confrontation with people
whenever you aren’t really sure. So like, for example– – Yeah, let’s go
right to the details. – [Matt] Yeah, for an example,
I’ve had issue before where a best friend and my
current girlfriend got into an argument together.
– Yep. – [Matt] And it
just tore me apart. I didn’t know how to
deal with something like that. – Yeah, so I think, one thing
that I’ll jump in because I want to get some other calls in. I will say this. I think it’s
important for the people, so the people around me know
that confrontation that has no value is a deal breaker for me. It was funny what raced
through my head which is both my girlfriend and my best
friend wouldn’t have liked the way I would have dealt
with it if it was not valid. If they were just,
you guys are young people, if it was just dumb shit that we
were complaining about or having a real confrontation about,
I would have leveled up, I would have had one
conversation with both and said, “Why are we fighting over
our trip to Disney together?” Like if it’s
completely meaningless, I would have created the
context that it’s meaningless. If it was something
serious, then I would have, I’d made a decision on what
I believe and the truth is the way I deal with confrontation
and something you should think about is I think it’s a
strength to not want to have negativity in your life
and so I deal with it with one conversation and it’s a one
strike policy on confrontation with me in a world where I have
80 strikes in everything else. And if they’re not able to
adjust to what matters to me in that then I just kind of move
on and I mean that by the way. – [Matt] Dude, yeah.
No, 100%. – Just be fair
with them, be fair, be empathetic but literally
unless you’re madly deeply in love and she’s the
girl that you have to marry. Like I’m very
aggressive with my friends. I didn’t lose friendships
over this by the way. This is a line in the sand that
I created and so people realized they had to level up
their emotional intelligence and actually what they cared about
if they wanted to be around me. I really pressured my inner
circle to care about things that mattered because so much shit is
bad if you’re willing to think about it that way or it’s great
if you’re willing to think about it that way. (crosstalk)
Go ahead. – [Matt] It’s ridiculous.
– Yeah, of course. – [Matt] …the adult world
because they don’t have that higher level thinking–
– Hey, hey, hey. I have real bad
news for you, youngster. – [Matt] Let’s hear it. – The college
mentality trickles into 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70-year-olds. Just ’cause they’re older
doesn’t mean they’re any smarter about the way the
world really works. – [Matt] You’re so right. – Alright, man, take care. Love ya, see ya, bye. Alright, give me another number. I mean that’s it, DRock. You know, actually in these
breaks on The #AskGaryVee Show as they set up the call it’s a
good opportunity for me to just not interact with the
person but add the bow. So here’s what it is my friends,
whether running a business, whether running your
relationships one of the things that’s been fascinating to me
is watching the evolution of the people that are closest
to me including this team. Like watching Courtney evolve
over next year is going to be super fascinating because I’m so
aggressive around the emotional things that I care about. Tyler, you care way less about things than
you used to, right? And you’re pretty and you
have that skill naturally. Oh, we got somebody.
– [Chris] No. – ‘Kay. Get your
shit together, youngster. But you have to, I assume
you have to now put things into context better than you did even though that was a
strength of yours. Why? – Because there’s just not time
for shit that doesn’t matter. – You just can’t even get to it.
– Yeah. It’s just you realize what
you should spend your time and energy on and what you shouldn’t and 99% of the
stuff just doesn’t matter. – I love the quotes.
I love the quotes. I mean it is. There is that piece of content
that I put out that 99% of things don’t matter and
everybody hits me up in the comments and talks
about what do you mean? That’s what I mean. I mean you would be
flabbergasted if you gave a lot of thought to how much time you
spend on things that at a macro level aren’t bringing any
value and I want to belittle the argument or the confrontation
that a girlfriend or best friend at 20, you ready? At 22 have with
each other but I just, – Yo, this is GaryVee and
you’re on The #AskGaryVee Show.

– [Voiceover] Nishita asks,
“Gary, how do design changes to “apps that cause a negative stir
affect brand image or usage?” – Is this back Instagram?
– [India] Yeah. – This stuff
happens all the time. Remember when Uber
changed it’s logo? I think Uber’s new logo is
way worse than it’s old one. But that’s one man’s
subjective opinion. Even though all four
of you shook your head. Do you like the
Instagram one better now? No, no.
– [Garrett] Yeah. – Yeah, got it.
Me neither but whatever. Nobody gives a crap. If anybody still today still
cares about the Instagram design change then they don’t realize
that Instagram is a business and not a museum. In the context that I come from
if you’re making art that you want debated for the rest
of time it really matters. If you are talking about
business everybody complains about logo changes on
sports teams pro, con, logo changes of apps pro, con. It’s a fun thing to talk
about but if you noticed I got bombarded about it on social and
I didn’t even answer anybody’s question about it because I
didn’t even want to respect the question because for me from
a business standpoint it has 0.00000 impact on
Instagram’s business. Now the UI and UX if it makes
people stay on it longer, engage with that it longer, that has
huge impact but the logo itself as a matter of fact it does
have impact I’m not pooh-poohing design.
I believe in the design. For example, I think
I’m using Instagram less. The first week just because my
eye didn’t recognize the logo as much I hit it less times. Not even kidding. But I’m a focus group of one. I think net-net on a 60, 90,
100 day term, it doesn’t matter. I’m already back to my
normal usage on Instagram. It can be an issue but
I think a lot of time press over engages it. For example, when the Gap
changed it’s logo and that was a whole to do and they changed
back or when people have to do that a lot of times is
more about the press and the perception and then the
stock price more so than what’s actually happening
in user behavior. But sometimes it
could be a change. I don’t over, I think a name and
a logo can always be trumped by the quality of the product. Even bad press. When Uber’s getting
all that bad press. My friends, “I feel bad
what Uber is doing,” and they’re take an Uber
while they’re saying it. I’m a big fan of
actions over words. All the people that I hate the
Instagram logo but are using it .3 times more today
than they did a week ago, what does that then mean? It’s like saying you’re moving
to Canada if you don’t like the president and then not moving
which is what basically all of my extremist friends on the
Republican and Democratic side have done of the last 16 years. Everybody moved to Canada during
Bush every move to Canada during Obama and so far
nobody moved to Canada. Because you’re full of shit. And that’s just a higher
level conversation of the logo. What does it mean?
I don’t know. A lot of people like to
say things on social media. I like to know what you actually
do versus what you actually say. – [India] That’s good. Yeah that put the (smack).

hate wasting time but how do you adjust
on days nothing is going right now there’s no such thing luckily I mean I don’t remember they
were nothing went right first and foremost the way I really deal with it
if you wanna get them about this and love you know this is as long as
everybody’s healthy everything went alright I always quantified one business
doesn’t go well i default quickly to our business is bullshit about life you know
my kids look how cute my kids I look at your life like I quickly switch from I
don’t do well you know I’m not good at Welling I loved speed and I don’t like
wasting time dwelling complaining wishing hoping you know pondering how
you wish it was is the single biggest waste the time in life and in business
like the bottom line is we all wish things I wish I was six-foot-four the single best looking guy in the world
and the quarterback of the New York Jets won 19 straight Super Bowls I wish that
I wish that I mean I just wish that I wish that the same way that that’s funny
is the same way to wish that like that deal went through or that employee took
the job or that person didn’t quit or that concept didn’t work out I mean I’ve
had multiple divisions multiple strategies here at one at the
intermediate that haven’t worked in the last 12 months get were dismantling it
and so much like anything else you just like the next it’s the next play using
artistic stuff like you’re doing a Broadway play when you mess up the line
and just stop and just cry on stage you just gotta go to the next line we just
can’t keep moving forward and so how do I handle it easily I’m champ on this
issue champion I am an absolute champion on
this issue meaning like I’m prepared for the punches in the face I expect things
not to go well I it’s kind of the way proper Jets game Saturday night nobody
likes being around because I’m just devastated all bad gonna have a real do you know like I I
subconsciously like that but I like the Jets were I say that I would leave these
guys can tell you I’m only on winning in office at all times like I wish I was a little bit more
patient because I was so hungry to prove

“How do you personally
take charge in a meeting “when you feel others
are being disrespectful?” – I guess Brittany’s asking for herself and for everybody who’s listening. For me, I mean, I just get involve–
(laughs) I mean, first of all 99% of the time, the context of the meeting,
I have the leverage. Either it’s my meeting and/or
I have a lot of authority or street cred to open my mouth. One more time, how do you
take charge when you think somebody else is being disrespected? – [India] When you feel others
are being disrespectful, meaning, if it’s uncomfortable– – I see this all the time and I see people struggling with it especially if they’re middle management or the new kid on the block, or an intern. But they have the EQ or
the empathy and like, this is unfortunate. I would say that there’s
only two ways to live life. To tactfully address things or to eat and have regrets
that you didn’t address it. What’s the name again? Brittany. Brittany, I think that
you have choices here. If I was in a meeting with this crew and I was being disrespectful to Staphon and India felt like she
wanted to say something. What’s running through her mind is, if I call Gary out here, and first of all, she has
a lot of context on me so she’s probably thinking, oh crap, Staphon’s doing something
wrong that I don’t know about ’cause Gary’s usually right. But let’s say I was tone deaf
(laughs) and I didn’t have equity with
her and it was her first week. She’s thinking that if
she calls me out and says, Gary, why are doing– You’re being rude. She’s thinking, oh crap,
that can get me fired. And then, what does it mean to me? People are doing practical– There’s always the pressure
of doing the right thing versus the practical thing. And then you’re always questioning, are you good enough to know
what the right thing is. There’s all that stuff. I don’t know, I have had a very successful life. Forget about career. On being comfortable of addressing things in real time, in the room, if it needs to. My level of thinking of
disrespect is quite high because I like combativeness
and competitiveness and I’ve also always had leverage. I work for myself. So, my advice to myself or how I think about the
world is very different than the advice I’d
give to a lot of people. I think you go with the one strike policy. India should grab me or send me an email after that meeting and say,
hey, I felt a hair uncomfortable with the way that you were
treating Staphon in that meeting. Can we either talk about
it, she’d grab me in person. She can send an email. I like in person ’cause
no context is lost. ‘Cause if I got that
email from India, I’m like that’s a little prima
donna for a youngster. (laughs)
She doesn’t know all the details. But if she told it to me, I’d be able to feel the energy. That’s one lesson I’d like
a lot of you to learn. Sending a text or sending an email, where it’s an important moment, you’re losing so much context. The energy, especially if
you go to an EQ person, the energy is so powerful when
you can create the context so I highly recommend that. But I would probably
go with a communication that wasn’t confrontational
in the room with that manager or that boss the first time. Behind the scenes,
lightweight, treading water. And then, A, seeing how they respond. Because I would respond, and we’ve been there and done that, India. I would respond favorable
which would make you more comfortable and
safe to talk to me again. Others will be like,
shut you (blank) mouth. And that would make
you not as much comfort and then I would address it
in the room the second time. If I said, shut your
fuckin’ mouth to India and then she did it again the second time, couple things would happen. She’d feel like she was
getting that off her chest. More importantly, I’d be like, damn, she really does care about this. It’s just life. Doing the right thing is
always the right thing. You just gotta make sure
you’re doing the right thing. Way to many people romantically wanna fight against the system, fight against the boss, fight against the company. And I’ve had people in this organization that have barked up the wrong tree. Because they’ve worked in other places where the person doesn’t give a crap and doesn’t turn every stone and doesn’t have a ton of context. That is something you
need to be careful of. Do not walk into a buzzsaw
because you do have a manager or boss that actually knows
what they’re talking about. Now, if you’re great at EQ
and the tone and the taste, roll, let roll. But this is not a very simple question. There’s a lot of angles, as you could see, in two quick seconds
that I’ve given you here, it’s a lot of context building. Who are you standing up for? I mean, the amount of
times that people here have stood up for somebody
who’s straight losing, doing the wrong thing, but they’re homies. Matt, let’s talk to you
because they hear it from this. – Okay. – We have a tremendous culture here where, obviously, I’d like to say that but how many friends do
you have in this company? People you actually hang
out with outside of work? – A solid amount. – Give me a number. – 15, 20. – Great, so first of all, everybody who at Vayner’s
watching this is now wondering, wait a minute, am I number
21 and what the hell. – Sorry guys. – I thought we were friends. (laughs) 15 to 20, I think anybody who’s watching we would all recognize
and that’s a big number. There’s a lot of people watching here who don’t have single friend. Outside, everybody just– If you, not if, when your friend, one of those 15 to 20 complains about Vayner,
it’s impossible for you not to take their side,
they’re your friend. – Exactly. – I mean, that’s an impossible game. – Absolutely. – And I assume, I’m asking you now. Even though you like me
and think I’m a good guy and it’s a good company, good culture. It’s so much easier to have
Janet’s back than the company’s. – Sure. – That right there, is
the issue at hand, right. You might be standing up for somebody. Have you ever wanted to
stand up for somebody? – [Matt] Yeah. – Have you? – [Matt] Sometimes yes and sometimes no. – Right, and so it’s just tough ’cause
you don’t know every– I mean, I know a lot of the
friend pods in this company. I knew to ask that question ’cause I knew it was a good outcome because I know what’s
going on here, right. Even people that are a little quiet or what have you are finding friends. It’s amazing, right. We got a good thing going. The danger of that is blind
support to your homies versus what’s going on in the office. There are people here who are the greatest human– I literally want to adopt them. I literally want to adopt them, hey come in my family. I love you that much. Who are average workers. That’s just real-life shit. To think if I was their homie, outside of work and had all the feelings of the humanity that is
them which is remarkable. I want to adopt them. And to think about them complaining or struggle, why didn’t I get promoted, my boss is not taking care of me, this and that and the other thing. It’s impossible for the
other 550 people here intermingled with each other
not to support that person. They’re the best. But I have the optics of
another thing which is the black and white. Not the warm and fuzzy, the do you have skill. I’m the greatest guy of all time. I don’t think LeBron wants
me on his basketball team. I don’t have the raw skills to provide him value for
what he’s trying to achieve. I’m the best. And if he wants to do business I’ll make him more money
than he can even realize. Even more than he makes, which
is more than he can realize. And that’s the game. And so, that’s the other
part of the equation. You gonna step up for the
greatest person of all time, cool. You just might get caught because they’re actually below average or not doing a good job. Or they may actually act differently, I mean, this is happening here too. There are people that,
outside of these four walls, I want to adopt. But when you watch them, how they act within a work environment, they’re just okay. Lot a sweeties. And then a little snarky and manipulative and political in the building. That’s just real life. So know who you’re standing up for. Interesting shit. – Got really deep. – Yeah, it got very deep. That’s something we can all learn from. I’ve learned that lesson. Like, I know this guy, he’s the greatest. And like wait a minute,
he sucks in the store. I saw with my own
friends that work for me. So, anyway. – [India] It’s intense. – It is intense. It’s intense because it’s so, this is where
judging where you work or who you work for is the key. And understand what
they’re good and bad at. Meaning, you could have a great manager, top, top, manager. And they might be strong at X but they might bad at Y. And if they’re bad at Y, you need to context that. There’s no blanket statement,
even on the person. I have a lot of points of view on your strengths and weaknesses from a lot of different people. Way more than you’d ever think. – [Matt] Oh, I’m sure. – In a good way, meaning it’s
why we’re so calculated here of what we do. ‘Cause we don’t take the
main boss’s point of view on somebody. It’s 360. It’s contemporaries, it’s
friends outside of work. It’s people that never heard of him. It’s people that work for you. You can’t just be like, oh the boss– If you let that, they’re
just manipulate what’s in their best interest. ‘Cause they’re just human,
it’s not their fault. But I think that’s what
makes our place tick because people have
seen very senior people not win the battle against
very junior people. Then that’s like whoa, and that’s cool. I don’t know how I got on that tangent. I know how, If you wanna step up
for somebody in the room you better know all the scores. The conversation.

“knew their customers would overreact “to the design of their new cup, “and did it just for marketing?” – The Starbucks cups. And I see Dunkin’ Donuts
came out with theirs, and I was like yay, yay,
thank god, it’s holiday. I think this was interesting. It just speaks to the
world we now live in. First of all, Starbucks should be very happy that people give a crap. If you told Howard Schulz
30 years ago, one day there’ll be a national
uproar, or at least a micro national uproar to the cups that you have, that is like, I hope one
day that the entire world, or at least the US market is in an uproar on the subtle aspect of
what’s going on in my, and I mean the subtle, subtle, subtle, get down here with me
Staphon, the subtle subtle, subtle subtlest of things that
have to do with my business that people have that much passion. Little quick side note on this,
I find it interesting that a lot of my friends’
panties are in a bunch I saw on social over this cup. The same homies that love the
simplistic design of Apple. All these homies that love
simplistic design, right? Yeah, love it, yes, that kid is awesome. Love simplistic design in Apple, but here comes a simplistic
design in your coffee cup, and oh, it’s not holiday enough. People just want to complain. People love to complain. You love to complain, complaining’s easy. Complaining’s easy,
people love to complain. How about executing? How about instead of complaining,
try to build a business that actually has people
complain about it. Go do that. – Nice, want to do the next one?

“The ones that always sound like “they’re whining and pessimistic.” (laughs) – We fire them. (laughs) Because energy is something
I value tremendously and no question, if you
are dragging down the team, that is a heavily– Not having the smarts to do the work is actually viewed as a better option that being Eeyore and woe is me. Look, we are 550 deep now, I’m positive, as people are
watching this from VaynerMedia, saying yeah but, “Ricky is really Eeyore.” You say you’d fire him, why has Ricky been moping for six months? I’m sure there’s a couple
people sneaking through with woe is me but the truth is I heard a story this weekend from my mom, we had an employee that was friends with– My mom’s friends with his mom and she told me a story that the doorman, and the doormen say that they know who the
VaynerMedia employees are versus not just by the pep in their step when they go into the building and they’re happy and always smiling. I think we have a pretty
good atmosphere here and so I’m… I’m very, very, very affected by the atmosphere and the energy of my own company and since I’m the CEO I try to create an
environment that allows me to most do my thing. And I think companies
are disproportionally affected by the top five
to ten people in a company. It’s stunning, if you even look at the
Apples and Nintendos and Budweisers, I mean it’s incredible how a small group of people
really dictate the outcome. And of course everybody’s an impact but for me, if I’m not in a good mood because somebody’s moping, well then I (laughs), that’s a problem. There’s a negative ROI there. You know, the truth is, we try to understand
what makes them unhappy. Now, again, moping is different than being and introvert or quiet. You can be quiet and
focused on your thing. That’s very different
and I wanna make sure, make a big point here that I actually stunningly over-value quiet, focused. I always worry that people at VaynerMedia don’t realize if they’re
an introvert or quiet or focused or headphones on, never really interacting. We have such a culture
of intermingling that, I would even argue that I value them, not more, that’s not fair. I just value them for what they are. I don’t try to change
people for what they are. And you could bring enormous
value to this company by never saying a word or you can yell, like Gabe, 24/7 and bring value. All of it in between
really matters for me. And so, let’s make sure that
as you’re watching this, if your auditing your 5,
10, 15, 500 person company that you’re not digging
through and misjudging moping and just quiet. Or quiet and focused. Or introverted. Those are tremendously valuable things. That’s how they concentrate
and get their job done. Moping is Debbie Downner. I think it’s more Debbie, whaa, you know like Debbie
Downer like this sucks. Try to walk around here for
more than 20 days in a row saying this company sucks. Try. That’s not gonna fly. Being focused, maybe not
being the most social flower and going to every happy hour
and high fiving everybody when you walk through here, that’s more than fine. That should be acceptable. That is acceptable at the highest levels. But saying this sucks. The client sucks. This work sucks. This sucks, this sucks. Just doesn’t work, it’s
too much of a downer. So, how do we deal with it? We try to cut it out. It’s cancer. Straight up cancer.

“with negative reviews since the update. “What are your thoughts on the move?” – Reuben, I think that if you look at all the moves in the last
five years by Facebook specifically, but Instagram, Twitter, any platform that is extremely popular that then has an aggressive move that feels more selly, and I assume we’re talking about discovery above and kind of the first main screen. I don’t think people realize that people are always going to complain. Anytime that there’s change
that is in the benefit of the business, right, it’s very clear to people at this point that that screen that
you’re seeing Discover. You didn’t want it there. They’re forcing me on Discover. These are exactly the things that we saw with Facebook when they did every update. I mean the news feed was one of the first groups to get a million or ten million I don’t remember the number at the time, but when Facebook switched from you go to, you saw everything, and
you’d go to people’s walls and all those things. I mean, this is constant. I think it’s a tremendous
move by Snapchat, the Discovery consumption
has exploded since the move. Have you used more
Discover since the move? – Yeah, yeah. – [Gary] Staphon? – [Gary] Sid, the intern? My data shows that 100% of people. You know, it’s just, it’s so interesting. It’s a tremendous move by Snapchat. It’s making it more native, easier for them to go into that channel that is the channel that
they are going to monetize. I think it’s a brilliant move. I think you’ve gotta take some of the heat early on. I think every one of those people that have complained have used Snapchat quite a bit, except
for three rogue hippies and that’s fine ’cause Snapchat and Facebook and every
business doesn’t give a crap about that extremism of anti-business, because the numbers don’t
play themselves out, and I think that I think that they did not go too far, and I think that they’ve
done it just right. I think they’ve slowly introduced it first as a swipe over here. Now they’ve moved it up here. I think they, I am blown away, Evan, such a young CEO, and I’m just really, really impressed. I was wrong about story. Stories I didn’t think
was gonna be successful, because there was that swipe, and I thought that was a friction, and that worked. He’s really, really impressed me, and I’m very, very bullish on Snapchat, so much so that in my Vayner/RSE fund I spent the last batch of money, instead of an entire
nother year of investing in 20, 30 more companies. I went all in, all Wuzzles in on Snapchat and wrote a huge check, biggest check of my career at a 16 billion dollar evaluation. I’m a very, very big fan of Snapchat. They’ve blown me away. I wish I was on board way, way earlier. I’ve been writing about
them for a long time, and talking about them for a long time. I think that, not that prediction, but that bandwagon is
playing out to be true, and so I don’t think they went too far. I actually think they played
it absolutely perfect, and that’s not putting on my investor hat, because one thing a lot
of people don’t know is I’d much rather be historically correct than make a couple of bucks. I don’t wanna look back at
this and be like, I was wrong. – [Voiceover] Kat asks,
“How do you continue

House of Jerky. I wanna let you know I tried that thing with telling everybody
thank you with a video on Twitter, and it has
worked better than good. The problem I’m having
right now is I’ve got so many new tweets coming in, and some new people following me. It’s becoming a little overwhelming. How do you handle that? Thanks, take care and have a great day. – This is an interesting
question House of Jerky. This is a very interesting question. The truth is, I can never fake the funk on this show. I think one of the
things that works for me is my reactions are always my reactions. Since I’ve already seen this video, I’m not as pissed as I was three weeks ago or whenever the hell I saw it where I literally, House of Jerky, and I love you. Literally wanted to punch you directly in your mouth, because
this really pissed me off, because Jesus Christ. Hey, help me fix my business
and make my business better. Cool, here do this. Awesome. My business is better, but
now there’s too much of this. It is so insane. And again, you’re such a lovely dude that I don’t want, I’m
doing this never just. By the way, I’m never
answering these questions just for the person at hand. It is the collective answer. I hope and I mean this my man. I hope you’re being
tongue in cheek with me, and you just wanted to get on the show. I really hope, because if you’re not being tongue in cheek with me you’re an insane loser. Anybody and anybody, anybody who has a problem with too
many things going well are prewired for failure, and that hurts, and I really, the truth is, the reason I probably took the show. I can taste that that’s not your case, but I do think that there’s many people listening and watching that are the case, and the thought that
you could ever complain about success is so insane to me and listen, maybe I
have a visceral reaction to this because business
associates have done this with me in my career, and I can’t there’s so much to complain about that is valid, if you’re willing to. I mean, this show as you can
tell, I’m not even interested in doing that at all. I’ve said on this show, the biggest thing I admire in the world
is my mom’s inability to complain. It’s something I’m massively proud of. I really try not to do it, and the thought to complain about, hey you gave me a tremendous piece of a business strategy. Stick with me here for fucking free stick with me here. It worked. Good things are happening to me. Good things are happening to me, and now there’s too much
good things happening to me. Help me reconcile this good
thing that’s happening to me. That is bonker shit USA. That is insane, and I right here, line in the sand, on this show to you Vayner
Nation am telling you that is a line I’m not
allowing you to cross. I am not allowing you, you, any of you ever in your life, ever. I’m choking it the fuck out. You are unallowed, if you wanna be homies, friends, even borderline acquaintances, you are not allowed to
complain about success. Let me help you with your problem. Shut your fucking business down, because if you’re gonna
complain about good things happening, you’ve lost. That’s insane. Complain when you’re
down to your last penny, not when you have too many customers. You know what you need to do? Stop bullshitting. Sleep less, fuckin don’t watch TV. I don’t know. Don’t make a video with Gary Vee, answer somebody’s fucking question. Got it?

and how do you get off of it? What’s the biggest “but”
you hear from others that’s holding them back?” – Theresa, the amount of
buts that I hear, is actually stunningly overwhelming. I pride myself in not being a but guy, and so, I think that the buts
that I hear are all the time. I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have a chance, I grew
up in a poor neighborhood. I didn’t have a mentor. I didn’t get the lucky break. People are loaded with buts. It’s why the majority of
people fit into the standard of ones life right? Whatever those ambitions
may be, I think that for me, my but is usually– But I love the process, I love the climb. When I don’t achieve the maximum upside in my career, it’s going to
be predicated on the fact that I hedged about loving the process, and so within the context of finances, I didn’t buy the Jets, because, but– You know, is really, that
whole thing is because, oh, I liked the grind too
much, and that didn’t allow me to scale and create the
level of wealth I needed to be able to actually pull it off. That’s my narrative, and so that’s my but, but I love the process. The amount of buts I hear though, are just everything, and really– You know, what but is, is
it’s an excuse, and now look, before I finish
with my rah rah scenario, let’s very much understand
there’s real stuff going on in the world. I mean, you may be born
in a part of the world where there’s a dictator, or communism, or just you know– Do I think that is as easy to be a female entrepreneur in the Middle
East, as it is to be in New York City? No, I do not. Do I think that it’s
harder for somebody that’s born in Mississippi, a non white male, in America, as it is for
somebody that is born in L.A. white male, to succeed? I do, but on the flip
side, let me flip it, I think the hustle and the
grind of coming from the grind has a big advantage. I see a ton of– I think some people– Some people think you’re dead on impact because you’re born a minority or, or in a bad spot, or
to a drug infested home that you’re predisposed to losing. Ironically in my weird twisted
brain, in the game that I play, the hustle game, the real climb, like it’s almost equally
predicated on your spirit and your gusto as it is on your skill set. I think a lot of people
that are born into kush are in a setback situation
because it’s gonna come so easy, and so, I just
think it’s how you optically look at the world, but
I will tell you this, I hate excuses man. I hate them with all my heart. I really take enormous
pride, and I mean it. We just had a hard core, right
guys, we had a hard core meeting, I don’t know
if any of you were here, VaynerMedia meeting on
Friday, where I talked about stuff and I’m always scared
that I don’t know if the team believed me, when I said,
“Hey look, before I start, this is my fault.” But I really mean it. I take pride in taking blame. It’s crazy. You know, it’s funny,
this Jets/Patriot thing. I see all these Pat fans
making fun of me, right, yesterday, and I feel sad
for them that they’ve won four Super Bowls. I like the climb and the grime,
and trying to win it, right, and that’s kind of how I
think about buts, and blames, and excuses. I take pride and I like taking
the blame in front of my whole company and saying
this is my fault, even though I know there’s so many other people that are at fault as well,
I’ll take that on me. So, you know, buts are
bad, but they’re not as obvious as I think that
some people may think. – [Voiceover] Robert asks,
“Is there value in using social

“What are your pet peeves? “And what skill do you
wish you were better at?” – Elliot, great question. My pet peeves are pretty basic, meaning they’ve been
there for a long time, and it’s something I’ve
talked about in the past if you’ve watched any of
my key notes or the show, I think I’ve sprinkled it in, but I wanted to kinda address it, and it’s really funny,
I’m even pausing right now and buying myself time because the second part of your question, “What would I like to be better at?” is a struggle for me to come up with, and maybe that’s the answer in itself. We’ll get to that in a second, but pet peeves are clearly
hypocrisy and cynicism. I hate the cynicism in the marketplace. Steve feels it’s a must-needed
thing, and I respect that, but I won’t focus on that ’cause we’ve done that in the past. It really is hypocrisy. I have family members, I have
people I’ve done business with who are so hypocritical. It kills me. They literally like talk, and by the way, the reason I answered this question is a lot of you in the comments and a lot of you listening
on the podcast right now that are interacting with me, you talk a good game about community, you know, I’ve been doing
a little bit of digging, I’ve been thinking about
making kinda this slideshare which, oh by the way,
link up the slideshares. We haven’t done some linking
up in a little while. Linking up is a much needed thing. The slideshares that I put out. Been thinking about doing a
slideshare on bull (censored). The hypocrisy of people tweeting like, “Be in your community. “Engage with your community. “Give for your community.” And then you look at their Twitter feed, 4713 tweets all time, and nine at replies. I have a lot of pride
with my at reply ratio, and so those two things
really stick it to me. What would I like to be better at? Look, you’ve all heard me
if you’re hardcore fans that I say that I’m 99% of things suck at, and I believe that. There’s a lot of things I’d like, I mean, I’d like to be able to, look, I’d like to be able to sit
down and read something for more than two minutes and
actually concentrate and do it I mean, this poor crew, and show them, because I wanna show how poor the crew is, and I don’t mean financially, I mean, how I feel bad for them
because they sent me these nice long e-mails,
and then literally after the fourth time they send
it, I’ll reply and just say, “Let’s just meet for five minutes.” ‘Cause it’s so audio for me,
and I struggle to consume, and there would be a lot of efficiencies if I was better at consuming,
so kind of that ability to concentrate on things
that are not that important. Take that the way it was meant, guys, which is, ya know, I can concentrate on a one, two percent kind of variable, but I struggle when I
think things are important, but not that important. – [Voiceover] Amanda asks,
“What ways can agencies