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If it feels harder to get people to accept your ideas in virtual meetings its not surprising. When so much communication is virtual, reaching and inspiring people with your thinking is more difficult than ever. Want to reach your boss, customers, or colleagues? This article presents the steps needed to get across your ideas in meetings. #1 KEEP THE CAMERAS ON First, urge everyone to keep their cameras on. In most meetings, maintaining visual contact is the norm. But if this is not the practice, urge the moderator or your colleagues to keep their cameras on. Body language and facial gestures play a big role in persuasion. Seeing others allows you to read your audience. Strong body language and eye contact on your part will strengthen your pitch. #2 CHOOSE THE RIGHT MOMENT Second, if you are going to get buy-in for an idea, broach your topic at the best time. If its a formal meeting, be sure to get yourself on the agenda. People will take your views more seriously if they see you have been allotted time on the agenda. But if the meeting is more informal, listen carefully for the right moment. For example, if your boss has said I want to assign you another client, dont rush in with your defensive reply, but wait for your boss to explain. Or if you are selling to a customer and the issue of pricing comes up, let your customer share their thinking about costs before you jump in. The more input you can get from others, the better your response will be. #3: BEGIN BY BRIDGING Third, begin your pitch with a reference to what others have said. This will show that you have heard and respect the views of others. If its a formal meeting and you have prepared your remarks in advance, begin by creating a context for your views. Acknowledge the input of colleagues and credit those who have made your proposal possible. Bridge, as well, by building on the exchanges at the meeting and crediting your colleagues for their ideas. For example: Our discussion has focused on the new hiring practices. And the HR team has done a great job defining these. Now Id like to suggest how we can get buy-in from the support staff. Avoid adversarial relationships and bridging words such as but, however, In contrast, or I dont agree. Find common ground. #4 MAKE YOUR POINT SUCCINCTLY Fourth, keep your remarks short and to the point. After bridging from what others have said, present your message in one sentence (and only one sentence!). It is often an I believe statement or something that clearly positions your thinking. For example: I believe that we should offer this client a second option. Or My view is that we should proceed with a more cost-efficient plan. Follow the message with proof points. These are arguments that support your message. There are several ways you can prove your message: (1) Give reasons; (2) Show ways to implement your plan; (3) Present an example that shows why your pitch is important. #5: END WITH A CALL TO ACTION Fifth, end with a call to action. Indicate the steps that need to be taken to implement your idea. It could be the action you want to take, steps you want your audience to follow, or a plan youll undertake together. Whatever the action, it should be something that your entire pitch has pointed to. With the call to action, you are moving your audience toward something tangible that youd like to see happen. With this final element, your pitch becomes actionable. You can find a full discussion of impromptu meeting scripts in my book Impromptu: Leading in the Moment.
Category:
E-Commerce
Student loan borrowers face an ominous deadline as Labor Day approaches. The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it planned to resume collections for borrowers behind on their student loan payments, setting a deadline of later this summer. In May, the Education Department began sending an estimated 195,000 student loan borrowers default notifications that their federal benefits would be subject to collections, starting in June. The agency said that later this summer, all 5.3 million defaulted student loan borrowers would receive notices that their wages could be garnished. The Trump administration hasnt announced an official date, but with summer almost over, student loan holders should expect the changes imminently. Student loan payments were paused early in the COVID-19 pandemic to provide financial relief as Americans weathered an uncertain economy. The student loan relief was originally intended to last for just a few months but was repeatedly extended, first by the Trump administration and then by former President Biden during his time in office. American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in April. Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly and according to the law, which means helping borrowers return to repaymentboth for the sake of their own financial health and our nations economic outlook. During his time in office, Biden sought broad forgiveness for student loans, but ultimately, his most far-reaching plans were struck down in court. Between the mixed messages from the current and former White House, its been a lot for borrowers to keep track of. Payments on federal student loans officially resumed in October 2023, with interest kicking back in around the same time, though many student loan borrowers were likely hoping that Biden-era student debt relief proposals might override those changes. The most important change right now will be an unpleasant one for any student loan holders in default. Borrowers behind on their loan payments may again see their paychecks reduced as the federal government claws back its cash. Anyone at risk of wage garnishment can expect a 30-day notice, but its best to contact the government to get on a repayment plan or into a similar program before wage garnishments kick in.
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E-Commerce
Theres a new moon on the block. A research team peering into unexplored corners of space revealed this week that our solar system harbors a secret moon that’s tucked away near Uranus. The moon was discovered by a research team using NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Like the Hubble Telescope, the Webb Telescope was designed to snap images of deep space, helping scientists pursue some of the universes enduring mysteries. The new moon was discovered in a set of 40-minute-long exposure images taken by the Webb Telescope’s near-infrared camera, which allows it to image fainter and more distant objects than the Hubble. While the Webbs main mission is to explore the origins of the universe and the formation of the earliest galaxies, its sensitive cameras make many other kinds of discoveries possible along the way. Its a small moon but a significant discovery, which is something that even NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft didnt see during its flyby nearly 40 years ago, Maryame El Moutamid, a lead scientist at Colorados Southwest Research Institute, said of the discovery. The newly found moon is estimated to be 6 miles in diametera diminutive size that likely helped it elude the Hubble. It orbits Uranus from within the orbit of that planets larger moons, which include Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. The discovery brings the total number of moons known to orbit Uranus up to 29. No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons, said Matthew Tiscareno, a SETI Institute scientist on the research team. Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered, he said.
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E-Commerce
Companies have several ways to increase their bottom lines. The first way is to raise the prices of products. But doing so can lead to fewer sales. Instead, some companies reduce the amount of product inside a package (or increase the size of the package without increasing the amount of product) while keeping the price the same, which helps reduce upfront costs. This practice is known as shinkflation, and its one that frequently annoys customers. But customers occasionally fight back. A group of California consumers brought a shrinkflation-related class action lawsuit against Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market, and the grocery store chain’s local subsidiary has agreed to settle, offering cash payments to those affected. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Whole Foods Market was hit with a class action lawsuit in California alleging that the company misled customers by selling two items that contained less product inside the packaging than the customers were led to believe based on the packagings size. Those two products were: 12 oz cannister of 365 Organic Hot Cocoa Rich Chocolate Flavor Mix 12 oz cannister of 365 Everyday Value Organic Hot Cocoa Rich Chocolate Flavor Mix The products were sold under Whole Foods 365 Organic brand. According to a website run by the settlement administrator, the claimants allege that Whole Foods mislabeled the Product by selling the cocoa mix in large and opaque cannisters that contained non-functional empty space and that California consumers, in reliance on the size of the cannister, believed they were purchasing more cocoa powder than they got for the price they paid.” Whole Foods Market in California has opted to settle the lawsuit. Fast Company reached out to the grocery chain for comment. Slack-fill and shrinkflation The class action lawsuit refers to “slack-fill,” which is essentially the empty space inside a package of product. Companies sometimes use this space in ways that lead consumers to believe that the package contains more product than it actually does. Slack-fill misuse is more commonly known as shrinkflation by the general public. While companies have no doubt engaged in shrinkflation for decades, the practice has gained significant attention in the last 10 to 15 years, largely due to the rise of social media. Consumers could finally share their shirnkflation findings and grievances with the wider populationand post photos of shirnkflation in action. And its not just consumers who despise shirnkflation. The previous Biden administration called the practice out as companies engaged in it during times of inflationary pressures. Many fear shrinkflation will rear its ugly head again in full force as companies look for ways to recoup costs incurred by President Trumps tariffs. Of course, manufacturers are not alone in engaging in shrinkflation. Restaurants, for example, have been caught putting less food on plates. Given the disdain that consumers have for shirnkflation, its little surprise that the alleged practice would result in legal action. The Whole Foods shrinkflation settlement In settling the class action lawsuit brought against it, Whole Foods has agreed to pay $650,000 while admitting no wrongdoing (something that is common for class action settlements). However, the class action lawsuit settlement only covers people in California who bought the affected products between November 3, 2017, and March 13, 2025. And while $650,000 might sound like a lot, the actual amount the average claimant is expected to get is just a few bucks. According to the class action website, the prorated settlement check amount will be approximately $2.90 for members of the settlement class. You can find full details on the settlement and whether you are entitled to part of it on the class action settlement website here. All claim forms must be submitted by October 14, 2025.
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E-Commerce
Hello, everyone, and thanks once again for reading Fast Companys Plugged In. For years, some of the worlds most productive web searches have had something in common: They begin at Google and end at Reddit. In some cases, thats because the person doing the searching has added reddit to their query, deliberately pushing material from the internets biggest, most indispensable hub of conversations to the top of Google results. But even if you havent expressed an explicit preference for Reddit links, Google often emphasizes them. They can feel like islands of quality information floating in a river of links to sites that are spammy or just not very good. Now Reddit sees an opportunity to become, in CEO Steve Huffmans words during its most recent quarterly investor call, a true search destination unto itself. That aspiration is reflected in Reddit Answers, an AI-infused information retrieval feature that debuted last December. Huffman says the company plans to merge the tool with Reddits existing search and redesign its homepage around them. If Reddit can use its new search interface to answer questions quickly and accurately on its own, it might make googling less of a reflexive habit. It would also position the sites human expertise even more clearly as an alternative to ChatGPT and other bots that dispense eerily human-sounding advice but often behave like broken robots. In its current form, Reddit Answers is just a beta that reflects only part of this bigger vision. It lets you seek information by entering search-like queries. Then it uses AI to weave together material from multiple Reddit discussions into one coherent, bullet-pointed response that quotes individual Redditors and links back to their original posts. The sample queries it suggestsfrom best coffee maker to highest salary part time jobs to tips for flying with a baby for the first timeconvey Reddits remarkable breadth of topics. Interface-wise, Reddit Answers feels familiarsomething of a hybrid of Google in its classic form and a generative-AI chatbot. And yet it couldnt exist without the Reddit communitys knowledge and opinion, which provide all its value. Lest others build anything similar without permission, the company has grown increasingly protective of its brain trust: Its signed licensing deals with Google and OpenAI and has been blocking others from trawling its pageseven the eminently laudable Internet Archive. Like the responses from AI bots, Reddit Answers replies can feel more like data dumps than anything succinct and definitive: For best coffee maker, it comes up with 10 models that at least one Reddit user has owned and likeduseful data points, but not a substitute for further research. But in many cases, a somewhat scattershot summary of Reddit chatter may be more reliable than a pure-AI answer that could be incomplete or even hallucinatory. For example, when I asked ChatGPT for advice on bicycle locks, its advice read well but didnt mention the handful of models that are tough enough to resist sustained attack by a thief equipped with an axle grindera reminder that AI merely simulates expertise rather than achieving it. Reddit Answers bike-lock response was just as easy to digest, and far more authoritative. [Screenshot: Reddit] When Reddit Answers doesnt entirely address your question on its first try, the fact its Reddit gives it a critical advantage. Its humanity is all on the surface. You can click through from Reddit Answers citations and continue the conversation with real people! You might even find yourself becoming part of a community, which is not something that happens with Google search or ChatGPT. The current AI wave has led to widespread fascination with the Dead Internet Theorythe possibility that people are being squeezed out of online discourse by inauthentic, machine-generated slop. I worry about that, too. But at the moment, Reddit provides happy evidence that doubling down on humans can be a viable business. The company, which went public in March 2024, beat analyst expectations for its most recent quarter, propelling its stock to record heights. In its most recent quarter, daily visitors averaged 110.4 million, an increase of 21% year-over-year. It managed to sell $465 million in advertising during the quarter while maintaining a surprisingly distraction-free reading experience. I find Reddits apparent health encouragingnot because I care about its stock price, ad business, or traffic per se, but because the helpful humans its assembled are our single biggest bulwark against the Dead Internet Theory becoming undeniable, irreversible reality. If the company were to suddenly vanish, or even just begin a slow decline, it would be catastrophic. And if Huffman gets anywhere with his goal of making it more of a self-sustaining destination rather than a Google appendage, well all benefit. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping e at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. 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Category:
E-Commerce
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