#AskGaryVee Episode 69: Monetizing Media Sites, Sad Super Bowl Ads & Solid Data

#QOTD: What question would you really like to ask me based on Steve’s last question that you’ve never asked me? Meaning: can you come up with an interesting question for me?

#TIMESTAMPS
1:21 – What are ways some ways that media sites can monetize, other than ads and sponsored content?
5:31 – Roughly, what percentage of your business decisions are made from gut feelings vs. being backed by solid data?
8:31 – Do you prefer to be around people who are the same or different than you?
12:51 – Nationwide’s CMO justified their somber Super Bowl ad by saying, “We weren’t trying to sell insurance with this spot, we were trying to save children’s lives.” How do you feel about advertising such a somber spot during the Super Bowl?
16:07 – What is one question you’re SHOCKED nobody has ever asked you before?

#LINKS
Submit a question: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/what-y…

All of my strategy is completely intuition. Why? Because if you look at my twenty year career, most of it has been guessing, and, I’d like to think, projecting where the market is going to go. There was no data on what e-commerce would do in 1996. There was no data on email marketing when you were one of the first hundred people using it. There was no data on what Instagram was going to bring us in value when AJ sold Brisk Iced Tea an Instagram campaign thirteen days after Instagram launched. And…there was no data around Vine celebrities when I launched my Vine talent agency 110 days after Vine launched.

So from a strategy standpoint, I get the accolades and have the luxury of doing a show that people actually watch completely on intuition because that’s what I have that other people don’t have. It’s no different than being great at basketball or being attractive or all the other good things that can happen in life. It was just there.

But, I do think data still plays a role. I make these predictions, but then to actually run the business you need to know what’s going on. My practicality comes into play. VaynerMedia grew very quickly, and you don’t do that if you can’t make payroll, right? You obviously need that practicality to run a business.

I used to think I was a super 50/50 guy on this. My personality and communication style gets people’s attention and put me in one place, but I take enormous pride in being able to shut up some times too. The first ten years of my career I kept my mouth shut. I built something and then I started talking.

So it’s both. I built the data early in my career. I got into business and entrepreneurship early. But now I’m making calls on intuition. I need both.