#AskGaryVee Episode 188: Business Networking 101, Yelp Advertising & The #AskGaryVee Book

“content creation when
VaynerMedia was only five people “to begin with?” – Easy Haniel. Is he asking for my brand or how we did it for others? – [India] Vayner,
brands that we. – Haniel, first of all we started at seven
or so when we started. We were also a community
management company for the first 18 months so
we actually did no creative. India, you might’ve even being here when we
just started doing creative. – You had just
started the CCC role. – [Gary] Which became the MCP. – Which became the MCP. – Were you like oh my God, I’m a community
manager maybe one day I can be a CCC? – [India] Yeah. – Did I ever tell you
I named it CCC as an homage to the Soviet Union because of the CCCP? – [India] Did you really?
– No. – [India] Didn’t think so. – We handled it very easily. We got to about
20 or 30 or 40 people when we first started doing it. We took a very junior people. We were getting paid
very little of money by the clients. What we we’re producing
was native content, jab, jab, jab,
right hook for clients and they have
no idea what it was. The big agencies
that had creatives, they didn’t know
what it was and they were
disrespectful to it. They were like that’s
not real creative, tv is. Not a picture
on Facebook. They still say it, which is the beginning
of their demise. So we just willed it. People that were kids, I was like who knows Photoshop? Me, great you’re a designer. Let’s go. It was scrappy. It’s what you do in the beginning. All these bullshit
entrepreneurs that I’m mad at, you know why I’m mad? You know how many of them
went skiing this weekend? You know how many entrepreneurs
went skiing this weekend? People that raised money, they’re not making any money and the only way they
continue their business is if they raise more money. The macro economic
climate is getting tight. China, oil. People are not throwing
around money the way they did even six months ago and they’re skiing. – [India] You hate mountains. – Right I do hate mountains. That happened on the show or somewhere else? Do we know what episode? – [India] Garyveehatesmountains.com – Is Garyveehatesmountains.com
still up? – Hates mountains. – [Staphon] That’s when
we were on 15. – Amazing it is. Amazing. Staphon instead of that
just put it up for a second. (camera clicking sound) – [Voiceover] Fabian asked,
“Do you think you using

“Yelp advertising for
local photographers “is worth the minimum $300-$400
a month in investment?” – I have no idea. That is a rarity on this show. The truth is I’ve
been down on Yelp for a very long time. About five or six years ago, maybe even Thank You
Economy I referenced this that I thought there
would be absolute demise in anonymous reviews. I believe that has
happened to some degree. I think we’ve seen anonymous
review places struggle. I think we’ve become
cynical to anonymous reviews because we have friends that
work at anonymous review PR agencies. Literally you guys all
have friends that you know work at companies when
you have beers with them and they’re like at my PR
company we leave negative reviews on our
competitors of our clients. It’s ludicrous. Because I thought
that was a problem, I kind of never got excited
about Yelp five years ago. I haven’t paid attention. My intuition is that
Yelp probably has enough. Actually here we go I like bringing value. 400 bucks?
– [India] Yep. – You should do it. Anytime you can afford to learn and crash and burn, you should do it. Not that all of you
have 400 bucks to spare. Because if you did, I hope you bought 20 copies of the #AskGaryVee book. I would absolutely
spend 400 bucks because even if you return nothing, you don’t have to #AskGaryVee. You don’t have to Google it up. You actually lived
it in real life. I would tell you to spend
it if you can afford it because of the context. This is what I talked about the other day that caught a lot of people’s attention, micro loss but the macro win. This is the perfect
example of it. You might have a micro loss
when you spend 400 bucks and you got nothing, but the learning is you
don’t have to spend time and energy figuring out Yelp
maybe greater than that ROI.

“I’m coming to
New York for a month “in the fall purely to network. “Where would you go to network “if you were New York novice?” – Do you know what
I did with this guy? I retweeted this and said VaynerNation
help this dude out. – [India] Oh really. – Yeah. – [India] It didn’t even
show up on the thing. – No? – No. – Interesting, weird. It doesn’t even say
that you did it. – Let me just make sure it’s him or it’s not somebody else. Yeah I did this. – That’s so weird. – Why wouldn’t you know that? – I don’t know. – That’s funny because he would
have normally known that. – I thought it was. – Because I retweeted him. Maybe that’s why? – Wouldn’t it show up in retweets then? – Yeah but it’s weird. Well David. You know. I think that. I think that you know. You can do it a lot of ways and the way you’re doing is probably the right
way which is when you reach out to somebody
in the market like I did I actually
want to do something funny and say hey. Pass it on. And some people
reached out to you. And the other thing is you just you know use
your social graph and use information right there’s a lot of
places to network. I think Meetup.com is still an old school. web 2.0 site that you can find
some stuff out about. So that’s that’s a scoop. Nothing you know. I don’t have a really great. I don’t think
it’s a great question. – [India] Really? – I think you were you did the right
thing by asking me because I could’ve been
in the mood to answer it but in the way
my brain is today. I don’t you know. Use people, use information I mean
people are information now. You know. I’m interested in that. You know. Back to Yelp. I actually. Ha. See you did it again India. One of the reasons I was down
on anonymous review sites was I was like this social
media things going to happen. And I can just
go to Twitter search and put in restaurant or put in restaurant names. And use people’s opinions
that are doing it publicly. So I still think people
is a great way to go. And get down people rabbit holes
all day long right. You see somebody. You know you ask
somebody on Twitter, they retweet it like I did. Or somebody else
replies, people. I think another
cool thing is Tastemakers like the fifty best
chefs in New York. Or the fifty coffee
houses in New York that have Twitter accounts. So I think Google with Twitter’s interesting. Top fifty coffee shops
in New York City. Search, boom. You get a list. This is if you really
want to come to New York for a month and
network, right? Then you look at the list. And then you find
them on Twitter and then you ask them. Hey, Mort’s Coffee Shop, are you great
place for networking? You’re going to
get seven of them of the fifty that reply. Three of them going to
offer you free coffee and introduce you
to the owner like. Life is about grabbing it. If you go on the offense, funny things happen. You know if you take
the time to do what I just said tactically. That’s inevitable of those fifty on Twitter seven will reply
with free coffee. Three will do something cool. I like grabbing life. Yeah like you know
what I mean like. I really think so much of
this comes down to that. Like are you on the offense or are you on the defense? Right like oh I’ll just
go to New York and ask a couple of friends and go to one Trip Advisor
site you know what I mean. Or you can put in
the work in a world, this is why Twitter
is so special. It’s so special. Please do me a
favor VaynerNation. Tonight for an hour, an hour, it’s a lot of time tweet at 25 people that you’d love to have
a conversation with. And don’t go Mark Cuban and Daymond John’s and Zucks. Go with like the account for your four
favorite restaurants. In your local town. And just say, Sallows I love your stuff. I’m telling you right now. Come back to this thread
on Facebook and YouTube. I will show you enormous
things that happen because of it. People that eat
for free for weeks. People are going to
meet people for weeks. People are going to meet
a local entrepreneur who built a 37-year
restaurant chain that they may
learn something from. Everybody gets impractical with grabbing life. I’m going to get Mark Cuban. One of you out of a million are going to get
Mark Cuban for a coffee. But if you hit up your
favorite pet shop. India hit up your art
museums where you paint. You know like hit them up like. I really believe in that. I really do. Or like if you really
are into museums like go find a museum account. And then hit up. And Google this. It’s Google. But it’s like you know. Google the director
of the museum. They inevitably have
412 nerd followers. And then you hit them up and you’re pumped. But I’m here Saturday let’s have a conversation. Go to Napa. You can go. And like get a list
off of SFDaily.com or you can get that same list then go to Twitter
tweet at the winery and tweet at the owner and wine maker of the winery and have a totally different
experience for no cost except the hour of actually
putting in the work. The dude. The dude, and listen all
you are doing this and there’s some serendipity, but the dude that DM’d me today Alexander Waslewski from Poland. He took it at bat and by the way tons of you do. And a lot of times I
don’t do it all the time. It’s serendipity. But today. Alexander
Waslewski in Warsaw, Poland is getting a signed book
coming to his house. Just keep fucking swinging. You know what I mean the math is the math. Like just keep swinging. – [India] It’s true.
– I know. I live it. (inaudible)

Good luck with your book. Today we’ll be right in there
in London for the event. If you don’t have
your ticket, get them. Here is my question. Daily Vee is giving us big insight into how unpredictable
your day can be. How crazy it is. Do you have an pillars? Any consistent things
you do everyday? Do make sure you do everyday
to keep you on track? – The only thing that I can say that I consistently do is wake up, take my phone
and go poop. It’s truly the only 100%, I don’t know if that
means I’m balanced or whatever that means
in that weird world. It’s the only thing
that always happens. And I like it because ironically I like it. for the weirdest reason because I don’t want to poop during the middle of the day. I’m pumped that I don’t waste. And by the way I like
to poop for a long time. Like I don’t go in like I’m
not a utilitarian pooper. I’m like 15, 20 minutes. Like the phone
really get in it. You know, work. So I like I actually don’t
like pooping in public. – [India] You mean like
in a public bathroom? – At VaynerMedia. – [India] Oh yeah.
No one likes pooping here. – I mean it’s just
not fun to poop with other people there. – [India] It sucks. – That’s why I like
European airports. They have like really private stalls by comparison. Something the US could
really learn can use some more
private pooping places. – [India] I agree. – So that’s the only
thing I do consistently. I would say I work
out now every day. That kind of starts my day. So I know that
was a little weird but that’s the truth. I don’t know what
we’ve learned from that. Probably not that
much so I apologize, VN. – [India] A morning
that’s been consistent.

or nervous about for the
#AskGaryVee book launch? – Nothing. Kyle, it is in the bag at this
point we did our work. There’s nothing
like preparation. It feels amazing. It’s just the best. Listen I lived
through 12 years of lack of preparation. You know scary it
is to come to school when your book report is due. And everybody in
your class puts it in. And you didn’t even do it. You didn’t even do it. Like I didn’t even do it. Like do you know how weird it is when you get that
scantron in you’re like what are we
going to do today? B, C, A, D, D, D. I bet you they
went D crazy today. D, D, C. Like I lived 12 years
of lack of preparation because of school. And now I’ve lived. 18, 22 years of full preparation. Eighteen years of full
preparation at all times. And so I’m not nervous. We’ve done what we
were supposed to do and the presales show it. And 18 months of the content that I’ve been putting out is showing it. And we’re at three to four X the book sales of Jab, Jab, Jab
Right Hook at this point so we are cruising. – [India] Terrific. – As a matter of fact I’m turning down all the offers now like
come here to me it’s over. You want me to come. You fucked up, it’s over. Now it’s 80K cash in my pocket. That’s it you don’t
even get the books. I just show up like gotta take
advantage of the arbitrage.