Business Insights: CEO Turnover, Weather Tech, Market Moves, and Boston's New Soccer Team

On today’s program, Doug Banks, editor of the Boston Business Journal talks about CEO‘s resigning at a record pace. Ed Carroll,executive with Tomorrow.io,
Talks about the growing Boston based weather technology company. Kat Shortsleeve explains her new business Shortsleeve Travel.  Sam Liang of Rubino and Liang talks about stock market gyrations and the impact on people looking to retire. And finally Jennifer Epstein of Boston Unity Soccer Partners updates us on the national women’s soccer league and the team preparing to play in Boston.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Carrigan, a weekly roundup and discussion of the
top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, good Sunday morning to you, folks. It's August the
twenty fifth. Joe shortslaved here on the New England Business Report.
Kim Kerrigan, Well, a well deserved day off today, So
you're gonna have to put up with me August the
twenty fifth, right, okay, So what's one week from today?
One week from today is September, right, And Kim and
I always talk about we talk about the passage of

(00:31):
time and how things are just really clipping along. Here
a guy on the program today, Ed Carrol. He did
the weather at the Channel four with me in the
nineteen nineties and early two thousands. Ed's working for a
company tomorrow dot Io. They're a weather company and I'm

(00:51):
gonna tell you more about them in just a second.
But he used to always say, Okay, it's September. September's here,
we are trick or treating, we are moving along, and
it's so true. It's so true with this calendar. Okay,
So yeah, Ed Carroll worked with me at Channel four
WBZTV for many years and we did the morning show together, Ed, Carroll, Joke, Shortzlave,

(01:14):
Suzanne Bates. So we woke everybody up and that went
along for a good period of time until Ed and
I went to evenings, and then the story goes on
from there. Now Ed has basically reinvented himself. He's with
this company. It's Boston Base. It's called Tomorrow dot Io
And basically I look at it and I say, what

(01:35):
are they? Well, they're like micro forecasts, okay, but if
you look at their literature, they say, we are powering
actionable weather insights around the world. Our mission is to
help countries, businesses, and individuals better manage their weather related
challenges with the best information and insights. And a couple
of quick stats, we'll move on to what else is

(01:56):
on the show. Seventy percent of businesses are impacted by weather.
Eighty five percent of the globe doesn't have reliable weather
data and forecasting anyway at Carrol's gonna join me in
studio later in the program and we'll talk about Tomorrow
dot Io and then this, well, the next guest, let
me just say she's my niece. Okay, her name is

(02:19):
Kat short Sleeve, Kat short Sleeve, and she graduated from
Georgetown and then went on to Columbia in New York
to get her MBA in business. And after graduating Columbia,
she decided that, you know, one thing she always wanted
to do was to travel, so she started a travel

(02:39):
company and it's called Short Sleeve Travel. But it's not
geared towards me or it's not geared towards the sixty
something crowd. It's geared towards the folks who are, you know,
twenty one to thirty five. And it's basically, you get
your airline tickets and then they put everything else together
for you. It's an exclusive members only community that transcends

(03:03):
traditional travel, catered to the adventurous, the curious, the driven.
Our club is designed for those aged twenty one to
thirty five. And she's actually in Greece today, so we'll
be talking with her during the program and she can
tell us a lot more about what she how this
business is doing, and how she gets paid. And then,
of course, as usual, we're going to hear from the

(03:23):
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, one Doug Banks
and Doug of course, a regular visitor here on the
New England Business Report, and their story this is interesting
because it sort of falls in this whole question mark
of the economy and where are we and how concerned
are people? But the headline and it's a story written
by their technology reporter Lucy Maffe, headline the great CEO Resignation.

(03:51):
Massachusetts CEOs are calling it quits at a record pace.
Massachusetts is among the top five US states for CEO
turnover data shows. So dougle b along to tell us
what exactly is going on. One line in the story
I'll share with you before we get to Doug is

(04:12):
the reporter. Lucy Maffe writes that the high turnover in
the C suite is concerning because it usually happens during
recessions and it can come with additional job cuts. So
reading the tea leaves there. We'll be talking to Doug Banks,
executive editor of the BBJA, in the program as well,
and then we're going to get a visit from Jennifer Epstein.

(04:35):
Jennifer Epstein, of course, is the woman or the leader
of a group. Jennifer Epstein is a controlling partner for
Boston Unity Soccer Partners LLC. Now she was born and
raised in Boston. Now she's part of this venture to
bring the National Women's Soccer League to Boston and that

(04:55):
will be in two thy and twenty six. But there's
a lot to work to be in the meantime. And
of course we've all heard about the White Stadium in
Boston and that apparently is moving their way, so we'll
be talking with them about the National Women's Soccer League
coming to Boston all right. Time now to talk with
the executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, one Doug Banks,

(05:17):
a regular here on our program in New England Business Report,
and every week, you know, Doug selects the story that
really caught the well their fancy, so to speak, and
this one is written by their technology reporter, Lucy Maffey.
And we had her on the program in Bloomberg when
Kim and I did that show over the years. She's
a very intelligent reporter, always sort of digs down on

(05:39):
these high tech stories. This one the headline on the BBJ,
the great CEO Resignation. Massachusetts CEOs are calling it quits
at a record pace. Massachusetts is among the top five
US states for CEO turnover data shows, So Doug tell

(06:00):
us about this.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
So, yeah, as you mentioned, Lucy got this report. It's
based on a report from the Chicago based outplacement firm Challenger,
Gray and Christmas. They do a lot of they do
a lot of research on talent and the last few years,
I want to say, maybe just when COVID started, they
started tracking CEO turnover by US states, and this past

(06:26):
report for the first half of twenty twenty four, it
showed that in fact, Massachusetts had about sixty chief executives
leaving the corner office, which put in Massachusetts, like as
you said, fifth in the United States. So you know,
what's interesting is kind of why why CEOs are leaving

(06:46):
their positions at a higher rate right now. And what
Lucy found was a couple of things. One, a lot
of companies coming out of the pandemic over the last
year or two started hiring again, only to find out
that they were over hiring. So the boards said, okay,
you're over hiring. Now we're laying off because the last

(07:09):
this past year has been such a challenge, so they
let the CEO go. But in other cases, at least
in the case here in Massachusetts, we saw a couple
of every one they're aging out. They're just deciding, you
know what with us in technology, especially a CEO who's
a founder of the company, you know, started the company,
grew it to a certain stage, decided they want to

(07:31):
take an advisory role or a board role and leave
the growth in operations to someone else. And we saw
that with Jason Purcell at at Salsify as well as
Sam King. She left vera Code And then, you know,
there's one other example, probably the multi profile, was when
Colin angel who's the founder of I robot, he left

(07:52):
after that the deal could be acquired by Amazon got
shut down. It looked like it was getting shut down
by you know, the regulators, and so that imploded and
Colin Angele stepped down from I Robots. So the high
profile CEO exits here in Massachusetts, and the numbers show
that it's been a tough place to sit in that
corner office.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, when I see this headline, Doug, I often
think of the other headline that's been out there for
a couple of three years now at this point, and
that's well, the wealthy hitting the exit in Massachusetts. But
because of the millionaire's tax now and what are your
thoughts about that. I know Lucy didn't necessarily attach it
to a cause and effect here.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
But what say you, Well, it's interesting. Yeah, I don't
know that the millionaire's tax would affect a CEO leaving
their position, but there's definitely been some evidence that shows
they're leaving Massachusetts. I mean, because of remote work, you
can have CEOs running a company from another state. And
we actually have been doing some research to show and

(08:54):
we're going to have a story in the next couple
of weeks on just where the most wealthy people in
Massachusetts are moving to. And I'll give you a little
sneak peak. They're not moving far. They're just going over
the border in New Hampshire. But they can live a
night happy life in New Hampshire with a much better
tax tax environment than they're having here in Massachusetts. So

(09:14):
they're not necessarily stepping down from the position, but they have.
But there is definitely more and more evidence that they're
leaving Massachusetts as a result of the Millionaire's test.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Tuk Banks, executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, is
our guess we're talking about one of his reporter stories,
or a technology reporter there at the BDJ at Lucy
Mafe headline gat the Great CEO Resignation. Lucy writes further
down on the story. She writes that the high tune
over in the sea C suite is concerning because it

(09:43):
usually happens during recessions and it can come with additional
job cuts.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yes, oh absolutely, Whenever there's turbulence in the marketplace and
people feel uneasy, the boards, boards are going to you know,
look to the person who's sitting at the top and say,
you know, this is the morel is low sales are down.
You know, whenever there's a recession and sales are down,
especially if it's a publicly trading company as well, you're

(10:11):
going to see you're going to see people you know
with layoffs, and you're going to see slower sales, and
you're going to see the CEO take the hit. So
a lot of times it's funny. They'll CEO will do
mass layoffs and then they'll take uh you know, then
they'll be making in say ten million dollars or fifteen
million dollars in salary. It's not a good look for

(10:32):
the company. Oftentimes a year later, you know the board
is deciding to make a change. So, yeah, the other
interesting thing that Lucy you know, looked at was just
the succession planning when you have such an environment of
CEO turnover, whether or not a company has a succession
plan and makes a smooth transition to the next CEO

(10:52):
is also it's also very interesting, and you know, not
every company is planning ahead and thinking about this, but
in the in the tech industry, it's being it is
becoming more and more commonplace that they know the ten
years not long, maybe four or five years, and so
then they you know, so they're putting a succession plan
in place earlier, which obviously is a good thing to
keep the company stable through the transition.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah. Well, in that vein, she touches upon the impact
that a CEO departure has on the staff has on
the company employees. She writes about both anxiety that this
creates and what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, it's interesting, it's both as she as you mentioned,
she writes about the anxiety and the opportunity because you know,
like you see in professional sports, a lot of times
the team will actually start start performing better when a
new CEO or a new coach comes in, and sometimes
that's because they want to perform and show what they're worth.
Sometimes the CEO had decided, you know, in their mind

(11:52):
that that person was not going to make it to
the next level up, so they see an opportunity to
prove themselves once again. And then others who were in
the good graces of that particular CEO and we're on
a track to continue growing. They have anxiety because they
don't know who's the next person is going to be
coming in. So it really does depend by in time
you have a big leadership change, you know, what happens

(12:14):
into a lot of turbulence and companies don't always transition.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well, all right, he's Doug Banks. He's the executive editor
of the Boston Business General. Thanks for taking time in
joining us today on the New England Business Report. Up next,
we're going to be talking with good buddy of mine
over the years, Ed Carroll, who was the weather guy
at Channel four. Today he works for a weather resilience company,
a high tech weather company called tomorrow dot Io. Neil
tell us what that's all about. In a moment, you're
listening to the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
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Speaker 5 (14:53):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Karrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.

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Speaker 2 (15:29):
And Welcome back to the New England Business report on
this Sunday morning, August twenty fifth, as promised a special guest.
It's a guy that I worked with at Channel four
WBZTV back in the nineties and early two thousands, Ed Carroll.
Ed Carroll did the weather with me where on the
mornings together with Suzanne Bates, and then we went to
evenings right up to the early two thousands. Well since

(15:50):
then a lot has changed. Ed has clearly reinvented himself.
So one of the things Ed ed. One of the
things Ed's doing is he's working for this company Bustin
based Tomorrow dot Io. And if you haven't heard of them,
you should. There's something else in terms of what they
are up to these days. This is now. I'll have

(16:11):
Ed give us his explanation or a description of the company,
but they write on their website we're powering actionable weather
insights around the world. Our mission is to help countries, businesses,
and individuals better manage their weather related challenges with the
best information and insights. And a couple of quick stats
before we bring in Ed. Seventy percent of businesses are

(16:33):
impacted by whether eighty five percent of the globe doesn't
have reliable weather data. And forecasting ed Carol, welcome to
the program show.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
Thank you very much. You know I've been on your
show a number of tens. I think I've ever been
called a special guest, just guests has normally been the
most impetat I can put that.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well, I guess, yeah, we bumped you up a little bit,
so well, thank you, Yeah, I appreciate it just a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, let's start with your description of tomorrow dot Io,
this Boston based coming. How would you describe what they do?

Speaker 6 (17:01):
Well, you know, you get asked that question a lot,
and the short answer of the way that I often
will let people know is, you know, we're a data
software We're an atmospheric data software company that's focused on
research and development, and we provide advanced decision support before
and during high impact weather events and the difference between
what would normally be what you would think of as
weather information. This is done through a scalable software platform.

(17:25):
So there's a lot there, but you know what's really
going to move the needle in terms of understanding the
atmosphere and being able to better predict the forecast or
allow the forecast to become more accurate, really stems back
to understanding at a granular level what we call the
chaos in the atmosphere, like why a thunderstorm builds over

(17:47):
a certain area and why it sits for a certain
period of time. There's a lot of dynamics that occur
within the atmosphere and that's really at the core of
what we're doing. We're more of a research and development
company and the insights we're gleaning from that data is
going to be empowering our own proprietary model, so we
don't compete with the National Wealth Service. We've actually got
a partnership with Noah and the National Wealth Service as

(18:09):
well as a lot of government agencies, specifically the d D.
But that's really at our core. So it's really disrupting
the industry because you know when I forecasted for many
many years at WBZTV, and even after my television career
still kind of dabbled in it. There's get this one.
There's no way to correlate a traditional weather forecast to

(18:31):
the expected impact on an operation. So if you're if
you're plowing the streets.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, let's talk about that. You have a deal with
like Quincy. Let's bring this down to the grannuar level. Well,
I would Quincy hired tomorrow dot I own. How is
it working?

Speaker 6 (18:44):
Well, It's amazing how much money is actually lost during
an event when when when an event unfolds, you know,
the atmosphere creates trickiness. It might flip over to rain briefly,
it could go back to snow briefly. So managing an
event actually inside of twenty four hours can save a
tremendous amount of money. I'll give you a perfect example
of that. Both the City of Boston uses our software platform,

(19:06):
as does the City of Quinsy, Reading Brockton a lot
of other ones. A public works director looks at our
platform and says, gets a forecast that says rain ending
this morning, changing the snow with up to three inches
of accumulation. That's what you hear on the radio all
the time. But if you're a DPW director, you're saying,
do I have to deploy my plows because if it
breaks two inches, I've got a scrape. I got to
send my plows out. When is the rain ending? Is

(19:28):
the rain ending long enough for me to treat the ground?
And you know, can I treat through this? There's a
lot of decisions that need to be made with that forecast,
our platform shows that the rain will be ending at
six thirty five am. There's no precipitation for four and
a half hours, and you're only getting a quarter of
an inch. So when the City of Boston, the City
of Quincy says, I don't have to deploy my poles,
I can treat through this. That saves in a matter

(19:49):
of six hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars per municipality.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
All right, yes, how are they doing this?

Speaker 6 (19:55):
I mean visually in the platform?

Speaker 2 (19:57):
So right, But I mean, and you brought me an
article here, saystem Io expands global constellation with microwave sounders launch.
I mean, you have the satellites up around the Earth
at this point, how do you get this information?

Speaker 6 (20:09):
So that's our that's where we're getting our data. So
a lot of data is starting to stream now from space.
So understanding precipitation from from from space because what we
do right now, there's two sipper questions there. You asked
and how does the city of Quincy, City Boston correlate
the information we're getting from the atmosphere. The way we
display our information visually allows someone to say, oh, I
can make these decisions based on what I'm seeing in

(20:30):
the platform. That's one thing, and they can do that
through digital monitors. So imagine now like a metaverse, you're
in a virtual world. I could right now on my
laptop laptop, drop a digital monitor on top of this
building and monitor for any weather situation over the next
ten days or so, and it's it's down to a
half mile resolution, so I can start to look at
vulnerable locations, coastlines, you know, higher elevation, and we know

(20:55):
all of that. So the end user can actually say, geez,
you know it's going to be raining at the Brockton
high but it's going to be snowing in brock he
but raining toward Easton. You know that kind of thing.
So they can manage their operations more effectively because it's
displayed in real time. It's not like you're waiting for
an updated forecast. How many times do you used to say, oh,
the next computer runs coming out, Well, I have an

(21:15):
update for you at eleven o'clock. Well, in the meantime,
you know that you know what's hit in the fan.
I need updates in real time, and that's what this
software does. It actually updates atmosphere conditions in near real time.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Now, Jet Blue is one of your clients. How do
they use this?

Speaker 6 (21:29):
Well, what's amazing is an airline loses a lot of
money in de icing. So de icing and aircraft requires
a lot of information. So it's temperature, it's due point,
it's wind speed, it's evaporation rates. There's a lot of
atmosphere conditions that tell somebody who's de icing aircraft, say
in Chicago or in Boston, how much dilution to put

(21:51):
into the de icing fluid ten percent? So I've seen this.
So so Jet Blue will sit there and go, we
got to add ten percent to the de icing fluid
at nine fifteen at gates in Chicago. Why because all
the atmospheric conditions at that location tell them to do that.
So that's a correlation of atmospheric risk to a decision
that you have to make. And Jet Blue saves about

(22:13):
thirty five thousand dollars per month per hub globally.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Okay, talking with that, Carol, he's with the Tomorrow Dot
i oh actionable weather of insights around the world. So
you want to talk about this satellit Well, yeah.

Speaker 6 (22:28):
I mean you brought it up so it's you know,
I wanted to there's two different pieces of what we're
doing here. So if you saw that article that came
was all over social media yesterday, is we're take it
to the ground level.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Now.

Speaker 6 (22:39):
When we used to look at Doppler radar, we could
see precipitation, and the flaw there is you can't go
through a mountain. This thing's called attenuation. There are blind spots.
But you know, if I shoot a radar out towards
Worcester and I'm trying to see a thunderstorm that's coming
from Brattleboro, Vermont, there's just gaps in the data that
we can see. Now, what we decided to do was

(23:02):
we own hardware from Arena Technologies. That technology is actually
on the Hurricane Hunter aircraft. So when Hurricane Hunter is
out there, that's our technology on that.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Aircraft that Noah uses.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
We just said, why don't we take this into space
and see if it works? And it was something that
NASA and some and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, you
guys are crazy, that's never going to work. That was
five years ago. Well guess what it is working, and
we're doing it very very inexpensively. Compared to billion dollars
the NASA spends on their satellites. We can send microwave
radars and these precipitation based satellites for a few million

(23:36):
dollars each, which is a multiple of of of cost savings.
So now a private company is going right past the
government at a rapid space. So what these will do
is this will understand operational atmospheric data at every point
on Earth with under one hour revisit rate. And that
just means that we're going to be observing the atmosphere

(23:57):
in real time and collecting the most amazing day that
is applicable now to African farmers who have never seen
a forecast ever ever, Like there are people in this
world who don't get weather information. Now with our software,
we can tell African farmers when to plant their food.
Like this is going to move massive amounts of people

(24:19):
out of poverty because they can plant food now in
places that they just didn't get weather information before. So
what we're doing here from a research standpoint is going
to have implications and ripple effects that're going to go.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Global, he said Darrel, and he's with the Boston based
company tomorrow dot ioh Thanks Ed for sharing that with us.
Up next, we're going to go uh well, we're gonna
travel to Greece. I'm actually going to travel there with
my niece Kat Shortslip, who started her own travel company.
You are listening to the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.

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Speaker 2 (27:39):
Com and welcome back to the New England Business Report
on this Sunday morning, August the twenty fifth, and this
spot on the program, we always kind of thingle out
a story that has caught our attention that we think
you folks might like hearing about. And you know, I'm
really like doing this because if Kim care Bagan, we're

(28:00):
here today and she's not. If she were here today,
this is the story she would read it. Basically, it's
a Bloomberg News story where Kim and I both used
to work, and it's Starbucks brings out the big guns.
Pumpkin spice latte. The story from Bloomberg. Starbucks is deploying
one of the most potent weapons, and it's arsenal to
bring customers back into stores. The pumpkin spice latte. The

(28:21):
fall lineup is taking extra weight this year after the
coffee chain ousted its chief executive officer last week. Fan
favorite autumn beverages are the key to the company's plan
to reverse two quarters of same store sales declines. I
you know, Kim loves it, Ki, Kim loves the pumpkin lte.
You know, I'm sorry, I'm not for me, but that's okay.

(28:44):
But apparently I am in the minority, that is for sure.
All right. The other business story that's out there, this
has to do with home prices. This is the headline
the Boston Business Journal. Massachusetts home sales rose eight percent
as prices continue to reach new heights. I'm like, I
keep waiting for the prices to level out. It's actually

(29:04):
a story written by Colin Young, who's a regular visitor
here on this program. He's the deputy editor up there
at the State House News Service, and it says he
writes that as state lawmakers are putting the final touches
on legislation they hope will e some of the state's
housing problems. Home sales ticked up more than eight percent
in July and put twenty twenty four sales just ahead
of last year's sluggist pace. Warren Group reported on Tuesday

(29:25):
that the median sale price of six hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, a new record high for the month of July,
was up six percent from July's twenty twenty three number,
which was six hundred and ten thousand dollars. Okay, so
you hear that, you go okay. But the other side,
there's an article in the Globe asking the question is
the real estate market cooling? This next story is, well,

(29:47):
it's very close to the family. Yeah, I'm talking about
my niece. Her name is a Catherine short Sleeve. She
goes by the name cat Kat Shortsleeve, and she graduated
from George Town and then went on to Columbia to
get her MBA. And after Columbia, she was really thinking
about what she wanted to do. And one thing Catherin's

(30:07):
always loved to do is travel. So what'd she do?
She started her own travel company, a travel company they
called a travel club. I guess it's called Short Sleeve
Travel Club. And I guess things are going well. I'll
watch her on Instagram and I'm like, you know, they're
doing backflips off boats in Croatia and I'm like, well,
things must be going well. Kat joins us right now

(30:29):
this morning from Greece. Catherine, welcome to the program.

Speaker 9 (30:34):
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, no problem. What's going Why are you in Greece?

Speaker 9 (30:41):
I am here scotting a couple of locations and taking
me a little bit of time off for vacation.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh good for you. All right, let's talk about the
Short Sleeve Travel Club. What is it and how does
it work? And I know you're not talking to me.
You're not looking for the sixty something crowd. You're looking
for the younger crowd, the twenty one to thirty five
year old crowd. But tell us about Short Sleep Travel
and what is it?

Speaker 9 (31:03):
Absolutely so, Short Sleep Travel is a travel club for
people in their twenties and thirties who are interested in
trips that are just different, specifically adventures they haven't heard
about or can't organize and do on their own or
with their existing friend group. So let me give you
two examples. Back in March, I brought a group on
a hiking and horseback riding truck through the Andes Mountain

(31:24):
range in Peru and we ended at Machu Pichu. I
brought fourteen people from all across the US. We had
a local guide team of sixteen people who guided us
the entire way. This was seven days. We camp for
two nights and we spent the other nights at SPA hotels.
That was really really special. And then the second trip
example is just last week. Actually this ended on Sunday.

(31:44):
I brought a group of forty people on a private
one hundred and seventies but luxury yacht all along the
coast in Croatia, which is what you saw. We had
two chefs, we had twelve staff on nurse on board.
There's a hot tub and a sawn on the group
and we spent the week just island hopping, and I
ran that exact same trip actually for the Kellogg MBA
class back in June. So ultimately this is a combination

(32:06):
of adventures outdoors, the activities, and high end small group travel.
That's really what to travel is.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
All right, Well, uh, how do people find out about you?
How does this crowd find you?

Speaker 9 (32:20):
So a majority is word of mouth for my existing network,
as you mentioned my undergrad at Georgetown and completing my
MBA at Columbia Business School. These networks are deep and
have been so very helpful for me. The people who
have gone to my past trips also really spread the word.
And then those are the people who come on the
future trips or tell their siblings and friends about future trips.

(32:41):
And recently a lot of people have been contacting me
through social media. So Instagram and TikTok are huge for me.
My using the name cash Sportsley. That's where I post
by all all my own travels and post about these
trips that I'm bringing.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
People on as well.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Are they all like roughly the same length or are
they all I mean, are some weekends or are some
two weeks? Or what is the length of the travel
involved here.

Speaker 9 (33:03):
Usually all of the troops are actually the exact same length,
So it's seven or eight days, and we'll go for
six or seven nights. That seems to be the time
that people can get off from work or if people
are traveling and working remotely, that seems to be kind
of the sweet spots.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
And what I know, it's hard to do this, but
what's the average cost per person? If I'm on somebody
in your crowd out there listening to this, and I'm saying, well,
this sounds interesting, what's that going to cost me? And
I know you got to buy your own airfare, right.

Speaker 9 (33:33):
Yes, so you do book your own flight, and that's
kind of the only piece that you actually have to
do yourself, and then you just show up and we
really handle the rest. But the price point all of
the trips, they don't vary that that much. So per person,
it's twenty five hundred to three thousand dollars. It is
a flat feet and often that includes almost every meal.
You'll have a few meals that people will do on

(33:53):
their own, and if you pick up souvenirs things like that,
But two thousand, five hundred, tree thousand, and because the
price point is pretty sweet for a lot of people.
Just this year, I've had a bunch of people come
on three different trips just in twenty twenty four alone.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Wow, are you surprise? I don't mean there's a negative way,
but I mean, are you surprised that this idea is working?

Speaker 9 (34:18):
I think that I created something that I wanted myself
and I was looking for myself, and there are a
lot of companies that are doing exactly what I've created here,
So I I guess I am surprised by people coming
out of the woodwork and people coming out from social
media wanting to join me on these trips. But I
definitely believe in what I'm putting together, so I'm glad

(34:38):
other people like it as well.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
How does short sleeve travel survive? How does cat short
sleeve get paid?

Speaker 1 (34:46):
So I have.

Speaker 9 (34:50):
A network of trusted, embedded local connections such as this
one yacht company, which allows me to organize these travels
and negotiated to for price because I'm trusted with the
group I'm bringing to these vendors, and so ultimately I'm
paid by the accommodation or the vendor for bringing these
people to them.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, okay, all right, So let's talk about the calendar
you touched upon, what you did, a couple of couple
of trips. As you look forward to the next to
twelve months for the Short Sleeved Travel Club, how how
many trips will there be and how varied will they be?

Speaker 9 (35:27):
So I'm looking to run one trip per month over
the next calendar year. I have a lot in the works.
So we have a group hiking trip through Patagonia in February.
I'm looking to run a bunch of yachts next summer
for business school students, for companies, and for groups that
I'm also putting together. Next September, I'm bringing a group

(35:47):
we're hiking Kilimanjaro, looking to run two trips to Machu
Pichu in the spring as well. So a ton is
coming up.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, all right, we're talking with a cat short Sleeve.
She is my niece and she started a travel club
that is called Short Save Travel and is doing quite well.
She's actually in a mountaintop and Greece talking to us
right now. Okay, so this is the old fogie in me. Kat.
How do you stay safe? How do you keep the

(36:15):
travelers safe in all these exotic foreign locations?

Speaker 9 (36:21):
I'm always partnering with trusted companies that are on the
ground everywhere we go. So when we go to Peru,
I have a team. It's sixteen to twenty five people
that are making sure we're safe, and you know, we're
always checking local regulations and we're staying in very nice hotels.
It's always upscale accommodation. Safety is number one priority. It's

(36:42):
something I'm constantly thinking about for myself and definitely take
that into account, even more so when I'm managing a
larger group of people. And some people in one of
my trips to Croatia recently, they had never even been
to Europe before. We had three people who had never
been to Europe, So making sure that they're very safe
when they're doing us the first time and those families
are worried about them, it's a major concern.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
All right, Well, we got about thirty seconds left here,
Kat so again to tell folks how they can get
in touch with you and what's on tap.

Speaker 9 (37:10):
Best way to get in touch is to email me.
It's katcat short Sleeve at gmail dot com. You can
also check out my website caatshortsleeve dot com. Always running
new trips, just get in touch if there's something that
you have in mind you'd like to do. Otherwise, hope
to see you on the next trip.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
All right, she's got George of Kat Thanks very much
for joining us. It's a really fascinating business story, all right.
Everybody's thinking about it, right, what are you gonna do
when you retire? And how are you going to pay
the bills?

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Right?

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Well, here's a guy who knows the answer to all
those questions. He's a Sam Lang. He's the managing partner
of Rabino and Lang Wealth Partners. He's a regular here
on the New England Business Report and he you know,
he keeps us all going the right direction. Hey, Sam,
welcome to the program again and thank you very much
for joining us.

Speaker 7 (37:57):
Of course, always great to be here doing my best
to help the listeners.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
There you go. All right, So Sam, you know we
watched the market gyrations, right, we watched this market go
up and down I mean, I mean and the SMP
actually went down like six percent and then it made
itself all the way back. Uh you say this is normal?

Speaker 7 (38:17):
Uh, sometimes it is, you know, you know that'll fory.
What goes up must come down. So you know we've
had a pretty good run, and at the beginning of August, yeah,
it was a little bit of a hiccup, about six
or seven days or so of you know, a lot
of red. Right, So if you're watching the news, maybe
you turned it off, if you were logging online, but
look at your brow one k ballance, maybe maybe you
logged out as well. But the reality is, you know,

(38:39):
if you're hanging there, as they say, it will come
back and hence it's you know, later on three weeks later,
when back to where we began and then some so yeah,
I mean I think it's natural. It's it's it's normal
for the markets to go up and down. The reality is,
how does that affect you? I mean, if you're in

(39:01):
phase one of your life, your journey, and you're working
and you're saving money, you know, it's almost okay if
it goes down because you can buy more investments and
shares at lower prices. But the reality is you were
talking about, you know, we're all thinking about retiring someday,
and if we're near retirement, having your money go backwards
is not a great thing. So you just really need

(39:22):
to have a proper asset allocation. As my partner is
John and Ryan would always say, you know, diversification as
well as you know, really just having a plan. Right,
It's not about just a bunch of accounts and hopefully
they continue to grow, but having a plan of attack
how you're going to maintain growing your money, hedging inflation.

(39:43):
But at the same time, if you need income, because
maybe your pension is great and you have social Security
but it's just not quite enough and you need to
withdraw from your savings, you really need to have a
plan on how to do that, right, A comprehensive plan
and based on just you know, your particular needs.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Targo with Sam Lang, managing partner of Rabino and Lang.
All Right, so, uh, what is important to consider if
you're that person out there listen to the program that
is preparing to retire in the near future.

Speaker 7 (40:13):
You know, I think I think the press in shows
like this sometimes TV, you know, we we misguide people
thinking that, hey, you got to have the largest number possible.
You know, you don't have three million dollars. You're not
going to You're not going to be successful in retirement,
you know, I almost and that Rabin a own Land
Wealth Partners. Really all we do is retirement planning, so

(40:34):
we actually take a little different approach. We took a
step back. It's great that you save some money, and
of course we want the money to you know, the
more you have, the better off, right, But really you
got to work backwards and determine first and foremost, what
is that burn rate of month? What do you spend,
what's going to go out when you stop working? What
would you like to live on? And let's just use

(40:56):
an example of it with an eight thousand dollars a
month lifestyle. In between your or regular income sources like
source of security, maybe you have some rents, maybe you
have dividends, maybe you have a pension, and let's pretend
that adds up to five thousand. Well, we know pretty
much you're short about three grand a month. So that's
the number we want to know first, because then we

(41:16):
can determine how much money you actually need to save
to produce three thousand dollars a month using you know,
maybe a three or four percent inflation rate for the
rest of your life, and then we can tell you, hey,
you know, how much the money to maybe allocate towards income,
how much money allocates towards liquidity, how much money to
allocate towards, you know, maybe some risky investments that you

(41:37):
can take some risk on and hopefully make an ice buck.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
So working backwards, right, all right, So what is the
most common mistake that folks make as they get close
to retirement? Where are the pitfalls?

Speaker 3 (41:52):
You know?

Speaker 7 (41:52):
We see what we see all the time is people
come in, there are a few years away from me tiring,
maybe there a few months away from me tiring. You say,
you know, tell me what have you done? And they
pull out a four to one case statement or an
irase statement or broken statement and it's great, it's got
maybe a nice healthy balance. But they have the same
investments that they had, you know for the last ten

(42:13):
twenty years. And you know that could be okay, But
the reality is, I think we can all agree we know,
well it's changed quite a bit. And like everything else,
you know, just because you play taco football when you
were twenty doesn't mean you should be playing taco football
when you're sixty. So maybe reduce some risk is a
good idea, and just having suitable assets investments that are

(42:36):
geared to what you need today. So a lot of times,
quite frankly, we just see people just the other day,
I saw somebody they had about eighty five percent of
their money in the market. You know, it's good, but
if it goes down, it's not such a great thing.
Certainly if you need it tomorrow because you retired.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
And where is this wave of retirees at this point?
We often hear about that the boomers are all heading
towards the exits at this point. Yeah, what are you saying?

Speaker 7 (43:04):
Yeah, there's tons of people retired. I saw some staring
number the other day on the Wall Street Journey in
Wall Street Journal. I forget the exact number, but people
turning sixty five every single day. That number is getting
larger and larger and larger, which really just means that
you kind of need to be prepared because the other
number that's getting higher is life expectancy longevity. We're living longer,

(43:29):
so you know, back in the day, you might have
enjoyed retirement for eighteen twenty years. Now it might be
twenty eight thirty years. And back in the day you
might have had a pension. Today many people don't. So
I think it's important to keep an eye on the ball.
Continue growing your money, think about taxes, think about healthcare,
all those things. That we really need to worry about.

(43:50):
But the most important thing is how you gonna pay
your bills in retirement, So you want to make sure
you have a good foundation for that.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
All right. He's a Sam Lang, He's managing partner of
Rabino and Lang Wealth Partners. If you're thinking about retiring,
there's somebody that you really should consider talking to. Up next,
Jennifer Epstein, a controlling partner of the Boston Unity Soccer Partners.
They're bringing a national women's soccer league to Boston for
the twenty sixth season, and we're going to get an

(44:18):
update on where they're at. You're listening to the New
England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six point eighty. Joe and
Kim will be right back. This is Joe Shortsleeve of
the New England Business Report on WRKO. I'm joined by
Sam Lang of Rabino and Lang Wealth Partners. Sam, why
is it so urgent to ensure our retirement plan works

(44:46):
for us and is free of mistakes?

Speaker 8 (44:48):
Yeah, very important, Joe. You know, at Rabino and Lang
Wealth Partners, we specialize in retirement planning. We know that
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(45:09):
your unique situation. We create customized strategies to help you
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Speaker 2 (45:15):
All right, you've got my attention. How can we start
building our three sixty five retirement plan?

Speaker 8 (45:20):
Very simple? Call us six one seven four to four
zero nine three sixty five or visit three sixty five
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Speaker 4 (46:37):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
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Speaker 2 (47:53):
Welcome back to the New England Business Report on this
Sunday morning. Is a lot happening with the National Women's
Soccer League relates to Boston. We brought you this story
back in the spring, but we wanted to get an
update on the progress here. It's a fascinating business story
and certainly we all know what's going on with women's
sports these days, and it looks like in twenty twenty

(48:15):
six Boston is going to have its own national women's
soccer team. Joining us now is a Jennifer Epstein. She's
the controlling partner of Boston Unity Soccer Partners, and as
I said, she was a guest on the program back
in the spring. It's been a lot been happening there
with the renovation of a white stadium there at Franklin

(48:36):
Park and Boston where this team eventually will play, so
we wanted to get an update. So Jennifer, welcome to
the program and tell us where we are at this point.

Speaker 10 (48:45):
Well, thanks so much for having me back. It's great
to be here and we're excited about where we are
right now, and I'm happy to update you all.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Right, So this team is supposed to play in Boston
in twenty twenty six, correct, so talk to us about that.

Speaker 10 (49:04):
So, yes, we are set to take the pitch in
twenty twenty six. The NWSL season currently runs from March
to November, so look forward to seeing us March twenty
twenty six. And of course there's lots of planning ahead
and until we get there, we're looking to engage fans
and the community in meaningful ways during every step of

(49:24):
the process.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
What is the number one priority on your desk right.

Speaker 10 (49:29):
Now, Jennifer, there's a number of prayers.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, well let's talk about them.

Speaker 10 (49:35):
But you know, we can start, I guess with White Stadium.
You reference that, sure, you know in your opening and
you know, thank you for this opportunity really to reflect
on and celebrate the hard work that has gone into
this so far. You know, there's been a lot of
contributions from and collaboration with our community, and it's culinated

(49:56):
in the successful advancement of an extensive permitting and public
planning process. Successfully, we have secured approval from key grassroots
organizations and city agencies such as the Franklin Park Coalition,
the Boston Landmarks Commission, and the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
Most recently, just about a week ago, we got the

(50:19):
Boston Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to approve demolition plans.
So the momentum from these major milestones is exciting. Bolsters
our belief and our ability to actually and feasibly achieve
these ambitious goals. So we've got a big renovation in
front of us with our partners the city in Boston

(50:40):
Public Schools, to turn White Stadium into a world class
venue and make the corresponding investment to do so, and.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
What will happen there at White Stadium? What are the
actual plans? I mean, will any of the exist in
the end or were doing the whole thing? Tell us
about that.

Speaker 10 (50:55):
So there's you know, there is some landmark historic preservation
that will remain in White Stadium. We're turning it with
you know, this is a public private community partnership and
alongside the City of Boston, we are turning White Stadium
into a state of the art facility. It'll be a
premier venue, a vital resource resource, serving our team as

(51:19):
well as the Boston Public School student athletes and the
whole community.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
It seems you know, obviously some of the headlines had
to do with people who oppose this plan, but it
seems like everything's gone your way, and as you just mentioned,
the city's Parks Commission unaniously approved the redevelopment plan on
Monday of last week. I mean, it seems like everything
is is a go here. I'm actually kind of confused
by opposition to this plan because it seems like at

(51:47):
the end of the day, it's a win win for everybody.

Speaker 10 (51:51):
I believe it is certainly a win win for everybody,
and it is a win win because of the collaborative
relationship that we that we are working. You know, we've
worked hard on and we'll continue to work on with
the community and perpetuity. You know, just as this public
input has informed the planning process, feedback will continue to

(52:13):
fuel our innovations. So I do feel like we have
overwhelming support and it's really serves as a reminder of
the power and capacity of partnership. So you know, we're
grateful for the community thus far. But as I said,
this is an ongoing, long lasting relationship and it'll turn
into a win win for everybody if we continue to

(52:37):
bring the community alongside us and continue to evolve our
thinking as from planning, you know, through the operations that
we that we listen and learn and adapt accordingly.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Ago with Jennifer Epstein, controlling partner of Boston Unity Soccer
Partners about bringing in National women's a soccer league to Boston,
can we talk about the team at this point? Is
there a name yet?

Speaker 10 (53:00):
So you know, stay tuned because there will be a
name soon and I would say you can look forward
to that and then in the next couple of months.
But we are building you know, sports teams really and
stadiums their community assets, and so are team names and brands.
So we're looking to connect the mindset and hustle of Boston.

(53:23):
We're looking, you know, we're thinking about a new Boston
that we see emerging that it's now a majority minority city,
and we intend to build this global demographic and identity
of our city into our brand.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Talk to me about the revenue structure for the National
Women's Soccer League does how does everybody? How do you
make money here? How does this stay afloat financially?

Speaker 10 (53:48):
Well, I mean, I think you can see the excitement
that is currently emerging around women's sports. I mean, actually,
I don't know if you just were witnessed to the
Connecticut Sun game, which was played in TD Garden just
a couple of nights ago. Tuesday night, actually, the TD

(54:09):
Garden hosted its first ever WNBA game between the Connecticut
Sun and the Los Angeles Sparks, and it drew a
franchise record sellout crowd of nineteen thousand, one hundred and
twenty five fans. So, you know, the landscape has really
changed over the last five years with respect to the
NWSL and women's sports as a whole. You know, inanda WSL,

(54:32):
we have just seen back to back record sending, record
setting attendance years. They're on pace to do it again
this year. The attendance continues, you know, to increase forty
two percent year over year. The season marks actually the
fastest the league has ever surpassed the one million fans mark.
And we're also seeing, you know, a dramatic increase of visibility.

(54:54):
There are new media deals in both the WNBA and
the NWSL, and WSL were in the first year of
that new deal, and national broadcast viewership is up ninety
five percent from last season. So when you talk about
why the revenues, you know are are these are the
key elements, right, increasing attendance, visibility, and what that results

(55:17):
in is an increase in sponsorship interest as well, so
you know, and correspondingly, uh, the investment level is increasing
as well. You know, we're seeing a major shift how
so well, you know, investors now recognize there's a lot
of room for growth in women's sports and that it's
an appropriate industry to invest in right right now. If

(55:38):
you look at the other leagues, you know, you can
see what's happened in the other in other professional sports
leagues and the multiples of growth over the past couple
of decades. And you know, you come in now in
women's sports and you recognize this excitement and what we
are seeing now from sponsorship interest. And you know, look

(56:01):
at Kansas City actually where they just opened the first
ever stadium that was built for a women's professional team.
They sold out their season prior to the first kick.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
You must you must be pinching yourself in terms of time, Ada.

Speaker 10 (56:16):
You know is there that you know, all signs are positive,
and you know, we're really excited. I do think we
are pinching ourselves. The time is now and and I
really believe the time is now in Boston. You know, Boston.
Our data shows that Boston has an above average interest
in women's sports and above average interest actually in soccer.

(56:37):
So we're looking at you know, we are a city
of champions and we're looking to capture that interest and
write the first chapter of Boston's next championship sports team.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Well, all right, she's Jennifer Epstein. She's the controlling partner
of Boston Unity Soccer Partners, and she's in the process
of bring a national women's soccer team to Boston for
the twenty twenty six season. All right, that wraps it
up for this Sunday Morning on the New England Business Report,
Kim Caraen gonna be back here next week. Next week,
can we have a great show coming your way. We're

(57:11):
gonna be talking with the CEO of M and T Bank,
Renee Jones, and he's actually a local kid, and we'll
talk about what M and T Bank is doing in Massachusetts.
But more than that, we're gonna talk about the future
of banking. I mean, what does it look like? When
was the last time you actually went into a bank?
Interesting question, and banks often talked about their biggest expenses

(57:32):
these days are keeping up with technology. That's next Sunday
Morning on the New England Business Report, Renee Jones, CEO
M and T Bank. You're listening to WRKO, the Voice
of Boston on AM six eighty