– Charlie. – Nice to meet you.
What’s up, guys? – Pretty quick question, what’s your stance on investing
in competitive companies? – Meaning? Like for me as a fund. – You as a fund, you individually – Don’t, guys. – [Steve] It’s gonna
be useless audio though. – It’s not useless
audio, it’s just a horn. Nobody in the VaynerNation
is concerned about a horn. – [Steve] They won’t
be able to hear the words. – They’ll be able to hear the words. Do you think they’ll be
able to hear the words? – Yeah. – Can we hear the words. I get it and I love you
supporting your teammate DRock. I see what you’re doing.
I love the support. But that horn, this fire truck, is adding to the ambiance of the fact that we’re sitting in New York City. Like we’re not sitting in our normal room. They’ll deal with it. Right DRock? Alright, thank you. It pains you right? It’s like the editor in you just like can’t deal with, now the horns are coming. This is just pouring it on you. We’re sticking with it. So, if I’m a fund, for example, when I was an investor in Gowalla and there was a chance
to invest in Foursquare. I didn’t, but I know
people that have invested in similar companies. Are you asking me like
to put my VC hat on? – Yeah.
– And angel hat. You know, look I think,
there’s two answers. One I think, if you’re
investing in a company and then there’s a chance
to invest in somebody who’s a direct competitor and that company wants you to do that. That seems to me like … (sirens blaring) (laughing) That seems to me like a
little bit of a dick move. What I’m more worried about
is the problem I’m facing now. (sirens blaring) I’ll be quiet for you. This is me doing a nice thing for you. But the tape is running,
the tape is running. – It better be. – To me the bigger problem is the pivot. Right now my biggest problem is I’m investing in companies that
are a little bit different. But I can see an entrepreneur how one move by each product gets them in to a competitive space. My answer is, you go in with the open eyes and honesty that you can. But you can’t fight against
the fact that people are competing with each other. As we now live in a world
where the cost of entry to compete with each
other is so much lower. I think you should go in
with the right intentions. Your reputate, by the way, the only reason I think you
should be a good guy or gal and not invest in a competitor, is because your reputation is your equity. Like it’s selfish. It’s cause I want to be
able to invest in things in the future. And if I have a reputation
for constantly investing in my competitive stuff just
to win on short term money, I’m not gonna be able to get into deals. So I think reputation management in a transparent world matters. I think that is a dick
move, if you’re doing that. – Gotcha. – Is that basically
answering your question? – Totally makes sense.
– Why do you ask that question? Is that something you’re seeing out there? – Just kind of curious. I co-founded a startup with Max. Sometimes we kind of
run into that problem. People say no, they already
invested in a similar company. – And do you view them
as a direct competitor? – No, that’s the problem. Like on paper, they
see us as a competitor. But when you dive into it’s not. – Well that’s where you guys
just have to do a better job and educating people how it’s different. – Gotcha.
– Thanks. – I appreciate it, Gary. Thank you.
– Thanks guys. Guys, episode 28 in the bag.

– Hi Gary. – Hey man. – I’m Ashish, I’m a co-founder of a startup
company called lawtrades. We’re a market place for legal services. – Love it. – So my question is, you advise startups,
you invest in startups. But when startups become
inherently competitive with other companies. – Yes. – What’s your biggest advice
to stay ahead of the game? Is it just to give more value
than the person behind you or just interested on
your thoughts on that. – You know, I default as an entrepreneur thinking it’s always gonna be competitive. You know, I love when people are like, nobody’s in our space. I’m like great! Because if you’re good, everybody’s gonna be in your space, right. If you figured something
out, you’re gonna have plenty of competitors. You know, to me, it’s a same old game. Like, it’s better execution,
it’s better product, it’s better service,
it’s a better everything that’s actually going
to drive your business. So, I can’t give a blanket answer here. This is why VaynerMedia works in a world of #AskGaryVee and me
putting out content. I can give your general stuff. I’m trying to go deeper
and give you more stuff with this format. But I need to know who
your competitors are. So, for you, your business are they bigger entities with more money? When you’re David, you
don’t play Goliathscape. When you’re Goliath, destroy David. Like, that match-up, it
should have never gotten to the sling shot. Just squish that guy. So, to give the practical advice, it’s gotta be something … Here’s an example, back to depth. Something I’m trying to
challenge myself on this show. Was anybody else surprised as hell that I barely talked about
VaynerMedia for three years. Like, for somebody that’s
always out there promoting you noticed, if you went
to VaynerMedia’s website for the last two, three years. There was like nothing there because I was David. And I needed to make sure
that the bigger agencies didn’t realize how big
I was actually getting. That was my competitive play in a competitive landscape. Now that I’m getting a little bit bigger, I’m getting a little bit more out there. I’m putting myself more out there because I have the leverage
of having more money to hire the best talent or
acquire the biggest clients. So, the answer to your question is completely predicated on where you are in your life cycle versus
your competitor’s life cycle. And what I would tell you is, and here’s where I can give
the most tangible answer though still theoretical, never play the other person’s game. – Got it. – That’s where everybody gets, like oh, that big guy or gal is now running ads. We’re gonna too. Problem, they have ten million dollars. You have $80,000. – Yeah. – You lost.
– Yeah. – And so it’s never playing
the other person’s game. – Cool man. Thanks a lot. – Real pleasure meeting you.

_ Hey, I’m Jordan Moran. – Jordan. – I’ve been a huge fan of your
since the Wine Library days. – Thanks brother.
– Thank you for having me. – Of course, say hello to VaynerNation. – Hello guys, pleased to see you. So, my question for you is I am transitioning to a
new project management role in a company. How do you maintain having
high standards with your team making sure things get done, but still keeping the project
on time and on budget? – I wish Aaron Bear was
here from VaynerMedia because he is the head of
all that at VaynerMedia and he’s killing it. You know I think it takes humanity. I think the answer is humanity. I actually think the best way to be a great project manager or get things done is to be a great listener
instead of talker. Right? You go into this new role,
I see with a lot of my project management people. They’re organized, they’re good but they want to talk it to success. I actually think it’s the drop
down, flip it and reverse it. I think it’s a Missy Elliott structure. I think the way you win is
by listening to the people of to why they’re not doing well. Why are they two weeks behind? If you haven’t actually applied empathy and understand what’s going on there, you become known to everybody as the project manager that gets it. And so I say you walk in with, not your architecture and organization and like, I’m gonna guide this. You’re gonna guide it with
your ears more than your mouth. And that is most something
most project management oriented people only learn later in life and realize is the key factor. – Got it. Thank you. Appreciate it.
– Thanks for those kind words. I’m glad you got on. Alright next, let’s go.

– Kyle say hello to the VaynerNation. – Hi everybody, I’m Kyle with LockerDome. I run for partnerships at LockerDome. – Awesome! – You can reach out to me at
lockerdome.com/kylecummings. – I like the plug Kyle, go
ahead what’s your question. – Yeah absolutely, you’ve
been in the influencer space for just over a year,
specifically with GrapeStory. With that business model what are the biggest
challenges you’re facing in scaling that business model and what is the brand you would say is embracing that model for marketing with mobile and those channels: Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram specifically. – Which brands are doing a
good job in those channels using influencers? – Yep. – Uh, I think a lot of brands
are starting to do it well. Right like any brand that’s
not doing well is losing but I think our GE
client was first to jump, did a really good job. Virginmobile’s done a really good job. I think Hewlett Packard
right now, Samsung, there’s a lot of brands, I
think, that are getting the value of influencer. The problem with scaling my business is we’re a talent agency, right. And so these guys and gals get built up. We build up with them and then they get too big and they want to go to CAA
or things of that nature. So, unlike Niche which is an
investment that’s building technology in a platform, you guys, there are people who are
doing it smarter than me. The model issue for me is, it’s just client service. It’s just people. You’ll only have the leverage for so long. But it’s not different
than CAA or William Morris if you’re the best and you’re good at it. There’s a real business there. But that is clearly the challenge. To make this an over arching
question for everybody, when you decide to build a model where you’re not building an asset, which is technology or
something of that nature. You’re only vulnerable to your sources. It’s being an accountant or a lawyer or an agency. You’re only as good as
your last billing cylce. And that’s why those businesses don’t get the higher multiple. That’s why people want to
build technology companies. For me I love people and so I’m always gonna
have a competitive advantage betting on my strengths which is people interaction. So I like building those businesses but I gotta tell you something. It’s really not for everybody and there’s definitely
a huge vulnerability. – Cool.
– Cool man, thanks for stopping by.

– [Voiceover] Everybody asks:
What do you think of Ello? – Alright, alright,
alright, I get it, I get it. It’s been building, it’s been building. First of all, I’m on Ello, a
lot of people don’t know that ’cause it’s Ello/Vaynerchuk. ‘Cause somebody squatted Garyvee. Give it back, give it back. I think Ello’s got some problems. I think that when you
raise venture capital money like Ello did, 430,000,
or I’m hearing 435. There’s a little bit of a problem there, because they’re gonna have
to build a business model, and so the question becomes, if they’re not gonna sell your data, that means they’re gonna
have to charge you. And so my question for you, and leave it in the comments, this can be the question of the day, along with give me some of the feedback for if you’re gonna pay
four bucks per episode, is, and then critique
the episode, by the way, I wanna make a stake in the ground here, for episode 27, too many
of you are literally answering the questions, and I get all excited
and see what you guys think about today’s episode. Can we have a holistic answer? Especially for you hardcore Vayniacs, and the VaynerNation, can you guys do me a favor? The 150, 400 of you? Can you critique the episodes
and tell me this was, for example, today you’re gonna say, this is by far the best one ever, because you went into such detail, I took a lot out of it. Like, can you give me that, like, your muscles look bigger, can you give me like, critiques? And then you can answer
the question of the day. Today’s question of the
day, jumping in backwards, is will you pay $10 a month for Ello? But like, back into that, look, they’re in a business model, VCs want return on their investment, they didn’t just do it
for kicks and giggles. These guys, gals, people part of the team, they need to build a product
that delivers on that, that is the intent, or at least somewhat, you know, the question becomes, are they gonna charge you for it? Because that’s really the only other angle on a social network to really drive there, and they may come up
with something innovative and God bless them, and
I’m rooting for everybody all the time. My big thing is, people don’t care that you’re selling their data. That’s right, let me say it again. People don’t care, because
the dirty little secret, and we’re gonna look back on
this video in three years, six years, nine years, I’m
gonna look smart again, which is this: we actually
want ads that are targeted. I actually wanna see Lionel
Richie and root beer ads when I’m in the market
for another pair of Pumas or another pair of Nikes
like I normally wear, I want to see sneaker ads. We want to see them, way,
way, way more than you think. And somebody will jump in the comments, three or four of you,
and say “No, no, no!” Cool. Fine. But the data, my gut, my intuition, the things I’m seeing, is we’ll take them if they’re good. Once they stop being ads
and they start being content that’s the forefront of what
I’m trying to push, here. That’s what’s going on back here. When it actually brings you value, and then, oh, okay, it sells you, you know, like sports, like
I actually like sports, no wonder I buy jerseys! Get it? So.
A couple of things. One: I think it’s structured
with some vulnerabilities. Two: This has happened a bunch of times, and we’ve seen this a bunch of times, Despora, all this stuff,
this happens a lot. Three: so far, I’m not
in love with the product, that much, though I do
like that they’re moving, and they’re making changes,
so big ups to that team. My intuition early on is, I don’t know, I don’t see it, like, becoming the next Facebook, by any
stretch of the imagination. That being said, this is
not normally in the process where I draw a line and make a prediction. I’ve many times said, I’m not Nostradamus, I just know when to react, it’s too early for me
to make my final call, I wanna see more behavior. But my intuition is they’re gonna come out and charge you, or do something else, that is gonna turn off a lot of people, not to mention, not as
many people, theoretically, excuse me, too many people, theoretically, like the notion, but then
when it comes to actuality, like, we like a lot of things in theory, but then we don’t act on them. This feels like one of them for me. You heard the question of the day, you just watched the best
episode of this series.

What are your thoughts
on using Kickstarter to start a business? – Mount Dream. I wanna climb that mountain. Mount Dream, Kickstarter. First of all, I think it’s a
great way to start a business. Tons of people have started businesses on the back of Kickstarter. Didn’t Oculus Rift start
on the back of Kickstarter? And sold for two billy on Facebook? So, what do I think?
I think it works. Here’s what else I think. I think there’s a lot of people that put shit businesses on Kickstarter. This is a classic question of, do you think this
platform can work to do X? The answer is always yes. Especially when it’s already happened. The problem is, do you suck at it? Do I think people can make a million dollars selling on Ebay? Yes. The talented ones. Do I think you can make a lot of money by making YouTube videos? Yes. The talented ones. Do I think that you could become a Vine celebrity on Vine and make lots of money, millions? Yes. The talented ones. And so over and over, my classic, do I think a basketball has an ROI? I do. LeBron makes a shit, LeBron will be a billionaire
because of a basketball. That’s the ROI of it.
I will not. So, can Kickstarter be a great platform to kick off a business? It can, but people that have
bought into this notion of, Oh, it’s easy!
Just go on Kickstarter, people are gonna give you money, and then you start a business! They’re lost.
L-O-S-T, lost. And that is the problem
in our society right now, all of this (bleep) works! Do you have the talent to execute? – Yo, what’s up, Gary?
And DRock, of course.

So I have a job that I absolutely love, I actually work for ReMax of New Jersey. You spoke for us pretty much
right before I got hired so I just missed you. I love my job. I love what I do. I do social media and graphic design. I work with SEO company.
We develop content and of course I want to get
into doing my own thing, doing my own blog, starting my own hustle, and I have this, and I know it
stems from a fear of failure, but I have this really hard time. I get like crippled when
it comes to like executing, and I know you’re probably
just gonna be like just do it, (beep) them,
go for it, do your thing– – You know me so well. – I just need to hear it like, I need you you to look me in my face
and tell me what I should do. – Do you want it? – Yes, I do. – And so literally you’re
just scared to fail? – Er. – I mean, if you want to go
deep with me, I’ll go deep. Who are you scared to fail in front of? Is it your mom? Is it your
best friend? Is it your sister? That’s the only thing
that holds people back. Something happened to me,
like everybody thinks like oh I’m so nice, look at
what I’m doing right now. Truth is, I don’t give a shit
about anybody else’s opinion so rawly that I’m never scared because if I fail and people
are like, “See hahaha.” It doesn’t even register. In the same way, when people are like, “You changed my life, you’re the best,” I’m able to be grounded,
because it also doesn’t. You know, I’m kind of in
that middle zone, right, like not too high, not too
low, which would confuse people based on my energy but I
equally care about every comment in the YouTube section of this
episode, I’m gonna read ’em but if somebody says, “You
blow and this format stinks,” and, “You should let DRock
edit,” that’s gonna be okay. And so, if you wanna get deep with me, I know for a fact, ’cause
you’ve already given it to me that it’s the fear of failure, now the question becomes to whom. And what I would do is, and
you don’t have to share that with the whole world, I’d go
talk to that person up front. The best practical advice I’ve
ever given in this scenario, and it works over and over is you go and you sit down with
dad and say, or Johnny, or your boyfriend, or your
sister, or your girlfriend, I don’t care who it is right. You sit down, you look
’em in the face and say, “I’m about to do this and the only reason “I haven’t done it for the last year “is I don’t want to let you down, “because entrepreneurship is a crapshoot, “and I’m not sure if I’m gonna win, “but long term I’m gonna win, “and I just need to make
sure if I fail on this step, “that your response to me doesn’t crush me “to never let me have a second at bat.” ‘Cause that’s what it is. – Okay.
– Right? – Yes.
– That’s it.

– Alright. – Anyways, so you know,
I wanna piggyback on that because you were capturing a certain demographic and age group
so I wanna represent all those who are a little bit older. So I’m asking it for them, you know. – Okay. – People who already have
kids, financial commitments, homes, mortgages, blah blah blah, so when you keep talking about how do you audit your
time, how do you analyze what character traits, can
you speak to the older folks, between the 30, 50-somethings, how to go out and make it happen or analyze do you really
have what it takes, because at this point,
these folks probably have 10+, 15 years of experience
in their endeavors already. – The one thing I think, thanks Chef. The one thing that I
think is interesting is, let’s break down the question
a little bit differently which is, there’s a
level of never being able to fully make it but
still being in a process where you enjoy the effort to get there. This is not an all sum
game, I’m okay with somebody being a nuanced entrepreneur,
where there’s a full time job and they’re trying to make it happen. Because what happens is,
you’re almost talking about being an entrepreneur as a hobby there. Right, it almost takes
on, this is something, and I just got goosebumps, so I’m starting to get into a new thing that I’m trying to figure out how to
articulate, I’m doing it here out loud for the first time which is, when does entrepreneurship or going for it take on, morph on, whether
it’s very practical, ’cause you’re asking for the
for the 35-55 year old demo, or when it’s, you’re still
under 30, in your 20s, but you’ve confided into
or picked a job route, when is it actually in hobby land? – Exactly. – When is it, you like
having your side hustle and you’re enjoying it,
but it doesn’t need to or have to become your
life and you don’t have to make a billi, for you to be happy. So, what I would say is,
if you’re up at night and you can’t breathe and
you have to do your thing well then, you just
might not be good enough. I mean, think about all
the people we’ve seen on American Idol who are
like, “I grew up my whole life “and I knew I was gonna
be Whitney Houston.” You’re all pumped and you’re
like, back when people watched and you’re like, you can do it! And then she like, “Aaah!”
and you’re like no, and it’s delusional, but we
have that in entrepreneur land. I get emails every day,
I meet people every day who are delusional about their skill set. I desperately, desperately, desperately want to be the small forward
of the New York Knicks. If I truly acted on that,
like if right now at 38, I’m overseas trying to be
the 13th man on the bench of an Italian B-league
team, that’s not gonna work. It’s not gonna happen no matter what I do, and so, I think the answer
to your question for me, to make it as valuable
for them as possible is are you willing to get
comfortable in accepting that you’re in hobby
zone versus transitioning into that zone, and if you
are, well then in a weird way, that’s your question, these tie in. You can have a best of both worlds. – Right. – If you’re asking me
like, how to get somebody to become self-aware
enough and not delusional that they’re hurting
themselves, that’s not something I know how to really fully answer.

you were just born to be an entrepreneur, that’s just what you do and I’m sure you– – I believe in that. – Well until you’re an
entrepreneur like that, you’re not gonna be fulfilled. – Yes. Talking to me about my
first 18 years of my life. – Yeah, so that’s my
question, like at what point are you being fiscally responsible and what point is it just
like analysis paralysis where you think well, I
can’t go into full time yet, I need a full time job. – That’s a tough question. Now I understand what you’re saying so. Let me make sure I dissect this properly. For people like me that happened to feel that they are that and
then happen to be good at it, it’s easy right, ’cause it worked out. Are you asking me, if you feel
like you’re an entrepreneur but you’re not good enough
to be an entrepreneur that can sustain a lifestyle
where you have to balance something else, what do you do? – Maybe– – Or do you keep trying,
or are you asking, actually I apologize ’cause
now I’m recalibrating. How long can I go at it,
thinking I’m an entrepreneur until I have to wake up
and say wait a minute, am I tricking myself, and let
me get a little more practical and jump off that train? – I mean more like, say
you have a full time job and it’s good pay, good
benefits and all that. – If you have a full time job,
you’re not an entrepreneur. You have to understand, that
is a very important part here. You may have entrepreneurial tendencies, you may have aspiration
to be an entrepreneur but when you are an entrepreneur, you can’t breathe having
a job, you can’t breathe. Now look, maybe I’m the extreme of it but the fact is, especially
right now, especially I’m guessing at some
level, this is for you, not your friend kinda thing,
or it might be a friend or it might general. You’re so young that you have
so much less risk than the, look, when you’re 18 to
29 in American today, by all standards, to
me, that’s your time to, if you’re an entrepreneur,
you’re being an entrepreneur. If you’re ready and willing to take a job, then you have entrepreneurial tendencies, and that’s a thing you have to figure out, but to me there is no such
thing as an under-30 year old entrepreneur that has a
job, it doesn’t exist. – Alright thanks. – Alright man, thanks. Chef get in here. You notice her from the comments section,

the main media source in your business. I know you brought up like, companies like creating a golf website,
it takes on Golf Digest and every once in a while
there’s a sponsored post, and I know you’ve done it with CheeseRank. For smaller companies, that
don’t have all the resources for editors and content creators and such, what do you recommend for them or is this, you think this is kind
of the next evolution that’s gonna become more
of a product people use? – Thanks for the question,
it’s a great question. Yeah I mean look, this
is what I believe in and for small businesses, I recommend doing what I did in 2006, which was look, there’s a difference between
Buzzfeed and Seth Godin’s blog right, there’s a lot
more content everyday, there’s a lot more
stuff, but Seth puts out his best effort once a day. For me, I did a wine show, I mean, it’s what I’m doing right now, I mean. In theory, I could staff
up even more than DRock and Stunwin and put
out Q&A shows all day long, go the Oprah model and
have people underneath me, there’s a lot of ways to go. But if you believe in what I believe in which is every business is
becoming a media company, all of a sudden, you’re taking
hours away from staffing, strategizing, selling, all
the other things you’re doing and you’re putting one, two, three hours into becoming a media company and I do believe that has
enormous upside, I mean, not much has changed for
me since I viewed the world in 2009 and wrote Crush It! The only thing that’s changed is, I’m even more confident I was right, because there’s more of that happening. The things I wrote about in 2009, that people thought were ridiculous like, you know, a 15 year old
is gonna have more people that they think are famous
on YouTube than in real life, that’s now happening. You know, if anybody has
15 year olds, let him in, if anybody has 15 year
olds in their lives. Hey Dan, you need me now? I’m taping a show, do I have time? – [Dan] No no, you’re fine, I
was coming to ask about this, if you wanted the guys to be a part. – Yeah, I mean, oh those guys, the guys? I will, but let me bang out this show. You know, you’re not editing. So to me, I would just
say, if you believe in it, and you don’t have the resources, then respect your belief
and put in your time and actually do it, versus
all the other things you could be doing. – Awesome. – Thanks brother. Next, let’s go.