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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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Olympian Amanda Beard Feels ‘Sad and Proud’ About Simone Biles’ Withdrawal in Tokyo; What to Know about the New Dangerous Phase of the Pandemic
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the Olympics put the issue of mental health back in focus.
WCBS reporter Marla Diamond spoke with Olympic gold medal swimmer Amanda Beard about the pressures athletes’ face and her own struggles on The 880 Weekly Rewind with Lynda Lopez.
Plus, the CDC says the Delta variant has changed the war against COVID-19 as it releases new data justifying its recommendations to wear masks regardless of vaccination status and millions face evictions Saturday as the national moratorium ends.
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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Achieving Work-Life Balance in a Pandemic World
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — It’s okay to work hard and play hard.
The age-old struggle for work-life balance is in overdrive during the pandemic. Those who are working remotely are often working longer hours, feeling like they can never tackle their entire to-do lists. The surging COVID-19 infections this summer are introducing more social anxieties.
Christy Wright has spoken about balance for 11 years at Ramsey Solutions where she hosts a national radio show based in Nashville, TN focused on personal growth. In her upcoming book “Take Back Your Time: The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance,” she writes it’s important to prioritize work and life so you’re “doing the right things at the right time.”
“If what’s right right now is a busy day at work then it gives me permission to not only shake the guilt from the things I’m not doing, that are not right right now, it also helps me be present for the moment I’m in and be proud of how I’m spending my time,” she told WCBS 880’s Neil A. Carousso, noting, “The opposite is also true.”
The best-selling author explained that sometimes it’s okay to put your phone down to enjoy family and friends. Other times, your attention should be on work.
Wright ties balance to guilt. She used to think about her kids when she was working and thinking about work deadlines when spending time with family and found many others were in the same monotonous cycle.
“If you live your entire life this way, always focused on where you are not, then of course you feel guilty because you’re always focused on what you’re not doing,” she said.
Wright advises people to be confident in their decisions. She told WCBS 880 that often leads to happier and more fulfilled lives.
She also mentors women who are looking to start their own businesses and side-hustles and speaks on the topics of confidence and fear. Wright is frequent guest co-host on The Dave Ramsey Show.
Watch Neil A. Carousso’s full conversation with Christy Wright about ways to achieve work-life balance on the video above.
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NYC Tour Company Grows Revenue with New Profitable Services
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A New York City tour business has been growing despite the pandemic shutdown by adding new viable services.
Cindy VandenBosch and Andrew Gustafson are the husband and wife duo at the helm of Turnstile Tours. Both of them have decades of experience in history, museums and tourism. Over the past 10 years, they’ve built a diverse portfolio of programs with unique New York stories at historic sites such as the South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
They focus on the “people in the place” to develop the most compelling content. That recipe translated to virtual tours in the pandemic, which helped them amass an audience outside New York.
“We’ve just been able to spread our wings and share so many more stories through the virtual format,” VandenBosch told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
Quickly, they figured out a way to offer daily virtual tours on a variety of subjects to both educate and entertain. VandenBosch and Gustafson hosted more than a 100 consecutive virtual programs at one point as the coronavirus kept people home.
As hundreds of people signed up to participate in interactive virtual tours, they launched a monthly membership program.
“People sign up for a monthly membership, and then, they get access to a certain number of programs per month, and then, they can they can access our library as well,” said Gustafson. “That ongoing revenue has been really important to us.”
Now that Turnstile Tours is back in-person, they host members-only events to retain repeat customers for its premium service. They plan to continue virtual tours in some capacity even though COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted because of the opportunity to reach a mass audience.
It was their partnerships with non-profits that helped them become more than a tourism business.
“We could create this kind of suite of services working behind-the-scenes to help either existing institutions be better at what they do or to help them grow a new program,” Gustafson recalled.
As they and their team learned video production and editing engaging content to capture a digital audience, Turnstile Tours began offering those in-demand services to partners and clients.
“This spring, we supported the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for their spring virtual festival. So, we were behind-the-scenes, our team, producing and directing, helping with their ‘Making Brooklyn Bloom’ programming, which they normally do in-person,” said VandenBosch.
“We were really proud to have developed the skills just through practice,” she added.
You can get ideas for creating adjacent services to grow revenue on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind: Masking in Schools and Combating Vaccine Disinformation on Facebook
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The global surge of the highly contagious Delta Variant of COVID-19 has sparked a divisive debate about whether kids should wear masks in schools. On The 880 Weekly Rewind, a pediatrician tells WCBS why he is adamant about utilizing the effective mitigation measure.
Lynda Lopez also looks at how Facebook can tackle vaccine disinformation with CNET Editor at Large Ian Sherr after President Joe Biden accused the social media company of “killing people.”
We also look at mounting pressure for a congestion pricing plan as Tri-State traffic headaches return for New York City commuters and explore the billionaire space race between entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
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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Hometown Flower Collective Expands Flourishing Mobile, Digital Business
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — This business has mastered digital sales and is now doing the reverse pivot in their expansion.
On the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso caught up with Jaclyn Rutigliano of Hometown Flower Collective who brought her 1976 Ford F100 to Huntington for the WCBS Business Breakfast in October 2019.
Jaclyn was positioned to succeed in the pandemic with a digital and mobile-first business that has since accelerated with her strategic use of Instagram and local partnerships.
“Since day one, we really knocked on all the doors of any like-minded businesses just to say, ‘Hey what can we do?’ From a photo shoot to an event to a workshop to free flowers to a giveaway, anything, collaboration has been the number one focus and the number one growth tool for us,” she said.
“If you’re looking to go online, pay attention to that and try to offer ways to help other small businesses because that’s really what we try to do. Help us, help you.”
Hometown Flower Co. is increasing their mileage. They recently expanded their footprint from Long Island to Brooklyn and Queens.
“There are some incredible designers, especially in Brooklyn, so it’s definitely humbling,” Rutigliano said. “Our design aesthetic really has resonated with a certain group, especially in Brooklyn and Long Island City and those parts. It’s been fun and it’s also attracted some people in the media landscape and fashion world.”
The public relations professional told Connolly and Carousso that the city can be intimidating, but called it “validating” for her business.
Hometown Flower offers monthly, weekly and annual subscription services to its customers, sourcing from 10 to 12 Long Island farmers. They played an important role helping their customers cope with the sadness of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, they are being approached for large-scale and private events.
“We’ve increased our wedding work, which is something we never thought we would be doing,” Rutigliano said.
She and her husband Marc Iervolino have also opened their first brick-and-mortar store in Huntington Village to service pickups across Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Rutigliano realized she and her Ford truck cannot be everywhere at once.
By all accounts Hometown Flower Co. is operating on all cylinders, but Jaclyn and Marc are struggling to find skilled workers, which is hindering their ability to scale.
“It’s been very difficult to find drivers, it’s been very difficult to find administrative and associate-level support as well. It’s tough and we can’t scale if we don’t have the support. It’s just not sustainable,” she said.
They were able to find a designer who Jaclyn refers to as her “right hand.” Before the hire, Jaclyn had been designing until 3-4 AM every night. But, in order for them to grow even more, Hometown Flower will need support staff. Meantime, they’ve had to turn down some events that are coming back in full force this summer.
See this creative, flourishing business in-action and see how Hometown Flower Co. is managing fast growth on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
