The Lone Strawberry

In corporate America, career advancement is often associated with moving into larger organizations with more prestigious titles. Michael Polk Newell Brands, who has spent much of his career inside some of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies, is offering a different perspective. Based on his experience as CEO of Implus LLC, a private fitness accessories […]

Direct sales companies succeed or fail based on the quality of the products and services they represent. Grit Marketing’s partnership with Aptive Environmental reflects the company’s commitment to representing services that deliver genuine value to customers. Aptive’s pest control solutions address a real need for homeowners, and the partnership between the two companies has allowed […]

Few careers span the distance between founding a telemedicine startup at 21 and advising the U.S. Department of Defense on procurement modernization. Justin Fulcher has done both, and the through-line connecting those roles is less surprising than it might appear: each required building systems that hold up under pressure, in environments where failure has real […]

The conventional wisdom in finance holds that performance drives everything: the best advisors generate the strongest returns, and clients follow the numbers. Justin Nelson has spent nearly 30 years at J.P. Morgan Private Bank testing that assumption, and his experience has led him somewhere different. Performance matters, but people matter more. A Philosophy Shaped by […]

For most companies, attracting investors is the goal. For Gulf Coast Western, the more meaningful achievement is keeping them. The Dallas-based oil and gas exploration firm has cultivated a partner base in which 70% of investors have participated in more than one joint venture a figure that points to a business model built around long-term […]

There is a version of Justin Fulcher‘s story that centers on the milestones: the Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition, the platform reaching fifty countries, the government advisory role, the Johns Hopkins doctorate. That version is accurate but incomplete. The tech entrepreneur has been consistent in pointing toward something else: the decisions that compounded quietly before […]

Ultra-high-net-worth families typically accumulate an impressive roster of professional advisors over time: estate attorneys, CPAs, investment managers, insurance specialists, and business consultants. What they often lack is someone responsible for ensuring those specialists are coordinated. That gap, according to Michael Gold of Westport’s Gold Family Wealth, is one of the most common and costly mistakes […]

Career transitions at the senior executive level are rarely simple. Stepping away from a public company CEO role after years of high-profile work requires not just a practical plan, but a genuine sense of what comes next. For Michael Polk Newell Brands, the answer turned out to be smaller, more direct, and more personally engaging […]

When Jazwares acquired Kellytoy in April 2020, Judd Zebersky added a brand to his company’s portfolio that would redefine what Jazwares meant in the marketplace. Squishmallows, the ultrasoft plush toys with individual names, birthdates, and character biographies, were already popular. Under Jazwares, they became a cultural force. Fans collected them obsessively, TikTok amplified their appeal […]