#AskGaryVee Episode 96: You're Out of Business

- On this episode, we talk about going out of business. (rap music) You ask questions, and I answer them. This is the #AskGaryVee Show. (rap music) Everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and this is episode 96 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Hope everybody had a wonderful Mother's Day. Hope you enjoyed that, hope you had the wonderful weather we had in New York City that was very nice, very warm yesterday. A little grumpy this morning. DRock's team this morning beat my team three out of four times in basketball. Nothing to do with DRock, but, you know, but they won anyway. Oh, anyway, episode 100 of the #AskGaryVee Show is a week from today. It looks like we are going to be doing it at the Gansevoort Hotel. We will update later today. I'm not sure when this is airing in return, but by tomorrow that will be firmed up. But pretty sure it's going to be in the Gansevoort Hotel on Park Avenue. We'll get all those updates on a Facebook reminder, we'll blast that out on the Gary VIP email list, we'll link it up on tomorrow's episode of #AskGaryVee. Everybody listening on the podcast, you can check out on Facebook, I'll probably send out a link on Twitter as well. There may be a limit, so we need to talk about that. Also, after I'm done taping, I know a lot of Vayniac's, VaynerNation coming, I'd like them to hang out with each other. I've got to go to a business meeting at Citi Field, a Mets game. It's in the back of my mind to maybe come back in the city 10:30 to 11:30 and maybe do a drink up somewhere. Keep that in the back of your mind, because I know notice a lot of people, Toronto's coming. As a matter of fact, if you're coming, please in the Facebook and the Youtube sections tell me where you're coming from. Seems like a lot of people are very localized, makes sense. But some people are making the schlep. And the schlep excites me. India, let's get into the show. - Hey.

- [Voiceover] Jared asks, " I have an app idea, with my target market "willing to test it. "But I need to create an app and I'm not a programmer. "Any advice? " - Jared, this question pisses me off because I'm asked this all the time. I probably get about 30, 40 of these emails a week. I'm not sure if you're trying to get on the show, or if you really mean it. This seems like the simplest thing to do in the world. I mean, Meetup. com has 800 different developer meet ups. And if you want it bad enough, you go to the closest one, even if it's 75 miles away. There's just 8,000 communities of developers out there. Literally, when I get an email from somebody saying, "Hey, Gary, I've got the next big idea, but I need a developer," literally, immediately I go like this. I read it. I'm checking my... let's reenact it. Oh, let me just catch up on my, DRock I'll do that later, let me just read. Oh, let me check some emails. Hey Gary, love the show, you're the best person I've ever met. Oh, by the way, I've got a big time idea except I need a developer. Out of (bleep) business. If you are not capable, if you're not capable of finding your business partner developer, then how in the world are you going to win in business? Ideas are shit, execution's the game, let's move on. - [India] From Shady Giorgio. - Shady. What up, baby? It's Shady, India. You're into Shady, right? By name only, go ahead. [Voiceover] Shady asks

"What are bad habits you had and overcame, "and how did overcoming them aid your growth "as an entrepreneur? " - Shady, good question. Not like the last one. I think the things I overcame were big eyes. Which was, hey I'm gonna do a lot of things at once. Actually, I don't know if I've overcome it. I've gotten a little bit better. Definitely in this chapter of building VaynerMedia I've overcome that issue, I've been really focused as CEO of VaynerMedia, and general partner of Vayner/RSE. So, I've been really focused. And so, big eyes. Just trying to do too many things at once. And what that's allowed me to do is be successful and build another big business instead of half-pregnant across the board. I think the other thing that I've overcome is I've started, and I'm still not great at this either, these are always works in progress when it's not the thing that comes most natural to you, but I think what I've been doing well lately is I've been giving more honest, critical, direct to people's face feedback. You know, I tend to be a little bit soft, I'm much more of a honey over vinegar guy. Between our former manager and director Kelly and AJ, very straight-shooter operators, they've moved me along. I've definitely evolved in that category. I'm definitely better at it. I still want to deal with a ton of empathy and heart and soul, but shooting it straight is bringing more value to me and it's just speeding up the process of victory. You can't have a CEO, I wouldn't say I'm not, I'm very decisive, but boy, delivering bad news does not come natural to me and I don't love it. Building infrastructure around me and then doing it myself has been an important evolution that I've done much better at VaynerMedia than I've done at Wine Library, and what that's given me is a thing that a lot of you know that I value which is speed. Those two.

- [Voiceover] Christopher asks, "Gary, how can I prevent angel investors "interested in investing in my enterprise "from potentially stealing our IP? " - Christopher, this is a really interesting Monday morning show. Christopher, this is also a shit question. Ideas are shit, execution's the game. People walk around going, "Gary, please sign this NDA before I pitch you my idea as an angel investor. " Let me reenact it. India, I'll get to that later, let me just catch up on my email. "Hey, Gary, I'm a really big fan and you're the best guy I've ever met. Anyway, listen I've got this big time idea. But before I pitch it to you, please see the following attachment and sign the NDA because I just can't let you see it. I don't want it stolen. " Great, delete. Out of (bleep) business. If you literally think in 2015 that your idea is so profound that nobody's ever thought of it, that when I sit with you and I pitch I go, you're a dope, but I'm gonna take this idea and give it to somebody else, you are lost in the reality of the marketplace. Again, if that is where your mindset is at, I just don't see that as a winning mindset for 2015 and beyond. The days of patent or idea IP, every idea has been thought about. There is nobody who has come up with a big time idea. I'm telling you, every idea has been thought about. All of them, every one of them. People executing, or having the pieces in place to be able to execute, or the right time in their career, the right resources financially, energy, skills, opportunities, those are the variables. Not the ideas. This is a nasty show. What's that? I know. We've got straight up. What is this episode 96? This is nasty. 96 is nasty, VaynerNation. - [India] From Steve McDermott. - Steve. - [Voiceover] Our very own Steve asks

"Which marketing vehicles are working best "to grow the businesses of the startups "you've invested in? " - Steve, a hardcore VaynerMedia employee working on data and insights. I wonder if this is a hedged question or not. But, Steve, the answer to this question is clearly Facebook dark posts. I've pounded this over and over. It's funny, the VaynerMedia clients don't recognize what's going on. All my investment companies are only playing in this space. You know, I'm going to look it up right now in real time. I'm gonna predict, right here on the spot, that Wish, the app Wish, the shopping app, is probably in the top 150 in the app store. This is a company, met the founder at Cannes last year, the big advertising festival. Just go through this Facebook. Facebook, by the way, Dub Mash I missed it. I skyped with the founder of Dub Mash from Berlin like seven weeks ago, so on it. 10, 15 weeks ago I screwed it up. Snapchat, okay. This is what I do all the time by the way, DRock you can focus here. Every so often, actually I didn't do it this morning, it's just fun to do it, I'm just always looking at the top 100 apps to basically get a feel. Usually where I'm most excited about is down here, right? Because the top is pretty consistent. But has anything popped up here, like Wallapop, like those kind of things, I'm always trying to see. Let me just see if Wish is here, It's somewhere, here it is, 112. Zoom in, baby. - [DRock] Yep. - 112. And I mean all Facebook dark posts. If people understood what was going on arbitrage-wise on Facebook dark posts right now, which is a slang term. Facebook advertising platform where you can reach anybody that you want. If people understood that, they would win every single time. Just like Google ad words in the early 2000s that Amazon and Ebay used to build their businesses. Still can't believe people don't understand this is what happened. Facebook is absolutely the place that you can't milk enough of that cow right now. And again, over the next 24 to 48 months it will disappear, and it will more or less level out and become appropriate. Right now it's underpriced. In four years, I'll still love it, intuitively I believe, but it's gonna be appropriate. I'll be like, this is worth it. Just exactly worth it, not this is worth eight bucks and I'm paying a dollar for it. So, Facebook dark posts. If my startups could spend every penny they had they would on that place. Pinterest starting to emerge a little bit as well. - [India] Do you want this one to make up for the shitty one? - No. I want those shit ones to sit. - [India] Okay.

- [Voiceover] Amber asks, "Hey Gary! "What would you prioritize as a one person business? " - [India] Yeah, that's how I do it. - Amber. That's how you roll? Ladies. That was an L, I don't know. You can see, that's what got me the ladies. (laughter) Amber? Amber, this is a great question, and a very simple one to be honest with you. And I see, India just informed me about the artistic side of what you're pumping out. And so this will be kind of interesting of an answer, but it's the truth. If there is one thing I would focus on as a solo-preneur, it is sales. Money is oxygen. And so, you know, you could do anything you want. You could produce the greatest art, the greatest sneakers, the greatest cup of coffee, if you don't know how to sell it, you are out of business. Which tends to be the theme of this episode. So, I would highly recommend you focus on sales. You have to figure out can you sell your thing. Whatever that is, it's a service, sell out the show, your thing that you actually sell. If you're not capable of selling as a solo-preneur, there's really nothing else that matters, because money intake is the way you continue to the next move, right? It's like up, down, left, right, B, A, select, start powers up your lives in Contra, you need lives. And cash is that Nintendo cheat sheet hack. And so, that's what it is, cash is oxygen. Cash, say it with me VaynerNation, cash is oxygen, cash is oxygen. India, come on. Cash, come on India, do it with me. Cash, come on, India. Cash is oxygen - Cash is oxygen. - Yes! This is a very special episode. Very special 96th episode of the #AskGaryVee Show. VaynerNation, question of the day, cash is fill in the blank. You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. (rap music)