Speaker 1: I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to What's
Speaker 1: Her Story? With Sam and Amy. This is a show
Speaker 1: about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and personal journeys. Together,
Speaker 1: we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors, and leaders
Speaker 1: of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every Thursday or
Speaker 1: join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's Her Story Podcast.
Speaker 1: Randy Zuckerberg is the former director of market development and
Speaker 1: spokesperson for Facebook and a sister of Mark Zuckerberg. After
Speaker 1: seven years at the company, Randy left to start her
Speaker 1: own entrepreneurial venture and is now leading the charge in
Speaker 1: Web three. Randy, you are one of four kids. What
Speaker 1: was it like growing up in the Zuckerberg household? Definitely chaotic, Amy,
Speaker 1: My hat is off to you, having grown up with
Speaker 1: four kids. I bow down before mom before. I think
Speaker 1: I didn't quite appreciate how challenging it must have been
Speaker 1: until I had three kids of my own and it
Speaker 1: was like, no way, there's a fourth here. But you know,
Speaker 1: we grew up. It was like, I think people would
Speaker 1: be shocked at how normal our household was growing up
Speaker 1: and how kind of wildly different interests everyone had, and
Speaker 1: you know, pretty sure I was like that mean bully
Speaker 1: oldest sibling who like sent my my sisters to therapy
Speaker 1: for years. So now now when I see my own
Speaker 1: kids doing it to one another, it hits a little harder.
Speaker 1: What's the age range between the four of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's about about two years between everyone, two to three years.
Speaker 1: So my poor mom spent about a full decade pregnant.
Speaker 1: I once asked if I could borrow any of her
Speaker 1: eighties clothing for an eighties party and she's like, sorry,
Speaker 1: I only have maternity clothing from the eighties, Like that's
Speaker 1: that's all I have. So I feel like the three
Speaker 1: of us can relate to that now. Of course. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought I had my own independent life,
Speaker 1: and then the pandemic hit and I had just had
Speaker 1: a newborn baby, so we had just had the youngest,
Speaker 1: and uh, I found myself back living with my parents
Speaker 1: again for two years. So there you go, everything comes
Speaker 1: full circle. Okay, So I want to go to Randy Zuckerberg,
Speaker 1: the mogul, because I think that what's so incredible about
Speaker 1: you is you've really been able to build your own
Speaker 1: brand right and and a lot of people would think
Speaker 1: that you, you know, being the older sister of Mark Zuckerberg,
Speaker 1: that you would be in some way overshadowed. But you've
Speaker 1: really developed your own following your own brand in your
Speaker 1: own career. How have you done that? You know, it's
Speaker 1: funny you say that. And I loved working at Facebook
Speaker 1: and and starting my career there. I was in Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley for almost a decade and it was just the
Speaker 1: most incredible experience. But you're right. I had this kind
Speaker 1: of moment in my early thirties where I realized if
Speaker 1: someone wrote a book about the story of my life,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be the lead character in it. And that
Speaker 1: was kind of a really shocking realization. And I think
Speaker 1: it's a realization a lot of women have. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's just like me having a famous brother. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of women are the supporting character in
Speaker 1: their own lives. And and I realized that in my
Speaker 1: early thirties, and I was like, Okay, it is time
Speaker 1: for a drastic change in my life right now. And
Speaker 1: that's when I feel like I really jumped in, as
Speaker 1: you know, starting my own company, pursuing my own dreams
Speaker 1: a lot more. And it's taken a long time. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, probably took me almost a decade since then
Speaker 1: for me to really feel like I was making an
Speaker 1: impact on my own. What was the first day like
Speaker 1: after you left Facebook? Um, well, it was kind of
Speaker 1: a crazy ending because my my whole life, my dream
Speaker 1: was to sing on Broadway. And I know that's silly,
Speaker 1: A lot of people have that dream. I grew up,
Speaker 1: I got realistic. I like went to work in technology
Speaker 1: and Silicon Valley, and then I got a call out
Speaker 1: of the blue. As thirty two years old, I got
Speaker 1: a call out of the blue asking if I wanted
Speaker 1: to come star in Rock of Ages on Broadway, which
Speaker 1: is an eighties rock musical. They were looking for a
Speaker 1: tech personality to come star in their Broadway show. I
Speaker 1: guess they couldn't afford an ABC or D List celebrity,
Speaker 1: so they're like, Okay, we'll go with a tech personality.
Speaker 1: And I had just found out that morning I was pregnant,
Speaker 1: and so I I really I was like, this is
Speaker 1: the sign that the universe is giving me to shake
Speaker 1: up my life and to focus on myself. And so
Speaker 1: it was kind of a whirlwind end of my time
Speaker 1: at Silicon Valley because I accepted that role on a Thursday,
Speaker 1: moved to New York, and started rehearsing on Monday. So
Speaker 1: it was a bit of a kind of just blew
Speaker 1: up my entire life over the course of four days.
Speaker 1: But was the plan before the call for rocket ages
Speaker 1: There was no plan. We had just bought this beautiful
Speaker 1: home in in suburban California. Like on paper, I feel
Speaker 1: like you would have looked at my life and thought
Speaker 1: it was great. In reality, I'm not like a suburban
Speaker 1: homeowning person. Like I was carrying that house on my back.
Speaker 1: I was not happy. And you know, Silicon Valley, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of amazing things, there's also a lot of
Speaker 1: very toxic things about Silicon Valley, especially as a woman,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know, I just felt like I
Speaker 1: really was needing a soul change, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: And so when that um, when that call came out
Speaker 1: of the blue, it was just it was a sign
Speaker 1: from the universe. Actually, when I went to New York,
Speaker 1: I never returned. My husband sold our house, moved all
Speaker 1: of our things across the country, and we've been New
Speaker 1: Yorkers ever since. So it's um, it was kind of
Speaker 1: a wild experience too, and so you know, sometimes though
Speaker 1: you uh, you learn a lot about yourself and your
Speaker 1: resilience when you kind of just blow up everything overnight.
Speaker 1: How was your husband able to make such a move,
Speaker 1: because obviously it required a lot of flexibility on his part. Two. Yes,
Speaker 1: I feel very lucky to have a partner who has
Speaker 1: helped me prioritize my career when i've needed to. I
Speaker 1: feel like we've struck a really good balance of prioritizing
Speaker 1: one another's careers. And um, you know, at the start
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, he had just started as the CEO
Speaker 1: of Parsley Health and Awesome Health start up with a
Speaker 1: female CEO, and so I was like, Okay, great, this
Speaker 1: is your opportunity to double down on your career. This
Speaker 1: is amazing. I'll play more of the role of like
Speaker 1: the default parent and the support And I felt good
Speaker 1: doing that because there have been so many moments in
Speaker 1: our partnership where he was like, yes, I will pack
Speaker 1: up our home and get a new job and move
Speaker 1: our life in a week from California to New York.
Speaker 1: So I definitely feel feel very lucky to have a
Speaker 1: partner like that. How did you meet him. We met
Speaker 1: in college. We did not date in college at all,
Speaker 1: and then we we re met after. It's funny. He's
Speaker 1: from South Africa, and I just was so blown away
Speaker 1: by how kind of worldly he was. And I remember
Speaker 1: our first date. We went to the museum and I
Speaker 1: was so nervous because I liked him so much. And
Speaker 1: I pointed to this map on the wall and I
Speaker 1: was like, that's where you're from. And he's like, that's
Speaker 1: South America. And I was just like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I went to Harvard, like college education, I obviously know
Speaker 1: the difference between South America and the continent of Africa.
Speaker 1: And it was and luckily he came back for a
Speaker 1: second date. It was so funny. It was I mean,
Speaker 1: I still cringe about it today, like twenty years later.
Speaker 1: He I still like, you know, when you lie down
Speaker 1: at night and you're and instead of going to bed,
Speaker 1: you replay all the mistakes that you've made in your life,
Speaker 1: Like that's a that's a story that replays a lot
Speaker 1: um but what but you probably think he's even more
Speaker 1: amazing after this story. He turned down one of his
Speaker 1: dream his dream job at Jannette Tech in San Francisco
Speaker 1: to be with me in New York because I was
Speaker 1: living in New York when we first met, and then
Speaker 1: two weeks later I moved to San Francisco to work
Speaker 1: in Facebook. Oh my god. So the fact that we're
Speaker 1: still married after all of that is really a testament.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the part where you
Speaker 1: shared that you felt like Silicon Valley was a toxic culture.
Speaker 1: What was toxic about it? I think from the outside
Speaker 1: it's hard to understand. We hear that all the time,
Speaker 1: but if you don't live it, what does that mean
Speaker 1: exactly on a daily basis. Yeah, I mean there's signs
Speaker 1: of hope from what I've seen. But when I got
Speaker 1: out to Silicon I mean I had no clue what
Speaker 1: I was in for. I was working at an ad
Speaker 1: agency in New York City where we had a female
Speaker 1: CEO who had gone from being the intern all the
Speaker 1: way up to the CEO. Right, So my whole career
Speaker 1: had started in this environment where anything's possible, and suddenly
Speaker 1: I went out to Silicon Valley, where like a lot
Speaker 1: of offices didn't have even women's restrooms, and um, people
Speaker 1: would come to to Facebook for a meeting, asked me
Speaker 1: for coffee and then realized that I was the one
Speaker 1: running the meeting that they were going into. I mean,
Speaker 1: I often say that my biggest advantage in life was
Speaker 1: that when I would email with people, they would think
Speaker 1: emailing with Randy was a dude, and like I would
Speaker 1: actually be able to get meetings and get things done.
Speaker 1: I guess I was like I was like anonymous before
Speaker 1: it was cool now with Crypto, So that that's the
Speaker 1: kind of environment. So on one hand, here I was
Speaker 1: at the cutting edge of all of this amazing innovation
Speaker 1: Web two and pushing forward a whole new industry. And
Speaker 1: then the other hand, it was so difficult to get
Speaker 1: things done being the only woman in the room and
Speaker 1: just always an uphill battle. How did you change that
Speaker 1: culture at Facebook or how how were you instrumental in
Speaker 1: sort of making sure that environment didn't mirror the rest
Speaker 1: of Silicon Valley? You know, obviously all of these tech
Speaker 1: companies have a long way to go. Still. I do
Speaker 1: think that bringing and Cheryl Sandberg was a huge turning
Speaker 1: point early on in Facebook, and that really made a
Speaker 1: big difference in the culture and at least made the
Speaker 1: female employees feel seen and heard and excited and hopeful.
Speaker 1: And because of that. I think that was a real
Speaker 1: turning point for a lot of executive teams across Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley to to really think about investing in female leadership.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Until that moment, I think I could count
Speaker 1: the number of female executives on one hand in Silicon Valley. Now,
Speaker 1: when you look at venture firms, it's um pretty we beard.
Speaker 1: If a venture firm doesn't have a female partner. It
Speaker 1: was not weird. Fifteen years ago, it was strange to
Speaker 1: find a female VC. We could obviously still do a
Speaker 1: lot better with funding, but there's you know, at least
Speaker 1: some a lot of signs of hope and change from
Speaker 1: what I'm seeing. So I'm excited about some of the
Speaker 1: progress in Silicon Valley, But at the same time, I'm
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of it repeat itself on the front
Speaker 1: lines of Web three where I am now, and it's
Speaker 1: it's frustrating to see those same patterns just playing out
Speaker 1: over and over. Let's talk about Web three. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've done a lot of things since you went out
Speaker 1: on your own, So why did you get involved? Like
Speaker 1: what drew you to this brand new frontier? That sometimes
Speaker 1: makes my head hurt because it's learning something completely new
Speaker 1: once again. It definitely makes my head hurt on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. And it's funny. I feel like most of
Speaker 1: the things that have happened in my career have been
Speaker 1: kind of happy accidents or act you know, luck, because
Speaker 1: I've had my eyes open for for accidents. It's interesting
Speaker 1: because I, you know, I talked a little bit about
Speaker 1: this split identity that I had with Silicon Valley and
Speaker 1: being an artist, and I always felt I was a
Speaker 1: little too artsy for the tech world and I was
Speaker 1: a little too techy for the arts world, and I
Speaker 1: never really fit into either of those. And suddenly, about
Speaker 1: a year ago, I started getting all of these calls
Speaker 1: from investors and companies saying, you know, Randy, we really
Speaker 1: need the skill set of someone who can evaluate both
Speaker 1: an artistic project and a tech project because we want
Speaker 1: to get into n f T S and so we
Speaker 1: need someone who can speak both of those languages. So
Speaker 1: I didn't really set out to get into crypto or
Speaker 1: to go down that world. But suddenly it was like
Speaker 1: the last twenty years of my career all made sense
Speaker 1: in one moment, like there's a small group of us
Speaker 1: that can understand how to work with artists and speak
Speaker 1: techy language, and I was like, all right, this is
Speaker 1: put me in coach, this is my moment. What was
Speaker 1: the first entrance into it? I mean it still is
Speaker 1: like the wild West. How have you educated yourself? And
Speaker 1: how much do you feel like you know today? I
Speaker 1: mean it's a it's an insane learning curve. I would say,
Speaker 1: I've got into the space in September, so it hasn't
Speaker 1: I mean eight nine months that I've been in the space.
Speaker 1: I was speaking on a panel at n f T
Speaker 1: n y C last year and I had my phone
Speaker 1: out writing down words that my fellow panelists were saying,
Speaker 1: because I had no clue half the things that they
Speaker 1: were even saying. And they would get to me and say,
Speaker 1: you know, Brandy, what do you think? And I'd just
Speaker 1: be like, my fellow panelists summed it up so well,
Speaker 1: there's absolutely nothing that I have to add, you know,
Speaker 1: that could be better. And then I would go home
Speaker 1: and look at this list on my phone of a
Speaker 1: dozen vocabulary words and be like, Okay, I don't know
Speaker 1: what a daw is. I don't know what like what
Speaker 1: I need to like figure out all of this stuff
Speaker 1: on the blockchain. What is salona and and so little
Speaker 1: by little I started to educate myself and I definitely
Speaker 1: went slow, and that's something that I would recommend to
Speaker 1: a lot of people. It's a there's a lot of
Speaker 1: vocabulary and lingo when it comes to crypto and Web three,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of chaos at any time you're on
Speaker 1: the front lines is something new. So just kind of
Speaker 1: sitting in that environment and learning from people around you
Speaker 1: and absorbing content I think is the best way to
Speaker 1: get started. And before I knew what, I found myself
Speaker 1: advising about twenty different n f T collections and founders
Speaker 1: and then becoming a Web three founder myself. So it's
Speaker 1: definitely been a wacky, wild learning curve. And now a
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Speaker 1: w marketplace dot com. Which company did you found? I
Speaker 1: know you've advised many companies. What is your company about
Speaker 1: and what's it called? Yes, it's called hug and I
Speaker 1: we've named it Hugged because so much of crypto is
Speaker 1: so intimidating and unwelcoming, and it's like those early days
Speaker 1: of Web two. It's you know, nine percent men, and
Speaker 1: the way they like everything is sir and bro and
Speaker 1: this and so. First of all, I really wanted to
Speaker 1: create a welcoming, embracing place for people to come into crypto.
Speaker 1: But the other gap that I saw is that there's
Speaker 1: a ton of awesome communities for brand new people into crypto.
Speaker 1: So there are great places to learn the basics, but
Speaker 1: there's not a great second stop on someone's crypto journey.
Speaker 1: So once you do learn, and you you do decide,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, I want to go a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1: I want to start collecting n f T s or
Speaker 1: I want to start trading crypto. There's no second stop
Speaker 1: that's friendly for women and diverse artists and founders in
Speaker 1: the space. You go straight from the friendly newcomer communities
Speaker 1: to like the super bro alpha communities, and so I
Speaker 1: wanted hug to be like the friendliest second stop on
Speaker 1: someone's Web three journey. We began this conversation going into
Speaker 1: Web three talking about Silicon Valley and how it can
Speaker 1: be a hostile place for women or other marginalized communities,
Speaker 1: and that there's a risk of Web three becoming like
Speaker 1: that as well. So do you think that we're starting
Speaker 1: differently today than we did in the valley? Like, do
Speaker 1: you think we're starting from a different place and that
Speaker 1: it will be more inclusive? I would say in certain
Speaker 1: areas of crypto, it's pretty demoralizing what you see when
Speaker 1: you look in the straight up like trading cryptocurrencies. I
Speaker 1: think that's why for me, I've really loved focusing on
Speaker 1: the n f T world, because you do start to
Speaker 1: see the culture changing there. I mean, a lot of
Speaker 1: women can relate to buying art and collecting arts, so
Speaker 1: that is a great gateway into crypto. I find it's
Speaker 1: very difficult to convince a woman to just like open
Speaker 1: a crypto while and start buying and trading and doing
Speaker 1: all this like decentralized finance and um, but I can
Speaker 1: convince a woman to check out art and purchase it
Speaker 1: with a theory um and help her start her Web
Speaker 1: three journey that way. But to your point, Amy, which
Speaker 1: is such a good one, Um, I've definitely noticed, you know,
Speaker 1: because it is a new world, the kind of people
Speaker 1: that are winning early on, or people who have disposable
Speaker 1: income to just you know, to throw around and test things.
Speaker 1: And so I've tried really hard, even in our own community,
Speaker 1: to even take a back seat myself and not be
Speaker 1: kind of the voice that's heard, because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I mean, I am a white woman
Speaker 1: with privilege who has had success in business, and so
Speaker 1: my point of view on my own personal finance is really,
Speaker 1: you know, probably not a typical view that most people
Speaker 1: coming into crypto would have. So in our community, I'm
Speaker 1: really proud of it's six bipoc creators and collectors, almost women,
Speaker 1: and I really try to have my voice be a
Speaker 1: very distant one in the chorus of voices. You've been
Speaker 1: a champion of women in so many different ways, right,
Speaker 1: You've invested in so many female founded startups. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that hug is creating this incredible space. So
Speaker 1: one question I have that I don't know the answer
Speaker 1: to is what roles you female friendships play in your
Speaker 1: adult life. Wow, that's I mean, it's such a great question.
Speaker 1: And one thing I will say is one thing that
Speaker 1: shocked me about Web three is how collaborative women are
Speaker 1: with one another. I almost feel like I have had
Speaker 1: to unlearn everything that I've been taught, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like our generation we were taught that women
Speaker 1: compete and that one woman's success is your failure, and
Speaker 1: like being happy for a friend was always tinged with
Speaker 1: a little bit of jealousy at the same time. And I, Um,
Speaker 1: the wonderful thing that I can say about Web three
Speaker 1: is that I don't see any of that behavior at all.
Speaker 1: I see women collaborating and teaming up and working together,
Speaker 1: and so um, I would say that female friendships have
Speaker 1: a much bigger part of my life today than they
Speaker 1: did even um nine months ago, and that um the
Speaker 1: only way for women to succeed and Web three is
Speaker 1: teaming up and just like hunkering down with other amazing
Speaker 1: women around them. So that has been something that I've
Speaker 1: had to, like very excitingly unlearned about my entire past.
Speaker 1: Who are your closest friends? Who are Oh gosh, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like I have I have friends
Speaker 1: of like different interest categories. So I have my theater
Speaker 1: friends like suit. I have close friends who I produce
Speaker 1: with and who I go see a lot of theater with.
Speaker 1: I have my golf friends because that sports saved my sanity.
Speaker 1: During COVID, I was like, Okay, there's no theater to
Speaker 1: produce anymore, there's nothing to do, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: come out of this with a new skill. Um, and
Speaker 1: now I have like these amazing friends who we traveled
Speaker 1: together on like golf trips with our families is pretty wild.
Speaker 1: And now I have my crypto friends, So it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty fun to to have, um, you know, different, really
Speaker 1: passionate friend groups. But I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you guys, but I definitely have found myself over
Speaker 1: the last decade, Like being in the trenches with three
Speaker 1: young kids does not leave a lot of room for
Speaker 1: for like doubling down on friendships, and so I feel
Speaker 1: like it's only just now that I'm able to say
Speaker 1: yes to traveling on trips with friends. And I feel
Speaker 1: like for a decade I wasn't able to prioritize being
Speaker 1: a great friend at that point. I think all three
Speaker 1: of us have this kind of network of women around
Speaker 1: the country where when you go to that city, you
Speaker 1: see each other. You don't even need to necessarily be
Speaker 1: in the same city to be close friends. And I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the benefits of being out in
Speaker 1: the world and outside of your home and really, like
Speaker 1: you know, having a career that's that's so expansive, is
Speaker 1: that that's something that adds value. And just like about
Speaker 1: that to everyone who joins us, unless your story is that,
Speaker 1: like we all come from completely different backgrounds and there's
Speaker 1: no like ticket to enter this club of supportive women
Speaker 1: around the country, because Randy, to your point, like, it
Speaker 1: isn't this world where another woman's success is your failure.
Speaker 1: It's like we all rise together and there's a ton
Speaker 1: of upper tunity there totally. I mean, even just to
Speaker 1: give an example that just warms my heart so much.
Speaker 1: I started to get really frustrated by the fact that
Speaker 1: pretty much only the top twenty performing n f T
Speaker 1: collections are visible and they're all created by men. And
Speaker 1: it's this you know, perpetuating cycle because then you know,
Speaker 1: because they're selling well, they rank high on all the
Speaker 1: n f T marketplaces. I put a tweet up I
Speaker 1: was like, I would love to build something that gets
Speaker 1: visibility for women led projects, diverse lad projects. If anyone
Speaker 1: wants to help me, just you know, send me a message.
Speaker 1: Three hundred women responded to that, and we started this
Speaker 1: community where everyone has honestly just been working tirelessly to
Speaker 1: find n f T collections, evaluate them, review them like
Speaker 1: no compensation. I mean, it's just people who want to
Speaker 1: lend a hand with a shared goal around promoting women's voices.
Speaker 1: And I've never seen anything like that in my life. Honestly,
Speaker 1: what do you think about Elon Musk buying Twitter? I know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty insane. I oh my gosh. I it's
Speaker 1: certainly not going to help the like browie uh kind
Speaker 1: of vibe that we're that we're fighting against in our
Speaker 1: little corner Web three. But I guess the jury is
Speaker 1: out to see what happens. I mean, listen, I respect
Speaker 1: everything that he's done is as a business, as a
Speaker 1: person in business, it's pretty insane to be able to
Speaker 1: found multiple companies that all have like built like many
Speaker 1: billion dollar valuations. So I guess we'll see how that
Speaker 1: trickles down to to the average person using it. You
Speaker 1: were at Facebook in the beginning, you were a big
Speaker 1: part of building it. You have now lived sort of
Speaker 1: from the outside to see it become the darling, the villain,
Speaker 1: that darling in the villain. It goes back and forth.
Speaker 1: What is that like for you? You know, because you
Speaker 1: are so close to it, not just as a former employee,
Speaker 1: but obviously as the sister of the founder and CEO.
Speaker 1: What's that like for you? Yeah? I think you have
Speaker 1: to have a thick skin and business. I mean, the
Speaker 1: press builds you up to to tear you down, to
Speaker 1: build you up like I you know. I mean, no
Speaker 1: one can be a darling forever. No one's a villain forever. Um.
Speaker 1: I think I used to take it very personally when
Speaker 1: I was young, and I think as I grew up
Speaker 1: and kind of looked around the world and I saw
Speaker 1: even the same thing like happening to Britney Spears next
Speaker 1: to me, and then it's, um, there's just there's natural
Speaker 1: ways of things, you know. I do think for sure,
Speaker 1: there's people are pushing back with this with web three
Speaker 1: against a few companies holding all the centralized power. And
Speaker 1: I can understand why people are pushing back and why
Speaker 1: they feel that way, I do think that the utopian
Speaker 1: ideal of complete decentralization probably doesn't work the way that
Speaker 1: that people are pitching it. I think the ideal situation
Speaker 1: in the end is kind of a hybrid, like a
Speaker 1: Web two point five, where if your crypto while it
Speaker 1: does get stolen, you have someone to call, like there's
Speaker 1: some centralization to protect people in the space. But um
Speaker 1: so I can understand that right now people are in
Speaker 1: a time where they're really pushing back against like a
Speaker 1: few big companies holding a lot of power, and it'll
Speaker 1: be interesting to see how that evolves as as Web
Speaker 1: three evolves. And then why do you think, you know,
Speaker 1: when you see someone like Cheryl right I was, I
Speaker 1: was quoted in lean in I was such a big
Speaker 1: fan of Cheryl, as you were, in terms of changing
Speaker 1: the culture at Facebook, what do you think is going
Speaker 1: to sort of happen with her story, given how dramatically
Speaker 1: it's changed. I mean, I think as women, especially hits
Speaker 1: hard because there's not that many role models that are
Speaker 1: out there doing huge things in the world, and so
Speaker 1: it almost feels personal to all of us when someone
Speaker 1: you sort of you know, saw as this beacon of
Speaker 1: hope is taken down definitely, And you know I see
Speaker 1: that all the time all around me. I you know,
Speaker 1: it just it hits a little harder when it's like
Speaker 1: women being taken down, and I feel like, especially um,
Speaker 1: even in the crypto world that I've seen myself in
Speaker 1: right now, the men can do no wrong. You know,
Speaker 1: they're out there raising seventy five million dollars in a
Speaker 1: few hours on nothing right on pixelated pictures, whereas you know,
Speaker 1: the women around me are facing constant takedowns, often by
Speaker 1: other female reporters, of like, oh you're you're not like
Speaker 1: elevating this voice enough, You're not doing this you know,
Speaker 1: Oh you're too like well off to give advice, you're
Speaker 1: not well enough off to give advice, and um, just
Speaker 1: at some point it's like when is that going to end?
Speaker 1: Like the you know, the takedown of like the female
Speaker 1: role model, and of course people need to be held
Speaker 1: accountable for their actions are but it's it hits a
Speaker 1: little harder because the men are not getting that same
Speaker 1: takedown treatment. And now a quick break. You're such a
Speaker 1: positive person. What gets you down? Well, for sure, I
Speaker 1: think as a mom, you're only as happy as your
Speaker 1: least happy child. At the moment. So you know, we've
Speaker 1: definitely the addressing the situation with the pandemic and re
Speaker 1: entering life has been stressful, but I feel lucky to
Speaker 1: have a lot to be grateful for in my life.
Speaker 1: And I have found at least that even though you
Speaker 1: know things might be in chaos around me, it often
Speaker 1: takes the same amount of energy to be positive than
Speaker 1: to be negative, which I know is like probably a
Speaker 1: silly soup or cheesy, ridiculous thing to say, but um,
Speaker 1: it's ah, they often say in method acting, like I
Speaker 1: learned in psychology, if you just by smiling in the mirror,
Speaker 1: it actually like lights up a positive area of your brain. Um.
Speaker 1: And so even in all the cheesiness, I I think,
Speaker 1: you know, this has certainly been a very very stressful year.
Speaker 1: You know, overnight, the two main industries that I were
Speaker 1: involved with collapsed. I had to personally, you know, layoff
Speaker 1: dozens of actors and people who didn't have a plan
Speaker 1: B in their career, and that was probably one of
Speaker 1: the worst worst moments of my life professionally, and then
Speaker 1: figure out, you know, like navigating a complete pivot into
Speaker 1: an area where most of the people that I talked
Speaker 1: to in my life think that I'm a lunatic. That's
Speaker 1: like trading JPEG's in pirate money. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: I feel like it. Sometimes you have to just be
Speaker 1: self aware enough to laugh about it, you know, and
Speaker 1: embrace the silliness in the situation. Who in your life
Speaker 1: do you go to for advice? Um, It's funny how
Speaker 1: that's changed over the years. I feel like I spent
Speaker 1: the entire decade of my twenties trying to find like
Speaker 1: that one person fifteen levels above me who would solve
Speaker 1: all my problems. And I never found that person. In fact,
Speaker 1: a few times I came close, they would end up
Speaker 1: asking me a million questions about Facebook and social media,
Speaker 1: and I would end up mentoring them and getting like
Speaker 1: nothing out of the relationship. Um. And honestly, it wasn't
Speaker 1: until a few years ago that I realized that my
Speaker 1: best mentors are like the two of you, like right
Speaker 1: right next to me. They're they're the women who are
Speaker 1: right next to me in my life, all along going
Speaker 1: through the same thing and rising up together. And uh,
Speaker 1: I wish I had realized that sooner in career, honestly,
Speaker 1: And it's funny back to that question, around positivity and
Speaker 1: how you stay positive. I also find that in the
Speaker 1: last few years I have been ruthless about acting toxic
Speaker 1: people out of my life. I used to tolerate a
Speaker 1: lot of bullshit from people around me. Um, and maybe
Speaker 1: you know, earlier in your earlier in your career, you
Speaker 1: sort of do you haven't really earned the right. But
Speaker 1: now I'm like, there is just no time to surround
Speaker 1: myself with people who are toxic or anything but positive.
Speaker 1: And so that has definitely affected my own outlook as
Speaker 1: my ability to just like spring clean also spring cleaned
Speaker 1: as we talked about all the high heels out of
Speaker 1: my closet too, because I also I don't have time
Speaker 1: for toxic people and I don't have time for a
Speaker 1: heel that's over two inches. All right, we're going to
Speaker 1: go to our speed round now. Um, we're gonna ask
Speaker 1: you some quick questions and you can give us quick answers. Me.
Speaker 1: Do you want to kick it off? What book are
Speaker 1: you reading right now? Um? Oh, my gosh, do people
Speaker 1: read books when they're starting companies and have kids. That's
Speaker 1: like a horrible, horrible question. Now, Okay, I'm reading our
Speaker 1: friend Bobby Rebel's book about how to learn tips for
Speaker 1: your children about finance, and it's an awesome book. What's
Speaker 1: your morning routine? I have about fourteen cups of coffee.
Speaker 1: I know this is this is good health advice. Um.
Speaker 1: We have three three, three different children that go to
Speaker 1: three schools with the exact same drop off time. So
Speaker 1: morning is just running around like a lunatic with a
Speaker 1: lot of coffee. Grab a child and bring them to school.
Speaker 1: What is your nighttime routine? Okay, well I love nighttime.
Speaker 1: Everyone in my house goes to bed pretty early, and
Speaker 1: I'm a late night owl, and so I get to
Speaker 1: enjoy like three four hours to myself. So I put
Speaker 1: on like some TV in the background, owned I sit
Speaker 1: and I work. I'll take a bath, I'll do like
Speaker 1: my whole face routine. I'll do like I feel like
Speaker 1: it's my my time every night to like have the
Speaker 1: whole house to myself, which I love. Who leaves you
Speaker 1: star struck? Oh my gosh, um, so so many people.
Speaker 1: I think some of the incredible female politicians that are
Speaker 1: just like pushing the boulder uphill right now. I know,
Speaker 1: like the two of you have met Stacy Abrams, who
Speaker 1: would like I know if I ever met her when
Speaker 1: I would just I don't even know if I know
Speaker 1: what to say. I'd be so star struck. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: Lou Burns has been listening and he always comes in
Speaker 1: at the end with a male perspective and often the
Speaker 1: sharpest perspective. So, umlu take it away. Where do you
Speaker 1: imagine how to be like in the next ten years? Well,
Speaker 1: there are to two directions we're trying to go. The
Speaker 1: first is we're trying to launch almost like a trip
Speaker 1: advisor of Web three companies, so that you could go
Speaker 1: on and search for an n f T collection by
Speaker 1: the type of founder or the social cause it supports,
Speaker 1: and kind of see reviews on it. The other side
Speaker 1: is I think there's an entire new skill set that's
Speaker 1: going to be in demand with Web three, of this
Speaker 1: curator level of the Internet, of people who understand enough
Speaker 1: to curate artists and curate different information for websites and
Speaker 1: for companies, and so I'm hoping that hug can become
Speaker 1: kind of the default curate as a platform for Web three. Also,
Speaker 1: how can Lou get involved in hug? Okay, Well, the
Speaker 1: first thing I'm going to say is that if you're
Speaker 1: new to crypto Hug is a second stop in crypto,
Speaker 1: So I'm going to recommend to start with Curious Atti
Speaker 1: Trading Club, which is a crypto community for total newcomers.
Speaker 1: It's the hands down best community for for on boarding
Speaker 1: into crypto. Once you've played around there and you decide
Speaker 1: you know that you want to go a little deeper
Speaker 1: down the rabbit hole, come find me, because I'm all
Speaker 1: the way down there. Then I would check out the
Speaker 1: Hug dot x y Z and everything we're doing there
Speaker 1: because we are taking people on that next journey to
Speaker 1: either become founders and web three, create their own n
Speaker 1: f T collections, become big collectors of crypto and n
Speaker 1: f T s, and so once once you fall in
Speaker 1: and become a digen, as people say in crypto, come
Speaker 1: find me at at the Hug and we'll be delighted
Speaker 1: to hug you with open arms. The thing about Randy
Speaker 1: that I will never get over is how lovely she is.
Speaker 1: Not telling these stories like other people would just never share,
Speaker 1: but like Randy always shares the unvarnished truth about her
Speaker 1: own life, her career, everything, and I just feel like
Speaker 1: that's so rare. She can also laugh at herself, which
Speaker 1: I love. That is one of my favorite qualities about
Speaker 1: her and just anyone, but also she she really her
Speaker 1: positivity is contagious and I love it and I you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean, she was laughing at the fact that you
Speaker 1: moved in with her parents during the pandemic. She she
Speaker 1: laughs about her childs and failures. And I also thought
Speaker 1: she was pretty honest and talking about Mark and Cheryl
Speaker 1: and Facebook. She she really didn't shy away from it.
Speaker 1: We've had some guests on our show who kind of
Speaker 1: asked us to take things out or get nervous, and
Speaker 1: we asked the hard questions, and we always feel like
Speaker 1: it's our responsibility to ask the hard questions. But she
Speaker 1: handled our hard questions with such grace. I love it.
Speaker 1: She is amazing. She is incredible, and I I am
Speaker 1: really excited to dig in further with her offline about
Speaker 1: Web three and hopefully we can come back to everyone
Speaker 1: here and give you more guidance because I think it's
Speaker 1: something we all need to embrace. Coming soon, there might
Speaker 1: be a What's Her Story and f T collection thanks
Speaker 1: to Randy's inspiration. Thanks for listening to What's Her Story
Speaker 1: with Sam and Amy. We would appreciate it. If you
Speaker 1: leave her review wherever you get your podcasts, and of course,
Speaker 1: connect with us on social media at What's Her Story podcast.
Speaker 1: What's Her Story with Sam and Amy is powered by
Speaker 1: my company, The Riveter at The Riveter dot c O
Speaker 1: and Sam's company, park Place Payments at park place payments
Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to our producer Stacy Parra and our
Speaker 1: male perspective, Blue Burns