Beyond pizza parties: Do’s and don’ts of building a great company culture

(Gabriel Shaoolian) - By Gabriel Shaoolian

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 2, 2026

According to According to Gettysburg College, people usually spend about 90,000 hours, or a third of their lives, at work. Without a doubt, how things are in the workplace can certainly influence not just our professional trajectory but also who we are as a person.

Harvard defines company culture as “a shared set of values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterize an organization.” It shapes how you and your people work, and it can make or break your success.

You might have seen the phrase “great company culture” on job posts or company introductions many times. This description has been so overused that most people probably would just shrug it off as fluff. But what makes a company culture great? In this article, we discuss some do’s and don’ts to guide you on how you can live up to this.

Do: Empower people through recognition and autonomy

To build a great company culture, you must start with the very core of your business: the people. Employees do most of the tough work and make up a significant portion of the company. As such, how they are and how they work will affect your business.

The way to employee empowerment is actually pretty simple: recognition and autonomy. People spend most of their waking hours in the office, and this sacrifice alone is enough reason to recognize their hard work.

Most employers might think that giving out free stuff, having an employees’ day, or giving out certificates is effective in making employees feel appreciated. While that may be true to some extent, you should dig deeper and consider other more productive ways that could make them feel valued.

One thing to consider is investment, and I’m not talking about salaries. It’s a continuous process that’s not limited to training and development but also improving their experience and well-being. Here at Digital Silk, for instance, we do regular check-ins to determine the tools employees need and provide training on new trends, especially with all the innovation at the moment. With the right investments, you get higher productivity, better performance, and even bigger savings — up to nearly 13% of the total revenue, a PwC study found.

Even a brief message, a one-on-one, or a well-deserved compliment can turn things around. These simple practices make people feel seen, and they might even be encouraged to pay it forward.

Don’t: Let little problems linger

With how busy the days get, some problems often go unchecked, especially small ones. But be warned: Those issues might lead to bigger headaches if left unaddressed.

Workplace conflict can severely impact a company. In the United States, organizations lose over $350 billion annually because of unresolved problems at work. This is a clear indicator that when the people suffer, the company does too.

As such, prioritizing discussions and problem-solving can improve the general work atmosphere and help prevent such losses. Talk to your employees and leaders, and try to get to the root causes instead of slapping Band-Aid solutions that don’t fix things for the long term.

For instance, if overtime work becomes a concern, don’t just simply increase overtime pay or offer a meal allowance. While that’s great, it may not truly resolve the issue. Instead, look into why this keeps happening: Is it the workload? Is the workforce limited? You might want to offer flexible times or consider recruitment.

These are more concrete solutions that address a small problem in the long run and enhance the company’s habits and culture.

Do: Encourage healthy communication

Communication is the foundation of any institution. When a company opens the communication lines between everyone — from the highest ranks to the most recent hires — the workplace becomes more conducive to innovation, growth, and change.

Encouraging active and healthy internal communication not only increases performance but also positively impacts employees’ attitudes toward work and colleagues. Communication can pave the way for people to advocate for one another and even the company, and this can lead to better performance and a better working atmosphere.

Meanwhile, when management makes an effort to communicate downward, they foster creativity and improve workplace dynamics. This makes leadership worth emulating, and soon enough, you’ll find that the workplace has transformed into a productive space for ideas and development.

Don’t: Just work, work, work

One of the best ways to enhance company culture is to know when to give yourself and your team a break. If people are burnt out, the organization will stagnate, no matter how good the leadership is.

As a manager, this is something you can control. Supporting your staff by encouraging work-life balance can not only boost productivity but also build employees’ trust and appreciation of you.

Work-life balance was found to be an effective mediator between employee well-being and organizational culture. As a policymaker, you can enforce policy changes such as remote work, flexible schedules, and mandated leaves, and directly improve overall employee satisfaction and morale.

When this culture of empathy and care prevails in the workplace, you foster a healthy environment that is driven to succeed but acknowledges boundaries.

Great company culture for greater success

You don’t need boxes of pizzas to cultivate company culture. It only takes some observation, communication, and a little bit of sacrifice to understand what the workplace needs.

Once achieved, the real challenge begins: sustaining this great environment. As the manager, this responsibility falls on you, but for this to happen, you must work together with your people.

Ultimately, great company culture is one where trust and support — not fear and conflict — dominate. It is one where employees are valued, and leaders are in tune with the status quo. Start building your organization’s culture using this guide, and watch it shape your company’s progress in the years to come.

About the author

Gabriel Shaoolian

Gabriel Shaoolian is the CEO and Founder of the award-winning digital marketing agency Digital Silk. With a team of seasoned experts, Digital Silk delivers digital experiences through strategic branding, custom web design and digital marketing services that improve visibility and drive engagement.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

Boards Spend Too Much Time Looking at Past Performance

(Luciano De Castro Carvalho) - Boards that focus their time on the few issues that could materially impact a company’s value in the future are the most effective boards. These boards are forward looking and usually make decisions during meetings.

By Luciano De Castro Carvalho

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 7, 2026

I have been an advisor or in management roles for 20+ years and have participated in many board meetings. Some meetings accomplished a lot with very little waste. Others were a big waste of time, even though there were lots of good people and valuable information.

One consistent issue comes up often.

There is too much time spent looking at the past.

There are exceptions, but most of the time the meeting starts with management reporting on the prior month or quarter. There is an analysis of revenues, margin, cash, EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), and other measures. Boards look for variances to the budget and management explains the rationale for the changes. Questions are asked, and sometimes Management needs to come back with more information, or details, to answer the questions. Questions that are asked in meetings often cover the same things that are brought up in the previous meeting.

In the best case scenario, and with any luck, the meeting gets to the good stuff in time. Good stuff typically means: strategy, capital allocation, and the hard decisions.

A board should care about and understand how the business makes its money, and then use that information to help the management team make important decisions.

The issue comes up when the board meeting is the first place directors go to find out what has already happened.

When deterioration in a margin calls for an explanation, I expect directors to describe the major reasons. If working capital consumes cash, they should identify the areas of inefficiency. If a major project is behind schedule, the basics should already be known.

Discussion in the board should start from there.

What effect does this change have? Will a decision be required? Has the assumption behind a certain business strategy become weaker? Should capital be allocated to other opportunities? Is the management, taking into account the strategy of the business, acting with enough urgency? Is there still the right leadership in place?

I think this is where board effectiveness begins.

Governance Starts With How the Board Uses Its Time

Discussion about governance usually focuses on committees, controls, approvals and compliance. Of course these are important. However, I think there is another side of governance that is more practical and deserving of focus.

Who determines what is presented to the board?

This is not a secretarial question.

Time is probably the board's most constrained resource. If the board spends three hours explaining the past, it loses the opportunity to debate the future.

It is my experience that packs become huge because each function wants to show its work.

With so much information, a few key decisions probably deserve the full board's attention.

Those decisions should be the priority of the agenda.

Usually, I wouldn’t expect more than 20% of board discussion time to be spent reviewing performance or exception reports, looking backward. This is of course a rule of thumb. With a liquidity crisis, a significant operational problem, or a material transaction, for example, the board would need to spend more time addressing the exception and the strategy for addressing it, and therefore look forward.

But with everyday operations, most of the time should be spent determining what comes next.

Most boards have an oversight responsibility to ensure the organization is adopting the right strategy, making the right decisions about capital allocation, and is properly managing the significant risks the organization is exposed to.

Exceptions are for dealing with the abnormal. Governance is the operating system of an organization, behind the scenes, defining how the organization operates, especially with regard to decision rights.

It is important for board members to maintain a clear line of sight to the strategy of the organization they govern.

An overly bureaucratic process for strategy development leads to inflexibility of a strategy and rusting of assumptions, which ultimately doesn’t serve the organization.

These assumptions are important regardless of the form the ownership of the organization takes (i.e. publicly listed, privately held, family owned, investment company, etc.)

Names may change. A private equity owner may call it an investment thesis. A corporation may call it the strategic plan. I am less concerned about the naming and more about the testing of the underlying assumptions.

A company can achieve its annual EBITDA target and still be making bad decisions for the future.

It can be losing an important customer. It can be postponing maintenance that will create a bigger problem next year. It can be making the profit number for the year by reducing investments that the next stage of growth is dependent on.

The reverse can also be true. A company can miss a target and still be making an investment that is still justified.

Therefore, I don’t think the role of a board is simply to ensure management is aligned to the budget and to grade them against it.

The board also has to read between the lines of the performance.

Have the strategic assumptions on which the business was built and the rationale for investing changed? Which have been validated? Which have been disproved? What was unknown when the strategy was approved and what have we learned?

I think this discussion is more valuable than spending an additional 30 minutes in a board meeting to justify a variance.

Test the Assumptions Behind the Strategy

Ultimately strategy and return on investment are intertwined.

I think one of the most important conversations the board has to continually have is on the trade off between short-term performance and long-term value.

There always has to be a balance between the two.

There may be some correct decisions. Others simply postpone today’s problems for next year.

The opposite is also true.

I’ve seen management use the word strategic to describe almost anything. After that, normal financial discipline sometimes vanishes. Projects become ongoing, and stopping them, despite adverse changes in the economics, sometimes becomes politically untenable.

I try to make the trade-off explicit.

In general, I think of actions in three groups. There are those that improve cash in the near term. There are those that improve competitiveness in the medium term, and enhance optionality and flexibility in the long term.

I’m not looking for an even split among the three.

A company under financial and time-pressure will likely consider the near term and cash the most important consideration. A fast growing company would likely have a stronger focus on capabilities in the medium term. A more mature company may have fewer justifications for funding something with a long time horizon.

What I am concerned with is whether the management and the board truly understand the time horizon they are funding, and why and what they expect in return.

Strategic choices and capital allocation are one and the same.

Capital allocation extends far beyond making a major acquisition or a large, one-time capital expenditure. Day-to-day choices like working capital, selling and purchasing decisions, and funding research and development are all capital allocation choices. Setting payment terms and deciding how to allocate and fund the firm’s real assets are all capital allocation choices. For a board to truly understand the trade-offs the firm is making, it has to be able to understand the choices management is making, and why.

Costly leadership questions happen when boards fail to act.

Another topic boards can sometimes leave unresolved for too long is leadership.

A board has a unique responsibility in this area. It selects the CEO and assesses the CEO and needs to consider succession planning.

What is dangerous is not the board making a decision to change a CEO. What is dangerous is the period before that decision when there is a sense that there is a problem and that something is amiss, but no one is willing to bring that question to the fore.

It becomes a circle that is repeated at each meeting.

I find that if it is a positive thing to make something concrete, then it should also be positive to make something negative concrete.

What is the deficit that people are talking about? Is it execution? Is the CEO unable to build the required management team? Is there a problem in the commercial area? Is the company growing too quickly, or is the organization becoming too complicated? Is there a financial problem?

What is the board looking at? What is the time frame? What is the evidence?

What needs to improve?

What support does the executive need?

What needs to change to demonstrate that the problem has been resolved? When will the board meet to address this?

Challenge your management team, but don't become management.

I've never agreed with the assertion that boards always operate at 30,000 feet.

There are times when you need to be at 500 feet.

Sometimes cash is deteriorating and you need to understand receivables and/or inventory and supplier terms. Sometimes customer retention is down and you need to get beyond the aggregate churn number. Sometimes the plant keeps missing deliveries.

These may not be micromanaging situations.

The line gets crossed when you turn from understanding to instructing.

It's board work to understand why a plant is missing deliveries and to what extent a key account is at risk.

It is not board work to tell the plant manager to run a certain production schedule to ensure deliveries.

The temptation to cross this line is especially acute for board members with significant operating experience, as they are naturally inclined to want to help the company and/or explain what needs to be done.

You may well be able to help.

But being able to help does not mean you should cross the line. The hard challenge should be at the understanding end, not the instructing end. Management needs to be free to manage. Otherwise, you end up with a situation where the CEO is the formal director of the company, but several board members have essentially removed themselves from governance and are micromanaging the CEO. That, also, does not improve accountability.

Challenge Management Without Micromanaging

Work from the work.

As with the composition of the workforce, I prefer to work from the work rather than the résumés when it comes to the composition of the board.

What does this company have to do in the next few years?

If this company has to combine a number of acquisitions, then there needs to be someone on the board to address that. If the company has to go through a commercial reset, there needs to be relevant commercial judgment. If the balance sheet is under pressure, then there needs to be relevant financial judgment to address that.

Not every well-known person is the right director.

The same is true for the non-executive directors. The right board can change over time.

The chairman is particularly important.

The chairman is responsible for making the difficult issues on the board’s agenda discussable. He/she has to make the board work as a team. He/she has to integrate the views of everyone on the board and prevent any one person from dominating and making the board work a solo show.

Sometimes he/she has to tell the directors to keep their hands off management.

I prefer transparency for the people who are directly and extensively working with the company as advisors, partners and former executives.

We have to be clear about the role they are taking.

We have to be clear about whom they are advising. We have to be clear about the decisions they are making. We have to be clear about who is accountable. Otherwise, additional people can add additional ambiguity.

Build the Board Around the Work

I prefer for the work to be done prior to the board meetings.

Much of what determines whether a board meeting will be useful happens before the meeting.

I’d like the fact base clear. I’d like the decision stated. I’d like the alternatives stated.

Management should not use the board meeting to read the board pack to the directors.

In important decisions I like to see a short paper stating the decision, the main alternatives considered, the recommendation, the economic impact of each, the downside risk, and the impact of waiting.

The rest of the analysis can be behind that.

I like to see important decisions early in the board paper agenda.

I am not a fan of saving the most important decision for the last part of a four-hour meeting.

I like to see an in-depth discussion on one or two topics than eight superficial discussions on “strategic” topics.

In ownership structures where there is a number of joint venture interests, I have found pre-briefs very useful. Pre-briefs can help resolve disputes on issues such as the level of funding, the level of risk, control, and even the facts.

A pre-brief should help surface the issues for discussion.

Discussions should help people come to their own conclusion.

Do the Work Before the Board Meeting

Boards should evaluate the value they add.

Which decisions did we improve this year?

Where did we slow the company down?

Which difficult decision did we postpone for too long?

Did management bring us problems early, or only when there was no longer any choice?

Did we continue to provide funding for an initiative after the original case for support started to weaken?

Did we spend time on things in which management should have made the decision for us?

Those questions tell us a lot about board effectiveness. Attendance statistics don’t.

After almost 25 years of working with boards and executive teams, the boards that I value most, are not necessarily the boards with the best-known names or longest meetings.

They create the most clarity.

They understand the company’s history, but they do not get stuck living in the past.

They understand when to challenge, and when to support management.

When a difficult decision is theirs to make, they take action.

About the author

Luciano De Castro Carvalho

Luciano de Castro Carvalho is a senior transformation and turnaround executive with more than 20 years of experience working with boards and senior leadership teams. He currently leads the Business Transformation practice at Strategy& and has led large-scale transformation programs across more than 30 countries. Previously, he held roles at McKinsey, Alvarez & Marsal, and UBS. lucianodecastrocarvalho.com

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

Assessing AI skills is now my life, and here’s what it taught me

(Mr Ozan Dagdeviren) - I built an entire operation from scratch in the last year, solo, and none of it would have been possible without AI; the journey made me better at using it and more convinced everyone should learn it.

By Mr Ozan Dagdeviren

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 9, 2026

My problem with AI

What I find quite sad is that when a space becomes too noisy, it draws out the signal as well. Not the first or last time this happened. Do you remember what a big deal blockchain was? And NFTs? And the internet!Among the noise, it takes real deep expertise, critical judgement and most importantly being an original thinker to tell whether something is hot air or has any lasting substance to it. Some technologies did and some didn't. Anyone can tell with hindsight, but very few have the foresight to guess right.Just like the fact that desire is mimetic, so are most our own opinions. The positive or negative opinions you hold on AI, to a very large extent are shaped by others, without your explicit awareness. Unless you deliberately practice being an original thinker and sharpen those critical thinking skills - and have the self confidence to be okay with being seen as wrong - you will most likely follow the crowds.You'll be likely to be an AI fan - ignoring the real issues around it, or be an AI sceptic, burrowing your head in the sand around the benefits it brings. This is the bifurcated social discourse with many things. It's easier to pick a side as if you are watching a match, then to have the humility and mindset to be able to appreciate the skills and abilities of your opponent, or to criticise the one you support objectively.Same is true for sports, politics, public discourse around gender and minorities, immigration, religion and now, of course, for AI.I have a background in human sciences - I studied the individual mind through psychology and neuroscience and I studied the social mind through sociology and social psychology. I love the balanced perspective this helps me afford, as I can shift seats when looking at a topic and see it through multiple lenses. As such, that's the approach I'm taking with AI. I love it, I fear it, I use it, I am cautious about it.

Love it or hate it. But learn it.

Whatever camp you are in, you would benefit from learning AI. And I’m not talking here about learning about AI, the politics and the economics of it. No, I’m talking about becoming AI literate as a baseline, then getting to AI fluent very soon.

There are multiple dimension of AI Fluency, let me guide you along.

Prompting & CommsFirst, you need to be able to communicate with AI well. This is how you get across what you mean and what you want. Talking to an AI is different than talking to a human. As you talk more with it you'll understand how to engage with it better.Critical ThinkingThis is your evaluation and judgement with AI. Also involves your understanding of it's limits.Technical UnderstandingDo you understand AI fundamentals, memory and context, how LLMs work and why they always guess but never actually "know".Workflow ApplicationHave you integrated AI into a way of working, can you break down a task into components, can you apply it in the right domain whether that's arranging your social life or finances?Safety & ResponsibilityCan you use AI safely, with correct privacy judgement. Can you set reliable guardrails? Do you understand when and how it can go wrong?

Still early days

Clearly, this is a new day for all of us. I like to say it's still day one with this new technology, in the grand scheme of things. (Well maybe now it's day two, but it's still very early days isn't it?)

I'd love to live in a world where more people understand what they are holding strong opinions about.What do you think?

About the author

Mr Ozan Dagdeviren

Mr Ozan Dagdeviren is the Founder & CEO at AISA AI Fluency. He also teaches on creative thinking part-time and has a background in behavioral science. He is the author of 5 books, has reached millions of people with his educational content.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

Forget Aging Gracefully. I'm Aging Out Loud.

(Monica Frazier Anderson DDS, DBA, FICD) - How A K-pop Movie Reminded Me That Confidence Should Never Retire

By Monica Frazier Anderson DDS, DBA, FICD

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 12, 2026

I love my granddaughter, but if she replays that song one more time, she is going to hear exactly what it sounds like when grandma turns into a demon. I’m not proud of it, but that was my thought when my beautiful 10-year-old granddaughter picked up the remote and smiled in my direction. She knows that one-dimple smile is Boomer kryptonite. I sighed, forced my lips to smile, and said yes to her unspoken request.

I was headed toward the kitchen with our empty popcorn bowl when she asked, “Will you watch with me, Memoe?” I almost reminded her I’d viewed K-Pop Demon Hunters twice already that day and at least a dozen times in the past year. But then I realized: I’d never actually paid attention. I’m often advising others to “be present,” to practice intention and mindful listening. Yet, I couldn’t recall anything beyond those six now-famous words “This is What It Sounds Like.”

I set the bowl on the counter, plopped down next to her, and stared at the screen, willing myself to care as much as she. Rumi, the lead character, was only 3 lines into the lyrics when my mouth fell open. She wasn’t singing to the demon hunters. She was singing to me. “The worst of what I came from, patterns I’m ashamed of…” In that moment, she transported me from my cozy den to a painful place I rarely let my mind linger.

In 2012, surgeons removed a large cancerous tumor from my abdomen. The scar extends ten inches from my sternum to below my navel. Initially, I thought of it as a badge of honor commemorating my survival. I overshared my painful journey and displayed my quilted torso to anyone who asked. Years passed, and something shifted. Slowly, unconsciously, I body-shamed myself into thinking my triumphant scar was a flaw, another imperfection I needed to conceal. I stopped celebrating my healing and became ashamed of the man-made evidence of it.

Rumi continued, “We listen to the demons...we let them get between us.” Sometimes the worst demons are in our heads. Think of the hours we waste fighting not monsters with otherworldly powers, but our negative self-talk that incessantly whispers:

· I’m too old.

· I’m too big.

· I can’t do it.

· I don’t deserve it.

· I'm not pretty enough.

· I can’t wear a bikini.

That last one? Totally me. All the magazines, fashion blogs, and filtered reels on social media pummel us with images of blemish-free, perfect people. They don’t have bad breath or bad hair days, let alone an unesthetic mark on their drum-tight abs. Who says overexposure to filtered reality only impacts young people? Even women with decades of accomplishments can be virtually waterboarded into believing those images reflect mandatory beauty standards we cannot reach with a ladder and 6-inch stilettos.

“The truth now?” I didn’t stop wearing sheer blouses, crop tops, and bikinis because I’m old. I stopped because, like Rumi, I was hiding my scars—my truth.

Ironically, I am always impressed when I see a woman with a V-neck blouse exposing the telltale scar of open-heart surgery. I don’t think, “Geez, cover that up. No one wants to see that.” I think, Wow, I love her confidence.

Or, as the Demon Hunters sing, “There’s so much unexpected beauty in broken glass.”

It’s true this long, deep scar will always be part of me, reflecting victory over the hardest battle of my life. And no, I’m not a shero, but I AM a survivor. Survivor means you have lived through something that caused others to die. Whether it’s war, an automobile accident, childbirth, or surgery, we’re still here!! The scars and crow’s feet are reminders of our resilience, not our weakness.

I’m no longer listening to the lies I told myself. There is nothing wrong with my body. My scars are my map. My receipts. The history of a life I fought hard to keep.

So heaven help me, I’m wearing my bikini. If someone sees the truth beneath my sunscreen…good. I do not care.

Sitting next to my granddaughter watching an animated half-demon sing about shame, survival, and self-acceptance, I felt my heart beat a new rhythm. One my cardiologist would approve of!

I hugged myself tight, smiled, and thought, THIS is what mental liberation sounds like!

About the author

Monica Frazier Anderson DDS, DBA, FICD

Dr. Monica “mOe” Anderson is a TEDx speaker, award-winning podcast host, multi-published author, and licensed healthcare professional. Through spoken and written word, she explores personal growth, health equity, and the complexities of modern life. She is a mother of two sons and the proud grandmother of four. She resides in Grand Prairie, Texas.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

What my son's baseball season taught me about leadership

(Sue Sweenie) - By Sue Sweenie

Edited by Jenn Moon, Editor at Featured News · Oct 14, 2026

As a mom of an athlete, I have lost track of how many sports my kid plays. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey—the calendar fills up quickly. Between all his practices, games, and the emotional energy that comes with watching him compete, I sometimes wonder what my son will carry with him after the season ends.

A recent baseball season gave me an answer.

My then-11-year-old struggled with his confidence. He had an unusually hard time at the plate and on the pitching mound. Baseball meant everything to him. He was an amazing pitcher, but sometimes just struggled.

As a mom, I lost sleep over it. I worried about what the struggles were doing to his confidence and thought maybe it was time to move from baseball.

But he kept showing up.

He cheered for his teammates. He shared his Big League bubble gum—lots of it! He played with his heart, even when his performance did not reflect how much he cared. He had one particular coach who saw something special in him: He saw him as a mentor to the others. He recognized his ability and perseverance and allowed him to be a role model.

Contribution takes many forms

In sports, it is easy to focus on the players who have the best stats. At work, we often do the same with the person who wins the new account, delivers the best presentation, or gets the highest sales.

I believe a great team also depends on people who keep others motivated, take their role to heart, and remain invested when things get tough. My son backed his team and showed up even when he didn't want to.

That is a useful lesson for managers. Results matter, and so does recognizing the behaviors that help other people perform. Who follows through? Who shares their knowledge? Who helps a colleague after a big setback?

Confidence needs room to grow

Although my son was known for his pitching skill, he wasn't always the best hitter. My very first instinct was to protect him from feeling discouraged with his hitting. I had to take a step back, let things play out, and trust the process.

Leaders face a similar responsibility when an employee struggles. A missed target, in my opinion, should lead to a conversation about what happened and how the employee needs better support next time to reach that goal.

Giving someone room to grow takes patience, which can be hard to give. It also requires paying attention to progress that may come before a visible result.

Leadership is practiced every day

Team sports like baseball can give kids repeated opportunities to practice accountability. They have teammates depending on them, coaching feedback, and quick decisions to make at the plate. They can learn when to ask questions, when to listen, and when someone else is better positioned to lead.

Playing a sport does not automatically make someone a strong leader. For my son, that particular season offered practice in staying committed, accepting help, and finding his place on a team during a difficult stretch. There were days he just wanted to sit out, but his teammates made it fun and cheered him on.

When I think about that season, I think about a great boy who struggled and kept caring. He kept showing up for people who mattered to him. That is something I hope he carries into every team he joins.

About the author

Sue Sweenie

Sue Sweenie is a marketing, PR, communications, and personal branding professional with 20+ years of experience helping organizations and individuals build strong brands, tell compelling stories, and connect with the audiences that matter most. She is the author of "Branding You."

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

After a Houston Crash, I’ve Seen the Next Danger Come Through Your Phone

(Adam Miller) - I’ve represented Texans targeted by illegal lawyer solicitation. Here’s what I’ve learned about how it happens, the warning signs, and what I believe every accident victim should know.

By Adam Miller

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 5, 2026

A car accident is confusing enough. You may be hurt, your car may be totaled, and you’re trying to figure out what happens next. How are you going to get to the doctor or work?

Then your phone rings. Or maybe it's a text message, sometimes an email.

The person on the other end knows your name. They know you were in an accident and they want to “help” you. Sometimes they even know details about your accident that make you wonder how they got your information in the first place.

I’ve represented dozens of Texans who have received these calls, and that’s usually one of the first questions they ask me: How did they know?

That’s a great question. And honestly, sometimes I want to know the answer just as much as they do. Somebody knew about this wreck before the person had even started looking for a lawyer. How?

In Texas, certain types of illegal solicitation fall under what’s called barratry. Most people know the practice by another name: ambulance chasing. However, most people don’t know that its illegal and that you can sue these bad actors and get paid.

I’m a personal injury lawyer in Houston. Of course I advertise, everyone does. People see my commercials, social media posts, media coverage, and website. If someone sees one of those and decides to call me, that person made the choice to reach out. They were not illegally solicited.

That is very different from someone getting information about an accident victim, contacting that person directly and trying to steer them toward a particular lawyer or medical provider. They might even do this on a website which I have seen recently. Get your accident report here and you end up signing an electronic attorney contract without knowing it.

One Client Got Six Calls

One barratry case I handled still stands out to me.

After an accident, my client didn't get one solicitation. He got six.

Fortunately, he kept the evidence. He recorded the calls. He took screenshots. He saved the contracts that were sent to him. That turned out to be extremely important.

At the time, the applicable statutory penalty was $10,000 per violation. We ultimately collected $60,000 for him based on those six solicitations.

But there was another part of that case that I think says a lot about how this business can work.

When I got the police report, I discovered that my client had caused the accident.

In other words, the people soliciting him apparently hadn't even done enough homework to realize he didn't have the personal injury case they thought they were chasing.

His barratry claims were a separate issue, and the evidence he had saved allowed us to pursue them. He caused the accident and he STILL got paid. Most people don’t know this law and I am trying to spread the news.

That's why I tell people not to simply delete an unwanted text or hang up and forget about a suspicious call. Keep it. You may need it later.

The Call May Not Sound Suspicious at First

People imagine an ambulance chaser as someone who walks into a hospital room and hands an injured person a lawyer's business card like on a TV show or movie.

It isn't always that obvious.

The person contacting you may sound helpful. They may use an official-sounding business name. They might talk about getting your vehicle repaired or helping you find medical treatment. They might offer to help you get a rental car or cash loans for your expenses while you wait for your case to settle.

Eventually, the conversation may turn to whether you already have an attorney.

I recently talked about this issue on KPRC 2's Houston Life, and one of the things I tried to get across is that people should trust their instincts enough to ask questions.

If you didn't contact this person, ask who they are.

Who do you work for?

How did you get my phone number?

How did you know I was in an accident?

Why are you recommending this particular lawyer?

A legitimate professional shouldn't have a problem explaining who they are and why they're contacting you. If they aren't doing anything wrong they will have no issues answering all of these questions without hesitation.

There Are Warning Signs I Tell Everyone to Pay Attention To:

Timing. The timing is a big one for me.

If you were in an accident a few hours ago and somebody you don't know is already contacting you about lawyers or medical treatment, I would want to know how that happened.

I would also be very cautious about anyone pressuring you to sign something right away.  Insurance companies use this tactic too.

After a serious wreck, people are usually feeling overwhelmed. They're thinking about pain, transportation, work and their family. Most people have plans coming up and are worried about cancelling or rescheduling.  Also, they may be dealing with an insurance adjuster for the first time in their lives.

That is not the time someone should be creating more pressure.

Promises about how much money you're going to receive are another red flag. No lawyer can responsibly know what a case is worth from a quick phone call right after a crash. There are too many things we don't know yet.

What happened? Who was at fault? What does the evidence show? How badly was the person injured? What insurance coverage is available?

Those questions take time to research before you can answer with any certainty.

And, even worse, if somebody offers money, gifts or something else of value to get you to sign with a particular lawyer, this is a big red flag. Paying for cases is also super illegal in Texas but firms are doing it every single day.

Texas Law Takes This Seriously

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that barratry isn't just against the rules for lawyers. It's actually against Texas law, and there can be real consequences for the people involved.

There are a few different laws that come into play. Texas Penal Code §38.12 deals with barratry and solicitation of professional employment. Lawyers also have to follow Rule 7.03 of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, which puts limits on how we can directly solicit potential clients.

What surprises a lot of clients is that Texas actually gives them a way to go after the people doing this. Texas Government Code §82.0651 is the law we use in these cases.

And the even law changed recently to help crack down on this practice. The Legislature increased the penalty in 2025. If somebody illegally solicits you and you don't sign the contract, the penalty can now be $50,000. You may also be able to recover damages and attorney's fees.

Signed the contract already? Tell me anyway. That's a different situation, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're stuck with the lawyer who solicited you.

I also don't want people seeing “$50,000” and thinking, I got a weird text yesterday. Where's my check? That's not how this works.

When someone calls me about barratry, I usually end up asking a million questions. Show me the text. What number did it come from? Did you call them first? What did they promise you? Did they send you a link? Did you click it? Did you sign anything?

Sometimes the person doesn't remember much about the call, and that's understandable. They had just been in a wreck. Barratry wasn't exactly the first thing on their mind.

That's why I keep coming back to the same advice: don't delete anything. You don't need to know what law was broken or even whether a law was broken. Save it and let somebody who knows this area take a look.

I had Another Case That Went All the Way to a Jury

The client I talked about earlier who got the six calls is just one example. I had another barratry case that went all the way to a jury, and that client was awarded $350,000. That's the biggest barratry verdict I've had so far.

Unfortunately, that wasn't some one-off case either. I have dozens of barratry cases going on in different parts of Texas right now. People are willing to risk these strict fines, penalties and loss of license to get these cases instead of building a great reputation or advertising.

And I hear the same thing all the time: “I deleted the text because I thought it was spam.” I get it. I delete junk from my phone too.

But if the person knows you were just in a wreck, stop before you hit delete. Take a screenshot. If they leave a voicemail, keep it. If they send you some strange link or a contract you never asked for, definitely keep that.

I've had people come to me months later trying to remember exactly what somebody said to them. That's a lot harder than handing me the phone and saying, “Here. This is what they sent me.”

It’s Your Decision Who Represents You

I've represented injured people in Houston for many years, and choosing a lawyer is a personal decision. When you hire a lawyer, that person is going to be in your life for a while. They will know a lot of personal information about you, your injuries, your medical history as well as your income and work situation. You should be the one choosing your lawyer. Not some stranger who got your phone number after a wreck.

So take your time and really decide who you want to work with. Maybe you hire the first lawyer you talk to. Maybe you talk to three. Maybe your brother or your neighbor had a lawyer they loved and you call that person. That's up to you.

I don't care how you find your lawyer. Ask your friends. Read reviews. Drive past a billboard. Google ten different firms if you want. What I care about is that YOU made the decision to call them, not the other way around.

What shouldn't happen is somebody you never contacted getting your information after a wreck and making you feel like the decision has already been made for you. Don't be a victim twice.

Remember it's always worth asking some questions. Start with the obvious one: How did you get my number?

-----

Legal Disclaimer: This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and regulations vary by jurisdiction and may change over time. Readers should not rely on the information in this article as a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney regarding their individual circumstances. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Featured News or its affiliates.

About the author

Adam Miller

Adam Miller, known as The Texas Bulldog, is a Houston personal injury attorney and founder of The Miller Law Firm. Licensed in Texas since 1990, he has tried more than 100 jury trials and represents accident victims, including people targeted by illegal solicitation after a crash.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

Homeschooling And The Classroom Don't Have To Be Rivals

(Dr. Mimi Smith) - The question isn't which educational setting is better. It's which one a child needs right now.

By Dr. Mimi Smith

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 7, 2026

Homeschool Versus Brick-and-Mortar Does Not Have to Be a Debate

I’m sure you’ve heard the unspoken debate about homeschool versus brick-and-mortar school once or twice in your lifetime. If the discussion isn’t coming from parents, it’s being whispered among teachers and counselors in schools.

And you know what? I understand this debate firsthand.

At first, I wondered why we concern ourselves so much with which type of school a child attends. Isn’t the point simply to make sure children are receiving the education they need to become successful adults? I mean, wouldn’t that be the ultimate mission?

Two years ago, I tutored a third grader who was bright, curious, and needed a little extra guidance with reading comprehension. From what I could tell, he was doing pretty well.

We all thought he would move on to the next grade.

Then came the reading assessments. You know, the infamous Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, that every student dreads.

Well, maybe not every student.

This young kid ended up just a few points shy of meeting the requirement to move on to the next grade level.

I was shocked. Missing it by only a few points was difficult to swallow, even for his parents.

His parents ultimately decided to homeschool him.

Here is where things became interesting.

I noticed when the parents transitioned him to homeschool, they had more freedom in the way they helped him learn.

Throughout his fourth-grade year, his parents kept me updated.

He was doing amazingly well.

By the end of the school year, he had all A’s.

No, literally. All A’s.

They sent me a copy of the transcript, and I was so proud of him.

In that moment, I started wondering whether homeschool was simply better for him than brick-and-mortar school. I had officially started the entire debate in my own head.

If I had made my decision based only on that transcript, I probably would have concluded that homeschool was the way to go.

But then his parents put a funny twist in my thinking.

They sent him back to brick-and-mortar school for fifth grade.

And guess what?

Their reasoning made perfect sense.

Homeschooling had helped him improve academically, but it had also given his parents the opportunity to notice things about the way he learned.

Yes.

The way he learned.

They noticed that during tests, he would work far too quickly and get answers wrong, but they knew he understood the question.

His parents asked him why he wouldn’t simply slow down when he already knew the material.

His answer had nothing to do with academics.

He told them the other children at school were much faster test takers. He felt like he had to finish before them or they might think he wasn’t smart enough.

That’s exhibit A.

Stay with me.

His parents realized that working in smaller groups, or around other children who also took more time during tests, might work better for him.

And guess what?

His brick-and-mortar school was willing to accommodate him.

There were more of these little gems that ultimately helped his parents decide he could return to the classroom, but that one stayed with me.

It changed my thinking about whether homeschool might have been the better option.

More importantly, it made me realize that choosing a side may not benefit the child at all.

In some cases, choosing a side could actually prevent us from recognizing what the child needs.

You see, while the child was being homeschooled, the family was able to observe behavior that they were previously unaware of.

Not bad behavior, but learning behavior.

The child had some strengths they were able to use while being homeschooled, and for any weaknesses, they adjusted around them so that he could continue to progress.

By the end of the school year, they took all of their assessments and shared it with his classroom teacher when he transitioned back. His school was happy to support him!

Whether his parents realized it at the time or not, homeschool became a bridge back into brick-and-mortar school.

One need in a child’s life changed the plan.

Then the plan changed again.

There were no sides to choose for this family because the side they chose was the child’s.

A child does not have to be permanently homeschooled or permanently educated in a brick-and-mortar school. Their educational environment can change depending on what they need during a particular season of their life.

Homeschool and the traditional classroom can work together.

They do not have to be rivals.About the author

Dr. Mimi Smith

Dr. Mimi Smith is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Books for Little Hearts™, a children’s publishing brand and youth authorship development platform centered on creating opportunities for young authors to write books for children. She also founded its fully funded Young Author Publishing Program, which provides selected young writers with professional publishing support at no cost to their families.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

Mortgage rates reach 7.49% as housing experts share expected market changes

(Featured) - Bloomberg reported that U.S. mortgage rates reached 7.49%, the highest level since 2023. Housing and mortgage experts explain changes they expect the rate environment to bring over the next 6–12 months.

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Roundup by Featured · Oct 9, 2026

Bloomberg reported that U.S. mortgage rates reached 7.49%, their highest level since 2023.

We asked housing-market and mortgage professionals to identify changes they expect this rate environment to bring for buyers, sellers or lenders over the next 6–12 months.

Roundups

Russell VolkREALTOR®, Elite Realty Group · Huntingdon Valley, PA

What I’m seeing is that higher mortgage rates are creating two very different housing markets. Many of the 55+/Active Adult and downsizing buyers I work with are coming from homes that have been either fully paid off or they have substantial equity and some are able to buy with cash or a large down payment. Those buyers are much less affected by an increase in mortgage rates than buyers who are putting 20% or less down payment.

Over the next 6 to 12 months, I expect that difference to become more noticeable. Homes that appeal to downsizers with lots of equity and cash buyers can still see strong demand, while homes that depend primarily on financed buyers may require more aggressive pricing or seller concessions.

I also expect builder incentives and rate buydowns, and I already see that, to become increasingly important because many financed buyers care more about the monthly payment than a relatively small reduction in the purchase price.

Doug Perrystrategic financing advisor, Real Estate Bees · Bethesda, MD

Rates are going up to slow down inflation, which has been running hot for years, eroding purchasing power for consumers through higher prices on just about everything. Consumer budgets are exhausted, and under stress. Higher rates drive up borrowing costs in just about every lending segment and higher savings rates encourage consumers to save money instead of spending it. The slowdown in demand will drive down inflation but it will take 6-12 months.

As prospective homebuyers pull back during this higher rate cycle, I don't think we will see a noticeable decrease in home prices, but we will see a big shift in negotiating power favoring home buyers.

Prospective home buyers shouldn't back out of the market just because rates are up and home prices aren't dropping. Historically, some of the most profitable moves in real estate have been against the trend, and this is one of those times home buyers have that exact opportunity.

Dale GremillionSenior Loan Officer and Producing Branch Manager, Capital Home Mortgage Arizona

Rates being at 7.49% will allow buyers to sit on the fence and shop around with us for the best option whether it be conventional FHA VA or Jumbo.

As we start to see more inventory available on the market home will sit longer and allow sellers to give more towards closing cost. Using programs such as Home Plus AZ or Home in Five Advantage can help your buyers get closed on their next home faster.

Another thing we have noticed is the increase of using one time close loans. These loans will allow your buyers to get locked into one rate when they start building their home and only draw on what they use during the building process.

Something that I have noticed that was unexpected was more buyers wanting to use 1099 loans on there primary residence. With these loans you only need to put down 10-20% and do not need to provide tax returns but can use bank statement's or P&Ls.

Tripp ButlerOwner, Southbridge Greater Savannah Realty · Savannah, GA

The housing market has definitely slowed in our area because of interest rates, inflation (which is driving gas and food prices up), and the uncertainty around the war in Iran. Buyers have the upper hand right now and can negotiate much more on price, ask for closing costs, and many are getting an Old Republic Home Warranty included in their contract. It has taken a little more explaining for sellers to understand this because they are still expecting to get what their neighbors sold their house for a few months back, when interest rates were more than half a point lower than they are today.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. AI Can Read Them All

(Maurice Sikkink) - You are keeping your photos off social media, that's great. But what can the platforms storing years of our memories learn from them?

By Maurice Sikkink

Edited by Adrian James, Editor at Featured News · Oct 12, 2026

When I got married last year, I didn't want the wedding all over the internet. Apart from my LinkedIn, I'm pretty much invisible online, so it would have felt odd to have one of the most personal days of my life show up on other people's Instagram and Facebook feeds.

With my kids, I feel even more strongly about it. I know that once someone publishes a photo of them online, I have no control where it ends up, who's looking at it and with what intention, or what some future piece of software might do with it.

That's my own point of view, but it also matched with something we'd been noticing.

Working on a photo-sharing service, I’ve noticed that people are a lot more careful with their photos now than they used to be. I don’t have exact numbers for it, but you can tell from the questions they ask before they sign up. How easy is it to share photos with others? How much can I store? And then, more often: where are the photos stored? That one comes up especially from people in Europe. Who can access them, do you scan them, do you use them for AI? People really do dig through our FAQ and terms to find out the answers. To me, that says privacy has moved out of the small print and into the main reasons people choose a product.

My own family photos got me thinking about this from another angle too. Most of the conversation is about whether photos are published on Insta. Although I do know some successful influencers who don't mind and show their entire family online.

But at my children's school, for instance, there's a lot of attention around posting pictures of other people's kids, and at weddings couples now regularly ask guests not to put everything online. Or even just put the phones down. I've been at weddings from which I have no photos at all, only bride and groom had a photographer and didn't show the photos to anyone except one printed album at their house. Fair enough, but keeping photos off Instagram doesn't mean you stop keeping them somewhere and they just become some kind of secret.

You still want the grandparents to see the kids. Me, personally, I still wanted our wedding guests to send us their pictures. They have to live somewhere.

So the question I keep coming back to is: whether the place you store them is looking at them. Not who can see your photos, but whether the service holding them is analyzing their content. Ten or fifteen years of photos says a huge amount about a person: your kids growing up, your partner, your house, your holidays, your friends, where you spend your weekends, and probably a pile of weird screenshots and photographed documents and just awkward poses and places as well. With current AI, a library like that is something software can actually read and make sense of.

And this isn't just a theoretical thing. Google Photos explains that it uses algorithms to detect faces and group photos of the same person when its Face Groups feature is on. Apple Photos also recognizes people, places and scenes, although Apple says this analysis happens on your own device.

That doesn't necessarily mean these companies are doing anything wrong. And analyzing photos is also not the same as using them to train AI models. Google says it doesn't use people's personal Google Photos data to train generative AI models outside Google Photos. But I think it's important to understand the difference, especially when we're talking about years of private family pictures.

So what can you actually do about it? I would start with the privacy policy of whichever service holds your photos. Look for things like facial recognition, AI, machine learning and model training. Does the service analyze your photos? Does it happen on your own device or on their servers? Can you turn it off? And are your photos used for anything beyond storing and sharing them?

If you can't find the answers, ask the company directly. From my experience, people are already doing that a lot more often.

Funnily enough, I never really thought about these questions being so important when choosing where to keep photos. It was the questions from customers that made me think about it more seriously.

And perhaps that's the bigger point. We are becoming more careful about who gets to see our photos, but we should probably be just as careful about what happens to them where we store them.

Disclaimer: The author is the founder of Yogile, a photo-sharing service that competes with some of the products mentioned.

About the author

Maurice Sikkink

Maurice Sikkink is the Founder of Yogile, a private photo storage and sharing platform. With over 15 years of experience in photo-sharing technology, he has seen firsthand how people's attitudes toward privacy have changed. He is particularly interested in how AI is reshaping the way we store, share and protect our personal memories.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.

How I decide if a credit card sign-up bonus is worth chasing

(Mary Massoumi) - Before I apply, I check whether my normal spending covers the requirement, what the points are really worth, and what year two costs.

By Mary Massoumi

Edited by Jenn Moon, Editor at Featured News · Oct 14, 2026

Credit-card marketing is a billion-dollar business. Capital One alone reported $5.0 billion in credit-card marketing expenses in 2025. With my marketing hat on, I know how tempting a strong offer can look. Before applying, I check what it takes to earn the bonus and whether the card fits my spending.

Is the card worth it?

If there’s a sign-up bonus, determine if it makes sense based on your existing spending. For example, if you’ll typically spend $3,500 in the first three months and there’s a sign-up bonus with a spend of $4,000 requirement in the first three months, it probably won’t be worth spending an additional $500 just for the bonus. There are, of course, some exceptions to this, but I generally avoid messing with my budget for credit cards.

If there isn’t a sign-up bonus, or if you can compare the sign-up bonus to something else), try to figure out the break-even point for the annual fee. Let’s say Card A has 75,000 points as a sign-up bonus, and Card B is what you could sign up for elsewhere (or what the historical sign-up bonus has been). Assuming Card B has no annual fee (and if there is an annual fee, work that back into this example), Card A’s $795 annual fee immediately puts you at a $495 disadvantage (at 1.2¢ per point, I usually peg 75,000 points to be worth $900). To break even on the annual fee, you’d have to get $495 worth out of the card benefits. If there’s a $300 annual statement credit for eligible travel purchases (like the Chase Sapphire Reserve has), that narrows it down to $195. From there, it’s a matter of determining how much value you’ll get out of things like the DoorDash statement credit, TSA Pre/Global Entry fee reimbursement, Priority Pass (PP), etc.

PP deserves its own little PSA: PP lounge access is not guaranteed. You do have to activate it on your Chase Sapphire Reserve, and lounges can get packed and turn away visitors. However, if you do get in, you’re allowed two guests each (for you as the primary cardholder and each of your $195-a-pop authorized users!) for free, with each additional guest costing $27 per person per visit.

As another example, I saw an in-flight ad recently on an American Airlines flight for the Citi/AAdvantage Executive card with an offer of a free Admirals Club membership and first checked bag (for you and up to eight people traveling on the same domestic AA itinerary) when you become a new cardmember and use the card for eligible purchases within three months of account opening. If you can access that offer, it could definitely be worth it compared to the current offer, but it would also have a $695 annual fee. You’d have to determine how often you’d use the Admirals Club (note: you can either bring immediate family, defined as your spouse/domestic partner and children under the age of 18, or two guests each time, with adult children counting as guests) or first checked bag benefits and whether those would offset the annual fee. AA Admirals Club guest(s)/family must be traveling to or from the same city on the same day on an eligible (American or oneworld) flight and must enter with the Admirals Club member, who must show a valid physical AA Admirals Club Card and boarding pass for an eligible same day flight.

I also have the now-closed to new applicants Citi Prestige, which costs $495 a year to maintain, but does come with perks like the $250 annual statement credit for eligible travel purchases and fourth night free (when booking hotels through Citi Travel, up to two times per calendar year). With the annual statement credit, that narrows it down to $245 in benefits/value needed. The fourth night free can save you a decent chunk of change, but be sure to research the best price (the fourth night perk doesn’t always make Citi the cheapest).

Keep track of cards

Keep track of credit cards, either with an Excel sheet like I use or with your credit union/bank if it tracks them for you, including when you opened them and when any applicable bonus offer(s) expire, current balance, when the fee renews, etc. Set an alert a month in advance of renewal so you can decide what you want to do.

Decide before renewal date

I typically wait until somewhere around the one-year anniversary of a card and reassess. There are basically three options: keep as-is, call and ask if it can be downgraded to a no/lower-fee card, or cancel. In any case, it’s a good idea to double-check the terms of the bonus to ensure you’ve met them and figure out how long you have after the annual fee posts before it will be reversed if you downgrade/cancel the card.

When calling, if you tell them you’d like to cancel, sometimes they’ll offer to waive/rebate the annual fee to keep the account open (no promises, though, and always ask about any strings attached to these offers, like spend requirements or whether you have to keep the account open for x months). Cancelling a card can adversely affect your credit score(s), so a downgrade may be best in some situations. If cancelling, make sure you use/save any points/miles, update any automatic payments, and pay off/transfer the balance before closing the account.

Bottom line

Always pay attention to credit card offers and read the fine print before applying. Double-check bonus terms and expiration dates, perks and annual fees before renewal. Sign-up bonuses typically can only be earned once and some companies won’t honor sign-up bonuses if you’ve had the card in the past. Set up payment alerts and calendar reminders so you don’t miss anything and remember to pay your statement balance in full to avoid interest charges.

Disclosure: As of October 2026, Rewardopedia has no affiliate or referral arrangements with Chase, Citi, or American Airlines. We are pursuing affiliate partnerships.

About the author

Mary Massoumi

Mary Massoumi is the CEO at Rewardopedia. She draws on her own experience managing credit cards and travel rewards to explain how she weighs sign-up bonuses, annual fees, and card perks. Her approach starts with everyday spending, reading the fine print, and checking whether benefits justify the cost.

This story was produced by Featured and republished with permission. Experts featured here are members of Connectively, Featured's expert network.