The REAL Story of how Facebook Live Was Created

I had gotten like a whole debate with an Uber driver the other day because he was like, self driving cars are going to ruin our lives and ruin our business. And I was like, no, you're thinking about it the wrong way. Like, you could be in your pajamas at home and have eight cars working for you, and you could just be Skyping into those cars, checking in on your passengers. Like, you need to reframe your mindset and be more entrepreneurial.

First off, super awesome to have you here. We are broadcasting this on Facebook Live, which you're actually credited with creating with over a billion people currently use.

That's right. It's a pretty wild story. I don't know. Should I get into it now?

Tell us.

All right, so when I went out to Silicon Valley to join Facebook, well, first of all, I was working at an ad agency in digital marketing when I got the call that was like, hey, Randy, I'm starting this thing called the Facebook. I need someone who knows digital marketing. Which really meant he needed someone who would work for free. That's really what he meant by that. And I went out there and I have to say, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. When I went out to Silicon Valley, I thought, okay, I'm the marketer who's going to support these genius guys who are creating things. But they did these things at Facebook called hackathons, where every few months, everyone in the office had the opportunity to basically pull an all nighter at the office and come up with your wildest, craziest ideas that you would then pitch to the company. And I was getting really excited about what was going on with what we were watching on TV and our phones. And I thought, would there ever be a day that we would watch entire television networks inside Facebook? I had pitched it to every media company on the planet and been flat out rejected by every single one. So at one hackathon, I just created this show called Facebook Live with Randy Zuckerberg. Two people watched my parents. Wow. That's it. It was an abysmal failure. I didn't even stay awake the whole night to present it to the company. And I was like, all right, well, Facebook Live is dead. All those media companies were right. And then a few weeks later, I got a call from Katy Perry's manager saying that Katy Perry wanted to launch her world tour on my Facebook Live television show.

Wow.

So we hustled as a company. We got it built, and it was so successful, millions of people tuned into that first broadcast. We had, I mean, just tons of celebrities Even President Obama and the White House used Facebook Live. And. And just about a year and a half ago, Facebook launched a Facebook live button on 2 billion profiles. So I think for all of us in this room, I mean, you guys are incredible. I've read your bios. But for me, that was an incredibly meaningful moment because like I said, I never considered myself an entrepreneur or an inventor. But what that showed me is that any of us putting ourselves in the right situation where we're free to have our wildest ideas, we're all sitting on that 2 billion person idea.

Right, right. I mean, what. That's awesome. How many years ago was that?

That was about seven years ago now. Seven years ago. I mean, so that was before the days where we're used to streaming shows on Netflix and watching Game of Thrones on our phones and all that.

What's your perspective on recognizing and take advantage of opportunities? Because I know you do a lot of angel investing and you advise a lot of people. You were in Silicon Valley and frankly, I mean, you've. You're involved in a lot of stuff.

Yeah. One thing that's really important to me, I think I was given an incredible opportunity to be on really the front lines of a new industry that was starting. And so for me, I'm always looking for who's that next entrepreneur that I can invest in. For me, it's interesting. I feel like a perfect entrepreneur that I want to invest in has to have that blend of passion, but also an eye for data. Because I get so many people who come in to pitch me and they're clearly, they're so passionate about what they're doing, but they say things like, I've worked hard for this and I deserve this. And that makes me want to give them a hug, but it doesn't make me want to open my checkbook to them. So it needs to be, you need to have that passion. Because honestly, there is no good reason to start your own company. You have to be a little bit of a crazy person to do it. So you need that passion, but you also need to be willing to pivot on a dime. I mean, I know when we were at Facebook and the iPhone came out that rocked the entire world. I mean, it's hard to imagine that was only 10 years ago that the iPhone came out, and suddenly every business in Silicon Valley that was desktop focused was looking at a one year Runway before going out of business if they didn't pivot. And so it's also really important to see in an entrepreneur someone who is Passionate, but not so laser focused that they're going to miss all the trends that are going on around them.

Well, talk to this because I've. We talked about a little bit when we did our podcast, but also I've heard you in other interviews where the way that adults, many that were not where social media didn't exist or you know, like when I was 10 years old, I remember walking around. I don't know if I should admit this, but I'd walk around with a pellet gun, basically, because that's what I was given, a pellet gun. Go outside and walk around all day with a pellet gun and shoot stuff. Right. And so with no connection to anyone. And I'd be miles away in the small town of Alpine, Texas, where I lived, and I'd be like, all weekend I would just be out by myself. No connection. And now if someone is not within 10ft of their phone, they think they're missing a limb, right?

Totally.

And so what I've heard you say is that people try to keep screens away from their children, as if these are bad things and they could be. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on the dark side and the good sides of technology. But I've also heard you say, look, you know, kids that are growing up, they're totally okay with it because they've been immersed in this world. So if they've not been, they have like a different sort of relationship.

Absolutely. In fact, a little while ago, I have a six year old and a three year old son and my six year old, one of his friends came over for a play date at our house and his friend saw my laptop and went, grandpa. And his mom said, oh, we Skype so much he thinks his grandpa lives inside the computer. And that was just such a crystal clear moment that I was like, wow, kids are just having a relationship through a screen is the same to them as having a relationship in person. And that was just. It was such a moment of a new generation. But you're absolutely right. I think that a lot of parents have a place of guilt and bad feelings when they think about kids in tech. I know for me, even when people say kids in tech, my mind immediately goes to an image of a child on a sofa glued to an iPad, when the reality is that there are thousands of ways to introduce children to tech and STEM concepts that never once involve gluing them to a screen. And that's something that my team is working on a ton. We're actually about to open a STEM themed restaurant In New York City, where you can go and get chocolate s' mores made on a 3D printer and robots will make you pancakes and all kinds of ways to actually introduce families to tech that never once include an iPad.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, do you think your children will ever drive cars?

Oh, wow. I mean, well, we live in New York, so probably. Well, yeah, probably not there, but yeah. I mean, it's funny, I had gotten like a whole debate with an Uber driver the other day. Cause he was like, self driving cars are gonna ruin our lives and ruin our business. And I was like, no, you're thinking about it the wrong way. Like you could be in your pajamas at home and have eight cars working for you and you could just be Skyping into those cars, checking in on your. Like, you need to reframe your mindset and be more entrepreneurial. But so I don't know, I hope. You know, honestly, when I think about, like what a party girl I was in high school, I really hope my kids aren't driving.

I'll tell you, I'm so glad social media did not exist, especially when I was a drug addict. I mean, some of the stuff that could have been captured there, I mean, it was bad.

The good news though is I think for this next generation, everyone is going to have something they regret that lives online. So I think our tolerance and acceptance for that will go up.

What's your criteria of what you will say and won't say? I mean, what are some standards that you have of like, this is not the areas that I go down because some people are so open with their confessionals or their totally. Especially their heavily violent attacking views and insults. Not realizing that this exists forever now.

That's right.

And so I'm very careful about how I think about what I put online. Although I, you know, I'm very open about some things, but I'd love to hear how you think about it.

I mean, I do believe that being open and authentic is the best way to go online. So if you do have, you know, if that's part of who you are, you have a strong political view or you have something, you have to own who you are. But for me, my perspectives really changed a lot when I had children because I think, why should I get to choose my child's digital footprint for them? Shouldn't they get to choose what their identity online looks like? And so I think about that a lot. What's going to happen when my son suddenly Googles himself for the first time and there's years of information that I've posted about. And so that's something I think about a lot whenever I am going to show my children's photos or talk about them. But also for me, I like to spend a lot more of my time listening than I do talking. Because I really think that I've learned so much from traveling the world and hearing how other people view technology and the issues that it would be so easy for me to stand in a studio in Manhattan and have views on everything. But it is not until you travel to the border of Mexico and Texas that you can really understand immigration. It's not until you travel to rural Tennessee where people don't have health care that you can understand that. And so I try very hard to not just stand up and have viewpoints on things until I actually go places. Right.

What's the mission behind your dot complicated brand?

Ah, dot complicated.

Right.

Well, I think it goes back to a lot of what you're saying. Like, we grew up in this era. I mean, I got my first, like, brick cell ph when I was going off to college. And so we didn't grow up with all of this technology, but yet suddenly we're in a position to be running businesses and employees and children who have access to this technology. I also think coming from Silicon Valley, everyone drinks the Kool Aid there. I loved my time in Silicon Valley, but it's a one industry town. And what happens in a one industry town is it becomes an echo chamber where every conversation that I had was like, yeah, technology. Who are we disrupting today? You know, what industry are we coming for? Which is fun when you're in it, but technology is not 100% positive all the time. Oh, yeah. And I think it was not until I stepped out of that world that I started to see some of the ways. Like, for example, I went to this cool thing called VR World the other day in Manhattan. They have, you can test out all the latest and greatest VR. And I did this experience where I was walking on, like a little balance beam, but in my mind, I was at the top of the Empire State Building being asked to take a step off the edge. And even though I knew that I was on the floor and nothing was gonna happen to me, it took a lot of willpower to make myself take that step. It felt real. And so I thought, on one hand, wow, this is gonna totally change our businesses in amazing ways. In medicine, in real estate, VR is gonna be so game changing. On the other hand, as a mom of two boys, like, are we going to be treating high school boys for PTSD because they're playing violent war games that feel so real that they think they're there.

Right, exactly.

And so that's really the ethos behind DOT Complicated is really looking at all of these emerging tech trends and thinking about the ways that they're going to change our businesses for good and also the ways that they're going to add new complications to our lives.

Well, you know, I mean, right after, later this afternoon, I'm going to be interviewing Dr. Gabor Mate, who I consider one of the top addiction doctors in the world. And behavior addictions, you know, the dopamine hits that come from, you know, electronics as an example. You know, even like gaming in Las Vegas where you just glop to a, you know, a slot machine and you're just, you know, it's that constant pursuit. Well, so the companies that are designing these technologies know how to create these constant dopamine hits, the likes, everything. I mean, even the selfie generators.

Yeah, I mean, they have behavioral scientists that are working inside these companies who know that the types of content they feed you can affect your mood and exactly how to get you hooked, even from the login screens. So it's also just as important that we understand that that is going on anytime we're online and that we understand also how to break ourselves from that.

Well, let me ask you about that because we have. I don't know if you're friends with BJ Fogg. He's.

I know bj. Hey, bj. Yeah, I saw your name in the program.

Stanford Behavioral. He's probably in his research figuring out all kinds of crazy ways.

He's like the top of the top.

That's awesome. No, but he's actually a super ethical guy, very caring person, very much about like using, you know what, how to influence people in positive ways. And the thing with technology like VR, there are some companies in Silicon Valley that put VR goggles on homeless people and they measure their stress levels going down. So there's ways to use technology. Let's take the subject of sex addiction. There's a thing where people, they do fantasy contamination. Like what happens if you have an affair? What happens if you watch pornography all night? If you're on an all night drinking binge, what are the consequences? So you go past the fantasy and in a VR environment, you literally can choose how this is going to end.

Totally.

And I think that could do a lot with it.

It's so powerful. I mean, imagine children who are in hospitals with terminal illnesses that suddenly you could put them somewhere. I read about another study at Stanford. I don't know if this was your study, that they showed people what their lives would be like 20, 30 years in the future if they saved money in different ways, and that people who saw themselves having a better life in retirement actually made smarter financial decisions immediately after doing that. So I think they're incredible use cases on the other side. I've also heard of cases where children recalled vacations that they had went to as if it was a full vacation, when really they had just seen a place. Place in VR.

Interesting.

Like you can. Can. Will we be able to recall and plant false memories in people's minds? Like, if you really feel you're there. So, anyway, I just. I think technology is amazing. I mean, I'm very biased on the side of yay technology, but, you know, dot complicated. Everything has two sides. And I think we have to be very conscious consumers and business leaders when it comes to all of them.

Gotcha. So there's entrepreneurs in the room that are parents like you. So what advice could you give them between the intersections of being a parent and the use of technology? I mean, we've already touched on it, but since you're doing so much stuff with women and with girls and with children, anything that you'd like to.

Sure. Well, I mean, a lot of this actually touches back to the fact that why I left Facebook, because when I left Facebook, I was at the top of my game. You know, we had just created Facebook Live. I was making a lot of money. Like, I was in a group. Great place, right? So why would anyone quit? You know, you're like, why are you up here, you know, listening to the story of a crazy person, maybe. But for me, I also had a growing. A very complicated relationship with Silicon Valley and with tech itself. I think, you know, we talked a little bit about the ways that I had a complicated relationship with tech. I think I also started to see some of the things that were being built in Silicon Valley used in ways that I wasn't entirely thrilled with. For example, when I was working on the elections in Silicon Valley and with Arab Spring, I remember waking up every morning and thinking, oh, my gosh, we're giving a voice to everyone. And then I woke up last year, November, and thought, oh, we gave a voice to everyone. Yay. You know, I mean, it's so. But I think the biggest reason that I had a complicated relationship with Silicon Valley was I just got so sick and tired of being the only woman in the room for a decade and to this day, my best advice for young women who want to go into technology is to have a man's name like Randy.

Wow.

Because I can't tell you how many meetings I got because people thought they were meeting with a dude, and then I'd show up and they'd be like, what? Like, too late, got the meeting. Sorry. But, like, how it's funny and sad, right, that that's still, to date, my best advice. So for me, after a while, I just realized, okay, this isn't something that's gonna change from inside Silicon Valley. This is gonna change by infusing into pop culture, by having, you know, TV shows and books and experiences and theater and live everything that's putting these more girls and getting them attracted to technology. So that's. I mean, that is what I live and breathe day in and day out.

You know, it's interesting too, because I, for one, we've gone and looked at the percentage of women that join my Genius network group. I mean, I don't know what the makeup in this room is. Actually.

This is a much better room, I think, that I usually see. So it's getting better. I have to say. The numbers are getting better. But when you look at the amount of venture funding that goes to women, it's single digits. I've seen everything from 2 to 6%, you know, and none of that is good. That's not a good number yet. In my own portfolio, I mean, I. I invest in both men and women. I invest in, you know, anything that I like, but I really try to have it equal, you know, equal men and women founders in my portfolio, I have been able to achieve a, you know, 60% female founder ratio and a 30% diverse founder ratio, which is, I mean, it's not even single digits in venture capital. And I have to say, I mean, I love the men in the room. It's great. But like, my women founded companies have performed so much better than my male founder companies. Like, yes, every company that I have made a lot of money off of has been founded by women.

Wow. Could you imagine if I said that trying to say something for men, like, I would get attacked? Right. Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy There. I have never raised money for any venture I've ever done. So I don't, I mean, I have equity in, you know, a dozen companies. However, I've always just sold stuff. Like if I needed money, I'm like, well, let me just sell something to someone that'll cut me a check. But that's not all businesses. So what are the dangers of raising money? Because so many entrepreneurs come to me and the number one thing they're thinking about is not how are we going to sell something, but how are we going to get funding. And then I feel, well, then you're going to be beholden to someone that you owe money to. So any suggestions?

Yeah, so I mean, I've done, I have made every mistake in the book and tried every possible thing when it comes to business. But for me, I actually, I don't like to take VC or outside investing in any of my projects either. Because you're right, suddenly you have a boss. And isn't that the whole reason that you became an entrepreneur was to be your own boss? So I think if you can take smart money, if you can take an investment from someone who really understands your industry and is going to catapult you ahead, that's really the only reason to take outside investment. I think selling things is great because that is a clear sign that the world values the product you're doing. And if you can be cash flow positive and revenue positive, I mean, that is the number one way to see that you have a good product market fit. The thing that I started doing actually with a lot of my businesses is joint venturing too, because, and a lot of people say, you know, Randy, why do you only want to own 50% of something? But for me, I'd rather own 50% of something amazing than 100% of something that's not gonna happen.

Right.

And so for me, that also means that I have other partners. With skin in the game, I can offload some of the logistics and the work to other people. So I think, you know, raising financing should be a last, a last ditch.

No, I agree and I love that you say that too, because I honestly think it's a cop out for a lot of people. It's almost like delaying figuring out how to, to do something. Like, we got this guy right here in the front, that's Dan Sullivan. And Dan Sullivan has coached more successful entrepreneurs than anyone in the world. And he has a company called Strategic. We're actually going to show his documentary. And so Dan and Babs, they've been coaching entrepreneurs with strategic coach for many years. And he has this great line where he's like, test ideas on check writers. And it's like the number one job of the entrepreneur is to go get a check. Now, maybe that's going to be, you know, funding for some situations, but I believe it should be the best way.

For example, before we went to launch this big stem restaurant that I'm talking to you about, I mean, I could have gone out and raised a lot of money from a lot of people, but I decided instead, I was going to beta test it in some smaller markets just to see, like, is this even a good idea? Do people like it? So I opened one this summer in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I called it Sue's Tech Kitchen. We opened it for just a week. We had people, you know, we sold tickets for $5. Because I told people, like, this is a beta. I'm figuring this out. So, you know, come in and get all of this food and all of this stuff for $5. We sold out all of our tickets in one hour. And after that, I realized I was like, okay, this was a great test. Like, now I feel like I can go to New York and bigger cities and do this, and instead of just raising financing from someone else.

Yeah. Love it. Love it. So let's talk about. You sing, you dance, you've been on Broadway, you're a parent, you're involved, you're an advisor, you have your own company. How do you manage your time?

Gosh. Okay.

And you do burpees, too?

I do. I love. It's so efficient, and you can do them anywhere. But I love things that are efficient. So it's funny, I have a bit of a personal mantra. Work, life, balance just doesn't exist. I'm sorry, it doesn't exist. Nothing I've ever done that I'm proud of have I done when I was being balanced. So my mantra is work, sleep, family, friends, fitness. Pick three, and you get a different three every day.

Say those again. I want people to write them down.

Keep family, friends, fitness. Pick three. You cannot pick all five of those and do them all well every single day, every day. And every day when I wake up tomorrow, I can pick a different three, and the next day a different three. And the hope is that it balances out over the long run. But you just. You cannot accomplish anything of value if you try to do all five of those things in one day. So I think, you know, for me, when I started to give myself permission to be lopsided, I guess instead of being balanced that was when just really things started unlocking for me an incredible way in business.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what I think about with sharing things in Genius Network is I believe, really accomplished entrepreneurs can come up with better ideas sitting by themselves with a napkin or a notepad than going to most seminars. So if I'm going to share ideas with some of the greatest thinkers, I want to share elegant ideas. And not just how do you solve a problem, but what's one thing that if you solve this one thing solves a hundred other problems. Like, for instance, sleep as an example. If you're sleep deprived. If you fix sleep, there's like dozens, if not hundreds of other things in your life that will improve. What are some rituals or things that you have done or involved yourself in that just. You get so much bang for the buck. Like, is the juice worth the squeeze? You know, that sort of thing. Like, what are some things that just move the dial?

Oh, my gosh. So one thing that I started doing a few years ago was I started taking the month of either March or April and trying to dedicate the entire month to putting myself in an uncomfortable situation that I had never done before. Now, again, that's a very, you know, I have the luxury of doing that because I work for myself, because, you know, I've made enough money in the past that I can do that. But a few. So a few years ago, I started off this by going and living in Tokyo for a month. Wow. Because I was like, I just want to immerse myself somewhere that I've never been. Do something uncomfortable. Three years ago, I joined the cast of a Broadway show for a month that was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It was the scariest experience, hands down, of my entire life. But I got cast in one of the leading roles in Rock of Ages, an 80s rock musical on Broadway. And just walking a mile in someone else's shoes, like that gave me such a deeper appreciation when I went back to my own business and I did that. So I just, I try to think of, you know, what is uncomfortable, what's scary, and just try to go do that.

Yeah. You know, I mean, it's like even doing this event is nerve wracking for me. It's incredibly fulfilling because you care, you know? Yeah. It's funny you say that because I think when a speaker gets to the point where they don't get like a little nervous, I don't get like, oh my God, I can't speak in front of an audience. Although there was a time where it was, I would literally sweat profusely. I mean, it was so uncomfortable. But I heard this saying years ago that that which you fear and don't face controls you. But that which you fear and you take steps to face, you can control it or at least get a lot better with it. So I do put myself into situations that challenge me. The question is, when you do it to where it's so stressful, like, there's a difference between. Hugh Downs was a friend of mine, and I interviewed him when he was 87 years old, and he said the difference between stress and distress. Stress will actually build you up and make you better, like working out and stuff. But if you overdo it and you get into a state of distress. And so a lot of entrepreneurs like you talked about the five things they're trying to do so much.

They never choose sleep or they never choose fitness. And that's not good for anyone either.

Right, Exactly. So for fear, I mean, I think the entrepreneurial mind is willing to take risks that non entrepreneurs do not take. How does one increase that stamina? If you have any suggestions for it? And sometimes it might be not trying to push yourself. Sometimes it's just pull back. I mean, I love the idea of go living. I'm sitting there thinking, maybe I should move to Tokyo for a month. That would be like a freak show.

It was amazing. And I lived in an area where it was, like, not touristy at all, so no one looked like me. It was fabulous. I loved it. It was just such a different, open mindset. But I think back to your question. How do we build our tolerance for that is getting used to failing. For me, I feel so, so lucky that I did so much theater as a young girl because I got rejected. You know, when you do theater, you get rejected for 10 roles for every role you get cast in. And so even though my mom used to say to me, like, hey, honey, I hope you're not gonna do this with your life, she'd be like, you know what? I think it is so awesome that you are doing theater, because at 8 years old, if you could get rejected from a part, pick yourself back up and still have enough faith in yourself to audition for that next one, you can handle anything that business throws at you.

Totally.

That's great. So I think for me, I just. When I went into business and entrepreneurship, I already knew how to fail. Like, I already knew I had it in me to pick myself off the floor and still think I was the best person for that part.

Yeah.

And I think that's half of what entrepreneurship and risk taking is about.

Totally. I mean, there's that cliche which is, what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? I've had that on computers. I have this little metal thing that has it in, etched in there. It says, you know, what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? And of course, the way my brain works is business deals. Who would I ask out on a date, what sort of, you know, all that sort of stuff. And it's interesting how much fear, actually, for things that most people are capable of doing, but they don't do because of, like, rejection or what other? And so how do you deal with criticism? How do you deal with rejection, which as public as you are, you've heard everything under the sun.

Everything. I mean, and also, I can't tell you how many brainstorms I sit in where people withhold their best ideas because they're so afraid of even the three other people sitting in the room saying, that's not a good idea, or squashing it. And so that's why. I mean, that's why I love the hackathons that we did at Facebook, because people who felt afraid during the day and guarded of their ideas, suddenly that created of a sense safe space to have wild and crazy ideas. And I think creating those spaces in our lives and in our businesses are really important for me. I mean, gosh, the first project that I took on after I left Facebook and started my own company, NBC, asked me to do a show on Bravo, a documentary about Silicon Valley startups, follow six entrepreneurs. And it got a ton of hype. It was, you know, like, really buzzed about and all the tech and media press. And then the show just didn't do well. After the second episode, it got moved to a 3am time slot, and then it was a marathon at the same time as the Super Bowl. So that's, you know, where a show goes to die. And I thought, oh, my gosh, how am I gonna pick myself up off the floor from that? That is the first project that I did after leaving Facebook. Like, how am I ever gonna have any credibility ever again? And it took me a while to kind of get myself off the floor for that one. But two years later, when I put out my children's book.it was that same executive who called me on the phone and said, you know what? Our first show didn't work, but I liked working with you, and I have a feeling this next one will. And now dot is in 30 countries 100 episodes of our animated show, and that wouldn't have happened without that failure.

No, that's the thing. What Dan calls it is a strategic byproduct that if you start pursuing something, things that happen off to the side end up, in many cases, being more valuable than the original thing you're pursuing. If you sign up to run a marathon, what ends up happening is, yeah, your goal is to run a marathon, but all these other life changes happen off to the side. Like, maybe you start eating better, you start sleeping better, you start getting in better physical shape.

You plan your time better.

Exactly. And then all these little things happen. And so my pursuit in life is the strategic byproducts that come out of it. I mean, this group, Genius Network, is really. I want the strategic byproducts of it. You know, for me, I want to change the. We've talked about this on our podcast interview. One of my projects is changing the global conversation about how people view and treat addicts with compassion instead of judgment. And. And I know that I will figure out the best ways to go about doing that within Genius Networks. So the strategic byproduct is I can do all this other stuff in the addiction field.

I think another thing, though, that you're so good at and so many is you have to be willing to have people give you advice and then reject it. Like, you have to really be able to stay true to who you are. Because I know from When I was 2 years old, my biggest dream in life was to sing on Broadway. Like, I just knew it from the. You know, the first moment I could create memories. And when I got to Silicon Valley, all my mentors who I respected told me, like, randy, stop singing. Don't, like, do anything that is distracting from. From working here, because you already have it harder than the men. As a woman, like, people already want to say that you don't deserve it, so don't do anything, Anything that's gonna distract from that. And so for 10 years, I didn't sing a note, I didn't perform. I, like, buried something that was in my soul basically to, you know, fit in. And I. You know, a few years ago, when I ended up getting cast in the Broadway show after all, it was like, you know, like a Pandora's box of my soul opened up, and I realized, like, what was I doing listening to bad advice all those years to be less interesting to not? I mean, that actually has been one of my biggest advantages in business, is the theatrical knowledge that I have in that work. So I think Also, you have to be willing to kind of look great people in the eye who think they're giving you great advice, but aren't.

Well, yeah. And also. And just even asking, whose life is it anyway? I mean, what am I really trying to do? So many people, even if they get like, again, Dan Sullivan saying is success traps are harder to get out of than failure traps. And when you've reached a certain level of success and you're making a lot of money and you have a big company and you may hate it, you may be miserable. It's like we talked about on the podcast. I told the story of this crazy guy. I learned marketing from where he had a guy come to one of his seminars that had 56 hardware stores that he owned, and he had not talked to his children in a couple years. He was 60 pounds overweight, he was drinking heavily, his cholesterol was through the roof, and his number one goal was to open up his 57th hardware store. And it's kind of like, at what point do you know that?

What point is enough, enough? Like, focus on yourself.

Exactly. How do you follow what is so damn important to Randy and Drop? I mean, because you're in situations where you get. Because of who you are, you get thrown opportunities that are amazing all the time, but you have so many amazing opportunities. You got opportunity in digestion, you know, so that's good.

I like that.

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people in this room, that's one of their biggest challenges is not, you know, I need an opportunity. No, I, like, I need less of them. I'm buried in opportunities. Which ones do we say yes to? Which ones do we say no to?

I mean, I think that's the hardest thing of all of us because as entrepreneurs, we always have our eyes open for that next thing, that next opportunity. We are in a mindset to create our own luck rather than let luck happen to us. But it can be so distracting if you're constantly having shiny objects dangled in front of you and you want to say yes to everything. So I think for me, I just often just have to clench my teeth and remind myself of my ruthless priorities. You know, what are the three things that I want to do this year? And that doesn't mean that you should close down to outside opportunities, because you might find that amazing thing out there that is worth latching onto. But I have found that when I create things, when I create IP or create business, and then people come to you, they slot into what you're doing. Whereas if you Just kind of go on coffee meetings or lunch meetings or phone calls. People don't really understand. And that's when you're at the risk of distraction.

Right. Best business advice you've ever been given or that you could offer. And best personal advice, both your business and personal life.

Great. Well, I think on the business advice front, I mean, we live in a world where every action that we have is on display and being judged. And someone once told me, randy, you're never as good as they say you are, and you're never as bad as they say you are. So don't let the good stuff go to your head. Don't let the bad go to your heart. And so I thought that was really wise advice. I think, on the personal level, back to kind of doing the thing that's uncomfortable. I once had a mentor. Tell me, Randy, if you don't feel like you want to vomit once a month from nerves, you're not pushing yourself hard enough in life.

Yeah, yeah, that's. I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Johnny Carson would throw up once a week during his entire show. I don't know if that's true or if that's something made up, but, you know, there's a lot of people that. But they still do it. They still show up and do the thing. And so if we could throw up on Facebook Live, that would be a good job. If we do enough.

Perfect movie Pitch perfect, right?

Yeah. Culture in a company. I mean, you've seen toxic cultures in Silicon Valley. You've seen great ones. Any suggestions on creating a great culture? All these people here have one, if they know it or not.

Yes, that's a great question. Because I think also as entrepreneurs, we're often so focused on how do we get that next customer, close that next sale, what marketing are we doing? The easiest thing to forget about is our own internal culture, what we stand for, for, and how we make our business the very best place to work and the very best place for clients to come to. And that's something that I think the Facebook team did extremely well over the years because they saw in Silicon Valley that your company is only as good as the engineering talent that you have. So how do you make a company the best place to work? And I think that that's really something that's at the crux of. Of all of our businesses at Facebook, what we used to do, we used to do those hackathons. We did tons of different programs inside the company to make everyone feel like they were an entrepreneur that was kind of the ethos of the company, even if it was 10,000 people down to the person manning the front desk when you walk into reception, is an entrepreneur and can bring an idea at a hackathon or do something that could change the entire business. So I think every single one of you has an expertise and an ability to create just a company that stands for something amazing. And I'm excited to see it.

Well, I mean, so when I. For many years, I would have a lot of people that would think of marketers and salespeople as, oh, they're just trying to manipulate me and they're trying to exploit me. And there are many people that do that. But then I started saying, think of selling as influence, and think of marketing as storytelling. And every company, every person, has a story. And if you tell a better story, it's not just the people that are going to buy products and services from you. It's people you're going to employ. You have to. I mean, I think a lot of culture is the story that exists within the organization.

Yeah.

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