industry is the high turnover normal
high turnover my industry agency life is because most companies are owned by
holding companies who are required so there’s four major holding companies and
advertising they’d consolidated bought up all the agencies in the DS big
billion dollar conglomerate said I don’t know everything about excitement I
really studied it but they’re big holding companies which tell companies
like being a media Greek companies like 72 and sunny great deal shop and TV shop
like 05 just got celebrate company these great couple 360 I carried out by Vice
thrown by holding companies who tell their CEOs got you know usually the guy
or gal that looks like me that’s all the company for a lot of money to get up
front but it turned out and then you’re locked in because have your money is
going to come after four years ago to keep the job golden handcuffs cool if
you don’t know what I mean and so they tell them you have to run
your company in a 27 percent gross margin or 23% course you know if I had
to do that tomorrow because I want to be cash out at least 500 people and then
what happens is the inevitable thing that looks like this you know you have a
superstar youngster that’s growing up within the organization and you guys are
so many have gone from you know making very little to making more and more and
more right you never really don’t promote them for a year or two because
he can’t afford to be the only rule is you gotta make 23.7% gross profit the
only rule and so there isn’t a huge turnover is because the best people
don’t get compensated fast enough nobodies who r up nobody who is running
the company has long-term ambitions because they’re they’ve already sold out
and their only try to stay there for three or four more years and maximize
their bonuses and their money so they’re making the decision and said anything
like everything stems from top 20 we see on the show and why said yesterday from
the whole company everything is my fault and that’s true in these scenarios and
so is it company I’m able to do what I’m doing
cause I want to build an evergreen company for ever and so I’m able to
treat I’m able to deploy meritocracy and if that comes at my expense it comes in
my short-term expense but fifteen years from now out of happiness and financial
win so that’s why that’s happening and the work done so because they don’t want
to pay because they run a margin they do a lot of things they don’t compensate
people probably they leave they burn good people to the ground you know you know what goes on here i
mean you’re in the trenches it’s something that a hardcore account that
stop you know we should get them out of there a year later cause I’m just dying
but those companies don’t usually do that because they just need to maximize
and it’s actually incentivize to let you quit like for less and you know so that
so the question was normal because most of the most of the companies are victim
again that creates a scenario for high turnover and so in general I’m trying to
push you guys hundred-to-one episodes deep have you been along the rider 28
percent or visit our first episode the concept of the show is to always
level of the thinking around business and entrepreneurship this is an insult
to why it happens right everything stems for top always and forever I promise you
your manager who suck scrap the fault of that situation is the CEO always been
the CEO says it’s useful but question of do you like your CEO you keep asking
questions keep answering what we doing

“on today’s Tiwtter
executive ‘exodus’ news?” – Rochell, I think
there’s, I think that… So I asked for this
question to be on the show because I wanna teach
everything about optics. Meaning, when a new CEO
comes in and then there’s this “huge exodus,” a lot of
times it means the new CEO has brought in the people that they want. And they’re respecting
people and letting them leave on their terms. I don’t see, or these
people actually don’t believe in Jack’s vision. My intutition is, based
on Twitter’s track record over the last three to four
years, and I love Dick Cusam, one of my best buds in business
and I saw him recently, but results are results,
meaning it didn’t go good enough for him not to be excited
about the guy who invented it to be back in place,
though you might not like his personality, things of
that nature, but I hate when the media’s like,
everything is so negative. Like when I buy a company,
and become a CEO of it, because that will happen
in my career, and there’s an exodus, becaue big shot Gary is coming, let me promise you, anybody
that I wanted to keep would have stayed, because
I would convince them that I’m coming to do nothing but good. And maybe three or four
just wouldn’t see it, or they were best buds
with the former CEO, or they’re just tired. But please don’t get
caught up in the hyperbole of there’s a new CEO, we’re
still witihin the year of that new CEO, this is
common business stuff, period. Like, this is what always
happens, so you don’t know if they were forced out or
they were left on their own, I don’t know, even though
I’m close to a lot of the people involved. Because when I read those
headlines, I poo poo them because I am an actual operator. I’m not confused by them, I
know what real business is. Jack’s come in, he’s got a
different plan, some pieces fit for that, some don’t,
some people he might have wanted to fit for that, decided
they don’t fit for that, it’s just real life, it’s
not some huge conspiracy. I think that’s what I think. Like that’s what it is, I
just wanted to answer this question because I’m
stunned by how many people just accept very basic
narratives, when if you live it you know the real details
underneath, just like you know anything that’s in your world. My world is business, you know the real, I read headlines, I’m
like “oh,” you’re like “no, that’s what really happened.” Just like we’ve gotten
cynical to “leave of absence.” Did you see “Spotlight?”
– No. – Okay, it was about the priest
that did sexual harassment. – Oh yeah, I heard about it. – Their official, when
they were doing bad things was they got relocated on
assignment, or “sick leave.” “Sick leave.” So this “exodus” may
be on strategy, get it? Question of the day, actually educate me.

relationships to your social media and
you should do the same for customers and employees to follow many of your
employees and like comment on their personal content traditional management
which they know what they eat I follow is laughing when employees like were
closer we get to spend more time but obviously places imagine that it may be
entering the CD for four months and then I’ll show up on her Instagram and say
yeah and looked like her and her boyfriend you like this the creepiest
shit about type look I’m not following any company you because I’m not scared
of being sued because I we believe in my life that intent trumps everything like
you can sue on anything you like anything at anytime about anything I’m
so so the answer is held i sees the end what he say how does this say what is it
he says that that I watch a lot of the content of the ones putting on a
reference Lego India’s putting up like ok but does it look nice picture looks
something like you like lately nonetheless like I’m seeing what
everybody’s doing and there’s a lot to see it as funny stuff but don’t get a
public domain right like you know on Instagram they have to accept me if they
want to follow me like I don’t feel like I’m intruding because it’s the rules of
the game I’m watching I’m watching this I want to know them better to bring them
more my intent is to follow so I can make it better for them not show up on
your fired you drink beer too late at night intent is what trumps everything and
then I engagement coming from a good place and they get pumped like a lot of
employees are happy when I engage cause I think it’s cool and like my bosses you
know like you know to me like so I just think intention so yes I follow yes I
engage i dont give you a lot because I do have respect for like everybody views
these things definitely some tribes smart I don’t think anybody
uncomfortable but my intent is pure is sure you know what I want to be good I’m
doing it for good and so I’m not scared executives income companies are bad
often they don’t care about the employees of their intent is bad hey we need to cut fifty people from
payroll this year we let swallow people’s social and blame them for blood
that’s what happens when things going on that’s going on but not everywhere but
that’s that’s in can’t do anything you want like you know companies are highly
regulated Pharma financial they’re scared of the government’s suing them
stood up mad at the cut employees they’re just doing governance so that
they don’t become exposed as the company so I understand why I have letter of
intent if you are a financial service and your monitoring your people and your
not letting them use social media because the government makes you feel
that you’ll be fined for doing something that’s not intended to bad just protect
that got it but don’t look at a tactics freely back to the intent wright also do
anything ok but your police might not be not
awesome it might be more vulnerable things maybe our CEOs also scared of
those kind of maybe but up massively bored one day my
career I take a step back and change and 10th always changing Ask Gary are you more of a delegator or
micro manager can’t wait for the UK book

“with employees that slack
off, but are super talented? “Keep or fire?” – Mmmm. I deal with them the same way I deal with any kind of employee. Super hard worker, but maybe
slightly under-talented. In between on both fronts. Every situation in life,
let alone employees, only can be solved when
you believe there’s issues, and you have the luxury
and the responsibility. And let me say that one more time, when you have the luxury
and the responsibility of being the judge and the jury. The pressure and the onus is on you. I truly, truly, truly believe
that if there’s an employee at Vayner Media, and
there are some, plenty, no, not plenty, that’s not fair, there are some that are highly talented and are under-performing,
that it’s my fault. We haven’t created the infrastructure for allowing them to shine. Their bosses are not clicking with them, and so that’s not motivating them. We haven’t asked the right questions of the kind of interests they have. We serendipitously, you
know, the serendipity of what accounts they’ve been on. Tim how many different
accounts have you been on in your career? – Oh gosh, at least twelve. – And of those twelve, I would assume that some are more exciting than others? – Oh yeah, definitely. – Yeah, and that’s just real, right? There’s so much serendipity,
different bosses that you get, people move around, team
mates, things of that nature. And so, you know, I think
the way I deal with it is communication. You know, I have a full slate today, it’s the last kind of in-the-office day, I have a lot of meetings
I’m trying to get in. 10, five, 10, 10, five,
10 minute meetings. And a lot of the conversation
will be around that. And so I think it’s communication. You know, it’s like, hey, Rick, you know I think you’ve got
talent oozing out of your eyes, you’re clearly not
delivering on the hustle, which is an important variable here. What am I doing wrong? What is Vayner doing wrong? Instead of saying, Rick,
you’re lazy, you suck. You have to put the onus on you. When you’re a leader, when you’re a CEO, when you’re the organization, it’s on you. You’re creating the rules of the game. If you don’t like how
it’s played, change it.

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

“You’ve joked about being overstaffed, “but what’s the balance between hiring “for capacity and waste?” – Tim, that’s a great question. For all of you that are growing quickly, I think one of the things
I take the most pride in is my ability to have a
pulse on my organization from a sales top-line revenue impact, and on the bottom-line cost thing. I think I grow businesses way faster. I do believe that if I end up
operating two more businesses, if I have four businesses
in my career before I die, that I’ve hypergrown, I
have two now in my bag, like, really fast, like,
all-time, like, really, especially non-technology
companies, really fast, I will be known, I mean,
I actually think my legacy as an operator could be speed to victory. I think what I’m really good
at is I have disproportional understanding of the
pulse of what I’m selling, and I’m willing to bet right to the brink, because I don’t need to
take home a lot of money. Like, I’ve always left my own moneys and my own vices on the
table to reinvest back into my business, which
allows me to overstaff, which means I’m them
ready for the new business that comes in, and I
don’t have to go crazy finding the talent, and so, because I’m trying to build culture, sure, you can freelance and
outsource less margin, but you can do better cash
role, make more profit, but I want those people part of my team, and grow with them, let them
learn the religion, grow. So, I think everybody’s
got their own balance, but I think it’s completely
predicated on your stomach for risk, because it comes with risk, you don’t wanna overstaff,
then you lose an account and you have to let people
go, that changes the vibe. I think it comes down to
your salesmanship ability, can you always, in a
pinch, sell some more stuff out of nowhere, and I
think that it comes down to the understanding of where
your business is positioned compared to the landscape, meaning, I always knew that I’m
ahead of the market, and the world’s gonna come to me. A lot of our scopes,
our contracts for 2016, are growing very quickly,
because I knew the world in 2009 would spend more money on
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram,
Snapchat, or whatever was there at the time, you know, the current state of the internet, so I’m riding that wave. It lets me bet a little bit more. It’s a pulse-cadence feel, taste thing that allows me to get away with it, but ultimately, more than anything, it’s the balance of your own selfish wants of your take-home income,
versus how much you wanna reinvest in your business. It’s as simple as that. If you’re running a
business and you’re making a million dollars in revenue, and you have $600,000 in expenses,
you’re taking home $400,000. You could make it $850,000 in expenses, take home $150,000,
and then know that that extra investment will allow
you to make three million the next year. I believe in myself ultimately, any entrepreneur, CEO, or decision maker that’s taking money off the table, I believe is betting less
on themselves along the way and are playing a short-term game. To me, the time I start extracting dollars is when I believe less in
the growth of the company.

“How do you prepare
employees transitioning into “a leadership role when they’ve
never managed people before?” – Dan, I think one of the big
mistakes a lot of people make running organizations as
me, CEO of this company, is they, eventually
somebody gets into a place where they’re good enough,
they go into managerial roles, so they go from being a
mason to an architect, they no longer do the day-in-day-outs, they have to architect
people doing it at scale and the CEO, or the
business owner, or the boss, never put that person in
position along the way to do that. Like, I’m really curious
how many people at Vayner are gonna watch this or
listen to this answer, but it may make them start rewinding a lot of their day-to-day
things that they may not realize that I’m puppeting from here, because they’re getting
told by their bosses, but a lot of people,
whether you’re a, you know, an account manager or
an account supervisor about to become an account
director or group director where you’re managing more people, there’s a lot of things I’m doing, changing the accounts you work on, changing the team that’s underneath you, there’s a lot of puppeteering going on to really a lot of different, like, groups I want them to be a part of, just different little
things that are happening to create a proxy and a context point and a data point on who they would be if they were manager. And so I think the answer
to this question is, I prep by prepping them along the way, versus ripping off the band-aid, and then, I hope they can be a manager. You know? I think you’ve gotta prep people, and I think you’ve gotta
give them some context points and put them in positions to succeed and really, like, know them, too. Know if they were babysitters or the head of their sorority, or,
you know, how they roll. Like, really auditing
them as human beings, 360 outside of the context of
just them being an employee. There are all very
important parts, and if you can replicate some of the
versions that matter to you, a lot of my people, I think, are really capable of being
managers from a skill level, but they don’t have the HREQ, they’re too type A, they
need to take a step back and zen a little bit to let
their employees breathe. They need to realize they
can’t impose their skills. Biggest mistake a lot of managers make when they first become
managers, is they try to turn everybody underneath them into them, versus turning them into the
best version of themselves.

“the workplace, and how do
you avoid having more drama?” – PK, drama in the workplace.
How much were you, as an executive in corporate America
into HR like stuff, or did you kind of let the pros handle that? – I loved that area. I was into it. – I believe that by the
way, I know this guy. – I was Mr. Anal Retentive. – Me too. – So, I kind of got my
fingers dirty, I knew when to step in– – In the anal retentiveness? – But at the end of the day, jargon aside, and I’m a believer of with whom you go is more important than where you go, I got heavily vested in the HR side, because it didn’t make any
difference what kind of idea you might have, start up or big company, big brands, small brands whatever, but
whatever you’re working on combined with no matter how
much capitol you may have, working capitol from start
up business or whatever, at the end of the day, if you
didn’t have the right people or the right team in place– – You’re dead. – Game over, and so– – I believe that so much. I don’t think there’s any Lakers, there’s Kobe and Shaq
era and then there’s not, and then you know, like
Stephan who’s a Lakers fan, he then becomes a Golden
State Warriors fan because he’s just
bandwagon, but most people you know I’ve talked plenty
about HR, I want to get this thing moving, I want some
speed India, let’s go to the next one. – [Voiceover] James asks,
“Banks are old, stiff, and have

– My question’s just
circling around our culture and our growth. Year after year, and I’ve
been here for a year, and just seen our culture
grow twice in its size. Any impacts or learnings
that you’ve taken away that have just shaped how
we’re looking forward, and how we’re staffing our business, how we’re maintaining our culture? – I think the biggest thing I learned over the last 18 months as
we’ve had a lot of growth is that, if the intent is right, and look, you being the head of HR, you have such a view that
so many other people don’t, which is, you get to see in the
closed door meetings with me the consistent North Star. I don’t know, you’ve had HR jobs before. I feel like a lot more people make a lot more business decisions, and the money is a big variable in, let’s not give this
person any more time, or let’s fire this person,
or let’s promote this person. Money, I think you’ve sniffed out, is so not a variable in those decisions. I think what’s happened in the last year, to answer your question directly, I think I’m even more confident than ever that if you’re intent is right, and you’re committed to
that intent at the top, that you can scale that,
whether it’s 20 people. Look, there’s a ton of
people watching right now that work in offices of 27 people, and their culture sucks shit. The amount of people here
that have worked at places that had 29 people. I just met somebody the other day who was like, “I just
came from another agency, and our culture was so bad.” They had 16 people. So I don’t think the number of employees is the variable of a culture. I think it’s cliche and
accepted that, when you grow, you can lose it. My belief, ’cause I’m in a lot of startups that have grown very big, is that, what happens is, the CEO or the founders take
their eye off of the culture, and they start looking for the exit. All of a sudden, if you’re looking to sell to Google, or Facebook,
or to another agency, you don’t care about the
people, you care about the exit. And then the culture hurts. – So how do you define culture then? – I think it’s the collective
feeling of everybody. To me, culture is a backwards thing of, do the people here actually
want to come to work, and actually like it,
and it’s not a chore, or it’s not super stressful? To me, it’s how each individual feels that adds up to one collective feeling. – Right, perfect. – Awesome, thanks.
– [Minnie] Thank you. – India, now what?

– Hey Gary, it’s Mark Cuban,
I like to know what your go-to interview questions are. Questions you have to ask every candidate that you interview every time. Inquiring minds wanna know. – Cuban’s with the nice hat. I like that. Mark, who’s accomplished
in his life the goal I have, which is to own
professional sports teams, I like that. And a lot of you are fans of Mark and he’s a really smart
dude, knows his stuff. With interviews, I really
try to reverse-engineer what the person wants. I try to break down the
person in an interview within the first few
minutes of meeting them to fully trust and believe
in me, which is something I tried doing to all these
guys on a daily basis. It’s a never-ending battle
from the day I try to interview to four years into our relationship. How can I disproportionately
get their trust because I know my intent and my actions mapped to doing good things 96 percent of the time. And I’d like to think 100, but sometimes there’s a miscommunication
if it is the right thing. And so I try to get them
to tell me the truth. Things like, I wanna come
to VaynerMedia to steal all your ideas and see how you do it, so I can start my own agency
and steal some of the people here to start it. I’m not bothered by that. I’m like, cool, great. Staphon, that’s your plan. I’ll help you. I’ll speed that up. But I expect you to work
your fucking face off 19 hours a day for the next three years for me to then help you
start your own thing. I don’t care what you want. I don’t care. I want to know what it is, so I try to get to that place very quickly. I think the other that
I’m always doing as well is at the same token as
I’m hearing those answers, I’m trying to feel out the person. I’m complete. When I interview, there’s
times where I’m in compelete Charlie Brown mode. I’m not even hearing a word you’re saying. It’s is want want want
want, I’m just going by the feel. The feel is what has
guided me the whole time. Not necessarily the words,
there’s no black and white answer. I still find it intriguing
that I ask almost everybody about siblings. It’s maybe because I love
by brother and sister so much. And I don’t judge if you’re an only child, I don’t say, oh, well you
don’t work well with others, all that dumb, cliche shit. I know plenty of only-children,
the most charistmatic of all time, and can work with everybody. And I know only-children
that cliche don’t play well with the others. I know plenty of jerk-offs
in this office that have 17 (beeps) brothers and sisters
and don’t know how to play. So that’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t know even why I
asked that question, Mark, about the siblings. But it makes, I’d like to think,
and I explain it’s because of my relationship with
mine and how I like it. And so it’s really the feeling, and trying to reverse-engineer the person. That’s what I’m looking for, Mark. Those are the insights, my man. – [Voiceover] Shannon
asks, “How do you feel about