Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 139. Mindy Grossman, CEO & President of WW

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139. Mindy Grossman, CEO & President of WW · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: I think self awareness is the biggest superpower anyone can have.
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Speaker 1: You need to understand the impact that you have on others,
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Speaker 1: what your strengths are, what they may not be, And
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Speaker 1: I think if you have that combination of self belief
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Speaker 1: and self awareness, you'll be invincible.
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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, Emily a body here bringing you Episode one
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Speaker 2: nine of Hurdle, a wellness focused podcast where I sit
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Speaker 2: down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their
0:42
Speaker 2: big wins to how they've gotten through some of life's
0:45
Speaker 2: toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
0:50
Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
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Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and what it really takes to follow your passions.
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Speaker 2: My mission is simple to inspire you to be your
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Speaker 2: best self, move with intention, and have some fun along
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Speaker 2: the way. Today, for episode one thirty nine, I am
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Speaker 2: chatting with Mindy Grossman. She is the CEO and president
1:15
Speaker 2: of ww formerly known as Weight Watchers. This episode meant
1:20
Speaker 2: a lot to me because, as it comes to my journey,
1:25
Speaker 2: weight Watchers at the time was a really big part
1:28
Speaker 2: of it, and something that Mindy and I rip about
1:30
Speaker 2: in today's episode is I pretty much don't know a
1:34
Speaker 2: single person who hasn't been in some way connected to
1:38
Speaker 2: the brand, whether they too used to go to a
1:42
Speaker 2: WW center, or if their parent went, or an aunt
1:45
Speaker 2: or a friend or just someone. I mean, for so
1:49
Speaker 2: many of us, it has been a part of our lives.
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Speaker 2: And it was really awesome for me today to get
1:55
Speaker 2: the opportunity to chat with Mindy, to hear about her
1:58
Speaker 2: personal story with weight Lost, her story as an entrepreneur.
2:02
Speaker 2: It's full of highs and lows and some really interesting moments.
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Speaker 2: I mean, Mindy talks to me about being pretty convinced
2:11
Speaker 2: that she was going.
2:11
Speaker 3: To be a lawyer.
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Speaker 2: She was engaged, and then all of a sudden she
2:15
Speaker 2: was like, you know what, that's not up my alley anymore.
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Speaker 2: And so she moved to New York City with next
2:22
Speaker 2: to nothing and found her way and worked her way
2:26
Speaker 2: up through the ranks at some of the biggest companies
2:29
Speaker 2: there are like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger and Nike
2:33
Speaker 2: and HSN and of course now at w W. Mindy's
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Speaker 2: story is inspiring. It is full of motivating takeaways.
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Speaker 3: There were so.
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Speaker 2: Many times in this convo and I was just like
2:46
Speaker 2: sitting there shaking my head being like, yes, this is
2:50
Speaker 2: this is the good stuff, so I know that you're
2:53
Speaker 2: gonna love it. Before I get to today's episode, I
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Speaker 2: As always, I love connecting with y'all on social media.
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Speaker 2: and at Emily a Body. If you have a hurdle
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Speaker 3: It's Emily at hurdle dot u s.
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Speaker 2: I've also got links in the show notes to do
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Speaker 2: everything from subscribe to the weekly Hurdle newsletter to signing
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Speaker 2: Links to all of the upcoming hurdle session workshops are
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Speaker 2: five dollars off. And last little bit of housekeeping book
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Speaker 2: club is coming up on Monday, December seventh. We are
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Speaker 2: reading Brene Brown's I thought it was just me, but
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Speaker 3: And with that, let's get to hurdling.
5:21
Speaker 1: Today.
5:21
Speaker 2: I am chatting with Mindy Grossman. She's the CEO and
5:24
Speaker 2: president of w W, formerly known as Weight Watchers. Mindy,
5:29
Speaker 2: how are you doing today?
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Speaker 1: I'm doing well. I was telling you. I'm up in
5:35
Speaker 1: the Hudson Valley, and you know, I wake up every
5:39
Speaker 1: morning and I think of what I'm grateful for, so
5:42
Speaker 1: so far, so good today.
5:44
Speaker 2: You and I have some similarities that I'm gonna fill
5:48
Speaker 2: you in on right now. The first similarity is that
5:51
Speaker 2: my first apartment, like your first apartment, was also on
5:56
Speaker 2: the Upper east Side, except mine was a little farther
6:00
Speaker 2: north on eighty ninth Street and cost eleven twenty five
6:03
Speaker 2: a month.
6:06
Speaker 1: To tell that that you're younger given where the rents went,
6:11
Speaker 1: oh yeah.
6:12
Speaker 3: I mean yours started at three fifty.
6:14
Speaker 1: I remember my uh my, my, my rent wasn't even
6:19
Speaker 1: as much as my square footage. I think my square
6:23
Speaker 1: footage was about three sixty and my rent was about
6:26
Speaker 1: three point fifty. You know, my my salary was you know,
6:31
Speaker 1: nowhere near it covered the rent basically. And I remember
6:37
Speaker 1: on Fridays often I would actually walk to work because
6:43
Speaker 1: I didn't even have the money for the bus. But
6:46
Speaker 1: it was such an exciting time to be in New
6:48
Speaker 1: York and you just you just realize that when you're energized,
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Speaker 1: you're enthused, and you're doing things you're passionate about, you know,
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Speaker 1: nothing else matters.
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Speaker 2: I love that and I the exact same way upon
7:02
Speaker 2: arriving here in New York. The second thing that we
7:04
Speaker 2: have in common I'll bite in a little bit different ways,
7:07
Speaker 2: is obviously you oversee WW and I myself have a
7:12
Speaker 2: then weight Watcher's story and that I lost seventy pounds
7:16
Speaker 2: in college and I did that with the help of
7:19
Speaker 2: then Weight Watchers.
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Speaker 1: How fantastic.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the program and everything that you all
7:25
Speaker 2: are doing at this point is quite different than when
7:29
Speaker 2: I was using it, but a lot of similarities in
7:32
Speaker 2: just the community aspect. And I remember I listened to
7:35
Speaker 2: you on a podcast not that long ago, and one
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Speaker 2: of the things that you said which you love about
7:40
Speaker 2: the WW members is when they talk about working with
7:44
Speaker 2: the company and using this as a tool in their life,
7:47
Speaker 2: that they reflect upon their experience as a whole. And
7:50
Speaker 2: it's not like the first thing they say about their
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Speaker 2: experience is like, oh, yeah, I lost weight with it.
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Speaker 2: They talk about as I talk about what I gained
8:00
Speaker 2: by using this as a tool via the community and
8:04
Speaker 2: you know, learning about myself and so many, so many
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Speaker 2: other things.
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Speaker 1: That's such a powerful way to articulate it about what
8:12
Speaker 1: you've gained, not just what you've lost, and what we
8:15
Speaker 1: find within our community, particularly in our digital community called connect.
8:22
Speaker 1: The number one hashtag is hashtag NSV non scale victory.
8:27
Speaker 1: How this has changed my life? How does it make
8:30
Speaker 1: me a better mom? Or how is it you know,
8:33
Speaker 1: giving me the empowerment and the confidence. And that's really
8:38
Speaker 1: what we're trying to build, is the ability for people
8:42
Speaker 1: to certainly have sustainable behavior change, but to really define
8:46
Speaker 1: what healthy means to them and what's going to be meaningful.
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Speaker 3: For me personally.
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Speaker 2: When I was looking to lose weight, so much of
8:53
Speaker 2: it was that I lacked a lot of self confidence
8:56
Speaker 2: as a byproduct of the fact that I was uncomfortable
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Speaker 2: in my body. So this concept of the NSV, the
9:02
Speaker 2: non scale victory, those are so so important regardless of
9:06
Speaker 2: what's happening on the scale, and to bring attention to
9:10
Speaker 2: those things because it is, in the long term, so
9:12
Speaker 2: much bigger than that singular number in your bigger picture here.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's really more important now than ever. I
9:21
Speaker 1: think what we've all been living through over the past
9:24
Speaker 1: months has really made us all sit back and do
9:29
Speaker 1: somewhat of a radical reappraisal of how we live, how
9:34
Speaker 1: we work, how we play, how we spend. And the
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Speaker 1: reality is our health is at the forefront now and
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Speaker 1: wellness is truly not a luxury, it's a necessity. And
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Speaker 1: people are really looking for what is going to give
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Speaker 1: them the support, the partnership, the motivation, the inspiration and
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Speaker 1: the community so they can really do what they need
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Speaker 1: to do to live what is a healthy life that's
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Speaker 1: meaningful to them.
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Speaker 2: I know, earlier this year, you guys made a pretty
10:12
Speaker 2: awesome pivot to start incorporating workshops for your members, and
10:19
Speaker 2: I too, as an entrepreneur, also began to do a
10:22
Speaker 2: similar offering because it became quickly apparent. As I know,
10:26
Speaker 2: you can agree that so many of the individuals in
10:30
Speaker 2: our community, so many of us, were looking for a
10:33
Speaker 2: greater sense of connectivity and to feel less alone. So
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Speaker 2: I'd love if you could just talk a little bit
10:40
Speaker 2: about how that has worked out for y'all.
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Speaker 1: Emily, it's amazing, you know, we entered the year, you know,
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Speaker 1: with this dynamic momentum. We had the launch of my
10:50
Speaker 1: ww our most personalized program in the history of the company.
10:57
Speaker 1: But we also launched the WW Presents Oprah's twenty twenty
11:03
Speaker 1: Vision Tour, a nine city arena tour sold out and
11:08
Speaker 1: if you can believe it, you know March seventh, I
11:11
Speaker 1: was at the finale in Denver with fifteen thousand people.
11:16
Speaker 1: Flew back to New York on March eighth, and by
11:19
Speaker 1: that Wednesday, realized that for the safety and security of
11:24
Speaker 1: our employees, our members, we needed to close our offices
11:28
Speaker 1: and we were going to have to pause all our
11:32
Speaker 1: studios in twelve markets around the world. And to give
11:36
Speaker 1: you some context, all our members, all our almost five
11:40
Speaker 1: million members, have our digital assets. We also have about
11:45
Speaker 1: at the time, twenty percent of our members also chose
11:49
Speaker 1: to have in person, face to face experience with coaches
11:54
Speaker 1: in our meetings, to the tune of thirty thousand meetings
11:58
Speaker 1: a week. Wow. And yes, we were concerned about safety
12:03
Speaker 1: and security, but what we also said is we cannot
12:08
Speaker 1: take our members community away from them during this time
12:13
Speaker 1: when community is more important than ever. So I remember
12:17
Speaker 1: being on a six hour call with our operations organization,
12:23
Speaker 1: our tech and product organization, and we said everyone, we
12:26
Speaker 1: are going to pivot and find a solution, and in
12:29
Speaker 1: six days we train fifteen thousand coaches and guides, and simultaneously,
12:36
Speaker 1: in twelve different markets, we launched all our workshops virtually,
12:42
Speaker 1: and I think what we've learned and by the way,
12:45
Speaker 1: those workshops continue to this day, and our future offering
12:50
Speaker 1: will be digital plus unlimited workshops, So in the United
12:54
Speaker 1: States we'll have sixteen hours a day, seven days a week,
12:57
Speaker 1: because we know that people want to have that support.
13:02
Speaker 1: They want it on their own terms, whether it's digital,
13:05
Speaker 1: whether it's physical, whether it's virtual, and we want to
13:09
Speaker 1: be there for that support. But what it really prove
13:15
Speaker 1: to us is that the investments that we've made over
13:19
Speaker 1: the last number of years in our organization and our
13:23
Speaker 1: talent and our purpose and in our focus as well
13:27
Speaker 1: as how we work together, the need for collaboration, agility
13:32
Speaker 1: and empowerment as well as creativity and innovation, these are
13:38
Speaker 1: the moments where that needs to rise to a different
13:44
Speaker 1: level and you can inspire people in very different ways,
13:50
Speaker 1: even in a challenging environment. And it's just proven to
13:55
Speaker 1: be so powerful, certainly for our business, but more importantly
14:00
Speaker 1: because our member was at the center of every thought
14:06
Speaker 1: process that we needed to be there for them and
14:10
Speaker 1: the organization focused on that purpose.
14:13
Speaker 3: Where there's a will, there's a way.
14:15
Speaker 2: It's also really interesting to me as someone who is
14:19
Speaker 2: creating experiences with a very specific individual in mind. Like
14:24
Speaker 2: I'm thinking of a woman, she's probably between the ages
14:27
Speaker 2: of like I don't know, twenty and thirty eight to
14:30
Speaker 2: be specific, I mean Weight Watchers members. The demographics we're
14:35
Speaker 2: talking about, it's such a wide array of individuals.
14:40
Speaker 1: Well, what's been beautiful about being able to have this
14:45
Speaker 1: combination of physical and virtual We're not bound by geography.
14:53
Speaker 1: What we're able to do today is to be able
14:57
Speaker 1: to have people be able to choose who's what I
15:01
Speaker 1: call their tribe right, who they want to be with,
15:04
Speaker 1: what coach is going to inspire them, what groups they
15:09
Speaker 1: want to be part of. Is a young men is it?
15:11
Speaker 1: You know, a young mom's group, is a men's group.
15:15
Speaker 1: We have an incredible Black women's group. So people really
15:19
Speaker 1: are able to come together with what is going to
15:26
Speaker 1: give them the accountability, give them the support, and give
15:29
Speaker 1: them the community. And in some cases we have moms
15:33
Speaker 1: and daughters who live across the country from one another
15:37
Speaker 1: now being able to do WW together because of that capability.
15:44
Speaker 1: So I really think in today's world, particularly when it
15:48
Speaker 1: comes to health and wellness, you know, you need to
15:52
Speaker 1: meet people where they are, and you need to understand
15:56
Speaker 1: their motivation and what's going to work for them, and
15:59
Speaker 1: you know, so that's why personalization today and using data
16:03
Speaker 1: and technology to be able to meet people in a
16:08
Speaker 1: more intimate way because you understand them is so important.
16:13
Speaker 1: You know. Just yesterday actually, which I was very very
16:17
Speaker 1: excited about, we launched our newest tech led innovation in
16:22
Speaker 1: the company's history, fueled by AI and data. It is
16:27
Speaker 1: a very personalized approach across all the areas of wellness,
16:34
Speaker 1: from nutrition to activity, to mindset to sleep. And the
16:39
Speaker 1: beauty of it is you take an assessment, it then
16:43
Speaker 1: knows you, It follows you, it gives you the feedback,
16:48
Speaker 1: it gives you the support, and the more you have utilization,
16:52
Speaker 1: the more personalized it's going to become for you. And
16:56
Speaker 1: I think, you know, in today's world, that's very much
16:59
Speaker 1: people's ex They want you to know them, They want
17:03
Speaker 1: you to anticipate what is going to work for them
17:07
Speaker 1: and allow them to have the greatest success. And that's
17:12
Speaker 1: really what we've been trying to do.
17:14
Speaker 2: WEIGHT is one of the most personal things that you
17:17
Speaker 2: can open up to somebody else about. There's a reason why,
17:21
Speaker 2: you know, we all joke about the fact that you
17:23
Speaker 2: never ask someone what their weight is. And I remember
17:26
Speaker 2: in my in my research of all things WW the
17:29
Speaker 2: chief brand Officer, Gail Tifford said ones that our members
17:33
Speaker 2: share everything with us, from their credit cards to what
17:35
Speaker 2: they're eating every day, to their emotions, and we use
17:38
Speaker 2: that to make their experience better. So this is just
17:41
Speaker 2: another you know, stepping stone for you to really get
17:46
Speaker 2: some more intel about the member and then offer them
17:50
Speaker 2: that more personalized experience.
17:52
Speaker 1: It's so important and that's the beauty of my WW Plus,
17:56
Speaker 1: which is the program. And Gail, who you mentioned, over
17:59
Speaker 1: the last number of years, we've really done a lot
18:03
Speaker 1: of work to understand what is going to motivate, what's
18:09
Speaker 1: going to inspire, what's going to give people, you know,
18:14
Speaker 1: the ability to move forward in a different way with confidence.
18:19
Speaker 1: And you know, you mentioned, you know, weight is a
18:22
Speaker 1: very polarizing you know, it's kind of like politics. You know,
18:27
Speaker 1: it's very personal, it's very polarizing, and you know it
18:31
Speaker 1: has to be it has to be more than that.
18:33
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to give people the tools and
18:36
Speaker 1: the confidence, and you have to ask them what does
18:39
Speaker 1: healthy mean to you? And certainly wait, maybe a major
18:43
Speaker 1: part of what people feel that is an unlock, but
18:49
Speaker 1: it is bigger than that, and it has to be
18:52
Speaker 1: the whole self, and you have to be able to
18:55
Speaker 1: understand what it is that's going to motivate people. What
18:59
Speaker 1: are there, what are their blockers, what are their enablers?
19:02
Speaker 1: And the more you know about them, the more you're
19:05
Speaker 1: going to be able to support them.
19:08
Speaker 2: And we're vibing here on this concept that weight can
19:11
Speaker 2: be something really vulnerable, can be super polarizing, similar to politics,
19:16
Speaker 2: and I feel like it's important for us, if only briefly,
19:20
Speaker 2: to kind of touch on the greater discussion, which has
19:25
Speaker 2: been the body positivity movement and understanding that there can
19:29
Speaker 2: be health at different sizes. I wasn't happy in the
19:34
Speaker 2: body that I was in, and so that's why at
19:37
Speaker 2: the time I sought out to lose weight. That's not
19:40
Speaker 2: to say that someone else who may be where I started,
19:45
Speaker 2: which was two hundred and four pounds, they might not
19:48
Speaker 2: feel that way, And you know what, that's fine, But
19:50
Speaker 2: I think what's empowering, at least from my point of view,
19:54
Speaker 2: about WW is that it's y'all are empowering other people.
19:59
Speaker 2: Y'all are guiding others the opportunity to find where it
20:03
Speaker 2: is that makes them happy and set their own goals
20:06
Speaker 2: along the way.
20:07
Speaker 1: Emily, that is exactly you know, how we look at things.
20:11
Speaker 1: So we are the biggest believers in body positivity in
20:16
Speaker 1: the world. We do not tell anyone what they should weigh,
20:20
Speaker 1: We do not define that for people. What we say
20:23
Speaker 1: is what does healthy mean to you? And we will
20:27
Speaker 1: give you the tools and the support the community to
20:33
Speaker 1: help you achieve what that goal is for yourself. And
20:39
Speaker 1: that's so important today because it really is about confidence,
20:44
Speaker 1: but it's also about knowing your body and knowing what
20:48
Speaker 1: is right for you at any given time. And I
20:52
Speaker 1: think the other thing that's important. You know, this is
20:55
Speaker 1: a journey. Health is a journey throughout your life. You know,
20:59
Speaker 1: there's not before and after or a beginning and end, right,
21:03
Speaker 1: it's what do you need at any different life stage
21:06
Speaker 1: or any different point in your life. And you know,
21:09
Speaker 1: I always say my daughter, who's thirty and a young
21:13
Speaker 1: mom of two, very into health and wellness like yourself.
21:18
Speaker 1: She lost a tremendous amount of weight on WW after
21:22
Speaker 1: her first baby, she's actually become a one on one
21:25
Speaker 1: personal coach. But what she's looking for and what her
21:29
Speaker 1: support and what her needs and what her activities are
21:32
Speaker 1: are different than mine at this stage of my life.
21:36
Speaker 1: You know, I even the questions I may ask are different,
21:39
Speaker 1: or the support that I need is different. And what
21:43
Speaker 1: we want to do is be there no matter what
21:46
Speaker 1: that life stage is, to provide people with whatever that
21:50
Speaker 1: need is at any given time, for sure.
21:53
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that there are a lot of people
21:55
Speaker 2: listening to this. I mean, I feel like most women
21:59
Speaker 2: my age when I tell them that I've had my
22:01
Speaker 2: own experience previously with the Weight Watchers program. You know,
22:05
Speaker 2: everyone has some sort of story that has to go
22:08
Speaker 2: hand in hand with that, whether it's my mom did it,
22:10
Speaker 2: I did it, my friend's aunt did it, like someone
22:13
Speaker 2: did it I was as I was growing up, and
22:16
Speaker 2: so it's interesting to me now. I mean, like I said,
22:19
Speaker 2: it's been about ten years since I've actively been on
22:23
Speaker 2: the program, at least at this point.
22:25
Speaker 1: I know.
22:26
Speaker 3: When I was on it, you.
22:28
Speaker 2: Certainly were rewarded for hitting a different weight loss milestones.
22:33
Speaker 2: Are those still in play or are you finding different
22:37
Speaker 2: ways to reward your members that are both you know,
22:40
Speaker 2: on the scale and then along with those non scale
22:43
Speaker 2: victories that we were chatting about before.
22:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, human nature loves acknowledgement, right, Oh for sure,
22:52
Speaker 1: love celebration and love's recognition and one of the things
22:59
Speaker 1: that I love about WW. So let me tell you
23:02
Speaker 1: my story first.
23:04
Speaker 3: So that's where we're going.
23:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I grew up on Long Island. My first Weight
23:08
Speaker 1: Watchers meeting, I was fourteen. I went with my mother,
23:12
Speaker 1: who unfortunately had a very big issue with her health
23:15
Speaker 1: and weight her whole life. And maybe that's why I'm
23:18
Speaker 1: even so much more passionate about what we're doing. But
23:23
Speaker 1: I wanted to lose some weight because I wanted to
23:25
Speaker 1: try out for cheerleading, So I went to the meetings.
23:29
Speaker 1: At the time I lost the weight, I made the
23:32
Speaker 1: cheerleading squad and that was my first experience. And you know,
23:38
Speaker 1: if you fast forward to today, obviously you know there's
23:43
Speaker 1: such a difference in the experience of what we do
23:47
Speaker 1: and the technology. But what still is there is the
23:52
Speaker 1: science behind the program of what we do, the efficacy,
23:56
Speaker 1: the sustainability and the support of the community, and the
24:02
Speaker 1: recognition of what it is you're doing along the way.
24:08
Speaker 1: So one of the things we launched a little over
24:12
Speaker 1: a year ago, which I love, is something called Wellness Wins.
24:17
Speaker 1: And Wellness Wins does not reward you like other loyalty
24:21
Speaker 1: and rewards program for spending money. It rewards you for
24:26
Speaker 1: the actions that you take for your health. So are
24:31
Speaker 1: you tracking your food, are you doing your activity, are
24:34
Speaker 1: you getting your sleep in, you know, whatever that is,
24:40
Speaker 1: including your your weight journey, and you win Wellness Wins,
24:44
Speaker 1: And at different levels, you can redeem your Wellness Wins
24:49
Speaker 1: for a lot of different you know prizes, as you will.
24:55
Speaker 1: It could be a great you know, exercise subscription with
25:02
Speaker 1: obey for video fitness. It could be subscription for Rent
25:07
Speaker 1: the Runway. It could be great inspiring products, or it
25:11
Speaker 1: could be a donation to ww good, which is our
25:15
Speaker 1: philanthropic arm which helps underserved communities access fresh food to
25:22
Speaker 1: get healthy. And people love that because not only are
25:27
Speaker 1: they doing something that is helping themselves, but in many
25:31
Speaker 1: cases it's also helping others. And even within our app,
25:37
Speaker 1: when we identify that you've had a streak, you know
25:40
Speaker 1: you've been tracking your breakfast on a consistent way for
25:45
Speaker 1: a number of times, will reward you with you know,
25:49
Speaker 1: extra winds for that recognition. So you know, again, I
25:55
Speaker 1: think people want to be acknowledged, they want to be
25:59
Speaker 1: recognized eyes and they want support along the way. And
26:03
Speaker 1: I always say one of the one of the words
26:05
Speaker 1: I always equate with WW is joy. You know, we're
26:09
Speaker 1: in a world where you know, we need joy. And
26:14
Speaker 1: if you could be in an environment that you know
26:17
Speaker 1: is going to support you and they know you and
26:21
Speaker 1: they trust you, I mean, the trust factor you know,
26:24
Speaker 1: in today's environment is more critical than ever.
26:27
Speaker 2: And you mentioned obviously an interest in cheerleading and that's
26:31
Speaker 2: what brought you into into your first weight Watchers meeting.
26:35
Speaker 2: Aside from what we know now is that you did
26:38
Speaker 2: that talk to me a little bit about your upbringing
26:41
Speaker 2: and that you have quite the career path for us
26:44
Speaker 2: to get to. So give me some backstory on all
26:48
Speaker 2: things middy.
26:49
Speaker 1: You know, my parents, you know, grew up in Brooklyn.
26:53
Speaker 1: My mom wasn't able to finish high school because her
26:57
Speaker 1: mother had a stroke and tend to take care of
26:59
Speaker 1: her mind. My dad finished high school and went into
27:03
Speaker 1: the Air Force. They got married when my mom was
27:06
Speaker 1: eighteen and my dad was twenty two. Her mom and
27:10
Speaker 1: then Subsequently, her mom got remarried. They lived with them,
27:15
Speaker 1: and all my mom momed was a child, and they
27:19
Speaker 1: tried and were not having success. My father worked nights
27:24
Speaker 1: in the produce business, used to go in at midnight,
27:28
Speaker 1: and twelve years went by, so by this point my
27:31
Speaker 1: mom was thirty my dad was thirty four, and it
27:34
Speaker 1: was devastating to her that she couldn't have a child,
27:38
Speaker 1: and they didn't have the financial wherewithal to have the
27:42
Speaker 1: money for adoption. My father went into work one evening
27:47
Speaker 1: and his boss, who just adored him, handed him an
27:51
Speaker 1: envelope and said, I feel just how you're struggling, and
27:58
Speaker 1: here's a check to be able to afford to adopt
28:01
Speaker 1: a child. And I'm that child. And I was adopted
28:05
Speaker 1: when I was three days old. And from the day
28:09
Speaker 1: I was adopted, you know, I remember, maybe not that day,
28:15
Speaker 1: but over the course of my growing up, my parents
28:19
Speaker 1: always telling me, you know, you can do anything you want,
28:23
Speaker 1: you can achieve anything you want. You know, it's up
28:28
Speaker 1: to you, and you'll have the support. And I remember
28:31
Speaker 1: at some point having it crystallized for me that if
28:35
Speaker 1: I was given this gift, it was up to me
28:40
Speaker 1: to use that gift. To make an impact, and my
28:48
Speaker 1: ultimate goal was to be successful enough whatever that meant
28:54
Speaker 1: that I could then pay that gift forward and do
28:57
Speaker 1: for other people what I had the benefit of. So
29:02
Speaker 1: I was pretty serious growing up. I ended up finishing
29:08
Speaker 1: high school as a junior, went right into college planning
29:11
Speaker 1: to be a lawyer. I got engaged when I was
29:15
Speaker 1: nineteen to my high school sweetheart, so you know, the
29:19
Speaker 1: path was all there. And then in my last semester
29:22
Speaker 1: senior year of college, I really had an epiphany and said, no,
29:30
Speaker 1: I don't think this is the right path. I thought
29:34
Speaker 1: it was, but I've given a lot of thought to
29:38
Speaker 1: my future and really what I want, and I want
29:41
Speaker 1: to take a different path. So if you can imagine
29:44
Speaker 1: calling your parents and saying I have something to tell you.
29:49
Speaker 1: I've decided not to get married. I'm breaking my engagement.
29:54
Speaker 1: I'm not going to law school in the fall, and
29:57
Speaker 1: I'm actually leaving right now and I'm moving to New
29:59
Speaker 1: York and I'm going to find a different path. There
30:04
Speaker 1: was silence at the other end of the phone, if
30:06
Speaker 1: you can imagine, but I knew I was doing the
30:10
Speaker 1: right thing, and in the you know, nineteen seventy seven,
30:15
Speaker 1: I picked up and moved to New York City and said,
30:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to find the path that's right for me.
30:21
Speaker 1: I know, I want a business path, but I want
30:24
Speaker 1: something creatively charged. And you know, the lesson from all
30:30
Speaker 1: of that that shaped my career, to be quite honest,
30:35
Speaker 1: is that you know, risk taking in boldness is the
30:38
Speaker 1: essence of transformation, and sometimes not taking the risk is riskier.
30:44
Speaker 1: And if you have a vision and you have a
30:48
Speaker 1: belief and you've really thought that through of what's going
30:51
Speaker 1: to be right for you, you need to move forward.
30:56
Speaker 1: And you know, that decision I made, as you know,
31:00
Speaker 1: well unusual as other people thought it was, was unquestionably
31:04
Speaker 1: the right one for me. And it set me on
31:07
Speaker 1: a path that allowed me, over the course of those years,
31:13
Speaker 1: to affect transformation and to build businesses and to motivate others.
31:21
Speaker 1: And I look back and that moment, you know, was
31:26
Speaker 1: a pivotal moment of both my life and my career.
31:37
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to y
31:39
Speaker 2: All about athletic greens. It's funny because I've been talking
31:43
Speaker 2: about athletic greens and taking athletic greens for some time now.
31:46
Speaker 3: As you know, greens.
31:48
Speaker 2: Powder has the anti accident equivalent to twelve servings of
31:51
Speaker 2: fruits and vegetables, as well as probiotics and probiotics and
31:55
Speaker 2: adaptogens and superfoods.
31:56
Speaker 3: It's got a lot of good stuff in there.
31:58
Speaker 2: For me, it's like my immunity insurance to help my
32:01
Speaker 2: body perform at its top best level all the time. Anyway,
32:06
Speaker 2: I've been talking about this stuff for a while now,
32:09
Speaker 2: but lately the questions are pouring in. Two of most
32:12
Speaker 2: popular questions, one, what does it taste like? Well, I
32:15
Speaker 2: can tell you what it doesn't taste like. It doesn't
32:17
Speaker 2: taste like grass like you might be used to with
32:20
Speaker 2: other green beverages.
32:22
Speaker 3: This it just tastes good.
32:23
Speaker 2: It has a hint of sweetness without that yucky aftertaste.
32:27
Speaker 2: And the second most popular question, what do you mix
32:30
Speaker 2: it with? I am big on just shaking it up
32:32
Speaker 2: with an ice cube and ten to twelve ounces of
32:34
Speaker 2: water in the morning. I've heard that individuals love to
32:38
Speaker 2: do it with a splash of coconut milk. I also
32:40
Speaker 2: add into it my daily serving of vitamin D and
32:44
Speaker 2: that's it. I shake it up, I sip it. I'm
32:46
Speaker 2: good to go. I'm ready to tackle the day. They
32:49
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32:52
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33:28
Speaker 2: And you talk about it as though like it's the
33:31
Speaker 2: perfect script for a blockbuster movie. I think so many
33:36
Speaker 2: individuals hear what you're saying about.
33:40
Speaker 3: You know, I had it all. I was engaged. I
33:42
Speaker 3: know that eventually you broke off that engagement. But you then,
33:46
Speaker 3: you know, you.
33:46
Speaker 2: Made this decision that going to law school wasn't for you,
33:49
Speaker 2: And so many people can can sympathize with that and
33:52
Speaker 2: relate to that. But where you differ, and where a
33:55
Speaker 2: lot of individuals I would say struggle is some would
33:59
Speaker 2: just kind of kind of sit in their inner tube
34:01
Speaker 2: and go down the river while you decided I'm jumping out,
34:05
Speaker 2: I'm jumping ship and I'm going to figure.
34:07
Speaker 3: This out my own way.
34:08
Speaker 2: Was there a specific something that happened to you that
34:12
Speaker 2: convinced you that you needed to make this pivot, or
34:15
Speaker 2: a certain conversation you had, like, how do you, you know,
34:19
Speaker 2: speak to someone who feels like they're just kind of
34:21
Speaker 2: stuck in the inner tube and they don't know how
34:23
Speaker 2: to jump ship?
34:24
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think the way to really think
34:26
Speaker 1: about it, and I think for women it's actually more challenging.
34:32
Speaker 1: You know. I like to say that you know a
34:35
Speaker 1: lot of men, you know, they look at an opportunity
34:39
Speaker 1: or you know, should they do something, and they go,
34:42
Speaker 1: I'll go for it. You know, what's the worst that
34:44
Speaker 1: could happen? Where I think the other side of that
34:48
Speaker 1: is the worst thing is going to happen and it's not.
34:52
Speaker 1: You know, there's a big difference between risk taking and suicide, right,
34:57
Speaker 1: You need to take different risks at different time of
35:00
Speaker 1: your life that you can kind of look and see
35:03
Speaker 1: the vista. And I was twenty years old, and my
35:08
Speaker 1: feeling was if I didn't take the risk, now, why
35:12
Speaker 1: would I go so far down a path where it
35:15
Speaker 1: would be harder and harder for me to make those
35:18
Speaker 1: difficult choices? And you know that to me is you know,
35:24
Speaker 1: I what I tell people, you know, there's a reason
35:29
Speaker 1: that you have the clarity that you have to make
35:32
Speaker 1: that change or that decision, and it usually does not
35:36
Speaker 1: happen overnight. You know, it's something that you've definitely been
35:40
Speaker 1: thinking of and then the moment comes where you do
35:44
Speaker 1: have to make a final decision because the time frame
35:48
Speaker 1: is such that you need to do that. And that's
35:50
Speaker 1: what happened to me. And you know, I moved to
35:53
Speaker 1: New York and I started looking at a number of
35:58
Speaker 1: different industries media in this landscape, being one in the
36:03
Speaker 1: fashion industry being the other. And you know, I had
36:07
Speaker 1: an opportunity to go be the assistant to the president
36:10
Speaker 1: of an international division of a large men'swear company. And
36:15
Speaker 1: it's a funny story. When I was in my interview,
36:20
Speaker 1: you know, he was asking me all these questions and
36:22
Speaker 1: at one point he said, well, do you take shorthand
36:25
Speaker 1: I said, no, I take fast, long hand. And you know,
36:28
Speaker 1: I got the job. But I do think it's another
36:31
Speaker 1: example of don't focus on what you can't do, focus
36:35
Speaker 1: on what you can contribute and be creative with that.
36:38
Speaker 1: And you know, it's another learning throughout my career is
36:43
Speaker 1: what is the problem someone is trying to solve and
36:46
Speaker 1: maybe there are other ways I can solve the problem
36:49
Speaker 1: and be creative and you know, look around corners and
36:53
Speaker 1: all of those things, you know, and that's really what
36:56
Speaker 1: started my career. I spent the first eighteen years of
36:58
Speaker 1: my career and the men's wear industry. I worked there
37:01
Speaker 1: for a year and realized that a woman was not
37:04
Speaker 1: going to get any of the bigger opportunities and roles.
37:09
Speaker 1: Went to work for a designer named Jeffrey Banks, and
37:13
Speaker 1: then further went into Marona Sport. Worked for an incredible
37:20
Speaker 1: designer in the eighties named Willie Smith, who was really
37:25
Speaker 1: an innovator in his time around cultural influence, the intersection
37:30
Speaker 1: of art and culture, one of the first real successful
37:36
Speaker 1: black designers, as was Jeffrey and you know, really believed that,
37:42
Speaker 1: you know, fashion came from the street up, not just
37:44
Speaker 1: coulture down. And it reinforced for me the intersection of
37:50
Speaker 1: culture and art and fashion and you know what that
37:55
Speaker 1: could mean across multiple businesses, which we obviously seen, you know,
38:02
Speaker 1: really develop over the course of years. Then I worked. Unfortunately,
38:07
Speaker 1: Willie was one of the casualty of aids that was
38:11
Speaker 1: a really difficult time in New York in certain industries,
38:15
Speaker 1: really was affected by it. Then I went to work
38:17
Speaker 1: for Tommy Hillfigure and really saw the trajectory of that business.
38:22
Speaker 1: Most of my roles leading up to that were really
38:25
Speaker 1: in sales and sales and merchandising. And I always say
38:30
Speaker 1: to people, but the reason I was so successful in
38:33
Speaker 1: sales is I never sold anything to anyone. I never
38:37
Speaker 1: sold anything to anyone. What I did was look to
38:42
Speaker 1: anticipate what people's needs were, what their motivation, What could
38:47
Speaker 1: I do to support them and be able to service
38:51
Speaker 1: that need with whatever product or what I was providing them.
38:56
Speaker 1: And that's been my philosophy to this day. You know,
38:59
Speaker 1: how can I focus on making other people successful? And
39:05
Speaker 1: if I do that, I ultimately and the business ultimately
39:09
Speaker 1: will be more successful. And that's really stayed with me
39:14
Speaker 1: throughout my career. I then spent ten years with Ralph Lauren.
39:19
Speaker 1: You know, I turned around Chaps for Ralph Lauren. Then
39:22
Speaker 1: I ran new business development for Ralph, and then I
39:25
Speaker 1: started Polo Jean's company. And I always say I have
39:30
Speaker 1: such respect for any entrepreneur because you know, I did
39:34
Speaker 1: a startup, but I had other people's money to do it.
39:38
Speaker 1: I didn't have to go out and raise but it
39:41
Speaker 1: was an incredible exciting time. We took the business from
39:44
Speaker 1: zero to four hundred and fifty million in a few years.
39:48
Speaker 1: We got acquired by Jens New York. I made the
39:51
Speaker 1: decision that wasn't really kind of what my next step was,
39:55
Speaker 1: and got a call from a gentleman named Phil Knight.
39:58
Speaker 3: Lit'll Phil Night.
40:00
Speaker 1: He had just come back into Nike to build a
40:02
Speaker 1: new executive team and relaunch you know, the vision and
40:07
Speaker 1: the purpose of the organization. And I was so excited
40:12
Speaker 1: to join, but really couldn't move for a lot of reasons.
40:15
Speaker 1: My family to Portland, and so I had to turn
40:19
Speaker 1: it down, which I was devastated about. And what's very
40:22
Speaker 1: special about him he called me back and he said,
40:25
Speaker 1: you know, can we make it work. We're willing to
40:26
Speaker 1: make it work if you are. And at the time,
40:30
Speaker 1: you know, I was married, I had my daughter, you know,
40:34
Speaker 1: who was about eight or nine I think at the time,
40:39
Speaker 1: and we all decided that we were going to work
40:42
Speaker 1: as a family to support me and you know, have
40:47
Speaker 1: this experience. So thinking I would probably commute for a
40:50
Speaker 1: short period of time, I ended up taking over their
40:55
Speaker 1: global apparel business, starting their first women's leadership council, really
41:00
Speaker 1: being a voice for diversity within the company. And I
41:03
Speaker 1: was there for six years, so kind of crazy, you know,
41:07
Speaker 1: communing between New York and Portland and out of the
41:10
Speaker 1: country thirty percent of the time. But it was an
41:13
Speaker 1: incredible and exciting opportunity to be part of, you know,
41:18
Speaker 1: the new phase of the organization when they launched their
41:22
Speaker 1: new mission to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete
41:26
Speaker 1: if you have a body, you're an athlete, and really
41:28
Speaker 1: democratizing really what sport and what athletics was, and a
41:34
Speaker 1: lot of learnings from that, certainly in my business today,
41:37
Speaker 1: but around the democratization of wellness. But after six years,
41:42
Speaker 1: my daughter was getting older and I realized that it
41:47
Speaker 1: was time. I was ready to be a CEO. But
41:50
Speaker 1: you know, when you've had such a great experience, where
41:53
Speaker 1: are you going to go? And you know, I'm a
41:55
Speaker 1: big believer in list making, really right down and think
42:00
Speaker 1: truly what's important to you at any given period of time.
42:05
Speaker 1: It's not just who approaches you or what opportunities come
42:09
Speaker 1: to you. What is the lens you're really looking through,
42:12
Speaker 1: or what I like to call your purpose filter, and
42:15
Speaker 1: for me, I knew I wanted a business that could
42:19
Speaker 1: take advantage of what was really happening in the world.
42:23
Speaker 1: I had the experience being in Japan and being in
42:25
Speaker 1: China and seeing the dynamic growth of technology and mobile
42:30
Speaker 1: and how people were interfacing with content in a very
42:34
Speaker 1: different way. The media landscape is changing, Brands were becoming
42:39
Speaker 1: distribution captives, so the ability to find a way to
42:43
Speaker 1: reach new audience, and I wanted a business that could
42:46
Speaker 1: be transformed, but that had scale. And I had the
42:50
Speaker 1: opportunity to be approached to run Barry Diller's retail portfolio
42:57
Speaker 1: at IAC, which included at the time Home Shopping Network
43:01
Speaker 1: and a whole portfolio of catalog brands, and I'd really
43:06
Speaker 1: never heard of very much of it, but I got
43:09
Speaker 1: incredibly intrigued by the media platform and how it could
43:15
Speaker 1: really convert into multiple technology platforms, particularly mobile, and had
43:22
Speaker 1: the epiphany watching side by side Home Shopping Network and
43:29
Speaker 1: Food Network that we could be a platform for editorial
43:34
Speaker 1: program commerce, meaning why couldn't we be Food Network, DIY,
43:40
Speaker 1: HGTV style all of these things, but actually sell the
43:44
Speaker 1: products and storytell. Have the founders have the entrepreneurs have
43:50
Speaker 1: the visionaries and went in and pitched Barry on the idea,
43:55
Speaker 1: and in two thousand and six joined IAC, took the
44:02
Speaker 1: company over, transformed the brand, relaunched it in the summer
44:07
Speaker 1: of two thousand and seven, and then spun out and
44:10
Speaker 1: took the company public in August two thousand and eight,
44:14
Speaker 1: right before the world fell apart. So Emily, I always
44:17
Speaker 1: thought that was going to be the biggest crisis of
44:20
Speaker 1: my career until March happened.
44:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, but clearly, you know a.
44:28
Speaker 1: Tremendous number of learnings that we all can apply, you know,
44:34
Speaker 1: from my experience then to my experience now, and that is,
44:41
Speaker 1: don't focus on what you can't do in these environments.
44:47
Speaker 1: Focus on what you can do and what you have
44:50
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do. And how can you accelerate, how
44:54
Speaker 1: can you invest in innovation, How can you rethink your
44:58
Speaker 1: business coming out of this, How can you galvanize your
45:02
Speaker 1: organization with a very very focused purpose on what it
45:07
Speaker 1: is that you can do. You know the need for
45:13
Speaker 1: an incredible communication and inspiration for your teams no matter
45:19
Speaker 1: where they are. And I like to say, you know,
45:23
Speaker 1: when you're going through a situation like I did in
45:27
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight or over this past year. I'm
45:30
Speaker 1: not just the CEO. I'm the chief communication officer. I'm
45:35
Speaker 1: the chief crisis officer, and I'm the chief hope officer.
45:38
Speaker 1: You know, how are we going to come out of
45:40
Speaker 1: this a stronger company? And if you look at two
45:42
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and if you look at the companies
45:45
Speaker 1: who leaned in and they continue to innovate, and they
45:47
Speaker 1: kept their organizations together, and they envisioned the future, and
45:52
Speaker 1: they were agile, and they were nimble, and they were innovative.
45:56
Speaker 1: Those are the companies that came out stronger as opposed
45:59
Speaker 1: to the company that got defensive and sat back and immobilized.
46:04
Speaker 1: And I think the exact learnings of today as I
46:07
Speaker 1: spoke about earlier on what we've been able to do
46:11
Speaker 1: during this time. You know, it's all about the same thing.
46:15
Speaker 1: Galvanize the organization around a purpose, note that they're going
46:20
Speaker 1: to have support, control what you can control, invest and
46:24
Speaker 1: innovate and give people the opportunity to be agile, to
46:29
Speaker 1: move quickly, and to be empowered, you know. And that's
46:34
Speaker 1: what we did. And you know, when we came out
46:36
Speaker 1: of you know, the economic crisis, HSN actually grew into
46:41
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine, and
46:43
Speaker 1: not many other people, particularly in retail, could say say that,
46:47
Speaker 1: you know, and really went on to build a very
46:51
Speaker 1: powerful both entertainment media and you know, merchandising platform that
47:00
Speaker 1: engage people through storytelling and you know, built community just
47:05
Speaker 1: like we're trying to do right now, you know. And
47:09
Speaker 1: after you know, ten years of being there, I really
47:14
Speaker 1: saw another opportunity and you know, I knew that if
47:18
Speaker 1: I wanted to do you know, one more big thing
47:21
Speaker 1: in my career, it was very important to me that
47:24
Speaker 1: I not only deliver a financial return on equity, but
47:27
Speaker 1: I really wanted to deliver a human return on equity.
47:31
Speaker 1: And I got very, very fascinated by what was happening
47:35
Speaker 1: in the world of health and wellness and how consumer
47:39
Speaker 1: behavior was changing when I heard what WW or Weight
47:44
Speaker 1: Watchers at the time was really trying to do. This
47:47
Speaker 1: incredible company that been transforming wise for fifty five years,
47:53
Speaker 1: built on the science of certainly healthy programmatic weight loss
47:59
Speaker 1: and built on community, but in today's environment, really wanted
48:04
Speaker 1: to move forward and give people all aspects of healthy behavior,
48:11
Speaker 1: change and wellness, but still built on the power of community.
48:17
Speaker 1: You know, I was so inspired to realize the kind
48:20
Speaker 1: of impact we could make on the world, and that's
48:24
Speaker 1: what really drove me to join the company and work
48:28
Speaker 1: to really develop our new purpose and mission of inspiring
48:34
Speaker 1: healthy habits for real life for people, families, communities, the
48:38
Speaker 1: world for everyone, and really be that brand that could
48:41
Speaker 1: be a partner for everyone to democratize wellness and ultimately
48:49
Speaker 1: work to change the health trajectory of the world. And
48:52
Speaker 1: look what we've been living through these last you know,
48:56
Speaker 1: this last year. It just really highlights the fact that,
49:01
Speaker 1: you know, we need a reset and people need a
49:06
Speaker 1: partner in that healthy living and what that means to them.
49:13
Speaker 1: And it's also raised the issue of health disparities around
49:18
Speaker 1: the world. So how can we also help affect that.
49:23
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here in all of you, I've basically hurdle
49:26
Speaker 2: has just become the Mindy Grossman ted talk. You've done
49:33
Speaker 2: nothing awesome in your career. I don't know why we're
49:35
Speaker 2: having this conversation. I am beside myself because there are
49:39
Speaker 2: so many things that I want to ask you about.
49:42
Speaker 2: I think first and foremost, you mentioned while you were
49:45
Speaker 2: at Nike being a huge component of the Nike Women's
49:49
Speaker 2: Leadership Council. Obviously, someone of your position, of your veteran
49:54
Speaker 2: status as a female leader and now CEO and president,
50:00
Speaker 2: you are admired by many, and.
50:01
Speaker 3: Many look to you for advice.
50:03
Speaker 2: Who over the years, now, specifically woman, I would love
50:07
Speaker 2: to ask have been the individuals that you have looked
50:11
Speaker 2: to for advice and if you have a highlight to
50:14
Speaker 2: offer me.
50:15
Speaker 1: First of all, I have been a very outspoken advocate
50:22
Speaker 1: of diversity and that it is one of the most
50:27
Speaker 1: significant business and societal imperatives of anything. And if you
50:37
Speaker 1: have diversity, you are going to have greater success. You're
50:43
Speaker 1: going to be able to have the different conversations, You're
50:47
Speaker 1: going to be able to identify the opportunities. You know,
50:52
Speaker 1: it is just so critical. Having said that, my mentors
51:01
Speaker 1: have been male, they've been female. They've been more senior
51:06
Speaker 1: to me, they've been more junior to me. You know.
51:11
Speaker 1: I feel that I've been very fortunate to really have
51:16
Speaker 1: been built a authentic network of people who I want
51:21
Speaker 1: to help succeed and inspire and in turn I learn
51:26
Speaker 1: from them. So today, for example, I'm involved with a
51:31
Speaker 1: lot of young female entrepreneurs and yes, I want to
51:34
Speaker 1: give them advice and give them knowledge and experience, but
51:39
Speaker 1: I am learning as much from them and what they're
51:43
Speaker 1: going through in a different lifetime, right, So I think
51:48
Speaker 1: it's very important to understand that inspiration and whether it's
51:53
Speaker 1: informal or formal, mentorship comes in many, many different forms.
52:00
Speaker 2: Reminds me of when I sat down with Wendy Yang.
52:03
Speaker 3: By the way, do you know Wendy?
52:04
Speaker 1: Yes, I do.
52:05
Speaker 2: I was going to say, because you both crossed at
52:07
Speaker 2: did you were you at Tommy Hill Figure at the
52:09
Speaker 2: same time?
52:10
Speaker 1: Not at the same time, but you know of one
52:12
Speaker 1: of those. Yeah.
52:13
Speaker 2: So when I sat down with Wendy and god, that
52:15
Speaker 2: was episode I want to say ninety three. So it's
52:18
Speaker 2: been quite a while, but she talked extensively about how
52:22
Speaker 2: grateful she is to have mentors that are indeed younger
52:27
Speaker 2: than her at this stage in her career, and the
52:29
Speaker 2: opportunity to exchange ideas coming from you know, different backgrounds
52:33
Speaker 2: and levels of experience.
52:35
Speaker 1: Well, I do think it's I think it's very important,
52:38
Speaker 1: and that goes back to diversity. Of course. You know,
52:41
Speaker 1: when we look at diversity, even in our own organization
52:44
Speaker 1: on we look at age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, life
52:49
Speaker 1: stage right, and you know, how do you build both
52:54
Speaker 1: within your organization and within your consumer base the knowledge
53:00
Speaker 1: to be able to understand the needs right at different
53:04
Speaker 1: points in people's lives. You know, I have to say
53:07
Speaker 1: I've been very fortunate over the past three and a
53:10
Speaker 1: half years, you know, when I was talking to the
53:16
Speaker 1: company and contemplating, you know, joining, I flew out to
53:23
Speaker 1: California and spent a day with Oprah and the big
53:28
Speaker 1: thing for me was to really understand and you may
53:32
Speaker 1: know that. You know, she is a board member, she
53:36
Speaker 1: is a significant shareholder in the company, and she's an
53:40
Speaker 1: incredible advocate and believer in the impact that we can have.
53:45
Speaker 1: And I really wanted to understand what she saw and
53:50
Speaker 1: what she believed the future and what the ultimate opportunity
53:56
Speaker 1: was that you know, we could achieve. And if you
53:59
Speaker 1: know any thing about Oprah, she practices the most discerning
54:07
Speaker 1: capability of what she decides to do. Ultimate discretion is
54:13
Speaker 1: how it would describe it. And she definitely has the
54:16
Speaker 1: ultimate purpose filter of what she decides not to do
54:20
Speaker 1: and what she decides to do. And that's why I
54:23
Speaker 1: wanted to understand, and you know, we it turned out
54:27
Speaker 1: that we were very very aligned on what we saw
54:30
Speaker 1: as the vision of what this brand and the impact
54:35
Speaker 1: of this brand could be. And you know, over the
54:38
Speaker 1: past you know, three and a half years, you know,
54:42
Speaker 1: I've really understood that more and more acutely from her,
54:47
Speaker 1: and I think that is a big asset for us. All.
54:50
Speaker 1: You know, at WW we have a purpose filter for
54:54
Speaker 1: our brand, and before we make any decision, whether it's
54:57
Speaker 1: a product decision, whether it's a hiring decison, what's a
55:00
Speaker 1: partner decision, we ask about fifteen different questions to come
55:05
Speaker 1: to the right conclusion, and that has served us incredibly well. Well.
55:11
Speaker 1: I think as humans, as individuals, we each need to
55:15
Speaker 1: have our own purpose filter of what's really important, of
55:19
Speaker 1: what we will say yes to and what we will
55:22
Speaker 1: say no to because of what is important and meaningful
55:26
Speaker 1: and part of our ethos. So I think that's you know,
55:31
Speaker 1: that's been a very big learning and I felt, you know,
55:34
Speaker 1: I've always been somewhat that way, but I'm approaching it
55:37
Speaker 1: with so much more rigor today.
55:41
Speaker 2: If you have to describe Oprah in three words, what
55:44
Speaker 2: are they?
55:47
Speaker 1: Three words?
55:48
Speaker 4: Ultimate motivator, superpower, I'm trying to think of like the
55:57
Speaker 4: right word to describe, you know, what Oprah has done
56:00
Speaker 4: for the WW brand.
56:02
Speaker 2: And I even had on the show Jesse Israel who
56:06
Speaker 2: went on the on the Vision tour, and.
56:08
Speaker 1: So how fabulous is Jess?
56:10
Speaker 2: You know, he had such great things to say about
56:12
Speaker 2: her as well. And just like hearing you talk about
56:15
Speaker 2: that meeting and using these descriptors.
56:19
Speaker 3: It really.
56:21
Speaker 2: I have to ask you, like, if not in that situation, Like,
56:25
Speaker 2: have you ever been in a in a position where
56:27
Speaker 2: you've just been totally in awe of someone that you've
56:30
Speaker 2: been in the room with.
56:32
Speaker 1: You know, I think different humans at different times. Yeah,
56:38
Speaker 1: I've been very fortunate to you know, I am a
56:43
Speaker 1: huge fan of Phil Knight and his belief in humanity
56:49
Speaker 1: and how he built culture. Everyone's heard me say culture
56:54
Speaker 1: trumps strategy, and you need to have a strategy, but
56:57
Speaker 1: if you haven't built a passionate, motivated, purpose driven culture,
57:05
Speaker 1: you're not going to be able to achieve the zenith
57:07
Speaker 1: of what you really can achieve. And when I saw
57:11
Speaker 1: him go through difficult times or great times or have
57:15
Speaker 1: one on one conversations that balance humanity and drive was
57:22
Speaker 1: just so powerful. And you know, at times, I guess
57:27
Speaker 1: I would use the all word, you know, I think
57:32
Speaker 1: the other thing for me that I think is really important.
57:36
Speaker 1: And I think why, you know, I've been able to
57:39
Speaker 1: accomplish what I have, you know, and what I hope
57:44
Speaker 1: to do in the future is I've had such support
57:48
Speaker 1: of my family, and I think the reason why I've
57:51
Speaker 1: been able to do what I do, and my daughter
57:54
Speaker 1: talks about this, I've never bifurcated my life. There's no
57:58
Speaker 1: work mindy and no you know, personal life MINDI. There's
58:02
Speaker 1: only one MINDI. And you know, from the time my
58:05
Speaker 1: daughter was little, she kind of knew that, but I
58:08
Speaker 1: would take her everywhere and she'd experience, you know, what
58:12
Speaker 1: I would do, and you know, I'd be sitting, you know,
58:14
Speaker 1: at home with you know, boards covering the floor. I'd
58:18
Speaker 1: be taking her with me to you know, a trade
58:21
Speaker 1: show or you know, when I was at Nike the
58:25
Speaker 1: Swim Championships in Barcelona, whatever it was. And as much
58:30
Speaker 1: as it wasn't always easy and I had angst of
58:33
Speaker 1: how can I be in two places at one time,
58:36
Speaker 1: that was how I could live my life, and that
58:41
Speaker 1: was my true, authentic self. I think that made a
58:45
Speaker 1: very big difference. And I think people for a long
58:47
Speaker 1: time felt that they had to be two people and
58:52
Speaker 1: couldn't be themselves where they wanted to be. And I
58:55
Speaker 1: always say to people, before you make a decision to
58:59
Speaker 1: go take a role or go into a company, really
59:02
Speaker 1: do tremendous due diligence and does that company line up
59:06
Speaker 1: with your values? And are they going to appreciate you
59:09
Speaker 1: for who you are? And can you bring your whole self?
59:13
Speaker 1: And today I think that's more important than ever.
59:17
Speaker 2: I sit here, I listen to you, I look to you,
59:20
Speaker 2: and I see a extremely powerful, dedicated, motivated business woman
59:28
Speaker 2: who has made something really great for herself. Here when
59:32
Speaker 2: you look in the mirror, what is it that you
59:34
Speaker 2: see looking back at you?
59:37
Speaker 1: I see someone that from the very beginning has tried
59:41
Speaker 1: to have positive impact. And that's how I'm going to
59:44
Speaker 1: measure myself. I believe there's three things that have driven me.
59:50
Speaker 1: Am I passionate about it? Is it purposeful? And is
59:53
Speaker 1: it going to take me and the business somewhere? And
59:57
Speaker 1: will I have impact? And you can impact at the
1:00:01
Speaker 1: very early stage of your career and ongoing. And today
1:00:05
Speaker 1: you know, I'm very, very fortunate to have a platform
1:00:09
Speaker 1: and a voice and the ability to use that platform
1:00:14
Speaker 1: and that voice. And if I don't, then I have
1:00:17
Speaker 1: wasted all of those efforts to try and create, inspire
1:00:26
Speaker 1: and really help support others in whatever way possible. And
1:00:32
Speaker 1: today I'm able to have a different level of impact
1:00:35
Speaker 1: because where I am. I'm vice chairman of the US
1:00:38
Speaker 1: Fund for UNISEF. You know, my husband and I, you know,
1:00:42
Speaker 1: grant a fellowship at Columbia in the Engineering School for
1:00:48
Speaker 1: women and underserved minorities in their PhD programs. You know,
1:00:53
Speaker 1: I try and do a lot with entrepreneurship. You know,
1:00:58
Speaker 1: I speak onsity and now I'm very focused on the
1:01:03
Speaker 1: need to you know, have greater impact on the health
1:01:06
Speaker 1: trajectory of the world. And you know, if we're not
1:01:10
Speaker 1: making that impact, what are we doing it for? You
1:01:13
Speaker 1: know what a what am I? What am I showing
1:01:16
Speaker 1: my daughter and my granddaughters that you know, they can accomplish?
1:01:21
Speaker 1: And again, I think that's the most important thing to.
1:01:24
Speaker 2: Me as we wind down here, the final question I
1:01:28
Speaker 2: ask every guest right now, you have an opportunity to
1:01:32
Speaker 2: offer yourself a piece of advice.
1:01:35
Speaker 3: I'm going to say, uh to.
1:01:36
Speaker 2: The mindy that was making that huge career pivot before
1:01:41
Speaker 2: maybe she even had a full career, trying to you know,
1:01:46
Speaker 2: make the most of what she could and make that
1:01:48
Speaker 2: big transition into New York living. You have an opportunity
1:01:51
Speaker 2: to offer a previous, younger version of you a.
1:01:54
Speaker 3: Piece of advice.
1:01:55
Speaker 1: What do you tell her ultimate belief? You have to
1:02:01
Speaker 1: have ultimate belief in yourself or why would others believe
1:02:07
Speaker 1: in you? And you have to kind of build that
1:02:12
Speaker 1: muscle to be able to truly believe in yourself. But
1:02:17
Speaker 1: at the same time, you need to develop an acute
1:02:21
Speaker 1: sense of self awareness. I think self awareness is the
1:02:25
Speaker 1: biggest superpower anyone can have. You need to understand the
1:02:30
Speaker 1: impact that you have on others, what your strengths are,
1:02:34
Speaker 1: what they may not be. And I think if you
1:02:36
Speaker 1: have that combination of self belief and self awareness, especially
1:02:41
Speaker 1: at a young age, you'll be invincible.
1:02:44
Speaker 2: This was a bucket list interview for me. I cannot
1:02:49
Speaker 2: thank you enough for your time and for all of
1:02:53
Speaker 2: the takeaways that you have offered, not just me, but
1:02:56
Speaker 2: that I will be able to bring to the Hurdle community.
1:03:00
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful for it.
1:03:01
Speaker 1: Well, I have to say the same thing to you.
1:03:03
Speaker 1: I love the conversation and the dynamic and the honesty,
1:03:09
Speaker 1: and that's what makes great conversation for sure.
1:03:12
Speaker 2: Mindy, how do the hurdlers as I love to call them,
1:03:15
Speaker 2: keep up with you? How do they keep up with
1:03:18
Speaker 2: weight watchers? Give me some information here?
1:03:21
Speaker 1: Well, certainly you can follow all our ww on Instagram, Facebook,
1:03:28
Speaker 1: and then you can absolutely follow me primarily on Twitter
1:03:32
Speaker 1: and LinkedIn, and you know, hopefully we will keep up
1:03:37
Speaker 1: with each other.
1:03:38
Speaker 2: I am over at Hurdle Podcast and at Emily a
1:03:42
Speaker 2: Body Another hurdle conquered.
1:03:45
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time