#AskGaryVee Episode 55: Leaders, Podcasts, & Young Entrepreneurs

– [Voiceover] Jarek asks,
“Would you be able to lead any type of company? Do you think that the leaders
can switch industries easily?” – Jarek, this is a great question. You know, I’m speaking for myself that I fundamentally 100,000% believe that I can run any company. I just do. I myself, as you know,
are a reverse engineer. Show the t-shirt. And so what I would be able to do is look, I don’t know, I don’t know dick about
99% of the businesses out there, but it would only
take me about six months with my sponge like skills to figure out whats going on, look at the data, look at the numbers, look at the culture. Reverse engineer,
understand the marketplace and the consumer that’s selling, whether in a B to B or B to C place. There is no business that
me as an operator feel intimidated by. I can’t speak for
everybody, but I do think there’s clearly, I don’t
think I’m that special. I think that there’s other people that also have that
skill set where they can take a look back, really
assess the situation and then operate, and I think that balance comes with sales and HR. For me, I think that’s why I’m able to do so much, for me my strengths are within the HR universe and the sales universe which are really the
two things that you need to know in an organization. You need to be able to sell stuff, and you need to be able to build teams around you. If you’re lucky enough to have that deuce in your life like I
do, then you can do it. – [Voiceover] Ella asks, “What
do you think about Serial?

MailChimp as a sponsor, and its impact on podcast advertising?” – Ella, great question, very timely. By the way what a gaff by Best Buy, trying to play up. Oh by the way, brands that are jumping in, there’s so many things you
need to stay away from. The upside of being clever about something that’s trending versus the downside when you don’t have the tact or the skills or the copywriting skills to play. That’s another story for another day. Maybe we’ll get into that in episode 58, but this question specifically is I think MailChimp’s marketing team did a tremendous job. Serials exploding, the podcast universe is exploding. Hence, look I’m playing in that space even though this is a video first series I think it’s a real
smart job by MailChimp for a bunch of reasons. One, I think it’s
underpriced, because people don’t understand how valuable these podcasts are right now. The attention is very high, and more importantly, when
you do things that are smart you get the attention, AKA here we are talking about it and MailChimp has now
been mentioned four times to the VaynerNation, and
maybe somebodys sitting there and saying yeah, constant contact is pissing me off. Maybe I’ll try MailChimp. When you do things that are smart, you get so much more residual impact that just the blanket ROI. One could look at how many
MailChimp subscribers they got just from the direct serial code or whatever they’re doing there. I’m not listening, but are they doing a code? Do you know?
Whose listening to serial? Just an ad. They could probably see what kind of impact is coming
from that universe, but they don’t know the impact of four people now from the VaynerNation
switching to MailChimp because of this question, and that’s what you get. When you do it right, right stuff happens. – [Voiceover] Sam asks,
“What differences do you see

– [Voiceover] Sam asks,
“What differences do you see between fundraising and sales? Any? Do all for-profit rules apply
in a non-profit setting?” – Sam, I love this question, because the ironic thing is I think the answer is they do map. I do think that if I ever get into, you know, I sit on some NGO boards, but if I ever get into a chapter of my life where that becomes the driving force, I promise you my execution in that
world will look exactly the same as everything I’m doing here. I do think the rules apply. I actually think there’s a nuance that I want to address which
is that the rules do apply, which means an absolute
respect to the customer. I believe that many people that operate in the NGO world have the audacity to think there’s an
obligation from the wealthy or people they know to actually support, and that they come across arrogant I would say when they’re
going in for the ask, and they’re less tactful. It’s all right hook city in
NGO world, non-profit world, and then when somebody
doesn’t do something they look down on them,
even though the way they approach them was completely unacceptable in my opinion. I do think the rules apply. I think you have to bring a value prop. I think way too many NGOs, non-profits mail it in. They’re not thinking
about that other person’s life, that person that’s
donating life as a whole. They’re just looking for, you know, their tax return, and trying to extract dollars, and life is about value exchange. Even when you’re doing good things, and that is a huge miss
for so many in this space. – [Voiceover] Ross asks, “Hey Gary,

has India replaced Steve on the show? Where’s he at?” – Ross, this is a
perfectly timed question, because India is right here. – I’m sorry Steve. – And there’s Zak. And Andrew, and then go over here to Staphon and Alex behind him, and DRock get your hand in there somehow. Good. You may notice, no Steve. Steve, this is a message to you. Like I said on email this morning, there is no sickness on our team. When you miss the day,
this is what happens. – Hey Gary.

Quick question for you. Greg Isenberg, founder of Five Eye here. When does a young entrepreneur cease being a young entrepreneur? Curious of your thoughts. Also, thank you again for putting some of your best #AskGaryVee
videos on Five Eye and launching them today. – Awesome man. Thanks for the question. Thrilled to be on Five Eye. Let’s link that below,
an app I’m excited about, that’s what he’s referring to. You guys can do your own homework. When does a young
entrepreneur stop being young? You know, it’s funny. I still think that I’m young, and I’m not young. I’m 39 in a world of unlimited 29, 23, 17 year old entrepreneurs. I think young is a mindset. I’m not sure where you’re going with the kind of question. Is it appropriate to act young? I don’t think I ever acted young even when I was young, but I’m young at heart. There’s a lot of places where we can really go with this answer. To me I think at some level,
to be honest with you brother, I think it doesn’t matter. I think it’s a kind of weirdly, and almost a non-impactful question. I know that sounds harsh, but what I mean by that is
there is no variable that the outside world might say, hey you’re not young anymore. Start acting your age, or they may expect you
to act a certain way because you are young,
but at the end of the day all of it is irrelevant. Whatevers happening within yourself is the variable of your
success, your life, your upside, and so that’s how I think about it. It’s scary to me how young I actually. I think I’m, I mean very honestly I feel dramatically younger than every, I mean I actually think all these characters around me are older than me. I still watch sports and think
all those players are older than me, still. These are like 23 year olds. I’m like, like I still am in that mindset, and at some level I’m
pretty convinced that a lot of the narrative that’s gonna be talked about me, I can see the headlines in my, I can see it right there. I can see the headlines when I’m 63, 67 74, 83, which is like old man acts young. It’s just who I am, and so the cliche age is but a number it’s really true. The mentality and more importantly, the execution is the variable. Question of the day, how old are you?