#AskGaryVee Episode 103: CrossFit, One On One Marketing, & Liking Your Own Photos

“I know you’re not big on
automation, but it’s a reality. “You’re an advisor to HubSpot. “Thoughts on that space?” – Justin, tremendous question. I think this is a great
opportunity for me to clarify my point of view on automation. I don’t love automation
to the point where it’s replacing something that I,
one humble man’s point of view, should be done by a human, AKA, I don’t like the notion of an automatic DM when you follow somebody
and it feels very spammy. But I love, I use
automation at Wine Library, like, when your order is
confirmed it automatically e-mails you and says your
order is ready for you. I think that there’s a really fine line of what one would quantify as the thing that a human should do and the thing that a computer should do. I don’t like when automation automatically populates somebody’s
first name into an e-mail and they’re trying to “trick”,
and that’s what I feel. You know, to me, the
intent of the automation. You know, for example,
I ask a lot of people when they sign up for my YouTube channel to e-mail me that they
did, right, the ting. You know, DRock, show them that part. (snapping fingers) Can’t you just subscribe? Oh, by the way, when you do, e-mail me. Ting. (chuckles) – [DRock] Do I have to
include you saying “ting”? – Yeah, I want to keep the “ting”. You know, that part, I
tell them to e-mail me and, look, I’m getting a lot of e-mails, and I don’t answer everybody. One would argue that the
automated response of, “Hey! Thanks for signing up for my thing “and check out the #AskGaryVee Show “and check out, pre-order my new book, “the #AskGaryVee book
and, you know, check out.” You know, one would argue
that there’s a lot of conversion there but,
to me, I, as a human, I, as Gary Vaynerchuk, ask you to sign up for my newsletter and e-mail me. I don’t want, when I
say e-mail me, for that to then be the computer responds to you. Right? And so what I do is when I have a moment, I try to answer a couple of
them and just say thank you. ‘Cause that really was
my whole intent of that. And so, I think that, I’m
a big fan of automation for a lot of things, but
what people are trying to do is scale humans and
there’s a human element that matters in these equations. None of you, not a single on
of you watching this video like it when somebody
automates something that is supposed to act like
a human and it’s not. So, as a company, I
think automation’s great. When you apply for VaynerMedia, I don’t even know if this
happens with the resume, getting an automated response. But, way too many people are saying, like, in DM, like, “Hey, thanks for following me
and check out my new e-book.” Like, it’s not real. Like, that, to me, is the muck and so, of course it’s a reality. I don’t hand deliver every e-mail. There’s a lot of things
that are appropriate. I argue around automating the human thing. I argue around outsourcing
the human thing. I don’t think a celebrity
should have their assistant reply for them, as them. If you want to create
a Team Beyonce account, if you want to create, you
know, a Team India account that, you know, has to respond because she’s become such a superstar, that’s fine. But not Beyonce because that
wasn’t Beyonce doing it. I had this huge argument a long time ago when everybody got mad at Britney Spears and I argued that Obama wasn’t doing it and everybody got upset and so, everybody was like, “No, he’s doing it.” This is ’07 Twitter talk, it was fun to see him
actually get his own account, recently, to prove that out. It matters. – [Voiceover] Scott asks,

“My computer is sitting in my lap “and I’m reading Twitter on my phone. “Why, exactly?” – Scott, this is very
easy to answer, my friend. Why, because this has
become the first screen. This is the most important
screen in the world. No longer the television and this thing, this thing is dead. This is literally, like, this
is like an archaic artifact. Like, our kids and friends
are going to be like the way they look at, like, a GameBoy or like a Walkman or like a VHS tape or like a CD. Have you seen a 13 year old
look at a CD, by the way? I mean, it’s like, “What is this thing?” The reason this is sitting
here and you’re doing that, let me just replicate this, is because this is the jam, now. This is how we communicate. Not this. This was the jam versus the going to my conference room or my office in my room and
sit down on a big thing, now that’s archaic. The computer, that blew our minds. And, soon, this, I wish
I didn’t forget my watch, whether it’s the watch,
or the contact lenses, or ocular, it’s just evolution. And, so, you’re evolving, my friend. Congrats. – [Voiceover] Jessica asks,

“If you owned a CrossFit gym, “how would you attack the marketplace?” – Jessica, I would attack
it in a lot of ways. I think CrossFit is amazingly ripe for content. People hustling. People wearing skimpy clothes. People in shape. People competing. Just a ton of Instagram,
a ton of Pinterest, a ton of Facebook, a ton of YouTube. Just content, content, content, but, I would have a very
strategic approach, locally. If you actually run a gym, I would care immensely
around the 15 mile radius and so I would also test direct mail, I would test JV’ing with the other, one of my favorite moves
for a local business is, I can’t believe so many local
businesses don’t do this, why not go to every other
local business and say, Hey, India, I’m going to use India
a lot in this episode, Hey India, you have a
beautiful flower shop, here. But you don’t have a lot of customers and neither do I in my CrossFit gym. We need to help each other, right? Like, we need more. You need more people for this. What can we do, right? Maybe I could put your flowers in my gym and I’ll put a sign there. And can you do something for me? And that talk, that biz-dev with local, you know, hey, Staphon, right, like, I’m just
getting into it, now, I’m really now into it, let’s get this light out of the way. Hey, Staphon, I really
like your sneaker store. By the way, I’m going
to buy these sneakers. Some Nikes. You know, but, by the way, you
know, there’s not that many people that come here
Monday through Friday so wouldn’t you, maybe you could put a sneaker display in my
gym and maybe I could have something here. You cool for that? – I’m cool with that.
– He’s cool with that. So, my friends, localized biz-dev. Every small business needs more people. It’s the hustle, it’s the grind. You’re competing against the
thing called the internet and it’s going to win. But it’s going to take 20, 30, 40 years but every day it chips
away at your pocket. Every day, the internet comes and it takes another bill, every day the internet
comes and it just grabs, it just grabs, it just takes your money, and so you need to fight
with your other teammates that have the same problem you have. So, sure all the stuff that I’ve talked about in 102 episodes, watch them all, there’s plenty
of stuff in there to do. But good, old-fashioned knocking on doors and biz-deving with India the flower shop and the Stefan the sneaker
shop is very, very important and I’m blown away, every time
I go into a local business, that they have all this
square footage that they’re not using efficiently ’cause
they don’t have the money for inventory for unlimited sneakers so they’ve just got room, they’ve got room and in that room maybe I could
put a bench with a weight and everyone’s like,
“What the hell is that?” but there’s a sign there
that says Gary’s CrossFit, you know, grab this
coupon, one month free. Biz-dev, locally, I’m
obsessed with it but it takes the guts to go knock on the door and a lot of people just don’t have those guts.

“Why is it a crime to like your
own pictures on Instagram? “Why will you be shunned for it?” – Joe, I’m with you. I think, here, on the
#AskGaryVee Show, Episode 103, I do not understand why
it’s politically incorrect to like your own picture. As a matter of fact, starting here, Joe, going forward for the next 10 pictures, as a social experiment, I will be the first person
to like my own photo because self-esteem is cool, kids. It’s cool. (chuckling) – [DRock] See? That’s one of the answers
that I had no idea what you were going to come out with. – I really think it’s okay. I really think it’s, I
don’t think it’s so crazy. I know that people think it’s, like, it’s funny to see the social taboos. But I’m into it. I’m going to heart the
shit out of my Instagram photos going forward. – [Voiceover] Jason asks, “is heading towards one on one marketing?”

“Gary, do you still believe marketing “is heading towards one on one marketing?” – Jason, I still think that the upside, the disproportionate upside, is going into one on one marketing and I know this because, when I do Twitter video replies, people go crazy and I’m creating depth. I know this because a lot of people have been following me on Instagram, you should, too,
(tinging bell) and, I’ve been replying
to them in the comments. One of my new hacks, this is really, you know, Justin, who asked the
first question, is like, “Give me more tactical shit.” Here you go, bro. Here’s a good one. Here’s something I’ve
been really into, right? So people follow you, right? I get decent amounts of followers. Most of you don’t. You only get one or two or three a day. Is it going to kill you to
go into the last person, here’s Millianaires Junior or Millions Junior, private account, can’t do it, next. I know you really can’t
get in here, DRock, but, good, here’s Austin G, right? Austin G just followed me. I’ve been hitting his last
photo and just saying, “Thanks for the follow.” Right? Bro. Right? And done. That level of depth, I’ve noticed almost 95%, this is anecdotal, but nine out of every ten, eight out of every ten people, are freaking out, excited,
because nobody does that. And so, here’s the thing, do I think the marketing
world is going towards one on one, AKA Thank You Economy? I think the thing that
I’ve come to realize is, crap, a lot of the stuff that I do, I’m an anomaly because I act like one. I have disproportionate results
to the rest of the world because I’m doing shit differently. That’s why. And so, do I think the world’s
moving in that direction? Less, because I’m starting to realize I’m better. Right? And so, that’s building inside of me. Do I think that there’s
disproportionate value? Even more than I did when
I wrote Thank You Economy. You know why? Because people only
want to talk more, now, and listen less, and listen, my friends, is where the action is. Spending a second, doing what I just did. The thing that I’ve
been really crushing on, I think, I mean, this is where you guys, as a collective, really piss me off. I’m going to show you, right now, that replying on Twitter
video is incredible. Twitter video response is probably the best hack, right now, on Twitter. Right, so, let’s, here we go, here’s somebody, “Such a must-read piece by Gary Vee.” Right? By John T, right? So I just reply, I hit reply, I hit the video, I hit the video, I reverse the camera, I go, oops, that was a picture, that’s wrong, I don’t want to do that, camera, and then, John, I really appreciate it, man. Kind of weird thing. We’re actually taping #AskGaryVee, live, right now. I’m just saying thanks, I appreciate you. Now, I don’t do that,
because I’m not usually taping #AskGaryVee, but I just say, hey, thanks, or I respond. 99% of the video responses have been liked, retweeted, passed on. It’s that extra second. And so I think the LTV, the thing that I live on, LTV, the thing that I live on, LTV, the thing that I live on, Life, Time, Value. You can watch this show once or twice or you can watch all 103 of them which become a gateway drug to everything else that I do for a living. You say something nice
about me at a restaurant which leads to that person
digging into VaynerMedia which then makes them a
client of VaynerMedia. You buy 11 copies of the #AskGaryVee book that comes out in
February and you give them to 10 people who then discover me. Because I’ve put out 103
of these things for free, not put them behind a pay
wall for 19 bucks an episode, it’s LTV, LTV, LTV, and one of the greatest ways to create LTV when nobody knows who you are or you’re still small or you’re still grinding, you’re still climbing the mountain, is being completely and utterly obsessed with thanking
everybody who gave a shit enough to follow you on Instagram. Because I’m not so sure you deserve it and I’m not so sure I deserve it which is why I’m so grateful
for when it happens.