- On this episode, we talk about why awards suck,
why college sucks and what sucks, suck.
- [Voiceover] Gary Vee!
- You ask questions, and I answer them.
This is the #AskGaryVee Show.
(upbeat hip hop music)
'Sup everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk
and this is episode 54 of the #AskGaryVee Show.
Before I get into the show today, I just wanna show you
the hot cocoa bar that we have at VaynerMedia.
This is a fun dynamic to taping on Floor 15,
there's always something ridiculous going on
so there's something to start the show with.
Great show, excited for the questions.
Tomorrow, I will be at Wine Library from 11 AM to 6 PM,
hopefully you're watching this on Friday.
For everybody who's watching this on Saturday
or after it aired, you missed a huge opportunity.
- [Voiceover] Brendan asks, "Does VaynerMedia
"focus much on winning awards, and what's your take
"on the ad industry's obsession with awards in general?"
- Brendan, great question.
One that I've been talking about for a long time
in these halls and in the industry.
I think awards are horsecrap.
I don't even know why I'm not saying horse (beep),
because the reason agencies want to win them
is for two reasons.
It allows them to recruit talent
and they use it as something to get more business
and what they're doing is, they're putting out work
for clients that is actually trying to get awards
versus actually trying to sell something,
and that's my real problem with it.
I don't begrudge the agencies that focus on it
because I understand their business rationale
but for me, it's a unhealthy culture
because it takes your eye off the prize
which is actually do something for business.
And for us, you know, we're lucky because of our work
and because of my personal brand, to be honest with you,
we've been able to get a lot of new business.
And now, our work is the word-of-mouth of our business
and two, as you can tell, people know
this is the right place to work, so we don't focus on it.
I understand why people do focus on it.
I think it's an energy sucker away from
the thing that matters, which is you need to sell something.
- [Voiceover] Rich asks, "What advice do you have
"for professors to engage college students
"in the classroom? What about outside of class?"
- Rich, I think the biggest thing for you and any
professor out there, or if you're asking for somebody
is that professors aren't relevant
to a lot of their students today, more than ever,
because the behaviors of how we act aren't mapping,
meaning so many people have emailed me
like, literally because of this show, emailed me that,
"Hey I'm in class right now, and what my professor's
"talking about makes no sense, compared to.
"I'm listening to your podcast right now
"while my professor's talking because he or she are so."
And literally professors in major universities
that are putting kids in debt right now
are telling them that there is no ROI in social media,
like ludicrous horsecrap, I'm on this crap kick.
Anyway, I think the biggest thing a professor can do
is to be relevant with them.
If you're a professor right now, and especially if you're a
marketing or comms professor right now,
and you're not jamming on YikYak and Snapchat
and the Insta, then you're making a huge mistake
because you're out of touch with your students.
You're saying dumb shit like, "Hey kids, hey students,
"we're gonna connect through modern things like."
It can't even come out of my mouth, I'm so disgusted
with what's going on in universities across this country
and so it's relevance, there is eye rolling
and checking the (beep) out going on in classrooms
all across this country and it's sad
because of the romance of how professors think it should be
versus the reality of what it's like.
- [Voiceover] Tanner asks, "What are your tips
"for teenage bloggers to show brands
"that they mean business?"
- Tanner, brands don't care if you're 14 or 41 or 4,000.
By having actual results, they'll think you're in business.
So I don't know, have traffic, have followers,
show them engagement, that's business,
show them your results, son.
- [Voiceover] Tanova asks, "How do you deal with burnout?"
- Tanova, this is a great question.
I personally selected this one.
I saw it in my Twitter stream and sent it to India.
Show India, I like when we do that.
- Eh.
- That's my favorite part of the show.
You know, it's really funny, this is a funny question.
I burn out once every
six or seven years,
I hit a real like ugh spot, like where I wanna
just check out and I go to sleep.
I actually go home and go to sleep.
It hasn't actually happened, actually I'm on a
real good run right now, I think the last time I did
was when we lost Texas at Wine Library,
and couldn't ship there anymore
and we lost like four million in revenue
and I was just burnt out like fighting the fight
of like in that world, and so I just literally
went home at like 6 PM and went to sleep.
I haven't done it since then, and that was like 2002 or 3,
so it's been a little, maybe it's not even
six or seven years but, when I hit my lowest point,
I do two things, I go to sleep immediately
and two, I make pretend that my mom was killed.
And I know that's an intense statement,
and you should have just the collective reaction,
but when I burn out from work.
(laughs)
It's intense.
When I burn out, it means that I'm hurt
by whatever's going on in business
and I'm focusing on business instead of the big picture
and I directly put my brain into a place of
what do I really care about, and the second
I do that extreme move, I'm already in the process
of going back upstream and so look,
I'm a positive person, I put things in perspective
in a very healthy way, I think and so
I don't tend to burnout that often,
but the couple times I've hit rock bottom,
it's been sleep and recalibration.
- Alright, here's my real question.
Which social media platform that is currently an incumbent
do you feel will be extinct in five years.
In 2020, which social media platform
that everybody's invested in
do you think will be extinct?
- Thanks for the question, Ashton.
So I think the two most vulnerable platforms
are Tumblr and Google Plus, and I think that because
they're just owned by big conglomerates, right.
You know, for all my concerns about where Twitter's going,
I feel like Dick Costolo and team will figure that out
and get better.
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are really in a great spot.
The two incumbents, Pinterest I think is in a great spot.
About to sneeze possibly, by the way,
as I answer this question.
The two incumbents that I'm most worried about
are Google Plus and Tumblr.
Tumblr because it's owned by Yahoo
and all those politics of being independent
but still being within a big holding company,
and Google Plus because Google,
this is a positive by the way.
Google has shown me the enormous ability
to cut bait if something's not working,
no matter how big it was.
And I just have a funny feeling
that they may just come out in a year or two or three
and just say, "We're cutting it.
"We may get back into this game, we may not
"but this execution is not working for us."
I actually am almost willing to predict that may happen
that I can see them cutting Google Plus out,
completely outright in the next 36 months.
So those are two incumbents, Ashton,
and I appreciate the question.
Speaking of which, question of the day.
Which social network are you most addicted to
right this second.
You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.
Oh crap wait, subscribe!
(makes video game sounds)
I need subscriptions, because I can't push
this many right hooks in social so, subscribe!