- One more time.
- [India] Uhm..
- Oh this episode, we talk about contradictions,
text on top of Instagram photos,
and the female version of me?
(club music)
- You asked questions,
and I answered them.
This is
the #AskGaryVee show.
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is episode 105 of the #AskGaryVee show,
a very special weekend edition
of the #AskGaryVee show.
I hope you're enjoying your weekend.
I hope this starts it off right
with the right amount of energy
and India.
By the way, before we go to India,
let's get into the show.
If you don't have this book,
I'm massively upset with you.
India, let's
get into the show.
- [Voiceover] Q Studios Inc asks,
"Gary Vee, as a successful solo entrepreneur,
"do I have to grow my business bigger
"than I can handle alone?"
- Q Studios Inc, that's a great question.
I think the answer to that question is completely
predicated on what you want in life.
I mean, you've set up the question by saying
you're a successful solo entrepreneur.
Are you making the monies and are you fulfilled enough
to keep it at a one woman/one man show?
I mean, to me, I can't answer that for you.
I just had an interesting conversation with AJ.
Our professional ambitions are in a different place.
Everyone's are.
If you wanna build a bigger business,
you need to build it outside of one person.
You can only be so big,
but maybe what you're getting and what you've got
and how it goes appeals to you.
I find a lot of people not being able to be good managers.
They love to micro-manage,
they're romantic and obsessive about what they do,
they don't allow other people to come into their ecosystem,
and they struggle with the growth curve
and they get just as little exponential growth,
they go from making $73,000 a year
to 113, but it comes with a lot of pain
because they don't like it, you know?
They're introverted, they're solo acts,
they're flawed in building out a big business,
but incredibly good and happy at doing their thing.
So it's not about making more, there's really a fine line
of making more money but giving up too much
of your happiness for that bigger money amounts,
and then there's probably a place where that monies
justifies what you want.
But to me, doing what you love
and doing it the way you love to do it
is really, really, really important.
I happen to be lucky that that also
creates wealth and big dollars,
but for the people that it doesn't, they need to reconcile.
And look, what I don't get is a lot of other things,
which is kind of the relaxation
or the lack of pressure that comes along with
some of the smaller plays, but,
I can't answer this question for you,
you need to know yourself.
This goes back to all the self-awareness stuff
that I'm trying to put out.
This goes back to yesterday's video about,
or a couple days ago video of a day in the life
where a lot of people critique my work-life balance,
my family time, this, that,
and the reason that video ends with, you know,
that's me, now do you. That's a perfect way,
actually, DRock, link up there.
Give me like a, give me 13 seconds
of the day in the life video.
- Gary Vanderchuk.
- You know I'm a hundred percent right.
(laughter)
You just do.
(laughs) Like, I'm super glad we're connected, brother.
Alright, now I'm back, and so,
you know, I think um,
I think it's on you.
- [Voiceover] Adam asks,
"You say one, play to your strengths,
"two, don't worry about small details.
"What if my strength is attention to detail?"
- Adam, couple things, and this is
for the entire VaynerNation,
so many of the things that I say are contradictions.
I like pulling from both directions.
That's where I think the strength comes in.
I really do think of life, business, as a bridge.
If you pull equally very hard,
ego, humility, right?
I don't care what anybody thinks about me,
I care about what everybody thinks about me, right?
Big, big, big picture, clouds, but I'm a practitioner.
I know more about all the details of social than you.
Details, dirt.
And so I love pulling from opposite directions,
so if I'm giving advice and you're listening
to 105 composite shows and things are coming
from different angles that are contradictions,
this is where you have to go within yourself
and not listen to a guru, 'cause I'm not one,
nor is anyone else, this is on you to figure out that,
and so if your strengths are, you know,
to me in that one, you bet on yourself.
To me, look, I can answer these in detail,
and I will this time.
I would bet on the strengths.
Cool, you're detail-oriented.
You need to recognize two things.
If your skill set is detail-oriented,
two things are gonna happen.
One, if you're the number one,
if you're the top dog, your company,
your business is gonna be small.
Number two, you're probably an awesome
number two, three, and four to a number one
that goes all the way out to the clouds
and doesn't care about the details,
and you may be able to make more finances,
or whatever you're looking for, and be happier
and not have the pressure of being the number one
by laddering up or attaching yourself to a number one
and acting your two, three, four role.
If your strength is the finite details,
your upside is limited as the number one.
You have two decisions to make.
One, you're cool with that,
back to the first question in this show.
Or two, you're gonna latch onto somebody
who's gonna be able to elevate,
and your 8%, your 20%,
your 40%, your 2% of the whole nut
is going to be greater than 100%
of what you're gonna do for yourself.
Yeah, that was sharp.
(laughter)
There was a sharpness to that.
- [India] Um, this is a random--
- Cuttin' people with my answers.
(laughter)
- [Voiceover] Rusty says, "I don't get it, Facebook.
"You decide to not show my book page to people.
"Do you think a lack of success
"will make me give you more money?"
- Rusty, I feel you, but you know,
Facebook is like any other medium in the world.
You know like, Fox channel network
to put your commercial for your book
isn't gonna just do it for free.
The Yellow Pages isn't feeling your book
and so they're just gonna put it in there for free.
The postal service isn't like, "Oh rad,
"your book was creative.
"Let's just ship out flyers for your book for free."
This notion that Facebook, because it started
as a social network, is not giving free organic reach
to people and, "What, you want my money?"
Yes, they want your money because it's one
of the most efficient ways to actually deliver content
to people in the world, right?
You know, like, you know, cool,
use the alternative of free, which is what?
Oh, excuse me, use the alternative of Facebook
and keep staying free, which is what?
E-mail? Cool.
Build your list, do your thing,
hit that Google button, boom,
MailChimp in the house.
Great, awesome, phenomenal, show me.
Show me that you can build that list.
That's just the way it is, and I think people's feelings
are hurt, but Facebook, The Business World,
The Market, doesn't give a crap.
- [Voiceover] Listen Give asks, "Our co-founder
"has been said to be the female version of you.
"Do you think society is ready,
"and would she be treated the same?"
(patronizing laughter)
- Listen Give?
- [India] Listen give.
- India, you are picking some doozys
on this weekend edition of the #AskGaryVee show.
This one's got me up into a higher level as you can tell.
The female version of me, who I think is Misha Vaynerchuk,
my daughter, I'm watching it though I can already see
some differences, which is too bad.
At first I would've thought it was like a carbon copy.
But I love her perfectly the way she is.
No, I think if there was a female version of me right now,
she would struggle more, because the truth is,
society is flawed and white males get away
with more things than minorities, than females,
and so I think the world's a lot more ready
than it was five years ago, or 10 years ago,
or 15 years ago, definitely, but do I think,
you know, cursing, I mean, if we're going carbon copy,
you know, cursing and that level of ego,
and that combativeness of loving
the competition,
I think it would be less palpable
to the masses, which is massively unfortunate
and I hope that day will change.
At the same token, I think that,
I don't think people recognize how much smaller
my audience is by me being me.
A lot of people see the plus side of it,
I am not consumable to a lot of people.
There's three to four little tweeks
that I'm fully in control on to change
in a heartbeat that would make me much bigger,
I'm just not willing to do that,
and I would hope that your co-founder, right?
Yeah, I hope that she is just her all the way through
and let the chips fall where they fall.
I hope she doesn't hedge or tries to waiver,
much like I hope she has no interest
in trying to be just like me if she's passionate about me
in a way that I try not to be like anybody.
There's an incredible, it's the most cliche word
right now in the game, authenticity,
but it is stunning how much truth there,
you know, it's kinda like stereotypes.
Stereotypes are uncomfortable, but like,
let's get raw, there's some truths to stereotypes,
that's how they become stereotypes.
Authenticity is a cliche buzzword
'cause there's some truth to it.
People really appreciate you rolling the way you're rolling.
People really appreciate when I meet them in real life.
They're like, I mean, it's still stunning to people like,
"Oh damn." you know?
I mean, I'm sure at episode 100 you guys
had people coming up to you and saying,
"Oh wow, that's how he is in real life." right?
People expect there's a cynicism,
and that's why authenticity over-indexes,
and so I highly recommend, so the answer
to your question is no, I don't think it's as accepted
as me, and I think that's unfortunate,
but that's just my true answer.
Two, I hope that doesn't change any of her behavior.
- [Voiceover] Daniel asks, "How do you think
"overly-edited photos and text overlays
"affect the authenticity of Instagram posts?"
- Daniel, thank you so much for a wonderful question.
Just off the back of authenticity,
so you must have been thrilled.
I think it's what you're trying to accomplish.
I think that if you're a photographer
trying to catch the wild, like, you can't edit
and put words over it, but if you roll like me
where a lot of things, like you wanna inspire people
to think differently or make them feel something,
it's really powerful to put a quote of yours
on top of a photo.
I really do think it's the strategy,
the will, the interest of the content producer
to really make this judgment call.
What I like most of all about this question
is how Instagram really works.
The ability to unfollow somebody on Instagram
is so easy, and this is a subtle product thing
that I don't think people spend enough time on.
People's ability to unfollow somebody
feels so native as you're scrolling that, you know,
at the end of the day, content's gonna find
its audience if it's good, and whether that's
highly edited or super raw,
or black and white, or booty shots,
or inspirational quotes, or whatever it is,
it's going to find its audience,
and so I think it's something that people
should not overthink
in either direction, right?
It's not a tactic that automatically makes it pop,
and it's definitely not a tactic that's gonna cripple you,
it just needs to be right.
I actually think you've said it best,
which is, authenticity has nothing to do with the actions.
It has to do with the seed of where this comes from.
If you authentically, like me, want to put things like
kill it or crush a face today,
or whatever you wanna say on top of a picture,
that's what's coming from me, that's why I think
my audience finds it attractive,
in the same way that, if all of a sudden
on my Instagram feed I'm taking sunset shots
of New York City, people are gonna be like,
"That's not." that's not,
that's just not who I am, right?
And that's why I yell at DRock
always trying to edit and shit,
and that's it, right?
That's it so, I think your question's got the answer in it,
which is the word authenticity.
If it comes from the heart
to have quotes on top of it and edit it, cool.
If it doesn't, cool.
Cool?
Question of the day.
What is the app you are spending
most of your time on right now?
Little market research of the VaynerNation right now,
for all of us, I highly recommend everybody
watches everybody's responses,
'cause you'll learn, it's interesting,
it's just sharing the data.
Share your damn data with me this weekend.
You keep asking questions,
I'll keep answering them.
(club music)