#AskGaryVee Episode 71: 24 Business Questions Answered in Under 24 Minutes

speaking country should
you produce content in English anyways, or should you produce content in your mother language?” – Tim, that’s a great question with a very simple answer, which is great, because I’m answering a
boatload questions today. The answer is you should be
speaking in the language of the people you’re trying to reach. If you’re trying to reach
the consumers in your native tongue, speak in your native tongue, unless English is also the second language that is covering let’s say 80, 90% of the speakers, because you
get the serendipity if it goes outside the boundaries, but it always is reverse engineering the
language of your client. If you’re trying to reach
English speaking consumers, then you gotta speak in English, and again, if English is
enough of a second language with a big enough broad stroke according to the overall market,
that would be the reason the rationale around English otherwise it’s a native tongue game.

– [Voiceover] Tom Rowley
asked, “Trader Joe’s has a cult like following with
no social media presences. What are your thoughts?” – Tom, I think Trader
Joe’s is leaving action on the table. I don’t know what else to say. Clearly their business is great, and I keep saying it marketing, great marketing doesn’t solve a business’s problem, but it can accelerate a business’s enormous awesomemess. I don’t know. That doesn’t sound right,
but the bottom line is very simply, Trader Joe’s
you may be thinking that you’re doing it cool or that brands shouldn’t engage if they’re awesome,
and you’re a great brand, but I fundamentally believe
they’re leaving a lot of action on the table. I love when people are like, yo Gary, I don’t need social
media or good marketing. My business is up 23%. I’m like what’s wrong with 60%? Why can’t your business be up 90% Joe? – [Voiceover] Luke asks, “My
litte sister has Instagram

– [Voiceover] Luke asks, “My
litte sister has Instagram and Snapchat, but has
no interest in Facebook. What do you think the
future holds for Facebook?” – Luke, I think Facebook has an issue about the growing population. I don’t see your little sister and her little friends jumping
from Snapchat and Insta into Facebook as they get older. No, Insta and Snapchat will
become more like Facebook, but will Facebook be
in a place where it’ll be able to keep it’s 35 to 70 year olds on it’s platform and not have them go down to Insta and Snapchat. Listen, Zucks is an assassin. There’s a reason he bought Instagram. There’s a reason he tried
to pay three billion. Let me just remind the market Stunwin. Steve’s not here often these days. Let’s just show him. – Hey everybody. – [Gary] He’s like all super
VIP and never around anymore. He tried to buy Snapchat
for three billion. I think what the future
holds for Facebook is if they keep crushing it and
doing the things they’re doing which I think they’re doing well, and they hold onto their
30, 32, 35 and above crowd, it’ll be an enormous business, but over time that will corrode over 15, 20, 30 years, but don’t forget Insta is the new Facebook right now. They’ve got a long lineage. They’ll have to make sure
that they get the next one after Snapchat, and that’s probably their
biggest vulnerabilities for a decade out game, but don’t forget they bought Oculus, and so they’re doing a lot of stuff. Look at them like Google. Facebook is the infrastructure
for over the top television or for free internet in America, or has the number one
phone in seven years. That wouldn’t surprise
me, because that’s where I think Zuck’s leadership is taking them. – [Voiceover] Melissa asks, “Hey Gary,

Morale in public education is low. How can I as a teacher help to create a Thank You Economy Culture
despite government mandates, ineffective curriculum, low funding, and most of all, high stress
and pressure on teachers?” – Melissa, you can’t. The machine is too big, it’s too broken, and what you can do as an individual I think is do what I do
with the #AskGaryVee show which is I think I’m doing education here. You can put out great
content to the universe using the platforms that can reach people, and so trying to change an entire machine is extremely difficult. I, with all my charisma and energy and clout, can’t move big corporate 500 organizations. You wanna move the entire
US academic infrastructure. It’s not gonna happen. I’m sorry that I’m being realistic here. It’s not gonna happen. What you can do though is there’s something an
individual can always do. They can play in the places that are the white space. The white space right
now is for you to put out curriculum on your own, to the world in a format like this, or whatever. You wanna make slideshares, great. You wanna do Khan Academy stuff, great. You wanna do slideshare, great. You need to work around
the system, not within it.

the Radio Shack stores,
but what is the relevance of Sprint? Is Sprint the new Radio Shack?” – Paul, that’s a great question. I don’t know what Sprint’s got in mind for Radio Shack. I think physical retail
stores need to be innovative and have experiences wrapped around them. You’re right. I think there’s a very interesting
point here that if Sprint just puts up Sprint stores and
executes in a Radio Shack way they become the new Radio Shack. If they don’t and they
take a page out of let’s say Barnes and Nobles,
that realized they couldn’t compete with Amazon if it was just books, and made it more of a coffee
shop, place you visited, a community hub, and
they trickled out some sales from that. It all depends on the execution. You are what you are. People are always like, hey, our brand represents this. This is what we have to do. It’s not true. What you do
then becomes your brand, and so the execution
of Sprint over the next 24 months will dictate if they’re the new Radio Shack or they’re the new Sprint retail store 3.0. – [Voiceover] Charles asks,
“How do you hustle faster?”

– Charles, stop focusing on dumb shit and just keep moving and
don’t be scared of breaking anything, and don’t
think about perfection, and there is no perfect way to cross your Ts and dot your Is, and don’t be crippled,
and don’t be romantic, and just move, and have
no seconds to breathe, and just schedule on schedule on schedule. Five minute meetings, 10 minute meetings, three minute meetings,
eight minute meetings, and just move. – [Voiceover] Rui asks, “Last
year you nailed it when you

recommended us to use Medium. What are your recommendations for 2015?” – I got nothing yet. (laughter) Actually I do have something. Sorry India. – [India] That’s fine. – Scared the crap out of you, and I have a feeling DRock
is gonna use this footage. LinkedIn is catching my attention. I’m very shocked over what I’m seeing over the last 10 days of just natively posting content in my Linked In feed. Now I have a huge audience there, and so I don’t know how that
works out for other people, but LinkedIn is freaking
me out a little bit. I’m not talking about
Pulse or Influencer. I’m just talking about
my feed, my account. – Gary, how would you market
a business in an industry

that has a bad reputation
and people only use it in emergencies? Let’s say, for example
the towing industry? Thanks Gary. – Matt, this is a great question,
and I’ve talked about this before. If you’re in the towing
industry, what I would actually be in is I would become a media company in the travel and car industry. I would create a site, you know, especially if you’re regional. I’m gonna assume that you’re
doing this towing in a regional area, let’s call it Kansas City. I would literally call
Kansas City highway.com where you’re reviewing the restaurants, you’re giving people shortcuts. You become a community hub of content and information, and
then sprinkled throughout every third or fourth post you talk about your service. Maybe you do a real hardcore right hook where they click or use the QR code, they put you and your company’s name into their phone, and
then you can control that and put emergency roadside assistance. I like that. That was a really good idea. That’s what you should do. You should become the content player around the culture of driving, highway culture, travel,
and the general area. – [Voiceover] Damon asks,
“Girl Scouts cookies are going

on sale tomorrow, if
you were a Girl Scout, how would you maximize your sales?” – Damon, one of the moves I would use is try to go viral and go very practical. Clouds and dirts, so I would do hardcore
one-on-one activation. Literally, I would have
a five minute meeting with my parents and ask them who their 11 best friends are, and then call them and ask them to buy the damn cookies. I would also then go outside and knock on every single
door of every person and I would ask them multiple times. I would twice knock on
doors and ring door bells in the course of a week to
show them that I’m gonna relentlessly bother them until they buy a box of cookies. Hardcore aggressive in the dirt stuff, and then I would try to do one kind of viral move. I would take a picture of
me holding a sign saying if you guys help me sell
1,000 boxes of cookies, I’ll do X. That kind of stuff tends to work. I would do that on Instagram. See if I can get a couple celebrities I’d hit up on Twitter to show
them awareness around this, and then try to create some
sort of big event that allows me to really blow it out of the park, going real up there while that’s trying to get viral, knocking on doors. – [Voiceover] Daniel asks, “How
do you decide what to trust

when it comes to news media bias versus fact reporting?” – Daniel, this is a
tough question brother. I mean I don’t think I have the answer. Everybodys got their agenda. Humans are flawed by nature. Everybody is gonna put their spin on it. What I’m really upset about is watching people only gravitate to the
people that are like minded. I take enormous pride in the fact that I’ll watch MSNBC, CNBC, Fox. I remember for a year there
I was streaming Al Jazeera not because that I believe
in any one people’s hyperbole, it’s just fun to contextualize. Maybe I’m affected by the fact that I grew up in a communist country, and my mom wrote a book
report that the Fidel Castro was the bravest man in the world. Because that was the spin that she got of what he was doing
in Cuba against the US. If you’re self-aware
enough to know that people are driving their agenda, and that’s just the way it is, then what you do is you
start hedging everything, and it creates some level of balance. I think it’s about being open minded and trying to challenge yourself to see it from multiple perspectives, but at some level I think we trust the people that most talk
about the things we talk about. I think that at some level
can be slightly dangerous, especially now in a social
media, digital content, media at scale world. There’s so many more voices
that can be completely for us. I wanna challenge you
VaynerNation to make sure once a day, once a
week at least once a month you’re reading heavily with an open mind the counter point to
the things you believe. – [Voiceover] Homeinstead
Senior care asks,

“Hey Gary, how can a small, local, non-medial in-home senior care agency incorporate the Thank You Economy into our business with our clients and their families?” – I think it’s a piece of cake actually. I think you map the data of
the families of the clients and you follow them on social, follow them on Facebook and Twitter. See what they care about, and if somebody talks about being a huge Padres fan, maybe you ask their loved one to take a picture with a Padres hat, and then you put it in a box, the picture, physical, yeah, that still happens, with the Padres hat and you send it and say how much fun
you’re having spending the time with their loved one. I’m sure anybody whose got a loved one in a certain situation, getting
a letter from that place with this Padres hat,
because you’re a Padres fan, and it’s saying how much
you enjoy having their grandfather or great
grandmother in the facility would extremely warm their heart, and create a real depth
moment, and you’re doing it both physically, because then
every time they wear that hat or see that hat, they
think of that moment. It’s got more longevity. The Thank You Economy is
quite easy my friends. The Thank You Economy
is not about the tactics that I just laid out. The Thank You Economy
is about the religion of actually doing it. – [Voiceover] Florian asks, “How
do you see the world in 2018

– [Voiceover] Florian asks, “How
do you see the world in 2018 once the Apple Watch has
probably become a vital part in everybody’s lives?” – Florian that’s a great question. I think the Apple Watch has a
significant chance of winning. I am 100% gonna get it
the day it comes out to just try it. I think smart technology is coming not only to our wrist, but I think it’s coming to our collar. I actually think in 2018, 2020, 2022 we’ll start seeing
the smart shirt at scale where we can be recording. I’m looking forward to call Steve. Hey Stunwin, why is that article not up? I’m looking forward to that moment. How is it changed? Anybody who thinks that the
smartphone which is absolutely the most important product in the world, anybody who thinks that
that’s where it ends is clearly not playing
attention to how that whole world works, and so the smartphone will be trumped. Maybe there will always be a device. Maybe we start putting
it inside of ourselves, but I do think smart technology coming to other things in our world, our sneakers, our hats,
and definitely our collars. I’m really fascinated. I invest in a company called Cord. Link it. Especially because they’re
based around voice, and I think voice over typing. I mean look everything
ebbs and flows, right? There was handwritten, and
then we went hardcore phone, and now we’re back to
handwritten, but it’s thumb written, and I think
we’ll go back to voice. And I think it’s gonna look like this. – [Voiceover] Andy asked,
“I base my Instagram on pics

through my GoPro. Any tips on differentiating
my content from other GoPro accounts?” – Andy, this will have to be a part two, because I can’t give you tips without knowing what your
objectives and agenda are. I need a little more color. Get back on the show. – [Voiceover] Jared asks,
“Gary, why are scared of cows?”

– Jared, I’m actually not scared of cows. As a matter of a fact, I grew up in high school years in
Hunterdon County, New Jersey and we had two cows. Big shout out, Maschka. I’m really not scared of cows. I was just trying to make
the show entertaining. – [Voiceover] Ryan asks,
“Some companies’ timelines are

nothing but apologies, such as Comcast. Should they take a break from
Twitter and fix their product?” – Yes. And even if your product
is completely broken you shouldn’t be in full apology mode at all times. – [Voiceover] John asks,
“Blackberry used to be socially hip.

believed so much in me. Back in the days were you
more afraid of letting yourself down or your family?” – You know, I’ve always
been really worried about letting myself down more so than my parents. Kinda feel as though
that would be a trickle down effect if I worried about myself, then my parents would be proud. I took at lot of pressure
in my mom’s belief in me. I took enormous pressure
in my dad’s belief in me in the way that he set me up for success and gave me all that
autonomy at 22 years old to run a company. It’s always and forever going to be about me for me. It’s a very selfish thing. To me, it’s I need to make myself proud, and that’s kind of how I navigate as a human being and
definitely as a business man. Look I’m not perfect, and nobody is, and nothing. The people that know me the best, they know the only time I’m pissed and I’m fiesty is when
I’m upset with myself. – [Voiceover] Kyle asks, “You
get very personal when building

your brand with the public. How personal is too personal? Where do you draw the line?” – Kyle, I think for
everybody it’s different. I draw a line heavily around the kids. I don’t do a lot of stuff
with Xander and Misha, but I’m also thrilled to put out a picture of me being on the toilet. Everybody’s got different lines. Some people are very conservative. Some people are extremely aggressive. Some people take photos nude, some don’t even wanna
show their belly button. Everybody’s got their own objectives, their own agenda, their own
North Star or what’s too much. For me, I just always go on gut feel. What may be too much
last week might not be too much tomorrow. I don’t really I don’t really second guess my feelings. I’ve done pretty well with them. For me, it’s what I’m
feeling of the moment. I like getting personal. I think it allows people
to get closer to you. I love doing this show for that reason, and so that’s where I’m at. – [Voiceover] Autumn asks, “I
wondering what everyone thinks

of direct message on Instagram. Is it an untapped resource?” – Autumn, the problem with direct message on Instagram, right, is
that what we’re asking is so far what I’ve seen well actually, you know, it’s interesting. Instagram direct message is interesting, because most people are not following too many people that they don’t wanna be following on Instagram. It’s very different than
Twitter and other places. I mean, really if you look at the forum, I love to look at the
big data of Instagram, because I have a feeling
that most of the direct message stuff is a hell of a lot more scandalous and a hell of a lot more inappropriate than I think people realize. Anecdotally what I’m hearing is happening with Instagram direct
messaging is a hell of a lot of flirting and a hell of a lot of I’m trying to look for
the right words here. Because you’re only
following people you wanna follow, I think from a
marketing standpoint, it’s hard to get into that, because
I look at it like texting. It’s a place where people have no interest in having people market to them, and I would stay very away
from Instagram direct messaging as a marketing tactic,
because I think it’s an inappropriate place to go. – [Voiceover] A.J. asks, “How
can I engage with an audience

whose interests are private to them?” – A.J., great name first of all. Facebook. Facebook dark posts. There’s a way to use the interest graph to get to these people who
don’t wanna talk about whatever misgivings or
things they’re embarrassed of or not interested in, you can go and look at. You can get into the MasterCard data and see what they’re buying. There’s obviously a lot
of brands in this space. Actually, hair loss, is that
what we’re talking about? Can somebody pull up Rogaine’s
Facebook page right now? Just for kicks and giggles. A little real time action. Just gonna wait, I’m gonna wait. A.J. – [Steve] Pretty small audience. – Of course, nobody wants to talk about. Who wants to be like, oh cool. I’m losing my hair. I can’t wait to be a fan of Rogaine, but how big is it? – [Steve] There’s no brand page. There’s like a default drug page that’s 870 likes. – There’s no brand page for Rogaine? – [Steve] I’m gonna
do some more looking. – You sure. Nonetheless, as he’s going through that, the 870 people that were okay with going on the offical page,
there probably is a page, because I think Steve
will eventually find it, or there’s alternative
brands playing in the space. The truth is there’s a couple ways to go about it. I would target men in certain age groups. There’s also female hair loss. Facebook has enough data
for you to get there whether you’re going
after doctors fan pages that play in the space, brands, again, it’s absolutely correct that most people aren’t gonna talk about it on Twitter or follow, but some are, and that’s enough. What I would say is you
get to the four or five, 15, 17 pages that people are fans of, you go against that, and
then you create a look a like audience against that. You also take the data you have. I don’t know if you’re selling direct, but if you have any email data or anything of that nature, you can
create lookalike audiences that’s people’s behavior
is similar on Facebook, and that’s where you’re
getting your scale from. You got something Staphon? – [Staphon] 32 – Yeah there we go. – [Staphon] It had 36,000. Yeah, so I mean look there’s 36,000 people that are a fan of the Rogaine page, and
so you’re able to actually go after the people that did that. I would go after that crew and lookalike auidences against that, and I think SEM this is an example where I think search probably wins very heavily,
because that’s more private action. I would buy a lot of
keywords on Google, Bing, Yahoo. – [Voiceover] Laurie
asks, “If Lizzie opened

emphasis onto sports such as the Jets?” – I don’t know Mike. Truth is I really don’t know. When I psycho-analyze myself I think the Jets specifically was
when I was five, six years old was the first Americana thing. I often like saying I
learned how to speak English while watching the Jets. I mean at some level it
was really Scooby Doo, and the Great Space
Coaster and Price is Right, but the Jets were really
kind of that first American thing that I
associated with the kids in the neighborhood around. You get into rhythm. It’s like working out or reading. My cadence became like I watch the Jets, and then you go through all
those emotions over 35 years. You start really building a loyalty to it. The downs and the downs and the slight ups and the downs, and so you know, I think I don’t know why I put so much emphasis around it. I don’t really have the full pledge thing, but that’s my best guess. – [Voiceover] Ivan asks, “I am starting a wedding
invitation and stationary boutique

“I am starting a wedding
invitation and stationary boutique called Spokenforco. I publish a post on the
company blog every Tuesday. I spend 10 to 15 hours on each post. I create visuals to promote
these posts on social media. However, I realize that I
am getting way more likes on my hand drawn lettering
posts compared to these non hand drawn ones. What should I do?” – Vivian, you’re spending
way too much time on it in my opinion. 10 to 15 hours feels
completely disproportional to the value exchange that
you’re getting in return. You need to figure out
how to do it faster. You also need to become
a little less romantic, and you need to figure out what your micro-version of that is, because content is a gateway drug to opportunity, and I think your supply
and demand or your value and return for the time is off kilter. You’re also in a space and
you’re a part of this world, because you love the
design and the creation and you’re an artist at heart, and so I don’t wanna tell you what to do, but from a business context, and that’s why you asked it on this show I think there’s an inefficiency there, and you need to figure out how to make that 10 to 15 hours
closer to one to two max, 45 minutes preferably, so you
can do a hell of a lot more. Every Tuesday is not enough. I need more often. The only way I can get
it more often from you is if you allow yourself to go faster. This goes back to an earlier
question in this marathon of Ts and Is. I think you’re going way too
down the perfection variable. To prove out my point,
I would ask you to try to do what you can do. Do me a favor. Next Tuesday, spend two hours on it. See what it does, and
see what the results are. You may learn from that, and if you hate what happens, and there’s not a lot of engagement do it one more time, and
if you can get me to three strikes where it doesn’t work
in three straight Tuesdays then you can go back to doing your thing, but my gut tells me
that won’t be the case. – [Voiceover] Lisa asked,
“What’s your spirit animal?”

– And Lisa, finally, so everybody thanks so much for hanging with me. That was fun. The marathons fun. I have a funny feeling we’re
gonna have a lot of comments like this is what you should
do you’ll get so many more answers. I got so much more value. Lisa, my spirit animal
is battle cat from Heme. Actually Ram Man. Ram Man from He Man. If you don’t know what it look likes, it looks like this.