The ULTIMATE Advice EVERY ENTREPRENEUR Needs To Hear! | Gary Vee & Allison Maslan

I hear that every day of my life. Every day of my life, multiple people will tell me they're putting out great stuff and nobody's watching, which I reply to saying, one of two things are happening. One, you haven't been patient enough to let the audience form around your content. Or Two, your stuff's not that great. I don't even know how to fully answer that, because I don't. That's like asking me what's the best thing about being a human being? Or what's the greatest part of breathing oxygen, Right? Like, you know, I mean, the best part for me is that I'm doing what I think I naturally was born to do. It was kind of like, what was the worst part of my life? Between 6 and 18 years old. And that was I was forced to do school in a world where that was like ripping my eye directly out of my head, right? Like, to me, the best part is it's my natural being. It's who I am. And I love entrepreneurship and meritocracy and capitalism and market behavior so much. I even like them more than my own well being. Like, I secretly think that if I deserve to go out of business, that that would excite me because I think I deserve it. Right? Like, I love the game so much that I, I'm often, you know, for example, right now we're in a very political climate and I'm yelling at all my old white dude rich friends in her 60s and 70s who think they're capitalists sell because they want a Republican president to protect their money. And I'm like, you're a goddamn loser because you, you think that just because you made the money, you're entitled to save it. Nobody, nobody is keeping IBM or Google or AT and T or BMW alive. That's the market. And nobody should keep an individual alive. This is capitalism, this is business. And you should grind forever. And if you take the foot off the pedal in your 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, you should lose upside. You should lose. And so I just love the game of business and entrepreneurship. And to me, that excites me. And that's the best part.

Well, and the thing is that, I mean, you were truly a born entrepreneur, pulling people's flowers out and then getting money for them. And with your lemonade stand franchise from when you were young, if you were to lose everything tomorrow, Gary, you would be able to build it back up again because it all comes from inside of you.

You know, I'm the least scared entrepreneur on earth, period. Now, there may be others that are tied with me because they're purebred as well, but, like, 100% Ali. I secretly want to lose everything just because I want to read what all of you would write about me losing everything and then rise like a phoenix and be like, I told you suckers. Like, you thought I was down. I'm not down. I'm bigger and bad, stronger than ever. And so I, you know, I get off on losing, on setbacks because they drive me. I love when I'm humbled. I enjoy that taste. It's delicious.

Oh, I'm right there with you. I think for me, you know, I was a single mom for 12 years. I built 10 companies, and the times when my back has been against the wall has been the best because you come out fighting. Which takes me to my next point with your book, Jab, jab, jab, right hook, the book you had before this. And you talk about it in chapter eight in your new book. And just for those viewers that don't know what that means, jabs are the value that you provide the customer, the content, the appreciation, the connection. And the right hook is going for the sale, going for the ask. And so my question is, do you feel that when business owners get stuck and they're not getting the revenue in, is it because they're not jabbing enough or they're not giving enough right hooks?

Both. It means that, you know, I mean, just like in boxing, if you're not good at jabbing, you probably aren't setting your right hook or if you're a great jabber. But when you land your right hook, the person smiles back at you and realizes they can take your punch, and then you're deep. Crap. Right?

Right.

You know, the answer is both, I think, as I watch businesses and entrepreneurs and people on periscope right now and things of that nature, like, I recognize that some people are good at it and some aren't. You know, I think you equally have to be good at both to be great. I think that you could be decent at one or the other and get some minimal return on that investment. So I think. I think, you know, the answer is absolutely both. I see it every single day of the week. And so I try to. I try to get a lot of people that kind of get the modern world to understand the right hooks matter. I think some people are too hippy, dippy, and too zen about it all. And then I think there's a lot of people that are just straight, you know, sales, sleazy. What's in it for me and they have no idea how to throw a true jab. Even their jabs have right hook DNA in them. They're half assed jabs. You know, they kind of, they're like humble brags. Right? They're like, they're, they're coated in right hooks. And I think people can smell that from a mile away. And I think that's a huge mistake.

Right, Yeah, I see. You know, because I run a business mastermind called the Pinnacle Global. And business owners, a lot of times when their craft or their passion is what they do, they have a hard time asking, you know, or saying how great they are or asking for the sale.

So, yeah, I think it's a, I wrote jab, jab, jab, right hook. More for the people that are just throwing jabs than the people that are just throwing right hooks.

Right, right. So it's so incredibly rewarding though, when you do see the entrepreneurs take your advice and get into the next level of their business. And what I see, Gary, where entrepreneurs struggle is when it's time to scale the business and finding those right team members, taking the leap, moving past their fear. Can you give me some insight on when you know it's the right time to fill a new position? Are you doing it because, okay, I want to move the business in this direction, so I need a team here or are you doing it when, okay, we're splitting at the seams and it's time to fill the demand?

Allie, for me, it's, I've run two businesses as an operator and both of them have grown enormous in revenue in the time that I've run them. Right. And so for me, as an operator, I'm always over hiring because I know more is coming as long as I'm in control of the wheel. So if you're a sales driven, top line revenue CEO and operator like I am, you're hiring ahead of time even. I mean, right now VaynerMedia is way over capacity. We will do 100 million in revenue this year, but we, we probably have the man and women power to do a buck 20. And that doesn't make my CFO or COO super happy because I'm not running for the maximum profit margin, but I'm setting us up for 2017, 2018. Other people that are listening right now may not be as good at sales and they need to maximize profit along the way and they need to be more cautious about when they add on. It's kind of like when you get more business or more revenue, then you deploy it. I Think it comes down to what kind of operator you are. If you're a top line revenue driver like I am, you hire ahead of it. If you're a bottom line efficiency financial arbitrator, like many people are, you go the other direction.

That's great advice, I love that. So switching gears to social media, which is, you know, you live and breathe social media and it is the era we live in. I started business pre Internet, knocking on doors and so forth. But you've said you see social media as a science and so can you expound on that a little bit?

Yeah, I think most people are completely disrespectful to social media. Social media is a slang term for the current state of the Internet. It is enormously driven on quantum qual dynamics, emotional intelligence and anthropology and people behavior layered on top of dead hardcore black and white math. It's way more complicated. Nobody's gonna sell CR by taking a fun selfie on Instagram. There's no hashtag that you're going to use in a tweet that's going to change your business, right? I mean, you're not going to get one interview that's going to change your life forever. I mean, there's enormous naivete, disrespect and lack of understanding that we are talking about a platform that has changed the way that human beings communicate. It is absolutely at the forefront of the end consumer's attention graph, which means it's where people pay attention. People are living inside their Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook feeds. They're living in that, I mean, spending 20 to 50% of their time depending on their behavior in those feeds. If you don't understand that that's a place that you have to figure out how you communicate, how you bring value, how you convert, how you do business, you're making a grave mistake. Again, for everybody that's listening, please understand that social media is a slang term for the current state of the Internet. And if you're willing to disrespect the Internet and its power and what it means to society and business and everything actually, well, then you're just naive or being romantic of how the world used to be. And both of them are going to lead to your loss and your industry.

And your business will be disrupted because that's what's happening.

Everything's disrupted. Dating, Ali, Dating I know has been fundamentally. There is no going to the bar. You know, there is. I'm laying in bed swiping to the left or the right and that's how I date.

Right. Well, I'm glad that I'm not single on there, because if I broke up with someone and I had to see him with somebody else on Facebook, I think that would be really hard for me. But I think you just get used to that.

I mean, I'm devastated. I missed Tinder. I would have loved to just swipe to the left and the right feels so efficient.

That's perfect. So I was at a. I'm in a documentary called inspired by 11. We had the premiere this weekend, and there were so many people on Snapchat, which has. You know, my audience is a little bit more mature, but I hear you talking about that you're moving, you're swaying from Twitter to Snapchat. So can you. Can you tell us about that?

Yeah, I mean, I think Snapchat will be in full effect in 24 months in your mature audience and every audience in the world. And much like it feels the most to me, like Facebook 2007, when everybody told me, gary, that's for college kids or somebody who just graduated this year. And I said, sure, for now. See you in 2015. And so over the next three to five years, I believe that the far majority of people will be on Snapchat. I believe that it's a totally different communication style. It's a totally different app. It's a totally different ui. It's a totally different slang. It's kind of like television from radio. Right, right. So I think it's a big shift. I think it's an enormously powerful platform. I think that the people that figure out how to create content and bring value to their audience in that environment have enormous upside. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, I haven't shifted from Twitter to Snapchat, but I would say that the attention of the end consumer is far greater in Snapchat than people believe. And I think for people in social media and business and our kind of ecosystem, the attention of Twitter is not as great as a lot of people believe. And I kind of pay attention to those dynamics because they're very important to me.

Right. Well, I appreciate it. And, you know, I follow you. One of the reasons I do follow you is to stay on the pulse of what is happening out there on the Internet.

I'll tell you, I want to jump on that point. I think one of the things that I'm most proud of is I don't spend any time at all consuming other tastemakers or shows or podcasts. I spend all my time consuming people's behavior in real Life America. Right. And I think reason that I've earned my keep for somebody like you and others to follow me because I do, in a weird way, feel like I have a responsibility and a skill set that forces me to be one of the first commentators on new things. And I love that I provide you and so many other personalities and thought leaders a first glance and one of the kind of data points that people look at. And I think it's been a very interesting piece of my equation that I think it's been an absolute rationale to why I've broken out. And I challenge you and everybody else that's listening to recognize that power position. And I think as a whole, we need to spend more time paying attention to people at scale because we can unlock behaviors and thought processes that lead us to be first in market thinkers. That I'll tell you right now, has become the separator of me and a lot of my contemporaries.

Well, and I so appreciate that you take the time to share this wisdom. I mean, I know with Vaynermedia your clients are the Fortune 500 companies. It's not necessarily all the people that you're chatting with on your channels. Right. And so which leads me to my next point is the storytelling, which is what you are so brilliant at. And you say in your book, the way to every consumer's heart is through storytelling. And with so much noise out there, what do you feel is key in creating quality content so that you can give it your own voice, that you can be heard?

Well, I think the thing with stories is first and foremost, we need to understand there is an audience for so many different stories and content. You know, I have no interest in watching anybody else play video games, but I think esports is one of the most important emerging platforms in society. Right. I don't care about that. I have no interest in watching House of Cards season four, but half of America will sit down on Saturday and watch the entire thing for 11 hours. Right. On the flip side, I would watch two hours right now of the jets off season moves being debated because that's what's valuable to me. And so I think one of the biggest mistakes most people make, and I mean almost everybody is they use their own value and their own point of view on what value and stories are as the barometer. And I always tell them, like, who are you? You're not God. Like, you don't get to decide that the Kardashians is bad quality, but PBS is good quality. Like, you're a snob, right? So to Me, the first thing that everybody listening has to realize is the audience decides. Not you, not me. And I think I'm all fancy. Not Barack Obama, not Walter Cronkite, nobody, nobody gets to decide what quality stories and content are. The end consumer does. And the biggest thing I tell a lot of people, do you know many people Ali email me every day or friends talk to me and say, gary, I'm putting out such great content and nobody's watching. Right. I hear that every day of my life, every day of my life. Multiple people will tell me they're putting out great stuff and nobody's watching. Which I reply to saying, one of two things are happening. One, you haven't been patient enough to let the audience form around your content. Or, or two, your stuff's not that great.

Well, that's kind of the foundation of business though in marketing is that you really have to speak to your audience. Right. You have to give them what they want. Not necessarily what you want 100%.

But what's really fascinating is a lot of times there is no cross section on what they want. And your skills. A lot of people know what people want, but they're not able to deliver. Right. Like, like at some level that's, you know, everybody, everybody knows what people want out of social media agencies and experts. They want you to come in, pay you, and then your advice and strategy or execution makes them more money than they paid you. Meanwhile, we have 99% of social media pundits that are complete clowns bringing no value. And yes, you have an issue. So I think it's really easy to think about what your audience wants. The problem is can you actually deliver? And then you have a whole that has no idea what the audience wants. They know what they want to talk about, but they have no idea how to translate that into consumable and entertaining and information based content. And that's a problem. If you can't translate what's in your head into written, audio or visual form that creates audience, well then you're vulnerable. That means you didn't pull off the storytelling.

Right? Right. Well then they have to go back to the drawing board and keep working at. But that's business anyway, right? You're constantly tweaking and course correcting all the time, which I think is especially.

I think the big course correcting alley. I think a lot of people are always doing that, but they put themselves in a global position to not succeed. I think self awareness and the reason I have self awareness in this book is a big deal. We have to understand what we're good and bad at. And you have to let go of what you're bad at. You have to. If you're naturally bad at singing like I am, you shouldn't put your career and your life in a position to become a professional singer. It's a bad idea. And I think a lot of people want to be entrepreneurs and business people because it sounds glamorous to make a million dollars a year on your terms, on your own schedule. The problem is it's a talent. It is a talent to be a business person. And you can become the best version of yourself. Right? But it's like being pretty. Like, you can become prettier. You can get tans, you can work out, you know? But mom and dad had sex at the right moment, and your nose is your nose now. You can have plastic surgery. There is no plastic surgery in business. So I need people to wrap their head around that.

Okay, I like that. We'll quote you on that one for sure. And actually, my dad built the largest chain of women's clothing stores in the United States that were privately owned from 1955 to early 1980s. And he had such a passion for his work. And literally, to his last breath, he was giving me business advice. But he would always say, do more of what works and drop what's not. And it says, he's a winner.

Ali. That's why he won. Ali. I don't give a rat's ass about all my failures. And there are so many. And my audience and my contemporaries and my wife and my homies, they know nothing about them. Because the second I take that L to the face, I literally, literally never think about it again. And the majority of the people listening dwell and ponder and. And try to figure it out. Let me help everybody who's listening right now. Spending a moment on your shortcomings or your losses is a substantial mistake.

Right? Well, it's just like the athlete or someone's playing basketball. If you miss the shot, if you're thinking about that going for the next one, you're going to lose the game.

And listen, it's easy for me to say because it is natural to me. And I would tell you I want to say this with a lot of heart and sincerity. I implore people to figure out how to create more of it if it doesn't come natural to you. I don't know. I know what I know, and I know what I don't know. I don't know how to help people do more of it other than scream at the top of my lungs about it for the rest of my life. But anything that can help you get into a place where you can not dwell, not complain, not allow the negativity to seep in, it will bring you enormous dividends. And whether that's a life coach or a therapist or a two month retreat to reset or. I don't know. But whatever it is, please, please, please realize how big of a deal it is.

And you know what? And that's one of the things I love about you because we can feel that passion and you really, really care, Gary. So that's. That's so beautiful. So I have.

Ali, if one person on Periscope or listens to this podcast or watches this video, if one person actually just heard me, if the way I communicated clicked in their heads, it's the best gift that I could ever give anybody. Like, think about what that means. It means happiness. I mean, it's just. It's a big deal.

It is a big deal. It is a big deal. And I have a saying. So talk about helping entrepreneurs move forward, make decisions from where you're going, not from where you're at. But I love what you say in your book, act like you've been there before. Because people often need a frame of reference, something to visualize. I mean, how does one tell me about that?

As long as you're not full of shit, right? Well, there's a difference between act like you've been there before and fake it till you make it. For example, football. I adore you score your first touchdown ever, right? If you hand the ball to the ref and go to the sidelines, you acted like you've been there before, right? If you lose your mind and throw your helmet hair and do a backflip, maybe not so much, right? So listen, nobody's going to ever confuse me with being graceful, proper, and things of that nature. But what I mean by act like you've been there before is even though you haven't made it yet, if you feel it inside that you've got it, there's nothing wrong with confidence. And plenty of people are going to think that you're egotistical and things of that nature, and that's fine. Your life's work and how you roll as a human over time will set that course, right or wrong. But I just want to empower people with a little more confidence, you know, Ali, there's a lot of people that are listening right now where their mom and dad told them they were losers or they were never going to amount to anything. And to me, that is the greatest disservice, and that's serendipity. You don't control who your parents are. And so because I was blessed in the other direction, anything that I can do that brings one ounce of value to my audience, one ounce of value to my audience, that allows me to say to them, to them that you got something because everybody's got a little something. Some people have more than others, but you've got something. And to allow your parents to have suppressed, or your neighborhood or your older brother to suppress you and say that you're not good is horse crap. And I just, I refuse, I refuse to stand by and not try at least to have the alternative conversation.

Well, it does make a difference. And people hearing this, I think it will make a difference. Obviously, they have to take the action for, from that. So it has to move beyond that inspiration. And as we're getting to the close of this, I've heard you say it's better betting on the jockey than the horse. It's not so much about the idea, it's the person like we've been talking about, the person that's driving that idea. Can you share your thoughts on that?

Yeah. I mean, I've had a very successful career in angel investing, and I can tell you that the, the, the CEO has been a bigger variable than the idea. Right. And so I, to me, the CEO matters more than the business idea because the execution is what matters. And the best CEOs, she or he will know how to adjust, change their. I was on the phone twice this week where my CEOs have changed the business model because they know they're going to lose in its current form, but they're willing to take the risk to try a different version of what they were building because they'd rather do that. And I've got CEOs who are so stubborn and they believe their idea is the best and they won't pivot and they go directly, directly out of business. Right. So I'm a big believer in the executive, you know. What's VaynerMedia? It's a social and digital shop. There's no great idea. It just had the best goddamn jockey. That's why it became the biggest. Right? So, you know, you know, many people started wine shows in 2006, 7 and 8, after I broke out. All of them. All of them, Ali. Every goddamn wine shop in America started their version tv. And you know how many of them won? None. Because they weren't good enough. And so to Me, it's always, always the jockey.

And I love that. And I love that competitive spirit. And I love that you say, I want to win. And I think that's, you know, I love the competitiveness of business as well. So in wrapping up, I would like to just read the very last paragraph of your book, because I think it's.

Because I have no idea what it is.

Okay, well, I'm going to remind you right now. Okay. So, yes, this moment is the happiest in my life because with every encounter, every adventure, every experience, ultimately everything always gets collectively better. That is, it does when you choose to focus on the positive, which I definitely do. You should try it. So I think that pretty much sums it all up. Sums you up.

I think, you know, it's. I don't know if I'll ever figure it out. I'm still young enough that I think after I kind of scratch my foolish in the business world, I would love to figure out how to deploy self awareness, empathy, positivity. It is a stunning variable in the success of people. And I look in my own. My sister is dramatically more negative than me. She was parented by the same people. She grew up three and a half years younger than me, like in the same environment. DNA is part of this equation, you know, and those chemicals are real. And so I don't, you know, and I've watched her evolve, and I watched my dad evolve. Again, not as positive as me and my mom. And I've watched a lot of the executives that have worked underneath me become more positive. Drock's filming me right now for DailyVee. Literally. Literally. I've watched his confidence and big picture ness change in the last 18 months. So I don't think I can convert people, but I definitely feel that, you know, you can shift people in a direction that brings them value and that is, that is more valuable than, listen, I want money. I want to buy the jets. But when you can impact people in a positive way, if I can force everybody, if I can guilt everybody to come to my funeral, that is my KPI.

Well, I definitely feel that, you know, when you're around somebody that's passionate and positive, it can't help but lift you up. So you, you're obviously having that impact around the people that are around you. So tell me, because help me help you get this book out, first of all, where people can get it, how they can connect with you, and then also give me some tips of what we can do to further move this video beyond the traditional channels that we would be sending it to.

So I think I have way too much respect for the audience. I don't think. I mean, if they need me to tell them where to buy a book, I think we got way bigger problems. I appreciate you setting me up, but I think more importantly, this is your opportunity for you, and I'd like to bring you some value. I think one of the things you should be thinking about is live streaming. Some of these interviews, you can start building up your periscope, your mirror cat, your Facebook live. This way you start building an environment there. I think during an interview like this, the next one you do, you should do two or three snaps where you show the computer screen and it allows people to kind of get primed and excited. I call it sawdust. Ali, how do you produce content when it's right there in front of you, yet you're not picking up the sawdust?

Right, right.

So I would tell you those are two things you can definitely do. And then I think distribution. One of the things that's been really working for me, one of the things that I think could change your business and your brand is I would reach out to the motivation and business blogs and news sites in the world and say, look, I'm producing content. Would you like to have my content for Right to me. I'm never worried about housing my content on my podcast, my YouTube, my dot com. I want distribution. I don't care where somebody discovers me. They don't need to discover me in my home. They can discover me at somebody else's home. They're discovering me. So I think about distribution for you as well.

Great. I appreciate that. And we often do actually livestream the show, but, you know, sometimes with live streams, some things can happen. And I wanted to make sure we captured everything here. But I'm excited to get this out to everybody because, as I said, everyone needs to get this book. I'm going to do another plug. AskGaryVee. This is your new business book. I'm going to have all my entrepreneurs reading it. Thank you, Gary, for taking the time and being with us today. It was a total blast.

And.

And I love the insight that you shared.

Thank you so much. Ali. One final most important question.

Yes.

Can I get one of those mugs?

Absolutely.

Yeah. Can I sell? I'm a weird guy like that. I like selling mugs on ebay. That'll be good, right? Like me selling mugs. That's huge for the brand.

I think so, too. But I'll send you two so that you can keep one and sell the other. How's that?

Allie, thank you for your time. I wish you well.

All right. Same to you, Gary. Thank you. Bye. Bye. I hope you found this valuable. And if you want more support, guidance, wisdom, inspiration to scale your business from top business experts, check out this video right here next to me. And don't forget, your dreams are important. You are here to make a difference. Now, be sure to subscribe below as well.