Saying “this meeting could have been an email” is as satisfying as pulling your clothes out of the dryer and not dropping any socks—but what about that sinking feeling when you realize the meeting you’re currently running could have been an email?

We’ve all been there. The good news is that, once you recover from your terrible meeting where half the team fell asleep, there’s a way to prevent it from happening again.

Enter: meeting prep, the silver bullet for making your own meetings suck less. So the next time you’re in charge of a team brainstorm or strategy discussion, here are three ways to set everyone up for success before you even step into the conference room.

Provide deets ahead of time

• Our take: A little agenda goes a long way. Create a short, bulleted agenda with one to three goals for the meeting and attach it to the calendar invite.
• We’re not opposed to a skosh of homework, either. Some relevant pre-reading can get everyone on the same page at the start.
• Adding these details also lets people know if their input is actually necessary—so don’t be surprised if someone RSVPs “no” with an explanation.

Take things offline

• Parts of pretty much any meeting are better accomplished async. So once you’ve drafted your agenda, take another look and see if a section can be relegated to Slack, Teams, or email instead.
• For example: Instead of building out a web page during the meeting, create a draft with a few folks beforehand and get reactions from the team all together.

Create a personal meeting guide

• This one goes out to my introverted crew. Draft stage notes beforehand so you can visualize how to guide everyone through the meeting.
• For example: present the tactical goal → give an overview of the situation → open the floor for discussion → add my opinion → summarize items discussed → present final decision → send out next steps.
• And make sure to have it on hand to keep the meeting on track.

Heavy is the head that wears the meeting crown, and sometimes a “quick sync” is doomed to fail. But a little prep beforehand is one of the best ways to prevent meeting mayhem and give everyone five *life-changing* minutes of their time back.—CS

Taylor Swift’s not the only one who can have a Reputation Era—Axios conducted a poll gauging the reputation of the top 100 most visible companies in America.

• The results were about as expected: Patagonia snagged the top spot, followed by Costco and John Deere.
• At the bottom? FTX and the Trump Org. (Turns out, losing $9b of customer funds isn’t enough to get you the bottom slot.)

The poll ranked each company on nine different factors including vision, citizenship, products and services, character, and trust. Even if your company isn’t represented on the list, your brand’s reputation is still important. Here are three Q’s you can ask yourself to evaluate your company’s reputation:

Vision: Can your company articulate a future that your consumers can get excited about?

• Think: WeWork, but good.

Products & services: At the end of the day, a company sells things. Are you offering products or services that your customers use and love?

• Like, have you ever heard of Apple?

Citizenship: Whether we like it or not, corporations are playing an outsize role in our lives these days. That also means they’re facing increased scrutiny. Is your company perceived as a good corporate citizen?

• For example, Patagonia does a great job on this front (and ranked first for their troubles).

Our challenge: If you had to assess your company on all nine factors, how would you rank it and how can it improve?

We all roll our eyes when we get those emails that are like, “SURPRISE! Sale extended for one more day!” as if they weren’t carefully orchestrated campaigns to get more clicks.

Well, folks, we’re telling you the truth: We’ve kept our Memorial Day Sale on the Morning Brew store around for one more day just so that Raise subscribers could get a taste of those sweet, sweet discounts.

We’re talking: up to 75% off for our best-selling items like Morning Brew t-shirts, Money with Katie swag, and Excel shortcut merch.

Check it out today, because the sale ends at midnight.

With the days heating up, all of us who take the subway home from work are dreaming of one thing—not taking the subway home from work. There are plenty of ways around this (walking, biking, Uber-coptering) but nothing is more glorious than the Swiss way home. In towns such as Basel, high in the Alps, you can let the current take you far away from work.

That’s right: During the summer, locals can log off Slack, change into swimwear, and boogie from the office toward the Rhine River flowing through town. Once at the riverbank, it’s up to you whether you want to pencil dive or tiptoe into the alpine river. Then channel your inner Aquaman and float downstream until you reach home—or a beer stall.

Before you try “commute swimming” in the East River, here’s a quick FAQ:

• What do I do with my laptop and Tupperware? Most swimmers use a Wickelfisch, which is half-bag, half-buoy and will keep you and your work stuff afloat.
• Since this river is next to a city, how clean is it? Unlike most industrial rivers in America, the Rhine up in Switzerland is super safe to swim in. It’s also a beautiful blue-green color.
• How do I “swim commute” if I live upstream of my office? In the words of Missy Elliott, flip it and reverse it. Might be worth using a bathing cap for the morning commute though.

And for those of us not lucky enough to live in Switzerland, a long bath with a bottle of white can achieve the same effect.

Got other commutes worth dressing up and going to the office for? Reply to this email with your tips, and we may include them in a future Water Cooler piece.

Office Hours is where industry experts explain why we should care about topics, jobs, and trends that we might not know much about.

Zachary Walker lives in Chicago, where he’s a social media director at the Motion Agency, a public speaker, and a member of the Alumni of Learning Brew Advisory Board. Here’s his take on why we should pay attention to the legalized cannabis industry:

“After spending two-plus years working at some of the largest players in the space and leading the social media efforts of 13 distinct cannabis brands, I’ve seen firsthand the shift in consumer sentiment. Whether for recreation, wellness, or medical treatments, roughly 52% of US adults have reportedly tried cannabis at least once.

• There are nearly 500k full-time equivalent jobs supported by the industry, and my home state of Illinois brought in nearly $100m more from cannabis tax revenue than alcohol in 2021.

However, social equity is crucial to not only the industry but also consumers. We all win when access to opportunities within the industry is available to those from marginalized groups, as the war on drugs has had long-lasting effects on minorities.

• Unfortunately, the cannabis industry can still feel like an “old boy club,” even in a diverse market like my hometown of Chicago.

I could go on for hours about the cannabis industry—what I’ve learned, the positives the industry has experienced, and the shortcomings as well—but bottom line: You can’t deny the positive impact the legal cannabis industry has had.”