times I learned that if I don’t apply
all my energy into something it can be as good as it can be I mean all day always always testing always doing
things like did we launched carry you up but I was going to engage with everybody
else like yeah I mean look like a lot a lot a lot a lot of things warm a library
never took off like a what I learned is a blessed I am 100% all in on something
it is vulnerable doesn’t mean it’s not gonna work it means that it is
vulnerable and even have a great leader in place like the only way that I been
able to guarantee successes for me to micro manage the operations of that I’ve
had success is we’re not into that up front but but it’s what I’ve learned as
I try to bite off more than bite off more than I can chew my vulnerability is
not always a big eyes right I think I can do everything I thought literally
think I can force my 17 hour days everything through victory I become much
more aware of that from 35 to 40 I still do it because I
get enjoyment out of it but just having a lot going on is exciting for me but I
can afford that enjoyment today vs you know and so this means right trying to be smart about that to try to
make them be very very enjoyable or have a much better chance of winning but the
answer is tons of times I’ve launched sup our products mainly because I wasn’t
one hundred and fifty percent behind it and because maybe really to give you
guys more value one thing I’ve learned a lot of times I’ll start with something
and being a hundred fifty percent in it and then like very quickly becomes a
hundred and eighty and 70 and they all have different timing sometimes I’ve
gotten better at eliminating the things that I’m a hundred fifty percent into
and letting it sit for more than a week to allow myself to see if it still at a
buck 50 and then if it’s at about twenty like I’m out but it’s about 50 per month
or two ago show yeah I mean if you’re not you’re not in it good question had a weird shows water
Isaacson wrote a book about innovators

do you stay focused throughout the year
but do not one business goal which is to buy the New York Jets really my business
school there is to have the game of trying to buy the Jets I do so personal
goals they come out hoc you know I started taking care of my health in July
not in January so I don’t understand why people do so fresh start make sense
whatever works for you I keep myself in check by talking to myself often I
probably communicate with myself more than most people it’s not like hey Gary
Gary any kind of weird kind of like or silly or interesting stuff it’s just I
think a lot I ponder a lot I checked myself and I’m happy you’re focused or
what have you so I don’t do anything in the new year though I tend to do things
in the new year so you know I’m sure this snapshot hotel has a little bit to
do with the new year but no I did not even ask you are incredibly passionate
about snatch it now has been around a few years why now
what’s changed Kevin I’ve done this a lot I did this
with Instagram as well I only get really

Pat from Smart Passive
Income, quick question, when you get a new idea, when a new idea pops into your head, how
do you, do you have a validation process before
actually taking action on that idea to make sure
it’s worth it or not? Do you have a vetting process,
does your team help you? I’m curious because a
lot of us entrepreneurs, we have a ton of ideas, how do you know which ones are going to work or not. And to follow it up,
do you have an example? – That’s a great, great, great, great, great, great, great question. I’ve two processes. One is completely emotional, the other one is completely rational. There have been ideas,
a la, the #AskGaryVee Show where literally in one shot, though it’s perculated a little bit, in one moment I go, I execute against
the idea and I let the results speak for themselves
and I can stop it. For everytime I look like
a hero, where I make the first episode of Wine Library TV
or #AskGaryVee and I say we’re gonna look back at
this and this was right. There’s seven other things
that I have done like that which are floating
in the internets, and I’m gonna be, we’re gonna look
back at this and be like merr. My first picture from Flickr,
my first picture for Flickr. – [India] I have it somewhere. – Do you have it somewhere? My first picture from Flickr I drew out gourmetlibrary.com. Drew it and I said one day
this will be one of the most iconic pictures in my
life or something like that. And it was because at
that time I thought I was gonna launch gourmetlibrary.com
and I knew that I was gonna build $100 million gourmet business. What happened was I
started Wine Library TV two months later as well
and that became the thing and I never got around to
really doing gourmet library. So, I think I got that intuitive part. The other part is like Wine Library TV, since February, since
really like March or April of 2005 I knew that I
wanted to do a Youtube show. That it was gonna be
big, but it took me until February ’06 to start Wine Library TV. I knew that I wanted
to do an ecommerce site in ’94 but I really didn’t launch it until ’96 but really run it until ’98. I know that I’m going
to buy a brand one day. Puma, Snickers, you know
Pabst Blue Ribbon but I’m perculating and learning for
10 years before that moment. So, I’ve both, but Pat
really the answer is it’s very internal, I don’t go
to my dad or to Brittany and be like hey Britt what do you think. Like, I don’t give a shit
what Brittany thinks. Now that is either a strength
or a weakness, sorry Brit. That’s either a strength
or a weakness but I want to give you the truth which
is I go very internal, I feel it with myself, I
care, you know what’s funny? I don’t care what Brittany
says as my consultant or teammate, I care what
Brittany does as a consumer. I respect the market over
my friends, my family, the people I respect and even myself. And so I think the way to find out what the market’s gonna feel and do is by giving them a chance to react to it. So, I let the things that
I feel the most bubble up and then I execute against those things and then I let the chips
fall where they may. – [India] I found it.
– You found the picture? – The caption is so
funny, one day everyone will know why this pic is so amazing. – Oh my God, see this
is so cool because look, I mean obviously you’re
gonna put the subs on, the so is very similar to show. – Yeah. – That’s unbelievable, one
day, December 30, 2005, oh my God, this is
literally, what’s today? – [India and man] The 16th. – This is literally,
literally a decade ago. Like, two weeks short of a decade ago. There’s a picture of the
pasta I ate while I drew out gourmetlibrary.com
and one day everyone will know why this pic is so amazing. And I’m gonna tell you why
this pic is so amazing, though I didn’t execute on
gourmet library ten years ago, and big shout out to
Eric Caster and John Kay who were there with me that day. Even though I didn’t, this
date was the two week period, this was the height of the
holidays, this date represents the day that I knew that
I wasn’t gonna be in the wine business the rest of my life. This picture really
represents the transformation into what all of you have known me to become over the last ten years. – The dirty bowl is so significant though. – I told you that one day everyone would understand why this pic is so. – I even bookmarked it
cause we were eating. – Cause it’s so amazing, that’s cool. – [India] That is cool. – I’m a little bit emotional about that.

“as an entrepreneur sometimes. “How do you cope with that feeling?” – You know, for me, I’m built for it. I wanna be lonely. I want to struggle and grind
and have all the pressure. I’m gonna take the last shot in the game always, every time. It makes me simpatico with Staphon’s idol Kobe, the black mamba who’s on this amazing, it was funny, I was
working out this morning and I had to do some cardio
stuff that was hard for me, so I’m like Mike, put on TV
so I can watch Sports Center and not think about what
we’re actually doing, and I caught the clip of
the way Kobe last night in Philadelphia, and I said to Mike, I said, you know what’s
so awesome about sports? It’s that if you time it
right, and you know it, you can have this kind of farewell tour, so I’ve been thinking about
my farewell entrepreneur tour. I don’t know how to do that. I’m gonna be like 89, 97, be like eeeh, but you know, I don’t even
remember the question. I just wanted to talk
about Kobe’s farewell tour. What was it again? Oh! Being lonely. Look, the reason I brought up Kobe is, Kobe wants to take the last shot. Winners wanna take the last shot. You want to take the high with the low. When you are truly an A, and
actual pure-bred entrepreneur, you don’t know anything else than getting the accolades or getting shit on when you don’t execute. Actually, from first, you
know, it’s really interesting. I had a 100th of a second,
because I’m concerned about macroeconomic climates, for a 100th of a second yesterday, which is unheard of for me, I was like woo, what if Vayner took a step back and I had to deal with
people being like, oh, you’re not running this business well, or what’s going on? It’s so funny. I thought of it for a 100th of a second, and then I got so happy. I got so happy because
I quickly thought about the second chess move, which
was, for whatever reason, couple of our clients,
as you know, are starting to become very big clients
and I don’t like them being too much a percentage of my business ’cause they can go away the next day. I don’t like that, so that maybe is why it popped up in my mind. Or, I also think we’re in
a bubbly kind of world. You’ve got terrorism activity,
you’ve got Wall Street being too bubbly for
a long period of time. Anything can happen. Things can happen, and
so it was funny for me when I thought about it,
because that’s my job. I’m lonely at the top. I have to worry about
everything and make sure I’m hedged and ready and mentally prepared for anything that could go wrong, and then I got excited
about the second chess move, which was the thing I live for, which is the I told you
so when the doubters came and said, oh, you misplayed it, you didn’t think, social
wasn’t as big as you thought, you didn’t see this coming, then being able to navigate
through those choppy waters. I often talk about
being a war-time general over a peace-time general. Anybody can look good. Anybody who’s watching
or listening to this show can be an entrepreneur
now, ’cause shit is good. When it gets tough, when there’s not people throwing around $25,000 investment, when you can’t put up
your idea on Kickstarter and everybody wants to give you $100, because the economy’s crap
and they need their $100, that’s when the cream rises, and so for me, the way I deal with it, I, the way I deal with it is: there is no dealing with it. It is my DNA. It is my only known gear. I don’t even understand
that damn question. Now, I recognize that, to take
myself out of the equation and try to answer for the whole, look, you’ve got to put things
in perspective, you know? If you want the accolades,
if you have the audacity to want to be somebody that is successful, let’s play the data. If you want the audacity
to be a millionaire, which is by percentage, almost impossible. There’s very few of them,
if you really break down. Let’s play some math here.
Let’s keep it unemotional. If you want the audacity to
be in the top 1% of Americans, which is a very rich company, company! Country. Probably company too. Country. Are people in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year in revenue, not millions. So, we’re talking about a
very small group of people that are able to get to this
extreme level of success in business, and we can have shows about, actually, you know what, I
was going to point at India. Danielle, tell India, we
need to do a show about life and not business stuff, but
in the context of business, life happines, and there’s a million ways, and we ranted on it the other day, but if you want the audacity
to be a millionaire, to be successful, to write books, if you want the audacity,
don’t you understand the crap that comes along with that? Like, I wanted the
audacity to be in shape. It’s come with a lot of crap. It’s been a lot of work. I’m 18 months in, and I
said this the other day, on my fitness video, I’m
not sure I would do this if I saw what I would
look like 18 months later, meaning I look a lot better, but damnit, I would have been like really? For every single day for 18 months? To wake up at four in the morning? Like, I’m going (mumbles skeptically). You deal with it because it’s
a very small price to pay for all the phenominal
stuff that you headline read and you aspire to and you dream for. The problem is, most of you don’t want to eat that shit to get there.

“of his day to watch #AskGaryVee?” – No, I would not watch the show. I know I’ve lost viewers
because of this answer. I’ve watched that, it happen. I’ve actually been curious
’cause there’s been like 10 or 11 people emphatically
saying I’m not watching anymore ’cause you, I get it. And then I kinda like
follow, like I tag them and I kinda like follow-up
and I’m like oh crap, I really lost them. Which makes me happy and sad. Misha used to do that, my
daughter used to do that. She’s like I’m happy and sad and so that’s where that came from. And so, the answer is I wouldn’t because it’s not how I roll. But I also would’ve never
watched one episode. So I think that’s an important thing for the people listening and watching. The way I learn is different. The way I do things is different. And there’s no right or
wrong, as a matter of fact my biggest issue is that I
wish I had a little bit more of that in me. I wish that I would read a
book or two here and there or I wish I consumed people’s content that I was aligned with
or could learn from. It’s just, I’m just too
into the anthropology of just watching. I’m sitting at the
Knick’s game last night, tough double, tough overtime
loss to the Rockets, Michael Lang if you’re watching screw you. (Gary makes squeaking noise) I spent all my time watching
everybody on their phones. And by the way it was an Instagram, Snapchat only world from 16 to 46. New York crowd but super
fascinating so that’s how I learn. I learn by watching, I
learn by watching all of your behaviors in the
comments and then seeing what you do. I learn by all of you being so honest about telling me your truth, learned a lot about a lot of you individually. Helps me interact with you so
I’m on that side of the coin. So the answer is no, I
would not watch the show.

“travel back in time to
meet your ancestors, “or forward to meet your future relatives?” – 100 thousand percent
go backwards and meet my ancestors. I’m also the by-product
of being unfortunate in a place where I didn’t get to know three of my four grandparents,
which is on the low end I think so that kind of stinks. I knew two great grandparents,
which was awesome, but they died very early on. Actually, my great grandmother died later. But great grandfather died when we first got here, although I was very close to, to this (mumbles). And so I would go
backwards because I’d love. The cool thing about, I meant they’re both cool, because the thing you look for, it’s all very selfish. You’re like, oh my god,
my great great great granddaughter is so similar
to me, and like does things. But for me, I don’t know,
I like the backwards. I’d like to see like my
grandfathers, to see what they’re like, see what I pulled from them. My great great great
grandfather and grandmother, I’d like see like, where
it came from for me. And so that’s what I would do. Cool. That was it?

“that you don’t know how
to answer for yourself?” – Yeah, there are some
questions I don’t know how to answer myself. The number one being,
when you pay forward, when you take 15 minutes
to speak to a former employee to help them with
their next career move because they made a
mistake in leaving Vayner, not you Claire, but like, you know, I question if all these paying
forward, doing the right thing, will I one day,
when I’m not the height of my power and execution, or when I run out of time and don’t achieve the things that I should have achieved,
or will I re-context and say, cool, I made these things, but I’m also a great person and everybody showed up to my funeral, like I’m most wondering, will I ever have a moment where I become bitter or regretful
of the disproportionate amount of non-value for
me, things that I do. And the question really becomes, which one am I more full of shit on, that I wanna buy the New York Jets, or that I want everybody
to show up to my funeral. I’ve two very opposing pulling actions in my life, which is, I
wanna be this very likeable noble great dude that
everybody talks about at the dinner table. I want all of you, I
literally, this is so sick. I desperately want the three of you to like tell your
grandchildren about this great man that you worked with. I mean it.
I really do. It’s so important to me. But to do that, you have
to do so many things that are not in your
best interest financially in the short term, and I’m just curious, the thing that I don’t
have answered for myself is when I’m dying, and
I’d like to by the way, I’d like to not suddenly die. I prefer to die a little
bit slower so I can ponder, because I like pondering. When that’s happening,
or at least I think so so right now, maybe when I’m a hundred and four, but (beeps) this. Shoot me in the head, kids. (laughs) When I’m pondering it, I’m so curious. Because one’s gonna have to give. I’m trying to walk the tightrope, and boy, I think I’m really doing a solid job. But I’m not sure, the
question I don’t have answered for myself is if I’m gonna like the way I played it. Because I’m consciously playing it. I’m so in tune with
what’s going on with me. Am I gonna look back and be like, good job? Because everytime, I just turned 40, I look back at 20 or 30,
I look back at 30 or 40, and I guess that what
I’ll probably always do, because what’s pretty
consistent now is there’s a lot good, there’s things you’d nitpick. I’m sure everybody does that. The regrets, can I minimize the regrets. Because I think having regret is the most unfortunate thing. Meeting a 70, 80, 90,
100 year old who regrets. Regrets that they didn’t have more fun. Didn’t spend more time with their family. That’s the cliche one. But you’d be surprised how many people regret not doing more for themselves. So I don’t know.

“I was wondering if you
get more satisfaction “competing against
yourself or versus others?” – I don’t compete against myself at all. It’s why I struggled with fitness, which I know I had a hard time. Because I made a new fitness movie. I don’t know if you guys heard. Staphon, you can put it right here and run in parallel while I’m giving this answer. I’ll give you a little room for editing. I’m really bad at competing with myself. So I’m not trying to make this show better in episode from 123 to
now, from 92 to now. I always love myself, I’m
always thinking that it’s good and that I’m good. I know it evolves, but I’m
not competing with myself. I’m really bad at that. Again, back to fitness, I
didn’t want to run a minute faster or have 20 more pounds. That wasn’t what it is. I wrote a fitness article
about how I needed to be accountable to somebody else. That was my hack. I’m very good, though with
competing against other people. I hate everybody else
that’s putting up business content podcast and video. I want to destroy them. I hope all their podcast
equipment melts tomorrow. And I wanna be the only person that talks about business in the world left. That’s how I get all the audience. I win, you lose, podcast McGee, yay. So I think I compete against other people, that’s what drives me. That’s how I roll. But I’m completely all
in, and me and my team, the Jets have two or three former Patriots on their team,
David Ridley, Thompkins right now. I love them with all my heart. That logo goes off their
helmet, it goes somewhere else, I despise them with all my heart. I’m very on team me, team
my things that I like. And I don’t compete within that self. I compete against
everybody else around it. And it’s funny. It’s how I handle VaynerMedia. They’re on my team, they’re my employees, I love them, even though I still love the employees that once worked here. Claire, a mutual friend of ours. We love Claire so much. I love Claire Stein, love
her with all my heart, just not as much as I used to. Because she wears the
New York Times logo now, now the VaynerMedia one. I can’t help it. I wanna destroy Claire now. (laughs) Claire, I love you. But I wanna destroy you. You know like, that’s just the way it is. That’s the game mechanics. That’s how I think, and it’s very real, and it’s interesting. When you get to really fall
in love with an employee, that has been with you, we had a couple of that with us for two, three, four years that are recently leaving,
and it’s very painful for me, I get sad. Super lower lip. Like lower lip. But I wanna destroy their
faces the next moment. Because they’re putting
on a different jersey. I just can’t help it. It’s just the truth. Yeah, but you know what’s funny, but I also, and you guys know this. I still interact with them. I help them with their
careers, so even though I get pissed at players,
after they lose the game they go shake the other team’s hands, I used to really get mad at that, the truth is that I’m hypocrite, because I do that, because I’m doing that behind the scenes,
and so I felt compelled to share that because I don’t wanna be a hypocrite. It pisses me off.
I wish I didn’t. Like I wish I could hold
the line, but I don’t because I like them. I love you, Claire. But I hate you. India.

“changed your mind about
in the last six months?” – Oh, I saw this come through. Good one, India. Mike, what have I changed my mind about in the last six months? As you can tell, this is hard for me because, what have I
changed my mind about? It’s hard, I think the only
thing that comes to mind is, I will tell you that I’m
in constant motion with VaynerMedia around culture, around skill, around offerings, around people, I’ve changed my mind on
people, both pro and con. But there hasn’t been anything
massively philosophical. I stay pretty consistent with
my seven, 10, 15 key pillars. There’s nothing really so
unbelievable other than, when you’re the CEO of a
company, you’re slightly pulling levers at all
times, and some of you could say you’re changing your idea again, around strategies, around opportunities. Publishing, building out
the VaynerPublishing stuff, I’ve changed a lot of different strategies ’cause the market’s moving. Virtual reality, I’m way
more into it than I was, that could be a change of an idea, it’s more of an acceleration of idea. There’s been no hard, like, I believe, actually, this is an interesting
time to open this up. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this. Maybe it’s because my 40th
birthday is coming in two days. I have secretly, for the
first time in my life, thought about the notion
of, in the next decade, taking an entire year off
and not working at all. Yeah. That’s a bomb, right? That’s a real, that’s a bomb. But we’ll see, we’ll see. But you know what? I’ve consistently been a
where-there’s-smoke-there’s-fire kind of guy, and I don’t
mean shut down from social, weird stuff, I mean just, move the family to Sydney Australia, let
the kids spend a year there and just zen it out, get real real buff. And I want to stretch more. Anyway, official Jets prediction.

“What the hell.” – That’s a really good point, Kylie. I saw that question,
too, come through social and I wanted, I mean,
I dodged that (laughs) as quickly as I could. That’s a shortcoming,
I’m not doing a good job. I’m really screwing up
Instagram, ‘specially. I’m not happy with myself. This is a lazy, and I never
talk of myself in lazy, I’m doing a poor job. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna fix this. Team, we need to get our shit together. I need you to help me here. Can we get, like, seven to 10, we did this once and I
didn’t execute on it. This is the second time around. We need, I need to understand
better what hashtags I need to be using on Instagram. I just don’t have the time
to put in for the homework. Find the white space, not the ones, not “entrepreneur” because that has a lot. Like, what’s the long tail version. Kylie, great question. India, great job of asking the question. This is a shortcoming. You know, I, like any other human, go through the ebbs and flows
of not doing things well. As a matter fact, I don’t think
I handled my personal brand all that well up until
the #AskGaryVee Show because I was so busy executing. This one’s even worse because
I’m actually doing it. There’s no reason I shouldn’t
be adding four to seven strategic hashtags per post
for discovery of new people. I just need to get better. It’s a lack of practitioner execution. One that angers me that
we had to address it and maybe even ruined my week now that this has been exposed. (everyone laughs) No, listen, it’s a great question. This is one of the few times,
and this hurts my feelings, but this is one of the
few times I need to say, “Don’t look at my behavior. “Do it the right way.” You need to be using. It’s a free discovery
tool in these channels. I think I’m mailing it in,
specifically on Instagram. So, what the hell is,
I’m dropping the ball. And that hurts.