#AskGaryVee Episode 83: The Role of Blogging Today, Parenting in a Social Media World, & Sasquatch

“what is the future of
blogging in all this “rented social media space?” – You know Thomas, I think the
interesting thing about blogs and it’s really fascinating for
me to watch what’s happening is in 2003, four, five, six, it was very commonplace to
use the internet in a way where you would be driving
someone to your home, right? Like, come here to consume me here. I think what we’re seeing a lot now is I’m over here. If you want me to know what’s up, you better learn how to speak to me here. And so I think that what’s happened is the attention graph that
I spend so much time paying attention to is shifting, and people’s willingness
to jump to some place to consume is not down
because the truth is I believe social networks,
specifically Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest, yeah those, LinkedIn, are really gateway drug pieces of content to drive to this before mentioned home, a blog, an e-commerce site, your download page to your app. So, I think what’s changed
is people understanding they need a great skill to
be a wonderful storyteller within social networks to
become a first impression to the, ya know, it’s like
you have to be really good at the bar before you get a
chance to do something at home. And I think that’s the
analogy that I’m looking for, if you know what I mean.

– [Voiceover] John asked,
“What are your thoughts “on creating a successful, long term “social media strategy for
yourself or your clients? “How long in advance do you create “the content you roll out?” – John, that’s a good question. I mean, I think this all comes down to something that I call reverse engineering. The truth is everybody’s different. You know, my vision is very long-term. I don’t know how you define
long-term in your question, but some people think long-term
is three to five years. I think long-term is until the day I die. And so, my clients may not be as patient when your Fortune 500 company that needs to hit numbers each quarter, your patience to build a three to five
year plan is nonexistent. When you’re a Series C Startup company that just raised 200 million dollars, and you’re only burning
four million dollars, you’ve got a lot of patience, and the idea of building brand and
having a patience game to your execution becomes more attractive, then we reverse engineer that. Then it’s more about branding, Instagram, doing high-end video, long-form content with no right hook, lot of jabbing. If you’re a startup that’s
gonna go out of business in 24 weeks if you don’t sell some stuff, we’re in full right hook,
ya know, Facebook dark post, SEO, SEM, influencer marketing with calls to action to sell. Ya know, all that stuff
completely is determined based on the client’s current
short-term and long-term needs, but the truth is short-term
and long-term needs really balance based on a moment in time, and so, ya know, the reason I think I’m
good at business is, for all of my talking, I am 10X at my listening skills, and it all just comes down to listening, and so the way we strategize
is predicated on listening, and I think the biggest
challenge for so many of the VaynerNation
that’s watching right now is I don’t think a lot
of you, and this is, with all due respect,
this is for everybody, I’m just picking on you
’cause I love you, tough love. I think a lot of people aren’t really sure what they want to accomplish
in a one-year window versus a five-year window
versus a ten-year window, and their behavior doesn’t map to it. Ya know, to me I got lucky. I just decided it’s everybody
shows up to my funeral, hedge forever, build up equity,
cash it in as I need it, if I ever need it, which has
allowed me to be very patient and really has allowed
me to dictate my behavior being probably a better human being. And in a weird way, and
again, I think a lot of people would find this funny. In a lot of ways, I’ve been a pushover as a entrepreneur because if you would look
at it in the short-term, I’m leaving money on the table. I’m not fighting for every cent. I’m not trying to drill it
down to the biggest advantage. I’m not even getting mine everytime because I’m just hedging along the way, and so just comes down to what
you’re trying to accomplish. I think the better question
to this question is how can you help someone
or are you capable of really understanding what
you’re trying to accomplish?

“I’m speaking to parents
at a public school event “on parenting in a social media world. “What would you teach them?” – Every time I get in front of parents, they get really upset
with me because my move is to punch them directly in the mouth. Parents are becoming their
parents on an everyday basis. I would tell them that
they’re fearing technology and they’re forcing their
kids to spend less time on it, which is not preparing them for the actual world in the future. I would tell them that they talk about how much they hate technology
and its impact on kids, but they should look
themselves in the mirror because every time they
don’t wanna parent, or the kid’s crying a little
bit more than they like, they throw an iPad at them
like it’s a Chinese star. I would tell them that they’re
full of shit and hypocrites and should never try to
build their self-esteem through their kids’ accomplishments. If your little Ricky is
the best baseball player in the fourth grade team, that
has nothing to do with you, except it has your DNA, but
like don’t walk around like you’re the best player
on the fourth grade team. So, you know, I would tell them that it’s never been a better
time to be a parent because all the social networking tools allow us to spy on our kids
and know what they’re doing at a level we’ve never seen before. I’m, you know, I used
to think it was great that I lived in New York,
that I wouldn’t have to worry about drunk driving. Now no parent does because by the time their kids are of age, Uber will be at scale. I would tell them to stop playing defense and stop being scared
and start playing offense and start being pumped. – [Voiceover] Moveandbezel asked,

“We are in a nonexistent market, “but the sharing economy is
growing, and we play in there. “What would you do to
determine or come up with “a market size?” – Moveandbezel, you know,
obviously I’ve jammed with you a little bit on social. Ya know, I guess you’re
asking me this question to try to figure out how
to put it into your deck so that you can raise money. You know, the people that
are gonna give you money are not gonna give you money
on the potential market size of the watch renting market. They’re gonna do it because,
you’re right, it doesn’t exist. They’re gonna do it
because they believe in you as an entrepreneur hustler, and they’re gonna believe
in the sharing economy, and they’re gonna think that
watches are an interest graph of end users, but ya know, I don’t think you have
to come up with, ya know, the amount of financial
engineering that goes on in startup culture and the
finance world and raising capital is really silly to me. What you could do is you could find out how big the AirBnB market
is, then you could figure out how big the renting market is versus the overall watch market, and then you could just do
the math and say, “Oh OK.” There’s a lot of hacking you can do, but I think you’re asking
the wrong question, and I think India, when you
asked it before we did the show, I think, wasn’t there also like “How do you market to a market
that doesn’t exist yet?” or something? – [India] I think that
would be interesting. – Ya know, I do too, and
I think that, ya know, I think that I’ve spent a lot
of time thinking about that in general in my career, and I dislike it when
people that are started or businesses in it are
asking that question because obviously you’ve
started the business with a belief that that
market’s gonna happen, and more importantly, I think
there’s a confusion to you about what you’re actually marketing to. You’re thinking, “How
do I market to people “to build awareness
that, hey, you can trade “and rent and share watches.” The truth is there’s
just watch enthusiasts. And so like, they’re there. Marketing to, ya know, I
think people get confused when they’re marketing a new version of a historical product
versus creating a new product that doesn’t exist, ya know. Uber didn’t have to sell that. Like, people rented black
cars and took taxis. They had to bring some
awareness to they existed, but I don’t think anybody’s confused that’s listening or watching right now or of anybody out here
they’re like, “Oh, watches?” Ya know, India, there’s watches. You can rent them and you
can put yours on there. Like, it’s just not super complicated. Ya know, just not complicated, and so you market to people that
give a crap about watches. – [Voiceover] Andrew
asked, “My investor wants “to change the name of my
company’s brand Sasquatch Fuel.

“to change the name of my
company’s brand Sasquatch Fuel. “Should I change the name to something “that includes the name of our
unique pouch like Omni Fuel?” – Andrew, I think a lot of people that are watching this show are gonna say, “He’s about to go crazy and be like “screw your investors,
stick to your guns.” Truth is I’m a very funny
guy when it comes to names. I think execution is everything, and I think the name is
literally irrelevant. Like, ya know, what did
Google mean to anybody before, ya know, it became something? What did the word Nike mean to anybody before Nike made it happen? Like, my last name is Vaynerchuk, ya know? Like they used to teach you in Hollywood before you build a brand, like
I would’ve been Gary Smith ya know in 1961 if I went
to Hollywood and did this. Like, names don’t mean crap. What you make that name
mean is the real game. And so, ya know, you wanna be a pushover? I’m just kidding. You want to change your name? Great. You want like, you don’t
want to change your name? Great. Bottom line is is your product good? Are you gonna be able to market? I mean, ya know, what’s the other name that he’s considering changing it to? – [India] He said they have a,
their pouch is called Omni– – Yeah, I like Sasquatch better than Omni. Something I remember better than Omni. Like, everything’s Omni. And so yeah, that’s it. That’s all I got. Question of the day.