#AskGaryVee Episode 50: White Lies, Klout Scores, & Musical Chairs

“If you don’t care about the competition, “what do you say when a client asks you “about a competitor, “and why you’re better?” – Mike, this is a tremendous question. I’ve dealt with this in
the past on VaynerMedia’s road to success, and I still do all the time. People bring up competitors and I answer in a very condescending way towards them. I dislike my competitors
in the context of the game. Some of them are friends
outside of the game and I can share a beer, I can separate it. I can share a beer at a game or be cordial in public, but deep down, I’m not
a fan of my competitors. I dislike them. And when people bring them up, I tend to tear them down
as quickly as possible or remind them why I’m better and come up with historical things like, you know, in the agency world for example, I say, Oh you mean those people
that try to win awards in a world where I grew
up trying to sell stuff? Anything that I think will make that person realize that it is a worthwhile
venture to go with us and why it’s a wasteful conversation to
care about somebody else. That is something I will do. Now look, I’m a good salesman, a good talker, I’ve got great tact, I have enormous empathy and great feel. I can read the room. So I know where to navigate in real time, which is why I sell and win so often. You may not have that skill set and you may come across as you know, inappropriate, awkward, you know, inappropriate. And so, you know, for all of you on this side over here who can read the room, can move quickly on your feet, can rock and roll that way, just punch your competitor in the face. Over here, not as smooth, you’re not quite as sure, you don’t understand
where they want to go, you’ve got to go with a different route. I don’t know what that route is, but it’s (bleep). – [Voiceover] Dan asks,

“White lies. “Do you believe the hype? “It seems you can’t win in business “without bending the truth.” – Dan, this is a really intense question. I want you to show India right now, because I’m giving her props for navigating the
questions and finding stuff. This question is one that I’m really struggling to figure out what the right answer is, which leads to the answer which is, appropriate embellishment feels appropriate at times to me, but I’m scared to say that out loud. If you feel like you’re growing into it within weeks or maybe maximum a couple of months, I think it’s okay. Right? Like, I feel comfortable
saying VaynerMedia’s a 450-person agency right now even though we’re 417, but we have 59 job openings, and I expect this to be 450 by the time the far majority of people watch this episode or listen to it, right? So, I guess that’s where I’m willing to go. I’m not willing to say we’re 7,000. I’m not willing to say we’re 1,000. I think fake it ’til you make it is a very scary line that I think most people struggle with, but you know, we live in a transparent world. Like, the reason I even say this answer is ’cause I’m always trying to correct myself, ’cause I’m scared to, like, get called out for, you’re losing all your credibility by getting called out on something. So, it’s a very fine line. I think the intent matters. For me, I’m just going in speed, rounding out numbers, I’m going fast. Not trying to trick you to think we’re bigger than we are. So I would answer you a couple things. One, white lies that become truths within a very quick or
short period of time feel a little more comfortable, and the intent of the white lie. If you feel like, if you feel like you’re not
trying to do the wrong thing, that you’re gonna be able to
deliver for the other person, you just wanna tip them over in their own, you know it’s so funny, with my clients, I think they get so much more benefit working with us than the alternative that I’m like, I feel like I’m helping them along. I feel like it’s in their
best interest, not mine. Of course there’s a secondary
best interest of mine, and it’s funny, I tend to not, you all right? What’s that? (laughs) Are we meeting?
– Yes. – I’m running just a few minutes late. Do you wanna say hi to the VaynerNation? – Hi guys! I’m Claire. – Um, you know, I think that it’s all about like every other answer which is, it needs to have the right intent and it needs to be appropriate. So, that’s what I got. Miles Keever with HappyHumanoids.com.

– Hey Gary. Miles Keever with HappyHumanoids.com. In episode 49, you were asked a question about high-end wine
business and was it a hoax. Now, I thought your answer
was brilliant and profound. So profound that I checked
out and I began observing your staff members behind you. Lots of them are standing without chairs, and when you asked Lou to go get DeMayo, somebody snatched his
chair out of the way. Do you have a set up in your community? A way to keep the competitive edge going by not having enough chairs? – First of all, who’s Lou? – [Man] Little Lou! – Oh, Little Lou! You’re right. I literally think of him as Little Lou. This question is so perfect for episode 50 because I’m so devastated that I’m not limiting chairs on purpose to create a competitive culture, so the answer is no. I haven’t created that on purpose, but yes, yes, yes, do I wish I did. I love the thesis behind it. I think it’s a phenomenal observation. I desperately wish it was true. And I will say this, I don’t have any hardcore tactics to create competitiveness. And as a matter of fact, one of the biggest things that I really value is that a lot of the senior people that have been coming into VaynerMedia say this is the first
agency they’d ever worked in that people are competitive
because they wanna do great work but not at the cost of their
other employees around them which means we’re building real culture. It excites me and it’s something that I strive for. But I do think everything
stems from the top, and I don’t know how I do it, but boy, do I know I breed
competitiveness here, because I’m competitive as (bleep). – [Voiceover] Terri says,

“I saw a discussion via Linkedin “about Klout scores on a resume. “What are your thoughts on them?” – Terri, this is a question. I’m glad everybody’s gonna
get to hear my answer and this has nothing
to do with my feelings towards Klout itself. These kind of scoring systems that try to prove your social
equity in the marketplace are not things I’m a big fan of. They’re super gameable. Let me say something really interesting. Pssst. Psst. A lot of you have hit me up on Twitter because if I replied to you, you knew that your
Klout score would go up. Now this is more of a 2012 move and has become something less and less of you have done, but you know, if you look
yourself in the mirror right now, you knew that you were trying to game me for more Klout scores and I was thrilled to give it to you because I know how
little it actually meant. And because I love you and that you even know who I am and I wanted to give you some love, but people who literally tweeted out, like oh, got some Klout juice, because they engaged
with me on that platform. Look, my answer is very simple, and very, very hardcore, which is, I never signed
up for a Klout account while I had one of the
bigger scores up there, so that’s kind of called eating your own dog food, right? Taking your own medicine. I believe in it so little that I didn’t even want to acknowledge it by signing up, even though it was probably
in my best interest both personally, and too, professionally to just understand how it worked. So again, has nothing to do with Klout. I feel the same way about
a million other things. It is not something, the big data version of your worth is not something I’m super pumped about. You obviously might have seen my own last Medium article about empathy and the hidden truths of people. I’m so much more into the grey, intuitive and EQ of people than I am the black and white, which is what Klout is. It’s just raw data dumped and figured, if like, it’s high school math. And when I mean high school math, go deeper with me, it’s the math of how high school works. The popular girl decides that she likes Steve and
she goes out with him. Well, his Klout score
went through the roof because he was in the band before that. You know, so it’s that kind of thing. – [Voiceover] Dan wants to know

“Are there any common mistakes you repeat “over and over again? “Either way, any tips
for overcoming them?” – Dan, I think I repeat all my
mistakes over and over again. First of all, my thesis on life is scaling the unscalable, which is one big mistake in itself. We just had a meeting with the whole crew about all the mistakes I’m making, bottle of, bottom of the funnel things. So you know, like, you know, I’m a big believer of betting
on strengths, not weaknesses, you know, you try to get better as you go through the process and go along. I don’t know if I’m the
right person to answer this. I repeat a lot of mistakes. I continue to always, I have good moments for a year or two or a month of two of not trying to bite off
more than I can chew, but then I get right into it. For all the process and scalability, I continue to create things that allow me to be the bottleneck, though I think this crew and I are doing a good job of hacking away and we have an ambition
for ’15 to be better at it in my limited time world. You know, I… But, really, these are
all hard questions for me because I really struggle to think about what I’m bad at because I spend all my time
thinking about what I’m great at and those are a lot of things. And that’s where I put my energy and time and that’s why I think
I get the permission and the luxury and the awesome feeling
of having so many of you watch this show, betting on strengths is
the grossly underestimated execution of our time. And that’s what I do and I do it well, and so I answered it out of
being a cordial human being, but the truth is, I don’t give a rat’s
ass about my weaknesses. I surely don’t know how to fix them because I don’t focus on them much.