#AskGaryVee Episode 2: Tools, Sheep, and Rihanna

(bouncy, electronic bass music) - What's up everybody? This is Gary Vaynerchuk, and welcome to Episode Two of #AskGaryVee. - [Voiceover] Jan asks, "How do I create interesting content

"for a boring subject such as a hardware store? "Any ideas? "Thanks. " - Jan, a hardware store is very far from boring. I mean we've talked to people that are asking about highways and cement, and all sorts of things, and I have no idea how you think that a hardware store is boring when you're selling tools, something that tons, and I mean tons of people are actually passionate about. So, you know, the fact that you've categorized it as boring makes me say, "We have to work on your mindset," because you need to open it up. Because construction and homes, and DYI, do it yourself, all these things are happening right now, and I would argue that a bunch of people who are watching right now are gonna leave comments in YouTube saying, "That is far from boring. " So, I would say, "It's not boring. "The content is quite easy, "and get your ass to it. " - [Voiceover] Eric asks, "Need your advice on getting

"the first 10 customers for a creative service startup. "We make product videos for online retailers. " - Eric, I once made a video, and let's link this up down here below, and let's put it up right here. Can you guys make another video move in here or is it just gonna be a still shot? - [Voiceover] Yeah, if it's on YouTube, we can do-- - We can make it move, beautiful. There's a famous video I made, where I cold-call people for customers, right? And it was something people really loved. And that's my answer. To get the first 10 customers, you have to grind. Sorry DRock, I know I screwed up here. But you have to grind. What I mean by grinding is you have to just reach out to every single person. Like you just have to roll up on people, and be like, "Hey, will you buy my stuff? " - Yeah. - There it was. One customer. So... (laughing) That was awesome. Did you catch her in the background or no? I mean, you just have to ask. So, go to every single person in the world that will possibly buy your thing, and ask them to buy your thing.

- [Voiceover] Will asks, "I'm taught in marketing "that people are basically sheep. "What does that say about your idea "that the 'consumer decides'? " - Will, I don't know who's teaching you this, some university or some douchebag marketers, but you know, there's truth in that we can influence. I mean marketing clearly influences, but the customer's own preconceived notions and DNA, and the way they grew up, and all the other variables, are a factor as well. And they get to choose. At the end of the day, we're not hypnotizing people. There's not some weird thing floating above my head that saying, "Buy my book. " You know you need to get them to post that under there, right? You know, that's not happening, and so, you know, I think that is a very, all-in, 100% way to look at it. Do I think marketing influences people? Of course. Do I think we're hypnotizing people? No. - [Voiceover] You called him out for a bad question.

- Yes, he's back? - [Voiceover] Yeah he's back. - [Voiceover] Dragga asks, "I'm an indie music producer. "What tips do you have to promo my content "using social media marketing? " - Dragga, what's up? You're back. And I respect that. You're in Episode One and Two. You one day will be a trivia question. So, the question is, look you're an indie guy, you're trying to promote. I'm actually gonna move the mic to Steve. He's not even expecting this. Go there. Do you get the sound? - [Voiceover] Yeah, we can. - You're good with sound? The camera's got its own sound? - [Voiceover] Yep. - Go ahead. Say what you just said to me. - So, Dragga, I looked at your Twitter account, and you posted a remix of a Rihanna track eight times in the last 24 hours, since we aired the last episode of this show actually. - That's a little bit overwhelming, Dragga. Now, couple things. I think the thing to really think about is listening. I was actually clicking, and that's why we got focused. I don't know what he was doing there, but he was replying to somebody. I like the replying in Twitter. That's a tactic. Look, here's what I think it's all about. The quality of the music matters. Building up your SoundCloud matters. How does one do that? One of the ways to really do that is to become old school in some ways. Believe it or not, I'm gonna go left field on you. How 'bout some music message boards? But not spamming them. Becoming a part of that community. How about searching every single person that Tweeted about Rihanna. Steve pull it up. Every single person who Tweeted about Rihanna. Let me guess, but I'm gonna think it's a shitload, right? And so, in that shitload, jumping in and engaging with those people. Now you gotta spend a lot of time. You decided to do a Rihanna remix, not me. So that means you've gotta go through it, and it's gonna take you a couple hours, because everybody's gonna be Tweeting like, "Rihanna's hot. "Fuck Rihanna. " All that stuff. And you're gonna have to find the people that are actually talking about Rihanna's music, which I don't know, probably small percentage of what's going on Twitter. You've gotta jump into that and engage with it authentically. Engaging, and you've heard of the 19 year-old dude move is not saying, "Check out my track. " You've gotta just kind of, you know, jam with people. I would recommend, if you're jamming people, and jamming with people, not jamming. If you're jamming with people, during that period, changing the URL in your Twitter profile to be a direct link to the Rihanna track. That's right folks. That was a tactic, and that's why #AskGaryVee's gonna be a big-time show. If you're deciding to do something specific for a two-day period, like Dragga should, around engaging people about Rihanna's music that actually talk about the music. I'd recommend he changes his Twitter profile's URL from his probably homepage, or whatever he's got going on, to the actual link to the SoundCloud of that show, because while he's engaging, people are gonna be like, "Who the hell's Dragga? "Let me click this link in his URL. " Boom, they're listening to that. The viral loop gets going. - [Voiceover] Justin asks

"Where are the best places "for hiring great employees these days? "What's your process? " - The best places to hire great employees is actually, this is kind of like the honey and bees thing. My process is a little bit different. I'm actively running a social and digital agency, and I am at the lucky stage of my career where I'm a known personality in that, and I'm public speaking. I'm doing the #AskGaryVee Show. Plug. And, you know, it's coming to us, right? I'm at that place now. So that's not practical for the far majority of people watching this, and because I want this to be practical, I would say what I would think is very simply the best tactic for all of you watching, who want to hire good people is to search the key terms on Twitter search that are talking about the things that you do for a living, and then doing the homework. The dirty little secret is my friends, is most people don't want to work. You know how easy it is to find good employees? Let me explain. You go to Twitter search. You search the terms around the job description that you want, not the job description terms, but the kind of things they'd be doing. Looking at people talking about design websites, design forums, design aspects, and then looking around what people are saying. Then clicking on their profile. Clicking their homepage. Probably landing on their design portfolio. Finding four people that you think do a good job. Emailing them or Tweeting at them saying, "Do you want to interview for a job? "Are you looking for a job? " Three of the four say, "No. " One says, "Yes. " The other three give you four referrals that are kind of like them. You've got five people to interview and you hire one of those people. But that just took eight hours, didn't it? And that my friends, is how you actually do it. Because everybody's looking for quick tactics to make it easy, and putting in the work always, always matters. You, with a little bit of me, we're changing the Q and A world. (clicking tongue) (bouncy, electronic bass music)