“Is it okay for celebs to
promote products on Instagram “without telling their
audience they get paid for it?” – No. And I’m sure it can happen. You know, like, listen, we
invest in so many things. I’m always scared, like,
talking about products and apps that we’re in. I’m like, “Ah.” Shyp right now, right? But is it okay? Absolutely not. Like, why in the world would that be okay? India? Like I don’t see any-
– [India] Why put it on the show.
– I don’t see, yeah, I wanted to put it on the show. because I wanna put
the line in the sand, like, ’cause people, “Oh, I know
why they put it in the show,” ’cause people, like, “Hey, this Pinterest “pay Gary to say it’s good,” I mean, are you crazy? Like, I made, like, I have– You know how much
money I have tied up in Twitter as I sit here on every
show saying it’s crap, it’s losing, it’s getting worse? Like, your word is always
your most valuable asset and celebrities that think
they can trick their fans are gonna be in for a rude awakening in the long tail of their career. It’s an insane play. It has no value, It’s stupid. It happen, like, look, I try to disclose
our investments all the time. Of course you are human,
something you have, but knowingly non-disclose
and be like, “This is great” and, “No,” like that’s insanity. Insanity. So also probably to be massively illegal as like the laws catch
up to full disclosure and things of that nature,
how about that part? So no, I don’t think it’s okay.

Why are so many people scared of Snapchat, especially in the marketing field? A lot of them say they
don’t understand it, but I feel like that’s a copout. What do you think? – Ben, I think it’s ironic that you wore a yellow shirt when you
asked that question. I wonder if that was strategic. If it was, a big daps to you. Also enjoying the beard
and the glasses look. You look really legit. I think that people are not practitioners. I would argue that 95%
of people in marketing, 95% of people in marketing, at digital and social
agencies on the brands and the business sides actually don’t know how Snapchat works, actually have never went through all four screens of Snapchat. To the left, to the right
twice and the camera itself. Literally have not done that. Literally. I would argue that 70% of marketers have never touched one of
the Discover tabs on Snapchat because they are just not practitioners, and Snapchat has a context
and a cadence and a system that is not native to a lot of people because it’s left to
right, not up and down like all the other apps, and so there’s some learning. Like, it actually takes
four to five minutes of thought and energy to really understand
how Snapchat works if you’ve never used it before, and that’s about four
to five minutes’ worth of actual practitionership that most people don’t apply. They like to headline read that the kids send sex pictures to each other and they like to be old white men even if they’re not old white men. Right? Plenty of 23-year-old Hispanic women acting like old white men ’cause
they’re not practitioners. Slang term “old white men,” to like “you suck shit.” Like you’re not putting in the work, you’re tired, you’re not innovating, you stink. You stink, you stink. And so why do I think people
are scared of Snapchat? Because they stink. Because most people suck at marketing. Most people just wanna do
what they’ve already known. They don’t evolve. I wake up every morning of my life trying to put myself out of business, because it’s a lot better to do that than have somebody else do it for me, and that’s how I live, and
that’s how I’m gonna live until I’m an old white man acting like a 14-year-old chick, right? ‘Cause that’s just the way I’m gonna roll. And so as you can see,
I got a little excited on this answer, because it strikes a real nerve to what’s actually happening in society, because as we are living through the second Industrial Revolution, the real culture shift
of the last half century, this Internet thing, getting to maturity with mobile devices at scale, computing on our fingertips
at all times at scale, the whole kit and kaboodle. Society, the whole thing, everyone, all of us, everyone. When that hits, and that’s here, and it’s starting to really hit, everything changes forever. Everything. Everything. Marketing just happens to be the part that I’m most interested in talking about.

“if at all, should a brand
not use social media?” – Steve.
– [Steve] Chad. – Chad.
(all laughing) Chad, great question. You know, the funny thing is, is all that social media is is another, first of all, social media is a term, a slang term for the current state of the Internet right now. The term we used only
six or seven years ago was “web 2.0 sites.” Now we call them “social media sites.” We may call them something
else in the future, “mobile native,” “virtual this,” but there’s always a term to talk about the 20 to 30 sites that matter. Social media sites
happen to mean the sites that people actually go to, the apps that people actually go to in a mobile first world, which is what we live in now, and so people are confused if there’s something, if there is a thing called social media. There isn’t. I mean, anything that’s
a content site now, anything that, like, people refer to podcasts as social media. It’s just a term of relevancy, and so it’s a communication portal, right? And there are some high,
high, high end brands that think if they’re on Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram or Facebook that they cheapen their brand equity. I would say Apple, right? Apple is a brand that does very little. I still think they’re doing
basically nothing on social, or at least, definitely not on Twitter, I don’t think, right? So, you know, look, do I think that there is a place where
brands should not do it? Only if it’s a shtick. If it’s a very well-thought-out, “we are so exclusive, we’re
going against the grain,” and they make it part
of their overall thing, that they emphasize in other
channels of communication their lack of being there. It may position to a small group that is anti-establishment, that they think that’s cool, but more and more, what
people need to recognize is that social media is going through a legitimacy curve right now. Over the next five to ten years, this will be the establishment. Facebook and Twitter and Pin, well, I don’t know about
Twitter, I’m worried, but Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat, they’re gonna be the establishment. It’s like banner ads
or the Internet itself. It’s just gonna be the
establishment, my friends, and so I think eventually, that’s going to run out. If you wanna sell something,
you need to be able to communicate to the world, and if everybody’s eyes and ears are in a certain place
called the Internet, I think you need to be there, and I think you have a tough argument to justify the upside versus the downside of not communicating in the portals where people are living. Ben. Oh, I know Ben Phillips.

“You decide to not show
my book page to people. “Do you think a lack of success “will make me give you more money?” – Rusty, I feel you, but you know, Facebook is like any
other medium in the world. You know like, Fox channel network to put your commercial for your book isn’t gonna just do it for free. The Yellow Pages isn’t feeling your book and so they’re just gonna
put it in there for free. The postal service isn’t like, “Oh rad, “your book was creative. “Let’s just ship out flyers
for your book for free.” This notion that Facebook,
because it started as a social network, is not
giving free organic reach to people and, “What, you want my money?” Yes, they want your money because it’s one of the most efficient ways
to actually deliver content to people in the world, right? You know, like, you know, cool, use the alternative of
free, which is what? Oh, excuse me, use the
alternative of Facebook and keep staying free, which is what? E-mail? Cool. Build your list, do your thing, hit that Google button, boom, MailChimp in the house. Great, awesome, phenomenal, show me. Show me that you can build that list. That’s just the way it is,
and I think people’s feelings are hurt, but Facebook,
The Business World, The Market, doesn’t give a crap. – [Voiceover] Listen Give
asks, “Our co-founder

“Gary, do you still believe marketing “is heading towards one on one marketing?” – Jason, I still think that the upside, the disproportionate upside, is going into one on one marketing and I know this because, when I do Twitter video replies, people go crazy and I’m creating depth. I know this because a lot of people have been following me on Instagram, you should, too,
(tinging bell) and, I’ve been replying
to them in the comments. One of my new hacks, this is really, you know, Justin, who asked the
first question, is like, “Give me more tactical shit.” Here you go, bro. Here’s a good one. Here’s something I’ve
been really into, right? So people follow you, right? I get decent amounts of followers. Most of you don’t. You only get one or two or three a day. Is it going to kill you to
go into the last person, here’s Millianaires Junior or Millions Junior, private account, can’t do it, next. I know you really can’t
get in here, DRock, but, good, here’s Austin G, right? Austin G just followed me. I’ve been hitting his last
photo and just saying, “Thanks for the follow.” Right? Bro. Right? And done. That level of depth, I’ve noticed almost 95%, this is anecdotal, but nine out of every ten, eight out of every ten people, are freaking out, excited,
because nobody does that. And so, here’s the thing, do I think the marketing
world is going towards one on one, AKA Thank You Economy? I think the thing that
I’ve come to realize is, crap, a lot of the stuff that I do, I’m an anomaly because I act like one. I have disproportionate results
to the rest of the world because I’m doing shit differently. That’s why. And so, do I think the world’s
moving in that direction? Less, because I’m starting to realize I’m better. Right? And so, that’s building inside of me. Do I think that there’s
disproportionate value? Even more than I did when
I wrote Thank You Economy. You know why? Because people only
want to talk more, now, and listen less, and listen, my friends, is where the action is. Spending a second, doing what I just did. The thing that I’ve
been really crushing on, I think, I mean, this is where you guys, as a collective, really piss me off. I’m going to show you, right now, that replying on Twitter
video is incredible. Twitter video response is probably the best hack, right now, on Twitter. Right, so, let’s, here we go, here’s somebody, “Such a must-read piece by Gary Vee.” Right? By John T, right? So I just reply, I hit reply, I hit the video, I hit the video, I reverse the camera, I go, oops, that was a picture, that’s wrong, I don’t want to do that, camera, and then, John, I really appreciate it, man. Kind of weird thing. We’re actually taping #AskGaryVee, live, right now. I’m just saying thanks, I appreciate you. Now, I don’t do that,
because I’m not usually taping #AskGaryVee, but I just say, hey, thanks, or I respond. 99% of the video responses have been liked, retweeted, passed on. It’s that extra second. And so I think the LTV, the thing that I live on, LTV, the thing that I live on, LTV, the thing that I live on, Life, Time, Value. You can watch this show once or twice or you can watch all 103 of them which become a gateway drug to everything else that I do for a living. You say something nice
about me at a restaurant which leads to that person
digging into VaynerMedia which then makes them a
client of VaynerMedia. You buy 11 copies of the #AskGaryVee book that comes out in
February and you give them to 10 people who then discover me. Because I’ve put out 103
of these things for free, not put them behind a pay
wall for 19 bucks an episode, it’s LTV, LTV, LTV, and one of the greatest ways to create LTV when nobody knows who you are or you’re still small or you’re still grinding, you’re still climbing the mountain, is being completely and utterly obsessed with thanking
everybody who gave a shit enough to follow you on Instagram. Because I’m not so sure you deserve it and I’m not so sure I deserve it which is why I’m so grateful
for when it happens.

“If you owned a CrossFit gym, “how would you attack the marketplace?” – Jessica, I would attack
it in a lot of ways. I think CrossFit is amazingly ripe for content. People hustling. People wearing skimpy clothes. People in shape. People competing. Just a ton of Instagram,
a ton of Pinterest, a ton of Facebook, a ton of YouTube. Just content, content, content, but, I would have a very
strategic approach, locally. If you actually run a gym, I would care immensely
around the 15 mile radius and so I would also test direct mail, I would test JV’ing with the other, one of my favorite moves
for a local business is, I can’t believe so many local
businesses don’t do this, why not go to every other
local business and say, Hey, India, I’m going to use India
a lot in this episode, Hey India, you have a
beautiful flower shop, here. But you don’t have a lot of customers and neither do I in my CrossFit gym. We need to help each other, right? Like, we need more. You need more people for this. What can we do, right? Maybe I could put your flowers in my gym and I’ll put a sign there. And can you do something for me? And that talk, that biz-dev with local, you know, hey, Staphon, right, like, I’m just
getting into it, now, I’m really now into it, let’s get this light out of the way. Hey, Staphon, I really
like your sneaker store. By the way, I’m going
to buy these sneakers. Some Nikes. You know, but, by the way, you
know, there’s not that many people that come here
Monday through Friday so wouldn’t you, maybe you could put a sneaker display in my
gym and maybe I could have something here. You cool for that? – I’m cool with that.
– He’s cool with that. So, my friends, localized biz-dev. Every small business needs more people. It’s the hustle, it’s the grind. You’re competing against the
thing called the internet and it’s going to win. But it’s going to take 20, 30, 40 years but every day it chips
away at your pocket. Every day, the internet comes and it takes another bill, every day the internet
comes and it just grabs, it just grabs, it just takes your money, and so you need to fight
with your other teammates that have the same problem you have. So, sure all the stuff that I’ve talked about in 102 episodes, watch them all, there’s plenty
of stuff in there to do. But good, old-fashioned knocking on doors and biz-deving with India the flower shop and the Stefan the sneaker
shop is very, very important and I’m blown away, every time
I go into a local business, that they have all this
square footage that they’re not using efficiently ’cause
they don’t have the money for inventory for unlimited sneakers so they’ve just got room, they’ve got room and in that room maybe I could
put a bench with a weight and everyone’s like,
“What the hell is that?” but there’s a sign there
that says Gary’s CrossFit, you know, grab this
coupon, one month free. Biz-dev, locally, I’m
obsessed with it but it takes the guts to go knock on the door and a lot of people just don’t have those guts.

“of Instagram. Like now people
try to sell a fridge on it. The fuck?” I like how you delivered that. Yeah, I mean this is clearly
the theme of the show. Oh, by the way. Real
quick shout out to Scott. This is an incredible personal wine box. Let’s give them
PersonalizedWineBoxes.com shout out. I love how people are hacking
me for free promotion. I feel like a sucker right now, but like, I do love. And Chris, this is insane. I mean, Chris Green, this
is just absolutely insane. Show them up, D-Rock. This is unbelievable. He dismantled it. How about this? I mean, does Aton know about this? Listen, I just said it earlier. People are ruining Instagram. People are trying to sell their fridges, people are trying to sell clothes. There was one that I saw, “Why are people trying to
sell food on Instagram?” But I didn’t think I could stop from laughing through that question from India. The bottom line is attention,
attention, attention. That’s where the value prop is. You know, the reason I
picked both those questions is to thematicsize this episode. I don’t know what that means, sorry. Grammar police. But the theme of this show is very simple, which is Instagram has the attention, people are gonna sell on it, get over it. That’s what’s always gonna happen. And, so, the reason people
are trying to sell you a fridge on Instagram is the same reason you asked the question on Twitter. Which means, it caught your attention. Where as if they tried to
sell their fridge on Twitter, I’m not sure it would have. Get it?

through Facebook is on par with
ads in the yellow pages. Anyone disagree?
Facebook is dead. What’s next? Ryan, hey. It’s me, Gary Vee. I know we don’t know each other, but Alex is gonna be hitting
you up with a link to this. I massively disagree. As a matter of fact,
emphatically disagree. I think what’s next is people
waking up and realizing Facebook is just starting to grow. I have made the mistake, many times in my career, of the same thing that
you’re saying on Twitter. Which was, I said in 2003, “Hey, SEM. Google Adwords
is dead. What’s next?” While Google was just starting. Facebook “dark posts” the ability
to reach out to everybody. Don’t forget, you know. Yellowpages is more like Google Search. You’re going there to find something. Facebook’s coming to you. You’re in a feed, and you’re seeing it. No more the right side of a desktop. I don’t even know what this is. This is like an artifact, right? And, so, the fact of the matter is no more on the right side of a website. It’s coming in your feed. And if you know how to target, and you know how to create
content properly, you win. And, so, I would say I disagree. And number two, what’s next is people understanding what’s
really happening in Facebook. Like do it right on spot.

– How are you? – I’m good, how are you?
– [Gary] Good. – All right, I’m a personal trainer in a recent grad here
in the upper east side of New York city.
– [Gary] Yep. – I have you know, lot of
internship experiance at agencies full service marketing agencies. I love it. I crave it. I want to get back into it.
– [Gary] Okay. – Now, what is a fundamental skill that you find a lot of entry
level marketers lacking that you feel they should
take advantage of it. – You know it’s funny, it’s
not how I think about it to be honest with you,
it’s a good question I understand where you’re going with it. I’m not worried about what you don’t have I’m more worried about what you have. – Bet on your strengths? – 100%. You know like, I’m not gonna
waiver from this stuff, right? This is what I believe in. And so, you know, I don’t know because, it’s not how I even process. What I want to know is, you know look your passion for craving
it might just be enough. You know, there is a
lot of different ways. Now the truth is, a ton
of people have passion. So, passion and another
skill more interesting passion and two skills or but, remember skills come in two forms you went and formed it or
it naturally comes to you. Right? And so, I think
the question is looking I would tell you that you’re
looking to get back in the game If you innuendoing to
applying to the VaynerMedia I think what you need
to do is walk in there with the honest truths,
that are you as a marketer and maybe you went over
that process through the work ethic because it feels like
something you can control. But, maybe it’s a DNA thing,
maybe hardwork is a DNA thing I don’t know, you know you got to go in there with the truths spend all your time talking
about that and move forward. Zak, as a designer
sitting in front of you had natural speed,
qualities as a designer. And that’s why he’s so great for me because, and that’s why
he’s so great for me because, he bring so much value to me because, we’re fast. I’m exact, we need to redesign
the entire 40 page website and I need it in an
hour, he’s like “Cool”. You know, like that you know You know, and for other people
they think that we’re crazy that it has to go through
process and triple check and I respect that, Bowmen that’s the original, they
don’t even fit, the Bowmen – Question for you
– [Gary] I love that. Got it (mumbling) I love the, he’s flashing
baseball cards behind. I got it. He’s totally
hacking the system. I love it. The Jordan upper deck card
– [Man] These are all for you. So, I think that’s it. It’s not what I’m looking for it’s you going in with what you got. – [Mergim] Okay, thank you.
– Cool, man. Pass the mic.

“to scale a business with an
inherently low profit margin?” – So, Jared’s got a low
profit margin issue. He’s asking the best way to scale it. Jack? – New products, new innovation, new angle. If you’ve got, the last thing
you wanna be thinking about is making large something
that’s small margins. You wanna find ways to
take the assets you have and transform it into a
high-growth, exciting player in maybe adjacent fields. But take the asset you
have and deploy them to grow the business, but not maybe the existing business completely. – Get away from the low-margin businesses. Create services, right? I mean, isn’t that what you did at GE? Took all the stuff that was low-margin, and you added on high-margin services. You don’t wanna be in
a low-margin business. You’ve gotta do everything
with your innovation and creativity to get away from it. – I’m gonna go with an
interesting, different angle from my own life experience. When I got into my dad’s business, it did three million dollars in revenue and ran on 10 percent gross
profit before expenses. It was a family business, right? – Right, right. – That’s low margin. The liquor business is bad,
cause there’s a middle, wholesale part that takes 25 percent of the 50 percent that a
retailer normally takes. Extremely low margin. What I did was actually
went the other way. Meaning, I took the low margin items that were driving the store’s business, and I actually bet on them. What I did was, I took all the
items like Santa Margherita, Kendall-Jackson, the liquor
items that were low margin, at cost, by the way, and
I used them to market, to drive people into
the store as the honey, and then I merchandized the store and built the brand that they
came in for, Kendall-Jackson, but I sold them a different
Chardonnay with margin. And so, both these things
are, of course, right, I’m curious, and we don’t know, where you are in your life cycle. What I’ve watched a lot
of people do is try to go, you know, bandaid off from low margin to some new innovation that
maybe the market doesn’t want. I think the hedge there, that’s
interesting to understand, I really felt the effects of
this, is use it as an offense. Right now, we’re testing Facebook ads for my wine business, and
everything we’re using are these low-margin
items, because they have the brand equity to drive in,
and then we’ll take care of it from there, so you may be far enough along in your business where, the first answers here
were 100 percent right. You need to get into a
place where the margins are gonna get right,
but I worry, depending on your sophistication as an operator, that you go complete cold turkey. There’s a way to use the
low-margin items as an asset. – That’s a very good idea, but I would use the low-margin items and the margin from those low-margin items
to invest in other areas. – 100 percent. That’s what I did, right? The pennies we made turned
into the advertising, that drove people in, then I
grabbed them, and so, da-da-da. India.