Evan Spiegel seems to be able to juggle work and family — and still finds time to combat excessive screen time.
The CEO and co-founder of Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, spoke at length about his work-life balance on the latest episode of the David Senra podcast.
Everyday life between school and a billion-dollar company
The 35-year-old Spiegel is raising four children with supermodel Miranda Kerr. He said the three older children attended the same Santa Monica school he attended and insisted that he accompany them to the building when he dropped them off.
“I’m used to walking the long way while everyone else is in the carpool line,” the tech billionaire said, adding, “The nice thing about it is that you get to interact with everyone and say hello to other parents and teachers,” including some who once taught him.
When the job swallows everything
However, Spiegel acknowledged that there have been “many days” recently when he left for work before the children woke up and only returned after they were already in bed.
He said he’s leading Snap at a critical time. The company is trying to jumpstart Snapchat’s advertising business while preparing to launch augmented reality (AR) glasses Spectacles later this year.
The result is that Spiegel’s schedule is “completely crazy” and “unsustainable,” he said, adding that his role now feels like a “seven-day job.”
Trying to keep balance
Nevertheless, he apparently somehow manages to balance running an $8 billion stock market company and spending time with his family.
“I always try to keep Sunday free,” said Spiegel. “We go to church as a family, we go to brunch, and then I spend the afternoon with our kids, and that’s super important to me.”
His strategies against stress
Spiegel said he manages his stress by spending time with his wife and children, trying to exercise every morning and practicing Kriya meditation a few days a week, which he finds “incredibly energizing.”
Honest feedback from the closest circle
He said that Kerr, best known for her time as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, was “brutally honest in a very loving way.”
Since he’s back in his hometown of Los Angeles, he also has a circle of old “high school friends” nearby with whom he can talk openly about his life and whose honesty he relies on.
Surprisingly relaxed despite pressure
Spiegel said Kerr was “obsessed” with her Oura Ring health tracker and eventually convinced him to wear one for a week. She was “shocked” to learn that he was “in a relaxed state throughout the day” and slept seven to eight hours a night, he added.
Stress as a motivation
The Snap CEO said that his job involves high risk and time pressure, but that he finds it “exciting rather than stressful” because he enjoys and feels inspired by “periods of intense change.”
The social media entrepreneur also said he tries to view “stress as an opportunity” for growth. He said that as a young manager, he initially shied away from public speaking and company-wide question and answer sessions, but then consciously trained himself to like exactly these situations at some point.
War on screens
Surprisingly, Spiegel, the creator of a mobile app with around 950 million monthly users, is known for being anti-screens and keeping his children’s exposure to smartphones, tablets and televisions to a minimum.
He criticized how many people now spend seven or eight hours a day “staring at screens” and are thus “pulled out of the moment or away from their friends”, making it difficult for them to truly connect with their loved ones at the dinner table.
More real life, less screen time
The Snap boss said he wants people to embrace the power of technology while continuing to stay connected to other people, nature and the world.
“What if aliens are watching Earth right now and are horrified that smartphones have taken over humanity,” he said. “We spend all day tending to these devices, plugging them in and maintaining them, and our lives now revolve around these little screens.”
Spiegel added that he imagines “aliens sending glasses to save people from their lives, which I think are so focused on screens.”
