This is Ward from
London with one question. How much of the success of being
VaynerMedia do you think is down to the brand GaryVee? I think GaryVee might be the
best content marketing strategy in history so how much of the success of VaynerMedia
is down to that? What if GaryVee the brand was
not there and what if GaryVee was just running VaynerMedia
without producing any GaryVee content out there? So thank you.
– That’s a good question. Ward, I think he answer is both. I think I have the luxury of
proof being in the pudding as a 22-year-old in a five year
period, I grew a business from 3 to 65 million
in the old world. No capital, no real internet at
scale and so I’m proud that if Gary Vaynerchuk CEO not
out in the ecosystem started VaynerMedia seven years ago you
know it would be successful and the truth is of course it would
be because really here’s the punchline Ward nobody in
corporate America, Pepsi Campbells, the NHL, none of our earliest clients
gave a shit about me. You know what? 99% of my clients don’t now. Now, that would be naïve to not
understand that over the half decade that I’ve been really
running the company, first two years I was somewhat involved,
sales, mentorship with AJ and I was involved but I’m full pledge is what
I do for living now. GaryVee is this is my
side hustle, right. I think that
there’s been benefits. You know people walk in here. I can think of a brand we just
won that there’s the truth is it’s because of the
GaryVee stuff and so I think the answer’s both and I think
that’s what’s really cool. I think one day people will realize how much
I like to hedge. I think of it as a hedge like both matter they
help each other. One’s there if the
others not there. It’s kind of a little
bit of immigrant in me. For somebody who’s so on
the offense I’ve a lot of conservativeness and
practicality that is the foundation of what I do and
I think brings a lot of value to a lot of people watching if
they can get through the layers. And so, the answer is both. It’s a really smart question. I think many people
have done both. Plenty of people have done a lot
of business on the back of their brand when they
entered it. Right? Plenty of restaurants that
are named after famous, millions of things. Just clothing lines, unlimited
and many people are just unknown assassins. Met with a guy the other day he’s built two $400
million businesses. Never heard of them in my
entire life nor have you. You can’t even find anything
about him and you know they have the humility and the kind of
personality that allows that. And so everything works,
not everything works for you. Plenty of people built huge
agencies not being known, just operators and there’s been agencies built on the
backbone of individuals. P Diddy’s agency is P Diddy
and great people that he hired underneath but it
wouldn’t have been there.

I’m a dad and I’m wondering
what’s one of the biggest life events or especially events that
you had to miss (child babbling) due to your commitment to
the work but how’d you (child babbling) and how
did you overcome? Thanks man. – You know, Ernest, first of
all, that what was remarkable and about as
adorable as it gets. Ernest, you know I haven’t
missed anything, I missed some you know school plays. I haven’t missed any, no birth,
I would never miss a birthday. There hasn’t been
a signature event. They’re seven and four. There hasn’t been, you
know, Xander’s bris. That would be insane to me to
miss anything of that nature. I guess we all have different
scale of what’s important. There’s dads out there who
would never in the world miss a baseball game of
their son, ever. I would. I just don’t think the fifth
game in a season for Xander if something that is remarkable for
me and Xander, my family’s life is coming that place. I wouldn’t miss Xander’s
fifth baseball game for a big meeting or a new client. Would I miss it for the
opportunity to close a $78 million deal for our family? Yes, I would.
I just would. And I know one would
say well that’s money. Yeah, but but would I miss
Xander’s championship game after he played baseball every day of
his life for nine years and it was his number one
passion in the world to close a $78 million deal? I don’t know, it’s closer. I wouldn’t say definitely not. I just don’t know,
I mean I don’t know. First of all, if Xander was 13,
Xander at 13 after watching all my business YouTube videos
might want me, I don’t know. Here’s what I would say,
Ernest and everybody else, first and foremost, I would
never judge anybody else’s parenting or process. I have the greatest
relationships in world with my parents and I a lot of things
that were done differently than others and I think we all have. But knock on wood, I think
there’s a far more interesting question maybe
5 to 7 years from now. So far, I’m rolling. There’s been nothing even
remotely intense that I can think of that I’ve missed. They’ve been micro little play
this, play that, you know, last day of school like
a teacher conference. Yeah, there’s been a couple
little things that are like kind of lightweight. They’re also very, very young
right now but so far nothing. I haven’t had to pick. Everything that I felt, I missed
a lot of business things that are solid business things that
I’ve missed because I wanted to be there for the first day
of school or you know the Tot Shabbat day that’s the one
time Xander gets to do that in little Temple Israel
school that he went to. There’s single little things like that but it’s
weighing things. It’s weighing things and I’m not
crippled by the current state of political correctness of how
you parent because news alert, my friends, it’s going to be
different in 15 years and it was different 15 years ago. Yeah, thank you. – Tot Shabbat?
– Tot Shabbat is cute.

– He said I’m soft. – And my question for you is
were you too soft to start a mobile development agency, brah? Was that too hard for you, blah? (laughter) – [India] Brah!
– That’s amazing. I love that whole, are
you, do you lift, bro? So did he say am I too
soft to start a mobile? – [India] Development agency. – I want to say, I want to fight
you is really what I want to do but I think, yeah, I mean, look, to answer it in a straight way the reason building a development
shop in a genre is not interesting to me is that if I was to build
a development shop in a meaningful way, right
now, I would build a messenger development shop way before I’d build a mobile
app shop, brah. Because I don’t care about 2016 legacy software. To me, the reason I built the
company I built is that, unlike, a VCR or a video game console or a cell phone or virtual reality, messaging is tried-and-true. The mechanism that delivers
it gets killed eventually. Right? So the guy caveman Rick who took a rock and
carved it into the cave he was messaging and
communicating, right, but the platform of the day, where the
eyeballs were, were inside the cave and the smoke signals and
the written word and a telephone and a television and a movie
theater and a cell phone and a VR world and apps within cell
phone and so brah, the reason I didn’t go with a mobile
developing shop is it was just too small and I needed to
win the communication game infrastructure that I can deploy
against any mechanism that delivers the story, brah. (laughter)

Here is Prosper from
Journey to Real Life, here in beautiful Neuchâtel,
taking my morning swim after waking up. So, my question today is, how would be your
approach of creating a more sustainable world with
a media company? Thank you for your answer. – Prosper, I think it’s
an interesting question. I’ve been thinking a
lot, actually, about this over the last couple of months. You know, impact on world. I get a, somebody on,
whether it was on my team or my family, I’m trying to think
who said this to me. I don’t think I realized that
getting 15 to 25 emails a day in your inbox, telling you
that you’ve changed one’s life, that I was doing, it’s so interesting that
people think giving a $10,000 check to research for a disease, or to fix an animal, or put up trees is the way to do it. It’s unbelievable how much,
you know, you were with me when we were just in
New York where the guy’s like, get a tattoo, and I’m
like, that’s the easy part. Like, not missing
a Jets play since ’82. I think people are very
stuck, Prosper, on tactics over religion, and I talk
about that in business all the time. If you’ve been following
me, you’ve heard that a million times, but
it’s how I think about a more sustainable world,
meaning, as a media company, as an individual, I think we take
a lot of shortcuts. Tweeting something
to support something is not making
an enormous impact. It can make an impact. You know, you
supporting something, if five of your friends
care how you support, or if a celebrity and
50 people care, but it is stunning how much
more important action is over little words
or tactical things, so for me, I think it’s
a day in, day out thing to deploy to
the things that matter, and I think it’s a very
human game, I think, I like depth over width. For me, if I can
impact my little circle, and this whole thing, the
Vayner Nation, VaynerMedia, all of my inner team here. I’m impacting them
on a individual basis, and then they go
and impact other people. I’m completely confident,
because I’ve watched it many times, that the
self-esteem and confidence that I deploy, Andy, do you think that you’re
a more confident person, because you’ve rolled with me? – Yeah. – [Gary] And do you think that
you’ve maybe deployed that on other people
within your circle? – [Andy] 100%. – That’s the game. So, I think my answer
to your question is, as a media company,
or as anything else, way too many people are
looking to reach too many. Go individual. It’s what you’re
doing behind the scenes that is way more important than
what you’re doing optically for the PR’ed version of how
you wanna position yourself to the world. – [Sid] This one’s from Chris.

You run a $100 million
revenue company. How do you stay hungry? – Period. Betty, I think that truth is I think a lot of
us are hardwired. I think because
I didn’t come from much, because I didn’t
speak the language, because I wasn’t
physically large. I actually think that’s
a dude thing for sure. And because I think I’m
wired to love underdogs. I’ve always loved them. I think where I’ve come from,
there is no I’ve never made it. First of all, I don’t
like the physical things. That’s a huge advantage. Not needing to buy a plane
or an $8000 pair sneakers. There’s no
physical thing I want. Just like the awesome Instagram
photo that Tyler you put together of the game
(bell chimes) I love the process.
I’m hungry forever. I’m the hungriest. I’m super hungry. I threw up this morning and I’m
theoretically physically I’m not hungry right now ’cause I’m
feeling a little woozy but emotionally as an
entrepreneur, I’m the hungriest. It’s incredible. I’m dramatically more successful
than I was 10 years ago, I’m more hungry not less. – Because? – Because I just think it
was hardwired from the get. ‘Cause I just think
it’s black and white. I just think at some level you’re just wired
the way you are. There is nothing that’s gonna
fill my appetite because what drives my hunger is the process
not the results and then by nature in that
construct it goes forever. The only thing that changes my
hunger is if is if the two other most important variables in this
game play themselves out: the health and well-being of my
family or the way I feel about the allocation of my time and the depth of that
time with my family. Those are the only
vulnerabilities. There’s no $14 million check or $48 billion check
or buying the Jets. There’s nothing
that will stop the hunger. When I put my jersey on, when
I’m in the context of being a businessman, the hungry
vibe will be there forever. It’s when I’m Gary as a person
where there’s other things in my life besides being on the field
that could play out that could get me to be less
hungry professionally. But on the field, I’m going to be a psycho through
and through forever. – Like it.
– That’s it.

In a video with Joe Polish you
said that you can sell rocks on the street and still
make 100 grand a year. Is that true? If so, would you make a video
where you sell a rock to someone who doesn’t know you?
Thanks. – So Ryan theoretically,
it is true. Practically, listen
the truth is, actually I’m surprised
I’m answering this. I think I can make 100,000. I wish I was at a point in my
life where I could be so crazy and right now off
of this, do it. Go with DRock to some crazy
place where nobody knows who I am which, oh, by the way
and I love you all for this, which is almost everywhere. Like down the street but you
know, go to a place where I’m not me and
I know that, trust me, you guys perceive
me bigger than I am. I’m just me and I think, now
look, here’s what I would do. I’d go to place, first, I’d go
to a rich upper-middle-class area where it’s not too rich but upper-middle-class demo and I would set up shop on the
corner of the street and I guess most of my day would be, and it’d have to have
rocks in the general area. Access to rocks– – Hmmm.
– No, no I’ll tell you why. I understand but like if
I’m trying to make 100,000 and I can pick anywhere
like you might as well if there’s
a perfect ZIP Code where it’s got the right
income level that I want and there’s access to it efficiency
but I know I can buy ’em on the internet and all that stuff but
nonetheless I guess I would try to market myself as somebody who
is creative on top of a rock. So I don’t think I would if
I was selling rock I wouldn’t try to sell you a rock ’cause
that wouldn’t work but what I would do is I would doodle and create on top of rocks
and try to sell them. And I genuinely with my entire
heart believe that I can make a $100,000 a year
in year two, firm. In year 1, I would make $36,000 in profit. – Could. I believe it’s possible
to sell just a rock. – It is but I think what I would
do because I’d want to get 100,000 is the doodling on top
would then constitute as art and that becomes agnostic and then
marketing can take over and then all I need to do is have
Leonardo DiCaprio take a picture on his Instagram that he’s
bought this rock ’cause it’s art and then it’s game over. It’s just high school
arbitrage, all of it is. – Alright, next
question is from Betty Liu–

simple question to ask you. Are you good with names? Are you able to remember every
single employer and people you do business with names’? And how important is that
skill for your business? Thank you Gary for
answering my question– – This episode, I feel like
this episode, you know what? I feel like since we haven’t had
a lot of time that there’s been a whole lot of work, I’m
very intrigued by this episode. I am terrible with names. It’s devastating. I have so much pride and I know that
people that watch DailyVee are probably surprised by how
many names I know but there are so many names I don’t know. And I don’t know names of
like 18 months in clients. I don’t know names of like
people, it’s unbelievable how much context I know
but names I don’t. Meaning there’s employees here
that I don’t like things that are going on with like the
well-being of their relationship because I follow them on social
and follow their boyfriend and then figure out about you like
literally, literally like and definitely know their
performance and remember that they had a bad day or recall
this or just deep, deep, deep stuff but I’m like is
that Karen or is it Susan? It’s super tough for me. It’s something I’m very bad
at and it’s very important. People like,
here’s what I think, tactically it’s important and people would be disappointed
if they’ve been paying VaynerMedia for two years and
they’re an important client and I don’t know their name. I understand that. What overrides that while I feel
great is that’s the tactic to the thing that matters which
is knowing one’s name is one version of caring
about that person. I know how much I care and
though I hate that the easiest version of that is not something
I have a skill for, it’s all the other stuff that I have
skills for that make up for that vulnerability because that is a
surface level vulnerability, not a deep vulnerability. And so, I think at a macro level
it is stunningly unimportant. What it perceives to mean is
the most important thing but tactically I don’t think so. On a micro level,
sure, it’s important. You like that answer?
– [DRock] Yeah.

– [Voiceover] Chris asked,
“If the Jets win the Super Bowl “before you buy the team,
will you lose interest?” – So I’ve been really
scared of this question. This is actually a true story. I did not want this question to
be asked because the truth is I don’t know.
Let’s start there. I love how I’m looking
into yonder trying to find my future self.
(group laughter) Basically, I’m looking
outside right now and I’m like picturing myself
jumping over a fence and running on the field and tackling
Brandon Marshall and getting arrested. I don’t think I’ll
want to buy them. – [Niklas] Wow. – Not only that
I got something scarier. I don’t know if I’m going
to care about them at all. I’m telling you Ken Skelfo if
you’re watching right now please leave a comment. Ken Skelfo, will tell you that
15-year-old me in 1982 and North Hunterdon High School was
a bigger New York Ranger fan than a New York Jets fan. And that is the
hidden story of who I am. I always wanted buy the Jets
so that’s kind of interesting, so football was my true favorite
sport but the Jets weren’t good and so you lose steam and the
Rangers were making their march to my first championship that
was won right there, one of the great
moments of my life. And I think that, here’s what I
can tell you if the Jets win the Super Bowl this year, three
years now, six years now before I get a chance to buy them and
when the Super Bowl there is a significant chance that all
of my sports energy will be deployed aggressively towards
the New York Knicks because they would be my last
team that hasn’t won. They’ve already got a big part
of my attention they just been so bad for 15 years, it siphoned
any excitement out of my body. I’m very, I’m very
concerned about this question. It’s actually the scariest
question besides the things I care about which are the health
of my family it’s one of the weird scariest
things in my life. I do not want the Jets, deep
down I don’t think I want the Jets to win the Super Bowl. – [Niklas] I’m a hockey fan from
Sweden you can go with

“at the old office?” – [India] It’s this one. – That was a question?
You made that up you. – [India] No. – That was just sitting there. Oh it just happened. Oh, that’s a great question. What was the question? My best moment, right? – [India] The best
day at this office. – You know what? This is actually
the true answer. And I think it’s, wow, good job,
I’m so pumped we did a little Periscope before he went
on to get the question. I’m so pumped with this
answer ’cause it’s the truth. I think it’s very, it’s
romantic it’s a good story. No question the best day in this office for me ever
was the first day. Because we were
crammed, who was there? You were there India
in the old office? Nope, see. OG.
– [India] Wow. – Yep, maybe you’re slightly
getting back into the fam. We were crammed as you remember. We moved here and it was so big.
Remember? Everybody was like, “Oh my God. It’s so nice.
And there’s so much room.” – [India] The view. – The views and all this so to
sit here, when did we move here? Like two and half years ago? – [India] (inaudible) – [Gary] Oh really,
three years ago? That first day I was proud that
what AJ and I and the rest of the team were building, created
an environment that was good and exciting and brought
value to my teammates. The people that
help all this happen. As you guys will find out on
Monday ’cause I’m sure we’ll edit a really cool #AskGaryVee
Show and a DailyVee that really shows off our new office. We are leveling that up. And as some of you that watched
on live stream when Meg Dede’s doing her call sitting outside
people have been doing meetings in broom closets and
I love that by the way. I love the ghetto
nature of that. I’m actually very worried about
the new move and everybody’s going to get real fancy, Think like Andy’s going to
wear a tie or something. (laughter) But the best day,
the best day was the first day because the look in everybody’s
eyes of, you know it’s funny they were looking at me as like
thank you for making this happen and I just remember thinking
thank you for making this happen in return. I think that’s what’s going to
happen on Monday in a couple of days. I thing everybody’s going to
be thank you and oh my God. I heard the cafeteria’s insane. – [India] Yeah.
– You’ve seen it? – [India] Well, they had a
little video that’s really cool. – They sent a video today? – [India] A little
video tour, yeah. – Was it amazing?
– [Group] Yeah. – Fired up.
I still haven’t seen it. That’s the funniest
part of everything. Tyler and Andy were going to
screw my office, we’ve dealt with that earlier. Anyway, I would say that. Vayner Nation, I’ll see you
on Monday in a new setting. Which wasn’t, isn’t going to
be fully built out but we have, is my office going to
be where we’ll film? And you’re gonna do
a whole bookshelf? – [DRock] Yeah. – You’re going to do
something really clever? – [DRock] Yeah. – You guys got a real plan?
– [DRock] Yep, mhmmm. And it’s going to be online. – Really?
– [DRock] Yeah. – Why’d you tell me that? It would have
been a big surprise. He ruins everything. (laughter) All right. (laughter) Question of the day: What is
your favorite move of location

– [Voiceover] Parker asks, “We
know you’re not a bling bling “guy but be honest how
many Nike kicks you got?” – Actually answered him on
Twitter the answer was 20 until I hung up with my boy DJ Clue
last night who hooked me up with like 20 pairs of Air Force. It’s unbelievable,
he’s the greatest guy. I’m wearing this pair,
it’s new, so now I have 40. (laughter) Like literally doubled my collection. That’s how he rolls. He’s a gangster man. He has 40 pairs of the same
stuff I guess, he’s the best. Obviously, a good friend. I actually asked them to be on
the show last night when we were hanging out. So DJ Clue, iconic hip hop DJ
will be coming through soon. – [India] From Blake?
– Blake.