“Yes Lives in a World of Noes”: The Inside Story of EO Los Angeles’s Fireside Chat with Mark Cuban

Andy Cheng (EO Los Angeles)

More than 400 EO members from 19 chapters gathered in Beverly Hills on 22 July as EO Los Angeles welcomed renowned entrepreneur, investor, and television personality Mark Cuban for a conversation on entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, and the future of artificial intelligence in business. Here, EO Los Angeles Chapter President Andy Cheng reflects on how the event came to be.

It started with a rejection. Well, three actually.

Early last year, I applied for an Area Director role with EO’s U.S. West Region and did not get it. It was the third rejection I would face for that role: I was disappointed, but I understood. Rather than take a quiet year or take on a "safer" role, I applied to be the learning chair for EO's Deal Exchange, which was being hosted in Los Angeles last September. That decision turned out to matter more than I could have guessed.

Around the same time, I was doing virtual workout sessions with our chapter's MyEO Peloton group, and I would fill the hour by watching MasterClass. One session featured Mark Cuban — and I noticed there was another woman on screen with him for a long stretch of the class. Given how many companies Mark has backed, I figured she had to be someone worth knowing. I looked her up: Her name was Falon Fatemi. I emailed her, introduced myself, and in hopes of expanding my network and meeting interesting people asked, plainly, if we could get to know each other. She later admitted it came off a tad creepy — but she said yes. Soon after, we had a Zoom call and hit it off.

A few months later, I needed a keynote speaker for Deal Exchange — someone who had built a company, raised funding, had a real exit, and knew AI, which was still a niche ask at the time. A speaker-booking agent, Susan MacBeth, gave me one name: Falon. It turned out there was already a personal connection there, and everything about the invitation came together easily. Falon delivered — near a perfect score from attendees — and we became real friends from then on. I started calling myself her unpaid speaker booking agent.

Then, toward the end of last year, I was rejected for a third time for the regional role. This one hit hardest. Around that same low point that left me questioning my future with the organization, EO Los Angeles found itself needing a president-elect with prior experience. I hesitated — I had sat in that chair once before — but I said yes and cleared my calendar for a second term. 

I called Falon and asked her, half-joking, to help me start my year strong. Without hesitation, she asked: "Would you like to invite Mark Cuban?" I said it would be a dream. It took three months to get the invitation approved on Falon’s end, and then everything went quiet until early May when Falon called to confirm Mark was coming to EO Los Angeles. I was at Disneyland when I got the news, and I may have screamed loud enough to draw a few concerned looks.

One of our past speakers, Wayne Hoffman, once told me: "Yes lives in a world of noes." That line has stuck with me ever since and getting that hard-earned “yes” from Mark and Falon felt like the embodiment of that idea.

When Mark's team proposed a 30-day turnaround, I pushed back. I did not want to negotiate for its own sake, but because a lesson from professor Holly Schroth stuck with me: aim for a win-win. Getting Mark's time was not enough; he needed to walk away happy with his own delivery in front of a packed room. We landed on 60 days instead to give us adequate time to build something that would make a real impact.

Amid all of this, a close friend told me that part of why I hadn't landed the regional role might be my public speaking — English is my second language — and he suggested I work on it. I took that seriously and enrolled in a stand-up comedy course, finishing a live set that February. What I learned there carried me through the fireside chat: Every line I delivered on stage that day looked spontaneous, but it was rehearsed for two weeks, day and night.

Andy, Mark Cuban, and EO Dallas President Gail Davis

The event itself spanned two days. On 21 July, Falon opened with a hands-on session on using AI as a workforce, followed by a rooftop social — together, the first day drew close to 200 people from EO chapters in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orange County, and San Francisco. The biggest asset of EO is always the people. Not the speaker, not the learning event — the people.

The next morning, Robin Morbeck, our chapter director, and I were on-site at 7 a.m. to set up. That morning epitomized the entire process: She handled the logistics so smoothly that I never had to think twice about it — which is its own kind of trust. Members started arriving by 7:45 for a 10:30 start. My board showed up even earlier — before I even needed to ask. That is when it hit me: Choosing the right board is one of the most important things a leader does.

By 9:15, the breakfast area was full and buzzing. We were told Mark would arrive by 10. I trusted Falon to make it happen, but the wait was nerve-wracking. I remember thinking it felt like having a wedding without knowing if the bride would show up.  

Right on schedule, Mark arrived at 10 a.m. sharp, skipping the private entrance we had arranged, parking in the public lot, and walking in through the front door completely unrecognized. Meeting him in the green room a few minutes later was surreal: This was someone I had been watching on TV since college.

Five minutes before we went on, I said a quick prayer with my mentor, Kevin Ross. Then I walked out, opened with a joke about beating LA traffic (a first for any EO event, apparently), and the rest of the morning took care of itself. The stand-up class had paid off.

Falon and Mark's conversation covering entrepreneurship, trust, leadership, and AI was, by every account I have heard since, unlike anything our members had experienced at a local event. Mark also spoke about Cost Plus Drugs — his newest venture — and the social impact that helps define it: how a pharmaceutical company built around fair pricing could genuinely change consumer behavior, not just business outcomes.

"People wrote thank-you cards to the board. More than a month later, I am still getting messages calling it the most memorable event they have attended in EO."

- Andy Cheng (EO Los Angeles) 

That part of the conversation landed differently; we all started thinking about what it means to build something that does good and does well at the same time. We closed by naming Mark a lifetime honorary member of EO Global, EO Los Angeles, and EO Dallas. I ended, as promised, with one last joke (that Mark told me three times he thought was actually funny).

By the numbers: 423 people attended the fireside chat alone, representing 19 chapters. Across the three events over roughly 20 hours, total attendance topped 600. A local bank sponsored the event and reserved 32 seats for their own clients, which extended our reach even further and generated real interest in EO membership among their guests. Even better, we had 40 prospective members show up. 

The response afterward surprised me most. I usually get a handful of notes after an event — mostly complaints, occasionally a compliment. This time, people wrote thank-you cards to the board. More than a month later, I am still getting messages calling it the most memorable event they have attended in EO.

What I Learned

Trust = Transparency ÷ Self-Interest. Mark's line during the session stuck with me. The less you center the business on yourself, the easier it is to earn trust from employees, customers, and partners — a hard standard to maintain in your own business.

Even the most successful people keep learning. Mark and Falon could both stop working tomorrow. Instead, they study AI daily. It pushed me to stop delegating AI to my staff and start learning it myself, and I have been hands-on every day since.

Business can be the vehicle for social impact. Watching Mark talk about Cost Plus Drugs reminded me that entrepreneurship can be a tool for changing how people behave, at a societal level, when you build it around the right incentives.

Branding is execution, not swag. People will not wear your logo unless you are a fashion brand. How well you deliver is actually what represents and defines you.

We are One EO. None of this fell on one person. Robin and I worked so closely on logistics that it did not feel like we were in separate roles. That same spirit extended beyond our chapter: Orange County, the Inland Empire, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Regional, and Global all pitched in.

Choose your board, then lead by example. Nothing this year meant more to me than how my board showed up — early mornings, small tasks, big tasks, whatever it took. I have come to believe that as a leader, the people you choose to serve beside you matter more than almost anything else. When you lead by example, they show up for you the same way. I felt supported by this board every step of the way, and I love them to death.

Less is more. We did not need another event on the calendar for over a month after this one, and no one minded. Intentional, infrequent events beat filling a schedule to justify a budget.

Win-win, always. Getting Mark's time was not the finish line: Making sure he left happy with his own delivery mattered just as much. That framing shaped every logistical decision we made.

What I would change. I underestimated how big this would get and did not book enough photographers and videographers. That content would have paid off for years.

It was not luck. Success meant persistence through three rejections, a "creepy" cold email, a stand-up comedy class, and a team — my board, our members, neighboring chapters, and EO as a whole — that showed up for each other.

Looking back, I would not change a single part of it — not the three rejections, not the three months of waiting, not the nerves before Mark walked in. When I first came back for a second term, I told myself I was coming back to “save” the chapter. The truth is the opposite: EO Los Angeles has saved me again and again and again.

I am just one member among many, but this is what one EO, and one EO Los Angeles, actually looks like. Serving this chapter for a second term is the best decision I have made this year.

Andy Cheng is Chapter President for EO Los Angeles. Interested in becoming an EO member like Andy? Learn more here.