#AskGaryVee Episode 98: Networking, Nielsen Ratings, & Mistakes Young Entrepreneurs Make

“#cashisoxygen episode 96. “So what’s second? “Product, team or service?” – Jose, great question. Your cash is oxygen,
there is no second, right? That’s like the all-encompassing. It’s not that it’s first. I think, you know, the real
question is really interesting because the fact of the matter is there’s a hundred different
things that could be it. You could be amazing at growth hacking, you might design the greatest product. The truth is, you know, especially for me, I like to give definitive answers to get people moving,
because the more you ponder the more you squander. What? (laughter) And so, and so, and so, don’t be crippled by
what is that other thing. I think that other
thing could be the thing that you’re strong at and
we all have those things. For me it’s sales, right? Like both businesses I built, Wine Library and now VaynerMedia is predicated on I am extremely good at growing the top line revenue of the businesses that I’m at the helm of. Later on I work about
driving profit back up. Some people are efficient at
the profit from the beginning, or architecture business that profitable from the get, or financial engineering, or amazing designers
that are so overwhelming they can’t sell or build a business, but they bring in that skill later because the quality of
their art or product is so incredible. You might design an amazing product, and that might be at the core. So there’s a lot of different things. Cash, though, is oxygen.

“the biggest mistakes you see young, “20-year-old entrepreneurs
such as myself making?” – Jack-Henry, there are
so many damn mistakes you’re making, you youngsters,
that this actual show would take the rest of
my life if I decided to list them all. On the flip side, there’s
so many incredible 21-year-old entrepreneurs, I mean, I don’t wanna stand up
here as the old dude and be like you kids,
you millennials are doing all these things wrong. I think there’s market conditions. I think market conditions
right now for youngsters are not creating strong
disciplines in business. it’s so easy to do a startup, it’s so easy to raise money, that a
lot of people are just not, you know, when you’re a 21-year-old, and literally the last,
even hardcore economic issue was in 2008, jeez, you were 14 when that hit the fan. That’s insane, by the way, to me. Number two, like you
just have never lived it. it’s always been good
for you John-dash-Henry, it’s always been good
for all the 21-year-olds. It’s always been what I
call peace-time generals, and I think to be a great
business woman or man you need to be a war-time general as well. Talk to me. You know what’s gonna be fun? Episode 697 of the #AskGaryVee Show when the stock market
collapsed and when money is not flowing, and when
there’s some geopolitical event that’s changing the
landscape, and not everybody’s writing a, oh I should invest in the next Facebook and Uber. Then entrepreneurs are
gonna really rise to the top that are real ones, not fake ones, and I think that not
understanding the principles of building teams, building good product, knowing how to sell, these things that have been thematic
through these hundred episodes, that’s when they matter. So my friends, if you’ve been confused, let me un-confuse you. I’ve been doing this show
for the future moments, not right now. These hundred episodes,
they’re not about right now. They’re about what’s coming. And what’s coming is bad times, and then good times, and then bad times and then good times and then bad times. Staats, say it with me. Bad times. – Bad times. – Then good times. – Then good times. – Then bad times. – Then bad times. – Thanks, Staats. That is what’s coming, my friends. You haven’t felt the effects
of that chant, India?

“when dealing with a pissed-off customer?” – (sighs) Charlie, I’ve got
a really interesting answer to my thought process
on pissed-off customers. First and foremost I want
to know if they’re right. So I use myself as the judge of that. And I mean that, I mean I
judge how right they are. if they are 100% right in my opinion, I’m coming in with nothing but empathy, how do I fix it? Lifetime value, whatever it
costs me upfront right now, it doesn’t matter, because they’re right and in the capitalism meritocracy, fairness of the world, I need to make good on the mistake that Wine Library or VaynerMedia, I made, and that’s that. Now if I think they’re wrong, which happens plenty of times as well, maybe 50-50 of the time,
I come with offense, you know, I come to explain to them that I get it, and I have
empathy and I’m sorry, but. Huge capital B-U-T,
but, you’re a douchebag, and let me explain,
blah, blah, blah, blah. And so that is really the way it is. So first and foremost
I assess the situation. I never try to put my
best interests in mind, and so if I think they’re right, Lauren don’t be scared, and
if I don’t think they’re, and if I think that they’re
right, then I’m gonna just do what I said in part one, but if I think they’re wrong, I’m gonna play it a different way. (laughs)

– Hey Gary, Jason Hanson here in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area, I’m heading off to a networking event and thought I’d ask you,
what is Gary Vee’s game networking? What do you do? Love to hear from you. Thanks. – Jason, I think networking
is super important to me at this point, you know,
there’s two different levels of networking for me. Number one, I’m in an environment where I’m known, right? Through last decade I’ve
built up some brand equity and there’s a very different strategy of walking into a room
where there’s context around me, I’m in a wine space, social media space, marketing space, I’m gonna be able to play that way a little bit different. In that world I’m kind
of, I’m receiving, right? I’m letting things come to me. This is the opportunity for
a lot of people to pitch me, I wanna give them value, and so in those environments where I have context and brand and leverage,
I actually give back. I actually just set up shop and
I get pitched for days, bro. On the other side, when
I go to many places where nobody knows who I
am, I’m on the offense to not overthink it. So I will never figure out like who’s the biggest dog
or doggette in the room that I’m gonna get to and
like I’m gonna get mine so what I really do is I come in and I go really very open, and
create a scenario where, Jason, don’t worry,
you can walk, let’s go, yeah, don’t worry. Say hi to the VaynerNation. – Is there no cutting? You said there was no cutting anymore. – There’s not cutting. – No editing. – This is real. – I know, it’s going
live right now, right? – Yeah, just tell ’em. – I don’t like to be in– – But look, look, I know
you don’t like that, but say hello. Be a nice guy. – Hi, how you doin’? – Okay, awesome. Best accent at VaynerMedia, half Boston, half New York. Very conflicted. And so in places where I’m not known, I’m really looking to just
let serendipity take over. I think networking can get very skeezy very quickly, right, you have
such a hardcore objective. To me, I let it come to me. That is my overall plan. I, by nature am a counter-puncher, from all my aggression and bravado, and what I project on
stage, because that’s a different environment, in real life I’m very much
let things come to me, and I like to react. It’s a little more chess. it’s kind of like, I wish I
knew more about martial arts because I feel like sometimes people leave comments on Facebook and YouTube and I feel like it’s like martial arts, I let the other person’s thing give me the leverage to do my thing. – [Voiceover] Rocky asks,
“What’s your opinion

– [Voiceover] Rocky asks,
“What’s your opinion “of Nielsen ratings and how do you “benchmark traditional versus social media “success for big brands?” – Rocky, this is a great
question as you can imagine, this is the world I live in, I do think that all reporting, if
it’s not black and white and quant, hold on, Tim
is like being weird. Come here, look at, what? (laughter) Are you all right? – Yeah. – Good. So, you know, traditional
metrics, you know, reporting versus black
and white quantifiable data on the back end are very different. Attribution models done on the web, the whole way where you
can see the whole funnel, you can take more in that
than you can the reporting, and whether that’s
reporting from traditional, like TV Nielsen’s, or
even digital reporting, like there’s plenty of digital reporting. And so you gotta look at ’em differently, and look, I’m a very big believer in branding and marketing,
what are called qual data, and so to me that stuff’s very important, and I believe in brand. I don’t look at the hardcore
quant data of this show, I think I’m building
brand, I’m bringing value. Over the last several episodes, I felt an absolute uptick
in my Twitter stream, and the Instagram comments
of the show’s getting good, I’m bringing, you know,
literally in the last week, anecdotally, not hardcore data, I’ve seen like 13, 14
people tweet or Instagram about like, how the more they go into my rabbit hole of content, the more value, or like he’s really hitting his stride, so I can feel it. It’s like a branding thing. Like I can feel this
show and the last show and the last show, like
we’re taking it up a notch a little bit as we head into the crescendo that is episode 100. And so I think they both matter. If I’m looking at data, I’m
gonna look for something as pure as possible, and so in general, digital stuff attracts me more. But I think there’s a place for both. – Hey Gary, what’s a
good place to get pizza?

– We need to get this guy into the office. What’s he asking? – Pizza. – What’s that? – Pizza, what’s the best pizza? – [Voiceover] Hey Gary, what’s
a good place to get pizza? – What’s his name? – Aeson. – He’s so cute. (laughs) – Look on the computer. – All right. Clearly the VaynerNation is
falling in love with Aeson, like who cares about Gary? It’s all about Aeson. Aeson. I got some good news for
you, and bad news, my man. First of all, you’re adorable. Second of all, you should
be Xander’s friend. Third of all, if you
become Mischa’s friend, she’s gonna boss you around,
so stick with Xander. Fourth of all, Mike doesn’t
let me eat pizza anymore, so I have no goddamn idea.