#AskGaryVee Episode 46: Life Decisions & Getting Punched In The Face

- On this episode, I talk about mentorship, paying for jabs, and the single greatest decision of my life. You ask questions, and I answer them. This is the #AskGaryVee Show. Hey everybody this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk and this is episode 4-6 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Before we get into the questions today, I just want to say and you could probably see by the intro I'm a little jazzed up. I could be a little tipsy but not really, it was just very little. Really enjoying the show, kind of missed it. When did I tape the last episode? Last Wednesday? - [DRock] Thursday. - Thursday, it still feels like way too long. I miss all of you. I appreciate the banter. We've got an update on the Almond guess question, I know we haven't done that. But before I forget, I will have a show Tuesday and Wednesday? We lookin' good? - [DRock] Wednesday. - Wednesday, not tomorrow? - No I don't think so. - Weird, I'm going to try to do tomorrow but like, nothing? - [DRock] It got bumped out. - I'm pissed. Anyway, I have two more shows. Wednesday I'll officially do it, but I'm scared I'll forget. And it's a Wednesday, and that's a tough day because I'm going to my parents'. I want to wish all of you a happy and very healthy Thanksgiving. And uh, yeah that's it man. Let's go.

- [Voiceover] Iwona asks, "How many punches in the face and failures can an ordinary person handle before achieving success? " - Iwona, the right word in that question is ordinary person. What was it, an ordinary person? Yeah, and I think that's the interesting part of your question. Which is this whole notion that pisses me off that I don't believe that the far majority of people right now who claim that they're entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. You know, I don't get to claim that I'm an NFL quarterback, and then I just am one, and that's what's happening, right? A lot of people that don't have the skills, you put that word ordinary in for a very specific reason and it's the reason I want to rant on this which is the ordinary person a. k. a. the person that's not meant to run a business can probably only handle one punch, right? I mean like, that's just what it comes down to. You know what my answer is, unlimited. You could punch me in the face 8000 times. I'm here to get punched, right? Like, you know I really do think of it like a UFC or a boxer. Have you ever watched a UFC or boxing match, and literally watched and thought to yourself holy crap, if I took one of those punches I'd be in a coma for the rest of my life. They're meant to be in the octagon, I am not. On the flip side, you show me a world where all 420 of these wonderful and amazing people quit VaynerMedia, and I know exactly what to do the next day. That's how I roll. Those are the punches I can handle. Top 10 clients quit, cool. Can't ship to a state at Wine Library anymore, cool. I can handle unlimited punches because I'm pure-bred 100% entrepreneur. And so for me, to a person that is a wannabe-preneur, who first punch in's like eh, I'm going to go get a job. From there, everybody fits somewhere in between that. And that's your answer.

- [Voiceover] N asks, "Any tips on how to get a mentor? " - This is an interesting question for me because I've never, like even when I had a mentor in my amazing dad, I like pushed against it because... My mom and dad like, made jokes, like, that I want to be claimed and like I'm a Cabbage Patch kid and I came from nowhere. My dad always like to rouse me when he thinks he deserves more credit because I never wanted to have that. It's actually probably one of my biggest weaknesses is my lack of mentorship or learning from others, like I don't know, I like being self contained. So I'm not the best person to ask this question. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sucky to ask this question but I have answered it in the past, and I think we've touched on this theme on the show before which is I think you just got to go and get it, right? Like, and there's some people doing it right now like that one dude that wants to get you fired, Steve. I like that dude's bravado, he's like how do I get Steve's job? And like he e-mailed me, you see what I'm talking about these last couple of days? - [Steve] Oh yeah. - Yeah, what's his name? - [Steve] Did you see my Tweet storm? - Yeah, and so like, you know, that's interesting to me because it keeps pounding me and eventually I'm going to know his name because he's like I want to be mentored. Now the truth is I'm not looking for that right now. I don't feel like I can deliver. I can only deliver a mentorship through osmosis, right? We as a collective, had a meeting earlier today and I think the youngsters all picked up a little something that they'll use and they'll like learn of like how to scale but I don't want like a hey, come here Johnny, I going to... I don't want that. There's people that do, and I think the best way to get one is just to keep asking the 5 to 7 people that you think can deliver on that for you. Basically get to the point of a restraining order without going over that line. Sorry Steve, but like I really believe that. Steve just did this. I really, really believe that. You know, if you're listening on the podcast, like you know, Steve just put palm to head. But I believe that, I think you have to go and get yours but freak a girl out, you know. You can't be, like, a stalker. You got to go and ask that person and you ask them, and the other way to do it is to provide that person value first. The amount of people that hit me up for mentorship where they hit me up, DRock! Right behind the camera right now. Hey, I want to make a long form piece of content for you, on me, you know, Cloud and Dirt, link it up. You know, what that led to is what we have now. I mean, I'm baffled by people's lack of pains. You want something so amazing from somebody which is their time and their energy and your opening question to that person is hey, can you give it to me? That is insanity, how do you provide value, Alex. I mean this whole room is full of... Alex takes a step in a different direction in his entrepreneurial career, willing to come in as a community manager, show his face! Show this man's face when this happens. Willing to come in at entry-level job with the hope that hey, I hope that I get noticed and then I can get into that inner circle that Gary has. And when he was noticed and brought in, he said, you know I don't want to put you out here, but like, man I can't believe this happened so much sooner which, it happened what, 4 or 5 months in? 3 months in, when he says so much sooner, he was in the, I don't want to speak for you, 18 months, 25, when were you going to give up at not getting noticed? - I was never giving up but a year's time was my focus. - So he would have gave up after a year. (laughter) But that's the key, right? Like, he came in and he wanted to pay it forward and his version of paying it forward and being in my ecosystem was coming to Vayner, start at the bottom, work it to the top, you know. And so, you know, you want a mentor? Why don't you provide that mentor with so much upfront value that you guilt her or him into mentoring you.

- Hey Gary, Sean Bruce here. - My boy! - We've had a couple opportunities to talk before. I do the sales and marketing for the Lancaster Hummus Company. My question today is what was the biggest decision you made in your life that made you as successful as you are today? I've watched a lot of your keynotes. different rants and ways and everything and interviews, but I want to know what is your honest opinion on the biggest thing that you did that made you as successful as you are today. Thanks Gary, and I look forward to your answer. - Thanks brother. Man, I'm so pissed that technology wasn't around. I would have been able to... Is this was around when I was around, we would have been able to play me as a 14 year old asking some entrepreneur that question on YouTube. So pissed, anyway! You know, I'm glad you asked this question because I now can really, like, I was going there in my mind. I know what the answer is, it's a weird answer actually. I think the biggest decision I ever made was in fourth grade when I got an F on a science test in Mr. Mulnar's class, and I decided literally after, you know, first I hid the, I had to get it signed by my mom. I don't know if they still do that when you get bad grades, like this was some 80's stuff. But, yeah they're doing it? I had to get it signed and I was not interested in being punished, so I didn't bring it to her. Then I put it under my bed and then it sat there for 2 days but then my, I was still young, my conscience still had too much power and like, I got scared and told my mom about it. By the way, three years later I was flushing every report card directly down the toilet. You can evolve quickly. When you make the mental decision that I made, no joke I literally remember sitting in my room and having a weird, weird kind of like crying, debating, like moment in fourth grade in my small bedroom deciding screw school, I'm a business man, and I'm going to eat the pain of being punished every four times a year during the school year, being viewed upon as a loser or a kid that doesn't have a shot by all of society because I see something different. I have enough self awareness of who I am, I'm going to win and literally, and this is weird as I'm a fourth grader and you know you're young... how old are you in the fourth grade? 9, 10, you know, and I'm literally deciding that I'm willing to eat it for the next 8 years maybe even 12 years of my life where, that was just a hardcore decision. And it's not that I didn't care, like I went to every class. I just decided to hone in on my skills. That I would learn more about selling baseball cards that later, at 14, became I would learn more about selling wine, I honed in. And so, it was the first time, my man, that I made a decision that I was going to fight society's optics and deliver on what I thought I was, and that's what I did.

- [Voiceover] Rollinson asks, "Is paid promotion for jabs an effective way to build an audience for right hooks? " - Rollinson, this is a great question. It's something I've been debating a whole lot. Now to frame it up for everybody, the notion is should he, you, she, him, it, where am I going, I don't know. But sorry, stick with me here because I'm excited. Should we as a collective pay for jabs, meaning a non call to action. Not buy this wine, but should I create an infographic about the tempranillo grape and it's just a did you know about... piece of good content. Should a spend three, four, five hundred dollars on getting this awareness to build up equity to then later come in with the right hook. I think the answer is predicated on how much money you have. Right, like, if you have a limited budget, you're probably going to want to save it for, hey buy this wine for $14. 99, it's a killer for Thanksgiving. You know, like, that is probably what you want to save it for, but if you have an overall marketing budget, if you're a bigger brand, if you're spending real money, I think there's enormous value in jabbing. I'm spending a ton of money on jabbing to build up awareness, to get people into the ecosystem. So, I'm a big fan of spending dollars on jabbing. Content that benefits the audience that doesn't have the direct R. O. I. to you, and you're spending even more money on not just producing it but getting it reach and awareness because I think of myself as a marketer and a brand guy not just a core salesman. That has to do with your finances. I can do that today, I couldn't do it 3 years ago. I couldn't afford it, 10 years ago, forget it. So it depends on where your business is at but if you can afford it, I would allocate some level, 10 to 30 percent of your budget on just jabs, if your limited. If you're a bigger brand, big pockets 50, 50 even. Maybe 80, 20 on just the branding because you're building exposure. I mean look, every TV commercial, every billboard, 95% of those aren't infomercial, they're brand building. That stuff works.

- [Voiceover] James asks, "Do you schedule time to be on social media? Or just jump on randomly during the day as you have time? " - James, I don't schedule crap, other than I completely live on my schedule meaning my admin, Matt, he schedules my whole life. But if I was to be in control, I would not schedule anything. There has never been, you guys all have access to me, there's no 15 minutes get on social. Social's in me, it's not a tactic, it's my religion. So I do it every moment I can, it's always top of mind to be with my audience. I'm reading your comments, I'm reading your guesses on the almonds. On that note, let's segway. Why don't you tell the VaynerNation who you are one more time and tell them what happened. - I'm Staphon, and I had to count almonds. (laughter) - Hold on, come over here before you give the punch line. First of all, you guys were way closer... Not being hardcore quant, realizing you guys were going to be able figure out the math, you guys as a collective scared the piss out of me because the guesses were coming in so in the general range, the good news is nobody won. Good news for me and my wallet, the bad news is for my heart and my excitement, nobody won because I would have loved somebody here. But because I love winning and losing, you're about to hear a story, this person is not being compensated, not half way flown here. I'm not going to his, no. Nobody won, you guys lost. Go ahead, Staphon. - Someone did come close though. BoostLax came in with 423, and the count was 424. So you were off by 1 almond. 1,424, whatever. (laughter) - You missed it by one, man. One almond, one almond. Episode 46 in the bag, one almond that's devastating. A trip, could have sat here, we would have been boys, could have changed the course of your life. One almond. (laughter) Guys it hurts, but that's winning and losing. That's the way it is. Question of the day. What wine are you pairing with your Thanksgiving dinner? You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. Oh crap, wait! Subscribe! Toom, boop, boop! I need subscriptions because I can't push this many regulars in social so, subscribe!