What is the best way you
have found to get leads? Besides referrals. and I know referrals are great. They’re an essential part of
every business but what’s the single best way you
found to get leads? – So early in your career
before anybody knew you– – I actually still do it. – Which is?
– Cold calling, man. I love cold calling, man.
I swear. – We are pretty similar, bro.
– Yeah? – I believe–
– I love– – There is no leads,
you have to go take them. – 100%.
– Go take them. – And the sound of an
inventing voice over the phone will never change. – And by the way digitally, too. How are we sitting here? You emailed me and said
that I want to be on. I’m like okay. – And you responded
in like two seconds. – (laughs) I’m fast.
– Yeah. That was pretty impressive. Yeah, I think you know cold
calling, everybody it’s the same bullshit, with women
what’s the script there’s a book of “The Game.” What the fuck kind
of game is that? Then there’s a script for I
understand but the person that you’re pitching today will have
a different mood tomorrow, will have a different way of
seeing things tomorrow, so you’ll never know what day
you are going catch that person. As long as you’re yourself and
your very convicted about exactly what is you’re saying
and whatever it is that you’re getting their attention you will
get their attention on a bad day, on a good day while they’re
having sex or getting a blow job under the table,
it’s still (laughs) – I love it, I love it. I’m excited for the comments. (laughter) Look, I think what you’re
referring to that’s very, very important is that and
this is why I talk in boxing references–
– I love this guy. – I think it’s counterpunching. I think it’s counterpunching. – 100%. 100%. – You love me because were both
salespeople and what salespeople know is you get another
at-bat and you have to react. – If we were actually
outside the office and were having a cup of coffee.
– Yeah. Why shouldn’t we have, wait a minute, you just censored
yourself from a glass of wine yet you said blow
job three seconds ago. I thought was super interesting. – No, no, no.
– But did you hear it? I drink wine.
– Tequila. – Okay, great,
I’ll drink tequila. – Shooters.
– Okay. Interesting. – So if we’re doing
that, I like you because– – Well, listen I’m
extremely likable. – Yeah. – Do you know about this?
– Yes, I can see that. – It’s a big deal.
– I can see that. Let’s go. India. India, I’m extremely likable. – India, tell him.
Tell him! – [Gary] But admit it,
I’m stunningly likable. – There’s a mountain of
clips of me praising you. – [Gary] I want more.
I want more. – [India] I need a super cut.
– Alright, let’s go.

My name Harold Valestin, real
estate broker, sales trainer, motivational speaker. My question to you Frederik
is in the early years of your career how did you build
and continually contact your database and now that the show’s
so popular and given you many more opportunities how
are you guys managing that? Thank you.
I appreciate your time. – In the very beginning of my
career once again I sat all by myself I had no one
helping me no one mentoring– – Did you work at a firm? – Yeah, a very small firm
with six agents in West Chelsea. I came off the shrimp
boat not knowing anything– – What made you come here? You just knew? – Yeah, I knew because I
came here when I was 10. – Tasted it. – I was so in love with the
energy and the neon and the danger and the–
– Game. – Not so much the
money the whole thing. I come from Sweden it’s very
calm and beautiful and old. No, my family is there.
I love it. I come back. But I mean New York.
You know? So for 20 years I was
frustrated not living here so I came, then finally bam. – So in the early years
you’re in a small place. – I was by myself–
– learning the craft. – Yeah, I think I never
really had a database to answer the question. I never and I need
to be better at that. I don’t, what I do is I see
every single person that I meet including you because you’re
gonna buy your next apartment from me as a potential
commission check walking around with little four legs unsigned. – That’s what I am.
– Exactly, that’s what you are. Every person it’s
an opportunity. – I’m a big one. – My first open house all these
people that came in I just turn them over into new
clients and listing inventory. I’m so scared, I know in my
heart, that this is the last month, my prime, it’s over. Last year was the best year. That’s how I feel.
Do you like that? – Always. – Yes and I wake up eery
morning like I’m going down. – You’re only as good
as your last at-bat. – Yes. I need to (growls).
What? What’s so funny? – I fucking love it.
– Okay, good. – I want to growl too. I just got to figure out how
I’m going to say (growls) I gotta find, you know what?
I think that’s right. To me, I never think anything
that I’ve accomplished yesterday means anything for tomorrow. – Yes, exactly. You’re never cooler
than your last deal. Video, whatever. – 100%. 100%. – [India] Last one?
– Yes.

pick and choose which client you work
with based on how they do their business yes I’m so the answer is yes but many
times I don’t so you know I’m running a business I’m not and now I would have
had clients potentially come through here which I thought were in an industry
that would cause too much in a very honest in a politically correct world in
a world that we have a lot of you know I don’t wanna called liberal thinkers like
there’s absolutely things that you have to do a CEO that you make decisions do
business with based on what you think is the best in the business for me in
reversing pre-orders what’s the best interest for everybody looks like my
responsibilities everybody here then is in essence the logo and then my
feelings are third and so I’ve actually not taken on business that I thought
would not be in the best interest of the feelings and emotions and thoughts and
strategies of my employees though they might not have 100000% aligned with me
but say I was 80% there but I thought the collective 100% there and I take
that responsibility and so you know I never judge based on how they run their
social media marketing because that’s what we’re there to fix if that’s where
he’s going and I don’t blame company like you know you have one rogue CEO
that makes this wine company in bad company but then if she or he is fired
then they are a good company so I also try to quantify that but it went through
my mind I actually need to look the people you surround yourself with is an
indicator to who you are mention the truth and so my clients are
representation of who I am but I have no problem having alcoholic brands sugar
water like you know things that scare me I’m not hyper sensitive but if you make
you know bombs and that’s not a real example or for the Patriots like for
example I would never take pictures shot what’s your advice for health care docs
wanna add values and social media to

“do not come first. “Employees come first. “Do you agree or disagree and why?” – I agree and Matt, Matt? Matt, I agree and I’ve been
pounding that for 166 episodes, so at least 40 times, so
I feel very comfortable in kind of dodging this
answer ’cause I think one of the things, the repetitiveness
of the show is something I challenge myself with always recognizing there’s so many new people watching and there’s a lot of people watching
so I’ll just go very fast. This doesn’t get my juices
going and I’m not trying to diss Matt, I assume you’re
fairly new so I’m excited, it’s not even close. To me it is fundamentally my
employees then my customers then my own interests and
that has been the backbone of my success. I feel like you end up
with a whole lot if you go in that order and I think
my actions have spoken to that at this company. I’ve got a lotta people that have worked in the agency industry for a long time and have been surprised by how
hard I push back on clients. We’ve fired a client historically, which is sacrilege even
though people say it and so yes I think Richard’s correct. And I think anybody
successful like a Branson, that’s built an actual organization. Not as a single entertainer,
or as an investor, or somebody built a product. Somebody that actually built a
600, a 6,000, a 60,000 person organization or a six person organization, successfully recognizes how
much value in the people there really is. I also happen to like people
which makes it even easier for me so just keeping
it very basic I say yes. I’m curious to your strategy
of picking that question India. – Well, I know it’s been
awhile since we’ve talked about that POV you have and we’re getting so many new viewers and
I checked the last time we really talked about that was
like in the 40’s episode so. – Fine, come with real
data and answers India. No, really good job, yeah so
now that India’s guilted me into going a little bit deeper here. – [India] No I wasn’t–
– No, No listen I mean well I appreciate it, I’ll
go a little bit even further. To me it’s a very big deal and, and, and it’s so surprising to
me law firms, consultants, agencies, where they
actually sell people’s hours. That they’re not completely
infatuated with that process. I get it for Wine Library,
where like we were selling wine. The end result was a
transaction with wine. The end result here is a transaction with another human being
against their hours. So again if you were in a
business where that is the case, you run multiple gyms
and you have trainers, you again law firm, consultants. Anybody who’s listening
to this who has a business that people’s hours are being
sold should be religious, I mean cultish about caring
about their people and then anybody that’s selling a byproduct of it your results are gonna, the shelves are gonna be
stocked better at Wine Library. You’re gonna get a better
answer out of recommendation from Wine Library if you
care about your people, even though the end result
product is a bottle of wine or if you go into a bicycle
shop the end result is still selling a bike but if
Ricky is happy when he came into the shop and you come in
for a bike, he’s gonna spend that extra 15 minutes
enthusiastically tryin’ to tell you that this tire is better than
that tire, that shit matters. – [Voiceover] Jacob asks
“Would Gary take 20 minutes out

“Just lost one and I’m mad as hell.” – Yeah, mad as hell is good. I think mad as hell is appropriate. When I lose a client, the
first thing that I think about is what did I do wrong? And then, most of the
time I have an answer. If I don’t have an answer,
I try to figure it out. But, I’m pretty interesting when it comes to losing a client. I’m very much onto the next one. I on the other hand am very lucky. Listening to you is really interesting. I was sitting here and saying my god, my ability to dump and
move on in any situation, relationships, business,
it’s the game for me. It’s why I’m always in a good mood. I literally sit on bad news and bad stuff for fractions of seconds. DRock’s shaking his head, right? – What about with intimate
or personal relationships, with friends or family? Now do you just say screw you,
I’m off to the next person? – I haven’t really lost
anybody who I would call in my most inner circle. I’ve had relationships
that have, like, my longest girlfriend relationships
that ended were predicated on me sitting on it longer than, it was in my head for a long time anyway. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I’ve been very blessed that
somebody that meant the world to me hasn’t decided to leave me. So that’s one part of it. And, the other part is, I haven’t, outside of a couple long-term girlfriend relationships, I
haven’t parted from anything that’s been in my inner core. In business, I’ve had to fire
people I care a lot about. But, I’ve come to a
place where I recognize that I was doing more
harm by keeping them here and giving them no growth
here, Wine Library. So, yeah, that’s that.

“at closing and sales. What’s
your structure for your pitches?” – For my pitches. So, my
structure for my pitches is complete and utter no structure. I don’t really structure
my pitches a whole lot. My team may, in certain
scenarios, have a deck. But there’s, I’m sure, an
inside joke in this company that when we go into that
meeting, I’m gonna completely side-rail and drive over that
deck, which I do consistently. I’m much more interested
in reading the room and deploying what that client
wants at that exact moment, versus what we thought they wanted. In the same way I sold
at baseball card shows, I would just always react.
I really think my pitches are structured for counter-punching. Which means no preparation
from presentation form, but complete and utter presentation
for knowing the content. See what I mean? This is
the thing that most people don’t understand. They
think that you wing it. No, you’re winging the way
you’re gonna present it. You’re not winging what
you actually know about it. So the way I prepare,
is holistically prepare. A.K.A. know my shit. I
know what I’m talking about in the things that I’m selling. And then basically I’m
reverse engineering deploying your needs against that
expertise at that moment, versus what order the deck
needs to be in the presentation. My friends, the deck doesn’t sell it. The presentation doesn’t
sell it. The skills sell it. – [Voiceover] Jeremy asks,
“Gary, why do you feel the need

“services I provide for
clients in the same market “while respecting their
competitive advantage?” – That’s interesting. And we kind of play with that
a little bit with VaynerMedia. Not that we have any direct competitors, but sometimes they’re some nuances. Providing value to different
companies or individuals that are competing in the
same environment is tricky. First of all, you know, I
would never be in environment of like, Pepsi and Coke,
or where there’s complete direct competitors, you’ve
got to be very, very careful. Number two, I think
that you need to really, really give thought about
how many different thesis’ and strategies do you actually have? How many different things can people do? This is where you cannot
just put one, kind of, blue print and deploy
it against each client, you’ve got to come up with
unique value propositions creatively and strategically,
that allow them to kind of offset the competitive set. I think the answer is very carefully. I think this is a massive
challenge and I think that one of the things that I would
recommend to you is actually broaden the industries your
in just for that reason. Because I think that humans
are emotional and they may not, even if you think
that you’re proving them separate value, they may not. And the consumer’s perception is king. But I think, to me, it’s not that hard. Because I do think you can
get very different strategies, very different creative executions
amongst those strategies to make an action that those
companies or individuals want to happen. I think the bigger problem
is, those individuals feeling as though that is happening
and that’s the vulnerability of your actual business. Perception, my friends, is
absolutely reality because that’s what people are
making judgements on. I mean, who else is making
the reality as a reality decision? There’s no reality lord that comes down. I am the reality lord! Like, there’s no reality lord. Perception is reality
because human’s perception is their reality. They’re making decisions
on that and that is the vulnerability in that question. I can’t wait to see the graphics of.

– Hey, Gary, what’s going
on, Sean Mitchell here. I’ve got a sales question for you. In the last couple of weeks,
I’ve lost two really big deals that I was anticipating closing. On the first call, I felt
like I did a really solid job, at uncovering their
challenges, in matching up our products, solutions
to those challenges, but on the second call, they
ended up not moving forward and it was a huge surprise to me, so– – Huge surprise– – What is your advice to try
and minimize the surprise – [Voicoever] Baba, ba–
– No. Thanks so much. – Great question. Don’t steal my headphones, India. Come off of six month vacation, stealing my headphones. First of all, and I think AJ
is better at this than me, I always think we’re gonna
win the sale, because I’m so good at being a salesman. But one of the great
ways to not be surprised on losing a sale is to
never think you’ve got it. I think that’s actually
a stunningly interesting aspect of it. So I think, not buying
into your own bullshit or hype is important. I also am a big fan of back-channeling. I do think that you
could’ve been e-mailing and contacting the clients. Some clients are turned off by that. Others can really give
you some information, depends on your relationship
with that client. But really the truth is it’s very tough to mitigate this. I mean, that’s the game, right? That’s the high of sales. You go in for the kill, and you don’t know
necessarily if you’ve made it happen or not, and so I think teetering expectations, trying to communicate
back-channel during the time. Sometimes the squeakiest
wheel gets the oil. Sometimes the squeakiest wheel gets taken off and replaced by a wheel. It’s just a way you’ve got to
figure out your own cadence. Your own touch. I’m a big fan of, I always say I like things sold
before I start selling them. So, if you’re going in for pitches a lot of times, I like
having relationships, putting out content, before those things. I think that’s really an important variable in sales, which is fundamentally selling before you’re actually
going in for the sale. I do believe an answer
on the #AskGaryVee Show will lead to a business
opportunity in the future. That’s selling before selling. And so that’s it, I mean you can do what you can do before the fact, but once you’re in the game you can back-channel a little bit, you can teeter your expectations, but you’ve got to let the results play out the way they will. That’s a good show.

– What are the differences
in the way you deal with small vs big accounts/clients? – There’s a ton of differences. When you’re dealing with
small or big businesses senior or junior employees, big or small in all shapes and sizes in business really dictate very different strategies. Small accounts a lot of times don’t have the same budgets. Small accounts often have
chips on their shoulder and lack confidence. I think one of the great things we do for small accounts is
actually bring a little bravado to them. I’m more comfortable actually coming from small to going big, because that’s what I do. You need to be scrappier. You need to build self esteem more. I think big needs the
reverse a lot of times. We need to make sure they
don’t waste their money, because the sorrows of riches, or what is it, help me. What is it called? Anyway, right, thanks for being there for me Andy. The spoils of riches or
whatever it’s called. They have so much money sometimes they just mail in and waste a ton of it. I think a lot of time our biggest brands need a huge level of humility. It’s really the yin
and yang to each other. I think the small
accounts need that bravado and self esteem and like we can do this, screw the big guy. If we’re smarter we can beat them. They’re wasting money on TV and other dumb shit. Big accounts stop wasting money on dumb shit, you’re not as big and as cool as you think you are. Somebody small can come and catch you. Those tend to be the two
different religious pillars and they’re very important
and having those strategies at the top really really do matter.

“if the price is right? “Or do you turn down based on your values “and beliefs?” – This has been interesting. We’ve been having some
interesting situations happening at VaynerMedia
where I would say that East coast and West coast
political correctness bias over certain clients has
been rearing it’s head at VaynerMedia, and I’ve
been really struggling actually quite a bit lately on what, I don’t want to
be the judge and jury of VaynerMedia’s moral
compass on which clients we take and so I’m trying
to figure out if it’s legal in America, should
that be the line in the sand? It’s a great question. We have, I’ve been, this is a really,
really tough question and a great question. We have passed on clients, because of my own personal compass, you know like the Patriots, and we haven’t passed on the Patriots. That’s unfair to them. Though I still hate you Patriots, but I love Vayner Nation Patriot fans. I just hate how you roll with football. The answer is it’s
starting to rear it’s head. America has never been more divided. We have growing offices in middle America which
I think will take away some of the East coast,
West coast mentality. Everybody in this office
is divided on things like, should we not take sugar water? There’s plenty of people in this company that think we shouldn’t. Guns, I mean Jesus especially with the tragic events of yesterday and this
entire year and just like the last several years in America. Alcohol. Tobacco, I mean what if the biggest tobacco company came along to work with Vayner. I think there’s plent of people here that would have a tough time working on it would bow out, wouldn’t
want me to take it on. Is that my, you know, I think I made those
decisions my whole life for me as a person. It’s easy for me. It’s me, I’m accountable to me. I don’t do the sponsored
stuff that I don’t want to. I don’t do any sponsored stuff, but I’ve, for example,
I’ve been thinking a lot about getting a lead
sponsor for the #AskGaryVee show in 2016, because I need and want those dollars to apply to a lot more advertising to
learn more about growth of content online. I need real dollars. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, that’s interesting. I’ve never thought about that before, and never did it with Wine
Library, things of that nature. Would I take any brand? Absolutely not. I think that money is the last thing that drives me, but I also absolutely have no interest in idealistic over political correctness
dictating my decisions, and I think we have that, especially when you
live in New York, L.A., San Francisco, and so I
have to think of things as collective including
a global collective not just the United States of America. That’s my answer.