- On this episode, we talk about Instagram and museums,
auditing yourself and finding out you're a two or a three,
and I ask myself a question.
(hip hop music)
You ask questions,
and I answer them.
This is
The #AskGaryVee Show.
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is episode 107
of The #AskGaryVee Show.
Hope everyone's super well.
Feeling a really strong groove today.
Very intense business day.
Tight, strong, epic meetings.
Feeling like I'm moving the VaynerMedia machine 500,
VaynerMedia employees deep in the right direction.
Vayner/RSE, the fund, having some good meetings.
Feeling really, feeling really businessman like today,
which should pretty much make for a very good show.
Hope everyone in the VaynerNation is doing super well.
Big ups to all of you.
Appreciate all of you.
And India, let's
get into the show.
- [Voiceover] Colton asks, "Gary Vee is all about being
"one step ahead of the game.
"What are your social media plans for 2016?"
- Colton, my plans for 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, two, three, four, 35,
six, 37, 38, 39, 40, and beyond.
I went further than you guys thought.
- [Staphon] Yeah.
(laughs)
- My plans for all those years are the same thing
which is, my friend, and everybody in VaynerNation,
I don't know what my 2016 social media or business
or brand building plans are because I,
for the billionth time on this show, Colton,
am a counterpuncher.
I react to the opportunities in front of me at that moment.
January 2016, six months from today,
is an eternity in the game.
Microsoft is buying up stuff,
SnapChat is growing by the second,
Instagram's ad product could be incredible
if it gets deeper and more detailed
like its Facebook father company.
Facebook continues to be much stronger than people think.
Twitter's video product evolves.
Influencers, especially long tail,
call it 1000 to 100 thousand people following them,
continues to be an interesting arbitrage.
Where's the white space?
Where do all of you, all of you,
think that you should be doing this,
and where should it be Y, right?
This is X, and I'm always in Y.
So my 2016 plans are to play more Y, right?
Ya know, play in the white space.
Find the arbitrage.
Market where people actually are.
I didn't know podcasts would become interesting again.
I didn't know that SnapChat, well I did,
but like maybe three years ago I didn't know that
SnapChat would get older.
I didn't know that Periscope and Meerkat would be invented.
They didn't even exist six months ago.
I mean, Periscope did.
It was bought by Twitter, but then brought internally.
These things didn't, in theory, exist six months ago.
These are things we talk about.
There are people in the VaynerNation that have used them
to grow their audience,
like I don't think people understand...
As a matter of fact, you know what?
Real time, right now, because I'm continuing to test.
We're going in a little bit different direction, Staphon.
I'm going to bring up Periscope.
We're gonna Periscope right now instead of Meerkat.
Let's just see.
Let's just see, right?
Ask, here we go, ask,
this is real time shit.
#AskGaryVee.
No, didn't wanna do that.
Good, #AskGaryVee behind.
Hey everyone, good to see ya.
Thanks for tuning in.
There we go, like...
I don't know if I can actually
stop the broadcast for a second.
Nate just did?
Nate?
I like that.
OK, it is on.
OK, good.
So, #AskGaryVee behind...
There's a whole lot of gray.
Sorry guys, I hope you enjoyed yourself for a quick second.
Boom, this is D. Rockefeller.
Here we go.
- [India] That's awesome.
- You haven't heard me say that before?
That's what I always say all the time.
D. Rockefeller.
What's that?
Yeah, you like that, right?
Right, there's India.
Got a lot of hearts.
Yes, here we go, alright.
So, my friend, to wrap up this long ass question,
I'm not sure, but I'm gonna react.
Just like right now, I had a feeling
that I wanted to Periscope, and that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna react to the opportunities in front of me,
and that's why I don't plan too far ahead.
You know what my plan is?
My plan is to play in the white space,
the underpriced arbitrage of the consumer's attention
and the places where I think uniquely you can storytell
that brings value to those people
for the moments in time where they matter.
E-comm, search, banner, YouTube, Twitter,
ya know, the narrative of my entire life.
- [Voiceover] Reg asks, "What the hell are people thinking
"when they write essays in their Instagram captions?
"We're here to look at pictures, not read endless shit."
- Reg, don't say we.
Say I.
You are here to just see pictures.
Plenty of people like Humans of New York,
like all these things.
People like the long-form written context around a photo.
Reg, you can continue to just go through the photos,
and you should, and do you, and I appreciate that,
and 90% of the people are down for that as well,
but I see an emerging opportunity for people
to write long-form copy on top of photos on Instagram.
India, do you ever find yourself reading something
that's more than a sentence?
Let's get over,
DRock, you're not showing India's, you're not gonna.
Do you find yourself reading more,
have you ever read two sentences on Instagram?
- Yeah, oh yeah.
- How about three?
Give me three.
- Like, five, six.
- [Both] Yeah.
- Seven?
- Yeah, some accounts, ya know, that's what they do great.
They're good at storytelling,
and they tell the story in the captions--
- And do you like it?
- Yeah, I really like it.
- See Reg?
There's no we.
There's you.
You don't want to read, but India,
and platforms evolve.
Like, that's just the way it is, right?
And so, the answer to your question is
people are gonna do their thing,
and you should say I next time instead of we.
(giggles)
That's just the truth.
- [Staphon] Cold.
- What's goin' on,
what's goin' on on the Scope?
- [Staphon] People like tryin' to add on, and things like,
"Oh Gary! Hello Gary!"
- Hey guys!
#AskGaryVee Show, as a matter of fact
this would be interesting.
Let's get a little survey,
Staphon you'll tell me after the next question.
How many of you on the Scope right now
are watching The #AskGaryVee Show?
That means you're watching at least
two out of every three episodes.
That would be considered watching.
Give me a yes, no in the comments there.
Alright, India?
You gettin' some answers there?
- [Staphon] Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no,
yes, yes, no, no--
- Staphon, make sure you capture all the no's.
(smack)
- [Voiceover] Coline asks, "What happens to museums
"when their main point of contact with their audience
"is online platforms?
"Is Instagram the museum of tomorrow?"
- Coline, it's not that Instagram's the museum of tomorrow
or any photo app that is around,
I mean obviously Facebook and Twitter,
but obviously Instagram's winning in the current state.
In the future, there may be others.
I don't think they replace it,
but because at some level, going and touching and feeling it
is still a value prop that a museum delivers, right?
I mean, photos of these paintings have been around forever.
There was a point in time where Life magazine,
if it covered a museum, would be that same replication
because everybody read Life magazine in the entire country
back in the heydays of print in the 50s and 60s and 70s,
and so I don't think they replaced them.
Not at all, as a matter of fact.
I mean, as a matter of fact, I think they enhance them.
I would argue that there are more people on the bubble
of going to a museum that are now going to museums
because they see a great photo on the Gram,
and it creates a consideration point.
So I actually think museums need to go on the offense
on places like Instagram and use them as gateway drugs
to get visitors to come to the museum,
and I highly recommend those museums
show a little personality besides
just a photo of the damn thing
'cause we've seen the damn thing, right?
Show a little of the personality
of the people that are working there,
or the little unique things that make that place special,
or like I don't know, like the gold faucets in the bathroom,
like give me some goddamn reason
besides the artifact, museum.
- Hey Gary.
So I audited myself, and I'm taking in serious consideration
that I just might be a two or a three.
My question is, man, is if I am,
do I need to go get my college degree?
Like what, how do I put myself in that position?
Because I really don't know how to,
I only know how to make doors.
I don't know how to walk through them,
if you know what I mean, and ya know
I'm all EQ and no IQ, so if I have to go get my degree,
that's gonna suck.
- Charlie, great question.
I'm super into this.
I think if you've audited yourself
and you feel like, ya know,
you need to have, you need to attach yourself
to a leader, a CEO, a number one, a founder,
and you can be a supporting cast member
because I guess making doors not walking through them
maybe you, I don't know,
but maybe you understand the tangible execution,
not the architecture.
Maybe you're the greatest mason in the world,
and you need just a really solid architect to be successful.
I would say it has nothing to do with getting a diploma.
It has everything to do with
if you've been auditing yourself,
and you started with, "I've audited myself,"
which I appreciate, and you know,
for anybody who's watching this
who doesn't understand auditing themselves
and I'm a number two or three,
these are themes that I've been talking about
in the first 105, 106 episodes of the show
which is if you know yourself, you have self-awareness,
you have a real chance to succeed.
I would tell you, Charlie, that you don't need
to get a degree unless you wanna go latch up
to a number one that values that degree,
and the truth is you've already lost that game
because if that number one values it,
they're gonna wanna go with somebody who's got a degree
from clearly, in my opinion, based on the vibe of the video,
comes from a better school than you would go to.
Take it from me, I mean Mount Ida College isn't like
rolling up any like unbelievable excitement
for anybody who's an educator.
And so I would tell you your journey,
your focus should be finding a number one
who shares your DNA and philosophy.
You guys can be similar, and she could just be an architect
and an incredibly strong leader,
where you could be that support system.
So find her, find him, find the number one
that is the match to you.
Not find the number one that you clearly think
society has created.
To me, more number ones actually look like you on paper,
so I actually think you'll be able to find that.
I think number twos, when they're not the straight man
or the straight woman, when there's still also
a little bit of magic, a little EQ over IQ,
make great number twos.
I still think one and two in that play is great.
I think three, four, five, six, somewhere along the line,
you need that straight, really straight person,
and so your job is to really go out
and find that person.
Find that number one that matches your skill set,
that matches your philosophy, that you can really jam with.
Find your number one.
You like that?
I've got a spin.
I've got a spin for episode 107.
And here's how we're gonna do it.
I'm gonna ask myself a question.
Hey Gary, great show.
Totally obsessed.
My favorite thing now, ahead of Game of Thrones.
Anyway, here's a question for you.
If you had a business or a blog
or a personal brand or a book,
how would you get more people to
know about you and to buy that?
How would you get results?
I guess at the end of the day, Gary, I'm asking you
how would you get results?
Thanks, love the show.
Gary, great question.
Looking great, by the way.
(giggles)
Ya know, one of the things
I haven't talked about on the show a lot,
I've talked about it a little bit,
and I saw people get value from it
in that local, small business biz to dev thing
is the gross underestimation of distribution
in a JV, joint venture environment.
There are so many of you on this show
with businesses that have locked so heavily
into social media, 'cause that's how you view me,
as the way to get distribution,
you have left some of the greatest opportunities
on the table including
if you are not hitting up the top 100 blogs in your space,
if you're selling cupcakes,
and you literally aren't spending the time to figure out
what the top 100 cupcake content sites are on the internet,
and then sending an e-mail and saying,
"Hey, I'm India from India's Cupcake Shop.
"I love reading your site, Cupcake Daily,"
This is me, typing the e-mail.
"I love reading your site, Cupcake Daily.
"I'm very passionate.
"Here's my site.
"Here's my Instagram.
"I would love to write for you once a week
"on new sprinkles concepts or on decorations that matter.
"I will give you my labor for free,
"and what you'll give me is distribution and awareness."
If you don't realize that, ya know,
it's like Kendrick Lamar.
Did anybody pay attention to what Kendrick Lamar did?
If you don't know who Kendrick Lamar is,
he's a rapper, an artist,
and he went on to a lot of other albums
as he was starting to get a little fame.
He leveraged that to get on,
and he came in trying to kill it on, like
he basically went on everybody's track
and he tried to be so much better
than the persons whose song it was
that everybody was listening be like,
"Oh shit, that guy's dope.
"Like, I'm gonna check him out."
That's what India, the cupcake lady,
wants to do on Cupcake Daily.
Oh, crap, that was such a good thought.
Let me follow that.
And so, in the earliest earliest earliest days
of me building my brand, I went on wine blogs
and wrote blog posts to contribute,
and because I had the chops, ya know,
Kendrick spits incredible lyrics,
India writes about incredible toppings,
and I talked about incredible things about wine
that people hadn't thought about,
that gave me the ammo for my work to have a positive ROI.
The truth is a lot of you don't wanna put in the work
because the output of your content
in video form, in audio form, in written form,
isn't good enough.
You just aren't good enough.
What you're selling, they're not buying,
and the quickest way to find out
is to actually go on a road show,
put in the 40 hours a day to get yourself into places
where you, why can't you e-mail all 500 people
on YouTube that have some level of audience
and ask them to be interviewed on their show?
Or to be part of it?
Why can't you?
Why can't you ask?
That, my friend Gary, is what you need to do.
If you've got something to sell,
you need to go and knock on doors, right?
Ya know, you gotta know how
to build 'em and walk through them.
You gotta knock on doors, and you've gotta ask like,
"Can I guest contribute to your world?
"Can I write a blog post?
"Can I just show up and like?"
How do I bring value to what you need
because all these people that have homes
that have audiences,
they need more content to feed them.
Content costs money, so people coming in and contributing,
it's the ultimate kind of leverage deal.
You come and you write for me for free 'cause I need it,
'cause I need to keep feeding the kids I have in the room,
and you need kids for what you're gonna do,
and that is something
that 99.999999999 of you
are absolutely not doing enough of.
Putting in the work
to get in front of audiences to be discovered.
Putting out a picture on Instagram and holding your breath
and hoping somebody's gonna see it
'cause you used a (censored) hashtag isn't enough.
Go out and take it, and that, my friend Gary,
is what you should do if you want something to happen.
Two minutes.
(sigh) What do you think about that?
- [Staphon] Gary got you riled up.
- I got my, Gary's question got me riled up.
Question of the day.
What is your parent's name?
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering.
- [India] You just want names?
- Yes, just a parent's name. (laughs)
Rick and Susan. (laughs)
Really?
Are we breaking Periscope?
- [India] I guess.
- I don't even know what (laughs)
I don't even know what that meant.
- [India] It's Charlie.
- Oh Charlie, here we go.
- [Charlie] Hey Gary, so I audited myself, and--
- (laughs) This is unbelievable.
- [Charlie] consideration that I just might be
a two or a three.
- Good job, Staphon.
- [Charlie] If I am, do I need to go get my college degree?
Like what, how do I put myself in that position?
Because I really don't know how to
I only know how to make doors,
I don't know how to walk through them.
- (laughs) I really don't.
Make doors, not walk through them.
- [Charlie] If I had to go get my degree, that's gonna suck.
- Play it again, 'cause I love it so much.
(giggles)
I weirdly, I think I need to make,
just do it again.
I think I need to, I think we need to make,
make sure everybody on Periscope sees this.
I wanna make this video go viral.
(ring spinning)
- [Charlie] If I am, do I need to go get my college degree?
- I love this question.
This is a great question, by the way.
- [Charlie] How do I put myself in that position?
Because I really don't know how to, ya know,
I only know how to make doors,
I don't know how to walk through them,
if you know what I mean.
- I think I actually get it now.
Me too, brother.
Yeah, that sucks.
I hate school, too.
Charlie, right?
- [India] Charlie.
- Charlie E.
A tour of the facility.
Gary, what's up?
Hi, Gary.
You said on new platforms that people go to and see that,
hey what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up?
What's up, what's up, what's up?
Sup, sup, sup?
Sup, sup, sup, sup, sup, sup?
Yo, yo, yo.
What?
- [India] This is like
only the first hundred people can comment.
Not too thrilled with that feature.
- Is that right?
Only the first hundred people can comment?
That's pretty crazy.
Everybody, it's good to see you.
(laughs) Spaz, I don't think I'm spazzing.
Mexico, big ups.
Holla, Jersey in the house.
I like that.
Staphon, do me a favor.
Go give them a tour.
16, 15, and 12, and bring it back.
(laughs)
Alright?
Good, let me just say something real quick.
Hey guys, so I'm gonna go back to work.
Staphon here is going to give you a tour
of 16, 15, and 12 at Vayner Media.
I hope you enjoy it.
Hope you enjoyed the show.
Hope your life is phenomenal.
Hope I get to see you one day.
See ya.
- [Staphon] Alright.
(laughs)
- [Gary] Givin' a tour.