Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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No Laughing Matter: Caroline’s on Broadway Struggles Despite Theatres Reopening
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Broadway’s return is not providing the comedic relief clubs in the theatre district had been hoping.
Caroline Hirsch, founder and owner of Caroline’s on Broadway, told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso she has never experienced a challenge like the COVID-19 pandemic in her four decades in business.
“Business was going very well until Delta hit again and people were alarmed about going out and being in crowds,” she said of the dominant strain of the virus on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
The iconic comedy club reopened Memorial Day Weekend with a ton of pent-up demand for laughs. It took a turn late summer.
“When the vaccine mandate came out, it really curtailed business,” said Hirsch, explaining, “We have people who are canceling because somebody in their group is not vaccinated so they won’t come.”
She told WCBS 880 that she believes vaccine mandates are hurting New York’s live entertainment industry, but elevated COVID-19 infections are driving hesitancy as well.
“Some comedians don’t want to go on tour; they want to wait until 2022. So, therefore, we have a bit of a talent shortage,” Hirsch said. “First, we had a labor shortage. We couldn’t hire enough waiters and waitresses. We couldn’t hire enough staff people in the kitchen.”
Carolines On Broadway Owner Caroline Hirsch Photo credit Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Ms. Foundation For Women Caroline’s on Broadway had also been relying on private parties this fall to recover some losses, but some events have been postponed to next year. As a result, she predicts businesses in the Theatre District will experience a slow recovery.
A handful of Broadway shows returned last month at full capacity for fully vaccinated and masked audience members, cast and crew. But, on opening night, Hirsch asked workers in a garage how many cars arrived and found out only two people drove in to see a show.
“I think we need to be realistic about this and not just say, ‘Oh, Broadway’s reopening,’ but Broadway’s going to have a really tough time reopening. And, I think that we all need to help them out. I think people have to make a concerted effort to go out and buy a ticket to Broadway,” she said.
Caroline’s organizes the annual New York Comedy Festival, which makes its return to the stage November 8-14 with pop-up shows throughout the five boroughs.
“We’re going to do close to 150 shows around the city,” Hirsch told Connolly and Carousso.
Bill Maher, Marc Maron and Michelle Wolf are among the comics taking the microphone.
“You’ll have a great laugh,” said Hirsch who admits despite all the pandemic challenges and stress, she is still laughing, herself.
Caroline’s on Broadway first opened as a small cabaret in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood in 1981 before moving to the South Street Seaport six years later. It eventually made its home on Broadway in 1992. Hirsch is known for giving Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and countless other comedians their start.
Watch the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above for ideas on getting Broadway back on its feet.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Shining a Light on Missing Persons Cases; NJ Nurse Has Change of Heart about COVID Vaccine
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The case of Gabby Petito has garnered national attention and her family is hoping to bring awareness to other missing persons cases. Lynda Lopez covers some of those and what resources are available for families on The 880 Weekly Rewind.
Plus, vaccination mandates lead to more Americans getting the COVID shot. A New Jersey nurse, previously vocal against the vaccine and mandates, told WCBS 880 why she changed her mind and is now promoting the shot.
Lopez also looks at the dangers of the U.S. defaulting on its roughly $30 trillion debt ahead of a fast approaching deadline while President Joe Biden meets with Democrats to urge unity over the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion social spending package.
Subscribe and download The 880 Weekly Rewind podcast for in-depth reporting and deeper analysis of the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso, for WCBS-AM New York.
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When to go ‘All In’ on Your Dream Business
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Risk is assumed when someone starts a business, but oftentimes, entrepreneurs aim for a soft landing. At some point, founders must take a leap of faith.
Marla Aaron left advertising agency McCann Worldgroup in 2012 where she was vice president of communications for its division MRM. Her aha moment came during a business trip in France. Away from her kids, a coffee pot exploded leaving her with burns and she decided to return home. She presented her husband with an ambitious business plan on PowerPoint and left her job a week later to follow her passion designing jewelry.
Aaron told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, that she wishes she started her jewelry business earlier. Even after she did, she felt rejected when she was initially turned down by major retailers and picked up freelance jobs in advertising as a safety net.
“That was probably a mistake and that was a waste of time because I wasn’t doing anything that well,” she said. “I was probably a mediocre consultant and I was doing a mediocre job starting my business. I had to fully pull the rug out and focus 100 percent.”
Her advice for anyone looking to leave their job to start a business or take their side hustle full-time: “You have to do it. You have to go all in in every respect.”
Aaron went door-to-door in New York’s Diamond District selling her first pieces of fine jewelry made from industrial climbing carabiners. When one retailer took an interest, she knew she had a viable business and began designing, selling, and eventually, building the Marla Aaron Jewelry brand.
She had just signed a lease for her showroom on 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Midtown Manhattan at the start of the pandemic lockdown. Her new space remained empty.
Instagram helped her showcase her products and communicate her story, but she missed the personal touch with clients. Aaron and her employees had been meeting over Zoom at the beginning and end of each work day to keep everyone engaged. That gave her an idea.
“We’re like Zoom is working for us; let’s do Zoom appointments. So, we started doing Zoom appointments, but it wasn’t just like, ‘Hey Zoom with a customer.’ We understood that it required orchestration, rehearsal, dominating the archive of photos that we had so it would be seamless,” Aaron said.
She discovered that the Zoom appointments were most effective when two sales representatives were on each call. One person operates the technical side, showing their catalogue of product photos, while the other representative describes each piece and asks questions to determine the customers’ tastes.
“We just figured it out,” said Aaron.
Figuring it out was not easy, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when jewelry was far from prospective customers’ minds.
Before COVID, Aaron vowed to donate silver heart lockets to single mothers every year, which was derived out of her own experience. She remembers feeling down on Mother’s Day as a single mom before her second marriage. Her son was too young at the time to understand the holiday and she sat at brunch empty handed while she watched families exchange flowers. So when her business suffered at the outset of the pandemic, Aaron tried to make the most out of a bad situation and lift the spirits of others.
“We call it the ‘Lock Your Mom Project’ and we give them away to single moms. The first year I gave 50 and every year I had doubled it subsequently. And, the first year of the pandemic, we had planned to give out 800. I was thinking, we can do this. We can figure out a way to get this done,” Aaron said.
While the showroom remained shuttered, they found single mothers online and began shipping lockets from Marla’s house for Mother’s Day 2020. Aaron told Connolly and Carousso that’s when they realized they could sell a lot of jewelry virtually.
Marla Aaron Jewelry has more than 112,000 followers on Instagram. But, what those followers don’t realize is that the woman behind the brand is also the one operating the account.
Aaron calls her business “rebellious” in how they’ve bucked traditional jewelry marketing.
“We speak to people in plain language. It’s not covered in fairies and frost and Photoshop,” she explained. “It’s just really honest and authentic and real.”
Aaron sees her jewelry designs as an extension of herself and believes her story resonates with customers.
Today, she employs 18 people who help manage production, marketing, customer service and her wholesale accounts. Aaron continues to design all the jewelry she sells out of her office in the Diamond District.
See Marla Aaron’s creative process, her advice for taking the leap into entrepreneurship, and the new ways of selling jewelry that has helped her expand her reach on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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How Businesses Can Leverage Influencer Marketing
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — With many business focusing on growing direct-to-consumer sales online, owners and operators are looking for ways to separate themselves from their competitors. Influencer marketing has taken off as a way businesses are finding new customers during the pandemic.
“We help prospect, negotiate, and then, manage the relationship,” said Rachel Maeng Brown, co-founder and CEO of Loot Agency, on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
At 25 years old, Brown has already secured marketing contracts with Macy’s, TurboTax, and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. She began her social media marketing career as an influencer, herself, when she shared her experiences on the Rutgers University rowing team with her followers, which got the attention of large brands.
“If we’re talking about somebody’s skin ruin like where they have some rough skin and it’s something that happened because they’re in and out of the cold tub so much as being an athlete. And then, they talk about Jergens, because Jergens might be the skincare that they actually use to help them combat their dry skin. It’s a really easy and really seamless transition into using a marketing plan partner,” said Brown of how she began working with Jergens.
The young entrepreneur advises her business and influencer clients to tell their story in an authentic way on social media because it will resonate with people. She notes businesses do not necessarily need to hire an influencer who has a ton of followers. So-called “micro-influencers” can be more effective because they have a dedicated following within a specific area.
“We make sure that the campaign makes sense for their audience because their audience are loyal followers,” said Brown, adding, “You want to make sure that whatever the brand our creators are working with are also brands that our creator would not only use but they would suggest for our audience, too.”
Some business owners have started creating their own content around their products as a way to boost direct sales. For them, Rachel advises, try to emulate what successful micro-influencers are doing.
“Something that’s come about now with this rise of influencers and creators is actually looking at influencers and creators kind as a way to almost replicate, copy and get ideas because there’s already a proven way that is successful for creators to get their message out there whether their a business owner (or) whether their a creator talking about their story,” she explained to Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso.
When new NCAA rules in July opened the door for student-athletes to capitalize on their celebrity, Brown launched a new division of her social media marketing agency. Loot Agency is now helping college athletes pursue deals using their name, image and likeness (NIL).
“We not only help student-athletes learn a little bit more about how they can become and influencer and also protect themselves legally, tax wise, all of that, but we also help colleges learn a little bit more for their student-athletes about what this whole space of the NIL is,” she said.
She is proposing endorsement deals for schools and student-athletes with brands that are hoping to tap into the millennial and Gen Z consumer markets. Brown told WCBS 880 that she believes all student-athletes should take business classes and hopes more schools will require financial literacy classes.
Brown launched The Legacy Brand sole proprietorship in 2019 when she took an interest in the business side of influencer marketing and began consulting brands on the types of content that drives digital sales. She co-founded Loot Agency, Inc. in March where she helps creators manage contracts and ink major endorsement deals. She was recently named to Crain’s New York Business’ “20 in their Twenties 2021” list.
See how your business can benefit from micro-influencing on our WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: House Democrats Propose Corporate Tax Hikes While New York’s Likely Next Mayor Courts the Business Community
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The House Ways and Means Committee proposed raising taxes on corporations and high-income earners to pay for Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending plan. The proposal would also end the retirement account loophole that allows people to convert pre-tax retirement savings accounts into a ROTH IRA for those who earn $400,000 or more a year.
On The 880 Weekly Rewind, Lynda Lopez looks at the tax hike proposal out of Washington while local lawmakers like Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) fight to end the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions in the Democrats’ reconciliation measure. In New York, Democratic Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams courted the business community at Anthony Scaramucci’s Wall Street flagship SALT Conference.
“New York will no longer be anti-business,” Adams declared at SALT NY, indicating a major shift from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. “This is going to be a place where we welcome business and not turn into the dysfunctional city that we have been for so many years.”
New York City traffic returned to pre-pandemic levels this week as schools and Broadway reopened. Lopez also talked to Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, about the larger economic boost.
Subscribe and download The 880 Weekly Rewind podcast for in-depth reporting and deeper analysis of the top stories of the week, produced by Neil A. Carousso, for WCBS-AM New York.
