“and you could only promote
one platform to be followed on, “which one would it be?” – David, tremendous question. The answer would be, I
would reverse engineer the audience of the show. One of the biggest reasons I think that I’ve had success as a communicator is I’m not religious
about what I have to say at that moment. I’m religious about,
what does the audience on the other side need or want to hear if I was them, using the empathy radar. And so, if I’m at USC, I’m gonna throw on a guru shirt as a hahaha
and really just jam on how do I bring them value? Like, if I really took
an entrepreneur class, like let me prove to
you that you shouldn’t be in that class, go and
be an entrepreneur, right? If I’m on TV and I’m on CNN or FOX or CNBC, I need to hit the masses. That’s gonna be a, ya know,
it’s gonna be everybody but 35 to 75, so I would answer Facebook in that environment
’cause it’s gonna reach the most potential people, but if I’m on the youngest skewing show I can think of, I don’t know, some sort
of show that’s targetting 15 to 20 year old’s, though they’re not watching TV any more, but let’s say, ya know, if I was at a
YouTube show talking, then I would probably drive
Snapchat as the one platform, probably Instagram actually,
if I’m gonna fully, fully answer that, probably Instagram. So, to me, I’m answering you and one of the interesting things
is I really got into the community this weekend. The kids were playing
around in the backyard. I had a lot of pockets to
kinda check out my phone. I engaged a little bit, big
shoutout to a lot of you. A lot of you saw me jumping
into your Facebook comments. It was interesting to see how people were analyzing the show
and I wanna say that, to me listening, I wanna say, if you just watched the way
I answered that question, I’m trying to bring as much value across the board to everybody. I answered the question,
it’s Facebook, it’s Snapchat, but I also want people to understand, it’s reverse engineering the audience that’s listening in every environment. In every interview with Inc. Magazine, in every TV show, in
every, “I’m in Ireland,” you know, I’m in the middle America. You know, if I’m in Alabama,
I curse a little less ’cause cursing’s not as
great in the Bible Belt. But if I’m in Brooklyn and you know, to 16-year-old’s, I’m gonna bring it. So, you know, that’s that. – [Voiceover] Chris asks, “Do
you think that the Nintendo

“completely digital, “focused on exclusive
and shareable content, “how important are real life meetings?” – Soundspace, to me,
real life meetings matter because human beings make
all decisions, right. Like, so far, thank God, the
robots haven’t taken over. But it’s coming. But, you know, hopefully,
I don’t think I’ll see it. But it’s coming. And so, while that’s still the case, real life meetings matter because there’s just so much context that can be done in human interaction that
doesn’t happen over digital. You can’t map everything. I feel plenty of emotions over Twitter and things of that nature, but the energy in the room is lost, right. Like the energy in the room is lost. And so, to me, that is the
part that matters so much in the equation of real life. To me, I always say the
digital is a gateway drug. Hey, Kim.
– [Kim] Hey. Digital is the gateway drug
to the human interaction. As a matter of fact,
it’s funny, not Andrew, who didn’t know who the fuck I was, but a lot of the people
here on the team, and Zak, but a lot of people here on the team– India, did you know who I was? – [India] When I started here or when I started your team? (laughter) That answered that question. There was a gateway drug
happening before they got here which created context, but then, meeting in real life takes
it to a whole other level. You could work for the company and then you have a
whole different context when you’re on the team. (laughter) You know what I mean. – [Voiceover] Frank asks,

“manager of a nonprofit
on a heavy topic such as “human trafficking make the
depressing content dynamic?” – Fwarg, I think the
first thing you need to do is make sure that you realize the content doesn’t have to be dynamic. Right, I think everybody thinks like, ugh, how do we make it social. How do we make it fun? Certain content has to
be done a certain way. It’s contextual. I mean, this is really hardcore stuff that you’re dealing with. I actually think the content needs to be educational while not being too complicated. I mean, it’s a depressing manner. You’re not gonna be able
to light it up, right. You need to focus on what it is and so I would educate and create
narratives through white papers, infographics, SlideShares, videos, pictures, quote cards that actually educate the market. None of us here, none of us here, and when I say here, I mean everyone listening and watching. I would argue that less
than one percent of us are really educated on the matter. So how do you get the information out? And I don’t think that
it needs to be dynamic. I think it needs to be truthful and it needs to be
contextual to the platform. Is that a 45 second video on YouTube with the right tone music behind it that is giving me the information? Is that an infographic with the right color tones that aren’t bright orange and– I don’t think bright orange
and yellow and sparklers on my Pinterest board
around this subject matter. And so I think, I think respecting subject matter and making in contextual for the platform are way more important
than pigeon-holing yourself in a world where you see other people having the option to be
dynamic in a social media world and you wanting to be
in that world because either you want to be there or two, you think that’s the way to win. I think the best way to respect content is to respect the content. And I think that matters. – [Voiceover] Thomas
asks,”Would you be willing

I always say I can tell
instantly if something is a hero or a zero but I’m in the wine
section here and I can’t tell what is the difference
between any of these wines. Help me. – Lori, first of all thank
you so much for the question. Big shout out to all the
sharks that I’ve been, mingling with the sharks lately. Look Lori, I think
everybody has this problem. I think that buying wine when
you’re trying to figure it out you’re not going to be able to
make a judgment on the label. Buying wine based on the
label crushes my soul. Buying wine because the
shelf talker says 90 points is the secondary move
that crushes my soul, though Wine Library does
that at scale we put up those shelf talkers
’cause it sells wine. I think the best thing you
can do is form a relationship with your wine person and have them really learn your palate over time. That’s gonna work for you
70, 80% of time ’cause you’re not always gonna be by your
local wine shop or that person might be sick that day, duh duh duh duh. I think the best move in
lieu of the wine person is to try a different
varietal every time you go. By recognizing that trying a
gewurtztraminer or a marson or a russon or a lirac, or a (mumbles) or a lagrein, cornas. Trying these different things, (mumbles) trying new stuff is
always a great way to go. You’re scared that you’re gonna
try something you don’t like but again it’s really no
different than the advice I just gave about Facebook video. When you haven’t tried
something you can’t judge it. Got it? The value of trying something
and creating the context, content is king, context is
god something I love to say. This is another version of it. You got to try new stuff so, build a relationship. Steve you know my pal
at whaddayou got today? Oh weird you’re recommending a pinotage from South Africa cool I’ll try it. But no Steve, he’s sick today? Try something, oh I’ve never
had anything from Lodi before. Or I’ve disregarded buttery
chardonnays for five years. Let me try another one just
to see where my palate is and where those chards are
in California these days. So mix it up. – I wouldn’t recommend you a pinotage.

“I’ve been in sales for over
20 years and I’ve excelled at “being able to read
people’s body language. “But how do you do that over the Internet “or on Social Media?” – Todd, first of all, India, you’re crushing this episode, or maybe you VaynerNation,
actually forget you, India, you VaynerNation are
crushing this episode with the questions. The truth is I love this question. I love it because I’m
freaked out by the answer. And look, this falls very
much into bravado and ego, but that’s part of me too. I’ve been blown away by my
ability to make that transition. I too, did everything the way you did. I stood on a floor, I watched, I read. I do it all the time. It’s why I love Q an A, it’s why I love public speaking, it’s why I don’t have a set presentation. I’m reading the room in real time. I’m reading my staff. It’s how I scale my
ability to read at scale. Like walking through the
12th floor and be like, that person’s in trouble. It’s weird, kind of like I don’t
even like talking about it. It’s like a really nice
innate skill that has helped me scale my personality. I, for some reason, feel
those feelings in people’s comments and tweets. Now, maybe it took me a long
time to get the cadence. Of course, there’s been times
where I’ve maybe read into it wrong because context and tone is lost, but I’ve go to tell you, my intuition is if you go
hardcore in trying to do that through Twitter, through
your Facebook comments on your posts, and this is more about me
reading people responding to my stuff so maybe I know where
the North Star starts, but it’s been stunning to me
that exactly what I’ve done in the real world is how I
scaled Twitter, specifically, in being able to read people’s emotions and asking for clarity. Maybe in the real world, my man, we don’t ask for clarity. I won’t say DRock, are you feeling, oh you’re feeling uneasy
about this wine, cool, let’s go in a different direction. Maybe I have to ask that
a little bit more tangibly black and white in a
conversation on digital, but it’s the same effort, same mentality, and the beauty is emojis
and short form and slang have given more context around
the written word online. We, as human beings, are great at communicating. People grossly underestimate our ability to be communicators. Whether drawing on caves
or making smoke signals or radio television, the written word, the Internet, commenting, emojis, we’re talented at this. I’m watching all of us evolve. Very many of us, many of you
who have been romantic about grammar, have finally let it go. All of us are misspelling words on purpose so it auto-corrects, because we value the speed. We’re using emojis, not only 13 year olds
or just people in Asia, now it is a worldwide phenomenon. We’re evolving and we’re great at it, so I look for those cues
and keep trying to evolve and stay ahead of where I
think we’re all evolving to. – Hey Gary, Ryan here
from onproperty.com.au,

“that giving away some
of my best work for free “might mean others perceiving
it as less valuable. “Is this a true risk, “or is this where the right
hook balances it all out?” – Carlo, this is a solid question. You know, I think at some level, there is a risk about giving
away your best work for free. For me, that’s been the
gateway drug at some level, because I think best
work needs to be defined. It depends on what your work is. For example, I’m blown away by people who don’t realize that their best advice is exactly what you
should give away for free, because if you’re in the
selling-advice business, you really need to give contextual advice. So I can theoretically talk
about Snapchat being important, but then when I meet the tire company, we have to formulate it to
work within that context, and so that advice is
then gonna be specific. If you’re a painter, and your best work is the
greatest painting you ever made, and then you gave it away for free, that’s maybe a little
bit of a different game. But if you strategically gave it away, like to a very important museum, or to a very important billionaire, that puts it in the
prime spot in their home, could that then become the gateway? The problem is, with this question and this debate, is that when you are
doing something for free, it needs to be strategic, because what you’re looking to do by giving something for
free, is to create leverage, to then do something that is not for free. And so, you know, DRock
could’ve made a video for a bunch of different characters, and maybe it wouldn’t have
panned out to have the ROI that he received by doing
a video for me for free. And so, I think that often times, people look at this as
a blanket statement. To me, all the good stuff
I give away for free has strategic purpose. I understand why I’m doing it, and that’s why it becomes
so much easier to do, even though I don’t always expect the outcome of that action. And I think that becomes the big part. Way too many people do things for free, give away their best work for free, and then expect this windfall behind it, and when it’s not delivered,
they become disappointed, and within that disappointment, they don’t follow up, and do it again, and make it a replicable action, which has more upside in
three out of five times, where it brings value. You focused on the two out of five, and that kinda squashed you, so that’s my answer. – [Voiceover] Darth Bill asks,
“Should a new small business

of online courses, I see
this usurping traditional institutions of education in a big way. Do you see this happening? And is there money to be made?” – What’s up, Fireboy? Quick
answer to this question is yes. You know, yes. Uber, Airbnb, Skillshare, that’s probably one of the
ones you’re talking about. There’s a bunch out– Chase Jarvis is behind one. Yes. I absolutely believe– Khan Academy, the fact that when I’m trying to learn something, I
go to YouTube and search a how-to and watch a
one minute how-to video. Information as education is a commodity, the Internet has created that platform for us to learn that way. I don’t need a teacher, as
charismatic as they may be, to just tell me the information,
what matters are opinions, interpretations, context,
not the base information. So even here, my base information is fine. How I layer the context
of the current world is far more interesting. So I
think education is massively going to be disrupted
over the next 20 years, and I think you’re
barking up the right tree.

“relevance to the funeral
business industry?” – Columbia, great question. This was a fun one. India, you’re dark. Because India was like,
pumped for this question. I assume you’re talking
the funeral home business. Ironically, I’ve addressed
this in other places, either in a blog post or a public speech. This is an industry I’m fascinated by. I once gave the recommendation to somebody in the funeral business to become the number one flower
content site on the Internet, because that was the connection
to something positive that I could make, and it was
a really really interesting, you know, back to
everybody’s a media company, you guys have heard my spiel on this. If you haven’t, Google it around. I think companies should
become media companies and play in sections that are
related to their industry. If you’re a funeral
home, you can’t start a reviewing other funeral homes business, you have vested interest,
but something like flowers is an interesting
gateway to that business. You know, look. I’m gonna use your question as it ended, which is innovation is what awakes sleepy gray-haired industries. I came along in the wine world. That was a very pretentious, very this, very look down on, very gray haired. Wine experts were 60 year old dudes. They definitely weren’t 25
year old Jet fans from Jersey, and so I came in there and I innovated. First it was launching
a dot com site in 1996. Later it was doing a YouTube show less than a year after YouTube came out around the subject. The way you wake up an industry is by innovating. Looking at things like Snapchat, looking at things like smart technology and augmented reality and Pinterest and things of that nature, and so obviously, it sounds like you’re
in a very sensitive space. You’ve got to be careful. Obviously death is at the height
of emotion in our society. One thing I’ve been spending
a lot of weird zen time on is we don’t know how to
die gracefully in America. I’m very fascinated by that, meaning we fight and like medicine
ourselves up so intensely. I’m getting on a little bit of a tangent, but I get it, because boy, out
of all the passions I have, the number one core passion I have is I do not want to die, and it is not even a
remotely close second. Fuck the Jets and everything else. That is my number one passion. So I get it, so I would
say navigate carefully based on the question, but
to go on a higher level of waking up a gray haired industry, disrespect the gray haired industry. Understand your history, understand it, but don’t respect it to a fault. Get it? – [Voiceover] Kobus asks, “What
would be your top three tips

– Gary, is the high-end wine
business just a complete hoax? (laughter) Does anyone actually ever taste the oak? What does oak taste like? – That’s a great question, Steph. Is it a hoax? It’s as much of a hoax
as the art world is, it’s as much of a hoax
as a high-end restaurant that charges, you know, $10,000 a head for a once-in-a-lifetime meal. It is the classic example of
supply and demand, my dear. And coming from a, you know,
business-oriented TV show and living in the world that you’re in, is a stock price a hoax? The answer is, yes and no. To me, it’s not a hoax, because
I live a very basic life of supply and demand. I think when I get paid to
speak onstage is a hoax, and I did for awhile until I
realized, well, not really, because I’m compensated for
what I do for that event. And so, you know, does an actor who gets
paid $8 million for a movie but never gets brought
up, like an athlete, for being overpaid, is that a hoax? Yes and no. When you start understanding that actor brings people into the theater, or makes people watch, and then they sell advertising against it. It’s all an arbitrage. And so the wine world,
back to the basic question, can you taste differences in wine? Absolutely. I live it. I mean, I can taste the difference between an $80 wine and a
$10 wine pretty consistently. Can I taste the difference
between the $1000 wine and a $500 wine, or a $1000 wine and a $100 wine? A lot of times, no. The beauty of wine is,
everybody’s got their own palette, back to art or music, right? Is it a hoax that an EDM DJ gets a ton of people
into a place in Sweden? For me, well, actually,
I’ve gotten more into EDM, but, like, theoretically it is. But, you know, and that’s it. It’s brand, it’s supply and demand, it’s how the game works, and so the answer is, I
don’t think it’s a hoax, but if you’re watching this show right now and you don’t appreciate the game, so here’s a good piece of advice, let’s get into real good advice. Don’t drink good wine. Let me say that one more time. Don’t put yourself in a position to understand why it’s not a hoax. Don’t sit first class, because then you realize it’s not a hoax, because you like it better
than the middle seat in coach. Don’t get front-row seats to a ballgame, then you understand that it’s not a hoax compared to sitting in the upper deck. It’s context, baby. And so the bottom line
– that made me happy. (laughter) The bottom line is, it’s all perspective, it’s all supply and demand, but that’s what it comes down to, you start understanding why these things fetch the
dollar amounts they fetch when you actually taste it, versus you theoretically
complain about it. – [Voiceover] Cédric asks, “How do you not procrastinate that well?”

“is 100% built before putting out content “or put out content
while I’m building it?” – Alan, there’s dude by
the name of Tommy Mottola, Google him up, who once
said something to me in a private meeting. He said, “I never let any
of my artists go on TV “until I was selling something,” and his notion was until the CD was out, which is his world, why
would I put Mariah on TV. If she was a week early and
the girl that got inspired, or guy, couldn’t run to
Virgin Megastore and get it, well that was a wasted opportunity and I’m a big believer in that. The only thing I wanted, so the answer is I would wait, but I want to
context this for everybody. My question is what’s the objective. If the objective is to put
out content that drives to the website but then gets people to sign up for something, buy
something, do something, if you’re able to execute
the business objective outside of the website,
I would do that now because you’re building
up storytelling and leverage and equity that later you can drive to your website. It feels like you’re wasting time and missing the opportunity. That’s a big problem I
have with a lot of people. They theoretically believe in a process when you can … I think that a lot of brands should be monetizing their social media content and a lot of them are trying
to use social media content to drive to a website where
they’re selling banner ads and I just think they
should be selling against the impressions of getting in social because it’s the same game. They’ve made a religious
and historical belief that they need to sell to the dotcom. I’m worried you’re doing the same thing, so my answer to you very simply is the way you’re going to make your money, the reason you’re doing it,
whatever you’re trying to do, if you’re able to do that through content in its native space and
not drive to a dotcom, then do it there. Even when you have the website, I would practice doing it there. – [Voiceover] Elliott asks,
” How would you recommend “looking for a co-founder?”