today, how well would
VaynerMedia do in the long term without it’s CEO? Have you been satisfied
with Wine Library’s performance since leaving
to focus on VaynerMedia?” – Andrew, this is a great question. I mean, I always say
everything stems from the top, and so I’m trying to
think about how I wanna answer this question,
meaning A.J. is ridiculously capable. I don’t think the
company would do as well, mainly because he just had his big brother and mentor die, and so even though he’s capable I would assume that he would be pretty torn up. He better be. I think that he would struggle with that, and I don’t think he loves
client services enough to persevere, and he’d be like,
what is it all worth anyway? Who cares? On the flip side, there’s
an interesting thing. Believe it or not, this is a weird thing. Though A.J. is hands down the most capable person to be the CEO of VaynerMedia, I could almost see him
not wanting to do it, and I could almost see so many people here internally saying, no we have to continue the hustle and so, it’d be interesting. I think we built a very
interesting culture here. Similarly, Brandon runs
Wine Library with my dad, and Bobby and Justin, it’s all family. My best friend, my brother
in law, my cousin, my dad. My ego made me think that
Wine Library would hurt more than it did without me there. To answer your question, I am
happy with how Wine Library has performed with me not there. That being said, do I think it
could be way way, way better? Of course, I mean I think I’m great. Do I think the businesses
are better off without me than with me?
Absolutely not. Are they in places where they
won’t go out of business? Absolutely. Are they in places where they have no prayer of the hyper growth that I create when I’m the operator? That’s for damn sure. The biggest thing that
I create is the ability to grow big businesses fast as shit. That’s gonna end up being my
legacy if I do it one more time and I’m not on business number two that I’ve taken in a 36 month
period with no cash infusion to very big heights. That is a very difficult
task in a cash flow basis. The companies that grow big on funding, that make sense. The Ubers, and that
company is way better than what I’ve executed, but still when you have hundreds of millions
of dollars of funding, the speed is what I’m talking about. Forget about the business. Well in a non-funded business, to be able to build that speed,
that takes an incredible game of chicken, because
you’re playing cash flow versus growth. Being able to afford. You know how proud I am that we’ve never had lay offs
because we lost a client? That is unheard of in agency world, and it’s triple unheard of for the fastest growing agency of all time in people. I’m proud. That is what I’m uniquely great at. They won’t grow as fast, but there’s enormous talent around me that is able to do their thing. That being said, I’m so much, not only the executional leader
of my friends and families and business, I think
I’m the emotional leader with a lot of them too. I would think that they
would really struggle with my absence, and would
crumble into a little hole. I’m just kidding. I think they would struggle with that.

“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.

brings a lot of rejection
from my family and peers. What are some ways you build
confidence when rejected?” – Destin, which is not
Dustin and is not Destiny, Destin without a Y, or
Destiny without a Y. Well, you know it’s funny. When the question was asked by India, one thing, first and foremost, you want to make sure, the
way to build confidence is be confident in yourself. I want to make sure first and foremost that you’re not selling
something skeezy, right? Like if everybody doesn’t
have confidence around you, maybe you’re selling something
that is not the right thing. So, first and foremost, are
you selling the right thing? Or are you in ponzi scheme world? Are you in $300 ebook world? Are you in full of shit world? If you’re not in full of shit world, take it from somebody who hasn’t been in full of shit world his whole career, but has done things that people didn’t believe in. E-commerce being number one. Wine Library TV being number two, and then really a social media agency, number three believe it or not. In 09, people still debated
that this was a stupid idea. I think that, you know,
this is a tough one for me to answer because the truth is, I don’t give a crap
what anybody else says. As a matter of fact, I’m
wired a little bit backwards. I prefer that everybody thinks I’m wrong. I feed off of that negativity, and I turn it into positivity. Right, like I literally actually prefer, it’s why I like bad sports teams. It’s interesting. We got to, actually this
worked out perfectly. The reason I really would not want to root for the Yankees anymore, I loved being a Yankees fan in the 80s cause they stunk. The Mets were the team of the 80s when I was a kid. I loved the climb, then they became the establishment, and I pushed against it. It’s my overall thing, right? I’m a very basic character. Like, I like coming from the slums. I like being underestimated, and the second I become the establishment, aka the wine world, it
becomes less interesting. Advertising’s becoming less interesting because I’m starting to
be proven to be right, and it’s just not as fun. Like, I want the push-back. So, you and I are wired
differently if you’re asking this question. My question is like,
how do I stay underdog for longer? You know, and so I feed
off of the negativity. I feed off of like, you’re not right, you’re not right, you’re
not right, you’re not right, I don’t agree, I don’t
agree, I don’t agree. That’s not the way it’s always been done. So, I might not be the right person to answer this because
it’s always been in me. In me is the underdog. In me is the scrapping up. In me is the I’m going to
prove you wrong, sucker.

“on subscription box services?” – Michelle, first and
foremost, congratulations. That is an adorable picture. It’s really cute, and I fully expect you and that little one to send
me a version of that picture 10 years from today since
I put you on the show, and I’d like to see it. So I’m looking forward to being surprised and trying to recall why it’s
happening 10 years from today. Big shout out to 2025. The answer to your question,
box services, look, I wrote one of the first
checks into Birchbox and was an angel investor in BarkBox. We’re incubating a business
here called Faithbox. I’m a very big fan of the
subscription box service. I think it’s the way people like to buy. We like to buy once and forget about it. I think they’re good
businesses because then, even if we get stuff we
don’t want, we don’t cancel right away. So you get an extra two
to five, seven months worth of business. That’s just the truth. And so I’m very bullish on them,
and I think that there’s innovation to be had. I think that the box was
kind of the innovation. All this is, is the month club, right? It’s just the basket of the month club. So I’ve been thinking
for a long time like, what else can I ship it in? Can it be like a balloon? Like, can it be like peanutballoon.com, where like a balloon lands
and there’s peanuts in it each month? I feel like the mechanism, the box itself has some innovation around it. I hope that idea spurred
a thought for somebody and they start a huge million-dollar
business because of it. I definitely think that
there’s a play there. As far as upping the hustle, I would say the birth of a new child is
one of the most remarkable, important moments of one’s life. And even though I’m 24/7, 365 hustle, much like I talk about,
getting plenty of sleep and vacations matter. It’s what you do when you’re awake. I wouldn’t overstress the
first one to 10 months, depending on your DNA. I would really focus on
laying the foundation of a healthy relationship
and lifestyle for your baby. You’ve got plenty of
time to pick it back up. Unless you’re a maniac like
me, then I would just say, just a little less sleep and
try to prioritize your health and vitamins and drink
water and stuff like that. Don’t eat weird food
that makes you throw up for seven hours the next morning. And that’s it. Question of the day.

I love your hustle and
perseverance so much, but I’m gonna zing and zang
a little bit on this answer because I am really tired of 21, 19, 22, 24 year olds wanting to be speaker and coaches about things that they are not able
to speak and coach about because they don’t have the experience. You’re right, it is a disadvantage. It’s very hard for me to want to listen, or pay you for business advice when you’ve never built a business. And by the way, you don’t have to be 24, you could be 39 and try
to sell business advice, when you’ve never sold a business. Now, that’s me making a
leap and an assumption that that’s what you want to talk about. If you want to talk about the perspective of a millennial on how to use social media because you are one, cool. If you want to talk about
the things you’ve learned, you know, in whatever genre. If you’ve been making
music since you were 13, and you’re 24, that’s an 11 year career, but the truth is you can only talk about, and demand and command
attention and respect around something you’ve
actually accomplished. Just saying that you’re
a coach and a speaker doesn’t mean you are one because
you just said you are one. You’ve got to earn the
credit to be able to do it. Now look, do I believe that you can be a football coach without playing football? Yes, but we’ve hit on this before. When you look at the
coaches that were coaches that, you know, didn’t play football, most of them played college football, maybe they didn’t get to the pros. Most of them, if they
didn’t play football, at least, at bare minimum, played high school football competitively, and then had a father normally who was a coach, or was
within the organization of a major sports franchise. I mean, you’ve got to put in the work, and so you know, the reason
there’s a disadvantage of being 24 and getting
people to listen to you is cause they’re right. Now, there’s anomalies, maybe you were 17 and you built a huge
business and sold it at 21. The age is not the variable, you know, I feel like I did a lot by 24. I could walk onto stage and say, “Hey guys, in the last 24 months, “since I was 22, and I took
over my dad’s business, “I’ve taken it in the last 24 months “from 3 to 15 million dollars. “Here’s how I did it.” That’s some credibility,
that’s some chops, but I couldn’t have at that point say, “Let me talk to you about HR as a leader.” Only 24 months of that experience, only so much value compared
to when I do it now of having two decades of doing it. So you know, it’s a
disadvantage for a purpose, right, for a reason. If you’re an anomaly, radical, but if you’re not, you need to respect that people are not idiots.

– [Voiceover] Nicole asks,
“How do you deal with reviews that could impact your business?” – Nicole this is a great question. One of the reasons I had
always been a big push against cut guy, I don’t
know what that means, why I was a loud advocate
in the other direction of things of Yelp, and
other things of that nature, was they were anonymous
reviews, and I knew of PR agencies that were getting
paid to leave negative reviews of their competitors stuff, which is why I was always a big
fan of Facebook and Facebook Connect, real identity. There’s two things to understand,
one I do think anonymous reviews, and anonymous review
sites are losing their equity. I do think that Steve and
India, and all of you watching, and everybody at Meerkat, what’s up. You know, I love doing that, Take anonymous reviews with
a grain of salt, right? Like that’s changed, like
from 2004, compared to now, you just take them with a
grain of salt because we have become cynical to knowing
people do it on purpose. The big thing that I think
you should do when somebody, your right, we live in this
crappy world, where you guys are serving at a restaurant,
and I always use restaurant because they– Or an airline, airlines are
doing things so right, on a like they’re flying planes,
machines in the air, on crossing the world, at
scale, landing at the proper times, leaving at the proper
times, keeping us safe, they’re given us wi-fi
in there, it’s cozy. These are big machines, they’re
like flying through the air, and if it’s like a 8 minute
delay, you’re like “Fuck you “Delta,” I mean it’s crazy,
it’s crazy talk, anyway, so you’re right, we don’t
get the credit for the good, we get dismantled for the
bad, right? Like the athletes that are doing wrong
things all over the place, all the one that are doing
charitable things and great things, nobody wants to cover that. It’s just unfortunately the way it is. Now, did my boy Aton get a rare, that he’s making a comeback. That makes me happy, I can’t
wait to see what he did, make sure you email me that
moment because I don’t watch the show. (laughing) I think that you should jump
into any Yelp review, or any foursquare review, or any
review, any negative review that you have to jump in
and answer every one of them immediately. “Hey, saltypants49, call
me, here’s the number. “I’m super upset. I don’t understand. “I remember you.” Don’t fight it. Fighting it is feeding the wrong energy. You’re in business, this is their opinion. They could be wrong, but you
need to at least have one more level of empathy and
listening before you get into the fight of it,
and so the way you can handle it is by jumping,
monitoring it, and jumping into all of them, because the
optics of you jumping in, to the rest of the world, is
actually more powerful in the amplification of who
and what your intent is, and the depth of actually
giving a crap about that one person, really, really matters. – Hey Gary, here’s my question,
when will social marketing

“could Mercedes build a smartphone?” – Chris, everybody can be
in everybody’s business, if you’re good enough. Could Dion and Bo Jackson play both football and baseball? They could. They were good enough. Could I? Neither. I mean, the answer’s absolutely. Remember, Nintendo started
as a playing card company. Sony, which made televisions, decided to become a major player in the video game space. Microsoft became a major
player in the video game space. Mobile’s going with the watch. The Apple Watch thing’s incredible. Apple as a phone provider
was a brain twist. We just forget, ’cause it just happened. What’s that? You like it? You like the show? DeMayo’s all excited. He never gets excited. So, I think the answer’s yes, but what Mercedes has to do is have the talent internally
to be able to pull it off, but I believe that the internet
is shrinking the middle and infrastructure costs. I don’t know what DRock’s looking at. But, I believe the internet is shrinking the middle and infrastructure costs, which make me believe that anybody can go into anybody’s business, if they have the talent, and so I think that will play itself out. So, I do believe that this’ll
be a good video to make and I’ll enjoy watching it in 15 years. I do believe three to five
to ten major companies in certain genres, as
we see Google going into self-driving cars, and
the question at hand, which is a great question, I’m gonna make some predictions here, and I’m not usually right
with my predictions. I’m a fast adviser, and then I execute. I’m not a great predictor,
but I will say this Nike feels like a company to me that will pull off being in a business that none of us can wrap
our head around right now. I’m going with Nike. I also think Starbucks has
the potential DNA to do it, and then I think somebody rogue and old that we disrespect,
whether it’s IBM or GE, you know, I think
somebody more traditional is going to go into a business
that none of us would expect. And by the way, before I
go into the next question,

“When you have a new
idea for your business, how long does it take you to implement? Do you run with it? Strategize for a while? Consult with others?” – Laurie, this is really interesting
because I’ve actually lived this now in my 39 and a
half years of my life. I’m getting close to 40, boy
it’s starting to freak with me. Look, there’s been businesses
that I’ve sat on in my mind for such a long time
before they get executed. Years, sometimes, even, as
they marinate and get refined. Then there’s me and
Jerome Jarre have dinner, and literally the next
day there’s Grape Story and we have a talent agency
representing Vine celebrities. So to me they’ve run both of the gamuts. Me and AJ spent nine,
10, 11, 12 months trying to figure out what we were gonna do. Little known fact, before
starting VaynerMedia we were probably on third base on starting a fantasy sports site,
which would have probably been a good idea, or a
deal of the day site, which would have also been a good idea as that was the early days
of Groupon and Living Social. So we picked the wrong
one, but we marinated. Maybe it didn’t come out
as good as we wanted. But we’ll take Vayner
as a consolation prize. Really I think it comes down to the idea, it comes down to the timing. I’ve got ideas that are
running through my head now, bad timing, I’m running too much stuff, I’m doing too many things at once. This whole content team was probably, I don’t know, how long
was I talking to you before we even started? How long was it being flirted about, or was that just in my own mind? – [Steve] Six months, but it was just you and me for like a year. – No I know, but before
it was just me and you, how long was that, like hey Steve, I’m thinking about something? – [Steve] Six months.
– Yeah, it was six months before we literally,
and that probably means 12 months, and Steve started for a year, and then it started rolling
with all the other characters. So I just think it comes down to the idea, but more importantly for me, because I’m always rolling
with ideas, it’s the timing. Am I prepared? Don’t forget, I’ve often
answered that the biggest failures in my business career have been when I’ve bit off more than I can chew. I’m in the process of it right now. FaithBox, Resy, VaynerRSE,
Brave, VaynerMedia, my personal brand, there’s
a lot going on right now and I’m trying to hold up all these balls, and we’ll see what happens. – Hey Gary Vee, it’s your
old friend Nicole Lapin.

My question for you is what’s your sales process when you’re working with a prospect? How involved are you with your sales team in pitching concepts,
ideas, strategies, tac– – VJ, I’m heavily involved
in getting the client. New business pitches
I’m massively involved. Our success rate is over
the top with me involved compared to me not involved. But once they come in, I’m
more on the hunting side. On the farming side, I’ve a lot of SVPs high level strategists
who learn the business and then are pitching
on a day to day basis. Don’t forget we, we’re
heavy retainer-based and then we do incremental above. And so the retainer base
kind of takes care of it, and then the incrementals added value. So there’s a little less stress for me to make sure that’s checked off. But the SVPs, the senior
people driving the business, are the ones that really are involved in the incremental sales
pitch day in and day out. And I’m really involved in
up front locking it down. And that is a scalable model. Because if I do my thing,
and it locks it down and creates that base, and if I can create it
that it’s profitable, not that everything is up side after that, then that’s a good business model. – [Voiceover] David asks,
“What are your thoughts “on Facebook and their need
to start TV advertising?”

– [Voiceover] CJ asks,
“How has having a family “changed your long term view of work? “And what does retirement mean to you?” – CJ asked a good question. I’ll let you go, cause I know you’re a new father of a second. – Yeah, so what does family
have to do with work? I think family is the ultimate cheat, and what I mean by that is I had a kid when I was 16, I’ve always had a family since I was an adult, my entire adult life I’ve had a family, and it gives you a reason
to do all this work, and that downtrodden feeling you can have, which is like, “Why am I doing this? “Why am working another night
til three in the morning?” When you have family, for
me, it gives me my purpose, my reason for doing
everything I do is my family. Part two retirement,
retirement’s my biggest fear. Retirement is what people
do when they wait to die. My grandmother was a tap dancer, and she had a tap dance school, and she taught tap everyday of her life, and she taught tap on a Friday, and she died on a Monday when she was 92. That’s my fantasy. I want to work until the last minute, I want to be working in my
hospital bed as I’m dying. So, that’s how I feel about retirement. – I’ll start with
retirement, I’m you know, in the complete same camp. You know, that is my nightmare. I want to die on Monday, on
the Monday that I’m working. I didn’t need those two days in between. You know, I’m with you
I think, you know look, I will say this, there’s one weird retirement fantasy I have, which is to be an old man sitting at the racetrack, having some nickname like one eyed Gary, and
like betting on the ponies. I do like the notion of
the ponies as an old man, so there’s a little bit of that. You know, the family, work
life balance whole thing I think is completely counter punching. Meaning, I hate giving an answer to this because I think it really is
predicated on your partner, and then the evolution of your kids. My partner part I really
kind of took care of. I mean, I was looking for Lizzie, when I found her, I locked her up, married her immediately, we were married within the year of meeting. I told her on our first date
that we were getting married. I knew that she was independent enough and could, I intuitively
felt that she could handle the insanity that is me. It’s crazy, I feel like
we’re still dating. Because you know I travel so much, and like I’m busy, but like
it’s just over communication. When I see a little
strain, I’ll cancel a trip, I won’t say yes, you know, I try to hack, the kids are a whole new variable. You know, now that
Misha’s five and a half, I’ve got to get ready for: They may not be like Lizzie. You know, my little Xander might want me at every single thing at every moment. So, I’m starting to get mentally prepared to counter punch their reality. Kids are always going to
want their parents around, but what’s the hack, right. Like, do I, like it’s
funny, I’ve been traveling, and where I speak now, I spoke in Anaheim and I noticed that Disneyland
was right next door, so I’m like, “Maybe I’ll do
these speaking engagements “cause I’ll take the kids,
let them see what dad does, “and then a full day of…” So, it’s interesting how my brain is starting to adjust to: What’s their reality gonna be like? So, my answer to your question is counter punching, what I mean by that is gross over communicating. Having those conversations
with your spouse or with your partner,
having those conversations maybe even at an early
age with your children. – [Voiceover] Shay asks,
“Think back to a time