CNBC make it 2024-08-22 00:25:29


Starbucks’ new CEO will supercommute 1,000 miles from California to Seattle office instead of relocating

Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol won’t be required to relocate to the company’s headquarters in Seattle when he joins the coffee giant next month. 

Instead, Starbucks says Niccol can live in his home in Newport Beach, California and commute to Starbucks’ head office 1,000 miles away on a corporate jet, according to the new CEO’s offer letter, which was made public in an SEC filing last week.

In his new role, Niccol, 50, will be paid a base salary of $1.6 million annually and has the opportunity to earn an annual cash bonus that could range from $3.6 million to $7.2 million depending on his performance. He will also be eligible for annual equity awards worth up to $23 million.

Niccol successfully negotiated a similar deal when he became the CEO of Chipotle in 2018. 

At the time, the fast-casual chain was headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and Niccol — who served as CEO of Taco Bell before his stint at Chipotle — lived in Newport Beach, a 15-minute drive from Taco Bell’s main office in Irvine, California. Chipotle moved its headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach three months after announcing Niccol’s appointment.

In the offer letter, Starbucks also notes that it will set up a remote office for Niccol in Newport Beach along with an assistant of his choosing. 

When he is not traveling for work, however, Niccol will still be expected to work from the Seattle office at least three days a week in alignment with Starbucks’ hybrid work policies, a company spokesperson tells CNBC Make It.

“Brian’s primary office and a majority of his time will be spent in our Seattle Support Center or out visiting partners and customers in our stores, roasteries, roasting facilities and offices around the world,” the spokesperson added. “His schedule will exceed the hybrid work guidelines and workplace expectations we have for all partners.”

Starbucks employees have been required to work from the office at least three days a week since early 2023.

Niccol’s arrangement underscores the gulf in bargaining power between high-ranking executives and the average employee in terms of flexibility.

The supercommuting CEO is becoming ‘increasingly common’

While rank-and-file employees might not be able to demand the flexibility to work remotely from a different state, companies make exceptions for senior-level employees to attract and retain top talent, says Raj Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies remote work.

Choudhury says there is a growing number of CEOs who are “working from anywhere,” though there is no comprehensive research on the topic. 

“It’s becoming increasingly common because we’re still in a competitive labor market,” he explains. “Executives aren’t accepting job offers if flexibility isn’t on the table.” 

Victoria’s Secret made a similar concession last week when it hired Hillary Super from Fenty x Savage, Rihanna’s lingerie brand, as its new CEO. 

When Super starts in September, she will work from the retailer’s New York City offices instead of its headquarters near Columbus, Ohio, traveling to Columbus as needed, according to her employee agreement.

Despite these recent instances, it’s still hard to draw any definitive conclusions about CEOs’ remote work preferences.

Although some CEOS — including Amazon’s Andy Jassy and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon — are drawing a hard line on return-to-office policies, other research has indicated that bosses aren’t thrilled with the loss of remote work.

Choudhury sees Niccol’s arrangement at Starbucks as an example of a company taking a “smart risk” to snag a star executive. 

The coffee giant’s performance has struggled this year, hurt by weak sales in the U.S. and China, its two largest markets, CNBC reports. Starbucks shares fell 21% during former CEO Laxman Narasimhan’s tenure. 

Niccol has a strong track record of turning around troubled companies: As CEO of Chipotle, he helped the chain rebound from its foodborne illness scandal and led its restaurants through the pandemic. During his time at the restaurant chain, its stock soared 773%, CNBC reports.

“Starbucks based its process of selection on this person’s prior record of boosting restaurant-based companies, not their location,” says Choudhury. “I expect more companies will take notice and follow suit: If you want to attract and retain the best talent, you have to be open to flexible work arrangements.”

Such an emerging trend could have benefits for desk workers craving flexibility, Choudhury adds. 

“If more C-suite leaders start working remotely, middle managers might be inspired to start trying it, as culture changes start at the top,” he says. “This is a great opportunity for Starbucks to experiment with offering employees, wherever possible, the same degree of flexibility it’s giving its executives.”

This story has been updated to more accurately reflect Laxman Narasimhan’s title.

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44-year-old’s garage side hustle brings in $148K/year: ‘You don’t have to have business experience’

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, where people with lucrative side hustles break down the routines and habits they’ve used to make money on top of their full-time jobs. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.

When Leena Pettigrew tells friends she earns over $100,000 per year selling plants online, they usually think she means cannabis.

In reality, the full-time IT analyst spends 20 hours per week sourcing, growing, packaging and selling houseplants from variegated micans and Anthurium luxurians to Philodendron Ring of Fires in her Houston garage.

With almost no prior gardening experience, Pettigrew started buying plants to redecorate her house in 2022, she says. When her office, bedroom and living room became “overrun” with eight-foot-tall Monstera plants, she looked for ways to sell them.

Her search led her to Palmstreet, an online marketplace for plants, crystals and home decor. She joined the platform in June 2023, and brought in nearly $148,600 of revenue in one year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

The 44-year-old is also a paid consultant on the platform now, and helps train new sellers, she says.

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Most of her sales come from livestream sessions. Twice per week, Pettigrew auctions off plants — purchased from local nurseries or other online vendors — for four hours, or more, at a time on Palmstreet. Sometimes, she’s joined by her husband Marquise. They sell roughly 100 plants each stream, all of which ship nationwide, she says.

“When I first started, I was extremely anxious on camera and felt like I had to do a lot of preparation to be successful,” says Pettigrew, adding: “I still get nervous and sometimes take a shot of bourbon beforehand.”

Yet her business is profitable and earns enough for her husband to significantly cut his working hours at an automotive shop they co-own, she says. Marquise and five contract employees now help Pettigrew with customer service, marketing and shipping.

Here, Pettigrew discusses how she honed her side hustle, the pros and cons of turning her hobby into a business, and how other people can replicate her success.

CNBC Make It: Do you think your side hustle is replicable? How much does it cost to get started?

Pettigrew: I think almost anyone can do it — but not everyone.

Palmstreet is competitive. It costs about $1,000 to build enough of an inventory for the platform to accept your application. There’s a commitment that goes into this, whether it’s selling on livestreams, taking care of your plants or posting on social media.

You have to stand out. Good customer service and having unique plants can help, but I think personality makes the biggest difference. If you want people to watch your livestreams, you have to have enthusiasm and joy for what you do, and be yourself.

Does that level of enthusiasm and joy come naturally to you?

I’m very introverted and shy. When I first started, my husband had to come out on livestreams with me so I’d feel more comfortable. We’re both silly, so he helps me goof around, have fun and not take myself so seriously, which I think helps us connect to customers.

I also have to have a little downtime after livestreams. Otherwise, I’m irritable.

You and your husband co-own an auto shop, and your husband still spends about six hours per week running it. What’s the biggest difference between that and selling plants online?

Selling plants is a lot less stressful.

In the auto shop, customers relied on us to get to work. Sometimes, having their car break down, and having to pay for it, was the worst day of their lives. Our workers relied on us for their household incomes, too, and it was hot and dirty.

When we sell plants, people are spending their disposable income on things they want. Our contract workers are part-time, and while there’s still some dirt involved, it’s at least more concentrated.

Have you experienced any downsides to turning your hobby into a business?

The side hustle, and my husband and I’s remote jobs, are all out of our house. That can make it hard to stop working.

Sometimes, we feel like we don’t have time for our spiritual needs. So, we’ve started taking weekend trips, even just around Texas, to physically get out of the house, get away from work and connect with each other.

Once you own your own business, you can’t turn it off. There’s always something more to do.

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I couldn’t get hired for a year—it changed my attitude toward work: ‘Perspective comes at an extremely high cost’

In June 2017, I was let go from a journalism job and decided to spend the summer working a temporary gig and saving money to travel in the fall. When I got back to the States in December, I felt I was ready to find my next role in journalism. I stayed with my parents to save money on rent.

Over the course of a year, I applied to dozens of jobs. Some led to emails with the hiring manager or recruiter. Others to the first phone conversation. At least one led to seven rounds of interviews with no offer at the end of the process. Over the first six months alone, I interviewed at more than 10 different companies to no avail. No one would hire me.

Getting rejected time and time again was extremely disheartening. I felt worthless. I was depressed. What was I if not the title I got from my job? What proof did I have that I mattered?

There are currently 7.2 million unemployed people in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 1.5 million of them being long-term unemployed, or out of work for 27 weeks or more. Many of them might be feeling the very same pain I felt that year.

For me, though, it was exactly that emotional toll that led to some critical shifts in how I approach my work life. These shifts have stayed with me ever since and helped me build a much healthier relationship with work.

Even if that was the end of my career, it was enough

I remember one night in May 2018, heartbroken and lying in my parents’ basement, I came to the first realization.

I had been working as a journalist for seven years. I’d written for national publications like The New York Times and local ones like the Village Voice. But when it came to my self-worth and sense of accomplishment, none of it mattered.

Regardless of what I did, nothing was ever enough. It felt like I had this big hole in my stomach, and no matter how many published articles I chucked into it, it never filled up. It only got bigger. My relationship with work left me empty.

“I always say that perspective comes at an extremely high cost,” says Janna Koretz, a clinical psychologist and expert on leadership and mental health. “When people go through a difficult thing, whatever that is, personal, professional […] You gain a perspective in that.”

When my professional black hole dawned on me, I decided to shift my perspective on my career. If I never got to write professionally again, I thought, everything I’d done thus far was plenty to be proud of and glean joy from. It was already enough.

I have nothing to prove

A few months later, the ongoing application process took its toll again. I started pinning all my worth on getting any response from hiring managers.

I was talking to a friend who’d recently had his own change of heart about work as a result of a debilitating neurological disorder. And he gave me an assignment. Imagine a world in which there was no work, he said, and write a list of human characteristics that you bring to it. What do you add to the world just by being who you are, he said.

“I think that’s a great exercise,” says Koretz, “because you do then start to realize all the things that you do bring to the table that have nothing to do with work.” At Koretz’s practice, Azimuth Psychological, they give people a similar exercise. They lay out a scenario in which there are no jobs and their patients have unlimited money, and they ask them what they would do.

It helps people “start to realize you have more than you think, you are more than you think,” says Koretz. “It brings people a lot of hope and joy.”

That’s what I found in doing my friend’s exercise. I wrote down 11 different attributes: naturally curious, creative, seeks joy, etc. And within a couple days I felt a seismic shift in my body. I realized I could love work and put my all into it, but it didn’t define me as a person. It was just something I did in my day-to-day.

Going forward, looking for a job was a much easier process. I was able to approach my search with a greater sense of calm and perspective on what it meant for my life. I didn’t need to accomplish anything else, only to find something I could live off and enjoy doing. And my entire worth as a human didn’t rest on getting hired.

I also put as much of an emphasis on everything else I did in life, like spending time with my friends and doing some creative writing on the side. They’re lessons I’ve thought about again and again as a reminder of what matters to me.

In the fall of 2018, I finally got hired. I was thrilled to be able to start a new job, but by then I was approaching work a little bit differently. I knew though I could enjoy work for the successes it brought, ultimately, I had nothing to prove.

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This is the No. 1 ultra-processed food I avoid, says dietitian from America’s only Blue Zone

I’m from Loma Linda, California, a small city known as the only Blue Zone in America. Studies have shown that residents live up to around a decade longer than the rest of the United States. 

Today, much of my work is informed by my upbringing, and the strong emphasis my community in Loma Linda put on on health and nutrition.

Based on principles of longevity and research from Blue Zones, I encourage my clients to focus on balanced nutrition, regular joyful movement, developing healthy coping mechanisms for stress management and adequate sleep

My ultimate goal is to encourage my clients to pay attention to the foods that give them energy — and help them avoid foods that are ultra-processed and lack key nutrients.

Why I never consume energy drinks

Energy drinks have become popularized through social media over the years. They’re often marketed as quick solutions for boosting energy, fueling during a pre-workout and enhancing alertness. 

As a dietitian, though, here’s why I advise caution:

1. Energy drinks can disrupt your sleep and your appetite

One of the main ingredients in many energy drinks is caffeine. While it can improve alertness and concentration, excessive consumption of it can lead to adverse effects such as increased heart rate, high blood pressure and anxiety. 

It can disrupt sleep patterns, which can lead to fatigue and further reliance on these beverages. 

Caffeine is known to have appetite-suppressing properties. Many of my clients have reported a reduced desire for meals after consuming caffeinated drinks. 

While an energy drink may provide temporary fullness, it is not a meal and should not be used as a replacement for one.

2. Energy drinks can spike blood sugar and increase inflammation

A typical can of an energy drink often contains up to 30 grams of sugar per serving. Too much sugar can contribute to various health issues, including increased inflammation and dental problems. 

In addition to caffeine and sugar, energy drinks may include other stimulants such as guarana and taurine. While these ingredients are generally recognized as safe, their combined effects with caffeine are not as well-researched and may pose additional health risks

3. Energy drinks can affect your physical and mental health

Frequent consumption of energy drinks is associated with increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress, studies have shown, and with a substantial increase in norepinephrine, a stress hormone that could potentially lead to increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Individual responses to energy drinks can vary significantly. Factors such as age, medication use and underlying health conditions can influence how your body reacts to these beverages. 

Knowing that, it is important to consult with a physician before consuming energy drinks regularly, especially if you have any pre-existing health concerns.

For my clients, I always recommend water, green tea, herbal teas, coconut water and kombucha as great alternatives for energy drinks.

If you find yourself constantly needing energy boosts, my best advice is to consider discussing your lifestyle and eating patterns with a registered dietitian. That can help you identify a healthier and more sustainable relationship with food and your body. 

Eliza Cheng is a dietitian and nutritionist based in California. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Loma Linda University, and has experience working in eating disorder treatment, including partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient hospitalization for children, teens and adults. Follow her on Instagram @ournourishedbodies and find out more at Our Nourished Bodies.

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38-year-old American expat lives on $73,000 in one of the world’s most expensive countries

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

Jewells Chambers doesn’t look like a typical Icelander. In a country where 94% of people identify as native Icelandic, Chambers, a Black American woman, is among the other 6%.

She doesn’t sound like one either. Over the eight years Chambers has lived in Reykjavik, she’s developed a conversational level of Icelandic. “I still fumble on things, though,” she says.

Nevertheless, the native New Yorker has never been surer that this is the exact place where she always needed to be.

“It felt as if there was something magnetic that has been pulling me in this direction, and I still haven’t been able to put my finger on it exactly. But I know it has something to do with the nature, because that has been and continues to be such a rejuvenating piece for me,” Chambers says. “Every time I’m out on a hike or even just a regular walk, getting a little bit out of the city, I just feel really grounded.”

It’s a feeling she wants to share with the world. Since 2018, Chambers has run All Things Iceland, a podcast, YouTube channel and social media brand that explores Iceland’s nature, history and culture through the lens of an expat.

Running the show, which has more than 50,000 YouTube subscribers and 30,000 monthly podcast listeners, has been Chambers’ full-time job since 2020. The company is on track to earn the equivalent of $100,000 this year, from which Chambers will pay herself roughly $73,000 before money is taken out for taxes and contributions to a pension.

That’s not a fortune — especially in famously pricey Reykjavik — but it’s enough to fund the sort of life Chambers, 38, dreamt about in her youth.

“Being here, I feel safe. I feel at home. I’m really happy,” she says. “And that has transformed into something that continues to keep me here.”

Getting through the ‘limbo state’

Chambers says her dreams of living abroad began in high school in Brooklyn during economics class.

“While the professor was talking about U.S. economics and politics, something in my brain was just like, ‘I don’t think I’m meant to live in the U.S.,’” she says.

She’d have to wait for her wanderlust to take hold, however. Chambers hoped to study abroad while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but things didn’t work out. “This was something that would hopefully, in the future, become a possibility for me. But it didn’t seem like I knew exactly the direct way that it would happen or how it could happen.”

In the meantime, adult life began. Chambers graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in engineering and about $60,000 in student debt. She moved back to New York City and took a fellowship doing digital marketing for a diversity and inclusion nonprofit, but was barely getting by.

Chambers eventually upgraded to a full-time gig, which helped alleviate some of the financial pressure, but still describes that period as “a limbo state,” “this jumble of trying to figure out my life, trying to make some money, trying to create a career path that made sense for me.”

One thing she had figured out at the time: her love life. In 2013, she reconnected with and began dating an Icelandic man she’d met in college and in two years, the pair were married. By 2016, he told Chambers he intended to move back to Iceland, and she agreed to follow him — on one condition.

“I am not moving unless I find a job that utilizes my skills,” Chambers recalls saying.

Luckily for Chambers, Iceland was in the midst of a huge tourism boom, and digital marketers were in high demand. “This was not a specialty that a lot of people in the country had, or even realized they needed,” she says.

After nailing down a job at a local tourism company, she embarked for Iceland in June 2016.

Falling in love with all things Iceland: ‘My life changed’

Working for that company proved to be a microcosm of Chambers’ conversion to a true-blue Icelander: challenging at first, but eventually eye-opening.

She recalls feeling like she’d never be able to remember her coworkers’ complicated names, let alone keep up with an office full of outdoorspeople.

“They were all mountaineers. They had climbed some of the highest peaks in the world,” Chambers says. “And coming from the concrete jungle it was like, I take the bus to work to get nature.”

But this was the job, she was told. If she was going to market nature hikes and kayaking trips and glacier climbs to potential customers, she had to get out there and do them for herself.  

DON’T MISS: How to be more successful with your money

Once Chambers began personally experiencing the adventures Iceland had to offer, “my life changed,” she says. “Everything became about nature and understanding, respecting and then being able to market that out to our potential customers. And I loved it.”

It helped that Chambers was never made to feel like an outsider because of her identity. Rather, she says, the Icelandic people embraced her in a way that felt untethered to the racial baggage people carried with them back home.

“Living in Iceland has 1,000% had an amazing impact on my mental health,” she says. “The nature aspect has helped me in so many ways, [as has] shedding this idea that it always has to be about my skin color.”

By 2017, Chambers was settled in, and passing the winter days with limited daylight listening to podcasts. At the same time, seemingly everyone from her life back home was asking her about Iceland. Something clicked.

“It dawned on me, and I was like, well, I love listening to podcasts. I’m going to look up and see if anyone else is doing a podcast about Iceland,” she says. “I didn’t see any active ones, so I was like, you know what? I’m going to make a podcast.”

Launching the podcast: ‘I didn’t have any expectations’

Chambers launched All Things Iceland in 2018, with a plan to make it at least a year airing one episode per week. “I didn’t have any expectations,” she says. “I didn’t know what people were going to say or think.”

When she began to receive positive messages and comments from listeners and YouTube viewers, she knew she had something real on her hands.

“At first, it was people reaching out to say, ‘Thank you, this was so helpful,’” Chambers says.

Then came the sponsors. “These Icelandic companies wanted to work with me, and it was like, ‘Oh, there’s money to be made.’”

By day, Chambers was still doing digital marketing, and in 2019, took a job as chief digital strategy officer at an advertising agency. It was a well-paid, demanding gig that Chambers says jeopardized her ability to work on All Things Iceland.

Between her job, her passion project and her marriage, “it was a big juggle,” Chambers says. “It wasn’t easy, and I didn’t love what I was doing enough for it to keep me going.”

By the time the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Chambers was already feeling burnt out and soon scaled down her hours. By the following August, she felt confident enough in the trajectory of All Things Iceland to quit her day job altogether.

These days, things are flourishing. Chambers’ one-woman company brings in money from ad sales, sponsorships and affiliate marketing. She also sells maps, travel consultations and private tours, all while working behind the scenes with corporate clients producing online and social media content.

All told, the company brought in about $50,000 in the first half of the year, out of which Chambers pays herself about $6,000 a month in total compensation.

How she spends her money

This isn’t the first time Chambers as been a one-woman show financially. She shouldered much of the financial load for herself and her now ex-husband from 2016 through 2020 while he built a psychological practice. The pair separated in 2022 and divorced in 2023.

Chambers has a boyfriend who she began dating earlier this year, though the two don’t currently comingle their finances.

Here’s how Chambers spent her money in June. Virtually all of her financial life is conducted in Icelandic krona, converted here to dollars.

Conversions from ISK to USD were done using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 USD to 139.085 ISK on June 30, 2024. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

  • Housing: $2,031 for rent, phone and Wi-Fi
  • Groceries: $545
  • Cash savings: $428
  • Discretionary: $423 on household items, house and car cleanings, wellness and entertainment
  • Travel: $368 on an upcoming trip to Amsterdam with a friend
  • Fitness: $352 on a gym membership and personal trainer
  • Dining out: $321
  • Life insurance: $73
  • Gas: $65
  • Unexpected expenses: $61 on an emergency visit and medication for a case of strep throat

Chambers’ biggest monthly expense is rent, about $1,941 per month for a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment in downtown Reykjavik, with a storage area and an indoor parking spot — a key feature for Icelandic winters.

She also spent more than $850 feeding herself in June, evidence that food, especially at restaurants, can get very pricey very quickly. Chambers estimates that an entrée at a restaurant in Iceland will typically run you $25 to $30, and you can expect to pay $7.50 or $8 for a cup of coffee in a downtown café.

A few major expenses you tend to see in American budgets are conspicuously absent from Chambers’ spending. Some of it has to do with her job. Because she has a brand partnership with a rental car company, she gets a company car on the house; she just has to pay for gas.

Other omissions are idiosyncratic to where she lives. Health insurance premiums? Not a thing in Iceland, which has heavily subsidized universal health care. Chambers did shell out $61 to treat a case of strep throat in June, though she could have paid less had she gone to her neighborhood health center rather than the emergency room, she says.

The other major difference is the way Chambers (and all Icelanders) are compensated. The number that actually hits Chambers’ bank account is net of taxes and a contribution toward her eventual income in retirement. Every company in Iceland contributes 6.35% of payroll to the Icelandic equivalent of Social Security and 11.5% to one of 21 pension funds, with each employee contributing at least 4% of pay.

For Chambers, navigating the complexities of being both employer and employee in a foreign country “has been a huge learning curve,” she says. “Getting an accountant to help me with that has been so crucial.”

Looking ahead: ‘Iceland is my home’

In addition to her government mandated savings, Chambers stashes away a chunk of her income – usually 10% of her take-home pay — each month in a savings account. Eventually, she says, she’d like to explore the feasibility of opening a brokerage account, too, to boost her retirement savings.

In the shorter term, though, she’s saving to buy a house with her boyfriend.

She’s hopes to continue to grow All Things Iceland as a brand and a business. As the business continues to expand, Chambers hopes to hire people to help with the nitty gritty of the job so she can focus on being more creative.

Eventually, she says, she’d love to have her own travel show — based out of Iceland, of course.

“When I made that decision and stepped my foot down that day when I came to the country full time, it just felt right and it has continued to feel that way,” Chambers says. “So for the foreseeable future, Iceland is my home.”

 What’s your budget breakdown? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in a future installment.

Want to be more successful and confident with your money? Take CNBC Make It’s new online course. Our expert instructors will help you master your money and discover practical strategies to boost your savings, reduce debt and grow your wealth — in a way that works best for you. Enroll in ”Achieve Financial Wellness: Be Happier, Wealthier & More Financially Secure″ to start your journey to financial freedom today! Get a 30% discount with the coupon code EARLYBIRD until Sept. 2, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.