* * *
What would you do if all six hundred employees quit VaynerMedia?
* * *
Well, first I’d be an idiot if I didn’t step back and wonder what the hell just happened. Then I would spend a lot of time going to each of the employees and apologizing to them because obviously something went very wrong. But then I’d have to take a positive approach. I’d have to decide how I wanted to take advantage of everything I’ve learned for the last six years. I’m an emotional guy, but I would work really hard not to react with a knee-jerk “I’ll show them!” and just go out and rebuild. I’d be tempted because I’d want to show I could do it, but I think I have enough self-control to refrain from letting my emotions get the best of me. So in deciding whether to rebuild or walk away, I’d have to consider what would be the best use of my time, the decision that would get me back on track, because I’m forty years old now and want to buy the Jets. But make no mistake, if I chose not to rebuild it wouldn’t be because I couldn’t do it. It would be because I chose not to.
* * *
Is the lack of chairs in your office a part of instilling the hustle in your employees?
* * *
No, but I wish I had thought of it. Limiting chairs to create a competitive culture? That’s brilliant! Someone else should totally do it.
I actually have no hard-core tactics for instilling competitiveness. I just breed it because I’m competitive as shit, and I think people know that to keep up they’re going to have to get hungry. After all, as I’ve said, everything stems from the top. I think it is important for everyone reading this book to understand their DNA and how they like to roll, allow their companies to ride that wave, and not push against it.
What makes me happy is that as competitive as we are, I’ve heard a lot of people say that VaynerMedia is one of the first places they’ve worked where people want to compete with the quality of their work, not at the expense of others. That tells me we’re creating great culture and great work.
* * *
When hiring for a team, is it better to bring in specialists or someone who can wear multiple hats?
* * *
You can certainly benefit from both, of course. It’s always good to strike a balance within a company. And since I believe everyone should exploit their strengths, it’s important for leaders and CEOs to hire people with complementary skills.
But if you have to choose, go for the jack-of-all-trades.
And if you want to enhance your marketability and value, become one.
Many would argue that by trying to be good at many things, you’ll never master anything. Bullshit. If you work hard at trying to be good at many things, you’ll get good at many things. And taking that attitude will force you to say yes to new challenges more often. You might be really good at something now, but why not find out what else you can dominate? Because I know it’s not just one thing. We’re all better than that.
Be open to adapting and evolving your skill set as your life progresses. I get so bothered when I hear people say they don’t have to learn anything new because they’ve become so good at the thing they do. It’s such a limited mind-set. And it’s dangerous, too, because you never know when you’ll need to tap into a new skill. There’s nothing like a layoff to make you regret you didn’t pick up that extra knowledge or experience. Expand your arsenal. It’ll allow you to always prove your agility and your ability to offer value wherever you go. It’s never too late to get better. Start moving. NOW!
* * *
When faced with two equally qualified candidates for one position, how do you choose?
* * *
Two thoughts came to mind when I read this question.
1.I don’t think there’s such a thing as two people who are literally equally qualified for the same job. Someone always has a slight edge. It may not be enough to make that much of a difference, but you can use that to help you make the call. Or go with your gut. That usually works, too.
2.If you like them both that much, consider hiring them both. I’m a big fan of hiring ahead of my growth. I would never unduly burden my payroll because I wouldn’t want to lay anyone off, but I anticipate. Always look ahead at what your needs are going to be, not just the ones you have now. If you’ve got two candidates who can each bring you that much value, a creative solution may be in order.
* * *
What three values do you hold highest in life?
* * *
I have more than three, but these are the three that I look for in a new hire.
1.Patience
I want to work with people who believe in paying things forward and doing good for others, but I want to know that they don’t do so expecting immediate gratification. Because there is no immediate gratification when it comes to business. You can do amazing things, and get nothing back for a good long while. That’s a really tough pill for some people to swallow. But I want to work with people who have the patience to keep going even when they haven’t seen immediate results, people who appreciate that success takes time. I’ve seen how a lack of patience can keep people from achieving their greatest aspirations, and I want to work with those who will.
2. Word is bond
I’ve said this goes down as the greatest lesson my dad ever taught me. I want everyone at VaynerMedia to believe it, too. When you make a commitment, no matter what, you stick to it. The best part? Every time you live up to this credo, you add one more person to your list of people who may deliver for you in the future.
3.Empathy
I hire for this one because I know it’s what makes a great leader. I need to know that my managers are going to listen to their teams and work with them, not drive them, especially when problems arise. I want to hire people who look for solutions, not someone to blame. I want them to assume the best of people. It’s pretty rare for people to fail because they wanted to, so it’s up to a good manager to figure out what happened and then offer the support so it doesn’t happen again.
4. Gratitude
I like people who don’t take anything for granted. It makes for a really motivated worker, and generally a nice person to work with.
* * *
When you work on projects with clients, how much is done online, for example via Skype, and how much in person?
* * *
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I predominantly like to work through email and meeting face-to-face. I get a charge out of other people’s energy, so face-to-face meetings are always more productive for me. Plus they allow me to get to know my client better and build a stronger relationship, and you know how much I value that. I hardly ever use the phone, though I am trying to push more clients into using text, and I am using Skype and Google+ more and more lately and seeing real value in it.
* * *
If you were the owner of the Jets how would you turn around the team and make us a Super Bowl contender?
* * *
I could have put this answer in the sports chapter, but I think my answer shows what kind of manager I am in general.
As obsessed as I am with the Jets (and enjoyed my time working with them during the years they were a client) there are still things about the team unknown to me. So I’d first run an audit so that I knew what I was dealing with.
My first order of business after that would be to mandate that every two years, we draft a quarterback in the first two rounds of the NFL draft until we had our guy. We’d bring a guy in, give him twenty-four months so he got two seasons, and then if it wasn’t the right fit, whether he played a snap or not I’d draft another guy, and two years later another, until I had one, because the quarterback is the linchpin of the team.
I’d also work on PR. I might do a weekly live-stream show so the fans could pound me with their anger. But guess what? I’d pound them right back. Different, right? I think I could get away with it because I am one of them, and most likely an even bigger fan than they are.
I’d execute some fun marketing
ideas like sending a Jets jersey on the sixth birthday of every kid living in the New York–New Jersey area. I’d do inappropriate things like get into it with the media because I think they’re out of their collective mind with the way they are handling the Jets in this city (a dangerous idea, I know, but I would do it with respect). I’d watch the games from the stands (and then probably get reprimanded by the NFL for cursing).
That’s the kind of owner I’d be: methodical, obsessive, creative, combative, passionate, loyal, un-PC, and loving every minute of it.
* * *
Would you support Vayner employees who wrote their own books and curated their own content streams and personal brands?
* * *
I not only would, I already have. Ask Jason Donnelly. He left VaynerMedia to go write a book, and when he was done he came back. I bought copies and gave it to people throughout the office.
I didn’t do that to be nice. You can’t say you care about helping people succeed and then suppress them when they actually do. And you can’t be afraid that someone else will trump you. That’s one advantage to having a big ego—when you think you’re the greatest of all time, you’re not ever worried anyone else will surpass you, so there’s no reason to hold them back. I have no reason to fear anyone else’s talent or keep them down. If they wind up being better than me, so be it. I believe in capitalism, meritocracy, and fairness, and that’s what it should look like.
* * *
How do you push your team beyond their best?
* * *
There’s a right way to do it and a wrong way. The wrong way is to crack the whip and compensate for the brutal work conditions by paying people well. The right way in this one man’s point of view is to appeal to their sense of guilt. (I’m not joking.)
I’ve already talked about what it takes to be a great manager, such as listening, getting to know your team’s ambitions, and being supportive in all their endeavors, even if they don’t necessarily benefit you. Now, you want to do that so incredibly well, and instill such a sense of family and loyalty, that your team would do almost anything rather than let you down. Relationships are a two-way street, but when you’re the boss, and you go in about 51 percent of the way, your team will go above and beyond to give you that 49 percent back. I know it’s true because I’ve seen it work at both of my own companies.
I didn’t take home more than $30K for the first five years I worked at Wine Library so that I’d have the money to call people’s bluffs. You’re telling me you could really crush it if I hired some more staff? Great, here you go. Now show me. Were my feelings hurt when things didn’t work out as promised? Yes, but that didn’t stop me from giving people what they asked for when I could. That worked as a huge motivator, because then everyone else on the team saw their friends getting what they wanted, and they’d work hard to get what they wanted, too. It made for a very happy place to work.
A good boss is doing his employees a favor when he or she pushes a team beyond their limits, because otherwise they’d never know what they were capable of. But you have to make them believe they can do it before they actually do it. If you want people to overdeliver, you’d better overdeliver for them, too.
JUSTIN BROOKE
Founder of IMScalable.com
* * *
How do you hold your employees accountable, aka actually do work and get results? I mean it’s not like you can send them to their room, and firing them still leaves you with no work done.
* * *
There are a lot of ways that I do this and that we’ve done in the companies I’ve run.
1.Company culture. If you’re able to build an environment where people really enjoy the work they’re doing, believe in the mission at hand, and (most important) really love their coworkers, you probably won’t encounter these circumstances in the first place. I’m often shocked to see employees at VaynerMedia who are more afraid to fail their coworkers than anything else. The best results come when employees feel like their responsibility is toward their teammates more than a charismatic boss, or a client, or even their own pride.
2.I think you do fire. If you’re in the mind-set that firing someone will leave you with no one to do the job, then you’re in big trouble. If you honestly believe you can’t hire someone else to do the job, maybe you need to look at yourself more than anything else.
3.Finally, I really do think it comes down to communication. Many organizations don’t actually do a good job at communicating that there is a problem in the first place, so that is on you. Sometimes all it takes is an honest conversation with that person to ask them what actually motivates them. Once the problem is agreed upon by both parties (and make sure it is!), you need to figure out what makes that person tick. You might find that a couple of extra weeks of vacation makes that person dramatically more productive within forty-eight weeks instead of fifty weeks.
At the end of the day, helping your employees get the work done has as much to do with you listening as it does with you talking.
* * *
The dress code at VaynerMedia is clearly casual. Do you think dress affects professionalism or performance?
* * *
Dress doesn’t impact performance or professionalism. I work with people who execute incredibly well every day, and I think they’d do that even if they came to work in their bathing suits. I think the people who disagree with me will lose because they are holding on to a tradition that is cracking as the world evolves. I want to use this book to help you recognize the subtle and not-so-subtle changes occurring in our society and how they impact the business world. Anyone who doesn’t yet hear the sound of modern business dress codes changing, and quickly, is being tone deaf.
* * *
What are your thoughts on employing friends?
* * *
Working with friends is the best, and it works if you practice a meritocracy.
A lot of managers will probably disagree with me. They’ll say it can ruin a friendship, and that nepotism is inevitable and lowers people’s motivation to work hard. To that I say, seriously? If you’re in charge of hiring and running the company, are you really going to let that happen? Give yourself a little credit, whydoncha?
Rather than being a risk, there’s a huge benefit to hiring a friend with just as much experience as a stranger. I hired my best childhood friend, Brandon, to work at Wine Library because I knew he was awesome from our baseball card days and I trusted and loved him. When my brother, AJ, and I started VaynerMedia, we hired a handful of AJ’s friends from college and high school to get the ball rolling because we knew that these particular individuals would bring a certain energy to the company and establish a fun, awesome, hardworking, passionate, and competitive culture right off the bat. After them, we hired a few more people to round out the organization, and continued to hire as we needed.
Fast-forward, and those initial employees are now working in very different places within the organization. But as we’ve grown, they’ve been key in establishing and communicating our culture throughout the company—just as AJ and I knew they would.
The key to hiring friends successfully is simple: Be ready to enforce a meritocracy. Sometimes it can be hard to divorce yourself from your friendship and evaluate people solely on their work performance, but it is possible. I’ve had to fire friends. You hire friends because you think you know what you’re getting, but sometimes the new environment opens your eyes to parts of them you didn’t know about before. That can suck. But if you can be professional, the firing won’t be as horrible as you might think. After all, if you’ve been doing your job right, it won’t come as a shock. You’ll have worked with them for a long time to try to improve performance or fix a problem, and even had a “last warning” talk in which you also ask “How do I help you?” By the time the firing comes, you’ll probably both be relieved. And great friends know that you don’t want to hurt them.
* * *
Once you recognize your weaknesses, should you keep
working on improving them or delegate?
* * *
I don’t know the full answer. I had to work on getting better about being clearer with negative feedback because I led with so much honey that people didn’t realize they were being told they needed to improve their performance. I needed to be more direct, and I’ve worked on strengthening that skill because I thought it was important. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly scary, but I’m no longer a pushover, either.
Try applying the 80/20 rule, also known as Pareto’s law. It’s probably a good idea to spend 80 percent of your time on your strengths (though I really wouldn’t mind 95/5 because I just believe so strongly in betting on one’s strengths) and 20 percent on shoring up your weaknesses. We all have them. If you’re not sure which one needs your attention most, ask the people who work for you, whom you work with, and your closest friends what they think. It means you have to roll with humility, but you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know it exists.
#AskGaryVee Page 23
