• I used my mom's connections to land a summer internship, which led to a full-time job.
• I suffered from impostor syndrome, worried I only got the job because of my mom.
• But my mom only made the introduction; I got the job because of my accomplishments.

When I was considering my summer plans in early 2021, I knew I had to land a great internship as a college student. I debated whether to reach out to the one person I knew who had the most connections. Ultimately, I knew she would help me land the summer internship I needed. So, I asked my mom for help.

My mother has always been my inspiration as a successful businesswoman. She has held many positions in C-suite and executive roles, oftentimes being the only woman with a seat at the table. She is now an entrepreneur and business owner with connections in many industries.

I knew she would have someone I could connect with to find a job related to my field of study: public health. But once I landed the job, I experienced impostor syndrome.

Using my mom's connections helped me

Before I turned to my mother for help, I was plagued with whether I should ask for it. Did it take away from my own success by asking her? Was I earning what I had worked hard for, or just benefiting from her hard work?

Once I was able to get past the mental hurdle and ask for help, my job search quickly began to fall into place.

In my initial application, I listed my mother as a reference, as she worked very closely with the company. I didn't reference our relationship during the interview process or during work. I only brought it up when it was relevant to the conversation, but for the most part, people knew I was there for the same reasons as anyone else: to learn, to contribute, and to gain relevant experience for my intended career.

Even though the connection was made for me, the interview, conversations, and chance to position myself for a summer internship were all on me. I landed my first professional job, which led to a second internship the following summer with a different team at the same company. After those two internships, I scored a full-time role after graduation.

I struggled with impostor syndrome

At first, I struggled with impostor syndrome, thinking I had landed the job only because of my connections. I worried I hadn't actually earned the positions I was given, especially that first internship.

However, my mom repeatedly reminds me that she only made the introduction; the rest was my own doing.

My career trajectory would look very different if I didn't have that initial introduction. I feel that I utilized all of the resources available to me, but that doesn't take away from the accomplishment.

Using your network is an important step in searching for job opportunities

More recently, I have used connections to explore different ways to use a law degree. I had just finished my first year of law school and was panicking over whether I truly wanted to be a practicing attorney.

By speaking to some of my mom's contacts who had gone to law school and gone into different fields, I saw all the different ways that I could apply my law degree beyond being a practicing attorney.

I still use connections from family and friends wherever possible. The job market is hard, and I think everyone should use their network from family, neighbors, and even professors as a tool to get their foot in the door.

• Walmart's announcement that it will raise prices due to tariffs has other retailers "delighted."
• The news gives retailers cover to raise their own prices, experts told BI.
• Trump's criticism of Walmart sends a warning about discussing price hikes.

Consumers may not be psyched about Walmart's announcement that it's going to raise prices because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, but other retailers are likely breathing a sigh of relief.

Retail analysts told Business Insider that Walmart did other companies a favor with the news, giving them more freedom to raise their own price tags.

"What they are doing is providing air cover for the tens of thousands of retailers — extra-large, large, medium, and small — all of whom are faced with exactly the same issue, and all of whom are going to be raising their prices," said Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School and the former director of retail studies. Other retailers are, he said, "delighted" about the benchmark Walmart set.

Retailers across the board are contending with rising costs, the experts told BI, but Walmart "leads the market on price," according to the cofounder of the blog Omni Talk Retail, Chris Walton. The country's biggest retailer said shoppers will probably start to see prices tick up at the end of this month and more drastically in June, and those BI spoke to agreed with that timeline.

GlobalRetail analyst Neil Saunders wrote in an email that Walmart's honesty about price hikes might open the door for other retailers to have "open dialogues." Yet the honesty didn't come without consequences — Trump bashed the company in a Truth Social post, saying Walmart should, '"EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching."

Representatives for the White House directed BI to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's comments on Monday about Walmart, when she confirmed that Trump will be "watching" the company and said he "has always maintained that Chinese producers will be absorbing the cost of these tariffs."

Walmart did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Trump's reaction will likely influence how other retailers manage their own pricing conversations, the experts said.

"Retailers will have learned they need to be very careful — and it's very tricky — on how they articulate that so as to not wind up on a Truth Social post," Michael Baker, a senior analyst at D.A. Davidson, told BI. "That does add a layer of complication."

He anticipates executives will figure out how to more delicately discuss tariffs on coming earnings calls so as not to anger the president. Walton told BI that other retailers may try to avoid talking about rising costs publicly, and instead let shelf prices speak for themselves.

"President Trump has sent a warning shot that he doesn't like companies talking about price increases related to tariffs," Saunders wrote. "That may make some retailers more hesitant to draw a link, but I don't think it will stop them putting up prices. They will need to financially."

The president has issued not-so-subtle warnings about price hikes before, like when he sharply criticized Amazon for its reported plans to publicize how much tariffs were contributing to rising costs. Amazon said it had no plans to do so on its main site at the time, but experts told BI that the swift reaction sent a "warning signal to other companies" nonetheless.

Though Walmart may be one of the first big box retailers to publicize looming price hikes, it's better positioned to deal with the new tariffs than some competitors. Both Saunders and Baker said the company's scale gives it the ability to offset some of the tariff impact.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders took another swipe at Shari Redstone.
• The former Democratic presidential hopeful was responding to the latest shake-up at CBS News.
• On Monday, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon announced her resignation.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday intensified his pressure campaign on Paramount Global's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, following another major shake-up at CBS News.

CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon on Monday announced that she was stepping down, another bombshell development as its parent company, Paramount, potentially explores a settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the company and "60 Minutes."

"I say to Shari Redstone: Enough is enough," Sanders wrote on X. "Do not capitulate to Trump's attack on a free press. Do not settle Trump's bogus lawsuit against 60 Minutes."

McMahon wrote in a message to staff that was obtained by Business Insider that it was time for her to "move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership."

"The past few months have been challenging," she said in the message. "It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward."

Paramount declined further comment to Business Insider.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has led his colleagues in pressuring Paramount as the company seeks FCC approval of its merger with SkyDance. He and others have expressed skepticism over Paramount's turnabout from fighting Trump's lawsuit against CBS.

Trump sued CBS for $10 billion for what he claimed was deceptive editing of "60 Minutes'" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election. Trump later amended his claim to $20 billion in damages and added Paramount to the suit.

First Amendment organizations have dismissed Trump's claims, saying that "60 Minutes" was well within its journalistic rights. In April, The New York Times reported that Paramount's board was discussing a potential settlement.

No deal has yet to be reached.

On May 7, Sanders and eight Senate Democrats wrote to Redstone urging her to "make it clear to President Trump today that Paramount will not surrender to his attack on the First Amendment."

Last month, Bill Owens, the longtime executive producer of "60 Minutes," also bowed out. Scott Pelley, one of the show's longtime correspondents, later expressed his displeasure with the situation on air.

"Stories we've pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair — he was tough that way," Pelley said during the first "60 Minutes" broadcast that followed Owens' departure. "But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires."

• Lawyer Erik Bolog is a beneficiary of a $10 million "gift" from Claudia Engelhorn, a pharma heir.
• Engelhorn has said the gift was "alcohol induced," while Bolog says it was legitimate.
• Engelhorn is suing Bolog and his ex-firm. The firm says it's caught in the middle.

Claudia Engelhorn, a daughter of a German pharmaceutical tycoon, claims she was duped into handing over $10 million to her former attorney Erik Bolog — and alleges that his former law firm looked the other way while he pocketed the cash.

The heir has been litigating for months against Bolog and the law firm, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. The dispute is over the "gift" Bolog says she gave him as thanks for helping her win a $130 million case in Monégasque and Swiss courts during the pandemic.

Bolog's defense hinges on a three-page document signed by Engelhorn that says she insisted on making the gift and did so without consulting anyone. "You advised (begged) me to hire independent counsel," the document, which was included in court filings, says. "As you have learned over the past several years, I am not easily discouraged and once I have decided to do something, I do it."

Bolog said in court filings that the gift was legitimate and Engelhorn turned on him after he scolded her for what he said was "a racially hateful statement" that she made at a restaurant. He said she told a Black family "that it was nice that they were allowed to eat in restaurants."

One of Engelhorn's lawyers, Tony Williams, says the heir was "tricked" into signing the gift paperwork when Bolog gave it to her one morning while she was vacationing on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He called the claim about her remark to a Black family "absolutely false."

In an email to Bolog that was included in court records, Engelhorn wrote: "You took an alcohol induced statement for your benefit." Bolog has claimed in court documents that her story shifted.

Williams also said in a meeting that Engelhorn was on the autism spectrum. "She's not a sophisticated investor," Williams told Business Insider. "She's a woman who has spent her life raising a family, and he should've known that. We did say, with her permission, that she's on the spectrum, and we know that she is, and he knew that."

"The whole thing's meshugganah," said Doug Gansler, one of Bolog's lawyers, using a Yiddish word for craziness. "She's a sophisticated businesswoman. She's not someone who doesn't know what she's doing or understand the value of money."

Engelhorn couldn't be reached for comment. Bolog didn't respond to a request for comment.

The existence of the case, which was filed in Baltimore in September, hasn't previously been reported.

Engelhorn's father, Curt Engelhorn, led a German pharmaceutical company that was sold to the healthcare giant Roche in 1997 for a reported $11 billion. Bolog says she's the "life trustee" of an entity called the Mannheim Trust that has paid her $1 million a year and lent her another $30 million.

Williams, meanwhile, said Bolog vastly overstated Engelhorn's fortune. He said the Mannheim Trust, which Bolog said held $500 million to benefit Engelhorn and others, had been divided among three of her children. Only the money from the Swiss case remains for Engelhorn, Williams said, and it's now "substantially less" than $130 million.

Bolog's former law firm, Whiteford, said it had nothing to do with his dealings. The firm said in a court filing it fired Bolog in May 2023 over issues including how he accounted for expenses. (Gansler denied wrongdoing by his client.)

In her lawsuit, Engelhorn said Whiteford bore some responsibility for Bolog's actions. She said billing records showed that other people at the firm were aware of and contributed to the deception.

The firm said in court filings that the other Whiteford lawyers who appeared to have helped draft the gift paperwork were under the impression that Engelhorn wanted to give a much smaller gift to a member of her staff. They say Bolog edited the documents to reroute the money to himself and his family, something Whiteford said it didn't learn about for two years.

The firm didn't respond to a request for comment.

Gansler is a former Maryland attorney general who's now at the white-shoe firm Cadwalader. Another lawyer for Engelhorn, Wes Henderson, is described on his website as "one of the most experienced and knowledgeable car accident attorneys in Crofton," a sleepy Maryland community of about 30,000 people. He also handles legal malpractice cases, the website says. He declined to comment.

Bolog has had various business interests over the years. His main pursuits have been contingency-fee injury lawsuits and a real estate firm called Tenacity that financed tenant acquisitions of their apartment buildings. In 2005, he was listed in Securities and Exchange Commission records as part of a bank's ownership group.

Gansler said Bolog recently moved to California to do plaintiff-side litigation there.

Bolog has had a colorful legal career. In the late 1990s, he helped a Maryland politician get off with a light sentence after she was accused of hiring a contract killer to whack her husband. The trial ended in a hung jury and she later pled no-contest, according to news reports. He was also among a group of lawyers hoping for a payout from a $120 million judgment against Iraq now pending in the US Supreme Court.

He has had gambling debts, though Gansler said he now has none and had no debt at the time he received Engelhorn's gift. In 2019, Harrah's Philadelphia Casino claimed in a lawsuit that Bolog owed $34,000 for a cash advance, and in 2022, a Caesars casino in Indiana sued him for $45,000. Gansler said that the Caesars lawsuit was filed by mistake. The debts in both cases were several years old, and both lawsuits have been resolved.

Engelhorn has had previous legal issues as well.

In 2007, she agreed to let a revivalist preacher named Tommie Zito and his wife live in a $3.2 million six-bedroom Florida mansion for $300 a month. She claimed that he abused her trust and manipulated her into buying the property and letting his family stay there "for a value far below the property's market value." She sued him twice to try to get out of the deal; both times, she lost.

Zito didn't respond to calls and text messages.

Madeleine O'Neill contributed reporting.

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Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer, his office said. Here are five symptoms of prostate cancer that are easy to miss.

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon addressed a range of topics at the firm's Investor Day meeting on Monday.
• He said the bank will allow investors to buy bitcoin, while warning against stagflation.
• He sounded dour on the economy but hopeful on the potential for a regulatory reset.

Jamie Dimon isn't a fan of bitcoin, but he plans to start offering it to clients of JPMorgan Chase nonetheless.

"We are going to allow you to buy it," Dimon said at the bank's annual presentation for investors on Monday. "We're not going to custody it. We're going to put it in statements for clients."

"I don't think you should smoke. But I defend your right to smoke," he said in explaining his position.

The bitcoin comments came as the JPMorgan CEO, often considered Wall Street's elder statesman, took the stage to answer questions from investors and research analysts. In the roughly 40-minute session, he touched on a range of topics, from the economy to what he expects from Trump's regulators.

Dimon sounded a dour note on the economy, saying he thinks the risk of stagflation is "two times" higher than many think, and making dire predictions on credit as an investment class.

"I think the worst one for a bank and for most companies is stagflation," he continued, warning: "I think the odds of that are probably two times what the market thinks."

He also said the bank had lost some commercial opportunities as a result of Trump's trade war. "We've lost business because of that," he said in response to an analyst's question.

He sounded upbeat, however, when it came to the president's regulatory agenda.

"I think that the Secretary of Treasury, the president of the United States, the new head of the OCC, the new head of the CFPB, Michelle Bowman at Federal Reserve, and the SEC have all made it clear that they want to fix some of the things they think are broken," he said. "I think they'll accomplish some of that. Some will take longer than others, but they all want to do it."

He called on regulators to consider lightening regulations for publicly traded companies, which he said have been halved since the 1990s, from 8,000 to 4,000.

"We're driving companies out of the public marketplace because of expensive reporting, litigation, cookie-cutter approaches to boards, compensation, and litigation," he said.

"I would love to be a private company," he added.

Dimon also raised questions about the rapid expansion of investments in credit, including through funds raised to make nonbank loans, or private credit.

"I don't like making forecasts," Dimon said, "but I am not a buyer of credit today. I think credit today is a bad risk," he said, adding, "I think that people who haven't been through major downturns are missing the point about what can happen in credit."

As interest rates rise and economic conditions soften, the risk of credit defaults rises, sometimes leaving borrowers strapped for cash and lenders struggling to recoup capital.

Earlier in the day, Marianne Lake, JPMorgan's CEO of consumer and community banking, said the firm was "closely monitoring the whole ecosystem" of lending but not giving up in spite of warning signs.

"The environment is very challenging for home lending and auto," she said, adding, "but we remain committed."

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• Elon Musk was a star at the US Open in September 2024, media mogul Barry Diller said.
• Diller said the public turned on Musk as his influence over the government grew.
• The billionaire advised Musk to address government waste with care, not aggressive measures.

Barry Diller said he witnessed Elon Musk's popularity firsthand at the US Open in 2024 — but less than a year later, it's a different story.

The public's perception of Musk has had a major shift since Donald Trump won the presidential election, Expedia Group chairman Diller said during Monday's episode of the "On with Kara Swisher" podcast.

The pair sat in the same luxury box to watch the US Open men's singles final match in September, where Diller said he was "amazed" by Musk's celebrity.

"A third of the faces in that audience were looking at him and not at this champ game that was taking place," the 83-year-old said.

He recalled hundreds of people gathering to take pictures and ask for Musk's signature during a break in the game.

Eight months, one election, and a controversial plan to cut government spending later, Diller says an appearance like that wouldn't play out the same way it did last year.

"If today he was in that box, they'd throw tomatoes at him," Diller said. "It's only September to May. I've never seen anything as swift as that."

Neither Musk nor representatives for Expedia Group immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Musk set out to cut $2 trillion in government spending with his involvement in the White House DOGE office, and he's faced backlash since then in the form of protests and movements like Tesla Takedown. Such resistance has made it harder to execute his plans, he told reporters during an April Q&A session.

"Being attacked is not super fun," Musk said. "Seeing cars on fire is not fun."

Diller, who cofounded the Fox TV network with Rupert Murdoch, previously said Musk has "a form of megalomania" and backed Trump out of bitterness toward the Democrats in October. He doubled down on Monday, telling Swisher that Musk is entitled to his megalomania, but it has its consequences.

"I personally like him," Diller said. "Unfortunately if you are a megalomaniac, your tuning fork ear is lost, and he lost it."

Enter the proverbial tomatoes prompted by Musk's slashes to government spending through DOGE, Diller said.

His advice? Work to eliminate government waste "with a thoughtful, kind hand" instead of a "chainsaw."

• Sean "Diddy" Combs listed his Los Angeles mansion for sale a week before he was arrested.
• As his trial proceeds, the house is still on the market with the same asking price: $61.5 million.
• Cassie Ventura said "freak offs" weren't held there, but its link to Combs might still deter buyers.

Sean "Diddy" Combs is sitting in a Manhattan courtroom, facing off with his sexual abuse accusers at trial.

His mansion in Los Angeles, however, is sitting empty.

Combs listed the 10-bedroom, 13-bathroom mansion in LA's ritzy Holmby Hills neighborhood for $61.5 million a week before his arrest in September 2024 — and it's unlikely to sell anytime soon.

His ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, testified last week that Combs' South Mapleton Drive home was not used for any "freak offs," the dayslong sex performances that the trial centers on. In general, homes priced in the eight-figure range don't fly off the shelves that quickly. Still, most homebuyers are put off by its association with an accused sex trafficker, according to a consultant who specializes in selling homes tainted by murder or other disasters.

"When they buy a home at that price point, they like to brag about it," Michael Tachovsky, a partner at Landmark Research Group, told BI. "P. Diddy's reputation, at the current time, really isn't a positive bragging point for a potential buyer. It can play into perceptions, and when there's a negative perception with a property, it just makes it harder to sell."

Two Los Angeles-area real estate agents reached by Business Insider declined to go on record about Combs' property to avoid any association.

Combs has denied all wrongdoing. The music tycoon has consistently argued that all sexual encounters were consensual. The defense also argues that any violence fell far short of sex trafficking and that his accusers have a financial motive to implicate him.

The listing agent, Kurt Rappaport, didn't return multiple requests for comment by email and phone. A rep for Combs and his lawyer also didn't return requests for comment by email.

The history of Combs' LA mansion

Combs purchased the property on Mapleton Drive in 2014 for just over $39 million, according to Los Angeles County property records.

The main house's architecture excludes European vibes and contains a formal dining room, a wine cellar, a theater that fits 35 people, a kitchen, and a separate catering kitchen. A two-story guest house has bedrooms, a gym, and a recording studio.

The grounds, over 1.3 acres, have an oversize statue of a woman seemingly made from similar material to a disco ball, plus a swimming pool with a waterfall and grotto, a basketball court, a spa house, and an outdoor loggia with a barbecue, bar, and pizza oven.

Other homes for sale on the same street are asking similar prices.

Jack Harris, a real estate agent with The Beverly Hills Estate, has an eight-bedroom listing on Mapleton Drive just a few doors down from Combs' house, priced at $62.5 million.

"You normally can't buy into Holmby Hills for less than $20 million — Mapleton being one of the most prestigious streets in Holmby Hills," Harris told BI.

"It's a little pocket that's right between Beverly Hills and Bel Air — there's only a handful of streets," he added.

Combs hosted parties at his house, including a 2017 Grammys afterparty.

Combs also owns a seven-bedroom, 14,800-square-foot home on Star Island in Miami, where Ventura said in court last week that "freak offs" did take place. He bought the home in 2023 for $14.5 million and satisfied the $18.8 million left on his mortgage in August of 2024 to sure up his proposed bond package.

In March 2024, law enforcement officials seized "narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant" from his Los Angeles and Miami residences.

A buyer could be drawn to the renovation potential

Real estate investor Steven "Bo" Belmon made a lowball offer of $30 million in November of 2024.

Belmont said in a press release that he planned to renovate.

"I want to remove the stigma and focus on the charming elegance of this remarkable property," Belmont said in the release.

Belmont is no stranger to controversial properties purchased at a hefty discount. In 2024, he bought Kanye West's abandoned Malibu mansion for $21 million, less than half of its original asking price of $53 million.

Tachovsky pointed to other properties where negative events have taken place that sold years after they hit the market for well below the asking price.

The ongoing legal battles will inevitably limit the pool of buyers, he added.

"At the moment, it doesn't sound like anything nefarious happened at the property, but I don't think there's any certainty yet," he said. "When you've got notorious issues, like the Diddy case, that's not a no-name person. That can linger for some time."