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Serial Entrepreneurship and Co-Founders - Empowering Innovators with Janneke Niessen - YouTube
Channel: Empowering Innovators
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- Welcome to Empowering Innovators,
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the series where we talk about
innovation that start a way.
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Today I have with me, Janneke Niessen,
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entrepreneur, author and
also ambassador at Unicef.
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Welcome Janneke.
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- Hi, thank you for having me.
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(slow techno music)
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- Hey Janneke, you are an
entrepreneur in your veins,
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basically, you started
already at quite a young age.
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Why did you decide, after your studies,
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to not move into the business
world, in the corporate world,
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but start your own company?
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- Well I did work for
two years at a company
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before I started at my
own but, I don't know,
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always I've had this
idea one day I wanna be
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an entrepreneur and for
me it was just really cool
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to build a company and
create something that other
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people wanted to use
and so I just started.
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- Do you come from an
entrepreneurial family
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where you had that
inspiration or do you know
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where it came from?
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- No, I have no idea and the
funny thing is when I did
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start, being an entrepreneur
wasn't cool at all
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so everybody around me
told me I was stupid
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because I had a mortgage,
I had a nice job so why
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on earth would I go the
entrepreneurial route?
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- [Patrick] How do your
friends look at it today?
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- Different.
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But I think in general the climate changed
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a lot about entrepreneurship
so that's a good thing.
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- Yeah, yeah and you went
into the media/advertising
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world right, first with DQ&A and then
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with Improved Digital.
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- [Janneke] Yes.
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- I mean that landscape has
changed a lot in the last
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18, 20 years.
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What do you see are the
biggest changes that happened?
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- Well first the technology changed.
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So everything is automated these days,
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everything goes through
platforms where in the beginning
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everything went through fax,
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if people still know what that is,
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and the other big changes,
the big publishers.
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The traditional media publishers
basically have way less
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power today than they had 20 years ago.
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So now the big tech companies
are actually the big media
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players who get all the budgets.
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So Facebook, Google,
Amazon, they all have, well,
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most of the budgets.
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- And how did you adapt as a company,
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and as a leader of the company,
or founder of the company,
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to these market changes,
that happened quite fast,
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in a few years basically?
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- Well we actually were a
driving part of the change
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in Europe so we saw the
benefits you could have
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with automation so that's
why we wanted to help
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media owners and publishers with so, yeah.
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We decided to build our own
tech since what was out there
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we thought could be better
and it didn't really fit
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the needs of European
publishers so we actually
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saw opportunities in that change.
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- Right, and you plugged
into it and started
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developing technology,
creating the business
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model around that.
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How did you, because you
co-founded it together with Joelle,
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the company, how did you
guys, or ladies, divide
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the roles in the company?
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- In a very pragmatic way.
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I used to be at DQ&A and
there I was more responsible
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for operations and products
and Joelle was at Microsoft,
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more in a sales role so
then it's, you just say
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oh you're better at this
and you're better at that
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and you, I don't think
you see it really that way
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and you just look at who
is strong where and that's
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why you divide things but
still all the big decisions
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we take together.
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- And why was Joelle, at that time,
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the best co-founder for you?
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What did you recognize
in her that you might say
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hey that compliments me
and the other way around?
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- Well she had passion.
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So we really thought
we could bring value to
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publishers and that's where
we found each other and we
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are completely different
and I think that's a
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really good thing.
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I also think it's important
to keep remembering that
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because I see it very often that people,
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not just in business relationships,
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also in normal relationships,
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people have certain
strengths and other things
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that might annoy you
but it's a package and
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you're not perfect either,
you have your strong points
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and the things that other
people find super annoying,
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also a package and I think
it's always really important
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to remember that.
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That you need the complimentary
skills and that they
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come with things that
you feel different about.
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For example I'm a very detailed person,
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very black and white and
Joelle is very creative,
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so less about details
maybe and more gray and
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that really works perfectly together.
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- If you understand and accept, right?
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- Yeah, because the creative
mind you can also change ideas
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and then from my perspective I can think
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oh she changes all the time
and she can think, for me,
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be a bit more flexible so
you need to always realize
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that these things also
make you strong and not
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see them as annoying things.
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- But that's the rational
point of view and
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now you know right?
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You've grown up, I can't
imagine, I'm together with
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my co-founder already 22
years and we both know
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what our strengths are but
also where we basically overlap
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or have different views.
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How do you deal with conflict
then in these situations?
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- Well I think we always
really respected each other.
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So we did have disagreements
but as long as you have
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them about a topic and not on the person,
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it's perfectly fine.
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As long as you don't make it
personal, there's no problem.
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- So what would be your
advice to start ups
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and scale ups where you
also have two co-founders
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or three, sometimes
even more which makes it
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even more complicated, and how to deal
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with these situations?
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- I think communication is
the most important thing.
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So always keep communicating.
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I think when you stop doing
that and get angry in your head
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it becomes way bigger than it is.
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Respect the position every person has and
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the value they bring.
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I think you need so
many different things to
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make a company successful.
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It can never be one person and
as long as you remember that,
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even if you're the one always in the media
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and outside still, people
at the office need to make
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sure things happen so
never forget that you need
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all the different skills.
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- So eventually it was a great
journey that you guys had.
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You grew the company internationally,
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eventually there were a few hundred people
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at the company.
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At a certain moment you
though hmm, is this the thing
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that I'm gonna do for the next 10 years?
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Or maybe not, what happened?
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- So we were looking for funding.
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We were operating in an area where skill
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is really important and we
had mainly US competitors
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who had a lot of funding
so we needed to make sure
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that we could keep up
and I think in Europe
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funding is always lower so
you need to be more efficient
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and smarter at how you spend that money.
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But still, we needed some
more to grow and then a
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company came around that
wanted to buy us and invest
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and at that moment,
and still looking back,
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it was the right decision to do.
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- And how did that change
the way that you worked
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in the company, or did it change at all?
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Because suddenly you have
a third party investor
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that maybe might look
different at the business
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than you do, being the founder.
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- Initially there was no difference at all
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but we still had a small
part of the company and
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we negotiated that as long as
we had part of the company,
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we could run the company,
so of course you have
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yearly budget discussions
but we could run the company,
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so nothing really changed.
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Then the company that acquired
us got acquired by Siscum
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and that changed more and
I think it's also normal
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after a few years that
they tried to get involved
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a bit more but at a certain
point I didn't feel like
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an entrepreneur anymore
and that's when I decided
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it's time to move on.
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- And did Joelle feel
more or less the same at
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the same moment or did you
guys have in depth discussions
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about it, would one stay,
would you both move further?
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- We had a lot of discussions
about it and our timing
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was slightly different, but only slightly,
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so we both adjusted a
bit so we could leave
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at the same time.
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It just makes more sense and
it's better for the people
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that take over that
they actually don't have
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the founders there any more.
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- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So Janneke we just talked about
role models and inspiration.
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This is Bibian Mentel who wrote a book,
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it's called Live, about
dealing with challenges
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and also overcoming them in
life and making an impact
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on other people's lives like you're doing.
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I just want to give you
this as an appreciation
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of being here today and
I hope that you will take
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some inspiration from this as well.
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- Yes, thank you, very
impressive woman so thank you.
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- Thank you.
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(Clapping of hands)
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(slow techno music)
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