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Any thoughts on how to use social to promote nonprofits that are selling an experience and culture rather than a product?
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The companies that have struggled the most to use social media correctly are generally charities and NGOs.
My big issue is with their manners. Many businesses with sizable audiences, including mine, get hit up every day by charities that ask us for donations or for us to share their content via a retweet or post. And you know what? Rarely do they even say hello first.
Can you romance a girl a little?
The rudeness and entitlement illustrate for me the fundamental problem charities have when they’re looking for help raising money: They’ve forgotten that we’re living in a thank-you economy (yes, that’s a book plug). Most of the nonprofits that ask me to help them assume that I’ll be compelled to give my money or use my clout on their behalf just because they’re working for a good cause. But when my time is limited, I’m going to focus my attention on the organizations that have bothered to build a relationship with me, not the ones who approached with their hands out. And I think the same is true for the rest of the population. Many charity organizations think that merely putting up heartrending photographs will be enough to move people to support them, but they’re overlooking the fact that it’s never the photograph that compels people to help—it’s the greater story it tells.
For NGOs and charities to succeed in social media, they have to do what all the for-profit businesses out there are doing—hustling, listening, creating dialogue, solving problems, building relationships, and storytelling. (For a good example of how nonprofits can execute this strategy, check out Charity: Water. It’s not only an excellent organization; it’s also got a killer social media strategy.) And then, like all businesses, they have to express gratitude and appreciation whenever anyone so much as looks in their direction. Social media is a wonderful place to express gratitude, even for organizations whose members prefer to remain anonymous. It’s so easy for a nonprofit to create a video or other public announcement of their thanks for the people that support their efforts.
Nonprofits that focus on expressing appreciation instead of expectation will be the ones that crack the code to success in social media.
* * *
Do you still believe marketing is headed toward one-on-one marketing?
* * *
More than ever. You know why? Because despite all the evidence (I put a lot of it into my book The Thank You Economy) about how good business gets done today when you listen to your consumer, most brands are still talking away. They’re like the guy at the party who won’t let you get a word in edgewise because he’s not really interested in what you have to say. When you’re in that situation, how long do you last before coming up with an excuse to walk away? The scene on social media is no different, except the consumer doesn’t need any excuse. When they’ve had enough, buh-bye. They unfollow, they move on, and they don’t come back.
One-to-one marketing takes time but the ROI is tremendous because so few businesses are actually doing it. I finally figured out that’s why my results are so often the exception instead of the rule. When you’re listening and other people aren’t, you look like a star. I’m still amazed at how much it means to people when I send them a Twitter video response or reply to them on Instagram to thank them for their follow. Almost every single Twitter video I’ve sent has been liked and retweeted. Why are people so excited? Because nobody else does it! But you can and you should. People love when you take an extra second out of your day to acknowledge them. It’s the equivalent of a nicely written thank-you note, except it takes less time to do and it doesn’t take two days to get to its destination.
Expressing gratitude helps you build lifetime value—“LTV.” When you’re small and still climbing the mountain, sometimes it’s practically all you’ve got to give. So spend your time being generous and grateful for whatever time and attention your customer gives you. You’ll see that it comes back to you eventually via word-of-mouth recommendations, sales, and legacy.
CHAPTER 14
LEADERSHIP
* * *
IN THIS CHAPTER I’LL TALK ABOUT THE BIGGEST LESSONS I’VE LEARNED, BUILDING CULTURE, AND WHY REPEATING YOUR MISTAKES IS SOMETIMES A GOOD THING.
* * *
I suspect the topic I will most want to talk about when I get to the end of my career will be leadership. It’s a skill that came naturally to me at a young age. Yet as proud as I am of my leadership skills and effectiveness, I still work on it every day, and it’s an aspect of myself where I feel I am continuously growing. This chapter allows me to thank my employees, whose smarts, talent, and hard work always push me to raise the bar and hone my abilities. They have afforded me the chance to take my leadership skills to a much higher level than I ever realized was possible.
My philosophy on leadership is very simple: Everything in business stems from the top, whether you’re the boss of two people in a three-person team or the head of a Fortune 500 company. And everything that happens in a company is 100 percent the CEO’s fault. After all, the CEO is the person who puts people into a position to make good or bad decisions. It’s no accident that when some companies change their CEO they go from winners to losers or vice versa. It may be the most important variable for success in running a business.
Being a leader today is a greater challenge than ever because of social media. It has completely changed the nature of the job. You used to be able to—no, leaders were expected to talk from the top of a mountain. You’d make your proclamation and not worry much about hearing anything back, certainly not in real time. But now that our communication channels have given everyone a voice, whatever you say from on high may invite a reaction. You might get it in-house, or you might get it from the masses. That’s proving to be a challenging adjustment for some leaders, especially those further along in their career.
The only effective way to truly lead is to practice and model the behavior you want to see in others. That’s why I once drove across state lines in a blizzard during the height of the Christmas rush to deliver a single case of white zinfandel to a customer whose order had been delayed. I know my team is watching me. I can’t tell them to go the extra mile if I’m not willing to do it myself. If the DNA of any business stems from the top, the top has to ensure that its values, beliefs, and attitudes trickle down to shape the culture and encourage a productive, innovative, creative, and even happy environment.
One hallmark of a good leader is to ask questions. It’s the best way to show your team you recognize they’re more than just cogs on a wheel. “Hey, how are things going?” “How’s the new baby?” “What are you excited about lately?” “Do you have any ideas you’d like to discuss?” It’s also the best way to solve problems. Don’t ever start offering solutions before asking tons of questions: “Why are we two weeks behind?” “What do you think is the issue?” “What do you need?” And then for God’s sake, listen. Be compassionate. Be fair. Hire people who embody those characteristics, too. Celebrate successes, and when you have to reprimand, hark back to all the times you screwed up and remember that those mistakes have everything to do with who you are today. Great leaders aren’t born; they’re made.
I think this chapter offers a lot of value. After reading it, look in the mirror and think about what you do well and how you could do even better. Leadership needs to be a big pillar in your development if you have ambitions of building a business. The answers you see here may be the secret sauce to any success I’ve enjoyed in my career.
* * *
What are the most important lessons your father taught you about building a business?
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My dad is responsible for the single most important advice I’ve ever received:
Your word is bond.
I wasn’t old enough to drink when I started working the floor at my dad’s liquor store in Springfield, New Jersey, but that didn’t stop me f
rom being a great wine salesman. Not only had I memorized everything I had read in Wine Spectator, but I was naturally charismatic. Now, before I started at the store, I was also a bit of a bullshit artist. I would say absolutely anything to sell a baseball card. Maybe that’s no surprise; a very, very fine line separates salesmanship and bullshit. My dad, however, made sure everyone working in his store knew the consequences would be severe for anyone who tried to cross it.
He taught me that when you make a commitment, you stick to it. If I bought fifty cases of wine, I was in for those cases no matter what. If the market changed or the wine received a poor rating, I was to stick with that purchase. You take it, you eat it, you drink it.
Those lessons made me into the man I am today. They showed me that I could use my charisma for good, and that I didn’t need to cut corners or treat people poorly to succeed. For this reason, I’ve been able to hold on to business relationships for decades. Being honorable always pays off in the long run, even if it occasionally makes you a little less money in the short term. The marathon truly has greater value than the sprint.
* * *
How do you change a firmly established culture into one that genuinely cares about the customer?
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Everything that happens at VaynerMedia is my fault. Because I empower everybody I work with to create the culture at my company, the responsibility to build that culture is entirely on me. If I fail, we fail, so I work my butt off to make sure I don’t.
Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. Some leaders at the head of a floundering ship might try to make excuses. They’ll say there’s some facet of the business that makes the current culture necessary. That’s bull. Who is in charge of that facet of the business? The leadership. No matter how you slice it, a company’s culture is completely dependent on the people in charge of it.
So there is only one way to change the culture when it’s broken—kill the leadership.
Have you ever seen a recently pruned rosebush? It looks stunted, bare, and shrubby, like you’ve killed the plant. Until you come back six weeks later. See, rosebushes thrive best when old growth and dead branches are cut way back. It looks awful at first, but you’d be amazed at how rapidly those new branches and buds start to grow. Within just a few weeks of pruning a rosebush can be exploding with flowers.
Now, you can’t just hack at the thing; you have to do it right. There’s a certain angle at which you cut to make sure the flowers grow in the right direction, and all sorts of other precautions someone who cares about roses a lot more than I do would know. My point is, sometimes you have to get rid of the old, tired stuff at the top to give something better a chance to bloom. And the same can be said for old, tired ideas or old, tired ways of doing business.
Obviously I’m not proposing murder, so how could you go about “killing” a company’s leadership to give a new culture room to grow? You might try to express your concerns directly to the people in charge and pray they’re open-minded enough to listen. You could try talking to influential people within the company who aren’t part of the leadership team and hoping they’ll take up the cause. You could do as much as you can within your small sphere, then work hard so that you rise up within the company and your sphere becomes bigger and your influence more broadly felt.
What if you’re working for a family business or a new CEO, and there’s no hope for change? Get the hell out. Sorry, there really is no other solution.
* * *
Who are your idols or the people who inspire you? Did you ever have a mentor?
* * *
I’ve never worshipped any so-called business idols, but two people that I always admired were Walt Disney and Vince McMahon, the wrestler and CEO of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), because they’re great storytellers who turned their storytelling into businesses. But Disney died before I was born and I’ve never met McMahon, so you can’t really consider them mentors. There are really only two people in my life I truly idolize and could consider mentors: Tamara Vaynerchuk, who taught me people skills and much about what matters in life, and Sasha Vaynerchuk, who gave me a work ethic and taught me honor and perseverance.
* * *
As a business leader, what’s the one thing that keeps you up at night?
* * *
The one thing I most worry about every day is my health and the health of my family. So long as everyone I love is healthy, I will not be afraid of anything—not the landscape, not possible market shifts, not competition, and certainly not internal issues. See, some people may reject the idea that a company is a direct reflection of its leaders, but this is why I embrace it. I don’t have to worry, because everything that has to do with my business—how we navigate that landscape, how we react to fluctuating markets, how we spar with competitors, and how I handle those internal issues—is entirely within my control.
I hope you hear that. A leader is supposed to be in control. If you’re staying up at night sweating, do something about it.
* * *
Do you ever complain?
* * *
This question came in just as my son, Xander, was going through a whiny stage. He was only a toddler so there was nothing unusual about that, but when he’s older and I’m looking at him fondly wishing I could turn back time, it won’t be to that particular phase, because if there’s one thing I’m fundamentally against, it’s complaining.
What’s the value in it? I was lucky to learn this lesson very early on from my mother, who I swear has never complained a day in her life, and she’s an immigrant who lost her mother at the age of five and fled from a communist country, so you know her life has not always been sunshine and rainbows. Not that anyone’s ever is. But that’s my point. Problems happen. Life isn’t fair or perfect. Complaining fixes nothing. Only taking action does.
Besides, I’m the boss. If anyone has the power to fix a problem it’s me, because I’m the one with all the control. So here’s what I do: assess the problem, find the solution, and get on the offense. And I do my best to empower my employees to follow the same process.
I think some of them find it intimidating at first. Do I really mean it when I tell them they don’t need to come to me for permission to try this idea or solve that problem, but should just use their best judgment? The first time they stop worrying that they’re too junior or going to step on someone else’s toes, and just get in there and solve their problem, is a game changer. They’re never the same.
When this happens, you, as a leader, can scale that success. Get people to break through and help you solve problems and build things and spread your religion, and things start to click really fast.
Positivity is a state of mind. Honey works way better than vinegar. It will be a few more years before Xander fully understands why these things are true, but I know that as I pass on what my mother taught me I’m giving him one of the keys to a bright, prosperous future.
* * *
In what situations are you most comfortable?
* * *
I thrive in the midst of chaos. I’m great to have around when things go wrong because I tend to stay cool and calm. Which is funny because I hate calm. Even New York is too slow for me at times. As soon as I walk into VaynerMedia I’ll ask someone to turn on some music, because I get pumped when there’s a buzz and a beat in the air. The ridiculous volume of things that get thrown at me every day and all the demands put on my attention would overwhelm some people, but I love it. It’s my drug. I need the action.
* * *
If you could teach everyone in the world one thing you’ve learned, what would it be?
* * *
My dad taught me that word is bond, but as crucial as that lesson is, I think it’s a lesson that was uniquely important to me because of my personality.
Here’s the one universal rule I would try to teach everyone: Depth matters more than width.
That is, the smallest meaningful, intentional act will mean much more than a huge one tha
t lacks intent or substance.
Believe it or not, I’m paying attention to many of you who are reading this book. I’m no longer able to engage the way I used to with every single person who says hello, but I’m definitely trying every single day. When I’m not in a meeting or writing or taking care of business, I’m hustling for depth with my community. I’m favoriting posts, leaving notes, replying, and saying hello, especially on Instagram (@garyvee). I try to catch your little moments and let you know that I noticed, even if it took me awhile to get around to telling you. It’s amazing how much a tweet can still mean to people.
Sadly, a lot of the social media world is still going wide—gunning for more likes, shares, and right hooks, doing whatever they can to make their fan or follower numbers grow instead of paying attention to the quality of their engagement. We want the attention, but then we don’t want to give it back. And no, offering a like in exchange for a like, or a share for a share, doesn’t count. It’s a crap move that takes no thought and has no substance.
#AskGaryVee Page 20
