EVAN MUSIL, ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

In May, keep your eyes glued to the trees. It’s peak warbler season! These tiny, cute, colorful birds migrate north over thousands of miles each year, and right now, they’re cropping up all over Milwaukee. My partner and I took to Lake Park early Saturday morning to scout them out. We stood on the Ravine Road pedestrian bridge, which overlooks a canopy of trees perfect for these branch-traversing birds. It’s worth noting that warblers can be tough to spot and tougher to identify. About 35 species of warbler can be found in Wisconsin, and they love hiding between the leaves. Luckily, we had some experienced birders on hand recognizing calls, pinpointing locations and naming the species. Highlight of the day? It was between finding a Blackburnian warbler – showing off its signature fiery-orange throat at the edge of a branch – or seeing a raccoon pee in a tree. Ah, nature.

BRIANNA SCHUBERT, ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR

If you’ve read my story about milking a cow in the May issue yet (which will go online later this month), you might be surprised to learn that I went to goat yoga this past weekend. But it turns out that while cows slightly terrify me, I love baby goats. MKE Yoga Social hosts goat yoga all summer long, and though I’ve gone to their yoga studio for a little over a year, I had not yet gone to goat yoga. So I decided to finally try it, and my oh my what a joyous experience! We did about 30 minutes of yoga – though to be honest it was mostly just stretching and breathing because the goats were quite distracting – and then there were 30 minutes to just pet and play with the goats. I loved when they’d climb on my back. It was so cute! And yes, one did poop on me … it was disgusting but for some reason the power of their cuteness made me not care at all. Register here, and don’t wait – the classes sell out quickly.

ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR

The reason I get sad is because every nice day feels wasted – I feel like I should be out in a park, frolicking with the homies, not hunching over a laptop in the darkness. To avoid this sadness, I often seek out locations where I can hunch over my laptop while at least feeling slightly summerish, and recently that spot has been Vendetta Coffee’s location in Walker’s Point. The cafe is super quaint and the windows let in enough sun to warm my bitter soul. They don’t serve drip coffee, which sucks for someone like me who doesn’t drink fancy coffee drinks, but they do serve cold brew, and might I say that it’s quite good and refreshing on a sunny day.

CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

OK, OK, so first things first: Rates and Barrels is ostensibly a fantasy baseball podcast. But the show, particularly with its regular guests, far transcends the roto world and indulges those fans interested in the geekier side of baseball that has quietly been taking over the game. Most of the week, co-hosts Derek Van Riper (a Wisconsin native and Brewers fan) and Eno Sarris are breaking down promising waiver additions or juicy pitcher matchups. But the Friday pods are a showcase for Sarris, who’s become one of baseball media’s best experts at pitching, talking shop about the modern pitching landscape with recent former big league hurler Trevor May. Tuesdays, Athletic writer Britt Ghiroli stops in for another broad look at the week that was in MLB. Both days touch on fantasy relevance but are primarily about two fresh and engaging perspectives on the game in general.

ANN CHRISTENSON, DINING EDITOR

The other day, the thought hit me: You know, what I haven’t watched lately is Netflix. I don’t watch much of anything in general – though I am, for obvious reasons, chained to my TV on Wednesday nights when “Top Chef” airs on Bravo. So yeah, Netflix. I had no idea what to watch so I basically picked the first thing I saw when I logged in and that’s “Baby Reindeer.” I know now there’s a buzz around it, but I have avoided reading any publicity – not until I finish. In a nutshell, this seven-episode drama is about a Scottish bartender stalked by a woman who comes the London pub where he’s employed and pursues him in super-creepy ways. But maybe the creepiest thing is the bartender’s odd tolerance, like a passive encouragement. It’s almost as if he needs her. At the very least, he has compassion for her. Richard Gadd – the Scotsman who wrote the story, created a one-man show and stars in the Netflix drama as bartender/fledgling comedian Donny Dunn – also apparently lived it in real life. Gadd based the story on his own experience of being stalked and harassed. I am four episodes in – well, I’m still on the fourth episode, and I shut it off because I felt like something disturbing is about to happen, something that will shed more light on why Donny is the way he is. But I’m still making this show my editor pick. It’s uncomfortably compelling and I’ll come back to it – probably tonight.   

Want more great Milwaukee events? Check out our calendar! 

Following the weekend’s pleasant and warm weather, southern Wisconsin is expected to see thunderstorms and cooler temperatures later Monday and Tuesday.

Storms are in the forecast Monday afternoon and evening for much of southern Wisconsin along and south of Interstate 94, including Milwaukee and Madison, said local National Weather Service meteorologist Marcia Cronce. Due to “unsettled” conditions, storms are also possible further north.

In Milwaukee, showers and thunderstorms are forecast to begin around 3 p.m., while they’re expected closer to 1 p.m. in south-central Wisconsin. Temperatures in Milwaukee will peak around 73 degrees today at noon before falling into the mid-50s as a cold front approaches. Areas further inland from Lake Michigan could see temps in the upper 70s or even 80 before the storm.

NWS says gusty winds and small hail are expected with the storm. Milwaukee is forecast to receive a quarter to a half an inch of rain today.

Storms should end in the Milwaukee area by early morning Tuesday, between 3 and 5 a.m. There is a slight chance of showers before 7 a.m., otherwise, Tuesday is expected to be cool and dry, Cronce said. Milwaukee will see a northeasterly breeze off the lake, causing things to feel “chilly.” A high of 54 degrees and winds around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph, are in the forecast tomorrow.

Wisconsin weather radar

Wisconsin weather warnings

Uncover how Milwaukee Tool’s relentless pursuit of innovation, including breakthroughs like lithium-ion battery solutions, has catapulted it to the forefront of the power tool industry, shaping its trajectory on a global scale.

How do you transform a 100-year-old brand like Milwaukee Tool, taking it from the back of the pack in market share to the leading maker of professional power tools and equipment?

“You don’t do it by setting goals you know you can achieve,” says Craig Baxter, group president of TTI Canada.

“Very little that’s great has ever been achieved by setting easily achievable goals, I’m a strong believer in audacious goals,” says Baxter. “I love that word. An audacious goal changes everything. It changes the way you think, the way you plan, the way you behave. It changes your entire approach.”

Sixth in a five-horse race

If anyone would know from experience about the power of audacious goal-setting, it’s Baxter.

In 2007, when he first joined Milwaukee Tool, the company’s products were barely on the radar as a job site solution.

“We were sixth in a five-horse race in terms of the market share of professional cordless tools,” Baxter recalls. “My first audacious goal was committing back in 2007 to make Milwaukee the number one brand of professional power tools in Canada by 2017. To achieve that meant we had to grow at least 20 per cent a year for 10 straight years.”

Under Baxter’s leadership, Milwaukee Tool didn’t just achieve that goal — they smashed it. “We’ve compounded at 24 per cent for the last 16 years,” he says.

Leading by inspiration

But while Milwaukee Tool’s continuous innovation is critical, Baxter credits his workforce – and the incredible spirit of teamwork and collaboration he set out to foster – for these incredible results.

Having taken the company from less than 100 employees in 2007 to almost 800 — “we have single-digit turnover” Baxter notes—he’s determined to build the best possible team and the best possible work culture.

“My job is to create an environment where talented, ambitious people can flourish,” he says.

For Baxter, that all hinges upon leadership. “The predominant leadership style today is command and control,” he says. “But that style is never going to lead to extraordinary results over the long term. And that’s because great people simply don’t want to be controlled.”

To Baxter, one of the great ironies in workplaces today is that business acumen and niche skills become less important as people climb through the ranks and take on positions requiring leadership. “Supply chain, inventory, and metrics are all things that need to be managed. The problem is a lot of managers treat people like they’re things. Leaders need to focus on the inspiration piece, not the management piece when it comes to people,” he says.

To that effect, Baxter himself teaches leadership courses, handing down to TTI’s emerging and experienced managers his tenets for inspiring audacious performance–things like strong communication, building trust by sharing the credit and accepting the blame when things don’t go as planned.

“If you don’t understand how to get the best work out of individuals, then extraordinary results will be incredibly difficult to achieve,” he says.

“Great leaders are able to inspire people to become the absolute best version of themselves, and in so doing, they’re able to stretch for audacious goals.”

Powering the job sites of the future

This focus on leadership is a formula Baxter believes can power Milwaukee Tool for the next 100 years.

“Cordless is an arms race,” Baxter acknowledges. “Our vision is a cordless job site — and by that I mean everything from a small renovation to building a tower downtown. Our vision is to have every single application on that job site powered with a lithium-ion solution brought to you by Milwaukee. We want to replace other batteries, replace hydraulics, replace pneumatic air, replace gas and cords. Any source of power on the job, we want to replace it with one of our solutions. In five years, I see us providing solutions that are beyond anybody’s imagination on a job site,” Baxter says.

With such a great team and strong leaders on his side, it’s yet another audacious goal Baxter believes is within reach. “Just look at what we’ve brought to market so far. You can only imagine how many solutions and the type of capabilities we will provide in the future. We are just getting started.”