#AskGaryVee Episode 187: Communication Between Co-Founders & Understanding My Business Competition

how you Scout ban on media story quickly
to do joint ventures or partnerships what strategies allowed you to scalp you know I think the number one
overarching thing with me is that I you know in a place where I’m at topline
revenue driver right because I’m able to drive sales and was able to get clients
you know funny thing happens money solves a lot of business problems
but having money continue to come in over invested so right now most of our
organization you know is not actually a capacity you know we talked a lot about the past
year being immediately probably have 20 percent more capacity many people can be
on more accounts and you get paid for most agencies would drive down to
even-steven even sometimes under passing to drive profit I on the other
hand really because of my ability to sell that’s what it is because of my
ability to sell I’m able to drive growth at such a rapid pace parallel that with
each our capabilities and actually caring about people and scaling a charm
Uhr driven CEO of the two combinations for hyper growth companies when the
cares about its people and won the table to make money it’s really not
complicated and then a third variable of one that’s not being built a cell so I’m
not worried about my margin because when you sell your company your often not
looked up I’m at your revenue look upon how much money you’re making people
paying you and multiple on that because I’m not worried about that envelope or
more dollars into people into culture into being on the offensive to opening
up London if those were things that if I was trying to sell this company I
wouldn’t open up London I wouldn’t have 20% extra capacity I be trying to
organize it and orchestrate it orchestrate it to us sale and so I think
it’s a mentality and then I think it’s the capabilities of me on the CEO level
on sales and a char Dara you mentioned publicly documenting one’s journey but
isn’t advertising experience hurtful when seeking paying by a computer over
time I said the other day in dealey be

– [Voiceover] Jered asks,
“You mentioned “publicly documenting
one’s journey, “but isn’t advertising
inexperience hurtful “when seeking paying clients?” – Confused, one more time. – [India] So like, you probably
document your journey– – I said the other day,
in DailyVee it would’ve been cool
to see Vera Wang or it would’ve been
cool to see me starting Wine Library, right? – [India] Exactly,
but isn’t that hurtful if you’re trying to
seek clients who want to pay you because
you have experience? Like say you were in advertising and you don’t
have experience like– – Yes, Jered, you should not
be paid for faking the funk. You should not be
a 20-year old life coach telling people how
to live their lives because you’re
just starting yours. You should not be paid
as an advertising expert if you’re not
an advertising expert. I mean, unless I’m wrong
here, and I don’t think I am, it seems like Jered is
talking about the classic, Fake It Till You Make It, which
so many people get away with and you’re more
than welcome, Jered, if that’s what you’re saying. Maybe, maybe you’re not. But I’m gonna use
it as an opportunity to talk to everybody right now. Yes, I think that
telling the truth exposes the things you
want to lie about. Yes I do. (laughs) Yep.

videos for companies how specifically
would you find buyers today given that it’s not something that the majority of
companies are jumping on just yet thank you I would do exactly what you’re
doing BBQ hustled away into the a scary show this was just shown a lot of people
are gonna now know about you let’s throw up bobby’s Instagram handled we can figure
that out can we right here I just give you six or seven leads I would highly
recommend that you do it for a very low price for the Boehner my nation because
one of things that people do when they’re selling something that’s the
future is the overpriced their service unique case studies you need it out in
the wild and so instead of whatever you’re charging for them if you cut that
by three-fourths give them a nation a good deal on it there in a post on their
Instagram that’s going to lead to awareness on you and so couple things
one growth hacking exactly what you did hear the other
thing is you I would go to a lot of the accounts that you’re seeing on Instagram
that have a lot of followers I would search hashtags I would use Explorer go
to their account details when applying never seen this but let’s get real
practitioner today I’m going into you know Instagram
I would go into Explorer crashed so I’m in my explorer have a look at the different counts as a
golf picture looks nice Scottish golf podcast right 5,000 followers Scottish
golf podcast I would say cool I can do animations round golf and so I would
look now they put their snapshot account they don’t put your Gmail most people do
put in Gmail and that would have led me to emailing them and say hey I just got
a scarf podcast Instagram account here is my enemy added things I’d like to get
some exposure I normally charge 300 bucks for it because you’re one of the
first people going to you for 30 bucks or may be free and you posted on your
account now because there’s no evil hear the only URL is their podcasts on
hitting yes here now going to their dot com and my hope is here I will find the
email so I can contact them going all the way to the bottom tends to be not
see it now I see their Twitter something click the tweener and now among here so
it probably reply to them on there and say hey I’m just doing that cuz its
funny but that’s what I would do I would grind for people don’t remember what I
don’t talk enough about with my library to me is that nobody watched the god
damn show and so what I just did on social media I used to do on the
Internet to search the word wine and go 40 50 60 pages deep in Google results you know 400 500 600 results keep click
every link find a blog find their email and email them and ask them if they
wanted to biz dev if they want to interview if they wanted my content if I
could bring them value to give me exposure these are sites that nobody was
thirty people forty people sixty people and I hustled and bustled hustled and so that’s when you can do
you can do what you just did with me you can go through a rabbit hole and stream
that I wish I had when I started while every TV and you put in the work to
business the one by one by one from the Scottish golf podcast to the India Art
producing Instagram to whatever you do and so that’s what I highly recommend
it’s the grind on the biz dad hustle that matters change how would you deal with a
co-founder who isn’t as ambitious as you

“a cofounder who isn’t
as ambitious as you?” – I’d break up with them. I think that if you
have a cofounder that’s not as
ambitious as you are, you’re leaning to
an inevitable breakup and I would try
to cut it earlier so that feelings aren’t as deep. It’s easier to break up with
somebody after three weeks than it is after three months than it is after
three years, right? And so there’s less baggage. Now, the cofounder may be so
talented and brings you value that maybe you don’t have
to judge them on ambition. But I would say that when
you and your cofounder are not aligned, you’re headed towards a negative and so, I would
communicate first. I’m giving you the finish line
but what I would start with is I’d be like, “Hey India,
can we have a coffee?” – Sure, yeah. – So, listen, I really think
– [India] (laughs) – that I have bigger
ambitions for this business than you do and I’d like
to talk to you about that. – That’s probably true. – Yeah, it’s definitely true.
– [India] (laughs) – And so, I think you
have that conversation. One of the things
that it’s led to, and I’ve given
this advice a lot, is that India and I who
started off at 50/50, India recognizes that and
sees that I’m putting in 18 hours a day and
she’s putting in seven. And she may say, “You know what, “I still want to
ride that train. “I believe in us, I can’t do
that, I’m not as ambitious, “I don’t have as much
energy, I don’t want to, “I have things at home
that I want to do, “dah dah dah dah dah. “Maybe I should give
you back and now, you have 70% and I have 30.” And so really, there’s
always a deal to be had. If the deal ends
up being 100/zero ’cause I don’t value India,
even at 30, or even at 20, or even at 10, or even at zero, well then you have to break up. But everything in life,
every relationship, you know, boss and employee,
boyfriend and girlfriend, partners in business,
cousins, Mom and Dad, every relationship on Earth
is predicated on communication and you have to have the backbone to step up and
actually have that conversation and have it in
a truthful manner. And it’s super scary
and a lot of people are intimidated by it. And I’m not, it took me a
long time to get good at it. I still don’t always
get great at it but, it is the only answer
to this question. It’s about having the
conversation and seeing where the things fall
because a lot of times, the other person doesn’t
want you to bring it up. They may, you know,
recognize it. Sometimes they
don’t even recognize it. Some people are blind
and lack self-awareness. So, you need to make
sure you’re connected in whatever that arrangement is.

Looks like Rebecca a little bit. – Hey Gary Vee, I wanna
ask you a question about competition.
– Yes, I love competition. – A lot of solopeneurs
are advised that don’t look at the competition
because it can drain you and make you
second-guess yourself and everything like that
but I, you know, through my business
that is and things like that I’ve realized that,
or I’ve been taught that you can’t operate
in a silo, you know. Your landscape, you
have to keep your eye on the landscape of your industry. So, my question is,
what do you think about competition and
how you approach it? Thanks. – What’s her name again,
one more time? – [India] Sarah. – Sarah, thank you so much. I like the taxi photo
in the background. You know, this is a tricky one. I think this comes
down to the individual. I don’t spend a lot of
time on my competition. I haven’t historically. But I keep, you know, a
fifth of an eye on it. You know, you want
to know context, you can’t be blind
to things completely but I don’t dwell or allow
my competition to drive my mentality or where I’m going. I think it’s a very fine line. I think it’s a very,
very fine line. And I think it’s a very
individual thing so. I don’t know much
about the agency world, as a whole, I don’t know the
names of most of the CEOs. I don’t know how much
revenue they’re doing. I don’t know who
their clients are. I don’t know what
the work they’re doing. A lot of my contemporaries
spend all their time on AdAge and DigiDay and other websites to keep up with what’s going on. PRWeek, AdWeek, in the trades. I think that there’s a lot
of entrepreneurs that do extremely well by
knowing what’s going on with their competitors
and using that as a proxy, as a guiding light. I think a lot of entrepreneurs
are B and C entrepreneurs and they need somebody
else to be the leader and they follow it and
they pick up the crumbs. And they get 20 and
30% of the action and that’s enough for them. And that’s where
they deserve to be. I think others like me are
super driven by not knowing. I don’t even want
to give my competition the satisfaction of knowing. I mean, I literally hate
my competition so much that I literally want
to be disrespectful by not even amassing
a minute of my time on what they’re doing
because I think that’s the ultimate
insult and I like that. Because I don’t
like you, competition. I don’t like you. Now, I like you
as a human being, like in, when I put my
jersey on, I hate you, but as like a human,
there’s plenty of executives from competitive
agencies that I adore and think are
really good people. But, when I put my
jersey on, I hate you and the way that I can
teach you that I hate you is to not even
allocate a minute on you because I disrespect
you that much. That’s me. You may be somebody who
learns from your competitors and that’s how you navigate. So, I do not think that
anybody who taught you one way or the
other, emphatically, don’t forget, #AskGaryVee Show, I’m one dude,
with one personality trait, with, you know, one life that
is trying to communicate my points of view but I never, and I’ve said this on DailyVee recently, I have no interest in you
following, you know, my footsteps. I have you, I have
interest in you trying to figure out yourself the way I
figured out myself. Right? I know that about me so
I don’t force myself to look at the competition
’cause I know, deep down, it’s not who I am or
what I want to be doing. And so I know that about myself. You need to know yourself. And it may be a balance. Some people are 50/50. It all works if you’re
most self-aware about you. Question of the day,
question of the day: