#AskGaryVee Episode 113: Do You Have To Choose Between Two Passions?

“to speak in front of an auditorium full “of elementary schoolers,
what would be your topic “of choice and why?” – My topic of choice, so first of all if I was in a room full of
elementary school students, like I was once ever in my
career which was in Houston in a tremendous conference that I went to where it was the best students
from elementary school of all of Houston and I
cursed up a storm and I talked about like all sorts of crap. I remember I tried to connect with them so I was using like random hip
hop artists that were popping at the time and the teachers
were literally flabbergasted and completely pissed off and the kids were completely pumped. And like these were like
the greatest students of like seventh and eighth
grade in all of Houston and like a third of the class
quit school in seventh grade when I was done with the talk. Because what I really talked
to them about was real life which is look you’re a great student, you’re goin’ down a
certain path right now. Bad news, education in
America is screwing you over. You’re gonna pop out and
you’re gonna realize holy crap I don’t wanna do this or this
and that and then I talked about the virtues of good schooling. Which is the randomness of
having a college roommate that’s a billionaire and some
of the other random stuff. But you know it was a tremendous talk. My choice of topic today,
if I was to do it today, would be you know I would tell them to really recognize how to build self-esteem and self-awareness. I would pound that and I would say look, you’re looking at me and
I’m an old dude up here and I’m cliche just like all
your other teachers and parents but you need to find the
things that you’re good at and really find the friends
that you’re looking for and you know you hear it a million times that you’re not gonna look back and care about the dumb shit
that you care about now but you don’t believe me,
but that’s not gonna stop me from trying to pound it down
you’re little f- throat.

“to have two burning
passions and pursue them “at the same time without half-assing them? “Or is it ideal to pick one at a time?” – That’s a really good question. I, you know I think there’s people that have two burning
passions at the same time. I really do and I wonder
if you can Wuzzle them and make them both work at the same time. That was a 1980’s rare television cartoon Saturday morning reference, Wuzzle. Do you know what Wuzzles are? India search it right now.
– [India] Wuzzles? – Let’s watch India’s face
as, she’s gonna love these watch this, this is India in real time, this is India in real time.
– Wuzzles? – Yeah Wuzzles, W, yep see it?
– [India] Wuzzles? – Uh-huh, go to images
because this is Wikipedia go to images.
– [India] Okay. – I want you to like really
wrap your head around how cool these things are, cool right? They’re two animals in one. So she was like a hippo
– [India] Oh. – and a butterfly, you
see what’s going on here? two animals in one.
– [India] I see it, I see it. Oh I kinda remember this. – Bang that’s what I
was lookin’ for, uh huh. – [India] The two animals in one. – Uh-huh, so maybe you can
Wuzzle them right and find a way to make your two passions… For example, you know
I could’ve very easily made Wine Library TV and the Jets.. What’s goin’ on to you? – [India] (laughing) Wuzzle them. – Well Wuzzle them, like take your two passions
– [India] I know – and smash them into one. – [India] I get it. – Like for example, I could’ve
done all my wine episodes at football games that
would’ve been a further.. You know I have the
Jets bucket but you know there’s ways to uniquely… I think you know I once
said and a lot of you liked this photo on Instagram,
if you order this quote, if you want to be an anomaly
you have to act like one. I wonder based on this question if you could be the first
person that combines two things that nobody’s ever combined
before which are weird and win. For example again, I love wrestling. What if I did Wine Library
TV only at tailgates or football environments
and wrestling matches. Like independent
circuits, like weird stuff where there’s 150 people
in the audience at a gym and the Iron Sheik’s still
there, you know stuff like that. So I’m a big fan of trying
to find a way to Wuzzle them and that’s what I would do. Now obviously a lot of
people are gonna tell you pick one, focus, I may say that at times. Today I felt like Wuzzling
them, tomorrow if I answer this question I might say
pick one, both can work. I think at the end of the
day, and we’ve talked a lot about this, it’s about self-awareness. And it’s funny I’m reading
every goddamn comment in Facebook specifically, right now I’m on a Facebook comment kind
of spree so I apologize to all the YouTubers but
that’s just what’s happening, and it’s interesting I’m
feeling more and more pressure on my shoulders more than ever before because the show is
picking up so much momentum and I’m watching so many people comment about them implementing
and seeing results. And it makes me hungry,
ambitious, greedy to try to impact more people with
what is really working. Which is if you really
know yourself, really India this question comes down
to a very simple place which is it’s one of two choices. It’s truly one of two choices. It’s really just two
levers, it’s happiness and financial and street cred upside. It’s just trying to pull the lever.. and listen I do this, I think
a lot of you may be confused. I leave enormous amounts
of money on the table for happiness. I just do, I do it all the time. The largest speaking gig
of my career, a number that makes me vomit on the
table out of happiness, I passed on ’cause it’s week
four and the Jets are playing in London and I want to go
watch the Jets play the Dolphins in London, and by the way
this is a significant number, this is a hefty six figure deal. This is more money than I
made in a three year period in my mid-twenties to go
and MC and speak at an event for a day and a half. Still could’ve watched the
Jets like I do all the time and I’m choosing happiness
over cash and we all have to do that all the
time and our lives evolve. I’m in a better financial place
than I was seven years ago. Maybe then I would’ve
chose cash, I don’t know, but even in my early days.. For example, when I lost an
eighth of, eight Jesus Christ, a third of my entire wealth in my twenties to have fun in Vegas so I
then lose it all gambling was ’cause I chose
happiness, kinda sadness, over, over, over wealth. And so the answer to this question is predicated very simply. Do I believe there’s, I’m gonna
really, I’m really breakin’ this down India, if you
Wuzzle it you may pop and be an anomaly and have
disproportionate success ’cause you’re the first guy to ever bring spaghetti and music together in this way. Most likely you won’t
and your financial upside is probably predicated on
picking one and going all in. Most likely, however, you
just might have more happiness mixing the two and have the
home run grand slam potential of breaking out which is why
I always do those things. I’m always picking my
happiness versus the straight and obvious course because
I’ve got a little bit of magic and sometimes my weird
stuff actually works as well and the booboo prize is that I’m happier. And boy happiness is addicting. You know what I’m gonna actually – [Voiceover] Vayner Nation
Serious Right Hook war.

“Can you rate my Instagram
on a one to 10 scale “and tell me how to improve?” – Yeah, let’s do it live. India great job, great question
so here we are whadafunk who I’ve seen plenty
of times in my stream. So here’s his clothing thing. I don’t, can you, can you,
what can you get here? I’m gonna rate it here. Let’s see what’s going on. Not a lot of engagement. – [Voiceover] Can you
turn up her brightness? – Let’s see, yeah. – [India] It’s the other way (laughs). – Just kidding. The pictures are tremendous,
let’s play this video. (hip hop music) I love it, I love the ghettoness. So, 1500 followers, ten, 15, 20 engagements. The engagements are a hair low. I mean I really like the
photos I just, honestly, I don’t think you’re
growth hacking enough. I think you need a lot more of a fan base. Whadafunk hangin’ at my
homies’ shop rich and faded. Yeah, I mean the content is fine. I mean I think I’d rate
it a six or a seven. I think at this point you’re
too small and you need to try a lot of different
things quote cards, zoomed in versions of the clothes. I think you could mix it up a little bit. How often is he posting India? While I’m giving the answer
try to give me a general range. – [India] Like once a day,
maybe like a little bit more. – Yeah I would go with three times a day to find your cadence and find your thing. I’d rather lose 10 to 20% of my audience to see if I can find the upside. Ooh that was a really
strong, good piece of advice for a lotta people on Instagram. Let me say it again. (warbling) That was me rewinding. I’d rather lose 10 to 20% of my audience by posting three times a day
if I was filling up their feed and make sure you’re being
strategic about those posts and doing very different
things to maybe find pay dirt as a thematic creatively for your upside. I’d also start reaching out at scale. You have products. You’re sellin’ hats and
shirts and stuff like that. You need to reach out all
day long, all day long in the comments. Go to Instagram, go to
people that have 5,000 to 50,000 followers that
are you know, got your vibe as a user, and leave a comment in their latest picture saying
I wanna give you some swag can we do something? You’ve gotta get more
distribution and awareness and I would do that by giving away product for them to give you shout outs
on their stream and siphon, siphon their audience. Cool.

“that is growing fast, is it more important “to perfect the system and process “or focus on adding more
people to the team?” – Jared it’s a good question. I’m a big fan of both. I don’t understand why
not both, I do both. As building VaynerMedia, I
was perfecting the system while hiring people and training them up and building out the team. This is not an either,
or my man and this is where I think people struggle. To really be victorious, I
think you need to be able to do both at the same time. That’s what separates the
women from the girls right? The ability to be able to do
both things at the same time and by the way that’s
where hustle comes in. Because you know what, to
do both you’ve gotta kind of integrate the team nine to five
while kind of spending five ’till like two in the morning
to perfect the system. This is where hustle matters. This is where extra hours
in the day actually matter because you can’t get to both
actually, like physically, you can’t get to both and
so in a nine hour work day. So if you’ve gotta business
that’s growing fast, first question is are you
actually deploying 18 hours a day because remember too
many of you have missed or are gonna miss your moment in time. When it’s happening, when it’s happening if you don’t triple pedal down,
that’s pedal on the metal, like foot on the pedal, if
you don’t go all the hell in, all of it, if you don’t
do that at that moment you will regret. You have missed your moment in time and that is why I’m burning the
candle from both sides right now because everything is
hitting a proper crescendo as I’m going into my 40th
birthday in November. VaynerMedia, Vayner/RSE my fund, cruising, just cruising and the
#AskGaryVee Show cruising you know just, family life and
health, I mean, cruising and so I’ve gotta push harder
because you know what at 42 I mean it might
just be that break and that moment in time where
things aren’t cruising as much and so you’ve gotta extract,
you’ve gotta extract all the value when you’re
hitting that point. You’ve gotta live it,
you just have to live it. As a matter of fact, for all
of you that in your senior year of high school that are watching
your show, squeeze the crap out of that ’cause it’s the best. And college, you’ve gotta
squeeze everything all the time and especially this
question really hits a nerve because I want people to
understand the answer is both.

– Gary Vee what’s up? Lewis Howes here from the
School of Greatness podcast. Big fan of the
#AskGaryVee Show keep it up, love what you’re doin’. I’ve got a two part question
for you and it’s geared around selling books. Now I’ve got a big book launch coming out in October, in the fall. It’s called the School of
Greatness, very excited about it – Good plug.
– [Lewis] and I’ve got a two part question for you. One with Instagram ads looking like they’re gonna be opening up here soon, – Somebody’s paying attention. – and if you could only
spend money in one place on ads Facebook or Instagram,
where would you be putting your money on a book launch
coming out this fall? That’s part one and part
two if you were looking to get 10,000 preorders
through bulk orders where would you be focusing
your energy and efforts to get 10,000 preorders come through.
– [Gary] Piece a cake ’cause I’ve done it so many times.
– [Lewis] That’s the question. Hope you like it. Thanks for all you do.
– [Gary] I love it Lewis. I would, I’m hedging here
because I just don’t know exactly what Instagram’s gonna do. If I knew that Instagram was
gonna fully open up the funnel, the firehose and ads are just rolling in, and we’re seeing five,
seven ads a day on our feed then I would say Instagram. I really would ’cause I do
believe the attention is sitting in Instagram the problem is my intuition without any knowledge is they’re
gonna be a little tighter on the spigot and it’s
gonna be a little tougher to actually break through. And so I would spend 50 cents on a dollar in Facebook and Instagram. The problem is your book’s
coming out in October. The ad platform’s supposed
to come out in October. My belief is it comes out later so I think I want you mentally in Facebook,
Facebook’s gonna dominate. Number two’s a piece a
cake ’cause I’ve done it multiple times and I’ll do
it again in March or February for my #AskGaryVee book. The place to go is to your homies. The place to go is to your homies. What I mean by that is
reverse engineer everything you’ve done for people
for the last 18 months and send them one by one, not in bulk, biggest mistake people
make is send a bulk email and say this is the one time
I wanna send a bulk email. You know I just need all
of you to buy my book. I get that all the time, that
is a piece a crap execution, it will not work. I don’t feel like it’s
personal, I never buy but Lewis when you email me and
you write a whole thing like hey remember when
we first met in Ohio and I drove you around, or St.
Louis, and I drove you around and this and that and
you know thanks for being on my podcast and hey
remember a couple months ago I asked this question on the
show so here’s my thinking and hey it was great to see that. Like real stuff, like real
stuff, like the party in LA that I helped, like real stuff, real stuff that happened between you and I. Not a bulk control c,
control v, this is you and me. You spend five minutes writing this email. It would really mean a lot
to me, I’m gonna be guilted into buying 100 books. And that’s it. And you’ve gotta lotta people like that. And some people are
even more homie with you and they’ll buy 1,000 or
they’ll buy 40 or they’ll buy 90 and literally when Jab,
Jab, Jab Right Hook came out in that August, it came out
in February, in that August or when did it come out? In January, I don’t even remember, when did Jab, Jab, Jab,
Right hook come out? Anyway, in that August. Maybe December? Anyway, in that August I emailed thousands of people one by one, wrote
them one by one emails, it took forever and I got a lot of sales and well into the tens of thousands so that’s exactly what I would do. I’d reverse engineer, CRM,
your whole social graph. The 25 to 7,000 people
that most matter and one by one by one remind them
the nice things you’ve done. I know how you roll, you
build up leverage one by one by one, one by one by one, one by one by one. Tedious, long but effort that
converts into actual sales and follow-up. I went in right in there be
like look you need to say no in this email or, at the time
Nate who’s the CEO of the book, or Nate is gonna email
you and ask you every week on the week and I’m cool
as shit if you go with no ’cause I get it. Cool but you need to say
it ’cause I will bother you until you tell me and
so put them in a corner, suffocate them, don’t let
them be able to just delete it and not answer, pound them,
let them basically understand that you will not have a
relationship going forward if you don’t at least answer
and that no is equally as awesome as 1,000 and that’s what I did. I really made everybody
feel very comfortable in saying no ’cause I get it
as I did with them being 1,000. It’s funny after I did Jab,
Jab Right Hook, even though I did it for Crush It
and Thank You Economy after I did it for Jab,
Jab Right Hook it’s funny I’ve been giving this advice
to a lot of people and as you guys know we’ve been buying a lot of hundreds and two hundreds
and putting them out for Vayner. So that’s the scoop my man,
that’s what I would do. Guys, thank you for watching the show.