The Local Business Ad of the Year
Two months after John Oliver challenged an Austin plumbing business to make an ad parodying the movie “Magnolia,” the business delivered and Oliver gave it a five-star review.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
More business owners are choosing to talk openly about their mental-health issues.
Amazon is offering shoppers $10 to pick up their own orders.
Employers are likely to have some tough conversations this year with employees who are expecting more big raises.
That crypto thing is not working out quite the way Miami expected (although the mayor is still taking his salary in bitcoin).
MARKETING
John Oliver gave a plumbing company’s movie-parody ad a rave review: “It's been two months since late night TV host John Oliver challenged Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning to make a movie parody for charity and we've got an exciting update: The Austin company not only completed the challenge, they also gave a masterclass in filmmaking. Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning, whose wacky ads include movie parodies like ‘The Toiletnator’ and ‘Toilet Dune,’ was featured on the March 5 episode of ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ on HBO. Oliver challenged Radiant to make a parody of a movie of his choosing and he would donate $10,000 to Central Texas Food Bank. Five days later, Radiant was on a Zoom call with Oliver. Oliver told the team he chose the 1999 movie ‘Magnolia’ for them.”
“The Radiant team devoted a Sunday to watching ‘Magnolia’ in their separate homes before coming together to plan out a script. The movie is three hours long and [Brad Casebier, co-founder] spent six hours watching it and taking notes. ‘My house started looking like some detective's who's manically trying to solve a mass murder crime with charts going everywhere and strings connecting different characters, because the movie's hard,’ Casebier said.”
“The parody, aptly called ‘Magtoiletolia,’ includes an incredible attention to detail, copying scenes exactly from the movie. It also includes shots of a mini set with mini toilets, a first for the plumbing company.”
“The parody took five days to shoot, a couple hundred bucks, some wigs and costumes. Everyone in the parody works at Radiant already or is a family member of an employee there, Casebier said.”
“The feedback the company has received since the parody aired on Oliver's show has been great, Casebier said. There's a sense of Austin pride, he explained. Many have followed the company and their fun ads for decades.” READ MORE
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LIFE
Kelly Greenwood is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs choosing to talk publicly about their own mental health issues: “More than a decade ago when I had to take a leave of absence due to generalized anxiety disorder and depression, I thought my career was over. I was struggling — drowning in shame, self-stigma, and fear of professional repercussions as I did my best to hide what was happening. What would have given me hope was knowing other leaders had successfully navigated mental health challenges. Years later when I started to share my own story after founding Mind Share Partners, a nonprofit focused on changing the culture of workplace mental health, I discovered that I hadn’t been alone. More than that, I’ve learned that everyone has a story of some kind.”
“As part of Mind Share Partners’ client work, we coach organizational leaders one on one to share their mental health stories in an empowering way. We find that this type of storytelling in all-staff meetings and other group settings is one of the most powerful tools to encourage openness and begin to transform organizational culture.”
“Be kind to yourself and give yourself grace. What matters in this type of storytelling is normalizing mental health challenges at work and encouraging people to seek support. Leader allies inspire openness, transparency, and true culture change. Sharing your story may require courage, but so does much of leadership.” READ MORE
PROFILE
In his latest Pitchfork Papers newsletter, Steven Wilkinson writes about Elizabeth Glasbrenner, who is CEO of Smiley Technologies and mother of a special-needs daughter, and whose presentation was one of the highlights of last week’s Small Giants Summit: “There was a spontaneous round of applause for Elizabeth Glasbrenner when she revealed how, after being forced into the CEO role on the sudden departure of her high IQ, low EQ elder brother from that role in 2016 with parting words along the lines of, ‘You’re never going to be able to run this business,’ she and her team had 7x-ed the revenue and 10x-ed the profitability of the business in the intervening eight years. Her comment that her role had always been to support other people in being successful and that as a result, she felt more comfortable in the second row resonated with many, in particular, I felt, the women entrepreneurs in the room.”
“However, she went on to say, that after a few weeks on the job that she never wanted, she realized that helping people succeed was exactly what the role of CEO entailed and that once she had reframed the paradigm of her new job, she embraced it wholeheartedly.”
“Helping her people succeed has resulted in phenomenal growth and business success for Smiley under her tenure. Who'da thunk it?” READ MORE
LOGISTICS
Amazon is offering shoppers $10 to pick up their own orders: “Amazon over the last few days has emailed an unknown number of Prime subscribers offering them $10 to retrieve an order of $25 or more at company pickup points at locations such as Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, or Kohl's stores. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Upstate New York-based shipping consultant Dean Maciuba was among the customers who received the offer. Increasing use of Amazon pickup points would help the company bypass costly residential package drop-offs and is ‘a huge opportunity for Amazon to reduce the cost of delivery,’ Maciuba said. It also helps train consumers to tender returns directly to the company, he said.”
“Amazon separately has started charging some customers a $1 fee if they return packages via a United Parcel Service store when there is an Amazon pickup/return location closer to their delivery address, a change first reported by The Information news site.”
“Shipping companies UPS and FedEx have encouraged customers to use so-called access points, particularly in rural areas where delivering to far-flung addresses can be cost-prohibitive.” READ MORE
PRICING
The big companies are still raising prices: “Companies from automakers to hoteliers keep on sacrificing sales volume – sometimes by design, sometimes by necessity – in favor of higher prices, a dynamic that will test the Federal Reserve’s efforts to rein in inflation. The latest set of earnings showed that businesses aren’t likely to walk away from a strategy Corbu LLC’s Samuel Rines calls ‘price over volume’ adopted by certain industries at the height of the pandemic, when supplies and labor were both hard to come by.”
“Ford Motor said this month it is aiming to maintain robust sticker prices, even if that means rolling fewer cars off its assembly lines. Lodging giant Marriott International has focused on increasing room rates, especially for corporate accounts. Southwest Airlines is among U.S. carriers that are pulling in record revenue as tight flying capacity is helping to keep fares higher.”
“Case in point: Kimberly-Clark, the Dallas-based maker of Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, raised prices by 10 percent across all its categories last quarter. Sales volumes did fall by 5 percent, but its gross margin rose to 33 percent from about 30 percent a year ago.” READ MORE
THE ECONOMY
Inflation cooled for the 10th straight month: “Inflation slowed for a 10th straight month in April, a closely watched report on Wednesday showed, good news for American families struggling under the burden of higher costs and for policymakers in Washington as they try to wrangle rapid price increases. The Consumer Price Index climbed 4.9 percent in April from a year earlier, less than the 5 percent economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected. Inflation has come down notably from a peak just above 9 percent last summer, though it has remained far higher than the 2 percent annual gains that were normal before the pandemic.” READ MORE
By one measure, small business optimism has fallen to a 10-year low: “The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index dropped 1.1 points to 89.0 last month, the lowest level since January 2013. It was the 16th straight month that the index remained below the 49-year average of 98. tighter credit conditions following recent financial market stress are stoking fears of a recession this year. A fight over raising the federal government's borrowing cap is also helping to cloud the economy.”
“While the survey hinted at an economic slowdown, economists cautioned against reading too much into the drop in sentiment. ‘The decline is broadly in line with the weakness in consumer sentiment seen over the past year,’ said Michael Pearce, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York.”
“‘As we've argued before, though, measures of sentiment are often a poor guide of what is likely to happen in the economy because it tells us more about how business owners are feeling, rather than what they are doing.’” READ MORE
HUMAN RESOURCES
Meanwhile, employees expect big pay hikes this year: “About 68 percent of American workers got a pay increase over the last 12 months, with an average increase of about 6.5 percent, according to ADP’s People at Work 2023 report, which surveyed thousands of workers around the world. The survey found Americans are expecting an average 6.7 percent raise in 2023. ‘There’s high expectations absolutely,’ said ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson. ‘People are looking at what they got for last year's pay increase, and they are expecting about the same this year.’ But experts and other data suggests many employees are overly optimistic.”
“Anecdotally, recruiters say employers are dialing back on the aggressive raises and bonuses of the past two years due to economic uncertainty and recession worries — although some high-demand positions have been immune to that trend.”
“Given the gulf between employee expectations and conditions on the ground, as well as the ongoing push for pay transparency, it's likely employers will encounter some difficult scenarios when it comes to pay in 2023.”
“Overall, about half of working Americans in the survey said they were underpaid. About 10 percent said they were overpaid and just 32 percent said they were paid the right amount.” READ MORE
BUSINESS MODELS
L.A. General is expanding its Safer at Home program, which has treated 4,500 Covid patients in their own homes: “As of May, at least 556 patients with 37 different diagnoses have participated in the program. They’ve been cared for remotely by a team of several dozen nurses and five physicians, according to hospital officials. L.A. General is one of the largest public hospitals in the U.S. and historically has treated medically underserved patients in the region. ‘What this is, is concierge-level medicine, which is what rich people are accustomed to getting, but instead we’re giving it to the patients coming to L.A. General, both because it’s safer for the patients to not have to be in the hospital and it’s a much more patient-centered experience,’ said Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer of L.A. General.”
“Slightly more than half of the patients were referred from the emergency department and avoided admission altogether; a little fewer than half were hospitalized but discharged much earlier, according to Spellberg.”
“On average, the program has saved about three hospital days per patient, compared with the typical stay of around five days.”
“The goal of the program is to send every patient home with a pre-programmed cellphone so they’re able to easily communicate with medical professionals and have their wounds and other injuries examined via video call.”
“When asked about negative outcomes with the program, hospital officials said there hadn’t been any. They said those enrolled in Safer at Home have had a hospital readmission rate that is ‘significantly lower’ than the rate for all other discharges from the hospital.” READ MORE
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Miami is no longer banking on crypto: “A year ago, when the annual bitcoin conference opened in Miami, the city was arguably the country’s biggest booster of digital currencies. MiamiCoin traded on a global crypto exchange. The Miami Heat basketball team played at FTX Arena, and cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com was preparing to move its headquarters to a splashy office in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood. Today, as Miami prepares to host Bitcoin 2023 on May 18, none of those things is true anymore.”
“Even though he continues to receive his salary in bitcoin, the mayor no longer takes every chance to promote Miami as a crypto haven. ‘We thought it was a great opportunity, as a fintech marker, for us to jump in and be able to differentiate ourselves,’ Mr. Suarez said about digital currencies in a recent interview. ‘I don’t regret us being innovative. You learn, you grow, you get stronger.’”
“Many other Miami officials and business leaders have soured on crypto, no longer counting on it as a main driver in the city’s quest to become a world-class business and financial center. Even some locals who are part of the city’s digital currency economy are openly critical.”
“‘Most of crypto was a pyramid scheme,’ said Ryan Kirkley, a local businessman who runs and advises early-stage blockchain and artificial-intelligence companies and helps connect them with venture capital.” READ MORE
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
I’m Not a Real CEO: This week, Jay Goltz, Liz Picarazzi, and Sarah Segal talk about the inherent conflicts between being an entrepreneur and being a CEO—and the different skill sets each role requires. Does it make sense for the same person to do both jobs? Is being CEO even a full-time job? And when does it make sense to replace yourself as CEO? Liz says she’s thought about it. Jay, not so much: “Could I have found somebody 10, 15, 20 years ago that was a better manager? Sure. But it just wasn't worth it.” Why not? “It's gonna cost you $250,000 a year,” Jay says. “Is it worth paying that?” Plus: Liz and Sarah talk about positioning a company to be acquired. And Sarah proposes a PR campaign for Liz’s package bins right on the spot.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren