Girl Gang the Podcast
Girl Gang the Podcast highlights women building brands and creating their own career paths. Hosted by Amy Will — author of Launching and Building a Brand For Dummies and a serial entrepreneur — the show features founders behind brands like OSEA and the Savannah Bananas, executives and directors at companies like Burberry, British Vogue, NET-A-PORTER, and BuzzFeed, and creators like Sivan Ayla. Each episode breaks down the work behind what they’ve built — from early ideas to the decisions and turning points along the way.
Girl Gang the Podcast
Launching and Growing Markets at Uber — with Nicole Cooper
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On this week’s episode of Girl Gang the Podcast, we interview Nicole Cooper, Head of Marketing West Coast at Uber.
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Welcome to season two of girl gang, the podcast. I'm your host, amy will and the founder of Girl Gang, the label.com. Hi, I'm Nicole Cooper, head of marketing for Uber West Coast. And you're listening to girl gang, the podcast. Okay. So let's first dive into your first job out of college because you, I feel like you have such a good eye for companies and industries that are really starting to boom and getting in at the right time. So I'd love for listeners to hear about your career path leading up until the Uber. One thing that came across my desk. I was actually at a career fair for Asu downtown and Yelp was there and I had used yelp. This was now back in 2010. Um, so I had been using yelp as a consumer. I love the APP and I had a few friends who worked for them in San Francisco. They're actually my sister's friends and I went up to their booth and just introduce myself, let them know that I had a couple friends that worked at their office in San Francisco that broke the ice a little bit. Uh, and then that next week I went in for an interview and it was for an account, an account executive role. I don't think I really knew what I was getting myself into, but I'm so happy that it ended up working out because it was, I think the perfect transitional first job out of college, getting my feet wet in, in a tech space, but then getting really valuable sales experience that honestly has just translated to so many different aspects of my job today. And I'm sure you know and other things that I'm going to pursue later in life. And, you know, let me tell you, inside sales is a grind. You are making 80 to 100 calls every day. Uh, it's not easy and you are just cold calling into territories that frankly at the time they didn't know about yelp. So I remember calling into Miami being the first salesperson calling in there and nobody knew what it was and it's, you know, it's a larger Hispanic population. So what I ended up doing was translating my pitch into Spanish so I could at least speak to several of the business owners there because otherwise, you know, you're, you're Sol a, if they don't speak English then you have to move on to the next. But there was so much opportunity there. Um, so it was, it was a really great experience. The other, the other thing that I really loved that I think is a unique experience is I started working there before they were public and stayed there through their IPO for a little over a year after the IPO. So, uh, being able to experience the transition from being a private company, becoming public, experiencing the dramatic change that, that does inevitably happen. Uh, you know, at that stage within a company was really valuable experience. And I think something that I was able to, um, you know, articulate and translate when I, when I moved into my new job with Uber and then what was that transition like from yelp to uber because I, it was just so as a friend you
Speaker 2working at yelp and I'm able to discover that platform because of you. And then when you started at Uber and all of us were using uber, like no one really knew what it was. And I was just like, I'm basically like Blair Waldorf on, on like a startup salary. Like I get to have a driver everywhere. This is so cool. And you were on the ground floor of that. Was there when you found out about that position and I know you were connected to someone initially, did you imagine how big it would become and that it would just be part of our vocabulary or what was your thought?
Speaker 1No way on. I mean, I knew that it was going to be something big because Google had just invested and it was, you know, a couple hundred million. Um, so I knew that it was going to be big, but quite honestly I had, I had no clue that it was gonna be what we are today. But when, so when I left Yelp, I, I was ready for just a change in my career. Um, I was living in Arizona at the time, then decided I wanted to move back to California. I'm so moved to San Diego and was taking classes to get into real estate. I'm, that's my mom's business kind of family business and something I think I'll, I'll certainly be a part of in life always. But I had a friend who was working at Uber at the time and he was a driver operations manager and they were hiring a community manager and I was like, you know, deep into real estate school at that point. And he was telling me about this role and telling, you know, willy about this role. And, and I kept pushing it off, pushing it off. I didn't even have the APP downloaded. I'd used it a few times, but it was either willy requesting, it was friends requesting. I didn't really get it. And so finally, you know, after, after Derek had been texting and calling about this role, thank you Derek. I went in to have a conversation with the general manager and I remember after that conversation and I guess it was an interview just leaving that knowing for sure this is a company I want to be a part of. And from there, you know, there was a whole process to get through and you know, ended up getting the job. And even at that time, even when I had joined the, you know, they were, we would have these weekly global calls and now to think about having a weekly global, global call where every single team is talking about their numbers for the week. That's crazy. We're in over 600 cities. Um, but at that time, you know, we would hear from France, we would hear from, you know, London, we'd hear from all these different countries, the crazy growth that they were having. But even still within that first six months, I still didn't really get it. And it wasn't until you, you start just having a better understanding of the business and starting to realize that this has never been done before. You don't hear
Speaker 2these growth numbers in comparison to other startups and other companies. This is not normal. Um, so I think once I finally figured that out, it was like, oh, okay, all right, I'm on a rocket ship. You, we, it's just a part of our vocabulary. Even when, if someone uses a different ride service, it's still like, oh my, Uber's almost here. Like, oh, well you call an uber. Like it's just part of our vocabulary, which is so crazy. And I feel like being the first to market in something that's so exciting and became such a part of our culture, it's in songs, it's referenced in shows like I hear it in shows all the time and it's just, it's just a part of our daily life. Like I don't even drive anymore. I just use uber. When I went and crunched the numbers, I was like, all right, I mean I'm spending about the same amount of money as I would on car insurance and car payments, gas, the time, the time, which is the most valuable thing. I can take emails in an uber and um, if there's surcharges or something, I'm like, screw it, I'll just take a pool. Like there's, it's just. And there's more and more people out here now doing it. I've had friends that have moved to La and they're like, oh, the only thing is like, I don't know about getting a car. It's crazy traffic and if they're entrepreneurs or people that have a very demanding schedule and like just try for a few months, just ubering around, see how you like it, look at the numbers. And it's crazy. It's changed. It's changed people's lives. And it's so crazy to think when you were there it was like, it hadn't even started yet. And then it just seemed, I'm sure like you're in it. So it probably seemed like a longer time. But as a consumer, it just felt like I used Uber and then I didn't know one single person that didn't have the APP, it just seems to kind of happen overnight like that. And you know, I mean, one, one of the things that I was doing back in the day, like 2013, early 2014 was going to every single event in San Diego and having a 10 by 10 tent, a table with swag and I pads and with my team of brand ambassadors and we would be there telling people, would uber is getting people signed up. And then I would say about, you know, four, four to five months into doing those events. And I mean, I was going to, you know, five to seven events a weekend. Um, there was an inflection point where people started coming up to us asking for help with their APP. They had served support questions they had. They were bringing people to us to get signed up. Uh, so it was a really cool moment in time as, as a community manager back then to really see the shift. Just add these local events where people get who you are, they've used you and now through word of mouth they want, they want to bring people to you. So that was pretty cool in what you're able to do for the drivers. I mean some people that maybe they're in a situation where they are having trouble getting a traditional job at a certain time for some reason or another, they need a more flexible schedule. People that even just want to be making money on the side and I'll la, it's so popular for people that are doing the acting, grind, different hustles. And on the
Speaker 1opposite side, I know we've talked before about people coming out of situations and like this helps them get back on their feet. And you touch on that a little bit. Absolutely. I think that's, that's truly what drives so many of us that worked for the company is being able to provide economic solutions to, to folks that it doesn't need to be permanent. Um, I think, you know, La is a perfect market for that where, let's say it's your height side hustle. You are, you know, your aspiration is to become an actor or a singer or a model or you know, whatever it is, um, and you know, that you have to dedicate a certain amount of time to that passion, but you still have bills to pay. You still have a family to support. So Uber is there to fall back on, to, to support yourself and to be able to have it, uh, you know, go with your schedule. I can't think of another type of job really that allows you, that type of flexibility. Um, so that's, that's something that's always been a big driver for me and kind of staying passionate and realizing the good that we're doing for people and providing a platform for them. Um, so it's, it's, it's really inspiring. Um, and to hear a driver partner stories are just some of my favorite things. And I think our teams do a really great job in sourcing local stories and trying to highlight all of the great work that, that these people do because they're not just drivers, right? They have lives, they have families, they have aspirations and to hear what they're able to do because uber is something for them to rely on is really great and powerful. What was the, um, you told me about it was like an art exhibit with different drivers, something like that. Can you tell that story? Yes. So, um, gosh, now, this was probably two years ago, uh, it was the La team, uh, they, they partnered with society six and they created uber artist where they showcased a driver partners artwork in this moving container that they totally built out and it was this beautiful kind of art gallery, movable art gallery, and they had put it, um, I think it was, it was in somewhere in downtown la or it might've been even what's Hollywood, um, but, uh, a showcase for people to come in and see driver artwork. Um, and then there were several other kinds of, you know, legs to that campaign where we were able to showcase more artwork and uh, you know, highlight different driver partner stories that were part are part of that artist's space. That must be so much fun. Being passionate about marketing and doing it for a company where there's all these different touch points in different ways. I, it seems like you could just think outside of the box all the time. And it's like how it affects different people's lives, different people involved in it. I mean there's people that get married to that met in Uber pools, like all these things that it must be really fun to be a part of that. It's the best. It's so great. And, and earlier this year we had this incredible couple, um, who married or who got married because they met in an Uberpool and just to hear their story is it, it's, it's of course unique. Um, but it's, it's cool to, to realize that the work you do every day is having an impact on people's personal lives. When I was a kid, I remember from an early age noticing product placement in shows. And I think one in particular was, um, was full house growing up and realizing, I swear to God, I'm like the toys that Michelle was playing with, they were all fisher price and going to the store at toys r us or whatever, whatever toy store, being able to recognize a brand and for some reason feeling more, grab more of a gravitational pull towards that brand because I'd seen it because Michelle tanner was playing with that toy, right? And I identified with Michelle Tanner, you know, I should have that and I wanted my mom to buy me that toy. So it's an at that, at that moment, obviously as a kid you don't understand what's going on, but it's, it's becoming relevant with your day to day, what are you using, what are you seeing people that you relate to either talk about or a products they're using or you know, just, you know, the car that they're driving. You know, it has, I think, a subconscious effect to people if you see somebody you relate to or somebody that you aspire to be like, even if we want to tell ourselves no, you know, we're not going to be influenced by stuff you are, we, I mean there's just so much going on in today's world, especially when you look at instagram and you know, all of the, the product pushing and uh, you know, sponsorships and all of that. But I think that just from a young age, being able to identify product placement in TV shows and in movies and that was something that just caught my eye and I always knew that I wanted to be in marketing and, and I always thought of marketing as being this really creative, the creative line of work and it is creative. But there is. And something that I've learned at Uber which I'm so grateful for is the ability to marry kind of the heart and the mind and use data to back up, you know, most of your findings. Obviously you need both quantum qual, but being able to, to have a really cool idea, creative idea, but having enough data to back it up that is going to either give you the platform to get budget approvals and you know, at least some sort of idea for the results that you're looking for, you know, because that's, that's why we're in marketing, right? We're here to drive awareness and demand unfavorability and things like that. Um, so there's still business metrics behind it. Can
Speaker 2you talk about being a woman in the tech industry? I never hear you use being a woman as an excuse. And I know right now there's a lot of narrative about like what can we do to push ourselves forward because of all these things getting in our way. And I just love that our group of friends, we're just doing things and we don't. I mean, of course we have each other if we have a hard day, but the narrative is never, because I'm a woman, this is happening and the tech industry is one that's so overpowered by men. So can you, um, maybe highlight some advice or talk about some experiences in that that can inspire other people that were women that want to get into the tech industry? Yeah, absolutely. I think it's
Speaker 1such an important and relevant conversation right now, uh, in one I'm so happy is now at the forefront and it's not taboo to talk about anymore. You know, my experience in, in tech has always been that, you know, there have been less women in the workplace. Um, I've been lucky enough though, I think especially starting at yelp that our vp of sales, Erica, Erica, gallows Alioto, she was such an incredible mentor and just powerhouse of a woman in the workplace at that time. And you know, that was almost 10 years ago. Um, so being able to have that, that person in my first job, but, but really I think where I've always kind of derived most of my strength and drive and not really caring about, you know, my environment around me or who's in the meeting with me. Even if I am the only woman is my mother. Um, she, you know, is this incredible. You know, realtor and has had a hugely successful career and I'm really worked, you know, independently most of our time. Um, she, she had two kids that she was raising. She worked from home. She did, she did everything. She did it all. Um, so kind of getting that strength from her and realizing that you, you were the only person to tell yourself that you can do something that you can't do that job. You always can. It is always your attitude and your mindset. And she always said there is a solution to every problem and whether that problem is that maybe you feel a little less confident because you were the only woman in a certain situation or um, you know, maybe whatever else is going on in the world to make you feel like you're not good enough or whatever that is. Then being able to look within and finding that strength and luckily I've been able to be surrounded by really strong women my whole life. Um, so that's something I'm very thankful for. So I think something that's really important right now is not defining yourself in the workplace only because you are a woman. I think that at the end of the day, you know, to be successful, you need to be the right person for the job. You need to be able to hold your own, whether it's in a conference room full of women or men or mixed, uh, hopefully mixed. Um, but you know, we're, we're getting there. We are getting there.
Speaker 2Let's just support girls. Let's support women and what that looks like is men and women supporting women. So it's not men, woman
Speaker 1and not women versus women. But up until recently we glorified this like mean girls culture and like catty girls and guys had corporate jobs and women stayed at home and now it's like, let's just all do exactly what we want to do. If you want to be a stay at home mom, I want to empower you to do that. If you're a guy that wants to work at a, a woman ran company, like, I want to empower you to do that. I feel like just supporting each other and in these industries like entertainment tech, ones that are very male driven. If we just walk in and take ownership of who we are and don't put blame on society if we're not where we want to be, we just say this is where I want to be, this is what it takes to get there. We're going to get a lot furthermore quickly. Yeah. I mean I think that's so well said and it's, it's really just about support and you know, not no judgment and not trying to make this, you know, uverse me type type culture. One thing I will say I think that's really important is, and I don't know if it's talked about that much, but within the workplace and I think within just life in general, advocacy is so crucial to the advancement of either people of color or women in the workplace or you know, what, whatever kind of a, you know, stat we want to look at. Advocacy is so, so important and I think one thing that me and my female coworkers do really well when we're in a meeting together, and I know this is a tactic used in other places as well, but if, if you are answering a question in a meeting and somebody speaks over you, then I'll take it upon myself to interrupt that person and then reiterate what you had just said so that your voice can be heard again. And then it gives you another leeway to get back into that discussion and gives you an open door to start talking again. That's incredible. Um, so it's. But it's, it's certain things like that. And again, it's, I don't think that this stuff is done maliciously. I think that it's just a, a certain, certain people get really passionate and they want to talk over you and you know, they, it's, it's, and I, I know people like this that I work with, um, and it's not malicious. It's just certain personalities that um, you know, might, uh, might overstep a little bit and you just need to have that advocate in the room with you. That's going to help bring you back in. There's a lot of big things happening right now, but I also think there's a lot of little things, especially in larger companies, to have people go home and feel empowered instead of, wow, I just got my ass handed to me in that. Meaning no one liked my idea. Just being kind to each other. Absolutely. I, there have been several times in meetings where I've voiced an opinion or shared an idea that, uh, ultimately was a bad idea and was the wrong opinion. Um, but, you know, I, I think that generally speaking and I feel very lucky at least at Uber and my experience to have coworkers that are actually very respectful and want to build upon ideas or in a very respectful way can say totally get where you're going with that, but think about x, Y, and z and the impact that that might have or, you know, you're not thinking about the numbers correctly this way or you know, whatever it can be. Um, and granted, I've been there for four and a half years and I've built really great relationships. So that always helps, I think when you need to, um, when you need to kind of reel somebody back in from an idea. Um, but still it's, you're so right, it's, it's changing small things to just be more respectful and that has a huge, huge impact on just the team culture and the morale and, and making sure that people do voice their opinions and they do share because once you start getting people scared and making them feel like, oh crap, you know, like I don't have what it takes or I'm too intimidated now. Then your team is going nowhere.
Speaker 2[inaudible] and it's. Yeah, just feeling. I mean the word team, we should always feel a part of a team and not even in these like micro teams within an organization, but just companies as a whole, no matter how big and small, I just, um, yeah, I feel like there's so many things we can do on a daily basis to just empower one another or just at least let people feel they have value. Yeah.
Speaker 1And one of the other things too, I think that's been such a blessing in my career and something that, you know, in the beginning took me a little while to get used to was how frequent my, my role changes, my scope changes, my manager changes, the company direction, changes. I live in an incredibly ambiguous world. And the thing that took me a little while, uh, to, to realize is that change always breeds opportunity. And if you can see that opportunity and if you can be a creative problem solver and say, okay, we are now pivoting into law, into this direction, what does that, what does that expose that maybe nobody else is thinking about or what kind of opportunity does that present me to have exposure to x, y, and z person or x, Y, and Z team? You want to get ahead of that. And I think that, you know, startups like Uber and just other other startups in general, that is always going to be a constant and especially to, to be, you know, a female in the workplace recognize that change is opportunity and seize it.
Speaker 2I think that's such an important thing to say instead of Obama and I think also as a, in a creative role, you never want to get used to something and comfortable. I feel like if we ever become an expert at something and were just stagnant, that's failing at what we're doing, like how much you can always make something larger. So yeah, I think it should be an exciting thing to be in a company that's changing and be a part of that and see how you can challenge yourself and grow and always be on your toes and how much you're growing as a person. Like how much do you feel you've grown since your first job out of college? Till now, and how much you know about
Speaker 1the marketing space, the emotional side, the analytical side, everything. Yeah. I mean it's, it's, it's crazy. I always, me and my coworkers always laugh because it feels like we've had just a billion lifetimes at Uber, but then you even think about, oh my gosh, I worked before this. Like I had another life was I doing? Um, so it's always kind of funny when we talk about that, but it is true and it's so important and you know what, I don't do this enough. I'm just reflecting on, on everything that you've done, even in the last year or two years. I mean, just even a year ago, my, my job was different. The scope of my work was different. Um, even three months ago it was different. So being able to, to kind of gracefully pivot as you have to do in, in a job like this, but then still being able to take everything you've learned and make sure you're incorporating that, um, it's not easy to do because you can really get caught up and it can be very stressful and, uh, and tough because you get kind of caught up in the moment and you know, it's, it's heartbreaking when you're working on a project with your team and you're spending hours and hours and you've gotten all the approvals and you're ready to go and then all of a sudden something changes that maybe you weren't privy to. And you know what, that's dead now. And you have to move onto something else. So there are definitely is heartbreak in there, but, um, you know, it's, it's, it's making sure that, again, as, as a manager for a team that people are still bought into the overall mission for a company and a, that everyone kind of realizes we have to pivot or move forward for the betterment of, of just the overall picture. Can you talk about that transition from being an employee at Uber to taking on a management role and some advice for maybe people just starting to get into a management role or maybe people that want to be managers or think they want to be managers. Yes. Um, so my management career actually started at yelp and I, again, just so thankful for the foundation that Yelp gave me. Um, the training that they invest in employees is unlike any other company. Um, so when I transitioned from an account executive to a sales manager there, I went through nearly a four month training program. Um, so that, that was really kind of the basis of my, my foundation for management. I then went on to manage a team for a little while about a year, um, and then of course move back back over to San Diego and I was, when I worked at Uber, I was a marketing manager for almost two years, about a year and a half and I'm an opportunity had presented itself. Um, and you know, luckily I was, I was recognized as a leader on the team and somebody, you know, they wanted to give a promotion too. But I would say, you know, the, the things that you should be thinking about if you want to go into people management, I think emotional intelligence is something that is so overlooked in the workplace and an overlooked in several managers and leaders that
Speaker 2the Myers Briggs tests because of. You really talked about taking. I was like, I should know, like I wasn't. I had fired my employee in stock to managing people. I wasn't very good at it. I like the two things I would recommend to someone that really failed badly at management is I'm reading the five love languages and doing the Myers Briggs test because I was rewarding someone in a way that I would want to be rewarded and then I wasn't receiving back what I expected and I was doing it very quickly and everyone's different. So I'm bi. I took it because if you, even after that I was like, just in general, like working with people I should know where I stand and maybe some advice on how to work with other personalities.
Speaker 1Totally. And one thing that we do in our office in La is usually when you start a new team, you'll have people share what their Myers Briggs personality type is just to, you know, have it out there and it's so helpful. It is honestly so helpful. Um, so I think, I think emotional intelligence is, is just something to really be aware of and something to work on. Um, and the other one is listening for, you know, to be an effective manager, you need to be actively listening to your team. What are their skillsets? What are their opportunities for growth and career development? Where do they want their career to go? It's your job to make sure that opportunities are coming to them that are exciting and that are matching either their skill sets or what they're hoping to develop. Um, so that's something that I will just say, you know, it's something managers really need to need to be aware of, but, you know, in terms of becoming a manager and kind of how to get their kick ass at your job, be amazing, like become a subject matter expert in what you're doing. Make sure that you are working on relationships with your team, around your team, help people, um, you know, be a leader on your team without having to be asked to do so. Uh, that's, those are always the people that catch my eye when I'm looking to promote, when I'm looking to build out a team who's already doing an incredible job, who's going above and beyond on to me that somebody who I want to recognize and who deserves a shot at, um, at running a team.
Speaker 2I think a lot of times it's just like when you picture this life, it's really glamorous and sexy to be managing people and be at the top, but understanding like what does that entail and maybe someone's strong suit might not be in that role. It might be somewhere else because it is a totally different skillset that just been fantastic at marketing. Yep. It's, you have to have certain qualities to be able to be good leader and bring out the best in people where sometimes it might like for me now I, even though there's technically people like I have a really small team, I'm just looking at it more like I'm working with them and I'm really hands off instead of before, if I kept on building out a team, my company would have gone under because I was just not it, it just, it wasn't in my skill set.
Speaker 1Well I think it's something you can always work on and you know, let me be very clear. I make mistakes all the time. I am certainly not perfect. Um, you know, I have, have certainly failed at many aspects of people management over the years, but it's just making sure you're learning from those mistakes and, and building strong relationships with the people that you work with so that there is forgiveness baked in. And I think part of it too is needing to be able to admit, hey, I totally screwed up and you know, I'm sorry that I did this and you know, here's kind of our, our path forward. Um, so that's, I think you need to be humble as a, as a leader to, to ever really make it. Um, and transparency is key. I think being able to just share what are your objectives, what are your expectations of them as, as people and then giving them the space to go off and do their work and not feeling like they're being micromanaged. Because I always, I always kind of have ever felt ever I've been micromanaged myself. It's just really hard to feel empowered to do a job. So it sounds like you're really kind of turning a corner and like feeling like you're working with people and you guys are working towards the same goal, which is I think just the most important thing.
Speaker 2Yeah. For any of you that listened to episode two and we talk about Nicole Cooper on the podcast and how inspiring she has Megan Janae of inflow style. And I do. This is Nicole Cooper. So let's bring it back
Speaker 1like doing tickets at the bar we talked about. That's so fine. Well, I am so inspired by Megan Nga and you amy. So this has been an incredible experience and it was funny like I think that one of the things to think through too is you spend so much time at work. I mean for the firm, the most of us, like it's a lifestyle. It's not a, you know, people talk about work life balance, but generally speaking it's a lifestyle. It's trying to fit, work in with your life because in a lot of time when a lot of ways it becomes your life and if you love what you do, that's great. Um, but it's always, you know, it's always trying to strike that balance. And I remember the early years at Uber, man, I was, I did not have that balance. It was, it was really like Gogo go forever. But at that time I never really thought about it as, oh, I don't have a day off, I don't have, you know, I don't have time to hang out with my friends. I would still hang out with my friends, but I would be, you know, needing to go through customer support tickets, you know, at certain times of the night or uh, you know, have to leave early for something to go to an event or what have you. But it's just, it's passionate about
Speaker 2what you're doing and if you can be, then it shouldn't really. Oh, it shouldn't feel like work. And I think that's one of my favorite things about our friend group is, um, we're just so excited for each other. And so instead of being like, oh, Nicole can't come out tonight. Like we're just there like gleaming and like so proud and all right, I can come but I need to like grab my, my Fye, bring my computer and do customer support tickets and we're just sitting there next to you like
Speaker 3pictures.
Speaker 2If you're someone that wants your career in your personal life to just be one and you want to be on that, you want to push yourself in that avenue of your life. Finding other people that want to do that because they are going to be so understanding. Like every single one of our friends is just. I've never felt bad about pushing myself. I've never felt like I'm abandoning people I've never felt if I'm like, okay, I said I could go to this but I can't anymore because I have to like print out shipping labels for an order that I've ever been judged or I like. If anything I feel empowered and we all like give each other encouraging messages. I think that's one of the most important things you can do is if you're not feeling empowered and like you are your best self. Looking at who were the people you're spending your most time with and sometimes it's not internal things going on. You have to fix them external things and 100 percent I think that's truer words have been spoken. It's who you surround yourself with that's either going to bring you up or bring you down. And I think just I'm doubly lucky to have the most supportive husband ever and you know in the early years for Uber it was, you know, I was getting to work at 9:00 AM not coming home until midnight and he was there every single day. Never ever giving me a hard time and just supporting me in, in, in, in my work. And he still is of course today. So I think that I wouldn't have made it through without them. And you shout out Willie with Willie and Nicola and willy were our first order for color me book which took like three months to get to because the next day we went viral on the Internet but we made like three copies and framed one of them. And then you were also, you were or you were either? My first or second order of Girl Gang, you're one of our first five orders for twist
Speaker 3burst. You ordered hair ties all the time. You would like. You send me pics of the Volcom hair ties in the vessel village like, wait, are these yours? Are more like, I'm so excited. If they're not fuck 'em I'm throwing away and like I just feel like it.
Speaker 2It's just. I love all the guys in our group too and how they just bring all of us up and brag about us and Willie is just such a supporter of not just you, but all of us so that it's just such a cool feeling to know like your friend's husband is so supportive of what you're doing too. It's like the ultimate support your local girl gang in our crew. Like everyone wants to lift all of us ladies. Oh, we're very lucky. Oh, shout out willy. Shout out willy. Corey, Josh Hayden, Chad,
Speaker 3all you guys. We love you guys. We love you so much, brothers. Brothers for life. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and chat with me today. Absolutely. Thank you so much. This was so fun. Or so. You liked it or not, isn't it silly?
