The GaryVee Audio Experience

#QOTDPart 1: Give me your feedback, are you excited about instagram bringing a visual element to the show? Part 2: Are you going to submit a question via instagram? If you are building a consumer facing business, like a restaurant for example, then a franchise is a great thing to do. But, something to ask is—are you trying to franchise your name? A lot of people have tried to franchise me. Yeah. Me. As in Garyvee. I got so many pitches when “Crush It” came out in 2010. People wanted to build courses that they would teach, but it would syphon up to me. That was something I wasn't comfortable with because I don’t feel like it represented me. I wouldn't want to franchise that route.So if you're asking me about franchising yourself, I'm going to say no. Having other people represent "you", to scale your "brand" as a franchise, just doesn't make sense any more. With YouTube and all the other forms of social media available, you just don't need it. BUT let's say you're franchising your restaurant or retail business. If that is the case, I am comfortable saying: go for it. You can make suer your brand is ensured with lots of rules, lots of legal jargon and intense training. Whatever you need to do to scale that, do it. It might be tough, but it will be worth it to keep the core values of your business intact.

22 Jan 201515min

#QOTD: What is your favorite morning beverage? I think that "hustle" is something that you're born with. Let me explain.Work ethic is definitely a trait people are born with but ultimately I think that the hustle meter is fundamentally affected by who the work you're doing is for. Sure, if you work for yourself, it's really easy to give yourself that high grade hustle. However, if you work for someone else, I think your attitude and effort are solely based on how inspired you are and how protected you are by that leader. I truly believe that because I instill trust and protection (as well as some high standards) for those that work for me, they're able to go all-in and deliver and work as hard as they do due to the culture and the context that comes from within the workplace. At the ground level, everyone is motivated by their own selfishness and there's nothing wrong with that. But then there's a side of it where if the leader presents a workplace based on meritocracy they're going to do whatever they can to not let that leader down but they'll also work hard enough to take advantage of the opportunity to grow and rise through the ranks. It's super fascinating to me see the levels of motivation that are on display among those that work for me as opposed to those that work for themselves. There are so many variables that dictate one's work ethic, but there's no question that a lot of our motivation stems from our life's circumstances, be it traumatic or triumphant. So for me, it's most definitely a nature vs. nurture thing. A lot of our drive comes from our DNA but it's the circumstances of our years that shape the level at which we perform.

14 Jan 201516min

#STATEMENTOFTHEDAY: I want you guys to reach out to one person that you haven't spoken to in over a year. I'm serious. And for you over-achievers, try and think of somebody you haven't spoken to in more than 5 years and give them a call. I want you to comment and let me know who that person is and what happened when you hit them up. You'll thank me later :)The brilliance of this show (#humblebrag) is that when people look back and realize what I've done (and what I'm doing), they'll notice I'm creating the base, the foundation, for all the other pieces of content that I'm able to create. If you pay attention you'll realize that all the content we're putting out is (for the most part) based on the seed that is the #AskGaryVee show. Just take a look at the last 6-8 weeks and you'll see the substantial increase in output we've been able to tackle because we're taking advantage of what this show provides -- whether that's Medium posts, GaryVaynerchuk.com articles, animated GIFs, etc. In essence, the #AskGaryVee is just one giant jab that allows for the further awareness that I'm trying to create with the other pieces of content we're putting out there. People gravitate to different mediums and different messaging and this show allows us to capitalize on all those needs.Think about it. We're putting out this show that is supplied by the questions and thoughts of the fantastic community that is #VaynerNation. This show is the foundation to what has become the latest stage of my personal brand. Not only can I create this show that provides a lot value to a number of people but it also provides me the leverage to create other pieces of content consumed by people that may not otherwise hear my messaging.

13 Jan 201511min

#QOTD: Can I get your wine business? YES? NO?#QOTD2: What are you looking forward to in 2015?The best way to push employees above their own means is to guilt them into it. Everybody is driven by things, so first and foremost, you need to use your ears and listen. You need to sit down with your employees and understand where they want to take their careers. What’s their ambition? By sitting down with people and actually listening, you’ll be able to set up your employees for success in order to achieve the beneficially mutual goals at hand. Don’t think for a second that money drives all motivation. It’s simply not true. People are in the game for multiple reasons and the only way for you to understand that is to listen. Once you understand then you can set them up to be in a place for them to deliver. The only way someone will over deliver FOR YOU, is to attack THEIR OWN selfishness. You may be selfish in asking for people to over-deliver for you, but the only way for that to be executed on is for you to over-deliver for them. The single best way to win is to provide for 51% of the relationship forcing them to be good enough to deliver on the other 49%. Listen, deliver, and guilt them. Period.

5 Jan 201520min

Hustle: The Most Important Word Ever Video can be watched here: http://youtu.be/PIJElPStJpg?list=UUctXZhXmG-kf3tlIXgVZUlw

26 Des 20144min

#QOTD: How much do you hate DRock?The middle is the commoditized work that everybody does. What I mean by this is that everybody winds up doing what the market calls for. They're focusing on what's popular in the moment and not focusing on where the market's going. I can't tell you how many times I get pitched by startups doing the same thing everyone else is doing and singing the same old song. What I want to hear about are those that are in the trenches doing the hard work - the nitty gritty; Those that are going above and beyond and breaking traditional thinking."The middle" is what we're surrounded by 99.9% of the time. It's the sh*t everybody focuses their energy on all the while ignoring what really matters - the clouds and dirt, as I like to call it. You've got to dive into the trenches and get into the weeds. BE A PRACTITIONER. At the rawest of levels you need to be executing. You need to be focusing on the stuff that nobody wants to bother with. Why? Because that's the hard part. And that's what matters. So if there's anything you can walk away with from me to wrap up this year, it's this. DO THE WORK THAT NOBODY ELSE IS DOING. Don't be afraid to break things, and hustle your face off 'til it hurts. Trust me. You'll be a better person for it. Hustle. The most important word ever.Love you all. Have a Happy New Year.

20 Des 20149min

#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 just going to snake my way into getting clients without have a substantial business to back it. Well -- THEY WERE WRONG. I've proved my worth through and through and a lot of that had to do with the strategy I employed, the team I built around me, and the ways we've executed our excellence in this space.  The actions that you put out to the world need to replicate the mission you've set out to capitalize on. This isn't a one-size-fits-all game. You need to understand what you're looking to do and do whatever it takes to get that done. Period.

17 Des 201413min

#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 time to read a few lines or click through to a long form piece of content. It’s just the nature of our tendencies, our attention spans, and the mediums where we’re consuming this content, which happens to stem from the palms of our hands. OH! And did I mention? I have an Instagram account. You should follow me :) @GaryVee

16 Des 201411min