Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working (and How to Fix It)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The GaryVee Audio Experience - "Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working (and How to Fix It)"

Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Release Date: January 2, 2025
Duration: Approximately 74 minutes

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Introduction: The Critical Role of Attention (00:00 - 05:00)

Gary Vaynerchuk opens the episode by emphasizing the paramount importance of attention in the modern marketing landscape. He asserts that attention is the "singular most important asset" for anyone aiming to achieve their goals, whether it’s curing a disease, running for office, selling a product, or acquiring clients.

Gary Vaynerchuk [00:00]: "I believe that attention is the singular most important asset for anybody trying to achieve anything."

He reflects on his personal journey, highlighting how his innate understanding of attention has been pivotal in his success. Gary shares early stories from his childhood lemonade stand and baseball card ventures, illustrating his natural knack for capturing and maintaining attention without formal education or conventional marketing techniques.

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The Evolution of Marketing: From Traditional to Digital (05:00 - 15:00)

Gary critiques traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, newspapers, and radio, arguing that while they may have been effective in the past, they are no longer sufficient in today's digital-centric world. He underscores the effectiveness of digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, citing brands like Wish and Fashion Nova as prime examples of success through social media strategies.

Gary Vaynerchuk [10:45]: "The ROI of something is completely predicated on how good you are at it... Fashion Nova does a billion dollars in revenue on the back of 100% Instagram influencer strategy."

Gary challenges marketers to rethink their strategies, suggesting that reliance on outdated methods makes businesses vulnerable in an ever-evolving marketplace. He emphasizes that being a digital native—actively engaging and producing content across various online platforms—is essential for building brand reputation and long-term success.

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Building Brand Through Content: Strategies and Insights (15:00 - 30:00)

Central to Gary’s message is the concept of content as a means to build brand reputation rather than merely generating leads. He advocates for a "give, give, give, then ask" approach, where providing genuine value through content should precede any sales pitch.

Gary Vaynerchuk [18:30]: "Produce content that actually brings people value and not mix in a sales call. It's very disciplined, it's very difficult."

Gary advises businesses to leverage various content forms—videos, podcasts, comics, audio memos—to connect with their audience authentically. He emphasizes the importance of consistency and relevance, urging marketers to tailor their content to specific demographics and psychographics to maximize engagement and trust.

Gary Vaynerchuk [25:15]: "Be contextual. If you're from Chicago, reference local elements that resonate with your audience."

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Q&A Session: Practical Marketing Applications (30:00 - 70:00)

The latter half of the episode features an extensive Q&A session where Gary addresses questions from audience members, predominantly professionals like lawyers seeking to enhance their marketing strategies.

Key Questions and Gary’s Responses:

1. Allocating Marketing Budget Across Platforms (35:20 - 38:30)

   • Question: How should brands distribute their limited marketing budgets across platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and emerging channels?
   • Gary’s Advice: Allocate approximately 70% to traditional digital platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn), 20% to traditional methods (search, direct mail), and 5-10% to experimenting with new and emerging platforms.

   Gary Vaynerchuk [36:00]: "Spend 70% on Facebook and LinkedIn, 20% on traditional methods, and 5-10% on new stuff to get used to it."

2. Building Trust on Social Media for Traditional Professions (29:09 - 31:18)

   • Question: How can professionals in traditionally distrustful industries (e.g., law, medicine) build trust on social media?
   • Gary’s Advice: Focus on providing educational and valuable content rather than overt sales pitches. Share insights, tips, and real-life scenarios that demonstrate expertise and genuine intent to help.

   Gary Vaynerchuk [29:12]: "How do you build trust? By not being a douchebag... provide value consistently."

3. Content Creation for Lawyers Handling Sensitive Cases (54:06 - 57:57)

   • Question: How can lawyers handling catastrophic injuries create impactful content without compromising client confidentiality?
   • Gary’s Advice: Focus on storytelling that highlights your expertise and the value you provide without delving into specific cases. Use Q&A formats, provide general legal advice, and share success stories that emphasize client well-being.

   Gary Vaynerchuk [54:28]: "Tell the joke about the fries you ate... provide value without making it a testimonial."

4. Navigating Generational Gaps in Family Businesses (66:16 - 74:11)

   • Question: How can younger members in family-run businesses convince older generations to adopt modern marketing techniques?
   • Gary’s Advice: Employ empathy and patience, understanding the foundational work the older generations have put into the business. Alternatively, persistently demonstrate the effectiveness of new methods until there is buy-in.

   Gary Vaynerchuk [72:34]: "Deploy empathy and wait your fucking turn because they built a huge business... or put heavy pressure through consistent action."

Notable Highlights:

• Empathy in Marketing: Gary stresses the importance of understanding and empathizing with your audience’s needs and preferences to build meaningful connections.

  Gary Vaynerchuk [61:37]: "Because most people try to go into cultures and take... you have to provide them value."

• Contextual Advertising: Tailoring ads to specific demographics and psychographics enhances relevance and engagement.

  Gary Vaynerchuk [50:27]: "Make a video in Spanglish targeting 44 to 49-year-old women in San Diego... bring context."

• Handling Negative Feedback: Engage with negative reviews constructively but recognize that genuine leads often remain unaffected by them.

  Gary Vaynerchuk [73:56]: "People don’t believe other people’s reviews as much as we think they do... actions over words are important."

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Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Marketing (70:00 - End)

Gary wraps up the episode by reiterating the necessity of shifting focus from traditional lead generation to building a robust brand through consistent, value-driven content. He underscores that adaptability and a genuine understanding of human behavior are critical for sustaining relevance in an increasingly digital world.

Gary Vaynerchuk [74:00]: "The reason we're going to break the whole sports agency game... whoever provides the most value always wins."

He encourages listeners to take actionable steps immediately—such as running targeted ads, creating varied content, and engaging authentically with their audience—to pivot their marketing strategies towards long-term success.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Attention is Paramount: Focus marketing efforts on capturing and maintaining audience attention through valuable content.
2. Embrace Digital Platforms: Leverage social media and online channels over traditional marketing methods for better ROI and brand building.
3. Consistent Content Creation: Provide continuous, value-driven content tailored to specific audiences to build trust and reputation.
4. Adaptability: Stay ahead by experimenting with new platforms and techniques, ensuring your marketing strategies remain effective.
5. Empathy and Authenticity: Understand and empathize with your audience’s needs, presenting your brand as a trustworthy and valuable resource.

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By implementing Gary Vaynerchuk’s insights and strategies, businesses can overhaul ineffective marketing approaches, build strong brand reputations, and achieve sustained success in the digital era.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience. Hey everybody. Actually, 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. 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. You got your perspective. I just want to be happy. Don't you want to be happy? YouTube, what's up? So, so grateful that you clicked and you're about to watch a new YouTube video. But before you do. 212-931-5731 that is my texting community platform. I'm doing a lot of one on one engagement in there and also access opportunity first looks in that environment. 212-931-5731 join it now. And now to the video you've been wanting to watch. So super excited to be here. A lot to talk about. I also spoke with the organizer so I'm going to try to do quite a bit of Q and A because I think the framework of where I see the opportunity for many in the room is not overly complicated. And what I'd really like to do is give this audience the opportunity to ask a detailed question about maybe their attempts within the execution and why it didn't work or how they see the perspectives in a different way. So very simply to set up this conversation. I believe that attention is the singular most important asset for anybody trying to achieve anything, whether that's to cure a disease, run for office, sell a sneaker, get a client to create anything. To create anything, you need one's attention and and then the variable of what comes out of your mouth or what you create becomes the way it happens. I have had an incredibly interesting relationship with attention my whole life. It took me probably until five years ago really questioning 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 yet continues to not be for the masses? What is this thing? What is my life? Why does 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, studio apartment, multiple family members in it, complete and utter lack of entitlement, while also having a wildly loving mother who built disproportionate self esteem but knew how to stop right before it became delusion. And, and that is really the balance I think many parents in the room are trying to figure out. And we're Starting to understand 8th place trophies are a really stupid fucking idea. And so that happened. But where it really took me to was my first business, which was a lemonade stand business When I was 6, 7 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 the streets of New Jersey, 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 four or five hours 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. 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. 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 three to a $60 million business in five 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 were human beings doing right now. To be a person in this room looking for leads and growing their business 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 $1,000 worth of Facebook ads and it didn't work doesn't mean that Facebook doesn't work. It means that you suck. 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 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, or whatever is being invented by a 13 year old girl in Tennessee right now is the better thing to do than right now 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 cause 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. 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 conversation starts with and actually I won't use his cause he didn't go that far into it. Let me actually paint a much clearer picture. I spend my life since 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 going to 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. 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. 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. I really believe in Vogue and all this other horseshit. And I said to him, I took a step back, I said, love it, five seconds. Just for myself. Cause 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. It's real. Let me make it perfectly clear before we get into Q and 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. I am doing this keynote because it's being filmed and I Want to be historically correct and I will re air it in eight 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 there's no confusion. I prefer you don't do anything. I'm talking about this morning. 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 isn't fucking college up here. This is everyday real life. I built two businesses from scratch. One from scratch, excuse me, to a 200 million dollar business over the last nine years in revenue profitable, not valuation. I built a $3 million business doing $300,000 in gross profit before expenses with no credit line and no venture backed money to a $60 million business in five 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 that just retired and went to the hall of Fame. Recently 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 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 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. 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? That is my marketing strategy. 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 cell phones? 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. Hi. Hi. Makes sense. And I'm a fan. I built my dad's business on it. You want to talk about real good Google? I was there day one. Literally day one. 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. 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, you're fucking old and you're finished. So real quick, hands. Next six years, raise your hands. Retiring next six years. Firm. Okay, so for the five of you, for the five 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. What are you gonna do then? Just curious, what are you gonna do then? 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 search terms are expensive, wait till you see what a referral from a voice device is going to cost you. Oh, no, by the way, only one 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. Because if you're not, you're going to 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. This is real. And in a room where only five people are, are retiring in the next six years, and by the way, three of them looked way too young to be retiring in the next six years. I highly recommend everybody understands that we're at a massive crossroads in technology where personal brand is not some goofy 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 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 and 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 the 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, 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 a prophet, a futuristic. You know, I'm not fucking Yoda. I just respect two 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 and building awareness around that human being. And that's it. So that's what I think is happening. I couldn't recommend a couple things more. And we're about to do Q and A, so start thinking about questions. Couple things. Number one, when producing content to use it as a lead gen for your business, the number one rule is to do everything reverse 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. There's also a lot of people that may just hire you because you're a Chief span and sharing. That variable matters too. 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 that you may know. Nobody produces more content a day than me. I've 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. 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 your 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, 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 wanna 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 to speak on your behalf. Not building brand on the digital platforms of today is completely unacceptable. 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, 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 cause you're crushing some search term 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 AAA lawyer guy and then that medium went away. 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. This is why everybody declines. 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. Thank you. Hey guys, sorry to interrupt your video. I'm just giving you this call for my number to let you know that you have to join my text community. 212-931-5731. Hit me up with a text. Let's go. Right here. How are you? Sir, 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. I'll go fast. Very good. Big fan. Follow you. Thank you. What's your name? Paul Faust. Ryan Lovis texted you. Yeah. Do you have a sense of, you know, percentage when you're spending, like right now? You let you. 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 with 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 is the. And one other question, 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. These are arbitrary numbers, intuition. I'm going 70 there. I'm taking my hundred 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 hundred days you'll have a decline of leads and they'll bail because they're soft. Hi.

[Audience Member 1]

Hi, Amy. Rebecca.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hi, Amy.

[Audience Member 1]

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 and trust according. Right? According to all the media and the social.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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

[Audience Member 1]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By not being true. What kind of douchebag? I mean it.

[Audience Member 1]

By being a douchebag. That's how you build the trust.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By not.

[Audience Member 1]

By not by not.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I think. 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 in a douchebag, right? So, like, thanks, Abe. 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. Whereas instead, nobody's educating who's putting out the five minute video of like, hey, if this happens, here are three 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, then you. Like, everyone's. So basically everyone in the industry treats the customers the way scummy dudes go to the bar at 11:30 at night, they're trying to close in that moment. And a little romance goes a long way, right, ladies? Like, just give me five fucking seconds. Fuck that.

[Audience Member 1]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know you did raise your hand. So you consume a little bit of my content.

[Audience Member 1]

Yes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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

[Audience Member 1]

Yes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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. 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. 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 two. 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. Doesn't come natural. It's a little different. But that's how the biggest things in the world are built. Of course, you got to play it differently to be much bigger. You can continue to play in the margins, grow 3%, 2%, 9% until you don't. Sir, how are you? Thank you. Oh, I'm, I'm. You. You don't have a mic, right? The gentleman in the back with the mic. You don't need to get a mic, brother. Sorry. Go ahead, sir.

[Audience Member 2]

Thank you. Anthony Knowles from Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, Anthony, you said produce content at scale. Can you define what you mean by at scale?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How much content do you produce now, Anthony?

[Audience Member 2]

Very little.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You mean zero. I know you lawyers. 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're just part of the Arizona group of professionals and you're bringing value. Like when I started my career, you're part of the community which I know has worked for a lot of you that haven't. The people in here who haven't advertised leveraged being part of the community and built a word of mouth kind of business. So listen, even if you did a thought of the day, how long have you been doing your job, sir?

[Audience Member 2]

22 years.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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 22 seconds on my 22 years of experience on LinkedIn every day and you just talked about things you learned or things you thought you will not believe. How much value for your own business you get when you bring value into the world. Even if you talk 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 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, 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 1000 people will see it 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 in my expertise, tips. So that's what I would say, sir.

[Audience Member 2]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're welcome. Hi. Hey. Hey. We're good. What's up, Gary? I'm Ali Awad and I get my clients Awad of money. My question is this. Jesus. Go ahead, bro. So there's a huge age difference here. So some of us are in our 20s and 30s, some of us are in our 50s and 60s. Not a lot of us have the benefit of being on billboards, radio, TV ads for so many years. So we want to talk about practicality. I know you bring this up all the time. 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 $6000 in ads and made a little over 3 million in revenue. Realized this shit kind of works, right? Practically, if you're saying 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 Facebook ads only. And is it more important in the marketing dollars or in the content creation? The marketing amplification dollars? The content creation, when you have such limited money, should be you and an iPhone. Okay. 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 100 bucks to get in front of in a. Feed a ton of people that are 55 to 60 in Chicago. Facebook. Awesome.

[Audience Member 2]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You got it? Yes, sir. James Dutton. Hey, James. I'm from here in Georgia and in a very rural area. Okay. 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. Makes sense. Somebody wants a criminal defense attorney, they go to this guy, and that's it. I get it. Even though that guy's retired and it's his associates now that are the ones doing it. How do you run a. Run a Facebook ad.

[Audience Member 2]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

To that area. Yeah. How do I overcome the. That level of. 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 four years, and you're actually getting Carol. 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. Thank you. You're welcome. Who's got the mics? Let's make sure we spread out. Hey, sir. Yep.

[Audience Member 2]

Hey, Gary.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How are you?

[Audience Member 2]

I'm excellent. I feel excellent.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Audience Member 2]

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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Audience Member 2]

Here's a problem I have.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Audience Member 2]

I don't care what anyone says.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good.

[Audience Member 2]

If you have someone who's catastrophically injured, you're never going to 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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I understand.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Audience Member 2]

In Savannah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Audience Member 2]

None of them. The only one I've ever seen at the courthouse was getting sentenced for stealing from his client. They don't get full justice, and they sell people down the river. They take the quip money most of the time. They take the million that's offered, or they take the two or they take the three.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Mediation makes sense to me.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Audience Member 2]

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. Okay, 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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's your fault.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I just fucking told you for the last 35 minutes beyond what you've said. 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.

[Audience Member 2]

All right, One question, please. It's nice to go all over the country and try cases, but I don't want 50 states. I only 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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So only run your ads in your area. 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. I run ads every day. I'm a practitioner like you said, sir, you're a practitioner. They play one on TV, right? 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 seven 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 cost 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? You're trying to sell T shirts. They're on the phone. Go on the phone. People are making decisions about their market, 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. 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. 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.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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 $1,000 worth of ads.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Bro. I don't care if you're fucking the Lord Jesus Christ. I need you to go fucking home and run ads. Thank. I like getting churchy in the south. Yes. Hey, Gary. I'm Gabriel Sanchez from Los Angeles. Pleasure. Big fan. Wake up in the morning on the treadmill. Listening to your podcast. Thank you.

[Audience Member 2]

Awesome.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

A lot of value. Thank you. Thank you. So, personal injury. Laura, Los Angeles. I have some of the. It's super fierce. Sometimes I'm surprised I even. Yeah, I got guys spinning millions of dollars a month in advertising. Some of the biggest firms are in Los Angeles. They're all over the world. Yes, I got like 12 attorneys, personal attorneys, just in my building. So most of my business, it's all referral based. Started off with five clients about four years ago. We have 190 now. Awesome. 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, Facebook, Instagram, they're doing that. And that's what pisses me off. Yeah. And that's because 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 till 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 the punchline of your question. You have to be better, more contextual, more specific. Just like early Google. At first I 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. 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 San Diego. 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. 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. Cause I target 60 year olds and they hate 25 year olds. You understand? That's genius. I love it. 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. Got it. 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. Thank you. You're welcome. Hey, what's up, Gary?

[Audience Member 3]

Brent Sibley, personal injury lawyer from Miami. Thank you for the selfie outside. Actually already running that selfie on Instagram as an ad right now.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I respect it. I fucking love it.

[Audience Member 3]

I shit you not.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Just don't make it douchey.

[Audience Member 3]

No, it's just me and you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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. Cause they tag me and in the caption are like, long, full day meeting with Gary Vee, strategizing the future.

[Audience Member 3]

Nope, Just put legend in is in the house.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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

[Audience Member 3]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead.

[Audience Member 3]

Anyway, here we go. About a year ago, I saw something from you saying how underpriced stories were on Instagram.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So I Instagram stories, right? Just for everybody. There's the Instagram meme feed and the stories, the ads in there are super underpriced still. Keep going.

[Audience Member 3]

So I pretty much took that to heart. I was at a point in my life, have 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 10 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 barely asking for anything. People love it. How do I. I'm struggling to push that and grow that and 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 saying, how are they going to grow that personal brand?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It means you're running the ads poorly. Like, think about it. You're going too generic with the ads. So if you'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 Targeted. Where do you live?

[Audience Member 3]

Miami. Out of Toro.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Right? If you're like, Miami, what's up? You know? Or, I mean, you could target Dolphins. Are you a fucking Dolphins fan? No, worse.

[Audience Member 3]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Respect. Do you like anything?

[Audience Member 3]

I like Tiger Woods. He went through a huge battle.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You gave up on the NFL, but not on Tiger Woods.

[Audience Member 3]

And I've been proven right.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There's some hypocrisy shit going on in here today. Anyway, what you need to do is not run vanilla to vanilla. You need to go a little more specific with those, and you need to create some context. And you need to say it right away because you have a second in the story. So, which is. It was fun that this is the transition. Notice how I said I record hey, Cleveland. That hey, Cleveland, before I go into parenting or whatever, is what keeps somebody in there because they're like, I'm from Cleveland. And then if I make a Bone Thugs and Harmony reference, now we're really tripping. Got it. You have to bring context. 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 WineText. Not enough people use Vaynermedia. Not enough people use 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. Give, give, give. And then ask because the net is still bigger because the casket is so wide. Is it? Sometimes. 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 $47 million because all I did was watch your videos and did it. And then I'll reply only once out of every 10 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. 47 million. Couldn't throw a guy a case. As long as you understand that. Give, give, give. Too many people when they give. And this is what is wrong with 90% of the marketing in this room. When they give, they have expectation to get in return. Which means they're not giving, they're manipulating. 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. Why don't you actually give a free consultation call? Film it, tell the person you're filming it. Hey, Ron, I'm giving you this free consultation call. I'm filming it for my Facebook because I feel very comfortable with what I'm saying. Is that okay with you? No, it's not okay with me. No problem. We won't fill. Hey, Karen, I'm about to give you this free consultation call. Just want you to know I want to film it and put it on my Facebook. Is that okay with you? Yeah, that's fine. And then actually give the best possible advice that may lead to not even having a transaction and then put that video on Facebook and LinkedIn and watch your miraculous lead gen explode. There's a tactic. There's more details. There you go. Hi, how are you?

[Audience Member 1]

Hi, my name's Kat Tominy. I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hi, Kat.

[Audience Member 1]

My husband over here is the trial lawyer.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I see him. Good looking dude. Good job.

[Audience Member 1]

Huge fan.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you.

[Audience Member 1]

I love. I'm. I have a lot of your personality traits.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good. You must be amazing.

[Audience Member 1]

But the biggest, I've just started helping Frank with his marketing office because he's been practicing 32 years. Top trial lawyer of Louisiana. My biggest concern is we handle like quadriplegics.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Audience Member 1]

Catastrophic. Catastrophic.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Sensitive stuff. And I just don't.

[Audience Member 1]

I mean, I don't know where to begin with that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, you don't share that. It's no different than me choosing not to share my children because I don't want to put them on blast and I'll let them decide if they want to be known instead of what most people do, which is it's cute and they get three extra likes and they don't think you're not gonna put out content. What are you gonna ask for somebody in such a terrible. This is why I love you already. One, I love him because he looks like he beat the shit out of anybody. Two, I love you because you're asking the right question. That's so awesome. Of course not. What are you gonna ask somebody to make a video that's in such a terrible spot? For your own personal gain. Of course you're not. So you don't. You don't need to do that. I'm not looking for testimonials out here. Nobody believes them anyway. Let me save you time. Nobody believes them anyway. Hi. I see you. What's that? I see it. Great. For the. One minute left. Yeah, I'm gonna go a little late. So I. 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 real stuff. 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. It's New Vayner Sports. You know, every kid in Georgia, you have to recruit. What a talented 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. 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.

[Audience Member 1]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Audience Member 1]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay. Yeah, 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 when you first started your career and said, use me. No, you, like, started networking. You can network with content.

[Audience Member 1]

Thank you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You got it, sir. Or. Okay, we'll go there. Yep. Ma'am, how are you?

[Audience Member 1]

I'm doing great, Gary. Awesome. The question I have, 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 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?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Keep the mic. I wanna make sure I understand the framework of your question when you say early adopters. Cause 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 wanna understand is, are we talking about the content you can put out on the places where people currently. Currently are or start building early reputation on things like TikTok or when anything. Go ahead.

[Audience Member 1]

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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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

[Audience Member 1]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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. 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?

[Audience Member 1]

Colorado.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Great. If you started the 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 in Colorado, the likelihood of 12 of those people using you, once they even. 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.

[Audience Member 1]

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. I mean, 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?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Do a Q and a show.

[Audience Member 1]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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 and A show and you answer it. And now you're providing value.

[Audience Member 1]

Excellent.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Q and A is a great way to start.

[Audience Member 1]

Thanks, Gary.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You got it, sir. Hey, Gary, how are you?

[Audience Member 2]

My name's William. I'm with my [e-mail] I got a good question. You're big in the black community online. How are you able to translate the different cultures and actually win?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Because most people try to go into cultures and take.

[Audience Member 2]

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

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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

[Audience Member 2]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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 da 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 going to break the whole sports agency game and do the whole Jerry Maguire on everybody's face is because we're going to bring more value to the kids. It's not super complicated. 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 going to 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 into bringing more value. It's empathy.

[Audience Member 2]

Appreciate it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Sir. Hey, thanks so much for all 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. How much money and content a day do you spend On Facebook and LinkedIn? We spend about two grand a month. Right, Facebook and LinkedIn. Okay. And there's no other platforms like Facebook stories. LinkedIn. One final question. I like Instagram stories. I do think they're grossly underpriced. But I Love Facebook and LinkedIn because 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. 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. So you have to be contextual. Right. Slang matters. That's not disrespectful. That's being a chameleon and being empathetic if you actually mean it. So the thing that I want you to do is really be contextual in those two platforms. Cause they're grossly underpriced with their targeted ads. LinkedIn's underpriced on organic. Now if you put 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 you don't want to 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 three years make more revenue than everybody here just on referrals. Don't make me do that. 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 did it. 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 one. That's what's really happening out here. Final question. What do I have to do to get a selfie with you? My wife said, run up here right now, sir. Oh, you're actually running shit. Okay. You took that very literally. My wife said, don't come home without a selfie. Awesome. Real pleasure. Take care.

[Audience Member 3]

Hey, Gary, how are you doing? Good, how are you?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good.

[Audience Member 3]

I've been practicing law 16 weeks.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And 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 4? Like, go ahead.

[Audience Member 3]

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 going to retire in six years. They just want to 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 going to work because I'm going to be running the business one day.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

One of two ways. A, you deploy empathy and wait your fucking turn because they built a huge business. 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. 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 could 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 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. I walked into my dad's business, I built a business from three to $60 million. I worked seven 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 a year. Because that's old school family stuff. And at 34, I had no net worth. Cause 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. 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.

[Audience Member 4]

Edward Lake from Long island in Florida, two questions for you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

First, first of all, your voice alone, good or bad? Great. Okay, brother. I could monetize that thing for at least 10 million.

[Audience Member 4]

Okay. We could talk. We could talk. We could talk.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead.

[Audience Member 4]

I could do some voiceovers.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let's go.

[Audience Member 4]

How do you handle, by the way?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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?

[Audience Member 4]

Ed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hey, Ed. It's perfect. Hey, Ed, you know, I happened to catch 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.

[Audience Member 4]

Now I get to ask my question.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead. See, even your personal. I fucking love you, Ed.

[Audience Member 4]

Here's my question. Everybody wants to do with business with you personally. They, when they, when they hire your media company, they want you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You're wrong, Ed. And you're wrong.

[Audience Member 4]

That's what I'm asking you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, I'm giving you the fucking answer.

[Audience Member 4]

How do you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By telling them up front, you don't fucking get me.

[Audience Member 4]

Okay, so. So you're branding yourself, but they're not getting you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Because my organization follows my religion.

[Audience Member 4]

But when you're a trial lawyer. Wait a minute, this is important. When you're a trial lawyer, your reputation.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So charge more, Ed.

[Audience Member 4]

No, no, no. It's based on your. Your, Ed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I understand where you're going, brother. Yes, I sure do. They want you.

[Audience Member 4]

Correct? Now I'm going to give them to an associate and they're going to go, but I wanted you, Ed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There's only two fucking things. When you sell yourself, you either tell them they don't get you up front, 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 pay me $100,000 an hour to consult.

[Audience Member 4]

And that's my question.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Charge more ads. Wait a minute.

[Audience Member 4]

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.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's exactly what I'm saying, Ed. But what I'm saying to them is my people are better than the alternative. You just have to be better than the alternative.

[Audience Member 4]

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 law firm with lawyers and market yourself.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm in the same business as you, brother. I'm literally in the same business business as you. I'll tell you why. Because I'm a better operator, okay? Because I educate my people, because I have process.

[Audience Member 4]

But you have to be. 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 going to turn it off because I really don't want to do work.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Audience Member 4]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't try to convince them. I go to the next guy or gal. Okay.

[Audience Member 4]

The second part of this is how do you handle the negative reviews, which you seem to get a lot? I read you all. You know, I'm on.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Audience Member 4]

And we get part of the reason. Okay, let me back up. We do a lot. A lot of Facebook advertising.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, sir.

[Audience Member 4]

Five, six figures a month sometimes. And when you put a Facebook ad, a legal ad roundup, everybody's probably seen you get 90% of negative.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Audience Member 4]

Reviews. And I'm concerned about that hurting the reputation.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Can I ask you a question of.

[Audience Member 4]

Your law firm already existing, and how do you handle those negative. Those negative reviews?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I reply to them as often as I can. Keep it with Ed a little bit here because I'm wrapping up and just in case, because it's asking great questions and we might bring some value here. Number one, how long have you been running five or six figures on Facebook?

[Audience Member 4]

A couple years, probably years.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So my intuition is actions over words are important. So I have a funny feeling, Ed, because I can feel you, because I see you're no schlemiel. I have a funny feeling you continue to believe that that's a good thing for your business.

[Audience Member 4]

I do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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.

[Audience Member 4]

Okay. Fair enough.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And that's why it's working for you, right? You've been doing for a couple of years.

[Audience Member 4]

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 really understand.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

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. It's no different than my favorite thing that's happening in society now. Everybody's all about in their hashtag and on social media, about MeToo and Black Lives Matter. And the bottom line is 99% of people fucking talk and they act different. 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.