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  • In this episode of MarieTV we do have some adult language. So if you have little ones

  • around, grab your headphones now.

  • Hey there, it's Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV. The place to be to create

  • a business and life you love. Now, if you've ever wondered how you can take all your passions

  • and your gifts and your skills, and create a thriving and world-changing career, you

  • are gonna love today's guest.

  • Franchesca Ramsey is an actress, comedian, and video blogger with over 29 million views

  • on YouTube and over half a million followers across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Her

  • videos have been featured on MTV, the New York Times, and the BBC. In 2012, “Shit

  • White Girls Say to Black Girlswas viewed 5 million times in five days, garnering coverage

  • on MSNBC, ABC, and Anderson Cooper. Most recently Francesca worked as a writer and contributor

  • for the nightly show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central and as the host of the MTV

  • web series Decoded.

  • Franchesca!

  • Yay!

  • So damn happy to have you here. I'm so excited. I've been such a fan of

  • yours for such a long time.

  • That makes me thrilled.

  • Back in the brick wall days.

  • See, this is

  • Old school.

  • Old school. And we can even go like further back from the brick wallmy ass was jumping

  • around on my couch.

  • Oh, I remember those.

  • Like, being so silly.

  • Yeah.  We still do it now, we just do it like green screen and other stuff.

  • Oh, yay.

  • So, you know, you are brilliant in so many ways and we have so many good things to talk

  • about. But I want to take it back to what inspired you. I know you were blogging in

  • middle school and then you got on YouTube. What was the impulse to start creating, to

  • start sharing, to start putting stuff out online?

  • I am very much an only child. And so I think when you don't have siblings, you need to

  • find ways to entertain yourself, and the computer was really that for me. And I always wanted

  • to be an actor, I was always interested in the arts and media, and so the internet was

  • really a great place for me to combine my interest in technology and also creating content

  • and media. And as someone that was just struggling to get acting work, YouTube was a really great

  • place for me for that reason.

  • So your initial idea wasactor.”

  • Yeah, actor and also like beauty. So when I started – I've had locs for 14 years

  • and it's really exciting because now the natural hair space is so, you know, vibrant.

  • There's so many places that you can find things, stores you can buy products for natural

  • hair. But when I started thereit just did not exist.

  • And so I was looking for help with my hair and I couldn't find it, so I started making

  • videos about my hair. But they were funny because that's like my personality, and

  • so I started expanding into more characters and sketch and really just making things that

  • I felt needed to be in the world.

  • Was it everlike when you were thinking about comedy, like did you have training in

  • that or was that just your natural personality?

  • I went to school for acting. I went to a performing arts middle and high school and then I went

  • to University of Michigan for acting, and then I transferred schools and studied graphic

  • design. But then I did stand-up for about four years before I got really serious about

  • YouTube. I like to go to bed early and so stand-up shows always start super late. I

  • was like, “Do you guys have anything at like 3:00 or like mornings?” And they don't.

  • So I was like I'm not gonna do this anymore. I'm gonna just stick to YouTube because

  • I can make my own schedule and meet people and also make a little bit of money, which

  • I really enjoyed.

  • Yeah. And one of the things that I love about you, you know, so many people in our community

  • – I consider them, they consider themselves, multipassionate entrepreneurs. They do a bunch

  • of things. And I lovefirst of all, your website is gorgeous.

  • Thank you.

  • It's done by our mutual friend Krystle.

  • Yes, she's so talented.

  • She's so damn good.

  • Yeah.

  • But I lovedit was like actress/ comedianor actor/ comedian, blogger, graphic designer,

  • like all the slashes. And I was like yes, yes, yes.

  • It's funny because therewhen I was growing up and when I was in school and I

  • was interested in all these different things I would constantly run into people in my family

  • and at school who would say, “You have to pick one.” and I thought, “Well, I don't

  • want to pick one. I like all of these things.”

  • And I very much think that if you have lots of different interests, you should explore

  • them to the best of your ability. Because you never know how they're gonna interplay

  • or which one is gonna really take off. And for me, like my graphic design stuff helped

  • me have a great website and make sure that I had beautiful business cards and help me

  • edit my videos. My interest in beauty and hair, you know, make sure I look cute when

  • I go on auditions. Like, all of those things really work together for me.

  • Yeah. And then it seems like they allin my life too, they converge at some point.

  • Yes.

  • In the beginning it could almost feel like you're scattered. At least that's how

  • I felt. All these different things that I wanted to do, but if you have that sense of

  • courage and the willingness like “I'm just gonna keep going for it.”

  • Absolutely. And even if they don't fit together in a traditional sense, I feel like all the

  • more reason for you to try and figure out a way to make it work. Because that's gonna

  • separate you from the pack. You're gonna be able to differentiate yourself and create

  • a brand that's really unique to you because someone's gonna say, “Huh, I never thought

  • of fashion and fitness fitting together,” but maybe there's a way that you can, you

  • know, do that that no one else is doing.

  • Yes. So speaking of multipassionate, because I know what's a struggle for a lot of folks

  • that are watching, when they do have multiple interests, if things do start to take off,

  • have you ever had a point whether it's in, you know, the past 10 years or even more recently,

  • where the multiple passions are almost fighting with each other?

  • Where you're starting to get stuffmaybe it's rolling in the beauty sense or maybe

  • it's more people want you to speak on tech or you're like, “Oh, my goodness. But

  • I have these projects that I want to do and start pitching shows.” How have you been

  • able to navigate some of that?

  • I am someone who lives by my calendar. So I love making sure that I schedule everything.

  • Whether it's “I'm gonna be on MarieTVor “I've got an auditionor even when

  • it's just like getting coffee with a friend or doing a phone call catch up with someone

  • I went to high school with, I put it all on my calendar.

  • And so I really try to stick to that, but also keep myself a personal day. So I really

  • try to keep Friday as my day that I don't take auditions, I don't take meetings, and

  • I really stick to that. So that's my day to kind of explore maybe some things that

  • I didn't get to do during the week or work on some more personal projects. And, you know,

  • my team knows that if it's on the calendar, that's a time that is blocked off and they

  • can't have that time. So I think that you kind of have to set those boundaries for yourself.

  • Yeah. And, you know, you and I share a few things. One, we're both Sag sisters.

  • I didn't know that!

  • Yes, fireside. And also the Friday thing. I actuallyFridays I try. I don't have

  • as strict boundaries as you do, but Fridays, my team knows on the calendar. They're like,

  • Oh, that's Marie's kind of off day.”

  • I mean, if something happens and I need it to be an on Friday, it's fine. But I really

  • try to keep that day for myself. And you need it. I learned that actually from someone that

  • I worked with years ago and she used to do that at like 6:00. She would have an email

  • responder that would say “I don't answer emails after 6:00.” I don't do that. I wish

  • I did. But for me I turned it into a Friday thing. So setting those boundaries I think

  • is really important so that you can explore your passion projects if you're not doing

  • them elsewhere within your career.

  • Yeah. So you mentioned in an interview that you were part of YouTube's Nextup program

  • and that you learned a lot from other content creators, especially when you were first starting

  • to come up. And one of the things, I believe, that's in your heart now is you want to

  • be able to pass along some of those lessons because you've learned so much. I mean,

  • you're out there in such a big way.

  • For anyone watching who feels like they have something to say but they're not quite sure

  • how to say it right or how to do it right, what are some of the lessons you would pass

  • on now?

  • I think one of the biggest things that I learned was just doing your research. I think a lot

  • of times people say, “Well, I want to do this thing but I'm not really sure how.”

  • I always say go look at somebody whose career you really admire, somebody that's doing

  • what you would like to see yourself doing. Maybe not exactly, but there's some element

  • of it that you kind of feel drawn to, and go look at their very first videos. Go listen

  • to some podcast interviews. Go comb through their website. You know, that's the cool

  • thing about social media is you can really learn a lot about someone and their career

  • trajectory and some of the things that they've done.

  • And really I love to write lists in notebooks and things. So really make yourself a list

  • of all the things that they've done that you can learn from, things that they've

  • done right and things that they've done wrong. And really kind of help use that as

  • a roadmap for whatever it is that you're working on.

  • And I also think that's so important because often times you might have a really great

  • idea and then realize, “Oh, crap. Somebody's already doing that or someone did that and

  • it failed.” Why did it fail? Or what am I doing that's possibly going to lead me

  • down the path where this will not be successful? So I think that research step is really important.

  • And then I also just thinking working with other people, you know, you can just learn

  • so much from other people and you can also kind of help lift each other up. Maybe there's

  • a skill that they have that you don't have that you can partner in a project together.

  • And also just you never know who they're gonna meet that you will be perfect for a

  • project or you might meet someone, and vice versa. I'm so lucky I met so many people

  • through Nextup who I'm still really good friends with today and have gotten to work

  • with in a variety of different ways.

  • That's so cool. You know, one of the things we were talking about off camera while we

  • were just getting ready was this idea of comparison. You were sharing a MarieTV video.

  • Yes.

  • Let's talk about that – one of your favorite ones from early on.

  • Yeah, I – it really spoke to me just talking about the downside of comparing yourself to

  • other people and how especially for entrepreneurs it's hard not to do that. Because there's

  • so much time where things aren't working out and you're taking this risk and you've

  • got people around you telling you like, “Is this a good idea?” You're, you know, putting

  • money into something that doesn't necessarily see an end goal in sight.

  • And then you see somebody appear, you know, that's doing what you want to do and they're

  • being really successful, and it's just hard. And that really spoke to me because, you know,

  • in any creative field there's gonna be times it's just not working yet. And so I really

  • kind of built on that and I've started sayingstop hating, start studying.”

  • I love it!

  • Because I've had so many times where I'm like, “Mm, she ain't all that.” And

  • then I was like, “Wait a second, she is all that. She's doing so well.” Then instead

  • of like getting upset and, you know, like going down that Facebook k-hole and looking

  • at all their pictures and seeing all the stuff that they're doing. I started thinking,

  • Let me study this person and see how is it that she booked that job? How is it that

  • she got that client?” And I think that once I started doing that it's helped me so,

  • so much. And I think that more of us need to put that into practice, especially because

  • social media makes it so easy to just hate and consume everything that's going on in

  • someone else's life.

  • Yeah. And, you know, we were also talking too about how so much of what's on social

  • media, it's just kind of bullshit.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • Because it's a lot of fakeness.

  • Yeah, exactly. That's a hefe filter. I know it and I see it. Nobody looks that good all

  • the time. And so much of it's not real, right? Like think about about how many selfies

  • you have to take before you get that perfect selfie.

  • Oh, I am the queen of having my eyes closed.

  • Exactly.

  • Queen.

  • Right, so you have to take a ton of pictures. Or you have to like jump to get that one flawless

  • jump picture and you've got all the ones where you're like on the ground, you know,

  • and your like skirt is up. I think that we look at what's happening on social media

  • and we think, “Wow, that person's life is perfect,” but we don't know aboutoh.

  • A perfect example. I remember I had bedbugs in my apartment.

  • I've had them too!

  • You're in New York, right?

  • Yes.

  • And I still had to make videos, and so I had like one area of my apartment that was clean

  • and the rest of my apartment was like garbage bags. And I was like, “Hey, guys!” And

  • then like the camera would go off and I was like, “I hate my life!” I was like, “This

  • sucks!” I'm like climbing over bags. No one knew. I wasn't telling them that. You

  • know? But my audience is watching thinking like, “Wow, her apartment's so cute.”

  • She's so put together. She's so funny.

  • And I was like, “No, I'm literally sitting here being likethis sucks.” And you

  • don't realize like what's happening outside of that frame. Right? And so I think the minute

  • that you start comparing yourself to somebody else, it's a lose-lose no matterno

  • matter what. Because you don't actually know the whole story and what you're seeing has

  • been tweaked and edited to present an illusion.

  • Yes. Yes, amen. And we were also – I don't spend that much time on social. Like, people

  • I wish I didn't.

  • And I know we do similar things, but, you know, everyone's got their own path. But

  • for me, I just have so much fun putting the damn phone down. I get so many more things

  • done!

  • I know. It's true. It's – for me it's like a double-edged sword because it is work

  • and play.

  • And you get to connect with people and there's that beautiful upside, which I do really love.

  • And then there isit's likeit's really about I think for me bringing a level

  • of consciousness and awareness to it.

  • Yeah, that was one of my New Year's Resolutions was to try and live in the moment more. I

  • realized I was thinking a little bit too much about capturing things for social media rather

  • than just actually enjoying them.

  • Yes.

  • Because you're never gonna watch concert snaps. You're just not.

  • Yeah. No, that's my thing. Like, I have to dial down the Jersey when I go to concerts.

  • I'm like, okay. Because I'm the person who will want to start maybe yelling like,

  • Please put your goddamn phones down! I just wanna see Beyonce!”

  • And I am so the person that's like on Snapchat that's like, “I'm getting my life.”

  • I know, it's bad. I apologize in advance. I'm getting better.

  • It's fun stuff though. I love that we're having this conversation.

  • So one of the things that I – I mean, I admire so many things about you. You're

  • so brilliant at what you do.

  • Thank you.

  • But I love that your work from your perspective, from what you've shared, it's solution-based.

  • Talk to me about your perspective on creating content around women's issues and social

  • justice and things that can bethey're tricky paths to walk. And really what I feel

  • when I watch your work is this sense of wanting to help us understand each other better.

  • Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I saw this quote that saidyou don't know what you don't

  • know.” You know? And so for me, I talk about these issues in a way that I hope will be

  • easily digestible, because it's hard to talk about social justice. It makes people

  • feel uncomfortable. People feel guilty. And I found that comedy is a great way to kind

  • of break that barrier down and make people feel a little bit more comfortable.

  • I also love talking about pop culture and using myself as an example. I also find that,

  • you know, often times when we talk about things like privilege, for example, if I can talk

  • about my own privilege as like a straight cis able-bodied woman, than people realize

  • likeoh, wait. You're not yelling at me. This is not – I didn't do anything bad.”

  • We all have to kind of deal with this to make a better world for people.

  • Yeah.

  • So I really think if more people were open to acknowledging like their own position in

  • life and also like the mistakes that they've made. So many times when we talk about social

  • issues veryit makes sense that people get upset. And I think that people are entitled

  • to those feelings, especially when we're talking about life and death issues. But I

  • think if more people were open to say, “Look, I've screwed up in the past or I didn't

  • know about this issue at one time,” more people would be open to doing that themselves.

  • So that's really what I try to do in my work.

  • You do it so well.

  • Thank you.

  • And like I feel like in especially, you know, the amount of wisdom, accurate information,

  • humor, and warmth that you are able to convey in like the MTV Decoded.

  • Thank you.

  • It's like these five minutes. It's brilliant.

  • Thanks. But, you know, it's similarly to how, you know, you've been on YouTube for

  • a long time. It's a process, right? Like, you look at your old videos and you think,

  • Oh, my goodness. Why did I do that? Like, that did not work.” And so I've been on

  • YouTube for about 11 years, so I have all those old videos up largely because I want

  • people to see that where I'm at now is not where I started.

  • Yes.

  • And so I've learned a lot over the years and just kind of refined my content and the

  • way that we approach these issues so that we really have it down to a science that I'm

  • super proud of.

  • You should be. And I feel like for all of us, we continue to grow because the world

  • keeps changing.

  • Absolutely.

  • And it's like navigating it. And speaking of that, not everyoneand I think this

  • is so important for people to hear. We've been online a long time, we're creating

  • a lot of stuff, and naturally not everyone's gonna like or agree with your perspective.

  • There's like a cottage industry around not liking me. It's – I pay people's bills.

  • It's wild.

  • Which is very, very difficult for – I can't even. That's like a whole

  • Yeah, but you know what? It isthe same way that I talked about stop hating and start

  • studying. I feel like people in their process, you are at a place where you maybe see somebody

  • doing something that you wish that you were doing, or they're doing something that you

  • feel like you could do better. And for people who don't necessarily have the confidence

  • to put themselves out there, especially when it comes to media, that can be really hard.

  • To see somebody succeeding at something that you wish that you could do.

  • And so I realize because I've been in that place myself to not take it as personally

  • as I would in the past. Of course, I'm human. Some days you have a bad day and it hurts

  • your feelings. But I realized that it really is more about them than it is about me.

  • Has that helped you – I know you've written about like it's really about choosing your

  • battles.

  • Oh, right.

  • And I think that isit's an important thing. I remember, you know, when I first

  • started even doing online programs, I love education. I love getting people into an experience

  • where I can hopefully make a positive difference to them. And I just remember like the first

  • few times someone refunded, and I justlike it's kind of silly to hear myself say this

  • now, but it just felt like such a punch in the gut. And I took it so seriously. And I

  • was just like, “Oh, God. I'm horrible person.” Like what have I done? But I think

  • as you hopefully grow and as all of us mature and you get more experience, you do have to

  • pick your battles.

  • Oh, absolutely. And the thing is is like everything isn't for everyone.

  • Yeah.

  • Like there are some television shows that are super successful that “I'm like I

  • do not get this show. This sucks. I don't like that movie or that artist or whatever

  • it is.” And there's an audience for that, right? So if someone's not interested in

  • my content or they ask for a refund, it's not a negative reflection on you all the time.

  • Maybe it's just you weren't right for that person or that project didn't fit what their

  • needs were.

  • But in terms of when it comes to responding to some of those negative comments, for me

  • I really try to be strategic in that it's usually less about them and more about my

  • audience. So if I can find a funny and smart way to respond to something negative that

  • maybe can help my audience have a better way to address that question or comment from their

  • family member or their roommate or their co worker, then for me it's less about that

  • troll who said something really ignorant about my work and more about, you know, all my Twitter

  • followers who are also listening. And they're saying, “Oh, how is she addressing this?

  • Oh, wow. I'm gonna use that. I'm gonna put that in my pocket.”

  • They're watching from many different perspectives. Do you have a team of people whether it's

  • like friends or confidants or literal, you know, teams that help you do what you do?

  • Because none of us do this alone.

  • Yeah.

  • Do you ever go out to them and saybecause we do this on our team. You know, if someone

  • comes in with a particular comment or they come in really upset we'll roundtable it,

  • you know, and say, “Okay, great. What's really happening?” You know, is this a troll,

  • someone who's just pure hating? Or is this someone who's hurt? And there's a lot

  • of validity and how can we address this in a way that is full of compassion and also

  • honesty sharing our perspective.

  • Yeah, I do think it's important to take a step back because sometimes even though

  • someone is saying something that is hurtful and maybe it is filled with, you know, curse

  • words and personal jabs that aren't fair, sometimes there is a grain of truth in there

  • that you do need to hear.

  • Yeah.

  • And for me that person is my husband. You know, he's someone that I – he really

  • keeps it real with me sometimes when I don't want him to. I'm like, “I really hate

  • this girl.” He's like, “Well, she's not wrong.” And I'm like, “Just agree

  • with me.” He's like, “She didn't say something wrong!” You know? And I'm like

  • crap. You're right.” You know?

  • So I know that if there's something that really hits me and I think I can't shake

  • it, I take it to him and he really helps me think about it objectively. And, again, sometimes

  • it's not the answer I want to hear, but it's the one that I need to hear. And I

  • think it's really important to surround yourself with people like that. So my manager

  • is that type of person, my agent is that type of person.

  • I'm very wary of people who tell me I'm doing great all the time. While it might feel

  • good in the moment, I realize that I don't know that I can trust them to let me know

  • when I've gotten it wrong or like when those pants don't fit. Or likeyou know what

  • I'm saying? Your thong is showing. Just tell me. Like, don't tell me I look great.

  • Just tell me that it's not right so I can change. And that's how my husband is and

  • that's how all the people that I work with are like that too. So I consider myself to

  • be very fortunate.

  • Yeah, well, you helped create that. Because of your open heart and your desire to grow

  • and your desire to continue. It's freaking awesome.

  • Let's talk about something that you've shared, and I think there's a lot of people

  • in our audience who can relate to this. That, you know, you said every day there were people

  • telling you that you're not successful and that your career is over and that you're

  • never doing anything, but you knew in your heart that they were wrong. Let's just talk

  • about that and also the importance for all of us to define success for ourselves.

  • Yes. Oh, my goodness. That is so huge. And I think for me that's been particularly

  • relevant for social media, because so much of social media success is around numbers.

  • And truthfully, I have never had huge numbers. Like, I had a viral video in 2012. I'm so

  • thankful. It really kickstarted my career. But since that I don't have, you know, 200,000,

  • 300,000 people watching all of my videos. But I know my content is good. Right?

  • And so the people that I look up to whose careers I've seen, you know, have accomplished

  • all sorts of things that I would like to accomplish in my career, from Isa Ray to Abby Glaser

  • andor, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson at Broad City, these are women who had web

  • series that didn't have huge numbers, but they're on HBO and Comedy Central. They're

  • winning awards.

  • And so success for me is not necessarily what the number is on my videos. Right? Success

  • for me is getting a chance to be interviewed by Marie Forleo. Getting a chance to go speak

  • at a college. You know, getting that call for a really big audition that I wouldn't

  • have gotten that call for if they hadn't seen the video that I had made that didn't

  • get hundreds of thousands of views, but it was a good video. Right?

  • And so for me and for anyone that I feel is kind of wrestling with where they're going

  • in their career, I ask them to think about, well what is it that you want? You know? And

  • once you lay that out for yourself I make these lists and I say, “Well, I wanna do

  • this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this, and here's how I'm gonna get there.”

  • No one else can tell you like what success is, because you've decided what it is for

  • yourself.

  • Yes.

  • So I've had lots of people who've said, “Oh, well, you don't do this and this and

  • this.” And it's like “I don't want to do any of those things. So like I'm totally

  • okay with that.” Like, that's not what my goal is. I've done all these other things

  • that I would like to do. You know?

  • Yeah.

  • And so it's – I get it. It's hard. You know? And for me, I, you know, I try to be

  • the bigger person, but I'm a little petty sometimes.

  • Who's not? We're human!

  • And it's nice when those same people are suddenly like, “I'm so proud of you. You're

  • doing all this stuff.” And I'm like, “Mm, I remember the days. I remember when you said

  • that I wasn't doing this and this. But I'm gonna let you cook. Thank you.” And I keep

  • it moving. So you have to remember, you know, put that in your back pocket so that when

  • they come around and congratulate youbecause you're gonna get there, it's just gonna

  • take some time.

  • Yes. I love – I had a couple of choice people telling me myit was particularly like

  • some financial goals. They're like, “Oh, don't set yourself up for disappointment,

  • Marie.” They're like, “I don't think you're gonna be able to do that so fast.”

  • No, aim as high as you want.

  • I really sat there, I was like, “Do you know who the hell you're talking to? You

  • just lit a fire under my ass so big, because I will want to be the girl that comes back

  • and go, 'Can I show you this?'”

  • Well, and what's so funny, and I'm sure you'd have this too, is like now social

  • media and especially YouTube has like a level of prestige. Right? Everybody knows I've

  • gotta have a Facebook. Everyone's trying to do a web series. But 10 years ago it was

  • likeyou make videos in your bedroom? Are your clothes on? What are you doing?” I

  • was like, “I mean, I'm doing this,” thing and like every person I would talk to

  • was like, “That's really weird.” You know? I was like I'm gonna go home and edit

  • my YouTube videos and they were likewhy?” And now everyone's like, “Can you help

  • me start a YouTube channel?”

  • And so you have to realize that where you're at right now is not where you're gonna be

  • five or ten years from now, and so you have to look at that goal and stay focused on it.

  • Because there's gonna be a lot of people who right now don't know what that five or

  • ten year goal is and they don't get it. And that's totally okay.

  • Five years from now they're all gonna be like, “Gosh, I wish I had gotten on that

  • thing that you had gotten on because you knew where you were headed and why you were working

  • towards that thing.”

  • You have a really strong sense of intuition, don't you?

  • I don't know that it's intuition, I just feel – I'm just really driven. And I think

  • that I'm really fortunate, because my parents have really instilled that in me. They were,

  • you know, they were always very supportive of whatever it was that I was doing and they

  • would just say, “Listen, whatever it is that you're doing, just work as hard as

  • possible and just be the best that you can at it.” And so that's what I've always

  • tried to do. And, you know, sometimes it doesn't work out.

  • Yeah.

  • But I'm very much of the mind that things happen the way that they're supposed to.

  • And over the course of my career I can look back on things that didn't work out and I

  • realize, “mmm, I was not ready for that thing, or that was a terrible thing and I'm

  • so glad that it didn't happen.” And that's happened enough that now I just kind of trust

  • it as I go along. If I don't book the gig, if something falls through, then maybe it

  • wasn't meant to be and something else is gonna come up.

  • Awesome. So we've gotta end with like the most exciting, incredible. Can we just talk

  • for a minute about your new pilot with Comedy Central? You are executive producing and co-hosting.

  • I can't even.

  • I'm excited.

  • I'm frickin' excited. It's in development right now, but can you tell us about the vision

  • for the show, your hopes for the show, anything that you're able to share.

  • Yeah. I mean, for me I'm just really excited to have a chance to kind of explore some issues

  • that I don't see other people talking about on television. I think talking about identity

  • and representation is so important to me, and sometimes it's not as overt as actually

  • like talking about a specific issue, but just highlighting different sorts of voices. And

  • I've found in my work that I get people who say things like, “Wow, I never saw somebody

  • with locs on television before.” Or, you know, “I never thought about this issue

  • until you brought on somebody from this community to talk about it.” Or justseeing somebody

  • that looks like me on Decodedor, “you know, in one of your sketches has been really

  • eye openingand gives people a lot of just like hope and faith in themselves. And that's

  • really what I want to do, but in a comedic way.

  • Yeah.

  • So I'm just excited that I'm gonna get an opportunity to do it on a larger scale.

  • To think that I started in my bathroom making hair videos, you know, to then go to MTV and

  • then I was on the nightly show at Comedy Central, and now to have the chance to have my own

  • show and really kind of use all the things that I've learned to kind of take this next

  • step and create things that I never could have done on my own is really exciting.

  • I can't wait to see your show.

  • Thank you.

  • It's justit's incredible. And I don't know, are you able to talk about the book

  • or are we gonna leave that aside?

  • Yeah! I can share just a little bit.

  • Drop us a little hint so we can get excited for that too.

  • Yeah. I'm excited, because, you know, we talked about how YouTube is in these like

  • little cute five minute confines, and then, you know, I love Twitter, but you can only

  • say so much in 140 characters. And there have been so many times I wanted to really deep

  • dive on a topic or just a personal story from my life and I haven't been able to do that.

  • And so I've kind of been stockpiling them away and I just started working on this book.

  • It's a lot of personal stories, but also a lot of advice just about the digital space,

  • being an activist, a lot of the mistakes that I've made. Because I really think that that's

  • something more people should be transparent about, especially in activist spaces.

  • And so I'm excited. I'm really trying to get people thinking, but also get people

  • laughing and being honest about their own personal journeys and where they want to go.

  • And I'm just so fortunate that I'm getting an opportunity to do that and that anyone

  • cares what I think.

  • Well, you're extremely talented and you work your buns off.

  • Thank you.

  • So it's notyour fortune, yes, yes, yes. But you deserve it.

  • Thank you so much.

  • You really, really do.

  • I appreciate that.

  • Thank you for taking the time to be here. All of us, myself and the whole audience,

  • we're gonna be cheering you on.

  • Thank you.

  • And hopefully you can come back on and we'll be able to talk about even more.

  • Yeah, I'm – I cannot say thank you enough. This has been so surreal because I've just

  • been such a fan for so long. You helped me in my career, so it's kind of come full

  • circle, which is really cool.

  • Beautiful. Thank you.

  • Thank you.

  • Now Franchesca and I would love to hear from you. So why don't you tell us, has there been

  • an idea you've been harboring in your heart or something that you want to create or express,

  • but perhaps you've been afraid to do it? If you've got something that you want to

  • put out into the world, tell us about it in the comments below.

  • Now, as always, the best conversations happen over at the magical land of MarieForleo.com,

  • so go there and leave a comment now. And when you're over there, be sure to subscribe

  • to our email list and become an MF Insider. You'll get instant access to an audio I

  • created called How To Get Anything You Want, and you'll get exclusive content, some special

  • giveaways, and personal updates from me that you just can't get anywhere else.

  • Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that very special

  • gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and we'll catch you next time

  • on MarieTV.

  • B-School is coming up. Want in? For more info and free training, go to JoinBSchool.com.

  • And so I had like one area of my apartment that was clean and the rest of my apartment

  • was like garbage bags. And I was like, “Hey, guys!” And then like the camera would go

  • off and I was like, “I hate my life!” I was like, “This sucks!” I'm like climbing

  • over bags. No one knew. I wasn't telling them that. You know?

In this episode of MarieTV we do have some adult language. So if you have little ones

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