“Hey Gary! “What would you prioritize
as a one person business?” – [India] Yeah, that’s how I do it. – Amber. That’s how you roll? Ladies. That was an L, I don’t know. You can see, that’s
what got me the ladies. (laughter) Amber? Amber, this is a great question, and a very simple one
to be honest with you. And I see, India just informed me about the artistic side of
what you’re pumping out. And so this will be kind of
interesting of an answer, but it’s the truth. If there is one thing I would focus on as a solo-preneur, it is sales. Money is oxygen. And so, you know, you
could do anything you want. You could produce the greatest art, the greatest sneakers, the greatest cup of coffee, if you don’t know how to sell it, you are out of business. Which tends to be the
theme of this episode. So, I would highly recommend
you focus on sales. You have to figure out
can you sell your thing. Whatever that is, it’s a service, sell out the show, your thing that you actually sell. If you’re not capable of
selling as a solo-preneur, there’s really nothing else that matters, because money intake
is the way you continue to the next move, right? It’s like up, up, down, down,
left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, select, start
powers up your lives in Contra, you need lives. And cash is that Nintendo
cheat sheet hack. And so, that’s what it is, cash is oxygen. Cash, say it with me VaynerNation, cash is oxygen, cash is oxygen. Cash is oxygen, India, come on. Cash, come on India, do it with me. Cash, come on, India. Cash is oxygen
– Cash is oxygen. – Yes! Yes! This is a very special episode. Very special 96th episode
of the #AskGaryVee Show. VaynerNation, question of the day, cash is fill in the blank.

” I have an app idea,
with my target market “willing to test it. “But I need to create an app
and I’m not a programmer. “Any advice?” – Jared, this question pisses me off because I’m asked this all the time. I probably get about 30,
40 of these emails a week. I’m not sure if you’re
trying to get on the show, or if you really mean it. This seems like the simplest
thing to do in the world. I mean, Meetup.com has 800
different developer meet ups. And if you want it bad enough,
you go to the closest one, even if it’s 75 miles away. There’s just 8,000 communities
of developers out there. Literally, when I get an
email from somebody saying, “Hey, Gary, I’ve got the next big idea, but I need a developer,” literally, immediately I go like this. I read it. I’m checking my…let’s reenact it. Oh, let me just catch up on my, DRock I’ll do that later, let me just read. Oh, let me check some emails. Hey Gary, love the show, you’re the best person I’ve ever met. Oh, by the way, I’ve got a big time idea except I need a developer. Out of (bleep) business. If you are not capable, if you’re not capable of finding your business partner developer, then how in the world are
you going to win in business? Ideas are shit, execution’s
the game, let’s move on. – [India] From Shady Giorgio.

?Do you ever have dreams at
night about your business?” – Dr. Laurie (laughs). I think I’ve had too– I mean, I dream about
business all the time. Even though I go to sleep and I’m like, okay dream about Jets Superbowl
and in like two seconds I’m like in a meeting
with Stunwin, you know. (laughs) Not as much as I am. (laughs) I dream about business all the time. And then I dream about all sorts of stuff but I don’t recall most of my dreams. I’m not sure what percentage
of dreams I can recall. What percentage of your dreams do you think you recall, Steve? – 25% maybe, not a lot. – [Gary] India? – More like 5%. – [Gary] Staphon? – [Voiceover] 2 1/2% percent (laughs) – [Gary] DRock? – [Voiceover] Same, two. – By the way, I think all
four numbers are grossly high. I think if you net, net the game out, I bet you it’s like .00 something. If you think about how many dreams you probably have in a night. Oh, I bet you there’s– Google it up somebody, real quick. I bet you the number’s insane. And then if you think about
how many nights you sleep, you know, all of them. I think you’re gonna be far,
far, far pressed to get to 25%. – [DRock] About a hundred, you know a hundred something dreams. – What’s your first Google result? – [India] Some people dream at least four to six times per night. – Great. – All right, so maybe a little– (laughs) – Concept. – [Steve] I can be dreamer, that’s fine. – He’s a dreamer, folks. – [Voiceover] Fwarg asks,
“How can the communications

Sucks here. What can they do to bring
themselves into this decade? Online and off. So antiquated.” – Jose, there’s nothing they can do. Now, let me explain why. There’s nothing they
can do because, I think, I’m not even educated on this. They are run by the state. Which would make sense. Which means it’s political. It’s all the things that
I do not believe in. And they won’t fix it. The only way that DMV’s can be fixed is if they go private and are run by entrepreneurs who then actually care about the customer and will fire somebody
if they suck at the DMV like everybody I’ve ever had. And care about efficiency
and time and speed and getting people out and do things like bring in
Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts into the DMV to make
more money on the rent. Or the arbitrage of making
a percentage of each sale. You know, innovate and
care and give a crap. All the things that government industries and objects don’t do because it is not in
their best vested interest because the people that can’t innovate and can’t win in a competitive landscape they default into doing
those things instead. How’s that for some (beep) fire? It pisses me off, it’s so crazy. And I don’t wanna be a hardcore like– Honestly, I don’t wanna
be a hardcore capitalist on this issue. And that was as hardcore to that side of an answer I ever give
’cause I do think I blend but like, I don’t know. If you don’t incentivize
humans in some way to do the right thing, you can’t win. And more and more, in a digital world, I would say I’m more
passionate and more hardcore about my points of view
on government agencies and school today than
I even was 10 years ago because there’s alternatives. I’m a pragmatic kind of
dude and I understood that some of the things but now
there’s so much innovation. There’s so many ways we can solve. It’s just, we’re not incentivizing. These are bigger issues than you and I and so privatizing is the way
I think those would be better. I really do and look, privatizing
has its own bad stuff. I’m not one of these like,
everything should go that route because I believe– but in the same way that I believe unions were really valuable
when the titans of the first– By the way, I could see unions coming back as an important thing as
we live through the second industrial revolution but for right now, while we’re alive, take
advantage of these opportunities. – [Voiceover] Anthony
says, “I recently learned

to deal with impatient clients?” Chetan, I hope I’m pronouncing
that right, Chetan. You know, I’m gonna say
something pretty interesting. I have pretty extreme
views on this question. Meaning, I think the answer to
the question is brute force. I never waver, ever, ever. When a client’s pushing
back, and they’re like well this isn’t going to
work, I push back equally with 10% more gusto in
the other direction, which is, it works, I
see it work all the time. I see it work for myself, I
see it work for my clients. I see it work for other people, and you’re just not doing it right, we haven’t had enough
time to pull it off yet, blah blah blah blah blah. So unwavering, and then number two, equal with my unwavering,
I just don’t give a crap if they fire us or give up. I just don’t. I know how this is gonna play out. I love being on the right side of history, and I’m willing to give
up my short-term money for the long-term, I-told-you-so sucker. Let me just say that again. This is what makes me
happy person with clients. This is why I can do client services. I am willing to give
up my short-term money for my long-term I-told-you-so sucker. And that’s it. So I win either way. I win if I’m able to
forcefully convince them to stay the course. I keep my monies. I win if they say get out
of here, you’re fired, because I’m going to
see them on the street in three years and be like, now what punk? And I love that feeling. I like that more than the money, actually. Thus, it’s all good for me.

– [Voiceover] @BottledGrapes asks, “We have a brick and mortar shop. “In today’s technology
world, how important “is location, location, location?” – Location, location, location. So I think the 1998 version of me would have said, “Oh, it
doesn’t matter as much anymore, “in 20 years, 10 years,
it’ll be all e-com.” As the gray hairs have come in, I recognize things take longer to evolve. I would say location matters
tremendously still today, and very much over the next 10 years. Do I think 20 years from
today that we will be in a 30, 40, 50, 60, 70% e-com world and things will be overpriced by location in a physical world? I do. But I would say for the next half decade to a full decade, location is
still enormously important. People still go to stores,
people still drive their cars, people still are in dense
areas where a great location really matters, and so
I would highly recommend respecting the bricks
and mortars location. Now, that being said,
there’s a more interesting variation of this answer, which is today’s technology world,
are you able to just rely on bricks and mortars location,
location, location, and that is a big fat no. If you were not thinking about your e-com, your mobile strategy, your app culture, your content strategy,
your social strategy, your digital strategy,
you are just basically just setting the game plan in motion to the demise of your business, and so location still matters, but the investment into the future, especially with the acceleration
and the exponential growth of our culture around digital behavior is an enormous mistake. So you need both. That I highly believe in. Who needs that room?

“you wanted to sell your services “to the big Fortune 500 companies “versus consumers first, and
then come up with VaynerMedia? “In other words, did you
choose who you wanted “to sell to first to
maximize your profits, “and then come up with
the business model?” – Sally, this is an interesting question. I’m a very big fan of counter-punching; and a lot of people don’t do that. A lot of people lay out business-plans, they know what they wanna
do, they go and do it. And they go raise money,
or they go and execute it; and that’s how they roll. In lieu of the tremendous
fight this weekend, which it was boring to the masses; but it was a tremendous fight for me. Because 13 seconds in, I looked at AJ and said, “This fight’s over.”
’cause I couldn’t believe how much faster Floyd was than Pacquiao. Watching them separately,
I thought it’d be closer. I knew a second that he
was that much faster, that the fight was over because I know what kind of defensive fighter Floyd is. And I’m sure everybody
gets bored and falls asleep rounds seven through 12, but I’m just completely,
like, infatuated with boxing. And understood the chess-moves
that he was playing out in the ring, and enjoyed that. Even though I know it’s not commercially raw-raw, high-energy. I view myself very
similar as a businessman. I react, it’s funny I feel
like I’m on full-offense. I feel like I’m 48-and-oh
because I play great defense based on reacting. I can react to the market and adjust. The market started coming to me because I was writing Crush It!, putting out videos around business, and amassing a large
social media following. And big-brands reached out to me and said, “Hey, you’ve got all these people.” You know, “Hey, we’re
a Fortune 500 company. “We have 50 followers on Twitter. “You have 400,000 followers! “We’ve never heard of you. “Come and teach us, come explain.” Plus, moments in time. AJ was graduating from BU. It was time to do a business together. We were thinkin’ about fantasy sports, we were thinkin’ about other things. And, so, between timing
and being reactionary to the demand cycle,
like, we’re responding to the demand that was in place. I was already playing in the space. It wasn’t like I just made something up, or there was demand for
me out of left-field that made no sense. My actions were setting
up my counter-punch. My actions were setting
up my counter-punch. I think it’s a very
strong model for business.

“What’s your best piece of advice “for a first generation
American entrepreneur, “venturing out on her own,
away from her family business?” – April, first and
foremost, India just shared some other photos from your Instagram besides your question and
your product looks delicious. There’s a pretty known thing
amongst the most hard Vayniacs is that when I go on book tour, I always start at Powell’s
in Portland, so… I’m on this hardcore diet but I think we may have to
sneak in when we do that February, March, April
next year, and try you out. Look, I think the biggest
thing that I tell everybody is number one, practicality. How much money do you have
to stay alive for how long? That is always my biggest fear. First-time entrepreneurs
make this mistake. Do you have one year’s
worth of rent and overhead, and then, you have to
make your actions respond to your bleeding of cash
before you turn a profit. When you start a new business, especially an ice cream parlor, a restaurant, kind of what you’re doing, you’ve got to make sure that you’re putting up upfront investment, financially, not just time. It’s not like you’re
building something with code, you’re literally paying rent
and buying supplies, and so, you need to have a high
level of practicality. The other thing that I tell entrepreneurs that are more practical,
again, a physical location, it sounds like the way
you asked the question that you’re leaving your
own family’s business and doing your own thing. Hopefully it’s not competing directly with your own family’s business, so there’s not some weirdness. I think the thing that you
really need to pay attention to is you have made a decision that does not allow you, in year one, any time to do anything
but build your business. You are not allowed… You’re almost not even allowed
to watch The #AskGaryVee Show going forward. Like, you are in such a code red zone, that every minute, call it 18 hours a day out of 24, if you want this to be successful, need to allocated for your business, even at the mercy in year
one of your family time. Even at the mercy of that, and so, I guess what I’m getting at
and you could tell by my tone and vibe on this question, is I’m scared, and I think one of the biggest reasons so many people go out of
business in the first year, first two years, small
business, practical, where that they’re burning cash, is they don’t realize how hard it is, and how all in you have to be, and so if you really want
this dream to come true, you’ve got to make substantial sacrifices. – Hey Gary Vee, Michael Pierce here,

“what is the best solution for
documenting policy, procedure “and process so all are on the same page?” – Jeremy, I hate this question
for a couple of reasons. You know, it’s interesting. I’m gonna piggy-back off
the last statement here, which is, to me, this is
a defense question, right? This is a bottom 10 percent question. – Yeah. – There is no business on earth that won because they had a tight
handbook situation, right? So, for me, I mean, unless
you’re talking about liabilities on a legal level, you know. GE should worry about that to some degree because of the level of lawsuits. and by the way, they
have 400,000 employees, and there’s probably 8,000
lawyers, there’s people to do it, but a company of 500 people. India, they’re not gonna hear
this, but you prepped them, like how we have a handbook here and nobody really knows about it. I mean, this is a 500 person,
and it’s still a baby, like that is something
that I think you need to be worrying about at your– – Yeah, forget documentation,
have a culture. Over here has a culture. And as soon as you’re documenting things, you’re wasting everyone’s
time, it becomes a bureaucracy, all that matters are your
values and your culture. Make sure they’re being lived, and you don’t have to document anything. – But everybody has to
know where you’re going, why you’re going there, and
how you’re gonna get there. – Well, that’s leadership, right? – And that is the job that– – That’s my job. – That’s yours, and the
people that work for you, and cascading down. But everybody’s gotta know the mission, they gotta know how they’re
gonna do it with behaviors, and then they’ve gotta be, and what are the consequences of getting there? – There’s another thing that I think people need to understand. And by the way, this is
gonna get very Vaynerized, and India, you’ll enjoy this. And everybody here. As I started bringing
in more senior people, they wanted to bring in
more of these things. And I made them understand, I’m like, “Look, you don’t understand. “We’re still this entrepreneurial engine.” And if somebody comes into this company and they’re so worried about the handbook, and so worried about
reviews, and so worried about all these things, I
don’t want them here now. Not that they’re bad, but they’re not the right players at this time. I was the best player on my
fourth-grade baseball team. There’s not a single
baseball team in America in Major League baseball
that needs me on their team. So, I was the right player for that time, but then as everybody
got much bigger than me, I became not so much. And so we now need different people that maybe care about some of those things as we continue to grow,
but not at that time. So the other thing here
is, the right employee at the right time, at the
right age of the company.

“10 percent still a good idea? “Even on a team of all-stars,
someone has to be last.” – Why don’t you set this
up, because obviously, what was the name of that person? – [India] Chris. – Chris knows about your thesis, I mean, this is a very legendary
POV in corporate America, entrepreneur land, like this
is one of the iconic things you put into the business world. Really quick, faster than
normal, tell everybody what that is so everybody knows, and then answer the current version. Actually, why don’t
you come out with that, and give it a little
life, and then tell me what the 2015 version of it. – If you believe that the best team wins and that business is a game, you’ve gotta field the best players. So in order to field the best players, you look at, any one point in time, who are your top 20,
who are your middle 70, and who are your bottom 10? And you wanna take that top 20 and you wanna make ’em feel six foot four and made for power. – What if they’re six five to begin with? – Go to six eight. (they laugh) And what you wanna do though, desperately, is make them know they’re that good. You want ’em to be excited,
you want ’em turned on, you want ’em passionate. The middle 70, you want ’em
striving to be in that top 20, and the bottom 10, you tell
’em what’s wrong with ’em, what they’re not doing
right, you give ’em a chance, if they don’t make it, you let ’em go. But when you let ’em go, you
love ’em as much on the way out as you loved ’em on the way in. – I’m a big believer in that part. – And that’s a big, important thing. – I agree. Do you feel, now you played at a GE, how many employees under
your wing on average? – 400,000. – Okay, 400,000 employees
that you were in charge of during that run as CEO of GE. Do you think that thesis holds true to VaynerMedia, 500 people? – More important. The fewer you have. – I’m gonna go a little quicker. How about, there’s a lot
of five people teams here. Five to seven people watching, listening– – And it makes it harder for some, because you’re looking straight at the five people who got you started. And it’s so tough. I was talking to somebody last night at a conference who said he had to let go his former junior partner,
and it was killing him. But he had to do it,
she wasn’t delivering. And I said, “Look, as long
as you take care of her “and you’re fair, and
you’ve explained to her “for the last year what
she wasn’t doing right, “you gotta do it.” – Do you think– – The thing that gets me
about this question is, the thing we hear again and again, we hear in this question
is, even if everybody, even if it’s an all-star team. – No such thing. – And there’s no such thing. You’ve gotta look at your team and say, “Who is the weakest player, can I upgrade, “can I upgrade?” – It’s never existed. – It’s very, very, I mean,
you can’t fall in love with your team and say, “Now
I have the perfect team.” But the next manager comes in and says, “What was that person thinking?” – Yeah, I mean– – I have another take on this, too. Why do we always focus on the bottom 10 in this 20-70-10? Why aren’t we saying,
“How exciting the top 20!” – 100 percent. – Why aren’t we talking about the winners? – Because it’s rubbernecking. It’s the same reason
that we sit in traffic all the time, Jack. Alright, let’s move on. – [Voiceover] Jeremy
asks, “As businesses grow, “what is the best solution for
documenting policy, procedure