get feedback get instant feedback hear
feedback your feedback feedback feedback
getting the right feedback feedback
feedback you get get feedback we’ve had
this tradition for I don’t know probably
seven or eight years at the company
where every week we have a QA where
where our employees can come and ask me
any question that they want about what’s
going on and what the what the direction
of the company is or questions or things
that they read about in the press or
that their friends who use the product
what what they’re asking them and on
it’s been this really important
tradition for us both because we really
believe in openness and communication
and that’s kind of what Facebook is all
about but it’s also really important for
for me and for running the company to be
able to get feedback right and and to be
able to learn what’s on people’s minds
what are what our employees and folks
who were who were part of our team were
thinking about and and just kind of a
lot of the time there are good questions
that people ask that changed the way
that we that we think about what we’re
building and what we’re here to do in
the world and that often make us go
think and reevaluate on how we should be
approaching different problems I think
one of the reasons is Stephen if I have
been as successful as we have is because
we like the movies we’d like to go to
the movies we enjoy movies and we want
to make movies like the ones we enjoy we
want to be able to entertain the
audience we weren’t able to startle the
audience wouldn’t I be able to blow the
audience away and say have them walk out
in theatres saying whoa that was
fantastic I was really moved by that
that’s where the part of the fun of it
is and you know you you want people to
think you want people to be emotionally
moved and bears theory behind that in
terms of storytelling it’s been around
for thousands of years and that’s where
something like live theater or live
performance is something that is very
valuable because you get instant
feedback from your
from your audience and you kind of know
the things that work on the things that
don’t work that’s the advantage that you
know the Greek storytellers had and
Shakespeare had that us in the film
industry are harder to come by which is
you know to be able to see it a see an
audience reaction and adjust to what
works so you have to use your experience
of sitting through a lot of movies I
don’t ever see movies by myself I always
see them with other people because I
want to know what works I want to know
where they laugh oh no they don’t laugh
I don’t know what they think about it
afterwards because in the end that’s
that’s the arc that I’m working with is
is you know trying to communicate in a
way that is effective and and people
react to you know we have direct access
to our customer because I i I’m into
social media and I want to hear feedback
from parents how they like our products
and what they would like to change and
how they would like to innovate found on
these products to have like a brand
that’s for parents that you know was
made by parents and then we’re listening
to parents on how to to change and grow
and evolve one thing I think I do well
and at vaynermedia is I make everybody
feel safe and so that’s really important
to me because when you make people feel
safe they start telling you the truth
right so if you are able to go home
right now if you’re struggling to figure
out what you’re good at if you’re able
to take the 10 to 20 people that are
closest to you siblings wives husbands
partners friend the 10 to 20 people you
consider the closest to you in the world
and if you were able to talk to them and
make them feel safe before you ask them
the following question if you made them
emphatically for 20 minutes and said
look I need this is the most important
question I will ever ask you in my life
you need to tell me the truth my
intuition is you’re not going to want to
tell me the truth but you have to
understand I’m okay with it I’m in the
right mind space for this I need the
truth and then you ask them what do they
think you’re good at and bad at it said
it’s an amazing and obviously I put out
that post it really resonated I’m
getting crazy emails of
people like having amazing things happen
to them I think the only if you do not
have self awareness which is what I do
think I have and I think a lot of people
don’t have it the only way you can gain
it is by getting other people to give
you the data points but most people
won’t tell you the truth so it’s on you
to create an environment a very safe
environment for somebody to tell you the
truth of what they truly think you’re
good and bad at and then gather that
data you need to get in a community
where you can get feedback you need
either a coach who can give you some
direct one-to-one feedback or community
of friends who just go out with maybe
you go to lunch to them once a month you
share everything you’re doing they give
you some feedback or you shoot a video
you sent that video out to everybody get
some feedback on it you create a poor it
the PowerPoint practice it with five
people before the big meeting like get
back in the game we have a community of
people who are giving you advanced
feedback before you release it feedback
before you do it so that you get smarter
at all this because you know nothing
makes a dream come more into life than
when you start getting feedback from
other people about your movement toward
the dreams you know before I shoot a big
sales video for one of my online courses
I’ll send it out to 15 20 people and get
feedback and then off and go reshoot it
again you know or I’ll put it out into
my community and I’ll see the clicks the
conversions and say it’s not let’s do it
again and it’s that willingness to get
the feedback that will keep your dream
alive because look if it’s just in your
mind and you’re just doing it by
yourself but you never actually get a
positive community giving you
constructive feedback towards it it will
never be that but that it will never be
in the social realm and when it is in
the social realm it feels more real you
know when people actually comment I mean
it’s one thing to be in an artist and in
your studio painting for yourself all
day that’s great but once you get some
feedback on and constructive feedback
you become you get that self-awareness
and that social awareness to contribute
and create at another level the decision
to break into episodes was wasn’t really
driven to buy the story requirements the
story sort of ended up being fit into
three buckets typically in any of these
larger arcs it’s not too
surprising you can think of them as as
three acts and it’s a very traditional
Hollywood ask approach to storytelling
the decision to go with episodic was
more driven out of the experience we had
working on half-life 2 where we really
weren’t able to give anything to our
customers for like a five-year period
and that was very hard on us as as game
developers because we thrive on the
feedback we received we we we get better
when we know what people think both
positive and negative and so with
episodic it really allowed us to tighten
that loop up enormously there are lots
of benefits in terms of managing scale
in terms of reacting to what’s happening
on the hardware side but one of the
biggest reasons is simply so we don’t
get into a situation where we have to
wait five years before hearing from the
people who play our games about what
worked and what we need to do better
when you look at new technologies and
you looking there could be you know
sinkhole a wild claims but you look what
is the quote theoretical limitations but
not theoretical Allah the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle you know there’s a
lower theory this is beyond this it’s
just you know it’s not gonna make it and
then you swear is the technology and
then you say how much space is there
between that that realistically you can
get there in five years okay and and
that actually helps define things and
and focus as a minor and what you should
be thinking about what you shouldn’t be
thinking about so there are many things
like that I think successful innovators
do all the time the constructive
feedback that honest feedback is exactly
what we were establishing in our PE
that’s now being infecting the rest of
the departments or energy you know if
you hear an idea that you don’t really
agree with instead of politely sitting
there and being polite you say no I you
know that I don’t think that’s right you
know this is why you know you’re wrong
and then and then you sit at a table and
you talk about it and that’s where you
figure out are you right are you wrong
and then you have a deeper understanding
what’s going on we have this this tel
del process that we use internally where
everyone in the company anonymously
participates in a survey and that gives
us great insights into how well is our
strategy understood are people getting
the right feedback you know about their
ability to advance and do they believe
they have opportunities inside the
company and gives us a lot of insight
into the effectiveness of our leadership
that kind of mechanism is incredibly
important and having a open feedback
about how how we’re doing I’ve had
flight attendants come up to me and say
I have to wear Jessica citizen shoes
because they’re the only ones that are
comfortable for me to stand on the whole
flight you know I mean I have and I
listened yeah I think that that’s
important too is like really just
listening to your customer into the
people that are giving you the feedback
whether it’s criticism or or you know
like honoring and being people like
thank you so much I met the cutest guy
last night because of that dress that I
wore you know I listen to all of it
let’s say you have come up with a
compelling value proposition let’s say
you’re absolutely truthful you truly
understand it and your pitch is truthful
and all of that what I have found is
that is that basically whatever you come
up with and you know you’ve come up with
it in your lab and thinking about it
totally friends looks great it’s the
service of product looks great the real
litmus test of that is when you put it
in front of customers right so when you
go out and make your page of create an
ad or whatever else and a very very
important thing for a entrepreneur to do
is when they put that out there be very
very pay a lot of close attention to the
feedback you get from the people who are
listening to the pitch and this is very
important at the front end because what
is probably the case
is that whatever you came up with is off
base it’s not exactly what your market
yawns and you know I’ll give you example
there’s a friend of mine in Chicago and
he started this company called
installshield and many of you might be
familiar with the company and you’re
installing different windows products
installed she comes up and viresh
basically was like I think 19 years old
or something when he came up with
installed shield and he said you know he
went to a trade show he was going to go
to a trade show some software tools
trade show and he was trying to a whole
bunch of different things he was trying
to google maps 30 30 years ago you know
when there was no way that the computing
could could support that sort of thing
but he went to a straight show and he
had created this kind of you know trade
show booth with the different products
and he had at seven products seven
different tools that he was pitching and
it wasn’t balancing on that booth he
wanted to put four bullets on one side
and four bullets of the other and he was
like four and three so he was like it
was really bothering him and so as an
afterthought this little tool he had to
just to install software for installing
software was his eighth bullet he just
put that in the end at the bottom the
eight ball was installed software
inspiration to him and throughout the
whole week was goes I think a couple of
days he was at this stage show booth all
these people are coming by and all this
stuff going on and there was a guy
across the aisle from him who spent two
days looking at those eight things
because he he was in the software
business and after two days he came up
to and said you know that product I have
an interest in that product and this
product did not exist it was in
voracious mind and so this was on the
only leads he picked up at the show so
he went back and created the product and
gave it to the guy and then he found
that other people wanted it and so on so
forth okay so bottom line is that if you
study if you study startups you will
find over and over that what actually
works is not what you actually
came up with what actually worked is
again on some tangent or some kind of us
you mentioned something to a customer
and passing and then they grabbed on to
that thing you know I want that you say
oh he’s unusual he wants a usual thing I
should keep my core pitch know what you
really have to do is pay really close
attention to what is going on feedback
is always really important to me as an
example right in my book right now and I
had that cut half of the pages out in
the way I did it was I gave it to people
in my audience and I gave him each a
copy of the book and I said underline
what you like underlying you know the
points that make you think put stars
mark up the book and whatever you don’t
like just scared feel free to skip the
page don’t feel obligated to me to have
to read through it and i took my book
from 120 thousand words down to 60 65
thousand words all based off of the
feedback where my publisher she said you
know i’m gonna read it with the
beginner’s mind i’ll tell you what i
think will make the most sense and it’s
great my better that that opinion in
that advice but ultimately what I care
about is that people were going to buy
the book and now I have ammunition to
say hey if there’s a page that she
doesn’t want to include my publisher but
everybody that idea what to really loves
it and there’s a few key things now that
I’m really fighting for to make it into
the book because the audience loves it
right so it’s all these people’s
opinions versus one person’s opinion and
so without that ammunition without that
feedback I wouldn’t have as much of a
leg to stand on so I think it’s really
important that before you go too far in
on something that you get feedback from
your customers from your audience to see
what they like what they don’t like and
adjust to make a product or service that
will win and give you a lot of success
so thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I’d love to know your
thoughts on getting feedback how you do
it what your favorite method is leave it
in the comments below and I’m going to
join you
discussion and I have a personal goal to
try to make this channel hit 1 million
subscribers so anything you can do to
help me get there leave comments add to
playlist share it on Facebook spread the
message saw some friends I’d really
really really really appreciate it thank
you guys so much for watching continue
to believe and I’ll see you soon
feedback your feedback feedback feedback
getting the right feedback feedback
feedback you get get feedback we’ve had
this tradition for I don’t know probably
seven or eight years at the company
where every week we have a QA where
where our employees can come and ask me
any question that they want about what’s
going on and what the what the direction
of the company is or questions or things
that they read about in the press or
that their friends who use the product
what what they’re asking them and on
it’s been this really important
tradition for us both because we really
believe in openness and communication
and that’s kind of what Facebook is all
about but it’s also really important for
for me and for running the company to be
able to get feedback right and and to be
able to learn what’s on people’s minds
what are what our employees and folks
who were who were part of our team were
thinking about and and just kind of a
lot of the time there are good questions
that people ask that changed the way
that we that we think about what we’re
building and what we’re here to do in
the world and that often make us go
think and reevaluate on how we should be
approaching different problems I think
one of the reasons is Stephen if I have
been as successful as we have is because
we like the movies we’d like to go to
the movies we enjoy movies and we want
to make movies like the ones we enjoy we
want to be able to entertain the
audience we weren’t able to startle the
audience wouldn’t I be able to blow the
audience away and say have them walk out
in theatres saying whoa that was
fantastic I was really moved by that
that’s where the part of the fun of it
is and you know you you want people to
think you want people to be emotionally
moved and bears theory behind that in
terms of storytelling it’s been around
for thousands of years and that’s where
something like live theater or live
performance is something that is very
valuable because you get instant
feedback from your
from your audience and you kind of know
the things that work on the things that
don’t work that’s the advantage that you
know the Greek storytellers had and
Shakespeare had that us in the film
industry are harder to come by which is
you know to be able to see it a see an
audience reaction and adjust to what
works so you have to use your experience
of sitting through a lot of movies I
don’t ever see movies by myself I always
see them with other people because I
want to know what works I want to know
where they laugh oh no they don’t laugh
I don’t know what they think about it
afterwards because in the end that’s
that’s the arc that I’m working with is
is you know trying to communicate in a
way that is effective and and people
react to you know we have direct access
to our customer because I i I’m into
social media and I want to hear feedback
from parents how they like our products
and what they would like to change and
how they would like to innovate found on
these products to have like a brand
that’s for parents that you know was
made by parents and then we’re listening
to parents on how to to change and grow
and evolve one thing I think I do well
and at vaynermedia is I make everybody
feel safe and so that’s really important
to me because when you make people feel
safe they start telling you the truth
right so if you are able to go home
right now if you’re struggling to figure
out what you’re good at if you’re able
to take the 10 to 20 people that are
closest to you siblings wives husbands
partners friend the 10 to 20 people you
consider the closest to you in the world
and if you were able to talk to them and
make them feel safe before you ask them
the following question if you made them
emphatically for 20 minutes and said
look I need this is the most important
question I will ever ask you in my life
you need to tell me the truth my
intuition is you’re not going to want to
tell me the truth but you have to
understand I’m okay with it I’m in the
right mind space for this I need the
truth and then you ask them what do they
think you’re good at and bad at it said
it’s an amazing and obviously I put out
that post it really resonated I’m
getting crazy emails of
people like having amazing things happen
to them I think the only if you do not
have self awareness which is what I do
think I have and I think a lot of people
don’t have it the only way you can gain
it is by getting other people to give
you the data points but most people
won’t tell you the truth so it’s on you
to create an environment a very safe
environment for somebody to tell you the
truth of what they truly think you’re
good and bad at and then gather that
data you need to get in a community
where you can get feedback you need
either a coach who can give you some
direct one-to-one feedback or community
of friends who just go out with maybe
you go to lunch to them once a month you
share everything you’re doing they give
you some feedback or you shoot a video
you sent that video out to everybody get
some feedback on it you create a poor it
the PowerPoint practice it with five
people before the big meeting like get
back in the game we have a community of
people who are giving you advanced
feedback before you release it feedback
before you do it so that you get smarter
at all this because you know nothing
makes a dream come more into life than
when you start getting feedback from
other people about your movement toward
the dreams you know before I shoot a big
sales video for one of my online courses
I’ll send it out to 15 20 people and get
feedback and then off and go reshoot it
again you know or I’ll put it out into
my community and I’ll see the clicks the
conversions and say it’s not let’s do it
again and it’s that willingness to get
the feedback that will keep your dream
alive because look if it’s just in your
mind and you’re just doing it by
yourself but you never actually get a
positive community giving you
constructive feedback towards it it will
never be that but that it will never be
in the social realm and when it is in
the social realm it feels more real you
know when people actually comment I mean
it’s one thing to be in an artist and in
your studio painting for yourself all
day that’s great but once you get some
feedback on and constructive feedback
you become you get that self-awareness
and that social awareness to contribute
and create at another level the decision
to break into episodes was wasn’t really
driven to buy the story requirements the
story sort of ended up being fit into
three buckets typically in any of these
larger arcs it’s not too
surprising you can think of them as as
three acts and it’s a very traditional
Hollywood ask approach to storytelling
the decision to go with episodic was
more driven out of the experience we had
working on half-life 2 where we really
weren’t able to give anything to our
customers for like a five-year period
and that was very hard on us as as game
developers because we thrive on the
feedback we received we we we get better
when we know what people think both
positive and negative and so with
episodic it really allowed us to tighten
that loop up enormously there are lots
of benefits in terms of managing scale
in terms of reacting to what’s happening
on the hardware side but one of the
biggest reasons is simply so we don’t
get into a situation where we have to
wait five years before hearing from the
people who play our games about what
worked and what we need to do better
when you look at new technologies and
you looking there could be you know
sinkhole a wild claims but you look what
is the quote theoretical limitations but
not theoretical Allah the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle you know there’s a
lower theory this is beyond this it’s
just you know it’s not gonna make it and
then you swear is the technology and
then you say how much space is there
between that that realistically you can
get there in five years okay and and
that actually helps define things and
and focus as a minor and what you should
be thinking about what you shouldn’t be
thinking about so there are many things
like that I think successful innovators
do all the time the constructive
feedback that honest feedback is exactly
what we were establishing in our PE
that’s now being infecting the rest of
the departments or energy you know if
you hear an idea that you don’t really
agree with instead of politely sitting
there and being polite you say no I you
know that I don’t think that’s right you
know this is why you know you’re wrong
and then and then you sit at a table and
you talk about it and that’s where you
figure out are you right are you wrong
and then you have a deeper understanding
what’s going on we have this this tel
del process that we use internally where
everyone in the company anonymously
participates in a survey and that gives
us great insights into how well is our
strategy understood are people getting
the right feedback you know about their
ability to advance and do they believe
they have opportunities inside the
company and gives us a lot of insight
into the effectiveness of our leadership
that kind of mechanism is incredibly
important and having a open feedback
about how how we’re doing I’ve had
flight attendants come up to me and say
I have to wear Jessica citizen shoes
because they’re the only ones that are
comfortable for me to stand on the whole
flight you know I mean I have and I
listened yeah I think that that’s
important too is like really just
listening to your customer into the
people that are giving you the feedback
whether it’s criticism or or you know
like honoring and being people like
thank you so much I met the cutest guy
last night because of that dress that I
wore you know I listen to all of it
let’s say you have come up with a
compelling value proposition let’s say
you’re absolutely truthful you truly
understand it and your pitch is truthful
and all of that what I have found is
that is that basically whatever you come
up with and you know you’ve come up with
it in your lab and thinking about it
totally friends looks great it’s the
service of product looks great the real
litmus test of that is when you put it
in front of customers right so when you
go out and make your page of create an
ad or whatever else and a very very
important thing for a entrepreneur to do
is when they put that out there be very
very pay a lot of close attention to the
feedback you get from the people who are
listening to the pitch and this is very
important at the front end because what
is probably the case
is that whatever you came up with is off
base it’s not exactly what your market
yawns and you know I’ll give you example
there’s a friend of mine in Chicago and
he started this company called
installshield and many of you might be
familiar with the company and you’re
installing different windows products
installed she comes up and viresh
basically was like I think 19 years old
or something when he came up with
installed shield and he said you know he
went to a trade show he was going to go
to a trade show some software tools
trade show and he was trying to a whole
bunch of different things he was trying
to google maps 30 30 years ago you know
when there was no way that the computing
could could support that sort of thing
but he went to a straight show and he
had created this kind of you know trade
show booth with the different products
and he had at seven products seven
different tools that he was pitching and
it wasn’t balancing on that booth he
wanted to put four bullets on one side
and four bullets of the other and he was
like four and three so he was like it
was really bothering him and so as an
afterthought this little tool he had to
just to install software for installing
software was his eighth bullet he just
put that in the end at the bottom the
eight ball was installed software
inspiration to him and throughout the
whole week was goes I think a couple of
days he was at this stage show booth all
these people are coming by and all this
stuff going on and there was a guy
across the aisle from him who spent two
days looking at those eight things
because he he was in the software
business and after two days he came up
to and said you know that product I have
an interest in that product and this
product did not exist it was in
voracious mind and so this was on the
only leads he picked up at the show so
he went back and created the product and
gave it to the guy and then he found
that other people wanted it and so on so
forth okay so bottom line is that if you
study if you study startups you will
find over and over that what actually
works is not what you actually
came up with what actually worked is
again on some tangent or some kind of us
you mentioned something to a customer
and passing and then they grabbed on to
that thing you know I want that you say
oh he’s unusual he wants a usual thing I
should keep my core pitch know what you
really have to do is pay really close
attention to what is going on feedback
is always really important to me as an
example right in my book right now and I
had that cut half of the pages out in
the way I did it was I gave it to people
in my audience and I gave him each a
copy of the book and I said underline
what you like underlying you know the
points that make you think put stars
mark up the book and whatever you don’t
like just scared feel free to skip the
page don’t feel obligated to me to have
to read through it and i took my book
from 120 thousand words down to 60 65
thousand words all based off of the
feedback where my publisher she said you
know i’m gonna read it with the
beginner’s mind i’ll tell you what i
think will make the most sense and it’s
great my better that that opinion in
that advice but ultimately what I care
about is that people were going to buy
the book and now I have ammunition to
say hey if there’s a page that she
doesn’t want to include my publisher but
everybody that idea what to really loves
it and there’s a few key things now that
I’m really fighting for to make it into
the book because the audience loves it
right so it’s all these people’s
opinions versus one person’s opinion and
so without that ammunition without that
feedback I wouldn’t have as much of a
leg to stand on so I think it’s really
important that before you go too far in
on something that you get feedback from
your customers from your audience to see
what they like what they don’t like and
adjust to make a product or service that
will win and give you a lot of success
so thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I’d love to know your
thoughts on getting feedback how you do
it what your favorite method is leave it
in the comments below and I’m going to
join you
discussion and I have a personal goal to
try to make this channel hit 1 million
subscribers so anything you can do to
help me get there leave comments add to
playlist share it on Facebook spread the
message saw some friends I’d really
really really really appreciate it thank
you guys so much for watching continue
to believe and I’ll see you soon
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