- What I really hope, and I felt that listening
to those two incredible leaders in our company,
is we've got a real, we've got a real fuckin' shot.
(bouncy rock music)
Good morning, vlog.
Hey Iris. - Hey!
- I can go this way 'cause
I don't know about the light. - Sure.
- Vlog, I've had an epiphany
and I want to share it with you.
I've been thinking a lot about something
which is the way I think about business
and this is gonna help a lot of you which excites me.
And I miss you guys.
It's been a whole lot of hodge-podge recalls
and all that, obviously with the holidays and everything
so it's good to be back.
There's two ways to sell a product.
There's branding and marketing, and there's sales,
and all of you jump into one or two buckets, right?
Like you really understand the long marathon
of building a brand.
It's a lot about influencers, awareness, its content,
and then a lot of you are really great math kids,
and it's like Amazon affiliates and Google
and quant-based math like CAC, LTV.
CAC: Customer Acquisitions Costs.
LTV: Lifetime Value.
Math kids, art kids.
Anthropology kids, quant kids.
And that's how I think about business.
And then I realized, holy shit,
that is what is going on with me and content.
A lot of people producing content
for a short-term ROI, right?
They do a vlog 'cause they wanna sell something,
whether it's merchandise or eBooks
or things of that nature
and everybody wants to sell
and I wanna sell my legacy.
I want reputation.
I want, you know, a lot of the dirty stuff I do,
meeting with you one-on-one,
DM'ing you, it's not ROI positive.
I get a lot of accolades,
like Gary replied, Gary cares, Gary called me,
Gary gave me a chance, Gary met with me.
And I realize my behavior there
is because my north star is legacy.
Reputation.
What do you say behind my back?
A lot of you first get a hold of me
and you're like, I don't know about this guy.
And I win in the long-term over and over and over again
because intent and the truth always win
and my intent and my truth is I'm going for legacy.
Like, the money's gonna come along like,
you know, there's a big, interesting thing about me:
I made my family a lot of money.
I always knew how to make money.
Vayner Media was a foregone conclusion.
This is a 150-175 million dollar holding company now
with Purewow and Vayner Media, Vayner X.
Vayner Sports is a foregone conclusion.
That company will make money.
It's gonna do that by legacy.
We're gonna take care of our kids better.
Which is gonna cost us money in the short-term.
I'm holding my breath.
I'm not worried about money in the short-term
and so I'm acting in my content in the intent of legacy
and that is how I'm filtering things
and that's how I'm looking at what you're doing.
Are you looking for long-term legacy and brand,
which then will bring you dollars?
Or are you looking for dollars in the short-term?
Do you love the process of building that brand
or do you hate it and you're just working for the dollar?
And it's just this very obvious thing now
and I never put it really deeply
into the content part of what I'm doing.
Because content, a lot of times,
is always been about branding,
but I've realized as I've analyzed a lot of you
is your content is actually sales content.
Like, you don't really care about what you're putting out.
You don't really care.
It's being done for something in return in the short-term
and I think that's a huge fucking mistake.
And so when I say, "Close your eyes until you're 29."
Like I did the other day, or 39 or 49
or when I say, "You're 44, you have time."
It's because I believe it.
I believe that you're 44 years old,
you are not happy with your job or things of that nature
and I just genuinely, you know it's so crazy.
Like, I'm looking at this like...
I wrote this.
This came out in 2009, I think, right?
And I wrote it in 2008, so I wrote it 10 years ago.
It's a small, little fuckin' book,
and obviously I'm writing the follow-up now,
but it's the punchline, man.
If you do the right thing,
over what I think is a long-term to a lot of you,
five, six years, you'll win.
You'll win.
And so, live your life in a way,
put yourself in a position where you don't need money.
Meaning, you don't need stuff, right?
Or even if you have debt, or it sucks right now,
put yourself into a cocoon and say,
"It doesn't matter.
"It's gonna suck for another 36 months
"and then it's gonna get better."
These short-term moves are just...
Everybody is just, like, trying to close on the first move.
And it never works.
Not in the long-term.
Negativity and tactics win in the short-term.
Positivity and merit and the stake win in the long-term.
And there's confusion in the system
and I will systematically, for the rest of my life,
try to unwind it and get people un-fucking confused.
- [Iris] I feel that.
- Cool.
- [Iris] I need to hear that, too, for my own self.
- It's true, right? - Yeah, It's so true.
Even for my content that I'm creating--
- Hold on, hold on, this is what the vlog's about.
- Okay. - Great.
So, we're still rolling.
- What's up?
- [Gary] Go ahead, Iris, what do you say?
Why were you just saying that?
- There you go. - Thank you.
- [Gary] Not that I know what to do with this shit.
- My YouTube stuff I make personally.
- [Gary] I'm aware.
- Just like, thinking about...
Even the titles, for example, on my channel.
just creating things that are really true to you, that's--
- Instead of-- - Makes you feel better, too.
- [Gary] So you're saying, I'm gonna title something.
- Like yesterday, for example. - Please.
- I made a video for my own channel--
- [Gary] Yes.
- And it didn't feel right, 'cause like--
- [Gary] 'Cause you felt like you were doing it
to grow your channel.
- Yeah, exactly. - Yeah.
- So I changed it right there. - Yeah!
- And I just made something that I just felt right
and I just felt so much better and you just,
I realized just being with you is about creating content
that is true to you that you want to share with the world.
- [Gary] Right, so you see me always pushing down
on these characters when they're trying,
like D-Rock, especially, is bad at this.
He's always trying to do things to win YouTube
because he wants to win YouTube,
and I'm always like, "Fuck you."
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- [Gary] Fuck you, D-Rock.
Hold on, hold on, let me just get it.
Now, look, now hold on.
Fuck, how do you guys do this?
Okay, good, hold on.
Don't worry, Iris, I got it.
I'll figure it out. - Alright.
- [Gary] Fuck you, D-Rock.
Bobby Babin, you liked that, huh?
- It's so great, yeah.
- [Gary] Is that your favorite?
- Basically.
- [Gary] Did you also learn that when you do the true thing
and the right thing, that content will always do better?
Not like, the hack or the thing?
D-Rock always wants to do the hack for YouTube, right?
- It's just being honest.
- [Gary] Seth, you agree, D-Rock is weird with YouTube.
- Always trying to hack it. - Yeah.
D-Rock, why are you always trying to hack YouTube?
- I'm just trying to make the best content possible.
- [Gary] Do you believe that?
- Yeah.
- [Gary] Alex, do you believe that?
- (laughs) No.
(group laughing)
("Over and Over" by Sample and Hold)
- Vlog, this is the most important part
where Tyler and I make sure everything happens
that needs to happen.
- Gary, what's up? - What's up, man, how are you?
- How's it going? - Such a pleasure, come on in.
This gives me energy.
This gives me the energy that I need.
(slow electronic groove music)
I think they all know it's true.
(slow electronic groove music)
Going to a meeting.
(slow electronic groove music)
Are we gonna be really late?
- Yeah. - Fuck.
Av, any way you can fly real quick?
Like, can you hit that button?
I know that there's other people in the room here now
and it's weird to show them that feature, but.
(laughing)
Ugh, I hate being late more than anything.
(slow techno groove music)
Vlog, what's up?
Back in the car, been running late all day.
Heading out to LA today on business
and have a company-wide all hands on meeting coming up
to go through some of the nuances of the business.
And so, stressed out a little bit.
Got a new pod sessions.
If you're not listening to podcasts
you're making a huge mistake
and this new concept, Pod Sessions, kinda like taking off
the jam sessions that me and my homies did
in the early days of Web 2.0.
Grabbing three people from random different backgrounds,
putting them together, putting them on the podcast,
and shooting the shit, so I'm excited about
doing that first one today.
Introduce you to three new people
and just got done with a meeting with a client,
sitting in this traffic with Av.
Av, what's the ETA now?
- [Av] It's saying 21 minutes now.
- Fuck!
That's bad.
That was 18 minutes five minutes ago,
so something bad happened.
Running late to meetings is literally
the worst feeling I have.
("Lagoon" by J.A.K.)
Can this room kinda do me a favor and just spread out
and get everybody 'cause I'm coming?
Good afternoon, Vayner Media.
Thank you so much, I'm sorry I'm a little bit late.
First and foremost, I want to wish everybody
a healthy and happy 2018 and hope everyone enjoyed
their time off.
It seems like a million years ago, I'm sure, for all of you.
I've seen the hustle in every avenue.
The things that we are focused on, as an organization,
are clearly resonating with the marketplace.
I think a lot of what the second bullet's about,
the way I think about our continued obsession
of long form video or video, not even necessarily long form,
for mobile devices or people are paying attention to
are enormous momentum around voice and what is going on
in Alexa Google home environment.
I think what I'm most proud of
is Vayner Media obviously is pigeonholed
still with many people as a social media shop,
because any client service company in the world,
in any sector, is pigeonholed often
into the services they provide early on.
There's just a lot of good going on,
and as I look at the macro issues and opportunities at hand
for the biggest brands in the world,
I think we will be on right side of history.
I'd love to hear a massive clap for two of the most
essential parts of our company.
(applauding and cheering)
Justine and Andrea.
- I'm so excited to be here
and I think Justine and I both want to share
a little bit about why we joined your organization
and what we're up to.
So, Justine, you're going to kick it off.
- So I'll just call out from the get-go, I am Australian.
(audience laughing)
I joined six months ago and it has been a wild ride,
and I've loved every minute of it.
It very much came across to me that Vayner's at this
incredible inflection point.
For all of the sixth sense that you've had
in the last eight years,
it's like this bubbling energy of what's come next.
And we're getting asked to go and speak to clients
about being their AOR.
And that's a pretty epic feat
for a company not only of this size
but also this young in its genesis
And I think that opportunity is something
I'm really excited about
'cause I know that strategy can help.
So, thank you all for the warm welcome.
I'm looking forward to getting to know you.
(audience applauding)
- So, I'm one of the proud members of the inaugural group
that took class of 2018.
(whistling)
Give it up for the, we've got like 10 of us out there.
(cheering and applauding)
I know more about them
than I do about some of my family members.
(laughing)
Hopefully some of that is kept in confidence.
I'm so fired up to be here
and I love the program that the People Experience team
have delivered so far
and I have to say, I came into this organization
with really high expectations
and if the past 10 days are anything like
what the experience is gonna be going forward,
having not only spent a little time in here
but being out in CES where we were interacting with
some of the top CEOs in the world,
we are so positioned in the right time
for what the industry needs.
And it's our provocative point of view
combined with the energy of our people
that is gonna just nail it.
To echo what everyone is saying in terms of open door,
I'm gonna try to ledger it up just one more notch.
I'm gonna put candy in my office.
(laughing)
I am just down the road from Justine
and in between Steve and Justine,
but, please, so many of you have reached out
and it means the world to me.
Hope you guys are ready, buckle up, for 2018.
I guess Gary might have your two more minutes.
- Yeah, cool.
(applauding)
The candy thing made me feel like I wanna one up it, so.
(laughing)
Going forward, I have free cash
(laughing) in my office
so hopefully you guys will take me up
on the open door policy.
(laughing)
- [Employee] How much?
- A lot!
(laughing)
Look, you know,
this is super interesting because, for me,
so much of what has brought me happiness in my life,
personally and professionally,
has been predicated on whether it's intuition
or pattern recognition,
it's having a good sense of what's about to happen
and then building towards it.
You know, what I really hope, and I felt
listening to those two incredible leaders in our company,
is we've got a real fuckin' shot.
Yeah, that's a good way to end.
I love you, guys.
(applauding)
Have a good day.
Hit me up.
Hey Vlog, just did a great talk to the whole company.
I love them very much,
Bobby Glen in the house,
Hussein that was a big shout out for you.
- Dude, we did it, I know, thanks.
- Brit.
Headed to LA, good day.
We got that rant earlier today,
you'll take some pieces from this.
You'll use somebody to help you edit it properly.
See ya later, blog.
(relaxing groove music)