#AskGaryVee Episode 115: What's More Important, Being Compassionate or Being Abrasive?

“As a rookie, how much
should I allocate to “Facebook Dark Posts for
a Teespring Campaign?” – Javier as a rookie, which I like, I guess a rookie entrepreneur, I would allocate a
disproportionate amount of money into Facebook Dark Posts
for Teespring Campaigns. Especially if you make a
t-shirt that is very thematic meaning, if you made a t-shirt that was like, “Denver Truck Drivers Rule,” and then you dark post against people that live in Denver that are truck
drivers as a profession, you will crush. And so, I think it’s a
unbelievable platform to convert on. We’ve talked at nausea about this. And as a matter of fact, I’m even going to go completely
in a different direction. I actually would challenge
most people watching the show right now that
you should make a Teespring and actually run a $100
worth of dark posts. Go long tail with like, “Teachers From St. Louis Rock,” and learn the dynamics
of specific long tail, surgical Facebook
advertising because I think it will be successful. – [Voiceover] Paul asks,
(hip-hop music)

– [Voiceover] Paul asks,
(hip-hop music) “How do you ‘diplomatically’ tell the BOSS “he’s F’ing it up?!?!?!” – Paul that’s a good question. I massively overvalue
the people in my company who are comfortable enough in saying like, “Hey, Gary, I don’t
disagree with you now.” A lot of them walk into a
buzzsaw because they’re wrong and then they get clowned. So you better make sure you’re right about the boss being wrong, right? And so, but I think any great
boss will be super pumped if you’re willing to respectfully
point out things that you massively disagree with. And I think it’s a win,
win situation for you if you go down that route
because if you think about it, if you give that feedback to the boss and the boss… agrees with you, maybe she or
he knew that you were right, you’ve won points. If they don’t and they
completely disrespect you and the others within the organization that try to give feedback, well then now you know you work for a dipshit boss and you should
be looking for another job. So to me there’s really almost no risk in going down the route of
giving critical feedback to your boss. Especially if you don’t
love, love, love your job. And more importantly,
it’s an amazing proxy to audit your boss which I
think is massively important if you’ve decided to put your career into the leadership of an individual. Yeah let’s just move
like, let’s just move.

“Which do you prefer
[abrasive vs. compassionate] “when getting a point understood
to meet goals and why?” – Josh, I’m curious why
you’re asking this question. I think it’s maybe because you’ve realized I’m abrasive and compassionate
at the same time. And I’m very thankful that
I have a tool belt where I pull out a lot of different emotions. Competitiveness, caring,
warmth, sensitvity, straight disrespect. One of my favorites. (click) Such a deli– that was me drinking self disrespect. Such a delicious flavor. Every situation calls for
a different concoction. And so, what I spend
most of my time really thinking about is getting to know all the different employees
and trying to fig– Did you like that Staphon
showed up in the back? (trucks revving) I’m over here. Getting to know each and every employee on an individual basis, understanding the situation at hand, and then being smart enough as the leader, as the CEO, to deploy the right mix, the
right blend at that moment for the task at hand. I actually have no emotion and no favorite move. No, I don’t prefer
combativeness to compassion to respect to any of this. I really just whatever
I think at that moment is the right move. Sometimes I’ll do six
months worth of compassion and then straight karate chop, sweep the leg to the mouth, because clearly that wasn’t working. So, I’m adjusting in
real time to my clients, to my employees, to my investors, to my startups. This is a never-ending,
constantly 24/7, 365. Test and learn. Use your intuition and not get romantic or not get into a habit of
using one move over and over because a funny thing
happens with these things. It’s kind of like medicine. If you use it too often, it stops working as well. – [Voiceover] Raymond asks,
(hip-hop music)

“How do you think people will
consume news in the future “and how can small publishers
like ourselves monetize “on our content if it is
consumed on a native platform?” – Raymond great question. You’re going to have to find
ways to integrate advertisers in a way that if you’re not
the platform where you’re monetizing the eyeballs, well then you don’t
deserve the dollars because all the advertisers want
is the awareness, right? I mean they’re not smart
enough to recognize they want the actually engagement
and the sell through. Unfortunately right now they
still want the awareness. So, if your news is
being consumed on Twitter and not on your platform, and there’s no ad opportunity
for your advertisers in that format and
that’s going to Twitter, well then you’re fu—-
and that’s exactly what you are alluding too. I think what you need to do is A, find ways to drive people to your world, which is extremely difficult. Or B, rethink the model all together. Do you actually, you know, when was it that media
and news companies decided they were in the advertising business? A long time ago. But are you maybe in the events business? Are you maybe in the consulting business? Are you maybe in the
content production and compete with VaynerMedia business? Are you in the stand up comedy business? I know that was weird, but like that’s really where I’m going. You and everybody else selling
news has defaulted into, “I sell advertising.” Why? Why are you romantic about
the way you make your money? Why are you using 80 years
of history to make your money when the world is clearly
changing at a scale that we’ve never seen? Why? Why? Because innovation and innovators are rare and far and few in between aren’t they? And so, I challenge you in this show, at this moment, and everybody else
trying to monetize news. Recognizing news is now
being consumed on Facebook. Recognizing news is now
being consumed on Twitter. You’ve lost your power of people
coming to your destination. There’s a couple of
ways to think about it. Are you thinking about
virtual reality video? Are you thinking about 3D printing? Are you thinking about
mobile only society? Are you thinking about the
next thing after mobile which might be, I can do it right here in thin air. Or, more importantly,
’cause all of that stuff is probably 10 years away. Are you thinking about
different ways to make money? Meaning, you have a news
outlet and because you’re good at producing news
and getting people to consume it on the web, maybe you help advertisers
get their content consumed on Facebook and Twitter. Rethink the game. And by the way, that was advice for everybody here. Always rethink how you make your money. Wine Library has a big
second floor right now and I’m trying to sell it out as space for events and things of that nature. I’m making money on the real estate. So rethink the way you make your money. (car engines revving)

for the creative class. I’m a writer and I started
my own marketing consultancy in January and I’m having
an issue getting out and meeting people. You meet a 100 people before breakfast. Some of us don’t have
that kind of personality. So what advice would you
give people like me who have a hard time getting
out, shaking hands, and handing off business cards. What can we do to help
grow our own companies? You have anything? – Jim that’s a great question. Networking doesn’t come natural to– give me my headphones, India. Networking doesn’t come
natural to everybody and the truth is you’ve watched the show probably enough to know I’m a big fan of betting on your strengths versus
working on your weaknesses. I believe people that are
more introverted, reserved, it’s hard for me to ra ra
you into going and like shaking people’s hands
and rolling up on people and being like, “Hey.” Oh no, we’re all great. You know like that’s not going
to be what you do, right? That’s not going to be what you do. That’s what I’d do, but that’s not what
you’re going to be doing. And so, I would say put out great content and play the honey game. Become the honey and
let the bees come to you instead of you becoming
one of the bees, right? And so, I think that’s the game. I think way too many
people are trying to be better at things that seem obviously good. And listen, I spend a disproportionate
amount of time networking. Much of which doesn’t come to fruition. So that could be a waste. Maybe you’re saving a lot
of time being a creative, doing your thing. So, I would say for you and
all the other people out there that don’t want to network,
hand out business cards, shake hands, kiss babies, scare red-headed dudes, I think that you need to go
out and put out great stuff and let people come to you. Let your work speak for itself. I would work in a B2B
Environment and try to get your work seen in other
places except your blog. That can be done behind your keyboard, on email to blogs and
news sites that cover the arena that you play in. That would be my advice to you. Let it come to you. (car engines revving) Cool. Question of the day.