Digital Edition : July

THE SPAC PHENOMENON WHY SMART PEOPLE MAKE BAD DECISIONS

BUILDING BACK GREENER

The Fantastic Mr. Foxx Coming off his Oscar win, Jamie Foxx is everywhere this summer.

C ON T E N T S DIGITAL EDITION 01 | JULY 2021

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The Ubiquity of Jamie Foxx The Oscar winner on his latest projects, working with his daughter and his new partnership with Brown Sugar Bourbon

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How to Stay Private When Your Company Goes Public Investing in privacy for you and your employees could help fend off cyberattacks all around

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How DeFi Is Minting the Next Class of Millionaires Bitcoin has been making major headlines, but “alt coins” are where savvy investors are finding big returns

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These Industries Are Leading the Way in Green Innovation in 2021 Industries like agriculture, energy and retail are some of this year’s frontrunners 02

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How to Support Your Exhausted BIPOC Coworkers

Ways leaders can help ease the emotional burden these employees face

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How to Tell Your Philanthropy Money Story One of the easiest ways to ease into money talks with your family starts with philanthropy

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Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions and Why It’s Hard to Learn From Our mistakes

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The Nonalcoholic Spirits Brand That Wants to Enhance Your Mental Health Optimist Drinks is aiming to improve mental well-being through social connection

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Coconut Grove Sailing: A Yacht Club for Everyone A sailing club that will change the way you view yacht clubs

Departments 04

Masthead

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Editor’s Letter

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Contributors

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Editors Picks

The good news is it’s possible to change our preferential pathways in order to make better decisions over time WORTH.COM

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Jim McCann CHAIRMAN

Josh Kampel CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

James Ledbetter CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

EDITORIAL E D I TO R I A L D I R E C TO R

Emily Cegielski

S E N I O R E D I TO R

Micki Wagner

C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R

Nicole Dudka

E D I T O R AT L A R G E CO N T R I B U TO R S

Richard Bradley Nora Ali, George Everly, Deborah Grayson, Devin Partida, Davis Richardson, Jonathan Russo, Rob Shavell, Linda Davis Taylor, Arick Wierson

INTERNS

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PARTNERSHIPS, ADVERTISING & EVENTS V I C E P R E S I D E N T, PA R T N E R S H I P S

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S A L E S D I R E C TO R PA R T N E R S H I P S M A N A G E R E V E N TS & CO M M U N I T Y M A N AG E R

Dominick Cerritelli Christian Harris Molly McLoone

PRODUCT, OPERATIONS & FINANCE HEAD OF MARKETING M A R K E T I N G C O O R D I N AT O R

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Clyde Lee III

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E DITOR ’ S LE T TE R

Is the ‘New Normal’ Finally Here?

I L L U S T R AT I O N : LY N D O N H AY E S

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ith summer in full swing and nearly half of the U.S. population completely vaccinated, we’re finally seeing some much-needed light at the end of this virulent tunnel.

Masks are coming off, gatherings are back on and handshakes are reemerging as a standard greeting. It feels like we’ve finally entered the next chapter of postpandemic life, and much of the world— maybe unsurprisingly—is beginning to go back to normal.

I recently attended my first in-person event at Worth’s offices to celebrate our return to print. After 15 months of social distancing and working from home, I won’t lie, I was nervous. Social anxiety had unexpectedly crept into my psyche, and I was unsure how the group gathering would unfold. But it was just like riding a bike. Before I knew it, the room was filled with a mix of writers, editors, entrepreneurs and business executives—no masks, no particularly noticeable fear—interacting as if we were in pre-COVID times. I shook hands with new acquaintances, hugged people I had grown close with over Zoom, clinked my glass with others. It felt great. It felt normal.

Normal. The return to normal has been a hot topic ever since the pandemic struck last year. But with each passing day of

quarantine—as we saw pollution subside from the lack of cars on the road, as we watched global health systems crumble, as we mourned all the small businesses and restaurants forced to shut down, as we realized that working from home could be just as productive as being in an office—the conversation quickly pivoted to this idea of “a new normal” or “the next normal.” At Worth, we even started a yearlong digital roundtable series, in which we spoke to experts across different industries each week, asking: What will the world look like after the current crisis passes? How will specific businesses and sectors not only respond to the existing challenges but also transform to adapt to a new frontier?

Now that normal is returning, how do we make sure that this next chapter can build upon and scale the momentum of hoping to create a better society? For some, it will require wide-scale change; for others, it will be little things. One of the many changes we made last year at Worth was to pivot to a digital-only platform, while also putting more focus on our mission of creating societal good.

As this new chapter begins, we’re not only returning to print and live events (our pre-pandemic “normal”), but we are also developing new products, series and opportunities for our audience to create impact that will lead to a more just and equitable society for all. And the launch of Worth’s new monthly Digital Editions is only the first step we’re taking.

As we celebrate Hot Vax Summer, let’s not all have collective amnesia. Remember what we’ve gone through to get here.

Remember that we still have issues that need to be fixed. Remember that preCOVID “normal” should have never been normal in the first place. Let’s all go out, soak up the sun, celebrate, let off some steam—and then come back with a renewed energy to make this world a better place. Don’t let last year be a waste.

— Emily Cegielski E D I TO R I A L D I R E C TO R

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CONTRIB UTORS

Micki Wagner Worth Senior Editor Micki Wagner is a New York Citybased writer and editor exploring food, fashion and female empowerment in her work. She specializes in digital media, content creation and production.

Before coming to Worth, she worked as a social media producer for American Media, Inc., as a department editor for Vox Magazine and as a contributing writer for HerCampus and MyTherapistSays. A St. Louis native, Micki attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she received a bachelor of journalism in Arts & Culture Magazine Journalism and an associate’s in Ancient Mediterranean Studies.

Deborah Grayson and Jonathan Russo Deborah Grayson and Jonathan Russo have been interested in food, wine, travel and yachting for decades. They write on these topics for Observer, Edible East End, Soundings Magazine and Organic Wine Journal. Deborah has two master’s degrees in nutrition. Jonathan spent 40 years in the entertainment industry.

They live in Manhattan and Shelter Island, N.Y. “Post vaccinations, we wanted to resume sailing ASAP. Little did we know we would find a welcoming sailing club in Miami-adjacent Coconut Grove [in] Florida. The low-key club had great facilities and boats. Plus, it was right on beautiful and windy Biscayne Bay. We wrote the profile to let anyone interested in learning to sail know about this resource.”

Q: How did you get into covering wine and spirits?

A: I’ve always had an interest in the culinary space.

Before I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be a pastry chef. So naturally, when I was in journalism school, I took a food and wine writing class, in which we learned a lot about the production of wines and how to taste them, which I found fascinating and have been drawn to ever since.

Q: What interested you the most about Optimist Drinks?

A: I really wanted to know more about their business’ 360-degree model of sustainability. I love that they factor mental health into the concept of sustainability to paint this more complete picture of how to run a truly sustainable company.

Q: Why do you think nonalcoholic spirits

brands are having such a moment right now?

A: We saw alcohol consumption skyrocket during the pandemic, but, actually, alcohol consumption rates had been decreasing among younger generations for a couple years, so I think the rise of sober bars and nonalcoholic spirits just follows that trend. Tommy Johnstone, cofounder of Optimist Drinks, told me that alcohol is the younger generations’ parents’ drug, and so it would seem natural for them to rebel against that. I don’t know if that’s entirely the reason, but I do think it’s a solid point.

Q: What’s your go-to drink this summer?

A: In terms of spirits, I’ve been really liking canned cocktails like Bombay Sapphire’s new canned gin and tonics and Social Hour Cocktail’s Pacific Spritz, which is the only spritz I’ve ever enjoyed. But the irony is I’m not much of a drinker! My true summer go-to is an iced caramel macchiato from Starbucks.

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Arick Wierson Arick Wierson is a nationally renowned political and business columnist for CNN, Observer, CNBC and Vice and a six-time Emmy Award-winning television producer and documentary filmmaker. Arick served as a long-time political and media advisor to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, during which time he formed NYC TV and NYC Media, the largest publicly owned broadcast entity in the United States.

A former investment banker, Arick began his career with JP Morgan in New York City and later at ABN AMRO Bank in Brazil.

He currently advises corporate, government and political clients on a variety of communications and branding issues across the United States, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. He speaks fluent Spanish and is bilingual in Portuguese and English. He and his family live in the Lake Minnetonka area of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. You can follow him on twitter @ArickWierson.

“It’s not every day that us mere mortals get to kick back with one of the biggest A-listers in Hollywood without aides and handlers hovering around—especially with one as in-demand as Jamie Foxx. But this talented comedian-cum-singer-cum-actor-cum-empresario proved to be as authentic as one might guess, still staying true to his humble Texas origins.”

E DITOR ’ S PICKS TELEVISION

HBO’S Q: INTO THE STORM During lockdown, I watched more true crime and investigative documentaries than I thought was humanly possible. But without a doubt, the most mind-blowing series I discovered was HBO’s Q: Into the Storm, a sixpart documentary series exploring the origins of QAnon, from director Cullen Hoback and executive producer Adam McKay. The series is a deep dive into how conspiracy theories have grown in scope and political significance, chronicling the real-time evolution of QAnon and how the forces behind the movement used information warfare to game the internet, hijack politics and manipulate people’s thinking. Anyone who’s ever cared about the fabric of American democracy should put Q: Into the Storm on their must-watch list immediately.

—Emily Cegielski HBO MAX SUBSCRIPTION, STARTING AT $9.99

BOOK

Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power

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achary Karabell’s latest book documents the history of this 200-plus-yearold financial firm, which rarely makes headlines but has included such luminaries as New York Governor Averell Harriman and U.S. Senator Prescott Bush. Clarim Media Chief Content Officer James Ledbetter recently interviewed Karabell.

Q: Of all the storied firms on Wall Street, why write a history of this one?

A: I wanted to write about the crucial, central role of money in American history. I also wanted to write about how money and power converge. There’s literally no firm that could better tell the arc of that story.

Q: You say that this is a story of “sustainable capitalism,” an interesting phrase, given the way that “sustainable” is used these days.

A: I am purposely using it differently than the jargon. It’s a way of saying there are other groups that need to be served by a system than shareholders. A long-term sustainable capitalism is one where there’s an intuitive understanding that my private gain cannot be so detached from public good.

Q: How would you characterize the Brown Brothers Harriman philosophy?

A: It stems from the decades of homily-laden letters Alexander Brown wrote to his sons. Don’t take too much risk. Know your customers. Trust is easily lost and hard to gain. Be careful who you do business with. Safety is better than risk. Investment is better than speculation.

PENGUIN PRESS, $30, 448 PAGES

WINE

CAKEBREAD CELLARS’ SAUVIGNON BLANC 2020 AND POINT REYES FARMSTEAD CHEESE COMPANY’S TOMA CHEESE Cakebread recently held a virtual wine and cheese tasting featuring this wine and cheese pair, and it was truly delicious. The wine was summery and bright with notes of grapefruit and melon, which paired beautifully with the smooth, mild, creamy Toma. It’s such a simple pairing, but any guest you have over this summer will be pleased with this combo.

—Micki Wagner CAKEBREAD CELLARS SAUVIGNON BLANC 2020, $29 POINT REYES FARMSTEAD TOMA CHEESE, $40 FOR 3 WEDGES

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JA M I E FOX X

The Ubiquity of Jamie Foxx Fresh off the success of the Oscar-winning Soul, Jamie Foxx chats with Worth columnist Arick Wierson about his latest projects, his ever-so-brief foray into politics, Mike Tyson and his new partnership with Brown Sugar Bourbon. BY ARICK WIERSON 08

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P H OTO B Y TAY L O R C H I E N

JA M I E FOX X

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amie Foxx, it seems, is just about everywhere these days.

From Fox network’s Beat Shazam, which he cohosts with his daughter Corinne, and the breakout Netflix series Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! to the much anticipated Mike Tyson biopic, Jamie Foxx is seemingly omnipresent as of late. COVID hasn’t slowed down this Oscar and Grammy Award-winning talent.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Foxx just helped his friend Pete Docter add another Oscar to the family fireplace mantle for his work voicing the character of Joe Gardner, the jazz pianist whose soul separates from his body after falling into an open manhole, in the Pixar animated flick Soul. And outside of Hollywood, Foxx recently dipped his toe (albeit his pinky toe) into politics this April when he endorsed, via Instagram, childhood friend Tonya Derrick, who ran for and won a Dallas-area school board seat. Then there’s his new partnership with Brown Sugar Bourbon.

And I’m just scratching the surface of this increasingly ubiquitous actor-cum-singer-cum-brand empresario.

When I had an opportunity to connect with Foxx, I knew my biggest challenge was going to be where to focus. As with most Hollywood A-listers, I could have taken my interview with him in any number of directions, but with my editors at Worth who are fond of reminding me of the famous line from Hamlet—“brevity is the soul of wit”—I tried my best to keep my incessable curiosity at bay and the loquacious Foxx on point.

Here goes it.

Editor’s Note: Some of Foxx’s answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Jamie, it’s great meeting you and before we get started, can I just say that of all of your performances that I have seen, nothing comes close to your impression of John Legend singing the Toys “R” Us jingle on The Tonight Show’s Wheel of Musical Impressions.

A: Oh man! Thank you so much. I love Jimmy [Fallon], that’s my guy—he’s the best. It’s always a great time on his show.

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A lot of people know Jamie Foxx the actor, Jamie Foxx the comedian and Jamie Foxx the singer, but not everyone knows that music is really your true passion.

Music is my first love. My grandmother, Estelle Marie Talley, always encouraged me to learn to play to get me to the other side of the tracks in Terrell, Texas, where I’m from. She was right; I ended up going to college in San Diego on a classical piano scholarship, and that’s what eventually brought me up to L.A. Music is everything to me, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel my grandma’s presence.

And now you’re all over the place—in a good way.

Yeah man, I’m in Atlanta right now filming, in fact. It’s a Netflix film called Day Shift, and I’m so excited for you to see what we’ve got coming—it’s going to be something special. I also have They Cloned Tyrone for Netflix that I recently shot, which is going to be super dope.

Congrats on the success of Soul. My kiddos, ages four and seven, loved it.

Although some of it certainly went over their heads.

Thank you so much for saying that. I really feel humbled and blessed beyond measure to be part of such a legendary Pixar film. I have to give big ups to the incomparable Pete Docter and Kemp Powers for the incredible journey.

And what a cast.

Beyond my wildest dreams! Honestly amazing. So much talent. Tina Fey, Questlove, Phylicia Rashad and so many others. Plus, the main ingredient to the music of the film, Jon Batiste, who won an Oscar. He’s consistently elevating the artistic game, and his accolades are so well deserved.

Now let’s talk politics.

I’m with you, bro.

I mean Dallas politics—specifically Terrell School Board politics and your childhood friend, Tonya Derrick.

Growing up in school in Terrell, Texas…

I know I hold onto those values and to those disciplines that I learned to this day.

And your candidate won! Do you think your big-time endorsement catapulted her over the top to victory?

I’ll say this—Tonya Derrick I have known for all my life. She loves Terrell. She loves her family. She loves the Terrell School District. She’s the best candidate for the job.

What has it been like working with your daughter Corinne on Beat Shazam?

It’s been such a blessing getting to work with my daughter and see how much she’s grown. I’m so proud of her! The fourth season of Beat Shazam premieres on Fox on June 3. We also have a show together on Netflix that is a number one hit—it’s called Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! based on our real-life relationship.

And she’s my boss on the show; she’s the executive producer. It was such a surreal moment when we went to visit the billboard on Sunset Boulevard. Dreams really do come true.

And Iron Mike—when do we get to see you put on the signature black shorts?

Oh man, I love Mike. It’s still a way out, but I can’t wait to get to that project.

P H OTO B Y TAY L O R C H I E N

Most Hollywood people I talk to who have been around since the ‘80s and ‘90s usually have a good Mike Tyson story.

What’s yours?

I’ll say this—it’s one of my favorite Mike stories. I’ll never forget when I first started doing stand-up. I was 21, and I was killing L.A. I’m at a club, and I get to my Mike Tyson joke, and that’s where I usually get a standing ovation. When I get to the joke, nobody laughs. Nobody! You know why? Because Mike Tyson is in the building. It was crazy because that’s when Mike Tyson was knocking people out for just smiling.

Did you continue with the bit?

So, I get to that joke and somebody yells, “Mike is in here!” And there’s a girl in the front who says, “What are you gonna do, Jamie? You gonna tell your little joke?”

And some dude yells out, “Mike said you could do the joke, but it better be funny.” So, now there’s pressure. I do the joke—I think it was something like Mike Tyson going through the drive-thru at Kentucky Fried Chicken or something like that. The joke goes over, and it’s a standing ovation. Mike comes up to me and taps me on my chest, and my chest caves in. But I knew I connected with him that night.

Let’s talk bourbon.

C’mon, I’m ready.

Brown Sugar Bourbon—how did the partnership begin with the brand?

I was first introduced to Brown Sugar Bourbon at a party—everyone knows I throw the biggest parties!—and I immediately knew it was the right brand for me. It tastes great, it’s affordable and it goes with my personality. When I got involved with BSB, my daughter Corinne, who’s in her 20s, already knew about the brand!

Do you consider yourself a bourbon guy?

I’m a big bourbon guy. With BSB, you can drink it however you want it—you can put it on ice or you can drink it straight.

Nice plug. I’ll do you a solid and put that in the interview.

Everyone’s home bar should be stocked with BSB because it’s everything you need. It’s a drink you can sip and feel good about!

So, what’s your pick: BSB or BSB 103 ‘High Altitude’—which, by the way, sounds pretty hard core?

It’s hard to choose because I’m a fan of both! BSB is great for sipping, shots or in a cocktail, but if I really want to turn up, I’ll have a glass of BSB 103 on ice. Both are super smooth with just the right amount of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Jamie Foxx, 103-proof bourbon and Iron Mike, that’s a dangerous combination!

You can bet on that!

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P U B L I C C O M PA N Y

How to Stay Private When Your Company Goes Public Investing in you and your employees’ privacy when your company goes public is massively important for staving off cyberattacks.

BY ROB SHAVELL

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espite global economic uncertainty, last year was a record year for IPOs, and this year looks likely to be just as busy.

The result of countless hours of work, sacrifice and more than a few decisions gone right, having a company you’re invested in get acquired or go public can be a capstone career highlight. However, alongside positive developments, like a significant financial windfall, companies on the verge of an initial public offering attract a wave of attention for shareholders and founders—not all of it positive. While renewed interest from investors, and for the most part, the media, can be great, the hype surrounding an acquisition or IPO can also attract attention from less welcome sources like short-selling naysayers, hackers and criminals.

It doesn’t help that many companies in this position are still comparatively small.

Even though an organization might have valuable IP and an investor valuation to match, a pre-acquisition or pre-IPO business may still effectively be a startup.

As a result, with only a few hundred employees and without the robust IT security infrastructure or expertise that longer-standing public corporations might possess, outsized publicity can increase both organizational and personal risks for those involved. Fortunately, with a little bit of planning and preparation, it is still possible to achieve the upside of an IPO while minimizing the personal damages or company threats that come from the negative attention.

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THE PERSONAL IMPACT OF AN IPO A major source of vulnerability for companies engaged in public offerings— or any kind of high-profile merger or acquisition activity—is short-term relative visibility. While making headlines sounds nice, media buzz is not an unmitigated benefit. Business leaders that were once operating in relative obscurity are often propelled into fame they’re ill-prepared to deal with, sometimes overnight. Unfortunately, rather than just being annoying, a more public profile can come with dire consequences. Publicity can resurrect disgruntled former employees, jealous people on the internet, individuals who “lost out” on the deal in some material way or just scammers/criminals looking to target high-profile individuals. As a result, any individual involved in a company IPO can suddenly find they have a target on their backs.

The most obvious target is visible leadership. That being said, other people involved in the deal—like investors— might be targeted as well once news of their involvement makes headlines. At best, they could have to deal with slander, online harassment and cyberstalking.

At worst, these threats can become real, in-person problems that threaten both individuals involved and their families.

You don’t have to look far to find stories of business leaders being kidnapped and held for ransom due to their corporate success and personal wealth.

IPOS MAKE COMPANIES MORE VULNERABLE TO CYBERATTACKS Personal attacks on business leaders and investors aside, IPOs can also have a serious cybersecurity impact on companies looking to go public. The number and frequency of cyberattacks on companies have been growing rapidly, with cybercriminals paying particular attention to small and medium-sized businesses, in large part because few are prepared to defend themselves.

In the past year, we have seen steady growth in cases where hackers specifically target senior leadership.

C-suite execs are 12 times as likely to be personally targeted compared to other employees within an organization.

In 2020, Jeff Bezos’ mobile device was compromised via a phishing attack using WhatsApp; 100 high-ranking officials at German companies (including Bayer and

malware-loaded links), the thing most share in common is employee vulnerability to social engineering.

Simply knowing a given target’s name, job title/role, personal email and—in particular—cell phone number can be sufficient to initiate attacks.

Volkswagen) were recently targeted by cybercriminals after an announcement they would receive government funds for COVID-19 PPE procurement; late last year, Russian cybercriminals offered for sale the personal email addresses and passwords for hundreds of senior executives around the world. Known as “whaling,” these kinds of attacks are often prompted by high-publicity news around specific business figures.

Companies that list their shares on a stock exchange also present a ripe opportunity for ransomware attacks. In 2021, it is predicted that there will be a ransomware incident every 11 seconds, up from every 19 seconds in 2019. For companies preparing for an IPO, bad publicity associated with a data breach presents excessive risk they can’t afford, making them more likely to pay a ransom. Trend Micro estimated that two-thirds of companies targeted pay ransomware demands, often without notifying police, customers or the general public.

Small startup companies preparing for an IPO are also more vulnerable to various forms of identity-spoofing.

For example, in a crime known as “deal

spoofing,” scammers may pretend to be company representatives in order to rip off investors, or alternatively, pretend to be wealthy investors interested in a firm.

EXECUTIVE AND EMPLOYEE PERSONAL INFORMATION IS THE CRITICAL PIECE TO PROTECT Regardless of whether they are looking to harass or exploit an individual or launch a cyberattack on an entire organization that’s about to go public, for cybercriminals and other threat actors, a successful attack often starts with finding personal executive and employee information. Unfortunately, this is not hard to do. According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, there are currently over 230 data brokers with detailed personal information on 99 percent of all adult Americans.

Although this might not present security risks for most, for leadership at high-growth, high-profile companies, it’s a reality few have accommodated for.

While there are numerous technical methods of conducting a cyberattack (like phishing emails including

THE SOLUTION Common defensive measures against cyberthreats tend to focus on the IT side of the equation: data-backups, email scanning, domain-filtering, etc. On the other hand, the “human security” component is often relegated to an HR role, where compliance education is the sum-total of effort protecting against employee error or misuse of credentials.

Increasingly, companies— particularly those with public-facing personnel—are making stronger efforts to provide key people with additional privacy protection that helps prevent identity theft exploits, social engineering attacks and harassment and stalking. This protection can take the form of reputation management services or privacy services that help find and remove employees’ personal identifying information available in public places online.

This kind of data scrubbing of online profiles may initially be done for compliance or PR purposes but is progressively being recognized to have real security benefits for firms.

These benefits often apply not just to key workers themselves but their families as well, as personal data tends to be commingled with members of a household.

FINAL THOUGHTS When companies take the first steps toward public ownership, the stakes involved rise rapidly, and data security often receives less attention than capital raising. However, it is important that businesses are aware that with increased sources of financing, the risks business leaders and companies themselves face will escalate rapidly.

The potential threats to a company expand as public awareness of it does, and it is people, not hardware, that remain the most vulnerable resource for the majority of organizations on the verge of going public.

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S PA C S

Are SPACs Here to Stay?

Experts weigh in on the IPO trend, discuss what makes SPACs so appealing and reveal why they became so popular during the pandemic.

BY MICKI WAGNER

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S PA C S

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PACs (or special-purpose acquisition companies) seemingly became an overnight sensation as the alternative way to take a company public. But, according to a report published by UBS in April, SPACs actually entered a cooling period this spring after a hot winter.

“SPAC return patterns over the last six months also suggest fairly convincingly that speculation, not fundamentals, was driving prices. Consequently, SPACs…became a quintessential ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ asset,” the report stated.

But this cooling period doesn’t mean we should count SPACs out yet. In early June, Worth held a virtual event with Carlos Alvarez, managing director and head of permanent capital solutions at UBS, Sharon Sager, CIMA, managing director, private wealth advisor, family office consultant and institutional consultant at UBS, and Jim McCann, chairman of Worth and chairman and founder of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, to discuss the mighty rise of SPACs and what to look out for.

Starting off the conversation, Alvarez noted that SPACs have been around since the early ‘90s, so SPACs themselves are not new, but the excitement and recent popularity surrounding them is.

“SPACs are definitely not a new phenomenon, but one could argue that they’ve clearly taken a very meaningful step over the last 15 months or so, which is extremely exciting,” Alvarez said.

“Ultra-high net worth individuals find SPACs appealing because of the redemption feature, the ability to redeem at the two year or so mark.

They can have sort of a risk-free look at a growth company, knowing their downside is limited by that redemption feature, and in some cases, they might hold the warrant for upside,” Sager said. “A SPAC can be an opportunity, too, for succession or generational wealth transfer without a public IPO.” Considering the limitations that the pandemic presented, Alvarez said COVID actually exposed some of the risks of traditional methods of taking companies public, thus shining a light on the benefits of SPACs.

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“The combination of all those trends, I think, has led to many, many and actually better companies now considering the SPAC as the preferred way to go public. And again, I think, if I would single one reason [out], to me, clearly it is the increased quality of sponsors that are now really driving this market,” Alvarez said. “It is that ability to bring something beyond capital. Capital is a commodity, but if a company can benefit from a team’s real experience and ability to add value over time, why not? It is also a process that I think meaningfully reduces the execution price from a company’s point of view, and as CEOs and leaders and their boards think about the pros and cons of one path versus another, the SPAC, I think, compares quite favorably in a lot of cases. So, a combination of all those things really saw the market effectively catch fire last year. This was a market that during 2017, 2018, 2019 was seeing roughly $10-ish billion dollars per year of IPO volume. And that jumped to roughly $82 billion in 2020. And then even this year, the first quarter alone, I think by now we’re already well over $100 billion in 2021.”

Alvarez and McCann, who launched his own SPAC in February, agree that SPACs are becoming well-established in the market, and it’s McCann’s estimation that the trendiness of SPACs will fade, and ultimately, they will become a normal consideration when companies are looking to go public.

“It seems to be my guess, Carlos, that this will become the third leg of the stool, in terms of how a company might consider accessing the public marketplace—whether it’s a traditional IPO, a direct listing, which we’ve seen several successful direct listings in the last six to 12 months, and now, a legitimate SPAC market is another good alternative,” McCann said. “I think it’s attractive from both an issuer and an investor point of view.”

And according to Sager, SPACs have also been good so far for promoting diversity on company boards.

“One bright spot in the SPAC market is all these new companies are giving an opportunity to qualified candidates who happened to be women or diverse candidates to serve on boards, and I think that’s a real inflection opportunity, and I hope these companies are looking to diversity and qualified candidates,” Sager said.

It’s uncertain what will become of the SPAC market in the long-term, but for now, it seems to be an interesting option, though it is important to exercise caution, according to UBS’ April report.

“The takeaway for investors is to remain cautious and become well informed about SPACs before investing in them,” the report states. “The past two months have demonstrated that investors can lose a lot on SPACs, even when they have the redemption option. We still think that investing in a diversified portfolio of SPACs at the IPO offers the best risk-return tradeoff because of the redemption option and upside optionality through warrants. Investors who don’t participate in the SPAC IPO should wait until the merger target is at least announced and can be evaluated, and now perhaps also wait until the ‘selling on the news’ is complete.”

“One bright spot in the SPAC market is all these new companies are giving an opportunity to qualified candidates who happened to be women or diverse candidates to serve on boards, and I think that’s a real inflection opportunity.”

—SHARON SAGER WORTH.COM

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DEFI

How DeFi Is Minting the Next Class of Millionaires While Bitcoin has smashed record-high after record-high this past year, low market cap “altcoins” are where savvy investors currently find the biggest returns. BY DAVIS RICHARDSON

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he upcoming millionaire class has more in common with degenerate gamblers heading to Foxwoods than Warren Buffett. They hurl their retirement funds into cryptocurrencies with colorful animal icons, mocking financial iconoclasts like Buffett for panic-selling Delta stock at the onset of the pandemic.

They gather in Telegram chatrooms to trade tips, mobilize support around certain digital assets and talk smack about bears and naysayers.

“If I’m not getting a free Lexus airdropped into my phone multiple times a month, I’m doing something wrong,” one blockchain enthusiast told me last month as we discussed how the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap gave all its users 400 free tokens last year to celebrate the release of its new digital coin (UNI, which features a pink unicorn as the icon).

Today, those 400 coins would be worth $12,000.

The virtual world these crypto fiends operate in is called “decentralized finance,” AKA “DeFi.” While Bitcoin has smashed recordhigh after record-high this past year (its current price hovers at $34,600), low market cap “alt-coins” are where savvy investors currently find the biggest returns. With decentralized payment rails and smart contract services being rapidly built off blockchain ecosystems like Ethereum, a digital gold rush is underway. If Bitcoin was the first iteration of cryptocurrency, then DeFi is the natural evolution.

Many souls have ventured this landscape, beckoned by the siren calls of establishing generational wealth that funds entire governments and military apparatuses, only to be crushed. 2017’s alt-coin bull cycle was driven primarily by retail investors scouring for the next Bitcoin. But the turbulence was too much for many to handle: Ethereum flash crashed from $319 to 10 cents in seconds, and numerous alt-coins were essentially pump-and-dump schemes. Retail investors who bought cryptocurrencies at the top of 2017,

panic-selling as the market went sideways, became cautionary tales.

DeFi today is still very much the Wild West. The SEC recently opened an investigation into whether Ripple Labs sold unregistered securities via its XRP token. Earlier this year, a hacker attacked the blockchain project PAID Network, causing the PAID token to plummet by more than 80 percent, as the virtual bandit made off with roughly $3 million in Ethereum.

Who knows whether the token’s price will recover or if investors will get their initial investments back.

But does losing the money even matter to a retailer if another lowcap DeFi project rockets off?

Thieves, federal investigations, cyberattacks and a new class of brash capitalists chasing a gold rush: It’s the classic American love story with capitalism, exported on a global level, playing out on Telegram rather than oil fields. Much like the mob built Las Vegas before corporations entered to turn the town into a corporate Disneyland, the earlier cryptocurrency use cases involved money laundering,

circumventing sanctions and skirting regulation.

But the outlaw days may be ending as institutions flock to DeFi in droves and lawmakers formalize regulation in the space. In December, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a report titled “Crypto: What Is It Good For?” Rather than focus exclusively on Bitcoin, the WEF identified key players in the DeFi ecosystem, including decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. The report also revealed that Deutsche Bank had recently opened a digital custody to provide investors “lending, staking and voting” services—popular concepts within DeFi in which cryptocurrency holders can lend out digital assets and earn payments from other holders and exchanges. Lawmakers like Rashida Tlaib, meanwhile, have introduced legislation to regulate stablecoins, cryptocurrencies which hold a constant value. Even chain analysis firms have started conducting surveillance on blockchain to monitor financial transactions.

A lot of money is flowing into DeFi. Uniswap, for example, has amassed a market cap of over $17 billion. JPMorgan Chase said DeFi will pose a threat to traditional financial institutions, while Bank of America noted that Ethereum “has more features” than Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency founders currently govern this reality like gods (buying NFTs for $60 million, air dropping millions of dollars in tokens and moving entire markets). But corporations will inevitably rule DeFi with as firm of a fist as Las Vegas. In the interim, the space is a slot machine for gamblers looking for a payout.

The unsophisticated will lose their homes buying Dogecoin at the top. But others will gain financial freedom by being one step ahead of financial institutions.

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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

These Indust r ies A re Leading the Way in Green In novat ion in 2021 Hand-in-hand with still generating a profit, these green innovations show that adaptation and fast action are key to helping the environment.

BY DEVIN PARTIDA

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2020

was a difficult year for everyone.

The pandemic created lockdowns and emphasized the need for social distancing. One positive outcome was reduced pollution as people stayed home across the world. However temporary, this reduction shows that fast change is possible.

In 2021, several industries are taking it upon themselves to act in a similarly quick way with green innovations that can help the environment.

1. TRANSPORTATION As one of the most necessary industries in the world, transportation holds a lot of responsibility to be reliable. However, it’s also a primary area for air pollution. In 2018, transportation contributed 28 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States—the most of any industry.

To combat that pollution, the industry is now turning away from gas-powered vehicles and focusing on alternatives.

While electric vehicles (EVs) have been in development, the bigger focus for 2021 will be hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These vehicles produce no emissions and don’t require batteries as EVs do.

The transportation sector is going beyond even hydrogen cars, too. A new design from Airbus shows that hydrogen-powered airplanes could be in the air by 2030.

2. AGRICULTURE Agriculture workers and farmers usually have to maintain large plots of land, monitoring crops and animals. With such large spaces to take care of, it becomes easy to overlook the smaller tasks, like fertilizing. However, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can help track plant growth across the farm.

These sensors track the condition of the crops, which helps workers know how much sunlight, fertilizer or water the plants might need. The sensors also work with weather forecasts, so farmers know exactly how to prepare their crops for a storm. This precision helps agriculture workers reduce the resources they use, so nothing goes to waste.

In a more urban area, vertical farming is a growing trend in 2021. When growing crops vertically indoors, workers can use less water, as it all drips down from plant to plant. They can also reduce the need for pesticides completely.

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A vertical farm then provides foods, like fruits, vegetables and grains, more immediately to the surrounding area.

3. WASTE MANAGEMENT The waste management industry must improve the management of certain harmful waste, like plastics and byproducts. These two examples, specifically, have the potential to improve the industry in a green way, with the proper techniques.

Plastic recycling is the process of chemically altering a plastic to make it reusable as another object. While chemical recycling isn’t a cure-all solution, it’s a greener way to handle the massive amounts of plastic in the world.

For any waste that could contain germs or that’s a potential risk for human handling, anaerobic digestion is an innovative way to handle it.

This method uses microorganisms to digest waste, which can create biogas in the process that then provides heat or electricity.

4. ENERGY The energy industry has a significant responsibility on its shoulders. As the sector that deals with fossil fuels and renewables, it must put forth the greenest solutions.

With solar and wind energy production on the rise and their costs dropping, this adoption can continue.

However, the energy industry can also help provide water to those in need.

Approximately 785 million people across the world lack access to basic drinking water services. To combat this global water crisis, some experts are using solar panels to desalinate water.

Desalination is a tedious and time-

consuming process that would typically require massive amounts of energy.

With solar energy as its power source, though, desalination facilities can operate round-the-clock with no emissions, providing clean water to those in need.

5. FOOD PRODUCTION The food industry has seen an interesting movement in the past few years with the inclusion of meat, protein and dairy alternatives. Labgrown or plant-based meat substitutes are on track to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4 percent through 2026. The livestock sector contributes 14.5 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, so switching to plants is the green movement the food industry needs.

6. RETAIL Retail still has a long way to go in its green journey, but it’s currently making one critical step forward.

The move towards sustainable packaging is an invaluable one.

Packaging from non-biodegradable materials harms the environment once disposed of. More environmentally friendly packaging, though, will have a much better impact.

For instance, since some places, like New York City, have banned harmful packaging materials, biodegradable options have become the solution.

Instead of styrofoam packing peanuts, biodegradable ones are the greener alternative.

Retailers can also cut out plastics and opt for cardboard and paper, too, as they strive for a greener industry.

A GREEN WAVE IS COMING These industry movements and changes on their own are powerful.

Together, though, they create a growing trend where sustainability and the environment are their main focuses.

Hand-in-hand with still generating a profit, these green innovations show that adaptation and fast action are key to helping the environment. 2021 is where these changes will get their footing, and the possibilities will only grow from here.

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DIVERSITY

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Guilt Brought Me Down: How to Support Your Exhausted BIPOC Employees One writer reflects on the toll the last year has taken on her and other BIPOC employees. Here, she advises how leaders can help ease the emotional burden. BY NORA ALI

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t’s been over a year of new, confusing feelings. Pandemic-related existential turmoil aside, I’ve had a profound personal reckoning with my own race and ethnicity. Throughout my entire professional career—from an investment bank to a tech startup to a TV newsroom to now cofounding a media company—I have only had one fellow Bangladeshi coworker. Often as the only Bangladeshi person, if not the only person of color, in the room, I’m familiar with the feeling of being an “outsider.”

But the renewed focus this year on dismantling racial injustices targeted toward Black people, coupled with the deep recognition of rampant and blatant hate toward Asian Americans, gave me “permission” (or at least the external support) to try to proactively change that outsider sentiment—for myself, and for other underrepresented and underserved communities.

It’s been exhausting.

It took me some time to realize that the word “guilt”—believing that I was at fault for speaking up—described the deep discomfort I felt after many interactions in which I had to flag or defend something related to diversity and inclusion. The requests and considerations I brought up repeatedly ranged from making sure we were explicitly seeking out representation in hiring, instead of taking the path of least resistance, to asking bosses why our management team wasn’t trying harder to understand why we had difficulty retaining women of color in leadership positions.

All fair asks, but for some reason, I continually felt like I was doing something wrong. I found myself on the verge of tears more than once, trying to brush the feeling— warranted or not—that my broken record pleas were being received with eye rolls.

But thankfully, it wasn’t all bad. Leaders around me have taken meaningful steps, knowingly or unknowingly, to ease the pressure, and those are moments I will never forget. The most effective strategy?

Proactivity, not reactivity.

As a leader or decision-maker, if you proactively bring up seemingly “small” points like stating out loud that a team on a project must include BIPOC representation or that you’ll diversify your efforts to identify the target customer for your product, you are relieving a tremendous burden off those of us who think about representation during every waking minute.

“Microaggressions are like death by a thousand papercuts. It’s not necessarily someone calling you a racial slur.”

—DR. JEANETTE KOWALIK

It may seem like a small, outwardly unremarkable comment in the moment, but a collection of low-bar actions can lead to major impact. And if you say it out loud before we have to, it’s one less uphill psychological battle for us to face.

Another point of guilt I’ve felt is in my inability to “ justify” my frustrations on multiple occasions. If someone asked me how I have been personally held back, slighted or overlooked in work environments based on race or gender, I frankly couldn’t verbalize the list off the top of my head.

Dr. Jeanette Kowalik, former Milwaukee health commissioner, said it best when I interviewed her in 2020 about the racism she experienced in her job: “Microaggressions are like death by a thousand papercuts. It’s not necessarily someone calling you a racial slur or someone mailing offensive things to your office, but [it’s] those little infractions that add up.”

Another strategy that can help?

Absorption, not justification.

Listen to and absorb your underserved employees’ requests and allow them to decide how involved, or not involved, they want to be in tackling your company’s shortcomings in diversity. Remember that “ justification” does not matter, whether it’s trying to understand how your employees feel, or making the case to hire a diverse team (it should just be a given). And as you tackle the company’s deficiencies over time, keep your employees updated on progress in your inclusion efforts, even if it’s small changes.

They want to know that you’re doing something, and they don’t want to have to ask.

As outsiders, the system works against us, and we know that we have to try just a little bit harder to be seen and heard. As leaders, you can make a huge impact on our emotional journey by being proactive in diversity conversations and absorbing our needs—and maybe one day, we won’t feel so guilty for trying to break the status quo.

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PHILANTHROPY

How to Tell Your Philanthropy Money Story Philanthropy offers an opportunity for families to connect in a way that may be less contentious than other potentially taboo money topics, such as inheritances and personal spending habits. BY LINDA DAVIS TAYLOR

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n March, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) released a report analyzing the first new data on household charitable decision making in 15 years. Many interesting trends were revealed by the report, and I was particularly surprised to see that 61.5 percent of couples make giving decisions together—a number that has actually declined since 2005.

The report from WPI got me thinking about how philanthropy fits into a different aspect of the idiom “money talks”— defined by Merriam Webster as “money has a strong influence on people’s actions and behaviors.” If this is true, then families

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should be harnessing our philanthropic resources as effectively as possible to solve the world’s greatest social challenges.

I have previously delved into why it’s important for families to talk openly about money and make these conversations the norm rather than something to be avoided. This extends to philanthropy, too. Philanthropy offers an opportunity for families to connect in a way that may be less contentious than other potentially taboo money topics, such as inheritances and personal spending habits. Here are three steps families can use to build their money muscles.

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHARITY AND PHILANTHROPY First, it’s important for families to come together with an understanding of what having a philanthropic strategy entails and the differences in various kinds of charitable giving.

When we think about much of our charitable giving, it involves providing immediate relief and is often driven by an emotional response to particular events or situations. The cadence here is usually short-term or until the need subsides. Strategic philanthropy, on the other hand, is more long-term in nature because it seeks to target the root causes of social issues. Another key difference is that philanthropy often involves ongoing and deep engagement versus just “writing a check.” For example, a charitable donation may involve one-off support for relief after a natural disaster, such as a fire or flood, while strategic philanthropy requires multifaceted ongoing work to affect climate change.

There’s no denying that both forms of giving are needed in today’s world; however, families with an integrated and sustained approach for how and why they want to give back will maximize their impact and create a legacy.

Being intentional about “money talks” can bring families closer together and make a difference, realizing the proverbial “doing well by doing good.”

On my podcast Money Stories with LDT, Theresa Edy-Kiene, CEO of Girl Scouts Greater Los Angeles, shared her perspective saying, “People are becoming more savvy about how they want their money used and ways in which they can use it for good.” With so much awareness about the need for social change, now is the time to integrate philanthropy into our family discussions about money. On Money Stories, Mary Spellman, a former college dean and current foundation executive said it best: “How can we teach people that there are ways to contribute that are meaningful?” This is where family engagement in philanthropy-centered money talks can be so important.

BUILDING PHILANTHROPY AS A VALUE For any family to work effectively, each member must understand the role they play in furthering their own and the family’s success. When it comes to philanthropy, we can start with making sure there is a unified understanding of what giving means to each individual and then incorporating those views into the family’s philosophy.

A great way to do this is by sharing your personal experiences and philosophy about philanthropy and how it has impacted your outlook on life.

This will look different for different family members. You can start off by asking: What causes are important to you? How do you define philanthropy?

Write down each response, and from there, create your family’s philanthropic mission statement—one that encapsulates the diverse viewpoints to ensure each member is heard.

In The Business of Family, I share a list of questions you can ask at your next family meeting to help you create a giving strategy that works for your unique unit. Some questions to consider include: Do you think it’s important for the family to be involved in philanthropy?

Why or why not? l Do you want to support established organizations, local causes or global challenges? l Are you currently interested in a cause, movement, problem or question?

And where is the help most needed? l

“People are becoming more savvy about how they want their money used and ways in which they can use it for good.”

—THERESA EDY-KIENE

Older family members can use this as an opportunity to mentor younger ones. Lara Tiedens, president of Scripps College, shared how she learned about investing from her mother-in-law’s involvement in a women’s investment club. This network encouraged her to dig deeper and determine how to make sound investments for her own financial plan. When she ultimately became the leader of a college, she drew on these early lessons about how money works to manage a complex organization that relies on charitable giving to keep its finances sound.

GIVING AS A LONG-TERM FINANCIAL COMMITMENT Throughout my career in the financial industry, I continue to be surprised by how few families integrate philanthropy with their broader financial planning. WPI’s research showed that only 1.1 percent of couples talk about philanthropy with an advisor, although this figure will vary for different levels of wealth.

Still, it’s telling that many couples may not consider philanthropy a key part of their financial strategy. As a family, ensure that your meetings with your financial advisors include a section on philanthropy and regularly check in on how your strategies can be improved. Involving your advisor with family giving strategies can also serve as an entry point for younger members to learn about other topics in financial planning and management.

Philanthropy is a means of bringing our values to life and a powerful tool to ensure that our voices are heard. As a family, start to evolve your mindset to see philanthropic giving as an inspiring adventure that achieves family wellness and unity—shaped and led by members’ interests and passions. If done with intention, a family will be able to create an ongoing story and legacy where each member is the hero of his or her own money story.

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M E N TA L H E A LT H

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Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions— And Why It’s Hard to Learn From Our Mistakes With time and use, the brain develops preferential pathways for information processing, decision making and action. The more we do anything, we alter our brains to become better at it. This includes worry, irritability, impulsiveness and patterns of thought that contribute to poor decision making.

BY GEORGE S. EVERLY JR.

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W

ill Rogers once famously said, “Common sense ain’t common.” Nobel Laureate psychologist Dr. Daniel Kahneman has proven that humans are not the rational beings we believe ourselves to be. But why?

We live in a remarkably stressful age where we are overwhelmed with information. The news cycle was once only several hours, now it’s a full day. We are bombarded with “news,” which in many instances is neither interesting nor relevant, only different. And let us not forget the incessant bombardment with all types of “raw data,” much of which is incomplete. Human consciousness, and the brain that supports it, simply cannot withstand such overwhelming stimulation. It might come as a surprise to you, but the primary function of most of your brain’s physiology is to dampen and regulate arousal. Stressrelated physical disorders are best understood as disorders of arousal. Overarousal cannot only cripple our bodies, but it can also cripple our minds. Findings from neuroscience have taught us that overarousal can play an important role in contributing to many of the poor decisions we make. If we can better understand how this happens, perhaps we can better prevent many actions we would later come to regret.

THE BRAIN CREATES ERROR-PRONE SIMPLIFICATIONS In order to manage all of the data it must process in a day, the brain creates information-processing short-cuts, or simplifications. An informationprocessing simplification (sometimes called bias) is a processing filter that results from being confronted with an incomplete or overwhelming amount of information. Simplifications streamline or attempt to clarify large or incomplete data sets and allow us to reach decisions that would otherwise be daunting. They also conserve precious “mental energy.” As such, these simplifications are “default programs” for processing large amounts of data or for making decisions in stressful situations. These simplifications do indeed simplify decision making; most importantly, however, they often lead us to make mistakes. The worst part of this scenario is, in most cases, the more we are confronted with ambiguous or overwhelming amounts of information to process, the more we revert to these automatic error-prone decision-making simplifications. Thus, we learn to become better at making mistakes!

WHY IT’S HARD TO LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES So why is it we don’t simply make a mistake, learn from it and move on? The answer is our brains perceive ambiguity and overstimulation as “threats” that must be defended against. Defense mechanisms are designed to ensure our survival in stressful situations. As such, they override our otherwise natural tendencies for corrective learning from our mistakes. In fact, the more we use these simplifications, the stronger they become. For example, worry is a defense mechanism. The more we worry, the greater our subsequent inclination to worry. For decades I have been intrigued with the chemical and microanatomic bases of these self-defeating survival patterns and have written about their underlying mechanism long-term potentiation based upon something called neuroplasticity in the book A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response. Neuro-

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plasticity refers to the inclination of the brain to change its shape and function based upon the repeated introduction of information (stimulation). With time and use, the brain develops preferential pathways for information processing, decision making and action. The more we do anything, we alter our brains to become better at it. This includes worry, irritability, impulsiveness and patterns of thought that contribute to poor decision making.

4 DANGEROUS OVERSIMPLIFICATIONS It has been said that recognition is the first step toward solving a problem. So, what do these error-prone simplifications look like? Here are four common energy-saving simplifications.

1. BINARY THINKING When confronted with ambiguous or an overwhelming amount of data, we tend to boil decisions down to simple “all or none,” “yes or no” decisions. Sadly, the world we live in is dimensional, not binary. Binary decision making increases volatility. It causes us to ignore the details that can be the difference between success and failure.

2. INTUITIVE THINKING Intuitive thinking is reflexive. It uses very little energy. It employs pattern recognition and makes decisions based upon previous experience exclusively.

It inhibits innovation. It can be wrong 70 percent of the time.

considering Robert Merton’s Law of Unintended Consequences. Every decision exerts an unintended ripple effect, even the decision not to decide.

History is replete with examples of problems made worse by the unintended consequences of their intended solutions.

I remember Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, wherein Humpty Dumpty scornfully tells Alice that words are tools to be used as he sees fit. When Alice questions him on whether or not he can do such a thing, he simply replies, “’The question is, which is to be master—that’s all.” The biology of our brains with its engrained energy-saving defense mechanisms is not the master, it’s merely a tool waiting to be harnessed. The question is, which is to be master: the brain or its user?

OVERWRITING IS THE KEY From the perspective of information processing, overwriting refers to the process of creating new information and functionally superimposing it on preexisting information. Overwriting may consist of two processes: 1) the creation of competing information pathways which with time and use subordinate the preexisting pathways, or 2) utilization of the same characters or infrastructure which serves to erase any trace of the preexisting pathways. This overwriting process is applicable to pathways in the brain as well.

So powerful are these mechanisms, we believe they may even be capable of overriding some genetic programming.

3. CONFIRMATIVE THINKING The brain does not like dissonance. As a result, it searches for information that confirms the biases we already hold and the decisions we’ve already made.

It rejects anything that does not fit our predetermined narrative. This simplification makes compromise with others impossible. It hinders creativity.

It foretells the demise of the organization or system within which it becomes the norm.

4. PRIMARY-EFFECT THINKING This refers to our tendency to make decisions thinking only of the primary outcome desired. It prohibits us from

The biology of our brains with its engrained energysaving defense mechanisms is not the master, it’s merely a tool waiting to be harnessed. The question is, which is to be master: the brain or its user?

Clearly, repetition appears to be the most powerful way of overwriting. This is the essence of learning.

But recent research has shown there are three ways to actually improve acquisition of new information: over-learning, exercise and sleep.

Think of these as ways of increasing the power of repetition.

The chemical basis of learning is complex, but we know the chemicals epinephrine and glutamate are involved. These chemicals serve to open the door for acquisition. But have you ever practiced something only to quickly forget it? Recent research suggests that once new information is acquired, it needs to be consolidated, “sealed in,” so to speak.

The gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) appears to help with consolidation. GABA is released subsequent to epinephrine and glutamate, but apparently, most significantly in over-learning situations. There is a popular belief that it requires 10,000 repetitions to achieve this level of over-learning. This assertion has been challenged. Certainly, the level of effort associated with over-learning will vary across tasks.

Research tells us that physical exercise prior to trying to learn new material increases acquisition and retention. Thirty minutes of physical exercise seems to be adequate to “prime” the brain for learning. Exercise increases the release of brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a chemical that appears to increase neuroplasticity.

Lastly, sleep actually affects learning. Prior to the onset of deep sleep, there is a state known as the hypnagogic state. The brain appears to be more receptive to the consolidation of new information in this state.

So, if you want to learn something, study or psychologically rehearse the new material as you fall asleep.

Interestingly, BDNF is released most in deep sleep, so the actual point of consolidation remains unclear. It may be that falling asleep with new information simply gives it higher priority for later consolidation.

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WORTH A DRINK

The Nonalcoholic Spirits Brand That Wants to Enhance Your Mental Health Optimist Drinks doesn’t just want to provide an alcohol-free alternative; it wants to help people better their mental wellbeing through social connection. BY MICKI WAGNER

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oming off a year that had alcohol sales skyrocketing and mental health issues running rampant, Optimist Drinks is meeting society at the right time.

The brand creates craft nonalcoholic spirits that mirror classic alcohols, such as Bright, their take on a citrusy vodka, Fresh, inspired by gin, and Smokey, which is similar in flavor to tequila. With these drinks, the company’s greater mission is to help people better their mental well-being through social connection.

Optimist Drinks was launched in January by husband-and-wife duo Lisa Farr Johnstone and Tommy Johnstone. Both with backgrounds in advertising, Tommy says they had begun noticing brands shifting toward being more mission-oriented.

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“We found that increasingly brands were trying to talk about their missions. They were trying to talk about positive impact, and some of the brands we were working with were walking the walk as well, but actually a lot of brands were not,” he says. “They were taking a stance on something but not changing their policy on their product itself. So, for us, it kind of seemed like the best way to have an impact was not just purely from a brand messaging point of view but actually to create products and a company that aligned with a way of thinking and a belief that helped drive everything that you did, right from product development through to messaging through to company mission. That seemed like the best way to have impact.”

After Lisa left advertising, she started work in the nonprofit sector, which also influenced her and Tommy’s desire to create a company that was backed by a strong mission and values. While Optimist Drinks is presently a nonalcoholic beverage company, they see the brand growing to include many more aspects.

“Optimist is about positive decisions for your physical and mental health,” Tommy says. “That’s what the brand is about and that’s what we want to empower people to do with our products and that’s what we want to talk about as a brand and celebrate those kinds of positive active decisions.”

So why start with drinks? According to Tommy, it’s because alcohol is a big part of adult social life, but as we know, can also be quite harmful—not to mention younger consumers are drinking less alcohol than the generations before them.

So, at Optimist Drinks, they wanted to be able to offer consumers an alluring alternative to alcohol while still promoting the socialization that often comes with going out for drinks.

“The act of coming together for a drink is—on a mental health level— one of the most positive things you can do as an adult,” Tommy says.

“It’s a really good way to be plugged in socially, it’s great to kind of have off-duty, non-agenda time with people, and it’s a great way to make a really strong social connection. And what we saw there as an opportunity, or as a problem potentially, is if people are drinking less, which on the face of it is a good thing for people’s physical health, there’s a danger that the ritual of getting together for a drink, which is a great thing for people’s mental health, is lost. If there are periods where we’re not drinking alcohol, then we find ourselves going out less and socializing less, which is actually the wrong thing to do. You don’t want to lose the social interaction, if you are reducing alcohol.”

“What we wanted to do is create a range of products that were at home in the environment of alcohol, and if people decided that they weren’t drinking alcohol for that day or even that round of drinks or forever, they had an alternative that wasn’t a big sacrifice, that was something that they actively wanted and that could make them feel included,” Tommy continued. “So instead of people buying a round and then one person having a soft drink or not having anything at all, they could have something that had equal levels of craft and sophistication to it, so they felt included in the experience of going for a drink. That’s why we started with that. It was celebrating the positive social side of getting together for a drink and all the brilliant things that come with that but acknowledging that maybe the alcohol in the glass is the least important ingredient in meeting someone for a drink and giving people a really good-quality, viable option.”

Coming back to the idea of mission, one of the most striking things about Optimist Drinks is the company’s 360-degree model of sustainability, which focuses on the health of both people and the planet. Lisa says the broader social mission is around mental health, as Tommy spoke to, and the idea that they’re creating a product that helps you look after your own mental well-being as well as helping those who choose not to drink alcohol or drink less of it still maintain social connections. Their mission largely centers around mental well-being, with two percent of each sale going toward Safe Place for Youth, a nonprofit that gives underserved youth access to mental health services, but they are also passionate about environmental sustainability.

“Any company that’s being created now should have sustainability and environmental betterment, if not kind of neutral, environmental impact...as a given. And so therefore, that kind of freed us up. We said, ‘OK, well that’s all good and that’s our baseline, we will create a company that is environmentally positive,’” Lisa says.

“We were also really interested in looking at sustainability as a philosophy and putting it into other things, so sustainability on a human level,” Tommy explains. “So, looking at physical, mental health—that’s really important for us as a business.

And all of our products look to help people make positive decisions that are sustainable health decisions. What we’ve observed is that health trends or health fads are often about denying one thing and moving in an extreme way into something else. And that is an unsustainable thing to do for your

“If people are drinking less, which on the face of it is a good thing for people’s physical health, there’s a danger that the ritual of getting together for a drink, which is a great thing for people’s mental health, is lost.”

—TOMMY JOHNSTONE

physical health and potentially your mental health, too. What we wanted to do is create products that were a positive choice that you could make that didn’t require a full lifestyle change, that could just augment what you were doing, that meant a good practice around drinking behaviors could be adopted in a sustainable way, too. We looked at it in lots of different ways and looking at sustainable practices from an environmental, from a mental wellness and then from a product innovation point of view is something that we think about all the time.”

The company is currently pending B-Corp status—something that was important to them to show that they are walking the walk.

“For us, B-corp was just a shortcut to tell people what we stood for, with a clear mark. And that comes down to our hiring policies, our ethical outlook and behaviors through the company, and I mean, we want to build a company that is futurefacing and does good,” Lisa says.

As for the future of the company, there appears to be much more coming from Optimist Drinks. Tommy says they are working on a pipeline of products that have zero sugar and no alcohol but still fit into the nonalcoholic spirits space. As well, they put out a weekly podcast called OPTIMIST in Progress with Dr. Drea Letamendi, a licensed clinical psychologist, director of the UCLA Resilience Center and wellness consultant for Optimist Drinks, that focuses on “creating tools for optimists,” Tommy says. And lastly, they’re working on getting in front of more people: “We’re just taking the brand to more places, so as we grow in scale, we’re able to take the products to more people and more doors, and we’re excited to see people sort of understanding this new category and really getting behind what we’re doing,” Tommy says.

With optimism on their side, the future appears to be looking bright for Optimist Drinks and their mission of bettering mental health, one drink at a time.

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Coconut Grove Sailing: A Yacht Club for Everyone Right on beautiful and windy Biscayne Bay this low-key sailing club has great facilities and boats for anyone who has an interest in being on the water—whether you have your own boat or not.

BY DEBORAH GRAYSON AND JONATHAN RUSSO

F

or most, sailors or landlubbers, the words “yacht club” bring to mind visions of wealthy, elite, like-minded people gathering over martinis to discuss their stock portfolios. The Coconut Grove Sailing Club (CGSC) is the antithesis of this.

Coconut Grove, just south of Miami, is the boating mecca for Miami. The latter has miles of beautiful beaches for swimmers, sunbathers and revelers, but no sailing. The Grove, with its safe harbor and turquoise beauty of expansive Biscayne Bay, provides what Miami is missing.

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Enough geography. Back to sailing. Just down the road from the tony Coral Reef and Biscayne Bay Yacht Clubs, the CGSC defies preconceptions. Instead of a long and elaborate membership application process, as is the norm, CGSC membership is focused on sailing interest, whether the applicants have their own boat or not.

Started in 1946 (this is their 75th anniversary) by locals equally interested in volunteerism as in sailing, the first iteration of the club had no moorings and no clubhouse, both standard accouterments elsewhere. Instead, members moored their boats in the calm lagoon provided by Dinner Cay. Today, the club has 1,100 members from all walks of life, an attractive two-story clubhouse with waterfront dining, moorings for members and transients, a 24/7 on-demand launch service (an unheard-of amenity) and an active sailing program

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F WAY R A P H OTO

SAILING

for children and adults, beginner to advanced. They have a fleet of small boats (Optimists, Lasers, RS Teras, Flying Scots), mid-sized keel (Ensigns) and larger keel (Catalina, Beneteau) boats that are available to everyone who joins. As ex-Commodore and sailing instructor Bud Price told Worth, “We’re the only club in town that’s truly a sailing club.”

Classes are too numerous to list but range from “Learn to Sail” for six to 13 year olds to “Bareboat Cruising Certification” and “Coastal Navigation & Coastal Passage Making” for adults who have completed basic cruising certification programs. According to general manager Lauren Simpson, “The year before COVID19, a whopping 334 people graduated from the basic cruising program.”

Adult sailing student Catherine Montgomery, CEO of a medical technology company, who came to Miami to wait out

COVID-19, found herself commuting several times a week from her rental in South Beach to the CGSC, about 30 minutes south. “I wanted to learn something new and, since I have a house on the water in Long Island, I thought sailing would be a good fit for me. I did some research and found this club. I’ve never been so happy. It’s a great community.”

But what about the volunteerism that was a part of the original mission? As a waterfront tenant of the City of Miami, the club must offer $10,000 in sailing scholarships to local children from poorer neighborhoods. They’ve doubled this number, and each year provide $20,000 worth of lessons. Simpson added, “Over the years, we’ve established close relationships with community centers, churches and groups that work with less-advantaged kids.”

Watching children single-hand a boat in less-than-ideal weather is a window into how to teach self-reliance and confidence, something children who have been denied the chance to test themselves need. Montgomery, who volunteers to help with weekend races, added: “Seeing the kids on Saturdays is heartwarming. They’re learning a skill they’ll carry for the rest of their lives.”

For some children, learning to sail can be life-changing. An example: One of their scholarship students, who had never been on the water before, did so well that he went to the Olympic trials before receiving a scholarship to the University of North Florida, an institution that would have been out of his reach without the financial assistance.

Unlike the Northeast where sailing is seasonal, programs are active yearround and frequently have participants from Europe and South America.

For “après” sailing, Coconut Grove is a neat place to be. It’s one of the few spots in Florida where a car is unnecessary if you stay in the downtown area.

The buildings are mostly still low-rise, lending a small-town feel to the streets, which are lined with numerous interesting restaurants, many with expansive outdoor dining on walk streets (no chains except a Starbucks), and small shops, plus a thrift store that is well worth a visit.

Full-spectrum gastronomy provides global culinary travel, again within walking distance. Options include Thai, Indian, Italian, vegan Asian, wood-fired pizza, Latin American and burgers.

Two large food markets are nearby.

On Saturdays, there’s an all-organic farmers market.

Most people rent condos, but there’s a Cipriani (Mr. C’s) for high-enders and Hotel Arya, Mayfair and Mutiny for everyone else. Out of the downtown area, there are 100-year-old charming homes (also for rent) on streets so verdant you know you’re in the tropics.

Finally, there’s even a waterfront historic house and grounds, The Barnacle, built in 1891.

All of this is a long way of saying that if you envision spending post-COVID-19 lockdown time in the Coconut Grove/ Miami area and would like to learn to sail or have your kids learn to sail while there, CGSC is an ideal place to do it.

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20 QUESTIONS

Adrienne Arsht

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1. What are you reading? The newest Daniel Silva novel, The Cellist

2. What’s your favorite way to give?

Based on my instincts

3. Your favorite city? That is hard. I

have three: New York City, Washington, D.C. and Miami

4. What do you love about them? The

Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Arsht Center

5. How many days a year do you travel?

50 days

6. Do you fly private or commercial?

Commercial

7. Other than a phone or computer,

what do you never travel without? My red agenda book, the Constitution and hotel slippers

8. What is your investment philosophy?

11. What advice would you give to a younger you? Don’t rush through moments

12. Beer, wine or spirits? A very hot cappuccino

13. Favorite artist? El Anatsui, the renowned Ghanaian artist

14. The most difficult part of being a philanthropist? There is nothing difficult; it is a gift

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. Favorite musical or play? Oslo, the Tony Award-winning play, directed by Bartlett Sher

16. Favorite piece of jewelry? Anything

by Iradj Moini

17. What keeps you awake at night?

Nothing

18. What’s the biggest challenge

Buy low, sell high

you’ve had to overcome? Having two X chromosomes

9. What does “worth beyond wealth”

19. What do you deny yourself?

mean to you? Leaving an impact. Our time on earth is a gift

10. What’s more important: good luck or good sense? Good sense

Calories

20. How would you like to be

remembered? That I was a good friend and had courage

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y LY N D O N H AY E S

Business leader and impact philanthropist Adrienne Arsht has taken a leading role in promoting artistic, business and civic growth in Washington, D.C., Miami and New York City. Her $30 million contribution to Miami’s Performing Arts Center in 2008 secured its financial footing. In her honor, the center was renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

Recently, Arsht donated $5 million to The Metropolitan Museum in New York City to fund the museum’s first ever paid internship program— the Adrienne Arsht Interns.

Arsht spoke to Worth about what she’s reading, her favorite artist, her favorite way to give and more.

PRESENTED BY WORTH

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT BUSINESS CAN DO WELL AND DO GOOD? The inaugural Worthy 100 list will recognize entrepreneurs, executives and organizations that are making a positive impact on the world. This group of visionaries understands that success in business relies on serving all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

To be released in October 2021, the list will honor leaders who have created successful companies that balance profitability with their responsibility to society.

THINK YOU’RE WORTHY?

VISIT WWW.WORTHY100.COM NOMINATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 1, 2021

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