Mark Paulda

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Is your audience excited about what your company is doing? When it comes to planning an event or product launch, there are a lot of moving parts. Logistics around planning the occasion itself, getting the word out and ensuring you have all the resources you need for it to go smoothly can be a complex puzzle to solve — but one of the most important aspects of planning is getting people excited. Building “hype” around your big event or announcement is key to generating customer interest and buy-in for what you’re offering. Without it, you may not achieve the end result you were after. Building excitement isn’t always easy, so to help, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council offer 10 of their best tips — including insights into what’s worked well for them — for generating hype around a company event, product launch, piece of news and more below.

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Here's how to manage stress and burnout even when you're thriving. Success in business often comes at a cost to the people who achieve it. Long hours, high stakes and relentless pressure can take a toll on even the most driven entrepreneurs and leaders. Because burnout and stress can significantly impact decision-making, team dynamics and the future of your business, it's important to proactively address these feelings and manage them effectively. To help you do this, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council share their tried-and-true tips for dealing with the stress that can come with success.

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Industry leaders share the top business goals your company should implement in the new year. As another new year approaches, businesses in every industry are reevaluating their priorities to adapt to evolving market demands and consumer expectations. From sustainability initiatives to embracing technological advancements, the goals companies choose to pursue will shape their success and impact. But what are the most important things for businesses to focus on, and are those goals universal? Here, Rolling Stone Culture Council members weigh in on the key objectives they believe more organizations should aim for in 2025 and why these goals can make such a difference in your success next year.

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Sometimes, breaking the rules leads to the biggest breakthroughs. For many entrepreneurs, taking an unconventional approach — whether in strategy, hiring or growth tactics — has led to invaluable lessons and unique successes in their businesses. But choosing to go against the grain isn’t without risk, as each choice shapes the path forward in surprising ways. Below, Rolling Stone Culture Council members share moments when they challenged traditional advice. Through the lessons they learned along the way, they offer practical insights to inspire bold steps on your own entrepreneurial path.

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If you want to convince someone to buy from you, first you have to understand the value you’re offering. When you run a business in a creative industry, it might not always be clear how to monetize your work. Whether you’re an independent artist, a freelance creator or any other form of solopreneur, one of the first steps on your road to success is managing to land your first sale — and that can be a tricky endeavor on your own. Having each worked in the culture space for some time, the members of Rolling Stone Culture Council know what it takes to run successful businesses in creative industries. Here, they weigh in with words of wisdom for aspiring or current entrepreneurs on how to land that elusive first sale, and what it takes to keep your business going even after you’ve earned your first customer.

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If your employees feel uncertain about how AI will impact their roles, here's how to frame communications to alleviate their concerns. In the last few years, AI has taken off in unexpected ways that have changed the way today's workforce operates. As a result, the fear of automation replacing tasks or entire jobs has become common among employees.  However, automation doesn't remove the need for the human touch — and, in fact, can be used to support employees in their day-to-day workflows. Below, Rolling Stone Culture Council members share reassuring messages that can help calm employees navigating these changes. With the right communications, employees can view AI not as a threat but as a tool to advance their careers and embrace new possibilities.

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A personal touch can go a long way toward making your customers happy. As their business grows, it’s all too easy for business owners to get swept up in the numbers and forget that there are real people behind their profits. If they want to continue to succeed, it’s key that they make their customers feel valued and that they truly care about them and their experience with the brand.  There are a multitude of ways to do this, from simply listening to customer feedback to providing excellent customer service, but it’s often a combination of methods that makes the biggest difference in how customers feel. Below, the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council draw on their experiences working with customers to offer up seven of the top ways businesses can make customers feel valued and ensure they return to your business again and again.

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Content is king — so why not use it to attract more customers? In today’s online, social-media-driven age, nothing attracts potential customers to a business quite like content marketing. Whether it’s a humorous video, an educational blog post or just consistent, engaging social media posts, content that grabs customers’ attention and keeps them coming back for more is the secret weapon of any successful business. But if you want to amass a large following, you have to get the content marketing right. It’s about creating it well — not just creating it at all. To ensure you’re on the right track, consider the advice of Rolling Stone Culture Council business leaders. Here, they offer their best tips on content marketing and how to make sure you see the benefits of your efforts.

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Introverts bring a unique set of skills to the table that other leaders may not possess. When frequent networking, public speaking and an outgoing personality are so often praised as necessary for effective leadership, it can be difficult for introverts to see themselves running a business. But extroverts aren’t the only ones who have great ideas to share with the world, and it’s just as important for introverts to have their voices heard in the business space. By honoring their strengths — like listening and empathy — introverts can not only be effective leaders but great ones as well. Below, the business leaders of Rolling Stone Culture Council offer their best tips to introverts looking to lead a successful business in the culture space and explain why they can do it just as well as anyone else can.

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Artificial intelligence may be the most important tool in your business tool belt. While artificial intelligence and its ongoing implementation in the business world remains a controversial topic, there are many business leaders and professionals who are finding ways to use AI to optimize their daily work and improve their overall business processes. As a tool, artificial intelligence is more than just a time-saver — but how can it be best utilized? Here, seven business leaders and innovators from Rolling Stone Culture Council offer up a few suggestions. Below, they each discuss some of the smartest ways they’re leveraging AI for their own businesses and why they recommend other business leaders follow suit. From streamlining data collection to predicting future consumer trends, AI has the potential to completely change the way you do business.

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When making this decision, put your customers first and foremost. Trends come and pass, with customers eventually losing interest or forgetting why a particular thing was popular in the first place. Your business, however, should have true staying power. Regardless of the time or place, customers should want to continue buying your products or services because of the distinct value they provide — not because you participated in a trend. But trends can also have their place, providing business leaders with the opportunity to reach new audiences and freshen up their marketing. That said, how is a business leader to know when it’s appropriate to hop on a trend and when it’s not? To shed some light, top business leaders from Rolling Stone Culture Council offer their perspective on the issue, each discussing one tip they’d offer fellow business leaders for how to determine whether a trend will benefit your business or detract from it.

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Companies must strive to be flexible and adaptable to remain relevant and competitive. Consumer and cultural interests have undergone significant shifts over the years, influencing businesses in various ways. Remaining agile and responsive to changing consumer and cultural interests is essential for businesses that want to succeed in today's dynamic marketplace, as a failure to do so could result in missed opportunities and diminished customer trust. Below, a panel of Rolling Stone Culture Council members share nine tips for how your business can stay on top of changing consumer and cultural interests and the impact they have on the overall business climate.

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With so much noise on social media, a strong and well-planned strategy is the key to standing out. Social media has revolutionized the way businesses interact with their customers and followers. Nowadays, it's not just about selling products or services, but also about building relationships and establishing trust with your audience. This is where an effective social media plan comes in. By implementing the right strategies, businesses can engage with their customers and followers on a deeper level, which can lead to increased brand loyalty and advocacy. Below, 10 members of Rolling Stone Culture Council share the different social media strategies any business can use to build better relationships with their customers and why they are so effective at doing so.