#AskGaryVee Episode 57: Christmas Shopping, How to Sell Wine, & Instagram Followers

- On this episode, I continue to talk Instagram, we talk a little bit of wine, and we talk Christmas shopping? - [Voiceover] Gary Vee. (upbeat hip hop music) (audience cheering) - You ask questions and I answer them. This is the #AskGaryVee Show. Welcome, everyone, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and this is episode 57 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Before I get into the show, Gina, by the way, I loved your reaction. Show Gina real quick, Gina react-- She was just doing her own work. own, just living. Then I got loud, she got startled. She looked at Mark Evans and said, "What is he doing? " I'm doin' the show, Gina. What the hell do you think I'm doin'? Before I get into the show, I wanna give a huge shout-out to the VaynerNation. I've been noticing some amazing content around this show and so I'm gonna start showcasing some of that native stuff. All you hustlers and marketers out there, don't go start making stuff to try to get on the show to get a shout-out because we will taste the inauthentic nature, won't we, Alex? the hacking. We're only gonna do stuff that comes from the heart, and StuFactor, I'm givin' you a huge shout-out. Let's show this little piece of content. That guy or gal is probably not the kind of person that wants-- Now, that was great, but what Terri got from her husband, William, crushed me in my heart deep, deep. An amazing piece of content from the VaynerNation. I know the Vayniacs are gonna love this one. Check this one out. (snaps fingers) (upbeat hip hop music) And now, with all that heartwarming-- Oh, by the way, Steve's back. - Thanks for all the well-wishings, everyone. - Steve from his monumental sick vacation is back.

Let's get into the show. - [Voiceover] June asks, "My husband is a big picture "kind of guy, but so is his wishlist. "Any advice on Christmas shopping for this type? " - June, this is a great question. If he's a big picture kinda guy like I am, I can answer this perfectly so I hope he is because I know exactly what I want, which is one-of-a-kind experiences or effort, let me explain, meaning, you don't need to spend a lotta money. For example, here is the greatest gift that Lizzie could ever get me. She could go around for months, my 40th is coming up next November, she can go around and interview every person that I've ever met, or she should come to Vayner and basically get everybody on video telling me that I'm the greatest, right? That to me is an ultimate present and it's unscalable, that's a lotta work. To me, the way to really wow your husband is to make something that is a one-of-a-kind and something that is not scalable. See, my friends, the reason people like those kind of gifts is it's effort. Money... A lot of times, listen, it's hard to get money, but a lot of money from a gifting standpoint is easy. You spend and you buy something, that's great. But your time, your effort, your heart and soul, those are the things you can't replace, and so for my wife and I and the likeminded people that I've met in my life, it is about those experiences. It's about the dinner that you have that's special that somebody cooks, or when somebody makes something. Lizzie got me a gift for our 10th wedding anniversary that I'll keep to myself that is so incredible and it speaks to that world, and so I would try to do something that's not scalable. Call up five of his best friends growing up that he's fallen out of touch with and have them create an audio podcast of reminiscing of stories when they were kids, something that just isn't replicatable, something that can't be bought, something that took your effort to execute for him.

- [Voiceover] Antoine asks, "What keeps you up at night? " - Antoine, that's a very quick and easy question, literally, and I think at some level the reason I took this question 'cause it's not-- I've probably even addressed this before with VaynerNation, but every so often it's a worthwhile venture to bring it up again, which is the only thing that keeps me up at night is the things that I can't control and the only thing that really cripples me is the health of my family. family is what keeps me up at night, which is just something I can't control. I can do everything right, but an accident or something unfortunate or a disease that we all hate so much can come along and change the course of my life. When it comes to business, my relationships, I feel in utter control and I really, really recommend to a lot of people here... It's amazing to me in the stress-filled world that I live in, by outside standards, my calendar, what I'm trying to achieve, my own stress on that, all the things that are pulling at me, none of it stresses me because it's gonna be what it's gonna be. I'm gonna execute against my skill and some of the serendipity that comes along with the game and I'm very comfortable and zen in that game. But the thing that does bother me, the thing that makes me upset or I'm concerned about is 100 percent the well-being of my family.

- Gary Vaynerchuk, I have an #AskGaryVee question. I'm here in Tasmania at the opening of a brand-new cellar door winery and oyster bar. It's a small three hectare vineyard, seven acres. Now, I'm gonna ask you a question. If you had a seven acre vineyard and it didn't have these wonderful views that we have here, how would you sell lots of wine? How would you do things different to all the other vineyards that are out there? Cheers, I love you, boy, thank you. - Ah, it's nice to see the wine stuff show up in the #AskGaryVee Show. I really appreciate the question. First off all, I've been to Tasmania, an incredible place, making some of the most interesting sparkling and Pinot noir-based wines that I think are coming out of the world, yet so many Americans don't know it and it's really sad. Think about how many of you when you hear Tasmania thought about the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character and that's all you got, which is really too bad considering how incredible the place is. Look, I think that we've addressed my-- You know, it's funny, we made a movie. DRock, you crushed it, let's link it right here 'cause I know you can do that in the YouTube world. The Clouds and the Dirt, and the answer to your question are really clouds and dirt, or as, way is that I used to say it to my dad, big and small. The way I would sell a lot of wine is we'd be big and small. Let me explain, you've got a small kind of parcel, you're not making that much wine, and so the small would be handselling. I'd be flying over to Australia, I would be going into the big cities within New Zealand, I would probably pick one or two markets in Asia, and I would literally fly in and hustle. Literally knock on doors, walk around with sommeliers and salespeople from the companies that represented my wine, and one by one, restaurant by restaurant, retailer by retailer, sell the product. Taste and sell, taste and sell. The unscalable, the small. Now on the big, and you've heard me give this advice in the past, I would become a media company. Now look, it's very easy for me to say that that's what I would do because I actually did it. In 2006, while doing the small stuff, the tactical e-mail service, the website, building a wine shop, working the floor on a Saturday and selling. If you haven't seen my comeback video, (snaps fingers) I know, a lot of editing, Staphon. Those are the small things, but the big things were Wine Library TV, right? I decided to make myself The Critic. I would if I were you for your winery become the authority of food and wine, I wouldn't go lifestyle and travel, but I would be the authority of food and wine for New Zealand food and wine, the cuisine and the wines. I would actually review and talk about your competitors. With a small parcel, you're not competing with anybody, really, 'cause there's room for everybody at that level. So I would literally turn yourself, and clearly you're a very charismatic and good-looking man on video, you just did it. You felt comfortable doing it. I would execute that at scale. Literally replicate what I did by putting out content, whether video, which I think you should do based on what I saw, or written form. Become an authority, you need to be a media company. bigger than you are brought to you by your wine, so I would go big and small. But by the way, don't get caught up in the glam. While I was showing up on Conan and everybody was quoting me for TV shows and everything was great, I was still downstairs hustling, trying to sell one more bottle of Pinot noir. I was still in my office to 11 PM answering people on Twitter, answering my e-mails tryin' to get a good deal on a Barolo. I was still doing the small. It's not playing in the middle, it's going big. You need to become the authority of New Zealand food and wine, and the small, and you have to have the humility to get on a plane, sit in the middle aisle and go to the Philippines, and sell a couple of bottles to some random restaurant, got it?

- [Voiceover] Scout asks, "Should all young companies "have a sleeper website as a strategy "to not let the competition know how big "you're getting or will it hurt the brand? " - Scout, I assume you're asking this because Vayner had a website for quite a while that seemed, oh, I don't know, like we were going out of business. By the way, big shout-out to the creative team. That was all my, I don't want anybody who builds the website for the company to get upset about that. That was all on my head, my fault. Look, I think what you do with your website needs to have a strategy. At the time, when I was building Vayner where we had that website, I didn't think we needed to showcase our work or our people or awards to get new business or new talent. I wanted to be really known for what we were doing internally, it was a very internal time, and the strategy was I didn't want anything outward messing up what I was head down doing during that period of time. I think every website, every tweet, every Instagram photo, everything you do, the way you suck in the oxygen, needs to have strategy behind it. We should really, we should expand on the strategy of the way you consume oxygen. I'd like to see where I'd go with that. So, every action needs to be well thought out. Do I think companies need to do that? I absolutely do not, I think my company needed to do that because that's what I thought was the right course of action, staying low, not making-- One of the big things is that people thought I was starting an agency, that Mr. Gary Vee Crush It Twitter guy was starting an agency and it would be a front, right? I'd sell ya on the sizzle and then our work would suck. And that's happened so many times. I was so obsessed with actually building a company, and so obsessed that people forgot that I actually built a company before, that I didn't want it to be about the sizzle or me or putting all this out stuff. So we just put our head down and executed and the website really represented where we were at that time. So I don't think it was tricking anyone, like, "Look over here, we stink," and then "We're great, we got you. " I think that that's a romantic way to think about it, I think the actions that you put out to the world need to replicate exactly what you're trying to achieve at that moment strategically for the purpose at hand, whether that's to raise money, whether that's to become more famous, whether that's to build a business.

'cause I know you can do that in the YouTube world. The Clouds and the Dirt, and the answer to your question are really clouds and dirt, or as, way is that I used to say it to my dad, big and small. The way I would sell a lot of wine is we'd be big and small. Let me explain, you've got a small kind of parcel, you're not making that much wine, and so the small would be handselling. I'd be flying over to Australia, I would be going into the big cities within New Zealand, I would probably pick one or two markets in Asia, and I would literally fly in and hustle. Literally knock on doors, walk around with sommeliers and salespeople from the companies that represented my wine, and one by one, restaurant by restaurant, retailer by retailer, sell the product. Taste and sell, taste and sell. The unscalable, the small. Now on the big, and you've heard me give this advice in the past, I would become a media company. Now look, it's very easy for me to say that that's what I would do because I actually did it. In 2006, while doing the small stuff, the tactical e-mail service, the website, building a wine shop, working the floor on a Saturday and selling. If you haven't seen my comeback video

(snaps fingers) I know, a lot of editing, Staphon. Those are the small things, but the big things were Wine Library TV, right? I decided to make myself The Critic. I would if I were you for your winery become the authority of food and wine, I wouldn't go lifestyle and travel, but I would be the authority of food and wine for New Zealand food and wine, the cuisine and the wines. I would actually review and talk about your competitors. With a small parcel, you're not competing with anybody, really, 'cause there's room for everybody at that level. So I would literally turn yourself, and clearly you're a very charismatic and good-looking man on video, you just did it. You felt comfortable doing it. I would execute that at scale. Literally replicate what I did by putting out content, whether video, which I think you should do based on what I saw, or written form. Become an authority, you need to be a media company. bigger than you are brought to you by your wine, so I would go big and small. But by the way, don't get caught up in the glam. While I was showing up on Conan and everybody was quoting me for TV shows and everything was great, I was still downstairs hustling, trying to sell one more bottle of Pinot noir. I was still in my office to 11 PM answering people on Twitter, answering my e-mails tryin' to get a good deal on a Barolo. I was still doing the small. It's not playing in the middle, it's going big. You need to become the authority of New Zealand food and wine, and the small, and you have to have the humility to get on a plane, sit in the middle aisle and go to the Philippines, and sell a couple of bottles to some random restaurant, got it? - [Voiceover] Scout asks, "Should all young companies "have a sleeper website as a strategy "to not let the competition know how big "you're getting or will it hurt the brand? " - Scout, I assume you're asking this because Vayner had a website for quite a while that seemed, oh, I don't know, like we were going out of business. By the way, big shout-out to the creative team. That was all my, I don't want anybody who builds the website for the company to get upset about that. That was all on my head, my fault. Look, I think what you do with your website needs to have a strategy. At the time, when I was building Vayner where we had that website, I didn't think we needed to showcase our work or our people or awards to get new business or new talent. I wanted to be really known for what we were doing internally, it was a very internal time, and the strategy was I didn't want anything outward messing up what I was head down doing during that period of time. I think every website, every tweet, every Instagram photo, everything you do, the way you suck in the oxygen, needs to have strategy behind it. We should really, we should expand on the strategy of the way you consume oxygen. I'd like to see where I'd go with that. So, every action needs to be well thought out. Do I think companies need to do that? I absolutely do not, I think my company needed to do that because that's what I thought was the right course of action, staying low, not making-- One of the big things is that people thought I was starting an agency, that Mr. Gary Vee Crush It Twitter guy was starting an agency and it would be a front, right? I'd sell ya on the sizzle and then our work would suck. And that's happened so many times. I was so obsessed with actually building a company, and so obsessed that people forgot that I actually built a company before, that I didn't want it to be about the sizzle or me or putting all this out stuff. So we just put our head down and executed and the website really represented where we were at that time. So I don't think it was tricking anyone, like, "Look over here, we stink," and then "We're great, we got you. " I think that that's a romantic way to think about it, I think the actions that you put out to the world need to replicate exactly what you're trying to achieve at that moment strategically for the purpose at hand, whether that's to raise money, whether that's to become more famous, whether that's to build a business. And so that's how I see it. - [Voiceover] Scott asks, "Why are you moving "a bunch of energy to Instagram? "Is it a trend you're reacting to? " - Scott, the answer's yes, it is a behavioral trend that I'm reacting to. Instagram, in my opinion, 2015, is the number one social network on the Internet from a pure attention standpoint. Facebook still has the reach and the product and has the overall attention collectively, but from a depth per piece of content, I think Instagram wins. I think people are really carefully going through their pieces of content. Ads aren't there, old boyfriends or friends that you were in high school with aren't there. It is who you want, people have been very hesitant to follow people that they followed on other platforms because it's a safe haven, right? And everybody's in it, and absolutely that's why I'm pushing, absolutely that's why I want everybody here at the VaynerNation to follow me there, because I think my behavior will shift more and more to doing exclusive things there, to telling you about things that I won't, don't say in other places. It's becoming a real one B to my Twitter world and my Facebook fan page, so I'm in a one ABC world right now, whereas Instagram was a two or a three at the beginning of this year. So it is absolutely just like the last question. My friends, VaynerNation, let me make it perfectly clear here on episode 57. Big shout-out to my boy Bart Scott. As a matter of fact, let's put up the video

where Bart Scott gave me a shout-out and I can't wait for the Thank You Economy. Find it, it's there, it's out there. Let me make it perfectly clear. Nothing. (clicks tongue) Nothing I do isn't a strategy that's reacting to consumer behavior. It's how I roll. Question of the day, what is your Instagram handle? Put it in the comments, I want to follow some of you, and I think some of you wanna follow each other. You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. Oh crap, wait, subscribe. (erratic yelling) I need subscriptions because I can't push this many right hooks in Social, so subscribe.