It’s Kelsey Humphreys, we are taking a quick break
from shooting The Pursuit, and I thought I would send you a question. But I have to say, you are killing me. Because I keep recording questions for you and then I go to post it and you already posted
like, three new episodes and four long Facebook posts, and you answered my question. So I hope that this question
makes it into the Golden Era. – [Gary] Oh, that’s a real fan. – My question is about having
two different audiences, and how you juggle them. For example, the audience for #AskGaryVee is very different from your ideal client from VaynerMedia.
– [Gary] Good observation. And for me, I get a lot
of opt-ins and traction and comments from my audience when I talk about how I’m still a rookie, and my show’s only six months old, and I’m still figuring out what I’m doing. They love that. But, I’m worried about potential guests and potential sponsors not
wanting to work with someone, whose content is about
how they’re a rookie. And I think a lot of people deal with this when they’re trying to
take their client base to the next level, but the content that
they’ve been putting out is on the previous level. So, tell us what to do about that, Gary. Thanks. – You got it, Kels. This is a very easy
question to answer for me. The answer is, the part
where I sell for clients, I’m selling them the
services of VaynerMedia. In the beginning my ability,
now our agency’s ability, to help use social media
to drive business results. And that’s just a separate
entire conversation from the content of the show that is helping a lot of entrepreneurs. And this is not made for
branch managers and CMOs of Fortune 500s, other than the ones that
are passionately pursuing other interests maybe financially, or thinking about outside
the corporate environment. And so, this skews more
entrepreneurial things in that nature. I think that you can’t
be crippled by that. it sounds like to me, in
that way you asked it, it was a great question. My curiosity is, are you using the show as a gateway drug to clients? That’s where your rub is. For me, I’m not using this show as that. And so, I’m not concerned about having- they’re very church and state. If you view that what
you’re doing on this show, or how you’re going about it, is the same service that you’re
then selling to a client, well then you’ve got a problem. Because you’re admitting to them that you’re only so far along the way. And so, me being a personality
around business questions is very different than
me being an operating CEO of a large scale social and digital shop that helps clients execute
creative and strategy in those channels. It ties in a little bit, because I use my tactics like the– Share Monster (monster voice) is there like fire coming out?- to learn what that means and then maybe, a Dove Soap or a Toyota
can then use those tactics to make those things happen. But, I think that’s the disconnect. – [India] Only one you need.

– When dealing with
clients, would you rather find new clients, or #hustle to get more from current clients? (laughter) – OK, very good, Warren, I like that So, I call this hunting and farming, do you wanna hunt and get new ones, or do you wanna farm and
grow the ones you have. I think way too many people don’t realize the answer is both. Why not both, Warren? Why not both? And when you’re super
duper, duper duper talented, you can do both. That’s how you go from 30 to 500 people in a flash. There’s no rather, Warren, I just want both. Like, ya know, you want both. You wanna hu– You want both, you want both. – [India] That’s fine–

“when dealing with a pissed-off customer?” – (sighs) Charlie, I’ve got
a really interesting answer to my thought process
on pissed-off customers. First and foremost I want
to know if they’re right. So I use myself as the judge of that. And I mean that, I mean I
judge how right they are. if they are 100% right in my opinion, I’m coming in with nothing but empathy, how do I fix it? Lifetime value, whatever it
costs me upfront right now, it doesn’t matter, because they’re right and in the capitalism meritocracy, fairness of the world, I need to make good on the mistake that Wine Library or VaynerMedia, I made, and that’s that. Now if I think they’re wrong, which happens plenty of times as well, maybe 50-50 of the time,
I come with offense, you know, I come to explain to them that I get it, and I have
empathy and I’m sorry, but. Huge capital B-U-T,
but, you’re a douchebag, and let me explain,
blah, blah, blah, blah. And so that is really the way it is. So first and foremost
I assess the situation. I never try to put my
best interests in mind, and so if I think they’re right, Lauren don’t be scared, and
if I don’t think they’re, and if I think that they’re
right, then I’m gonna just do what I said in part one, but if I think they’re wrong, I’m gonna play it a different way. (laughs)

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.

“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.

“do you most commonly ask your clients “when meeting them for the first time?” – Zac, wonderful question. For everybody in client
services, agency life, this should be fun. Number one is what is your KPI? What’s your Key Performance Indicator? Like what is the thing that
you want us to accomplish? Is it views, is it
sales, is it perception, is it press, is it your own judgement on how you feel about the creative? How are you judging us,
what are the results? And they’re really separate. How are you judging us,
what are the results are number one A and one
B that matters the most, and then, really, the
third one would then be what are you willing to
tell me about your warts? Meaning, there’s just a lot of people that are not gonna tell you about, the politics that are an issue, the money that’s an issue. I’m always trying to get them
to be very truthful to us once I understand what
the issues at hand are, so what do you really want to accomplish? By the way, people struggle
with answering that. People struggle with answering that. Number two, how are you gonna judge me? Sometimes they struggle with that less. Number three, what are the warts? Most people don’t wanna tell me up front. We try to sniff them out
early so we can navigate them, and it’s like a minefield
to get to the finish line. Those are the three, and they’re very important questions, and trying to figure
out in every situation, in absolutely every situation, in dating, in building your own
business, in having clients. I really think those three
are super fun, and by the way, they’re very important equally. I think, for example, I think people that struggle with dating are spending way too much on number three. They’re so concerned about
what the person’s warts are, or skeletons in their closets. They’re not trying to figure
out how they’re being judged to be a good partner in that relationship, or how that’s gonna be scored, and so, having a great balance of all three. That’s a little nugget there. Give you a little fun fact
at the end of this question. It’s the 33% execution
of those three questions that may be equally as important.

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] Jelle asks, “what
came first at VaynerMedia: clients or employees? And did you ever do
stuff without employees?” – So let’s get into this question. First, I actually don’t
know how to pronounce this, so let’s go to India, who I
thought helped us with that, DRock, how – ? – I don’t – “yell”? “Yelle”? I don’t know. – [Gary] Got it, alright. Steve? What’s your shot here? – “Yella?” I don’t know. – You know.
– [India] It’s very pretty. – It’s gorgeous. Yeah, don’t worry, you’re not hurting feelings anyway. India’s going to be very
sensitive on this show. (laughter)
Alright, you know, we started Vaynermedia, two
things happened in parallel. We got out, I got ahead of
it, AJ was graduating college and we were gonna start a company in May. In March or April I got ahead of it and got us a big project
with a big client. So I guess customer came first. I kinda used, I did something clever. I made that person pay the
entire project up front and then used those dollars
to pay the first 3-4 employees who were all of AJ’s homies, who are all still here,
hence the foundation. So I guess client, right? I got an upfront campaign
that I used those dollars, and then the official first day we had those five or six employees, so but we never did anything without them, though actually me and AJ
did some of the early stuff for that project by ourselves, so that’s the answer. I don’t know how you wanna look at it. I will say this: any time you can sell
ahead of your expenses, you do it. One of the biggest reasons so many people go out of business, and many of you who watch this
show will go out of business, is you do not know how
to manage cash flow. You think in terms of, you know, accrual versus cash basis,
if we wanna go hardcore, you know, CPA-style here, oh, we’re gonna make 80k so
I can have 70k in expenses, but if you don’t get paid
properly or if there’s a hiccup, or, you know, no buffers, no practical knowledge
of that vulnerability, and then a bunch of you
who are tech-driven, you raise too much money, you
don’t keep your burn in check, you assume you’re gonna raise more money, it doesn’t go as easy
or as well as you think, because once you actually become a company people are looking at what you’re doing versus what you promise you’re gonna do, and those are the vulnerabilities of how you go out of business. – [Voiceover] Gabii asks, “Do
you have any bucket list items

of a client because they are
just an all around clown?” – Galen, this is a funny question. I think a lot of VaynerMedia
employees are going to have a fun time with this quesiton if they are watching or listening. I think that for me I
hold on for dear life. First of all business is business. I think one of the reasons
people recommend getting rid of clients is they don’t have
the stomach for adversity. I actually can deal with the negativity and it’s business is business. If they fire me then I
deserved to be fired. But the notion of there
are clients to be fired. It’s right and a lot of
times it helps your business and so it’s about self-awareness. So for me, Galen, it’s
very late in the process, like almost borderline, I don’t know, when they take a knife and
stab it through your eye. It might not be a good
relationship anymore but that’s literally the level
that I’m looking forward to because I can handle it and
it’s not slowing me down. We’ve got plenty of clients that I think by all modern standards
should have been fired but I have not and it has
not hindered the growth because yes there’s some time
and attention put into that and even in a world where
we get lots of new business. There is value in retention.
There’s also moods. How about relationships?
Do you just get divorced when a time comes tough? The ebb and flow. Do you
just get rid of a best friend because of a bad night? Do you get rid of friend
after six straight bad nights? One could argue yes but I’d
say hmm there’s a lot there that you may want to fight for it. So I think it comes
down to self-awareness. A lot of people are not capable of dealing with the conflict
or it brings them down. To me, I like to rise to that challenge. I like that game but it comes down to my own self-awareness of me as a leader and more importantly i have
to factor in the empathy of 400 other people and
is it bringing them down. So cool, I can stomach it but
as they’re getting yelled at on the phone every single day, is it bringing them to a
place where they want to leave and so for me it’s when
it’s effecting other people that are in my family that I value more and family I mean my company that I value more than the client itself. That’s when I’m looking at
it but then a lot of times, I’m trying to surround,
interchange and account people of the people that have more of my stomach and can handle it.
To me, that is the timing. Thanks for watching episode
32 of the #AskGaryVee Show.

“your clients must expect to meet you. “How do you manage that?” – That’s an easy one to manage. You know, very honestly,
this is a huge misconception. This company’s called VaynerMedia. Yes, I’m the frontman, but I do not convey that they are buying me to anyone, and when we get into new business, Trouty, you do a lot of new business. Show Trouty. Trouty, how often do you find that people think they’re buying me? – Less and less these days. – And what happens when
you think that happens? Well, or when it happens, what do we do? – We quickly convince them that there are a lot of smart people behind here by showing them great work. – Very PR of you. (all laughing) The very simple fact
is I’m not selling me. We let people know upfront
that there’s no buying me. I mean, look. The Million Dollar Man in WWF was right. Everybody’s got a price. You can buy me. It’s just a lot more than you think. And so we’ve built a
company, something scalable. I have no interest in being in every room. I’m running the business. I jump into things backbone
all day, all the time because it’s our company
and I’m part of it, but you’re not buying me. So we just convince them
by telling them the truth. – [Voiceover] Heather
asks, “Gary, I’ve watched “every episode, but guys outnumber women.