Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Gary Vee Q&A From The Viral Video Launch Party - Part 2
Episode Date: September 28, 2017Listen in on live Q&A from Gary Vaynerchuk (Part 2 of 2) On this special episode of Marketing Secrets Podcast you will get to hear the second half of the Q&A section of Gary Vaynerchuk's presentation... at the viral video launch event. Here are some of the questions Gary answers: Why you should still invest in influencers to build your brand even if they are in a different niche than you. How you support and strengthen your belief in your own intuition. And What Gary's number one business challenge is right now. So listen to Gary's insightful answers to these questions and many others as we finish up part 2 of this special set of episodes. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/gary-vee-q-a-from-the-viral-video-launch-party-part-2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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What's up everybody? This is Russell Brunson again. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets
Podcast. I hope that yesterday you had a good time hanging out with Gary Vee. So just from
perspective, his speaker fees to come to something like this is about a hundred grand. And that's
about what I had to spend to get him to Boise to hang out, to give this presentation,
and you guys had a chance to hear it here for free.
So what does that mean?
Number one, it means that this podcast is awesome.
Do you agree?
If you guys agree and you concur, then I ask you just one little favor.
Tell the people about it.
If you get an email list, tell them.
You post on Facebook.
Let people know.
I spent $100,000 to give these two podcasts, and you're getting them for free because I love you and I care about you and I want to be successful.
So I hope you get something good out of it.
Again, every time I hear Gary speak, I get more pumped up and motivated and excited.
I don't know if he ever gives the tangibles like here's the steps to do, but that's my
role.
That's what I do for you guys.
So I'll give you the tangible.
Here's the process and Gary will get pumped up.
So I hope that's okay.
With that said, we're going to jump into part two of his presentation.
Once again, we have edited out as much profanity as possible to make this PG, maybe PG-13,
so that my podcast will stay clean for all the kids and the people like me who like to
listen to clean things.
So I hope that's all right.
Anyway, with that said, you guys, enjoy part two of The Gary Vee Show.
So the big question is this, how are entrepreneurs like us
who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're spending money from our own pockets.
How do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that
we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question in this
podcast. We'll give you the answers. My name
is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets.
Josh. Gary, I want to talk about-
It's nice to meet you in the airport, man.
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. I want to talk about influencer marketing.
Yeah.
YouTubers, vloggers, Instagrammers, a lot of people are talking about Facebook ads,
Instagram ads, Snapchat ads, ROI. We can measure ROI with those. You can measure with influencers
too. You can, but it takes a lot longer. No, it doesn't. How so? You've got to make the creative
be a sales creative instead of a brand creative. You can't measure the ROI of Facebook either when
you do it the way I do it because I'm pumping it for brand.
I'm not trying to sell you.
I could measure it if I had a $49 course.
Josh, people are confused between branding and selling.
Make phenomenal influencers,
go for the sale and the creative if they choose to
and you can afford them.
Logan Paul sold a load of Dunkin donut gift cards sales super measurable josh
so would you focus like let's pretend you're not gary vanderchuk right let's take you out
of the equation you are who am i you're you are a 41 year old 42 41 still 41 41 slow your roll
you're a 41 year old nobody right, right? You have say a million dollars
of investors behind you. Then you're definitely not nobody. If you got that, let's just contact
Joshie. All right. Fine. Fine. You're a 41 year old. Nobody. You're getting into the game, right?
Yep. Would you focus on growing your personal brand or would you focus on leveraging other
people's personal brands that are already thing? So you, would you, would you ride the backs of using the people that you're building,
like that you're investing in? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Like if you're trying to, are you asking,
let's Josh, what are you asking? I'll give you the answer. You're trying to build your personal
brand. I am trying to build my personal brand. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
Are you thinking about?
But I want to build my personal brand in a different niche than the influencers that I want to invest in.
Understood.
I think that as long, understand this, just because they may be in a different niche,
they have so much awareness that the people that watch them may be into other things.
Got it?
So if it's a good
deal on awareness, you might be able
to convert and then your product
has to be good. Cool. Do you know
what I mean? Like that's the math you're looking at.
You don't have to use the targeted nature of the ads
if the influencer's
a better deal, even though you might
lose 85% of the audience because
that's not why they're watching them,
but they're still going to get 15% of opportunity. And then the whole kit and caboodle is, are you good enough? Cool.
All right. One last question. I'm a diehard, diehard Patriots fan. If Tom Brady makes it to
a Super Bowl this year, will you go to the Super Bowl with me on me? No. No? All right.
And not only that,
I've been to the last six Super Bowls.
They've been there two or three times,
you know,
and I'm now with VaynerSports
and Steve Ross,
the owner of the Dolphins,
my business partner,
so I go and the owner's dinner,
it's all fun.
The last two Super Bowls,
two of the last three Super Bowls,
I left the city Sunday morning.
I've not watched the Patriots
play a down of a Super Bowl game
in the last four Super Bowls that they've played in because I refuse.
Everybody's like, the greatest comeback in a Super Bowl?
I'm good.
I have no idea what the f*** you guys are talking about.
I didn't see shit.
Well, you like winners, and I'd like to invite you to the winning team.
No, no, no, no.
Josh, you're confused, my friend.
I'm a winner.
You root for winners, dick.
Yeah, that's true.
That's very true.
That's very true. That's very true.
Be careful.
Thanks, Gary.
That, by the way, you just witnessed my favorite move,
Nick's heat game seven years ago.
Dude walks by, remember, sports muscles.
Guys, I get up, I'm like,
you fucking suck, sit the fuck down.
I mean it, I get you said he looks at me
goes yeah we suck look at the scoreboard i go not them you you suck by the way the darkest version
of what you just saw and josh knows i love him but the darkest version i go to foxborough for
every game we always get on around the third fourth quarter when I'm really getting shit on
because I bring my Jets jersey,
I'm fucking running in there proper, right?
Somewhere around the fourth quarter
when I'm getting shit on,
I change the conversation.
I'm like, look, Zan, I'm super pumped
that your entire self-esteem
is wrapped into your football team
because you work at Pizza Hut
and so fuck you.
My life's better than yours. Maybe your football team's better than mine but Hut. And so, f*** you. My life's better than yours.
Maybe your football team's better than mine,
but I'm better than you, Zan.
Jared?
Hey, Gary.
So, going back a little bit,
you talked about intuition, right?
Belief in your intuition.
I'm a two-day idea guy, right?
I get an idea and then... Me too, man. After two days, I'm like, that was a crappy idea. Yes. I'm a two-day idea guy, right? I get an idea and then...
Me too, man.
After two days, I'm like, that was a crappy idea.
And you're being nice, right?
You're probably like a seven that you let to, right?
More, right, Nicole?
Like, he bothers the f*** out of you, right?
Yeah.
He's like, what about a drone ice cream company?
Go ahead.
That's a good idea.
Thanks, brother.
So, how do you develop that intuition and how do you like support and
strengthen your belief in your own intuition to my act by acting on some of them the biggest
problem is especially when you have like people around you is like you want to be right right
like it's much better than getting made fun of for being wrong consistently but like
by picking like just by I try to do stuff,
you know,
everyone's like,
oh, you're always in it,
like doing,
like just trying,
like nobody talks about the stuff
that I'm doing that,
guys,
nobody remembers the part
where Michael Jordan
couldn't get to the finals
because the Pistons
were beating him
every single time.
Isaiah Thomas.
You know what I mean?
Guys,
let me really unleash
you doing more shit.
Nobody remembers the losses
as long as you have a win.
And you know,
listen, some of you know my stuff
and I'm starting to figure out my own stuff.
It comes down to six people.
Your mom, your dad, your siblings, your loved ones.
You're doing so much based on their
points of view on stuff you can't even imagine. You can unwind that, you're off to the races.
It scares me how much I value my wife and parents' opinion and how much I don't at all.
And in that balance, I win. On a macro, I value them.
But on a micro, my decisions, not at all.
You know, Jared, so you just got to do one or two of them.
You go one for seven, it's a lot better than going O for O.
Yeah.
Thank you.
You got it.
Last question.
Yeah.
Sign it?
Yeah.
Did you sign my book?
100%. Hi. Let's do it. Last question. Yeah. Sign it? Yeah. Did you sign my book? 100%.
Hi.
Let's do it while I'm signing.
What's your question, Katie?
Hi, Gary.
I'm Katie Richardson.
And I was first introduced to you as I was trying to go to bed at night.
And my husband's got his phone on.
And I'm hearing this guy make a rant in a cab throwing F-bombs, every other word.
I'm like, what the heck is this? And turns
out you speak tons of truth. And so you have won over this mother of four who's a business owner.
And I love it. And so that's part of what my question to you is, is like you own who you are.
And I love that. And like, that's what people are so attracted to, right? A hundred percent. You're up there being Gary.
At what point, like you talked about how you worked with your dad and it was a $3 million
company and then you took it to 10 million after he left.
At what point did you like give yourself permission to be you and then realize, like, tell us
that story of when you were like, wow, this is working.
People are connecting with me and my way of being. And like, what was that like when you were like, wow, this is working. People are connecting with me and my way of being.
And like, what was that like when you were like, this is working?
I feel like I'm going to keep doing this.
You know, it's funny.
There's thank you.
First of all, there's a lot of things there.
Number one, it is 100% because of nature nurture.
Being an immigrant and always having a chip on your shoulder, you're always an outcast
to begin with at some level.
And I was a Russian immigrant, which was our major enemy when I was a kid.
So I had some weird shit going on that I don't tell a whole lot because it's not as relevant these days.
But there's a lot of parallels to whoever the bad guys are now.
I was the bad guy.
It was kind of weird for a little while.
Number two, my mom.
My mom blindly.
I remember walking sophomore year
in high school
no freshman year
in high school
I'm 4 foot 11
my freshman year
in high school
I spurted in
sophomore year
I have
the worst
mullet
you've ever seen
in your life
I've got a
backpack
that I'm rolling with
that's bigger than me
and I'm walking
down the hall
and I go
I remember
I remember this vividly I'm like wait a minute I'm walking down the hall and I go, I remember this vividly, I'm like, wait a minute,
I'm not the best looking, awesomest dude in the world?
Like my mom had me so brainwashed.
I'm being serious, on straight positivity,
that like, that never went away.
Like my mom, if I opened the door for a woman,
like my mom was super smart, I'm doing the same thing. She would make, if i opened the door for a woman like my mom was super smart i'm doing the same
thing she would make if i opened the door this is a true story katie i opened the door for a woman
when i was nine at mcdonald's let's that's the story i went to mcdonald's a woman was coming
i held the door open for her my mom reacted as if i won the fucking Nobel Peace Prize. And she did that about all the shit that matters,
which is what makes me who I am today.
Fourth grade, Katie, fourth grade,
I got an F in a science test.
I needed to get it signed
because I guess that's how they used to do it.
I don't know if they still do that.
I flushed it down the toilet
because my dad hadn't gotten to me yet.
And then, like, I was like, but I was still a kid,
so my conscious was still around.
And so I just couldn't sleep, and I told my mom,
and basically three weeks later,
I was sitting in social studies fourth grade
and said, f*** this, I'm out.
And from that day on, I decided to fail every class,
work on my business skills, and become who I'm going to be.
I love it. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Brett.
This is my second time seeing you.
Sorry.
Sorry, Brett.
I just had a quick ask.
I make amazing baby products,
and I don't know if you're still having babies or not,
but if you need the awesomest baby gift for a friend,
come to me.
My company is called Pudge, like baby Pudge.
Send me an email to Gary at VaynerMedia.
Okay.
In the title, write our entire story.
I was the one with the four kids.
Okay.
The husband in the bed and you won me over and the Pudge and this, all of it.
Awesome.
And then we'll interact.
Yeah.
I'll make you look amazing as a gift giver.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Brett. So I was going to say a gift giver. Thank you. You're welcome. Brett?
So I was going to say, this is my second time seeing you.
And it's funny how a different energy, a different audience is.
Like the first time I went, you were like, you even told the audience, I am not excited to be here.
I looked at your stuff.
It sucks.
And the lady had been like talking about coaching the whole time.
And then you're like, don't do it.
Just do stuff.
Anyways, it was awesome.
It was just a couple of months ago in Provo,
but it was funny.
But anyways, quick side question was like,
do you sense different energy and audiences?
100%.
Okay.
Cause it's like, it's the same.
I have my religions and my beliefs.
Then I have my craft.
So I'm doing everything state of the art, right?
So I have my theses.
Then I have my work. so I'm doing everything state of the art, right? So I have my thesis, then I have my work. I was in Seattle yesterday, spent nine hours,
understand the voice space, my craft, my craft.
So I have my thesis, Brett, I have my craft,
and the reason I'm doing well in speaking
is I take my thesis, I take my craft,
which sometimes has some nuances that are valuable, right?
Usually always ahead of the market,
and then I reverse engineer the actual audience.
I reverse engineer the audience.
I give a lot of thought and speak to the people that organize.
Who are you?
Where are you in your funnel of life?
And what can I bring to the most general?
And how quick can I get to Q&A so that whatever I miss in the general, we can get to in the details?
I totally agree because it's just a different energy that I feel this time versus last time.
But my big question is when you think of like LeVar Ball or Kim Kardashian or any of these – or even Donald Trump for that matter.
Hacking culture.
Yeah.
Like what are your thoughts on them?
And like is that the kind of fame you want?
I mean you talked about fame being the biggest arbitrage.
What are your thoughts on those kind of people?
So there's a really interesting thing that I believe in,
which is until you know somebody,
you don't know somebody, right?
And so like, look, I mean, getting political never works,
but like, you know, Trump's got his shtick, right?
And like, he won on my thesis for the last 10 years, right?
Kim Kardashian literally is like,
we are all living in reality TV.
People on reality TV in Hollywood,
then they on influencers.
They're all gonna pay
because if you're not abiding to what the consumer wants,
you will always lose.
It doesn't matter what you want on your ivory tower.
It matters what the world is consuming.
But I don't, to be very,
very, very frank, I don't think about
it a whole lot. Right? I know
why they're winning. They were
native. DJ
Khaled is an unbelievably
important case study
in the last 10 years
and the next 10 years. His personality
was native to a platform at the
right time and the right 10 years. His personality was native to a platform at the right time and the right moment,
and he disproportionately changed his career on that back.
Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump navigated reality TV
when reality TV was what social media has been
for the last four years.
Somebody here is gonna get inspired
and make a voice application for their business
that will be that
for when voice is here in two years
for the next six years, from 2020 to 2026.
It's literally the same game over and over, Brett.
So I want, what I want, listen, fame and exposure,
you know, it doesn't change you, it exposes who you are.
So I don't know how you personally judge those three.
And everybody here judges those three differently.
I just want to be known for what I am and who I am and how I roll.
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
You got it.
What's up, everybody?
This is Russell Brunson.
I've got something really cool for you today from my friend Taylor Wells.
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Especially with how the economy's been lately.
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So, Taylor put together this book called The Revolving Pricing Method, and it's awesome.
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Right here.
Hey.
Hey, Rach.
How are you?
I'm here with my amazing husband, Josh,
who is like my backbone and amazing business partner.
I'm a little googly talking to you because I remember meeting Justin Timberlake when I was 14, but you're like my 32-year-old Backstreet Boys.
He was an NSYNC.
Yeah, I love them all, but I love you more.
For the past seven years, you've given me the ability to be really authentic.
I'm in a niche where it's very club promoting.
Okay.
It's network marketing.
Yep. really authentic. I'm in a niche where it's very club promoting. It's network marketing. So I
basically for the last seven years have sold my soul to direct selling companies and I made a lot
of money and have built an incredible following of network marketers and direct sellers. And now
that I built a great team that's passive and I serve them and I love them, but I really want to
branch out into more mainstream impact,
primarily to female entrepreneurs. And I want to know, what's your recommendation for somebody
like me who's had this huge niche? They all expect me to be the prospector, the closer,
the lead generator, the team builder, to now to say, all right, I'm someone new.
If we had coffee, I'm going to give you the 90% answer because there's 10% that's too personal.
I don't want to do it here.
I have to figure out how mainstream you want to be.
I'll buy you coffee.
I'm sure.
Every day.
I don't know how mainstream you want to be.
So if you want to be mainstream,
like the cover of Forbes,
and all the way mainstream, you you want to be mainstream, like the cover of Forbes and like, like mainstream,
like all the way mainstream,
you'll have to give up network marketing.
Completely.
Yeah.
And I have no problem with whatever God has
for me. I just would know if there's any advice.
It's a stunningly
binary answer, Rachel. Correct.
If, you know, if you want to go
mainstream, you have to give it up because it is not mainstream.
What's that?
Because of the stigma.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
And then my last question.
And the math around how many people make money in it and how many don't.
Correct.
My last question is, is there any trends that you see or platforms or any advice that you
see with women entrepreneurs, primarily my age, 30s, 40s?
Yeah.
So the thing, you know, it's funny, Katie, right?
Hey.
Hi.
Katie said the most important part.
I've become unbelievably fascinated and empathetic
about the difference between men and women.
You know, I'm super fascinated by it
from a business standpoint.
That's my lens to the world.
It's harder to be 100% yourself
when you're a woman than a man.
I genuinely believe that
because men are dick faces, right?
And so the answer to your question
is to be 100% radically, transparently you.
I'm also massively empathetic
how that's difficult for everybody, especially
attractive women. Awesome. But that's the answer. Thank you. You got it.
What's up, man? How you been? I've been good, man. It's good to see you. So four years ago,
I was couch surfing and living out of my car. And I sat in a room with Gary and 13 other kids,
and Gary told us that this app was going to change our lives forever.
And it did, and Gary was such a positive change on my life.
Now, unfortunately, they deleted the app.
What do I do?
Yeah, f***.
That's amazing. Actually, I do? Yeah, f***. That's amazing.
Actually, I just wanted to make that joke.
But basically...
I knew you were going to.
But for a real question, real question for you.
When you run into your failures and you feel like you're at your rock bottom, what's your next move?
Because I'm always trying to reinvent myself.
Yep.
And I'll do things that work and then I'll do things that don't work.
Chris, you and some of your friends at the table, you guys have a big advantage.
And all of you have gone a little bit different with that transition of Vine and what happened on Snapchat and Instagram and things of that nature.
But you have something very special.
First of all, you have talent.
Right?
Second of all, you've once tasted what it's like to buy beachfront property in Malibu.
No, I live in an apartment still.
But yeah, that'd be nice.
But you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AKA, you knew what it meant to your career
by being one of the first 40 people that mattered
on a platform that became huge, right?
Right, yeah.
Instead of trying to, what you and others that have,
by the way, you know why,
I wish you could see the goosebumps I have right now.
It happened to me.
I won Twitter.
Yeah. you know why I wish you could see the goosebumps I have right now it happened to me I won Twitter and then you know
then I wasn't
at the top of stuff
like I was in that
2006, 7 and 8 world
you know
right
why do you think
the Vine thing
and this is where I'm going with this
basically if you choose to
it's going to happen again
and let me explain why
the reason I
got you guys all together
and I flew to LA
and met with others of you,
the reason I did that was it was black and white.
I'm like, I've seen this show before.
Right?
And like.
Oh yeah, you said that.
You actually said that.
You were like saying this is the new YouTube
and blah, blah, blah.
It just was so black and white.
Yeah, I remember.
And obviously it took different tacks
and the ones that kind of tripled down on Instagram
had what happened.
But instead of trying to catch up to what's now,
I give you the recommendation that I took myself,
because I tend to only give advice that I've actually done,
because it just feels better.
You gotta either hibernate, make do, grind through,
and spend all your time looking for that next one.
That is one, you should be downloading,
you, you, be downloading, you, you,
should be downloading,
you should be downloading
a top 100 app in the Apple store
that is social or consumer facing
every day of your life,
creating an account
and producing the first piece of content.
Okay, I'm gonna do that.
Awesome.
Thanks, Gary.
You got it, brother.
Hi, Gary.
Fellow 411 freshman here.
I love it.
Really quick question, maybe a little personal.
You know we have this engine.
All of us in this room have this engine.
We have a hard time shutting off.
It's what makes us successful.
How do you balance work and family?
How do you do it?
By first and foremost not adhering to the current
state of political correctness that
everybody here has deployed on me.
Most of all. Right?
And second, extremism.
I almost took the whole entire month of
August off. Like, I go
all in. Right?
I go, when I'm in this, like Monday through Friday
I do not see my kids
pretty much at all.
39 weeks of the 52 weeks in the year.
Just what it is.
And then on weekends and seven weeks,
eight weeks of vacation a year,
I'm all in the other way.
That's how I do it for me.
But that is only uniquely gonna work
if me and my partner in crime
are aligned on that strategy,
audit that strategy every day. By the way i don't even want to do it anymore as now they're eight and five and not five
and two they're just more interesting to be around you know so so like for example i guarantee you in
24 more months this exact trip they're here and we go to, you know,
we go and see the Grand Canyon or something.
You know, so like, you know,
I'm so sad that so many people do
certain things in parenting
because that's what the other parents
think they should be doing.
Like, I don't know.
Like, I just want to make a very important statement
that I implore every parent in this room understands.
Everything that is right in parenting right now
by the common standards will not be in 20 years.
You're going to be judged one way or the other.
So.
Cool, thanks.
You got it, brother.
Gary over here.
Oh, sorry.
Hey, Alex.
Hey, how are you?
Good.
Fellow 42-year-old.
I think your mom and my mom should hang out, bro, because I think...
Similar stuff.
Same moms, yeah.
She sounds amazing.
And then I just want to let you know, like, validation on the sound, totally true, because
I, like, literally take a shower with you every morning, so...
Thanks, brother.
Dude, I just play it.
I got a little shower thing.
I listen to your audio.
I get it.
Gets me going, so thank you.
That visual is f***ing awesome.
I didn't even think about you seeing the visual, but now that I think about it, yeah, that could have gone a different way.
Thank you.
So I got a two-part question for you.
One is on culture.
So our company has grown, and now we're doing pretty well.
And you've been to like nine figures and that's where
we want to go right so my first question is okay from a culture standpoint when you grow rapidly
how do you embed the culture to make sure that it grows with the right people right
so we build values manifestos ready yeah how do you get muscles by doing pushups?
You do it consistently every day.
I spend an ungodly amount of my time on HR.
Like now, I have 800 employees.
The biggest thing I'm working on for 2018.
So I have an open door policy,
which is not working for me.
It's real open door.
The key big thing for my two admins and assistants
is when an employee asks, they get booked.
Whoever.
First day, nine years, done.
Not working.
They think I'm fancy and Gary V.
They're scared.
Nobody wants to really talk to their CEO.
So next year, I'm going to mandate
that I see every one of my employees
every six months for 15 minutes,
which is going to eat up big amounts of time.
Culture is the only thing you trade on.
So you're going to see all 800 employees 15 minutes a day?
Yes, twice a year.
Okay.
So literally you're taking that one on.
The math is daunting.
When I do the one-on-one time, it always works,
but I'm just thinking that from a scale standpoint.
Scaling the unscalable is how you build long-term wealth dude that's a good one
thanks bro i think i didn't get up here for my looks now we know why you get paid to stand up
uh second my second question was okay as you grow obviously have things you get you've got
haters right i'm sure that people don't like you and whatever sure so i always focus on the mission My second question was, okay, as you grow, obviously you have things you get. You've got haters, right?
I'm sure that people don't like you and whatever.
Sure.
So I always focus on the mission and the vision and the people that we're helping, right?
But when you get certain people, I mean, it still affects me when I get those stuff.
So how do you overcome that so you can keep growing?
Empathy.
For them?
Yes.
And just their life circumstances?
Sure.
If a human being can generate hate,
they're not in a good place. Okay. So what do you do mentally and mindset to just keep going?
I deploy gratitude that I'm not them. Okay. Got it. Thanks man. Thank you. Hey, man. Hello. So I started on Vine as well doing like comedy.
Yeah.
And now I do it on Instagram and I grew a large following on there.
Very large.
Yeah.
And it's still growing a lot, but I want to be ahead, as you say.
And I know I have a lot of meetings about VR.
Yes. And creating content within VR. I have a lot of meetings about VR and creating
content within VR.
I'm a very anti-consumer VR guy in the timing that I like.
So everything for me is 24, 36 months.
Yeah.
Right?
I just don't know how many people are consuming at the scale that you would be giving up opportunity costs in other places in 36 months of VR.
Until I see even one person consistently consuming VR,
like an hour a week, like if I can find one human
who's not a really weird nerd,
who spends one hour, right?
So I think the reason you're feeling that
is you're in the LA bubble.
Everybody's pumping a ton of money
from venture capital into VR.
And it's literally,
the thing you should study
is what happened to the web in 99, 2000.
The whole, you've probably seen it,
pets.com, all these companies were worth a trillion.
That's what I feel about VR.
It's coming.
Amazon's coming, right?
eBay's coming.
But I think for you and knowing the arbitrage that you can trade on, I
don't believe. If I was talking to
you every week, I'd be like, that's not a good place to be spending
your energy. That's my intuition.
I do think voice is incredible.
And then I think for you specifically
because I know enough from afar. We don't
know each other super well but I know a lot from afar.
You might want to think about
what you want to put that energy into,
what bucket.
That's why it's good that you're here, right?
What I do think these guys do,
that's sales and quant,
or if it's a brand or an event,
you're going to be able to push that energy
towards something.
You need to take a step back
and get thoughtful with yourself
on what other interests you
have that wouldn't
come natural as the first thing you would think of.
The five or six things you think of, health and wellness
and lifestyle, it's interesting. It's probably
something subtle. Putting your energy
into building in that world
if you want to really double down on entrepreneurship
is a good idea.
Awesome. You're Cool. Thank you.
Awesome.
You're welcome.
All right, guys.
We have time for only three more questions.
So we'll go miles over there, and then we have two here, and that'll be it.
Charles, get up there.
We'll do four.
But you have to stand up.
I saw your face.
All right.
Hey, Gary.
I'm a big fan of mental models and ways to kind of overcome challenges.
Yeah.
And I like understanding other people's processes.
So my question to you is, what is your number one business challenge right now?
And what is your process to come up with that solution?
I'm crippled by opportunity is my number one business problem.
And it's similar to what I gave over there.
I'm just attacking it with blind intuition.
Every time me and my team try to attack it
from a quant standpoint,
it's too foreign,
it's moving too fast on us
and so that's it, man.
Crippled by opportunity
which is a blessing and a half
as you can imagine
but it's the truth.
It's the truth.
Do I say yes to a second
season of Planet of the Apps?
I mean, the Knicks are
for sale. It's running through my mind.
There's a lot
going on, man. I have a lot going on.
Right. But I mean,
other than intuition, I mean, I've got to
imagine if there's a bottleneck in terms of leverage.
Where's
the next step?
Intuition's the solve for the bottleneck,
which is making decisions and deploying my energies
against those decisions
while leaving everything else on the side.
Very cool.
I decided a year ago, I was raising $150 million fund.
I gave all the money back.
It was the biggest financial loss of my career
because I hired the staff
and I was gonna pay the staff with the 2%,
if you know venture, of the overall fund
that I was gonna raise $150 million on.
That's a lot of money, 2%.
I had a pretty expensive staff.
I was going through the process
and I'd raised about $80 million
and one night I'm flying home and I'm like,
I don't believe in this.
I don't wanna spend this $150 million on startups.
I think there's too much fake in the market.
I don't know where to deploy it.
I think I'm going to lose it.
And I gave it all back.
Right?
That's intuition, thought process, understanding.
So I'm just doing that every day.
Awesome.
Thank you.
You got it.
Hello.
Hey, Sabrina.
Big fan.
Thank you.
But my girlfriend is an even bigger fan,
and I basically couldn't live down the shame of not asking you a question. I love it. So
I'm a social media manager, and I would just love to hear about what you think is the best
campaign you've ever ran, and why do you qualify it that way?
Sour Patch Kids candy. We made it a cultural phenomenon
because we took all the money
from television commercials which go
figure 12 to 15 year olds don't watch
and we gave it to all the people that sit
at that table or the ones that look like
them.
Four and a half years ago we took Sour Patch
Kids marketing budget and put it into
Snapchat and Instagram when nobody was thinking
that way and
if anybody has a 9 to 17 year old in their
life they eat Sour Patch Kids
Awesome, thanks so much
You got it, and Sabrina to answer the question
the reason I quantify it that way
there's been campaigns that we've done that
have made more money
have, you know, got, excuse me
made more likes or awareness or more
views, you know, he stands up here and he goes, thanks to everybody we have 100,000 views, made more likes or awareness or more views.
He stands up here and he goes,
thanks to everybody we have 100,000 views.
I already know him enough to know, yeah,
and what's happening with those views.
A lot of people in social media,
they plan vanity metrics, not sales.
The Sour Patch Kids is the answer because we've had campaigns get more views.
This Budweiser, Derek Jeter and Harry,
the stuff we're doing for Budweiser is insane.
We've really crushed sales.
We're changing a tough brand in the US,
but Sour Patch Kids became the fastest growing candy
in 20 years.
Wow.
Awesome.
Thanks so much.
Over here, Gary, real fast.
Oh, okay.
No worries.
Hey, Linz. Hi. So, okay. No worries. Hey, Linz.
Hi.
So I'm a course creator, and I also help entrepreneurs teach better so their students get better results.
I'm a little bit at a crossroads.
I heard you talking about being in a space that's a little over-
Saturated.
Right?
And so course creation is a little that, right?
Of course.
I see, though, the chance to make better teachers,
to make their products better.
Good.
That's one thing.
Good.
And I think I could do really well there.
Great.
But I'm also around the opportunity of,
I'm a past tenure-track professor,
and I left academia.
Okay.
And as I was leaving,
fellow professors were like, you figured
it out, like go. I also feel a calling to help professors kind of do what I do. You should
definitely do that. So that scares the out of me. No, no, no. I have great news, but this is easier.
Like helping entrepreneurs is so easy. Okay. No lens. I know. But this is back to that Kevin question.
Like, you got to decide what you...
Like, by the way, I have a crazy thing to tell you
based on something I've been looking at.
Please tell me.
The professors are about to become easier.
I know.
Because they're all about to go out of business.
No, it's a sinking ship.
Yes, but guess what?
This is the thing I wrote about in Crush It.
I said, all these newspapers and magazines are in deep ****.
It's that the writers are going to be better, not worse.
They think they're going to be. These professors are
about to get the money they deserve.
And they're brilliant people.
Eat s**t for 36 months.
Leave money on the table that was easy from the entrepreneurs
that are never going to make it and go help the professors.
What's my first move?
Your first move is to build the business
structure. What's the business that you want to do?
Do you want to be TED conferences? Do you want to be a course? Do you's the business that you want to do? Do you want to be TED conferences?
Do you want to be a course?
Do you want to teach one-on-one?
Do you want to sell a product?
I mean, you need to decide what you are.
I want to help them plan an exit strategy
and to realize that there's actually money,
that there's a lot of professors
that could probably make courses really good.
That's what you should do.
Yeah, okay.
So charge them money for your knowledge
if that's what you want to do.
Okay. And you know you can put that in seven different buckets. Yeah, okay. So charge them money for your knowledge if that's what you want to do. Okay.
And you know you can put that in seven different buckets.
Yeah.
Right?
Thanks.
I'm telling you right now,
you're walking right into what is going to be
an enormously large space.
And the fact that you were one of them,
do you know how much I kill with small businesses?
Yeah.
Not because it's funny and ha-ha,
it's because I was one of them.
Yeah.
Thank you. You're welcome. It's because I was one of them. Yeah. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Hey, Gary.
I'm Kaylin.
Hey, Kaylin.
This is crazy to, like, literally be face-to-face with you right now.
So thank you so much for answering my question.
Sure.
One of the reasons that I love you so much and love following you so much is I really resonate with the whole chip-on-the-shoulder thing.
Yeah.
That's what
drives everything that I do. I grew up super poor, like standing here with all of these people right
now is just insanely surreal. Right. And you want to kill them, right? I don't want to kill them. I
want to like work with all of you, like hit me up, please. Um, but this thing that's happened is I'm,
I feel like an entrepreneur on accident
honestly and the thing that I love
to do is the business that I do
that's making me money but recently I've started
being way more vulnerable about
the whole chip on the shoulder thing
and telling my story
and that's resonating with a lot of people
but that's f***ing hard
I hate doing that
I'm very introverted
I don't like being out there that much but that's hard like i hate doing that like because i'm very introverted i don't like
being out there that much but that's what seems to be making the biggest impact i have great news
it's binary either you do more of it and you get used to it and like everything in life once you
get used to it it just becomes your norm and you didn't realize it now you may never be the most
extroverted but you just expedite everybody here can be a better singer,
dancer, and basketball player.
They may not become LeBron,
but if you do it every day, you get better.
You keep putting yourself out there every day,
you'll get better.
So you can either choose to do that,
or you could say I don't like it.
I'll leave the money on the table
because I love the privacy and the private life
and not having to engage engage and you do that.
It's your choice.
You're in charge.
Are you an advocate
for doing like
what's harder though?
I'm an advocate
on doing
what you want to do.
Not because I said so
or your friend said so.
I'm an advocate
of you doing
what you want to be doing
but I always encourage
to taste more
because it works. Do you know how many people here I'm an advocate of you doing what you want to be doing. But I always encourage to taste more.
Because it works.
You know how many people here,
do you know how many people here hate oysters
but have never had one?
I think about that every day.
That's how I think about business.
Like, you've made a judgment on something,
yet you've never done it.
So, you know what I'm gonna say.
You know, you've consumed it.
The fact, I mean,
I already know you're gonna do more of it
because you've already done the hardest part,
which is you've done it.
You're now a foregone conclusion to me, KP.
You're just gonna keep doing it.
I love that you just called me that.
You know, like, that's what you're gonna do.
Okay. You're just looking for me to give you a little more juice to do it a little bit more and just called me that. You know, that's what you're going to do. Okay.
You're just looking for me
to give you a little more juice
to do it a little bit more
and a little bit more
and a little bit more,
which is amazing
and I'm thrilled to do it
because it's f***ing free.
Here you go, go.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Just really quickly,
is there anything that is hard for you?
Like, I know that you're,
like, no, like,
your mindset,
the way that you think about things,
you're like,
I'm confident,
I can do this,
but like,
is it hard to like,
get up in the morning sometimes?
No.
Is anything hard at all?
Spelling is f***ing impossible.
I can't read for s***.
If I was reading
from a teleprompter right now,
I would crumble
and be out of here.
Can't read for s***.
Like, you know, fencing
probably is, you know,
hard.
Oh, I'm really way below average in swimming.
Poor swimmer.
Like, always think, like,
I'll be super pissed if I, like, that's how,
if I die because we get fucked up,
like, somebody hits a,
and I have to swim further than everybody,
and I'm like, ah.
Like, yeah, there's shit.
Okay.
Can I get a photo with you after this?
You know why you asked that question?
Validation? No. No, why you photo with you after this? You know why you asked that question? Validation?
No.
No, why you asked me of that question?
Validation, the first part.
The second part.
You're asking me that as somebody who knows a lot about me
because I don't spend any time on it.
We all suck at s***.
So, like, I don't care how you judge mine.
You've got s*** too. So, because I don't care about you judge mine, you've got too.
So because I don't care about that,
the only reason people spend time on their weaknesses
is because it's everybody else's opinion on it
that they're trying to avoid.
I don't care about your opinion about my weakness
because I know you've got them too.
So let's just move on.
Thank you so much.
Can I get a photo with you when you're done?
Yes.
Thank you.
Hey Charles. Hey Gary. If you ever Can I get a photo with you when you're done? Yes. Thank you. Hey, Charles.
Hey, Gary.
I swim a lot, so if you ever need something, let me know.
I'm 37, so I'm not where you are age-wise, but I've been lucky a few times in life.
And I've done well and done not so well and everything, and I have done well.
I guess my question is, you know, it's always the concept of the encore, right?
You know, when my one company, you know, I've had eight-digit companies before, and now I'm launching another one.
And I guess it's like how do you get into it, make bets on it, but feel accomplished if you don't outdo your last time.
Because I do not even remotely think that the financial part is the way I score it.
You know what I mean?
I mean, that's really simple.
Like outdoing the last one is, you know, even the way you position,
I'm listening to your words, you're positioning it like,
if you're putting pressure on that I need a niner, right, then you're probably going to –
you know what's funny about positioning a niner when you've had an eighter?
It's hard to get going.
That's probably the challenge.
I know exactly what's going on with you, Charles.
Yeah.
And so that's why I'm asking you, are you doing the ambition of a nine or ten because you see the white space and you're going to strike like a cobra?
Or is it because you really just want to do it?
So let me give you an example.
What I've been doing for the last seven years.
I don't love it.
Client services?
Like having a 32-year-old brand manager from the University of Chicago telling me what she should do with Captain Crunch when she can't sell ****. Not fun. I'm actually from the UFC. Great. So like not fun
for me. Yeah. But I know why I'm doing it. I decided at 35, 36 that I was going to spend 10
years of my prime as a business person building a death star of communication by eating **** and
building a very big business.
And then I was going to point that death star,
the Vayner X machine,
against the Crohn's and colitis foundation
because my brother has it and I want to cure it.
Some business that somebody comes along
that didn't know how to run it,
so I bought it for a million
and then I can get it to a hundred.
But I realized six, seven years ago,
I now know who I am. Let I realized six, seven years ago,
I now know who I am, let me build the biggest infrastructure
in the world around it, and then whether it's to help
hurricane victims or sell sneakers,
I'm gonna be able to point this thing.
So for me, I don't look at my EBITDA,
I don't care how much we're growing,
I've made a 20 year decision that I'm in the process of
and I'm gonna execute against that.
And the numbers and dollars are just not the way I score.
If you've been lucky enough to have the success you've had
and you're this young, I would take a big step back
and try to figure out what is the most fun
or the most macro thesis you can come up with.
Great, thanks.
You're welcome. Guys, thank you for having me.
This was fun. Thank you. Would you like to see behind the scenes of what we're actually doing
each day to grow our company? If so, then go subscribe to our free behind the scenes reality
TV show at www.funnelhacker.tv.