– [Voiceover] Chris asks, “What
surprises or interests you “about brands with High Brand Equity, “but don’t have huge budgets?” – Chris, this is a great question. That was a lovely Instagram photo. This whole Instagram
thing is gonna be awesome. As a matter of fact, you know what? I almost didn’t do this episode, so DRock, I know you’re disappointed with only two questions, but that’s better than zero
and you’ve heard that before. You like that? You like that, Staphon? So, that actually gives me a second here to push the VaynerNation ’cause I know we went out
super late the other night. Instagram photos, Instagram questions, let’s link up how you do that, let’s get on that for
the rest of the week. Chris, it’s a great question. You know, look, this is
why I love social media. I believe that social
media is the plumbing to word of mouth in our society and I think there’s a lot of brands that don’t spend marketing that just win on having a great product. If you make a great product and you get people to taste
it, physically and literally, meaning try your app,
check out your store, wear your hoody, or actually
try sauce and it’s delicious, word of mouth will kick in. I think the world we live in now, it actually speeds that up because when somebody had that sauce, now they take a photo
and put on Instagram, be like, “This is delicious.” That’s a lot better than 1997 where, like, I had this sauce and then, like, Staphon and
I are playing basketball, we go, “By the way, the sauce,”
like, what? I did that once? Like, I think it was impossible to amplify the way we are now on an
individual person level, so I actually think the era of companies with very limited or zero
marketing budgets is here and I do think social
media is that foundation. So, what interests me is that
this is the greatest time ever to not have a marketing budget
in a world as a marketer because so much of it can
be organic and authentic. It’s hard, you have to be great, and most of all, your product
has to be sensational. So I think the brands that will break out, the products that will break
out in the next half decade with zero dollars are gonna be anomalies, but that’s predicated on them actually making a phenomenal product. – [Voiceover] BlueArcher
ask, “If you could create

– [Voiceover] Rollinson asks,
“Is paid promotion for jabs an effective way to build
an audience for right hooks?” – Rollinson, this is a great question. It’s something I’ve been
debating a whole lot. Now to frame it up for everybody, the notion is should
he, you, she, him, it, where am I going, I don’t know. But sorry, stick with me
here because I’m excited. Should we as a collective pay for jabs, meaning a non call to action. Not buy this wine, but should I create an infographic about the tempranillo grape and it’s just a did you know about… and it’s just a piece of good content. Should a spend three,
four, five hundred dollars on getting this awareness
to build up equity to then later come in with the right hook. I think the answer is predicated
on how much money you have. Right, like, if you have a
limited budget, you’re probably going to want to save it
for, hey buy this wine for $14.99, it’s a killer for Thanksgiving. You know, like, that is
probably what you want to save it for, but if you have
an overall marketing budget, if you’re a bigger brand, if
you’re spending real money, I think there’s enormous value in jabbing. I’m spending a ton of money on jabbing to build up awareness, to get
people into the ecosystem. So, I’m a big fan of
spending dollars on jabbing. Content that benefits
the audience that doesn’t have the direct R.O.I. to you, and you’re spending even more money on not just producing it but
getting it reach and awareness because I think of myself as a marketer and a brand guy not just a core salesman. That has to do with your finances. I can do that today, I
couldn’t do it 3 years ago. I couldn’t afford it,
10 years ago, forget it. So it depends on where your business is at but if you can afford it, I would allocate some level, 10 to 30
percent of your budget on just jabs, if your limited. If you’re a bigger brand,
big pockets 50, 50 even. Maybe 80, 20 on just the branding because you’re building exposure. I mean look, every TV
commercial, every billboard, 95% of those aren’t infomercial,
they’re brand building. That stuff works. – [Voiceover] James asks, “Do you

– Hey GV, it’s TF. Got a question for you for all my friends in the real estate space around the world. And the question is, how much of my advertising / marketing dollars should I be spending on
salespeople, telemarketing efforts, versus direct mail, print, traditional, versus online. You know me, buddy. I’m a no-wrong-way-to-generate-leads
kind of guy. What’s your take on it? (person claps)
(people chat) – Hey, you know, TF, I
gotta tell you, I agree. I mean, obviously I push
new forward ways of thinking about selling stuff, whether
it was ecommerce back in ’96, email marketing in ’97,
Google AdWords in 2000, banners, then content marketing in 2006. I mean, people are talking
about content marketing now. I started Wine Library TV
on February 21st, 2006, to do content marketing, so
obviously all the social stuff. I’ve got peeps in the background, too. You know, I get it. Yeah, I think that if you’ve got a way. I know we’ve talked in
the past that direct mail really works for you as a channel. Agreed. Do it, if that’s working for you. I even did direct mail for Wine Library seventeen months ago, just to make sure it didn’t bring any ROI,
and it was a disaster. It was scary to me. We used to be direct mail juggernauts in ’98, ’99, 2000, where we’d get three, four, five, six,
seven percent redemption of how many fliers we’d sent out. People coming to the store. We had six people bring
the coupon to the store and we had a big value prop in it. So direct mail clearly died for us and then other places that have grown. And, SEM works, and Facebook
dark posts are working, and content clearly has worked. So, I’m a no-romance-over-the-lead
kind of guy, as well. I mean, here’s my thing, though. People fall in love with the way they’ve made their money, right, because it’s working right now. I’m thrilled when I think that Instagram and Facebook dark posts and Twitter suck. Can’t wait for that. Can’t wait for 2024, you know,
when I’m dissing on that. I’m like, it’s all about
this, the virtual reality. Great. Can’t wait, in the words of Bart Scott. And so, I think the biggest thing that I get scared about is that people get romantic
and don’t try new things. Every person watching here
should always be spending between five to twenty
percent of their money, if that’s what you’ve got, or your time, if that’s what you’ve got,
on new and innovative things, because they need to be prepping for 2016, 2018, 2022. And here’s the biggest key, TF. No matter what you tell me, your direct mail response
and telemarketing response is not as good as that
same action 10 years ago. If you were doing that same
calling in the background and that same direct
marketing 10 years ago, it would have had a bigger ROI because more people were paying
attention to those channels, their actual home phone and their mailbox, then they are now in
a world of this, this, and everything pulling away. Not to mention, the costs
are higher in direct mail because, you know, the
post office is subsidizing that loss of money. So, these are the things
that I think about it. It’s the arbitrage of
the value of the ROI, not necessarily the action itself. – [Voiceover] Damian asks,

“What do you is a bigger
obstacle to success, “a lack of time or a lack of capital?” – Roberto, this is a tremendous question. I think the biggest obstacle to success is a lack of optimism. That question in itself
is the problem, my friend. Right? You’re looking at two things
that are both negatives, and guess what? Both of ’em are obstacles. When I started winelibrary.com, transformation for my business, I had time, I worked my
face off every minute, but we didn’t have a whole lot
of money in our profit center so it took more time, right? It’s just the way it is. Today, I have more money,
but boy, don’t I have time. But neither, ever, ever, will be an excuse for me. And so, just to drill
this through the throat of the VaynerNation, that’s
right, I went that graphic, don’t smile DRock,
here’s the bottom line: I refuse to allow you to get
an answer to that question because both of them are firmly square in the excuse column, and I
have no patience for that. There will always be problems. Let’s talk about a million other things that are a way to stop success. The health and well-being
of your family members so it takes your mind away from execution. The country you live in’s government and political concepts in these moments, a la, startups in China that I’ve invested in that got traction, but then people that were
wired in to the government decided to not allow it to happen and then the start up disappeared. Not as easy to be an entrepreneur there, it’s still a communist country. Sorry, it just is. And so all these things
can be problems, right? There’s a competitor
with a billion dollars who’s also skilled and
punches you in the mouth and knocks you out in
the first round, right? The world changing. I mean, there’s just a
million obstacles, right? The media, one bad coverage of you. A moment in time. You know what I think about a lot? You know what I think about a lot? Let’s get really real here,
this is why we did this show. I always, I’m a human being, and I always think about a moment in time. What if I just say the wrong
thing at the wrong time? Right? What if I call out China for
being a communist country in an episode while I’m on a rant, and somebody who’s watching
doesn’t like the way that tastes and that takes away a business opportunity for me in China in seven years? Even though I’m not trying to zing, it’s just things that I saw. What if, you know, what if what if I look down on my phone while I’m driving even though
I’ve really not done that, and I hit somebody and I kill them? And that becomes the story, and then like forget about the story, about what you think about me, I will never recover from that because I killed somebody because
I needed to check a Tweet. These are moments in time. So there are so many things that can keep you from
being successful, right? The people that you invested in having something bad happen to them so it slows you down. My friends, there are a
million reasons why not, but there’s one great reason why, which is, you just gotta persevere, no matter what it is. It’s just the way it is. It’s hard being an entrepreneur. It’s hard building a business. Everybody thinks it’s so easy, that there’s an entitlement. There’s a disaster, zinging China? Here comes my U.S. zing right now: there is an insane generation
of 18 to 25 year olds that think they’re entitled
to having a business because they saw the
social networking movie and everybody’s decided
that if you’re a kid and you know what tech is. Because you used Instagram early on, you’re entitled to
actually build a business. Building a business is hard. And you know what makes it really hard? Everything that happens
every day of every moment. So, you can pick time, you can pick money as the one or two things
that you think stop you from winning your game, but the truth is, there’s a million reasons. 99% of businesses go out
of business for a reason. And that reason is, it’s hard. And so, if you’re watching this show, I’ve got a sense of who you are, and you need to start
creating layers and layers and layers of skin to
be able to get through. Because the glamour of
being an entrepreneur, the goodness, you know you get
very confused by my optimism. Because it’s my optimism, I can’t help it, it’s just how I roll. It’s probably one of
the variable 1% reasons why I’m successful. But please, don’t get it twisted. This is hard. Every day is hard. And if you don’t have the
stomach to weather the storm, you will not be successful. And by the way, let me throw you a real weird curveball, and that’s okay. People have to look
themselves in the mirror and understand if they’re
number two, three, four, five, six, seven in an organization, That has differences
of being a number one, but maybe that’s where
your skill set sits. Maybe that’s how you make
your fortunes and happiness and all the things that
you’re looking for, and so. That question got me
goin’ a little bit, Steve. Because it’s under the context of excuses. And I will never make an excuse. Everything that’s a problem with me, everything I don’t achieve, everything that’s a
problem at VaynerMedia, and everything is my fault. And I succumb to that, and I respect that. And I actually think that’s
the way it should be. And so, um, no excuses my friends.

what role does internal culture play in the company’s success? Can you give one concrete
tip on building that culture? Ekaterina, how are you doing? It’s always great to hear from you, I’m glad you’re on the show. Company culture is actually the only, you know what’s funny,
it’s funny this question’s coming up today, I actually
on the way to work today said, “you know what, the
book that I’m gonna write that’s really gonna like,” you know, I always think is Crush It!,
ooh, Thank You Economy’s gonna sneak up on people.
I know, as I sit here today, the book that I write
on culture and how to build an organization through humans, not CFO cash tactics, is
gonna be my book legacy, so whenever I get to that,
so it’s everything to me, as an operator I’m all E.Q. over I.Q., the one concrete tactic I have is way too many people make
decisions on who they fire or hire based on money. “Oh, we have the budget
to hire another designer, or camera person, or” like
it’s a financial decision. All my decisions on hiring
and firing are emotional. What is it gonna do to
the collective community? You know, if I fire this
person, who’s so popular internally, because they
have great people skills, will that hurt everybody else, and can I can I push that person
into another direction to help them get another job over 90 days instead of firing them
abruptly in one day? That costs me a lot more money, but does a hell of a lot for me in the culture. And so, that is my one concrete kind of curve ball haven’t heard a lot of
people talk about that kind of stuff, example.

and I’ve got a question for you. The company I’m working
for has a great story. We’re putting up great content
on all our social channels, but we’re not seeing the
engagement we were hoping for. Is it worth it to promote
our Facebook posts, our tweets, and our LinkedIn posts, in order to gain more engagement on what we’re putting out there? What do you think, are they worth it? – I think they’re worth it. Now, I think they’re
worth it if you actually target it properly. So you used promote,
and I would say, target. Meaning, Twitter, you
can target actual words that people are using
to get even more narrow into who you’re trying to target. Facebook dark posts, we’ve ad nauseam talked over these 12 episodes, of Facebook dark posts. I do think you should target, but, and this is why I turned
my face to the camera while you were asking
a question my friend, you’re deeming it to be great content. Maybe it just isn’t. Right, and I think that
that’s a dangerous thing that a lot of people really
need to figure out, which is, you may feel good of how it looks, but the reason I wrote Jab,
Jab, Jab, Right Hook is, is it contextually proper? Does it have the right hashtags? Is it linking properly? Do you have the right amount of length? Are the pictures proper? Are you putting the logos in
the right spots within it? Please triple check,
you gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself, they say, and so please triple check, that you’re checking all the boxes of doing all that stuff properly. Number two, I do believe
that if you can afford, if you’re lucky enough, and
a lot of people watching aren’t lucky enough, but
if you’re lucky enough to have the resources to target a segment, and boost up its awareness. If that content is good, that is gonna spread like fire for
you, and it’s gonna pay much bigger dividends long-term, so, I am a fan of it. – [Voiceover] Erick asks,
what’s the last new skill

potential business plan without the financial resources and the inventory, where do you start with funding?” – Damien, this is one of those questions that I like picking for the show, because I’m always scared to be too rude to the audience. You guys are smiling. Okay, now I’m freaked out
that Aton’s doing stuff. Oh, you guys are worried about how much I’m about to thrash Damien? Got it.
– [DRock] A little bit. – Damien, the answer to that
question is very simple. We’re in a bubble of financing right now. There are people that would finance this venture just on idea. It’s happened, people come in with a deck, they have nothing. People give them money for
a piece of the business, and they go on and do it. That’s your only option,
there’s nothing else practical. Any time somebody sets up a question… Do you know how many people have emailed me with the title, “About to Help You Buy
the New York Jets,” or “Gary, Open This Email and You Will Buy the New York Jets,” or “I’m Gonna Help You
Buy the New York Jets,” and the next line is, “Hey
Gary, I’m a fan of your work. I have a billion dollar idea.” Ideas are (bleep).
Everybody’s got an idea. Steve, you have ideas? – [Steve] I have all sorts of ideas. – I have unlimited ideas. If you have the idea that’s nice. If you don’t have the dollars, and if you don’t have the inventory, or even if I have nothing,
and so the only way you do something about
that is go and get dollars from somebody to, I
assume, get the inventory. I don’t understand what the inventory is in this exact question. The reason I’m answering this question is for the entire
VaynerNation to understand that practicality matters, right? Passion, which I’m loaded
with, is great. Right? Ideas, transcend the world, great, agreed. But, in execution, in practicality, is when these things become true. That’s what matters, that’s what the people we all look up to have done. They’ve taken from here,
and they’ve made it happen. That is massively important,
and that is something I push all of you to start
spending some more time on. Question of the day for Episode Nine,

– [Voiceover] T.Jay asks,
how would you suggest an indie artist use their marketing money when the royalty check
comes in six months later? – Jay, first of all,
thank you for the music, today. Big ups to him. And, the royalty check
coming six months later, how do I think you should execute on that, is very simple. I think you should execute
six months of patience. If you don’t have the money, you just wait for it to
come, and then you execute. There is a lack, word play Jay, and everybody else is watching. There is a lack of patience. The thought that your royalty
check comes six months later, means that whatever you
wanted to do with that monies, you know, to attack, just
has to wait six months. And so, practically, I’d just wait. – [Voiceover] Thomas asks, cake or pie?

Is it some local listings in SEO, writing content, social media? Antoine, what’s up, brother? Gary Vee, but you know that. You know, look this is
always the best question. This is the question that
I rappled with, rappled, grappled with, when I got
involved in my dad’s business. It’s very hard. What do you do? I made flyers at home and
gave them out when people walked into the store. When you’re hustling and
you’ve got limited budget, you’re in trouble by many
people’s points of view. Let me give you the real first answer. The real first answer is work more. The greatest way to
close the gap financially is to put in the extra two or three hours. So, whatever you’re doing, add
an hour or two to each day. Still eat healthy, still have
sleep, but an hour or two of hustle, little less watching
Game of Throne marathons and Madden 15, extra hustle
because when you’re limited, that’s the play. To me, Facebook dark
posts has one of the best ROI’s right now, Google AdWords is always a strong contender, banner retargeting. It really depends on your
business, it depends on if you’re e-commerce, to me,
those three would really work. If you’re a local business
that’s trying to drive people into the store, you start
looking at Yelp and Foursquare and things of that nature. Sometimes it might even
be, believe it or not, local radio, local cable
television, believe it or not. There might be ways, but the
truth is, there’s very specific answers based on very
specific small businesses. But, don’t, don’t lack hustle. Biz dev, one of my favorite things when we didn’t have a lot of dollars was biz dev. Go to the barber and be
like, can I put some flyers of my business in your store
and then you can put some, there’s that move. There’s
the call for advertisers thing that was my classic YouTube video. We can link that down below,
that’s probably the second time in three episodes linking
it, but it’s a classic. Go and get the money, and so, those would be my first answers to a local financially strapped. Networking, hustling, biz
dev’ing, go to the local businesses around you, trade,
go to the Chamber of Commerce events, figure out if you can do something and just print coupons and hand them out, you know, in quotes. Guys, I appreciate you jamming
with me in episode three.