#AskGaryVee Episode 150.5: Medium's New Logo & Mark Cuban Asks a Question

“good listener?” – Malik, I think good
listening comes from actual intent and actually wanting
to be a good listener. Like anything in the world,
when you want to beat something, be something, and beat. I wanna beat some things right now. If you wanna be something,
you need to actually mean it. Meaning, I decided I
wanted to get in better shape and health, I just
went out and did it. Like words are such shit. You know what’s the matter
with a lot of people? Like a lot of people. A lot of people watching this show, a lot of people in the
world, a lot of people, is there’s only actions. You know I always talk about
intent is what matters, right? Like at the end of the
day, I’m publicly tending, every time of that, I get tons of comments with like scripture
from the Bible, I think. I apologize I’m not up
on that, but I think I’m pretty sure what it’s like. Intense is good for leading things like, basically it says, intent’s great,
but like you can say you have good intent, but if your actions are you’re doing wrong things, like, and I get it. To me, like intent is the starting point so I think it’s nice to start there, but I agree. I agree. Words are the problem. Malik, you wanna be a good listener? Be a good (beeps) listener. Like, when somebody’s talking, listen. When somebody’s saying something, listen and try to do that. Because listening is not just listening, listening is listening
and then doing something about it. Like there’s a comma. The definition of listening
is consuming it and doing something about it. The problem is that
most people aren’t doing things about it. Just a whole lot of talking. A whole lot of talking
going on in the game.

“you do, but I also hate
you because I’m a little “jelly of your success. “How can I get past that?” – Like jelly, like Beyonce jelly? Like, my toned ass, or. (laughs) I’m jealous, I understand. (laughs) Thanks for the reaction,
you thought I was confused? I’m not confused. – [India] (mumbles) How
can I get past that? I’m jelly of your success. – Yeah, I get it. I mean look, I think being
jealous of my success is good. I’m jealous of other people’s
success, but not really. Meaning, try to change it from a negative to a positive. I’m inspired by people’s
success, even though being inspired by
somebody, and being jealous of them is literally just
an inch off and they’re cousins, they’re kissing cousins. Being inspired by somebody, being jealous of someone, is literally
a kissing cousin’s game, and so, I’m too egotistical
to say that I’m jealous of somebody, but I’m definitely motivated and recognize, much like the last answer, the results are the results. I’m talking big shit, guys. Like I don’t know if you
understand what I’m doing. I’m really setting myself up for failure. I’ve told the world that
I’m gonna buy the New York Jets. I need to amass 10 billion dollars to buy the New York Jets. If I amass 1 billion dollars,
a stunning percentage of the people watching
the show will define me as not winning. Because the narrative has been built, that this is my thing. Like, do you understand
that when Woody Johnson decides to sell, or passes
away, and the estate’s up for sale, in 20, 30
years, god, Woody, 50 years for you, god bless, whatever, but whenever that happens, if I’m not
the person at that point with the narrative I’m
gonna paint all these years that buys it, people will
be like, oh sorry, Gary, and whatever the Twitter or the Facebook of the world then is, which
is gonna be even worse, because it’s probably
gonna be like holograms and people are just gonna
just pop up and be like, sorry. I mean, you’re literally
gonna have Princess Leia, 58 million Princess Leias
being like, sorry dude, really wish you got it. I’m just gonna be loser city USA. I’m setting myself up
because, what’s the question? – [India] How she was helping– (coughs) – Jealous. Because, you know, you
know because I haven’t, I put myself in such a
weird position of insane success to justify success
in the narrative that I’m painting. So I’m inspired and I’m
challenged by the people. My friend Travis can buy the Jets. I mean he did it. Like this was my homie
that I hung out with five minutes ago. Then like, I introduced
that Tahoe Tech talk 2009. This is the guy that none
of you know on this panel, but you’re all gonna know him, which I’m trying to figure
out if I’m film of. Like, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. So anyway, those kind of people. I’m not jealous of Travis,
I’m inspired that he executed it at that level. So I would say that, man,
just like make a little switch in your DNA and understand, being jealous of me or anybody else, me being jealous, you guys, anybody being
je, jealous is a really backwards defensive trait. It’s gonna do you absolutely no good. Switching it slightly
into, I’m inspired by that and I wanna climb higher
than that is a really good place to go. So you need to instill
a little more goodness and get a load of the
badness out of there. I think the way to get
badness out is to talk it out. This is why I think everybody
should see a therapist or have some outlet to get bad. You needed out, you need to talk out bad. Bad staying in your heart and soul will corrode you, and it’s a cancer. Spit out your bad. Too many people use
their loved ones or their closest person as the person they spit to, and that person has a weird
relationship with them. Find your outlet. My mom and I use each
other because we’re able to connect. We got lucky.
We can handle it. But if you don’t have that
lucky relationship, you need to find a different outlet.

– [Voiceover] Aishwarya
asks, “What lessons, if any, “did you find from Mad Men? “How is VaynerMedia differently
run than Sterling Cooper?” – I don’t know who Sterling Cooper is, I’ve not watched one minute of Mad Men. I want to, I think it’s kind of cool. But I’ve never watched Mad Men, which is interesting,
because I’m building. Have you guys watched Mad Men, or an episode? Do you. (whispering)
Okay, you, great. So is Mad Men, is that
agency the one that became the best, like is the narrative
playing on those years that they became the big dogs? – [India] I mean,
they’re kind of all good. – Always were good? – [India] Yeah, they’re
good, and then they’re small, and they’re growing this
big company and they get fired by another company worldwide. – So I really want to watch it. You know what’s really
cool is that I’m glad I didn’t watch it because
I know so much more about the ad world now,
that when and if I ever watch it on a vacation,
on a binge, maybe me and Lizzie just wanna check
out and like lay in a cabin in Utah for four days and
watch two shows straight through, which sounds
really exciting, because I love checking out on my vacations. I always laugh, people don’t think. I mean I check the fuck out on vacations, I don’t give a crap’s ass. (laughs) Yeah. (laughs) You like that one? So I haven’t watched
the show, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t care what anybody’s doing. I’m doing my thing, my
way, always from the gut. I don’t care what
anybody else does, or how they do it. My way’s always better,
because it’s for me, and I know myself, and
I know I’m gonna win. And so I don’t watch other things. I don’t look at other people. I don’t need any north stars, I do me the whole way
always all the way through.

– Hey Gary, it’s Mark Cuban,
I like to know what your go-to interview questions are. Questions you have to ask every candidate that you interview every time. Inquiring minds wanna know. – Cuban’s with the nice hat. I like that. Mark, who’s accomplished
in his life the goal I have, which is to own
professional sports teams, I like that. And a lot of you are fans of Mark and he’s a really smart
dude, knows his stuff. With interviews, I really
try to reverse-engineer what the person wants. I try to break down the
person in an interview within the first few
minutes of meeting them to fully trust and believe
in me, which is something I tried doing to all these
guys on a daily basis. It’s a never-ending battle
from the day I try to interview to four years into our relationship. How can I disproportionately
get their trust because I know my intent and my actions mapped to doing good things 96 percent of the time. And I’d like to think 100, but sometimes there’s a miscommunication
if it is the right thing. And so I try to get them
to tell me the truth. Things like, I wanna come
to VaynerMedia to steal all your ideas and see how you do it, so I can start my own agency
and steal some of the people here to start it. I’m not bothered by that. I’m like, cool, great. Staphon, that’s your plan. I’ll help you. I’ll speed that up. But I expect you to work
your fucking face off 19 hours a day for the next three years for me to then help you
start your own thing. I don’t care what you want. I don’t care. I want to know what it is, so I try to get to that place very quickly. I think the other that
I’m always doing as well is at the same token as
I’m hearing those answers, I’m trying to feel out the person. I’m complete. When I interview, there’s
times where I’m in compelete Charlie Brown mode. I’m not even hearing a word you’re saying. It’s is want want want
want, I’m just going by the feel. The feel is what has
guided me the whole time. Not necessarily the words,
there’s no black and white answer. I still find it intriguing
that I ask almost everybody about siblings. It’s maybe because I love
by brother and sister so much. And I don’t judge if you’re an only child, I don’t say, oh, well you
don’t work well with others, all that dumb, cliche shit. I know plenty of only-children,
the most charistmatic of all time, and can work with everybody. And I know only-children
that cliche don’t play well with the others. I know plenty of jerk-offs
in this office that have 17 (beeps) brothers and sisters
and don’t know how to play. So that’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t know even why I
asked that question, Mark, about the siblings. But it makes, I’d like to think,
and I explain it’s because of my relationship with
mine and how I like it. And so it’s really the feeling, and trying to reverse-engineer the person. That’s what I’m looking for, Mark. Those are the insights, my man. – [Voiceover] Shannon
asks, “How do you feel about

“Medium’s new logo? “I loved their simplicity
and this new logo’s ruined “that for me.” – Shannon, this is an
interesting question. I’m an investor for Medium. That was the first investment we made in Vayner/RSE when we
transitioned to that world. I’m a humongous fan. I’m on the record
thinking that Ev Williams is one of the less than
a handful executives in the world that most
understands the consumer behavior of the modern internet world. He’s proven it Blogger,
Twitter, Medium he’s a beast. Talk about somebody
that is inspirational to me, that I’m competitive
with, because straight chops coming out of every
angle, that being said, this is one of the single worst
logo shifts I’ve ever seen. I was devastated the other day. I didn’t read about it,
I didn’t hear about it, I got on a plane, like my app updated, and I’m like, where’s
my black, what is this piece of crap? Holy crap, I hate it. I’m scared that this is gonna be passed on to medium employees
and the designer that made it sees this. Here’s the good news. It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m just one man’s point-of-view. There’s plenty of people that may like it. I don’t know. Just to answer the question straight, I really don’t like it. I feel like it blends in
with all the other stuff, whereas the other one,
now, I could be old man McGee, and I just got
used to the other one. I don’t know. But to answer it straight,
I don’t like it at all. But here’s the best part
about names and logos. It doesn’t matter. If they execute on the
product, and the service, and the narrative, and the user experience, and the many other things, I truly believe the
easiest thing to get over is the name and the logo. It’s the execution. It’s a good way to round
up this whole thing, right? How do you be a good listener. You don’t talk about it, you do it. What do you think about this logo or name? It doesn’t matter. Because what you execute
is what the end result is, and it just a very good
narrative for this show, and this theme of 150.5
episodes, which is, it’s about what you do. Keep talk, you know why I talk? Because I back that shit up and it feels double good. But a lot of you are talking
and never back it up, period. And you need to start backing it up. As a matter of fact, let me
remind you one more time, I didn’t talk shit at all
until I was 30 years old and I already have the win on the board to be able to talk about it. So, for a lot of the
youngsters, why don’t you go out and execute and talk shit. All of you social media or
life coach experts at 23, get the (beeps) out of here with that. And number two, all you
40-year-olds complaining this, that, and everything,
go do something about it. You’re a grown-ass man. You’re a grown-ass woman. Stop talking about not
being able to do it, or it’s so hard, or I don’t get it, or it’s different, or these
20-year-olds are lazy. Stop complaining, go do. Go do. Doing, doing, execution
is the only narrative. What you leave on the
table as your body of work is the game, right? And that’s that. Simple as that, period.