what changed the most I mean you know a
million things changed I started understanding the industry I like being
an operator that learns the industry by doing instead of readings for not
reading Ogilvy’s book you’re reading at age I learned and so I think my ability
to run the company increased tremendously that pounding team of six or seven three
people were all kids all the beaches friends they shorten their men now and
November 22 they’re getting close to thirty which isn’t saying much bigger
companies we have different dynamics everybody knew everybody intimately now
that happens in pockets with tremendous culture but like not every person knows
everybody not even close anymore so you got that dynamic run all sorts of cities
were big company we’re going up company it’s a very very very different yet the
energy is pretty much the same the mission of the same which has helped
clients whether they’re an NGO non profit or selling bottled water helped
themself up communicate at the best possible price in the best possible
channels to reach the biggest possible audience to create that business result
and more poorly that will treat each other tremendously well and have a real
real community here because continuity is what I’m going for continuity built
speed things that people are saying about business when you are useful ball a lot of any
use it sorry for people to follow but when your offensive line with all five
of those guys play the whole season together as they work as one it’s really
magic it’s really quite interesting when you really understand how football is
played it so it’s really a team sport more than anything when those five plane
the whole season together or two seasons together three seasons together and they
have that unity and continuity they follow the flow and that’s what I love
and businesses the reason I W my people so much am I
wanna make it so great for them as I want them to your not because I’m some
evil like Colt overlord it’s because continuity breeds speed and
I W speed more than anything and so we’re not as fast as we used to be
because we’re a little bit bigger but I’m proud of the speed and the scrapping
of the entrepreneurial spirit we have 600 that is still at least a solid
version of the first eight thank you Alan Jack bender truck yet another from
AJ about you know about AJ’s request to

the evil said now you know because of course bro how are you sure
they keep that mentality so when they get to this point in life they keep the
power mentality to ensure success thanks so much for the question also lot more
clearly a branding genus you said power broke so many times and i think im gonna
say power broke 50 more times in like if you keep saying it just becomes real you
know why I actually think it’s impossible to do I think it’s very hard
to teach broke I don’t know how to instill I mean I’m forget about all my
investments I’m scared of having the teach my kids that because they’re going
to be in the power of rich that’s right missions and call you out your soft so
you know i mean look i mean it’s very hard to instill those virtues and i dont
know that I’ve been successful as an entrepreneur who’s become an investor in
stealing that into my investment investments at all I think what I’ve
done well it is I’ve recognized what they may be good at all you’re not the
power of hostile and broken all that but you know what you are you came from a
rich family you are seriously educated and I think you really understand
operations and your number two looks like they’re pretty hungry and broke
away like I really haven’t I don’t think it’s fair to to think that we can
instill the power broke in the same way that I don’t think anybody can instill
into me the hashtag power prep school right like like it’s just not part of
that DNA and so i think i think i think that’s a challenge as a matter of fact I
don’t read though I’d tried an audio book on my vacation at a bad time speed
it was pretty cool so I’m really interested in how you approach this with
the book and like how much like how do you how you instill hostile
or things of that nature has been interesting as outside investing it’s
been very hard for me internally I do you think you can do it
I’ve been very in the same way probably mom and dad EJ probably instill that in
to us right cause they work hard good in the same way do you think he’s also been
so hard he doesn’t let you doing so in the same way they think my parents
showed me work ethic and it was instilled in me I definitely see why I
think India works harder today get captured at run into you truly think
that you work harder forget about smarter do you think you work harder
because you’ve been so close to the bomb the son of hustle right after the son of
what what what do you think do you think you work harder because of it yeah I don’t use it rubs off from 100%
power broke all day I do so I think as an investor and I’ve empathy I know what
you do it’s on TV again it like it’s hard to do that from afar close in the
same way I think I’ll be able to pull it off my kids I think I think as an
organization for a lot of you that have 3479 12 employees I do think you can
still it and it’s a very funny way you do it by doing it only actions actions
actions the only way that you can do it is by you the leader of a company acting
a short way people can spend enough time with your investments and I think one of
the ways that are you crazy I actually have figured out a weird way to do it
but called daily be I had multiple people that are investments of my email
me about the first three episodes just 13 episodes billion like you might be
working harder to me and I haven’t made it yet and I’ve got like so actions released two subpar product or service
if so why did you learn from it tons of

“why are VaynerMedia’s
social accounts so whatever? “Why are those outlets afterthoughts?” – That’s a really good
point, we decided to take on this question, it’s not a fun question. We are not doing a good enough job on the VaynerMedia account. It’s 100% my fault, we’ve
had people in the past at a good rotation when
we were two or three hundred people, I think
in 2016 it became a secondary priority as some of those people graduated to more senior
jobs or more responsibilities or something’s lost in translation. There’s two very interesting answers. So, first answer is, it wasn’t a priority. It stems from the top,
it lost it’s momentum and I didn’t create
infustructure to fix it. The second part’s
probably more interesting, which is our funnel of
applicants and high quality employees and new business is so high that we’re taking, it’s the
same reason I don’t think think Apple is a good advertiser. When you have the best product, in the same way I always say the greatest advertising in the world doesn’t fix your shit product, when you
have the best product the worst advertising doesn’t
hurt you as much either. It can hurt you a little
bit, I wouldn’t be naive to think that we maybe missed out on some clients because well, they’re not doing their own social
as well as they used to or could be, cause we
used to be best in class. And two, you know some
applicants were like well they don’t take that
serious so, yes I think we probably run on the
fact that I’m so strong and good at it, there is
that proxy the way you asked the question but it is, I
probably was willing to answer this question to shame myself
into fixing that in 2016. As a matter of fact India
I’m putting you in charge of shaming me, no not in charge
of the Vayner accounts but in charge of me putting
together the team in January that will start
executing in February. Or the system, because I
do have this idea of since we have so many employees
creating a calendar where one employee takes
over the account every day for the entire year, you like that? – [Brittany] I do like that. – That’s a clever little idea. It also , let them do whatever they do. You know I love to run it capitaistic, I’m not scared of anybody
doing innappropriate things. They’ll just get fired
and we’ll own up to it. It’s not super complicated. I hate when companies, this is a good way to answer something else. What are we gonna like check the content and give them a bunch
of handbooks and rules? No, if Marv sucks at it and
like puts up innappropriate pictures of himself, he’ll get fired. – I like when we were doing the Snapchats

“for agency leaders to be active on social? “Do you weight that when
hiring a leader at Vayner?” – Um, look, I do think that somebody has to be a practitioner
or skilled in your craft, so yes, I do weigh that, but I do think we have a machine here that if somebody’s a great executive and good at building up people’s talent, knows how to do client services, understands the theory of marketing, but hasn’t used Snapchat,
Instagram, Facebook enough to be a great practitioner, that we know that’s commoditized and that after a hundred days at Vayner, we can get them to that place, so if they have enough
of the other things, you don’t have to be
crushing it on Instagram to be a leader at Vayner. You have to understand why
Instagram’s crushing it, and then put in the
work once you start here if you’re good at leading a team, great with client services,
great at other strategies, great at understanding how things, we have a lot of people that are great at Facebook,
Snapchat, Instagram, but don’t understand how beer is sold, or how soap is sold, and
we have to teach them that. If you’re coming as a
42-year-old executive and done it your whole
career and you know that, so just teaching the white space. So that’s the real answer. You have to have the
attitude, the appetite, and the theoretical rationale to why these things are
working to get in the door. – [India] Nice.

– [Voiceover] SaltySnapz
asks, “People say the road “to success is lonely. “Do you feel that’s accurate? “If not, why do you think
it’s a common sentiment?” – You know, I think
people use that statement because the truth is, I mean first of all, it depends on how you define success. In the context of what this show is about, which is business success, obviously we talk about a
lot of life stuff as well. But, you know, when you’re the CEO, when you are the founder, the conversation that’s not being had, everybody sees all the nice
things that come along. But every single thing that
happens in this company that’s wrong is my fault. Every snarky comment on social. Every kind of, like, sad face. Every email bullet points that I, every Friday I get bullet
points from tons of Vayner Media employees and 80% of them have a bullet that’s like,
“Rick is stretched too thin “and is crying in the bathroom.” That’s devastating. It’s very tough to be
at the top of something, even when it’s going great. Vayner’s going great. This is not even, like, you
know Wall Street collapsed and we lost a lot of clients
and we have to have layoffs. This is, like, we’re
rolling and we’re the best and we’re crushing and there’s
always things to worry about. Because you know that there’s no, “Oh, it’s India’s fault.” Everybody here, at some
level, all the way up can still say (snaps
fingers), “It’s Gary’s fault.” I can’t and when you say it’s my fault, there’s a really tough burden emotionally, forget about financially,
that comes along with that. And so I think it can get
very lonely, you do recognize. It’s amazing to me, for
as much of a communinary and extrovert as I am, how
much I keep in my own mind. How much is going on in
this noggin every day. Calculating, strategizing, thinking. And there is no vacations. I desperately love national holidays and, like, I can’t wait for
Christmas and Thanksgiving because everybody else is checked out and that’s the only time,
that’s the only time that I’m able to be off. I have my 40th birthday
coming on Saturday. I’m going away with my family. This is an incredible moment in my life and I will not be able
to be 100% checked out. Because then those, you know
and that Friday and that Monday the world is moving, this world is moving. My responsibilities are moving. I’m always one phone call away from a fire that I have to address. It is a very intense, lonely
place to be, at the tipy top. And so, when you think about, you know, I always think
about, like, “Is life fair?” Right? There’s always things that happen, there’s things that we can’t control. But the notion of, like,
somebody getting compensated a lot of money for things that we, do I think somebody making
20 million dollars a year to be an athlete or an actress. We never talk about
actresses and actors, right? We love to zing on athletes
but, like, actors make, like, the big ones make like
eight, 15 million dollars to make a movie. But still, at the end of the day, it’s because they command the market. People want to pay attention and there’s enormous amount of pressure. As I’ve lived my life and
started spending some time with A-list celebrities, there
life is, I mean, it’s intense. Like, I really secretly
think that I could be an A-list celebrity. That I literally could go
on TV and be a breakout hit. Like in a Mad Money
kind of like, you know, not like Jennifer Lawrence. I just don’t have the looks. But in a Mad Money, kind of like Regis, kind of like Andy Cohen way. But man, real celebrity status is intense. You just have nowhere to
go and so there’s that. Or an athlete where the
physical shape that you have to, 18, you know, 10 hours a
day of putting in that time. People look at the outcomes
they don’t think about what’s coming along with
it and the pressure. The pressure to know
that if I get hit wrong, that my entire life collapses, especially an athlete
that has a short window. Or the pressures that we’ve, look, I don’t think it’s a coincidence
that some of the greatest artists of all time pass
away in their mid-20s because of the intensity. It’s intense, it’s intense. It’s very lonely and so it
could be extremely lonely. I, ironically, and you’ll
find this wild, I love, look I want random extra
people in the room. So, like, I love being around
people more than anything but I’m also very comfortable in my own, being one-on-one with myself. So I’m good but I know that I’m emotionally stable as fuck
and it’s intense for me. I can’t imagine people that
are not as fortunate as I am pulling from both directions. Ambition but humil, you know. Like, do you know how content I am? A lot of people watch
this show and you hear I wanna buy the Jets and you misunderstand really where I’m at. I want it all and I
wanna win the whole thing but if I never win again,
if I plateau at this level, there’s an amazing amount
of content in my body for all my hunger. And that balances me
but I couldn’t imagine if that was tweaked just a little bit. If I really felt the pressure because there’s enough pressure from a day in and day out standpoint. It’s intense, it’s intense. I think people say it I
think much like stereotypes or statements there’s
always so many truth to it. I think the reason so many people say the road is lonely because
to really be successful, in the context of business especially, you’ve gotta make seven to 7,000 decisions that are critical and you can
only make them with yourself. It’s an intense moment on a daily basis.

– So. – Actually I’m scared. – Ready? – Yeah. – So VaynerMedia has always been in like, turbo growth mode.
– [Gary] Aw, crap. – [Gary] Yes. – Right, like always. It’s always bring on more clients, hire more people, run out of space, rinse and repeat, right? – Yes. – Do you think there will ever be a time where VaynerMedia prioritizes depth over width in terms of charging more, you know, bigger, fatter — – Scopes? – scopes, and — – Subjective call on the
quality of the output? – Right, or, but then that
laddering up to sort of… – A plateauing of people? – Turning into like big,
huge, lavish benefit packages and things like some agencies get really, really, really
crazy with that, right? Where we’re scrappier, right? – Yup. – And I’m not saying that’s the point — – No, no, no, you’re not. – But do you think Vayner will ever slow down —
– [Gary] You mean like, paying people 200 thousand dollar bonues to be the best creative director
in the world kinda thing? – Well, yeah sure, I guess. – I mean, I’m just, I wanna
quantify that part of it. – Right, exactly. So it’s like depth over
width in terms of like, sheer dollar amounts as
they relate to clients, employees, benefits, all that stuff. And I’m not saying it’s bad right now, by any stretch, right? – Yeah, no. I’m not worried about that. So I think, for me, the way I run my business, which is why I think I’m running a much better business than all these other
agencies that do that, is because I think you can
achieve both in parallel. So I think what I uniquely
as an entrepreneur am good at, is running both trains. So I think you could easily, as, in the context of your question, speak to a very different level of quality in the building from 18 months ago. – Right. – So, if you just project out, if you think about the fact that we didn’t have a single SVP
or real creative director like of any, real’s not fair. A creative director of 10
years or more experience just 18 months ago. – Mmhmm. – That you can see that
happening in parallel. I think that, I think
where it gets disguised is we have people that come
from Gray and Ogilvy and things of that nature. We also have, what’s
been very happy to me, to see Aton and Harry and Pensoot and all these people
leveling up in parallel. What it gets disguised by is the thing that’s much more obvious. What’s much more obvious is
hyper growth of people, right? – Yeah. – It’s just, getting
crammed when we grow, right? What’s less obvious is,
you know, anyone’s ability to really truly dissect 550
people’s depth of skill. – Yeah. – And there’s pockets of clients. You’re always gonna have
variable depending on the people. Plus, hiring the right people. So, to me, the answer is,
it’s happening in parallel. I think the only thing that makes people think that it’s happening,
is stop the hiring process and then they’re like, “Oh! “We’re not going hyper,
we’re going deeper.” – Yeah. – I think we’ve gone stunningly deep in 18 months by two variables. One, bringing the outside
talent in their 30s and 40s, right, depth, which is gray hairs. in a lot of people’s
subjective point of view. And number two, the actual growth of the people that have been at Vayner that are totally different animals. And I think that, for every
individual it’s different. And I also think that for the people that have been here longer, it’s a different context point
than it is for other people. You know, and so, no I mean, I think as long as I’m running the business, I’m never comfortable in thinking one has to be done without the other. I truly feel that you’re
capable to do both. And I think if you project
out what’s happened in the last 18 months on the depth chart, that it’s actually tremendously scalable and gets way deeper
because as you get bigger, you deploy those dollars to those things. – Mmhmm. – And as far as like, benefits
and packages, you know. I’m very weird when it comes to bonuses. I think bonuses, so we’ve
hired two people recently that left their agencies
because of bonuses. Because they felt they deserved more. I think when you have a graying zone of, I get to be the judge
and jury on the bonus, I think what is safer
is to just try to get to a number together. And I think that those
things ebb and flow. I also think that when you’re
in a fast-growing company, what a lot of employees don’t calibrate, ’cause they shouldn’t,
’cause it’s very hard for anybody to care about anything besides what they care
about for themselves, is the notion of what happens in a 36-month window
versus a 12-month window. So I’ve been happy to be honest with you, of getting three to four
emails in the last six months from former employees
who left because of money who now make less money than some of their counterparts here
because VaynerMedia is growing, and we’ve been able to rise all ships, and in their other places they haven’t. And so, those are my answers. – Bonus question. – Please. – How fast do you think
we max out the space at Hudson Yards? – I think we might of already. – Nice. I think, you know, I do think that every company has to bear the negatives that come along with the positives for their individual
self around the person that runs the company. I love insanity. (laughter) I like it. I like when we’re like this. I like when we’re sitting
this close to each other. I like it. And if you are not that, if you’re somebody that really like that, and your space, and this
is where I put this, and this is where I put this, then, you know, Vayner
can be tricky at times. Though, no question, I
think it’s a leader’s job to adjust to his reality,
and I’ve definitely deployed more empathy towards the way we plan on scaling Hudson Yards, and if we need secondary offices to try to come back a little bit
on my own selfish love of that kinetic energy. Mainly predicated on, because
the floors are so big. So I think I’m gonna be
able to scratch my itch, ’cause they’re just big floor plates and there’ll be three, four
hundred people comfortably on one floor. And so I’m hoping that
solves that problem. So, thanks Steve.

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

and how they recently
started their own creative in-house agency. What do you think about that? How that gonna affect the work we do? And how do we remain the experts on social when more platforms are
doing work in-house? – Platforms have done
in-house from the get. They’re never gonna replace agencies. And by the way, if they do, cool, then we’ll adjust, we’ll
start selling popcorn here at VaynerMedia or something. I mean, the reality is that there’s too much danger for
Facebook to start doing that because the agencies are
gonna push back against that, and then start recommending other things. I think what they’re doing is, they’re trying to show best of class work, things that they believe in. They’re pissed off at agencies
for not doing Facebook stuff, trying to do TV stuff, and the
other things of that nature. I think they’re looking
for it to be a North Star. They’re looking to find other
agencies to follow that lead, but all of them, Snapchat,
Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, they all have got some level of this. To me, it’s something
I’ve never worried about, or other agencies, I think,
should really worry about, mainly because, one, if they’re good enough, and
that brings the most value to the customers, then that’s
what the market should be, and then all of you will work at Facebook. That’s the way it should be. But, two, I don’t think it’s
in their vested interest as a platform to get in the
client service business. I think it’s a very tiny
dot in the ecosystem to try to move the creative in a direction that I think is meaningful
for their platform, and it’s a good way to spark, look, you’re asking the question. So it’s a good way to spark the market. For me, I default in
living in that environment that you have to make that content, so I’m not scared, and good
for them, and whatever. – Awesome. – Congrats to your Eagles.

– [Voiceover] Aishwarya
asks, “What lessons, if any, “did you find from Mad Men? “How is VaynerMedia differently
run than Sterling Cooper?” – I don’t know who Sterling Cooper is, I’ve not watched one minute of Mad Men. I want to, I think it’s kind of cool. But I’ve never watched Mad Men, which is interesting,
because I’m building. Have you guys watched Mad Men, or an episode? Do you. (whispering)
Okay, you, great. So is Mad Men, is that
agency the one that became the best, like is the narrative
playing on those years that they became the big dogs? – [India] I mean,
they’re kind of all good. – Always were good? – [India] Yeah, they’re
good, and then they’re small, and they’re growing this
big company and they get fired by another company worldwide. – So I really want to watch it. You know what’s really
cool is that I’m glad I didn’t watch it because
I know so much more about the ad world now,
that when and if I ever watch it on a vacation,
on a binge, maybe me and Lizzie just wanna check
out and like lay in a cabin in Utah for four days and
watch two shows straight through, which sounds
really exciting, because I love checking out on my vacations. I always laugh, people don’t think. I mean I check the fuck out on vacations, I don’t give a crap’s ass. (laughs) Yeah. (laughs) You like that one? So I haven’t watched
the show, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t care what anybody’s doing. I’m doing my thing, my
way, always from the gut. I don’t care what
anybody else does, or how they do it. My way’s always better,
because it’s for me, and I know myself, and
I know I’m gonna win. And so I don’t watch other things. I don’t look at other people. I don’t need any north stars, I do me the whole way
always all the way through.

“college dropouts at VaynerMedia?” – Do you, and have you, yes! Where’s the, Stephan, Lee Jeneau, like, we’ve got ’em, we’ve got ’em. (laughter) This is not something that
even registers in my mind, as a matter of fact, you guys
know how I feel about school, pretty hard core. I’ve gotten hit up on
Twitter a bunch of times, that says VaynerMedia has this need for, two years of, I don’t know,
college, like, whatever. Whatever our requirements are, and I didn’t even know. I assume that we did
that as a standard thing, that HR at one point did it. A.J. or Kelly when she
was Managing Director, or somebody in HR. And literally I reached
out and we’ve changed it. I think we’ve added, like, or have, I didn’t even know Staphon was or wasn’t. Like, that doesn’t even register for me. If you’ve got the skills,
you’ve got the skills. I have no idea, once you get in here. Whether you go to Harvard, or you’re from Schmarvard,
it doesn’t matter. The game starts and then
that’s what ends up mattering. – [Voiceover] Schmarvard College shirt? – Schmarvard College shirt is a good idea.