The GaryVee Audio Experience

If you are building a consumer facing business, like a restaurant for example, then a franchise is a great thing to do. But, something to ask is—are you trying to franchise your name? A lot of people have tried to franchise me. Yeah. Me. As in Garyvee. I got so many pitches when “Crush It” came out in 2010. People wanted to build courses that they would teach, but it would syphon up to me. That was something I wasn't comfortable with because I don’t feel like it represented me. I wouldn't want to franchise that route.

So if you're asking me about franchising yourself, I'm going to say no. Having other people represent "you", to scale your "brand" as a franchise, just doesn't make sense any more. With YouTube and all the other forms of social media available, you just don't need it.

BUT let's say you're franchising your restaurant or retail business. If that is the case, I am comfortable saying: go for it. You can make suer your brand is ensured with lots of rules, lots of legal jargon and intense training. Whatever you need to do to scale that, do it. It might be tough, but it will be worth it to keep the core values of your business intact.

I think that "hustle" is something that you're born with. Let me explain.

Work ethic is definitely a trait people are born with but ultimately I think that the hustle meter is fundamentally affected by who the work you're doing is for. Sure, if you work for yourself, it's really easy to give yourself that high grade hustle. However, if you work for someone else, I think your attitude and effort are solely based on how inspired you are and how protected you are by that leader. I truly believe that because I instill trust and protection (as well as some high standards) for those that work for me, they're able to go all-in and deliver and work as hard as they do due to the culture and the context that comes from within the workplace.

At the ground level, everyone is motivated by their own selfishness and there's nothing wrong with that. But then there's a side of it where if the leader presents a workplace based on meritocracy they're going to do whatever they can to not let that leader down but they'll also work hard enough to take advantage of the opportunity to grow and rise through the ranks. It's super fascinating to me see the levels of motivation that are on display among those that work for me as opposed to those that work for themselves.

There are so many variables that dictate one's work ethic, but there's no question that a lot of our motivation stems from our life's circumstances, be it traumatic or triumphant. So for me, it's most definitely a nature vs. nurture thing. A lot of our drive comes from our DNA but it's the circumstances of our years that shape the level at which we perform.

The brilliance of this show (#humblebrag) is that when people look back and realize what I've done (and what I'm doing), they'll notice I'm creating the base, the foundation, for all the other pieces of content that I'm able to create. If you pay attention you'll realize that all the content we're putting out is (for the most part) based on the seed that is the #AskGaryVee show.

Just take a look at the last 6-8 weeks and you'll see the substantial increase in output we've been able to tackle because we're taking advantage of what this show provides -- whether that's Medium posts, GaryVaynerchuk.com articles, animated GIFs, etc. In essence, the #AskGaryVee is just one giant jab that allows for the further awareness that I'm trying to create with the other pieces of content we're putting out there. People gravitate to different mediums and different messaging and this show allows us to capitalize on all those needs.

Think about it. We're putting out this show that is supplied by the questions and thoughts of the fantastic community that is #VaynerNation. This show is the foundation to what has become the latest stage of my personal brand. Not only can I create this show that provides a lot value to a number of people but it also provides me the leverage to create other pieces of content consumed by people that may not otherwise hear my messaging.

The best way to push employees above their own means is to guilt them into it.

Everybody is driven by things, so first and foremost, you need to use your ears and listen. You need to sit down with your employees and understand where they want to take their careers. What’s their ambition? By sitting down with people and actually listening, you’ll be able to set up your employees for success in order to achieve the beneficially mutual goals at hand.

Don’t think for a second that money drives all motivation. It’s simply not true. People are in the game for multiple reasons and the only way for you to understand that is to listen. Once you understand then you can set them up to be in a place for them to deliver.

The only way someone will over deliver FOR YOU, is to attack THEIR OWN selfishness. You may be selfish in asking for people to over-deliver for you, but the only way for that to be executed on is for you to over-deliver for them. The single best way to win is to provide for 51% of the relationship forcing them to be good enough to deliver on the other 49%.

Listen, deliver, and guilt them.

Period.

Video can be watched here: http://youtu.be/PIJElPStJpg?list=UUctXZhXmG-kf3tlIXgVZUlw

The middle is the commoditized work that everybody does. What I mean by this is that everybody winds up doing what the market calls for. They're focusing on what's popular in the moment and not focusing on where the market's going. I can't tell you how many times I get pitched by startups doing the same thing everyone else is doing and singing the same old song. What I want to hear about are those that are in the trenches doing the hard work - the nitty gritty; Those that are going above and beyond and breaking traditional thinking.

"The middle" is what we're surrounded by 99.9% of the time. It's the sh*t everybody focuses their energy on all the while ignoring what really matters - the clouds and dirt, as I like to call it. You've got to dive into the trenches and get into the weeds. BE A PRACTITIONER. At the rawest of levels you need to be executing. You need to be focusing on the stuff that nobody wants to bother with. Why? Because that's the hard part. And that's what matters.

So if there's anything you can walk away with from me to wrap up this year, it's this. DO THE WORK THAT NOBODY ELSE IS DOING. Don't be afraid to break things, and hustle your face off 'til it hurts. Trust me. You'll be a better person for it.

Hustle. The most important word ever.

Love you all. Have a Happy New Year.

Look, when VaynerMedia was in its earlier days, our website was garbage. It almost looked as if we were going out of business and I know that. That's on me. At that point in time I didn't think we needed to showcase the work we were doing, or the clients we working on, or any accolades we could have showed off. We just needed to focus.

The point here is that everything I do, and everything that you do, needs to have strategy behind it. The strategy at the time for us was to stay low and be quiet, and focus on what we were doing internally and focus on the energy that we needed to create to build an incredible business. So that's what we did -- BUT, that doesn't mean that's what you need to do. It all boils down to strategy and the mission at hand, so that's what you should be focusing your energy on.

Look, we were put in a peculiar position. I had my own personal brand and people knew me as this "social media guy." To be honest, I had plenty of doubters who thought I was just going to snake my way into getting clients without have a substantial business to back it. Well -- THEY WERE WRONG. I've proved my worth through and through and a lot of that had to do with the strategy I employed, the team I built around me, and the ways we've executed our excellence in this space.

The actions that you put out to the world need to replicate the mission you've set out to capitalize on. This isn't a one-size-fits-all game. You need to understand what you're looking to do and do whatever it takes to get that done. Period.

I think that Instagram and Twitter are tremendously different. Look, Twitter is the town hall, the cocktail party of the social world. When things happen in the world and there’s breaking news, we’re running to Twitter not Instagram – we want the chatter, not the images. However, I do believe that Instagram has found a way (at least up til now) to gain the most attention from the consumer where we've found ourselves looking at those pictures pretty consistently.

Attention wins and that’s what Instagram has been able to capture. People are actually consuming content on Instagram, whereas on Twitter, those days are over. Back in the day I used to be able to send out a tweet and although I had a substantially lower reach I was still able to garner that attention. Instagram, due to its image-focused nature, is naturally able to capture our attention more easily. And let’s face it, we’re lazy, and it’s much easier to consume an image than to take the time to read a few lines or click through to a long form piece of content. It’s just the nature of our tendencies, our attention spans, and the mediums where we’re consuming this content, which happens to stem from the palms of our hands.

OH! And did I mention? I have an Instagram account. You should follow me :) @GaryVee

Check out my new video channel on 5by!
http://5by.com/garyvee

There is zero doubt in my mind that I can run ANY company. I'm a reverse engineer, through and through. Heck, I don't know anything about 99% of the businesses out there, but I believe that it would take me only about 6 months to absorb the information - the data, the numbers, the culture, etc. - and reverse engineer the business to get it to a point where I can run with it. I'd take a look at the marketplace, understand the consumer that the business is selling to, whether B2B or B2C, and start making my chess moves. Frankly, as an operator, there is no business out there that I'd ever be intimidated by. That's just who I am. Fearless.

Look, this comes down to people and process. You need to have the chops to build teams around you while having the strategy and tact to sell the product at hand. I'm certainly not the only one, but it's few and far in between that you have natural born operators that can take a look at things, assess the situation, and really operate the business without ever having any real experience in that field.

As I alluded to earlier, this all boils down to sales and HR. People and process. That's why I think I've been so successful. My salesmanship and ability to build strong infrastructures with the people around me is why I have won. Period. If you're lucky enough to have those two traits where you can both sell and build teams around you, then you're sure to win. No question.

Enjoy :)

#QOTD: Which social network are you hottest on RIGHT now?

Agencies in the market for awards is nonsense. I've been talking about this for a while in the halls of this world and within our industry. At the end of the day, these agencies are being hired to do work for THEIR CLIENTS, not for themselves. They're being hired to tell a story on behalf of the brand they're working for which in turn is supposed to sell sh*t.

Agencies are using their work and these awards to recruit more talent and to gain more clients. I get that. It's smart in one way, but it's not intended for the long game and it's not sustainable. I'm not trying to begrudge the agencies that do it because I get the business rationale behind it but it's just not a healthy culture. It takes the eyes off the actual prize of doing what's best for the client and I just don't subscribe to it.

Luckily for us at VaynerMedia, our proof is in the pudding. Our work is the word of mouth of our business and quite frankly, so is my personal brand, but if you've been watching this show, you can see that it's quite apparent as to why this is the place to be. And so, we're not here to win awards, we're here to win our clients over. We let our work and the results of our efforts speak for themselves. THAT'S IT.

#QOTD: Give me some feedback on the new settings of the show. How do you like us filming on the 15th floor? -- Since you all can't see what's going on, check out the YouTube episode and let me know what you think!!

THINGS I VALUE: I'm a humungous fan of patience. Lack of patience has caused so many people to not achieve the upside that they deserve and that just kills me. Another thing I value so greatly is an old school handshake. That really matters to me. Word is bond. Having people in your life that you can trust based on their word goes a long way -- you know, someone that you just know is going to deliver on whatever it is they say they're going to do.

On the other hand, when someone doesn't deliver on something, I have the understanding to realize that unexpected things can come up and change the course of action. So I completely buy into being nimble and empathetic because you need to be able to understand that things don't always go according to plan, and it's not always the person on the other end that's to blame.

I also think that people that are grateful are extremely attractive as well. NOTHING is more ugly to me than somebody who's spoiled and I also think at some level, hypocrisy is the thing that I hate the most, which I guess touches on my previous point.

So for me, there's nothing more important than having perspective on things and understanding that although people may have the best intentions in mind, not everything is going to work to plan. You need to be patient and empathetic and realize that when someone

Google+ is most definitely a failure (in my eyes) for Google. While Google is my pick for the best tech company in the world, they made the wrong decision in doing something outside of their DNA. They tried to copy something, and I think that was ill-fated.

I use Google+ because there's an audience of mine there and it ties in greatly with the YouTube society. There's a small niche group of people that I massively respect that have developed some great communities there. However, much like every social network besides Twitter, it isn't in fact a social network. Most of these "social networks" have become content portals. And so, I still have a great sized audience on Google+ and therefore they will not be forgotten and I will continue to distribute my content there because it's native, and that's what you need to do. Understand the nuances of the platform and deliver based on how it's used.

So all in all, Google+ is a loss, but it's still something that needs to be paid attention to. Nothing is ever dead. I talk about email open rates being down, but it's still at the top of my current marketing strategy.
It's about what's happening in that moment. So where is Google+ now? It still merits the time it takes to utilize the platform and therefore I will continue to engage with my community within it. Remember people - follow the eyes and ears.

With an organization of the size of VaynerMedia, of course you need a balance of employees that are highly skilled in particular focuses as well as those that are considered to be 'jacks of all trades.' So for me, of course both work, but truthfully, I'm a firm believer in the importance of being a 'jack of all trades.' So, for the purposes of drawing some lines in the sand, I don't agree that everyone should focus on one particular skill.

Many people would argue that if you try to know a little bit of everything, you'll never get to the point of mastering anything. My argument? Bullsh*t. I don't buy it. I think I'm perfectly capable and skilled at 19 different things and that's just the way I roll. Look, you need to be able to adapt and you need to be able to evolve your skill-sets depending on the particular situation. In my world, there's NO room for excuses. So when I hear people make the excuse that they can't do other things because they've gone so deep in one focus, it bothers me.

There's always room to get better in as many things as possible. You need to expand your arsenal because you'll never know when you'll need to tap into more than one skill. It's speaks to your agility and your ability to offer a number of benefits to a certain situation when the time calls for it. You can always get better. Start moving :)

When people bring up my competitors I tend to respond in a condescending way. Quite honestly, I dislike my competitors (in the context of the game/business). When people bring them up I try and tear them down as quickly as possible. My competitors? Oh, you mean those people who are trying to win awards while I'm over here trying to actually sell sh*t?

Deep down, I'm just not a fan of my competition. Anything I think that'll make somebody realize the value in working with us is something that I will push and fight for throughout the discussion, no matter what. Look, I'm a salesman, a talker, with great tact and enormous empathy. Hence why I win as often as I do. I can read a room and I know in real-time how to navigate the conversation and find my way to the top and win that discussion. Others? They just can't. They may just not be good enough to communicate their value without sounding awkward or inappropriate. Some just don't have it.

Look, I can play the game and I know when to turn it on and off, but others just don't have what it takes to communicate their worth and their value. I care SO MUCH about my clients that I'll do whatever it takes to make them realize how worthwhile it is to work with me (VaynerMedia) as opposed to anybody else. It just is what it is. Other people just need to apply different routes and tactics. But quite honestly, any other route besides the one that I roll with, is sh*t. Period. End of story.

High-end wine is as much of a hoax as the art world is and as much of a hoax as a high-end restaurant charging $10K for a a once in a lifetime meal. It's as simple as supply and demand. Is a stock price a hoax? My answer? Yes and No.

I used to think that the amount I was being paid for my speaking engagements was a hoax, but then I realized that I was getting compensated for what I was doing for that event. Is an actor quietly getting $8 Million for a movie a hoax, as opposed to an athlete who constantly gets ridiculed for being over-paid? It's all an arbitrage. That same actor is putting people in the seats and ad budgets are being leveraged against the appeal of that actor/actress.

So, can I taste the difference between a $10 wine and a $100 wine? ABSOLUTELY. I live it. It's what I do. The beauty of wine is that everyone has their own palette -- similar to how people have different taste perceptions of art and music. It's simple branding. It's supply and demand. My advice? DON'T. DRINK.GOOD.WINE. It's all supply and demand. If you start to taste the good things (first class plane tickets, front row seats, etc.), you'll put yourself in the position to realize it's not a hoax. It's all perspective. It's context baby! Don't complain about it unless you're prepared to never taste it.

I literally spend ZERO time focusing on my competition. I don't look to the right of me or the left of me -- It's all forward moving for this guy. I focus ALL of my time on people, the teams around me, and our focus for the future.

Do I know what the competition is doing? Sure, to some level - but I never go deep as my understanding typically goes as far as reading headlines and hearing some of the buzz of the industry. The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs making is paying too much attention to those around them. Sure, take a look back once and while to see who's on your tail, but at the end of the day your focus needs to be on your own domain. If you can focus all of your attention to accomplishing what you set out to do, full-steam ahead, you'll win.

Not only will you win but you'll be able to razz the competition a bit while you ignore them :) I find that not paying attention to your competitors is actually a tactic to be used and a competitive advantage which allows you to focus your energy on the work you've set out to do in the ways in which you've set out to do it.

Someone by the name of Tommy Mottola (look him up) once told me that he wouldn't try and sell anything until the artist he was working with and the product they were creating (in this case music) were ready. And I agree with that to some extent because if you're going to sell something you need to make sure that those ready to buy it can actually do so, but it also needs to make sense for the context involved. So let me explain.

If you're able to achieve and execute on business objectives by building out content and pushing your product or business without the need of a fully built website, then by all means, go for it. By creating content you're beginning the journey of how your story will unfold. The reception of this content will also allow you to test and learn and understand the best approach to creating future content once your business and website are ready for the masses. That process you simply don't want to miss out on.

And so, a big issue I've been seeing is that people are too reluctant to sell against the communities and the impressions they've established on social. Too many people are caught up on only leveraging their website for banner ads but selling against social audiences is essentially the same thing. If you're creating valuable content that's living on social then you might as well take advantage of that opportunity. Don't get caught up in only monetizing on the platform that you fully own when there's a world of opportunity that exists through the channels you're deciding to put your content on.

So in short - If the opportunity to create content presents itself and makes sense for the objectives of the business you're trying to build, then my suggestion is to go ALL IN and get moving. NOW.

The biggest decision of my life? Deciding to finally focus on what felt right to me.

At an early age I received an "F" on one of my Science tests. From that moment in time I understood that no matter how many people tried to tell me the importance of school, I knew deep down inside that it wasn't for me. And although I knew it would bring me nights upon nights of punishment, I decided that school couldn't be the one thing I focused all of my energy on.

From my "flower business," to the lemonade stands, to the baseball card collection, I knew early on that I was a businessman. Although I had felt it inside, it wasn't until I made the conscious decision to focus on these skills that things began to change for me and my outlook on the rest of my life would be forever different.

The moment I made the decision I knew that I would be looked at by society as different, and I understood that, but I made the mental decision to accept that and focus on what felt right for me. I made a deal with myself that I was ready and willing to eat the pain in order to capitalize on my early self-awareness. I decided to focus on my skills and learn as much as possible about whatever venture I was focused on at the time. So rather than succumbing to society's pre-determined life plan for me, I fought it, and delivered on what I felt and knew I was -- a businessman.

I suggest you do the same.

It's funny to hear that people are referring to cellphones and other mobile devices as the "second screen." As far as I'm concerned, in this DVR'd world we live in, most of us are on our phones, scrolling through our feeds as commercials, and sometimes the actual TV shows, are being ignored. I'm pretty certain we're at a moment in time where our mobile devices are indeed our 'first' screen of choice.

When it comes to retail though, it makes sense that we refer to our phones as the "second screen" because it certainly holds true that our eyeballs serve as the 'first screen' when we're walking around. What's really resonated with me recently with retail is how people are behaving when they're out and about and shopping around. People are literally IGNORING the promotional end-caps that brands spend tons of money on, simply because they're too distracted by their phones. Although this may sound like a wasted opportunity, I see it as the future of in-store marketing.

This has been a hot topic of discussion over the last few years -- how phones and other devices will play a role in our shopping experiences -- and is something I'm very interested in. Brands need to start being more conscious of how we're using our devices in our everyday interactions. With the advent of ApplePay and the beginning phases of beacon sensors, there's no question that our in-store purchasing behaviors will be highly influenced by those shiny little devices we seem to never be at an arms-length distance from.

The humanization of business. Manners of Marketing. Thank You Economy. They're all same. Now that the Internet has allowed consumers to have more control, businesses are expected to behave differently and interact with their communities in a way that humanizes their messaging. Unfortunately however, brands haven't fully embraced the mindset that I thought would have been exhausted by now.

My prediction with the Thank You Economy was that by 2015 everybody would be on board. Unfortunately, that is not the case. People just haven't adopted it at scale and therefore how can it really be over? Nobody's ruined it. This might actually take forever or never happen at all although I know that those practicing it are getting real results. I see those emails every day.

And so, my prediction was incredibly off. It just may never happen at scale because companies can be heartless. Heck, even I'm heartless when it comes to money. I know that business is all about the wallet and I get that, but there's a real financial benefit with TYE mentality. I see the dividends with it each and every day. People are STILL flabbergasted when a company reaches out to them with a half-assed approach, and so I know that the potential is still there, but I'm utterly confused as to how it hasn't been fully adopted yet. It's 2015, people!

Everything trickles from the top. For a long time I used to talk about the "rich-kid syndrome" and how they didn't have it in them to hustle their way to building a sustainable business. What I've learned, however, is that this doesn't apply to everybody.

When it comes to business, like anything else in life, it all stems from the top. Just like a business' culture stems from its leaders, the way a child sees the world and their approach to life all comes from how they were brought up. When I meet with these "rich kids" I spend almost all my time trying to figure out what their past was like. How did their parents raise them? Did they spoil them or did they make them work for what they wanted? And so, this really has nothing to do with the kids themselves but more so about who their parents were and how they decided to pass on the family legacy.

I know that my kids are going to be "rich kids" but that doesn't mean I'm going to spoil them. I'm not going to let them become soft and I will most certainly let them know what it means to work and sweat for something that they want, because I know that it's up to me to instill those qualities within them from the onset.

If you want to build a more scalable brand you need to put out content. Utilize the technology around you like SlideShare, Spreecast, and Google Hangouts which allow you to further establish your credibility, and where you can also charge people for participating if they're willing to do so.

Use your content as a gateway to drug to allow you to further establish yourself and your brand. What I really see here is that people are just loaded with excuses. Do you really want to build your brand or do you want to watch 'Homeland?' Do you really need to take that hour long lunch? LUNCH? C'mon!! There's better ways to use our time. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat, but do you really need that much time for lunch?!?

As with anything in life, you just need to figure out your cadence. What do you really want? Are you wasting your time by doing things that aren't allowing you to achieve the levels you want? If you really want to expand your brand, start putting out content, engage with people that may be interested in what you have to offer, cold call, and do whatever else it takes, even if that means having two hours less of sleep.

Wanting to be an entrepreneur and being an entrepreneur are two very different things. If I were a young and aspiring entrepreneur I would go out an hustle my face off in any which way possible. The best way to become something is to first act like something. Sell, sell, sell. Understand what it takes to provide value to somebody. Learn how to communicate your value proposition enough so that it registers with your 'customer' allowing for you to accomplish what you've set out to do.

Go out and find mentors. Go work for free and under people that can show you the ropes and serve as that point of contact when you need it. Learn the hustle and taste the game. Put yourself in the position to win. You can read as many books as you'd like, but they're not going to make you an entrepreneur. The only way to become something is through doing.

And so, start hustling. Start doing whatever it takes. Even if that means selling the very shirt off your back.

They way I prioritize my time is by making the best judgment call possible in that particular moment in time. I frame my process by selecting two sides of the spectrum: What's the most on fire and needs to be tended to immediately, and what are the more high-level ideas that I can work on and flesh out?

I'll take care of things like employee issues or client concerns (the biggest and most time-sensitive problems) and balance it by going on the offense on the things with the biggest upside, like company culture, visions for the future, buying the Jets ;), etc.

I never focus on anything in the middle. VaynerNation, I warn you, the MIDDLE is DANGEROUS. Stay away.

The transition from being a "doer" to becoming a leader can be very difficult. Quite frankly, it scares the crap out of me. It's hard to go from "execution-mode" to then becoming a manager of a team. These are two very different things that can cause some issues if not handled properly.

When you're a leader, you have to be the bigger man/woman in any given situation. You can't simply impose your will because you're now the "boss." A leader listens. They swallow their pride and work to make sure the team is executing as needed. A leader needs to empower those around them to do their jobs but they also need to be able to take the hit, and eat crap, because things won't always be easy, and at the end of the day, they're the ones leading the charge.

I firmly believe that the transition from doer to leader is the same as the transition from leveraging your EQ rather than your IQ. Leaders need to listen and empower their team to become leaders themselves and take ownership of the work they're given. Leaders need to understand who they are as a person and relay that emotional understanding to those around them. As I've said many times before, it all boils down to self-esteem and self-awareness. If you can understand who you truly are as a person, and as a leader, then you'll be able to instill the same understanding in the team around you.