what role does internal culture play in the company’s success? Can you give one concrete
tip on building that culture? Ekaterina, how are you doing? It’s always great to hear from you, I’m glad you’re on the show. Company culture is actually the only, you know what’s funny,
it’s funny this question’s coming up today, I actually
on the way to work today said, “you know what, the
book that I’m gonna write that’s really gonna like,” you know, I always think is Crush It!,
ooh, Thank You Economy’s gonna sneak up on people.
I know, as I sit here today, the book that I write
on culture and how to build an organization through humans, not CFO cash tactics, is
gonna be my book legacy, so whenever I get to that,
so it’s everything to me, as an operator I’m all E.Q. over I.Q., the one concrete tactic I have is way too many people make
decisions on who they fire or hire based on money. “Oh, we have the budget
to hire another designer, or camera person, or” like
it’s a financial decision. All my decisions on hiring
and firing are emotional. What is it gonna do to
the collective community? You know, if I fire this
person, who’s so popular internally, because they
have great people skills, will that hurt everybody else, and can I can I push that person
into another direction to help them get another job over 90 days instead of firing them
abruptly in one day? That costs me a lot more money, but does a hell of a lot for me in the culture. And so, that is my one concrete kind of curve ball haven’t heard a lot of
people talk about that kind of stuff, example.

“to one of genuinely
caring about the customer “when the current ethos
is so established?” – Andrew, Andrew. There’s only one way to change the culture when it’s broken to something genuine. Kill leadership. Leadership is in charge of the culture. Everything, my friend, stems from the top when it gets into the DNA. So do not let the leader,
the CEO, the board, whoever it may be, do not let
her, him, make an excuse that something is happening
below in middle management, or some other things,
because she’s in charge, he’s in charge of that middle management. Every problem at VaynerMedia, is my fault. Right here, you’re looking
right at this face. It’s my fault because I
empower everybody else to create that culture, and
so how do you change it? You change the top, and if the top owns it ’cause it’s the family business, or just became the new CEO, and it’s not going to
change, then you need to get the hell out of there
because the only people that can change culture are
the people from the top. It’s true you can hack from the bottom, you can maybe then inspire the top, but that top still has to make the decision. That is the judge of culture. – [Voiceover] Saura asks:
“How do you book speaking