Sharon Mussalli, CEO of NowThis

Erik  00:02

We want to welcome all of our listeners to another episode of MRP, Minority Report podcast with Erik and Kerel. Each episode, we talk with real operators and leaders in media, tech and business, and today, joining us is Sharon Mussalli. Let's jump in and get to know Sharon, who is the CEO at NowThis welcome Sharon, how are you? Hi guys, thanks for having me. Oh, we're thrilled you're here. I can't wait to get to know you a little bit better. But for our listeners and viewers who don't know you, tell us a little bit about you. Sharon, where were you born and raised?

‍

Sharon Mussalli  00:35

Yeah, maybe you can hear my crisp American accent, but I'm from Rhode Island. I don't have a New England accent, because that was sort of taken out of me when I was younger. That's where I was born and raised. But my family's from Syria, and that's where all the accents are. That's where all the really fun versions of English are had in the household. But I grew up here, my parents and my family, you know, abroad, but I'm a Rhode Islander now living in New York City. About

‍

Erik  00:59

that? Sharon, I want to ask you about growing up in Rhode Island a little bit, but we'll go back in the time machine here in a little bit. Tell me about what you're up to these days at now this, as the CEO, can you give us a little bit about what you're up to? And also, for those that may not know now this, tell us a little bit about now this. Yeah,

‍

Sharon Mussalli  01:19

thanks. I'll start with a little bit about now this, and then I guess I'll do what I'm doing here every day. So now this is a 12 year old brand. I bet a lot of people listening to this have followed it, or do follow it, have consumed it, and can sort of shut their eyes and see the black and yellow imagery and text on screen of a lot of the content that had been made throughout its very long, esteemed journey as the social first media brand when I came in, the vision was to take that brand and then continue to sort of thrust it forward and modernize it and keep bringing it forward to meet the needs of young audiences on social and so what I've been doing here at now this is really taking the content, I sort of created Two distinct streams. One stream that's called now this impact, which focuses on social issues that are really critical to young people in the way in which they live their lives. And the other is lifestyle entertainment just called now, this pop culture, all the other things that they think about. You know, Gen Z audiences, young millennials want any media brand to speak to their whole self. They don't want a media brand that only says one thing over and over and over again. Rather, they're looking for you to address them as a whole human being. And so we decided to really create two unique sort of streams whereby the entire individual is addressed through the two streams. And so that is a pretty big project. So if you asked, What am I doing on a daily basis? I mean, obviously we're operating and running business, but creating, doing a pivot like that, sort of midstream throughout, you know, in the middle of a lifespan of a company that's been around for 12 years, is a tough one. It's pretty hard to do. I find it at the same time the most interesting and challenging thing to do, as I love large, complex problems, so I love it, but it is. It's quite the challenge. I

‍

Erik  03:04

love that. And I wanted to ask you a follow up to that, because it looked pretty cool, you know, about sort of your efforts there to make sure you're really addressing, like, what Gen Z and others are really looking for, and you recently created a board to sort of make that happen. Can you tell us just a little bit about that and why that's important.

‍

Sharon Mussalli  03:22

Yeah, we brought in an editor in chief first, his name's Michael, to really take this brand into the next chapter, right? We knew that on social the way to cut through was to create episodic, sort of TV show, like content that you could find on Tiktok, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts and so on. And Michael had a vast history of doing that rather successfully. So we were like, Okay, we got the right person at the helm that can bring sort of shows to now this where, like, when any of us, when we go on Tiktok or Instagram or what have you, you're inundated with influence people in their natural environment, over and over and over again, that if you saw a show, it would make you stop and be cool. That's interesting, right? And it's probably sub 1% of the content on Tiktok. So quote me on that, but that's my guesstimate in terms of, like, the penetration of episodic content on Tiktok. So I knew there was white space. I knew there was a world where we could enter and sort of join the people that have already started making that and be successful. But at the same time, you don't want a chorus of one you know that is thinking about what the next thing is, or deciding what the trends are, and so on and so forth. And so we thought it was critical to then create a board that is emblematic of this group of people, this generation, the up and comers and industry. We wanted to make sure that board was incredibly diverse. We have all genders, all races, all sexual orientations, all walks of life, in terms of professions, that was critical to us as well. And I hope you can see that in the makeup of the people that we chose, and they do amazing varied things, from being a famous DJ to a famous actress to being the head of a company that they sold to UTA, to journalists, to a whole vast array of disciplines. And you get them all together, and now this core. Is much larger than a chorus of one, and they are, you know, the next echelon of people that are going to sort of be on our shoulder or our bug in our ear telling us what's hot, what's not, what people are consuming, what they would love to have from us that we don't already make or deliver to our audiences. Right? So we're so, so so excited about it. I actually just had a meeting about them earlier today to think about, okay, now, as we continue to converse with them, what is the kind of information we want to extract from them? What kind of vision do we want to get from them that will continue to season what we're doing and make what we're doing better on, like, a daily and weekly basis?

‍

Erik  05:33

That sounds awesome. And a lot of work. There's a lot happening there. Yeah, no, that's

‍

Kerel  05:38

but I would also say, though, Eric too, right? It's so interesting when you think about it, right? If you bring together a diverse group of individuals that are part of the target market in which you're trying to reach, it does help make those complicated challenges that you say Sharon, that you're trying to solve a little bit easier. And what I always find somewhat fascinating but also frustrating is that more and more people don't realize that like to reach the people in your target audience, you should hire people that are in that audience to help you out,

‍

Sharon Mussalli  06:13

right? I mean, like I used to work at meta many moons ago, and this is like at the advent of when brands were creating apps, you know, and sort of direct to consumer commerce, right? This was a while ago, yeah, but everyone was celebrating and applauding the Sephora team. I don't remember that because the Sephora team of engineers were all women, and the women were building what the predominantly female audience of Sephora wanted to get from them in a commerce experience. And they were at the lens where you could hold the phone up and see what the lipstick would look like on your face and so on, and all these various different aspects that if you were not to your point of the audience, you would not build the product that the audience would want to use and consume. And that's an example of something that I look, you know, up to, and it's in the back of my head, but to your point, it's like, you've gotta do that, right? And even, like, you know, I would say to them, and I'd say to anybody, find me another company with a board that looks like that. I'll wait. And they're so excited to be a part of it, and we're so excited to have them. So yes, like in the footsteps of some of these great examples, hopefully that's where we're sort of following along, but I think it's critical to our success. 

‍

Erik  07:17

Yeah, Sharon, I want to ask you a little bit about something here. But then I know you believe in, you know, all the unique talents people from all backgrounds, but you said all women just a second ago. Want to ask you about an all women formed company that's also minority female owned, and that's extra crisp. Can you tell us a little bit about extra Chris, yeah,

‍

Sharon Mussalli  07:42

so I was the chief revenue officer of a company called some spider, and I was there from the beginning when we were like five people sitting around an Ikea table, you know, one person from every department, and that was all the departments. So we scaled it to about 120 people, and then sold it one part to Vox, and the majority of it to bustle digital group. I did a transition at bustle, and then I was on my own, and I didn't quite know where and what the next move for me would be. I worked with and advised a bunch of other media companies in the space, largely on like revenue operations and profitability and like yield management and stuff like that I love and loved and love, and then I had, I think it was like, a happy hour drink with the founder of some spider and my former boss, and he just looked at me, and he's like, why aren't you doing your own thing? Like, what do you it's really funny, because of the job that I have now. He's like, you're not gonna a CEO is not gonna be able to micromanage you, and you're not gonna deal with that. You need to be your own boss, right? It was just very funny, as my former boss, I'm like, What are you trying to say about me? Whatever. Moving on. And I came home that day. It was in February. I will not forget that, mid February, and I'm like, I'm starting my own company. And then by March, 1, we were up and running, and we were three people, and we were all women at the time, actually, and people that I had worked with. And so essentially, what I made during that time frame was a media rep firm. And for those of us that have been in media for a long time, I used to work at iHeart. It is not a new model, right? Radio, TV, print, etc, often interface with rep firms to sort of generate incremental revenue, but it had not existed or been done really in earnest across these sort of digital first or social first media brands. And so I was fortunate enough to bring together, like seven different media companies that all for various reasons, needed additional representation or different ways of sort of monetizing their brands. And we were out there, you know, off to the races, working with companies like the loud Bible group, which is huge, the real deal, likewise, out of gates, ventures, legacy, the premier soccer league out of Italy, like such amazing array of different companies that entrusted us to represent them on their behalf, out there in the marketplace for various sort of digital. Monetization efforts. So, yeah, that's great. Talk about hard job, much harder. I'm going to say it miss when it's your own skin of the game, it's your own company, and experiencing everything everyone talks about, you know, in startup world, especially when you're an upstart and you're very, very small and kind of trying to be a one person show,

‍

Erik  10:18

yeah, love to talk to you a little bit more about your founder story, and that's exciting, and I just can't help but sort of think a little bit back to Rhode Island. Growing up in Rhode Island, Syrian family, what kind of like lessons do you think you learned about sort of growing up and in your family that have helped power, like everything that you've done today, not just pure business. What are some of those things in life that you feel kind of powered who you are today?

‍

Sharon Mussalli  10:48

We were chatting before we started the show. I was just at ad color, and I was on the Middle East North Africa panel, and was addressing, you know, people from the region and people not from the region who were attending that panel. And I said, you know, you've got to use your identity as an asset, and you have to walk into knowing that your identity is your asset. And for those that feel like the world is prejudging them or stereotyping them, if you look at it as a potentially, as a negative or a liability or a negative stereotype, they will absolutely look at it the same way. But if you walk in and say, It's my superpower, that's a very different way of positioning it and knowing which aspects of your upbringing or how you were raised, or your superpowers and how you bring them into work, I think, is critical. And so I was using as an example. You know, my mom bicycle like a Swiss army knife, like 17 things at once. You know, when my husband first met my family, my cousins and my aunts were like, here's what you need to know about Sharon. She's gonna think she can do everything herself and do it like all at the same time, and she'll never go and call somebody to do a service. She's gonna try and do it herself first, and then only upon failure will she maybe seek out the help of somebody else. They had to sort of teach him who I was, and so my mom was an amazing artist. She learned how to play two instruments on her own. She would compose her own music. She was an amazing cook and chef. She learned how to sew all these amazing things, right? And so I do many of those things. I love to cook, I love to sew. I am a total DIY. I will do it myself, et cetera. But I call that multi hyphenate skill set. We are super power at work because, of course, as a leader, if I would have never in my life believed the vast array of things that I would do in my daily life. As a CEO, as a business leader, every day, you walk into something else and you're like, Wow, I'm gonna learn this thing today. I'm going to do this thing today that you would have never it's a no job description written anywhere. But hey, you walk into it, you're a leader. You got to figure it out. And that sort of multi hyphenate skill set certainly is something that I think I bring to the job, which is emblematic of, like, immigrant culture, right? Like, immigrant culture is not like you call all these other services. Or, you know, the country that you came from, Syria, there weren't a lot of resources that you think existed, you know, here in the States. So you had to figure it out. So you got to figure it out. So I think that's one thing I brought in. And then the other side, you know, of course, like many cultures, your parents want you to be a doctor, a lawyer or whatever, right or an engineer or something like that. So there's a lot of math in my life now. I love math. So that background that focus on, you know, academic excellence and rigor, and, of course, things that lean more mathy and sciencey. I liked it. I always liked it. But like it absolutely, is also one of my superpowers today, that the my ability to use the science to help the art of the job, I think, has been, you know, critical to my success, and I think how people perceive me, and I'll take that, I'll gladly take that as the way that people see me, and that's something too related to, you know, my engineer dad, and sort of the way in which I was raised. 

‍

Kerel  13:56

Thanks for that, Sharon. And I want to stay on Leadership for a second, because, you know, we've talked about you starting your own company. We've talked about you being the CEO of a company that's been around for some time that's going through a pivot right now, right? Obviously, in those two different sort of worlds, there are maybe different skill sets, different hats that you have to wear as a leader, but at the same time, I'm sure there are some consistencies and some keys to leadership that no matter what type of leadership role you're in, there's some keys that you always have to live by. Can you speak to some of those keys? Like, from your perspective, what are those keys to waking up every day and leading a team, motivating, a team dealing with walking in the door, maybe dealing with something unexpected, like you just talked about, right? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I

‍

Sharon Mussalli  14:46

mean, one thing that's that's in the back of my head, that, as you were asking that question, was, like, at some spare right? I mentioned it when I started. We were five people, you get off the elevator, one of these little suites, you know, the bathroom was down the hall somewhere else, right? And there were, like, five to. 10 or whatever people. And I used to say to myself, like, Okay, once we get the next round of funding and we're going to be bigger, it's all going to be fine, you know, it's going to calm down, like the frenetic nature of it is going to calm down, right? And I was 100% entirely wrong that when we actually peeing a floor of a company and 120 people as the person that held the keys to the money, right? Chief Revenue Officer, you're the money person, yeah, off the elevator. Now it's our own floor. And I would look at all these people and be like, everyone's job depends on my ability to do this job we pay for. I mean, you know, right? It is what it is, yeah, yeah, the whole operation. And then the pressure and the frenetic energy of it sort of went up, right? So it's like this ownness And this responsibility. So I always say, what you think is easy is going to be hard, and what you think is hard is going to be easy, and so on. At the time, I thought, oh my god, it's so much easier when there's a next big injection of capital, like no so to answer your question, more specifically, I think there's some of this, like expecting the unexpected, but remaining very cool and calm. And I will reference many of my former Manager and CEO of that company. I remember there was days where I would think he probably had some really big stuff going on, and his ability to remain calm, nice, polite, like nothing's going on. But in my head, I knew, and I could tell, I'm like, Oh no, there's stuff happening. You're navigating choppy seas, but the way that you're showing up is so, like, rational and nice and like, relatable. It was unbelievable. And so that's some of the stuff that like, you know, when I was running my own business, and now I'm here. It's like, you can't take your energy and stress and put it on other people. Everybody has a job to do, and that's my job to do. And you know, people say you're only as strong as the hardest thing that you've experienced. And like, now, I think I make this analogy to like, Girl Scout badges, and I say like, every time you pass through the next phase, and maybe you go through a difficult challenge that you're not used to like, well, I got another badge to put on my sash like, you know, I'm going to need more things I'm going to wrap around. So you've got to think of it as like, an opportunity to like grow. But I hope that that is emblematic of my leadership style, whereas I know I am direct. I say it as it is, but I'm never here to hurt anyone's feelings. I never make anyone feel bad. But I think direct communication actually is the kindest communication, because people know where they stand and how you're feeling at the same time. That doesn't mean you know you'd ever have to sort of lose your cool in the context of, you know, maybe the challenges that you're experiencing. I don't think this is ever going to end. I think if you continue to be in a leadership position the next day is always going to bring a new something, new challenge. Yeah, have to sort of figure out how to navigate it. And the better you get at that, by far and away, the more senior that you can become, and the more you know, successful in your career. So I think, you know, people know me for that kind of stuff, and then, you know, certainly the mathiness, I can't say it enough, but characteristic too, that sort of I've used throughout all of these leadership roles. I

‍

Kerel  18:04

love your point about staying calm and cool, right? And I always use the example of a duck, right? When you see a duck swimming is always nice and calm, but underneath the water, duck is paddling like hell. What does a good day look like for you? So

‍

Sharon Mussalli  18:19

I said I like large, complex problems before and sadly, like, I always look at my calendar like, right, when I wake up to be like, is there some meeting earlier than I thought it was gonna be? Like, I'm not gonna miss something, right? Like my anxiety. I'm like, oh, where does the first meeting start? So I make sure I know what's going on. But as much as you can look at your calendar and think that the day is gonna be predictable, inevitably, it's not like you can try and run on that schedule, and I go to all the meetings and so on. But, like, the other things that you end up doing that day, you know, could be what you expected, could not be. But I love that. I sort of love the the bit of spontaneity in the schedule. You know, you always find a way to get your stuff done, usually, like, I'll do it like, after this, I'll do sort of my work right after other people around. It's a little bit more difficult, but absent that spontaneity, I probably would find the day a little bit boring. So when you talk about a good day, I sort of like met with various different challenges across various disciplines. What's really nice is, you know, you have one foot in editorial, one foot in revenue, one foot in sort of general management and operations. And that is also fun, sort of oscillating between the three areas. You know, I love to get things done, keep things moving. I say all the time, perfect is the enemy of good. And I'm sure people say that all hot too. But I say all the time, let's figure out a way to address an issue. Let's test and learn this thesis of one way doors and two way doors, etc. Jeff Bezos, ism, if something is a two way door, you can try it and come back. Let's try it. Let's move fast. Let's get things done. Let's move forward. And that space of to a degree, sort of spontaneity. You know, you never know what's coming at you. I think those days are the most interesting. You go home and you real. You've done so much. You've accomplished so much because you've gone through so many different sort of conversations, exercises, disciplines, all within a whatever hour day.

‍

Erik  20:09

Sharon, I heard math come out a few times in our conversation. Science, you know, want to ask you Tufts University quantitative economics than MIT nice. What's it like in those environments? And what have you learned from those years doing that that kind of helps you. Now, I

‍

Sharon Mussalli  20:35

use that stuff every day. Probably use the business school stuff more than the undergrad stuff, but I think it's critical to the way in which you operate your business. You said, what did you learn from that experience? And the one thing I'll say is I love about MIT was everything was open book. Everything was group setting. Because, say, the answer is not in the book. This is not like, plug in the numbers into the formula and the answer seven. You can look at the whole book. You can talk to all your friends. You're still not going to get the answer. You're going to have to think so. A lot of what I did as an undergrad to a degree, I was very good at memorization, and I couldn't memorize and regurgitate my way through some classes. So I'm keeping it real also, like I took a lot of foreign languages and what have you, you could memorize something and spit it out, but not really ever know how to speak the language if you language is this analogy. And in business school, I'm particularly there, like, you know, the most exceptional Quan jocks in the world, right? All of a sudden it was like, if you don't understand the language and you just understand the words. Essentially, you will never be able to speak the language. So talk to your friends and look in the book and go online. It doesn't matter. The answer is not there. The answer is within your thinking. And that, to me, was like sort of a critical point of differentiation, the way I approached my love of math, but also the way in which I approach my job. The last thing I'll say sort of about that. Remember the business school experiences. There was a guy deck Carter, if you're listening. He's so smart, and he had done, I think, MIT undergrad, Master's PhD, and then came back for his business school degree. I was terrified of him when I first went, but the nicest guy, too smart, like too smart, and we were in a stats group together, and it was this rather complicated problem. And I remember he sort of put his head like against the whiteboard to think of something like he had to like, fear his thoughts and think of something to like be able to get to the next part of the answer. And it was so relatable. I was like, oh, even he needs to take a beat. Even the smartest guy you've ever met needs to take a beat and absorb it and figure out how to meander your way through a rather large, complex problem. And I think that ability to also apply the clarity and not get frustrated and be patient and be ready for these more complicated, long form problems that don't have a clear outcome. I usually say I like problems and not processes, right? There's complicated processes. Something just happens like this, but it takes a very long time, like doing your taxes, right? It's a complicated process, but you know what the process is, whereas a complicated problem may not have a clear answer, I think going through those experiences, I would say, more specifically, at MIT, gave me the ability to step back and look at everything as part of one connected problem, and hopefully with its own solution or set of solutions, but having the patience to make my way through it and not give up. And I would say that based on everything when I said about, you know how I see leadership otherwise, to me, probably were like, what are the most critical things that I took out of it? Not just I know how to put the numbers in the cell and get to the outcome. Doesn't really get you that far. It's like I know how to think my way through things that would otherwise feel insurmountable or very difficult.

‍

Kerel  23:58

Now, I understand why you like dealing with big, complicated problems.

‍

Sharon Mussalli  24:03

Like, I learned that patience to do it too. I'm not the most patient person in real life.

‍

Erik  24:08

Sharon, I want to, I want to ask you a little bit about, sort of like, energy and inspiration, all those things. Like, I get the sense that in a lot of your responsibilities over the years, you have to kind of like create your own fire. You have to almost kind of like generate your own sort of energy and even inspiration. What are some of the things that you turn to and think about and sort of bring into your life that help inspire you and help create that energy and help sort of build that sort of self fire. What are the things that you turn to that do that?

‍

Sharon Mussalli  24:43

I mean sometimes, like I said, sometimes we talk ourselves out of stuff, or we over complicate things, and we look at other people that may have achieved certain outcomes, and for some reason, we just tell ourselves that we can't. And the reality is that, I mean even to. If they're scams, or if they're not scams, everybody that I watch, like, sometimes on Tiktok, or all these people have, like, I figured out this way to flip houses. I'm sure. Maybe that's all not true. But the point is, I love it because I'm like, these industrious people who try to figure shit out on their own, and they're not over complicating it, and they're making progress in getting things done. Or even some of these creators, right? You're like, they just started to do something, they got really good at it, and they generated success. And I think sometimes we actually overthink things as leaders, or decide that this person who has achieved more than you, there's a reason behind it, and that's something that you can't do, or what have you. And so I think at some point, and I'll say maybe my former CEO saying, Just do your own thing, just do it. Was like, yeah, maybe actually, it's not about over complicating it. I'll also say, like, we talk about inspiration, I think you have to separate out, like, the reward into numerous parts. Like you work maybe for money, or you work for learning more things you work for getting promoted, or you work for people saying you did a good job. I don't know. There's all these reasons why people love their jobs, stay in their jobs, excel in their jobs. It's not always just money, right? But I think about like, when I approach high risk situations, I'm like, Well, okay, like, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? And then what am I looking for as the reward from that. And I think if you can also see that clear vision, and if it aligns with what you want out of that next experience to I find that inspirational. I find that, like exciting. Now I know, and I know what I'm going to get out of this, and it's not bigger than me. I used to say, and I will say to everyone to say this, if not me, then who like if I can't do that, or I'm not gonna apply for that job, or I don't know if I can do that, I think you have to say that who could do it better than you like who you need to convince yourself that, oh, I know it's, it's this person I used to work with. They're way better at me than that. Nine times out of 10, you're not going to be able to find that person who would do it better than you. And it's like you can do it. You just have to believe you can do it. And what's the worst thing that's going to happen? Probably nothing terrible, right?

‍

Kerel  27:05

I love that. I'm going to use that, but I'm going to credit you for it. So thank you for that. Sharon would say book everyone should read, or a movie everyone should watch.

‍

Sharon Mussalli  27:15

I'm going to go with book. I was thinking about it before we got on. I love this book. It's not similar actually, to what we were just talking about, moon walking with Einstein. It's a real story, right? It's about that one who is all these memory competitions. You're nodding. I think you've probably read it, or have heard of it or something, but there's all these memory competitions that people are taking, right? I'm going to recite 700 digits of pi, or I'm going to solve a Rubik's Cube and, you know, X amount of minutes, right? Or memorize a sorted deck of cards in the order in which they've now been sorted, or what have you, right? And people think again. This is out thinking things and overthinking deciding other people are better than you. People often think those who win those competitions have a gift, and I don't have that gift, to be able to memorize and recite information at that level. But the crux of the whole book was that they actually just practiced, that they weren't better at it than anybody else, and there's ways to practice. And so this book goes through all these different ways you could practice, and the author actually then becomes a memory contest champion at the end, giving it away. But the big thing I take from that, and I think you can apply it to life and work and what have you. There's one critical part of it where the author references the okay plateau, which I love, and I use it all the time, which is, if you pick a goal, that's like a stretch goal, and that's the stretch goal, and then you achieve it psychologically, it's very difficult to get even better than that goal, because you thought that was the best you could do. So let's use a marathon. I want to run a four hour marathon, right? And you train, train, and you do four, what have you. It's going to be incredibly hard for you to do 345, the next time, because that was your stretch goal. You started at five, and you got it to four, and then you decided that's the best you can do. And then that's it, right? Whereas if you just told yourself, I want to go two minutes faster, I want to go two minutes faster, I want to go two minutes faster. So minutes faster. Probably, you can be much, much, much better than your stretch goal. So I apply that every day, to work, to life, to the gym, to everything, five more pounds on the bar. Not I want to be able to squat this number. No, just five more pounds. Five more pounds, because you don't really know where that is, if I can use a non work reference, but the same is true at work, you know, I mean, a little bit better at this, and slightly better and so on, as opposed to, here's what I think my limit is, and I'm just going to work towards the limit, and then, you know, psychologically, I sort of stop at that point. And so that's why I think that book is really helpful for life and for work. I'm

‍

Kerel  29:41

laughing because a couple of years ago so I like to cycle. My buddies and I, and we set a goal that we were going to ride 100 miles, and we rode 100 miles, and we have not been close to 100 miles ever since

‍

Sharon Mussalli  29:55

it comes true in real life. Yes, it

‍

Kerel  29:58

really does. It really does. What's something you wish you were better at? So I mean, I'll

‍

Sharon Mussalli  30:03

say sports, and I'll say this too. It goes back to the upbringing, and okay, plateau and all the things like, I just never tried it when I was younger. Right now that I'm older and I work out more and so on and so forth, I realize I probably have the sort of discipline and the athleticism to have been really good, and it was all about, like, approach anxiety, right? I didn't do it, and I hadn't done it, what have you. And like, now I look and I'm like, I probably actually would have been all right. I mean, like, all right, add a few things, but it kind of goes to like, you know, I out thought it like all the things we've been talking about. I thought about it too much. I told myself I could in all the things, okay, plateau all the things that was in the back of my head. But now you look at it and sort of like, how fun and how amazing. It's like a well rounded person to also have that as part of your life. It is what it is. I can appreciate it from the sidelines, but yeah, it's like certain things that you just never dipped your toe in, and then now, yeah, decades later, and you're like, Man, I just over thought it probably over anything else,

‍

Kerel  31:09

gotcha. Gotcha. All right. Fun question here, What? What's in your music rotation right now? And

‍

Sharon Mussalli  31:15

I saw that, and I was like, I'm gonna have to, okay, whatever. I'm gonna give you my quick answer. I think it's like, ever since I've really been in this job, actually, right? Is that when I do throw on music in the air pods, it actually is, like, the stuff I grew up on, which is really funny, like, it's not necessarily, maybe it's because I'm getting old A and then B. It's also because, like, sometimes when there's a lot going on, like, work, life, family, a lot going on, I play, like, the music of my childhood to ground me, to be like, Okay, this, like, all this is not noise, it's real stuff. But like, all this is noise, right? And, like, get it together. This is who you really are, and you're really that whatever elementary school girl you know, and it brings it all back, and it grounds it all to me. So I'm listening to, like, it's so funny. Anyone who's like, I'm listening to, like, old Syrian music, which is so funny. But when I met a woman also from my background recently, who worked at WhatsApp, and we realized we're from the same city, and we're like, having this love fest. And then I took my phone and I turned it around into the camera of the zoom, and I showed her I was listening to this song that, like, I'm sure her parents listened to, or what have you. It was just this moment of like, again, it grounded everything. It just like, brought it all down. It's like, at the end of the day, yes, you're this big senior person at WhatsApp, and I have this job or what have you, and we're connecting on a business wavelength, but then we realize, like at the end of the day, you are who you are. Like the nuts and bolts of you are this grounded thing, and everything else is like noise and add ons and so on. But like you are who you are, right? And that centers me, it like motivates me and puts a huge smile on my face. I

‍

Erik  33:01

love it. I love it. That's great. Sharon, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with you and spending some time with you. A lot of times, our listeners and viewers love to figure out how to follow you or how to stay in touch. What are some good ways that they can follow you?

‍

Sharon Mussalli  33:17

I mean, I'm very boring. I can do this. After all this, all social media talk, and I said I worked at meta, and I'm like, I'm so boring on socials. So maybe the LinkedIn, I just used my first initial last name as my sort of vanity URL. So it's s, musali, M, U, S, S, a, l, l, I, that's probably the best place to find me. Everywhere else you'll be, like, wildly disappointed by how boring it is.

‍

Erik  33:38

Awesome. Sharon Mussalli, thanks so much for hanging out with us, and we had a blast with you. Thanks everyone for listening to another episode, and you can find more audio and video wherever you find that. So thanks again, Sharon, and thanks everyone for listening again.

‍

Sharon Mussalli  33:55

Bye, guys.

‍