E169: VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2022

⏱️ 112 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nicola Mendelsohn is Meta’s (formerly Facebook) global head of advertising and routinely tops lists “most powerful person in UK tech. She’s juggled her high flying career with having a rare type of blood cancer since 2016.

That cancer is just one of the things that has held Nicola back, but, like her struggle against racial prejudice in her early years, she hasn’t let it define her. No one is ever going to get to define Nicola except her.

In this candid chat about how she’s seen her role and her company change as it’s come under increasing criticism in the last few years, Nicola holds nothing back on her critics, her fears, her highs, her lows, and what she still wants herself and the company to achieve.

Topics:

What made you the person you are today?
What did you learn from working in the marketing industry?
Joining Facebook & leading the EMEA market
Your journey with cancer
How did it impact your work & life?
Mark Zuckerberg & company culture
From Facebook to Meta & what is the Metaverse
The good and the bad of the digital world
Mark Zuckerberg’s real personality
Protecting young children online
Personalised advertising and businesses
Your core strengths and importance of being yourself
Growth moments & speaking up for what you want
New book & encouraging females to set up business
Work-life balance
Our last guest’s question

Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://g2ul0.app.link/aTf9jh8Zvsb

Nicola's Twitter:

https://g2ul0.app.link/t9DYxjBKqsb

Nicola’s Instagram:

https://g2ul0.app.link/xf4gYKzsvsb

Sponsors:

Crafted - https://g2ul0.app.link/gZ8in6Dsvsb

Huel - https://g2ul0.app.link/wzHTPvHsvsb

Vodafone Business - https://g2ul0.app.link/XagvMyKsvsb

‘reliable and critical connectivity’:

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/network#faqs

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Zach was 11, he's our youngest, he asked me if I was going to die.
0:07.1	Finish me off.
0:12.1	As Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
0:15.3	Nicola is one of the most powerful women working in tech.
0:17.9	Facebook is this huge company, the prospect of leading so many regions.
0:22.0	Is there any element of what the fuck am I doing here?
0:24.6	You don't climb Everest, you get to base camp one, and that's your thing.
0:28.2	It's not me in chaotic moments, it's like what are the things you can control them?
0:31.6	In order to either get out of the chaos or to hit the North Star.
0:35.4	So this meta-shift, people are understandably scared.
0:39.0	Do you have any concerns that we're taking away what it is to be a human?
0:42.5	I think it's an important question, I think.
0:46.1	Three years into your career at Facebook, and then you get some awful news.
0:50.8	I got the diagnosis that I had follicular lymphoma,
0:54.7	which is an incurable blood cancer.
0:57.2	So we gathered the kids on the Sunday morning.
0:59.5	I couldn't get the words out.
1:05.9	When I told my story on World Cancer Day, so many people
1:09.0	sharing having a similar disease, but were scared to show that
1:12.9	because it was a sign of weakness.
1:14.6	I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but there are still companies
1:17.7	where that sort of behavior is happening.
	...

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