#AskGaryVee Episode 150: Vimeo, New Facebook Profile Videos & Strategy Around Speeches

– Joe.
– [India] “In a tactic-obsessed world, “how do you hammer home the
truth that WineLibraryTV “succeeded because of you,
not the daily videos?” – Interesting. So Joe’s saying that
the daily consistency, which seems like a proxy to success, isn’t the reason it was successful. It was more of me and my talents. Joe, I think the answer
is they’re both correct. I mean, I would totally disagree with you that, I mean, I lived it. If I had quit after the nine-month mark, it was me, I did it. A lot of things would be different today. That just wouldn’t have
been a foundational piece of my narrative. I wouldn’t have broken out into Web 2.0 culture, which would then not have allowed me to be a top-25-follows
person during that era. Would have not allowed me to network in South by Southwest and meet all the founders of the future
most important companies. There’d surely be no opportunity in 2008 to have dinner with Zucks at South by, wouldn’t have been asked. So, you know, I think that yes, and I’ve said it a bunch of times, no marketing and no tactics will help you if your product is shit. If I wasn’t good enough, I could still be doing the episodes. There’s plenty of people that do. I mean, you can go watch
on YouTube right now someone who’s been putting out videos everyday for the last seven years and still has 8,000
subscribers and isn’t getting any traction cause they’re
just not good enough. And being good enough is
the variable, number one. But to downplay the
consistency of the work ethic. And look, I’m feeling it now
with the #AskGaryVee Show. You know, in London, seven selfies. Right? Seven people, I’m
literally walking the streets, “Gary, Gary,” I’m feeling
much more brand equity because of the content
that I’m putting out. And, honestly, I’m feeling it a lot more over the last 60 and 90 days than I did over the first year of this show. Like, momentum is a real thing. Even the Jets game. We were up 27 to 7 and then it started getting a little hairy cause for the last 18, 20 minutes Miami basically had the momentum. We held on. Momentum is real. In sports and in life and in business. And the only way you gain momentum is by putting down the foundation of work that gives you the chance for momentum. So momentum just doesn’t
come out of thin air. It’s a play, it’s a
moment, it’s consistency. It’s putting in the work and so Joe, I don’t pound that home because I think both matter quite a bit. But yes, you know, no marketing solves a bad product. – [India] From Samantha.
– [Gary] Samantha.

“How do you feel about a
short video in place of “your profile picture on Facebook? “Motion sick or sick move, you decide.” – Motion sickness or sick move? You know, I think gif culture
is real, people like it. You know, I think
storytelling is storytelling. I think they both can work. I think it comes down
to how good the gif is. You know, like, I think it comes, just like how it comes
down to the picture. To me, there’s more
upside in the fact that it just creates a little
bit more creative freedom. DRock, is that what you
were emailing me about? You want one of those, right? Um, yeah, I mean, DRock wants it cause
he’s all about the video. – [India] A lot of people were asking you, that’s why–
– [Gary] No, I’m glad. I mean, I appreciate everybody
asking and, you know, this is not something I’m
massively passionate about, meaning I think this
falls in the same category about a company’s name. If your animated gif, your
little video is good and clever, it’ll capture people’s attention, I think for the short term,
over the next three months it’s probably a smart tactic. Because in the world of the feed you’ll stand out cause it’s new. And so I think if you wanna go there for a little bit more
awareness, you do it right now. As a matter of fact, I’m
gonna now tell DRock to pick some part of this answer
to be my motion video just for kicks and giggles. It’ll be very meta. And so yeah, I think
over the next 3-6 months it’s a smart tactic that might give you a little more uptick in awareness in a feed, crowd-noise feed culture. But I think it comes down to the video or it comes down to the picture. One of the biggest reasons, one thing I will say is, I didn’t change my picture on Twitter for a very long time, even though I no longer
looked like that dude. Which I think is a pet peeve of mine. But I just couldn’t
give up the consistency of, you know, you’re so visual. The amount of times I’m
on Twitter where I’m like, “Wait a minute, that’s Rick? “He must’ve changed his profile.” So I would say that I like the idea of keeping something consistent
in these small icon worlds after you pick something
for a long period of time. If you’re trying to build a brand, if you’re trying to get your content seen. – [Voiceover] Irina asks,

“You seem to be everywhere! “Are you democratic about
your talks or do you “have a strategy in place
for public speaking?” – Irina, I have a
strategy about everything. So I have a strategy
for my public speaking. At this point in my career
I try not to speak much unless I’m getting paid
my very expensive fee. It’s a promise I made myself and my wife. So there’s that. But when I am not getting paid, it is absolutely a
disproportionate opportunity to do one of two things. Which is build my brand. And if I have to speak where, I spoke recently where
Hilary Clinton was first and Steve Forbes was behind
me and I was in the middle. That’s good brand positioning. Ninety percent of the
crowd, 98% of the crowd, they didn’t know who I
was, but they sure knew that I was one of those three people and that means something
and that makes them Google me up a little bit more. The other thing that I do is that I really want to support
certain communities. New Jersey tech scene,
the Harlem tech scene is something that I’m going
to be doing in the future. You know, interns, young people. So if there’s something that
emotionally feels right to me, that I know that if I do it, people in the future will do it as well cause that organization
can leverage my name. And I’m giving back to something
that means something to me, Jersey, kind of like the come-up, underdog
area, you know, youngsters. Those are things that
I’ll invest my time into. But there’s no, like, sure! No, it’s all like, (clicking noise) No, “Sure!” – [Voiceover] Matthew asks,

“What’s the next industry
to be turned upside down “because they aren’t
adjusting business models “to fit changes in technology?” – I mean, the answer is everything. You need the breakout product. The reason the hotel industry and the limousine service
industry have been thrown upside down is because entrepreneurs came and
attacked it full-throttle. You know, the refrigerator, appliances, smart appliances are coming
so all appliances are on-call. Retail. Brands now can go direct to consumer. So, you know, I think
we’ll see that play out over the next 10 years. TV, big media conglomerate companies have to adjust to the
over-the-top networks and all the infrastructure
they have in place to be very expensive to produce
television-like products when people can just do it like this. Or over-the-top as a
new distribution game. The internet is the middle man. Period. And so anybody who was in the middle is on-call. And that’s most things. And so I think every industry
is prime for disruption. It’s why I’m so excited
about this generation. It’s why, back to the film, it’s why I do believe
a 48-year-old who has a nine-to-six job can
do something about it from seven to two in the
morning if they wanna be an entrepreneur because
there’s so much opportunity, so ripe. So many things are convoluted. The way we get wills. There’s a start-up I got
involved with that’s incredible. Abortion. Abortion is such an emotionally
tough thing to begin with. If you’re in that position oftentimes, generalizing obviously, it can
be an offensive move as well, but when you’re going
through something like that, and then you have to go through
the convoluted paperwork where an app can solve
everything in a minute. Like, literally anything that takes time. The DMV. Like, anything that takes time that is predicated on paper or legacy or keeping humans in jobs, like toll-booth collectors. Like, come on, it’s 2016. I mean, like seriously? No disrespect and you might be watching and you are or have a friend or relative that’s a toll-booth collector. Like no joke, they could make that money doing something that can
probably do them more upside than sitting on their
phone playing Angry Birds. I mean, it’s insanity. And there’s a lot of insanity out there. And I’m excited about insanity
getting punched in the mouth by innovation. Innovation, insanity.

“Will Vimeo ever be able
to successfully compete “with YouTube without running ads? “Or will they keep thriving
as a smaller competitor?” – Malik. Vimeo is a wonderful place. It’s a tremendously interesting
niche place for video. But it doesn’t compete with YouTube. And I don’t see it really
competing with YouTube. Meaning they’re just two
very different things. That’s like saying “Can Hamilton, the Broadway play, “compete with Star Wars?” It depends on what you’re competing on. Can it complete from a quality standpoint and experience standpoint? Absolutely, it’s probably
winning, a la Vimeo. Can it compete on a scale, an impact standpoint and dollar amounts and money-making? Absolutely not. Vimeo’s not built to compete
with YouTube smartly. When David plays Goliath’s game it goes out of business. When David plays David’s game, it wins. And I think Vimeo’s done a very nice job carving out its proper niche
within a video landscape and recognizing it
doesn’t have the dollars, infrastructure, scale, momentum and oomph to compete on YouTube’s
game against YouTube.