#AskGaryVee Episode 5: Asses in Seats!

“starting to share content
before you’re an expert? “Do you wait, or do you
share your journey?” – Kelsey, that’s an interesting question. First of all, I think
this whole expert thing is a ridiculous notion. Am I an expert? Are you an expert? Are you an expert? You know, I mean when does one get to claim they’re an expert? I mean, I thought I was
an expert when I was 22. I’m pissed that I wasn’t
able to make these videos when I came out the
gate in ’98 and brought serious thunder to the wine world. You would have saw a young,
raw, hungry, angry Gary Vee, and that would have been really
interesting to look back on. So I say map that journey, baby because the truth is,
expert is subjective. I’ve seen people tweet
that I’m a bigger expert than people I think are way
more accomplished than me, and then other people put me
in tweets with other people that I clown every day of the week. More value in this pinky than them. So expert is clearly subjective
and, more importantly, here’s the real punchline,
put that content out because you’re gonna be able
to look back at that content, your grandkids are gonna be able to look back at that content. Plus you will see things,
and how they evolve. My 1998 video would have
been: “In 2002, every single “person’s gonna go into
a store with a cell phone “’cause they’re blowing
up in London right now, “and they’re gonna come in
and be able to tell the price “of every single product, so
sell your products at cost.” And that would have been a big no, wrong. That would have been fun to look at. So, there are no experts except if the audience
deems you an expert, if somebody deems you an
expert as young talent out the gate, then kudos on you. Start filming now. – [Voiceover] Mark asks: “When
you left the Daily Grape,

“was it for Misha or VaynerMedia?” – Mark, I left it for VaynerMedia. Misha was already two
years old at that point. This is August ’11, that I
think I shut down Daily Grape. You know it was five and
a half years of every day doing a video show, and
it just ran its course. I mean, the thoughts of
doing a video show every day would like freak me out right now. (comical clicking) (comical clicking) – [Voiceover] Andrew asks:
“How do you change the culture

“to one of genuinely
caring about the customer “when the current ethos
is so established?” – Andrew, Andrew. There’s only one way to change the culture when it’s broken to something genuine. Kill leadership. Leadership is in charge of the culture. Everything, my friend, stems from the top when it gets into the DNA. So do not let the leader,
the CEO, the board, whoever it may be, do not let
her, him, make an excuse that something is happening
below in middle management, or some other things,
because she’s in charge, he’s in charge of that middle management. Every problem at VaynerMedia, is my fault. Right here, you’re looking
right at this face. It’s my fault because I
empower everybody else to create that culture, and
so how do you change it? You change the top, and if the top owns it ’cause it’s the family business, or just became the new CEO, and it’s not going to
change, then you need to get the hell out of there
because the only people that can change culture are
the people from the top. It’s true you can hack from the bottom, you can maybe then inspire the top, but that top still has to make the decision. That is the judge of culture. – [Voiceover] Saura asks:
“How do you book speaking

“engagements when you
aren’t well known yet?” – Saura, they way I booked
speaking engagements when I wasn’t well known yet
was, I did them for free. The entitlement that you are not known, you do not deserve to get paid. Do you know why you get paid to speak? Because you put asses in the seats. Because people want to come and see you. The reason I get astronomical
speaking fees is, knock on wood, zoom in
here, lemme knock on wood, knock on wood, I am very
fortunate to have an audience that wants to travel
and go to these events, and that’s why you get
justified those fees. You don’t get paid if you’re
not bringing any value, so either your content is phenomenal, but even then if you’re not
putting asses in the seat you are not getting paid,
so the best way to do it is to do what I did,
in my opinion, which is I spoke for free in the
beginning, quite a bit, to establish my name, to show everybody how good I was at it, and then
the demand side came to it.

“what big changes have you seen
in online content creation, “and how can people maximize them?” – David, what’s up brother,
hope you’re doing well. Enjoyed our filming years ago,
glad to get you on the show. Biggest thing that’s
changed really is, you know everything has just become
so much bigger since 2009. Facebook is such a bigger
powerhouse than it was back then. New things like Snapchat, and
Vine, and all these things so it’s really, everything I saw coming, at least in that way, has come true. These things have grabbed more attention. YouTube and Vine
celebrities are bigger than real celebrities to the
13 to 18 year old demo, that’s going to continue
and go full scale, and so the opportunities are to find
the medium you’re best at. Some people rock Vine,
some people rock Snapchat. If you’re good at taking
pictures and drawing on top of yourself, Snapchat
might be your place. If you might be great at
Pinterest, to the female demo, making info-graphics, beautiful pictures. Instagram, we’ve seen a
whole emergence of stars, curators, people of talent and so just more new avenues are coming out and so,
just more of the same, more of the same tactics. Crush It!’s tactical advice to the platform might be outdated, but the thesis has never rung more true. Thanks everybody for
watching episode five,