You’re Not Supposed To Know Where To Start

In this episode of the GaryVee Audio Experience. The team has a throwback from a keynote I gave in Alpharetta, Georgia on Sept. 27, 2019. There's a ton of straight forward advice about how to give and ask the right way. Let me know what you thought and don't forget to share this episode with a friend!

• 0:00Speaker 00

  No construir marca en las plataformas digitales de hoy es completamente inaceptable. Y antes de que algún tipo de mascota clásica levante sus manos y diga: "Gary, no crecí con esto, es por eso que no lo hago." Quiero recordar a todos en esta sala que ninguno de nosotros creció con esto. Y lo que es más importante, el cliente no se preocupa que te hiciera nacer en 1964, o 1952, o 1949, o 1992. No creciste conduciendo, lo has descubierto. Y antes de que lo oficies a tu niña de 23 años, porque ella es joven...

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Quiero recordarte que si esto es tu negocio, es ahora tan importante, en la opinión de un hombre, podría estar equivocado,

• 0:46Speaker 00

  es tan importante entender esto como balancear tu presupuesto. Esta es la experiencia audio de Gary Vee.

• 0:54Speaker 00

  Buen día, buen día.

• 0:58Speaker 00

  Muchas gracias por la bienvenida. Estamos muy emocionados de estar aquí. Hay mucho que hablar. También hablé con el organizador, así que voy a tratar de hacer un poco de Q & A. Porque creo que el marco en el que veo la oportunidad para muchos en la sala no es demasiado complicado. Y lo que realmente me gustaría hacer es darle a este público la oportunidad de hacer una pregunta detallada sobre sus intentos dentro de la ejecución y por qué no funcionó, o cómo ven las perspectivas de una manera diferente. Así que, muy simple, para establecer esta conversación, creo que la atención es el asset singular más importante

• 1:43Speaker 00

  para cualquiera que esté tratando de lograr algo, ya sea curar una enfermedad, correr por el oficio, vender un sátil, conseguir un cliente. Para crear algo, para crear algo, necesitas la atención de uno. Y luego la variable de lo que sale de tu boca, o lo que creas, se convierte en lo que sucede. I have had an incredibly interesting relationship with attention my whole life. It took me probably until five years ago, really questioning, you know, in a knock-on-wood, "Why is this going so well?" way. What has allowed me to be successful? What has allowed me to be happy and successful? Why is this working? Why is this so obvious to me?

• 2:26Speaker 00

  Yet continues to not be for the masses? What is this thing? What is my life? Why is this work? And what it took me back to ironically is, which would make sense, everyone's origin stories, but it becomes a DNA thing. At some level, the thing that actually brings me happiness is I can't hear the cheering and I can't hear the booing. And that's why it's very easy to navigate through life. That came from probably the circumstances of being born in the Soviet Union, coming to America. Very humble beginnings, you know, studio apartment, multiple family members in it. You know, complete and utter lack of entitlement.

• 3:05Speaker 00

  While also having a wildly loving mother who built disproportionate self-esteem, but knew how to stop right before it became delusion. And that is really the balance, I think, many parents in the room are trying to figure out and we're starting to understand. Eighth-place trophies are a really stupid fucking idea.

• 3:31Speaker 00

  And so that happened, but where it really took me to was my first business, which was a lemonade stand business. When I was six, I, seven-years-old, I legitimately tricked my friends into standing behind lemonade stands all day. And I used to tell that story in my early keynote career. And then I actually, in a keynote, while I was telling the story, in the other part of my brain was trying to figure out, "What was I doing all day?" If they were all behind, like, I actually couldn't recall. And then finally triggered, what I was doing was I was making signs for five to seven hours a day as a seven-year-old. Walking in the streets of New Jersey,

• 4:14Speaker 00

  sitting on corners, watching cars drive by, and trying to legitimately figure out which tree, or which sign, or which bush, or what angle their eyes were looking at while they were driving, and where to put my sign. I did not learn that in college. I did not learn that by watching a keynote video on YouTube. I did not learn that reading a Seth Godin book. You know, I learned it because it was inherently in me, and then it transformed forever. I did baseball card shows when I was 13, making $4,000 a weekend. I was the only dealer amongst grown men to spend the first 4 or 5 hours

• 4:57Speaker 00

  not setting up my table, but walking around and understanding where the attention was going. I would spend a lot of time looking at my table and understanding where to put things, because I knew they'd be walking by fast, and could I stop them with a Ken Griffey Jr., or a Michael Jordan, or whatever it was. I've been chasing attention my whole life. That manifested when I transitioned into my dad's liquor store business. And it really transformed, because I stood behind the register and I watched people walk through the store. And the first impact I had on my dad's business was moving around things. I said, "Dad, when people first walk in, we should not have a huge display of $6 stuff. We should have a display of $12." It was just, it came natural. It continues to come natural.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  I have written more books than I've read. I consume almost no content other than reading people's comments to things that are going on in the world. I know that Felix Hernandez retired from baseball last night by sitting in the green room right now, reading 20 people's comments about it. I only care about the end consumer. I only care about the potential customer. And I care about her and his behaviors and attention. I do not care what's currently working for you to get leads. I don't care what's currently working for me to get leads.

• 6:22Speaker 00

  I'm always putting what's working yesterday through massive friction of is that behavior best today? I built my dad's liquor store from a 3 to a 60 million dollar business in 5 years on the back of spending every penny properly even though the data showed me that direct mail and newspapers and radios would work better than email and Google search. It didn't matter what it was showing me, what mattered was what we're human beings doing right now. To be a person in this room looking for leads and growing their business

• 7:00Speaker 00

  and to not think social media works is audacious at best and downright fucking stupid at worst. Now, I understand why people think that. Because like anything in life, the ROI of something is completely predicated on how good you are at it. The ROI of a basketball is a billion dollars for LeBron. It's zero for me. Just because you ran a thousand dollars worth of Facebook ads and it didn't work, doesn't mean that Facebook doesn't work. It means that you suck.

• 7:41Speaker 00

  That is not my opinion. That is my knowledge that the shopping app Wish has spent 95% of its money on Facebook and has become a business that sells 8 billion dollars worth of product. That is not my opinion that Instagram can work. It's that Fashion Nova does a billion dollars in revenue on the back of 100% Instagram influencer strategy. I, for the record, could give zero shits about social media. I cannot wait to give a keynote in 10 years making fun of people doing social media because voice or augmented reality or blockchain or whatever is being invented by a 13-year-old girl in Tennessee right now is the better thing to do than right now.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  Now, this does not mean that something is dead. I'm very happy for you if your billboards are converting. I'm thrilled if your direct mail strategy is rocking it. My question is, is that the best use of your $4,000? Just because you get 18 leads from it, could you get 49 from something else you spent $4,000 on? This is the debate at hand. If there is anybody who's confused that this is the single most important thing in our society, then you're just downright confused. These platforms... I literally sit with friends, including this... I have a friend deeply in this industry, and we were having a conversation a year ago, which is why I was so excited to come and give this talk. And the debate...

• 9:11Speaker 00

  The conversation starts with... And actually, I won't use his, because he didn't go that far into it. Let me actually paint a much clearer picture. I spend my life sitting down with people about marketing and communications and business. And they'll spend the first 30 minutes, and it's a little less white-hot right now, but the election's not too far away, so it's gonna come up again. But a year and a half ago, I would literally spend the first 30 minutes of a one-hour business breakfast with the executive telling me that Facebook is terrible, or social media is terrible. It's ruining our democracy. And all this stuff, like, it literally is all this. And then, when we would segue into the normal business, this one meeting sits in my mind. The gentleman is the CEO of one of the major beauty brands in the world.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  We were talking about makeup. He basically looked me in the face 20 minutes later and said, "Look, I just don't think Instagram and Facebook can sell makeup."

• 10:07Speaker 00

  "You know, I really believe in Vogue, and all this other horseshit." And... And I said to him, I took a step back, I said, "Love it. Five seconds, just for myself, because I'm confused here over my scrambled eggs." "This is correct, what you're saying? You're telling me, in this breakfast, that Facebook and social media is so powerful that it can destroy one of the most powerful things in the world, the American democracy? But it can't sell lipstick?"

• 10:46Speaker 00

  It's real.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  Let me make it perfectly clear before we get into Q&A. I have 0.0 interest in you doing anything that I talk about this morning. You're not my mother, you're not my brother, I genuinely don't give a fuck about you.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  I am doing this keynote because it's being filmed and I want to be historically correct and I will re-air it in 8 years when I'm talking about something else. And if you follow me on Instagram, I've quite enjoyed the last year of pulling up my videos from 8 and 9 and 7 and 12 years ago because I'm looking to build my reputation. If you want to go back home and do exactly what you're doing, I actually am happy about that because the less money that you put into these systems is making that attention a better deal for me. So, so there's no confusion. I prefer you don't do anything I'm talking about this morning.

• 11:45Speaker 00

  And the good news for me for doing this for the last decade is I know that 98% of you will not. I will do a nice job here for the next 44 minutes. We will get fired up. A lot of things are gonna make sense to you in its mix of cursing and comedy. I will answer very direct questions that show you I have deep practitionership in this. This is in fucking college up here. This is everyday real life. I've built 2 businesses from scratch, 1 from scratch, excuse me, to a $200 million business over the last 9 years in revenue, profitable, not valuation.

• 12:23Speaker 00

  I built a $3 million business doing $300,000 in gross profit before expenses with no credit line and no venture back money to a $60 million business in 5 years as a 22-year-old. I'm Mariano Rivera. And if you don't know what that means, Mariano Rivera... Is a Hall of Fame pitcher. Played for the New York Yankees. He was an extremely good pitcher. He was their closer for two decades. But ultimately, if you're a hardcore baseball knowledgeable fan, he had one pitch. He had one pitch that literally, not one human being, besides Edgar Martinez, knew how to hit. And that's me. I suck at a lot of things. The one thing I don't suck at

• 13:08Speaker 00

  is understanding what the consumer is doing at this second. I understand human behavior. And I understand human attention. And I understand it not like buying a mutual fund. I understand it like day trading. I know exactly what's happening right this second. On LinkedIn, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, in print magazines, on the radio, in billboards, on TV, on Netflix. Period. End of story. And that currency

• 13:37Speaker 00

  is going to be the single most important thing in perpetuity. Because as the internet continues to evolve, everything in the middle is commoditized. The amount of people that give a shit of what college you went to or how many years of experience you have is staggeringly low. Knowing who you are is super duper important. This industry as a whole has had quite a historic understanding of personalities being able to build quite big businesses by arbitraging where the attention of the consumer was. Sometimes that's outdoor media. Sometimes that's direct mail. Often for the tippy top, it has been remnant television commercials.

• 14:19Speaker 00

  Today, that opportunity sits at scale at an underpriced nature in pre-roll YouTube. Everybody here is so obsessed with leads and conversion, which is why if you're current, you love search. You love SEM. Obviously, if somebody's typing something in, that's intent. And I understand why everybody loves it here. Because 99.999% of this room is in the sales business, not in the brand and marketing business. It's short-term conversion. It's math. This is why I always beat you. I always beat salespeople. Salespeople look at short-term ROI. I don't care if I'm losing 27 to 3 at halftime. What's the score at the end, dick?

• 15:03Speaker 00

  That is my marketing strategy. Hey everybody, I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast, that's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. You being completely a no-name on these social platforms means you are in the process of becoming less relevant. Where do you think we're going? You think this is going backwards? You think we're gonna wake up tomorrow and give up our cellphones? If you are not relevant in building brand today... Let me actually go right to the punchline. How many people here are spending money on Google AdWords? Or search, or care about SEO? Just raise your hands high. High. Makes sense. And I'm a fan. I built my dad's business on it. You wanna talk about real good Google? I was there day one, literally day one.

• 15:48Speaker 00

  The words were five cents a click. I owned the word "wine" for five cents for four months. Nobody knew what it was. It wasn't good. I went to little conferences, conferences as big as that table at the Springfield, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce event, where the guy who was selling Yellow Pages made fun of me for this internet fad. I remember those days. Those days are happening right now. Of course you can't like putting out organic content on Facebook, or Instagram, or LinkedIn, or anywhere else as much as a Google search term. That's a conversion. There's intent. It happens quick. The math is right there. You can't see what happens when you're building equity and brand. It takes time. I understand. I'm happy.

• 16:31Speaker 00

  I'm happy that everyone is so this second, this basic math, this not thoughtful. This is my great advantage. It doesn't make it any less true. Let me tell you exactly how search is gonna play out over the next decade. How many people, actually, how many people here are retiring within the next six years? And before you raise your hand, I don't mean you're gonna crush it over the next six years and buy a fucking yacht. I mean, you're fucking old and you're finished.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  So, real quick, hands, next 6 years? Raise your hands, retiring next 6 years firm? Okay, so for the 5 of you,

• 17:09Speaker 00

  for the 5 of you, I think at some level you can take some of this with a grain of salt. But for the rest of you, pay very close attention to something that is about to happen over the next decade. That will be very important, why I'm telling you that brand over search or conversion will transform your businesses. In a decade, when somebody needs you, they will be in their kitchen, in their car, in their office, and they will say, "Alexis", "Alexa", excuse me, "Alexa", "Google", "Apple", "Samsung", or whoever wins, "I need a lawyer."

• 17:49Speaker 00

  What are you gonna do then?

• 17:52Speaker 00

  Just curious, what are you gonna do then? Are you gonna be so clever with your copy? There is nothing left besides brand. When that voice machine gives an answer in the back, either they will give the business they bought and take all the business, or if you think Google's search terms are expensive, wait till you see what a referral from a voice device is gonna cost you. Oh no, by the way, only 1 person can get it. You don't see 11 people. I don't get to make a choice because you put a clever name in it, or I like the way your last name sounds, or you got some sort of other variable. It's a binary thing. And you better be in the fucking business of this. "Alexa, get me Susan Thompson."

• 18:37Speaker 00

  Because if you're not, you're gonna be finished. And that is how it's gonna play out. So, I hope you keep enjoying your philosophy of lead generations and sales-driven. I'm super excited that you can't figure out how to put out content and give people advice of how to avoid using you, or how to avoid getting in trouble, or other things that people should learn which would then give you equity.

• 19:03Speaker 00

  This is real. And in a room where only 5 people are retiring in the next 6 years, and by the way, 3 of them looked way too young to be retiring in the next 6 years. I highly recommend everybody understands that we're at a massive crossroads in technology, where personal brand is not some foofy thing, or some audacious thing, or something we look down on because we don't like the word, because what it really means is reputation. You don't like the word "personal brand"? Fine, call it "reputation", I have a funny feeling a lot of people in here know exactly what that means. And if you are not putting out content at scale, on LinkedIn, and YouTube, and Instagram, and whatever else emerges, if you do not have a podcast

• 19:47Speaker 00

  around what you do for a living, or show up on podcasts, if you are not digitally native, because either A, traditional media of print, radio, television, those other things are appeasing you enough, and your only digital behavior is just sales-driven intent from search queries, and you're overpaying of the next guy or the next gal a little bit more to be the first result in Google AdWords, your strategy is uncomfortably vulnerable. Now, how do I know this? Not super complicated. I gave this talk to 2011 Limo and Car Services, and told them this Uber thing was not a joke, and they laughed me out of the room. I went in 2014 to Toys R Us,

• 20:32Speaker 00

  which was my favorite store as a kid, to meet with the CEO, and pleaded, not even for the business, for them to take their strategy. I don't have to tell you what happened to that business. The bookstores were very naive about Amazon. This is historical. This is not, "I'm a prophet, a futurist", you know, "I'm not fucking Yoda". I just respect 2 core things. What customers are actually doing this second, and history always repeating itself. I just don't understand how anybody is not pot-committed in a service business, predicated on human beings, in building awareness around that human being.

• 21:16Speaker 00

  And that's it. So that's what I think is happening. I couldn't recommend a couple of things more. And we're about to do Q&A, so start thinking about questions. Couple things. Number 1.

• 21:27Speaker 00

  When producing content to use it as a lead gen for your business, the number one rule is to do everything reversed of what you're feeling right now. You have to make content that actually brings people value and not mix in a sales call. It's very disciplined, it's very difficult. It's why I wrote a book called Jab Jab Jab Right Hook years ago. Give, give, give, and then ask. Too many people bleed their give and their ask in the same piece of content, thus it's actually an ask, thus you don't convert. Building equity in the ecosystem around things that you've learned from your experience, whatever that may be, is completely imperative.

• 22:11Speaker 00

  There's also a lot of people that may just hire you because you're a chief span. And sharing that variable matters too.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  You don't have to. I produce more... How many people here follow me in social at all? So, the hands that just went, thank you. The hands of... You may know, nobody produces more content today. They may have got 100 pieces going across 11 platforms. But I share nothing about my personal life, no family stuff. You're fully in control. The machine and algorithm don't take you over. You get to put out what you want to put out. But you have to provide value, not put out a sales call. Number two, you have to be self-aware of how you communicate. There are a lot of people in here that would never put out a video because they don't feel good about the way they look. They're insecure when that camera light goes on. They just don't like it. And that's fine, that's amazing.

• 23:05Speaker 00

  Not everybody is wildly charismatic and handsome, I get it. However, many of you here can write 11 sentences in a way that I never could and post something on LinkedIn that would absolutely crush and become the awareness to you. Maybe you draw well. I'm not kidding. Some of my best content right now is the transformation of the things, I believe, into comic format that looks like a Sunday comic. Maybe you're audio. Maybe you're the kind of guy or gal that walks around Earth, has a thought, started to understand the kind of value people are looking for. And you take out your iPhone or your phone and you hit record and it's a memo and you talk for two minutes and you hit stop and you post that on these platforms.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Communication has been established a long time ago. It's visual, it's audio, it's drawings, it's videos, it's words, it's basic. Radio, television, print, is the internet now, it's all the same shit. You have to figure out how you communicate. Unable to be you, you're a one-woman shop, you better understand why MetLife has Snoopy. You want to go real extreme, you're super private, you can't do it, you can't put yourself out there. It's really interesting for you to come up with a logo, to come up with a character, to speak on your behalf. Not building brand on the digital platforms of today is completely unacceptable.

• 24:30Speaker 00

  And before some classic dog raised their hands and says, "Gary, I didn't grow up with this shit. That's why I'm not doing it." I want to remind everybody in this room, none of us grew up with this shit. And more importantly, the customer doesn't care that you were born in 1964. Or 1952, or 49, or 92. You didn't grow up driving, you figured it out. And before you off-source this to your 23-year-old niece, because she's young.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  I want to remind you that if this is your business, it is now as important, in one man's opinion, I could be wrong. It's as important to understand this as it is to balance your checkbook. If your business and company does not understand contemporary communication, it is far more vulnerable than you think. It just is. This is happening quickly. Please be thoughtful. Please audit your businesses. Please notice a lot of your clients may be historical and that there is no lead gen. That you're not acquiring new leads in the classic way. Or more importantly, don't get high on your own supply. If something's working now because you're crushing some search term

• 25:45Speaker 00

  or you've got some ad buy and that actually represents 63% of all your business, A, things change, and B, the whole thing breaks. Somebody was crushing this industry on the Yellow Pages because they were triple-A lawyer guy.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  And then that medium went away.

• 26:07Speaker 00

  You have no ability to be successful in AR, VR, blockchain, machine learning, new platforms, all the things that are coming in the next decade, if you are not at least somewhat capable of understanding what's happening now. You're gonna miss the whole middle part. One of the biggest reasons I implore people here to produce content at scale on these platforms is just to get on the treadmill of being a digital native communicator. Because when the next thing comes and it does really crush what you're doing, you're not even gonna know where to start.

• 26:42Speaker 00

  This is why everybody declines.

• 26:45Speaker 00

  This is why everybody declines. I don't want you to decline. I wanna emphatically create energy in this room that might make three people actually say, "Fuck it, it's time."

• 26:56Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 27:08Speaker 00

  Let's go, right here. How are you, sir?

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Very good.

• 27:11Speaker 00

  I need you to stand up for your questions, please, for the video, so keep your hands up. We'll get to as many as possible, go fast.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  Very good, big fan, follow you.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  Thank you. What's your name?

• 27:19Speaker 01

  Paul Faust, friends at Ryan Alovis, texted you.

• 27:22Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Do you have a sense of, you know, percentage when you're spending? Like, right now, you say LinkedIn is where I see Facebook was, and how much should a brand be spending on the platforms of today, the Facebook, LinkedIn? And what percentage should we be testing on? I mean, I just set up a TikTok account on my nieces, I have no idea. You know, is it 5%? And throwing out to these other things that might happen? Versus what, you know, where's the... And one other question.

• 27:52Speaker 00

  Please, let me bang on that real quick. Yes, we can get a picture, but we'll do that at the end. But to answer your question, I think of it as three stages. The majority of people here are spending their dollars in something that I think has less of an ROI than Facebook and LinkedIn and podcast advertising right now. So I would spend 70, and these are arbitrary numbers. Intuition, I'm going 70 there, I'm taking... Taking my 100 or 80 of the traditional stuff, Google search, direct mail, I'm taking that to 20 and then I'm doing 5 or 10% of weird new stuff just to get myself used to it. The problem is 99.999% of this room is not going to do that because within the first 100 days you'll have a decline of leads and they'll bail because they're soft.

• 28:41Speaker 00

  Hi.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Hi, Amy Rafecca.

• 28:44Speaker 00

  Hi, Amy.

• 28:46Speaker 02

  So fascinatingly, we are in an industry that's super traditional. We're lawyers, doctor, accountant, right? We're one of those three. But we barely rank above prostitutes in trust, according, right? According to all the media and the surveys.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Because a small group that show up on television historically look like such douchebags nobody trusts.

• 29:08Speaker 02

  So my question to you is, on social media, for the long play, how do you build trust?

• 29:15Speaker 00

  By not being a douchebag.

• 29:18Speaker 00

  I mean it.

• 29:18Speaker 02

  By being a douchebag, that's how you build the trust?

• 29:21Speaker 00

  By not.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  By not.

• 29:22Speaker 00

  By not. And I'm making a joke and I'm trying to really like frame up the conversation. We as animals are always inherently cynical to something that feels fast. By the way, it's my great issue as a personality. I'm so Jersey fast hyper that so many people judge me at first based on my energy, not the words out of my mouth. There are so many people... How many people here watch this? How many people here, by show of hands, started out thinking I was full of shit and a douchebag? Right? So like... Thanks, Amy. So, you know... So, I think it's how things are said. It's the context. Everything is like, "Have you been wronged? I'm gonna hook you up. Call this number now. We got this." And it's just, it's built up.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Whereas instead, nobody's educating. Who's putting out the 5-minute video of like, "Hey, if this happens, here are 3 things you need to think of and be out." And be out. Not "and call me" or "if you want more information on how to really do it." Then you... Like, everyone's so... Basically, everyone in the industry treats the customers the way not, you know, scummy dudes go to the bar at 11:30 at night. They're trying to close in that moment.

• 30:40Speaker 00

  And a little romance goes a long way. Right ladies? Like just give me 5 fucking seconds. Fuck.

• 30:51Speaker 00

  That.

• 30:52Speaker 02

  So, on social media then, you're saying just push out as much educational content as you can.

• 30:58Speaker 00

  You know, and you did raise your hand, so you consume a little bit of my content?

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 31:04Speaker 00

  Great. So, you know how I always say, "Watch what I'm doing, not what I'm saying"?

• 31:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  I am putting out my best advice every day. There are literally agencies that are built 100% on the back of watching my content in the morn- I get emails from, "Hey Gary, funny story. My company watches all your stuff in the morning, and then that's what we sell, and we sometimes even steal your own customers. Ha ha ha."

• 31:28Speaker 00

  Two things run through my mind. One, fuck. But for a second, then I go, "And that's why I'm gonna be the top dog." The world is abundant. And there's confusion on that theory. Too many people here think they're competing directly against the person next to them, they're confused. Number 2. Yes, I think you put out all the best content you can possibly bring to somebody. There are plenty of people that never need to use you and waste dollars. If you're the lawyer in this room that educates the world of how not to use you and waste dollars, you will be the biggest person in this room.

• 32:07Speaker 00

  Doesn't come natural.

• 32:11Speaker 00

  A little different. But that's how the biggest things in the world are built. Of course you gotta play it differently to be much bigger. You can continue to play in the margins, grow 3%, 2%, 9%, until you don't.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  Sir. How are you?

• 32:29Speaker 00

  Thank you. Oh, I'm, I'm, you don't have a mic, right? The gentleman in the back with the mic, you're gonna need to get a mic, brother, sorry. Go ahead, sir.

• 32:37Speaker 03

  Thank you. Anthony Knowles from Phoenix, Arizona.

• 32:40Speaker 00

  Hey Anthony.

• 32:41Speaker 03

  You said, "Produce content at scale." Can you define what you mean by "at scale"?

• 32:47Speaker 00

  How much content do you produce now, Anthony?

• 32:51Speaker 03

  Very little.

• 32:53Speaker 00

  You mean zero.

• 32:59Speaker 00

  I know you lawyers.

• 33:02Speaker 00

  Here's what I would say. Couple things. I think that Facebook and LinkedIn is a really good place for you to do original content. I think Facebook groups is an incredible place for you to join, be part of the community, but don't go in hot. You know, you're just part of the Arizona group of professionals and you're bringing value and like when I started my career, you're part of the community, which I know has worked for a lot of you that have an app. The people in here who haven't advertised leveraged being part of the community and built a word of mouth kind of business. So, I, I, listen, even if you did a thought of the day, how long have you been doing your job, sir?

• 33:38Speaker 03

  22 years.

• 33:40Speaker 00

  I, I think that is, you know, one of the things I'm talking a lot about is I believe one of the most under-conversated issues in our society right now, when it comes to inclusion and diversity and acceptance, is ageism. I am fascinated by the growth of technology creating a narrative where we completely have not valued wisdom and experience anymore and that if you're like over 50 and your font size on your text is big, you suck. I think that's completely backwards and I actually think a huge opportunity is to lean into experience. I think if you did something called, you know, 22 seconds on my 22 years of experience on LinkedIn every day and you just talked about things you learned or things you thought,

• 34:22Speaker 00

  you will not believe how much value for your own business you get when you bring value into the world. Even if you talked about how you built your practice, a fellow lawyer in Ohio may subconsciously refer you an opportunity, like doing good and putting out good stuff is always the right thing to do. So, I would, you know, for you at this point, just something that made you do something consistent, notice how I framed up an idea that seems kinda easy, it's like, okay, that's not, you know, you see where I'm going? The other thing you could do is film.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Literally film meetings and things of that nature. Obviously so much you could never share with disclosures and things of that nature, but there might be some internal meetings. Just getting into the habit. This is no different than being wildly obese and out of shape and you have to start working out. You gotta start somewhere. And if the first day you're not running 47 miles, that's probably what the story is. You know, like for most of my life I didn't work out and five years ago I got serious. And that first workout is the most laughable thing to think about of all time. You know, you gotta start somewhere. If nothing else, just your opening post. Just everybody leaves here today and makes one post on LinkedIn. LinkedIn's wild right now. LinkedIn's going through a Facebook-like moment. You could have no followers, you could post something and a thousand people will see it.

• 35:39Speaker 00

  Because there's so much consumption and not enough content. That is a tremendous... Even if you did a "Hello World" post. "Hello LinkedIn, I'm starting this, I'm gonna try..." "I went to a morning keynote that inspired me to do this. I'm gonna start putting out content of things of how I built my firm, what I've learned, things that I think people should look out for and my expertise, tips." So that's what I would say, sir.

• 36:03Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 36:03Speaker 00

  You're welcome.

• 36:07Speaker 00

  Hi.

• 36:08Speaker 04

  Hey.

• 36:08Speaker 00

  Hey.

• 36:09Speaker 04

  Oh, we're good. What's up Gary? I'm Ali Awad and I get my clients a wad of money. Uh, my question is this.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Jesus.

• 36:21Speaker 00

  Go ahead, bro.

• 36:23Speaker 04

  So, there's a huge age difference here. Some of us are in our twenties and thirties, some of us are in our fifties and sixties. Not a lot of us have the benefit of being on billboards, radio, TV ads for so many years. So, we wanna talk about practicality. I know you bring this up all the time. Um, I started doing some social media right when I was in law school. Last year was my first full year in business. I spent about $6,000 in ads and made a little over $3 million in revenue. I realized, you know, this shit kinda works.

• 36:52Speaker 00

  Right.

• 36:53Speaker 04

  Practically, if you're saying, uh, you made a specific number, $4,000, and you're putting out mailers or billboards, practically, if someone has $4,000 to spend, where do you think would be the best...

• 37:05Speaker 05

  Facebook ads only?

• 37:06Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 37:07Speaker 05

  And is it more important in the marketing dollars? Or in the content creation?

• 37:11Speaker 00

  The marketing amplification dollars. The content creation, when you have such limited money, should be you and an iPhone.

• 37:17Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 37:18Speaker 00

  The distribution of dollars, and the reason I say Facebook, Facebook's, you know, first of all, Facebook's dominance from 50 to 90-year-olds is remarkable. And there's a lot of business to be done there. So, Facebook's not cool. I don't give a fuck about cool. I'm trying to build businesses out here. So, you can also be crazy contextual on Facebook. You know you're targeting 55 to 60-year-old people in Chicago. You make a reference about the 86 Bears. You make a reference about Illinois. You make a reference, you make context in your video. You know who you're targeting. Plus, it costs nothing. A hundred bucks to get in front of, in a feed, a ton of people that are 55 to 60 in Chicago. Facebook.

• 37:59Speaker 05

  Awesome, thank you.

• 38:00Speaker 00

  You got it.

• 38:03Speaker 00

  Yes, sir.

• 38:05Speaker 05

  Uh, James Dutton.

• 38:06Speaker 00

  Hey, James.

• 38:06Speaker 05

  I'm from here in Georgia, and in a very rural area.

• 38:10Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 38:11Speaker 05

  And there's several attorneys in those various counties that we practice in, that for 40 years, for 50 years, have just been killing it. They're the brand.

• 38:21Speaker 00

  Makes sense.

• 38:22Speaker 05

  If somebody wants a criminal defense attorney, they go to this guy, and that's it.

• 38:25Speaker 00

  I get it.

• 38:26Speaker 05

  Even though that guy's retired, and it's his associates now that are the ones doing it. How do you?

• 38:31Speaker 00

  So, run a Facebook, run a Facebook ad?

• 38:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  To that area?

• 38:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, how do I overcome that level of?

• 38:38Speaker 00

  You make a video and you say, "Hey, everybody in Thomas County, it's me." Fun fact, you know George Thompson that you all use? He's been retired for 40 years, and you're actually getting Carol.

• 38:55Speaker 00

  That would be the ad I would run. And then I would quickly move and be like, "And by the way, this has nothing to do with George Thompson, and I'm sure Carol is lovely. Let me tell you about me." And then you'll build.

• 39:09Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 39:10Speaker 00

  You're welcome.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  Who's got the mics? Let's make sure we spread out. Hey, sir.

• 39:17Speaker 06

  Hey, Garrett.

• 39:18Speaker 00

  How are you?

• 39:19Speaker 06

  I'm excellent. I feel excellent.

• 39:21Speaker 00

  Good.

• 39:22Speaker 06

  I'm Howard Spivey. I'm a trial lawyer from Savannah, Georgia.

• 39:25Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 39:26Speaker 06

  I've got 35 crisp videos. I've had a charity since 1999. I'm in all the parades. Here's a problem I have.

• 39:35Speaker 00

  Please.

• 39:36Speaker 06

  Here's a problem I have.

• 39:37Speaker 00

  Please.

• 39:38Speaker 06

  I don't care what anyone says.

• 39:39Speaker 00

  Good.

• 39:40Speaker 06

  If you have someone who's catastrophically injured, you're never gonna get full justice unless you do one of two things. Go in the courtroom and get it, or be willing to go in the courtroom and get it.

• 39:51Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 39:52Speaker 06

  Otherwise, they laugh, because they paid you 3 million at mediation, and they would've paid you 20 at trial.

• 39:57Speaker 00

  I understand.

• 39:58Speaker 06

  Here's my problem. Those guys you're talking about on TV.

• 40:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 06

  In Savannah.

• 40:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:04Speaker 06

  None of them... The only one I've ever seen at the courthouse was getting sentenced for stealing from his client.

• 40:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:09Speaker 06

  They don't get full justice. And they sell people down the river. They take the quit money. Most of the time, they take the million that's offered, or they take the two, or they take the three at mediation.

• 40:20Speaker 00

  Makes sense to me.

• 40:21Speaker 06

  Yeah. Well, here's the problem. I've got 43 years in martial arts, and I'm a warrior.

• 40:26Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 40:27Speaker 06

  And I like to go in the courtroom and change people's lives. And some people are so badly injured, you can't do that unless you go in the courtroom.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 40:35Speaker 06

  But see, they call the guy on the truck, or the hammer... I mean, I get calls. I get cases. I'm blessed beyond means. But how do I keep...

• 40:44Speaker 00

  That's your fault.

• 40:45Speaker 06

  That's right. And so I need you to tell me beyond what you've said...

• 40:49Speaker 00

  I just fucking told you for the last 35 minutes.

• 40:51Speaker 06

  Beyond what you've said.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  What you were just saying was super compelling, and I genuinely believe you much more than, you know, other content. And you need to put that on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter.

• 41:08Speaker 06

  All right. Well, one question.

• 41:10Speaker 00

  Please.

• 41:11Speaker 06

  It's nice to go all over the country and track cases, but I don't want 50 states. I don't even want our 159 counties. We have unbelievable commercial trucks with timber and logging in the ports in Savannah. Those are the cases that I want. I want all the catastrophic injuries by trucking.

• 41:27Speaker 00

  So only run your ads in your area.

• 41:31Speaker 00

  Don't put out a single piece of organic social media content in your life. Only run content against the target area. You can run ads only to people in the specific zip code, in the specific age group. My friends, this is a game of headline reading versus being a practitioner. The amount of opinions in this room about what social media is or things of that nature are opinions.

• 41:58Speaker 00

  I run ads every day. I'm a practitioner. Like you said, sir, you're a practitioner, they play one on TV.

• 42:07Speaker 00

  I don't understand why people don't spend 10 hours on Google or YouTube consuming information to become educated on how to make pictures and videos and run ads on the 7 platforms that we all know our society is living on. To this young man's point, there was never a time when a young man with 6,000 bucks could build that much revenue because it costs too much money to do radio, tele- Guys, I built my daddy's store on radio, television, direct mail. It was hard. This shit's way easier. You just judge technology because you're old. Or because you're ideological. This is not an old or new thing. There's a lot of 20-year-olds who are like, "I don't like that my friends are on the phone." I'm like, "Who gives a fuck?"

• 42:51Speaker 00

  You're trying to sell t-shirts. They're on the phone. Go on the phone. People are making decisions about their marketing of their business based on their subjective opinion of society. Nobody cares about your opinion that the kids don't go outside. Nobody cares. You think it's weird that they use Tinder? Fuck you.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  Like, I don't understand what we're doing here. When did you have the ability to judge society? Who the fuck are you? I'm serious. I don't, by the way, I don't think my opinions are right either. I only, this is why I don't guess. I promise you, every word that you're about to hear has already happened. I'm not guessing. Because I don't want the vulnerability. This is not opinions. Sir, run Facebook and LinkedIn. You can run ads on YouTube that are based on what people search on Google. If they're searching for attorney in Savannah, Georgia, but then they go to YouTube to watch a Georgia Bulldogs, you know, highlight, you could pop up and say, "Are you from Savannah, Georgia?" And they're gonna be like, "Oh shit, that's weird."

• 43:57Speaker 00

  But at least they're gonna know who the fuck you are. Cause you're losing to people who they know who the fuck they are. Just like that dude back there, just like everything else. This is very obvious. This is black and white. I don't know what emotional hurdle you need to get over to get into this. I don't know if you don't realize how content you actually are. I don't know if you don't realize that the words coming out of your mouth from Ambition don't match your action, because you don't actually mean it. I don't know what, but I know it's happening. And that's what we need to break through here today.

• 44:31Speaker 06

  Gary, I've followed you for years, read your books, I love your energy, thank you.

• 44:36Speaker 00

  Thank you, sir. And my friend, as you can imagine, when I hear that as the parting shot, and I want you to win versus the alternative, I need you to start doing. You need to leave this conference right now and go home and run a thousand dollars worth of ads.

• 44:49Speaker 06

  I'm a Crisp X client, and I'm now running on all those.

• 44:54Speaker 00

  Bro, I don't care if you're fucking the Lord Jesus Christ. I need you to go fucking home and run ads.

• 45:03Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 45:10Speaker 00

  I like getting churchy in the south. Yes.

• 45:14Speaker 07

  Hey Gary, I'm Gabriel Sanchez from Los Angeles.

• 45:17Speaker 00

  Gabriel, pleasure.

• 45:18Speaker 07

  Big fan, wake up every morning on the treadmill, listening to your podcast.

• 45:21Speaker 00

  Thank you, brother.

• 45:22Speaker 07

  Awesome, a lot of value, thank you.

• 45:24Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 45:25Speaker 07

  So, personal attorney lawyer in Los Angeles, I have some of the, it's super fierce competition.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 45:31Speaker 07

  Sometimes I'm surprised, I even, I'm still here. I got guys spending millions of dollars a month on advertising. Some of the biggest firms are in Los Angeles, they're all over the world.

• 45:39Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 45:40Speaker 07

  I got like 12 attorneys, personal attorney attorneys just in my building. So, most of my business, it's all referral based.

• 45:46Speaker 00

  Makes sense.

• 45:47Speaker 07

  Started off with five clients about four years ago, we have 190 now.

• 45:51Speaker 00

  Awesome.

• 45:53Speaker 07

  My question is, a lot of these firms, a lot of the big competitors already are, they're starting to do the video ads. They're starting to get on, they're already on social media, paying Facebook, Instagram, they're doing that. And...

• 46:04Speaker 00

  That's what pisses me off.

• 46:05Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 46:06Speaker 00

  Because...

• 46:08Speaker 00

  I've been yelling about this forever and I wish you did it four years ago and I don't know when, you know, like, yes, that's what, wait, there's only one feed. It's not like there's a separate feed for personal injury lawyers and then one for sneakers and then one for, "Wait to the biggest companies in the world, stop spending on dumb fucking TV commercials and start spending properly here." The price to get into a Facebook feed is not gonna be 12 bucks, it's gonna be 450 bucks. My friends, this hasn't even started. To answer to the punchline of your question, you have to be better. More contextual, more specific, just like early Google. At first they bought wine, that was good. But then everybody figured out the game. Then I had to buy Cabernet, that was good, then everybody figured out the game. Then I had to buy Camus Cabernet, then everybody figured out the game.

• 46:53Speaker 00

  Then I had to buy Camus 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, then everybody figured out the game. Then I had to find some weird Portugal wine and buy that. You gotta get more specific. You've gotta make a video in Spanglish. Half Spanish, half English, only targeting 44 to 49 year old women that live in Sandy in the outside. You see where I'm going? And then you gotta make the, you have to pick the target and then make the video for them.

• 47:20Speaker 00

  When I make a video of like, "Hey 60 year olds, don't you hate all these fucking 25 year olds that are getting all the action on YouTube?" It explodes, cuz I target 60 year olds and they hate 25 year olds.

• 47:34Speaker 00

  You understand?

• 47:35Speaker 07

  That's genius, I love it.

• 47:36Speaker 00

  And what the big firms are gonna do is, everyone in Los Angeles. And so they're gonna sell vanilla to everyone and you need to sell chocolate, mint, chocolate, chip, triple, decker. And you need to make it contextual. Got it?

• 47:50Speaker 07

  Got it.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  I literally sit in my office, make a video that's a macro point and then, film for like five minutes saying, "Hey Detroit, hey Cleveland, hey..." contextual. This is a context battle, not a content battle.

• 48:07Speaker 07

  Thank you.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  You're welcome. Hey. What's up Gary, Brent Sibley, personal injury lawyer.

• 48:11Speaker 07

  From Miami, thank you for the selfie outside.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  You got it.

• 48:14Speaker 07

  I'm actually already running that selfie on Instagram as an ad right now.

• 48:17Speaker 00

  I respect it. I fucking love it.

• 48:18Speaker 07

  I shit you not. Um, I got-

• 48:21Speaker 00

  Just don't make it douchey.

• 48:23Speaker 07

  No, it's just me and you.

• 48:24Speaker 00

  I'll tell you what, you'll love this. There's people that like grab me in the street, we take a quick selfie, or in the airport, and then I find it because they tag me, and in the caption they're like, "Long full day meeting with Gary Vee strategizing the future."

• 48:37Speaker 07

  Nope, just put "Legend is in the house."

• 48:39Speaker 00

  I appreciate it. And then I jump in the comments, I'm like, "You're a fucking dick."

• 48:44Speaker 07

  I know you're gonna call me out if I put some bullshit in there, so I'm not about to do that.

• 48:47Speaker 00

  Go ahead.

• 48:48Speaker 07

  Anyway, here we go. Um, about a year ago, I saw something from you saying how underpriced stories were.

• 48:54Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 48:55Speaker 07

  On Instagram.

• 48:55Speaker 00

  Instagram stories, right, just for everybody, there's the Instagram, me feeding the stories, the ads in there are super underpriced still, keep going.

• 49:02Speaker 07

  So, I pretty much took that to heart. I was at a point in my life, had my first child, said, "I need to make an impact." So I'm gonna go all in on the stories. The stories are linked, my Instagram, my Facebook, they're linked, and I have about a thousand followers, probably ten people in the room have already come up to me from this week and said, "I love your stories. I'm going ham." But, it's a personal thing, I'm all jabs, I'm not barely asking for anything. People love it. How do I, I'm struggling to push that and grow that, and share, get my people to share it, when I put some ad budgets on the stories, people get confused because they're like, "Who is this guy just talking about being motivated or having a child?" He's, you know what I'm saying? How am I gonna grow that personal brand?

• 49:44Speaker 00

  It means you're running the ads poorly. Like, think about it, you're going too generic with the ads, so they're just showing up in a random person's feed in story ads, and you gave them no context on you, then you become vulnerable because you're back to the vanilla business, where, as if you target it, where do you live?

• 50:02Speaker 07

  Miami, Adaturo.

• 50:03Speaker 00

  Right, if you're like, "Miami, what's up?" You know, or, I mean, you could target Dolph- are you a fucking Dolphins fan?

• 50:08Speaker 07

  No.

• 50:10Speaker 00

  Worse?

• 50:11Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no. I gave up on the NFL a long time ago.

• 50:13Speaker 00

  Respect. Do you like anything?

• 50:15Speaker 03

  I like Tiger Woods. He went to-

• 50:17Speaker 00

  Next. So that's why. And then as for the first part, the right hook, like if you're looking for something for them to use you or what have you, it's okay to ask. Like, nobody's trying to give more value than me, but you're wearing my sneakers, this gentleman is wearing my sneakers, I'm not even wearing my sneakers. Because when I have something to sell, I'm happy to ask. It will not convert as well as the dream sounds. Not enough people buy Empathy Wines for the value I've given them. Not enough people sign up for Wine Text. Not enough people use VaynerMedia. Not enough people use, you know, buy K-Swiss sneakers for all the value I'm giving, which is free and at scale and the best in the world, but the bottom line is, that's okay.

• 51:00Speaker 00

  Give, give, give, and then ask, because the net is still bigger, because the casket is so wide. Is it sometimes sad? I mean, I, bro, you know how weird it is to get emails, "Hey Gary Vee, nine years ago, I was super poor, and now I have forty-seven million dollars because all I did was watch your videos and did it." And then I'll reply, only once out of every ten times, because I like learning, "Hey bro, by the way, did you buy Empathy Wines?" "Oh no, I didn't get to it, bro." Fuck!

• 51:28Speaker 00

  Forty-seven million? Couldn't throw a guy a case, you know?

• 51:34Speaker 00

  As long as you understand that give, give, give, too many people, when they give, and this is what is wrong with ninety percent of the marketing in this room, when they give, they have expectation to get in return, which means that they're not giving, they're manipulating.

• 51:49Speaker 00

  That's what free eBooks are, but then you get them. That's what, a free consultation call. Fuck you guys! You're not giving me any value? You mean, an opportunity to be sold to the whole time? Fuck. You know it, and I know it, and most importantly, they know it.

• 52:09Speaker 00

  ¿Por qué no haces una consulta gratuita? Filmala, dijiste a la persona a la que estás filmando: "Hola Ron, estoy dando una consulta gratuita. Estoy filmando para mi Facebook porque me siento muy cómodo con lo que voy a decir. ¿Está bien con usted? No, no está bien conmigo. No hay problema, no filmaré. "Hola Karen, estoy a punto de darle una consulta gratuita. Quiero que sepa que quiero filmar y ponerlo en mi Facebook. ¿Está bien con usted? Sí, está bien." Y luego, realmente, da el mejor consejo posible que puede llevar a no tener una transacción. Y luego, pone ese video en Facebook y LinkedIn y vea su maravillosa legenda explotar. Hay una táctica, hay más detalles. Ahí está. Hola, ¿cómo estás?

• 52:44Speaker 02

  Hola, mi nombre es Kat Tominey, soy de Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  Hola Kat.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  Mi esposo aquí es el abogado de juicio.

• 52:51Speaker 00

  Lo veo, buen tipo, buen trabajo.

• 52:52Speaker 02

  Soy una gran fan. Me encanta, tengo muchos de tus trajes de personalidad.

• 52:58Speaker 00

  Bueno, tienes que ser increíble.

• 53:03Speaker 02

  Pero, lo más importante, acabo de empezar a ayudar a Frank con su marketing en el oficio porque ha estado practicando 32 años, abogado de juicio de la Louisiana. Mi mayor preocupación es que nos encarguen de quadriplegias, acoso catastrófico.

• 53:20Speaker 00

  Lo entiendo, cosas sensibles.

• 53:22Speaker 02

  Y yo simplemente, quiero decir, no sé dónde empezar con eso.

• 53:25Speaker 00

  Bueno, no compartes eso.

• 53:28Speaker 00

  No es diferente a mí escoger no compartir mis hijos porque no quiero ponerlos en la pista. Y les dejaré que decidan si quieren ser conocidos. En lugar de lo que la mayoría de la gente hace, que es, es lindo y obtienen tres likes extra y no piensan.

• 53:42Speaker 00

  No vas a publicar contenido, ¿qué vas a hacer? ¿Preguntarle a alguien en tal situación? Esto es por lo que te amo ya. Uno, me encanta porque se ve como si golpeara a alguien. Dos, te amo porque le preguntas la correcta pregunta. Es tan genial, por supuesto que no. ¿Qué vas a hacer? ¿Preguntarle a alguien para hacer un video que esté en tal situación terrible para tu propio beneficio? Por supuesto que no. Así que no.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  No necesitas hacer eso. No estoy buscando testimonios aquí. Nadie cree ellos de todos modos. Déjame ahorrarle tu tiempo.

• 54:09Speaker 00

  Nadie cree ellos de todos modos. Hola, te veo. ¿Qué es eso? Te veo. Genial, por el último minuto.

• 54:17Speaker 00

  Sí, voy a ir un poco tarde.

• 54:21Speaker 00

  Yo...

• 54:25Speaker 00

  They don't believe in testimonials anyway. I'm looking for him to storytell about certain things he saw. From the mindset of, "I don't want this video on Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter to lead to business. I want it to lead to reputation and legacy, which then will happen to lead it to business." When you go into that mind frame, all of a sudden, he's telling like, you know, real stuff. Like, you know, let me tell you, I still continue to tell everybody, which is why I do what I do, of trying to get service providers to tell people how not to use them. Or, to your porn server there, like, really educating them why settlements are so high. It's no different, by the way, I'm going through this in my business. My brother and I have a sports representation business, Vayner Sports.

• 55:10Speaker 00

  You know, every kid in Georgia, you have to recruit what a talented, you know, state. Nonetheless, a lot of agents, oh, Atlanta just benefited from this. Ronald Acuna just signed a long-term contract that was so horrible for Ronald Acuna, but great for the Braves, because his agent wanted to sign it early, because they didn't want to lose him before arbitration.

• 55:39Speaker 00

  Tell truth. The truth always wins. You don't need to go into that content. Maybe they want you to go into that content. Maybe that person, who is in a super bad situation, enjoys watching his videos, because when they Googled, before they started working with you, they watched 15 of them, and he happens to be funny, and it's interesting. And they were so grateful, at the end of the process, they actually tell you, "I'd like to do a video with you." And then you can if you want. But don't let it be a testimonial, tell the joke about the fries you ate.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  So we just did the video, and it came out great.

• 56:12Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 56:12Speaker 02

  There's some parts that I'm, you know, we'll mark it on Facebook. and stuff like that and maybe some for our website I think

• 56:19Speaker 00

  okay but I need you to make content every day like I want to know what he thinks is gonna happen with the LSU game tonight like this is about building reputation guys we did this in the cafes and at the PTA and at the Chamber of Commerce and at the stop sign at the high school football game that's how you build your business all I'm asking you to do is what you did in real life to do digitally you didn't roll up to everybody at when when you first started your career and said use me no you like started networking you can network with content

• 56:53Speaker 02

  thank you

• 56:53Speaker 00

  you got it sir or okay we'll go there yep ma'am how are you

• 57:00Speaker 07

  I'm doing great Gary

• 57:01Speaker 00

  awesome

• 57:03Speaker 07

  the question I have and and I know you've told us build content brand reputation as a means of basically early adaptation but you know people and you know how what they think about lawyers what other kind of things can we do to be early adapters in this field that you can think of

• 57:22Speaker 00

  keep the mic I want to make sure I understand the framework of your question when you say early adopters because you were going towards the end of that question around trust and then you kind of pivoted a little bit there at the end with early adopters so what I want to understand is are we talking about the content you can put out on the places where people currently are or start building early reputation on things like TikTok or when anything

• 57:45Speaker 07

  well

• 57:45Speaker 00

  go ahead

• 57:46Speaker 07

  I'm thinking like adaptation like you did with your wine business you know you were out there you did Google before anybody else did Google and yes that you're providing value providing value but one of the things that's a threat is that people think lawyers are just out there to money grub most of the lawyers I know are out there to help people yes we like getting paid for our work but that's why we do what we do

• 58:09Speaker 00

  I think I think that's the content that needs to see the earth

• 58:12Speaker 07

  okay

• 58:12Speaker 00

  that's what's so exciting about this the last generation of content to this gentleman's point was people that were more marketers than they were lawyers

• 58:24Speaker 00

  I think that you should put out a podcast each week and talk about helping people. And I think leveling up your ideas works too. Like if you started, where do you live ma'am?

• 58:35Speaker 07

  Colorado.

• 58:36Speaker 00

  Great. If you started the, you know, Colorado Helping People Podcast. Literally, the CHP. Welcome to the first episode of the CHP. Today I'm interviewing Karen Thompson, an incredible doctor from downtown Denver. And the whole macro of the show is helping people. As the show brings people value, even a small group of 400 people that listen to it in Colorado, the likelihood of 12 of those people using you, you don't even have to say what you do. And they'll probably become your clients. And notice how I called it the Colorado because I want it to be narrow so that it's a small listenership, but it's contextual and you'll get the benefit.

• 59:17Speaker 07

  Well, and that's actually less my concern is me getting the benefit, but how we might be able to reach and provide things to the consumers. Like again, you know what people want and that's what you give them and you give them. But I don't know exactly how to bridge that gap between, you know, "Hey, come in my office, sit down, I'll talk to you about things and bill you hourly." What ideas, you know, I guess more my point was, what can we do to really provide value to the end user?

• 59:50Speaker 00

  Do a Q&A show.

• 59:52Speaker 07

  Okay.

• 59:52Speaker 00

  One of the things I did in 2013 or 14 was I started the AskGaryVee Show because I took questions. And if you have a LinkedIn or a Facebook or a Twitter, you can post, anybody have a legal question of me? You take four of them and you do a Q&A show. And you answer it. And now you're providing value.

• 1:00:10Speaker 07

  Excellent.

• 1:00:10Speaker 00

  Q&A is a great way to start.

• 1:00:12Speaker 07

  Alright, thanks Gary.

• 1:00:13Speaker 00

  You got it. Sir? Hey Gary. How are you? My name's William, I'm with my wife at CrashATL.com.

• 1:00:21Speaker 04

  I got a good question. You're big in the black community online. How are you able to translate to different cultures? And, you know, and actually win?

• 1:00:33Speaker 00

  Because most people try to go into cultures and take.

• 1:00:38Speaker 04

  And, but, a lot of my counterpart here do take. But I'm saying, how can I take as a minority in this game?

• 1:00:50Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, look, whether it's African Americans, you know, I grew up in the Soviet former, like, a lot of community likes to work with that community, right?

• 1:00:58Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  So you already have a leg up. It's just that you have to know, whether you look like you, or me, or that lovely lady just asked the question, at the macro, it's value.

• 1:01:07Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:01:08Speaker 00

  You know, the reason athletes and hip-hop artists like me is, when I DM Gunna, when he has 800 followers on Instagram, and I speak to him about navigating how to build up his profile, he remembers that. I'm not hitting up Gunna today. I'm not hitting up the baby today. I'm hitting them up when they're on the come up and trying to give them game that allows them to navigate business. That's why it works. And, even better, I ask them for nothing. Because I know reputation matters. You know, the reason we're gonna break the whole sports agency game and do the whole Jerry Maguire on everybody's face is because we're gonna bring more value to the kids. It's not super complicated.

• 1:01:50Speaker 00

  So, the way you break through is, A, if, for example, you want to go after the African-American community, you know you already got a leg up. They're gonna trust you more on the get. And all you have to do is provide them value. You don't take advantage of that. You lean in to bringing more value. It's empathy.

• 1:02:08Speaker 04

  Appreciate it.

• 1:02:12Speaker 00

  Yes, sir. Hey, thanks so much for all your...

• 1:02:15Speaker 04

  Your comments, love them. So, you know, with my firm, we've started doing Facebook and LinkedIn. I wanted to know if there's any other platforms you'd recommend to start, you know, shuffling a little bit of the ads to?

• 1:02:27Speaker 00

  How much money and content a day do you spend on Facebook and LinkedIn?

• 1:02:31Speaker 04

  We spend about 2 grand a month.

• 1:02:33Speaker 00

  Right. Facebook and LinkedIn.

• 1:02:35Speaker 04

  Okay. And there's no other platforms like Instagram Stories?

• 1:02:39Speaker 00

  LinkedIn.

• 1:02:40Speaker 04

  One final question?

• 1:02:43Speaker 00

  And here's why. I like Instagram Stories, I do think they're grossly underpriced, but I love Facebook and LinkedIn, cuz it's very, very, very much going to be a place where a lot of people here do business. There's business to be done. And if you've been listening, and you go narrow, and you go demographic, psychographic, sir, it's contextual. Even the words I was using with you are more, like, it's not acting different, it's just relevance. We, people have different slang terms. I can't go to the Upper East Side and talk to an 84-year-old woman and use the word "slat." She's not gonna know what the fuck I'm saying. You know, so you have to be contextual, right? Slang matters. It, that's not disrespectful, that's being a chameleon and being empathetic,

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  if you actually mean it. So, you know, the thing that I want you to do is really be contextual in those 2 platforms, cuz they're grossly underpriced with their targeted ads. LinkedIn is underpriced on organic. Now, if you post organic, you might get somebody from St. Louis. I don't know how your industry works, I assume, maybe I'm wrong, that referral business is a potential. So if you have somebody super interested in you, but you're here, and some, and you don't wanna litigate or can't in St. Louis, thank you for confirming, I assume, I mean, I'd probably be the, I could walk into your business tomorrow, and in 3 years make more revenue than everybody here, just on referrals.

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  Don't make me do that.

• 1:04:12Speaker 00

  It would hurt your fucking feelings. It's what I did in the ad world. I was the liquor store guy coming to Madison Avenue, billion-dollar companies, they took shits on me, until they didn't. It's all the same fucking game. That's why I'm walking into sports, I could walk into anything. Whoever provides the most value, always wins. It just takes a few minutes. People aren't patient. They can't wait to get that first check, to buy that dumb shit, to impress people that they don't even give a fuck about.

• 1:04:44Speaker 00

  That's what's really happening out here.

• 1:04:47Speaker 04

  Final question, what do I have to do to get a selfie with you? My wife said, "Don't come home..."

• 1:04:51Speaker 00

  Run up here right now, sir!

• 1:04:56Speaker 00

  Oh, you're actually running, shit, okay.

• 1:05:00Speaker 00

  You took that very literally.

• 1:05:03Speaker 04

  My wife said, "Don't come home without a selfie."

• 1:05:07Speaker 04

  Awesome.

• 1:05:08Speaker 00

  Real pleasure, take care.

• 1:05:12Speaker 04

  Hey Gary, my name is Russell.

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  How are you?

• 1:05:15Speaker 04

  Doing good, how are you?

• 1:05:15Speaker 00

  Good.

• 1:05:16Speaker 04

  I've been practicing law 16 weeks and...

• 1:05:25Speaker 00

  You know what's funny? You delivered that so great, you even got me. And I'm looking, it's a little dark, and I'm like... You know how your brain can work fast? I'm like, "This man's about to say 16 years? Did he start when he was four?" Like, go ahead.

• 1:05:39Speaker 04

  Well, my background was in video marketing before I went to law school. So I know this shit works, but now I work for my father and his partner, who are the 70-year-old guys who are gonna retire in six years.

• 1:05:49Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:05:49Speaker 04

  They just wanna preserve the business. One of the partners complains about spending 400 bucks a month on his legal library for online research instead of books. So how do I convince them in the value of this stuff that I know is gonna work? Because I'm gonna be running the business one day.

• 1:06:05Speaker 00

  One of two ways. A, you deploy empathy and wait your fucking turn because they built a huge business.

• 1:06:15Speaker 00

  Or you do B, which is what I did, which is put heavy pressure on the system on a daily barrage of words until they succumb to your annoyance.

• 1:06:29Speaker 00

  You know what's really interesting about... And I know I gotta wrap up and I'll try to bang one or two more out. What was really interesting about the answer to that gentleman's question? If you heard both of my versions, it's probably the best way I can sum up how I think about the world. This is about practicality. The answer I just gave that young man is actually practical. In a family business dynamic, when somebody new comes in, who absolutely often is much more right about the contemporary way... To do something. Often, there's too much audacity, audacity and lack of patience. And it's like, whatever, and we don't take into account that these two gentlemen, the father and the partner, had worked 45 years to build this thing that we get to walk into. And we just need to deploy patience. I want to remind everybody of my story because it means a lot to me.

• 1:07:11Speaker 00

  I walked into my dad's business, I built a business from 3 to 60 million dollars. I worked 7 days a week for 15 hours a day. And at 34 years old, I left that business owning nothing. And I never paid myself anywhere close to the proper amount because we poured all the money back into the business. I was an executive that built something from 3 to 60 million and never made over 120,000 dollars a year. Because that's old school family stuff. And at 34, I had no net worth. Because I didn't own the business, because if you're part of an immigrant or family business, you know how it works. You don't get it until they fucking die.

• 1:07:46Speaker 00

  So I then started my next business, VaynerMedia, out of the conference room of another company because I didn't have money for rent. And that's why it's easy for me to tell people to be patient. That's why I believe in this. That's why I believe doing the right thing is always the right thing. Yes, sir.

• 1:08:05Speaker 06

  Edward Lake from Long Island in Florida. Two questions for you. First...

• 1:08:09Speaker 00

  First of all, your voice alone?

• 1:08:12Speaker 06

  Good or bad?

• 1:08:13Speaker 00

  Great. Brother, I could monetize that thing for at least 10 million.

• 1:08:17Speaker 06

  Okay, we could talk, we could talk, we could talk.

• 1:08:18Speaker 00

  Go ahead.

• 1:08:19Speaker 06

  I could do some voiceovers.

• 1:08:20Speaker 00

  Let's go.

• 1:08:21Speaker 06

  How do you handle...

• 1:08:22Speaker 00

  By the way, by the way, I apologize. This matters. I want to talk about real life. I have a funny feeling that not every person in this room's dream and happiness forever is being a lawyer. Let's talk about this. Sir, I believe if you made videos, the way I'm talking about, that it is not a ridiculous thing to believe that somebody would reach out to you cold saying, "Hey..." What's your name again, sir?

• 1:08:47Speaker 06

  Ed.

• 1:08:48Speaker 00

  Ed. "Hey, Ed." It's perfect. "Hey, Ed."

• 1:08:52Speaker 00

  You know, I happened to catch your, you know, your video about this legal issue. Have you ever considered voiceover? And then miraculously, this is real. This is real. This is how the world is actually working. I know you didn't grow up with something called the internet that opened up every gate, and there's no gatekeepers anymore, and was gonna completely eliminate the value of all the gatekeepers. College, resumes, and all sorts of other shit. But now we're living in it. And so, anyway, I just wanted to- So now I get to ask my question? Go ahead. See, even your personal- I fucking love you, Ed! Here's my question. Everybody wants to do business with you personally. They, when they, when they hire your media company, they want you. You're wrong, Ed. And you're wrong. No, no, that's what I'm asking you.

• 1:09:36Speaker 00

  Well, I'm giving you the fucking answer. How do you- By telling them upfront, "You don't fucking get me." Okay, so, so you're branding yourself, but they're not getting you. Because my organization follows my fucking religion! But, but when you're a trial lawyer- Ed! Wait a minute, this is important. When you're a trial lawyer, your reputation, a lot of it is based- So, charge more, Ed! No, no, no, it's based on your, your- Ed, I understand where you're going, brother. Yes, I sure do. They want you. Correct. Now, I'm gonna give it to an associate, and they're gonna go, "But I wanted you." Ed, there's only two fucking things when you sell yourself. You either tell them they don't get you upfront, "But Susan and Ricky are your fucking cronies, and this is how we do it," or you say, "You want me? Pay me fucking five times more." There's people who pay me a hundred thousand dollars an hour to consult.

• 1:10:21Speaker 00

  And that's my question, so- Charge more, Ed! But wait a minute, so what you're saying to me is you personally is worth more than the people who work for you, so then when you're handing them off to the people who work for you, you're saying, "They're not as good as me, because I'm not charging as much." That's exactly what I'm saying, Ed, but what I'm saying to them is my people are better than the alter- Ed, you just have to be better than the fucking alternative! Show me that. Why are your people better than somebody who, who's now branding themselves, who has time for me personally? That's really my issue. Because I'm a- Take a law firm with thirty lawyers and market yourself- I'm in the same business as you, brother! I'm literally in the same business as you. I'll tell you why. 'Cause I'm a better fucking operator. Okay. 'Cause I educate my people. Because I have process.

• 1:11:07Speaker 00

  But you have to, you have to, you have to get people to believe- That's the truth, rather than, "Oh, I'm branding, and then I'm just gonna turn it off because I really don't want it to work." Yes, Ed, that is how life works. Yes, I have to get them to believe it. But here's what I do. If I sense they don't, and many don't, Ed, I don't try to convince them. I go to the next guy or gal. The second part of this is, how do you handle the negative reviews, which you seem to get a lot? I read you all the, you know, I'm on... Yeah. And we get, part of the reason, okay, let me back up. We do a lot, a lot of Facebook advertising. Yes, sir. Five, six figures a month, sometimes. And when you put a Facebook ad, a legal ad, roundup, everybody's probably seen it,

• 1:11:51Speaker 00

  you get 90% of negative reviews. And I'm concerned about that hurting the reputation of your law firm who already exists. And how do you handle those negative reviews? I reply to them as often as I can. Keep it with that a little bit here, because I'm wrapping up and just in case, because that's a great question, and we might bring some value here. Number one, how long have you been running five or six figures on Facebook?

• 1:12:18Speaker 00

  A couple of years, probably, years. So my intuition is, actions over words are important. So I have a funny feeling, Ed, because I can feel you, because I see your no schlemiel, I have a funny feeling you continue to believe that that's a good thing for your business. I do. Here's why. Here's why it's working. Attention, as I started this talk with, is the number one asset in society. As much as people don't believe lawyers, people actually don't believe other people's reviews as much as we think they do.

• 1:12:52Speaker 00

  Okay, fair enough. And that's why it's working for you, right? You've been doing it for a couple of years. I don't know, but you see, it's, the amount, I don't understand it. Because if I look at the comments, 90% are negative, yet I'll get leads all day long. So it's, I can't really understand... I gave you the answer. Because people don't believe other people's reviews as much as you think they do. And because it's your baby, just like when people say things about my company, it hurts more. It's funny to say some other kid's ugly, but when they say that about your kid, you want to fucking kill. So you're taking it in that way, which makes sense, but the other people don't, which is why you're getting leads all day. That's the actual insight. 99% of people fucking talk, and they act different.

• 1:13:39Speaker 00

  I'm glad that everybody's a social media warrior. I love all the keyboard warriors. And then people go and fucking do totally different actions. And because we know that about ourselves, that's why we don't believe in reviews as much as you think.

• 1:13:54Speaker 00

  Thanks, Ed. And thank you, Atlanta.

• 1:13:58Speaker 00

  Thanks, guys, for listening. Please, please, please, share the podcast. And make sure you've subscribed, because a bunch of you aren't subscribed. And more importantly, a bunch of you listen every day and haven't told your friends. It's the best podcast in the world. I'm watching. Have a great day.