#AskGaryVee Episode 194: How to Sell Newspapers, Adopting Children & What Makes a Great Teacher

“I’d like to know what you
feel makes a great teacher?” – I think what makes a great
teacher is one that doesn’t impose what they want the
student to learn but the person that actually audits
the student and understands where to point them. A counter puncher, per se, more
so than somebody who’s got a strict blueprint and
whether or not you fit into that blueprint is irrelevant. I, teacher Rick, am going to
make you go down this path and this is what you have to learn
and I think it’s a huge mistake. It’s my biggest problem
with curriculum in traditional schooling. It does not account
for the creative. The over smart the
slightly different. And what it’s trying to do is
to create an 80% of these type of output workers. And the 20% either pro or con
get kind of left along the way. And so I think a
great teacher listens. And a great teacher reacts and
a great teacher deploys empathy and understands there’s other
things can sniff out there’s problems at home if you’re in
the younger years or as an older I feel like I’m a teacher and
I feel like one of the biggest things that I try to say all
the time is I’m just telling you what works for me, please don’t,
I don’t tell you have to work 18 hours a day. I don’t tell you you
have to do anything. I tell you that
this is what works. These are some theories and
use the context around that. I think a teachers need a
lot more listening skills and adjustment to the reality versus
how they were taught or what they’re trying to
accomplish by year’s end. By year’s end, these
23 students are going to know how to do multiplication.
It’s so tactical. It doesn’t feel like a teacher
at all and I question and I push and I prod and I poke and I battle a lot of my
teaching friends of are you just checking
the box for your eight months a year job to get it through to
hit tenure to be in a union that never creates any vulnerability
or are you actually trying to teach these kids? And I hope everyone
understands I’m not pumped I’m not cynical against
teachers. I don’t think teachers, I don’t. I think a lot of times,
sometimes people when they hear micro answers from me think
I’m tough on teachers or this and that nature,
I’m mad at the game. I wish teachers got
paid $400,000 year. I send my kids to private
school I spent a lot of money. I don’t like the system that a
lot of people K-12 have to play within and I think a lot of
those talented teachers could be doing unbelievable things
and I’m so excited show the computer. Not that computer, by the
time it actually happens, I’m so excited actually
it’s probably contact lenses I’m so excited for this. Because so many of the great
teachers in the world won’t have to play within the confines of
the politics of the traditional school system and will teach, be
way more profitable and make a much bigger and this is a big
one make much bigger impact on their students lives. – [Voiceover] Ben asks, “Would
you consider adopting children?”

– [Voiceover] Ben asks, “Would
you consider adopting children?” – [India] That is
a real question. – That is a real question, Ben. I sent that you, India, because
of an something on my mind for a long period of time time. And Lizzie would tell you this
is something that I’ve brought up and I think she thinks
I’m joking at times and probably not as much. Somewhere around five or six
years ago I had a real kind of lightning feeling
that I should adopt. That I am exactly the
emotionally strong financially situated person that is
put on earth to adopt. And the truth is when
you’re in a relationship it’s a partnership and so I can’t
impose my will or my wants or my needs on Lizzie without being
completely aligned on it but I have wanted a top to adopt
the last five or six years. It’s something that is
in me and it’s something I think about a lot. I do. I’m fascinated by the
whole thing and I’m very undereducated. I know there’s a huge process. I’m undereducated on
how many kids need it. I’m sure there’s very big
difference in data of Eastern European or Asian kids,
American kids, poor families, minorities,
girls, boys. There’s so many enormously
complicated issues but for me I don’t know there’s something
just in my stomach that feels that I can help that I’m built
for it and it’s been something that’s been in my
mind for a long time. But before all the comments come
in and be like you should get Lizzie to do it.
This is such a personal thing. I know absolutely devastatingly
awful adoption stories. Personally. And so I’ve empathy
for spouses who one wants to and one doesn’t. I don’t think I don’t think I’m
the noble one or the good one. But no question the reason
I sent that to you is it is something that
I’ve wanted to do. And I’ve been curious about why. I think about it
quite a bit actually. Probably two or three times a
year I have a good think on it. It’s been an
interesting pillar for me. One of my best friends, my
best friend growing up, Robbie Turnick was adopted so I
think I’ve been around it and comfortable with
it for a long time. That’s it. Yeah. Have you ever thought about? – [India] Yeah. – But you’re in such a,
you’re not even married yet. You haven’t even
started your own family. You know. And I thought about it my 20s but it got interesting
as I got older. – I think it’s ’cause I know
a lot of adopted kids too. – [Gary] You do, yeah? Yeah, is that right? Staphon? – [Staphon] I haven’t
thought about it much. – You don’t think
about shit, huh? – [Staphon] I do
think about shit– – You’re just a
20-year-old dude. You think about
hooking up and basketball. – I learn from you.
(all laughing) – [India] BSU, BSU, BSU.
– Let’s do it. – [India] From Joshua.
– Joshua.

what would you do with it? How would you change how it
delivers news/earns revenue?” – If I own a small newspaper I
would hopefully own one that had big brand equity even
though in a small market. So even if it’s Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania if it’s the Bethlehem Times or
whatever the local paper, actually the Easton Express. Isn’t that their paper
there, the Easton Express? – [Staphon] Oh yeah. – Do you know the
Easton Express though? – [Staphon] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
– There is an Easton Express. So if I owned the Easton Express
that’s a very important thing in that part of Pennsylvania and I
would turn the equity and this is where Jeff Bezos was
brilliant with buying the Washington Post he didn’t
buy it for the print, he bought it for the brand. And to the Easton Express to
that small area of Pennsylvania matters quite a bit for Lehigh
Valley and I would try to make the digital modern version. Today, I would make an app that
is the absolute news app of the moment, notifications driven. I would digitize the IP and try
to milk the print revenue for as long as I could but I would
assume zero print revenue in a 10 year window all IP value being shifted into
something else. Same reasoning 92nd
St. Y is so insane. Do you know how this played out? You know how I talked about
Nintendo at 92nd St. Y and a month later they announce
that they were going to do it. A lot of people
were like you knew? Yes I’m that wired in. CEO of Nintendo’s hitting me up. That’s what I would do. Nintendo smartly finally has
understood that they’re going to take the IP and take it
to the relevant place. That’s what I
would do a newspaper. I would take the IP and I would
take it to and relevant place. I would also create
revenue around event marketing. Instead of taking advertising in
my print, I would take one full page to invest in my
own events business. Like the Fall Festival. And I can use the newspaper and
its awareness to build up this events driven business and every
year in Philipsburg, New Jersey there’d be a Fall Festival
for the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and New Jersey area
and so I would siphon the waning attention and I would deploy
it into new environments like digital content and other
revenue streams like events. That was tangible and tactical. And really maps to
everything outside. I think of everything in IP
transfer to the modern world, not just the newspaper. So if about a 1980s
cartoon IP, the Wuzzles,

You said you’d like
some new places– – I want to pause right there,
Staphon, cut back I’m so into this. Alastair, thank you so much. Other people have been doing
it. We need to do a good job and make sure I’m also debating
only going to video on the show. This is new thing after episode
200 I’m debating that all five questions are
only in video form. Video is exploding
with Snapchat, Instagram one minute video now. If you haven’t done it I
posted one yesterday, today. And I’m very hot on this. Keep that in mind and let’s keep
the really cool settings going. Alastair is rocking
this. This is cool. – So here’s mine. I run a digital agency in Exeter
in the UK and my question for you is this you have a team of
five or 600 people and you’re very prolific yourself in terms
of the knowledge you have etc. How do you ensure that the
rest of the team is speaking the same language as you
and saying the same things to clients that you would say? Very interested in your answer
and great work with the show. Keep it up. Thanks very much. – Alastair, thank you so much. One of the toughest things to do
here, it scares me to know right now somebody is on the phone
with somebody who has a slightly wrong or off tweak on the one
minute transition of Instagram video or the new Snapchat
messaging or the ability to caption Twitter
posts and pictures now. I’m very, I’m concerned and come
up with emailing the whole team, asking them to watch my content,
I’m going to be doing a recap of my own content and learnings and
thoughts over the last 30 days, we did an internal podcast for
a while. We’re trying a lot of different hacks all hands-on
meetings, break out groups, lunch and learns but the
truth is there’s vulnerability because it’s a human situation. Here’s a big one,
I’m not crippled by them doing the wrong thing. I’m not crippled by Ricky Magoo
right now being on a call with a client and saying the wrong
thing because it just plays itself out meaning either we
have to apologize to the client and say Ricky gave the wrong
advice and that’s the human vulnerability and we can get
fired and things of that nature but I recognize the
inefficiencies in human communications and I own them
and I know that 89.7% of the time we’re 100% on point. 7% of the time we’re doing a
really good job and 3.3% of the job we’re not. I can live with that.
That’s a net-net game. The other day when I said speed
is better than perfection when you’re running a big company the
way you get to 650 instead of 9 is you don’t worry about every
person having everything exactly right plus you need to
leave a little room for them to do their thing. The Mark Evans and the
Katie Hankinson’s and the Matt Seigels of the world,
these are talented people, Steve Babcock, my new
chief creative officer, these are talented people. They need to have
the slight iterations. They’re allowed to
disagree a little bit with me. It’s not called Gary Vaynerchuk. This is VaynerMedia and
VaynerMedia’s a collective of us and so those are two ways
I actually get through that and I think a lot of you can learn
in management and leadership from that answer. – [India] I think you get this
question but I like to throw it

– [Voiceover] Mark asks “What’s
one question nobody has ever asked you that you
really wish they would?” – You’re right, I hate
this question, India. I don’t know. I feel so comfortable bragging
and having my own ego and tooting my own horn because I
think that’s appropriate. I think you should be your
number one fan and as long as you’re balancing it with humility
and I know people will catch you in different moments and
that’s why you think you’re egotistical but as long as your
balanced for yourself the market will
come around to you. Because I’m comfortable I wish
people asked more about that I’m not a marketing guru that
build tens of millions, hundred million dollar
companies, right? But I don’t have to ask
that because I say it. Right? I wish people asked me more
questions about me being a good HR driven CEO and me having a
lot more humility and patience and kindness and empathy than
they are but I don’t need them to ask that question
because I say it. And so I don’t have a want or
need of any question because most people that have want or
need of a question is they want to use somebody else’s question
as is the disguise to brag. It’s why we
created humble bragging. And I think we should
just be more transparent. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook so
many people love that and they learned and they’ve
been successful and right. Give, give, give
and then ask cleanly. Yet when acting humble
or acting with bravado, they want to mix it.
Humble brag. They want to mix it. They want people to ask
them questions because that’s their opening
to brag a little. My think the way you talk about
yourself and the way you paint a narrative to the world
should follow the jab, jab, jab, right hook. Humility, humility,
humility, ego. Maybe I’m in the jab, jab,
right hook, right hook business and so there’s equal
parts of both. But I think that the reason I’ve
never wanted anybody to ask me a question is because
anything I really want to say I’ll say.
Both pro and con. Somebody left a comment
in the DailyVees of like Gary admits he’s sorry a lot. I guess on the from the
phone calls like sorry team. Sure if you’re going
to amplify your W’s you have to accept your L’s.