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This portion is, like with me, so I think this is when
you need to get selfish, like you need to ask your question. Hiring is guessing, firing is knowing. You gotta go fast, that's
how you get shit done, that's how you figure stuff out. This is the television and
the television is the radio. The 4Ds, motherfuckers. - [Man] (muffled speaking) That sample with guitar amplifiers, and so it's a pretty niche thing. Yeah, I spend gapes of
my time spinning content around that stuff and
hard to find amplifiers, I'm on a mission to cover every amp, ever. - That's cool.
- Which is too much. - And, where are you based? - [Man] Out of Nashville. - Nashville. - [Shelly] So, I just started working with Jonathan, but my background like, I just started last week, my background is visual bridge strategy, and I've (muffled speaking)
work with, in the past. - Awesome, what was your name, I'm sorry. - Shelly, I'm sorry.
- Shelly, that's okay. - Yeah.
- Awesome. - [Woman] I'm admin of the National (background noises drown out speaker). Personal brand, content creator, takes on a lot of the complacement, mostly we create Facebook
Watch shows (faintly speaking). We average three million
weekly viewers now, I host four Best Vines, Instagram Network (muffled speaking), just started coming on
to revamp that show, so it's more like, we do a rundown, like a daily--
- Yeah, I remember it. - There's like (muffled
speaking) in the bottom space. So, just started that and revamping that, creating pockets for (faintly speaking), and all in all, going back to be more, it's not technically (muffled speaking) coming down to Facebook
episodes, so we had a scale, so that bottleneck is
on (muffled speaking). - I understand. - [Brad] I'm Brad, I do a
woodworking and DIY channel, so it's my own personal brand. I make content around YouTube videos, I'm teaching people how to do woodworking and home repairs, things like that. Most of my stuff is based
off Spofford content, (muffled speaking)
fireplaces, those type things. But, I have growing piece of my business which is digital plan download. So, that was a PDF that teaches you how to make a coffee table, and so that's one of my big
things I'm trying to figure out, is how to help them, and let them know. - Understood. - [Jordan] Jordan Stupar, I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, came here. I have a company called
Sales Domination System, I come from a sales background. I actually met you about five years ago at Grant Karpin's office, and what we do is we build a CRM product, similar to Salesforce, so on and so forth, with a lot of extras. So, that's what we're doing--
- SaaS. - Saas.
- Understood, good to see you again. - [Justin] Justin Johnathan
(muffled speaking) agency, the (faintly speaking) is a, so like, cities, states,
vacation rentals, hotels. Priority for the business is
vacation rentals and hotels. Where property management companies that manage hundreds of
properties, they hire us to help-- - Drive leads, revenue, yep. Understood, where are
you based out of, sir? - [Justin] Knoxville, Tennessee. - [Jody] I'm Jody Statin, I work with a company called Earthscapes. I am pretty much their
sales marketing team. We are a professional
landscaping based in Chattanooga, and we are looking to grow. So, relatively new in the media, branding, we're trying to kind
of, solidify who we are, and get kind of, the right people using some
new different techniques. - Is it an individual business,
or is it a franchise model? - [Jody] It's individual. - One company that's servicing
this channel area, or? Awesome, pleasure. - [Rob] My name's Rob, and
ten weeks new to Chattanooga, just moved here. - From?
- My background is a Fortune 100 company,
a degree'd engineer, was in HR for basically 13 years, and wanted to own my own business. Got into HR in 2000, I
mean, real estate in 2006, the worst time ever. So, that was a lot of fun, but we burned through that, and we ended up having a retail company with the Christy's brand. So, we carried Christy's
in the Tampa Bay market, and we grew that into 13
offices and 225 agents, and I just decided I
wanted to make a change. So, sold out and wanted
to be back in my HR roots, and so now, I own a coaching company, executive coaching company, that I started called the
Return On New Investment, which is basically a play on
the driven CEO of your life. So, everything that's in a
CEO's role, and description, and job, and responsibilities, you're in control of in your life. Again, or what platform
did I (muffled speaking) online courses with, membership based, and I also need a lot of
work (muffled speaking). - I understand. - Hi.
- Hi. - [Angie] I'm Angie Geiser, and I'm from (faintly speaking) Kentucky, and I do content creation
and influencer marketing. - I've heard of it, (group laughing) and you do that as a service, for others? - Yes.
- Understood. - [Angie] We're opening not
as a service for others, it's through our accounts. - I see.
- But, we work with brands. - I see, got it.
- We work with brands. - You have media properties? Or, you have your personal property? - Personal.
- Yours? - Yes.
- It's you? - Yes.
- Understood. - Yes.
- Awesome. - [Stefanie] I'm Stefanie Baker, and I'm from just outside of Houston, and I own a company where we go in and we create outdoor
learning spaces in schools. We build vegetable gardens and teach kids how to grow their own food, and harvest it, but then
it's all built around, using the garden as a tool
for teachers to teach science. So, we send our educators in, and they are the classroom
teachers for outside, for the outdoor classroom. - And, your client in that
scenario is the school system? - The individual schools because-- - The individual schools.
- I don't even want to go near the district
because they don't-- - And, individual schools
have enough anatomy at a superintendent or principal level to make that kind of call? - [Stefanie] Principals. - Nice.
- Yeah. - Cool, that's really neat. That's okay, all right,
good to see you guys. - You too.
- You too, the same. - I know you guys super well, I guess, actually let's do it that way, I mean, actually why don't you
introduce yourselves for context for everybody else. - [Ada] Oh, yeah, so
we're a mentor's program, and what, it's been like
a year now, over a year. So, just working kind of, intimately with now The Sasha Group, no, no, no, that's like a terrible phrase, but we still reach out when we need help, but it's working the
steps to scale business. - In the furniture business, in Florida? And, you names for everybody. - [Ada] I'm Ada. - [John] John. - Awesome, so let's go back around, let's rock and roll,
yeah, what can I answer? - [Man] Dude, I'm so
nervous, I love you so much. (group laughing) (background noises drown out speaker) For real.
- Thank, thank you, man. - [Man] If he was my mentor,
I'd (muffled speaking). - That's very sweet,
thank you for saying that. - [Man] Yeah, no, I mean that. - So, in that, in a
world where, obviously, I'm always so like, petrified to always bring the most value. I think what's going to be interesting, and it's a really fun starting off point, it's super important to think about, are you looking for affirmation, or are you looking to fill in something that I was unable to touch on, since I have to go
somewhat broad at times? And, both are cool, I think, it's wild to think about
how valuable affirmation is. Sometimes it's just, the push, I always talk about the story
of being late to swimming, it wasn't affirmation, it was that my sister starting swimming, I heard it playing knock hockey, and the thought that
my six year old sister, as a nine year old, was
gonna swim before me? Forced me to run, jump in
the pool, as a non-swimmer, scared shitless of
swimming, and literally, next eight minutes, figure
out that I was swimming, and then spend the next decade trying to make pretend I swam first. But, it's one of the few
things she didn't let me win, yeah, I really appreciate that comment, and then what that makes me
do is tell that story to say, hey, are you thinking about it, is it going to be affirmation? 'Cause you know, and you've
set, felt the nuances, and what's the double down? Or, is there something I
haven't been able to touch on, that you've been curious about, or, which I'm sure some of you know this, I think so much of my strength is pulling from opposite directions, so if you listen long enough, the amount of potential contradictions, while what I think it is,
balancing for both sides, may lead to a clarification need. Because, if you're not pulling from both, then you can't pull it off. I think a lot of times I'm
like (muffled speaking), I'm throwing so many
ingredients at everybody, that what I'm starting to realize is like, fuck, all of it doesn't work
if you're missing one of the, I'm like, why is it
working and why is it not? Why are people walking
in and like completely, where they're from external,
internal, transforming, and why are others not? Which led me to insecurities
and all that stuff, but when that's done I'm like, right, you need to do all these things. It's like a really well cooked meal, if you hold of the spice
then it's just not, there's a lot there. So, I think that's a
good way to frame this up for everybody to think about. I don't know if that's
inspired, maybe, a question. - [Man] Hi, so I had my side thing, that became my main thing. I left my family business,
working with my dad, and I was gonna take
that kind of, over 'til, 'til I wasn't. So now--
- Is there disappointment in the system with that?
- No, no, no. - Good. - [Man] But, here's the
thing, I ran his business, and now I just hired Shelly, and I have something
that's really working, and I'm scared about
building this culture, because I didn't always have
the control over that culture, and that was my excuse, to
not do it, to not always-- - You're not sure if it's in you or not, because you had the ability to not even have the ability to do it. Well, I think, even the fact
that you're thinking about it, already makes me optimistic
that you have it in you. The fact you even recognize that question, means that it's something that you value. - [Man] Yeah, yeah. - I mean, here we are, I'm, you're nervous to ask me a question, and the place where you naturally go is actually caring about culture, which already makes me know
that you're probably gonna do a decent job with culture. - [Man] What would you say? How do I show that even in a small-- - By overvaluing human beings, it's not super complicated. If you're playing along,
like, I'm not Mother Teresa, I'm just playing along. I mean, when I look at
DRock, Mickey, and Jesse, and think about, we're now over 20 fucking
years of collective, and just three people
I'm looking at, right? This is ludicrous, we keep people, I mean, Nick is doing such interesting
shit on his own right now, and I watch that and I'm just like pumped, I'm rooting for him so heavy, I don't even have time, I'm so busy that I don't even have time to tell him that directly, I use these moments to
double-dip, to like keep telling him keep going.
- You're super bad at it. (group laughing)
It's super bad. - It's true, though, you know? That's not the way, my dad would've been, would've fired Nick at
the first indication of a leisure apparel brand, he felt like everybody had
to do it for him, you know? Just lean into people,
it's not super complicated. Fucking, we're sitting here
because I promised Mickey that if he joined VaynerMedia, I'd open something in the
south, that is real talk. There was no good strategic reason to open this office, you know? Other than I promise Mickey, and he luckily went to
baseball camp here after I came on a trip here and
fell in love with the city. So, I would actually say
it's stunningly easy. Do you value people more than
you value short-term profit? Most people don't, which is fine, but it's really easy
when you care about it. I think where you have to be careful of, is where I'm at my weakest,
which is you create entitlement, because you lack candor
when you need to make people actually perform on a business. I think, my shortcoming, my
kryptonite has been, ironically, something nobody would
be believe on the way that I communicate publicly,
which is I've been too soft, which has created entitlement. A lot of stuff that I put in the system is trying to coach myself into it. Fire faster, you know like,
these are real things. So, I'm a bleeding heart, I'd
be a great guidance councilor, and a great therapist, and
a lot of other great things. It's where some of the
cross-over's different than me, than others that people have worked for. I'm different, and that's
why I feel different, and it's true and it makes
me have less economics in the short-term, and people out there
make fun of me for that. It's only 'cause they're
judging in the second quarter. Let's see how this all plays out. (man faintly speaking) It's real easy, just choose it. I think the question becomes, what you might be struggling with is, you see certain things that
do work for that business, on doing things that maybe
naturally you wouldn't do, but you haven't seen the alternative, yet. - [Man] Right (muffled speaking). - You're like, oh, right, but dad, or whoever,
your mom, they do that, and then fuck, that actually
does make more money, you just haven't seen the alternative yet. My brother, my dad, others,
make more profit short-term, but they never build the size
of businesses that I build. So, I don't know, the last time I checked 5% of a billion is more
than 29% of $40 million, last time I checked. (group chuckling) You have any questions? I know it's early, but
there might be something. - It is very, very early.
- But, there might be something. - [Woman] I would say (muffled speaking), I just asked him this earlier, but with my (faintly speaking)
visual branch strategy, I was less into the knowledge of all of the ad space, all that that allows you
as far as technical stuff, like geo pins--
- Yes. - [Woman] Things like that, so how is it just a visual, how do I stay, (faintly speaking) in all those changes? Because, that gives me
every change that I see, and how it explains, gives me different ideas for how I can speak in the ad.
- By fully committing to it, I think-- - [Woman] What are the ways to kind of? - By doing the work to be
educated on everything. - Okay.
- By reading, watching videos, by putting in the education work. The biggest issue when
people go from something bigger to something smaller, is the speed and the needs
become way different. There's so many corporate, so many people in corporate right now are trying to join smaller startups, and they obviously come and talk to me, 'cause I've known them. We had a client from Unilever, you know, you worked on Unilever at
some, that's what I thought, Jen Bremner, I sat down with yesterday. Yeah, who like, we didn't necessarily have the greatest run with, and she's looking to
make a move from Unilever to a mid-size company and you know, even though we didn't
have the greatest rub, I do actually think she's got chops. And so, I was giving her advice, I was like, hey, you know, we were talking about that
today with The Sasha Group, Sasha verus Vayner. You guys care in a different way, like it's you livelihood,
it's not even caring, it's surviving versus getting a different job somewhere else. The speed in which, but you still have things that you can really bring to the table. You have to go through the
filter of practicality and speed, instead of ideology and lack of speed, and that's something
you have to get used to. - [Woman] Yeah, okay, cool, thanks. - [Man] How'd you know that? - I know it because I'm really
good at pattern recognition, it's why I listen. I talk a lot about me
listening over talking, 'cause I'm always, especially
I've such a bad rap, because I do interrupt
my guests on my podcasts, but it's because I already know. I know what they're saying, and I'm thinking about the
audience, not my guest, and if they're about
to spend nine minutes, and I know they have to leave for another appearance somewhere, 'cause that's just so everybody knows, I'm not like this chill podcast where it's what you do for the day, and it's all I do for a living. My guests and I are on
a very tight schedule, and I'm saying to myself,
this woman, this man, is about to talk for nine
minutes about something this audience fully knows and
is gonna be complete vanilla? So now, I'm gonna
interrupt, add my two sense, that brings value, and move them forward, and so I'm willing to
get judged and ridiculed by my audience to bring
more value to my audience. I believe my interrupting on my podcast is the single nicest thing
I'm doing for my audience, while my audience scrutinizes
at me for the most, but I'm willing to take that
scrutiny to bring value. Because, what the audience doesn't know is what the show would've
looked like if I let them run, which is we would have
gotten to two things, pure vanilla and see you tomorrow. That is about being consumer centric, that is about pattern recognition, that's about knowing, and so
just hearing it and knowing it. Which goes to the most
interesting part which is, you two can win, you just have to have humility and honesty with each other and over communicate, instead of thinking it in your heads. - [Woman] So, I'm a video
creator, I work for myself, I'm an entertainer, but also for branding (faintly speaking), and you learn those
Facebook ads, whatever. I started as a musician,
I was on the Hoist Tour with my coach, Blake Shelton, for a while. Hated being at the mercy of the system, and sit behind a desk, and need permission to be successful, I ate Cheerios instead
of oatmeal that day. And so, he hated the song I took, worked on for three years
to get that meeting, and one night I got offers to create for an Instagram Network, and just do more personality
during the steps, and I put chickens in a bathtub and it got 19 million views overnight, and it changed my life on Facebook, and I was like, okay, that's easier. I'm making more of that, that
feels good (muffled speaking). - You can actually be creative, go figure. - [Woman] Yeah, and so I
loved it just as much as, started seeing two chickens,
and then said whatever, people love that because it was authentic, I wasn't trying so hard,
and so fast forward, I've been losing money
making videos, everyday. I have a blog 17 people
watch, I didn't care, I fricken loved it, and then
Facebook Watch got ahold of us to make original content, we do two episodes a week for them, and now we're just getting all sorts of really cool opportunities
for distribution, and different--
- Makes sense. - [Woman] Partnerships,
and I'm having a ball. - Good for you.
- I just hired my first group of people to try
to remove the bottleneck, some in editing, some
just taking over emails, and some things I don't need to do. - Let me give a couple of
quick pieces of advice on that, 83% of somebody else, is
better than 100% of just you. The number one mistake that people make when they start to delegate? Is they make a subjective
opinion in their mind of what that should look like, and that's not the way to scale. - [Woman] I think it's gonna
be my biggest hardship. - 100%.
- You know, one little-- - 100%, it's why I jumped
in, back to you know, that's the game. The game is that I've
never even talked to DRock, like after, when we started the vlog, I had to watch a little bit, because I had to teach
him, hey, you're complete, and that's who he was at that raw state, mindset is to make the best YouTube video. You can't put the part where I'm telling Mickey to fire Susan,
she doesn't know yet, that's gonna be a problem. You can't put the part of after
we have the client meeting, I look at one of my team mates and say, that clients a fucking idiot, that's bad. So, at first I had to watch, but that was, help me here, 11 episodes, not a lot of episodes, and since then, I don't watch anything,
I don't watch anything. Now, on Instagram, I'm
titling those things, I'm writing all the copy,
there's a way for you to come in at third and a half base, just don't judge the dugout
to third and half base, and also know that in an hour you're putting out
another piece of content. - Yeah.
- You know? Especially when you have the un-luxury of having a viral hit, too many people then are
looking for that moment again. - Yeah, yeah.
- It's a real killer, if you get unlucky and
have something go crazy, you then get stuck looking for crazy, which means you stop making, make sense? For me, I make a hundred pieces of content that add up to four million views, instead of being crippled for nine days, just making one video, hoping
for four million views, that gets 37,000 views. - [Woman] 'Cause of now, now that we didn't do it so sustainably, and just transparent, one month we'll make $30
grand on the Facebook Page, the next month it makes five, and so in hiring I'm trying to allocate where necessarily, if I'm
paying her $20 an hour, to do TikTok to get my there,
because reach is amazing, then it's, I'm not necessarily
monetizing that yet, but also--
- It's also recognizing the second you're over
focused on monetization, is the second you're limiting your upside. So, to mean it's more about, can you get into a
mental place of realizing how little do you need to live, so that you don't think
about monetization at all. Every time you pander to the monetization, you're limiting your upside, because inherently you start making things for the monetization,
not for the audience. You get into a new
machine, your own machine. - [Woman] Who's got
authenticity (muffled speaking)? - Whether it's authenticity, whatever word we want to put against it, the second your day is about waking up and figuring out how much money YouTube or Facebook's gonna make to you? Versus, what's going to make somebody really wanna watch this? Is the day you start the process
of not being able to win. You know how fun it is that not a single piece of my content, back to a lot of business models here, you know what it feels like
to not make any content with the thought of how does this create a top of the funnel
scenario to a landing page that converts to my livelihood? Yeah, you know, looking at some of you, knowing your business models, that puts me in a position
of being able to win, that's why it's happening,
it also is why you're here. Whoever brings the most value, wins, not whoever creates the
perception of the most value. That person wins in the short-term. - [Woman] The last thing, if I may, would be, I actually
wanna build something, I wanna build a personal brand, not just, I mean, Facebook videos,
'cause that can be done, and I actually want to build something. And, I think there's light
in the gap in the marketplace for like a female James Corden, that doesn't have on
J.Lo and Justin Bieber. - Let me tell you a couple
things real quick on that. That is absolutely true, but don't think of it
in a traditional way, think of it as, more of like,
everybody's gonna monetize. We're all individuals, everyone here has the actual
ability to pull this off, it's just that some people
will make $17 a year, and some will make $17 million, but there are plenty of female, the more you spend time
in the classic model, the more likely you'll be upside. All you need to think about, is how do you bring the most
value, period, end of story, and then, it will manifest. I never think about,
everybody I see who wins, does a much better job of not
trying to be some variation of a sentence applied against
somebody who's already famous. Don't even think that way, think 100%, how do I make content
that people will like. That's how you put the
chickens in the tub. You need to basically live
in a humble framework, in perpetuity, and that's
how you get the most stuff. Just then, just then, then, because that leads to creativity. We've been our most creative when I finally broke through
of saying over and over, don't pander to the machine, even though I knew and I
would tell DRock, I'm like, fuck, we're pandering to
the machine on Instagram. We know what's working,
and the second I finally, finally after a month, 'cause
I'm like, fuck you, dude, don't be a hypocrite, do your thing, that's when, if you look at
the last 100 posts I've had, they've been far more creative. That's where the cartoons come from, that's where the upside
down post comes from, it's just where the
creativity's coming from. And, inevitably there
will be a piece of content that changes the course, because of it. All the Trash Talk content, the over-indexes, that
would've never happened if I wasn't willing to do
something that wasn't obvious. - [Woman] Do you think there's value, you that the skin (muffled speaking) your favorite YouTubers--
- Yeah, of course, curation, DJing, always works, we're busy, and if I can go to Best Vines and you can tell me what the
four best memes of the day are? That saves me time, curation
works 'cause it saves time. We want time saving. - [Woman] (faintly speaking) Messenger? - I think text messaging is the most interesting platform
emerging in the world. So, that would be my first choice. 'Cause you'll get 100%
consumption against your list, Messenger does a very
good job of that, as well. WhatsApp can make you go global, email still works, you know? - You've been the choice?
- Yeah, 100%, all, all of it. It's what I do, that's why I always say, watch what I do, not what I say. You want audio? Got you. You want video? Got you. You want email? Got you. You want written? Yep. LinkedIn? Good. Cartoons? Good, I don't care. No friction for consumption. - [Man] So, I've been, much like Allie, been doing the one man
stand for the whole time, so I hustled (faintly speaking) full-time, and what I've got the
products I have to do, the products downloads. - How much are those, how
to build a coffee table, how much do they cost?
- Per transaction. - Keep going.
- Yeah, and so, and what I found is that
I've been growing those, (muffled speaking) and so it's starting to dig is
important to my business-- - How much, what do you
spend on acquisition, and where do you spend it? - [Man] It's all organic. - All organic?
- 100%. - That's great.
- So, my whole business-- - But, you know why that's great? 'Cause that's terrible. - [Man] Right, because I'm
not through the upside. - Correct.
- Right. - And again, in a world, 'cause I know a lot of
you have this context, you can't underestimate how
under priced this media is. Like, Instagram swipe-up ads
for you with the right content, would be uncomfortable conversion. Pay two, get nine, pay two,
get nine, pay three, get nine, at scale, this is how businesses go from four million to 40 million in a year, because once something works, you can pour lighter fluid in perpetuity. - [Man] Right, the scale, I'm trying to figure out how to scale. So, usually my business is sponsorships, in between direct,
long-term, product placement, things like that, about 20% into plans, about 20% into ads, Google
AdSense (muffled speaking). - The plans. - [Man] That's what I was gonna say, for like steeling down, like
I said, I'm a one man team. - Hire, than invest. - [Man] And so, from there, that's my question is, where would that, would it be getting a Facebook Ad Manager? - Yes, it's getting a math person. You've got the art down, you need math. - I have a math guy, but--
- By the way, I believe that to be true, then you got--
- I need the hands to do it. - Math is a commodity, art is not. - Gotcha.
- Got it? If you're like me, math and art? You always, I gave up
on math a long time ago, I'm good at math. I understand what it costs to, I understand the concept
of pay nine dollars for a wine customer, and look at the back-end
and my profit's 11, and keep going until that doesn't work. And then, if I'm upside down, then I think about the lifetime value, and I look, oh, we're the best
wine store in the country, so they keep coming back. So, actually 11 is okay,
most companies it's not, 'cause they don't have return
business and (blabbering), but I gave all that up, because everybody can do math. Meaning, anybody that can do math, does math 'cause it doesn't move. Art moves by the second,
the culture moves. - So, how would you--
- I'd hire a math person. - [Man] And, where do I go to find, that's what my problem
is, try to find folks? - Where are you based? - [Man] Nashville. - So, there's a million
ways to do this, right? A, we'll try to send you
some recommendations, I don't know who former Vayner employees are that live in Nashville,
there might be like, you could hire, I think
one of the great moves is to hire a small agency,
and then steal their employee. (group laughing) You know, like that's a good idea. Interview 10 small Facebook
agencies in Nashville, and meet them all and be like, oh, I really like Karen
and she seems sharp, hire that one and then try to steal her. - [Man] The staling of the
productry and product offering, so, I now bundle, so
instead of doing nine, I'll do five plans for $29, 30% discount, you can get all my plans for $99 bucks. Looking at, from the product persp-- - You know what I don't
like about that yet? Is you're making all that judgment off the history of organic, and I don't know what the
upside is yet on proper media. - Right, that's my--
- I would sell them individually at the highest dollar amount, and test them, how many
different products are there? - [Man] I'd say about 30. - I would test them all at scale, across all LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, whatever, for six months, have a real understanding, and then make the decision
that you're asking right now, off of far more data. - [Man] Okay, my concern was
just the acquisition cost and (muffled speaking)
product, would be too high. - It might not be, when
you're actually arbitraging against the most under priced attention. It might be, but it might not be. There's also the question of, if you have a ton more customer, you pay 14 against nine. First of all, why nine? Like, if it's costing you
14 and you raise it to 17, and it works, and now you're using that audience to triple your sponsorship business. A lot of things that people don't do, is they don't play chess,
they go too binary. If I've got those revenue
streams that you have, I would say to myself, you know what, I'll break even on the products, 'cause I wanna go to scale, but I'm gonna siphon that attention from the products on this content, so that I can ask 10x
on the sponsorship side. - [Man] I think I'm reversed, 'cause I got a huge following on YouTube. - You're the reverse
'cause that was the cadence in how you did it, you
can also reverse it back. - Gotcha, right.
- Right? All of a sudden, I may wanna pay you a million
dollars a year, it may. You gotta play on both fronts to find out. Clouds and dirt, right? The reason that works for me,
is like, that's how I think, you always have to play
on multiple fronts, because it might be the upside down thing. Could you imagine? You know, and business are
more likely to overspend. - Right.
- Got it? So, you might be able to get a half of million dollar sponsorship, that makes no fucking sense, which then allows you to say, oh, fuck, you see where I'm going, right? It's more likely you get
grossly overpaid by a sponsor, to then use those dollars
to sell lower funnel, than the other way around,
'cause that's the market, got it?
- Absolutely, thank you. - [Man] All right, so I have a question. My CRM, my SaaS company
basically it consists of about 72 different products, depending on the problem itself, and so it's pretty complex, sophisticated, and everybody has their
own legality system. If I called on you, you
might be interested in five out of 72 of those things, but if I don't mention them upfront, (muffled speaking) and tossed away. So, my main issue is, from a
media standpoint of marketing, and just from, I'm calling you, crossing my fingers that you pick up, what do you think would be
the best way to kind of, condense the entire 72
products, into one easy, simple to say, this is
what the fuck we do. - There's no way to condense 72 different value props, quickly. I think one, you need to look at it, how long have you been doing it? - [Man] We've been building it, developing it for two and half years, and we've been in
business for about a year. - You may wanna figure out
if you have 72 features, versus 72 products, first of all. You also need to figure out
which 10 products, most convert. It's like, any retail
store, or any dot com, what retailers are starting to figure out, I mean, this is the big challenge I'm gonna push to my wine store, it used to be, like it was my agenda, we have the biggest selection
in the fucking world, we win, it's actually, that becomes crippling, and I even tried to push my dad to create these WL50 stores, where
they're tiny stores with only 50 wines from Wine Library. You know, because people
don't actually want choice, it's why WineText works,
one product a day, very simple, boom, I don't wanna think. So, I think you're making
people think too much, so I think that there's
probably four products that are 80% of the actual action, and that's where my comms would come in, and you might be going on
too much of an ideology, that I have to get to all of these things. I think you really need to look at usage, what I would do, is look at usage, that's why I asked you how long. I would look at all the
usage of the product, which is what's great
about a SaaS business, and say, fuck, actually
these six things are 80%, and that's gonna happen. Because, some of those
products are dog shit, and some of them are the fucking thing, that's the nature of the game, right? That. - [Man] And, the other question
that we're leading to is, how do I go into market, if
I was gonna do paid media, I make a lot of content, and I try to do my best to kind of-- - Who's buying your product? - [Man] Primarily, an
end-user, a sales person, or a small organization right now, with maybe 10 sales people in it. - LinkedIn, bro, you
need to make 25 pieces of content a day for LinkedIn, specific. When people think of
salespeople as one thing, versus a saleswoman who
happens to be a Falcons fan, that's a whole different,
my game is in perpetuity. People are like, salespeople,
and I'm like, no, no, no. They're like, how do I make
a hundred pieces of content? I'm like, okay, well first
of all, there's 50 states. So, there's 50, hey, Alabama,
hey, salespeople in Alabama, it's your boy, that's already 50. 'Cause I can promise you
when you run ads against small businesses or sales
organizations in Alabama, and it starts with "what's up, Alabama." That already does better than it says, "what's up, it's your boy, Gary." I know it's true, you start then saying, you've seen them do that piece of content when the Auburn, Alabama game is going on, and you make some sort of reference point. That says, if you're an Auburn
fan, then leave a comment, or if you're a BAMA fan,
leave a comment in LinkedIn, whoever wins the game,
that person gets 10% off, the other one gets to cry twice. And, so if you look at the
collectively action to that idea, that's why I win, 'cause
I'm in the game of ideas, and then just making shit. LinkedIn is uncomfortably under priced. Organic, let alone paid, you need to go (tongue clicking). If you made no content anywhere else, which is so against my macro thesis, but if you didn't, and you
made a hundred pieces a day, for LinkedIn, that was
specific to psychographic, demographic, location, age,
gender, sex, you will win. - [Man] Crush it, okay, that helps out a lot.
- It's really, I know it will, and what's really awesome
for me is it's gonna work. - Yeah, I believe it.
- Good. It's kind of like believing, that if you eat well, and
you work out everyday, you'll look better. I know you believe it, I'm
telling you to fucking do it. - [Man] What would you say
would be the second best place? - Nothing. Meaning, you can't imagine, you know what that would be like? If we were like kids and
only wanted to eat candy, and I literally walked in right now with a fucking truck full of candy, and you'd be like, yo,
where else is there candy? I'm like, motherfucker we
can't eat all this candy. (group laughing) That was the question. - [Man] So, push all my (muffled
speaking) onto LinkedIn? - Yep.
- And, just destroy it. - Yes, but bring them value.
- Of course. - Well, like that's a challenge, too. You know, that's not so easy. - [Man] Nothing's terribly easy, but I think with enough content
I can start digging into-- - And then start, correct, and
then start reading comments. Ask questions, one of the
things that very few people do is make content to ask
questions, I love that, because then you get
answers in the comments, which then leads you to
the next piece of content. So much of my content is actually not made for any other thing than
an insight to a hypothesis. It's how I got all the content
that I talk about today. There was no strategy
session where I'm like, I'm gonna make content about parenting. That was a thing that
happened out of making all the content, that made
me get to the realization of, so many opportunities and vulnerabilities. That's why it resonates, the
reason my content resonates, is it comes from the community. - [Man] Thanks. - [Mark] Okay, so we have
about 40, 45, 50 person agency, we coach centerism, we're
strong in two markets, well I wanna stay on the
other markets first -- - Mark, it's in like genres,
or in physical markets? - [Mark] Physical markets, so like, Destin Florida, Wisconsin Dells, and Myrtle Beach, for example. We over saturate a market,
then we go to a next one, but we're struggling
because they aren't markets that we physically live in, they're markets that we're going to. We have clients there,
but not any major football like we do in the others. So, there's literally
like a hundred things I think I should be doing, so then we try a little bit of it, and then we don't see the
result and then we just try-- - Bail.
- Yeah, we're trying too much. - And, the reality is, and I understand where
you're going with this, is you know in your soul
that you are not doing enough to actually see
the full results of it, so you're just kind of,
caught in this hamster wheel of half-pregnant and then like, I get it. I'm emotional about this, because there's like 10 things I tried to get Wine Library
to do, they did it for like a, there was this incredible
concept that I had of pricing every wine in the
store at a one bottle level, a six bottle level, and a 12
bottle level, like that's it. Like, case discount, it
fucking was going to be big, literally because Passover was coming up, my dad wanted to put
Kosher wine in that spot, tore down the whole concept for three days worth of business, of no money, and didn't give it the full chance to do what it was gonna do. What I think you need to
decide is, profitability. The answer to your question's
actually very easy, you know exactly, I can even
tell the way you asked it, you actually know it's right, you just have to make less money. You have to plop someone
there, or plop it longer, and eat the crow of no results, 'cause it fucking needs nine
months to get to the results. You're in the sales transaction mindset, not in the brand building
mindset, and you know it. And now, the question
becomes, can you afford it? You know, that becomes
the thing I don't know in a moment like this, but then when the person says, no, and you know I'm always
pushing, and you guys know this, make less money this year
to build something bigger. Make less money, that's how you do it, it's called investing in your shit, and then there's also
audit the 20% of things you spend money on that
are fucking garbage. Your worst employee, some dumb thing that you're
not even paying attention to that you're on recurring
getting billed for, your snacks are overpriced, that was the big brouhaha
at Vayner this year. I eliminated, we were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on bars, and 4% of the people were eating it, so I fucking eliminated it. Of course, everyone acted
like they ate everyday of their fucking life,
and I'm fucking Hitler, but you know, that was just a good business decision based on what was actually happening. (group chuckling)
(group murmuring) Yeah, they're good, they're scrappy here, I'm talking about fucking New Yorkers. (group laughing) Got it? That's the fucking answer. - [Jody] Okay, so I'm Jody,
I work in landscaping-- - I apologize, and if you
can really find a system where you can get the
highest kind of person to make the impact, at
the lowest possible cost? You can really scale the fuck out of this. You know, and you're looking
for a Swiss Army Knife, right? She or he's gotta, you've got the find an entrepreneurial tendency person, right? - [Jody] Yep, okay, Jody, EarthScapes, we're a professional landscaping
place in Chattanooga, and I don't actually own this company. - I heard.
- So, I'm sales and marketing. So, I am wearing two hats, and they're small enough for a lot of us in the office to be wearing multiple hats. - That makes sense.
- So, I have two questions, the first one is, how do you balance that? - Sales and marketing, or
not owning the company? - [Jody] The sales and
marketing, is the first piece. So, I wanna--
- Well, the good news on that is, that's like
a brain and heart, yeah. It's like, that's honestly,
if you really synthesize what I've been up to, and
even so far halfway through, people think they're marketing, but they're actually selling. - Totally.
- Totally. - [Jody] Well, and then
the other piece of that is, is there separation really
between your business and what you're doing in yourself? I mean so, we're hearing a lot
of people talk about content, putting content out, but
content doesn't necessarily have to even directly relate
to what you're trying to sell. - Not only doesn't it have to-- - It shouldn't?
- It shouldn't, to get the maximum upside. Now look, some owners
are not made for content, yours may not. This is where you get into Snoopy, like maybe your breakthrough is a cartoon, in stick figure form, and that cartoon is the
thing that can do everything, but yes, for everybody here who's doing any kind of personal branding, I do far more, so much more works for me, because I'm into wine and
the Jets and garage selling, and all of it, people try to
theoretically say is wrong. You're stretched thin,
what do you represent. I mean, when I started
garage selling on Trash Talk and on Instagram, so many of my smartest
friends hit me up immediately. On Instagram Story first
day, before Trash Talk, I'm like, yo, you can't
do this, you look stupid, this is crazy, you're on the verge of becoming one of the most
important business people, what are people gonna think? I'm like, what the fuck
are you talking about? You mean, you want me to
pander to the Ivory Towers? What are people gonna think? I think, that hundreds
of thousands of people are about to make an extra
thousand dollars a year that they need for a
better family vacation and their life will be better, and I'm not worried about
the fucking CEO of, you know, worried about the fact that I garage sale. - [Jody] Okay so, I mean,
I'm honestly speaking for the company when I do
this marketing for them, so can that just be me? Can that be my voice? - Of course it can, I
think more importantly, the question becomes, the voice needs to be
something that brings the most value to the audience. And so, the voice take on a lot of layers, of course it can be you, but let me give you an example. I think the voice should
be all of the following, you, when you're out to
dinner with your girlfriends, you in the office, the founder
when he or she is golfing, what people don't understand
is, it's not a singular voice. There's a million different
reasons why I would consider letting you cut my lawn,
or hedge my flowers, or whatever the fuck you do, right? There might be a million different things. - Totally.
- And like, how you do that on Facebook, and LinkedIn,
and Instagram, and Twitter, and all these platforms, Google. You know, on Google where it's
all intent based marketing, that is more sales, Google AdWords is selling, not marketing. On Instagram, it's fucking
marketing, it's visual, right? - Totally.
- So, don't get caught in that place where I think,
a lot of us were taught to do, which is, what's the voice? Even if it was just you,
I have a funny feeling there's at least 13
different versions of you, given the circumstances that you're in. I have a funny feeling, you're
a totally different gal, when you're with your best
friends on a weekend in Vegas on a girls trip, than you
are in this room right now. - Totally.
- You should see Dio, when he's with his fucking boys. (group laughing) Should go directly to jail. So, I think that that's creative contextually at scale. Knowing enough about Chattanooga, there's the hills and across it, there's different things going on here. - Totally.
- Right? And, they need to see different things. Some of them are only going to
play at certain price point, others want a different, that's how you have to reverse
engineer the attention. What is the company spent
money on historically, or currently? - In terms of marketing?
- Yep. - Not that much.
- All word of mouth? - [Jody] It's a lot word of mouth, a little bit of print advertising. - Direct mail? - [Jody] A little bit. - Yeah, you know, direct
mail and print are great, because Facebook can do better. That's where you have to
take 20, 50% of that budget, and show them. How much scrutiny are
you under by ownership? A lot, right? It's a small business, yeah. - We don't have a huge budget.
- I believe that to be true. There's no reason, a landscaping business in Chattanooga should not have a large budget. But, why do you exist? They understand that marketing matters? - Yes.
- Like, I would argue that that's incredibly
progressive to begin with. An employee for a family-owned business that is in landscaping to
have a marketing executive? Means that somebody there understands. - [Jody] Totally, and
they're trying to grow, too, and they know that's the best way to grow. - It's awesome, I think
influencer marketing, you should absolutely,
right now, open your phone, go to Instagram, search Chattanooga, find the top posts and DM people, and offer them free service. So, if you go to Instagram, one of the things any local business here, searching the city that you're in, then they give you all the pictures, and there's top or recent,
you hit top, you click it, you see if somebody's visiting
Chattanooga for something, or do they live here? If they live here you DM
there and say very simply, hey, I think you're an
influencer in Chatttanooga, I believe that if you took
a photo or made a video on your actual feed, not in your Stories, 'cause that disappears too quick, about us and we will give
you in return, a 200, or 500, or I don't know the
business (muffled speaking), free service for it, that
that's good for our business, and good for you, two out
of every 10 will say, yes. Five out of every 10 will say, yes, that's a whole lot of local awareness. - Cool.
- Tactics. - [Jody] Thanks. - First year, what
people don't know is that 80% of my comments were "stay
in your lane, Wine Boy." (group murmuring) Meanwhile, I was like, I was a businessman before
you knew me, I'm in my lane. - [Man] Right, and so, (background noises drown
out speaker) my question is, you know, just from a
prioritization standpoint, 'cause that audience matters,
it's worth something, and so, I don't wanna just let it go. - It's worth less than you think, yes. - That's where I was gonna--
- I get it, it's just, it's worth less than you think. This is why these are so fun, it's only worth something if
they're willing to use you, or bring awareness to you,
in a literal sense of, is it worth something
in a raw business form? The answer is, the only
audience of Wine Library that was worth something to me
in a transition of business, in theory, was people that
also had interest in business. Which many didn't, and those
are the ones that called me, a sell-out, or I hate you, or I miss you, or whatever they said, others came along. It's not worth something.
- So, that's where my dad was telling me, 'cause you know, looking at, okay--
- You know what's worth something, in my opinion, how I would launch your absolute business? I would ask everybody, in theory, if they'd like to hire you, and then I would create content around the first 10 people that hired you, and then, if nobody wanted to hire you, I would pick 10 people and do it for free. - [Man] That was kind of, where I was gonna go with it, boss, I was gonna launch with
(muffled speaking), and do whole lock-ins, and get a back end, see if he wants to use
me, and if they don't, then just know that's right--
- The other thing you can do, and this works for a lot of the people that just asked questions, so I want to make sure
they're gonna hear this, you can start a Q&A show. Look, one of the, I always talk about, watch what I do, not what I say. My reintroduction into content
was the #AskGaryVee Show. My audience was not
that big at that point, because I had transitioned to business, but I went dark for two
years building VaynerMedia, and the way that I reintroduced myself was off a small base to
be able to create content, 'cause we weren't vlogging yet,
I didn't have a podcast yet. Was to start a show where people ask me questions on Twitter, which off that was my biggest base, which led to some awareness, 'cause they had to use the hashtag. So now, people see they're
asking me a question, so that got me by accident viewers. I then picked five of them, answered it, put it out for free, and it was incredibly valuable. You can do that with HR questions. You can literally put
right now on your LinkedIn, I'm doing this, I don't
know if you notice, by the way, who's got HR macro questions? Take five of the questions
from the LinkedIn comments, record either video or
audio, you answering them, and then re-put out the
content into the system. - [Man] Got you. - The HR content that
I put out on LinkedIn, and obviously, I'm off a big base, but it's standardized,
always over-indexes, it is the conversation. - [Man] 'Cause, right now
what I'm looking at is, I'm looking at, okay, I'm spending all my
time on LinkedIn, right? So, that's where I'm spending
the majority of the time, and so I'm looking at what's trending for business executives and
what they're talking about, what articles are out there, and what troubles they're
having, those kinds of things. And so, I'm trying to run off of that, and then push out content
pieces on those triggs. - I think that's good.
- Asking the audience-- - I think both are good.
- Okay. - But, the asking's easier, quicker, more scale, 'cause
you're doing a lot of work to get to that one piece of content. LinkedIn, I would also very
much consider doing a podcast, and I think this would work for you, I think it works for a lot of people, I mean, back to being the mayor, if you started the Chattanooga
Business podcast, you, your landscaping business, the
Chattanooga Business podcast, and interviewed business people here? It would just bring awareness. - [Man] We do, so when I
first moved to Chattanooga, I actually met Jody--
- Randomly? - [Jody] (muffled speaking)
just on landscaping. - [Man] She went to (background
noises drown out speaker). (group laughing)
- This is awesome, keep going. - [Man] And so, when I was in Florida, doing the real estate business, I took your digital layer
thing, I got 101 episodes. - Love you.
- I went to Dallas Live. - Love.
- Right? And, it destroyed, it was awesome, it was great, I loved it, and I had so much fulfillment-- - It's just, it's the life I'm living, I wanna be the greatest
entrepreneur of this generation, and I do not think that comes solely from making the most money, I have to give back to the system, and they both work hand-in-hand. - [Man] So, two weeks after moving here, I called her and I said,
hey, let's have a meeting, and I say, hey listen,
I'm gonna do this thing, and you're gonna think I'm
crazy, but hear me out. And I said, do you wanna
cohost a show with me? - Unbelievable.
- And, it's called NoogaLive, we're 11 episodes into it.
- Unbelievable, love you guys. - [Man] And, we have the
best time (muffled speaking). - And, it's gonna lead to business. - [Man] It's been so much fun. - [Jody] It's been so fun,
and it performs really well, he will watch the whole video. - It also leads you to go to the open, the new restaurant that
opens, you walk in, and somebody says hi to
you, and you're like, whoa, they know who I am? And then, after you get off
the one second high of like, am I famous? You then, convert it into
a business opportunity. I'm far more proud of being
the architect of GaryVee, than being GaryVee, because I know what it means for business. I mean, it's amazing to
take selfies, and I love it, I like people, and I like
attention, that's fine, but that is a distant second compared to the actual strategy behind it. It's great, you're on your way, you need to create a way
to make more content? Q&A is a great way to do it. - [Man] Yeah, and thanks
a lot, man, thank you. - [Woman] So, with the work that we do, in homes and marketing, we probably do 75% is through agencies, and not directly with brands. So, my question is, how do we build more
long-term relationships? - By reaching out to them. - To the brands directly?
- That's right. - Okay, thank you.
- I know it's such a simple answer, but
that's actually the answer. Now, the question becomes how, what size, what do you do when you reach out to them, what value property are you offering them? - [Woman] Right, because what we're doing, a lot of times our agency
will only be working on a (muffled speaking) project--
- You're a vendor, you're a vendor here's what I would do, I would reach out to all
the businesses around you, email them, or let me go old school, one of my favorite moves
is overwhelming somebody with something physical,
doesn't' work on me, because I get so much mail
and so many things sent to me, and I don't like stuff, that we actually have the
reverse problem where, I feel bad that people are
sending me $500 items that, I mean, Dio's stealing 'em and selling 'em on Ebay.
- And, some nice headphones. (group laughing)
- Right? Like, it's really, actually
something we have to figure out, but in the reverse, if
you were to send somebody something that looked
like a wedding invitation, high-quality, or like a fruit basket, or influence marketing, just you know, homemade cookies from a local company that you want to give some support to, and inside were a bunch
of cookies in TikTok and Instagram logos, with a
really nice letter that said, look, hi, Nancy, you're the CMO of Aflac in Atlanta, we think influencer marketing is being greatly underused, we've being doing it for five years, this is where it gets important. In 34 to, where are we,
October, on November 19th, at a private room at this
hot restaurant in Atlanta, I am hosting a free, dinner and talk around
influencer marketing for the first 25 people that respond to these beautiful cookies. I hope this caught your attention, I hope you understand what
I'm actually saying here, if you'd like to RSVP here's
a link, or you can call me, that would work. Now, you've spent $2000 on
cookies, mail, invitations, a private room, wine,
and here's what happens when you send 100 of
those, three people come, and you're sitting there and you're like, fuck Gary, I fucking
wasted all this money, this and that, but three become six, and six become 18, and god forbid you're
good at writing a letter. And, god forbid the cookies look good, maybe the first one is actually 39, maybe you even have a problem
that goes the other way. It goes one of two ways, it's always, for reason nothing ever
ends up being the middle, it ends up being two people
and you're like, fuck Gary, or it becomes 89, you have like, four months of events lined up, and you're like, he's a fucking genius, but it's gonna be one of those two. (group laughing) It's gonna be one of those two. Go direct to brand, notice what I'm doing, break through the noise, and
give them something of value, with no expectation in return. And, if you make that
dinner a conversation, if this was one big funnel for you to pay me $500 thousand
dollars a year at Vayner? Everything out of my
mouth would be different. I'm looking to never see you again, and get an email from you
that says, I love you. That's different, that's what
everybody should be doing, that's how you build something monstrous. - [Woman] Okay, so from the agency's side, how do they look at influencers? Is it--
- Agencies care about, agencies, it doesn't matter. Agencies care about agencies PNL, it doesn't matter what they think, it will always be here, 'cause John Wayne is no
different than you two. Word of mouth from a
human always will place, and I think we haven't even started. Every 16 year old in America
wants to be an influencer, that is their number one goal in life. That will mean much more supply, and the demand is unparalleled, there's a reason there's traffic when somebody gets into an accident. The reason we rubberneck is
'cause we're fucking nosy. There's a reason that
reality TV is a monster, even though it's not real,
'cause we're fucking nosy. We like each other,
it's why we're not dead, there's been bombs that
wipe us off the fucking face of the Earth for 60 years,
and we're still here, humans like humans. - [Woman] I'm so glad,
I was just gonna say, that I wasn't first, because my heart is
pounding out of my chest, between you, and Nick, and
DRock, all in the same room. (group chuckling)
- That's very sweet, thank you.
- Anyway, another funny thing is that leading up to this, I agonized over, I don't
have any questions, because I consume so much,
everything I can think of, I already know the
answer, I already know it. - Yeah, yeah, that's right. - [Woman] But, now I have
a million questions so-- - Yeah, 'cause you can see that
what's so great about this, and why I think this has
been a successful program is, some of this shit, like
this is where it gets good, what's really great about this is, when you have a product that has a cost of entry the size of
this, you have real people, we're pretty intense about how we scrutinize anybody trying to come in, and one insight given to a real person, that's why strategy exists. Nobody really wants to pay from strategy, it seems like a bad idea
kind of, in some way, but the blueprint matters,
and I can get very specific, and there's been a lot of
stuff I feel good about here, and I'm excited to see how
it manifests, so go ahead. - [Woman] The other funny thing is, leading up to this is, I already know how you feel about school.
- Yes. And, you've failed science.
- Yes (chuckles). - But, I think you may also note, that's a focus group of one. History is the subject that
I got the best grades in, and I continue to use
it everyday in business, 'cause I pattern
recognize on prior things. I already know what's
gonna happen with Netflix, and Amazon, and all the OTTs,
'cause that's what cable did, to network, like I already
know, and more importantly, something that I've done a
much better job of clarifying, and I'm trying to do a better job of is, there are plenty people that get value out of learning that way. I write books because
people learn that way, and as you can probably imagine, active is always gonna
resonate more with me, right? That could've potentially
been the thing that unlocked, somebody dictating to me information to memorize next Friday, was not gonna cut it for
the way that I was built, but actually being, I could
have absolutely learned something from working a garden
to understanding the process of those nine weeks to
make something happen, that I could deploying in
something I'm doing today, I just wasn't given the chance, 'cause everything is so one-size-fits-all. - [Woman] And, that's why I think, the core of what I love and do, is that I was that nature kid, and I was that kid playing
with the bugs and outside, and so it bring me so much
happiness to see kids that, I mean, I would look for that. I look for the kids,
there was a kid last week that walked up to the garden, we go and teach the kids in the garden, they come out one class at
a time to water the plants, and they grow, and all that. And, he just looked broken,
he just looked very sad, he looked, I mean, and I
go to those kids first, and through the whole time, by the end, he was carrying, he was
helping me, I gave him a job, he was carrying these huge
pile of buckets and soil, and he was like a different
kid after 30 minutes, just being out there. I don't know what he was sad,
I don't even know the boy, but just to see that, and
being in a school environment, to find something to connect. So, I guess the one thing,
if I had to pick one, was the influencer aspect of it. So, I know I can't, I have
principals that love what I do, but they love the program for their school and for their students, and then there's the whole
group of parents that love what their kids come home and say about when they're in the garden. And, I've not done anything with that, as far as, I think it's just gold that there is a principal
that's already an influencer within her principal space for a mom, but it feels like that's off-limits, or that I can't--
- Right, and that framework also, I've never
been a monster fan of like, hey, client can you make a
testimonial so I can put it, which is why I love the idea of podcast, host the party, right? If you had, if you started
something called the Progressive Principal podcast, and you're interviewing people, and yeah, you'll touch
on two minutes of like, hey, Sarah, thanks for being here, obviously we met a couple
months ago with my business, but that's not what we're here for, tell me why you even
said yes to my program, what other programs are you doing, what are you doing that's
progressive in comparison? That's how you blow up your business. It's imperative that everybody understands they're in a media
business, above and beyond, whatever the fuck you do in here, that's how you get to
the place of creating the Progressive Principal podcast, and then that becomes the gateway drug to the testimonials we were looking for. Because, in that interview,
just like DRock and I are doing eye contact on
the things we're doing right this second, you
will be talking to her, she'll reference something that you did to get her attention, that's what you then clip, where she's naturally giving you a cosign, not a forced testimonial. We all hate those testimonials, 'cause it's like a weird situation, the person's wearing a
tie, and they're like, I like using DRock's video work, you're like, fuck this, you know? - [Woman] I did, I only have one episode, but I started a podcast,
I built one, I got one, but it's kids in a garden
and it's just so cute, and they're like squealing
about the carrots-- - But, what you can
imagine, and I apologize is, what I like about the principal podcast is you're making something directly for the person you're trying to sell to. I wanna get to the decision
maker, fuck agencies, go to the decision maker, or the person that influences
the decision maker. The number one mistake
that people are making about TikTok right now? Is that they don't
understand that teenage girls make moms buy shit. You win a 14 year old daughter, you can sell shampoo to a mom. They go too literal, they're like, we don't sell to 14 year olds. I'm like, do you sell to 42 year olds? They're like, yes, I'm like, do you know who makes 42
years olds buy things? Their 14 year old daughters, 'cause 42 year old
women wanna act younger, and they're making their
daughter's friends, not kids. Right? I want you to go to direct,
I want you to make a show directly to who, I want it, here's why, I want principals to
wanna be on your show, which inevitably means
your likely to convert them on what you're
actually doing, got it? - [Woman] That makes sense. - Back to watch what we're
doing, not what we're saying, we have on the gallery media group side, where we do original
podcasts, a show called, the CMO Podcast. It's a good idea. So, I think the
Progressive Principal angle is gonna lead to the most
lead-gen for your product. If they're decision maker,
if I'm hearing it right. - [Woman] Right, yeah they are, and then there's also a group of parents who want that--
- That makes sense, who by the way, and I
think you'll know this, anybody who's a parent that's so involved, is inevitably also gonna
be interested in hearing about Progressive Principals, 'cause you know parents love to hear something that they can
bang their principal on. You need to go listen to
this, principal, right? So, I think they both
work for that reason. - [Woman] And compete with each other, I learned earlier that
Twitter's been good for me, 'cause all I have to do is
follow all of the principals-- - Half follow you back, and
this and that, I got it, whether it's a podcast or a video show, I really think hosting
the party always works. I've been pushing it for a
while now, you know that. It works, you just gotta do it. Just like, hey, Alabama, and
hey, Cleveland, you know? The Washington Nationals pulled off a huge upset in baseball right now, and there are people in
Washington who are sales people that are pumped about it, and you could make a video
right now and be like, you know how you just stunned, just like Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam, you can hit a grand slam, that will work. - [Woman] So, two more
things, sticking to baseball, a very dear friend of mine's son, it's his Rookie year for the Astros. - Is that right?
- So, all of the baseball stuff, and
with the whole podcast, or whichever it was they
were listening to about, who are the Rookie cards
that are under the radar, that nobody knows? So, I call my friend, and
so this is his Rookie card. - That's amazing.
- He was number 56 in the draft in 2017, and (muffled speaking), but the main thing that
his dad said to me, who is my friend from high school, is that he's just a
really humble, sweet kid, but he's also super good. So, anyway this is a card for you.
- What's his name? - Corbin Martin.
- Oh, I know, I know exactly who this is, as a matter of fact, Lou, who's one of my admins,
is gonna lose his mind, he's like a big, big fan of Corbin's. That's awesome, thank you so much.
- You're welcome. - That's awesome, DRock,
I don't wanna lose it. Yes, gang? What's been up? No storms this season? - We were close.
- I know, I saw. (group murmuring)
The context there is, we were rocking and rolling, and like, thank god, we
were rocking and rolling, 'cause they had a real
storm, unfortunately. (man faintly speaking)
Is that right? That was rough. - [Man] But, we're coming back. - Good.
- Slowly back together. - Anything I can answer? Obviously, there's--
- Oh yeah, okay so, kind of what you were touching on with going back to retail, promotions, so obviously, you know our background, and that's kind of how Mr. Lindsey brought everything up was
just cheap, cheap, cheap, and so I think, where my
struggle is right now is our sales have been decent,
only because of the storm, and people really did have
to replace everything. - Oh right, I didn't
even think about that. That makes sense.
- Then how you know when you do an incentive, or do a coupon, or run a sale, how long do you say, we're gonna run this until we, do you say 30 days? And you're like, well,
shit nothings happened, and then you just like,
move on to something-- - The second you show people that you will go away from your word, because you've lost the leverage 'cause you didn't move something, is the second you start dying. It's the number one flaw that Wine Library did the last decade, and I've completely
taken 'em away from it, as I've gotten a little
bit more involved to like, customers are smart as fuck. They'll just wait for the, you know, tent sale sounds awesome,
except when everyone gets into a behavior of waiting for it, because it used to be once a year, and now it's once a quarter,
or whatever it might be, right? It's all about, I always tell, I recently
have been yelling, I'm like, I rather die with that fucking wine, than to show the audience, the customer, that we're willing to bend,
when we don't sell enough. 'Cause then, they won't
trust anything, that, and there's also repackaging, bundling, I mean, I rather, laws with
alcohol are pretty tricky, but I rather donate wine
to the local PTA events, I rather give that fucking
furniture to the homeless and call the local news,
you see where I'm going? Can't give up your
leverage, we're too smart, it's why so many of the
companies in retail are dead, they became sales oriented
and we were just like, why do you think free
shipping is mandatory? They did it too much, we
waited, they got caught. You gotta hold the line. - [Woman] So, really building the brand, because the whole year
we've just been trying, and so I'm actually
started putting myself, (speaking faintly) camera
a little bit more-- - And, what are you saying? - [Woman] So, just trying
to show on their face-- - Yeah, what are you seeing,
anything interesting? I mean, it's early.
- I mean, locally I get a lot, I workout at Orangetheory, so it's just funny 'cause they're like, hey, I saw you, and I'm
like, oh my god, you know? We see each other day so it's okay, but it's just interesting to kind of see even people that I know
that are just reaching out, somebody I may not have
heard from in a while, or even my mom's friends. They're like, oh, we saw your daughter, and she's like, oh, on what? And, she doesn't even know, you know, so it's still kind of early, and I'm toying with a couple
ideas for some education, like I know you say,
entertain and education. - The other thing I'm
obsessed with with your store, and you might remember this, you have so much square footage, I can't, I mean this is the number
one thing I'm thinking about, my dad's second floor is
a complete waste of time. People don't like going to second floor, when we used to have a
ton more foot traffic, like every retail establishment did, that worked because people
went upstairs on Saturdays, and really shopped premium wine. The foot traffic setup,
it's just not the same, and I'm like, you wanna go real funny, right now between
WineText, and helping out, like I've really fixed the business, so right now I have a ton of permission, I literally called my dad and was like, I think I wanna turn the second floor into a baseball card store. And he's like, okay, he's just so happy, I still think that you guys turning part of your store into a WeWork, into a sports bar, like
I will push you on this every time, it's your biggest
asset, that is underutilized. I think every book club, every PTA, you should become the community center of, you don't need it as much as you have it, cut out the, you know, store-within-store? Like, fuck it, go to the
three hottest stores in town, the ice cream store, and be like, you want a second location,
I'll charge you nothing. It's an asset, it's an
asset, you've gotta, and literally, I'll go on a call, I know I have to run to
Atlanta soon for a speech, but I'll do a call with
you, we can keep innovating. You have to turn that into an asset. - [Woman] 'Cause I think
like, what we talked about, was in a mentor program, that x-factor, I still feel like we're missing it, the new e-comm is getting ready to launch, so we've already started
to implement some of that-- - The x-factor is going crazy. Why can't you build a stage
in the middle of your thing, and do open mic night
for all local talent? You could, you'll have to use Facebook to get them to even know that's a thing, but I'm telling you right now, the atomic bomb in your
business, I believe is, your square footage
internally, and I do think, and this is gonna seem
like a contradiction, I do think you should look into texting, and I think you should
have a weekly text deal, but I think you have to be
smart with the deal list, so it doesn't undermine your core. - [Woman] 'Cause we have
like, a texting program, but right not it's really
just sort of like a coupon, so I'm looking to get away from that-- - And, do something that's
a little bit more, engaging. - To value.
- Yeah. - To have you driven.
- Because, coupons can die real fast if people just
don't value the coupon. Discounting is a drug, and it can turn out bad. - [Man] (muffled speaking) We've had that, so we are, because Mr. Lindsey,
that's how he built it-- - I remember it, you know, if you remember it came so natural to me, because I'm like, I get it. - Yeah, I mean (muffled speaking). - I know. - [Man] Take $500 off, you know? (group chuckling)
- Honestly, between being the way my dad built his business, between retail, between garage
sale and auction culture, I remember you guys breaking it all, I remember a lot, so I
remember a lot of it. I remember thinking like, man, I wish, the action must have been
fun in at its heyday, just to go there, I'm sure
people just went for the action. - Oh yeah, sure.
- Yeah. - I think, you need to turn your place into a community event. I think, you need to hack,
you need to get very creative. Why can't kids come and
Easter egg and pumpkin pick, in your store? I'm being serious, it sounds crazy, but I'm like, why couldn't you buy, or forget about buy,
why couldn't you go to the people that sell pumpkins, whatever, say hey, let's make a deal, I want you to give me 100 pumpkins, I'm gonna put them throughout our store. I'm gonna spend $100
on Facebook ads saying, we got pumpkins from this, we'll tag you, come this Saturday for
free pumpkin, you know? - [Woman] And, that's been
ideas that have popped up, I guess I was more concerned
with Easter egg hunting with the kids, 'cause then I can already see it's like pillows and cushions
are just flipped over, and then that was more of my concern. - By the way, that's a really
good answer to that idea, and DRock will tell you,
all I wanna do is id8, and then try to make it
operationally practical? If I was partner I'd be like, fuck it, we got employees
standing around all day Monday, we'll clean up the fucking
cushions on Monday, instead of jerking off. That's what I would say, that's
what literally I would say. I'd be like, fuck it,
Mario and Nick and Sarah, will fucking actually work on Monday instead of standing around
waiting for somebody to come in. That would be the answer, that's
how I think operationally. - [Woman] Right, and how
you say, don't say, no, for the other person, that's
where I'm stressed with-- - But, you didn't say,
no, in that scenario, you're worried about the ramifications, and then I said, and by the
way, you might be at a place where you don't have that many,
I'm making assumptions here, but if you have employees, well good, Monday morning in retail is not the busiest
fucking thing of all time, we'll clean 'em up then. But, having fucking 100
families come to our store for the first time in months maybe, or even ever heard about
it, is a good thing for us. This was the biggest frustration I had, I like picking on my dad 'cause
we see things differently, I created this program two years ago, you might remember DRock,
think you remember this too, where we were doing free
food at Wine Library on Facebook events and it fucking crushed. But, because my dad saw a couple people, and this is the best part of the story, 'cause they were Russians, 'cause he knows how Russians work, trick the system to come back in and get another $20 worth of free food? He killed the whole thing,
he couldn't stomach it. Meanwhile, it was building his business, because even though we
were losing on the food, we're acquiring customers,
the store was busy, even the fact that the
store looked packed, on a Saturday and it normally didn't, 'cause we're on a very busy road, made more people just come to see what the fuck was going on. But nope, the emotion of
somebody double-dipping, Igor trying to break the system, made my fucking dad kill it. Retail is in deep shit,
everything retail needs to do, is figure out how to get
people to fucking come in. Permanently, like a stage, or WeWork, or your promotions for
fun, locally, idea machine, and you take advantage
of Facebook and Instagram locally to drive awareness and conversion. That is the framework you have to do, or you go super macro and
go store-within-store, and you lease out.
- Part of it? - Yeah.
- Yeah, like I basically told you, we bought the store, so we're actually pricing
out clearing and building, so moving the warehouse back,
opens up even more space. - Which is even scarier for me, I want you to have less space. If I could chop off Wine
Library's second floor? I would, I can't, but going laterally? I'd be condensing and fucking
putting up a wall, leasing, and have a set like, retail is in trouble, I don't have to explain
to you what Wayfair, and all of this stuff is, the trends are not coming back.
