The Garyvee Audio Experience

#QOTD: What's your Instagram handle? Look, when VaynerMedia was in its earlier days, our website was garbage. It almost looked as if we were going out of business and I know that. That's on me. At that point in time I didn't think we needed to showcase the work we were doing, or the clients we working on, or any accolades we could have showed off. We just needed to focus.  The point here is that everything I do, and everything that you do, needs to have strategy behind it. The strategy at the time for us was to stay low and be quiet, and focus on what we were doing internally and focus on the energy that we needed to create to build an incredible business. So that's what we did -- BUT, that doesn't mean that's what you need to do. It all boils down to strategy and the mission at hand, so that's what you should be focusing your energy on. Look, we were put in a peculiar position. I had my own personal brand and people knew me as this "social media guy." To be honest, I had plenty of doubters who thought I was

#QOTD: Where do you watch or listen to the #AskGaryVee Show? I think that Instagram and Twitter are tremendously different. Look, Twitter is the town hall, the cocktail party of the social world. When things happen in the world and there’s breaking news, we’re running to Twitter not Instagram – we want the chatter, not the images. However, I do believe that Instagram has found a way (at least up til now) to gain the most attention from the consumer where we've found ourselves looking at those pictures pretty consistently.  Attention wins and that’s what Instagram has been able to capture. People are actually consuming content on Instagram, whereas on Twitter, those days are over. Back in the day I used to be able to send out a tweet and although I had a substantially lower reach I was still able to garner that attention. Instagram, due to its image-focused nature, is naturally able to capture our attention more easily. And let’s face it, we’re lazy, and it’s much easier to consume an image than to take the ti

#QOTD: How old are you? Check out my new video channel on 5by!http://5by.com/garyveeThere is zero doubt in my mind that I can run ANY company. I'm a reverse engineer, through and through. Heck, I don't know anything about 99% of the businesses out there, but I believe that it would take me only about 6 months to absorb the information - the data, the numbers, the culture, etc. - and reverse engineer the business to get it to a point where I can run with it. I'd take a look at the marketplace, understand the consumer that the business is selling to, whether B2B or B2C, and start making my chess moves. Frankly, as an operator, there is no business out there that I'd ever be intimidated by. That's just who I am. Fearless.Look, this comes down to people and process. You need to have the chops to build teams around you while having the strategy and tact to sell the product at hand. I'm certainly not the only one, but it's few and far in between that you have natural born operators that can take a look at things, a

**Listen Up: Ashton Kutcher's on this one!!** Enjoy :) #QOTD: Which social network are you hottest on RIGHT now?Agencies in the market for awards is nonsense. I've been talking about this for a while in the halls of this world and within our industry. At the end of the day, these agencies are being hired to do work for THEIR CLIENTS, not for themselves. They're being hired to tell a story on behalf of the brand they're working for which in turn is supposed to sell sh*t. Agencies are using their work and these awards to recruit more talent and to gain more clients. I get that. It's smart in one way, but it's not intended for the long game and it's not sustainable. I'm not trying to begrudge the agencies that do it because I get the business rationale behind it but it's just not a healthy culture. It takes the eyes off the actual prize of doing what's best for the client and I just don't subscribe to it. Luckily for us at VaynerMedia, our proof is in the pudding. Our work is the word of mouth of our business an

**WARNING: DO NOT end this episode early. Stay tuned 'til the last second. You won't regret it.** Hint for you podcast listeners: ASHTON KUTCHER#QOTD: Give me some feedback on the new settings of the show. How do you like us filming on the 15th floor? -- Since you all can't see what's going on, check out the YouTube episode and let me know what you think!!THINGS I VALUE: I'm a humungous fan of patience. Lack of patience has caused so many people to not achieve the upside that they deserve and that just kills me. Another thing I value so greatly is an old school handshake. That really matters to me. Word is bond. Having people in your life that you can trust based on their word goes a long way -- you know, someone that you just know is going to deliver on whatever it is they say they're going to do. On the other hand, when someone doesn't deliver on something, I have the understanding to realize that unexpected things can come up and change the course of action. So I completely buy into being nimble and empath

#QOTD: Give me some stories from your experiences with company holiday parties. I need gossip, people :) Also, why are you not visiting me this weekend at Wine Library? :(Google+ is most definitely a failure (in my eyes) for Google. While Google is my pick for the best tech company in the world, they made the wrong decision in doing something outside of their DNA. They tried to copy something, and I think that was ill-fated.I use Google+ because there's an audience of mine there and it ties in greatly with the YouTube society. There's a small niche group of people that I massively respect that have developed some great communities there. However, much like every social network besides Twitter, it isn't in fact a social network. Most of these "social networks" have become content portals. And so, I still have a great sized audience on Google+ and therefore they will not be forgotten and I will continue to distribute my content there because it's native, and that's what you need to do. Understand the nuances of

#QOTD: What's the greatest holiday gift you've every received? - India K. :)With an organization of the size of VaynerMedia, of course you need a balance of employees that are highly skilled in particular focuses as well as those that are considered to be 'jacks of all trades.' So for me, of course both work, but truthfully, I'm a firm believer in the importance of being a 'jack of all trades.' So, for the purposes of drawing some lines in the sand, I don't agree that everyone should focus on one particular skill.Many people would argue that if you try to know a little bit of everything, you'll never get to the point of mastering anything. My argument? Bullsh*t. I don't buy it. I think I'm perfectly capable and skilled at 19 different things and that's just the way I roll. Look, you need to be able to adapt and you need to be able to evolve your skill-sets depending on the particular situation. In my world, there's NO room for excuses. So when I hear people make the excuse that they can't do other things beca

#QOTD: Are you coming this Saturday? Yes or No? Also, I need your recap of the first 50 episodes of the #AGV show. What's the best thing that it's done for you?When people bring up my competitors I tend to respond in a condescending way. Quite honestly, I dislike my competitors (in the context of the game/business). When people bring them up I try and tear them down as quickly as possible. My competitors? Oh, you mean those people who are trying to win awards while I'm over here trying to actually sell sh*t? Deep down, I'm just not a fan of my competition. Anything I think that'll make somebody realize the value in working with us is something that I will push and fight for throughout the discussion, no matter what. Look, I'm a salesman, a talker, with great tact and enormous empathy. Hence why I win as often as I do. I can read a room and I know in real-time how to navigate the conversation and find my way to the top and win that discussion. Others? They just can't. They may just not be good enough to commun

#QOTD: Do you think that your culture (wherever you're located) has gotten soft? Do you think we should we have 7th place trophies?High-end wine is as much of a hoax as the art world is and as much of a hoax as a high-end restaurant charging $10K for a a once in a lifetime meal. It's as simple as supply and demand. Is a stock price a hoax? My answer? Yes and No. I used to think that the amount I was being paid for my speaking engagements was a hoax, but then I realized that I was getting compensated for what I was doing for that event. Is an actor quietly getting $8 Million for a movie a hoax, as opposed to an athlete who constantly gets ridiculed for being over-paid? It's all an arbitrage. That same actor is putting people in the seats and ad budgets are being leveraged against the appeal of that actor/actress.So, can I taste the difference between a $10 wine and a $100 wine? ABSOLUTELY. I live it. It's what I do. The beauty of wine is that everyone has their own palette -- similar to how people have differe

#QOTD: How was your Thanksgiving? AND, what's your Jets vs. Dolphins prediction for tonight's game?I literally spend ZERO time focusing on my competition. I don't look to the right of me or the left of me -- It's all forward moving for this guy. I focus ALL of my time on people, the teams around me, and our focus for the future.Do I know what the competition is doing? Sure, to some level - but I never go deep as my understanding typically goes as far as reading headlines and hearing some of the buzz of the industry. The biggest mistake I see entrepreneurs making is paying too much attention to those around them. Sure, take a look back once and while to see who's on your tail, but at the end of the day your focus needs to be on your own domain. If you can focus all of your attention to accomplishing what you set out to do, full-steam ahead, you'll win. Not only will you win but you'll be able to razz the competition a bit while you ignore them :) I find that not paying attention to your competitors is actually

#QOTD: What weaknesses of yours are you giving thanks for? And be honest. This will help you.Someone by the name of Tommy Mottola (look him up) once told me that he wouldn't try and sell anything until the artist he was working with and the product they were creating (in this case music) were ready. And I agree with that to some extent because if you're going to sell something you need to make sure that those ready to buy it can actually do so, but it also needs to make sense for the context involved. So let me explain. If you're able to achieve and execute on business objectives by building out content and pushing your product or business without the need of a fully built website, then by all means, go for it. By creating content you're beginning the journey of how your story will unfold. The reception of this content will also allow you to test and learn and understand the best approach to creating future content once your business and website are ready for the masses. That process you simply don't want to

#QOTD: What wine are you pairing with your Thanksgiving dinner?The biggest decision of my life? Deciding to finally focus on what felt right to me. At an early age I received an "F" on one of my Science tests. From that moment in time I understood that no matter how many people tried to tell me the importance of school, I knew deep down inside that it wasn't for me. And although I knew it would bring me nights upon nights of punishment, I decided that school couldn't be the one thing I focused all of my energy on. From my "flower business," to the lemonade stands, to the baseball card collection, I knew early on that I was a businessman. Although I had felt it inside, it wasn't until I made the conscious decision to focus on these skills that things began to change for me and my outlook on the rest of my life would be forever different.The moment I made the decision I knew that I would be looked at by society as different, and I understood that, but I made the mental decision to accept that and focus on what

#QOTD: Watch this on video and guess how many almonds are in the jar next to me. Whoever guesses it right will be flown out to NYC to join me on a taping of the #AskGaryVee show!! It's funny to hear that people are referring to cellphones and other mobile devices as the "second screen." As far as I'm concerned, in this DVR'd world we live in,  most of us are on our phones, scrolling through our feeds as commercials, and sometimes the actual TV shows, are being ignored. I'm pretty certain we're at a moment in time where our mobile devices are indeed our 'first' screen of choice.  When it comes to retail though, it makes sense that we refer to our phones as the "second screen" because it certainly holds true that our eyeballs serve as the 'first screen' when we're walking around. What's really resonated with me recently with retail  is how people are behaving when they're out and about and shopping around. People are literally IGNORING the promotional end-caps that brands spend tons of money on, simply because

#QOTD: What's the last app you downloaded? The humanization of business. Manners of Marketing. Thank You Economy. They're all same. Now that the Internet has allowed consumers to have more control, businesses are expected to behave differently and interact with their communities in a way that humanizes their messaging. Unfortunately however, brands haven't fully embraced the mindset that I thought would have been exhausted by now.  My prediction with the Thank You Economy was that by 2015 everybody would be on board. Unfortunately, that is not the case. People just haven't adopted it at scale and therefore how can it really be over? Nobody's ruined it. This might actually take forever or never happen at all although I know that those practicing it are getting real results. I see those emails every day.  And so, my prediction was incredibly off. It just may never happen at scale because companies can be heartless. Heck, even I'm heartless when it comes to money. I know that business is all about the wallet and

#QOTD: Just show me some love!! Everything trickles from the top. For a long time I used to talk about the "rich-kid syndrome" and how they didn't have it in them to hustle their way to building a sustainable business. What I've learned, however, is that this doesn't apply to everybody.  When it comes to business, like anything else in life, it all stems from the top. Just like a business' culture stems from its leaders, the way a child sees the world and their approach to life all comes from how they were brought up. When I meet with these "rich kids" I spend almost all my time trying to figure out what their past was like. How did their parents raise them? Did they spoil them or did they make them work for what they wanted? And so, this really has nothing to do with the kids themselves but more so about who their parents were and how they decided to pass on the family legacy.  I know that my kids are going to be "rich kids" but that doesn't mean I'm going to spoil them. I'm not going to let them become soft

As a teacher and any professional looking to expand their personal brand, my advice remains the same -- Cut out the crap, stop wasting time on non-important things, and hustle to build your brand.  If you want to build a more scalable brand you need to put out content. Utilize the technology around you like SlideShare, Spreecast, and Google Hangouts which allow you to further establish your credibility, and where you can also charge people for participating if they're willing to do so.  Use your content as a gateway to drug to allow you to further establish yourself and your brand. What I really see here is that people are just loaded with excuses. Do you really want to build your brand or do you want to watch 'Homeland?' Do you really need to take that hour long lunch? LUNCH? C'mon!! There's better ways to use our time. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat, but do you really need that much time for lunch?!? As with anything in life, you just need to figure out your cadence. What do you really want? Are you wasti

#QOTD: How long have you been following my work?Wanting to be an entrepreneur and being an entrepreneur are two very different things. If I were a young and aspiring entrepreneur I would go out an hustle my face off in any which way possible. The best way to become something is to first act like something. Sell, sell, sell. Understand what it takes to provide value to somebody. Learn how to communicate your value proposition enough so that it registers with your 'customer' allowing for you to accomplish what you've set out to do. Go out and find mentors. Go work for free and under people that can show you the ropes and serve as that point of contact when you need it. Learn the hustle and taste the game. Put yourself in the position to win. You can read as many books as you'd like, but they're not going to make you an entrepreneur. The only way to become something is through doing. And so, start hustling. Start doing whatever it takes. Even if that means selling the very shirt off your back.

#QOTD: Want to win a dinner with me? I need you to predict how many episodes of the #AGV show we'll wind up producing once this is all said and done. Those that guess right will be selected to have dinner with me. Deal?   They way I prioritize my time is by making the best judgment call possible in that particular moment in time. I frame my process by selecting two sides of the spectrum: What's the most on fire and needs to be tended to immediately, and what are the more high-level ideas that I can work on and flesh out? I'll take care of things like employee issues or client concerns (the biggest and most time-sensitive problems) and balance it by going on the offense on the things with the biggest upside, like company culture, visions for the future, buying the Jets ;), etc.  I never focus on anything in the middle. VaynerNation, I warn you, the MIDDLE is DANGEROUS. Stay away. 

#QOTD: How bad you want to work at VaynerMedia?The transition from being a "doer" to becoming a leader can be very difficult. Quite frankly, it scares the crap out of me. It's hard to go from "execution-mode" to then becoming a manager of a team. These are two very different things that can cause some issues if not handled properly. When you're a leader, you have to be the bigger man/woman in any given situation. You can't simply impose your will because you're now the "boss." A leader listens. They swallow their pride and work to make sure the team is executing as needed. A leader needs to empower those around them to do their jobs but they also need to be able to take the hit, and eat crap, because things won't always be easy, and at the end of the day, they're the ones leading the charge.I firmly believe that the transition from doer to leader is the same as the transition from leveraging your EQ rather than your IQ. Leaders need to listen and empower their team to become leaders themselves and take owners

#QOTD: Let me know what the next 3-5 years look like for your business. What do you have planned? What are you looking to accomplish?   Micro-Content is the idea of making content specific to the context of a platform. It's the idea of utilizing videos and pictures, quotes, and written words that work specifically for the multitude of platforms that exist (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc) -- which if I might add, was the context behind my latest book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook ;) So, how do you make good micro-content? First of all, content is subjective. It depends on the viewer and why they're in particular place at a particular point in time. I understand that a 40 year old woman will have a different mindset when she's on Pinterest vs. Facebook. Does she have intent to shop (Pinterest) or is she just catching up with her world (Facebook)? That's how you need to focus on your story-telling strategy. You need to be mindful of the psychology behind the user's intent and the nuanc