Finding Value In What’s Personal

You joined Facebook when it was first starting out, like you said, when it was smaller than even MySpace and Yahoo. It’s so crazy to imagine that now, right? Who even thinks about MySpace anymore? But back then, you had to sell the idea of this newcomer, Facebook, or “The Facebook,” as it was called back then. You’re obviously good at the craft of selling, can you share with us your secrets for selling new ideas to others?

My secrets to selling your ideas to others? I’ve never really put it that way. I’ve always said, whether it was me at Facebook, whether it was me at Snapchat, whether it was me at Airbnb, even at Nike, the key to connecting with someone on an idea that may be foreign to them is by making it personal. I think that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve learned over the course of my career is, again, whether it’s selling a new idea, like, why would you need another app that takes a picture that disappears in 24 hours? What is the need for that?

It’s about how do I make it personal, right and telling my personal story, within the realm of the product that I’m building, the product that I’m marketing, the product that I’m going to market with, because I think once you tell your personal story within that, people see themselves in that personal story, people see themselves in using that product and seeing the value in that product.

Because again, if you just market what they’re not, and what they don’t have, or you just market what this product is, and what this product isn’t, you’re not really going to go very far. But if you market what the product is with you, and for them to see that, that’s how you win. And so it is about being able to tell your story, connect with people on an emotional level. And I’ve always, always found, if you make it personal, if you tell your own personal story with it: “This is why I’m at Facebook, this is why I’m building it. This is what Facebook really means to me. And here’s some learnings that I’ve had from Facebook,” people are like, “Yeah, I get it, I’m going to do it too.”

And so again, it’s like, at the time, when I joined Facebook, a lot of people were like, “Why would you join this company? Why would you join this company when literally all these other companies are doing the same thing?” And it’s because I really saw the value of connecting people and building community. And I think for me, at least, my entire mission throughout my career is to bring people together. I think we come to this world alone, we look for our tribes, and then we’re gone. Life is really that short. So, if you spend your time bringing people together, using mediums and technology, you win.