#AskGaryVee Episode 8: Buy the Damn Cat!

- On this episode, I talk about the edge or the center, selling cats, and jabs and right hooks. (bell rings) (heavy hip-hop music) - Hey everybody, this is Gary Vaynerchuk, and you're watching the #AskGaryVee Show. Welcome to Episode 8 of the #AskGaryVee Show. Eight - a little fun fact for that number is that is Broadway Browning Nagle's number. Look it up.

- [Voiceover] Erik asks, "Do you believe in Jim Collins' belief that you can only focus on three things? " Erik, as a very underread, undereducated gentleman, I don't know all the details of Mr. Collins' three things that we can focus or the thesis behind it but I will tell you that I'm a contradiction on this question. Oftentimes I think that if you're doing more than one thing, you're not doing anything, and so when I focus on building businesses, I try to focus on one core thing, but look at me right now, I've never been busier in my life and I've decided to start another video show? Here's my theory: focus on one thing, and make that 80-90% of your nut, and then have 20%, 10-20% of complete and utter chaos trying things, probably losing because you're not focused on them, but it keeps life spicy and interesting. That's what works for me. The truth is, I have a feeling this works very differently for everyone.

- [Voiceover] Corey asks, "What's the best way to grow a following or a community from nothing? " Corey, this is easy for me to answer, since I've done it a couple of times, and the real answer is, content and context. My belief is the best way to build a following right now is to put out daily, if you can, content and get as close to that as possible, right, and so, every day, put out your picture or your drawing on your Snapchat that you blast out or your Instagram photos or your video show or whatever you may be doing. Your written blog, every day. You know? Six days is better than five days, and five four days, and four days is better than three days, and two days is better than one day a week. But if you're doing it one or two or three days a week, are you really doing it? And so pumping out hardcore content, and then engaging. I'm going to ask a Question of the Day today, and hopefully, after I get home at 11:30, twelve tonight, I'm gonna go into the comments and reply to some of those answers, creating context. You've empowered me by watching my show, I then jumped back in to answer your Question of the Day answer, showing you that I appreciate you. We've created a deeper context, just like when I reply to you or I answer your email or some of the Cyber Dusts I've done in the last 24 hours, it's about content and context. Building a community takes work. Building a community is not a foregone conclusion. Everybody just thinks you're gonna start a show and everything's gonna magically happen, or you're gonna start a blog or you're gonna become an Instagram sensation. The talent to put out the content is only one piece of the equation. 1% of the magic 1%, get it just by the content push-out, but for the rest of us chaps and chapettes, we've gotta put in the work into the community and care back to the time they've allocated. The fact that people are spending ten minutes to watch this in your ridiculously busy world is something I will never, ever take for granted.

- [Voiceover] Jon asks, "tea or coffee? Or wine? " Jon, the answer these days is water. But, you know, overall, you know, it's funny, I would say tea, and it's wine. It's wine, out of those beverages. Now, root beer would have been more interesting, but I would say it goes wine, tea, coffee.

- [Voiceover] Eric asks, "As a business leader, what's the one thing that keeps you up at night? " Eric, this is interesting. I promised myself when I started this show that I would go really direct, right? I mean, I already have the benefit of Steve picking the questions, so, meaning that, you know, there's no reason not to go direct and honest on these. This is gonna be a little bit of a douchey answer, so DRock, I know you know how to edit, can you create a little douche alert thing here? Can we get some sirens going. (sirens blaring) It's gonna be a little bit of a douchey answer but it's the truth. As a business leader, the one thing that I most worry about every day is my health. Because the truth is, if I am healthy, I am completely unscared of any of the landscape or shifts, definitely the competition, internal issues, like, I feel like I'm in complete control. There is no place in the world that I feel more completely and utterly in control than running a business.

- [Voiceover] Daniel asks, "center or edge? " Daniel. Edge.

- [Voiceover] Bill asks, "What's the best way for a right hook to seem like a jab? " Bill, Bill, Bill. Am I happy with you. Because you've asked the question that means so much to me and is something that so many of you are confused by. Bill, I really appreciate you and I'm not trying to sting, but it might feel a little like that. (laughs) Trying to make a right hook feel like a jab is what 99% of salespeople and businesses do that end up failing. It is in the clear honesty and clear track of, "when I want to do something nice for you, I just do it," Ă  la this show. I just wanna take 15-20 minutes of my day to share the God-given wisdom and the work experience and I want all of you to watch it and I want this in return. Now, come 15 months from now, 18 months from now, whether it's a book, whether it's a seminar, whether it's an event, whether it's me selling rare toys, who knows what it might be, then I will clearly say, "buy this friggin' rare toy, it's $9. 99. Buy it now. " But up until that point, I will have very clear - there'll be no show where you're watching the show and behind the scenes right now there's subliminal music pumping, "buy the damn cat for $9. 99". There is none of that. And so there's a massive confusion in the marketplace, Bill, that people want to disguise the sale, and there is no disguise. Authentically. All in. All of it. All in. Give when it's time to give. On the flip side, there is a crapload of Mother Teresas and think it's so nice and awesome and if you're just good, it's gonna - no. You need to sell. So when you sell, you say, I'm selling. I am selling this. And I feel comfortable. When I put a link out, buy my book. It's out. Buy it. If I've done anything for you, buy it. So, the answer to your question is very simple. There is no version of that. That is a losing mentality and execution and I highly recommend that you take it and you split it very hard apart where the jabs are clear and where the right hooks are clear.

- [Voiceover] Jason asks, "how can a public or government institution use social media more effectively in marketing campaigns, i. e. to increase voter turnout? " - Jason, the truth to that answer is, believe it or not, is to become more nimble and authentic. There is no campaign when there isn't the right process up top. What I mean by that is, a lot of government institutions are coming from the wrong place. For example, I know that, you know, just from a little politics, and I don't talk politics very often, but, like, that the Democratic Party wants more voter turnout and the Republican Party historically has not. These are little tidbits I've picked up in the last 12 years and I could be wrong about that, they're just people in the game that I've heard things like that. So where are you coming from is really the question. I mean, to use social to attract more voters, the truth is, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you're trying to not recruit more voters, you're trying to recruit more voters that are gonna vote for you. Right? And so right there by its own definition, you've got an interesting kind of perplex situation that the seed is tainted by the outcome. And so to the best of one's ability, I think it's important to try to get the religion at the top to really execute. I mean, look, social media is probably the most consumer-insight-driven marketing tool we've ever seen. The data that you can apply on top of social to drive the results, whether to get somebody to vote for an election, to buy a cat, to whatever it may be, there's never been anything greater, and so using, I've said it before, Facebook dark posts, with a combination of Google long-tail search SEM, can get you very, very far. Guys, thank you so much for watching Episode 8, I really appreci-eight that, and I'm gonna leave you with this phenomenal Question of the Day: What is your current favorite single beverage? Get specific in there. I want to get to know you. You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them. (heavy hip-hop music) Picks the questions, he picks the questions. Show 'em, show 'em, show 'em.