#AskGaryVee Episode 117: When Does Authentic Marketing Become TMI?

“Doesn’t he see the value while “he writes books himself?” – Niels, I don’t read books,
because of a couple things. One, I’m very inefficient at reading so it takes me a long, long time, and the truth is I don’t
think I actually grasp what I read. As a matter of fact,
something very interesting has happened over the
last six to eight months here at VaynerMedia. When I see that something
comes in my inbox that’s a very important piece of business, and it’s a very long email,
AKA more than 18 words, I call a five minute meeting,
because in five minutes, and my staff will tell you. You won’t see the body language here, but I’m saying it for them it’s insane. In a meeting, I basically don’t even let people finish saying what they’re saying, because I’ve grasped it,
but if they sent me that same comment in four sentences I literally wouldn’t even
know what was going on. I don’t read, because I
don’t think it’s an efficient transaction of transforming information into my brain, I really don’t. Audio books is something I need to take very seriously, but the truth is I don’t read because the way I like to consume
information is living it. I know that sounds weird, but it’s just the truth. I really do think the reason that I’ve been able to be an anomaly is I know that that’s
probably not the norm. Most people do read books, like as a matter of fact, it’s crazy that the internet came along, because if the internet hadn’t come along, I wouldn’t have written
or read in my life. I was well on my way, if I was I’m sure there’s some 50 to 80 year olds who are watching the show right now, or listening to the show who are like me who realize, holy crap. They really didn’t write or read from 24 to 45, pre-internet stuff. I write books, because I know so many people do read. I know so many people do learn from highlighting the shit out of the books. I don’t, and so you can’t be religious or romantic about these things. Just cause I write them doesn’t mean I need to read them, and vice versa. The reason I don’t do it is ’cause I don’t find value in it for me, and I
highly recommend a lot of you start really auditing yourself
and understanding, are you doing stuff that actually
doesn’t bring any value to you just because that’s what society and the world and you have always done because the answer is yes.

do you practice to keep focused?” – Raymond, that’s a good question. Daily rituals to keep focused. You know, now that I’m a year and two days into my physical regimen, that is what you would think is one of the things I do, but I don’t. I do not find that my working out has done anything for me
mentally, I really don’t. I don’t feel any different mentally today than I did a year ago. I don’t sleep better. The only thing that’s happened is I just look way better, and you know, that’s that. I’m sure there’s plenty of other, I’ll probably live a lot longer, that’s that thing. I feel much stronger, by the way. Traveling is where I’m really feeling it, just little silly things
like grabbing my suitcase. I think I only have one ritual which is in parallel to the way I live my life. Even right now, as I’m
talking to you guys, there’s a little part of my
brain that’s always moving. It’s just like think of
it as a hamster wheel, and it’s always just reminding
myself to keep things in perspective. I think my daily ritual. How was the question phrased again India? – [India] It was phrased daily
rituals to keep you focused. – To keep my focused, I think the one thing
that keeps me focused is the perspective of
understanding how lucky I am, how good life really is, how
the things I complain about are not that big of a deal
in the scheme of things, how at moment’s notice I can get a text right now while filming this show and have the tragedy of my life
happen, and every second that doesn’t happen,
how thankful I should be for that, because those
are real scenarios. These are things that
you and so many of us deal with on a daily basis. Now that I have a 530 person company, HR sends me an email inevitably every week to two weeks of very scary things, like people’s families having
tragedies of death or people being diagnosed with illness. Just real stuff, real stuff. I am stunningly capable
outside of New York Jets football to understand
in check, in emotion, how 99% of things don’t matter. My daily ritual is
actually my ritual that I keep at an every second basis. It’s my moment, every second ritual of keeping myself in check to recognizing what is
important versus what’s not. Sure I get frustrated and
concerned and worried, but it never has a sustained level of a feeling, because I just put things in perspective so well and I’m so thankful for that gear. I really wish I knew how to teach it. I think the only thing I try to do is put it out to you guys. I’m hoping that somebodys like geez, that seems like hope you’re looking at
me or listening to me right now and saying, gee that sounds fun. You’re right, it is. I’m a very outrageously, stunningly, over the top happy person,
because of this gear. It is very difficult
for me to have sustained unhappiness because of this vehicle, and it also allows me, and
I really do believe this, allows me to affect the people around me whether they’re consuming
me on a daily basis or they work with me, to actually level themselves. Stunwin, as someone who I find
very cynical and different than me, straight up, no
bullshit, because I don’t care and you know that. Don’t bullshit me. Do you feel that this, how long have we been
jamming together now? 18 months, where are we at now? – A little over two years now. – Sorry, in these two years, do you feel that the answer, I don’t know how much you were listening, you
seem like you were working which is a nice change of pace. – Thank you, thank you Gary. – Stunwin, do you feel,
no bullshit, no bullshit, do you feel that you’ve moved at any level to be more optimistic, bigger perspective, happier? – Absolutely. – Talk about it. I know it, because I can see it from afar. I’m pumped to hear that, but I’m curious how you quantify it. How much? Or how or what, or talk? – I would say that the thing that you all, you say that resonated with
me the most is the whole you’re 100% in control
of your situation and don’t bitch about it. – You’ve changed in that way. – Yeah, in a big way, absolutely. – Yeah, you’re right. I think about you three years
ago, you complained more. – I complained a lot. – Yeah, no really. And you feel more in control. – 100% yeah if I have a problem, everything is fixable as opposed to – And talk to me as somebody whose, when did you start watching Wine Library TV? – 2007 I think. – The difference of being this, so you said, I listened very carefully. I’m a good listener. The thing you said that resonated with me you followed me for a long time. How long have you been at VaynerMedia? – Three years this month. – For almost a full year,
you weren’t as inner circle with me. Was it watching the execution
of that non-complaining that triggered it, or was
it just momentum or what? I’m trying to figure out what I wanna do for them
is what’s the difference between what they are experiencing which is what you
experienced, which is you’re listening to it versus
clearly being able to see it in real life. You see all the, you’re in my inbox, you know the insanity that I – I know what it is. It’s that you encourage
people to take control of the situation, and what
happens is the first time somebody actually acts on that and says, I have a
problem with this person and instead of bitching
and complaining about it, they actually take control
of the situation and they say, hey this is a problem. How do we fix it? People are afraid to do that. They think it’s gonna backfire. They think, I’m not allowed
to give that person feedback, or I’m not allowed to
act on this, because it’s not my job, or I’m not
senior enough or whatever, and the first time you do
it, and it doesn’t backfire, and it actually works, because you asked for what you wanted, it’s like oh shit, that’s actually really empowering. – And let me teach you about scale. That’s awesome, in that what I know and I’m gonna give you
a little love here is going from that what he just said which is complaining and
not doing anything about it, to the next step which
is doing something about it, but what Steve has
done, unlike others. I’m super pumped they’re just doing it. What Steve has done that I’ve noticed is not only that, then empowering others to do the same, and that my friends is scale. That my friends is how
you go from a small base to a big base when you are so religious and you suffocate all the wrong, and you try to teach, and you have people that level up to it, so that saves you time, but then some break through and actually teach it as well, and help me scale it and know much of a religion it is. That’s when you start really scaling it, and that’s who the hell knows how we got to this point. I don’t even remember the question, the daily ritual. That’s my ritual, and not only is it my ritual it’s my religion, it’s my passion, and it is probably fundamentally
why I do this damn show, because I’m so desperate for you guys to do the same, because
it’s just way better.

“Alright Gary Vee, you’re
big on authentic marketing, “but when does it go from
building trust with the audience “to shit man, that’s TMI.” – Too much information. I don’t think we, the people that put out the content get to judge what TMI is. I think the consumer judges
what’s too much information, and so as you can think now, and let your whole mind go, you’ve got all sorts of
people that are whether in social or real mainstream media, that you deem, put out
too much information or not enough information. I’m a big fan of the market deciding, and I think the way you
learn how the market decides is to listen to the market. For me, you put out stuff and you see what they come back to. For example, there’s a vine that I put out where I’m sitting in a toilet. Danny, the craziest place I vined is this. This. That might have been TMI for people. I did it, because I’m
curious of what too TMI is, and I think one, I think it
breaks down to two things. Number one, the market decides. We’ve seen that. You’ve seen no question. There was a time and period where people thought
Elvis shaking his hips was too much information. I would call that tame
compared to what Miley Cyrus did at the MTV Music Awards 18 months ago. I would consider that tame
to what XYZ is gonna do six years from now on whatever we’re on a Netflix show. Live show. I think that things evolve. The market evolves, but I really think of this
as nothing in the middle. The market decides, and
then you get to decide. We’ve refrenced it’s been funny we had
an episode where I really got hardcore about my family thing, and it’s been bubbling up. I’ve been getting a lot
of positive feedback from a lot of friends and family about how little I put
out on Misha and Xander and Lizzie, and how I
do keep my family life pretty private in the scheme of how TMI I am. I decided that, Lizzie decided that. We decided that, and the occasional picture would be fun, and would never be deemed as too TMI, but we decided that is for us, TMI. I think you deeply have to be
authentic to what’s right for you. You can’t force it. You just can’t force it. I would definitely, maybe about another year, maybe in another 18 months, I definitely am gonna give a key note without my shirt on. Many would deem that as too TMI, yet you probably won’t see Xander until he’s like 17. I mean like, you gotta decide, and then the market decides. If people are engaging with your stuff, and there’s a lot of Instagram
girls that are putting out content that many would deem as too TMI, but the market sure likes it, and if it works for
them, that’s how you have to live your life, and so
you do you. You do you. There is nobody deciding
besides you and the market. That’s the way it should
be, and there’s always this nice balance, and if you’re
fortunate and you’re lucky, what you’re willing to put out they’re willing to consume
and are happy with it, and that’s the Mendoza
line we’re all looking for.

House of Jerky. I wanna let you know I tried that thing with telling everybody
thank you with a video on Twitter, and it has
worked better than good. The problem I’m having
right now is I’ve got so many new tweets coming in, and some new people following me. It’s becoming a little overwhelming. How do you handle that? Thanks, take care and have a great day. – This is an interesting
question House of Jerky. This is a very interesting question. The truth is, I can never fake the funk on this show. I think one of the
things that works for me is my reactions are always my reactions. Since I’ve already seen this video, I’m not as pissed as I was three weeks ago or whenever the hell I saw it where I literally, House of Jerky, and I love you. Literally wanted to punch you directly in your mouth, because
this really pissed me off, because Jesus Christ. Hey, help me fix my business
and make my business better. Cool, here do this. Awesome. My business is better, but
now there’s too much of this. It is so insane. And again, you’re such a lovely dude that I don’t want, I’m
doing this never just. By the way, I’m never
answering these questions just for the person at hand. It is the collective answer. I hope and I mean this my man. I hope you’re being
tongue in cheek with me, and you just wanted to get on the show. I really hope, because if you’re not being tongue in cheek with me you’re an insane loser. Anybody and anybody, anybody who has a problem with too
many things going well are prewired for failure, and that hurts, and I really, the truth is, the reason I probably took the show. I can taste that that’s not your case, but I do think that there’s many people listening and watching that are the case, and the thought that
you could ever complain about success is so insane to me and listen, maybe I
have a visceral reaction to this because business
associates have done this with me in my career, and I can’t there’s so much to complain about that is valid, if you’re willing to. I mean, this show as you can
tell, I’m not even interested in doing that at all. I’ve said on this show, the biggest thing I admire in the world
is my mom’s inability to complain. It’s something I’m massively proud of. I really try not to do it, and the thought to complain about, hey you gave me a tremendous piece of a business strategy. Stick with me here for fucking free stick with me here. It worked. Good things are happening to me. Good things are happening to me, and now there’s too much
good things happening to me. Help me reconcile this good
thing that’s happening to me. That is bonker shit USA. That is insane, and I right here, line in the sand, on this show to you Vayner
Nation am telling you that is a line I’m not
allowing you to cross. I am not allowing you, you, any of you ever in your life, ever. I’m choking it the fuck out. You are unallowed, if you wanna be homies, friends, even borderline acquaintances, you are not allowed to
complain about success. Let me help you with your problem. Shut your fucking business down, because if you’re gonna
complain about good things happening, you’ve lost. That’s insane. Complain when you’re
down to your last penny, not when you have too many customers. You know what you need to do? Stop bullshitting. Sleep less, fuckin don’t watch TV. I don’t know. Don’t make a video with Gary Vee, answer somebody’s fucking question. Got it?

“Gary Vee, your Facebook
numbers don’t reflect “how influential you are. “How do you explain that to clients?” – This is a good question. It’s funny. I think people are lost. Let me explain. Here’s how I explain it to clients, I assume what you’re saying is Gary, you’ve built a personal brand and you only have 336,000 followers on Facebook, and there’s a lot of
people that have way more, and your influence is bigger, and I like you. Being very nice, and I think
you’re bigger than that. I see other people that have
400,000 or 180,000 that are way less than you. How do you explain that? I explain it very simply. My goal in life is not to amass Facebook fans. I explain it by saying, look at all these people that have way more
social media followers who sell nine books when
their book comes out, and I sell hundreds of thousands. I explain and say, look. You know I tell you I’m
good at building businesses? Look at this building,
business called VaynerMedia. Three years ago, the three million and is gonna do 65 million. That’s good, right? I explain it, because a top line, how many
followers do you have on social media proxy is straight bullshit. You want more fuckin Twitter followers? Go to eBay.com and buy them. You trick them. I can go buy a bunch of Facebook pages and merge it. It doesn’t mean anything, because a top line awareness number has nothing to do with the thing that I care
about the most in the world which is selling stuff. Show me it all the way through. Show it all the way through, because the amount of people that can create perception. It’s like being pretty. Cool, you’re pretty, but
are you a good person? Because pretty only gets you so far. Cool, you have 500,000
fans on Facebook, and? If you’re saying that
you’re a business leader, are you making money? Do you sell stuff? Are you good like that? I explain it very easily as you can tell, because I promise you that Pepsi and Toyota and Unalever and Budweiser, and all those
characters that hire VaynerMedia could care less
about how many followers the CEO has. They care a lot more about selling shit.