← The GaryVee Audio Experience
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- [00:00]
Gary Vaynerchuk
This is the GaryVee audio experience. Hey everybody. Actually, if you're a really hardcore listener, you know I never do this. I'm sorry to be jumping in the middle of the podcast. If this podcast has ever meant anything to you, please go to Spotify or Apple right now and leave a review. By the way, even if you give me a one star review cause you think it's shit, I respect it. But just leave a review, an actual review, four or five stars. And the actual details of why. Yeah, that would mean something for me. So thanks. Now back to the podcast. Would love to do a little Q and A and maybe go a little more detailed. I'm ready to go. Who's got something?
- [00:31]
Matt
Gary, you talked about how you made investments early in some of the content companies like Facebook. Do you think your investments into those companies formed your idea of what was important for the future, or do you think it was the opposite?
- [00:44]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The opposite? The opposite. What was very clear to me, I referenced it. You know, I launched an e commerce wine business in 1997. Like for real. Not like ha ha ha. Like I was operating it every day. I remember people walking into my store and asking them for their email to create an account. And like, people didn't even have email yet. Or they would say funny things that I laugh about now. I remember one guy, he's like, oh yeah, I have one of those. He's like, I'm aolahoo.com. like, that's not it, brother. You know, like. And you know, going from that to people telling me they wouldn't put their credit card into the computer, to running catalogs that used to cost me $70,000 to print and mail to now sending an email for free and selling more wine than I did two years ago in a catalog with no cost. So I was rolling and then Google came out and Google AdWords came out several months later. I bought Google AdWords the day that Google AdWords were being sold and was buying wine terms for 5 and 10 cents a click and acquiring customers for nothing. So this was all happening. And then 2003 happened and it was starting to be blogging. And it was the first thing I never got involved in because even though I've written five New York Times best selling books. Raghav, are you here? Where is he? He's not here. I'm literally on my. I'm gonna leave right now, right after this and get on a flight back to New York for five hours. And my ghostwriter and a guy on my team, Raghav, who was with me just now is literally going to sit there with me and he's going to read me back what I audioed to him so I can tweak a couple of the words to finish up my book. So blogging was the first big trend I saw that I wasn't able to jump into because I can't write. And so when Friendster and MySpace came out, I was so pumped because I was like, this is the next wave. This I understand. I was watching it. And then my bro. It's all timing too. My brother was a freshman at bu, the first Facebook year and BU was like the third school to get it and went like Harvard and a couple other Boston schools. And he called me and he came down for Thanksgiving and I looked at it and I was like, this is it. And what. And the reason I said this was it was I'd gone from that was 97 in. In an eight year period. We went from people not even understanding the Internet fully to then people realizing they could look up. Remember, it was more research if you think about the beginning to now buying stuff. And I just knew that we were going to communicate with each other on it. And so no, I believe that the next wave of the Internet was going to be human connection. And that's why those social networks caught my attention.
- [03:27]
Dustin
Matt from Ryder, we're the generative AI platform that's sponsoring this today. Thanks for coming. Gary, when you talk about LinkedIn and how much of an opportunity it is, can you help us refine what you see in that opportunity and then we'll.
- [03:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Talk about content creation that everyone here, regardless of what you want to happen, what customer do you want? B2B B2C or by the way, there are people in here who might want a career change. Whatever your objective is the fact that you could not have this room have never posted in their life. If Garrett has Never posted on LinkedIn in his life, the fact that he can make a video or written post about whatever he wants to say, post it on LinkedIn tonight and that gets 800 people to see it is crazy. Let me explain what I mean. Social networking, social networks for the last 15 years has been more like email. You get people to follow you, you then post and a percentage of them see it. Just like email open rates, right? When I was doing email in the late 90s, 80 to 90% of the people that got the email opened it. Now 30%. If you have a great email, right? For some of the. I see some of the heads nodding. So you know, it's supply and demand of attention. The TikTok iFood of all social networks is the biggest trend going on in the world right now. So the example I just gave about Garrett five years ago would have posted on LinkedIn and one person would have saw it. One of the three people he has to follow him because he decided he's going to start the fact that his first post can get 800 because the algorithm is going to look at the content and service it to a small group of 20 or 30 random people that it thinks will like what he had to say. And if of that 20, 30, 40 and I don't know the exact numbers. Everyone's algorithm is obviously very secret but a tiny group of people will see it. If it's compelling to that group, it will be brought into more people's feed. Not only could he get 800, he could get a million. Very unlikely. Needle in a haystack. But the fact that that is true. Just think about what I just said. Free distribution. Think about how expensive distribution is. Think about how much you spend for a newspaper ad, a Google Ad, a television ad, a booth at a big conference. Like distribution and awareness is expensive. Social networks are free. That is insane. And people do not understand the severity of the insanity of how big that is. For the first time ever, the quality of your message creates free distribution. That is insane.
- [06:05]
Dustin
So what happens when creating content is now dramatically less expensive because of things like generative AI? How does that impact.
- [06:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You know it's going to come, it's going to impact everything. What's going to happen is a term called prompt engineering is going to start to be something. Everyone here knows what it is. So in a world where companies like yourselves and many others take the advantage away that I have my personal brand. Gary Vee the content you see, I have 37 full time employees. 37 full time employees who work on my content making and distribution across the eight platforms. Think about the level of commitment that I've made for that. The fact that everyone here now can buy a SaaS product and make more content than I make for a fraction of that will mean that we will have more supply of content than we've ever seen before. I'm not gonna put my head in the sand. We're gonna use generative AI as well. And Dustin and Raghav, they're get fired and have to find new jobs. But what will happen and I'll finish the thought is their jobs will have to change. What Dustin does incredibly well as he films me, but he's also Paying attention. He's making notes. There was the gentleman, he's not here. Who said, you inspired me. In the talk just now, I called my son to say I'm sorry for being a dick. Hey, thanks for liking inspiration.
- [07:26]
Dustin
I took some action today. Talked to my son this morning. Told him I was sorry for being a dick.
- [07:30]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That's humongous.
- [07:31]
Raghav
Yeah.
- [07:31]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So you really made it. That's the biggest thing you can straight away. That means the world to me.
- [07:35]
Dustin
Cheers to you.
- [07:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That means the world to me, brother. Good for you. You can't imagine how big of a deal that will be.
- [07:40]
Dustin
Well, thank you.
- [07:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You know how much he appreciated that.
- [07:42]
Dustin
Absolutely, absolutely.
- [07:43]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Good for you. How do you. Thank you. It was a really emotional thing for me. That's a big deal. That's why I speak for a living. Like that little moment. But I looked at Dustin when that happened and gave him my contact and he made a note and that will show up on my content in the next week or so. With all the technologies coming, I'm not going to have to look at Dustin. We're going to upload that video. It's going to understand rhythms and patterns from AI of things that have worked for me. And me and Dustin in our gut are no longer going to do post production. The AI is going to figure it out and put it out. What is that going to mean? Supply and demand issues. And so what's going to happen is it's going to be harder to break through because everyone's going to be doing it and so you're gonna have to be better. So my question to you, Gary, is what is attention? Hacking. Can you give us some examples and some best practice? Yeah, so I'm writing a new. The book I'm working on, which will come out next year is actually called Day Trading. Attention. Right. That's how I think about what I do for a living. Obviously. I think the term day trading is something most of the people in here will know Somewhere along the line with technology, Wall street became second to second. Not hour to hour with paper, it became day trading on your computer. So hacking attention, or the way I think about it, day trading is a very simple and complicated game. Where are you all spending your time? Where, like, where are your eyeballs and ears going? You know, 50 years ago was television and newspapers. And so you, you would try to then make the best print ad to make you buy. I did that in my career. I used to spend a week making my New York Times full page ad. A week. I would be eight hours a Day a week. Should I put this wine in this corner? Should I have a coupon down here? Like real thinking now that same thinking goes into the first three seconds of every video I put on LinkedIn. It goes into the thumbnail. Some of my friends here are doing a really good job on LinkedIn. We were hanging out backstage and I said to him, hey, you gotta pay attention to the copy because LinkedIn only the first 50 letters show up and then you have to hit, you know, learn more. Most people won't do that. If you have a call to action, link in the first 50 things, you're get a higher retention, right? Or you know, or how do you actually think about what's happening? You're all doing it, all of you, minimumly. I'm aware that some of you don't have anything not LinkedIn, not Facebook, but the far majority of this room is doing this on something. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, shorts. How do you get someone to stop? Especially with more content coming? So what I think a lot about is the science around the art. First three seconds, thumbnail words. What time do we post? Literally right now. I'll show him and he can confirm it to you. My team. This is the thread with the whole team on it. Look at the, look at this. We will post this today at 6:36pm.
- [10:37]
Dustin
It is that specific.
- [10:38]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Like you know and like, like read.
- [10:40]
Dustin
The ideal times today. 404 and 636. One reel, one image for real, for the real recommendation is a reel of you on stage.
- [10:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I promise you this is a level of commitment that's very different than post that picture. So the science around the art, but then also following trends like when Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are eating up popular culture. Is there any way for you to interject into that conversation that doesn't feel forced? How clever are you? How creative are you? I saw a really good post by a B2B company where the two heads of the company, one person's name was Travis and one was Taylor, they were both dudes, but. But it was perfect, right? Cause you know, like they were able to like make a reference. And I looked back, it was their highest performing post ever. Right. So I'm looking at the pulse of society. You know how many people lost customers by posting during inappropriate times? So you have to have a feel for the room, which is the world. You have to know your demos. I'm making content on LinkedIn for just VCs and the next post just to get clients and the next post Just to get talent to apply to VaynerMedia. All three of those videos are very different. I was telling those guys everything they make is just about selling the SaaS. But they should make videos to get better talent on their sales team. They should make better. They should make videos about how they run company culture. They should make, by the way, a thing that all of you should do on LinkedIn is make a post about your interests. Maybe it's French wine, maybe it's golf. Maybe you're playing pickleball. You might post on LinkedIn that you have fallen in love with pickleball. Go into the fact that that hour now, every day that you play pickleball in the morning makes you fresher to be better at work. And because someone who you're trying to reach as a customer or an employee also likes pickleball, that just created consideration based on relevance for them to do business with you. So everyone's showing up in LinkedIn in their fucking suit and tie, right? But in reality, you need to show that version and this version that you're in. You know, notice I always say, watch what I'm doing, not what I'm saying, like. Or, you know, like, pay attention to how I give a keynote. Like, I will make references to the New York Jets. I will make references to wine. I'm creating connection points. And all of you should be doing that in your content. If you're just saying the same thing of, like, our tech works better. Like, cool. But, like, you can only say it so many times. AI companies should be talking about time savings. You put a photo of a person watching their child play basketball in a gym, and then you say, use our tech and save an hour every day so you can go watch your kid play basketball. Watch how many people stop. That's a very different emotional connection point. Cause inevitably, somebody on the other side of that LinkedIn post is sitting in the office right now missing a recital or a game, and feels, we all are modern parents. We feel like shit. Our parents didn't give a fuck. We feel like shit. We feel like shit. And all of a sudden that hits you and say, wait a minute. Maybe that's why I should pay up for the tech. Cause I do want that hour back. Cause I do want to eat dinner with my family once a week. And that's real shit. Just the real way humans work. And so my efficiency on that post will go up. This is like, real shit. It's why I laugh how people think about social media. People look at social media like it's bad. It's ruining the world or my kids all fucked up or it is disproportionately the most significant engine of business growth on earth and there isn't a close second and yet everyone is lollygagging the shit out of it. There are less than 2 handfuls of people in that audience that have the commitment towards LinkedIn that is required for an industry like this, that will actually drive their business. They will spend so much more energy designing their booth for this incredible conference than they will for all their content on LinkedIn this whole year. And this is a big time. This is the Apex super bowl event. But it's still only three fucking days. There's another 362 fucking days. And not everyone's here. And you're not going to serendipitously run into everyone you're trying to get to here, no matter how late you stay up tonight. You know, and so I don't understand how people don't understand the scale comes from LinkedIn.
- [14:59]
Dustin
On that note you talked about.
- [15:01]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Does I want that for something? See?
- [15:04]
Dustin
Yeah. No, no, you. What fascinates me is you said you have a staff of 37 for your personal brand and then an agency right, in VaynerMedia and 2,000 other employees.
- [15:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And then Veefriends has 50 employees.
- [15:16]
Dustin
How important is it for. For everyone to have a personal brand, Brand focus beyond just the business at the.
- [15:21]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I don't think it's a requirement. I don't think it's a. I don't think everyone needs to have a personal brand. I think everyone should consider it. It's not for everyone. There's a lot of baggage that comes with being a public figure. Now most people won't have the level of public figure ness that I have. So I think for a lot of people, especially in a B2B environment, I think it's epic because there's nobody here who's the next fucking Taylor Swift or Charlie D'Amelio. Let's like. It's not that kind of industry for that. So I think. But what it will be is it leads to you being on. It leads to this conference inviting you to be on stage next year. Like, there's a lot of value in it in B2B. B2C is a little scarier. Cause it can change your life. If you became Internet famous, your life's different. And there's a lot of baggage that comes along with that. And a lot of people don't even. I'll be honest with you, I'm not very interested in how many people here really follow me just for context. So all of you know I don't share my personal life. I'm deeply private, Deeply private. I just am so aware of the business ramifications of it. But why did I say that? You're in control. You don't want people in your business, don't post it. I think to remind people first, it's not for everyone. And that's okay. You don't have to. But I do think a lot of people think of it as only like high energy dynamic percent it's not. There's a lot of very introverted, very thoughtful, very articulate, very deep thinking writers that crush, especially for this industry. You go write a white paper that really is right about what's happening and like talks about your solution and why it will work. You will be stunned how much that will work. So you got to find your way of communicating. I think it's worth considering, but it's not a requirement. There are plenty of people have modern businesses that has no personal brand attached to it. It also could lead to happiness. Let me explain. So now you're getting going a little bit with what we're talking about here. But you start, you remember like, wait a minute, he did mention that I could post other stuff. And you post your first ever video cooking ever. You love to cook. It's your place. It's where you feel like you're most you. You're even a little funnier, a little more dynamic. Right. And you just film cooking a meal and you're talking and you just post it and it fucking explodes. And you find yourself two years from now being literally a food influencer, making more money with brands supporting your food videos than you were doing being a senior executive. I believe it is a path to happiness. I just, I genuinely believe a lot of people here have deeper passions than what you're doing right now for your living. And I think it's worth potentially scratching those itches.
- [17:53]
Matt
So Gary, on stage you have a very specific way that you exhibit yourself and use hands.
- [18:00]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [18:01]
Matt
And you have your hat, you know, Is all that by choice?
- [18:06]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The reverse? The reverse, yeah. It's really funny. I love that both of your questions kind of have the same answer. When I first hit the scene, I wrote a book in 2009 called Crush it which really talked about what I thought was gonna happen and ended up happening with social media. And all this went very viral. I was pretty unknown. I was in the wine world, but definitely not in the business world. And I started getting asked to speak, and I don't know if you picked up on this, but I curse, and I'm very casual. And today, the way I'm dressed on stage, even in an event like this, you can kind of somewhat get away with it. The casualization of business over the last 15 years has happened. In 2009, it wasn't there yet. And CAA was my speaking bureau at the time, and they called me because I was naturally good at it. I didn't know that I was a good public speaker, and you could see how I speak. It's very improv. It's very like. It's not a presentation. Even for the people that follow me the most, they'll see things that I say often, but there's always new shit. It's contextual. My speaking bureau reached out to me, like, pretty aggressive in, like, a good way. They came from a good place. They're like, bro, you could be, like, a legitimate speaker. Like, you could be big. Like, this could work for you. And it's very lucrative. But you have to start wearing a suit, and you can't curse. And they didn't even finish the sentence. And I said to them, you just. I'm like, thank you. Because they were coming from a good place. I'm like, you just don't know me. I'm not capable of that. I'm just really great at one thing, which is being comfortable in my own skin and dealing with the ramifications of that pro and con. That is my greatest skill set. So all of that is just really how I live my life. And I'm okay that people won't book me to speak because they don't want someone to curse or they think it's disrespectful to be too casual. I respect that. That's their house. That's their event. They're allowed. But I'm not interested in feeling uncomfortable because I can't be my best self when I'm speaking. I want to impact people. Like, all of you just saw that talk. I was, like, reinforcing over and over the same thing, because I know the three little. There's like, three or four things for that collective group. Knowing there was a lot of different people in there. Those were the three things that if they did, better, shit would happen. And, like, if I'm not comfortable, I'm not gonna be able to authentically, like, hit. Do you know what I mean? And I'm aware that there's people in there that thought it was inappropriate that I Cursed. I believe that every time. Like, I believe that and I respect that. But. But I also know on the flip side that talk has much more impact on the collective than most talks that would be given. And that's all you could ask for, right? Have as big of an impact. So. No, I don't. I don't. I'm not like Vince McMahon and like creating a character that I think will work. I just got very fortunate that the world went in my direction. I always think about myself of like, who the hell would have I been if I was doing business in the 60s, 70s and 80s? It would have been tough because I wouldn't have gone there and it just. I would have been some sort of different thing. I mean, it might have been better. I might have been very unique and a trailblazer. But no, I'm just not comfortable of doing anything that doesn't come naturally to me. I just always feel like it's icky and off and me, like, not in my pure form is like bad.
- [21:22]
Raghav
My last kind of insuretech was a new play management space. Did the VC train. Built it, sold, got acquired, integrated in, left starting a venture studio. Curious with the VC landscape. The pros, cons of the venture studio model, new asset class.
- [21:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I mean, the venture studio concept, which I've flirted with a lot. These are like where you're incubating multiple businesses. You know, I assume you're bringing in some founders, you own a piece. Like it's. You know, honestly, I really, really love that concept because I'm very creative and I have 100 ideas. So I think this will be your most enjoyable venture because you're gonna be able to scratch a lot of inches. What inevitably happens in these models is if you're good, one's gonna take off and then that's gonna eat up a lot of energy. So you gotta keep that in mind if you want that or not want that. But what do I think? I think money's expensive right now. There's nobody in this industry that's confused by interest rates. So money's expensive. So it changes all the rules. The VCs have all the leverage after they have had none in the last decade. Like you literally had to beg people to take your money. Think about that right now. VCs have the leverage, which I think is more appropriate. I think it was a little frothy, a little bullshit. I don't think people were building companies, they were building financial arbitrage machines trying to get to it, you know what I mean? So me Personally, I think vc. Being a VC right now is great. Your money's more valuable. It's harder to get LPs, so it depends on how much powder you're sitting on. And then as far as a venture studio model, I think the more creative you are, the more it's the right model because otherwise you're just a financier and it's boring for operators.
- [22:55]
Raghav
We're doing like hybrid too. It's not just about unicorns.
- [22:59]
Gary Vaynerchuk
If it's cash flow, like creating cash, go figure.
- [23:02]
Raghav
I know, right?
- [23:04]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I know, I know. But that's because venture capital just wants to show a multiplier to raise more lp. Like it's a full ecosystem. I think, I think you're going down in the right way. What would be your next venture? You know, it's funny, I. Similar to the other questions, like, I don't. I'm a. I'm a counter puncher. I'm a counter puncher.
- [23:23]
Dustin
What does that mean?
- [23:24]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It means that I don't sit and say I want my next venture to be bubblegum or SaaS. Like what I. Because I day trade attention. I'm just kind of constantly watching. I'll give you themes that you might find interesting. I'm completely infatuated with the continent of Africa. The sheer talent and brain power and the youth. I think the stat goes something like in the next 15 years, like 35% of the people under 25 in the world will live on the continent of Africa. So like, I like using history as a predictor. So if you really pay attention to what's happened in the Middle east in the last 30 years, you can see a very. Obviously, there's so many different geopolitics. There's a lot that's different, but there's a lot that's the same. So, for example, I don't know what my next venture is, but I know that I'm incredibly bullish on Africa. And so what that will do is it will make me read for two hours about things going on in Africa, which may lead to something as interesting as, oh, there's a super fruit that only grows in Kenya, right. That I know the African market in the next 30 years is gonna be mature as a consumer market, but I could also import it to the US and get all the coastal people that are trying to live that life curious. I did that with Monk Fruit. My fiance's very health doubt. And she's like in pillow talk, she's like, she's like, you have to do something with Monk Fruit. And I pulled up an email that I sent to Phil Toronto, who works for me in 2013 and it just said, monk Fruit, we need to research it. She was blown away. And it was like a perfect story I could tell all of you of like how I actually work. I stay uncomfortably curious around different thesises and then because of that, right. So I'm building a Pokemon meets Sesame street intellectual property called V Friends. I've been wanting to build something like it for a long time. Originally was called Workplace Warriors. I was going to do little toys and figurines for your desk because I think a lot of us know like what cubicles look like. But I bought Bitcoin and Ethereum in 201315 like and was watching it. And then when I saw the NFT thing was starting to mature, I decided to launch the IP as an NFT while equally making videos that 99, 99% of NFTs were gonna go to zero. So it was a very complex. I'm all in on the macro, be careful of the micro. But now I'm very far along. Yesterday I was in New York City on a float for the Halloween parade trading. If you go to ebay right now and type in veefriends, you will be blown away with the pins and stickers and trading cards. I'm announcing a major YouTube Kids initiative with some of the biggest animators in the world. World. Like I'm actively building a Marvel, a hello Kitty, a Pokemon right now. I would have, I didn't really think three years ago that that's what I was going to do. So I'm staying. I stay very curious about a lot of things and then I act on it. But you have to be careful to not just follow a trend because you think it's a trend. Crypto this, cannabis that, right? AI this. You see those kind of people who are just always on to the next thing. For me, I am on to the next thing a lot, but it's always fitting a strength or something I've been thinking about. It's why I started a marketing company first. After I left my dad's business, I knew that marketing was my superpower. So I wanted to build a huge infrastructure. Do you guys know Rezi, the restaurant app? Yeah. That was incubated at VaynerMedia. I am the co founder of Resi. So Resi was built inside of Vayner with people outside and inside of Vayner joining it. I started a direct to consumer wine brand called Empathy Wines that I sell to Consolation. So I built a marketing infrastructure, almost like an operating system, so that I can then groom that talent and then put them into other ventures who know my way, which is very much what I spoke about. Like, what I spoke about is unique. Like, I really do care about kindness in the workplace and, like, safety. I'm pretty sure most of the keynotes at this conference over the years have not spent 15 minutes on kindness in company culture. I think it's foundational, and so you'd imagine I'm better off grooming talent that believes in it because it's hard to teach people it because they don't believe you. Everybody says they care about culture, but nobody does. So these are things I think about.