- On this episode, the A team joins me.
Sorry, India and DRock.
(gangster rap 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 186
of The #AskGaryVee Show.
We're in my office. I'm focused, I wanna go
tight today, sneaking this in because I feel
like I haven't done the show in a little bit.
Brit, good to see you.
I like the sneaker-pants matching thing,
it's pretty cool.
And, whoa, actually hat, you really...
You think about these things-- - I do.
- I do not. (Brit laughs)
I have (expletive muted) fly kicks on today.
- [Brit] Lizzie help?
- No. Lizzie does pack my trips, though.
But. - [Brit] Those are awesome.
- [Voiceover] Those are nice.
Yeah, alright.
Let's do it.
Miss you guys, real quick.
I wasn't interrupting Seth.
I'm a bad, it's not that I'm trying to interrupt Seth,
it's my interview style, which is not good.
By all standards, by P.R. or standard interview practices,
but I like it and I've got a lot of intriguing emails that
are counter-cultural.
It is what it is.
It's how I interview, I get destroyed for it
during Wine Library TV, and maybe it's just
something I'm not that good at, though,
I like what it brings out.
It brings out a different thing.
If you want to get the commodity answers,
and the same ol' schpeal, you can read that and
watch that on YouTube and see it everyday.
It creates a different energy.
I understand that it can be combative at times,
and no question, on paper, Level One,
looks like interruption, 'cuz it is.
It's my schpeal, so.
I love Seth.
And that's that.
- [Brit] Cool.
First question.
- [Voiceover] Jimmy asks, "Who owns our usernames?
Us or the app, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram?
What happens if the app came around today and said,
'We are now charging for your username.'
Would you pay to keep it?"
- I don't think it matters, Britt.
Who asked that, Jimmy? - [Brit] Jimmy.
- Jimmy, I don't think it matters, like,
what are they gonna charge?
If Hook.com came out and it was the next big thing
and I wanted to be on it, or if Anchor, or
if Snapchat even, came around and said,
"Look, we're out.
And we own all the names and if you want
Gary "V" "E" "E" 'cuz you're one of the people
that we've deemed of the 50,000 people
that has a username that's valuable to them,
that we're going to charge you $100 a year for it.
Ya know, I actually don't think it matters.
Meaning, would I pay it?
Sure. Would a lot of you pay it?
No.
Would it hold back the app from winning?
Maybe. I don't think any app would ever
take the chance to not become a big platform
because a lot of people wouldn't sign up for it
because those people were upset that somebody
was charging for the name.
And so.
I think from a P.R. standpoint and a
branding and positioning standpoint,
most apps won't go there.
If they do, if they have the best product in the world,
you'll pay for it.
Nobody-- - [Brit] Even Facebook and Twitter?
- Would I pay retroactively? - [Brit] Yes.
- Probably.
Yeah, probably.
And I wouldn't give a crap about it.
You know, what are they gonna charge?
They can't charge enough.
You know what I mean?
And they're not the Internet,
they're not going to...
Meaning, like.
Every one of them is too smart and is too
big of a business to sit there and say,
like, why would they charge?
Facebook makes a billion dollars a quarter.
You think they want to take the vulnerability
to make an extra 50 million dollars top-line revenue?
I mean, listen, Jimmy, and I'm not razzing on you.
There's just sometimes not a good understanding
of big, macro busines behaviors.
Like, let's just break it down.
You think Facebook's gonna,
how much revenue do you think Facebook's
gonna be able to make on charging for names?
Like, what's the most you think somebody can.
What's the most do you think they can charge
a human, forget about Pepsi, for the name for a year?
- If they want to do it?
- Yeah.
- 20 bucks.
- What, a month?
Or overall?
Like, let's start over, I--
- Maybe 10 bucks a month, 10 bucks a month.
- Let's start over.
I'd pay $500. - [Brit] For a year.
- And I'm a big, fucking deal in the scheme of things.
I'm in the top 10%, or 1%, I don't know,
of humans with fan bases, right?
Like, there's no money in it.
So, like, the problem that a lot of people do
is they think about it too much of a micro level,
there's no money in it.
So level up the thinking, Jimmy, and crew.
Like, cool, yes, but it'll never happen because
it would break...
The vulnerability
is so much greater than the top-line revenue
when they are making revenue in other areas.
So, I mean, theoretically, yes, no, it doesn't matter.
Let's move on.
I mean, the question matters, Jimmy,
and I appreciate it.
I think it's a good opportunity for me to lesson-up
for the masses of like.
You've got to understand.
The reason I'm a good salesman is
I understand what a person wants
and then I reverse engineer it.
Right? Facebook wants money, it's a business.
That money is not more valuable than the
vulnerability that they put all their other monies to.
I'm spending more money on a Facebook ad today
than Facebook could charge me for the year for the name.
So why would they create a vulnerability of me
getting emotional that they pulled the rug from
underneath me, and left the ad platform, right?
Those kind of thinking.
- [Brit] Cool. - Cool.
- [Brit] This is a video question.
- Video question. - [Brit] Brandon.
- Oh yeah, very nice.
- You said you wanted cool backgrounds, Gary.
So how's this?
Brandon Copeland here with beautiful
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador,
Canada behind me.
I have a question about marketing professional
services and professional services firms.
If you're trying to establish a legal firm,
real estate sales team, a management
consultant practice, are you better suited
marketing your brand and your new company?
Or are you better suited focusing on the people
with the skills that are providing value to
your clients?
Do you market the firm or the person?
Thanks for your thoughts.
- The answer is, it comes down to you
as the head of that organization to make that
decision on what you're better at.
If you market the people, you have a vulnerability
that the person has the equity and they can leave, right?
This is not the NBA, where they're locked into
these contracts, they have nowhere to go.
That person, then, can go and start their own firm
and you don't get any of the economics
and that's why people don't promote the
people underneath them quite a bit.
I think it's a mistake because if you show that
you're an organization that promotes people,
the next group of people wanna come in.
And most people aren't risk-adverse enough,
their risk tolerance is so low that they don't
wanna start their own business, they'd just like
to be a top earner within your organization.
But I think you do both.
I promote Brandon and Ian, when he was at Wine Library,
and other people at Wine Library.
More and more people, now that I feel
like we've got a grasp on what we do,
are going out and speaking at events
as executives for VaynerMedia.
But I also, we also promote the companies themselves.
So the answer is both.
But I think it's about self-awareness as an operator.
If you think you're better at marketing people
than you are marketing a logo and an organization,
you should spend more of your time on that.
If you think you're better at doing it around a
logo or a name, than people, 'cuz that's awkward to you,
then you do that.
But trying and mixing the two, I think,
makes a ton sense.
- [Voiceover] Josh asks, "Is Twitter making a comeback
with their recent addition of GIFs?"
- I mean, I think that's a narrow question.
I think Twitter is potentially making a comeback
because they have a new CEO which gives them
new direction.
And not that I'm mad at Dick or Ev or the people
that have run it in the past,
I think it's just anytime you have a new CEO,
if one deems something not working that
it's got the potential to work, right?
I think the GIFs, I'm not letting that go,
and many other things, extending the
character limit, making the feed act differently,
these are all debates and actions that we've
seen from Twitter in the last 60 days
that are promising.
Because it shows maneuvering with the product,
which I think has been the vulnerability
with the business.
And so.
I don't think just with it, definitely not,
as a proxy to what's going on overall at Twitter,
I think, potentially.
- [Brit] Another video. - Videos.
- Hey Gary Ginner, Chad J. L. D. here
and I have a question for you.
About Snapchat.
Because of you, I have been snapping my face off.
And loving every second of it.
DRock at John Lee Dumas.
And I would love for you to share with us,
how do we grow our Snapchat followers?
You've answered this question before,
I haven't loved any of your answers.
If you could go deep, break it down,
we're VaynerNation.
How do we grow our Snapchat followers?
- J.L.D. wants to grow his base.
J.L.D., excited, I think I'm actually going on
your podcast today, which you'll probably air
as the book comes out.
That's later in my day.
J.L.D., listen, I'm sorry that I'm not giving
you a good answer.
The answer is you have to use every other channel.
It's using every other channel at its hacking.
You're doing it right now, you threw up your Snap code,
because you're hoping a bunch of people
in the VaynerNation stop it, take a picture of it,
and add you as a friend.
You're doing exactly the right thing.
Which is, you've got to use other people's platforms
and other, you know, collaborating.
Literally, emailing everybody that you know
or messaging them on Instagram,
if they've big Instagrams, assuming that means they
have some sort of community on Snapchat.
And saying, "Hey, how do I take over your channel?
How do I, give me a shoutout."
It's literally endorsements on other people's Snapchat.
Or, listen, man, make your podcast
over the next six, seven, weeks,
pounding Snapchat.
Interview people about Snapchat,
interview Snapchat executives.
Make your world about Snapchat.
I've won because I've branded,
you're looking for a tactic.
You're looking for a sales tactic.
Right? A transaction.
Oh, go do this, buy this search term, right?
Like, you're looking for that.
You're looking for, maybe you should buy the long tail,
term on Google as a Google AdWord that says,
"Who should I follow on Snapchat?"
And then maybe you're the first result.
That you paid for.
It's me, follow me, right?
That will work, probably cost a buck or two.
Per follower, that might work.
But I'm doing it in marketing and branding.
By being about it, 'bout it, right?
By being about it, and by talking about it,
and by being out there, people are picking up
on that behavior, they're writing about me being in there.
And yes, I sit at a high level in marketing
but there's a lot of people...
D.J. Khalid wasn't, he was a DJ.
He went all about it, now people give him exposure.
Right now, because there's no functionality
within Snapchat to growth hack or pay for ad spend
or any other functionality to build your user base,
you have to win on marketing, not on sales.
J.L.D., there's too many people in 2016
that have become "internet marketers"
and it's all about arbitrage.
Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, Google AdWords,
affiliate marketing, email marketing,
landing page optimization.
It's all about tactics, it's not about
marketing and religion.
The reason I've done so well on Snapchat
is, I'm a marketer, right?
I built Wine Library on marketing, not just
transactional couponing and Google AdWords.
I've built myself in marketing.
Coming.
I've built myself in marketing, by building
my brand and that's trickled down.
It's not just transactional.
I sell a lot more books than a lot of people
because it's not the tactics, it's the overall brand.
It's really the thesis of jab-jab-jab-right hook.
Those jabs are branding, I'm bringing value.
And so, there's tactics, like you just did,
J.L.D., but there's also branding.
And you have a platform, you have a successful podcast.
Make your content about that.
And then there's a lot of tactics like I mentioned earlier
in this rant, as I wove some tactics in there for you.
But you've gotta level up your thinking, bro,
I'm not kidding.
You know, you're gonna razz, I'm gonna razz right back.
You gotta think marketing versus,
you know, you're more than welcome to go out
and do guest blog posts on a ton of business sites
about why you think Snapchat's important.
And now you show up in a lot of distributed places.
With a call to action to, oh, P.S., by the way,
follow me on Snapchat.
So there's a lot, you may not like
the answers because you may not want to do them.
Or you might not like this answer
because marketing's a lot harder than
a growth hack or an execution.
It doesn't take away from the fact that it is the answer.
The reason so many people are asking me
how to built a base is because it's not easy.
'Cuz it's branding and marketing.
Not sales and transactional.
I'm excited right now, because that was actually
a very important answer to a lot of questions
that have going on for a long time.
Too many people here are playing checkers
when the game is really chess.
Branding and marketing is different
than transactional, affiliate, it's math
versus branding.
It's quant versus qual.
Snapchat is in branding and qual world.
And that's just too hard for most of you.
I'm gonna end the show right there,
'cuz I gotta go.
I know you got others.
It's a tight show.
I snuck it in.
Three's better than zero, Staphon.
- [Staphon] Sure is.
- [Brit] Very impressive.
- Thank you, Brit. (Brit chuckles)
Question of the day.
That last rant, expand on that.
I wanna get into, it's the weekend,
I got a couple of errands I have to run
so I've a few minutes to run away from
the family to jump in and engage with you guys around it.
It's very, very, very important.
I'd love your thoughts on that answer.
I'd like your take on that, I'd like your stories
about when you did branding or when you've
done quant affiliate or growth hacking.
Or transactional tactics versus religion.
I'd like you to expand on your personal journey
around that last question.
'Cuz that was super interesting to me.
You keep asking questions.
I'll keep answering them.
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