#AskGaryVee Episode 134: Does VaynerMedia turn down clients based on values?

“if the price is right? “Or do you turn down based on your values “and beliefs?” – This has been interesting. We’ve been having some
interesting situations happening at VaynerMedia
where I would say that East coast and West coast
political correctness bias over certain clients has
been rearing it’s head at VaynerMedia, and I’ve
been really struggling actually quite a bit lately on what, I don’t want to
be the judge and jury of VaynerMedia’s moral
compass on which clients we take and so I’m trying
to figure out if it’s legal in America, should
that be the line in the sand? It’s a great question. We have, I’ve been, this is a really,
really tough question and a great question. We have passed on clients, because of my own personal compass, you know like the Patriots, and we haven’t passed on the Patriots. That’s unfair to them. Though I still hate you Patriots, but I love Vayner Nation Patriot fans. I just hate how you roll with football. The answer is it’s
starting to rear it’s head. America has never been more divided. We have growing offices in middle America which
I think will take away some of the East coast,
West coast mentality. Everybody in this office
is divided on things like, should we not take sugar water? There’s plenty of people in this company that think we shouldn’t. Guns, I mean Jesus especially with the tragic events of yesterday and this
entire year and just like the last several years in America. Alcohol. Tobacco, I mean what if the biggest tobacco company came along to work with Vayner. I think there’s plent of people here that would have a tough time working on it would bow out, wouldn’t
want me to take it on. Is that my, you know, I think I made those
decisions my whole life for me as a person. It’s easy for me. It’s me, I’m accountable to me. I don’t do the sponsored
stuff that I don’t want to. I don’t do any sponsored stuff, but I’ve, for example,
I’ve been thinking a lot about getting a lead
sponsor for the #AskGaryVee show in 2016, because I need and want those dollars to apply to a lot more advertising to
learn more about growth of content online. I need real dollars. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, that’s interesting. I’ve never thought about that before, and never did it with Wine
Library, things of that nature. Would I take any brand? Absolutely not. I think that money is the last thing that drives me, but I also absolutely have no interest in idealistic over political correctness
dictating my decisions, and I think we have that, especially when you
live in New York, L.A., San Francisco, and so I
have to think of things as collective including
a global collective not just the United States of America. That’s my answer.

“with someone who is constantly negative “about entrepreneurship?
And what if it’s your mom?” – Louie, I I think the biggest way
to handle that is to stick it to your mom. I think you go out and you execute, and then you tell your mom I told you so. You were wrong mom. You know what’s great
about entrepreneurship? The market, business, life is it’s a net net gain, meaning at the end of the day,
either your mom’s right or you’re right. She’s negative about
entrepreneurship with you. Louie, she doesn’t think you can do it. I don’t think your mom, over arching doesn’t believe that
entrepreneurship exists or is an option. She just doesn’t believe in you. Now, I’m drilling you right now, because I’m trying to light a fire in your ass to be like, really pissed, the way I get. Nothing excites me more
than the adrenaline that I get. Right now I’m fired up for you Louie. I’m making pretend that I’m you Louie, and I’m so god damn pissed. I wanna literally punch
my mom in the face. That’s how I feel, and so, but like figuratively. I’m not condoning
violence against your mom. My moms my favorite person on earth. My mom is the compete opposite. No one believed in me more or ever will. That being said Louie, she doesn’t not believe
in entrepreneurship. She doesn’t believe that
you’re an entrepreneur. Now the question is back to my self-awareness
content that I’ve been pushing out a lot, maybe she’s right. Maybe you’re delusional. The real question is who else in your ecosystem does believe? And more importantly,
forget about everybody else. This is really the crooks
of the whole damn thing. Do you believe? Right, because I think one of the weird things that has happened in my life that I think has created the scenarios of my existence is I have an incredible ability. I’ve had my whole life to literally tune out every other voice except my own, and I think that it’s
equally a vulnerability. I have no mentors for that reason. I love my parents. I would give them the mentor mantle, but I really don’t. I literally just listen to my own voice, and so if you’re lucky as I am, and I know millions of people are I’m sure to be able to tune out everybody, if you believe you’re an entrepreneur then you’re set. I would argue the fact
that you’re even asking me this question means
that you’ve put weight into your mom’s opinion, which I think needs to be dissected by you to begin with, because I put zero weight into anybody’s opinion about myself because I know exactly who I am.

– [Voiceover] B. asks, what
do you think of McDonald’s response to Burger King’s
Peace Mcwhopper idea? Seems like they missed a big opportunity. – DRock, before I answer this, are you running the B
roll that we did before the show? – [DRock] Yeah. – To start the show. – [DRock] I can do it right now. – No, start start the show with it. I think it’ll be interesting. People are gonna be, oh, Staphon’s now. Right, Staphon. Graduating to editing the show. Start with all that B roll all black and white before
it even goes into it, because then people understand why I screwed up the intro,
because the transition was awkward. I, well first of all you’ve seen a lot of our banter on this. I’m with you India. I thought it was I think my answer came through in the black and white that started the show which is I think McDonalds, first of all I like competitions so I like that McDonalds kind of zing Burger King right back. Burger King tried to win the game by being like, like there was a, McDonalds was in a very tough spot. I also love what Burger King is doing in marketing right now. I think they’re being very clever. Sonic is one of our great clients at VaynerMedia. I’ve got that hat on. I think it’s super fun to watch. I think I’ll answer this. We are clearly living in interesting times where Burger King can make a micro site to make this annoucement, and McDonalds official
answer is in a Facebook post in sentence form. If you haven’t realized that communication has changed forever in our society, please let this be a moment where this is how companies that
are dead heated compet, I mean Pepsi, Coke, like Burger King – McDonalds. It doesn’t get more than that. I think it just depends on
what side you wanna be on. There’s the people that always wanna be on the serious side, which McDonalds wins. There’s people that think
the world is way too serious and you need a little humor. I think more people sit on that other side hence why I think the most
popular reply to McDonalds and upvoted. For me, for me, I like the way they went with it, but I can see every angle of it. I like that Burger King did it. I like the way McDonalds, I just want them to fight. Like, if you really want me, listen, but you have to understand. I’m giving you my answers
to me as a person. I love competition. I live for companies fighting with each other and
trying to beat each other and jockey and chess moves. I love it, the sport of it. Just like politics has become a sport and entertainment which has a lot of sad
variables around that. I think business is about to go that way, because everybody can communicate, and it’s all in public and all this stuff. I’m just enjoying watching. Pass me the popcorn.

– Gary, out here driving in the country. It’s super beautiful. I have a question for you, and my
– Is he driving and recording?
– Question is for someone
– I’m not happy with that kid. – Like myself who didn’t grow up learning tons of discipline like you did, how would I go about starting to learn the discipline that you
use to hustle and grind the way you talk about doing all the time? I can’t seem to get myself to commit. What do I need to start doing to learn to discipline myself like you do? – Two things Caleb. First of all, three things, please do not record while driving ever again in your life. Please God please. Number two, by the way, I know some people jump in and be like Gary, you did a car selfie the other day. – Yes, at a red light. Hardcore red light and
even that’s not great, because you never know if somebody is coming to drill you, but where you going anyway? Nonetheless, two things on the discipline. It is learned behavior. You just have to start doing it. It’s just learned behavior. You have to start doing it. There’s nothing else. You have to start doing it. Now the question becomes
it’s a chicken and egg game. I think the only way
you can learn to hustle and work this hard is
by actually loving it. I could never do anything I don’t love at this rigor and vigor. It’s just impossible. It’s impossible, and so figuring out what you love to do and then just making it learned behavior. I would tell you my team here, I know all of them, I’ve watched them all in a short period of time. They’re all faster than they used to be. They’re faster. Learned behavior. The speed at which my team works even versus the way, India can probably speak to this the best, even to the speed that VaynerMedia works which is every person that comes to Vayner is like this company is fast, but the way we work is even faster. It’s just the truth. It’s learned behavior. You can get faster, you can work harder, but it’s learned behavior. The only way to really do it is you gotta love it. That’s it. It’s real simple. It’s really, that’s the
answer in my opinion, one man’s point of view. – [Voiceover] Chad asks,
“With everything that you do,

“is there anything that you
feel you need to start doing?” – I need to start hacking
more day in and day out time with the kids. I’ve been talking about this out loud. Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire. I wish I did the show one year earlier, because that whole year
I would have talked about health. The show started right as I started taking care of my health, so I was already in it. You guys have been hearing me talking about going home, taking
the bath with them, or dinner with them. This is me selling myself. What I’m really good at is I keep pounding myself into submission when something doesn’t come natural. I need to hack more time with the kids and they get to six and three now. They’re six and three. Now they’re really, really, there’s things, and I’m
going to the recitals and this and that, but I want more day in and day out time. I’ve been winning on extremities. It’s worked, but now I need to figure
out more opportunities to spend that hour minimum a day with them, walking to school, bath, dinner together. It’s gonna be hard, because I’m really a continuous guy like start and then I just
go, breaking up the day where I have to shut off the intensity that I live with. You have to understand the speed at which my brain is activated and the hyper sensitive nature of how I roll when I’m in my game when I’m, that was me putting on a helmet on the field which is where I start my day. I don’t stop it. That’s why I don’t eat lunch. I’m just on, and so to stop that, defrag, really give, you know, so many of
you are spending hours with your kids and loved ones, but you’re not spending real time. Real time is mentally being in it. Checking the box that you took your kid to baseball practice,
but you looked at your phone the whole time was not being in it my friends. I need to be in it, and to shut that down at five PM what’s been going on for eight hours. Give into listening, consuming, engaging, and then restart, because
that’s what’s gonna happen, is gonna be a real challenge for me, and I need to do more of that.