- On this show, I talk about dropping F bombs,
getting clients, and why I'm in such a bad mood.
(hip hop beat)
I am Gary Vay-ner-chuk
and you're watching the #AskGaryVee Show,
Episode 17.
Little fun fact about the number 17,
it is my Grandma Esther's and Xander's birthday,
the 17th.
Before I get into the show and start answering
these five great questions, two video, three regular,
I just wanna say that I'm in an enormously bad mood
because the Jets blew an 18 point lead yesterday.
I appreciate all of you that were interacting with me
as I was judging Miss America yesterday.
You might have noticed that my energy level was down.
My energy level on this episode will be down in general
as well because I'm still recovering.
And, you know, the hard core Vayniacs
who watched Wine Library TV back in the day
remember these kind of Monday episodes.
For a lot of you newbies, you're not going to be used to it
but you need to take, just like my wine fans did,
which was take the scores I gave the wine,
and add one or two points because they knew I was
in a depressed narrative.
You guys may want to take some of the advice
on this episode as a, with a grain of salt.
Maybe, DRock you could put like a warning sign here.
Warning, warning, warning.
I'm pissed off and today's answers might be just OK.
- [Voiceover] Darren asks, "If you could only market
on one social platform, which would it be and why?"
- Darren, I picked this question because I'm pissed off
and I'm pissed off at people asking this question
over and over again.
I'm pounding my fist on the floor, or the table.
Over and over, this is a non debate.
It is Facebook, my friends, Facebook data.
Data, data, data, data.
Let me say it again, as somebody who doesn't love data.
Who's more EQ than IQ.
The overwhelming accuracy of who you are targeting
and the products that they have created
to target those people, including in stream,
not the right side of a website.
So I'm over here, I like how you're staying-
Go back there, DRock.
Not the right side of a website,
but right down the pipe.
In the feed, targeted properly,
and if you're a good enough marketer,
and you're putting out content people care about,
not an ad, and we all see ads.
No.
A piece of content.
And I know people are tired of the word content, great.
Call it stuff, I don't give a crap.
Just something people care about in there when,
you know Steve, show Steve.
You know Steve likes Reddit.
You know Steve likes-
Back.
You know Steve likes wine.
You know, you know he likes these things.
What else do you like, Steve?
- Cheese, video games.
- [Gary] Great, what else, Steve?
- Beer. I love beer.
- So, you know, give this man things of those nuances.
If you're a toilet paper or a toothbrush or a toy company
or a, you know, what is this?
This is a phone, you know, technology company.
Like give this man what he wants around the genres
he cares about.
Facebook is, by far, dark posts.
That's a terminology.
Unpublished posts, the best platform to be selling things,
doing business, getting money for your charities,
building awareness about your cause.
Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.
- Hey, Gary.
Nicole Delanzo here from Taste Daily.
I love the new series.
So, for the past 18 months, I've been delivering
daily emails to a community of thousands of women.
And this fall, my startup was getting ready
to launch its first product.
It's interactive workshop, called Victory Rituals,
where we flip the morning routine on its head.
As we go from concept to final product,
what's the best way to empower our readers
to help us spread the word about Victory Rituals?
Look forward to your thoughts.
- You got it, Nicole.
I like how you positioned that, Nicole.
How could we empower our readers
to spread the word.
What you mean is,
how do we get our readers that we've been able to amass,
to spread the word so we can get more people
into our funnel and sell this thing, which is great,
because we are talking about business here.
Two ways, there's only two ways.
And everybody saw lovely Nicole ask the question.
And she was very politically correct, in my opinion,
and structuring it properly.
But what you're basically saying is,
I've amassed an audience and now I want to sell them stuff
and not only do I want to sell them stuff,
because I feel like I'm entitled to because I've given them
a bunch of free content on email
over the course of these last couple of months,
or year, Nicole, how you've been doing it, plus.
But I also want them to not only buy,
but then I also want them to spread the word
so other people buy.
There's only two ways to have the audacity to make that ask.
And that's what that is, my friends.
You can be doing a daily email
and putting out great content.
You could be putting out a great show, every day.
But then you come to that moment.
A book, a something.
And there's only two ways to convert.
Number one, write a good book.
In your case, Nicole,
your product needs to be good.
Is it worth the $38?
Is it worth the $83?
Is it worth the $388?
Is it worth the $883?
There used three and eights in there
if anybody was paying attention.
So, first and foremost, the best way to convert
and empower them, aka have them push it on to others,
is by putting out something great that they want
to tell other people to use.
They valued it more than they paid for it.
Number two is good old fashioned honesty.
You just need to be really upfront with them
of what you want from them.
You want them to share your video.
You want them to go to your website.
You need to be upfront with the fact that
here are the things that you want.
And so, for me, it's putting out a great product
that's worth the money.
And number two, not hedging your right hook.
Just asking for it, like a woman.
- [Voiceover] Dan asks, "What's your process
for vetting clients, specifically at VaynerMedia?"
- Dan, answer number one.
Do you have enough money?
Dan, answer number two.
What I'm really looking for, to not make a joke,
and you know, this show's putting me in a better mood, guys.
I gotta be honest with you.
I forgot that that's what Wine Library TV did for me
on these Mondays where I want to annihilate people's souls.
Putting on a show with my community does help my feelings.
I need a lot of comments on this episode, by the way.
I need comments in there.
I need, I need, comments.
Anyway,
you know, the things we're looking out for is,
are they creative?
The number one thing I'm scared of is
we have a ton of creativity
and we can do real work.
But if people want to follow a very strict process
of how they've always done it
versus how we're supposed to do it.
I'm petrified in that.
So really there's no way to do it,
because everybody says they want to be innovative
and do the new thing and invest in the future.
And then you get into practicality
and the first thing that's cut is the future,
which is why so many people lose.
So everybody's into defense versus offense
when times get tough.
For me, when times get tough, you go harder,
not eh.
Anyway, so I'm trying to sniff out
if people have the stomach to be innovative
and do things differently.
To take some risks, but be practical,
but have a little more patience for that practicality
and that ROI to present itself.
- Gary, I've got a very serious question for you.
- Hey, Brian.
- How the (bleep) do you get away with saying (bleep)
so many times on stage and not catch a bunch
of (bleep) flak for it?
- Brian, as the CEO of an up and coming IPO company,
I'm very impressed with your audacity to ask that question,
which leads to my very simple answer,
which is two fold.
I think the reason I get away with dropping the F bomb
is number one, I mean it when I say it.
There's no tactic.
I'm just in the zone.
I mean, I was inspired by Richard Pryor and Chris Rock
and Eddie Murphy and their styles have translated
to my keynote styles.
I feel like I do a little bit of a stand up timing process
and I think that because I'm not forcing it
and because it's my natural zone,
a little Jersey boy action,
people respect authenticity.
The other reason I'm able to get away with it is
I don't care if I receive flak.
As a matter of fact, I use the F bomb to vet people.
You know, I've said it before, I'm gonna say it again.
We're gonna do it again, another question coming up.
This is a platform for me, for the hard core,
last seven years fans of mine, for me to go one layer
deeper into things I've never said before.
The truth is I actually use my F bomb to vet other people.
I actually react to the way you're reacting to my F bomb
because if you are a person, back to the last question,
that is so thrown off by using the F bomb in public,
in a public setting, with a keynote,
that you're then not looking at the big enough picture
for me, just my personal.
You're judging me, I'm judging you.
So if you are incapable of getting over that
and seeing the bigger statement that I'm creating,
well then you're not gonna be somebody
that I wanna do business with, invest in,
or take on as a client to begin with,
because you're at this micro level.
That's right, you're at this micro level.
And that's just not a place where I wanna play.
I don't want to play in the micro, so (bleep) you.
- [Voiceover] Seth asked, "What was the hardest thing
when starting up VaynerMedia from scratch?"
- Seth, you know this is another place for me
to give a little bit of insight.
Believe it or not, yes, not doing Wine Library day to day
with my dad.
Yes, the notion of taking the risk of being
in another family business and not ruining the relationship
with A.J.
Confident on both fronts.
The hardest thing was actually being crippled by options.
The notion that over the first nine months,
it was very difficult for me not to think about
the fact that me and A.J had 800 other things
we could have done and did we pick the right thing.
I think a lot of people who are watching this
are always crippled.
I get this a ton, which is why I picked this question.
Well, I didn't pick it, you know, Steve picked or we picked,
you know, how did we pick it?
- [Steve] This one was collaborative.
- This was a little more collaborative, right?
You tried to give me a different question
and I said, "No."
No.
I like this one, because it allows me to give an answer
to my audience that I see a lot of you struggling with.
It's been asked of me a ton on email, twitter,
and other places, which is,
at some point, you've gotta put your big boy pants on
and say, "I've made this decision."
And you move on.
The buyer's regret or remorse,
or like, did I do the right thing?
Or crippled by options is something so many of you
are struggling with.
And I struggled with it as well,
especially with all the opportunities that I've been able
to be given.
I'm so fortunate that I'm struggling with, like,
should I do a national TV show?
Should I extend the fund by 10 times
and do a quarter billion dollar fund?
Should I quadruple down on Vayner?
You know, I'm crippled.
I'm crippled by options, which is a blessing and a half.
And so the hardest thing was, in 2009, was like,
is this the right thing?
Don't forget, Vayner started in 09, May of 09.
Misha was born in May of 09 and Crush It! came out
in October of 09.
So there was all those other things going on.
The struggle, the hardest thing
was not starting the business.
It was second guessing,
was it the right use of my time and A.J.'s time
and upside and talents at the time.
And that's it.
I'm pissed still.
I hate Packer Nation.
For a week, because actually I don't have a problem
because we don't play each other again for four years.
And the last time we were at Lambeau we won 35 to 7
and that felt good.
But that was last time and I know you're gonna say,
"What happened this time?"
And what happened this time was,
a lot of misfortunate things.
Misfortunate things that really, really, hurt my soul
and my feelings that I'm in a state of sadness
for the rest of today and probably into tomorrow.
But by Wednesday, I'll start gathering the momentum
to start focusing on the Bears and Monday night.
And I will be there at the game on Monday night.
You keep asking questions, I'll keep trying to answer them.
Oh right, question of the day.
I don't know.
Just tell me about yourself in the comments.
I just wanna read a lot of comments from my community
and feel better so,
tell me something good.
And that's just not a place where I wanna play.
I don't wanna play in the micro, so fuck you.
(laughing)
(hip hop beat)