#AskGaryVee Episode 74: Podcasts, Sick Days, & Viral Videos

“what’s your take on podcasting? “You’re playing in the
space, but not all in. “Not worth it yet?” – Brendan, great question. The only reason I’m not all
in on the podcast right now is because I’m too busy, meaning, everybody has to kind of
decide opportunity costs, and for me, I think I over-index on video. I perform better on
video, I like video more, I like this whole thing. Right, you weren’t
ready for that, Staphon. That’s what happens,
I’m rookie-ing you up. So… I’m half-pregnant because
I’m transcribing this show into audio form. Big shout out to everybody
who’s listening on the podcast ’cause I know a ton of you
are on the way to work. I think podcasting is a huge phenomenon. Obviously, the smartphone
has changed the dynamic. People can take it with
them when they’re running and working out, people are
clearly Bluetoothing it up in their cars, public transportation. Podcasting has clearly exploded
over the last 24 months. Things like Serial became
a national phenomenon. At a podcast form.
It’s fun for me to watch because podcasting was
really big in ’04 and ’05. If you think about what Ev
Williams did, he did Odeo in between Blogger and Twitter. That was podcasting. I’m all about podcasting
in its traditional form as an audio vehicle. To me, I think it’s a huge play, I highly recommend a
lot of people doing it. Let’s not forget, a hell
of a lot more people can do the audio version
versus the video version here. This takes, really, another, not another, a different dimension and skill set, one that I think I own,
thus, I go this route and then use the audio to
create two pieces of content, video and the audio form, and by the way, the podcast listeners, please hit up Twitter and
give me your feedback. I think I’ve been trying
very hard, even the opening, like, instead of saying,
“You’re watching Episode 74,” I said, “This is Epi–,” like, I’m trying to make it a
little more native for both, so I’m trying the best I
can to be podcast-oriented in the form of your question. It is a byproduct of it being video first. If I had time to do two separate shows like so many people have
asked me to, I would. I don’t see the ROI return on just audio for what I’m doing for a living right now, and so that’s this. That was, I would held up a pillow that says VaynerMedia for
all you podcast people. (mild laughter) Let’s go to the next question. – Hey, Gary, Spiker Helms here. I was wondering, if you created
a social media platform,

I was wondering, if you created
a social media platform, what would be your key feature and why? Can’t wait to hear your response. See ya. – See ya! So, I’ve long had an idea, and I’m gonna share it with you guys, which is the notion of a social network that looked like Instagram, but more like Path, like you
could put any piece of content, could be a picture, a video, audio file, more content-agnostic so
not just picture or video, but also the ability to
do audio on top of that, but the whole website, the whole app, the whole social network
was predicated on the notion that you can only speak
once a day in any 24 hours. So as soon as you put
out a piece of content, you would no longer be able to put out another piece of content
until 24 hours later, because my belief is that the
supply and demand of noise is the real issue with social networks. Path went down how many people you follow. I think it’s the amount
of pieces of content. I still think it’s
gonna be a big business, I still think that restrictions
is where the action is for the short term, and
I would not be confused if we all look back at this video, and talk about how I
predicted somebody going and executing this billion-dollar idea. I think the restriction of
one piece of content a day is where it’s at, because
it forces all of us as content providers, which all of us are, to put out the best
piece of quality content ’cause it’s that restriction, plus, there would be oomph behind it. Imagine I would say,
“Happy birthday, Alex,” and that was the only thing
I could say that day, wow! In a world where there’s
so many other things I want to put out, so my social network would be predicated on one piece of
content per person a day. – [Voiceover] phone4life
asks, “Gary, I’m 71 years old.

“How can I filter years
of exciting adventures “and experiences into value “that someone would
actually be interested in?” – Carolyn, first of all,
that is my favorite picture that has been put up on Instagram so far. It’s a phenomenal picture. Thank you so much, thanks for
listening, watching this show. By the way, this is a
good time to just say get your questions on
the show using Instagram, look at that execution as inspiration. Look, I don’t know. Are your 71 years of
experience interesting? Does anybody give a crap? I mean, you know, I just went from such a lovely place to such a negative place. Throwing curve balls out
there like we do on Mondays. Monday show.
(ding) Monday video. That’s two times you gotta
put it in there, Staphon, if you’re doing the editing. I don’t know which one’s your half and which one’s the other half. So, Carolyn, really what
it comes down to is value. It’s all value exchange. I very much value somebody
who’s lived 71 years long for life advice just on living! Right? But what also matters is how
you’re gonna communicate it and in what form are
you gonna monetize it? Do you wanna put out a show
where you answer questions, or put out content, or tell stories, but then how are you gonna monetize it? Advertising? I mean, there’s just so
many open-ended questions that need to be asked of you based on your question, but
here’s what I would say. There’s a lot of ways to make money. You could have subscription,
you can have coaching, you can sell content,
you can sell advertising, you can build up equity
by putting out content and putting on a conference. There’s a ton of ways. I really do think I’m one
of the golden examples of how to make money
without directly selling it. Meaning, again, there’s a
lot of my contemporaries who sell eBooks, or white papers, or access to their VIP place. I do none such things. I put out the content at
scale, hence, this show, but then it builds brand
leverage that allows me to charge a lot of money to public speak, or when my book comes out, it allows me to have a big
fan base to get a leverage of a big upfront, where I
don’t even need all the books to sell, though I wanna
fulfill that contract. It gave me the leverage to
start a social media agency with my brand equity that
then I operated around. There’s a lot of ways to make money. You’ve got to decide how. If that’s even your goal,
I’m making the assumption ’cause this is a business-oriented show, but it’s all about content, baby. It’s all about content,
and what you’re putting out matters in two forms. One, is it valuable to an audience? Value’s subjective, but two,
how do you want to communicate? Is it video form? Is it audio form? Is it through amazingly cute
and amazing Instagram photos? Like what is it that you do? There’s that Moments in New
York, or what’s that guy, People of New York? – [Voiceover] Humans of New York. – Humans of New York! That was just pictures on Instagram that led to a big book deal, like, how do you communicate,
do people like that, and then how do you decide
to make money on it? That’s really the game.

“what is the Facebook
equivalent of riding hashtag?” – Robb with two Bs, first of all, India? India, is it true that Robb with two Bs pisses you off that there’s two Bs? – I just want to know why there’s two Bs. – Now, that’s how his parents named him. I mean, this is a tough
place for you to go as a girl named India. – It’s true, it’s true. – All right, so, just wanted to establish that.
– [India] I just want to know – [India] about two Bs. – I mean, you’re not Karen. Sorry, Karens. Robb with Bs, it sounds
like this is a little bit of a black hat, or at least gray hat, Facebook hack, growth-hacking move, which, listen, I believe in
being smart and effective. That seems to be… It’s an interesting tactic,
but you’ve nailed it, and you edited your own
post, so you nailed it. You realized that cool, OK, so there’s some tool that’s telling you this video of a kid falling
in the snow is going viral, why don’t you just take it and
post it, which will then work because humans react to the same things, which will then boost
your edge rank, right, which allows other content
that is around fitness to be seen by more people, so
that would be the value of it, but you’re right, if you’re putting out, if you’re a fitness play, like look, if I, in Gary Vaynerchuk’s
fan page, start putting out, like, penguins falling off trees and giraffes eating Sour Patch Kids, ice skaters falling into the
water but then getting saved, or the Mentos and Pepsi thing, yeah, I mean, that would bring
maybe some general awareness, but it would also dilute why people signed in for my channel. If Spike TV now started
playing soap operas, maybe they’d do OK, or a reality, this one’s the reality TV thing that a lot of people struggled with, like, what do people watch it for? I think media’s becoming agnostic, so I think everybody can
play in a lot of genres, so I think the risk is actually better than it was three or four years ago, but I do think that you
can dilute your brand and then get away from it, and
if you’re a fitness channel, I mean, look, let’s take a step back. What are you trying to accomplish? We’re all happy here, Andy just texted me, I think we’re gonna get a million
organic views on the video and I’m like, “Cool!” but is that accomplishing what I want? Are the right million people gonna see my Monday Morning Motivation video? Link.
(ding) Three, hat trick. Yes, but what am i trying to achieve in trying to find
like-minded business, hustle, growing your base and be
appreciative, gratitude people, I’m trying to grow more of my audience. You may get a million views on that penguin jumping off a tree, but did they stay for your fitness? If they don’t, then you
really accomplished nothing. – Hey Gary, I’m sick today,

and I was just curious
if you ever get sick. Maybe you really are Bionic Man. If you do get sick,
how do you handle that? How do you hustle when you’re sick? Really sick. – Ryan, first of all,
hope you feel better. I mean you look like shit in that video. First of all, big shout
out to Lizzie Vaynerchuk because in the last 11 years
that I’ve been married, I have not been sick. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Lizzie tries to
get me to wash my hands and the fact that I don’t
have a weird draft coming in like I had in my old apartment, which I think caught me a couple times. I mean… You’re talking to a old
school Eastern European kid who actually thinks that
getting sick and being sick is actually psychology. I think the brain is
the most powerful tool. Like, I know the answer
to this is not true, but I do feel like… I’d be lying if I didn’t
think there’s some way that I’m stopping myself
from getting sick. In the same way that I used
to be able to get myself sick to get out of school,
and I don’t mean like, “Oh, my tummy hurts.” I mean, in this weird, yeah, I’m going somewhere. I’ve never said this out loud. This is actually even
scary to say out loud. I’m so convinced that the
brain is this powerful, I used to be able to create a temperature, and I know that every logical
person, including myself, I literally just said, “Bullshit,” but I saw it. I mean, and sure, sometimes,
I put it up to the lamp and that’s how I did it, but
there was a couple of times where I would just psych my… Even right now, I just started doing it, and my stomach turned a little bit. I’m not kidding! Guys, the brain is a sick thing, so I guess the answer to
the final question is, you don’t hustle when you get sick. In the same way you don’t
hustle when you get sleep. We’ve got that quote card
that did really well, right? That quote where I’m like,
“It’s not what you do, “it’s not how many hours you’re awake, “it’s what you do within them.” I’m thrilled to get six
or seven hours of sleep. I love when people think
I’m a three or four guy. I’ll take eight every night, because in those other 16, I will dominate your face. I love people who sleep
four hours, but chill, and chilling is just not
doing something important for 40 minutes or having a
conversation on the trading floor for 30 minutes about the big game or what the fuck happened
in the Oscars last night? Who gives a shit? Execute, and so, but wait, who did this shit for me, I’m
purely focused on my thing. Some people like 30 minutes
of talking about the Oscars ’cause it breaks up their day. That’s their rest. You do you, but let me say this. When you’re sick or when
you’re sleeping, rest. Your body’s telling you something, and so, like weirdly, maybe I was sick
once in the last 11 years, I was pumped. Let me just say that
again ’cause I don’t know if everybody understood that. I weirdly wish I was
sick one day this year. I would really enjoy the time off. I’d enjoy relaxing, and the kids come. Misha comes home at three, it’d be fun! It’d be fun, but there’s something subconsciously that’s really trying to
not allow me to do that. In a world where I take
a hundred-plus flights, where that place is like, I don’t know… Remember how a couple episodes, I said that the 20- to
30-year old Gary Vee is soft compared to me? That guy did get sick. Now I don’t, and I do think it has a lot
to do with my focus on it, so I do think you can
out-hustle your sickness to some degree, but
when you succumb to it, because at some level, we all do, I think you need to
just relax and enjoy it.