#AskGaryVee Episode 119: How Should You Spend Your Last Two Weeks at a Job?

“to Amish people if that
was your primary market? “#BuggyHustle.” – Galen, this is a tremendous question, and I think it opens up
an opportunity for me to give a broad answer. The truth is, I’d probably
spend six months to a year before I would say a word or market, for me personally, because I completely am undereducated on that market. I don’t know what makes that market tick, what do they, you know, obviously, what, if anything, are they buying? You know, obviously I’m
not deeply knowledgeable. Obviously I have headlines on what I think is going on there, preconceived notions, but I’ve learned in my 40 years of life those tend to lead you to disaster when you’re making
assumptions on the market when you don’t intimately know it. You know, for me, the two core businesses I’ve run in my career, the wine business and an agency that markets
within social media, if you pay attention
closely, they were markets that I spent five to seven, eight years being deeply in before I took the reins. One, obviously, in a family
business growing up in it, and two, really participating in it, being a thought leader
within it, jamming with it, using it, and I mean, I
was using social media hardcore for, you know, five, six years before I started VaynerMedia
to then give advice around it, and so that’s what I would
do, and that’s what I think a lot of you are making huge mistakes on. Interacting with so many
of you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, I notice this quick, you know, I wanna sell sneakers, right? I wanna be in the sneaker game, and yeah, you kinda like sneakers, but do you understand
the sneaker business? And I went with the huge pause there, Staphon, for a specific reason: When you decide to jump into business, yeah, you may like wine, but do you understand the wine business? Yeah, you may have a Twitter account, but do you understand
social media business? Yeah, you may have some kicks
and have six or seven pairs or even 50, but do you
understand the sneaker business? And so if I’m marketing, I’m in business, and if I don’t understand the market, if I don’t deeply understand
the competitive landscape, the supply and demand chain, what I’m gonna do, the
marketing opportunities, the white space that I
love to play in so much, then I’m gonna lose, and
that’s why so many people lose. They confuse enthusiasm or hobby for business skills, and
so before you do anything, before you jump into anything, I highly recommend, you know
so many of you are starting T-shirt companies without
doing a hardcore audit of the 50 hundred T-shirt
companies in the market, and what they’re doing and
how much they’re spending. Do your damn homework. – [Voiceover] Daniel asks,
I’ve started a startup

that many others have tried
to do before me & failed. Am I stupid to think
that I’ll be the anomaly? – Daniel, that’s a tough question, because the truth is,
there are some mountains that are very difficult to climb and thesis’s that people
love to think are real, and they’re never able to
really fully get there. I think the anonymous social network space is gonna end up being one of them, I think that brings
out the worst in people and ultimately kills
itself from within itself. That’s one preview to a space
that I’m not bullish on, that I think a lot of people are gonna try to climb that mountain, that said, it just takes one tweak, one turn. You know, there was a lot of industries where people couldn’t
figure out how to win, and then eventually somebody
came along and won that game, and so I think that very
similar to the first answer in this episode, it
comes down to your chops, your skills, your patience,
your infrastructure, and really really really does
come down to your skill set. I really do believe that, you know, anybody can do anything
if they’re good enough, if they’re the first of that thing. I just think that people
have to be very realistic to also understand how special
and rare that actually is.

“of transitioning to a new job. “I was wondering what your advice would be “for my last two weeks?” – Nathan, I’m gonna give
you some really good advice that I think a lot of
people here need to hear as you transition from job to job. I actually think the last
two weeks of your job are one of the most interesting times you can have in your career. It’s something that I’ve
spent a lot of time on, paying attention to the behavior
of people that have spent last two weeks at Wine
Library or VaynerMedia. I think that your actions
in those two weeks will really be much more impactful on your future career
than you may realize. I think the grace and being
the bigger man or woman, and humility, and all the
things that come along with it, are all those great traits
that I like to talk about pretty often, are so imperative
in those last two weeks, because everybody’s watching. Your coworkers are watching, and definitely your employer is watching. It’s stunning to me how many people have come back around at a
year later at VaynerMedia, asking me for help, asking for a job back, when they were actually
terrible, or not terrible, that’s not fair ’cause
I’m very competitive. You know, they were, oh I’m
going to this great gig, and like trying to impact other people to make them realize how they’re going to this amazing place, and it’s funny how the grass is not as green once you land on your new location, and then when you’re lucky enough to work for somebody who’s a good
guy and that has some power and then you go ask for
something, all you had to do was be the bigger woman
for those two weeks and I would go out of my way to help you. I think way too many people
burn bridges on the way out, bridges that they need,
because the shortsighted nature of our society, much of the
themes of the 200 episodes, or 150 episodes, or 120 episodes. Lou, how are you my man? Come give this man a little bit of daps on the #AskGaryVee show,
I know he watches it. How are you? Thanks for having me on. – I’ve been jabbin’ away on social media saying local TV will never be the same. – I love it, I’m excited. Let me finish this show,
I’ll be with you in a second. I think burning those
bridges is a devastating play that way too many people feel, out of excitement sometimes, or out of, you know, cynicism and
all the negative things that then kinda makes
me feel that it’s fair that they’re unable to
mend those relationships and get value out of
those past relationships. To me, there’s no value in anything other than being over the top awesome, giving love to everybody,
making amends with people maybe that you didn’t work
well with, the last two weeks. I think you treat it like the last month of high school, senior year, right? You just make it all good.

“a video game, what type would it be “and on what platform
would you sell it?” – Nils, this is a pretty
interesting question. There’s two spaces that
I think video games are really interesting, and
one is obviously mobile. I still think mobile,
kind of word, simple, like, the game that
works for the 13 year old and for the 84 year old grandmother are always super interesting to me, very basic, you know, just simple word, brain quizzes, you know, Hangman 3.0, that kinda stuff is super interesting. But the place that I’d probably go since I love so much the game of following where I think the puck is going to be, is I’d probably make a
virtual reality game, one that had, you know,
kind of like the Zelda of VR, which was a completely open world where you could do a whole lot of stuff. I don’t know if I would go shooter, though I think that’s gonna
be the breakout win early on, I’m a little bit more into like,
Gauntlet really affected me in the early days, it
was like one of the first four player arcade games
that me and my boys back in ’84 would roll into Chuck E Cheese with quarters for days
and just get down with it. And I was always pumped to
be the princess, by the way, everybody would fight for the wizard, I’m like I’ll be princess, she was nasty. Anyway, so I would say
some sorta open-ended Zelda-Gauntlet adventure type game, for virtual reality, that
I don’t think would pop for another 24 to 36 months, but if you follow the
narrative of my 20 year career and hopefully what I do
for the next 40 years, I’m always going to bet on where I think the market’s gonna be
24, 36 months from now use my disproportional ability to sell, to keep me afloat for
those 24 to 36 months, and then be there where the
market’s gonna be there. When I started selling social
media to brands in 2009, they didn’t wanna buy it. Only now, only as we
head into 2016 budgets, am I starting to see some real upside. And as you can imagine, that
bodes well for my business. I would do the same thing
in the video game industry. – Why? Just crashed on you? Cool.

and my question for you
for the #AskGaryVee Show is, what women in business do you think are just rockin’ it on social media? I love to follow people
who are doin’ great stuff and I’d love to know who you think is doing an exceptional
job on social media. Women in business, thank
you, have a great day. – Women in business, social media. This is tough for me
for a couple of reasons. One, I really don’t follow anybody. You know, all I’m really doing is putting out content and
engaging with my own audience and so I’m not trying
to duck the question, obviously there’s plenty
of people that pop to mind that I think are incredible
entrepreneurs and business women you know, Katia, CEO of
Birchbox, an investment of mine. Obviously since I’m an investor in it, I’m a little bit closer to it. I think she’s an incredible
operator and entrepreneur, Rachel from MikMak, another investment that I’ve made that I’m in love with. Brit, Brit Morin’s probably crushing it. Britt Dako, another investment of mine. These are businesses that
I’m closer to, you know, Spoon University, Gals,
either, they’re crushing it. Again, I have no clue what
they’re doing on social, I know what they’re doing in marketing, in operating, in
leadership, in being a CEO. I assume Brit is doing a great job ’cause her brand is at the forefront, and I have seen stuff in the past, but I’ve been very head
down for the last 24 months really on this show,
and running VaynerMedia, and obviously the
Vayner/RSE capital venture stuff, so I’ve been a little
busy, though the truth is, and I’m just gonna let it out of the bag, I’ve never really followed anybody because I just don’t have the time for it and I’m really gonna
only do my thing anyway, which could be a weakness, by the way. I don’t think this is some
great, oh I’m so cool, some amazing strength that
I don’t follow anybody else. It’s just how I roll,
and as I always say here, you need to do you. So, I apologize that I don’t have a great answer to that question. Savvy Auntie historically
has done an amazing job I’m a big fan. So, those are some of the answers. Tight show, very focused,