>>Shabnam Mogharabi: I'm going to talk a little bit about what I believe to be a revolution
that's happening right now in the Internet.
I think today what we are seeing is a seismic shift online away from negativity and towards
positivity which is why I'm really excited to be here to talk about my company, SoulPancake.
SoulPancake is a media and entertainment company, but we're a little bit different from most
media and entertainment companies in that we have a mission.
And our mission is to create inspiring content that is about the human experience.
And sometimes it can be very deep and sometimes it can be very touching and moving, but in
the end it's always about joy.
So I think we've done a pretty good job of that, partly because we are amazing storytellers,
but also in part because the shift is happening online.
And I hope by the time I'm done talking, you'll agree with me.
So a little bit about myself, because everyone always asks how I got involved with the weird-named
-- weirdly named company.
So I am actually a journalist by training.
And when I was in grad school, I wrote this thesis about the need for media to make conversations
about spirituality and philosophy cooler.
I thought there had to be a way for us to talk about the search for meaning and purpose
and happiness and to have that sound a little less like you were sitting at a yoga retreat.
So I write this thesis up, and I pack it up and I put it in my parents' garage, and seven
years later I am living in D.C. and working as a magazine editor and I'm listening to
NPR and this actor from "the office" Rainn Wilson comes up and he starts talking about
this Web site he's going to launch called SoulPancake and the mission of the Web site
is to talk about spirituality and philosophy and make it cool again.
And I thought, oh, my God.
Rainn Wilson stole my idea.
This is not okay.
And I was super mad.
And I was mad for a little while, and then I decided no, no.
I'm going to find a way to work on this.
So I reached out to everyone I knew in L.A. I must have sent dozens and dozens of phone
calls and emails trying to find someone to put me in touch with Rainn Wilson.
And someone eventually put me in touch with his business partner, and three months later
we launched SoulPancake, and that was five years ago.
So I sometimes ask myself how did this 40-year-old comedic actor who was raised by hippy parents
in Seattle and myself, a first-born child of immigrants who has a name that clearly
no one can ever pronounce, so how did these people come up with the same idea to tell
stories about the human spirit, these positive stories.
So I think the reason for that is we both saw in the world of content a lack of inspirational
storytelling, thoughtful storytelling.
And so we both had this thought that there's got to be a better way.
So today SoulPancake creates original video content for the Web, for television, for brands.
We have a premium YouTube channel with 1.4 million subscribers that has multiple videos
posting each week.
We've worked in television with the likes of Oprah and MTV and the Discovery Network,
with brands like Disney and Nestle and United Nations, all to tell authentic and meaningful
stories.
So I want to give you a couple examples of our content.
So the first is Kid President, who some of you may recognize.
Yeah, he's pretty adorable.
So Kid President is actually the story of two brothers.
There's Robby, who is ten years old and has, actually, brittle bone disease, and there's
his older brother Brad who saw in Robby this incredibly joyful and resilient spirit, and
he said there's got to be a way to channel this for good.
So we partnered with Brad and Robby, and about six months into our partnership we put out
a video that we thought would have some tent-pole appeal.
The Super Bowl was coming up.
We said let's put out a pep talk to the world.
So we put out this pep talk, and within two weeks we had 30 million views on it.
And everyone from President Obama to Beyonce, everyone had noticed Kid President.
And today we've got a TV show on air with Kid President and we've a book about his awesome
message coming out next spring.
And it really is this inspirational movement.
But what I find most amazing about the story of Kid President is that this ten-year-old
boy and his big brother have caused change to form in people's hearts.
This pair has started a movement to stop homelessness with our Socktober campaign.
They have caused teachers across the country to change the way they operate in their classrooms.
And just this summer, we launched a campaign that got 2 million people to contribute to
try to end childhood hunger.
And that's the kind of power of this kind of joyful and optimistic storytelling.
So now Robby has very adorable dimples and great dance moves, but equally inspiring I
think is our series "My Last Days."
Now this is a series that we do, it's a documentary series that profiles individuals, mostly young,
who have a terminal illness.
And I know you're thinking like that doesn't sound very joyful.
But, but it's actually one of the most positive and inspiring series that we show on our YouTube
channel.
And the reason for that is because it really is a series about how to live.
It just happens to be told by people who are dying.
So the last episode of the first season of "My Last Days" profiled a young singer songwriter
named Zach Sobiech.
Now, Zach was 17 and been given diagnosed with osteosarcoma and doctors had given him
about three to six months to live.
So I'm going to let Zach actually tell you a little bit about his story.
[ Video playing ] >>> I think every teenager out there feels
invincible, and they'll never admit it but it's not the kind of invincible by Superman.
It's the kind of invincible like I'll see you in five months.
My name is Zach Sobiech.
I'm 17 years old and I have osteosarcoma.
I've been told I have a few months to live, but I still have a lot of work to do.
>>> When we found the cancer in his pelvis, we said, you know, maybe you ought to start
writhe writing some letters.
>>> Music is a way I can express myself without having to burden everyone else.
>>> Zach can't stop writing lyrics.
There are so many songs he wants to leave behind.
With only months to live, his song called "cloud" was born.
>>> (Singing).
>>> I climb down down down into this dark and lonely hole.
>>> Zach, such a lovely song.
>>> I'll go up up up, but I'll fly a little higher.
Go up in the clouds because the view's a little nicer.
>>> To me, it's Zach's way of saying I'm okay.
>>> I want everyone to know, you don't have to find out you're dying to start living.
>>> (singing) a little bit more time.
More time.
With we all need.
>>> Have a little bit more time.
>>> With you.
>>> Thank you, Zach.
You wrote a great song, dude.
It's a real pleasure to sing it, and sing it with you.
[ Video ends ] >>Shabnam Mogharabi: Zach passed away two
weeks after we aired his documentary, but by the time he passed away, more than 22 and
a half million people had seen his story or heard his song clouds, which actually went
to number one on iTunes.
And the community that was built around Zach online helped to raise nearly $1 million for
osteosarcoma research.
And I think what we've witnessed at SoulPancake is the power of joy in action.
I think that that's the kind of thread that has catapulted us to the Zeitgeist.
And I think it demonstrates this shift that's happening online towards happiness.
So one of the things that I find really, really fascinating about all this is that this is
something that's happening across the board.
If you really pay attention to what's happening online right now, you'll see these sparks
of joy popping up everywhere.
I think it's the reason Upworthy is so successful.
You've got Huffington Post and Yahoo! all launching platforms for good.
Pharrell's "Happy" became an international phenomenon.
Joy is infectious.
And I think one of the reasons this is happening -- There's two reasons that I think this is
happening.
One is that, again, joy has this ripple effect.
The same way a bad mood can rub off on the people around you, joy has the same way to
influence hearts and minds that surround you.
But I also think millennials are craving.
They are craving this kind of content that matters.
There's an interesting study that I read about earlier this year.
A group in New York has been looking at what college graduates, what they want to have
in their jobs, post graduation.
And for the last ten years that they've been doing this study, the number one and two things
that the college graduates are looking for are money and location.
How much am I going to make to do this job and where do I have to live.
And for the first time this year money fell to the number two spot.
And the thing that took over the number one spot that millennials post-college grads are
looking for is a sense of purpose or meaning in the company they work for.
Think about the implications of that.
I think that's amazing.
You've got an entire generation of kids graduating who are going into a terrible job market.
My own sister has been looking for six months.
She just graduated from college and has been searching.
But that doesn't matter to them, how much they make, none of that matters.
They just want to do something that means something to them.
And I think that's really powerful.
So I think we have a choice to either be part of this movement towards joy and positivity
online or to ignore it.
And I think the wise thing to do is to pay attention and be part of it.
And if we want to contribute towards that momentum towards positivity there's two things
that we can do.
The first thing that I have seen to be true at SoulPancake is we have to choose kindness.
And I think Kid President really demonstrates that.
I think that in a Web world that is so rife with ranting and righteousness and trolling,
he was this beacon of light who said I'm going to choose to be kind and encouraging with
my words and I'm going to see what happens.
And I think we saw the power in that.
And I think those kinds of stories are out there.
SoulPancake is not the only kind of story teller that is telling these kinds of amazing
stories.
There are amazing, mind-blowing, awe inspiring stories out there and it is our responsibility
to share them.
And I'm not saying that we have to ignore the negative or difficult parts of life.
"My Last Days" is a perfect demonstration of that.
You can tell stories and talk about the difficulties and negative things that are happening in
the world, but to do it through a lens of hope and kindness and joy, and that is incredibly
powerful.
And I think the second thing that we can do to help propel this momentum forward is to
really rebel against the culture of comparison online.
There is a great quote that I love and it goes: Comparison is the thief of joy.
The thief of joy.
And the reason that I love this is because I really think you can see it come to life
in social media.
Here is this powerful way of communicating that was supposed to bring people together
and create communities.
And instead, it's really become the breeding ground of the selfie.
That's really what you see online, is I'm going to put my best foot forward, all of
my accolades.
That's what I'm going to spread, and that's what you see online.
And as voyeurs, we're watching this, and it creates in us this feeling that other people's
lives are cooler or better or more interesting than ours are.
And the reality is that when we stop looking and comparing those lives, what we actually
will see is the commonality.
Because it's that kind of commonality, things like love and death and kindness and laughter
and hope, all those things that make us human, it's those things that I think have the ability
to change the world.
It's why Rainn started SoulPancake.
It's why I switched careers to join him.
Because we believe joy has the power to change the world.
That shift is already happening online, and we want to continue to help lead that.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]