- On this episode, I do the last episode of the year.
(hip hop music)
- [Voiceover] Gary Vee!
- [Gary] You ask questions.
And I answer them.
This is
the #AskGaryVee Show.
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk
and this is episode 172
of the #AskGaryVeeShow.
The last one of the year.
As tomorrow I go away off the grid.
Well I'm not fully off the grid,
off the grid starting really Monday,
for at least five days.
Lizzie and I get to go away by ourselves.
This is a big deal, super pumped.
And then I'll be in Florida with the family,
I will be mainly off the grid.
So I'll make my Jets football predictions
for the last three weeks, right here, right now.
The prediction is: heartache.
I feel the Jets are gonna end up really strong,
but I'm very worried about the Steelers and the Chiefs
running the table.
And when you win double-digit games,
and you don't make the playoffs, that's heartache.
I don't know if you guys know that,
but that's heartache to me.
That's the ultimate heartache.
So, I wanna take a moment before we go into the show
to thank all of you for this year.
It's been a tremendous year.
We put out a lot of shows, as a matter of fact
- [India] We have a recap going out today.
- Oh we have a recap?
- [India] Of the year, yeah.
- We do? - [India] We do.
- Oh it's an edited recap?
- [India] No, like, the article.
- It's an article, that thing we did, yep.
So we'll have that later, look for that.
And we got a lot of done.
Wrote the book, got a new website,
started the DailyVee.
Grew the team, grew Vayner.
It was a great, great year.
Most importantly, everybody was healthy,
and for the most part happy, I'm always happy.
And I just want to thank all of you for your attention,
which I think is extremely valuable.
Time is the asset, so for you to watch this show,
listen to this show, allocate your very valuable resource
of time to care about what I have to say about things
is greatly appreciated.
And so, I wish you a healthy, healthy, healthy new year,
and a great 2016, and we will be coming back with fire,
two to three DailyVee's a week in 2016.
So that should be an interesting thing to see evolve.
And India, for the last time in 2015.
Do you get sentimental?
- Yeah, I'm very nostalgic. - Shall we hold hands?
It's not weird, we'll do it like bros, like yeah, see?
I'm not doing like, you know, weird.
Yeah, like, bros. - Yeah, OK, yeah, bros.
- Let's - Get into
- The show! - The show!
- See that was good. - That was really good.
- The second we bro-ed up, that was probably out best one.
- [India] That's the first time we've actually, like,
synched up, like perfectly.
- Yeah it's the first time, yeah, see?
The bro part, I'm telling you.
Tim, this is why I do this a lot.
I don't know if you know, I do this a lot.
Exchanging energy amongst humans,
I think is a grossly underestimated thing.
- Really?
I actually wanted a hug.
- Oh, no problem brother.
You don't know this, I've never really said this,
but you're transformation physically
was definitely a chipping away point for me.
I'm very proud of you, yeah.
- I was like, you look amazing though.
- Thank you. - Just saying.
- Thank you, well tell the Vayner Nation who you are,
and a little bit about yourself.
- OK, oh wow, so I'm Tim Ramos.
I started working at Vayner probably in June 2012,
when I graduated from college,
and I've been here since, I love it.
- (laughs) What else do you love?
- Like work-wise?
- No like walks on the beach, puppies, the New York Jets.
- I love myself.
- Yes.
That is, you know what, that just recaps
the show's entire existence, good job buddy.
Alright, let's get into this.
- [India] From the real Kim Barrett.
- The real Kim Barrett?
OK, because there's a lot of Kim Barretts out there.
Alright.
- [Voicover] Kim asks, "How do you deal
"with employees that slack off, but are super talented?
"Keep or fire?"
- Mmmm.
I deal with them the same way I deal with
any kind of employee.
Super hard worker, but maybe slightly under-talented.
In between on both fronts.
Every situation in life, let alone employees,
only can be solved when you believe there's issues,
and you have the luxury and the responsibility.
And let me say that one more time,
when you have the luxury and the responsibility
of being the judge and the jury.
The pressure and the onus is on you.
I truly, truly, truly believe that if there's an employee
at Vayner Media, and there are some, plenty,
no, not plenty, that's not fair,
there are some that are highly talented
and are under-performing, that it's my fault.
We haven't created the infrastructure
for allowing them to shine.
Their bosses are not clicking with them,
and so that's not motivating them.
We haven't asked the right questions
of the kind of interests they have.
We serendipitously, you know, the serendipity
of what accounts they've been on.
Tim how many different accounts have you been on
in your career?
- Oh gosh, at least twelve.
- And of those twelve, I would assume
that some are more exciting than others?
- Oh yeah, definitely.
- Yeah, and that's just real, right?
There's so much serendipity, different bosses that you get,
people move around, team mates, things of that nature.
And so, you know, I think the way I deal with it
is communication.
You know, I have a full slate today,
it's the last kind of in-the-office day,
I have a lot of meetings I'm trying to get in.
10, five, 10, 10, five, 10 minute meetings.
And a lot of the conversation will be around that.
And so I think it's communication.
You know, it's like, hey, Rick,
you know I think you've got talent oozing out of your eyes,
you're clearly not delivering on the hustle,
which is an important variable here.
What am I doing wrong?
What is Vayner doing wrong?
Instead of saying, Rick, you're lazy, you suck.
You have to put the onus on you.
When you're a leader, when you're a CEO,
when you're the organization, it's on you.
You're creating the rules of the game.
If you don't like how it's played, change it.
You like that one?
Took that in.
- I did.
I'm always listening.
- I know.
- [India] From Lancelot.
(laughs)
I think that's DOA.
- That made me think of Hamilton.
- [India] (laughs) Oh yeah.
- Great.
- [Voiceover] Lancelot asks,
"If you had an opportunity to buy Instagram or Snapchat,
"which one would you choose and why?"
- Mmm, I sent you this one,
because this one was challenging to me.
I mean, look, these are the two social networks.
They are the two platforms that live within a mobile device
that people are giving their attention to.
Actually let's go round the room real quick.
Tim, Instagram or Snapchat, what do you like better?
You gotta pick one, one has to go away.
- Probably Instagram, because I wanna see myself forever.
- Alright, Tim clearly establishing
on the show it's all about Tim.
Britt?
- Instagram, hands down.
- Instagram, I like Instagram.
- Yeah, so for me, I would probably buy Snapchat.
And here's why, because of those answers.
I truly believe that Instagram is the social network
of the moment.
When I buy things, I like to buy for 24, 36,
48 months out, when I invest.
The way I built Vayner Media, we were selling
social media in 2009 and 10, you remember this,
like, people didn't want to buy this
as much as they want to buy it now.
I like projecting.
Plus there's one other thing about Snapchat
that makes me give this answer.
Snapchat is a, I think that Instagram
was a moving the ball forward
in a Facebook, Twitter world.
I think Snapchat is a complete different paradigm shift.
If it's a completely different way to communicate.
It's got different functionality.
30 to 40 year olds that have never used it
are completely confused by it.
I'm fascinated by that,
that also feels to me like there's a lot of upside.
I think a lot of 30, 40, 50 year olds
understand how to use Instagram.
It's very native, it's basically like Facebook,
boom, they're there, that's good.
That's the vulnerability of Snapchat,
but I also think that's the upside.
If explained properly,
which I think Twitter never really fully accomplished,
I think Snapchat becomes a beast.
For me, watching the behavior,
Snapchat is chipping away on a daily basis.
And only because of the way I like to buy businesses,
which is, what do I think is the number one play,
24, 36 months from now?
It's Snapchat.
That being said, I'm hedging against that,
I'm not sold that Snapchat is the biggest social network
24, 36 months from now, because I do believe
the Facebook, Instagram, you know, WhatsApp,
you know, Facebook Messenger monster
is in its early stages.
I am as bullish on Facebook as I've ever been.
And so that's my answer, that's my rationale.
- [Voiceover] Amanda asks, "Do you use a meal prep service?
"What do you think the future of services like that is?"
- I do not use a meal prep service, I use Mike.
Tells me what to eat.
But I think those are great,
I think, look, I think everybody will have
everything they want within two to three hours,
and that will get chipped away over time.
I do believe in 20 years, most people
will be able to have what they want
within a five minute to one hour window.
I mean, the on-demand, at scale
hyper growth is here, and so I think,
farm to table capability,
I think India will be able to eat radishes
from a farm in upstate New York,
as quickly as somebody could literally be like,
OK, I'm getting the radishes for India.
Like I really think that infrastructure's gonna be here.
I don't think people really project technology well.
Meaning, in 20 years from today,
so many of your jobs will be obsolete.
So much technology will eat up
the jobs that so many people do,
at a minimum wage, or lower income,
that a lot of those same jobs,
in the same way that a lot of Uber drivers today
used to do something else
that's been replaced by technology,
when they were making 48,000 a year,
but now as an Uber driver they're making
92,000 a year.
So everyone's like, oh, this is so bad,
we're gonna put, you know, these developers
out of business, or film developers out of business,
or whatever it may be.
Yes, but then all sorts of things get created that are new.
Too many people are just so half glass full.
Too many people are so doomsday, like,
when India wants her goddamn radishes right now,
farm to table, in the office, instead of going to Seamless,
and waiting 30 minutes for whatever she's getting,
she'll literally, Hudson farms are not that far from here,
literally within an hour,
she can have, like, plucked out and on her plate.
And she's gonna want that.
And she's gonna pay a premium for that.
She'll pay four dollars for those radishes
instead of 87 cents, because they're organic
and biodynamic and (speaking nonsense)
whatever new term, like, hand to hand,
like, whatever it is, that's why.
So the future of food services is gonna be good.
- [India] (laughs)
- We're gonna eat healthier, we're gonna pay more for it,
it's gonna come to us faster, we'll have more choices,
it'll be more convenient.
We'll get to spend more of our time on our lives,
with people and other things we care about.
Not the process of shopping for food or ordering food.
- [India] Nice. - Thank you.
- [India] Matthew.
- There was a lot of stuff in that question
I'm curious how many people picked it up.
It's a challenge.
- [India] Interesting. - Yeah.
- [India] Daily challenge.
- It's not a daily challenge India, but keep going.
- [Voiceover] Matthew asks, "Do you think custom apps
"are now, or are becoming, more crucial to businesses?"
- Custom apps?
- [India] Custom apps.
- I'm not sure what that means, help me.
- [India] I guess, what he's meaning is, like
a business wants to make an app, like just for them.
Like maybe a restaurant.
- Like a VaynerMedia app?
- [India] Yeah. - Got it.
OK, understood, and so what is the question?
- [India] If they're becoming more crucial
and valuable to businesses.
- This is always a hardcore debate for me.
Look, the answer is, if you're a business today,
going through the next half-decade,
2016 through 2020, and you have the chops
to build an incredible app that people will use,
like, OK, yes.
My belief is that that's far and few between
for even the Fortune 500 companies, let alone
Rick's Lobster Roll stand in St Louis, Missouri, right?
So I think the answer's yes, but the commitment
and dollar amount and energy
that needs to be deployed to building a consumer app
that actually brings value to individuals
is very, very, very difficult.
I mean, even things that are hardcore utilities,
like banking apps, like,
are doing well, but, you know,
not as well as if you really think about it,
just hard, it's really, really hard.
So I would say, for the 97% that are watching here,
I would not recommend building an app for your business.
Because I just don't think you'll build,
you won't be able to have the right ratio
of the cost of it,
yeah, it's kind of like, you know what,
it's kind of like web dot com 1996, 95, 97, 98,
I was there, a lot of people spent
50, 100,000 dollars on building their website,
that their website didn't bring them any value,
because they didn't make a good enough website,
there wasn't enough demand for their website.
I know it's happening now, and I can see it getting worse
in the small, mid-sized business world of building apps.
- [Voiceover] Ari asks, do you think it's necessary
to learn the rules before you can break them?
- That's a really good question.
I think the answer is no.
But I think you do need to pick up the rules
as you go, in the beginning, to then break them.
I think it's OK to break the rules with naiveté,
and I think, I'm thinking about VaynerMedia,
I didn't know anything about the rules of the agency world.
And I was breaking them without knowing
that I was breaking them, and then as I picked them up,
for the last four years, I continued to break
the ones that I wanted to break,
and I also learned quite a bit from the first 18 months
when I didn't know.
If I knew the rules when I first started VaynerMedia,
I don't think that we would have innovated
just as much as we actually did.
So in a weird way, I would actually say
knowing the rules up front,
same thing with the wine business, and dot com,
I'm actually gonna go with a different way.
I often talk about naive eyes, not knowing anything.
I think the really great pattern is not knowing
but then I respect the game,
I respect the advertising industry,
I don't just say, oh, we do it better.
I watch, I learn, I pay attention.
And so it's fresh, naive eyes up front.
Don't know the rules, break them
because you don't even know you're breaking them.
And then, as you mature into year two, three,
four, five, six, into your journey,
start picking up the rules,
and then continue to break the ones
that you think are worth breaking.
Especially because what you learn in the first 18 months
of not knowing the rules
will allow you to make really smart decisions
of which rules to break, over months 19 through 72.
Mmm. - [India] Mm-hmm.
- Some people are just smart.
I happen to be one of them.
- [India] (laughs)
- (laughs) Luck of the draw, I don't take too much credit.
Just mom and dad had sex at the right moment India.
And that's what it was.
- [India] That's your favorite thing to say.
- It's really my favorite, you know why?
'Cause it's true. - [India] (laughs)
- India, if your mom was like, not tonight honey,
you would not exist.
- [India] It's true.
- That's wild ass shit.
- [India] Yeah!
- Anyway. - [India] It's crazy.
- We do not love our parents enough.
Like, I love my parents the most, still not enough.
Literally, life.
Like, literally, I'm a tree instead.
- [India] Yeah.
- And I hate trees.
- [India] Really?
- Mmm. - [India] And mountains?
- (laughs) I literally hate everything but humans.
- [India] (laughs) Social media?
- Yeah.
- [India] Is humans though, in a way.
- Mmmm (laughs) OK?
What's the bonus question?
Before I get myself in trouble.
Everyone's gonna be like, pets?
Yes, pets, I just like humans, sorry.
- [India] (laughs) - I mean, Jesus.
- [India] Have you had a pet?
- Yes!
A German shepherd named Tyson, after Mike Tyson.
I love them, but I love people more.
I'm like, sorry.
- [India] A German shepherd, that's awesome.
- Yeah, it's cool.
- [Voiceover] Tim asks, "With all the money and time
"you spend on travel and face to face meetings,
"how much of that could be effectively accomplished
"with high quality digital meetings?"
- Some.
I bet you 30% of the things I travel for
would have been just fine on Skype.
The problem is the other 70% is too valuable,
and I'm doing my best to navigate and make judgement calls,
but I'm a human and I'm flawed.
So, that's the answer.
- [India] Wow. - Yeah.
That came out weird. (laughs)
- [India] I'm as flawed as you.
- Oh you don't think that I'd ever say that I'm flawed?
- [India] No no, you do say,
it's just like, this is the end of the year
and the episodes, it's an interesting way to end.
- It's an ironic way to end.
I hope you have the best, best, best Christmas,
for everybody who enjoyed Hanukkah like myself,
I hope you enjoy that.
New Year's for everybody.
And i can't wait to get going in 2016.
Enjoy the downtime, get your sleep,
get your family time, put your hustle on,
if that's what you're into.
I just hope the next 12, 13 days are just remarkable.
It's a great, great time of year.
I like that, I always feel like
these are the two weeks where people can really do
what they want, regardless of what they wanna do.
Just 'cause the world kind of accepts, like,
OK, we're all gonna do our thing.
I like that, I like that a lot.
Thank you for watching.
Question of the day: what are you doing for New Year's?
And, actually, you know what, that's crap, that's out.
Question of the day.
I want your 2015 #AskGaryVee Show recap.
I need something to read (laughs)
while I'm on vacation.
So I'll really get in there, I need hardcore stuff.
I'm telling you right now, like,
"it was good", I might block you, with your IP address,
you may never be able to watch the show.
I don't need that, that's a half-assed thing
for a show that's been free for all year,
and all the work that India's put in.
So I need your recap, your 2015 recap,
of the #AskGaryVee Show.
You keep asking questions.
We'll keep answering them.