#AskGaryVee Episode 115: What's More Important, Being Compassionate or Being Abrasive?

- On this episode, I scare someone and I use my fake belt to consume an emotion. (cars revving) (hip-hop music) ♫ Hey ♫ (hip-hop music) - [Voiceover] Gary Vee. (hip-hop music) - [Gary] You ask questions (hip-hop music) and I answer them. (hip-hop music) This is the #AskGaryVee Show. Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and this is Episode 115 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Jury duty continues so I'm out of studio. By the way before you get into the show, DRock you have to show this billboard up here. I don't know if you see this. This really pisses me off. I love these guys. I know these guys. I actually passed on investing in their company, in a mayonnaise company. Big ups to you guys. Congratulations. That's awesome to see. Javits Center in the background. DRock dropped his audio thing. Go ahead, DRock. Pick it up. It's okay. We will look grey here for a second. Super excited about the show. Really fun impromptu video yesterday that I did that has caught some good fire in the community. So, if you haven't seen that DRock, (snap) link that up. I'm making this video for the people that are full of sh--, right? The ones that tell me to my face everyday that yeah (smack, smack). And really want it and don't recognize the actions that it takes to get there. And India, let's... (car honks) get into the show.

- [Voiceover] Javier asks, (hip-hop music) "As a rookie, how much should I allocate to "Facebook Dark Posts for a Teespring Campaign? " - Javier as a rookie, which I like, I guess a rookie entrepreneur, I would allocate a disproportionate amount of money into Facebook Dark Posts for Teespring Campaigns. Especially if you make a t-shirt that is very thematic meaning, if you made a t-shirt that was like, "Denver Truck Drivers Rule," and then you dark post against people that live in Denver that are truck drivers as a profession, you will crush. And so, I think it's a unbelievable platform to convert on. We've talked at nausea about this. And as a matter of fact, I'm even going to go completely in a different direction. I actually would challenge most people watching the show right now that you should make a Teespring and actually run a $100 worth of dark posts. Go long tail with like, "Teachers From St. Louis Rock," and learn the dynamics of specific long tail, surgical Facebook advertising because I think it will be successful.

- [Voiceover] Paul asks, (hip-hop music) "How do you 'diplomatically' tell the BOSS "he's F'ing it up?!?!?! " - Paul that's a good question. I massively overvalue the people in my company who are comfortable enough in saying like, "Hey, Gary, I don't disagree with you now. " A lot of them walk into a buzzsaw because they're wrong and then they get clowned. So you better make sure you're right about the boss being wrong, right? And so, but I think any great boss will be super pumped if you're willing to respectfully point out things that you massively disagree with. And I think it's a win, win situation for you if you go down that route because if you think about it, if you give that feedback to the boss and the boss... agrees with you, maybe she or he knew that you were right, you've won points. If they don't and they completely disrespect you and the others within the organization that try to give feedback, well then now you know you work for a dipshit boss and you should be looking for another job. So to me there's really almost no risk in going down the route of giving critical feedback to your boss. Especially if you don't love, love your job. And more importantly, it's an amazing proxy to audit your boss which I think is massively important if you've decided to put your career into the leadership of an individual. Yeah let's just move like, let's just move. But actually yeah, let's move this way 'cause I like the way the people are walking.

- [Voiceover] Josh asks, (hip-hop music) "Which do you prefer [abrasive vs. compassionate] "when getting a point understood to meet goals and why? " - Josh, I'm curious why you're asking this question. I think it's maybe because you've realized I'm abrasive and compassionate at the same time. And I'm very thankful that I have a tool belt where I pull out a lot of different emotions. Competitiveness, caring, warmth, sensitvity, straight disrespect. One of my favorites. (click) Such a deli-- that was me drinking self disrespect. Such a delicious flavor. Every situation calls for a different concoction. And so, what I spend most of my time really thinking about is getting to know all the different employees and trying to fig-- Did you like that Staphon showed up in the back? (trucks revving) I'm over here. Getting to know each and every employee on an individual basis, understanding the situation at hand, and then being smart enough as the leader, as the CEO, to deploy the right mix, the right blend at that moment for the task at hand. I actually have no emotion and no favorite move. No, I don't prefer combativeness to compassion to respect to any of this. I really just whatever I think at that moment is the right move. Sometimes I'll do six months worth of compassion and then straight karate chop, sweep the leg to the mouth, because clearly that wasn't working. So, I'm adjusting in real time to my clients, to my employees, to my investors, to my startups. This is a never-ending, constantly 24/7, 365. Test and learn. Use your intuition and not get romantic or not get into a habit of using one move over and over because a funny thing happens with these things. It's kind of like medicine. If you use it too often, it stops working as well.

- [Voiceover] Raymond asks, (hip-hop music) "How do you think people will consume news in the future "and how can small publishers like ourselves monetize "on our content if it is consumed on a native platform? " - Raymond great question. You're going to have to find ways to integrate advertisers in a way that if you're not the platform where you're monetizing the eyeballs, well then you don't deserve the dollars because all the advertisers want is the awareness, right? I mean they're not smart enough to recognize they want the actually engagement and the sell through. Unfortunately right now they still want the awareness. So, if your news is being consumed on Twitter and not on your platform, and there's no ad opportunity for your advertisers in that format and that's going to Twitter, well then you're fu---- and that's exactly what you are alluding too. I think what you need to do is A, find ways to drive people to your world, which is extremely difficult. Or B, rethink the model all together. Do you actually, you know, when was it that media and news companies decided they were in the advertising business? A long time ago. But are you maybe in the events business? consulting content production and compete with VaynerMedia business? Are you in the stand up comedy business? I know that was weird, but like that's really where I'm going. You and everybody else selling news has defaulted into, "I sell advertising. " Why? Why are you romantic about the way you make your money? Why are you using 80 years of history to make your money when the world is clearly changing at a scale that we've never seen? Why? Because innovation and innovators are rare and far and few in between aren't they? And so, I challenge you in this show, at this moment, and everybody else trying to monetize news. Recognizing news is now being consumed on Facebook. Twitter. You've lost your power of people coming to your destination. There's a couple of ways to think about it. Are you thinking about virtual reality video? 3D printing? Are you thinking about mobile only society? Are you thinking about the next thing after mobile which might be, I can do it right here in thin air. Or, more importantly, 'cause all of that stuff is probably 10 years away. Are you thinking about different ways to make money? Meaning, you have a news outlet and because you're good at producing news and getting people to consume it on the web, maybe you help advertisers get their content consumed on Facebook and Twitter. Rethink the game. And by the way, that was advice for everybody here. Always rethink how you make your money. Wine Library has a big second floor right now and I'm trying to sell it out as space for events and things of that nature. I'm making money on the real estate. So rethink the way you make your money. (car engines revving) This great moment was brought to you by the #AskGaryVee Show. Watch it. (chuckling) That was awesome. That was a live commercial of the show. - [DRock] That was great. - [Gary] You like that?

- Hey, Gary. It's Jim Mitchem. I have a question about networking for the creative class. I'm a writer and I started my own marketing consultancy in January and I'm having an issue getting out and meeting people. You meet a 100 people before breakfast. Some of us don't have that kind of personality. So what advice would you give people like me who have a hard time getting out, shaking hands, and handing off business cards. What can we do to help grow our own companies? You have anything? - Jim that's a great question. Networking doesn't come natural to-- give me my headphones, India. Networking doesn't come natural to everybody and the truth is you've watched the show probably enough to know I'm a big fan of betting on your strengths versus working on your weaknesses. I believe people that are more introverted, reserved, it's hard for me to ra you into going and like shaking people's hands and rolling up on people and being like, "Hey. " Oh no, we're all great. You know like that's not going to be what you do, right? do. That's what I'd do, but that's not what you're going to be doing. And so, I would say put out great content and play the honey game. Become the honey and let the bees come to you instead of you becoming one of the bees, right? And so, I think that's the game. I think way too many people are trying to be better at things that seem obviously good. And listen, I spend a disproportionate amount of time networking. Much of which doesn't come to fruition. So that could be a waste. Maybe you're saving a lot of time being a creative, doing your thing. So, I would say for you and all the other people out there that don't want to network, hand out business cards, shake hands, kiss babies, scare red-headed dudes, I think that you need to go out and put out great stuff and let people come to you. Let your work speak for itself. I would work in a B2B Environment and try to get your work seen in other places except your blog. That can be done behind your keyboard, on email to blogs and news sites that cover the arena that you play in. That would be my advice to you. Let it come to you. (car engines revving) Cool. Question of the day. Oh I've got a good one. Question of the day: What are you 4th of July plans? One of the things that really matters to me is getting to understand all of you more and more and more. So, in detail, Vayner Nation, what is your 4th of July plans? You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. (car engines revving) Awesome. Did you capture me scaring that guy? Yeah, you got it? - [India] Yeah, he was freaked out. (inaudible) - [Gary] It was good? - [DRock] Yeah.