I'm off my game today. No, you're not. People are going to have to start making better content. I think we're gonna be talking about this for a long time. When you program for everyone, you program for no one. I think it's a were purpose driven platform. Like we're trying to get to substance? How was that? Are you happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? It really is? What's up on? Laura Curnti and I'm Alexa Kristen.
Welcome back to episode twenty one of Adlandia. We're of legal drinking age and to celebrate a badass person in the industry decided to give us at Landia and our listeners and this community at Landia Hollo holla and exclusive. So it's our first exclusive with a bad MF. Can I call her a bad m F? I think so? Total girl boss. Linda Yacarina, Chairman of Advertising, Sales and
Partnerships at NBC Universal. Um, this is big what she's done, and she's really kind of putting her time and her money and NBC my behind this call to say, now is the time to change the industry. Now is the time where we can't create our own work, you know, Digitay was talking about this when they were kind of reporting this, and she said it, we can't create our
own work. We don't create our own work in measurement the industry, including Google, Facebook, and then all of our peers in the kind of linear and broadcasting programming space, as well as our new kind of partners like Snapchat and those people have to come together and do the right thing and figure out the way forward in terms of how brands and programmers are going to measure impact of marketing and advertising. So we're super honored and stokes
that Linda recognizes and she said this to us. I just had the reaction that we're talking to the people who are going to live right and not the people that I'm fighting legacy both or it's it's those people who don't discriminate, they don't differentiate. It just is let's but if it's limiting us, let's just change it. The people who are listening to Atlantia are the ones who are going to make change in this industry and are going to bring the industry forward for the next hundred years.
So we've decided to drop this episode on Monday as a precursor to the State of the Industry Forum, which will be happening tomorrow November as sort of this early look inside what's going to be happening with some of the top industry marketers, publishers, executives who have the ability
to impact change. So we'll get to that after the break, but first, before we get to that interview, and I think super important and indicative of where the industry is going and why we need to fix things like brand safety, measurement, viewability, but more not just for quote unquote legacy companies by the way, or quote unquote premium right publishers and programmers, but now we're seeing a bigger effect right digital first.
So we've seen in the news um Mashable looking to sell for fifty millions if Davis, which is a fifth of what they were at one time valued. You're seeing BuzzFeed and Vice reportedly going to be missing AD revenue earnings. And one of the things we were texting about earlier Alexa was the idea that you know, is this because these folks succumbed to scale and thinking about the lowest common denominator and we're ahead of the curve UH and
thinking about how they could diversify their revenue models. Yeah, I mean, I think there are a couple of things I think that can we like pause on the mashable things. Someone I was reading someone's tweet last night about Mashball and they're like, but they were so successful for twelve years and how they should be so proud because they came out of you know, the Scottish students, you know, blog basically, And I think that the biggest thing with
Mashball is the Pete Cashmore. And we had a friend who worked at UM Mashball a couple of years ago, and he came to talk to me and I said, the biggest thing that is missing from Mashball is Pete Cashmore. I was like, put them back. And I think they went for the you know what we talked about, lowest common denominator kind of programming and and scale click clickbait, clickbait, and so yeah, now they have a crappy, crappy valuation, you know. And it's interesting to see the ones that
are winning and are reporting um hirings. I mean, look at Keith Grossman, who's been on the show from Bloomberg.
They had one of their best quarters ever and Keith is coming out swinging in the industry, talking about all the different things that he is looking at selling that don't just have to do with the traditional kind of advertising model exactly when you think about leaning into their research and business intelligence is a potential offering, I mean ship getting brands on the terminal as a new source of revenue stream like these are are things that they
have access to that you cannot find anywhere else in the market. I mean with sub Thomas and Meredith Levan have been able to do with the New York Times around T Brand and being early there and figuring out that, yeah, this is an opportunity to break out a creative agency
and start competing for seven eight figure deals. You know that trump advertising, you know investments presumably right, Well, no, I agree, and they will go beyond that because I do believe like the advertising model in the advertising agency, that a creative agency is not a sustainable model for a lot of publishers. Maybe it is for T Brand, I hope it is, but they will go beyond that will teach them, I think, to take the next leap. The next leap. Yeah, and one of the other areas
that I think is severely severely untapped. I just had the pleasure of attending the Girl Boss Rally in New York with Sofia Marosso and team, as well as Cindy Levis Glamour Women of the Year events. I will pay for that. I will pay for that, and many many
other people will pay for that. And so when you start thinking about events and experiential giving people access, Jessica Lesson has done this brilliantly with the information red carpet access, exclusive behind the rope at sess to perspectives, personalities, experiences,
networking events. People will pay and there's a people like us thaying that Jessica Lesson has done so freaking well, which is like the best people in tech, the people who are like the really early in this in certain spaces blockchain, da da dada, they wanted to be in a community together and she knew it and she created it. She created a place, she created a forum, and she's given access to them in to each other. Uh and
too quite literally information. Yeah. So I think between you know, media publishers moving aggressively into content, thinking about events and creating moments of access, you know, thinking about merchandise and product. You know, there are so many different ways I think One of the most fascinating points that Rachel Typograph made on episode twenty was about brands collaborating with another not
just in trading pixels. I mean that that's great in terms of reach, that was genius, but like, how can brands be combined. I just saw a great collaboration between all birds and outdoor voices like minded brand and getting together and doing things differently. Now that's obviously within creating, creating like a joint I p which I think is
like talk about that obscure and Airbnb. I mean, these are things that people have to get outside the confines of what they're comfortable with and talk about things that are not what they do every day, right, So look beyond what you perceive as what you do. And I think we can do this in our jobs, by the way, everyone and think about where you can go. And that's
as a brand, that's as an individual. One of the greatest um exercises that I love to go through in the planning process is thinking about non direct competitors and thinking about those like minded communities. I think you know we're gonna hear Lindiak cre No talk about you know, this is us being somebody who hits on the age range of eighteen to eight. And let's be honest, there's
a lot to unpack within the audiences watching it. There's got to be one unifying insight across all of it, and that represents opportunities to think about programing product differently. There you go, drop and so with that, Linda Yakarina, we'll be right back. So we are back with total badass girl Boss, Linda Yakarina, chair Woman. I like to say, woman of NBC Universal, Welcome to Atlandia, Linda, Thank you so um. I appreciate it. I'm thrilled that the day
is finally here. So it's a couple of days before
a huge summit. What is a huge meaning huge and thought leadership, not huge in size, and you called this summit to do what, Well, what's huge about it, or maybe a little sad simultaneously, is that it's certainly never been done before, right, And we called the summit really to acknowledge that the need for change in the industry is so acute with everything that's going on from technology disruption to just sheer an utter measurement chaos, which is all of those things going on it once are just
disrespecting the consumer and also the marketers. So we've got to get our act together as an industry because we have an obligation to respect both those stakeholders. Right. So, what's been the greatest thing about the summit. It's kind of taken on a life of its own and the response has been overwhelming. So from the way we talked about it, we have like four key groups participating in the biggest of ways, and it is the let's call it,
the measurement community. Across the board. We've invited everyone from the linear space I don't have to name names, from the digital space, from social invited them across the board from what I would call, let's call it our traditional competitors, everyone from ABC two, Viacom all coming and some of them participating. And then we have clients, client direct market or CEO cmos for brands and then also agency holding companies all C suite people. What morning did you wake
up and said I've had enough. I am leading one of, if not the biggest network in the market. I've had enough. Well, I don't know if it was one kind of seminal moment, but I will tell you. As you know, coming off of last year's upfront, NBC Universal got a lot of kudos and a lot of praise, quite frankly, from leading the marketplace in abc D things, whether it was you know, the push for automation and tech development or great content or developing our audience studio or content studio. Got out
of kudos for that. But I came out on behalf of the team and the company on the other side of an upfront, which is a just a mind blowing tradition to explain right on the other side of that saying we didn't do the best we could do for
our clients. And there were a lot of struggles for the reason why I shouldn't have to stand up on a stage in front of five thousand people in Radio City saying, why do we still have the handcuffs of legacy, whether it's legacy measurement, legacy process, legacy go to market conversations. Why should I have to stand up there and say a one currency metric does not do any service to a brand, okay, doesn't accomplish their business goals, and we
fight so hard for that every day. So think about that. We came out on the other side of what was a literally best performance ever for our company, Comcast, NBCUniversal, So we should be thumbs up, and we came out of it almost like now is the time to do something right. So now you have kind of lightning in a bottle and that's when we said we're not taking it anymore. So you had several things going on with
that lightning in a bottle moment. So you had kind of a absolute, overwhelming, really unanimous affirmation of premium content. Is it that? So we got that. No one ever argues that you have the ongoing and actual no promise yet of stopping brand safety issues. Okay, Then you have what I call measurement chaos. So you have the legacy of inaccurate reporting on the linear side because that's just riddled with issues. Then on the digital side you have
all that stuff. You have the unfortunate let's call it add tax where you have to deduct from your investment, whether it's fraud, view ability. They've actually done a great job of training the audience or charining the customers that no audibility is a thing and you should say thank you. Okay. So so then you get to the what I call them, you know, kind of measurement chaos on the digital side, you got the attacks and then you have the uh,
let's the walled garden or the self reporting. Yeah, if NBC Universal did that, NBC Universal did that, we would be having very serious conversations with our customers and we just can't do that right. So we're much more disciplined and we have a lot more disciplined integrity about our
business practices. So what I'm trying to do is actually not even on behalf of NBC Universal, not I don't The expectation is not to come out on the other side of this or wake up Wednesday morning on the twenty nine and say NBC Universal is the greatest and where the best, give us all your money, which that would be great, but that's not the point. What the point is is to level the playing field and some
pieces of the business will get better. Some pieces of the business are going to have to come into their own because growing pains is not an answer anymore. I mean, these are gigantic companies that are if you just look at the digital piece when you have the let's just call quote unquote the Duopoli, But there's a lot of other companies involved that really need to play the same way. Everyone else plays, and there's table stakes, and those table stakes need to be agreed upon by the players in
the business. And I appreciate about this because we talk a lot about standardization of this industry, which it's as old as the model itself, and we've talked a lot about measurement through the lens of the wrong metrics. So thinking about things and clicks and views. And I love this quote. We tweeted about it on our Twitter handle where you said, you know, as a share bringing you in to buy a product or is that actually and
what does it like really mean? And so so that's issue number one, But number two is why our third parties controlling what we're doing. And so I think when you're talking about the Nielsen's of the world and you're talking about the ib is the world, certainly there's a place to level the playing field. But never, in our opinion, has there been a more important time for the people who are actually in producing and executing it to a
stake at that table and to build it. I think now it's the time for them to write for you guys, to actually build this. Okay, So we agree with you. Now do we like the idea that there is a third party or an honest broker. Yes, I agree can be because honestly, if this existed in the digital space, you wouldn't have to worry about if your spot ran next to questionable content, or if bots were being purposely purchased, or if your ad was only in the screen or
the audio wasn't aired or deliver properly. So if there was an honest broker in that space, you wouldn't have to worry about that. That being said, I think that there does need to be standards, right, so they needs and actually the minimum standards that exist by the Trade Association's need to be actually elevated. Okay, particularly if what would be considered traditional or TV company standards are dramatically higher, and no one argues that they know premium content companies
standards are much higher. But if we're in a bucket now, which does a converged communications plan? Right, So it's one budget, one consumer, a consumer who does not discriminate or differentiates. They want their content where when? Why, however, they decide at that moment they don't care what's next to it.
By the way, and how shameful is it that as an industry we haven't been able to offer a our clients and ease of transaction, and along with that ease of transaction, one way to uniformly evaluate each piece of if you want to call it the advertising taxonomy or the kind of spectrum of delivery systems that you have. And that's why we're calling the summit, because when you're at this inflection point of a market, it's the time to make a change. It would be ridiculous if someone
didn't stand up. I'm just happy you stood at right. I mean, that's the truth, and as not even a compliment, it's just like it's the The opportunity is huge NBC Universal and our partners being the biggest media company in the country, right, we take our responsibility of leadership very seriously.
And one of the media industry analysts wrote something that I've said to my team fifty times, and I was happy that at least, you know, what's kind of like with your kids, when someone else says it, they believe it.
But he wrote something, as it pertains to the summit, was NBCUniversal has the ability to shape the agenda, and that's all we want to do and we are happy to be, you know, an honest broker of at least clearing the path for everyone to get there, get in the room and have a responsibility on an obligation to contribute to the solve. Because the brands are certainly suffering. I mean, think about who's most vulnerable in all this convergence in that where innovation is freeing the consumer to
either skip ads or have no ads at all. Right, so brands are most vulnerable. And then when they do think they're getting attached to add opportunities, they're really not. Who's seeing it, who's hearing it? Is being delivered right? And what is the performance? So if if you just have a simple ass which is all you want to know? So, as as brands or as marketers, you have a very simple ask all the time, which is all I want to know is who saw my ad and how they responded?
Why is an NBC building their own version of Nielsen? We had Jared Dicker, who's the head of product over at Washington Post is taking this on from the digital standpoints like why am I waiting for so and so out in the market to come to the solution when obviously they have the backing of the bezos and the ability to pull in engineers don't see that being any different in house at So this is really great question. So there's kind of two parts of an answer to that.
Number One, we stopped waiting, right, so we built our own capability through our audience studio called the audience Targeting Platform, which really takes the opportunity or challenge opportunity with something like will and grace way out from screen to screens, so screen agnostic, right, we don't care where, and we mostly don't even care when, okay, But we also expanded that to offer the opportunity to advertisers to actually ingest or deliver on their entire media plan. So it's not
just will and grace. It's will and grace. It could be what portion they have on Telemundo all the way to Bravo, to CNBC, all the way down the line, and include our partners, which is BuzzFeed, Snap, Vox, Apple News, so all of our partners. So we have that capability. The opportunity for some advertisers has been spectacular. So this year will do close to a half a billion dollars on via our audience targeting platforms. So it has nothing to do with a traditional rating and everything to do
with what consumer segment are you trying to reach? What type of business outcome are you trying to achieve. What's been great news is that the renewal rate or return rate has been almost and the deal size gets bigger and bigger every single time. So advertisers are coming back. They're coming back. They want to put in more correct the challenges where in a basic blocking and tackling hand to hand combat with the legacy processing system of how
transaction works right now. So it's this audience targeting platform or our audience studio challenges legacy at every level. Okay, okay, so at every level it challenges process. It's not an upfront negotiation. It can be an upfront negotiation, but not, no, we don't. We have ours is quote unquote always on.
But what it has to do is that the marketer, the brand, the agency or beha them has to lean in and say, here's the outcome I'm trying to achieve, or here's the audience I'm trying to target, which is deeper or more robust than an age gender split. It's more than adults or women. We hope they'll move past that. Well, well, for nine of NBC universals, maybe it's eight percent of NBC Universal's business. We have not moved past that. Yeah,
I believe that. Can we rewind that cam in the record, because I think that's very important point for nine of NBC universals. Maybe it's of NBC Universal's business. We have not moved past that. And we talk a lot about where the onus sits to not just change the conversation, which is the purpose of the summit around big issues, but just down to the basic blocking and tackling as you called it, or the taxonomy. Why are we Why
is it the same language? Why are we so? It's so listen, to be honest with you, it makes my eyes bleed, Okay, and that's what I like that visual that we can deliver to people who are listening as minds. But um so, there's three key stakeholders for change, right. It's the media companies that the shoulders of NBC Universal in this case are broad and we were in it. We're committed, we want to make a change. But it's the media companies like NBC Universal, it's the brands themselves,
and it's the agencies. Okay, So those three people or stakeholders have to contribute to the change, but the legacy is an end to end legacy. Okay, so that's why you know NBC Universal has the capability or capacity to transact this way for the ten billion dollars of a year of inventory or revenue that we generally have. Okay, more powerful than the upfront in the future. Um I think it's more powerful than the upfront in the future because it's always on. So how could you like the
car you want to buy? A lot of auto companies obviously no one advanced when they're launching a car, but they also have needs, whether it's on the national level or local level, when they want to interesting add or pivot and iterate and move money from one brand and go to another brand in one market out of the market. So this capability then NBCU has and some other companies having a smaller fashion but one to one conversation with the customer comes in the form of addressable So this
is awesome. NBC has it. Guess what Fox has it, Guess what Viacom has it? What the fuck? Right? So like you're gonna walk in on Tuesday and say what the funk and no one's gonna be like, hey, Linda, will go on NBC's platform like Viacom. But Bob back issue isn't gonna be like, yo, we'll go on your platform. Right. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. Good okay, So and I could speak only on behalf of NBC
reversal and what our desire is. Okay, So you have I think good progress in You mentioned very particular companies, right, so we'll put them in a bucket of premium content companies at scale that marketers love love. I tend to try to stay away from the word legacy as it relates to premium, because it conjures up this picture in people's minds of old TV or this wooden box that's
in someone's living room that plugs into the wall. I actually think we need a new name in general, because premium to me, well, I don't know what to call it because like my um, well he just turned six. My nephew calls his phone his little TV, which is kind of a cool I was like, what he's saying that just for ant um. But so when we look at those kind of companies take box via common Turner companies that would be like, oh my god, there are competitors at NBC. We don't think about them that way.
We think about them as other members of the ecosystem who are trying to figure out how to reestablish a value for premium content providers. That gets the marketers attention because we know that we basically on top of the funnel. We know that kind of that mid range consideration to purchase, we're pretty strong. But we also have streams of data or reams of data that own about I would say, on the low end of that bottom of the funnel or last quick attribution bs you hear from a lot
of other folks. Okay, that being said, so they came perfect. They formed a consortium called open a p which is basically consumer segment or data collective to make it easier for buyers. NBC Universal is not in it yet, Okay, but we're not in it because we don't want to be in it. We completely believe and we support an industry wide solution to make the ease of transaction one let's call it one imagined platform where everyone gets to
sell and do their own things. But if you're trying to sell more cars or sell more for insurance policies, you should identify that consumer segment in advance. You should be able to transact on the inventory that's available at that time forbid, not for a bid. And then at the end of the day, my job is to come and talk to you like a human all the time and sell you the value of my own wares and the differentiation for NBCU or say I have this promotion on will and Grace is going to kick ass make
sure you do that. And I feel very strongly that, um, we should, NBCUniversal should be part of the collective change. There really is just technical reasons of why NBCUniversal has a TP audience targeting platform, which is really an end to end solution that's up running and you could do your whole deal with us beginning to end. You get your post to do whatever we did across it, including
all of our partners. So if you use a TP across all of our partners, which is Buzzfeedbox, Snap Apple News, why wouldn't we want to include or grow to the point where we're in business with the open AP partners. So that is a continuing conversation that I am very optimistic about. What do you hope the headline is on November What we're trying to guarantee that the headline isn't on November. Ho hum, that was just another summit. Okay.
So what we're really what I would call bullish on is the caliber of people that are participating and the level of provocative candor that they are prepared to contribute. I know that we are going to ask for commitments and ask for next steps and ask for change. How that ask comes out, we're not sure yet. So you're
letting it right like you're letting it go natural. No, oh, well, no, we have a programmed agenda that's still forming because we have you know, again, the level of response and the level of executives that we're excited about this notion and and raise their hand and said I want to be in, I want to do it, I want to be there, or I want to participate has been great. So do you think that these kind of great changes to the
industry actually require new talent? And I don't mean new as an age that's on an age comment by any means. I'm talking about different skill sets people coming in. Are you looking for different types of people? Um? I really think it's a mindset. So if you want to have a mindset for innovation and this I don't mean for it to sound cliche, but I mean it really seriously.
Is that you have to have a diverse organization. And I don't mean diversity in the sense of just the way you look, although that has a lot to do with it, whether it's a mixture of male female, whether it has a mixture of race, ethnicity, but however you want to call it. But it also has to be
a diversity of experience. Okay, So on our teams, I actually we even try to push I just recently UM met this guy through an industry event who is actually an engineer in the petroleum and national gas industry who has this view on how he looks at inventory. He's basically what he does is is almost think about it like an airline, how they price seats and things like that in a very perishable, real time nature. He does
a lot of things like that in his job. And I became very, very infatuated with the idea of him coming into our company because to bring that in that says so I think the diversity of experience is very important. And we have people, for example, our audience studio. I have forty engineers on our staff right now that we didn't have two years ago, and so we'll start talking about them more. We will start talking about it, and you have to meet this rock star woman. Maybe you
have her. Her name is Denise Kalela. We heard her. She was a CEO of an antech company that literally I met her and within like the first half hour, I'm like no, I told her, I'm like, you will never be able to shake me off your leg. We didn't have one, and to imagine, oh, female engineers, so awesome about that. But then also we look at our client Partnerships team that deals with brands or marketers directly.
There are people in that group that we made a really conscious effort that had clients experience, that had analytic side experience, and that had branding experience, because we needed to be able to think like our marketers instead of saying, I have ten spots an hour and this is us. That's such an old way of positioning the value of what NBC universal is crazy idea. There are so many
brands consume, especially consumer brands that are startups. Now, I think it'd be freaking amazing if NBC said I'm going to take some kind of steak, I'm gonna help grow you and I'm gonna show you how advertising because I see some of these DTC brands always start getting really big and getting on TV and they're actually not doing the right kind of programming to startup. Could you actually
is so enormous. So we have this program thank you question the we have this program that right now that we've had a lot of success with on um using c NBC so a lot of those when you say,
incubated stuff. So we have a lot of deals with them that we're will actually even tests, say take our own air because it's so valuable for the you know, kind of financial community of Wall Street market, but also to test the power of on air and say, you know what, let's put together a schedule and watch the power. So so don't worry about that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, this is what I make that. No, I'm loving you're
you're right on with it. So we want to know, let's step outside Linda in the boardroom and let's talk about Linda Yak, the professional who's come up and taken the bull by the horns. If you will, so tell us something we don't know about your rise at NBCU that would surprise people. Oh, my goodness about my rise at NBC. I think a lot of people don't know that. If you can include my college internship, this is my fourth time at NBC. Do you have to be tougher as a woman at the top, Um, okay, do you
have to be tougher? I don't think you have to be tougher. I think you have to work harder, no question. And I think you have to present yourself differently because you have to work harder. You have to present yourself differently because you're graded differently. And there's listen, I have looked at until my most recent like let's call it,
two positions I've had at the company. I felt that being a woman was a real advantage because I thank you, okay, But now more often than not, whether it's at client meetings or in my own company meetings, um, I'm often the only woman, one of a very fewer only women in the room. Now I do have to go on record, my boss, Steve Burke, is gender blind. Whoever's the best for the job gets the job, and hit literally it's
amazing that being said. In my day to day work, um, it's lonely, okay, But I have to be very careful because and I'm known to be you know, aggressive, men would be a driver. That's right. I like air quotes than important. So so if I am trying to push a new agenda, right or or pushing for change, you know, Linda's Linda's passionate, emotional, dramatic, those words are not used
to describe a man. Okay. So I've been very conscious and I've been really lucky to have I'm very big on training and continuing education and have had a coach many years throughout my career, and we've done a lot of work on very specifically choosing words to present myself or to deal with a a review, a review that might say she's dramatic or emotional, and it just, honestly, there's some things that just comes with the territory. You just have to learn how to navigate it and swim
with the shark. I think language is one of the most important and underused weapons in business. What's the biggest lesson you learned in leadership? Um? Two things. I'll start with the not so positive an end on the positive. Two things. Leadership can be extraordinarily lonely, okay, because sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Sometimes the your your gut, your moral compass is challenged and when you are the
the leader or at it reach a certain level. Um, that's lonely and you have to have really conviction to power through it. That's one number two, and it's one of the biggest things I'm proud of at NBC Universal
is culture. Culture is that if you have to say, what defines what has been the biggest contributor to the success at NBC Universal has had in the last five years and as a complete change in direction of the culture and culture drives your success and it will also eat your success for lunch if you're not careful those on your board of directors, my board of directors, personal board of directors or um oh no, I have a full board, Laura, I like to take it. We may
have some openings. Um I think. Am I still allowed to say that my mom and dad are on the show? Yeah? Oh my god, I would be so scared to know if my mother came on. God, she's four ft ten and ways about ninety calves and she will take over the without a doubt. Chickens, my mom would say, Um, so my mom and dad are my first go two's right. But I also have two very successful, very educated sisters, ones in the banking business and ones in the healthcare.
She's a cheap nursing officer. That's my identical twin. UM. So they are very senior executives in very different businesses, and it's extraordinary opportunity that I have to bounce things off because they have such different perspectives. Sometimes for each of us it depends what day the week it is. We have conference calls and we literally work it like you get all of you get all of us, so
that so we really do. So I'm very lucky to have very um like seasoned executives who I'm completely comfortable with and can be completely vulnerable or they call me out and say, whoa, you are reading this the wrong way, and let's you're wrong, let's pivot and do it. So so that's in the family. And then actually, you know, I have your sister and health care. You're not saving lives.
I am okay, wait a minute, that's this is the I can't believe you just said that, because the whole thing, and the whole thing in the family is, um, we don't care about CPMs. We are saving lives. Because my daughter is becoming a nurse also, she's graduating in two weeks. But so she's following in her aunt's footsteps and we are saving lives. She's out of the will um but um.
And then I do have some long time clients that I can talk openly and actually help me shape what our position or whatever new idea we have for nbc U. So I feel great about that and I feel very very lucky. Um it's time killed by d I y What would Linda Yakarino kill? What would you buy? What would you do yourself? Anything? Anything? Um? What would I kill? Any form of legacy? Okay, build it fresh? You know
they talk about zero based budgeting or be fresh. Think about what your outcome is supposed to be, not the way you did it last year or did it yesterday or did it before. Then you never get better, you just keep doing the same thing over and over and over. I think so definitely yeah, And I don't say kill legacy to take away the things that are positive. But if legacy what's holding you back, then you have to rethink it and feel like you have the freedom to
challenge it. One of the single biggest issues in this industry are the people that say, but that's not the way it's done, That's not the way we do that here, right, So what would you buy besides a new pair of Manola's um, I probably buy some type of fashion company. I just joined the board of directors, which has been a little dream come to the last couple of years goal of line to to join a public board and it is in the fashion retail scase. Oh yeah, it's
an amazing company called the Scene of Retail group. They own and Taylor Lewin Gray, congratulations you, thank you. I feel really really lucky, especially in a day where so many women are needed on so many boards that I'm happy to be able to advocate and if angelized, more of that to happen. So also do and what would
you do yourself? What would I do myself? Well, honestly, I could say that I'll speak on behalf of the professional hat that I wear at NBCUniversal and literally we couldn't wait anymore for measurement to change, so we built it ourselves with our audience studio, and we don't have to be beholden to that, so we will continue building and investing and then maybe some kind of pick ups along the way with an ad tech company or something
like that. But we built the infrastructure ourselves and to be able to have the unique relationship with our comcasts at top Box Data has been extraordinary. How many shoes need to um? I don't know, but I will put it in a more. How about a more or less than fifty pairs? What's that's more? Um? Though the answer was more? Okay, So I might wear these November. Okay, don't don't judge me. If I don't, it just means
they didn't go come. But I bought this pair that I was on a waiting list four um easy season four Yeah, um like calf high Python yea. Where these on Instagram? She's my girl? So yeah, Linda, so are not worthy? We're not worthy? So Linda, if there's someone if you're a size seven and a half, feel free to borrow. So if there's someone who wants to talk to you, how did they get a hold of you? Okay? At Linda yak is the best way on Twitter? Thank you, Lindi.
This conversation has been incredible and just for the record, we can say this was the exclusive State of the Industry forum. We got the exclusive you got the exclusive. Honestly, you guys, I am so flattered. Thank you for coming work, thank you for everything. So that was insane does insane.
She's just representing everything that we asked for and look for in the industry, which is, don't accept convention buck legacy, think about where change needs to happen, and listen to other people in the room that you wouldn't expect have a perspective. I think that. I mean, that's also something that I've been amazed with her about. Yeah, and just the ability, and I love that she said, check your logo and your ego at the door. This is about
moving the industry forward. And I couldn't think of a better place to have that conversation than with our listeners in Atlantia. So with that, big thanks, Cameron, drewth mad turk Andy Bowers, all of our friends and family of Panoply and Atlantia. Keep talking to us. The immunity is growing. Hit us on the Twitter at Atlantia podcast. We'll be back in two weeks. Full disclosure. Our opinions are our own.
One word of advice to women figuring it out on their way to the top in our industry, be courageous, just like it's courage I love that