– [Voiceover] Emerchant asks,
“I understand both are important “but if I only had to pick
one should I focus on content “marketing or paid ads?
I have learned paid ads provide “more results with less effort.
Thoughts?” – I start, you start, you start.
– Go ahead. – Okay. I’ll start. I’m advising a few
startups and that question comes often and I
think it’s about again, most of this question
is about the why. What are you trying,
the why and the what. What are you trying
to achieve right now? I’ll tell you something which
is thinking that you can build a business based on
paid ads at one point it’s going to catch up with you. – It always does.
– It always does. – Because the creative is
the variable of success. And the creative is your
business it’s like the product, your service, the creative. By the way, you can get in front
of everybody with your ad if that creative is bad
you won’t convert. And you’re exactly right, the
answer is yes if it makes you more money up front. First of all the person’s going
to win because they understand there’s two different things he
or she already knows, who was it? – [Adam] Emerchant. – That was the name? Got it. He or she already knows
that there is a big difference between sales and marketing. Paid advertising is sales,
branding marketing content that’s what that is and so I
don’t buy these because Nike fucking cookied me and chased me
around the Internet and I gave up and I bought them. I do it blindly.
Because it is Nike. – [Adam] I got the
red pair by the way. – Love it. We’re going to
agree on that one. I know we’re keeping it tight. Let’s go to the next one
that when I think we got. – [Voiceover] Mike asks, “As a
copywriter/fiction writer, a lot

– Great question, I’m sure
it’s on everybody’s mind. I’m sure, you know, Staphon real quick, I think we should settle
this out into its own video. This is a very intriguing thing. This charging for the replays on Snapchat. To me, this feels tactical. What I mean by that is I do not believe that the powers at Snapchat, I have no knowledge of this, think this is a big time
revenue source for them. I think what Snapchat, I’m so impressed with Snapchat that they know they need to stay fresh. Right, we’ve also got that. Are you going to ask the question later about the new selfie thing? – [Steve] No, I was
just going to leave it– – Cool. So I’ll use that in my answer. I think technology companies
need to have updates. Need to stay fresh. And I think Facebook
did that extremely well. And honestly, over the last half decade, you know especially the
last three or four years I think Twitter did that poorly. I think Instagram’s
showing that capability. Different filters, different size. Even if it’s not a big deal. And Snapchat is showing that ability. With Snapcash if you remember. And that’s not the biggest
thing in the world. I think it’s a quick little play. Clearly look, they’re trying
to position towards an IPO, and so here’s what I
think the strategy is. One, we make the users of Snapchat feel like there’s still
things going on, right? The new selfie filter thing which is wild. I mean, we might as well just do it here. I know you’ve got rainbows
coming out of your mouth. I get it. But you know, I think that’s part of it. And look, and I think what’s
really smart about the replay, what is it, three for
99 cents kind of thing? What I think is super smart about that is I don’t think they expect, I
don’t buy anybody at Snapchat thinking this is going to crush. Right, here’s a good example. Watch this. Staphon, you going to do any of it? – [Staphon] No. – DRock? – [DRock] Maybe not. – No, no, don’t say what I’m leaning to. I want to know. – [DRock] No, no, no, no, no, no. – [Steve] I’m going to do it once. – That makes sense. – [Steve] I want to have them standing by for emergencies. – Would emergencies be
that a lot of female Vayner Nation people
find you more attractive with your new facial hair and may send you the kind of snap that gets you to want to maybe replay it. – [Steve] That’s exactly what I mean. – That’s what I figured. So you know, I think
that’s the cliche joke that people are going to
make about the replay. What I just did, that was on purpose. I think there will be a small subset that will do it one time. Which wouldn’t be hard, I mean listen. If everybody on Snapchat does it one time, you got a 150 million
people spending a buck. That’s 150 million dollars. It could add up really quick. I don’t expect that to be
the case, but to the point. God forbid that’s the kind of play. I always say God forbid it does work. God forbid everybody does want to do it. 99 cents feels right to everybody, and all of a sudden it becomes
a massive revenue stream. There was no loss. I’m a big fan of doing
things that have no downside. Now if you do a ton of features, and notice how both came out. An amazing selfie feature that I think everybody’s going to love along with this kind
of paid kind of thing. I think it was brilliant. A really well executed update. One of my favorite updates
of the year by any platform and so what do I think about it? I don’t think it’s a revenue stream that is meaningful for Snapchat. I think when you take it to a higher level and think about the strategy of a update for one of the leading
consumer apps in the world, I think it’s downright phenomenal. I also think that was a
downright phenomenal answer

– [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)