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[Applause]
>>
HOSTESS: I wanna welcome you, umm, to the first Women in
Management
speaker series, our headline event.
We're very pleased to have Heidi Roizen here with us today.
Before we get started I'd like to go over a few lagistics.
I'm going to give you a quick introduction and then turn it
over to
Margo Langsdorf, who is the President of Women in
Management.
She's going to do a fireside chat.
After the formal Q and A we'll turn it over to you.
If you have a question you'd like to pose just raise your
hand and
much like View from the Top we'll pass you a microphone.
Umm, and with this, uh, I think we're gonna begin.
Heidi Roizen has spent her life immersed in the Silicon
Valley
ecosystem.
As an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist,
and
member of several boards.
After receiving her undergraduate and MBA degrees from
Stanford
University, Heidi co-founded Team Maker company, an early
personal
computer software company in 1983.
She served as the CEO from inception through its acquisition
by Deluxe
Corporation in 1994.
In 1996, Heidi joined Apple as Vice President of Worldwide
Developer
Relations.
From there, Heidi entered the venture capital world serving
as
Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital from 1999 until
2007.
Today, Heidi splits her time between her entrepreneurial
endeavor,
Skinny Songs, and board service in the public, private, and
non-profit
sectors.
In 2008, Heidi was named the Annual Achievement Award winner
by the
forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.
She is married and has two children.
And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Margo and I'd
please ask
that you help me in joining -- or in -- join me in welcoming
Heidi.
MARGO: Heidi, on behalf of Women in Management and the
entire GSB
community we're thrilled to have you here.
So thank you so much.
HEIDI: Thanks for having me.
It's always fun to come back here.
Although I still have those nightmares about, you know, I'm
taking
class and I didn't really study for it and when I get here
and I don't
know where the final is and then you get there and it's in,
like,
Chinese.
MARGO:
HEIDI: So I still have those dreams and I wake up and say,
no, wait.
I've graduated.
I don't have to think about that anymore.
MARGO:
[Laughing] so, in the latest evolution of your career, how
do you
feel your network continues to play a role in your personal
success
and development?
HEIDI: Umm, well, it's an interesting question because I
have two
very different halves to my career right now.
I have my -- as my daughter calls it, my fake job and then
my real
job.
And in my fake job Skinny Songs, uh, that is, you know, it's
a crazy
idea that I came up with, it's very entrepreneurial.
I really have decided to throw myself at that and learn
about the
music industry, and create this album of music and I -- I
don't play
an instrument, I don't sing, I can't read music, umm, so I
was really
not very well qualified for that job.
But I was passionate about the idea, I was passionate about
what I
wanted to get across from a lyrics perspective, and then so
I had to
do what you typically do when you're an entrepreneur and you
have a
great idea but you're not the one who can execute.
You go find people much better than you are, you talk 'em
into the
idea, and you get them to come along with it.
So in that case the networking was really interesting
because my
network was not -- I don't, like, hang with the Nashville
crowd --
MARGO:
HEIDI: -- you know, so for me it was figuring out who did I
know who
knew somebody who knew somebody and then how could I get the
pitch
done, and how could I use my credibility in the Valley to
translate
somewhere else?
Now, I will say I had one interest advantage that most
people in the
music business don't have is A I could fund the project
myself --
although I couldn't pay everybody the full kind of salaries
they get
paid to do this but I had enough money that if I could
convince them
to do it for royalties I could get it off the ground -- and
B I did
not need to make a living in the music industry.
Because trust me well, if that's your plan, have a backup
plan --
MARGO:
HEIDI: -- 'cause the music industry's kinda not exactly a
great place
to make money.
And so I kinda knew that to be the case.
But I felt that this was something that I could get to
stainability
and profitability and I really wanted to -- to try it out.
So in that case my network was valuable in some ways.
In some ways, obviously, there aren't -- you know, there are
no
connections and the other thing that's interesting in
contextually
everyone will take your calls when you're a venture
capitalist, and
you're in Silicon Valley, and you have hot startups and they
wanna
raise money from you.
When you're hawking a musical product and you call up the
Vice
President at Weight Watchers because you've figured out who
they are
on Linkdin and you have a friend three levels removed they
aren't
necessarily that psyched to take your call.
So one of the interesting things that -- that I discovered
is that --
will have laugh -- you know, credibility and power doesn't
necessarily
translate into a different world and you have to be ready to
kinda
start from scratch and really do this stuff over and over
again.
Although one of the funniest things -- and it actually
relates to
Weight Watchers -- at weightwatchers.com the guy who ran
sort of the
weightwatchers.com web anylitics and sort of the stuff that
was
important over there for that he was in the -- the e-mail
traffic
with -- with me and the people I was trying to pitch at
Weight
Watchers and it turned out he had gone to business school --
not here
but I think Columbia -- and they had done my case.
And so I will just tell you this: Never in a million years
when I did
that case did I think that it would end up having so much
benefit to
me because you're like this weird quasi celebrity when you
have a
Harvard case about you and people really do pay attention to
that
stuff.
And so the guy sent me a note and he said, by the way, I
read your
case.
I really loved it.
And then I had a buddy and he was really helpful at getting
me some
premium placement, and letting the ad run for a few extra
days and
stuff like that.
So you do discover that sometimes in the strangest places
there will
be a connection that you don't expect there to be.
On the other side, uh, the other thing I'm doing right now -
- my real
job as my daughter calls it -- is I'm doing corporate
governance and
I'd be happy to talk at more length about that or talk about
why I
chose it.
I can tell you why in sort of really short thing.
I didn't wanna have a full-time job anymore.
I love working with people to build something.
I really like the challenges of being part of a corporation
and public
company governance is a really interesting field right now
because in
some ways people are running away from it in droves so it's
a growth
opportunity.
And, uh, and they do actually pay you money to do that.
So you can -- you can have fun and make money at the same
time, be
involved with interesting people, and you can assemble a
portfolio of
things and still work from home and drive your kids to
school and do
all that other kinda stuff.
So it's interesting work and it is -- it fits very well with
sort of
this phase of my life and -- and where I'm going.
I will tell you again, you know, there is no monster.com for
getting
jobs -- getting board of director positions and
interestingly, more
than 70 percent -- more than 75 percent of all board of
director
positions in the biggest companies in America are filled
without the
use of a head hunter.
It's really done by word of moth.
It's the governance committee sits around and they say, who
do you
know?
Well, you know.
Who do you know?
And they network out through their friends and so it is very
much a
situation of using a network.
But it is a very odd thing that in the sense -- first of
all, you
don't know when these positions come up.
They start recruiting for them way ahead of time.
Even if you have a best friend that knows you're on two
other boards,
when they're sitting at that corporate governance committee
meeting
and they say who do we know, your name does not pop up in
their head
immediately as this perfect person.
So you have to let your own network know.
And so one day last February I decided I needed to really
push my
network a little bit and I sat down and over the course of
about eight
hours I wrote a hundred and fifty-something individual e-
mails to
everybody I knew that I knew well enough who was on a board,
who was
in a service organization for a board.
For example on attorney or an accountant or a recruiter or
whatever --
or a CEO or a CTO level -- CXO-level person in a company
saying, hey,
remember, here I am.
I made it easy.
Here are my board qualifications.
Here's a URL to my web site about me and board service.
If you know of anybody looking for a board member, let me
know.
And, you know, lo and behold, one of the boards that I now
sit on,
TiVo, it just so happened that, you know, later that evening
I went to
a cocktail party and there was a venture capitalist that I'd
served on
a board with ten years ago, and he's serving on the TiVo
board, and
he's leaving the TiVo board and he said, ah, you'd be
perfect for that
board.
I'd have never thought of you.
Thank God you sent me that e-mail.
And then oh, by the way, thank God I ran into you at this
party
tonight and that's how that process started.
So -- so do not believe -- so, I guess my -- my, uh, the
point of all
of that is do not believe that just because you've been
around for a
long time and everybody knows you, and you're 50 something
years old,
that you don't still have to work at it and you don't have
to do the
homework, and you don't have to make it easy for other
people to
connect the dots with and for you because you still -- you
still have
to do the work.
And I'm still doing the work.
MARGO: So, you mentioned the power of networking and I
imagine for
someone like you networking may come very easily but what
are your
recommendations for shier students that are looking to grow
their
network before leaving the GSB?
HEIDI: Well, first of all I don't think networking is
necessarily
easy for people.
I am -- I'm definitely -- definately a talker.
You can probably tell and I like people.
So for me it's a little bit easier to walk into a room and,
you know,
have conversations with people.
But it isn't -- it isn't something that, you know, every day
I'm just
the last -- the first thing I wanna do when I get up in the
morning is
go down to Starbucks and meet everybody else in the line.
I mean, I do ---
HEIDI: I do recommend that -- you don't wanna walk in a room
and meet
everybody in the room.
That's not the point.
The point is to come in, have a sense of who the people are,
have a
sense of what you're trying to accomplish.
You only need one good conversation to lead to other things.
And, for example, it's important again, do homework.
I recently attended the Fortune Most Powerful Women in
Business
Conference, and I went through the list of attendees ahead
of time and
I figured out who might I like to meet from that list.
And I looked at not only the attendees but who are the
friends, the
people I knew at that conference that even though we live a
block from
each other we may not have an opportunity to see each other
that
often.
So I had a kinda sense in my head, okay, these are the ten
people
when -- I go to this conference of 300 women, these are the
ten I'm
gonna try to find my way to and meet, and talk to.
I also think that today a lot of networking occurs in a way
that is
not, I don't know, that you don't have to be social.
I mean, you don't even have to be dressed to do it, right?
>>
HEIDI: You're sitting in your pajamas and you're on e-mail.
I mean, I always laugh about this because we do a lot of
board
committee meetings and stuff on the phone and I always
think, thank
God video conferencing isn't that in yet because half the
time I'm
sitting there in my bathrobe and, you know, I just hope -- '
cause
they're east coast so they wanna have conference calls at
six in the
morning.
I -- I do not look good at six in the morning.
>>
HEIDI: So I do think that there are also -- if you're not a
talker
person you can build relationships online, you can build
relationships
in -- in different manners.
It doesn't have to be, you know, the proverbial cocktail
party.
You can build it around, uh, non-profits, you can build it
around ad
hoc competes, committees here at the school, you can build
it around
various forms of social philanthropy.
So there are other ways to go about it and ways that even if
you're
not, you know, super social you can do those things.
The main, umm, advice I would give you there is don't go out
looking
for pen pals, you know.
Don't go out looking to collect business cards.
To me, the hardest thing is I'll get e-mail from someone
that's like,
hi, I've read about you.
I'd really like to be your pen pal.
Can we get together?
I'm like, okay.
To do what?
And you have a conversation and you're sorta done.
I think that the best way you get to know other people and
the best
way they get to know you is in the context of accomplishing
something.
And whether that is serving on a volunteer committee or
whether that
is, uh, working on a project together or whatever it is.
If you can figure out something you can do with someone you
wanna get
to know better, that is a lot better than just stalking
them, you
know, because at the end of the day that isn't -- there isn'
t gonna be
a lot of value delivered if you do that.
MARGO: Switching gears a little, I know that our first years
just
read the Heidi Roizen Case in their organizational behavior
class,
umm, and in that case they talked about the experiment of
switching
your name from Heidi to Howard.
HEIDI: Yes.
MARGO: We'd love to hear your reactions to that and what
you, umm,
took as a take away from that case.
HEIDI: Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Well, like I say, the case has been -- it has a life of its
own and
it's pretty funny.
And about -- I get about ten e-mails a week from students
across the
country who just e-mail me, I'm pretty sure just to see if I
respond --
HEIDI: And so then I do and they're surprised.
And actually one time it was pretty funny because this guy
was having
this e-mail exchange with me and he asked me a question or
two.
He was in class, right, and they were doing the case and he
was
getting answers from me realtime and raising his hand.
>>
HEIDI: And I thought, wow!
That is creative.
I wanna hire that guy.
>>
HEIDI: But it is.
The case is funny 'cause it really does afford this -- like
I said,
this weird, Your Honor, little niches of infamy or whatever
it is.
And I also wanna say, being the subject of a case, I will
tell you
this: I do have actual friends that I see that have nothing
to do
with work.
And, umm --
HEIDI: And the point is that cases are an abstraction of
reality
because they're trying to teach you something.
And one of the things I find that's interesting about this
case is
that it is controversial at some places.
What's interesting when it teach it at Harvard -- done it --
I've
taught it telephonically at Harvard and it's controversial
because
I've decided at Harvard you get graded on creating
controversy and so
they make everything controversial.
Umm, it's a little less controversial here but there is this
question
people have of me all the time about, you know, how much do
you really
mix your personal and business life?
And on one hand I think it's really great to mix your
personal and
business life because, you know, I have a lot of the same --
I pick
people to do business with in a lot of the same way I pick
friends:
Are they ethical, are they good people, are they
interesting, you
know, and so there is a lot of crossover and I think in the
valley
particularly I think there's a tremendous amount of lot of
crossover.
But there are boundaries and it's one of the they thinks,
you know,
obviously the case sort of paints a little bit funnier
picture about,
you know, bathing my kids while I'm having a business
meeting in the
bathroom and stuff like that.
>>
HEIDI: You know, it's a little extreme; right?
Relative to reality.
I don't do that that often, particularly now that they're 14
and 16.
HEIDI: It would be really weird.
>>
HEIDI: In fact, they don't even let me in the bathroom
anymore.
Oh, Mom, go away.
So -- but, so, the case has been really interesting and I've
gotten
some really, umm, interesting connections from the case.
And this thing that came up where, umm, Frank Flynn, who
taught here
for a while, actually, also, he was at Columbia and he
decided to run
an experiment where he changed the -- the person from Heidi
to Howard
and then taught two sections of the same -- at the same time
of a
first-year class and then he had people go online and rate
the -- how
they felt about Heidi and Howard.
And the interesting thing is, umm, Heidi and Howard scored
just as
well on effectiveness but not as well on how much you would
like this
person, how much would you wanna work with this person, how
much would
you trust this person.
And when he told me this -- when he tracked me down -- I
didn't know
him beforehand.
It was actually very funny.
My nephew was in -- at Columbia at the time and was in his
class and
because since we have such an unusual last name he said, do
you know
Heidi Roizen?
And my nephew said, that's my aunt.
And he said, oh.
Well, I did this interesting study.
I'd love to talk to her about it.
And, A, I was surprised that there was a statistically
significant
difference between Heidi and Howard; and B, when he asked me
who do
you think is doing the biasing, I thought it was the women.
And he said, no, it's the men.
And the fact that I would even think it was the women -- you
know,
there's so many levels of, what's wrong with this picture in
a lot of
this.
HEIDI: And so, you know, it does -- it really does amaze me
because I
would have thought in this day and age this is just not
something we
would have to worry about anymore.
And yet there was this subtle difference.
And, you know, we're not talking about old middle-age white
guys.
We're talking about a group of students only five years ago,
you know,
so not that dissimilar from yourselves.
And, I don't know, so my take away from that was, gosh, it's
disappointing.
I still don't -- I still don't personally feel that bias.
I mean, I still think in terms of a gender bias and maybe
it's
interesting that I've picked corporate governance because in
corporate
governance there is a strong momentum and initiative towards
having
more women on boards.
So maybe I've actually picked a place where my gender is
helpful to
getting my foot in the door.
Once my if the's in the door, if I'm only there -- if I'm
only running
on a diversity ticket, please don't give me that job because
I'm not
gonna do a good job, they're not gonna be happy with me, so
it's -- I
actually hesitate a little when someone says, well, they
need to put a
woman on the board and that's why they wanna talk to you.
But I still take the meeting 'cause you take the meeting for
whatever
reason and once you get there you say, well, is it -- are
they just
trying to check a box or is it that that they'd love to have
a woman
because, yes, it does check a box, but they're really only
looking for
someone who's gonna contribute and add value.
And I think you can really tell that in the interview.
So, let's hope that if they run the Heidi/Howard test again
in five
years, or some other equivalent case, you know, we'll just
keep
getting better and better.
MARGO: At this point in our careers I know many of us are
looking for
mentors so I'd love to hear how you've found mentors and how
helpful
they've been to you and your career.
HEIDI: So, again, I think it goes back to -- a little bit to
that pen
pal thing.
I've tried doing the Stanford programs where I've mentored
students
here and I have to admit I don't sign up for them anymore
just because
I've found it really didn't -- we -- you know, we can go
walk and I
can give you advice and that's sorta it, you know?
The flip side is when you can find something to coalesce
around.
Can you find a, you know, alumni student group where there's
an
activity or conference or something like that that you can
work on
together, I find those work really well.
For me, I really found my mentors in two places.
One is in work where I was doing business with someone and
decided
they were a smart person and I wanted to attach myself to
them.
So, you know, if I think about my mentors, umm, people like
Ann
Winblad who I got to know early on and we were Hummer
Winblad first
investments so she was on my board.
Uh, Bill Gates who I, you know, worked with closely -- and
competed
with way back in the beginning of the personal computer
revolution
and, you know, got to know him and got to do some business
with
Microsoft and so got to know him better -- uh, other folks
that I met
here, you know, Fred Gibbons, and 'Trip' Hawkins, and people
that
actually came and spoke to the business school and then when
I started
my company I would get in touch with them and I ended up
doing
business with their companies.
So that's a lot of the way that I did it.
The other thing is I decided to -- and I strongly recommend
this -- I
decided to get involved in the trade associations of the
organize --
of the industries I was in.
So early on in the personal computer industry there was
something
called the Software Publishers Association which was kinda
funny
because there within the, like, there within the very many
software
publishers so it was kinda funny that we had this industry
association.
And, in fact, the way I found out about it is we had this
user of one
of our products and she would call in all time and she was
in her -- I
don't know, 70s or 80s.
She was not a young woman, umm, and personal computer user
in 1983/84,
when you're in your 70s or whatever, that's really highly
unusual.
It's a lot more common now but it wasn't then.
And she would always say to me, my nephew, Kenny, is
starting this
grown up of people like you.
And she just kept saying, you know, my nephew, Kenny.
And I thought, this woman --
Seriously and I'm not kidding.
Seriously, she lived in, like, a mobile home park in Utah or
something
and she was telling me that her nephew Kenny was starting
this
software club or something.
And I said, okay, well, fine.
Have you nephew Kenny call me.
And it turned out that it was this guy Ken Wasch in
Washington, D.C.
who started this thing called Software Publishers
Association.
And so I got involved with that and then that grew and grew
and became
a very prominent organization.
And I got involved in the leadership of that.
I ran for the board and I was elected to the board, and I
ended up
serving on that board for eight years.
I was president for two.
And then subsequently I was -- I did the same thing with the
National
Venture Capital Association and rose on to the board and I
was
actually elected, umm, chairman of that ultimately.
I stepped down 'cause I wasn't gonna stay in venture capital
and I
thought it would be really weird to be chairman of the
national
venture capital association and not be a venture capitalist.
So I proactively stepped down from that position but I got
elected.
The thing about a trade association is, you know, they're a
lot of
work and you don't get paid to do 'em.
But the connections you make, and the context you make, and
your
presence in the industry ends up being so much vaster and
greater than
whatever it might be merited by the size of your company
alone.
So, you know, Team Maker was this little piddly company that
sort of
nobody cared about but yet I was on the board of the trade
association
and I got to testify before the Senate on the Software
Rental Act, I
got to go to Japan and represent the United States software
industry,
I got to do all these interesting things and I got to meet
the other
leaders of the software industry who were -- you know, I was
sitting
on that board with people who had much, much bigger
companies than I
did and those were people who I ended up getting to know.
The same thing with the NBCA.
I ended up being on the board with other venture capitalists
who had
deal flow, right, which is real nice, and who had money to
invest in
my companies, and so I ended up doing business with those
people.
So I'm a big proponent of trade associations in spite of the
fact that
they are sort of bureaucratic and, you know, and you don't
get paid to
do it, and they're really long hours.
But I really think they benefit you.
I think the other they think is it gets your head out of
your own
daily business and I know particularly in Silicon Valley --
maybe not
so much anymore but back in the Stone Ages when I was
starting a
company we really thought of Washington, and government, and
the Feds
and all that as all those really stupid people on the other
coast that
just stay out of our way and leave us alone.
And the more I got involved in trade associations the more I
started
to understand the connection between government and
governmental
policy and what actually happens at my little company and my
ability
to create jobs, and things like, umm, you know, visas, and
taxation,
and how they slice up, uh, broadband, and how they regulate
things
really do impact your little company in ways that are rather
alarming
sometimes and rather wonderful sometimes if you can figure
out how to
be on the right side of that equation.
So for me it opened my eyes to a lot of things that as a
small
entrepreneur I would have said, oh, God, who cares about
what those
people in Washington do anyway?
And now ScholesI care a lot more about what those people in
Washington
do.
There's a reason why, you know, Google and Microsoft, and
Cisco have
offices and employees and all those sitting in Washington
because it
really, really, really matters.
MARGO: So I guess for our last question, what is the best
piece of
advice that you would give to MBA students to make the most
out of
their time at the GSB?
HEIDI: Mm.
What a great question.
Umm, well...
>>
[Laughing]
First of all, you're just in a -- you're in a great school,
I mean,
and everybody will come here and talk and get -- when I just
look at
the roster of people who are walking through here all the
time it's
remarkable so take advantage of all that, number one.
Uh, number two, each other.
And it isn't even just each other in this room or in the --
in the
years that you have here.
It's the alums that came slightly before you, it's the
students
that'll come slightly after you.
It's really -- it's like being a member of the GSB and an
alum of the
GSB is like having that secret handshake and that sort of
anybody will
answer your e-mail.
I mean, you're really part of this great thing that I would
recommend
you continue to remain close to and continue to participate
in things
here because they will really, really pay back.
In terms of the learning -- the actually learning
experience, umm,
gosh.
HEIDI: Uh, you know, there are classes I wish I had taken
when I was
here.
There were a couple of classes that I took that were really
hugely --
I took negotiation, incredibly important class to me, power
and
politics, Jeff Jeffer's class.
Host a really great -- he's one of the folks, too, that I,
you know,
keep in touch with to this day.
Umm, it was important to take accounting because you gotta
know that
stuff.
Umm, and I -- and let's see.
What was the other one?
Negotiation, creativity in business, Michael Ray's class was
just
fantastic.
So there were a few classes and basic marketing was another
one that
really got me and I loved 'em.
And, boy, the list after that I really can't even remember
them.
And I remember sitting in some classes, in fact, my thing
used to
always be, oh, good lord.
The Black Scholes, you know, capital asset pricing model.
When in my life am I ever gonna use this?
Well, now I'm ton board of a public company and guess what?
They use that.
HEIDI: So yeah.
I finally got to use that.
'Cause when when you're looking at enterprise value versus
market cap
and you're thinking about M and A you actually have to have
this way
of saying, well, how are we really valued?
How are our options shalled?
Black Scholes came up in this whole opening pricing thing so
I finally
had something useful from that class only 30 something years
later.
I did have to look it up again, figure out.
>>
HEIDI: I still can't do it.
But what I would tell you is when you have the opportunity
to take
classes that sound interesting to you just take the ones
that sound
interesting to you.
And I would also have to say that I've done a lot of hiring
in my --
in my years and I can't say that I've ever looked at
someone's
transcript, or their GPA, or anything like that.
It's about what did you do when you were here?
What did you take away?
What kind of groups and clubs did you involve yourself with?
That is the stuff that is much more important as an employer
than GPA.
And I'm sure there are organizations that look at grades.
I've never been one of them.
And, in fact, there have been some studies that argue that
there's a
reverse -- there's an inverse correlation of your GPA and
your ability
to actually work at, like, an entrepreneurial company. So --
>>
HEIDI: -- all of you low achievers, there's hope.
>>
MARGO: So, now we're gonna open it up to the audience and we
have to
microphones that'll be going around so if you'll just raise
your hand
and they'll come find you.
>> Hi.
Can you talk a little bit about how you manage your e-mail
given the
volume that you get?
HEIDI:
[Laughing] I do it constantly.
That's a good question.
I mean, I'm a very active e-mail user and I'm always wired.
I have it on all the time and in fact one of the things I'm
trying to
do is have the discipline to not look at it all the time
because it is
very addictive.
I've just -- I'm on the board of -- I'm on the board of the
Yellow
Pages of Canada.
I know you guys are laughing, oh, my God.
Why did she do that?
Umm, 1.6 billion a yore in revenue, 900 million EBITDA, 700
million
free cash flow last year.
They do business with 46 percent of all businesses in Canada
and
250 million of that revenue was online and they had 9
million uniques
on their web site which, by the way, is Canada doesn't
really have
that many people.
HEIDI: I mean, so -- Canada has -- what do they have?
Twenty something million, 30 million?
>> 30.
HEIDI: 30 million.
Thank you.
I know.
I was thinking, God, I'm on the board of a Canadian company,
I don't
know who the Prime Minister if they have within of those, I
can't name
all the providences and territories and I don't even know
how many
people they have but I know it's about the size of
California.
So I figure, okay.
But, anyway, so, the reason I joined that board is I
thought, what an
interesting challenge.
This company, this company mints money; right?
You know, I mean, that's more money than I ever saw in any
of the
venture deals that I ever did and yet they have this
transformational
thing.
But point being is I'm sitting in this board meeting and my
iPhone is
sitting there and it's, like, every time it's so tempting to
look at
it; right?
Especially when, like, awe kit committee's going on 'cause I
hate
audit committee.
HEIDI: And you have to just turn it over or put it away or,
you know,
step away from it.
Umm, so e-mail is, you know, it's a great boon and it's a
terrible
thing as well.
And I find, you know, quick answers, real efficiency.
I try -- I am one of those people that I empty my inbasket.
I'm not one of those people that keep the sedimentary lair
of e-mail
that I don't wanna deal with in my inbasket.
Umm, and I try to just process it and deal with it.
And you have to get really good at saying no about things
and you have
to be really efficient with how you do it.
The thing I'm -- I'm challenged with frankly right now is --
so, I did
twitter for a wile.
I never tweeted but I went and I followed people and then I
thought,
oh, this is just -- I'm not doing this.
I couldn't find value in it.
I'm not saying that there isn't value for certain people in
certain
things but for me I didn't find it.
Facebook -- just keeping up on facebook is incredibly hard.
And pat of it is my daughter says I'm a facebook ***.
She didn't actually use that word but -- because I have,
like, 3,000
friends on facebook.
HEIDI: And I did that because I have a consumer product;
right?
So I wanna be friends with everybody.
But now I get on facebook and it's, like, you have 67 friend
requests
today and, you know, you don't know these people.
But now the problem is I have so many people that it -- you'
ll come on
ask it says you have 47 friends in common and then I'll look
at the 47
people and I don't really know any of them either, so --
>>
HEIDI: I'm working on that.
Working on that.
Linkdin is a little bit better.
It's a little more business-focused.
But I find now when you say manage e-mail it isn't just e-
mail; right?
It's facebook, and it's Linkdin, and it's twitter, and it's
-- and
it's, you know, wherever you happen to be presence and are
trying to
manage your presence.
And so I definitely have -- have -- there are things I've
sort of
opted out of, like being part of the whole, you know, deeply
-- I'm
not living a lot of my social life online; right?
I don't because I haven't organized facebook properly to
really say,
okay, who's the core group.
I do spy on my children on facebook --
>>
HEIDI: -- which they know.
Hey, they've friended me.
It's okay.
When they unfriend me that's gonna be the problem. But I
keep track
of them online which I think is kinda interesting.
But other than that, uh --
>>
HEIDI: Yeah.
I don't know.
It's hard.
E-mail's hard.
But I couldn't live without it.
A couple weeks ago I was having some work done on my house
and they
were gonna shut my water off for five hours and then they
had to shut
my power down for some -- sometime and I said, I'd rather
live without
water than without connectivity.
HEIDI: You know.
I can manage around water but the connectivity I'm just
gonna go to
Starbucks for five hours.
Actually, umm, actually, the Dutch Goose 'cause it's free.
>>
HEIDI: Dutch Goose has free wireless where Starbucks you
have to pay.
HEIDI: Another important tip.
>> I read the case book about proficiency and performance as
the two
main elements of maintaining -- or having a good network.
HEIDI: Mm hmm.
>> Uh, could you speak to how you actually define that and
if those
really are the two key elements?
HEIDI: Yes.
And I do.
HEIDI: I do think those are.
Don't I sound consistent in don't I sound consistent in.
>> Very consistent.
Very consistent.
HEIDI: Observe.
Very good.
I'm glad.
No, consistency and believe me I think about this a lot as a
parent
'cause if, I don't know, one teem you say yes and another
time you say
no and there's this randomness to it people don't know what
to expect
from you.
And I think that this goes with being genuine.
Consistency is if you know you ask me something and I have a
consistent set of rules that I apply then you know what you'
re gonna
get from me.
And I think that that helps in building of relationships.
People know if they ask me to do manager I'm either gonna do
it or I'm
gonna tell 'em I'm not gonna do it.
I'm not gonna back burner it and, you know, and kind of hem
and haw
and, you know, and like this person that asked me to endorse
them I
e-mailed them back and I said, you know, I really can't do
that.
I'm sure you were great but I only really do this for people
that I
had a direct -- you know, a direct relationship with where I
could
really say something specific and if not I just done think
it's
valuable to have an endorsement out there.
So good luck but can't do it for you.
So I think consistency it just -- it makes your life a lot
easier, it
makes you a known quantity to people, and I think it helps
build your
reputation as, you know, do what you say you're gonna do.
Performance, to me, goes hand in hand with that; right?
If you're a person who constantly drops the ball and doesn't
deliver,
then, again, it's gonna hurt your reputation and for me
there are
times I can't perform.
There are times I just have to say, you know what, I have my
priorities.
And I think this is something that particularly recently has
become
very important to me which is have a really firm idea in
your head of
what your priorities are; right?
And if something -- because it's very easy, particularly
when you done
have a day job, to get sucked into whoever's asking for the
most and
whoever wants you to do something and all of a sudden you
find out
that you're really busy doing that and you're falling down
on the they
thinks that are -- that are important to you because they're
not
screaming as loud.
Particularly when you have teenagers.
Believe me, they don't always ask to be, like, supervised.
Uh, so you have to.
>>
[Laughing] -- have time for those things.
Taking care of yourself is another one.
If you don't make it a priority, it ain't gonna happen so I'
ve tried
to do that.
So, performance, to me is a matter -- you know, consistency
and
performance go so much hand in hand and letting people know
if you're
going to do something, do it, if you're not gonna do
something be
clear that you're not gonna do it.
If you don't have the time frame -- if you can only give to
a certain
level of whatever you're gonna do -- if you're only gonna
participate
in something to a certain level, be really clear about that
because
the worst thing to do is -- is the old overcommit and
underdeliver and
I'd rather undercommit and overdeliver.
So I think there is a constant, you know, I'd say an audit
of your
own, umm, activities is also really important.
I did this they think a couple of months ago where I just
looked at my
calendar, and I said, how am I spending my time?
And I added it all up and said, oak, what does this tell me
about --
about me?
And my tendency is I'm a responder.
If somebody, you know, I've used this line before.
If a total stranger called and said, could you pick me up at
SFO in a
half an hour I'd really debate that I probably ought to go
do that.
Umm, and so I'm bad about when people ask me for things I
have a hard
time saying no.
And I think sometimes you have to develop "no" muscles.
You have to be able to say, you know what?
I'm not gonna do that.
And it's not that it isn't a worthy cause; right?
But you have to set some boundaries.
And again to use the Bill Gates example one of my boundaries
is I
never forward requests for philanthropy to Bill.
I don't care how worthy they are -- or Jeff Rakes who I know
is a View
from the Top speaker here and is a good friend of mine and
runs the
Gates Foundation.
I just have a rule.
I don't care how good you are.
You know what?
Gatesfoundation.org, they have a whole thing about their
priorities
and their initiatives, and how to submit, and you shall do
that.
And if I had my own charity I wouldn't ask Bill or Jeff for
money
because when -- if you don't put boundaries like that, then
it becomes
a sliply slope and all of a sudden it's like, you become the
intermediary having to make these invaluetive decisions.
I don't wanna be there.
And so sometimes you put these boxes around things and say
that's --
this is how I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna audit my time.
I'm gonna think about who -- you know, the flip side of this
is if all
you're doing is reacting and you're just spending time with
the people
who wanna spend time with you, you might be missing out on
the people
that you really want or need to spend time with.
And so another thing that I'm thinking a lot about recently
is who are
those friends who really mean something to me and spend time
with
those friends.
Which means, you know, there's only 24 hours in a day.
You gotta turn off some other things in order to be open to
new
experiences, in order to be open to physical exercise, in
order to be
open to having the time the spend with -- with people that -
- that are
meaningful to you.
That comes from somewhere else and you have to have the
ability to
turn those other things off.
It's a constant battle and a constant adjustment.
Yeah?
>> Thanks for being here.
HEIDI: Sure.
>> I had a question for you.
Umm, could you talk a little bit about Skinny Songs?
What inspired you to start it and what are you trying to
achieve?
HEIDI: Sure.
[Laughing] I know.
You know, it's really funny.
I was at this Yellow Pages board meeting talking about
buying Google
AdWords -- and this is the funny is you never think in a
million
years, well, because I was a sole proprietor and I did this
weight
loss thing and I wasn't on Google AdWords and I was buying
Google
AdWords, I learned some really interesting things about
buying AdWords
that are now really useful to me sitting on the board of
this
multimillion dollar company.
But I brought this thing up in the board meeting about, you
know, when
you buy the words "weight loss" for example, the words "
weight loss"
are so expensive on a cost-per-click basis that, you know,
it was
like, $10 to buy the word weight loss -- weight loss as a
search term
and my product only sells for $9.99.
So trust me there is no business model that makes that an
effective
strategy.
Umm, and then I decided I was gonna buy all the names of all
my songs
erroneously thinking that people would hear a song and wanna
go look
it up.
Well, one of the songs has the word "hotty" in it.
Well, let me tell you, I bought the keyword "hotty" I got a
ton of
traffic on my site.
None of them were my target audience.
>>
HEIDI: And so I learned some really interesting things about
buying
AdWords and what happens in search engine, you know,
marketing on it.
So it was really interesting.
But, you know, long story short, really, really simple.
I wasn't taking care of myself, I gained a lot of weight,
two and a
half to three years ago I was 40 pounds more than I am right
now and I
was looking for motivation to lose weight and I was -- I've
always
been a person who loves listening to music and, I don't
know, chick
empowerment songs, and I was looking for that kinda stuff
online and I
went on iTunes, and I looked around, and there was
meditation for
weight loss, there were a lot of pod casts about weight loss
but there
weren't any songs, like, you know, the equivalent of Gloria
Gainer's
"I Will Survive."
Break up with a guy and you listen to that song over and
over and over
and over again and you're like, yeah, I will.
>>
HEIDI: And I wanted the I will survive without eating the
plate of
chocolate chip cookies they're gone in have at the meeting
today.
And so that was why I did it.
Umm, I didn't know where it would take me but I'll tell you
what I
learned from this.
First of all, don't go in the music business.
It's not a good place to make money.
The creative process was super fun, though, and I ended up
getting to
work with some just amazing people and I talked this one
guy, David
Malloy into doing this with me and the first time I talked
to him he
said, okay.
So, you live in Silicon Valley, you're a venture capitalist,
I don't
even know what that is.
He's Reba McEntire's producer, he's Julianne Howe or Hough's
or
however you say her last name -- he's her producer.
He's got 40 number one hits, he's got 40 Grammy nominations.
He's big dog; right in he's, like, a go-to man in Nashville.
He says, I don't even know what a venture capitalist is,
you've never
written a song in your life, you done play an instrument,
and you
wanna write music for fat chicks.
>>
HEIDI: No.
I wanna write music that inspires women to -- to achieve
their weight
loss and fitness goals.
And he goes, I don't know, that's pretty weird.
But send me the -- send me the -- send me the lyrics.
>>
HEIDI: So I sent him the lyrics and the next day he called
me, and he
said, I don't know.
I still don't get it but I took it home and I showed it to
my wife and
she said, this is what women talk about all day long.
>>
HEIDI: So, umm, so he agreed to do one song with me.
One song and by the end of it he had done -- he had co-
written seven
of the songs he produced six of them for me.
And he told me at the end of the project it was the most fun
he's ever
had on my project because when he's dealing with Reba
McEntire, Kenny
Rogers, or, you know, any of these big name people, they
come in and
they really have a very strong idea.
Me, I came in with my lyrics and I said, I want this to
sound like
Carrie Underwood, or Rascal Flats, or Pink, or the Black
Eyed Peas.
HEIDI: And that's all I know.
>>
HEIDI: Here.
HEIDI: And that's literally what I did.
And then he -- you know, and he said to me, you know, you
write
poetry.
We need lyrics.
And I said, well, what's the difference?
And he said, well, you know, you tend to write I'm gonna do
something,
I do it, I did it.
And lyrics are I do it, I do it, I do it because people
wanna sing
along and they don't wanna know am I in the beginning of the
song, am
I in the middle, am I in the end?
>>
HEIDI: You know, so he would shorten everything and then he
would
send me MP threes where he was strumming on the guitar just
singing
and wherever my words didn't fit he'd go da da da da da and
he'd say
now you have to re-write it and then I would have to re-
write it but
we would have these huge fights about, like, one word.
Because to me I was champion of the lyrics.
I said, if the lyrics -- I'm all about the lyrics.
I'm all about music that sounds as good as pop radio 'cause
if it
didn't you wouldn't listen to it.
And then these -- these lyrics have to be meaningful and --
and you
can't -- you can't change my lyrics.
So I had a one funny thing.
He was out of town and he left his -- it was the last song
and I was
December Prattly waiting for it and it's the only song in
which I
mention dress sizes and he was out of town, I'm waiting,
waiting,
waiting.
It's the last song. He comes in on a Friday night, his --
his -- his
guy that -- his co-writer, and I fired up and listened to it
and they
had changed the dress size from sick teen to 17.
>>
HEIDI: Because the male producer thought 17 was a prettier-
sounding
number.
I'm like, there is no dress size 17.
>>
HEIDI: That's why you guys can't change the lyrics.
>>
HEIDI: So he had to go in and do it all over again.
So the coolest thing -- what I'll say about that is there
are two
great things.
One great thing is you cannot promote a weight loss product
and be
overweight.
So I had to lose weight because I was gonna go on -- I've
been on the
Martha Stewart Show and I've been on CNN, and I've been on
CNBC, and
I've been on Donny Deutsche and I've done a bunch of
television.
And you cannot hold up a product and say, well, it didn't
actually
work for me but I hope you will like it.
So, first of all, it's been really helpful and I've had --
I've lost
weight and exercise and, you know, I'm happy with -- with
all that.
And promoting a product really helped.
I mean, it really does help.
The other thing is -- well, three things.
The second thing is I got to do this amazing creative
process and
learn about song writing and the greatest complement David
Lloyd is he
said, have you ever thought of writing for other -- for --
not for fat
chicks I'm guessing will have laugh.
HEIDI: He said, you'd be a great lyricist.
I've worked with a lot of lyricists and you'd be a great
lyricist.
I'm like, thank you.
There's no money in it but I was very pleased that somebody
who is
that big a dude would actually wanna work with me on things
other than
that.
So the creative process was great.
And then the final thing is, I get fan mail every once in a
while from
someone that says, your music helped change my life.
And that's really cool.
When you get something from someone who says I was really
struggling
and then I got your CD and it just was the thing that helped
me and it
put -- I got one from a woman a couple weeks ago, she lost
200 pounds
and she said when she got to about 140 she just couldn't get
anywhere,
couldn't get anywhere and then somebody gave her my CD and
it really
helped her.
So that just makes your day, right, when you get something
like that.
So I'm really glad I did it.
It's profitable now.
That's because we pay the CEO no money --
>>
HEIDI: -- and, umm, and so I -- I sell just enough CDs to
all all the
expences of the business and keep it up and running.
And, you know, I'm really proud of it, really glad I did it,
and am I
gonna do any more?
Probably not.
But, umm, but it was really fun.
Really different.
And it really has taught me a lot about being a small
business.
Because I'm on iTuness, I'm on Amazon, I'm an Amazon
affiliate
associate, I use Fulfillment by Amazon, I use Google
AdWords, and so
in a funny way having this little inky dinky business made
me go do a
bunch of stuff that's really valuable to know sitting at the
other end
of the spectrum now on the board of the Yellow Pages I can
really
relate to the small business owner 'cause I had to do a lot
of that
stuff myself.
MARGO: We have time for one more question.
>> So, in the case, they talk a little bit about your, uh,
way to
connect with people and as you mentioned with the women's
conference
and out of 300 people you sought out ten.
At a cocktail party, what goes through your mind when you
meet that
person the first time?
I mean, it's like, I stalked you on the internet.
Here's what I found out?
HEIDI: Laugh will have.
>> Or how do you think --
HEIDI: Well, that's the thing.
And you're bringing up the really interesting question
between being
this sorta like stalkerratzi who's in there with an agenda
versus just
going and wanting to meet interesting people; right?
And I think, you know, sometimes, you know, obviously if you
walk into
a room and you know that the VP of marketing for Coca-Cola
is there
that TiVo has this amazing stuff about Coca-Cola ad efficacy
that
you'd really like the VP to know about, maybe you're gonna
go find
that person.
On the other hand you might just say, wow, here's a person I
always
want -- you know, recently, umm, there was a person who
wanted to meet
with Sherry Lansing about something and I've always wanted
to meet
Sherry Lansing so of course I took the meeting even if I
wasn't that
interested in the thing necessarily.
It wasn't that I one interested but -- but there was a big
piece of
the draw was I was gonna get to meet Sherry Lansing and she
would be
a -- she's a person that I respect a lot, and she's done a
tremendous
amount of film and with cancer awareness and research and I
just
wanted to meet her.
So I don't know what I was on in your mind.
It isn't so much that I have an agenda and I'm trying to --
usually it
isn't that I have an agenda.
Usually it's I love knowing interesting people.
And, umm, I generally find if you get to know other
interesting
people, interesting things happen in your life.
And so I don't know.
I don't feel like it's that methodical.
I will say this, and this is one of those, if you really
wanna know
how to succeed when you get out of business school, my take
away from
my last year -- and I'll close on this -- is homework never
stops.
You always have to do homework.
And the more you just accept that and say, I don't care how
big and
powerful and important you get at the end of the day if you
also do a
little homework -- and I've learned this in going for board
interviews -- no matter how much I'm a great fit and my
background
looks great, or they read my case in buzz school so they
think I'm
famous, umm, if you walk in and you haven't read the annual
report,
combed the web site, known the background of the people,
know what
school everybody went to, know what their hobby -- go learn
about the
people you're meeting with and don't just presume that your
natural
talent and grace and wonderfulness is gonna carry you
through an
interview because what I've learned -- and now that I'm on a
board,
you know, my goal on these boards I serve on is I want the
CEO at the
end of the year when he looks around and say, who exhibited
the most
to this company from the board, I wan in be that person;
right?
I don't wan in just be there and be the token girl on the
board or the
whatever.
I wanna go in there and I wanna do such an awesome job
because I wanna
do boards for the next 20 years or whenever and when that
CEO gets
called I want him to, you know, say, oh, my God.
She's fantastic.
And that takes homework.
And believe me, reading -- reading SCC filings is not that
fun.
But it's part of the homework; right?
And, you know, and so homework -- that's all -- I'll close
with that
is I'm sorry to tell you this, but homework never ends but
thanks to
the internet you can at least do it at home in your pajamas. 1658 00:00:00,-200 --> 00:00:00,000 >>