#AskGaryVee Episode 156: Rebranding, Overstaffing, & Prepping Employees for Leadership

on this episode we talk about prepping employees for leadership over staffing some fairly grumpy about the jets loss yes ask Gary B everybody this is gary vay-ner-chuk this is episode 156 of the ask gary vee show india's a little under the weather i'm also under the weather for my football weather I'm really pissed whatever I'm not only want to talk about that much like I'm in a bad mood I'm in a good mood there's a lot of good there's plenty bad I don't know I could go on the rant of like the dealings with the Boston fans but what's that I am 6 or 6 on my prediction I hope you guys are making money on this but uh yeah yep yeah let's get into the show dan

asks how do you prepare employees transitioning into a leadership role when they've never managed people before Dan I think one of the big mistakes a lot of people make when running organizations as me the CEO this company is they eventually somebody gets into a place where they're good enough they go into a managerial role so they go from being a Mason to an architect they no longer do the due day in and day out they don't have to architect people doing it at scale and the CEO or the business owner or the boss never put that person in position along the way to do that like I'm really curious how many people have been are gonna watch this or listen to this answer but it may make them start rewinding a lot of their day to day things that they may not realize that I'm puppeting from here because they're getting it told by their bosses but a lot of people whether you're an a you know an account manager or a couch supervisor about to become a account director or a group director where you're managing more people there's a lot of things I'm doing changing the accounts you work on changing the team that's underneath you there's a lot of puppeteering going on to really a lot of different of like groups I want them to be a part of just different little things that are happening to create a proxy in a context point and a data point on who they would be if they were a manager and so I think the answer to this question is I prep by prepping them along the way versus ripping off the band-aid and then I hope they could be a manager you know I think you've got a prep people and to give them some context points and put them in positions to succeed and really like know them to know if they were babysitter's or the head of their sorority or you know how they roll like really auditing them as human beings three six the outside of the context of just them being an employee these are all very important parts and if you can replicate some of the versions that matter to you a lot of my people I think are really capable of being managers from a skill level but they don't have the HR EQ they are to Taipei they need to take a step back and Zen a little bit to let their employees breathe they need to realize they can't impose their skills biggest mistake a lot of managers make when they first become managers is they try to turn everybody underneath them into them versus turning them into the best version of themselves Jim asks where do

you see the health and wellness industry going in the next five years Jim I think it's much of the same that we've seen over the last five years I think we've never seen such growth and everybody caring about their health I got caught up into it I think we're eating better than ever we're more educated about food than ever I think people working out more the vanity of Instagram and selfies no but I think everybody here wants to look better than they used to I think we're becoming PR versions of ourselves so I think people putting in more work I mean especially with butts you know with butts you could actually put in the work like you can actually make your butt better by putting in the squat so I think people really focusing on that um that's clearly been a trend it's just true you know and so I think more than ever one other thing back on a 360 point of view on this I'm I am seeing an enormous meditation trend growing in the US I will argue that five years from now which is a long time from tap today a lot more people are doing meditation on an everyday basis the way we probably sell yoga play out the last 15 years so I see a lot more focus on longevity health and I think what I like is because of information exchange on the Internet I think they're seeing a lot more healthy ways to go about it I think if you look at the 80s and early 90s a lot of the ways that people wanted to get younger was by having surgery um and I think more and more people are trying to actually do something about it in their 20s 30s 40s I'm so impressed with the health risk that the u. s. health culture has exploded over the last decade and I see much of the same tripling down I think there's a lot of upside in that space I think that means a lot more scammy quick buck making people are gonna join the space I think we've seen that I think every fitness guru now thinks they're an entrepreneur and wants to sell their program or their shake a lot of the same DNA that being great at working out and disciplined map to being an entrepreneur yet I find a lot of people that are strong at working out every day don't put the same vigor and work into their business which I find very intriguing so that's kind of what I see happening Tim do you rock were you sad did you watch a Jets game yesterday yeah and you just started really becoming a fan and that was a weird feeling yeah did you notice yourself carrying a lot more than you thought yeah come on dude come on who do you like in football cool so then does that mean that you're also getting sucked up a little bit into like you're here all the time like when you don't care you probably care a little more about the Jets than you did before because I'm sucking you in right and so like were you like ah too bad India so did you like did you check the score like how did you find out yes I did you watch a little bit or did you check the score amazing yeah and then when you finally knew we lost you were like oh darn I was like yeah and Stefan how did you follow did you watch yeah I would watch someone you know second scores and then yeah I said cuz I school scores fourth quarter and I was like oh 1716 chance

Tim asks you've joked about being overstaffed but what's the balance between hiring for capacity and waste Tim that's a great question for all of you that are growing quickly I think one of the things I think the most pride in is my ability to have a pulse on my organization from a sales top-line revenue impact and on the bottom line cost thing I think I grow businesses way faster I do believe that if I end up operating two more businesses if I have four businesses in my career before I die that I've hyper grown I've two now in my bag like really fast like old times like really especially non technology companies really fast I will be known I mean I actually think my legacy as an operator could be speed to victory I think what I'm really good at is I have disproportional understanding of the pulse of what I'm selling and I'm willing to bet right to the brink because I don't need to take home a lot of money like I've always left my own monies and my own vices on the table to reinvest back into my business which allows me to over staff which means I'm then ready for the new business that comes in and I don't have to go crazy finding the talent and so because I'm trying to build culture sure you can freelance and outsource less margin but you can do better cash flow make more profit but I want those people part of my team and grow with them let them learn the religion grow so I think everybody's got their own balance but I think it's completely predicated on your stomach for risk because it comes with risk you don't want to over staff then you lose an account then you have to let people go then changes the vibe I think it comes down to your salesmanship ability can you always in a pinch sell some more stuff out of nowhere and I think that it comes down to the understanding of where your business is positioned compared to the landscape meaning I always knew that I'm ahead of the market and the world's gonna come to me a lot of our scopes are contracts for 2016 are growing very quickly because I knew the world in 2009 would spend more money on Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram snapchat or whatever was there at the time you know the current state of the internet so I'm riding that wave it lets me bet a little bit more it's a pulse cadence feel taste thing that allows me to get away with it but oh more than anything it's the balance of your own selfish wants of your take-home income versus how much you want to reinvest in your business it's as simple as that if you're running a business and you're making a million dollars in revenue and you have six hundred thousand dollars in expenses you're taking home four hundred thousand dollars you could make it eight hundred fifteen thousand dollars an expensive take home 150 thousand and then know that extra investment will allow you to make three million the next year I believe in myself ultimately any entrepreneur CEO or decision maker that's taking money off the table I believe is betting less on themselves along the way and are playing a short-term game to me the time I started extracting dollars is when I believe less and the growth of the company yeah

I want to ask how important is it to create a new lane for yourself as an entrepreneur it's not big is working for you do you just carry on doing that even if you have new ideas that you may want to explore I guess the whole point is how and when is a rebrand necessary that's a great question and you obviously probably know that I went through a rebrand to a lot of people which was I was the wine guy I became this business guy social media guy whatever you want to call me I did it in parallel I'm a very big believer that all of you that have real passion and belief that you have skilled to create another lane should and I would call it my version of an 80/20 rule I would spend 80% down on what's working for you but I would always have a 20% lane for testing learning tasting creating new revenue opportunities I do that all the time within my business manner tries a lot of things a lot of it fails but holistically we win because have 80 percents enough one could argue that we would do a lot more business if I went a hundred percent I would agree with that but then that wouldn't open up the capabilities we're gonna be the best 360 video agency in the world that was a bet and an investment and so that's how you have to play it out 8020 my friend it's a great question for a lot of you if you can keep 80% of your practicality and execute there especially if you play the way I do which is if you'd layer on top more hours then you're kind of getting a hundred over here and you're getting that free 20% testing and you can test one thing at a time in that 20% so you know 12 18 24 months on that 20 on this that doesn't work try another thing but I wouldn't break up that 20% into four or five percents because you need at least 20% of your energy to get something going off the ground in the way that works for me everybody's different but that would be my directive black and white answer to that question

Sarah asks how can a consumer soft goods company capitalize on the exposure of being in at department stores this holiday season Sarah great question you know a couple things I think Twitter search is incredible so anybody mentioning a Macy's or a Saks or a Bloomingdale's or any of the store that you could be mentioning anybody that mentions it anybody that mentions that on Twitter for you to jump in as you as a human or is the logo of the company and engage with them not for the right hook you know but find a sweet or clever or interesting way to mention that you're there you know you can literally reply like somebody says going to Macy's to shop you could literally reply of like have a great time we love them they you know we now are there you know like just like or like our new home for the holiday season if you stumble upon us let us know or you make it cheeky and fun and you say hey take a selfie with one of our products and we can do something cool and then you do a random contest depends on how much you want to go from right hook to a jab but I would mix in the acknowledgement even if it's as simple as like we're happy to be there to have a good time there we're so thankful for them you know something that's a little more self-deprecating and appreciative to the organization that gave you distribution but I think Twitter search is probably number one if you have some ad dollars I would run it against fans of that organization a lot of people follow these department stores for their coupons and deals on Facebook or Instagram you can run some ads against them because you know you're there if you have a small test around the zip codes if they're you're in 13 locations you can run add some monks people that are most likely to buy that product depending on interests within a one-mile radius of that store because you know they're probably going to that store so there's some tactics you can do there that would be an I would use it for content like if you or any of your sales people or anybody in your organization or if just you I would buy an expensive plane tickets and go to different stores and take pictures with the product showing that you're hustling in Texas and New York and in San Francisco so that could be a cool for content you can make some periscopes live from like you know like it's a very problem and I'm planning on doing some really cool [ __ ] with my books distribution this year I think I'm gonna go to a lot of Barnes and Nobles and bookstores and just sign them and leave Easter eggs and like I'm gonna pick a page in the new book whatever is a white page and I'm gonna come up with codes that if you email me and take a selfie that you actually bought that book that you then win like d-roc for a year do you rock even work for somebody else um you know like stuff like that like cool stuff like that so I think there's a lot of clever things you can do those are just a couple of I came off the top of my head cool is that it that's the show do we want Friday's show this week alright so I'll be able to do my prediction six or six guys did you make some money then you bet this week you know gamble I respect that it's all I got grumpy see you do you keep asking questions I'll keep answering them