- On this episode, we talk eBay.
We leave the office and go see Nate,
and we answer some other questions
that I just can't recall right now.
♫ Gary Vee ♫
(cheers and applause)
- [Gary] You ask questions and I answer them.
(lively hip hop music)
This is the The #AskGaryVee Show.
♫ Yeah yeah
♫ Yeah right hook
♫ Knowledge is power
♫ If you have the right hook ♫
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is Episode 90 of The #AskGaryVee Show.
Very good job by Jon Troutman here at VaynerMedia,
who grew up with me in the wine world, worked at Cork'd,
and has been at Vayner a long time.
He emailed Stunwin and I, right Steve,
last night and said by doing this episode,
The #AskGaryVee Show has now had a monumental moment.
It has now become the second most episodes show in my career
because the little known fun fact
is a thousand episodes of Wine Library TV,
89 episodes of the mobile-only Daily Grape,
so now #AskGaryVee, on this moment,
makes the big leap to being in the number two spot.
Only 911 to go
to match Wine Library.
I don't think we'll get there.
Let's hope we can get to 11 more
and hit a hundred or 10 more, I guess is 90.
So, feel good?
The trip to...
Thanks for all of you that followed me in my Snapchat story,
my 24 hours to Spain and back.
The beard is coming in really nice
and it's really getting there,
and that's the scoop, so India?
Let's get into the show.
- It's Dawn Del Russo,
my question is about the new Fountain app.
I recently became one of the beta experts
in the fashion and beauty part of it,
and I wanted to know your thoughts
on people using video to ask questions
and do you think that they will pay for it to ask questions
and have them answered by an expert?
Love your answers.
Thanks, bye.
- Dawn, this is a tremendous question
with a very important answer.
I think that people will pay for anything.
Let me say that again.
People will pay for anything
if they perceive it has value.
If there was an #AskGaryVee Show in 1967,
and I'll be like, "Hey, groovy cats,
"it's the #AskGaryVee Show,
"really excited, ho, Dawn you're thinking like,
"will people pay for water?
"Are you, that's totally far out, that's, no way."
That would be the wrong answer.
What happened was Poland Springs,
and I'm sure plenty of people
long before Poland Springs I'm just not educated,
on the early days of the water industry,
people came along and convinced people
that bottled water had value.
I mean, you go ask your grandparents.
Here's a little fun weekend challenge.
Go ask your grandparents what they first thought,
if they can remember, not 'cause they're old,
just like if they can remember,
what they thought about the idea of people paying for water.
Think about how you feel.
Steve, how do you feel on the notion that,
I mean, I don't know if you know this,
but you have, at certain times,
paid three to four dollars for a bottled water
at an airport or some scenario.
You absolutely have done it.
What do you think about that?
- I paid three dollars for a water
in Central Park the other day.
- [Gary] And?
- I was really unhappy about it.
- Yeah, I mean, it's a absolute brain twist.
People will pay for answers
even though so many people are watching right now,
you have a free show here that you don't pay for answers,
from somebody very qualified, thank you very much,
but I do think people will pay.
Now, are you good enough?
Have you built up enough brand equity
and have you created the perception of the value
to your answers to have that be the case for you?
And more importantly, how many unicorns are there
to be able to do that?
How many people have built up enough historical execution,
and have charisma and ability to answer?
How many Jack Welches,
how many Mark Zuckerbergs, and then more importantly,
the people that have actually pulled it off
have to be in a very interesting part of their career
or enjoy it.
I love Q and A so much
that I have to do this show for me for happiness,
not for the ROI on the time.
I'm sure it's building audience,
there's a lot of good variables,
sure it'll be a right hook with the #AskGaryVee book,
but the truth is, the amount of money I'm gonna make
on the book is shorter than if I did six speeches,
so it doesn't make sense mathematically
and so a lot of people that would be good enough
to pull off having people answer for them
would never want to do that as a business.
Like you know,
so I think it's an interesting challenge.
What I would say is there's probably, uniquely,
a hundred to 10,000 people that look the part,
similar, to be very honest, with as much humility
as I can possibly say this, similar to me
that can probably pull it off to a meaningful scale.
My intuition is, there's a lot of people
that can get eight people to pay to answer their question,
but that's not real.
- [Voiceover] Zac asks, "What three questions
"do you most commonly ask your clients
"when meeting them for the first time?"
- Zac, wonderful question.
For everybody in client services, agency life,
this should be fun.
Number one is what is your KPI?
What's your Key Performance Indicator?
Like what is the thing that you want us to accomplish?
Is it views, is it sales, is it perception,
is it press, is it your own judgement
on how you feel about the creative?
How are you judging us, what are the results?
And they're really separate.
How are you judging us, what are the results
are number one A and one B that matters the most,
and then, really, the third one would then be
what are you willing to tell me about your warts?
Meaning, there's just a lot of people
that are not gonna tell you about,
the politics that are an issue,
the money that's an issue.
I'm always trying to get them to be very truthful to us
once I understand what the issues at hand are,
so what do you really want to accomplish?
By the way, people struggle with answering that.
People struggle with answering that.
Number two, how are you gonna judge me?
Sometimes they struggle with that less.
Number three, what are the warts?
Most people don't wanna tell me up front.
We try to sniff them out early so we can navigate them,
and it's like a minefield to get to the finish line.
Those are the three,
and they're very important questions,
and trying to figure out in every situation,
in absolutely every situation,
in dating, in building your own business, in having clients.
I really think those three are super fun, and by the way,
they're very important equally.
I think, for example,
I think people that struggle with dating
are spending way too much on number three.
They're so concerned about what the person's warts are,
or skeletons in their closets.
They're not trying to figure out how they're being judged
to be a good partner in that relationship,
or how that's gonna be scored, and so,
having a great balance of all three.
That's a little nugget there.
Give you a little fun fact at the end of this question.
It's the 33% execution of those three questions
that may be equally as important.
Yeah, yeah,
that got to be a better article
'cause I layered that last piece on.
- [Steve] How clients are like--
- What's going on on Meerkat, Steve?
- Somebody asked
if they're conflicted about whether they should watch live
on Meerkat or wait till the episode--
- That's a really interesting question.
- [Steve] The answer's obviously both.
- Well, of course, but what did everybody say
and how many people are in there?
180?
- 232.
- [Gary] Good. - Yeah.
A lot of people asked about personal brands today.
- Yeah, interesting.
Well, everybody on Meerkat, get on Instagram,
take a picture, ask the question, #AskGaryVee,
and maybe you can be on the show.
- [Steve] Speaking of--
- Suckers.
- [Steve] Oh, and Kathleen says, "Speaking of dating,
"where Nate S.?"
- Yeah, where is Nate? (laughter)
Nate?
Let's go see where Nate is.
I'm taping #AskGaryVee, and Kathleen
is on Meerkat.
- [Nate] I just got a notification.
- That Kathleen's curious where you are, so here you are.
Why don't you give the VaynerNation
two seconds of what you've been do, Kathleen specifically,
but what have you been really doing today?
- Working on budget and scopes, primarily.
- [Gary] Right, it sounds--
- Not very riveting, a lot of spreadsheets, Excel.
- [Gary] Are you teaching Alex, young Alex, the ropes?
- Oh yes, we got a scope open right there.
- [Gary] I love it.
Well, don't show the scope.
All right, let's get back to the show.
Thanks, Nate.
Yes, I think Kathleen is in Australia.
I like that Nate has secret admirers.
Get in there.
Oh, nice job, Staphon.
DRock might not get his gig back with that move right there.
That was a very smooth transition.
All right. - [Steve] Dreams do come true,
- [Steve] someone said.
- [Voiceover] soundcaresser asks,
"Three seconds counting as a view for Facebook video...
"Moderately misleading metric
"or incredibly bullshit metric?"
- So, this is a great question, Kevin,
but before I get into the question,
that picture is adorable.
Big shout out.
VaynerNation, you can learn from the creativity
of that picture when you ask a question.
Look, I think, first of all,
marketing right now in general
got a real problem of width over depth, right?
So, is three seconds pre-roll view
on Facebook
bull crap compared to people buying views on YouTube
as pre-rolls that are,
I'm not sure if that's one, two or three seconds,
but they're pre-rolls, they're actual ads
whereas Facebook is putting it in feed.
I don't know, I mean I think, look,
I don't care about width metrics to begin with.
Any brand, startup, that is saying,
"Oh, this got eight million views or this got 87 views,"
and that's the definition of success,
doesn't realize the technology can game that game,
and so the interesting part
is I'm not worried about that metrics,
I'm looking at the engagement, the comments,
the click-throughs to the product
or whatever else you're trying to do,
or I'm taking the width for the width value.
If I want 100,000 people, 500,000 people
to at least see my face once in their lives,
that three seconds made them do that.
It depends on what you're trying to drive.
It's similar to question number one on the show today.
What is the KPI?
Is the KPI is the number of views,
you should be challenging that as your KPI
in a world with YouTube
and Facebook counting the way they're counting.
Steve, you're smiling,
you're enjoying the conversation in Meerkat.
- [Steve] Yeah, no, no, it's a good crowd.
- Good.
- [Voiceover] themapleparlor asks,
"What's your best piece of advice
"for a first generation American entrepreneur,
"venturing out on her own, away from her family business?"
- April, first and foremost, India just shared
some other photos from your Instagram
besides your question and your product looks delicious.
There's a pretty known thing amongst the most hard Vayniacs
is that when I go on book tour,
I always start at Powell's in Portland, so...
I'm on this hardcore diet
but I think we may have to sneak in when we do that
February, March, April next year, and try you out.
Look, I think the biggest thing that I tell everybody
is number one, practicality.
How much money do you have to stay alive for how long?
That is always my biggest fear.
First-time entrepreneurs make this mistake.
Do you have one year's worth of rent and overhead,
and then, you have to make your actions respond
to your bleeding of cash before you turn a profit.
When you start a new business,
especially an ice cream parlor,
a restaurant, kind of what you're doing,
you've got to make sure
that you're putting up upfront investment,
financially, not just time.
It's not like you're building something with code,
you're literally paying rent and buying supplies, and so,
you need to have a high level of practicality.
The other thing that I tell entrepreneurs
that are more practical, again, a physical location,
it sounds like the way you asked the question
that you're leaving your own family's business
and doing your own thing.
Hopefully it's not competing directly
with your own family's business,
so there's not some weirdness.
I think the thing that you really need to pay attention to
is you have made a decision
that does not allow you, in year one,
any time to do anything but build your business.
You are not allowed...
You're almost not even allowed to watch The #AskGaryVee Show
going forward.
Like, you are in such a code red zone,
that every minute, call it 18 hours a day
out of 24,
if you want this to be successful,
need to allocated for your business,
even at the mercy in year one of your family time.
Even at the mercy of that, and so,
I guess what I'm getting at and you could tell by my tone
and vibe on this question, is I'm scared,
and I think one of the biggest reasons
so many people go out of business in the first year,
first two years, small business, practical,
where that they're burning cash,
is they don't realize how hard it is,
and how all in you have to be,
and so if you really want this dream to come true,
you've got to make substantial sacrifices.
- Hey Gary Vee, Michael Pierce here,
and I have a question regarding platforms
to sell your merchandise online.
I run an online community designed
to help other sellers succeed on platforms like eBay,
Amazon, and tree systems like Amazon FBA.
Just recently, probably the last six months,
there's been a lot of talk of eBay really going downhill.
A lot of sellers are fed up with their fees,
and they're really disliking the path that eBay has taken.
My question for you is, if eBay doesn't innovate,
if they don't change, if they don't get out
of this old school mentality,
do you think they'll become irrelevant
in the next five or 10 years?
Do you think places like Amazon will completely
take over the entire market,
rather than just owning a majority of it right now?
- Name?
- [India] Michael.
- Michael, great question.
I'm an eBayhead.
Taught AJ how to be an entrepreneur by going to garage sales
and selling on eBay.
eBay's become more Amazon-like
than what it originally started out,
which was sell Pez dispensers
and bobbleheads and Beanie Babies.
I actually think there's a huge white space,
so I think eBay's doing the right thing, believe it or not,
competing a little bit with Amazon,
and I do think resellers are struggling with it,
but manufacturers and people at scale are enjoying it.
I think what eBay is doing is they're recognizing
there's no alternative to eBay in the world, so ironically,
I think the white space is,
I'm gonna make a prediction here,
in the next, and I don't like doing predictions.
I always say I don't make predictions, I just follow,
but I'm gonna make one,
and I failed in a startup called Yardsale, mobile eBay,
and I may be wrong, and I actually feel pretty weak
about this prediction, but I'm gonna make it anyway.
I do think that in the next 10 years,
somebody's gonna build eBay again.
eBay is so much not eBay anymore,
that when you look at it, it's all new products.
I still think there's enormous commerce in used product,
and so Etsy took its own kind of crafter mold.
Ironically, Etsy just went public yesterday,
so interesting timing.
eBay is eBay but is evolving more towards Amazon-like,
Overstock retail!
I think there's a huge open space for somebody
to build a billion-dollar company
in literally just becoming eBay again,
and I mean restrictions.
No new products, everything on the site is used.
You know, used.
I just, I think it's a huge play, still,
especially with mobile and smart tech, so much,
I'm curious where that goes, so,
do I think Amazon can be the entire marketplace?
No.
Do I think that eBay's gonna go out of business
in the next 10 years?
No, I actually think what eBay is doing
is actually smart for their business,
until this alternative comes, which may never come,
thus, I'm pretty positive
on their direction, and so,
I think if you guys are resellers
or certain type of niches, I mean I've been saying,
me and my homies that sold collectibles
said eBay was finished, not as good as it was, in 2005.
Like, "Oh, eBay's ruined."
That was 10 years ago,
so that's my answer.
Question of the the Day.
I'm so into eBay.
I need, everybody's got one,
I need your eBay...
You know what, this is gonna be the first time
I'm gonna read every single comment over the weekend
'cause I really love this.
Go in-depth, VaynerNation.
I need your eBay story.
Also, real quick, quick right hook
for everybody listening on the podcast
and watching The #AskGaryVee Show,
I need the follow on Instagram,
I'm about to do something really interesting,
so ping up here.
Instagram, if you're not following me,
enormous mistake.
Username @GaryV-E-E,
and thank you for everybody
who has given me tons of Snapchat love,
I'm enjoying that as well, @GaryV-E-E.
10 more to a hundred.
See you soon.
You keep asking questions,
I'll keep answering them.
- [Steve] Gary, what do you like on your pizza?
- Historically, since I don't eat it at this point anymore,
historically, I'm a mushrooms and peppers guy.
- [Steve] Questions from here.
♫ Right hook
♫ Jab
♫ Right hook
♫ Jab
♫ Right hook
♫ Jab
♫ Right hook
♫ Knowledge is power
♫ If you have the right hook ♫