- On this episode, I talk about box of the month club ideas,
Facebook video versus YouTube,
and how I got food poisoning this morning.
(upbeat music)
You ask questions and I answer them.
This is The #AskGaryVee Show.
What's up, everybody?
This is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is episode 81 of The #AskGaryVee Show.
Let me just say that the two week hiatus
was something that was really hardcore.
I really missed the show.
VaynerNation, thank you so much for all the tweets,
and the comments on Instagram, and the e-mails,
talking about how much you missed the show.
I want you to know, I missed you guys so much
that this morning, I had food poisoning.
Uh-huh.
And I rarely ever miss,
I mean, I'm never sick.
Like, just don't miss days
and had to miss the entire morning.
I was knocked out and DeMayo was texting me all morning
saying, "Don't come in.
"It's one of those ironic days
"where I'm here the whole day.
"They're all pretty lightweight meetings,
"we can push them to the end of the week."
And I said, "No, I've gotta come in and I've gotta do
"episode 81 of The #AskGaryVee Show,
"because people have been waiting,
"and I couldn't disappoint."
So I apologize for having my energy down
a little bit for episode 81.
But India, let's get in
to the show.
- [Voiceover] Chris asks,
"You've done two long-format web shows,
"in a world where gurus advise keeping online videos
"short and sweet.
"What gives?"
- Chris, a couple of things.
First and foremost, it's always very dangerous
to listen to the advice of online marketing gurus.
I think what gives, is very simply, something that I think
is the right advice, which is quality trumps everything.
Right?
And so, I remember in 2007, being flown out to Mountain View
in Sunnyvale by Yahoo and Google to try to figure out
what gives with Wine Library TV.
Now remember, this is eight years ago,
trying to figure out why my show was doing so well,
even though it was long.
And so the real answer was quite simple.
Quality is quality is quality.
If I'm able to put out a 15, 20 minute, 30 minute show,
and I can captivate and hold the audience,
well, then it has a chance of doing well.
If I can't, then it won't.
I mean it's not super complicated.
There are plenty of shit 14-second videos.
There are plenty of waste-of-time, never-get-off-the-ground,
one minute shows.
You will watch a three-hour Avatar, because it's good,
you will not watch a 15-second commercial
'cause it's crap.
So the length is not the variable of the quality.
As a matter of fact, to break DRock's heart,
neither is the sound, or the lighting, or the production,
it is the message, it is the message, it is the message.
I'm telling you, it's the message.
Now, DRock has come into my life
and made everything much better.
So I do respect the production more than I did
in 2006, '07 and '08.
But the truth is, for the fist pump
that he just put out behind the scenes,
the bottom line is, if he wasn't dealing with this
kind of quality, all the production he put out
still, wouldn't, matter.
- [Voiceover] Paul asks, "Can you provide insight into
"how you nurtured your public speaking chops,
"besides just hustling on stage?
"How do you prepare for a talk?
"Have you ever been nervous to speak publicly?"
- Paul, great question.
First of all, ridiculously rad picture.
DRock, show it again.
In love with the drone.
Just completely caught our attention, great job.
The truth is, I hit the stage somewhere in 2006,
for the first, first time, as somebody to listen to,
and it was instantaneous.
It was love at first sight.
I loved the stage, the stage loved me.
And so obviously, I've got a lot of practice.
Matter of fact, what I'm struggling with
more than anything right now,
is that I'm getting into such a rhythm,
I feel like I'm a stand up comic, right,
that I have my kind of talk.
And I take a lot of pride of making it eight to 15 minutes
out of an hour different based on the audience,
but I want it to be 45 minutes different.
But I'm kind of a cadence right now,
so obviously I've gotten better.
My timing has gotten down, but I've never done
anything like, it's kind of like this show, right?
Like, one of the things I love about doing Meerkat
behind the scenes now is that people can see
how little to no editing there really is.
There is no real prep.
I think my biggest secret is talk about what you know
you're good at, right?
Like, talk about stuff you know.
I try not to answer questions about foreign-policy
or currency or you know, I stay away from Bitcoin or
I don't talk about the things I don't know, right?
I can spew my opinion and at the end of the day,
this show and everything else is my opinion,
but boy, is that grounded in really strong research
and skill and practitioner DNA.
I feel like my opinion business matters because
of the execution I did to get there,
whereas my opinion on everything else, I have my opinions
on a lot of things, but they're not as grounded
and as much researched.
They're more intuitive, which is fine.
Take them for what they are, you know what opinions are.
I stick to what I know, and that helps me just scream.
I'm a good communicator by DNA,
and by staying in my comfort zone, in my lanes of expertise
and the places where I actually spend my time
honing my craft, it comes off very clean because
it's very natural because it is natural.
- [Voiceover] Kelton asks, "What would be the best way
"to sample healthy energy drinks out to 1000 people
"by the end of the year?"
- Kelton, I took this question because I want to give you
a shout out and give you exposure to my audience,
because I appreciate your hustle.
On the flip side, your question is crap.
Let me explain.
To get 1000 people to try your energy drink, I don't know,
just go to a crowded place outside and start pouring.
I would have a thousand people try my energy drink
literally within eight hours on a Saturday
by going to Central Park.
And maybe you live in some rural area,
so get your ass into a car or a train
and find a crap load of people.
Get a goddamn stand and pour to a bunch of little cups
and you'll hit your thousand in eight hours.
Shit question.
- Gary, it's magician and corporate entertainer,
David Ranalli here.
What's the deal with Facebook's video push?
Do you think they're going to become a monetized
video platform?
And what does that mean for people who are starting
a YouTube show in the coming weeks like I am?
Thanks.
- David, it means that, first of all,
to answer your question, yes,
it means for people starting YouTube shows,
they should seriously start considering starting
Facebook shows.
Now that is people that actually have money, right?
Because where Facebook video gets really valuable
is when you start spending $200 to $500 a day
targeting audiences because you can target at a level
we've never seen before.
And so you know, look, I think Facebook is a massive,
it's already a massive competitor to YouTube.
YouTube should actually be concerned
when you layer the data.
Listen, I keep yelling about this.
The data, the data.
The data that Facebook sits on top that allows you
to target against creates an ultimate machine.
And you know, I'm spending a ton of time,
I'm looking at Andy.
No I'm not, I thought that was Andy.
I'm trying to look at Andy K right now, my team,
who grows audience with me,
and Facebook video is at the top, the tippy top
of our concern.
And I think now that they're showing view count
and now that they're embedded, one of the reasons
I like using YouTube is it shows perception is reality,
how many views.
It builds brand.
Now that I can do the same thing with Facebook,
my intentions are to maybe even switch some...
If you ask me if my primary embed was Facebook video
over YouTube video six months from today
on Gary Vaynerchuk business videos, I would say yes.
Think about that.
So it's a huge, huge deal.
It also, I think, competition breeds innovation.
And so I'm excited because I think YouTube gets scared
a little bit here.
Google gets scared a little bit here,
and we'll actually see better quality innovation
come out of YouTube because they've been pretty stale
for a half decade in a lot of ways.
And I think that they're going to both push each other.
Now you've got live streaming video.
Video is king, and we're living
some of the picture revolution, right,
Instagram at the forefront.
But I think video still has a long way to go,
and we're living through it, and I just think
there's more upside, more in both categories actually.
But I think Facebook video is probably grossly
underestimated by the far majority
of this audience right now.
I think the upside is enormous.
I myself am paying a ton of attention to it.
You know what that speaks.
- [Voiceover] Michelle asks, "What's your take
"on subscription box services?"
- Michelle, first and foremost, congratulations.
That is an adorable picture.
It's really cute, and I fully expect you
and that little one to send me a version of that picture
10 years from today since I put you on the show,
and I'd like to see it.
So I'm looking forward to being surprised
and trying to recall why it's happening 10 years from today.
Big shout out to 2025.
The answer to your question, box services, look,
I wrote one of the first checks into Birchbox
and was an angel investor in BarkBox.
We're incubating a business here called Faithbox.
I'm a very big fan of the subscription box service.
I think it's the way people like to buy.
We like to buy once and forget about it.
I think they're good businesses because then,
even if we get stuff we don't want, we don't cancel
right away.
So you get an extra two to five, seven months
worth of business.
That's just the truth.
And so
I'm very bullish on them, and I think that there's
innovation to be had.
I think that the box was kind of the innovation.
All this is, is the month club, right?
It's just the basket of the month club.
So I've been thinking for a long time like,
what else can I ship it in?
Can it be like a balloon?
Like, can it be like peanutballoon.com,
where like a balloon lands and there's peanuts in it
each month?
I feel like the mechanism, the box itself
has some innovation around it.
I hope that idea spurred a thought for somebody
and they start a huge million-dollar business because of it.
I definitely think that there's a play there.
As far as upping the hustle, I would say
the birth of a new child is one of the most remarkable,
important moments of one's life.
And even though I'm 24/7, 365 hustle,
much like I talk about, getting plenty of sleep
and vacations matter.
It's what you do when you're awake.
I wouldn't overstress the first one to 10 months,
depending on your DNA.
I would really focus on laying the foundation
of a healthy relationship and lifestyle for your baby.
You've got plenty of time to pick it back up.
Unless you're a maniac like me, then I would just say,
just a little less sleep and try to prioritize your health
and vitamins and drink water and stuff like that.
Don't eat weird food that makes you throw up
for seven hours the next morning.
And that's it.
Question of the day.
Let's have India ask the question today.
I like the on the spot stuff.
Shift it quickly, don't give her time.
- Oh, I'm so terrible at this.
- [Gary] This is so rewarding.
As a matter of fact, double switcheroo,
Alex gets to ask the question of the day!
(laughs) Yes.
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck--
- [Gary] No, we'll not accept that.
Back to India, back to India, back to India.
- Have you ever had food poisoning?
That's my question.
- Jesus Christ, I'll take over.
Take a picture of your home screen on your phone right now
and tweet it to me at @GaryVee.
I want to see the apps that dominate your day.
So you know what, I failed.
Nobody asked the question of the day.
It was the dictation of the day.
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.
Wearing around her neck today, what--
- [India] Scarf.
- [Gary] That is not a scarf.
- Yeah it is, it's a circle scarf.
- [Alex] Yeah, infinity scarf. Infinity scarf.
- You just wrap it around your head.
It's a circle, it never ends.
I'm cold.
You know I'm always cold.
- I know, I'm always hot.
Tsk.
(laughter)
- [Voiceover] (mumbles)
(laughter)
- That is not the beta test Meerkat.
I'm using the actual one that's in the App Store.
- [Voiceover] All right, so we should be fine.
- So we should be fine.
But great job by
founder and CEO of Meerkat.
What's up my man?
How many peeps in there?
- [Voiceover] 339.
- Three, three, nine.
Awesome, cool!