- On this episode, I talk about advice
in social media to parents, blogging, the current state,
and changing your business's name.
(applause)
You ask questions, and I answer them.
This is The #AskGaryVee Show
(hip hop music)
Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk,
and this is episode 83 of The #AskGaryVee Show.
I'm in a fairly grumpy mood because Staphon and I
were on a basketball team that lost two runs this morning
including the second game where we were up ten, four
in a game to 15 and we lost.
So, let's do the show.
- [Voiceover] Thomas asked, "Hey Gary,
"what is the future of blogging in all this
"rented social media space?"
- You know Thomas, I think the interesting thing about blogs
and it's really fascinating for me to watch what's happening
is in 2003, four, five, six,
it was very commonplace to use the internet in a way
where you would be driving someone to your home, right?
Like, come here to consume me here.
I think what we're seeing a lot now is
I'm over here.
If you want me to know what's up,
you better learn how to speak to me here.
And so I think that what's happened is
the attention graph that I spend so much time
paying attention to is shifting,
and people's willingness to jump to some place
to consume is not down because the truth is
I believe social networks, specifically Twitter and Facebook
and Pinterest, yeah those, LinkedIn,
are really gateway drug pieces of content
to drive to this before mentioned home,
a blog, an e-commerce site,
your download page to your app.
So, I think what's changed is people understanding
they need a great skill to be a wonderful storyteller
within social networks to become a first impression
to the, ya know, it's like you have to be really good
at the bar before you get a chance to do something at home.
And I think that's the analogy that I'm looking for,
if you know what I mean.
- [Voiceover] John asked, "What are your thoughts
"on creating a successful, long term
"social media strategy for yourself or your clients?
"How long in advance do you create
"the content you roll out?"
- John, that's a good question.
I mean, I think this all comes down to
something that I call reverse engineering.
The truth is everybody's different.
You know, my vision is very long-term.
I don't know how you define long-term in your question,
but some people think long-term is three to five years.
I think long-term is until the day I die.
And so, my clients may not be as patient
when your Fortune 500 company that needs
to hit numbers each quarter, your patience
to build a three to five year plan is nonexistent.
When you're a Series C Startup company
that just raised 200 million dollars,
and you're only burning four million dollars,
you've got a lot of patience, and the idea
of building brand and having a patience game
to your execution becomes more attractive,
then we reverse engineer that.
Then it's more about branding, Instagram,
doing high-end video, long-form content
with no right hook, lot of jabbing.
If you're a startup that's gonna go out of business
in 24 weeks if you don't sell some stuff,
we're in full right hook, ya know, Facebook dark post,
SEO, SEM, influencer marketing
with calls to action to sell.
Ya know, all that stuff completely is determined based on
the client's current short-term and long-term needs,
but the truth is short-term and long-term needs
really balance based on a moment in time,
and so, ya know,
the reason I think I'm good at business is,
for all of my talking,
I am 10X at my listening skills,
and it all just comes down to listening,
and so the way we strategize is predicated on listening,
and I think the biggest challenge for so many
of the VaynerNation that's watching right now
is I don't think a lot of you, and this is,
with all due respect, this is for everybody,
I'm just picking on you 'cause I love you, tough love.
I think a lot of people aren't really sure
what they want to accomplish in a one-year window
versus a five-year window versus a ten-year window,
and their behavior doesn't map to it.
Ya know, to me I got lucky.
I just decided it's everybody shows up to my funeral,
hedge forever, build up equity, cash it in as I need it,
if I ever need it, which has allowed me to be very patient
and really has allowed me to dictate my behavior
being probably a better human being.
And in a weird way, and again, I think a lot of people
would find this funny.
In a lot of ways, I've been a pushover
as a entrepreneur
because if you would look at it in the short-term,
I'm leaving money on the table.
I'm not fighting for every cent.
I'm not trying to drill it down to the biggest advantage.
I'm not even getting mine everytime
because I'm just hedging along the way,
and so just comes down to what you're trying to accomplish.
I think the better question to this question is
how can you help someone or are you capable
of really understanding what you're trying to accomplish?
- [Voiceover] Matthew asked, "Hey Gary,
"I'm speaking to parents at a public school event
"on parenting in a social media world.
"What would you teach them?"
- Every time I get in front of parents,
they get really upset with me because my move is
to punch them directly in the mouth.
Parents are becoming their parents on an everyday basis.
I would tell them that they're fearing technology
and they're forcing their kids to spend less time on it,
which is not preparing them
for the actual world in the future.
I would tell them that they talk about
how much they hate technology and its impact on kids,
but they should look themselves in the mirror
because every time they don't wanna parent,
or the kid's crying a little bit more than they like,
they throw an iPad at them like it's a Chinese star.
I would tell them that they're full of shit and hypocrites
and should never try to build their self-esteem
through their kids' accomplishments.
If your little Ricky is the best baseball player
in the fourth grade team, that has nothing to do with you,
except it has your DNA, but like don't walk around like
you're the best player on the fourth grade team.
So, you know, I would tell them that
it's never been a better time to be a parent
because all the social networking tools
allow us to spy on our kids and know what they're doing
at a level we've never seen before.
I'm, you know, I used to think it was great
that I lived in New York, that I wouldn't have to worry
about drunk driving.
Now no parent does because
by the time their kids are of age,
Uber will be at scale.
I would tell them to stop playing defense
and stop being scared and start playing offense
and start being pumped.
- [Voiceover] Moveandbezel asked,
"We are in a nonexistent market,
"but the sharing economy is growing, and we play in there.
"What would you do to determine or come up with
"a market size?"
- Moveandbezel, you know, obviously I've jammed with you
a little bit on social.
Ya know, I guess you're asking me this question
to try to figure out how to put it into your deck
so that you can raise money.
You know, the people that are gonna give you money
are not gonna give you money on the potential market size
of the watch renting market.
They're gonna do it because, you're right, it doesn't exist.
They're gonna do it because they believe in you
as an entrepreneur hustler,
and they're gonna believe in the sharing economy,
and they're gonna think that watches are an interest graph
of end users, but ya know,
I don't think you have to come up with, ya know,
the amount of financial engineering that goes on
in startup culture and the finance world and raising capital
is really silly to me.
What you could do is you could find out
how big the AirBnB market is, then you could figure out
how big the renting market is
versus the overall watch market,
and then you could just do the math and say, "Oh OK."
There's a lot of hacking you can do,
but I think you're asking the wrong question,
and I think India, when you asked it before we did the show,
I think, wasn't there also like
"How do you market to a market that doesn't exist yet?" or something?
- [India] I think that would be interesting.
- Ya know, I do too, and I think that, ya know,
I think that I've spent a lot of time thinking about that
in general in my career,
and I dislike it when people that are started
or businesses in it are asking that question
because obviously you've started the business
with a belief that that market's gonna happen,
and more importantly, I think there's a confusion to you
about what you're actually marketing to.
You're thinking, "How do I market to people
"to build awareness that, hey, you can trade
"and rent and share watches."
The truth is there's just watch enthusiasts.
And so like, they're there.
Marketing to, ya know, I think people get confused
when they're marketing a new version
of a historical product versus creating a new product
that doesn't exist, ya know.
Uber didn't have to sell that.
Like, people rented black cars and took taxis.
They had to bring some awareness to they existed,
but I don't think anybody's confused
that's listening or watching right now
or of anybody out here they're like, "Oh, watches?"
Ya know, India, there's watches.
You can rent them and you can put yours on there.
Like, it's just not super complicated.
Ya know, just not complicated, and so
you market to people that give a crap about watches.
- [Voiceover] Andrew asked, "My investor wants
"to change the name of my company's brand Sasquatch Fuel.
"Should I change the name to something
"that includes the name of our unique pouch like Omni Fuel?"
- Andrew, I think a lot of people
that are watching this show are gonna say,
"He's about to go crazy and be like
"screw your investors, stick to your guns."
Truth is I'm a very funny guy when it comes to names.
I think execution is everything,
and I think the name is literally irrelevant.
Like, ya know, what did Google mean to anybody
before, ya know, it became something?
What did the word Nike mean to anybody
before Nike made it happen?
Like, my last name is Vaynerchuk, ya know?
Like they used to teach you in Hollywood
before you build a brand, like I would've been Gary Smith
ya know in 1961 if I went to Hollywood and did this.
Like, names don't mean crap.
What you make that name mean is the real game.
And so, ya know, you wanna be a pushover?
I'm just kidding.
You want to change your name? Great.
You want like, you don't want to change your name?
Great.
Bottom line is is your product good?
Are you gonna be able to market?
I mean, ya know, what's the other name
that he's considering changing it to?
- [India] He said they have a, their pouch is called Omni--
- Yeah, I like Sasquatch better than Omni.
Something I remember better than Omni.
Like, everything's Omni.
And so yeah, that's it.
That's all I got.
Question of the day.
Are you so competitive that
if you lose a meaningful basketball game in the morning,
would you allow it to completely alter
the happiness in your day?
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.
You think the Fika monster's gonna come up here
and be like "Don't give me (censored) press"?
(censored) DRock.