and face-to-face meetings how much of
that could be effectively accomplish what high-quality digital meetings 30%
of the things I travel for would have been just fine on skype the problem is
the other seventy percent is too valuable and do my best to navigate and
make judgment calls but I’m human and I’m flawed so that’s the answer ya think
I’d ever say that a lot just by Ron

“How do you personally
take charge in a meeting “when you feel others
are being disrespectful?” – I guess Brittany’s asking for herself and for everybody who’s listening. For me, I mean, I just get involve–
(laughs) I mean, first of all 99% of the time, the context of the meeting,
I have the leverage. Either it’s my meeting and/or
I have a lot of authority or street cred to open my mouth. One more time, how do you
take charge when you think somebody else is being disrespected? – [India] When you feel others
are being disrespectful, meaning, if it’s uncomfortable– – I see this all the time and I see people struggling with it especially if they’re middle management or the new kid on the block, or an intern. But they have the EQ or
the empathy and like, this is unfortunate. I would say that there’s
only two ways to live life. To tactfully address things or to eat and have regrets
that you didn’t address it. What’s the name again? Brittany. Brittany, I think that
you have choices here. If I was in a meeting with this crew and I was being disrespectful to Staphon and India felt like she
wanted to say something. What’s running through her mind is, if I call Gary out here, and first of all, she has
a lot of context on me so she’s probably thinking, oh crap, Staphon’s doing something
wrong that I don’t know about ’cause Gary’s usually right. But let’s say I was tone deaf
(laughs) and I didn’t have equity with
her and it was her first week. She’s thinking that if
she calls me out and says, Gary, why are doing– You’re being rude. She’s thinking, oh crap,
that can get me fired. And then, what does it mean to me? People are doing practical– There’s always the pressure
of doing the right thing versus the practical thing. And then you’re always questioning, are you good enough to know
what the right thing is. There’s all that stuff. I don’t know, I have had a very successful life. Forget about career. On being comfortable of addressing things in real time, in the room, if it needs to. My level of thinking of
disrespect is quite high because I like combativeness
and competitiveness and I’ve also always had leverage. I work for myself. So, my advice to myself or how I think about the
world is very different than the advice I’d
give to a lot of people. I think you go with the one strike policy. India should grab me or send me an email after that meeting and say,
hey, I felt a hair uncomfortable with the way that you were
treating Staphon in that meeting. Can we either talk about
it, she’d grab me in person. She can send an email. I like in person ’cause
no context is lost. ‘Cause if I got that
email from India, I’m like that’s a little prima
donna for a youngster. (laughs)
She doesn’t know all the details. But if she told it to me, I’d be able to feel the energy. That’s one lesson I’d like
a lot of you to learn. Sending a text or sending an email, where it’s an important moment, you’re losing so much context. The energy, especially if
you go to an EQ person, the energy is so powerful when
you can create the context so I highly recommend that. But I would probably
go with a communication that wasn’t confrontational
in the room with that manager or that boss the first time. Behind the scenes,
lightweight, treading water. And then, A, seeing how they respond. Because I would respond, and we’ve been there and done that, India. I would respond favorable
which would make you more comfortable and
safe to talk to me again. Others will be like,
shut you (blank) mouth. And that would make
you not as much comfort and then I would address it
in the room the second time. If I said, shut your
fuckin’ mouth to India and then she did it again the second time, couple things would happen. She’d feel like she was
getting that off her chest. More importantly, I’d be like, damn, she really does care about this. It’s just life. Doing the right thing is
always the right thing. You just gotta make sure
you’re doing the right thing. Way to many people romantically wanna fight against the system, fight against the boss, fight against the company. And I’ve had people in this organization that have barked up the wrong tree. Because they’ve worked in other places where the person doesn’t give a crap and doesn’t turn every stone and doesn’t have a ton of context. That is something you
need to be careful of. Do not walk into a buzzsaw
because you do have a manager or boss that actually knows
what they’re talking about. Now, if you’re great at EQ
and the tone and the taste, roll, let roll. But this is not a very simple question. There’s a lot of angles, as you could see, in two quick seconds
that I’ve given you here, it’s a lot of context building. Who are you standing up for? I mean, the amount of
times that people here have stood up for somebody
who’s straight losing, doing the wrong thing, but they’re homies. Matt, let’s talk to you
because they hear it from this. – Okay. – We have a tremendous culture here where, obviously, I’d like to say that but how many friends do
you have in this company? People you actually hang
out with outside of work? – A solid amount. – Give me a number. – 15, 20. – Great, so first of all, everybody who at Vayner’s
watching this is now wondering, wait a minute, am I number
21 and what the hell. – Sorry guys. – I thought we were friends. (laughs) 15 to 20, I think anybody who’s watching we would all recognize
and that’s a big number. There’s a lot of people watching here who don’t have single friend. Outside, everybody just– If you, not if, when your friend, one of those 15 to 20 complains about Vayner,
it’s impossible for you not to take their side,
they’re your friend. – Exactly. – I mean, that’s an impossible game. – Absolutely. – And I assume, I’m asking you now. Even though you like me
and think I’m a good guy and it’s a good company, good culture. It’s so much easier to have
Janet’s back than the company’s. – Sure. – That right there, is
the issue at hand, right. You might be standing up for somebody. Have you ever wanted to
stand up for somebody? – [Matt] Yeah. – Have you? – [Matt] Sometimes yes and sometimes no. – Right, and so it’s just tough ’cause
you don’t know every– I mean, I know a lot of the
friend pods in this company. I knew to ask that question ’cause I knew it was a good outcome because I know what’s
going on here, right. Even people that are a little quiet or what have you are finding friends. It’s amazing, right. We got a good thing going. The danger of that is blind
support to your homies versus what’s going on in the office. There are people here who are the greatest human– I literally want to adopt them. I literally want to adopt them, hey come in my family. I love you that much. Who are average workers. That’s just real-life shit. To think if I was their homie, outside of work and had all the feelings of the humanity that is
them which is remarkable. I want to adopt them. And to think about them complaining or struggle, why didn’t I get promoted, my boss is not taking care of me, this and that and the other thing. It’s impossible for the
other 550 people here intermingled with each other
not to support that person. They’re the best. But I have the optics of
another thing which is the black and white. Not the warm and fuzzy, the do you have skill. I’m the greatest guy of all time. I don’t think LeBron wants
me on his basketball team. I don’t have the raw skills to provide him value for
what he’s trying to achieve. I’m the best. And if he wants to do business I’ll make him more money
than he can even realize. Even more than he makes, which
is more than he can realize. And that’s the game. And so, that’s the other
part of the equation. You gonna step up for the
greatest person of all time, cool. You just might get caught because they’re actually below average or not doing a good job. Or they may actually act differently, I mean, this is happening here too. There are people that,
outside of these four walls, I want to adopt. But when you watch them, how they act within a work environment, they’re just okay. Lot a sweeties. And then a little snarky and manipulative and political in the building. That’s just real life. So know who you’re standing up for. Interesting shit. – Got really deep. – Yeah, it got very deep. That’s something we can all learn from. I’ve learned that lesson. Like, I know this guy, he’s the greatest. And like wait a minute,
he sucks in the store. I saw with my own
friends that work for me. So, anyway. – [India] It’s intense. – It is intense. It’s intense because it’s so, this is where
judging where you work or who you work for is the key. And understand what
they’re good and bad at. Meaning, you could have a great manager, top, top, manager. And they might be strong at X but they might bad at Y. And if they’re bad at Y, you need to context that. There’s no blanket statement,
even on the person. I have a lot of points of view on your strengths and weaknesses from a lot of different people. Way more than you’d ever think. – [Matt] Oh, I’m sure. – In a good way, meaning it’s
why we’re so calculated here of what we do. ‘Cause we don’t take the
main boss’s point of view on somebody. It’s 360. It’s contemporaries, it’s
friends outside of work. It’s people that never heard of him. It’s people that work for you. You can’t just be like, oh the boss– If you let that, they’re
just manipulate what’s in their best interest. ‘Cause they’re just human,
it’s not their fault. But I think that’s what
makes our place tick because people have
seen very senior people not win the battle against
very junior people. Then that’s like whoa, and that’s cool. I don’t know how I got on that tangent. I know how, If you wanna step up
for somebody in the room you better know all the scores. The conversation.

“big meeting or anything where you’re “required to have a strong performance?” – Carter, I prepare for a big
meeting by living my life. Meaning, I am always
prepared for a big meeting thus I never prepare for a big meeting. Meaning, when you’re great at something or very good at something you don’t need any prep time because you’re always prepping. Right, and so that’s the
punch line of me in a professional meeting standpoint. The years of experience,
the bravado, the results, the cadence, the natural skills,
the two things that matter, practice and natural
talent have been there so I don’t prepare for a big meeting. It’s not like I get pumped
up, I don’t put in like Lil Wayne and be like alright,
we’re gonna go get it. There’s none of that, there’s
no looking in the mirror and being like okay, we’re
gonna win this pitch. There’s none of that bullshit. I put in the work everyday,
365 to be ready for that and I think anybody
that’s very good at something is always doing that. You know, you don’t just wake up and decide you’re gonna be good at something. You’re always preparing. If you’re preparing in a
tactic way you’re unprepared. Yeah. – Wow. – You like that right, that
was some deep ass shit, right? – That was really good, yeah. – Yeah, I mean like, how
am I gonna prepare to cook a great meal for these homies right now? The answer is, I’m not. There’s no reading a blog
post or watching Youtube video or calling a chef friend,
like I’m gonna f** it up. I haven’t done anything
for 40 years that preps me to cook a good meal to you. That was some high level shit.

at Collision 2016 in New Orleans. I’ve never been to an event like this, so I’m not really sure
what to prepare for, how to prepare for it. I was wondering, what would
you do if you were in my shoes, if you were going to not
necessarily look for money, but more looking to make contacts? I’d appreciate any information, any insights you might
have on the situation. Thanks, Gary.
– [Gary] That’s real nice. Jarek, really legit American
flag waving so beautifully in the background. I did notice the Giants t-shirt, so I’m a little bit pissed with Jarek now. Lewis any thoughts on that? I think you wanted to establish your name in the marketing and business world. I assume you started
going to a lot of events for the first time through
the last half decade? How did you approach it? – I remember when I was
broke, on my sister’s couch, I took a Greyhound to one
of my first events in 2008. It was in New York. It was like a sports
film festival in Philly. I took a Greyhound,
and I had a suit jacket and a carry-on case. I remember I had a hostel
room that I got for like $17. Because I knew the value. I met a guy named Ben
Sterner, who I think you know who works out of here. He was like, “You’ve got
to come to this event. “You’re gonna meet a
lot of powerful people “that’s gonna help your business, “your relationships, your brand.” So I was like I gotta get there. I rented a hostel for $17 the first night. I walk in, late at night and there’s throw-up all over the ground. There’s throw-up all over the
floor, all over the bathroom, and 20 snoring, European guys in the room. But I knew the value right
when I got to this event how important it was to connect with influencers and powerful individuals. And I stayed up all night with people and just built a relationship with them. It wasn’t about being at the event it was figuring out where people
were going after the event. And getting in with their friends and then creating friendships with people. I never talked about
business or asked for advice. I just said, “What’s
going on in your life?” Like how can we be buddy-buddy? And, let’s do thumb-wrestling
wars, whatever, like I did with you in 2009 or something. It’s like let’s have fun
as opposed to talking about the thing you don’t want
to talk about right now. – You know to me, Jarek, I think
it’s a really good question and I think that’s right. I think at some level, if
you’re not meeting people, you’re not hitting on your KPI. I think Lewis speaks to
patience in a relationship, I think it really matters. Trying to throw around your business card or pitch your business, is
completely the opposite move. – Not to cut you off,
but to set an example, I’ve been essentially jabbing
for six years with you. – That’s right. – I never asked for anything. – I bought a shit-load of these books. – But I’ve never asked for anything except for
– [Gary] This book. – [Lewis] The blurb on the back. Which you know. – Which is a big deal because I don’t like giving them out. – And also hey, can I come on the show. And, you bought some books, yes. – Which is my own advice, right? I talk about that a lot which
is cash in all those chips when you’ve got your signature moment. Like you need this to do well. It’s another watershed
moment in your career. – Before, what was that guy’s name again? – Jarek. – For Jarek, I would not
ask anyone for support or help right now. I would just say how can I give
that person a relationship. – Listening to Lewis’ narrative, Jarek, I think one of the
biggest things that people make mistakes for, is
they go for short-term nickels and dimes instead
of long-term dollars. So, if you find, the more
important the person you encounter in New Orleans, the more you
should not ask for anything. Too many times, the amount
of people that roll up on me, I have no idea who they are,
and they want $100,000 from me because they’re gonna
help me buy the Jets. It’s pretty intense, there’s no context. It’s not the right move. Again, back to his story. Go sleep with 20 snoring
throw-up dudes for $17 if you’ve got a practical
financial problem. Have the humility to go
sleep on your sister’s couch, if you have a financial problem. If your financial problem
needs to be solved by you going to the most important people on first impact and asking for $25,000, you’ve put yourself in a bad position. So I think what you need to do
is put yourself in a position where you put no pressure on yourself to close at this event,
but build at this event. – And look at the long-term. Think of relationships for
five years down the line. – Hundred percent, India? – Last one from Adam.

So my question is, you’re always super busy, always looking to take on more. How do you do it all? – Let’s let this guy answer that. – Steve, that was a pretty good question, but a really simple answer
to the question, which is, it just comes down to time. At the end of the day, Steve, because you’ve worked at
VaynerMedia for four years, I know that you work, I don’t know, seven, eight, nine hours. I work 18. Just the volume of hours
allows me to do a lot more. Steve, think about it this way. I’m probably living twice
the life that you are. What it comes down to is, there’s just a lot more
hours of execution, and then also recognizing how
few things actually matter. One of the things, as you
know as a Vayner employee, we had a company-wide meeting once talking about, let’s cut meetings in half. All those hour meetings can be 30. All those 30 meetings can be 15. At the end of the day, I
think the biggest thing that people don’t understand is, they waste time on dumb shit. So if you have six minute meetings, if you have a two minute call
when it’s scheduled for 15, and when you actually work 18 hours a day, you can just fit in a lot more stuff. I think it comes down
to, ultimately, intent. How much do you want to accomplish? What do you want to get done? And for me, that’s a lot
of professional stuff. In those massive amounts of hours, if I maximize the width,
18 hours versus nine, and if I fit 97 things in, because you really only need
seven minutes, not 15 or 30, the amount of lollygagging that goes on by 99 percent of the market in meetings or the things they’re supposed
to do is extraordinary. So keeping it tight and
creating a lot of volume is how I execute.

was one of the winners of
the Crew for a Day challenge. Thank you so much for choosing me. As you can see, I’m
resting up for the big day. But before that, Gary, I have a question. Put yourself in my shoes. You just won a trip to
meet Gary Vaynerchuk. You’re pumped, you’ve been
following this dude for awhile. This is a once in a lifetime
opportunity for you. How would you go about preparing yourself for that type of trip? Would you set expectations and goals or just kind of go with the flow? What would you do if you were meeting you? You keep throwing contests,
I’ll keep winning them. – That’s pretty, listen, I like, by the way, that last part is probably why this question’s on this show. I like the bravado. (breathes deeply) Respectful bravado is very attractive. Bravado insanity is not. That is a little forewarning
to some of the people’s actions in the last couple weeks. I think that what I would
do is I would probably bring him some English peas, because I would know that
Gary loves English peas. And not like the bullshit
kind, like the big ones. You know, like English peas, not like Long Island English peas which are a little smaller. Definitely not snow peas, like sugar peas. Got so many different names. – [India] You walk on
the show with your dad. – Exactly, 118, watch those the big ones so I would bring him that. I’d probably bring him
like a rare Jets jersey of maybe the second or third round pick in the draft this year. What else do I want? I would probably bring some cool Nikes. Something that was like fly like these. I would bribe him to thank him. No. The answer to the question is very simple. I think you’ve already lost. I predict that your Friday
experience is not gonna be as good as you think because you’re already overthinking it. You need to roll in, be you,
the end, the end, the end. It works for me so much. Yesterday Brandon Marshall was here, football player, Jets wide receiver, umps. I don’t even know how to not be myself. First of all, I think I’m
better than everybody, so I don’t get star struck. It’s a flaw and a strength. And I think you roll in with that thing. I think you walk in
and you just need to be basically, it’s so hard, and I get it. Really, around Jets
players is probably where I struggle with it the most
but yesterday I crushed it. Just you have to be yourself,
there’s nothing else. Because then, if it doesn’t, and by the way this is why I fundamentally believe in being yourself. This is the secret
reason to being yourself. If you’re not yourself, and
then it doesn’t go well, you have to think about that
for the rest of your life. You went out of your way to not
let the natural thing happen and it didn’t go well, that sucks. I’d much rather be like, welp? When I get a comment
that like, “you suck.” Right now, the USC video and
the Monday motivation video are both going viral on Facebook, right? A lot of people have never seen me before. When somebody says you
suck, I’m like well, that was me, that’s just
where the chips fell. But if that was my schtick or
that was a fake version of me or that, well then that would hurt. Be like whoa, what if
I just was me, right? And so, that my friends
is why it’s always best, because then you don’t
have to second guess.

“to have successful business meetings in? “Conference room, restaurant, in flight?” – RD, for me, I’m looking to do these meetings anywhere possible at all times. I will sell and biz dev, and make the action happen on a flight, on a toilet, in the office, outside, at a ballgame, walking the halls, in the bathroom, I don’t give a crap, I said bathroom twice. Think about that, that is like, that is where my mindset is on this, which is I will go anywhere inappropriate. I will go, I would go anywhere. You wanna meet at, you know, you wanna meet at a funeral
parlor to close a deal? I’m interested, just
give me the directions, I’ll be there in a minute. So I think, to me, it
doesn’t matter where it is, or how it goes down, I’m comfortable in all
environments and business settings. You know, conference rooms, you know, are fine, I don’t have a problem with that either, I don’t want to be cool
and do it anywhere, like, I’m just, I’m
really up for whatever, when it comes to closing a business deal or doing some biz dev, and so, not some cool place like a coffee shop, not some sterile old school place, like a conference room, literally everything in between, just anywhere. – [India] You’re about
to get a meeting invite

“completely digital, “focused on exclusive
and shareable content, “how important are real life meetings?” – Soundspace, to me,
real life meetings matter because human beings make
all decisions, right. Like, so far, thank God, the
robots haven’t taken over. But it’s coming. But, you know, hopefully,
I don’t think I’ll see it. But it’s coming. And so, while that’s still the case, real life meetings matter because there’s just so much context that can be done in human interaction that
doesn’t happen over digital. You can’t map everything. I feel plenty of emotions over Twitter and things of that nature, but the energy in the room is lost, right. Like the energy in the room is lost. And so, to me, that is the
part that matters so much in the equation of real life. To me, I always say the
digital is a gateway drug. Hey, Kim.
– [Kim] Hey. Digital is the gateway drug
to the human interaction. As a matter of fact,
it’s funny, not Andrew, who didn’t know who the fuck I was, but a lot of the people
here on the team, and Zak, but a lot of people here on the team– India, did you know who I was? – [India] When I started here or when I started your team? (laughter) That answered that question. There was a gateway drug
happening before they got here which created context, but then, meeting in real life takes
it to a whole other level. You could work for the company and then you have a
whole different context when you’re on the team. (laughter) You know what I mean. – [Voiceover] Frank asks,

– [Voiceover] Akos asks, “When
you’re working on a project, “with clients, how much
is done online like Skype “versus in-person meetings?” – Akos, I can’t speak for
the whole VaynerMedia team, and I think they’re all individual, but at my level, or what I do, not even probably, probably
not predicated in my level, just the way I roll when I think about the client stuff that I do, ya know, I would say 10% on text, 40, actually I’m not gonna try to make this round out to 100. Let’s see, it probably
is predominantly e-mail, solid amount face-to-face, I’m
a big face-to-face kinda fan, almost non-existent phone, and growing, ’cause I’m pushing them, into more text, so face-to-face is probably 25%, the rest is digital. No Skype or Google Plus,
any of that kind of stuff. I’m just, I’m predominantly face-to-face, e-mail is number one,
face-to-face, texting, and that’s that. No GoToMeeting, none of that stuff. – [Voiceover] Erik asks, “Do
you watch your own videos?”

– [Voiceover] Lyndon asks in the first 30 seconds
of someone meeting you, what do you reveal about yourself? – Lyndon, this is a great question and I’m gonna give you a great, I’m declaring a great answer alert. (trumpets blaring) I can probably get somebody to consume something from me
within the first 13 seconds let alone 30 seconds because
it’s not what I’m gonna say, it’s how I feel. See, words are great but
energy’s a whole different game and I win on that game, right. And so within the first 30 seconds, I’m gonna establish and
have always established from my entire life from first grade, first 30 seconds in to
any business meeting to when I’m in a big off site when everybody goes around the room and says, “I’m Staphon.
I work at VaynerMedia.” But then I do my, “I’m
Gary, I’m a Jets fan.” Like, I within 30 seconds, set the tone vibe wise, if I don’t get to say something which is rare for me, not to say something within the first 30 seconds. I establish that I’m different. Yeah, I’m different. – [Voiceover] YaboyLV asks
what is your favorite pair