Zarna Garg | This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir
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Welcome to the Talks at Google podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with award-winning comedian, author, producer, and screenwriter, Zarna Garg. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash talks at google.

Zarna Gard is a force of nature with a microphone. She brought her sharp, relatable family humor to her first streaming special, One in a Billion. Her follow-up special, Practical People Win, is coming to Hulu this July. When Zarna's not at the comedy cellar opening for icons like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, or appearing on The Tonight Show and Late Night, she's selling out headlining shows worldwide.

Zarna made her acting debut in A Nice Indian Boy, currently out in theaters and a New York Times Critics' Pick. She also has her own podcast called The Zarna Garg Family Podcast that explores modern life with her husband and kids. She joins Google to discuss her new book, This American Woman, a one-in-a-billion memoir.

The memoir tells the story of her treacherous climb from a homeless teen in Mumbai to an unhinged stay-at-home mom in New York, and then to an internationally beloved stand-up comedian. It's an exuberant story of fighting for your right to determine your own destiny and triumph beyond what you ever dreamed was possible. Here is Zarna Garg, This American Woman, a one-in-a-billion memoir.

All right. You ready? I know you're coming off of a flight, so we'll make this lots of fun. One of the things where we do at Google is we always start with icebreakers. So we're going to start with an icebreaker. Given the fact that I work in media and entertainment, I'm going to ask you three questions. Last live event you attended-- it cannot be your own-- what are you binge watching, and what are you reading? Also can't be your own. Last live event, I

I watch a lot of comedy. I like watching other comics. I actually enjoy it myself. So I was at the Comedy Cellar watching a show, and I saw all these new comics one night. It was a lot of fun. I recommend it to everybody here. Please go by the Comedy Cellar at night and just take any show and watch that. Binge watching-- interesting, you should ask, because I was stuck in an airport last night for six hours.

And I decided, you know what? I'm going to watch YouTube tutorials on how to fly an airplane. Because this cannot be that hard.

Press the green buttons. Don't touch the red buttons. Then when I started Googling how to fly an airplane, Tom Cruise came up. Because his latest trailer, he's outside the plane and it's still flying. So I was like sitting there literally going like, can I learn? Because we were stuck because we were missing a pilot. And I was like, there's a hundred of us here. Somebody step up, please.

Turn that key on. Let's go. So lately, but I'm-- because we're at Google, you should know, I love learning online for free. I'm not paying for another degree in this country. I've already paid for two. But my career started because I googled what is a joke. Really? Yes.

Yes, this is true. I had no idea what stand-up comedy was. I had no idea what a joke was. Like, I mean, you know what a joke is in everyday life, but like in a club setting from a professional point of view. And I remember when I did my first ever open mic, the woman who ran the open mic said, you're very funny, but you don't have jokes. Because I just went on an open mic cold turkey and started trashing my mother-in-law. LAUGHTER

Because who doesn't think that's funny? And then when she said, you don't have jokes, I remember coming home and Google, what is a joke? So I'm like, if I have any waking moments, I'm like looking up like random weird things and learning how to do them. And like, look, soon I'm going to be flying an airplane.

I'm excited for that. I feel like we need that. What did Google say a joke was? I want to know. VIRGINIA SANTOS: Setup and punchline. Like there's a premise, and then you misdirect it, or you create a surprise ending. It's actually pretty technical in a way that only engineers would be like, oh, OK.

Because I remember reading that and thinking, oh, that's what makes you laugh. You create this premise, and then you kind of create a surprise ending to it. And that's what a joke is.

But I had no idea that what professionals call hard jokes and misdirects, there's all these categories of jokes that then I discovered. Because Google, as you know, is an endless trove. Once you go down that road, it doesn't-- still binging.

I love it. So you've brought up a few things. You're talking about the Comedy Cellar. Can we pause and clap to say that you were the first South Asian to get a permanent spot there, correct? Yes. Pretty impressive, right? Yeah.

So-- and you've also talked about the fact that you've paid for two degrees. So you started your life as a lawyer, pivoted to a mom, which you still hold that queen title to. SHARMINI PERIES: Yeah, that is the day job. Yeah, yeah. It never ends. No, it doesn't. SHARMINI PERIES: You find out after you have them that it never ends, which is-- it would be good to know. Yeah. I really thought it was good. SHARMINI PERIES: Right? Like, you have to-- I'm so tired. SHARMINI PERIES: Well, your kids do the travel soccer and all, like white people.

But we have a 4.9. 4.9. Good job. Yeah. It's not a five, but OK. Because there's no advanced placement gym. Oh, I get that. Yeah. I get that. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously you've pivoted a few times. Talk to us about these pivots. Everyone here constantly has to pivot. What's your philosophy when it comes to that?

You just have to embrace change. Once you understand that change is inevitable and actually fun, once you get over the fear of it, it's fun. It's another adventure. And I didn't have the choice. I kind of had to pivot. Like my...

I was really stuck as a stay-at-home mom. I was feeling completely stuck and lot of moms do, where you feel like the adult world has moved on without you 'cause you're buried in the kid's world. So I had to get myself out of it. But since then, there've been so many pivots. Like my husband lost his job. I had to figure out how to turn comedy into a business overnight.

There was no more like, "I'm having fun with it." No. What is the business model? How are we going to make money? But instead of being intimidated by it, I choose to be excited about every pivot. I feel like it's coming my way for a reason. And you know, many people I'm sure in this room enjoyed doing puzzles, enjoyed doing Legos, like, think of pivots like that. It feels to me like a puzzle that's waiting to be solved.

And because we've done, I've done millions of them with my kids and, you know, that's how I treat it. And I think that the less afraid you are of it, the more successful you'll be getting on the other side. Also knowing that like falling and failing is not as big of a deal because no one has time. Everybody in my own world is obsessed with their own lives.

They all have endless things to watch on Netflix and Hulu and all of it and on Google and YouTube. Thank you. So yes, yes, yes. And YouTube Premium and YouTube Red. Let's just get them all in there.

So it's, I think, once you understand that nobody has really time to judge you, because there was a time, especially in the South Asian community, like, what will people say? Used to be a thing. Today, nobody is saying anything. Nobody is even looking. They don't have time. People log into their own social media and spend all their time looking at their own social media. They look at their own posts, they read their own captions. LAUGHTER

So no one's there to embarrass you. And once you understand that, it becomes a lot easier to take a risk. Just take that risk and go. So I would say that approach every pivot like it's a little puzzle waiting to be solved and that it will get solved. SPEAKER 1: I love that. We have a LEGO wall downstairs if you want to do LEGOs. ARIJIT SEN: See, I knew that we were simpatico. I knew we were-- SPEAKER 1: I stopped this morning.

All right, so we already have seen this. You blend humor with sharp observations and differences and family dynamics. We all have something. You have the South Asian auntie. I have a grandma that can sling massive Catholic guilt at any given time. And we all have mother-in-laws. How do you tackle these topics, these very sensitive topics, but still keep us engaged and laughing?

I have faith that my audience is very, very smart. My audience is brilliant. Honestly, it must be the highest IQ audience ever. Well, clearly. Look around. Look at this, right? So it's--

Once you understand that you can only control your own intention, you can't control anything else. I know why I'm writing the joke that I'm writing, what is the purpose behind it. Now, if somebody wants to receive it and turn it into a personal insult or whatever, that's on them. That's not on me. I don't even know who this person is or whatever. The jokes that I write are written in a lighthearted spirit and meant to part even celebrate who we are.

Like so many people now come up to me and tell me-- moms will tell me, because of you, I feel free to tell my kid, you can't do that, and you need to do another math test. Which is a thing. By the way, just so you guys know, we and our family, when one kid is studying for a test, we all take tests.

And there are a lot of free tests online. So we're that family. But because we talk about it so openly, it has become acceptable for other people to talk about it and do it. So I think that...

The jokes are edgy and all, but they come from a very warm and loving place. I have no desire to particularly troll any one person or any one community. There's just no need to do that. And that's all I can control, is that I'm putting things out with positive intent. And then my audience that tends to be in my world receives it as such.

So my page is a very positive page. Like, if you hang out on my social media anywhere, it's a very positive-- there's usually one person who's acting up, and then everybody else shuts them down. We don't even have to do anything. It's usually my mother-in-law. No, it's true. She trolls me in the comment section everywhere. I'll make a joke, and she'll go ahead, and she's like, she's lying.

You may get a negative review from my son because I told him after watching one of your videos that summer school is not optional. Oh, yeah. No, never. Yeah, right? You need to take an extra math every summer. Of course. Right. Summer is for getting ahead. Thank you. That's exactly what I told him. Yeah. Look, everybody here is like, that's right. Exactly. Right now. They're like, let's do an SAT class right now. So just be prepared that Mike Fobb up there, he might join your mother-in-law. Yeah.

All right, let's talk about "This American Woman." Your first book, okay, first book made the New York Times bestseller list, numerous Amazon lists. You even had to bring your daughter on to help manage all these pre-orders. Can we have a round of applause for how impressive that is?

It's been described as a one in a billion memoir. What made this time right now the right time to actually put pen to paper as opposed to doing your stand-up and doing your YouTube videos? I'll tell you, it's a very easy, simple answer. Everywhere I've gone for the last few years doing comedy, inevitably I'm asked by everybody, how did you get started? How do you have the courage? What were the first few steps? And I've been answering this question for a few years now.

And I decided, you know, maybe I should consolidate the answer, share the journey, share the lows. Because, you know, social media at the end of the day is a marketing page. So it has a lot of highs and it's very easy to believe that that's all that's happening. I wanted to share the behind the scenes. And I was really motivated from a place of like, I want

I want everybody who's feeling unstuck or wanting to do that extra something to feel like they can do it because the world otherwise is filled with doom and gloom. Like everywhere you turn, AI is going to take your job and there's a war happening. Like you would,

think we're not even going to make it to tomorrow. So I wanted to contribute a positive spot, like something that people can turn to and be like, you know what? Maybe I should take a chance and start that cooking blog or whatever it is that they want to do. It really came from an honest, genuine place like that. And

I'm very comforted to know we have over 1200 reviews within two weeks. And it's so many people saying, I'm gonna try this or I'm gonna try that. I think that's what we need. What is reading all the bad news gonna get us? You need positive activity. Whatever it is that you've been wanting to try, just go do it already.

It doesn't matter what else is going to happen in the world or not. The world will keep spinning and you might find your thing. So let's talk about that. You talk a lot about positivity, but in your book, you talk about a lot of tough things that you had to face. Your father's strict rules, Indian cultural attitudes towards women, the beating of your brother. Like, how did that make you who you are today?

You have to understand that life is all of it. Even my father's strict rules, there are so many good things that came out of it, including

He was the one who was most aggressive about all of us learning English. He insisted on it. I mean, he had his own reasons. They were not freedom of speech reasons. Not at all. Like, I don't think that that idea had crossed his mind. But he was very much like, this is the language of the future. And, you know, life is all of it. Part of the reason I wrote the book is so people can see the other side of it.

Women being treated a certain way in India or here, for that matter, is a reality. And you have to acknowledge what's happening. You can't just pretend that none of it happened or is happening. But my story is a story of like, all right, I see how all of this is happening. It's not right. But what can I do that will be my contribution to making a step in the other direction?

All I focus on is what is the actions that I can control. You know, it's a Hindu principle. It's all about your karma. You have to focus on your karma. You can't control anything else anyway. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, although yesterday I did make the airplane fly, but... I hear that. I really think that the pilot showed up in the end because they're like, this woman might get in the cockpit. Yeah. Yeah.

With your YouTube video. I think United was like, somebody show up before this crazy woman starts pressing buttons in here. We will be sending this to United as well. Yes, it's the most toxic relationship I'm in. All right, let's talk about what happens when you get writer's block. You went to Gemini, right? Because you're at this group of really smart folks that helped you get over it, right? Writer's block is a real thing. And I'm going to give you an answer that's not going to be very popular. Uh-oh.

I have a tendency to go shopping. You know what? Maybe I need a new pair of shoes. No, the way to beat writer's block and the way to beat any block is to do something that gives you joy. Now, some people will be like, I went running. Like, you're not me.

I'm more like, let me get cake. But whatever it is that's going to give you joy, take you out of that feeling of being blocked and stuck, you need to go do that so that you can come back stronger. I like that. I think that's great.

All right, let's talk about parenting. Because you know this is very important. I want to take notes. ARIKA HANSON: No, you don't need notes. Your son's already there, 4.9. One. ARIKA HANSON: Yeah, one. I know, two. But they're two boys, at least. They are two boys, yes. ARIKA HANSON: Good job. Good job, Erica. We're getting there. Ninth grade is really tough. All right, let's talk about what is one piece of unconventional parenting advice you swear by? ARIKA HANSON: Again, it's going to be a hot take.

I am all about investing in my business, right? So anything that buys back my time, I spend a lot of money on. I'll give you an example. Like, my daughter is in college, and I hired somebody to help her clean her room, her dorm room. This was very controversial, because all her friends were like, why would you do that? You don't know how to clean your own room. First of all, in a post-COVID world, we're living in a different world. These dorms are not-- like, no one is taking care of these things.

Me personally, I think if you can hire some help that gives you back your own time, that is worth the investment. Most Asian parents and a lot of Asian parents that I know would be like, she needs to learn to do this and learn like, you know, all these high intensity time draining activities. I'm

I'm not one of those parents. I think if you can farm out some of the jobs that's taking a lot of your time-- like, my daughter is not-- she loves to cook, but it's just-- she's getting two degrees. She's working for me full time. There's only so many things she can do. These kids order in all the time, and I

I personally don't have a problem with it. I know there's a lot of mom guilt involved in that world. But you can't do it all. So my kids spend money on all these things. They'll take Ubers all over the place, which to some will be like, that is spoiled. And I get it. I get where people are coming from. But to me, it's more like if you're going to sit in the backseat of an Uber and actually use that time productively, I would rather you do that.

I just have a problem with you sitting in the back seat and like scrolling aimlessly. But I've taught my kids that time has such significant value. And because I started late in life, I'm hyper aware, like in comedy, I'm hyper aware of every minute that I've taught my kids. I'm like, you want to spend money on takeout. You want to do, that's all fine. But what are you doing in the time that you save it, right?

If you're going to be productive with it, go nuts. Spend the money. I don't care. Build something, write something, whatever is your thing. But you're not allowed to spend the money and then waste your time on-- I mean, like YouTube, yes. Right. Thank you.

Because they're learning. Yeah, you too. How to fly a plane. Exactly. Right. OK. Agree. I like that. Invest. I always call it outsource. I got that career, that advice very early in my career. Outsource as much as you can. Yeah. And I think it's a form of investment. It is. It is. I think it's like it's how you build bigger and bigger because we all have to think big. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed.

Sticking with that same sort of like mom guilt, I know that I've been told everything I say is cringe. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That's probably not the right word. When they watch this, they're going to yell at me for that.

How have your children reacted? Because you talk about them a lot. They are now in your videos. How have you guys dealt with this as a family? SHIRLEY MOODY: Yeah, I mean, they deal with it constantly. Their friends think they're cringe. They think I'm cringe. And then they're still watching. I'm like, they're watching, right? Because that's all I'm focused on. So they watched the video and then thought I was cringe. That's fine. Yeah.

My son recently wrote an article about how he chases embarrassment because we learned, you know, he was the kid who put me on social media. During COVID, he was like, mom, you need to be on TikTok. And he actually took one of my videos and cut it up and did his thing. And I remember when kids used to troll them in real life, like not online trolling, but like their classmates trolled.

And they came home and they were so upset. And I explained to them, I said, look, you can try to appease every single person you know.

Or you can think of the big picture. What are we doing? Big picture, there are millions of people in this world who now feel like we are part of their family, who find joy in what we do. And you can either focus on that or focus on this. And honestly, we were in an existential state. Like my husband had lost his job during COVID. Every video I was creating had

had business value so I was like you can either worry about those kids or you can worry about your mother who's fighting every day for this family and you know really I think um

In America, as parents, you're not encouraged to bring your kids into your battles. It's a lot of like, don't talk to them about money. We've been very open about it. My struggles are their struggles. We struggle together. And I think they've learned what is important. Is it really that important that your seventh grade friend

is like thinks you're not I don't even know cringe is there's other words for it there is yeah I didn't check with them ahead of time no I know there's all kinds of words but it doesn't even matter I mean they're all watching the video that's all I care about I don't even listen to the rest of it they'll be like mom they saw this video and they thought I was like oh stop stop talking and they saw the video that's it that's all I care about

I love making sure that your family's involved in everything. Yeah, I think that once they understand that we're all fighting on the same team and overall we're, you know, we're contributing to positive, good feelings in the world. Like somebody doesn't like it that, you know, listen, I don't like reading about wars, but it's happening. I can't do anything about it. You know what I mean? Maybe there's a YouTube video on that.

Maybe. How many things are we going to deal with moms? You know, we're going to have to solve it. I feel like we could fix it really quickly. I agree. All right, let's pivot off of work because I don't like that either. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about your two friends, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Yes. You've opened for them, which is so incredibly impressive. A, what I found impressive is you pushed yourself into there, which I think is amazing. You reached out to them. You got that.

What have you learned from observing their work? Because they are ridiculous. Yeah, ridiculous, iconic. I have learned that women can work together and build together.

I'm from the generation where we were taught don't mix business with pleasure. You know, we grew up, I grew up being told don't mix business with pleasure, don't mix business with family. I think that those things existed two, three decades ago when the men went to work and the women stayed home and looked after the house. From Tina and Amy, what I've learned, they've been doing comedy together for over 30 years.

And it's actually a sad realization because I'm with them a lot. And I see the shorthand that they have with each other. Like one finishes the other one's sentences. Things don't even need to be said because they've been together for so long. And I miss that in my life. I do so much by myself that I wish I had built with my friends or I wish I had somebody that I was traveling with. I go everywhere alone.

So but I've really learned that that old piece of, you know, I think eventually people will be like, build with your friends. Some man will say it and everybody will be like Renaissance man. I know I see a bunch of ladies right here. So I say sorry, guys.

But you know what I mean, right? They've been building for 30 years and look at one success has definitely contributed to the other one's success. Like they've been mutually beneficial as business partners, even though they both run their own companies. So for clarity, they don't have one company, but being part of each other's ecosystem that closely has made each one stronger and them stronger as a team. And I really wish that...

that all the new generation, you guys all have friends you align with, you build with, and you, you know, it's less scary and it's more fun. You're allowed to have fun at work. What a novel idea. We have a Lego wall. I know. Yeah, we have a lot of fun here and a game room. It's like puzzles. I'm not allowed to use it. Puzzles. I do love puzzles. All right. Besides, I'm going to turn it over to the audience in a few seconds. And we have some great questions on the Dory.

Besides your most recent Google search, which I think United might have some concerns about, what was your search before that when you weren't stuck on the plane? I'm writing my third hour of comedy. My second hour is going to drop on Hulu in July. Practical people win. Thank you. So my third hour is going to focus on competitive moms. Ooh, I like this. Yes.

Because I, in real life, ran into a friend of mine at an airport whose son had just graduated Harvard Medical School. She did well. Yeah. And the minute she saw me, it wasn't like, hi, how are you? She's like, my son just graduated Harvard Medical School.

And I got it. I was like, she's proud of her son. I said, oh, amazing. Congrats. She goes, no, no, he graduated first in his class. I said, great, amazing. And she goes, no, you don't understand. He's summa cum laude. I said, yes, this is good. And she goes, he even got a PhD. I said, who wouldn't?

It feels like the kind of thing you just throw in there while you're already there. Obviously. But there was such a frantic energy to her that I found hilarious, that I've been doing a lot of research in the space of how moms compete, like all the passive aggressive things. And by the way, I'm not above it. I make fun of it. I go everywhere. I'm like, do you know how tall my son is? Yeah.

I can't help myself. I dropped 4.9 in the first sentence. Listen, this is why we're in this room with each other. So I've been doing a lot of research in that space of what are other things. Like some things are obvious, right? The kid, the kid's schooling and their athletics and all that. But what are other things that moms compete on? You know, their bags, like for example. The bag is a thing. Oh, yeah.

I dropped a video, a photo with a bag that I just wanted to see. And everybody, like people zooming in on the bag. You know what I mean?

It didn't occur to me that that could be a thing, but it's a real thing that gets a lot of engagement. Everybody's got an opinion on it. So I've been Googling and YouTube searching in that space. I have some friends competing with wallpaper. I'm not getting involved in that. It seems messy. The thing is that we all think we won't get involved, and then something will happen that will suck you in. It'll be like a wallpaper with math equations on it.

And then you're like, oh, I can put that in my son's room. See? There's the R.A. See? Now you've got to see that. Now I'm in. Now I'm in on the wallpaper. You posted an ad for your husband in the newspaper. You got the right candidate. Which newspapers should we use considering how bad the New York dating scene is? Let's talk about matchmaking. Let's talk about this. Yes, let's talk about it. I've been forcing my kids to get on every app.

Oh, OK. Yeah, because I'm like, just get on. And I have everybody's login and password. Obviously. We talked about privacy in the beginning. It's not a thing. So I don't care where they are, because I'm going to be there too. You know what I mean? And I'm going to respond as if it's them. And I'm going to set the criteria and filters. So I think in the new world that we're in, if I was looking to meet somebody, I would put an ad out everywhere.

But the criteria would be so limiting that only few people would actually apply. Because you don't want 10,000 responses. You don't want to, if you don't like to, like, if you're not the outdoorsy girl, like, don't post a photo next to a camping tent. You know, like, just be like that. No. Big X over that. So I'm all about going all out and posting everywhere, but limiting, making the criteria limited

specific so the right person filters through it doesn't matter where they come from what's the top two criteria for me it was obviously for you but yeah for me I wanted somebody who was brilliant and ambitious and but then you know the mother

Came with that. Like, see, you will, wherever you go, you're going to remind that 4.9, guess who helped him get that? Yeah, exactly. That's the thing that I've learned, that you don't just get the guy. You get the whole thing. Oh, I'm going to be all up in there. Yeah, me too. Completely involved. I'm not above it. So I make fun of people, but I'm 100% worse than anybody else I've seen, including my mother-in-law.

So bad. Including your mom. Yeah, because I can see it on the horizon that I'm going to be a disaster.

I told my son I'll buy him his first apartment because that way I get the key. Yeah. You should get the key anyway. Well, I will, but I just sort of set that tone. Because my daughter is graduating and I have the login and password to her bank account. Of course. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, all her friends are always getting in her ear, like, why does your mom log into your account? Like, hello, sis, do you want to be a friend for long? Yeah.

Because you're about to exit this chat. I agree. I agree. All right. We have people on both sides. Why don't we start over here on the left? Hi, Sarna. Thank you so much for this talk. My name is Radha. And you talked about low kyang geheng earlier and just, you know, stigma of Indian culture.

And you talked about like other people not paying attention. But how did you combat that with like any judgment within your own family? I'm asking as someone who like wants to make content about taboo Indian topics like dating. But like I have a very backwards family. No, that's a really good question. And that your own family can affect you for sure. But at the end of the day, you have to decide, are you doing this or are you not doing this?

Because if you want to get something done for yourself, you have to commit to it, to the exclusion of everybody else's opinion, no matter what. And I'll give you an example. Like this book talks about my husband, my kids, my mother-in-law, my siblings,

I told everybody, nobody's going to get any editorial rights to it. Nobody's going to read the chapter, review it. Nobody's going to tell me, take this line out. Because if you want to create something, you have to be very authentic with your audience, with your followers, with your fan base, however you see them, with your clients.

and really deliver them value to the exclusion of everybody else. And have faith that once your thing takes off, they will all come around. What is cringe in the beginning, it makes a full circle. Now my mother-in-law is like, make fun of my sister. No, she does. She sends me every time they make some funny food or something, she'll be like, you want to see what he brought to the potluck?

Because she wants me to, so have faith, but you have to be true to yourself. Nobody is gonna give that to you. Even your own family is going to have their motivations. My kids were like, they're gonna make fun, my friends will make fun of me, but I was determined. I'm going to make a career in comedy. Everything else had failed for me until then. This was the only thing I saw a spark in and I was gonna go all in and everybody else had to trust that this was gonna work out.

And you have to have blinders on at some point. Yeah. Thank you. I hope that helps. No, that was really helpful. Screw them. Yeah. That eloquently put. Hi, Zarna. Hi. Thanks so much for coming. My name's Maya. Hi, Maya. And I work on Google Maps on the research team. Oh, love Google Maps. I do, too. Oh, thanks, thanks. So much better than Apple Maps. Oh, great.

But as a researcher, and you mentioned research earlier, I'm curious about your research process. You talked about your third hour being about competitive moms. Obviously, you're coming from your lived experience, but you also want to be a storyteller and make it broadly applicable to your various audiences. So I'm just curious, what's your research process like?

Yeah. I mean, once I decide what I want the hour to be about, I start looking up things that I think-- like, things that instantly seem to pop in my head. Like, the shopping stuff kind of popped in my head. I was trying to fan out of the kids' experience, because that was the first thing that got me interested.

So I really am a deep diving Googler myself. I will be like, Google this topic, Google this topic, and then wherever that link takes me, I'll follow it. I'll watch a whole master class on the topic. I'll come back to it.

It's really old. I feel like I'm one of the older researchers that actually does it that way, where my kids seem to have easy, fast ways of finding things, but it takes me a lot of time. I'll read like 1,000 articles. I'll watch 100 videos about something. And then something has to really strike me to make it into my set, because the set has to be pure gold. It can't be mid-level stuff.

So something really hits me, I'll be like, oh my God, that is unusual. That is so rare. But it might be some newspaper article from like some random Korean or Japanese newspaper that showed up on Google on a topic where I'll be like, oh, you know, this is what they do in this culture. And then I'll start going down that rabbit hole. But it builds, like my comedy builds little pieces at a time. So.

So right now I'm working on the moms competing over the kids' school, and the bag thing took off. So now, for example, right now I'm looking up the history of bags. What are all these iconic bags? I don't even know. I didn't know this was a thing. All these bags have names and cult followings and things that I'm learning now.

So once they start registering, I will start making notes. Then I'll try to find the next category. What's another thing like bags that moms, like moms love to compete on baked goods. Yeah, it's really important. You know what I mean? I don't have time to bake. I know, but it's a thing in schools here. It is. Yeah. And like the ones who do it, like they go,

all out. All out. No, they go all out. Like, you don't even... So now I'll start Googling in that direction. Like, what are all these crazy... And crazy things will pop up. Like, I remember I did a brief search on Brave Girls and there was this woman who was like, none, no nuts, no dairy, hypoallergenic, like, blah, blah, upside down, hanging cake pop. Mm-hmm.

What? I just go to Stop and Shop and put it in my own container. Yeah, no. Listen, the moral compass is low. LAUGHTER

Sometimes you just got to do that so you can get through it. But does that help at all? It's very old school. Oh, no. I'm still of the generation that types www.google. See you all laughing. I know because my kids laugh at me when I do that. But I'm still there. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Hi, Zarna. Saurabh here. Hi. Good to meet you. And so good to see you in such a small setting. I saw you at the NJPAC a while back. Oh, yeah.

Thank you for coming. Yeah, the question I have for you is, you know, you started out really kind of building this entire brand for yourself. You know, we joke in our house, I don't know how much pineapple is consumed. Yeah. But this morning, I was watching you with the unboxing video and all the different things. But as you're thinking about your brand, what are some of the challenges that you went through? You know, as Radha was saying, you know, she wants to become a content creator. What are some advice you would give people in terms of how do you think about building a brand when you're by yourself?

Yeah, you have to really trial and error what's working. And that means there will be a lot of errors. There's no way around it. A lot of people look for shortcuts. They think, oh, this video worked. Let me make 10 more of this kind. That's kind of not where the audience is anymore, in my opinion. The audience is very evolved. They want to see different dimensions to your life.

Like, I can't just keep making pineapple videos. I wish I could. Because it would be on autopilot. But you can't. And you have to be comfortable with the errors. And I've made so many mistakes along the way where I... Somehow, every video that I spent hours...

scripting and editing and getting the perfect light just never took off. Somehow those things just, because I'm telling you, my audience is very smart. They like in the moment, like if I'm stuck at the airport and filming about like, look at what's going on in this lounge or some random rant, they get drawn into the realness of it

So a big challenge is knowing that there will be errors and you have to go through them because the errors can get you stuck. Like I was stuck at a certain level for a long time and people will be like, oh, I'm making all these videos and nothing is breaking through. But that's kind of, you know, many of you in this room are engineers, right? It takes a time to solve problems. I wouldn't know because I'm not an engineer.

I'm not either. SHARMINI PERIES: Right? I don't know how to build anything like that. But this I found.

I remember, I mean, even on YouTube, since we're at it, I've been posting so many podcast videos, but we've kind of plateaued at a certain subscriber base for a while now. But I keep operating on faith that this is going to, we're going to have a breakthrough at some point. But it's hard because it's a lot of work that you're doing for almost no money. You know, it's hard to have faith under those circumstances. But, yeah.

I also am encouraged because it's free therapy for my kids. So you find other things that you're getting out of it. But for me, the hardest part has been that. Like, when you get stuck, you really-- you start thinking, oh, I should just do stand-up clips. Conventional wisdom is comedians post stand-up clips. But I was like, there's so many. It feels like there's such a saturation. You know, I wanted to go in a different direction. But there is a day where I might be like, no, no, no, that's a better idea.

And to keep going when you're not making any money is very, very hard because money motivates, you know, like everybody shows up because they're getting paid. And as a creator, that's that's like figuring out how to monetize your base and sticking with it. Even when you know, you know that. But brand deals are like eat what you kill. You got to hunt. You got to find those deals.

So that's been the biggest challenge. But I'm a believer. I'm an optimist. Hi, Zorna. Hi. Very nice meeting you in person. My name is Connie. Hi, Connie. I'm sitting in the front row and I got so much positive energy from you. I feel like I absorbed a lot of good vibes for this rainy day. So thank you.

Speaking of being a creator, I work for YouTube. I'm thinking of setting up my own channel this year. I was reading a lot about the creative process and I wanted to ask you about vulnerability because I remember I read it somewhere that actually being a creator is about practicing with vulnerability because you're putting a lot of your inner world out there, letting whoever...

to come and judge you and leave a comment. So how do you kind of grow with that? And what would be a good piece of advice to whoever wants to be a creator? - It's a great question. And the vulnerability is very real because you worry, and in my case, my kids are out there. So it's not even me taking risk about myself.

I'm constantly worried what people will think about them. Am I limiting a corporate career for them? Will anybody ever hire them with all their opinions out there? These are all things we worry about. But I think we've entered a new world. I think everybody's out there in some shape or form.

I failed at so many things when I wasn't vulnerable. Every business that I designed like a business with a business plan and where everything made sense on paper never worked for me. The only thing that worked for me was connecting with human beings on a very human level.

And I've kind of had to accept that for me to succeed, I have no other way to succeed. I have to be vulnerable. And tapping into the humanity of other people is what my job is. So it's very hard because I wish I could just be like, here's my slideshow and this is my business and this is how I make money. But none of that ever worked for me. So...

The good thing is that today people understand that vulnerability. Five years ago, you put things out and people were a lot more judgmental. Today, actually, everybody gets that a creator can have a bad day and you can say sorry and get up and move on from it. So you also have to have some faith that your intentions are good, your audience is smart, and if something bad happens, you will deal with it. A lot of what holds us back is this imagined reality

It's not really happened. The biggest thing that has given me comfort in taking risks in life is that I've learned that whatever you prepare for is not what's going to happen. Something will happen because life is like that, but you can't predict it nor prepare for it. That is why it's adversity because you think you have it all. You think you have every tool known to matter.

We have so much technological advancement, right? We should see every tsunami coming. We should see every earthquake happening. And yet we get caught by surprise. But what helps us is knowing that we will deal with it and we will persevere. So the same goes in the creative business.

I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what video is going to take somebody off at some point and might get me canceled. But no, you just don't know. Especially as an Indian creator, like I performed in India. I performed in the Middle East. It's very scary. Like India, when I performed, the whole front row, 50 seats were reserved for the government of India. Oh.

Did they laugh at you? No, they came with their families, but the reservation was under government of India. So that's very scary. Because India is not America. Here you say whatever you want. There you say one wrong thing and somebody's going to be like, she attacked the religion or whatever. But

There's no way to control that. What am I going to do, get up on stage and be like, I'm not doing my comedy? You just have to have faith that whatever happens, you will resolve it. And you will. And that is what will help you be vulnerable and be like, you know what?

I'm putting things out with good intentions and that's all you can control. But look at you, you're radiating positivity. Put it all out there. - Warping the good vibes. Thank you. - Hi, Zarna. - Hi. - My name's Megan. I read your book and it was, it's so good. So thank you so much for being here today. - Thank you for reading it.

And so in one of the chapters, we talk about how you met Kevin Hart and how it was, you know, a moment for you where you felt so seen and that he was so present. And then you liken that to how it kind of shifted your mindset on how you build community, how you get a social following in the sense that.

You know, you're thinking less about how do I get a million followers and more about how do I win one, like each person a million times. Yes. Really, that really resonated with me. And so my question is, I'm curious for you, you know, when you're meeting a ton of people, when you're networking professionally, when you're, you know, building social communities with your audiences, how do you think?

how do you think about making people feel seen and being that same level of like presence that you felt with Kevin in your, in your life professionally and personally? I, this is a great question and I really believe it. It's a central tenet of my brand. And I think it's the only way to succeed as a creator today. Honestly, you have to,

There's two ways to look at it. One is you have to care if you want to build anything. And the other thing is if you care, if you care about whatever it is that you're doing, you're already in the top 1% of things.

There's so few people who care anymore. The level of apathy in this world is so great that if you're the barista who cares to make the right coffee, if you're the teacher who cares to actually teach, you're already in the top 1% or 2% of whatever it is that you're doing.

with like Kevin Hart, for example, deals with a huge volume of people, right? So it's challenging for him, but even he learns. It's like a learned, it's like a muscle you learn to work.

I've learned, like I used to just hang around after my comedy sets and talk to every single person who came into the audience. Every day I would be like, oh sure, three hours. I would be like, what are you doing? What brought you here? Who paid for your ticket? 'Cause sometimes there were artists. I was like, did you pay your bill?

So you learn. I can't do that anymore. But I care in other ways. Like, you know, one thing that I've learned and you guys are a tech company is that you can actually care through the digitals, like through these wires and screens. People know when you care.

They do. I don't know how to explain it, but it's this magical radiation that you get on the other side where you know that this creator cares about what you're thinking, what you value. And it's like a-- it's slightly artistic in how you do it. Each creator does it differently. But you learn how to do it. It starts with saying to yourself that I'm going to care. It starts with saying-- because a lot of people will be like, I have 10 viral videos. Why don't I have 100,000 followers?

Well, you're not caring about the 10,000 that do follow you. Why don't you just worry about them? Because then the rest will fall into place. So it starts with knowing that start caring about what you have and then wait for that multiplier effect to play itself out. Thank you. I'm so glad you remember that quote because I live and die by it. Yes, it really stood out to me. So thank you. Hi, Sarna. My name's Rachel. And, um,

My mom and I are both huge fans of yours. We saw you in the West Side Comedy Cellar in the fall. But I'm mixed race, and she's the white one. And all of her friends are also in their 60s and white, and they're all obsessed with you. And one way that my mom and I stay connected is sending your videos back and forth throughout the week.

But my question for you is, I work here on YouTube and some of my work is connecting paid advertiser spend and target audiences to those creators and who they want to find. My mom and I both found your videos organically on our own and then realized we were following you. I was wondering, because you appeal to such a wide audience,

Do you have that in your mind when you're making a video? Do you create for certain demographics? And how does that play into your creation process? Yeah, excellent question. Thank you for asking. I'm committed to the idea of family. I'm a family comic.

I'm committed to the idea of creating these moments exactly what you described. The videos going back and forth between mother and daughter, mother and son, husband and wife.

So everything I do comes from a place of like, do I think my family audience will enjoy it, will find value in it? I don't know how advertisers and all that works. I don't understand the tech behind it. But I have faith that if I create with this commitment,

that I believe in family events, I believe in family togetherness, that the right advertisers will find me somehow. I don't know how, but I-- and they have. I've built a whole business by doing this. You know, I'm the only comic that allows teenagers into the audience.

Most comedy clubs are 21 plus because they want to sell alcohol. It's not about the comedy. But I don't see a reason why a 15 year old cannot be sitting with their mom and dad. So I'm constantly crusading everywhere I go. I want teenagers in the room so we have things to do as a family. So I do. I'm very intentional about that. Like I whatever I create, I think, would my kid find humor in it? Would my husband find humor in it?

And if it's the, if it feels like really quirky and out of the box, like no one I know would care about this, I might try it just for my own curiosity to see what happens. But usually those things don't work because I have,

overall am committed to family gatherings. Like I'm all about what will bring people, like our family podcast was created for that reason. And people watch it on YouTube as if it's a talk show. We do. So people sit around our episode and watch it like us fighting with each other. Like, you know, you didn't clean your room and I didn't clean my room and whatever it is that we're all fighting about. So I am, the only thing I'm thinking is

Does this fit my brand of family? Like, I don't want to do-- like, I could make a lot of money if I did, like, a really dirty set. You know, coming from this face and body, it would be very funny, right, if I suddenly started making dick jokes. Yeah. No, there's a business opportunity there. But it just doesn't feel like it's right for my world. I don't want to upset this wholesome apple cart that we've built.

So I am actually very fixated on that. And I find it so heartwarming that you and your mom bond over it. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you. I think we have time for one last question. Hey, Zarna. Do you need an opener for your show? Always need an opener. Are you a budding comic?

I like to think so. Amazing. Listen, I started because I've helped so many people get started in comedy. The club that I first started comedy in now has a comedy school where we teach classes. We have teen classes in comedy, comedy writing, comedy performance. Because so many, I mean, the amount of people I've helped get started. I went back to my own club and I said, we got to organize this and make this a thing. Mm-hmm.

Because the comedy skill, I assume you work here. Yeah. Right. Like the comedy. Just need to sneak in. Just sneak in. Yeah. Because what I've learned is that if you even learn comedy writing or how to do improv or stand up, like one on one. I did those. Right. It's very helpful even in work. Right. It's helpful even as an engineer, as a business person. So we've gone all into teaching in that space. And yeah, of course, I would love to help in whatever way I can. Thanks.

Amazing. Well, thank you on behalf of this entire audience, those on the live stream and all of us at Google for coming and sharing your positivity, your beliefs on family and just spending the morning with us. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thanks for listening. You can watch this episode and tons of other great content at youtube.com slash talks at Google. Talk soon.