Full Transcript – Victoria Vaynberg – Wild Business Growth Podcast #330

This is the full transcript for Episode #330 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Victoria Vaynberg – Nanit CMO & Chief Customer Officer. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Victoria Vaynberg 0:00
We want to show you this side of parenthood that, frankly, is pretty great.

Max Branstetter 0:20
Pretty, pretty, pretty, great. Welcome back to Wild Business Growth. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every Wednesday morning who’s turning wild ideas into wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, founder and Podcast Producer, Max podcasting. You can email me at and this is episode 330. Today’s guest is Victoria Vaynberg, aka V for short. V is the chief marketing and customer officer of Nanit you probably know Nanit as the smart baby monitor company, and they’re continuing to build the parenting app that is so much more as well. In this episode, we talk the unbelievable Nanette story, the unbelievable brands that V has worked on even before Nanette, and we geek out about all things tennis, baking and parenting. It is V for Victoria. Enjoy the Sure. Already we are here with Victoria vanberg, also known as V. No idea where that nickname came from. The Chief Customer Officer, CMO of Nanit, a company that’s super close to home for for Dana and I these days. But really, really cool brand. We’ll get to some other, some of the other cool brands that you’ve worked with as well on this. But V, of the hardest nicknames to remember I’ve ever come across. V, thank you so much for joining making time today. How you doing today? I’m good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course, of course. My pleasure. So before we get to Nanette, I just was going through your LinkedIn. You know, basically your online resume, of all the stops that you’ve had before, Nana. And as if Nanette wasn’t cool enough, I have like, a rapid I’m gonna start with Rapid Fire This Time for based on your background. So I hope you’ve been, you know, brushing up on your CV, V, but first ESPN. I mean, I think it’s any photo grows of a sports fan. It’s like their dream to work at ESPN. How would you say working at ESPN compared to, like, what many young boys and girls dream of,

Victoria Vaynberg 2:39
I was one of those peoples, like, I want to work at Nike, ESPN, or, I used to say, like a sports agency, but I interned at one, so then I eliminated that off my list. So it was a dream and a great time. I feel like I was there in like, the heyday of, like, getting the best kind of, you know, young person’s experience working at ESPN, and I did work in Bristol for a year, so I had the real campus experience, and then I was in New York. But it also teaches you that work is still work, like you’re talking about digital, whatever, even though the topic is sports, you’re still, you’re not just running around pretending to live out an athlete dream while you’re there,

Max Branstetter 3:29
as if that dream wasn’t enough. So you’re also at Anheuser Busch, which, by the way, I always say that wrong. Anheuser, Anheuser, that’s how

Victoria Vaynberg 3:37
I say it. Anheuser Busch, cool. So AB, InBev, AB and Bev, yeah, it’s

Max Branstetter 3:41
many little boys and girls dream to grow up and work at a beer. No, I’m just kidding, but slightly, slightly different tone, but really, really cool, legendary company,

Victoria Vaynberg 3:50
yeah, super amazing. CPG, education

Max Branstetter 3:55
to get. Did you get any free beer there? So

Victoria Vaynberg 3:58
much. Honestly, I I worked on the Budweiser, like, Bud heavy when I first started, and it was, like, a, I’d say, an unwritten rule, to try to drink the brand that you worked on. I drink a lot of Budweiser, and I, like, could not drink it anymore after some time. And then when I got to when I was like overseeing digital and worked on all the brands. It unlocked my happy hour variety because I could drink across portfolio. But there really was, like a York on Bud Light. You drink Bud Light, you work on the global show. You drink that so and I got a lot of free beer for my wedding, which was very nice.

Max Branstetter 4:42
Oh yeah. I always think alcohol companies kind of have some of the best perks in the world of any so the brand loyalty is strong within the brand teams too. And then speaking of consuming resi, which actually I think that rezzy has become so popular that when I go. To make a reservation. I just say, like, you know, with family and friends, like, Oh, I just made a resi, which I, like, I don’t even think about, it’s like, second

Victoria Vaynberg 5:05
nature, yeah, that was, that was the goal. And, well, at least when I started, we used to say that, how do we make people say, I’m gonna make a resi instead of a reservation? I’m your ultimate guinea pig. Thank you. Thank you for that. Thanks

Max Branstetter 5:18
for paying me in free food for several decades, before the company was even around. But what was like, the most game changing thing that you think has, like, worked so well for resi compared to some of the other competitors out there? It’s a great question.

Victoria Vaynberg 5:31
I think in the early days, honestly, starting the notify feature was one of them. It’s like a good reminder that sometimes very What are seemingly small things can really kind of carry you for a while. So I think there were a lot of really smart features that didn’t exist anywhere else that were so obvious. Like, of course, you should be able to be told if a table at a restaurant you really want to go to opens up. Obviously, that’s commonplace now, and I feel like one of the things we did right was start to bring like, the experience of restaurants to people, versus it being this like commodity of just a table, right? And obviously experiences are something people are willing to spend on, and there’s like cache and all that, but that was a lot of what we focused on was, like, kind of access to this kind of insiders world of restaurants that I think a lot of people want to feel a part of.

Max Branstetter 6:31
I don’t think we’ve so you’ve just, like, loved what I said about resi with the name, and now you’re gonna hate me. I don’t think we’ve actually used the notify feature, but I’ve heard it’s really cool. Oh, you haven’t, yeah. What is the, yeah? Well, we never leave the house these days. But besides that, like, what’s the in a nutshell, what is you

Victoria Vaynberg 6:50
basically, let’s say you go to try to book Teresa, which very hard to get into. You don’t see any availability. There’s a notify button, and you set that for the time range of which you would be willing to accept a table. So basically, go on a virtual wait list, and then when a table opens up, oftentimes the restaurants will batch release it to everybody who has set, let’s say that same window from seven to eight, and then it’s like a race to get the table. So it’s true, you get a notification and you have to go as quickly as you can to grab it. So it’s sort of like commoditized the wait list and almost gamified it like you feel like you won when you snagged the Notify. But it’s a way that people are able to get into these restaurants that often have a super long, right, multi week wait list, and it helps the restaurant fill the table. More importantly, so like, if you’re going to lose that last minute table that you planned for as a restaurant, but you’re able to fill it, you’re helping the restaurant, in turn, not lose business that night. Well,

Max Branstetter 8:00
now you know that I live under a rock, so that’s good to sorry. That sets the stage for the rest of the interview. You gotta do a lot of explaining. But no, it’s a brilliant feature. And like, yeah, there’s so many stories out there of brands, companies that come up with, like, a seemingly small idea that transforms it, and now it’s even reaching the mind of max. So here we are, last thing before the real thing, Zola. So you kind of bounce around your career, but it’s almost like the different stages of life. It’s like when you can drink and when you can go to, you know, when you can have a wedding, and then we’ll get to babies. But Zola another super, super cool company that’s kind of like taken over everything I know your time there, it wasn’t just about Zola and, like, the traditional wedding sense, but actually, like Zola baby and that side of things came up as well. Can you share, like, what it was like, you know, introducing and growing that baby part of a company that traditionally is known for weddings.

Victoria Vaynberg 8:54
There is a madness, method, I guess, to my career decision madness. But yeah, I definitely joined Zola in a time where we were growing a lot of different pillars of the business. Because many people know it started as a registry business, right, reinventing, uh, kind of what wedding registries were. And now I think, right, pretty commonplace to think about cash funds and group gifting and being able to drop anything you want on the internet, on your registry, but I use Zola in 2017 when I got married. Congrats. Never too late for congrats. No, thank you. But I remember at the time being like, Oh, thank god, there’s something here where I can like, and I did. I had, like, a house, funds, a charity, and, like one other thing, and we lived in a small apartment in New York City, so we didn’t want stuff. So really reinvented that whole universe, which is amazing, and then over time, right, expanded to free tools and everything to help you plan a wedding. And so I got to work on, I’d say, like, the growth on a number. Of parts of that planning journey, like one thing right? To learn about in business in general, is thinking about your customer, LTV, and where can they go, and how’s the business going to grow? And it was a very natural thing for us to hear from customers all the time to say, I love Zola so much, right? You’ve helped me through this amazing, emotional, important time of my life. And like, now I’m having a baby and like, Why do I have to go, like, why don’t you guys have a wedding registry? Or, I mean, a baby registry? And people were just hacking wedding registries to make baby registries anyway, because they were saying I can find a bunch of items, or I could do a cash fund. And I love how this works, and so it was really a matter of, like, when, not if that we were going to be able to do it.

Max Branstetter 10:50
So as if we haven’t grilled you enough on your career next we’re going to go back to high school. No, I’m just kidding. No, we might talk about some of that later, but the Zola baby experience actually ties swimmingly to what you’re doing now at Nanit. And I think for any new parent out there, obviously there’s a million different baby products out there, and one of the key things you need is a baby monitor. And we, like, we were recommended by so many people about Nana. Once you once you like, try it out and use it yourself. You’re like, this is the coolest technology I’ve ever seen. It really is a game changer. Like, there’s the app, it’s all control, you know, you could be in the other room and totally customize. You can talk into your phone and talk to your baby like, there’s so many features. Again, you know, you just have to pay me in multiple nanites, and then I’ll just keep rattling it off now. But what was it about Nana as a company that’s actually caught your attention in the first

Victoria Vaynberg 11:44
place. As I said, too, before we started chatting, I have three kids. I admittedly did not have a Nanit, and now I have one. And I’m like, this would have been incredible on the surface. I think people do hear baby monitor, and actually don’t think that encompasses what we do, because what we’re creating, and what parents experience who give you those recommendations, and sort of the immense like love that we hear about fernanette, I think is more about how we’re really a parenting app. It’s all just powered by a baby monitor, right? And I think what drew me in was sort of understanding that bigger picture of what it is, maybe today, and all the opportunity that we have ahead of us, so that, from a kind of products and app standpoint, digital experience standpoint, was super appealing to me. I mean, it’s an incredible product. It’s aI powered baby monitor. It feels so simple, but it’s, like, incredibly complex. And when you do spend time with like the R D team and the tech team that builds it, your mind is, honestly, would be blown by what they were able to create. And at the same time, I said, I mean, I am a mom of three, and it’s easy for me to talk about parenting, and I have a lot of feelings and opinions, and to be able to further build up a brand in a space that’s obviously part of my day to day. Life is really exciting. I love sports. I love restaurants, like I talk about those all the time too. But I think we where we want to evolve to, from a true brand standpoint, is, of course, something that is like a moment stage of my life that I’m like, very happy to be engaging on. Well, congrats

Max Branstetter 13:32
on the engagement as well. So you mentioned three kids, and actually, to give a little bit more detail, two of those are identical twin girls, fraternal. But twins. Oh, I’m sorry, that’s what that, you know what? Let’s just start the interview. Two of those are twin girls. Rephrase that. I got bad information from probably my own head. I made it up. But Dan and I have been saying since the beginning with our, you know, Journey bringing up, raising Jamie, in our short experience so far, of just like, how much more respect we have now for parents of twins. Like, it is so much like one child at a time is so much you can’t imagine two at the same time and same thing with, like, single parents, or like anybody kind of stepping in as a caregiver. Like, it’s just like, so much, it’s unbelievable, but from the the Nana’s standpoint, so I think, like as cmo slash Chief Customer Officer, we’ll just use those interchangeably. It’s a really interesting space, because parents, especially new parents, are, like, so selective and so choiceful about what type of products they use, and what sort of stuff they use to, you know, support and help raise their their children at Nana. What’s your approach for like, winning the trust, trust of those parents. If I could talk,

Victoria Vaynberg 14:50
I mean, it’s the most important thing for sure. I think it all starts from the product right, and the product experience, because you. If you don’t have right a reliable, trustworthy, amazing experience, you’re not going to tell your friends or your family or anybody else about it, or your nana.com or your Amazon review, right? And so I think one of the things that is so amazing I’ve never seen, honestly, in all the very cool jobs I’ve had and brands I’ve worked for, I’ve never seen the level of love and loyalty that I see from Nanette parents. I will get hit up on LinkedIn by people I haven’t talked to in years. Right to just pick, oh my God, you’re working at Nana. This thing has changed my life. You don’t really get that from most products. And so I think that’s a testament to how much care and attention and detail is put into every part of the product in the experience. Just even give, like, a very specific example, like, we won’t release a feature until the team’s tested it enough for accuracy, right? Because, as a parent, right? You’re hyper aware, especially if you’re a new parent, of every little thing, and if you feel like the information that you’re getting on a critical item is wrong or pretty error prone, you’re not going to trust the product anymore. So I think that’s a big piece of it. And then I think a lot is just around, you know, the community that we’ve built, right? The support that we’re giving to parents, the non judgmental sort of, I think, brand experience that we provide, I think those are all the core things that we stick to every day, kind of, leading with care

Max Branstetter 16:34
from the marketing lens. What would you say is kind of like the differentiated this is so much business jargon. I’m sorry, what’s the differentiated approach that you take it in it that maybe sets you aside from some baby product companies out there,

Victoria Vaynberg 16:52
we have one, and it’s that I think everything out there about parenting right now, or at least has been all fear mongering, right? It’s a lot of do this so your baby won’t die. This is you have to have this thing so this works. Parenting is the worst. It’s miserable, right? Like the chapel Roan thing that blew up. It’s like, it’s hell, it’s all these awful things, right? And I don’t think most people, those who are actively trying to have a child, aren’t approaching that experience with that in mind. They know it might be hard. They know that there’s going to be obstacles, right of cost, and many, many challenges. But most people are going into that with this like happy, optimistic view of something that they want to do together, right? And thinking, I think about the joy that children bring into your life, and so I think as a brand number one, it’s our job to also remember to evoke happiness and joy like we don’t view parenthood as the worst decision. We view it as the best decision you’ve ever made.

Max Branstetter 18:03
I hope it’s not the absolute worst, though. I mean,

Victoria Vaynberg 18:05
you’ll have, everyone’s gonna have terrible days, like we all know that, right? But on in the in the grand scheme of things, you know, I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, right? So how do we continue to play on that positive side, which doesn’t mean being inauthentic, and it doesn’t mean not acknowledging that, you know, it’s hard to get sleep in the beginning or whatever, and the product and the experience that we have is actually creating a happier and healthier version of parenthood. And we see that actually in our own data, like we did a parent report that we released earlier this year, and what was kind of amazing to see is the level of like peace of mind confidence that Nana parents felt. It’s like almost 90% of Nana parents say they feel confident, which is an amazing thing to have, but that’s being fueled by what the product provides for you, right? Because you have information and you understand how to help your baby get more sleep. And, man, if babies do get more sleep and you’re connected to them, right, because you can check on your app and see them when you’re not home, or talk to them, or all these things that you named really like that is the difference. Is that work we want to show you this side of parenthood that, frankly, is pretty

Max Branstetter 19:23
great. Yeah, it’s pretty great. Appreciate you reframing it there. Because, yeah, I mean, I know Dana and I had the same exact mindset of, like, before Jamie came into the world, it’s like, like, yes, you you are concerned. And like, you get concerned about every little thing, but overwhelmingly, you’re so excited and, like, can’t wait to meet your child and raise your child and like, it’s, it is such a high percentage of positive thing as opposed to, like, a negative, scared thing, even though, you know, totally rational to be fearful and scared. Yeah. So that that approach is spot on. And speaking of all those features that, I mean, I just mentioned the tip of a. The features that are part of the app, which now you’ve taught me, I’ll call it an app first, and baby monitor is part of that. But can you give us a little peek behind the curtain of like how Nana as a company, like how the team decides, like, what sort of features are worth experimenting and actually, like rolling it, rolling out to the larger community base.

Victoria Vaynberg 20:21
I mean, from one end, we’re always talking to and listening to our parents. You’re welcome

Max Branstetter 20:27
as we speak. Yeah,

Victoria Vaynberg 20:29
tell me what you’re looking for. But, you know, look, I mean, it’s a combination, if you

Max Branstetter 20:33
can give, you know, like pour a beer as part of it, and then put ESPN on TV. Well, no, just go. Yeah.

Victoria Vaynberg 20:38
I mean, listen, wait till my kids get out they run and deliver beers during parties to other adults when they’re asked. So it’s possible that’s a

Max Branstetter 20:48
new thing to look forward to. Thank you. You

Victoria Vaynberg 20:50
know, yeah, I said it’s a couple. I mean, of course, we sort of are looking at, let’s call it, market research, right external information. We’re actively talking to our parents all the time, both proactively testing feature development ideas, and then also kind of reactively based on what we hear, we run various beta groups to kind of test into features and develop them. And I think there’s a third piece which is important, is Nana was really a category creator, and so there is a component of us also building towards where we see things moving. Wi Fi enabled monitors, right? 10 years ago, weren’t really a thing. Unfortunately, I think there are still a lot of people, you know, using a non Wi-Fi based monitor and barely getting a signal in their own house. So I think there is a component where you have to think about, how are you further creating the category and getting ahead of where people are going to be soon to stay a leader in this space

Max Branstetter 21:50
and from your side in marketing and customer success. What do you think’s been like, the biggest inflection point, or like rollout that has really, like grown in it, stepped it up to the next level over the years. So

Victoria Vaynberg 22:07
far, I haven’t been here for long enough to take credit for any of it, but I do think that there was sort of maybe, like a cultural, societal shift into like, understanding how this product, which was created 1011, years ago, could actually improve your experience, how it went beyond being this traditional monitor. So I think all the work that had been done at the company sort of had its moments, so to speak, right, where people were saying, like, oh, like, I could have this experience where I leave my house and I can still see my baby, and I think it also, you know, kind of following the trends of proactive attention to data and wellness and health, right? It’s like we expect to see that as adults now, right? It’s like I can have an Apple watch, and I want to track information about myself, and you should be able to have more information about your baby in a time where they can’t speak and can’t tell you that. So I think some of it’s followed, right that just general, kind of call it societal development. And then I think, like I said, the product at its core, has always been amazing, and I think there started to be a lot of right reviews and awards and all these things. And Nanit, it’s been at the top of that list forever. So for sure, when you’re starting to research and look for what you might want, right, and you’re starting to see, you know, Nana, pop up everywhere with these, like, incredible reviews and awards. I think that started a strong trends of people really like learning and getting it and kind of kicking off the word of mouth flywheel.

Max Branstetter 23:49
It talks to the parenting app overall, and then how you kind of directly refer to your customers as parents, and they’re both your customers as well as your market research pupils insights totally.

Victoria Vaynberg 24:03
And we’re all over the internet. That’s the other thing. I mean, look at Instagram and the things people are sharing and like, frankly, the athletes and the celebrities and all the other people who use us. And it’s like, you start to see this thing everywhere, and you’re like, what is it? We’re all these cute baby videos coming from, right? Yeah.

Max Branstetter 24:21
On that note, from the community standpoint, like, what’s kind of your biggest goal in terms of continuing to drive and build community within the nanite community? Wow, that sounded brilliant, yeah. I mean,

Victoria Vaynberg 24:35
we do have a community, and I think we have a lot of opportunity to continue to connect parents with one another, you know, we’ll see where that goes over time. But I think one of the general parental needs, right, which we see in real life, in communities and is that there’s mom groups everywhere, and now we’re starting to see dad groups, right? And people. Looking you enter this new phase of life, right? And so you’re looking to connect with people who are around you, who are experiencing the same thing, both that’s kind of your new normal, but also people you can rely on to ask questions. And so we see that, right? We see Nanit parents can check in with one another, and how we can build more of that over time is great. And then, you know, definitely looking to expand that in real life version on the community level as well, right? Because that’s where people are sort of turning to when they’re thinking about recommendations or products or what they want to do. And so, yeah, I think we have a ton of opportunity to keep building it.

Max Branstetter 25:47
Well, I think I’ve drilled you enough for now, for now, for now. About Nanette, I just can’t resist going back to well, the previous stops in your career have kind of just naturally come up in the Nanette conversation that I said that with an accent. Don’t know where that came from. The non it conversation as well, but some something strikes me about your career, and I want to dive into it more just from, you know, what’s called a segment inspiration and creativity. How you stay inspired? What kind of keeps you going? Which, obviously the answer is always family and kids. But I don’t think it’s an accident that you have ended up working at so many different cool brands. Can you share like, kind of your process for deciding, like, Hey, here’s, here’s the next thing that’s grabbing me?

Victoria Vaynberg 26:31
I feel very lucky that I have worked at a lot of brands that get that kind of response. And I love those. It’s

Max Branstetter 26:39
like, the trademark cool brands category. Yeah, I

Victoria Vaynberg 26:41
do feel very lucky about that, and I do also think a lot about what brands and company I’m going to work for or work on, and it’s because I think you have to, like, really believe in and like, what you’re working on to do an even better job, let’s say, than your best job. Of course, if you said, like, I need you to go work on whatever insert category here that feels less

Max Branstetter 27:15
quote, unquote cool the watching paint dry,

Victoria Vaynberg 27:17
sure, like, of course, I could and I would do it and, you know, but I like to feel very connected to, I guess, and inspired what I’m doing. And I want to market something I believe in. I don’t want to be like lying about the thing that I’m trying to market, because that makes it very inauthentic and difficult. And I’m a pretty straightforward and authentic person, I would say, and so I don’t want to feel like I’m like, doing like, I don’t know, fake at, like, fake messaging to try to convince you of something that’s always been a driver for me. It’s like, if I’m committing to something, I’m always all in, and I want to be all in on something that I can get behind myself

Max Branstetter 28:04
when you’re not all in on work outside of work, what’s a hobby you have that people would be surprised by?

Victoria Vaynberg 28:12
I don’t have one. No. I mean, it’s actually this a question. I feel like I don’t know what Cliff I was listening to someone was like, make it okay to not have hobbies. I wish I had more. But I mean, in all honesty, like, I like to work out, and I need to work out. It’s like, makes my brain function. That’s

Max Branstetter 28:33
what I say the it’s not like, and maybe it’s since starting a business, or just once you’ve been in business for X many years. And I especially realized this, you know, after we had our daughter, mentally, I need the gym. I call it recess,

Victoria Vaynberg 28:48
yeah. I mean, truly, like, I have to do it so that, but I like it too. So, like, that’s a must. And, I mean, I was an athlete once, still are once an athlete. Always I get, I mean, sort of, but like, I have to. So that’s one. I’m like, refinding my desire to bake, which I used to do as a kid, and now I’ll, like, kind of get back into it. So I guess that’s the closest thing to hobby. But I mean, honestly, I’m working and then prioritizing as much family time as I can, and now getting my kids to do any kind of active sport or activity with me is a win. So whatever they’re willing to do, or like, I’m starting to try to get in on their sports, which is kind of fun for me.

Max Branstetter 29:35
On the baking note, do you have like, V’s secret recipe, not the recipe, but favorite item to bake, I’d

Victoria Vaynberg 29:42
say I have found an amazing brownie recipe, and I’m very good at making it, but my best skill is the pastry tasting circuit. I’m if there’s a new bakery, I will go to it. I will try all the things, very strong opinions about what dessert. Are good and worth it. So it’s part of it’s the eating them. It’s

Max Branstetter 30:03
very selfless of you to try so many delicious things. Yes, I’m

Victoria Vaynberg 30:07
happy to report back anytime. But yeah, love a good, love a good dessert and coffee shop.

Max Branstetter 30:16
All right. Well, hopefully you love a good rapid fire Q, A, because we got one more rapid fire Q, a segment to wrap things up. You ready for it? Ready? All right, let’s get wild tennis. You hinted at being an athlete you know from as they call it friendly, stalking you as I researched my guess? Yeah, I saw that you actually played tennis at cues, and I did based on your background. It seems like you’re pretty damn good at tennis once upon a time, and very humble about it, but what’s the best, like business or life lesson that you learn from your tennis career? I

Victoria Vaynberg 30:45
always give this answer, so I’m going to give a different one today, because I appreciate

Max Branstetter 30:48
that, but I’ll send you a brownie.

Victoria Vaynberg 30:52
The best thing I’ve learned is how I operate is like a tennis match, which is, you have to think about what you’re going to hit right now because of what they’re gonna hit to you, and then what you’re gonna hit after that. So you’re thinking about, like, three steps very quickly at once, and that is kind of how I apply my brain at work, which often means that I’ve thought about the question you’re going to ask me, so I’m also going to answer it, in addition to thinking about what we should do. Oh,

Max Branstetter 31:20
so you play like mental tennis in your professional career. Now, that’s an amazing insight. Is also terrifying for me, because the length that just took me to count to three in my head was way longer speaking of tennis. So not to date this interview, but at the time of recording, we’re fresh off like a thrilling French Open, thrilling epic. Coco won the women’s and then Alcaraz and sinner had one of the best matches of all time in the final. So who is like your all time professional tennis idol? Oh, and

Victoria Vaynberg 31:54
Roger for life. There’s nobody else. If you’re a tennis purist, there’s only one correct answer, and that is Roger. I respect massively, respect all the other guys, but there’s only one real goat, and it’s Roger. It’ll be

Max Branstetter 32:08
so interesting to see what happens. Because he, I mean, obviously on the on the women’s side, Martina, and there’s so many amazing ones, and then Serena kind of took everything, and, yeah, a whole nother level. But for for men’s, like, yeah, I remember growing up Roger was, I swear, every time you watch SportsCenter shout out ESPN, he had just won another tournament, and it was like that forever, and then somehow, like, the doll and Djokovic came around, and I’m like, how are these guys, like, topping some of his records? Like, it’s unbelievable. And

Victoria Vaynberg 32:38
so right now, these guys are playing, or even better, and they’re like, 12 years old, so that was one of the best I didn’t even honestly get to watch the whole match, unfortunately, but as long as you caught the last five hours, I feel, yeah, I feel for poor sinner. That is, that is brutal. But Andy, I will now interject your interview to say Andy Roddick does a podcast, and he was commenting that he now very definitively, feels like tennis players are the most elite athletes in the world because name another sport where you’re playing by yourself for over five hours, no coaching, no halftime, and at like, the most peak level. And I feel like that’s what the French Open was,

Max Branstetter 33:22
and another American legend there. But I was thinking that too, of just how it’s like they’re running a marathon while playing tennis, and while they’re thinking about three steps ahead, as you said, in the heat often. All right. Speaking of podcasts, I heard that, you know, you’ve been part of a podcast club, like, You’re a big podcast, podcast with the B, podcast with the P. Listen to yourself. What is a podcast other than this one? Thank you that you’ve come across over the years that’s kind of like a hidden gem, that it’s like, ooh, more people should know about this.

Victoria Vaynberg 33:55
Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know that I have hidden gems. I’m like, I do a lot of true crime I will say I do the standards, like, I do a lot of smart lists when it’s when it’s a friend of theirs. I do Amy poehlers new one sometimes. And then, from a business standpoint, I’ve recently gotten more into the diary of a CEO. He’s like taking over. It’s unbelievable. So for certain interviews, I find them very insightful and interesting, but I will have to find a gem, because I don’t, I don’t think I have one on my repertoire, but if you have one for me, I’m all ears.

Max Branstetter 34:36
Thank you. Well, you know, I’ve heard good things about wild business growth, yeah, besides that, yes. ESPN, did you ever get to meet any athletes? Yes, a lot. Anyway, they kind of wowed you in person, just with their with their aura, as the kids say. I

Victoria Vaynberg 34:51
mean, I still have never met Federer, and that was, like, always my hope that I would one day, and I still never have, and I don’t know what I would do. I. I’d say, or I feel like a lot of them are much nicer and kind of open to chatting than people realize. But I haven’t, I haven’t met the, probably the ones who wouldn’t do that.

Max Branstetter 35:16
All right, and last one, one of the most impressive things you’ve ever done, raising twins. What’s your tip for anybody who is like a new parent and it just like, boom, two kids at once.

Victoria Vaynberg 35:26
I mean, then you’re in the secret club, the twin club. Then you know, you know what you’ve done. It. Get lucky enough to have a good, supportive partner, because my husband took leave with me, and that’s how we were able to get through newborn twins. So I know that’s not possible for everybody, but yeah, hopefully have a partner, and

Max Branstetter 35:50
I quote, but yeah, yeah, me. Thank you so much. This has been awesome, just like, absolutely fascinated and inspired by all you’re doing and have done and all that Nana does really, really cool and inspires and helps so many parents feel confident. So that’s really what it’s all about. And thanks for all you do. I know that if people want to learn more about Nana, they can do n, a n, i t.com I hope I spelled that right, because I’m awful at this on the spot. And then where’s if somebody wants to connect with you, where’s the best place for that for that, for them

Victoria Vaynberg 36:22
to do so online, I will answer LinkedIn messages almost always. So even with all the AI bots, the ones that are from people, I do a pretty good job answering No, not 100% accuracy, but pretty good. So that’s the best place, because I’m not a social media poster, so you won’t find that, but thanks for being a Nana, parents, of course, and thank you for having me.

Max Branstetter 36:44
Yeah, our pleasure. Last thing, final thoughts, it could be a quote, a line, just kind of words to live by, or your tennis motto, Mantra, whatever you want, just like stage zero. Send us home. I’ll

Victoria Vaynberg 36:54
give my like always, my the career advice quotes to live by, which is, do the best possible job at the job you have. That’s what will help you get the next job, get the best at it.

Max Branstetter 37:08
Thank you. V you are the best true story. Right after this interview, I looked at my phone and Dana had texted me asking if I could bring the Nanette into the other room so we could put Dana we could put Dana. We could put Jamie down for a nap, so just a little behind the scenes of how much Nanit is woven beautifully into our lives now. Thanks again. V and thank you wild listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more wild stories like this one, make sure to follow wild business growth on your favorite podcast app and subscribe on YouTube for the video versions. YouTube is @MaxBranstetter and for all things MaxPodcasting, to sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter, as well as anything Max Branstetter related, you can learn more and do those things at MaxPodcasting.com Until next time, Let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!