Is that right?

Yeah.

A billion dollars, uh, value at Airbnb and a $1.2 billion marketing budget at Coca-Cola.

Um, and I was nervous because I said to Brian Chesky, the, uh, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb during the interview process, I said, "I know that should I join Airbnb, I'm no longer king of the castle.

I'm the stepchild." And but that's because tech companies, other than arguably Apple at the time, this is back in 2014, um, uh, deprioritize marketing, um, because they believe that the product is all.

And I wanted to make sure that Brian's vision for the legacy of Airbnb was significant enough that it would create the space for us to build yet another iconic brand, and the ambition was to build the most influential travel brand.

Now, you know, we were a tech company.

When you sell belonging, when you sell the American dream, when you sell happiness, what's, what's the connective tissue between idea, emotion, and commercial consequence and impact?

Yeah, yeah

... original pieces of work from Andy Warhol and other great artists.

I mean, it's an incredible, incredible archive.

But each Wednesday, we would go down, and he would take me through some really significant historical milestones of what that brand was able to achieve over the previous hundred years.

And what I took from that experience was the absolute power of a brand if that brand is served by people who believe that a brand can do anything.

And so my belief in how brands can shift and shape cultural narratives was forever set at The Coca-Cola Company.

And then, of course, I, I get to Airbnb and working with co-founder, CEO Brian Chesky, who is a brilliant, brilliant marketer, and he has an incredible vision.

Yeah.

Can you speak to maybe why this moment has come for you and for the brand?

Yeah.

Honestly, I credit the founder of the company, Dan Gilbert, who founded the company 40 years ago.

That guy thinks in the most audacious, without borders way.

I mean, he was the first finance company to put mortgages online.

Now every single mortgage company is online, but at the time that was quite radical.

The guy is like literally single-handedly rejuvenating the entire city of Detroit.

So what advice do you have for the other CMOs out there that might be listening, marketing professionals aspiring to be in a position like yourself? What advice do you have for them? You