Author: Nina Zipkin / Source: Entrepreneur Editor’s Note: Entrepreneur’s “20 Questions” series features both established and up-and-comin
Editor’s Note: Entrepreneur’s “20 Questions” series features both established and up-and-coming entrepreneurs and asks them a number of questions about what makes them tick, their everyday success strategies and advice for aspiring founders.
In the intense world of Silicon Valley, your stock rise and falls by the state of your startup. And for those founders who don’t make it their number one focus, they are often judged harshly.
That is something Randi Zuckerberg learned first hand, first as the head of marketing at Facebook during the social media giant’s early years, and then as the CEO and founder of her own marketing firm, Zuckerberg Media.
“What is life without being a three dimensional person? It’s so boring,” she says of the people who believe a startup should be the only thing on your plate. “How can you tell someone to put away the things they are passionate about?”
In addition to running Zuckerberg Media, she is a speaker, radio host on SiriusXM and the author of bestselling business and children’s books — Dot Complicated and Missy President.
She is also a lifelong student of technology and explores how it has impacted our lives through her 5-year-old online community, which is also called Dot Complicated. And in 2014, she achieved her childhood dream of making her Broadway debut.
We caught up with Zuckerberg and asked her 20 Questions to see what makes her tick.
1. How do you start your day?
I start my day with a little bit of a cheesy mantra that I’ve been using for about 10 years. It says, “work, sleep, fitness, family, friends — pick three.” There is a lot of pressure, especially on women, to do everything well, every single day. I like to give myself permission to do three things really well each day, and it can be a different three tomorrow, as long as it all balances out in the long run.
2. How do you end your day?
In my ideal mind, I want to do something relaxing, like meditation or yoga. In reality, I’m in bed on social media, on my laptop and on my phone all at the same time. That’s an area of my life that I’m actively trying to work towards. I know that sleep and relaxation is so important, but I would consider myself a work in progress when it comes to the end of the day habits.
3. What’s a book that changed your mind and why?
Me, Myself and Us by Dr. Brian Little. I struggled for a long time because I’m really an introvert, but I have to act extrovertedly, because I’m giving speeches or meeting with entrepreneurs. I felt very alone in the world and then Dr. Little came out with this book about being pseudo extrovert, and it was all about introverts that have to pretend to be extroverts for their business lives.
It totally changed my life and opened up a whole world of thinking for me. The book said if you go out there and have to act extraverted, don’t forget you’re an introvert at the core, which means you’re going to need to build in downtime to your schedule, otherwise you’re going to burn out. We don’t run on the same kind of social energy that extroverts do. So I know that if I have a day where I am on camera or giving a talk, I’ll actually build “do not schedule” blocks of time into my calendar. That’s not something I would have done before his book, but it’s something that’s really effective in my business and personal life
4. What’s a book you always recommend and why?
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. It’s an awesome book. She’s an incredible woman and I think that we can all get out of our comfort zone a little more.
5. What’s a strategy to keep focused?
I like to carve out blocks of time that I’m going to be unplugged, which is sometimes frustrating to the rest of my team. But I find that it’s hard to do creative, thoughtful tasks when you are interrupted by emails and text messages. I like to carve out two to three hours, where I do a deep dive into writing a piece or working on a speech. That is the most effective hours of my entire day.
6. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
For a while, I wanted to be a mermaid, but apparently that was not a tangible goal. I really wanted to sing on Broadway. That was my big goal my entire life. I eventually gave it up to go into something reasonable, like technology and entrepreneurship.
7. What did you learn from the worst boss you ever had?
I learned about how to treat people, but I also learned that is is better to give people feedback in the moment. Early in my career, I had these bosses that would check in with me every six months — and…
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