“to sacrifice your ethics
for a business win?” – Thomas, this is a great question. As you know, it’s because
of the #AskGaryVee Show and how busy I’ve been, I
haven’t been answering a lot of the #AskGaryVee, if any,
of the #AskGaryVee questions as they come through my Twitter feed. But I answered that one pretty damn quick. India, give me the call on
how fast I responded to that, in minutes or days. – [India] Looks like less than… – Less than a couple minutes, good. And the answer was a big, fat no. And by the way, I’m gonna break this down into an interesting place. So it’s not only no because
I wanna live a noble life and be a good dude and
like ethics matter to me, and my legacy. I think everybody who
knows me, knows my legacy. I’m obsessed with my legacy. Over the currency. So that would be that factor. But it’s also because I actually think it’s practically the right thing. I’m a big fan, right of the slower-hedged money. I feel like I make more money
if I don’t grasp at the money that’s in front of me and so
one of the biggest reasons I won’t break my ethics is,
if I do break my ethics, the people that I’m building
around me would see that. You know, my assistants
see everything that I do. They’ve complete ac– Steve, you access to my inbox?
– [Steve] I do. – Steve has full access to my inbox. If he sees, you know, it’s
hard to do anything now not documented. If I do something that breaks… At this point he as a good
sense of what my morals are and how I roll. He would, if he saw me do something, even if it didn’t have
anything to do with his world or the stuff that we do together, that breaks that compass, he would then have to question everything that I’ve established with
him as a moral compass. Which would then lose
the trust that we have. Which would then slow us down in all the speed that I value the most. It’s speed. The fact that this whole team here, and this whole collective team here and you as a team here don’t have to, once you get to know me. Once I can get over that hump. Don’t have to then question anything from a moral or emotional standpoint, it adds to the speed of everything. That’s what a great culture is. It’s speed. You’re not spending the 15
minutes a day bickering. You’re not spending the four hours a day wondering if that person’s
trying to ruin you. You’re not doing those things
which then lets you go fast. And fast, fast, my friends
is the oxygen of winning the big, fast, important game. See it’s even a game called fast. You have to be fast. (laughs) So for me, it’s really
important that everything breaks the second I make that kind of decision. And there’s just not enough money. I mean, I guess there’s enough money, everybody has a price. (inhales deeply) A trillion? (laughs) A trillion would feel– and you know what’s even funny? It’s funny, even if Zach came
out of my mouth, I don’t know, I don’t know, I’m gonna end up, I’m gonna end up leaving a
lot of money on the table in my life because that’s
not the way I score myself. I score myself on number
amount of people– The matrix of the number amount of people that come to my funeral
and the business success that I was able to create. I’d be lying if was just about everybody showing up to my funeral but then I was like, didn’t
win in this game that I played, scored in business growth,
dollars, all the things, the game But a hefty push to that funeral number. Again, recently,
unfortunately in a tech space we had a beloved character pass away of CEO of Survey Monkey
that a lot of people knew. A lot of my friends knew him really well. I didn’t really know him
well but it was interesting how I was affected by it
just watching the outpouring of what kind of a mensch, what kind of a great human being he was. I’d be lying if I didn’t say,
“Wow, that’s a little bit of a preview of what I
want at scale as well.” And so, you know it’s funny, I literally said a trillion and I’m taking it back. I just can’t go there. It’s just not the way I want
people talking about me. – [India] That’s it.

– [Voiceover] Dr. Julie
asks, “As VaynerMedia “continues to grow, what is the one thing “the company has done to
keep the culture hungry?” – Doc, everything stems from the top. My hunger level is so
intense it’s crippling, and so, because of that, the
culture continues to be hungry because I will suffocate the culture to allow nothing else to creep in. No complacency, no
celebrating the victories allows you to stay really damn hungry. We’ve haven’t accomplished shit yet, and so, yeah, we’re the fastest growing social digital agency ever, and yeah, we’re unstoppable, and
we’re great and all this, but we haven’t done anything that I’d like to accomplish yet, which is, I don’t know, to
win the whole goddamn game. To make every single client,
every single employee, every single agency in the game recognize we are the best
and it’s disrespectful to even allow yourself to think
that you can compete with us and so you should really
focus on being number two. Does that answer your question?

“what is the best solution for
documenting policy, procedure “and process so all are on the same page?” – Jeremy, I hate this question
for a couple of reasons. You know, it’s interesting. I’m gonna piggy-back off
the last statement here, which is, to me, this is
a defense question, right? This is a bottom 10 percent question. – Yeah. – There is no business on earth that won because they had a tight
handbook situation, right? So, for me, I mean, unless
you’re talking about liabilities on a legal level, you know. GE should worry about that to some degree because of the level of lawsuits. and by the way, they
have 400,000 employees, and there’s probably 8,000
lawyers, there’s people to do it, but a company of 500 people. India, they’re not gonna hear
this, but you prepped them, like how we have a handbook here and nobody really knows about it. I mean, this is a 500 person,
and it’s still a baby, like that is something
that I think you need to be worrying about at your– – Yeah, forget documentation,
have a culture. Over here has a culture. And as soon as you’re documenting things, you’re wasting everyone’s
time, it becomes a bureaucracy, all that matters are your
values and your culture. Make sure they’re being lived, and you don’t have to document anything. – But everybody has to
know where you’re going, why you’re going there, and
how you’re gonna get there. – Well, that’s leadership, right? – And that is the job that– – That’s my job. – That’s yours, and the
people that work for you, and cascading down. But everybody’s gotta know the mission, they gotta know how they’re
gonna do it with behaviors, and then they’ve gotta be, and what are the consequences of getting there? – There’s another thing that I think people need to understand. And by the way, this is
gonna get very Vaynerized, and India, you’ll enjoy this. And everybody here. As I started bringing
in more senior people, they wanted to bring in
more of these things. And I made them understand, I’m like, “Look, you don’t understand. “We’re still this entrepreneurial engine.” And if somebody comes into this company and they’re so worried about the handbook, and so worried about
reviews, and so worried about all these things, I
don’t want them here now. Not that they’re bad, but they’re not the right players at this time. I was the best player on my
fourth-grade baseball team. There’s not a single
baseball team in America in Major League baseball
that needs me on their team. So, I was the right player for that time, but then as everybody
got much bigger than me, I became not so much. And so we now need different people that maybe care about some of those things as we continue to grow,
but not at that time. So the other thing here
is, the right employee at the right time, at the
right age of the company.

– [Voiceover] Matthew
asks, “Are you worried “you might have created a Steve Jobs-esque “reality distortion
field at VaynerMedia?” – Matthew, first and foremost, I’m massively flattered by this question. I don’t even know how
else to really take it other than, you know, my
ego is very happy with you. I guess not, mainly because, and I didn’t know Steve,
and I knew a lot of people that knew him, but everything’s hearsay. My intuition tells me
that I’m dramatically more a people person and maybe, you know, the answer’s fully no. Do I think that people at VaynerMedia drink the VaynerMedia Kool-Aid and their friends and relatives tell them that they’re drinking the
VaynerMedia Kool-Aid? I do because they tell me
those stories every day. But, you know, look, I mean, is there
times where I realize that if I was a little
more dark and a little bit more of a bad guy that I
could have created a cult and it could have been real negative? I do. But I guess at the end of the day the reason I feel really okay
is I know what my intent is, and I think what matters is if
you know what your intent is, you’re not fearful of that. If I am creating some distortion amongst my employees and my friend base that consumes my content, I think it’s gonna be all for good. I mean, that’s a very, you know. It’s not like, “Ha ha ha,
I’ve got them all tricked “and I’m gonna make 51
cents on every dollar,” it’s, “Holy crap, if I
have them all tricked “I’m gonna make 49 cents on every dollar.” Got it? And that’s a big difference, man. Those two cents? That’s a big difference. That two cents is the whole difference, and so the answer is, I’m flattered, maybe, I don’t think so, and if it’s happening, I
think everybody’s gonna win.

I just wanted to say thanks
so much for doing your show. It’s been the number
one inspiration for me starting my own daily video show at shawnwest.tv. – I like the hustle.
– My question is – hustle something that can be taught, because you’re probably
the only person I know that out-hustles me, and I want to help other people get that,
but do you think hustle is something you either have or you don’t? – Man, these are tough, this
is a tough question day, jeez. You know, I do think
work ethic is a trait. I think hustle is
something you’re born with, but I do think the hustle
meter is fundamentally effected by who you’re doing it for. So it’s really easy to
hustle for yourself. So if you’re a solopreneur, super easy, you will be 100% the highest hustle that you are capable of within your DNA. When you work for somebody else, you know, I think the hustle meter is completely predicated
on how inspired you are and how protected you
feel for that leader, for her or for him and the
organization they work for. I truly believe that the
people that work for me hustle way harder because I
instill trust and protection and I set a high standard for it, and then thus I am able
to get them to a place where they do hustle harder
by the context and the culture from within, but they do it
selfishly for themselves first and then equally, because
they don’t want to let me down or they want to grow up in a meritocracy where they know they can grow, but that’s a selfish play. I think there is a level of hustle that ultimately is predicated on your DNA, and then, and then I think that at some level it’s the context of the game you’re playing, right? I’m blown away by how many
people on my own team here hustle harder working
for me than a lot of my entrepreneurial friends
working for themselves, and that, to me, is fascinating. I think that comes from motivation, and so the level of motivation
you have from within yourself and the level of motivation you get from outside sources,
whether it’s an individual, an organization, some other variable, you want to stick it to your dad who said you were never going to be anything, or the other way, you want to fulfill what your mom told you
you were capable of, the neighborhood you came from, there’s just so many
interesting variables. I’ve been thinking about writing a book called “I Wish Everyone Was an Immigrant.” It’s insane, it’s insane
how motivated I am from coming from zippo,
and I didn’t even come from as much zippo as my parents did when they were first here, but I tasted those early days, and
it’s a level of taste that I know AJ doesn’t have. Not that he can’t be more motivated, but that happens to be
one of my motivators that is not one of his motivators. Maybe one of his motivators is to stick it to the world and tell them that he’s better than his brother. It could be a million different things. They’re all fascinating. I think that you are, I think that you are born with some level of it, but I absolutely think this
is a nature, nurture game where circumstances, look,
you may get motivated by something horrible
that happens in your life and I don’t want to go dark, but you know, we’ve gone dark in the past. You know, like, everybody
in your family dies on a family vacation
that you didn’t go to. You are now motivated in a different way or you’re crumbled by that. So it’s your inner strength
and makeup and infrastructure. I’ve been fascinated
by watching my friends watch my other friends become billionaires over the last five years, and some of them have been motivated, and
some of them pushed back. It’s like being the child
of a very successful person. You either try to trump your moms or pops, or you go so far away from
it you want to go, like, fish in the Amazon for
the rest of your life, and I’m fascinated by that, and so I think that’s DNA, and then
there’s the circumstances that wrap around it.

– [Voiceover] Christopher
asks, “What are your thoughts “on employing friends?” – Christoper, this is a great question for a lot of people who watch my stuff. They make that connection on
the family business thing. I get enormous amounts
of, excuse me, email from people that are
the sons and daughters of business owners because
they knew my narrative now that I’m running Vayner with AJ, I’m getting some more
brother and sister stuff, and I’m getting a little older. I’m even getting some of the perspective from the dads and the moms. I have employed friends at both Wine Library and VaynerMedia. VaynerMedia was started with
five of AJ’s dear friends that I think the number
one advice I’d say is you should absolutely. I’m emphatic about this, and you guys know I’m big on, you know,
do what works for you, but I’m a huge fan of hiring friends, especially early on, to establish culture, to have those teammates in the trenches, especially if you’re willing
to practice meritocracy. So the key to friends is that,
here we are five years later, and AJ’s five to six high
school and college friends that started the company with us are in different places
within the organization and not really treated any
differently at the highest levels than anybody else, and very honestly, I hope they’re not listening
or watching the show, they may even be treated
slightly harder and worse than everybody else because
I’m so sensitive to it in the other direction. I expect the six of you not
to hit me up for a raise. I think that I’m a big fan of it. I recommend it. It is risky. I have fired my friends in the past. Brandon was my best friend growing up. He runs Wine Library. Risky. You know, it really comes
down to, here’s my belief. My belief is very simple. If you loose a friendship
from somebody working for you and not working out and
you having to fire them or them leaving, then your friendship wasn’t as strong as you thought. That’s the bottom line.

– [Voiceover] Elisha asks,
“the dress-code at Vayner is clearly casual, do you think dress affects professionalism or performance? – That’s a really solid question,
the answer is very deep, the answer is no. I think
that dress does not impact the performance or professionalism. I know that some people disagree with me, I think those people are
going to lose, period. – [Voiceover] Charles asks,
“is the #AskGaryVee show

– Hey Gary. Miles Keever with HappyHumanoids.com. In episode 49, you were asked a question about high-end wine
business and was it a hoax. Now, I thought your answer
was brilliant and profound. So profound that I checked
out and I began observing your staff members behind you. Lots of them are standing without chairs, and when you asked Lou to go get DeMayo, somebody snatched his
chair out of the way. Do you have a set up in your community? A way to keep the competitive edge going by not having enough chairs? – First of all, who’s Lou? – [Man] Little Lou! – Oh, Little Lou! You’re right. I literally think of him as Little Lou. This question is so perfect for episode 50 because I’m so devastated that I’m not limiting chairs on purpose to create a competitive culture, so the answer is no. I haven’t created that on purpose, but yes, yes, yes, do I wish I did. I love the thesis behind it. I think it’s a phenomenal observation. I desperately wish it was true. And I will say this, I don’t have any hardcore tactics to create competitiveness. And as a matter of fact, one of the biggest things that I really value is that a lot of the senior people that have been coming into VaynerMedia say this is the first
agency they’d ever worked in that people are competitive
because they wanna do great work but not at the cost of their
other employees around them which means we’re building real culture. It excites me and it’s something that I strive for. But I do think everything
stems from the top, and I don’t know how I do it, but boy, do I know I breed
competitiveness here, because I’m competitive as (bleep). – [Voiceover] Terri says,

– [Voiceover] Sean asks,
“How do you instill “soul and swagger into a
physical product you create?” – Sean, this question is
phenomenal for so many reasons. One: The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I met with a bunch of new
employees at VaynerMedia, and so many of them
talked about this notion of loving it here three months in because that’s usually
when I see somebody, two to three months in. They’re blown away by how
competitive and great everybody is but not at the expense of others. Whereas every other agency they worked, you know, you’re killing each
other politically to move up. You’re like climbing the
dead bodies to the top. And they’re caught off guard by what we have here. My answer to them is,
“Everything stems from the top.” And I really believe that. I’ve said four or five times on this show, “Everything that is wrong at
VaynerMedia is 100% my fault “because I’m the guy.” And I’m empowering Steve
if things are screwed up or anybody else behind me, and so I have a very big belief
in what I’m about to say, which is products take the
byproduct of its leader. So if she has got swag and flavor, then her product is gonna
have swag and flavor. I truly believe that
physical products, right, that physical products
take the personality of the people that are dictating it, that literally, in essence,
the soul, the swag, the vibe, the DNA, is
extracted out of the person and put into the product. And I’ve seen it 100 times because I think when you pay attention, a lot of brands change, and ebb and flow, and a lot of times that
coincides with the CEO, the CMO, the people really dictating the product’s course. You’re making decisions. Humans are the variable. This doesn’t come alive; it’s the people behind
it that instill that. So the answer to your question is the humans behind the
product dictate its outcome, period, end of story. I truly, truly, truly believe in that. Question of the day: I’m gonna ask Steve to ask
the question of the day.

– Hey, Aimee. – My question is the following. What’s the most important
thing you’ve learned while growing your company at VaynerMedia from East Coast to West Coast, and how does a company successfully scale? – You know, thanks Aimee. You know, it’s funny, I never
opened a second Wine Library so opening a second
office in San Francisco and a third in L.A. has been
a new phenomenon for me. And quite honestly,
there’s challenges in it. You know, obviously I
wanna be everywhere, right. And that matters so much, but look, even at VaynerMedia I’m not sure the last time I’ve been on the 15th floor. Everybody’s asking for an
episode of the 15th floor. I don’t remember, I haven’t
been on the 15th floor in a week, in a month, excuse me. It’s a challenge when
you’re one human being and so for me so much of it is high touch and kinda the way I wanna scale. Aimee, to answer your second part, how do you scale a company? I actually think you scale a company by doing unscalable things. Because I really believe you have to know your business. So at Wine Library I didn’t
need a lot of people, and it was about selling wine. Thus it was a different company. Here, we sell people. We sell our hours against a scope and our thinking and
so all I got is people. And so for me, scaling this company has been doing everything
that’s unscalable. Which is sitting down
and mentoring one by one spending as much time as I can. And trying to empower
people to feel comfortable with coming to me. Now, starting to build
out an H.R. department after a nine month search. Finding Minnie and
saying, this is a person I’m willing to build and
has the natural nuisances to build the culture and the H.R. and E.Q. that I want for this organization. And then having people
that have been with you for three and a half years, you can show Emily
again, and you can wave, and so moving her into to H.R. department as you just heard earlier. So Aimee, for me scaling
this company because I know. Look everybody who has a
business has to understand what business they’re building. And no matter what you do,
it’s always about people. When you’re an agency or client services, it’s extreme people which is so, for me the way to really scale it has been deeply entrenching myself into the people that work with me, for me, along side me, and that’s very important to me. Um, the West Coast
offices dynamic, you know, Alena, if you’re watching
more Skpye sessions. You know how I feel about that. It’s more communication, communication is the backbone of this whole execution and so more time, more physical time. Something Lizzie and I are speaking about. How much time I’m gonna
spend on the West Coast in 15 and 16 is a big commitment to me. So just hacking, hacking away at the thing that matters the most which is do I have a
relationship with all 400 people. And when it’s 4,000 people,
do I have a relationship with all 4,000 people. And I understand the
cynicism that one could have listening to that answer. Like how could you possibly have that? And the way you have it is by having a relationship with the first 40 people. Then having it with the next 400 people. Because the stunning amount of some of the people in this room, and some of the people outside this room, and in San Francisco and L.A., the stunning amount of people that now help me scale, because when somebody struggling or screw this
place, or I don’t believe Gary, they’re quick to jump
in and tell 400 stories about why it’s the other way which then gives that person the ammo to maybe jump in and
relook at the situation a different way, and that can. I always say the truth
is undefeated. Right? And so, for me scaling it is by, by delivering for your teammates.