criticised for its complexity.
For Lubetzky, business begins with people. He recalled a South African proverb that says, "We're only human because of other humans," and argued that the same applies to companies. "Community is what makes us human," he said. "Create a community where everyone is in it together." Rather than focusing narrowly on profits, he believes leaders should prioritize building a sense of belonging among employees and customers alike - the kind of trust that sustains a business in good times and bad.
Brent Ridge , MD, cofounded Beekman 1802 in 2008 and has worked alongside Josh Kilmer-Purcell to lead the company ever since. Prior to his entrepreneurial career, Ridge was Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. He also built a distinguished medical career as a specialist in geriatric medicine, completing a fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and joining the faculty there as an assistant professor.
In this episode, I chat with Marc Brown, a dynamic attorney and Big Dave's Cheesesteaks franchise owner. Marc opens up about his non-linear career path from Biglaw to founding his own successful firm, sharing insights on the fulfilling shift to plaintiff's work and the challenges of running a business. Aspiring lawyers and entrepreneurs alike will find inspiration in Marc's journey of pursuing passion over convention and learning to balance career and life. Tune in for a mix of legal wisdom and the secret to a perfect cheesesteak!
Back then, I was a marketing representative for an asset management firm in Penang, Malaysia. It was a steady job, and I had supportive managers who allowed me to take ownership of my work. It was a client-facing role, and over time, I realized it wasn't the best fit for my personality, even though I learned and grew a lot from the job. After the pandemic, I started feeling burned out. Deep down, I always knew a 9-to-5 wasn't meant to be my long-term path.
I always knew I wanted to study and work in the United States. When I was 18, I dreamed of making $200,000 a year working in Big Tech when I graduated. Over time, I began to question whether I wanted my career dictated by a visa. I realized how little control I had over external factors: the economy, layoffs, and visa policies. The only thing I could control was my response.
"The first five years of RIXO, we lived together, apart from being in the office together," Rix tells Bustle. "We were literally together 24/7. Neither of us had boyfriends." Other friendships wouldn't have survived, especially remembering how difficult that time was for both of them. "We were 23. We wouldn't even buy ourselves a coffee," she says. "We were so careful about our spending, wanting to put everything into the business. It wasn't a glamorous lifestyle."
Tyler Perry said something to me I'll never forget, because I battle this all the time, I always try to bring everybody with me," Hayes tells Fortune. "'Sometimes you've got to leave them in the sand. Sometimes you've got to go in the water, row the boat, leave them in the sand, and offer to come back and get on the boat' ... Sometimes people aren't going to understand the mission.
I own a business, and frankly I hate it. It consumes all of my time and energy and I'm trying to figure out a plan to get out. That said, the only thing I hate more than owning and operating my business is TALKING about the business I own and operate. And yet, in any social gathering, people inevitably ask me about how it's going. And no matter how many times I deflect or redirect, inevitably, at the next social gathering, people ask me about it.
In a session overflowing with experience and hard-won lessons, he will share his unvarnished take on the world 15 years from now - a future he believes will be defined by unprecedented abundance, massive job displacement, and transformational change across every sector. This is advice entrepreneurs need to hear - not just what they want to hear - to build enduring companies in turbulent times.
If you own a small business, you'll probably relate to Tracy Klopfenstein. "The first two years were the worst," says Klopfenstein, who bought a homemade ice cream shop in Goshen, Indiana, called The Chief with her husband, Chad. "We worked all the time, and I suffered burnout. My mind would spiral at night, and I'd worry about everything. I had what I would call an absence of hope."
You've probably heard of the British Entrepreneur Emma Grede because of Skims, the $4 billion shapewear company she runs with Kim Kardashian. She's also invested in other brands with the family, such as the cleaning products company Safely and Kylie Jenner's clothing line, Khy. And the growing empire can all be traced back to one phone call she made to Kris Jenner that changed everything.
"I wanted my clothes to fit better, and so my own butt was the inspiration," Blakely said during Fortune's 2013 Most Powerful Women Summit. "I might be the only woman in the world grateful to my cellulite."
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday.
For some people, there's value in having clear boundaries between work and family. But I believe that integrating my personal and professional lives was the best way to grow this business. Ultimately, I was doing this for my daughter and other kids, and I knew the best business would be born from melding my family and business.
Now in its fourth year, the event aims to help bring together creative and entrepreneurial minds together in the Bronx. There are people who have come to the Summit, literally met there, and now they're doing long-term work together. I know some people found their photographers and videographers from the summit, said Brooks. We've also been able to see really strong partnerships build through the networking at the Summit because there's panels and workshops, but there's also the networking piece which is really invaluable.
By the way, dreams come true, and you can make your dreams come true if you manifest and if you go after that goal, that north star, knowing that along the way there are going to be roadblocks and obstacles,
Then you should take this business-development course, which will help you take your idea - no worries if it doesn't exist yet, you'll manifest it later! - and spin it into a multimillion-dollar company that you can scale within mere months. Behold this lady, a graduate of said course, who turned her ceramics hobby into a $5,000,000 juggernaut in three years and now lives in Italy with her family, dog, and a bunch of olive trees! This could be you!
Raised near Lake Tahoe, she grew up surrounded by the outdoors, hiking, skiing, and learning the value of resilience. Determined from a young age, she began community college courses as a high school sophomore and graduated from South Tahoe High School six months early, a sign of the focus that would guide her career. Today, Lesley Beador is building her own skincare line, a venture that reflects her passion for wellness and beauty.
While these are certainly high-income skills worth developing, if you don't have this one underrated skill, you will literally get nowhere in your career or in your business. Regardless of how hard you try, how many certifications and tools you add to your skill stack, how good your resume is or how exceptional your portfolio may be, lacking this one skill can leave you far behind in the job market and result in you losing out to competitors in your industry and niche.