YouSaid · the spoken record

Nicola Mendelsohn

lines on the record: 123
first: 2022-08-15
most recent: 2022-08-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“It's a fear of getting it wrong, being seen as being stupid. Yeah, I think those are things that were challenged on from a young age. And it's something that, you know, if I could go back, I would definitely speak up more. I would share my voice more. I would bring my opinions to the table. I think women do struggle with that. And certainly talking with women about this issue, especially if I'm talking to younger women, they're nodding away. And it's like, just put that imposter syndrome away. It's really not a good thing. It doesn't help any of us”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Trying to emulate what others were doing rather than just trusting me and actually having the confidence, now this has sounded a weird one because I already told you that I thought I was a confident person, but having, and I've really realized that this is something that women do more, which is having an exhaustive conversation in your head before you get your point out and then the conversations moved on and you've missed it or someone else has made the point and not realizing that I had a seat at the table because people were interested in what I had to say and not to be so fearful not to get those points out. So that is definitely a skill I honed as I kind of went through my career.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think not trusting my instincts, trying sometimes to be something I wasn't. You know, BBH in the 90s was super cool. You know, everybody was wearing 501 jeans and white t-shirts. And honestly, that wasn't a really good look on me.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good advice that nobody had ever shared before. It was also the first sort of time that I started to get 360 feedback on and so that I could learn about how others perceived me. Because how you think of yourself in your head is very different to how other people can perhaps think about you. So it was actually making sure that I was developing the muscle of leadership as well as I was going through the different roles that I have. So yeah, it took me a huge amount.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So many things. So definitely taught me leadership skills. And you start early on working for others, but then as you rise through the ranks, then people work for you. And I was always very keen to learn from others that were doing it. And I, you know, I spent the first 12 years in advertising working for bottle, bogle, and heggerty. So I learned from some of the very best craftspeople in the industry, both from the business side and actually the creative side as well. I remember when I left there and I was taking on my first really senior position at Gray that I actually went to see someone called Stevie Spring who was a woman I hugely admire and now is a dear friend to ask her what I should do, what advice did she have and she said to me Nikolai you really need to think about every aspect of when you're talking to people not just what you're saying but how you're saying it and how you're using your body language and other things as well because people are going to judge you. They're going to pick up on everything that you say. And I thought that would that.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, definitely. I think everything that you do makes you who you are. And so. I actually think the skills of acting is something that all kids benefit from because it gives you confidence, it gives you confidence to make a presentation, it gives you confidence to make a pitch. These are some really vital things when it comes to working in business. Acting also gives you the skills of working in a team. You're relying on each other who's going to finish the lines, the makeup art is the directors, the producers. You're all working as one to be able to come together and realize the potential. So yeah, definitely all those things definitely helped.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wow, I've never heard of such a job. I didn't know anybody growing up in Manchester that worked in the creative industries. It wasn't a known thing. And it wasn't a thing in my school from a careers advice that they gave you that there were such jobs. And yet I'd always loved the creative industries. I love theater. I'd love, you know, drum. I love fashion. I love film. I loved all these things. So when I heard what he did and that, you know, you could get paid to do such a thing. I was like, that's the thing I want to do. So that's how I got embarked on it. And then I did my research, which back in the early 90s comprised of going to a library and getting hold of the magazines, the trade magazines and working my way through them to understand the great agencies. And so I applied as a graduate trainee to get on a scheme. And I got into Bartle Bogle Hegati, which was the one I wanted to go to.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This one's really simple. So I went through university doing, I actually did English and theatre study. So I was acting and I actually had a place at drama school at Central School of Speech and Drama. It's a great school. But I shared that I'm religious and I observed the Sabbath and I quickly realized that a life on the stage is not very compatible with wanting to observe the Sabbath. I also saw that friends of mine who were acting were pretty miserable because there's so much luck involved. You know, they were trying to get the equity cards. They were working in remote parts of the UK trying to, you know, get a break. And I just didn't want to roll the dice and have so much of my life dependent on luck. And they were great actors and great actresses. And at the time, I had a friend who was a year older than me, a guy called Neil Marcus, who had got a job in advertising in London.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I think that's a big question. And I think there's a lot in there to unpack, but I think having people believe in you at a young age is really important. And not everyone is as fortunate to have a family that is as loving and as supportive as mine is. And so... People look to people like teachers, kids look to teachers to be those people for them. And on the whole, I think teachers do a phenomenal job. I mean, a really, truly extraordinary job. But some kids slip through. And I think it's on all of us to think about what more we can do to be able to help kids to really realize their full potential. Because you're right, how many more are out there that could be doing the most extraordinary things if someone just says to them, I believe in you, I got you. I think you could do this.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I just needed to tell her that and I felt better for telling her that. Never saw her again. She just looked at me shocked. And, you know, I think back now with the benefit of age, it was quite a shocking thing to go and tell somebody that, you know, their own biases and prejudices and the power that they wield could destroy a life. You know, in comparison with the best of teachers that it can inspire and lift up and to make you something, make you believe in yourself more. That wasn't some of the experiences I had from some of my teachers.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And as it turned out, I left school at that school at 16 and went on to college. And I got an A in my O-level in English and actually decided to read English for A, did A-levels, got an A and actually went to university and read English and, you know, did an English degree. I actually went back to my school. And I think about this now and I can't believe I did it. When I got my A and my place at university, I went back to the school to that English teacher. And so I rocked up and I said to her, I've come to see you. And she was like, as you can imagine, quite shocked. And she goes, why are you here? I said, I've come to tell you that you could have destroyed my life. And the power that you wielded on others really could destroy. And I said, you know, you really came close with that with me and taking away a dream of mine that might never have been realized because I always love reading and passionate about books.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And my marks were really low. I was like two out of three out of ten. And I was in a good school and these were not my marks. And my parents, again, my parents, there's a kind of a thing here that they were backing me. They actually took my English book to one of my brother's teachers and said, what do you think of this work? And they said, we don't understand the Marx. These are the marks of a child that, you know, this is an A student. But my confidence was so smashed by these teachers telling me I wasn't good. I wasn't smart that I didn't think that I would maybe even do A-levels, never mind going to university at that time, which was kind of the normal for that school.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I had unreligious and I observed the Sabbath and that meant in the winter months that I would go home early from school. And we had a couple of teachers that would always insist on starting the new topics on a Friday afternoon. And when my parents, and they could have started the topics, who starts new topics on a Friday afternoon, that's not a good thing for anybody. It's the end of the week. People are tired. My parents went in and to ask about it and they were told very clearly that if my parents insisted on taking me out, that was our problem, not theirs. Yeah, that was one thing that I had that stuck in my mind. And another thing I had, I had an English teacher who used to mark me down.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That time I would have probably said an actress So yeah, I was always in the plays. I was doing performances and I was told at school that I wasn't very good. I wasn't clever. I wasn't going to pass my exams. With hindsight, I think there was probably some anti-Semitism that I experienced at school and a few particular incidents that stick out. And so I thought my life was going to be on the stage.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like the questioning, she didn't like me, and really trying to get to grips, not just learning the language by rote, but actually understanding much more about what the Romans were doing and what we learned as a result. But that wasn't her job. Her job was to teach her the language, not to teach us more on the history and that side of it. And I was really interested in that. And yeah, she didn't like that.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not what she does with Latin. And with that, he was like, we're off. And so I went with my parents and we left. But I just remember thinking he's got my back. He sees something in me that she doesn't. And it was a real seminal moment for me as a child growing up.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and especially for a woman or a girl at the time, I remember, yeah, there was a really particular incident when I was 15. It was the parents' evening where you just before, as it was O-levels, that was the last year of O-levels, GCSEs. And you go in the dining room, and it was with both my parents from teacher to teacher. And this was a really important moment for me as a child where the Latin teacher literally started to shout at my parents and told them that if I didn't change my personality, that I was never going to get on in life. Can you imagine being told that at 15. And it hadn't been such a good parent's evening, I'll be honest, but I saw something in my dad that day that really has always stuck with me because he turned around and he turned to her and he said, I want to be really clear. He said, I think it'll be my daughter's personality that gets her on in life.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you look back on my school reports, Talks Too Much, I think if you're not confident, you probably don't talk too much, asks too many questions. I wasn't fearful. I wasn't afraid.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they used to do functions for extraordinary people, celebrities, prime ministers. And so I grew up just seeing that even extraordinary people are just people. I was a grafter. I was working as a waitress for them. And so I saw that and I saw people. And I think if you take the fear away out of people, however successful they are, I think it allows you to think yourself about what you can learn from them and then what you might be able to apply to yourself.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I grew up in Manchester. I have a fantastic family of two brothers, parents, all connected, grandparents in and out of the house every single day. And my mom worked, my grandma worked. And so my North Star at the time was just kind of a very busy household, people coming and going, but people always there for one another. People supporting. And a belief, I think, that anything was possible. My parents were caterers.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, first, can I just say I'm so excited to be here in your dining room and having this conversation with you. Fear of this turning into a great big lovin, I've been following you too Yeah, I couldn't be more thrilled to have this conversation. That's a great big question to start with. I think from a very early age, I was always very curious. I was always that kid that was putting their hand up and just going, well, hang on, what about? Can I ask a question? And to be honest, it didn't play so well in school. The school that I was at at the time really just wanted like a cookie cutter that you came in, you learnt by rote, you passed your exams. And I wanted always to just push the question a little bit, understand a little bit more. And I think that kind of desire for knowledge, that curiosity, wanting to know what might happen has probably been a part of shaping who I am.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Got the diagnosis that I had follicular lymphoma, which is an incurable blood cancer. So we gathered the kids on the Sunday morning. I just couldn't get the words out. Told my story on World Cancer Day. So many people sharing having a similar disease but were scared to show that because it was a sign of weakness. I mean it sounds ridiculous but there are still companies where that sort of behavior is happening. We often don't put the discipline into our personal lives that we do in our work lives and often our work lives are dictated by others. These things aren't mutually exclusive.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Don't climb Everest, you get to Base Camp 1, and that's your thing. Certainly in chaotic moments, it's like, what are the things you can control? In order to either get out of the chaos or to hit the North Star.”
2022-08-15 · The Diary of a CEO · VP Of Meta: Running A Trillion Dollar Business With An Incurable Illness: Nicola Mendelsohn · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT