– My question’s just
circling around our culture and our growth. Year after year, and I’ve
been here for a year, and just seen our culture
grow twice in its size. Any impacts or learnings
that you’ve taken away that have just shaped how
we’re looking forward, and how we’re staffing our business, how we’re maintaining our culture? – I think the biggest thing I learned over the last 18 months as
we’ve had a lot of growth is that, if the intent is right, and look, you being the head of HR, you have such a view that
so many other people don’t, which is, you get to see in the
closed door meetings with me the consistent North Star. I don’t know, you’ve had HR jobs before. I feel like a lot more people make a lot more business decisions, and the money is a big variable in, let’s not give this
person any more time, or let’s fire this person,
or let’s promote this person. Money, I think you’ve sniffed out, is so not a variable in those decisions. I think what’s happened in the last year, to answer your question directly, I think I’m even more confident than ever that if you’re intent is right, and you’re committed to
that intent at the top, that you can scale that,
whether it’s 20 people. Look, there’s a ton of
people watching right now that work in offices of 27 people, and their culture sucks shit. The amount of people here
that have worked at places that had 29 people. I just met somebody the other day who was like, “I just
came from another agency, and our culture was so bad.” They had 16 people. So I don’t think the number of employees is the variable of a culture. I think it’s cliche and
accepted that, when you grow, you can lose it. My belief, ’cause I’m in a lot of startups that have grown very big, is that, what happens is, the CEO or the founders take
their eye off of the culture, and they start looking for the exit. All of a sudden, if you’re looking to sell to Google, or Facebook,
or to another agency, you don’t care about the
people, you care about the exit. And then the culture hurts. – So how do you define culture then? – I think it’s the collective
feeling of everybody. To me, culture is a backwards thing of, do the people here actually
want to come to work, and actually like it,
and it’s not a chore, or it’s not super stressful? To me, it’s how each individual feels that adds up to one collective feeling. – Right, perfect. – Awesome, thanks.
– [Minnie] Thank you. – India, now what?

So, the question to you
is very business-related. – Please. – As you know, we built
something similar to you, we got inspired off of Crush It! – Yes, yes. – So, did the same
thing, did a lot of jobs, put in a lot of work over the years. – Built leverage. – Yeah, built leverage,
put the trust in the brand. – We have a substantial
business now in seven figures. – But, now that, it’s been
a couple years we’ve kind of stagnated.
– Yeah. – Because, so. – Happens all the time. – So my question to you is, and I think, one of the weaknesses
here, is actually scaling, because we tried to do
everything ourselves, we have a small team,
but how do you actually build that team with you, and
the most important question is that, how do you build
and maintain that culture and that, that love that, the same love that you have for the business, – In other people? – In other people. – (laughs) This is a very, this is a very eastern European question,
is very common things that. So, the answer is, you don’t. If you expect somebody
else to love your business as much as you, you two are
out of your (beep)in’ mind. And, this is something
I tried to teach my dad. As a young kid, I’m like,
Dad, you own the business. How the hell do you want them to love this as much as you do? What you need to do is
several different things. First of all, thank you
for asking me the question. I lived it. I did it at Wine Library,
from people that are more like you. You guys went to zero to
something just like my Pop’s. And how I scaled it was, I
taught him these pillars. And I taught him these pillars. Which is, number one, get over that. It’s over. They’re never going to
love it as much as you. If you’re lucky enough, like I find, like that amazing man behind you, if you can find people that can
love it 8.5 as much of a 10, 9.2 as much of a 10, 9.7 on a holy grail moment out of 10, well then, you’ve won. So, that’s never gonna happen,
and it’s actually completely, completely disrespectful
for you to even want that from somebody else,
’cause you never loved somebody else’s business as
much as you love your own. So, why are you going to try
to make somebody else do that? Number one. Number two, the biggest mistake
people make at this point is you start wanting to cash
in on some of the fruits of this amazing hard work. It’s a little bit more exciting to dress a little bit better, to
live at a better place, to take a vacation, to
do all these things. I get it. The way to scale and grow
is to have the dollars to continue to scale and grow. If you’re doing everything yourself, there’s a couple reasons. One, you’re a perfectionist
and don’t think anybody else can do it. Two, you see other people do it and they do it as an eight to your 10, and that’s not good enough. Three, you do not want to
deploy the money because you want to use those
monies for other things for yourselves and other things. All three are massive vulnerabilities. Fix those three, and you’ll grow. I run my businesses the first five, 10 years of their lives at no profit. And I did it, and people
can say, now, easy for you. Bullshit. I was 28 years old, I
build a humongous business, and I was making $40,000 a year. I had friends that were half
me and a hundredth of me making more money, had better
cars, were having more fun, I was 28 years old, making $40,000 a year, and I build a $30 million
business at that point. That’s eating your own dog food. So, get over yourselves,
and be thankful that people want to work for you, and get
them to an eight or a nine, and you get them to an eight
or nine, by loving them more. What you did for your audience, you need to do for your
employees 10 times more. Biggest mistake entrepreneurs make, they treat their employees worse than they treat their customers. Biggest mistake. Treat them better than
you treated your audience. Then they’ll get from a six to
an eight, and that’s amazing. They’ll never get to a 10. It’s not their business. Number two, decide how much
you want to live great now versus every dollar, every dollar, you take that trip to
Spain, is three dollars less that you make three years from now. – Well, what if you have
still substantial money after vacations, after
everything, and you– – Invest it. – And into? – People. – But, people, how do you
find these people who are still eight even or a seven? – But easy, because you
need to treat them better, because you’ve got them,
you just need to change the way you treated them. And, if they don’t get
there after you treat them way better, you fire
them, and you find people who do react to you giving them more value than they’re providing you. – Cool. – You understand?
– Yeah. – Really?
– Not fully. – So, that’s why I’m not letting you go. Here’s my thing: you kick it. So, how many employees do you guys have? – Uh, around the world, seven right now. – Great, you need to really vet them, the number one thing I
would do if I were you is, I would call them right
after the show, and say, What can I do to make
this much better for you? – We do that. – Good, good. Do you deliver on everyone? – Yeah.
– Great. Well then, you should
be having no problem. Then, then, I’m a little
bit more confused. Then, either you have not
built up enough trust with them for them to tell you the truth, or, you’re just not hiring fast enough. – We’re not hiring fast enough.
– Good. – ‘Cause no, because we’re,
we’re, we’re trying to have everybody be like fully 10. – So, you know, (laughs) – [Alex] We want Eric’s– – [Gary] Eric, Eric was
what number in place, 17? 17. He watched Vayner go from 17 to 200, then, for personal
reasons, he went to Boston. He’s back now, and we’re 600. What Eric can tell you
(laughs), all the VaynerMedia employees from 17 to
200, stick with me here, this is not an insult, he
knows how many four, five, six, seven and eights. You need four, five, six, seven
and eights when you’re big. You can’t make seven 10’s,
that’s not how you scale and win. That’s the secret. It’s not about you guys
getting seven people to a 10, it’s about you hiring 40 people at eights. So how about this, here is
the last question, follow-up.

“You don’t talk much about ad-blocking. “With more people doing
it, how will small and medium “publishers and blogs survive?” – They’ll survive by adjusting to the reality of the marketplace. There used to not be ads and they would make native content and soap operas integrated their products into the shows. The Ed Sullivan Show put a big fat car, a Lincoln town car that paid
for that entire show in it. And Alpo, or whatever that,
that’s Alpo’s dog food, right? Alpo used to bring out it’s, right? Used to bring out the
dog on the Today Show and eat the God damn Alpo
right in front of America. And so ads my friends are
just one way to monetize. I didn’t run ads on Wine Library TV all those years when everybody told me. I decided to get paid millions
of dollars to write a book, and to speak, and to
actually build an audience and monetize them differently instead of making nickels
and dimes on them. Nickels and dimes are cool. But you know what’s way better? Hundred dollars bills. I feel like that’s from the movie, right? I mean that’s what it is though. And so I’m laughing at everybody’s panic because I think lowest common denominator, average players are going to
get forced into being better. I actually think this is
going to motivate people to step up their game
and not just mail it in. And so I’m excited to just
watch smaller and large. You know, it’s way more, you know, it’s a funny question and I’m sure it’s coming from an entrepreneurial place. Big companies have a lot
more to lose than you. Like ad-blocking, listen. It’s all relative right? Like your 400 bucks,
their 40 million, fine. But like everybody’s equal in this. Everybody’s going to be disrupted. Not just small businesses
and small publishers. Big publishers that make
all their God damn money on banner ads and things of that nature have a real issue at hand and
I think it’s God damn great. Because what I think is actually happening is that it’s better for the end consumer. I mean it is not fun for me. Especially now that we’re
on full, I need it back. Sorry periscope. How are you guys doing. I’m just showing you DRock. Actually I’ll show you myself because you don’t want to look at DRock. Well they’d rather look at me. It’s the #AskGaryVee show DRock. You know, I forgot my thought
because I got mad at DRock. You know, because, got it. Because I don’t want to go to like ESPN.com and check a score and a big fat banner ad pops up and I got to X it and then I miss it and then I’m going to
something I don’t want and that costs me six seconds
and time is the asset. And so I really really think it’s great. I’m not talking about it because I’ve been talking about intrusive
advertising my whole life. This is just a continuation. It will get, Tivo, ad-blocking,
whatever comes next. Feedblocker. Like whatever it is,
it’s all going to happen. It’s all happening India. – It’s all happening, feel good?

– [Voiceover] Kamil asks,
“How would you raise money “for a college business club? “We’d love to bring more members “to a New York City competition.” – Kamil I think raising
money is all about asking. I would, let’s pretend
Steve and I were partners. Steve we need to raise more money. – Okay. – Who do you know? Do you have a rich uncle? – Yeah actually I do. – (laughs) Weird, let’s call him. And so that’s basically, that was funny, that was basically what we would do. You’d have to, what I think you need to do is you need to map the 1,000
people that you could ask. All the way from and you
know I said when uncle to hey, that kid in our school looks like he dresses extremely
well, he might have some money. Like, I’m not kidding. Raising money is called asking for money so you have to get into the
behavior of asking for money. So you map on piece a paper, hand written, you know collect the data, who
are you gonna ask for money? You start with your mother and the people that you’re closest to or for
me one of the biggest things I do in business is I start
with, you know I could think of three or four executives who I know that I could ask anything for ’cause I brought them so much value. Remember why I like jab so much? When you really need
it, it’s nice to be like hey Rick, I need a million bucks. And when Rick knows that
I’ve disproportionately put 8 million in his
pocket, he still may say no and remember if you ever read
the article I’m still okay with that but it’s nice
to know that Rick would be at the top of the list
along with Uncle Milford.

“in as few hours as
possible, what would you do?” – If I was starting again
and I had to make $2,000 as quickly as possible, what would I do? Without all the brand equity
I have, obviously right? It’s funny usually I
say go to a garage sale, I’d probably go to Century 21, buy stuff and flip it on Ebay on the arbitrage cause they’re such a discounter or Wine Library and return
the wine to another store that charges more for it. Deep down, the joke is
and I’m making a fun joke, garage saling, Goodwill, I’m a merchant. Buying something for less
than what I can sell it for is what I’m really good at. With no money, with not a lot of money and I have to make 2K, the
quickest arbitrage I know in today’s society, is to go to places, buy it and flip it on Ebay,
the speed is very quickly. That is literally what I
would do, I know my strengths. If I was to have to build up again, you know, imagine I did fail
and made some critical mistakes and lost everything. First I would have to
rectify my family situation, but then I make a lot of money and I’ve had a lot of
success at being right for the last 20 years,
that’s what I live off of. If I was then to be so crazy wrong that I went out of business, I would no longer be able to rely on my advice as my foundation, so I’d have to go back
to the way I built it in the first place which is
truly sales, selling stuff. Deep down I’m a salesman,
you know the truth is, I need to spend more time and I encourage you Vayner Nation to ask me more sales questions because I think I have a lot more to offer publicly around sales. This show has allowed me to talk a lot more about HR,
management, leadership. The one category where I think I’ve disproportionately
under-serviced my community, is a lot more about my sales skills which are really the
disproportional skills that grew Wine Library while
the technology was catching up. The first year of Wine Library went from three to nine million just because I was on the floor. So yeah, I would say that, sales. That’s it, that’s a wrap. Very special episode,
Isaac thank you so much

– Hey, Gary, this is John McAlpine, reaching out to you from Toronto, Ontario. My question for you here
– T-Town – is in regard to my
father-in-law’s business. My father-in-law is from
Minsk, Belarus, originally, so his English is very poor and moved here about three years ago, but he’s an amazing, fantastic contractor, and he wants to grow his
business, and I wanna help him. So, given the scope of,
let’s say, about $1,000, because we’re really small, what are some baby steps you could suggest me, as a marketer of his business, to do so I can help him out and so we can start gaining some traction here. You keep answering our questions, Gary, and I promise we’ll keep asking. Thanks for everything you do. – John, great question. Obviously, you know how
to hit my emotional center by going back to the old country. And that’s a great, great question, and a real practical one. And $1,000, I think, is
really so much more realistic for a lot of people that listen. Way more the clients that
we have here on Vayner, spending hundreds of
thousands, millions of dollars each month in different
marketing activities. Couple different things. Number one, I noticed
you said a heavy accent, which made me believe that you were alluding to
don’t give me the advice to put him on camera or put him out there. Now, if his personality is like my mom’s, who never shows up, actually asked my mom for the first time at the Jets game yesterday, I said, mom, I think it might be time for you to be on the show and make your first ever appearance. She said no, she really,
it’s just not her thing. And so that crushed my heart, mom, and you crushed the entire
Vayner Nation’s heart, mom, they all want you to be on the show. So, now, if his accent is something you’re worried about but
he’s willing to do content and become Bob Vila, which,
I know you’re in Canada, but I think Vila might be an
international star, right, but if you don’t know
who it is, look it up, he became like the home, he became America’s
contractor in the 80s on PBS, when people weren’t
doing the kind of content we see on cable these days, when chefs and real estate
agents became famous, and so I would put, I
would make videos of him, if he’s that great of a
contactor, and I believe you, I think, you know, you
get different skills from different parts of the world, he’ll bring a little of
that Eastern European flair or soundness or whatever that angle is to the Canadian building market. I think you put him on and start
doing Bob Vila-like videos. Now, with $1,000, I would
spend that on the 10, 15, 20, 30 mile radius of your guys’ area to get those videos out
to people that are fans of things like Architectural Digest or things that are into
building and interior design, into the culture of home
building, contract work, renovations, things of that nature, so, now, if he’s not
willing to go on camera because he’s introverted,
shy, worried about his accent, I know a lot of those variables, you need to figure out how to make content that is compelling to people, maybe you translate his
advice into written form, and then you run ads on
Facebook in a 20 mile radius, ‘Did you know you could fix
cabinets by doing this?’ ‘Replacing new floors.’ And you gotta target
people based on interests that may find that interesting. Content is the gateway
drug for small businesses, that don’t have a lot of money, have to put out great
contents, spend little dollars, just like I did with Wine Library TV, but now there’s more things. Instagram accounts, those kinds of things, that’s what I would do.

– Are we good? Hey Gary, Demario Davis.
– [Gary] Double D. – Linebacker, New York Jets,
number 56, aka Double D. Coming at you. I got a question. When it
comes to start up companies is it better to use your own
capitol, raise money for it, or to take out a loan? Hit me back with an answer, please, sir. – I love it. Demario, got
a couple fun facts for you. Number one, you maybe 56 now, but you’re looking at a human being, probably the only one who has
a number 49 Demario Davis, because when you were drafted
out of the third round by us two funny things happened. One, I ordered your jersey immediately, because I knew what Double D
was gonna bring to the table, because I got a story that you don’t know. Which is, I got some friends in that team that I don’t like as
much called the Patriots. And when you were drafted
in their draft room, they were really sad and scared. Which excited me, because I
knew Double D was gonna bring it to the New York Jets. You didn’t know that, huh, Staphon? You didn’t know that, Double D, but I did. Now, let me answer your question. All three work. They all can work. Again, if you’re asking
for selfishly, for you. If you got some start up ideas, I think that raising
money is the way to go, because you can. It’ll come to you easier. You have the leverage of your notoriety and things of that nature. And, so, that’s the route. And really for a lot of people, if you’re able to raise money. The terms of raising money
are so attractive these days, that you can mitigate a
little bit of your risk without using your own money. And loan you’re on the hook, and interest, and things of that nature. So, to me it’s raise money first, closely followed by using your own money. Especially if you can afford it, and especially if you
really believe in it. But the reason I think raising money instead of your own money is a little bit more attractive is because the people you bring money from there’s dumb money, and
there’s smart money. By bringing in smart money, people that write
$50-$100,000 dollar checks that happen to be in that business, or that can happen to
have leverage to get you your first five clients. If you got a wine, spirits,
or social media start up, I’m a great investor, because I’ve got clout in those worlds. So, I’ve got my money on the line, right? And I’m gonna go use my power to bring opportunity for it. So, smart money is really
the most attractive. Then dumb money, just
the money for the money versus your own money becomes a debate based on your own financial situation. Third is the banks. Third.

– [Voiceover] Terrell asks, “How would you manage pro bono work “versus getting paid as a startup, “or how do you draw the
line between the two?” – I think the question, I
think what I’m getting from it is, you know, how do you manage the people asking
you do to stuff on spec? And it’s funny, we’ve
had some conversations, I’m a fan of spec, because
I think it’s a gateway drug into showing work. When you’re at zero, when you have no track record, when you have no leverage, spec is a tremendous
opportunity, it’s, you’re at bat. And so, spec has always been
interesting in design work or other things of that nature. Any time I even allude to a
spec interplay on Twitter, I get attacked, right? Like, if I want free t-shirts for the Great Wall of Wine Deals, right, stickers, why
don’t you pay for them? I’m thrilled to pay. As a matter of fact, in my later years, AKA in the last three years,
I’ve learned, actually, I’d rather pay than what I deal with when somebody gives you,
like, a sticker for free and they want, like, so, I’m into paying. I actually, when I do these
spec things, look at it as the first opportunity to
somebody to have in at bat, to, like, change the course of their game. We’ve alluded this question-answer
with DRock in the past, like, this is just real to me. So where do you draw the line is, when you stop thinking
it brings you value. By the way, nobody’s forcing
you into doing pro bono work. Hey, DRock, you wanna make a film with me? You should do it, I’m not gonna
pay you, you should do it. I didn’t force him, like,
you know, that’s on you. So this notion of pro
bono work being, like, some sort of forced behavior that like, the rich are forcing the
poor to do this work, in a world where you
should always do everything predicated on what brings you value, including when you bring
other people value. See, the dirty little secret is, for me, this 51-49 thing where I
wanna do all these things, it makes me feel good. It might not make me more money, it makes me feel good. It’s a selfish act. People say that, you
know, you hear it’s like, oh, it’s a selfless
act, like, I understand. I like the way it feels. And so, you know, your pro bono work might be because you wanna use it as a gateway drug to business
opportunities in the future, or you just might like the way it feels. That’s on you. But, you know, business is simple, and this is a business show
in the scheme of things, so I expect this to be
where you’re coming from. Look, you have to ask. You can’t be scared to ask for money. You have to ask, and you
have to price yourself, and you have to price yourself in a way that makes you feel good. And so whether that’s $100
an hour, $500 an hour, and the other thing I would tell you is let the market say no. I think a lot of people are
too scared to go too high, and we talked about this on
another show not too long ago, like, you know, just ask for the money and go as high as you possibly can, they can always say no, you’re never gonna say,
“it’s gonna cost you $500” for your R&D, or anything like that, $500 for your voice-over
work, Stunwin, you know, “I want $100 an hour,” nobody’s gonna say, “cool, we’re gonna give you 125.” And so, you know, you’re
better off saying 200, they’re like, “ah, we’ll give you $120, and you’re like, yes, I only wanted 100. Thanks, Gary Vee. (laughter)

digitaljeff asks, “How important
is it to love the product “that your company sells? “Would you hire someone that
had never used your product? “And can being too much in
love with your own product “work against you? – Yes. I would tell you that it’s the
single most important thing. I think the reason that
I’m a great salesman is that I really, fundamentally
believe in everything that I’m selling. The advice here, my books,
wine that I recommend. I’m about to an Instagram
wine offer for the first time in a coupon. Right after we tape this. I really believe in this Rosé. I know, it’s a little side thing. Sorry, Steve. Steve’s my wine boss. And so, hash tag wine boss. Show him and show hashtag wine boss. Love it. So, we cookey here on Friday. Really your fault DRock
for the battery thing. And so, I can’t wait for the edit of this. Share. (monster voice) Remember the oak monster? DRock, the Share Monster. (monster voice) When the share monster comes out, you have to stop what you’re doing and hit the share button on Facebook. All of you online, you
have to do that right now. Sid the intern, have them
say, yes they just did it, and see how many yes’s you got. And if you don’t count
1,900 to match the thing, start yelling and getting crazy in there. You have to sell what you believe in. The reason salesmanship has a bad name is because 98% of
salespeople don’t believe in what they’re actually selling. They’re just going for the commission. The money is what drives them, not the pride and the lifetime value of selling something good. When you sell something you believe in, you get so much more money out of it, because people come back. Guys, it’s all about the
second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth and
seventh and eighth and ninth and tenth and eleventh
and twelfth and thirteenth and fourteenth and fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth and
eighteenth and nineteenth and twentieth sale. Not the first one. And what happens is, if you actually really believe
in what you’re selling, it gives you more conviction and belief that you’re gonna get that sale. And I believe in that tremendously. I think that’s why I
think a great salesperson is somebody that truly
believes and are passionate about what she or he sells, is the number one kind
of person in the world. And that’s what I focus on. And so, I think it is the
prerequisite to being successful. The way you think your
children are the most beautiful and the smartest, that’s the blind faith
you have to be having in what you sell.

“What advice would you give
to a high school student “struggling to decide what to
pursue as a future career?” – I’ve got an answer. Get busy. Do something, do anything. And one of my favorite pieces of advice as to exactly what you should do, is do something you hate. Like, I didn’t find my
passion for entrepreneuralship and filmmaking and everything
that I’ve done in my career. I didn’t find that by doing it. I found that by scrubbing pots in a really terrible seafood restaurant. Because when you spend 50
hours a week scrubbing pots, it’s 50 hours a week you’re obsessing about what you wish you were doing. Sitting around playing video games in your parents’ sweet house is the worst way to find
your mission in life. Do something, staying busy
is a really, really easy path to find something you truly
wanna invest yourself in. – I would also then say to recognize that playing video games in
your parents’ sweet house is probably your outlet
to success in your career. I would say that your
ultimate strengths and wants are the quickest gateway drug to upside once you recognize that there’s
something to be done there. Too many of you, in the world don’t believe that the thing
they like doing the most has financial upside. We’ve drawn a line in the sand, that the thing we like is what we do when we have time to do it like. And the other places to
either make money or get by. So many people are in the other bucket are driven by, I’m gonna go into finance ’cause that’s where the money is. Or I just need enough money and then I’m gonna have
good work-life balance, I’ll be on the softball
team, I’ll play video games. I really believe– I really believe that somebody
who’s watching this right now who obsesses on being on six
soft ball teams right now, literally can make 127,000
dollars a year in ad revenue and live events and a
couple other sponsorships and selling a couple t-shirts by literally becoming
the authority on softball in America. – My son who is a junior in high school is spending a good piece of his summer, including right now, today at a university in
Connecticut studying computer, computer science, specifically
focused on video game design. – Yeah. – Just to back up video playing. – Video game culture in 19– When we were kids. To think it was a mass industry. I mean E-Sport’s gonna
be bigger than baseball in this country in 20 years. E-Sport’s is gonna be a bigger business than major league baseball
in 20, 30 years from now. I’ll go 30, I’m gonna hedge a little bit. In 30 years from now. I mean, that is incredible to me. India. – [Voiceover] Atiyya asks, “If you could swap out
one quality of your won