- On this episode, we bring the ruckus on floor 15.
- [Gary] You ask questions, and I answer them.
This is The #AskGaryVee Show.
Hello, everybody. This is episode 146
of The #AskGaryVee Show. Sorry, guys.
I'm on floor 15, I feel like we woke up
the floor a little bit, feels nice.
India, let's get into the show.
- I'm not gonna try anymore.
- Is that true?
- [India] No. - You've given up?
- [India] No. - Okay, got it.
- [Voiceover] Aaron asks, "You mention how great you are
"at closing and sales. What's your structure for your pitches?"
- For my pitches. So, my structure for my pitches is
complete and utter no structure.
I don't really structure my pitches a whole lot.
My team may, in certain scenarios, have a deck.
But there's, I'm sure, an inside joke in this company
that when we go into that meeting, I'm gonna completely
side-rail and drive over that deck, which I do consistently.
I'm much more interested in reading the room
and deploying what that client wants at that exact moment,
versus what we thought they wanted.
In the same way I sold at baseball card shows,
I would just always react. I really think my pitches
are structured for counter-punching.
Which means no preparation from presentation form,
but complete and utter presentation for knowing the content.
See what I mean? This is the thing that most people
don't understand. They think that you wing it.
No, you're winging the way you're gonna present it.
You're not winging what you actually know about it.
So the way I prepare, is holistically prepare.
A.K.A. know my shit. I know what I'm talking about
in the things that I'm selling.
And then basically I'm reverse engineering deploying
your needs against that expertise at that moment,
versus what order the deck needs to be in the presentation.
My friends, the deck doesn't sell it.
The presentation doesn't sell it. The skills sell it.
- [Voiceover] Jeremy asks, "Gary, why do you feel the need
"to swear to make a point? Surely business credibility
"is better built without swearing?
- You were excited about asking this question?
I don't feel like I need to swear to make a point.
I also don't agree that business credibility
is lost when you curse. Business credibility is lost when
you curse when the judge of your credibility
is a d or f player and somebody that is making
surface level decisions. As a matter of fact, I would argue that,
at times, I use my cursing as a filter to filter out
the people that are not capable of
seeing the bigger picture, versus being so blocked.
"Oh my god. I heard the word (bleep).
I can't hear anything else. Everything else must be bad.
There's no good advice, this is a bad person."
That is ludicrous. It goes into the same context
as the way you dress, or a million other variables
of ways people that will judge you--
See, when you're great, you can dress in all red, all red.
You can blend into phone booths.
I mean, you can dress how you want.
You can talk how you want. Because at the end of the day,
the way you deliver is all that people really care about.
And the way you make them feel.
I'm not cursing to disrespect someone.
I have empathy and respect why a lot of people
may not like me, or consume me.
There are plenty of people that don't watch this video
because they saw a keynote where I cursed
and they were offended, and they are no longer in my set.
Surely, I would have a bigger audience if I didn't curse.
That is absolutely true. And business respect, sure.
I may lose out on a deal because they were offended.
But in the net, net, net score, I win so many more
by being me and just being me versus creating a half-version
of me for the one conservative person and leaving
the hundreds of magic business opportunities,
that are predicated on winners making decisions.
So, yeah. I'm completely in disagreement with you.
I don't believe either one of us
are successful because
of our cursing or non-cursing, I think it has a lot more
to do with a lot of things that matter a hell of a lot more
than some choice four letter words.
- [India] From Cherise.
- Cherise!
- [India] "Talk about the importance of HR
and employees getting along. How do I implement that--"
- What is this?
- It's a doll.
- It's a doll?
- It's a baby. EB swaddled it.
- EB swaddled it with a napkin?
- Yeah.
- Pretty amazing. Sorry. Go ahead.
Spooky as shit. Oh, weird. I cursed. Turn off the show.
Go ahead.
- [Voiceover] Cherise asks, "You talk about the importance
"of HR and employees getting along.
"How do I implement that when everyone talks about everyone?"
- Well, I don't know if employees getting along or
HR is predicated on everybody talking about each other?
- [India] No, it's like how do I implement that
in a place where everybody's talking about each other.
- Oh, talking about each other, like gossip?
- [India] Yeah. If you wanna read it,
but that's how I interpreted it.
- Where everyone talks about everyone. Oh, jeez.
I mean, that means it's broken from the top.
People are gonna gossip. I'm sure in the 600 employee--
550 employees of Vaynermedia,
I'm sure people talk about each other.
But it's a net-net score. Don't be crippled by--
Make sure you're judging the gossiping appropriately.
Maybe it's not as bad as you think in the collective--
Ryan, be careful. This is an active shoot, Ryan.
Yeah, clearly you didn't realize.
I'm just kidding! Do you wanna come on
and apologize to the show? Get over here, Ry.
Let's get you seven Twitter followers.
- @guildgonewild, I'm sorry for ruining the show.
- Say, "Dear Vayner Nation."
- Dear Vayner Nation, I sincerely apologize
for ruining the show. And I'm pretty sure Gary hates me now.
- I don't, I love you.
- Oh. Well, thank you.
- Tell them what football team you like.
- The New York Jets.
- That's my boy. Get outta here!
Alright. Hey, Brunchback.
- Hey, what's up?
- Alright, get outta here.
We need to come to 15 more often,
there's some good action going on here.
Creating a culture where people are gossiping
negatively about each other is devastating.
There's a lot more to fix. The leadership needs to
be looked at. Maybe you're the leader.
You need to really look at yourself.
I think the only way to fix a real burning building,
if it's really rampant and negative, is to call an all
hands-on meeting and go straight kumbaya,
it's all communication, it's put it out on the table.
It's address it head on and move forward.
So, one, make sure you're judging it properly.
Because in the scheme of things, humans are humans.
You can't--
It's not like--
I mean, Vayner's great culture, but at a micro level,
there's a million little bad things going on.
It's just that you have to look at is as a collective.
You can't turn people into robots and not make them
have all the emotions humans have,
but way more importantly, to me, if it is rampant,
the only way to fix a complete storm of this,
is to bring everybody together,
the leader needs to put--
Starting with them, I've clearly screwed up.
Let's talk about this. Probably make some firing decisions.
Because there's probably some cancer cells in there.
It's a real aggressive, you need to address it.
Truth is, so many of you do not want to address it,
or don't know how, or don't have the stomach to,
that's the bigger issue. I went for the dramatic moment
there, you know what? Kick in a little soft music here,
for that part. This is the important thing.
Are you willing to address it?
Do you have the appetite to deal with that
kind of confrontation at the global scale?
That's the friction point. The leaders don't wanna step up
and actually be leaders.
Right?
- [India] From David.
- David. Oh, it's a video.
- Hey, Gary. It's David Shaheen, husband and manager
of recording artist, Amanda Vernon.
She's about to sing the National Anthem here at
Lambeau Field--
- [India] This is amazing.
- For Monday night football. She's about to go on
in a little bit here.
(crowd cheering)
So I was wondering if you could give any tips
on how to capitalize on this exposure. Thank you.
- That's fantastic. I would immediately buy the
Google Adword "National Anthem",
"Singing the National Anthem", I would buy all the long-tail
words on search, on Google for National Anthem.
Singing the National Anthem, National Anthem,
National Anthem at Half-Time,
How do I get picked to sing the National Anthem,
that's a long tail. And I would have your video embedded
somewhere with a story about her.
So create a landing page on Tumblr, RebelMouse,
where it doesn't cost you a lot,
where you don't have to design.
Embed the video, tell a story about her, and all her work.
And buy keywords on social around that,
I would also buy Facebook ads against
Green Bay Packer fans, fans of the Green Bay Packers.
And say, "Do you wanna see the video?" or
"Do you wanna meet the person that sang
the National Anthem last Monday night?"
Some of them will, as well. Those would be the two
black and white executional things that I would do.
That was good. Some real advice.
That's some real advice!
- [Gary] Pam. That's some real advice.
- I got it.
- Thank you. Good.
- [Voiceover] Charles asks, "Do you see your reliance to
"the Jets with regards to their effect on your mood
"as a strength or weakness?"
- India, you're really picking some doozies.
Do I... Do I...?
- [India] Do you see your reliance on, like, the fact that
the Jets has such an effect on your mood--
- Do I see the Jets impacting me so much on a Monday,
as a strength or weakness?
A strength. It means I'm emotionally in tune with myself,
which I deploy in other places.
See, this is the whole--
You know, I'm gonna actually turn this question
into a really good question.
The disproportionate amount of you,
who are not winning as much--
And I'm not trying to zing, I love you guys.
But I believe a lot of the people who are watching this
right now who are not winning, back to the cursing question,
are looking at things too much at a micro level.
You look at, and people assume--
And a lot of people believe, "Oh that's a weakness.
You're wasting a half a day, or a day, or you're not as
efficient as you can on a Monday."
I view it at a much higher level of if I'm capable of caring
about something so much, and allowing it to affect my mood,
that means that my emotional intelligence is at such
a high level, that those are some of the strengths that
allow me to do all the things that I do, and have the
intuition around how people feel about things,
hence the HR question, hence the culture,
hence the business success, hence where consumers are going
with their feelings, my feeling skills are--
I'm proud that I cry--
I cry, I went to Hamilton, there was a part in the play
that I was almost crying, I cry all the time.
When the Lion King's dad died in Lion King,
I was on a date in high school and I cried.
You know how wimpus that is? That's like the anti--
Pam, you like that?
- I did too.
- Yeah. Beaches? And Steel Magnolias?
I cried like a fucking waterfall.
So those are feelings, those are my strengths.
I see it as a strength.
That's the show. Thanks for watching the show.
Looking for some statements. Appreciate you guys.
I'm enjoying this, 15 brought some really good stuff.
I blended into, you know--
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.