#AskGaryVee Episode 105: Solopreneurs, Edited Photos & Attention to Detail

“Gary Vee, as a successful
solo entrepreneur, “do I have to grow my business bigger “than I can handle alone?” – Q Studios Inc, that’s a great question. I think the answer to that
question is completely predicated on what you want in life. I mean, you’ve set up
the question by saying you’re a successful solo entrepreneur. Are you making the monies
and are you fulfilled enough to keep it at a one woman/one man show? I mean, to me, I can’t
answer that for you. I just had an interesting
conversation with AJ. Our professional ambitions
are in a different place. Everyone’s are. If you wanna build a bigger business, you need to build it
outside of one person. You can only be so big, but maybe what you’re
getting and what you’ve got and how it goes appeals to you. I find a lot of people not
being able to be good managers. They love to micro-manage, they’re romantic and
obsessive about what they do, they don’t allow other people
to come into their ecosystem, and they struggle with the growth curve and they get just as
little exponential growth, they go from making $73,000 a year to 113, but it comes with a lot of pain because they don’t like it, you know? They’re introverted, they’re solo acts, they’re flawed in building
out a big business, but incredibly good and
happy at doing their thing. So it’s not about making more,
there’s really a fine line of making more money
but giving up too much of your happiness for
that bigger money amounts, and then there’s probably
a place where that monies justifies what you want. But to me, doing what you love and doing it the way you love to do it is really, really, really important. I happen to be lucky that that also creates wealth and big dollars, but for the people that it
doesn’t, they need to reconcile. And look, what I don’t get
is a lot of other things, which is kind of the relaxation or the lack of pressure
that comes along with some of the smaller plays, but, I can’t answer this question for you, you need to know yourself. This goes back to all
the self-awareness stuff that I’m trying to put out. This goes back to
yesterday’s video about, or a couple days ago
video of a day in the life where a lot of people
critique my work-life balance, my family time, this, that, and the reason that video
ends with, you know, that’s me, now do you.
That’s a perfect way, actually, DRock, link up there. Give me like a, give me 13 seconds of the day in the life video. – Gary Vanderchuk. – You know I’m a hundred percent right. (laughter) You just do. (laughs) Like, I’m super glad
we’re connected, brother. Alright, now I’m back, and so, you know, I think um, I think it’s on you. – [Voiceover] Adam asks,

“You say one, play to your strengths, “two, don’t worry about small details. “What if my strength is
attention to detail?” – Adam, couple things, and this is for the entire VaynerNation, so many of the things that
I say are contradictions. I like pulling from both directions. That’s where I think
the strength comes in. I really do think of life,
business, as a bridge. If you pull equally very hard, ego, humility, right? I don’t care what anybody thinks about me, I care about what everybody
thinks about me, right? Big, big, big picture, clouds,
but I’m a practitioner. I know more about all the
details of social than you. Details, dirt. And so I love pulling
from opposite directions, so if I’m giving advice
and you’re listening to 105 composite shows
and things are coming from different angles
that are contradictions, this is where you have
to go within yourself and not listen to a
guru, ’cause I’m not one, nor is anyone else, this is
on you to figure out that, and so if your strengths are, you know, to me in that one, you bet on yourself. To me, look, I can answer these in detail, and I will this time. I would bet on the strengths. Cool, you’re detail-oriented. You need to recognize two things. If your skill set is detail-oriented, two things are gonna happen. One, if you’re the number one, if you’re the top dog, your company, your business is gonna be small. Number two, you’re probably an awesome number two, three, and
four to a number one that goes all the way out to the clouds and doesn’t care about the details, and you may be able to make more finances, or whatever you’re looking
for, and be happier and not have the pressure
of being the number one by laddering up or attaching
yourself to a number one and acting your two, three, four role. If your strength is the finite details, your upside is limited as the number one. You have two decisions to make. One, you’re cool with that, back to the first question in this show. Or two, you’re gonna latch onto somebody who’s gonna be able to elevate, and your 8%, your 20%, your 40%, your 2% of the whole nut is going to be greater than 100% of what you’re gonna do for yourself.

“You decide to not show
my book page to people. “Do you think a lack of success “will make me give you more money?” – Rusty, I feel you, but you know, Facebook is like any
other medium in the world. You know like, Fox channel network to put your commercial for your book isn’t gonna just do it for free. The Yellow Pages isn’t feeling your book and so they’re just gonna
put it in there for free. The postal service isn’t like, “Oh rad, “your book was creative. “Let’s just ship out flyers
for your book for free.” This notion that Facebook,
because it started as a social network, is not
giving free organic reach to people and, “What, you want my money?” Yes, they want your money because it’s one of the most efficient ways
to actually deliver content to people in the world, right? You know, like, you know, cool, use the alternative of
free, which is what? Oh, excuse me, use the
alternative of Facebook and keep staying free, which is what? E-mail? Cool. Build your list, do your thing, hit that Google button, boom, MailChimp in the house. Great, awesome, phenomenal, show me. Show me that you can build that list. That’s just the way it is,
and I think people’s feelings are hurt, but Facebook,
The Business World, The Market, doesn’t give a crap. – [Voiceover] Listen Give
asks, “Our co-founder

“has been said to be the
female version of you. “Do you think society is ready, “and would she be treated the same?” (patronizing laughter) – Listen Give? – [India] Listen give. – India, you are picking some doozys on this weekend edition
of the #AskGaryVee show. This one’s got me up into a
higher level as you can tell. The female version of me, who
I think is Misha Vaynerchuk, my daughter, I’m watching
it though I can already see some differences, which is too bad. At first I would’ve thought
it was like a carbon copy. But I love her perfectly the way she is. No, I think if there was a
female version of me right now, she would struggle more,
because the truth is, society is flawed and white males get away with more things than
minorities, than females, and so I think the
world’s a lot more ready than it was five years
ago, or 10 years ago, or 15 years ago,
definitely, but do I think, you know, cursing, I mean,
if we’re going carbon copy, you know, cursing and that level of ego, and that combativeness of loving the competition, I think it would be less palpable to the masses, which is
massively unfortunate and I hope that day will change. At the same token, I think that, I don’t think people
recognize how much smaller my audience is by me being me. A lot of people see the plus side of it, I am not consumable to a lot of people. There’s three to four little tweeks that I’m fully in control on to change in a heartbeat that would
make me much bigger, I’m just not willing to do that, and I would hope that
your co-founder, right? Yeah, I hope that she is
just her all the way through and let the chips fall where they fall. I hope she doesn’t hedge
or tries to waiver, much like I hope she has no interest in trying to be just like me
if she’s passionate about me in a way that I try
not to be like anybody. There’s an incredible,
it’s the most cliche word right now in the game, authenticity, but it is stunning how much truth there, you know, it’s kinda like stereotypes. Stereotypes are uncomfortable, but like, let’s get raw, there’s
some truths to stereotypes, that’s how they become stereotypes. Authenticity is a cliche buzzword ’cause there’s some truth to it. People really appreciate you
rolling the way you’re rolling. People really appreciate when
I meet them in real life. They’re like, I mean, it’s
still stunning to people like, “Oh damn.” you know? I mean, I’m sure at episode 100 you guys had people coming up to you and saying, “Oh wow, that’s how he
is in real life.” right? People expect there’s a cynicism, and that’s why authenticity over-indexes, and so I highly recommend, so the answer to your question is no, I
don’t think it’s as accepted as me, and I think that’s unfortunate, but that’s just my true answer. Two, I hope that doesn’t
change any of her behavior.

– [Voiceover] Daniel
asks, “How do you think “overly-edited photos and text overlays “affect the authenticity
of Instagram posts?” – Daniel, thank you so much
for a wonderful question. Just off the back of authenticity, so you must have been thrilled. I think it’s what you’re
trying to accomplish. I think that if you’re a photographer trying to catch the wild,
like, you can’t edit and put words over it,
but if you roll like me where a lot of things, like
you wanna inspire people to think differently or
make them feel something, it’s really powerful
to put a quote of yours on top of a photo. I really do think it’s the strategy, the will, the interest
of the content producer to really make this judgment call. What I like most of
all about this question is how Instagram really works. The ability to unfollow
somebody on Instagram is so easy, and this is
a subtle product thing that I don’t think people
spend enough time on. People’s ability to unfollow somebody feels so native as you’re
scrolling that, you know, at the end of the day,
content’s gonna find its audience if it’s
good, and whether that’s highly edited or super raw, or black and white, or booty shots, or inspirational quotes,
or whatever it is, it’s going to find its audience, and so I think it’s something that people should not overthink in either direction, right? It’s not a tactic that
automatically makes it pop, and it’s definitely not a
tactic that’s gonna cripple you, it just needs to be right. I actually think you’ve said it best, which is, authenticity has
nothing to do with the actions. It has to do with the seed
of where this comes from. If you authentically, like
me, want to put things like kill it or crush a face today, or whatever you wanna
say on top of a picture, that’s what’s coming from
me, that’s why I think my audience finds it attractive, in the same way that, if all of a sudden on my Instagram feed
I’m taking sunset shots of New York City, people
are gonna be like, “That’s not.” that’s not, that’s just not who I am, right? And that’s why I yell at DRock always trying to edit and shit, and that’s it, right? That’s it so, I think your
question’s got the answer in it, which is the word authenticity. If it comes from the heart to have quotes on top
of it and edit it, cool. If it doesn’t, cool. Cool?