#AskGaryVee Episode 149: London Calling

- On this episode, I talk music, I talk mum, and I talk about London 'cause that's where I'm at. Play it up, guys. (crowd whoos) (theme music) ♫ Gary Vee ♫ You ask questions ♫ And I answer them ♫ This is the ♫ #AskGaryVee Show ♫ - Hey, everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk, and this is episode 149 of the #AskGaryVee Show. It is a beautiful day here in London. What square are we in? - [Mimi] Uh. - [Gary] Parkour Park? - [Voiceover] Grosvenor. - [Gary] A Gussit-- - [Mimi] I don't even know. - As you can see, we are, we are on the other side of the pond. I'm excited, I'm clearly here for the New York Jets game on Sunday, which I'm very excited for. You saw my official prediction yesterday, 19-14, very excited, so I feel like we're going to win, since I am three for three this year predicting Jet games. Didn't really want to get too much of a crowd for this filming, but then got kind of nostalgic real quick, and started putting out some stuff on Twitter. So, a couple of our friends have joined us, and so we're scrapping Kat, I'm sorry, I know you're going to play the India roll today, we're going to go in a different direction, and we're going to actually just do a series of questions from you guys, like we did in the park in Madison Square Park in New York. So, Staphon, we can do a little match-up, a little London-New York stuff in the future, as a greatest hits show. 149 is here. Why don't you tell the Vayner Nation a little bit about yourself, because you're living the life of something that I believe true when I wrote Crush It! in 2009, so that makes it fun for me. - Hi everyone. Well, first of all, thank you for having me here. Hi, guys. And, I love your energy, I love Gary because you and I really vibe similarly. We're all about hustle, and, if I have to talk about myself, I'll start with the fact that - [Gary] Do It. - [Mimi] I'm a hustler. (both laugh) Um, I come from Azerbaijan, so I was raised in USSR, moved to Canada when I was 16, now I live in London, so my third home. You know, don't come from a lot of money, basically my parents didn't give me anything, 'cause they didn't have a lot. - Sure. - So, I had to hustle myself, you know, through school, worked two jobs, you know, went to school, paid my way through school, then decided to drop out and started a business with now my husband Alex Ikonn. - Alex, get over here, you're not doing anything behind, behind the camera, - [Mimi] (laughs) Who's going to do the camera? - [Gary] I'll do the camera. Fine, Alex. - No, come back here. - [Gary] They look good, look (talks rapidly) Oh, DRock, this is not that hard. Alright, go ahead, Alex. - I feel like a block away, man. - [Gary] So, Alex, go ahead, you pick up the story. - What? - So, basically, we're, we're a dual couple. We have a few businesses, one of the main ones is Luxy Hair. It was started, the whole marketing was just done on YouTube, and it was super organic. We basically just made videos showing how to use our product, which is clip-in hair extensions. - And, something that Mimi just learned today, I was telling about, I'll say, she's like, so, who's Gary, who's this Gary guy? I'm like-- - I know, I've seen some of your-- - Yeah, get in-- - [Gary] Wait a minute, this is upsetting me. - (both) No, no. - I'm just kidding, I was just kidding. Get in there. - [Mimi] He's just your biggest fan, like a huge fan. - [Alex] No, you know, what I wanted to say was that our business that we built was inspired by Crush It!, and it was a lot, I'll be honest, because, what Gary did with the wine, at that a time, we're like, you know what, this is it, this is the future, this is how business will be done. And, we truly believe that going all in, providing full value to people, and only thinking about value, so, the way we roll is like, pure jabbing. We're jabbing so much, we're not even right-hooking. But, at the same time-- - [Mimi] We're not-- - [Gary] Look, right-hooks happen by proxy. - Exactly. - Let me just check on the camera, make sure it-- - [Mimi] (laughs) Alright. - [Gary] Not a problem. Alight, so let's-- - [Mimi] Let's get the shot. - [Gary] Let's get the show going. - [Mimi] Yeah, let's get into the show. - Any, oh actually, @Kat, get up, I'm gonna let you have this part. get in here and have the India part. Well actually, you know what, why don't you tell the Vayner Nation about yourself, because you've been sending some videos to me as well, so that's exciting. - Hi everyone, I'm Kat, and I live in London. I'm originally from Poland, and yeah, we had to link to get on the show. - Exactly. - So Kat, we're going to do the India part here. Let's - [Kat] get - [Gary] get into - [Kat] the - (all) the show! - Cool, alright. Let's, why don't your guys stay here. Why don't you, let's fire, Kat, why don't you ask a question, 'cause it'll give you a second to think of a question. - [Mimi] Yeah. - What's in the DNA of a good sales pitch?

- What's the DNA of a good sales pitch? - Yeah. - Um, I think the best DNA trait of a great sales pitch is predicated on reverse-engineering what that person actually needs. Way too many people try to sell, it's really jabbing and right-hooking. Most people want to sell you what they want to sell you, versus what you need. So, one of the reasons I think I've been successful is, whether I'm selling a bottle of wine or I'm selling myself or I'm selling VaynerMedia, I have a thing, but I'm reverse-engineering you, meaning, people used to come into the store and one of the things I was proud of is, people would say, Do you have a good red wine that I could have, and I would always say, Well, what are you going to do with it? And it was stunning to me how many people were taken aback by that, because every other liquor store, wine shop, - [Mimi] Why that? - [Gary] would just, give them something they wanted to sell. Oh, I'm giving it to a boss. Well, then I would go with something that had name brand equity that made them look good. Or, I'm trying to impress wine friends, I'd give 'em something nerdy. So, in their DNA, the core DNA, is reverse-engineering, and I think the other part that really matters, Kat, is, I do think passion and energy sells. Like, monotone, not caring, like not believing. So, I think fundamental, 100% all-in belief and then reverse-engineering what they need. - That makes sense. - Thank you. - Thanks for being on the show, alright. - Okay, I got two, but I'll start with the main one. - Yes. - Why do you, why do what you do? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Like, what's the main purpose of what you do?

- For me, it's pulling at two opposite directions. One is very noble and one is very selfish. One, I'm aware, and even before Alex, like, I'm aware that my biggest fans are the ones that have felt the effects of all of my free information, and it has fundamentally changed their lives. - Yup. - The thought that a human being could stand right now and say, Our hap, like, our great thing is based on the blueprint that you put out to the world, that is mind-blowing. The selfish part is, I want to win. I wanna, I wanna grow, I wanna build big businesses, I wanna buy the New York Jets, I want to accomplish things, I want stuff for me from a legacy standpoint, not necessarily the money, but that I'm that guy, that I created the blueprint, the future business and marketing, and I wanna build an empire, on goodness. - Right - You know, when I look at the way Steve Jobs' position, he was a genius and everybody looks up to him, but he wasn't great to people. I don't want that. I want to be the version of that where everybody also comes to my funeral because I was such a good guy. - Okay, second one, can I go first? - Can you go, yeah. - Okay, so what's one question that nobody's ever asked you but you ask yourself all the time. - You know, I always ask, the question that nobody can ask me that I ask myself is, my own personal question of, Am I happy? The biggest fear I have in life is that I don't accomplish the things I think I'm entitled to based on my talent, and that as I get older, I become more bitter. But it's easy for me now to give away so much, but if I'm 80, and I didn't get there, am I going to look back for 60 years and say, ah, it's because I didn't throw enough right-hooks, get my fair share. And so, I'm always asking myself, are you okay with what you're doing? Because you're putting yourself in a position where you might be regretting what you've decided to do, and so, I fear that, and so, that's the question I ask myself. - Thank you. - Yeah. Awesome. - [Mimi] Very sincere. - Alright, girls, get outta here. Let's go, next. Get in here. Tell the Vayner Nation who you are. - Hi, I'm Christian Tierney, I'm an 18-year-old entrepreneur. I run Ireland's fastest growing music channel. I pick big musicians before they're big. I've worked with Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and James Bay. And, my question is, which musicians are doing the best in social and what are they doing that's so good?

- Truth is, you're so much, you're way better in a position to say, answer that question than I am. I'm not paying attention to what a lot of musicians are doing, but I'll tell you that the musicians that are doing it best will understand the framework that created the greatest bands and artists of all time, which is, again, it's the theme of the show in London, it is providing value. It is so easy to see what Talyor Swift is doing, it is so easy to understand what Phish and Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews Band did. It is disproportionately helping an audience, and then leveraging that to get them to buy in. So, whoever right now is replying to people on Twitter and video, randomly creating meet-ups, like, put, saying happy birthday to fans, randomly knocking, where are the artists that are knocking on fans' doors, and they open it up, and they go, get. Whoever's doing the things that nobody else is doing, that the fans want, which is the touch. - Taylor Swift is into that? perfectly executing it, and it matters, and it becomes word of mouth. And so, I don't know specifically. - Yeah, yeah. - But whoever's bringing disproportionate value to the people that are potentially interested in her music, and notice, I said that's the key. Whoever is doing that, that's who's winning. Alright, man. - Thanks so much. - You got it. - Really appreciate it. - Alex, do me a favor, make sure you round up everybody's Twitter and Instagram accounts, so that we can give everybody the plug, so the Vayner Nation can dig into his disproportionate ability to discover up-and-coming artists. Get in here. - Hey. - Get in here, go, go.

- Hi everyone, I'm Nancy El Gaudi, at Nancy ElJudge on Twitter, (laughs) a little plug (laughs). So, as someone who is just working out building their personal brand, would you say, quality of concept is more important, or quantity of content. - Both! - Okay. (laughs) Should I be putting out stuff every day? - Yes! - What if I'm not passionate about it, what if I'm just going-- - No! - No, only stuff I'm passionate about. - Yes! - Okay, cool. - And now, the question becomes, do you have enough? - Right. - And that's why I just did that funny little exercise with you. Guys, we're not all entitled to have personal brands and make millions of dollars. - Yeah. - It's predicated on if you have the skill. Like, I really knew a shitload about wine. I really know a shitload about business and marketing. You clearly are doing your thing with him. Like, you have to decide if you're actually good at it and you have enough, but you're gonna need both. - Yeah. - And, if you're great, and you got the content, you can do both, but that's where the rubber hits the road, right? Like, you know, building a personal brand is just like becoming a rock star, musician, or a famous athlete, or a politician. We don't all get to do it, but you know what's cool? Unlike the way our parents grew up and our great-grandparents grew up, We all have a camera and a phone, and we all get a chance. But, the cream is going to rise to the top, my friends, not everybody's entitled to be a personal brand. - Okay. - making millions of dollars doing what they want to do at all times. It's just not that easy. What's special is that you get to find out if you're good enough, because there was millions of people that were good enough, but didn't live in Hollywood, that didn't have parents that could send them to Hollywood. And, that's what's special, not if you, that we're all going to be famous, it's that we all have a chance to create something. - [Nancy] Thank you so much. - [Gary] You're welcome. - I really appreciate that. - Thank you. Get in here, let's go. Let's go, big man. - Hello. - [Gary] Get in here. - Danny, my name's Danny. - [Gary] Danny.

Good, Danny. - So, (chuckles) my mum started a clothing business a few years ago. - A kids' clothing goods business. - Okay. - So, she wants help building our brand, but then, the selfish part of me is focusing on my business, viewing myself as a entrepreneur and whosoever. - Yes. - How do I balance my self-desire with my real desire to help my family and help my mum do what she's doing. - That's a great goddamn question. So, a couple quick questions. Is your mom, since she just started, so, small business? - Yes, quite small business, quite small. - So, I would tell you, Danny, that you got something really going for you. Here it comes, guys, get ready. How old are you? - 21. - 21, perfect. Kinda thought that's where we were going. Danny, most people, so, one thing that's really pissed me off about London so far, is I've been running around to meetings, starting at 4 PM, there's been millions of people at pubs, and, I'm like, are these people working? If you follow me on Snapchat, you've already seen what, I'm angry. So, anyway, taking a step back, you're 21. You can stay up 18 hours a day. I know that you ran out of, like, class right now to be here, so I guess you gotta balance some school hours. But, how many, I mean, you got hours. - Yeah, hours. - Right? So, I work two full-time jobs every day. I work 18 hours a day, that's nine hours every day. That's more than a lot of you work, in half. A lot of people who are watching right now don't even work nine hours. I work 18, that's two. So, I think you can do both. - Cool. - You just hafta go to less pubs, go watch less football, as you call it, soccer, you just hafta to less shit, like, stop chasing the girls, or whatever. You just gotta, you gotta work, if you want it. And, if you don't, what you gotta do is figure out what balance you gotta do, and whether it's 60/40 or 50/50 or 90/10, for your mom, for you, whatever you break it down to, the way to really fix it is by more, having more hours. You know what I mean? - Yeah. - And so, I've been able to solve a lot of my concerns, my ambition, my work-life balance, on just doing more hours to a net score. Just depends on what you want. - Thank you. - You got it, man. - Thanks so much. - Good. Alright, let's get in here. - Hey, man, once again. - I'm Phil, - [Gary] Phil? - Phil Sheikh, from Chainy. com, and, basically, I want to ask you two small questions.

The first one would be, do you believe that unique content is not the way to go anymore? - Meaning? - Everyone's trying to product unique content. - Yes. - Because it is the way that it's set up. - Okay. - Do you believe that the process of creating unique content is what's going to create engagement? - Meaning? - So basically, instead of you producing a nice piece of content for me, - Yes? - that I go to someone and I create a, a process where millions of people create that unique content and then-- - A platform? - Yeah, more or less, because, basically, instead of engaging with people just towards the end of the product you are producing, you engage with them throughout the process of making this product that you're presenting. - Are you recording the, that, or - Yes, it's all part of the process. - Yeah, I mean, I think that's engagement, an interaction with other people, I think there's potential in something like that, for sure. - [Phil] Okay. Alright, and one more question, what do you think of Casey Neistat's Beme, have you tried it?

- So, I'm an investor. - Okay, that's something. - So my, my thought of it is disproportionately jaded, not to mention I love Casey. He's been on the show, as you know. I think it's absolutely going to happen. Of course, I desperately want Casey to do it, because I'd love him in it, and I've invested in the company, but, right now, the amount of people that would be interested in seeing what I'm seeing is high, meaning, I really would actually, I don't, so, I don't love music concerts so much, but I would absolutely right now, if Beme worked at scale the right way, the way I see it in the future, through glasses or contact lenses, if I could watch what Taylor Swift is seeing when she's performing in front of a hundred thousand people at Wembly Stadium, that'd be cool, I'd watch that a little bit, right? I'd love to watch what an athlete is seeing as they're going on the field. Or, me in a business meeting, just like as I enter and how it flows, how my, you could actually really figure me out, of how I sell, just by how I behave, if you actually saw how I am seeing it. - Yeah. - So, I think first-person viewing and disappearing, the way life actually works, is gonna win in the, so, I hope he wins, but, so, I believe in the thesis 100%, because, look, the contact lenses are coming. - Yeah. - Like, they're coming, and you're going to be able to record and watch. They're not even going to be knowing if somebody's recording or watching, so that means we're all going to be living and believing it's always going on. - Yeah. - The world's going in a very interesting place. So, I think he's, it's very progressive and I'm excited about it, I think it goes way beyond the phone, and that's why I'm bullish on it. - Well, thank you so much, see ya. - Thank you, man, thank you. Guys, thanks for having me. - [Voiceover] Gary, one more question? - Yeah, you, get in here, brother. I love it, I love it. Good hustle. - Yeah, for sure. - Hold on one second. (crew laughs) Go ahead, go ahead. - Alright, yeah, so, Alex Ikonn, you can check me out, Alex Ikonn, we created Luxy Hair, Five Minute Journal

the product will be counter coming out. So, the question to you is very business-related. - Please. - As you know, we built something similar to you, we got inspired off of Crush It! - Yes, yes. - So, did the same thing, did a lot of jobs, put in a lot of work over the years. - Built leverage. - Yeah, built leverage, put the trust in the brand. - We have a substantial business now in seven figures. - But, now that, it's been a couple years we've kind of stagnated. - Yeah. - Because, so. - Happens all the time. - So my question to you is, and I think, one of the weaknesses here, is actually scaling, because we tried to do everything ourselves, we have a small team, but how do you actually build that team with you, and the most important question is that, how do you build and maintain that culture and that, that love that, the same love that you have for the business, - In other people? - In other people. - (laughs) This is a very, this is a very eastern European question, is very common things that. So, the answer is, you don't. If you expect somebody else to love your business as much as you, you two are out of your (beep)in' mind. And, this is something I tried to teach my dad. As a young kid, I'm like, Dad, you own the business. How the hell do you want them to love this as much as you do? What you need to do is several different things. First of all, thank you for asking me the question. I lived it. I did it at Wine Library, from people that are more like you. You guys went to zero to something just like my Pop's. And how I scaled it was, I taught him these pillars. And Which is, number one, get over that. It's over. They're never going to love it as much as you. If you're lucky enough, like I find, like that amazing man behind you, if you can find people that can love it 8. 5 as much of a 10, 9. 2 9. 7 on a holy grail moment out of 10, well then, you've won. So, that's never gonna happen, and it's actually completely, completely disrespectful for you to even want that from somebody else, 'cause you never loved somebody else's business as much as you love your own. So, why are you going to try to make somebody else do that? Number one. Number two, the biggest mistake people make at this point is you start wanting to cash in on some of the fruits of this amazing hard work. It's a little bit more exciting to dress a little bit better, to live at a better place, to take a vacation, to do all these things. I get it. The way to scale and grow is to have the dollars to continue to scale and grow. If you're doing everything yourself, there's a couple reasons. One, you're a perfectionist and don't think anybody else can do it. Two, you see other people do it and they do it as an eight to your 10, and that's not good enough. Three, you do not want to deploy the money because you want to use those monies for other things for yourselves and other things. All three are massive vulnerabilities. Fix those three, and you'll grow. I run my businesses the first five, 10 years of their lives at no profit. And I did it, and people can say, now, easy for you. Bullshit. I was 28 years old, I build a humongous business, and I was making $40,000 a year. I had friends that were half me and a hundredth of me making more money, had better cars, were having more fun, I was 28 years old, making $40,000 a year, and I build a $30 million business at that point. That's eating your own dog food. So, get over yourselves, and be thankful that people want to work for you, and get them to an eight or a nine, and you nine, by loving them more. What you did for your audience, you need to do for your employees 10 times more. Biggest mistake entrepreneurs make, they treat their employees worse than they treat their customers. Biggest mistake. Treat them better than you treated your audience. Then they'll get from a six to an eight, and that's amazing. They'll never get to a 10. It's not their business. Number two, decide how much you want to live great now versus every dollar, you take that trip to Spain, is three dollars less that you make three years from now. - Well, what if you have still substantial money after vacations, after everything, and you-- - Invest it. - And into? - People. - But, people, how do you find these people who are still eight even or a seven? - But easy, because you need to treat them better, because you've got them, you just need to change the way you treated them. And, if they don't get there after you treat them way better, you fire them, and you find people who do react to you giving them more value than they're providing you. - Cool. - You understand? - Yeah. - Really? - Not fully. - So, that's why I'm not letting you go. Here's my thing: you kick it. So, how many employees do you guys have? - Uh, around the world, seven right now. - Great, you need to really vet them, the number one thing I would do if I were you is, I would call them right after the show, and say, What can I do to make this much better for you? - We do that. - Good, good. Do you deliver on everyone? - Yeah. - Great. Well then, you should be having no problem. Then, I'm a little bit more confused. Then, either you have not built up enough trust with them for them to tell you the truth, or, you're just not hiring fast enough. - We're Good. - 'Cause no, because we're, we're trying to have everybody be like fully 10. - So, you know, (laughs) - [Alex] We want Eric's-- - [Gary] Eric, Eric was what number in place, 17? 17. He watched Vayner go from 17 to 200, then, for personal reasons, he went to Boston. He's back now, and we're 600. What Eric can tell you (laughs), all the VaynerMedia employees from 17 to 200, stick with me here, this is not an insult, he knows how many four, five, six, seven and eights. You need eights when you're big. You can't make seven 10's, that's not how you scale and win. That's the secret. It's not about you guys getting seven people to a 10, it's about you hiring 40 people at eights. - Okay. So how about this, here is the last question, follow-up. So, we're at six, seven right now, but it's for many businesses, we're trying to split them up. It's actually a question I wanted to ask you

for a very long time. If you're starting-- - Hold on, if you had a question that you've wanted to ask me for a very long time, how the hell wasn't that the question you started with? - You needed that preface. - Got it, okay, go ahead. - Okay, so the question is, knowing we have a successful business, we have money in the bank, everything's great, business is still growing, everything's awesome, - God bless, go ahead. - Yay (chops words), but, the thing is, who would be your first five, like, you have, say, customer service hired. - Yes, - And, well, a marketing person, but who'd be your next five hires. - I'd have to look at your business and understand, so, first of all-- - E-commerce. - So, first of all, I'd reverse-- - Product. - First and foremost, I would reverse-engineer you two. Whatever you two like doing the most and are the best at, I would surround the hires around that. I'd let you continue to do that, 'cause a lot of people try to replace the thing they're best at, that's a mistake. Stay doing what you do best at, and whatever the two of you collectively do the weakest, that's when you hire, in order, five next people. - Alright. - Whether that's finance, HR, product, e-comm, technology, whatever they are. - But, what's been your most best hire for you in that first kind of, in that Wine Library when you scaled, what was one of the best hires for you, that, you're like-- - The best hires I've ever made have been the friends that I've hired. That's the big secret for me, but-- - Position-wise. - Probably the financial people, you know, like the CFOs, the lead financial person, have been the best hires, 'cause they've given me a context to, hey, 'cause I'm so aggressive, I want to spend every dollar, so that gives a vulnerability. The reason I've never got out of businesses is, I'm so much better at selling than everybody else in the world, I can always keep the flows, even against my enormous investment. Um, I, so, I, at VaynerMedia, I would say, Marc Yudkin, a lawyer, creating Legal in-house was a huge hire, Kelly, an early mananging director because she created a lot of context, and then people that look like Eric which were disproportionately talented and open to allow me to mold, because we were all playing a new game. People that are moldable but talented are very attractive. - That's a good one, yeah, cool. - Thank you. - Appreciate it. - Alright guys, we're seriously late, right? Yeah, okay. Guys, thank you so much, that was good. That little, that's like, that in itself is a separate video altogether. (all laugh) Operations. Guys, thank you so much, watching 149. That's about it. Statement of the day, I'd love to understand what you guys thought about this, and you keep asking questions. I'll keep answering them.