#AskGaryVee Episode 228: YouTube Monetization Policies, Future of FinTech & Fostering Leadership

Do you have any thoughts about recent YouTube
monetization changes? Do you their competitors
will benefit from that? Do you have any names which companies we
should look out for? Which platforms like
YouTube we should look out for? Thank you, Gary. – So what’s the punchline? The truth is I’m not super sure. I know they went with
this subscription stuff. Are they like making less ads? Does anybody know
the context of this? I know you guys probably
assumed that I know but I’m not paying
attention. Eliot? – [Eliot] They’re making
monetization on YouTube, there’s an algorithm to say
which videos they can monetize and which videos they can’t. And they’re making it kind of
fuzzy can be monetized and what can not be monetized. – Based on IP and
stuff of that nature? – [Andy] Basically
demonetizing anything low brow. – Got it. – [Andy] (inaudible) – Janek, I think, look
this happens forever. You have to
understand something, Janek. Anybody in this world, is I’m
gonna give a very good answer that doesn’t
answer the question. I just got the context. You know, I’m gonna give you
a really good fuckin’ answer. I’m really fired up now because
I’m gonna level this up and I’m in a every leveled up
mentality for this show. Anybody who’s watching the show
that is tying their economics into a platform that
is privately held is making a massive mistake. For all the people that
made all their money on Google optimization, this is back
today, like where else are we gonna go when Google changes
the algorithm and they take down lowbrow, it’s the same game. The platforms have their
users interest in mind. People come along and try to
extract value that have their best interest in mind. The platforms have big
scale and opportunity. People want to make
money off of that. As people want to make money off
of that they look for angles, shortcuts,
lowest common denominator, you know, arbitrage. They look for their move and
so whether it was affiliate marketing and AdSense AdWords
arbitrage, Commission Junction, YouTube, Facebook Pages. There’s always these moments
where you know there’s the ebb and flow, the seesaw of like the
cat and mouse game of the people that produce content
on these platforms. MySpace, this is just history this has been the last
20 years of the internet. What happens is the platform
will make a macro decision that’s in the best interest of
the end users at scale and it will hurt the people that
been hacking the system. Slideshows on the internet that
allow those advertisers to make money, those media companies
make more money against advertisers that sat in the middle and didn’t care
about the quality. This is a quality-quantity game
that plays itself out so Janek here’s what I would say and for
everybody else that’s watching whether it is
Snapchat or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or podcasting, diversify your world. You need to be everywhere
and creating brand and scale everywhere that you are capable
of and if you’re not well then maybe you don’t deserve to make
as much but relying solely on the revenue one platform is a
humongous mistake especially when that platform is a private
business that is going to make the decisions for that platform. I loved everybody when the
Facebook algorithm change and organic reach dropped and they
we’re trying to drive their ad revenue up that all you had
real puffy chest and saying, “Well, we’re gonna
go elsewhere.” How’d that work
out for you, Rick?

– Hi Gary. – Hey Gary, it’s Dave. Cofounder of YNOME in Zurich. I’m here with the team. We’re interested about the
future of finance and FinTech. It’s been getting
a lot of VC money and interest from the media. You talk about investing in
money as an entrepreneur. Would really hear your view on what is the future of
banking and finance. Thanks a lot. – That’s a great
question, David. Thank you and team. I think FinTech has been hot for
a very long time and continues to be and through Web 1.0 and
Web 2.0 and social web and today FinTech is always
an opportunity. There’s so much
SaaS opportunity. There’s so much inefficiency in
the banking and financial worlds based on people at scale
and I think technology, look, I think of FinTech the same
way think of everything else. Uber, Airbnb, Amazon they are the absolute previews,
not anomalies. They happen to get to the book
industry, the black car service and hoteling, so
what do I think? I think Venmo or Mint or all
these things have been chipping away and creating billion-dollar
exit opportunities within FinTech and because finance
and money transferring and our personal
relationships with money, FinTech is incredible place. It’s been a place that
I’ve never been very passionate about. I never really gone after that.
I tend to like consumer behaviors that are more kind
of just not around money, I guess really. Escapism, entertainment,
communication, not around finances but I think it’s an
extremely fertile ground in one of the core pillars of who we
are as human beings and I think that like everything in the
world technology will eat it up. Change it, spit it out, create
billionaires, crush fortunes, create new ones and I think the financial sector
is no exception. Especially when you take it to
the most macro levels which is a crypto currency. They’re just like, that’s
arbitraging the money itself. Enormous opportunity in FinTech. Just ironically the reason you
don’t hear much for me is I’m not deeply educated in it
because I haven’t spent time paying attention to it just
not one of the areas that I’m passionate about but the thesis
of opportunity is enormous.

I’m a dad and I’m wondering
what’s one of the biggest life events or especially events that
you had to miss (child babbling) due to your commitment to
the work but how’d you (child babbling) and how
did you overcome? Thanks man. – You know, Ernest, first of
all, that what was remarkable and about as
adorable as it gets. Ernest, you know I haven’t
missed anything, I missed some you know school plays. I haven’t missed any, no birth,
I would never miss a birthday. There hasn’t been
a signature event. They’re seven and four. There hasn’t been, you
know, Xander’s bris. That would be insane to me to
miss anything of that nature. I guess we all have different
scale of what’s important. There’s dads out there who
would never in the world miss a baseball game of
their son, ever. I would. I just don’t think the fifth
game in a season for Xander if something that is remarkable for
me and Xander, my family’s life is coming that place. I wouldn’t miss Xander’s
fifth baseball game for a big meeting or a new client. Would I miss it for the
opportunity to close a $78 million deal for our family? Yes, I would.
I just would. And I know one would
say well that’s money. Yeah, but but would I miss
Xander’s championship game after he played baseball every day of
his life for nine years and it was his number one
passion in the world to close a $78 million deal? I don’t know, it’s closer. I wouldn’t say definitely not. I just don’t know,
I mean I don’t know. First of all, if Xander was 13,
Xander at 13 after watching all my business YouTube videos
might want me, I don’t know. Here’s what I would say,
Ernest and everybody else, first and foremost, I would
never judge anybody else’s parenting or process. I have the greatest
relationships in world with my parents and I a lot of things
that were done differently than others and I think we all have. But knock on wood, I think
there’s a far more interesting question maybe
5 to 7 years from now. So far, I’m rolling. There’s been nothing even
remotely intense that I can think of that I’ve missed. They’ve been micro little play
this, play that, you know, last day of school like
a teacher conference. Yeah, there’s been a couple
little things that are like kind of lightweight. They’re also very, very young
right now but so far nothing. I haven’t had to pick. Everything that I felt, I missed
a lot of business things that are solid business things that
I’ve missed because I wanted to be there for the first day
of school or you know the Tot Shabbat day that’s the one
time Xander gets to do that in little Temple Israel
school that he went to. There’s single little things like that but it’s
weighing things. It’s weighing things and I’m not
crippled by the current state of political correctness of how
you parent because news alert, my friends, it’s going to be
different in 15 years and it was different 15 years ago. Yeah, thank you. – Tot Shabbat?
– Tot Shabbat is cute.

So my question today is do you recommend
building a personal brand even if you’re a
behind-the-scene player? – Rachel, it’s a great question. I would say absolutely. Let me give an example. If you’re behind-the-scenes
player, wouldn’t you want to be behind the scenes of somebody
that you believe is the greatest in the world? And if you are building your
personal brand around I’m an unbelievable number two or
number four unbelievable admin or an unbelievable I don’t want
to be out there but I want to support the people I believe in
the most those people are gonna be looking for those people and
so you might build the brand as an incredible human
infrastructure player for somebody who’s the greatest and that would be
then great for you. If you are the number one admin
to the most successful person in the world you are, and the
nicest, I don’t want to make this just about money. There’s always a better
situation potentially and you want to give yourself
that best opportunity. So building personal brand only speaks,
my friends, to opportunity. If you’re good at it and you
articulating your truth and you have the goods to back it
up all being out there. And people get so
caught up in semantics of “Uh, I hate that we’re
all a personal brand,” like don’t get caught
up in the semantics. Having exposure that creates
opportunity is a good idea. Period. – [India] Last one. Zack.
– Zack’s all up in it.

– Hey Gary, Zack here. Question referring back to
episode 156 when preparing employees for leadership how
do you foster leadership with rising stars or unsung heroes? Thanks for everything you do.
‘Preciate it. – Zack, I think this is
really interesting question. You know what’s really funny
to me is it’s a funny where my brain goes on this one which
is actions trump everything. Meaning you prepare them by
giving them opportunities to show that they can. I think one of things that
I’m most proud of is, for the intensity that I come with, for
as much as I want to happen, I would tell you that if you
audited everybody here in this room and everybody the 700
people across five offices across here it is stunning
how little I micromanage. If you want to foster leadership
you have to put people in a position to be leaders. I don’t box you in,
I don’t box Garrett in. I critique when I give him the
room to win or lose if he loses in the game that he’s playing,
I’ll articulate what the shortcomings were,
what the opportunities are. So I think leadership is
only accomplished or, let me rephrase, the prepping of
something is only accomplished when you actually do. This is where I get really
mad about entrepreneur school. Entrepreneur school is
like reading about push-ups. Dunk wants to challenge me in to
some crazy weight thing of who can bench more,
whatever you’re up to and so what’s the
preparation for that? I can’t read about
bench press technique. I got to go do it. You got to put in the work. I’ve been working out
every day since then. Dunk has not. I’m getting more prep. Now, he may have
more natural talent. He just might be stronger. He’s definitely much younger and
should in theory win this but he won’t because I’ll out-prepare
him and so that’s the punchline. Prep and so whether
they’re an unsung hero, whether they’re the
most shining star. I always worry at Vayner that
people think the people that PR themselves or the most loud and
charismatic are the ones who are gonna get the opportunities
and I’ve been really enjoying building Vayner over
the last five years. Especially the last two years
’cause the smartest people here are like, “Hey, wait a minute. “Look at this person winning and “they don’t even really
interact with Gary. “I’ve never even
heard of that person.” That’s the role and
responsibility I have. That I’m not just pandering to
the easiest move and so you give people opportunity. Some are loud about it. “I got this.” Others just quietly go and do it
but here’s the punchline whether you’re like me and you talk a
ton is shit and you back it the fuck up every fuckin’ time,
that’s a win or you say nothing but you back it the
fuck up every time. It’s the second part that
matters so put those people in a position to succeed and then
watch if they’re doing it. Call their bluff,
give ’em a shot. Push them harder than
they think that they can do. Believe in them more than they
believe in themselves and create the framework and the
opportunities to do that. Understand it is in your upside
as a leader for them to fail and you figure out if they can do it versus that task
being done correctly. I prefer that we lose a client,
lose a client, money out of my pocket but I learned something
about the leaders that I’m thinking about
going to battle with versus me micromanaging it, never learning about their
opportunity as leaders and then getting the client
for two more years. That’s called scale. That’s called auditing. That’s called how
you build stuff.