Jessica Billingsley

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Tech may be the right tool you need to get ahead. When used correctly, technology has the power to help make people better versions of themselves — whether that’s someone who never misses an event or someone who can be reached at a moment’s notice. This applies to the workplace as well, with an ever-increasing number of software, apps and tools designed to help busy professionals get more done in their day. For many business leaders, properly leveraged technology is the secret to their productivity success. Below, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council leaders discuss the ways they use technology to help improve their productivity or work motivation throughout the day and why these strategies work so well.

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Preparing for success tomorrow means taking thoughtful steps today. In business, often the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. You never know if your product will sell or if you’ll make enough money to last another year or if being an entrepreneur is really your true calling. While no one can predict what tomorrow will bring, there are ways you can help to guarantee your business will remain successful no matter what the next day may bring. Below, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members offer their best tips for “future-proofing” your business and explain how these tips will help ensure your business is secure.

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The southern region of the U.S. possesses the immense potential to be a cannabis economic powerhouse. 

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When you feel like your creativity has dried up, these resources may get your thoughts flowing again. As many creative minds will tell you, creativity isn’t something that is just “always on.” Rather, creativity comes in waves, ebbing and flowing each day in what can often seem like random intervals. When you run a business that relies on innovation, however, it can be difficult to wait for inspiration to strike. To get your creativity flowing, you’ll need to seek out your own sources of inspiration. Below, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council experts share their own go-to sources of inspiration and how you can regain your own creativity by leveraging them yourself.

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What inspires entrepreneurs each day doesn't have to come from the business sector. As any entrepreneur will tell you, running a business is a tough job. Finding the motivation to bring your all every day is a task in and of itself as you can easily become overwhelmed by the responsibility of constant planning, innovating and ensuring your team is well taken care of. Having something or someone to draw from for inspiration, then, can have a major impact on an entrepreneur’s outlook. But you don’t have to look to the business realm to be inspired. To share what has served as their biggest source of non-business inspiration, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members each discuss what (or who) inspires them as they lead their companies now and into the future.

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B2C companies should prioritize increased transparency in their processes.  

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Sometimes scaling quickly isn't the best path forward. While it's every company's hope to grow, what many companies may not realize is that quick, explosive growth might not actually be the best way to scale. Though some companies may not have a choice if they experience sudden “overnight” success, those actively looking to skyrocket in popularity and sales need to consider a few important points first. Below, 11 business leaders from Rolling Stone Culture Council list some of the points an entrepreneur should be concerned about if they’re looking to grow their company quickly, and offer their best tips for scaling successfully in the long term.

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You can’t grow your business without facing a few obstacles along the way. Leading a business often comes with its own unique challenges, some more difficult to navigate than others. What separates great leaders from good ones is the ability to face those challenges, overcome them and come out stronger and wiser on the other side. No matter the challenge, there’s always a lesson to be learned that can either overwhelm you or help your business grow. But learning those lessons can often be a challenge in itself. Below, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council leaders detail the lessons they’ve learned from some of the most difficult business situations they’ve faced and how they became all the wiser for it.

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Cannabis technology businesses are like distinctive creatures in a unique lagoon.

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Encouraging growth and development sets up the employee and the company for future success. In business, creativity sparks creativity, and the more employees are allowed to learn and grow in their positions, the more ideas and innovation they are able to bring to their company as a result. Continued learning, therefore, can be a powerful benefit to the company and employees within it, offering them new and exciting challenges and opportunities for promotion and leadership. To encourage this growth and development, employers can opt for a multitude of strategies. Business leaders themselves, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council each shared the way in which they and their department managers inspire their employees to pursue continued growth and learning throughout their careers.

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For these business leaders, hindsight is 20/20. Starting a business can be an intimidating undertaking, especially when it’s your first one. You’re often feeling imposter syndrome in full force, and no matter how much planning and research you do ahead of time, rarely does any aspect of business go how you’d expect.  Because of this fact, for many entrepreneurs, hindsight is 20/20. Now with established careers and businesses, they can better reflect on what may have gone wrong or what they could have done better when they first started out. Below, a panel of 14 Rolling Stone Culture Council members share the lessons they wish they had known when starting their businesses and how that knowledge may have helped them grow along the way.

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The most valuable information at your disposal is what your customers think of you. No matter what type of business you run, your customers always have an opinion. From being completely happy with your service to thinking your product needs a total overhaul (and every opinion in between), your customers’ opinions can be as diverse as they are. It’s the companies that know how to harness this feedback to inform their decisions that are able to please their customers the most. The first step, however, is to collect that customer feedback. Below, 11 members of Rolling Stone Culture Council suggest a few ways of doing that and what you should be doing with the feedback once you have it.

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Offering a top-notch customer experience is more important than ever, but you need the right strategies first. When designing a better customer experience, many organizations today are focusing on convenience. Whether it’s companies finding inventive ways to deliver their products or working to make their customers’ lives easier, convenience has a positive effect on customer satisfaction.  But to make sure you’re delivering the best overall experience, you’ll need to start with a few simple steps. Below, 10 Rolling Stone Culture Council members each shared one thing leaders can do to maximize convenience and create more happy customers.

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How will you help your business tap into this unprecedented access to innovation and harness it for benefit?

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Creating a mutually beneficial partnership means laying the groundwork for success upfront. When businesses partner together — whether for an ad campaign, product launch, promotion or any other reason — both should reap the rewards. But to ensure it’s a successful endeavor for all parties involved, there may be some necessary planning to do. While the process doesn’t need to be complicated, there are some important steps to be taken and considerations to be made before either business will feel satisfied. To shine some light on those steps, 13 members from Rolling Stone Culture Council list some of the key actions to take to make sure your next partnership is a successful one.

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Innovation across industries often signals big changes for our everyday culture. Continuous innovation is a hallmark of the modern business world. It can happen anywhere and in any industry, and it often results in a positive transformation of business processes and workflows. The culture space specifically has experienced a lot of transformation in recent years. As leaders in their respective fields, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council are constantly looking for ways to leverage new innovations to improve their companies and bring value to their customers. Below, 11 of them share which upcoming industry innovations and subsequent changes they're most excited about and why.

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How can cannabis operators in legal markets leverage data to optimize and grow their businesses? 

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Blockchain and cryptocurrency continue to be buzzwords across a variety of industries.

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When your usual outlets aren't available to you, it's important to find alternate coping mechanisms. It’s no question that the last year has been challenging for everyone. Even with the hope of "normalcy" on the horizon, people are finding it difficult to cope with the ongoing pandemic on top of the challenging social and political climate. With many outlets and resources inaccessible at this time, it’s even harder to find ways to de-stress. To help, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members shared activities and methods that can aid in coping with burnout during multiple crises. Follow their advice to find healthy ways to deal with the stress of the modern world.