Moore Style - How to Scale Your Business Fast With Networking and Brand Visibility With Tony Pec

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly looking for ways to stand out and build lasting relationships that propel our businesses forward. Tony Pec, a renowned business growth strategist, joins me to discuss how building your network with intention and authenticity can elevate your brand and legacy.Starting from humble beginnings with no connections, no money, and no clear blueprint for success, Tony found his way into the world of high-level business growth through an unexpected source: cigar lounges. His ability to network with business moguls helped him grow into a sought-after expert in social media marketing and brand strategy.Tony will teach you how to show up in your business, brand yourself authentically, and overcome the uncomfortable challenges that inevitably come with entrepreneurship. Plus, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on how to expand your influence and build a network that’s truly valuable.“The bigger the uncomfortable thing is to do, the harder it’s gonna be for others to do as well. So more success lies as the uncomfortable level goes up because other people aren’t willing to pursue past that ” ~ Tony PecIn this Episode:- Meet Tony Pec- Networking and building relationships in uncomfortable places- Starting a business from scratch and mentorship- Building self-confidence and a trusted personal brand- Creating ‘Y Not You Media’- Media services that ‘Y Not You Media’ offers - Coaching business owners for brand visibility- Building “The Circle” business community- Hosting the largest charity golf event- How custom suits elevate your personal brand - Wrap up Q&A- How to connect with TonyAbout Tony Pec:Tony Pec is a business growth strategist, co-founder of Y Not You Media, and the mastermind behind "The Circle"—a networking community of 200+ high-level professionals. Known for his high-energy approach to branding and business strategy, Tony has worked with some of the top influencers, entrepreneurs, and professionals to help them grow their businesses and personal brands. He’s been called the “Godfather of Instagram” for his ability to scale visibility and influence online, and his work continues to inspire entrepreneurs worldwide.Website: https://www.ynotyoumedia.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonypec_/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-pec-585b8a59 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonypec27/  Connect with me here:🌐 Website - https://celestemoore.com/👤 Facebook - https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078179075595📷 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/celestemooreimage/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@celestemooreimage▶️ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@celestemooreimage

So what would you say a moment in your entrepreneurship world has been the most uncomfortable action item that you did? That's a tough one. I'd probably say just starting out in business in general. You know, I started out, I didn't have any money. I didn't have any connections. I didn't have a network. I didn't have any knowledge.

I didn't have any value. I didn't have any resources. It was just, I'm going to figure it out. When did you create Why Not You Media? So our whole goal was to create events that you would pay for. And there was no pitching allowed. It was just pure value driven. In a world of superficial networking,

how do you keep relationships real and results focused? I slowly became the guy that always has a guy. So I said, how do I become the person that helps others always have a guy in their fingertips? That's how the circle was born. So your go-to mindset hack before a big speech. What do seven-figure brands, 1,500-person charity events, and viral Instagram accounts have in common? One man, Tony Peck.

Today, we're diving into visibility, legacy, and the real power behind the personal brand. He's been called the godfather of Instagram, but Tony Peck is so much more than a social media success. Welcome to The Moore Style. Today, I get to sit down with Tony Peck, business growth strategist, TEDx speaker, and co-founder of Forbes Accredited, Why Not You Media. So Tony leads The Circle, a networking community of 200-plus top-tier professionals, and his energy is unmatched.

Whether you're building a business, a brand, or confidence, this episode will fuel your fire and give you the strategy to scale it. So let's dive in. Welcome, Tony. Thank you for having me. Super excited to be here. Coming on the show. My pleasure. I mean, I think we actually met at your TEDx event. Yes, we did. Yep. I was blown away, first of all, by your speech. I thought it was, I didn't know anything about you.

Just like, you know, I was that person in the crowd that was like, who is this man? He's just this, you projected such confidence, you had such presence. And I was just like instantly attracted and wanted to listen to your speech. I appreciate that very much. Thank you. Yeah. So what was actually the purpose? What did you want the audience to take back from that speech? So I think it was two things, right? First off, I grew up with a speech impediment. So I was made fun of for speaking as a kid. I would say words like dwing instead of drink and twalk instead of truck. So it's been a big mission of mine throughout my career, my journey to prove to myself and to others that anything you want to put your mind to is possible if you're willing

to work hard enough to achieve it. So that was the first thing, because I, as a speaker on the stage, used to be made fun of for speaking. So if I'm able to give a TED Talk, then anybody else in the audience should have no reason that they can't achieve that as well. But then the second thing was the foundation of my talk. And the big thing for me was cigars changed my life. You know, getting to come into New York City when I was in college to be able to rub elbows with some of the largest and biggest businessmen in the world really put a different perspective in front of me coming from a background and a household that didn't have that opportunity. My dad was a union worker his whole life. And my whole TED Talk, the purpose was to help you realize there are other

ways you can learn how to communicate better and build relations with people that you don't have the opportunity to connect with otherwise by going to different avenues. For me, it was cigar lounges, but for other people, it could be coffee shops, country clubs, gyms, lounges, restaurants, whatever the case is. But just to open up your horizon to know there are opportunities out there if you're willing to seek them and also put the time and work and effort into it. Yeah, I love that. And that was really clear in your messaging. And just at A2B Con, another event that we you and i both spoke at uh i we i met a gentleman there and he talked about how his guru sent him to a little town in maine mind you he's an indian man a brown man and a full of

white community and he told me he said he went to a coffee shop every day and he introduced himself to every person every day and he ended up meeting this whole town in maine and he's like it's possible. But just by what you said, basically stepping out and putting your foot forward and getting a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. When I first started going to cigar lounges, I was a college kid. I was 20 years old, so I couldn't even legally drink yet. And I would go into the city and hop right out of Grand Central. I would go to the cigar lounge, Nat Sherman. Since then, they've been closed after the pandemic happened. But back then they weren't. And it was a big staple in the city. But the way the layout was, the first floor

was for non-members. So there's only like two tables. Each table had like five or six gentlemen around them. Everybody was 40, 50, 60 years old. Now, my biggest disadvantage there was I didn't know anyone there. I also don't know anything about cigars at the time. I was brand new. So I was just young and hungry and willing to be vulnerable to learn from others. So I went in there, I grabbed a cigar and I sat down next to five gentlemen that didn't know each other, who was reading the newspaper, who was reading a book. And I asked the guy next to me, I said, hey, I'm really new to smoking cigars. Do you have any recommendations for me? And he started talking to me and giving me some recommendations. And then the guy across

from the table pulls a cigar out of his back pocket and hands it to me. Here kid, you got to try this one. And then conversation just ensued. I ended up staying there for like four hours. This is my first experience at a cigar lounge, by the way. And it just, I opened up my mind that my biggest disadvantage became my advantage in that moment. Me not knowing what I didn't know, but being vulnerable enough to admit it and being open to take the critique and, you know, opinions of others is what catapulted the success I've had to this day. And that goes to him with a coffee shop. He just walked in uncomfortable, didn't know anyone, but you had to be vulnerable enough to go up to people you didn't know to make that relationship and that

connection. And anybody can do it anywhere in the world. That's the power of it. But you have to be willing to show up and actually put the time in to do it. Right. So I met David Goggins once. I don't know if you know who he is. Okay. So big fan, right? I was actually at a gym in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, working out with my trainer on my phone. And he goes, Celeste, that's Goggins. Wait, turn around. And I was like, wait, I'm not turning around if it's Goggins. He goes, turn around and tell him, stay hard. And he like, you know, dab him. And so I turned around and I was like, you know, he totally was open and friendly. And anyways, I tell you this story because from him, from this mouth, I'm sure he's not the first one to say it, but he always says, start getting

comfortable being uncomfortable. And I always take that motto every day, even if it's a little thing. And that is what's propelled me forward. And I see that. And like, that's such a message in everything that you do on all of the social media, on all of your branding, even on all of your talks. And I just love that so much because we need to hear that all the time as entrepreneurs sometimes. Yeah. Because listen, being an entrepreneur is uncomfortable, right? I think it's the hardest job you can have in the world if you're backing against the wall and it's a constant battle to get to where you want to be. There's no backup. There's no cushion, right? But I think you hit on something I think that's really important. It's the little things that

compound adding up to the big things over time. Like you said, you push yourself to be comfortable being uncomfortable, even for little things, those little things is what makes a difference when you do that day in and day out. Everyone wants to overlook that. They want to think of big, grandiose thing. That's not what's going to compel success in the long term. It might be a short term, but long term, it's the little things in the day in and day out minutia of you pushing yourself to be uncomfortable, even though it's something that you really don't want to do, but you know you need to do. That's where the success lies. And I'm such a big believer in that. In business, there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be uncomfortable,

but you have to lean into it. And the bigger the uncomfortable thing is to do, the harder it is going to be for others to do as well. So more success lies, the larger the uncomfortable level goes up because other people aren't willing to pursue past that. And that's where you can get ahead of others on whatever it is that you're trying to achieve. Yeah, definitely. So what would you say a moment in your entrepreneurship world has been the most uncomfortable action item that you did? Action item? That's a tough one. I'd probably say just starting out in business in general. You know, I started, I didn't have any money. I didn't have any connections. I didn't have a network. I didn't have any knowledge. I didn't have any value. I

have any resources. It was just, I'm going to figure it out. It was almost like you jump out of the plane and the old cartoons and you have all the pieces to make the plane as you're coming down. You're putting it together before you fall. And you had the parachute to catapult you back. That was entrepreneurship to me when I first started. And it was the most uncomfortable thing. But I said, you know what? I was young at the time I started my business. I was 25 years old. And I said, if now or never I have a backup, I have my mechanical engineering degree, worst case, I can go into construction. I can go into engineering, but this is my time to take a chance and figure it out. And that was the most uncomfortable thing because there was no

path to guarantee success. And I think that's the hardest thing in entrepreneurship in general. You can do all the work you want. You can give up all the sacrifices, have all the discipline, but you actually don't know if you're going to break through. You don't know when you're going to break through, right? You have to almost look back and now you're left when you're further and you're like, wow, you know, what I was worried about back then, I can't even imagine that being, an issue in my life nowadays. But when you're actually in it in the beginning, it's a massive thing you have to overcome. So you have to almost have that long-term vision of, I know if I can get through this, I can get through the next obstacle ahead of me. And it's

just compounding over there time and time again. And that's kind of how I approached it. It was just one thing after that, I had to learn this. And then after I learned that, I had to learn the next thing. And you just keep on going forward, learning as much as you possibly can along the way. Yeah. Did you ever have any mentors during this, you know, your journey? So I wouldn't say like a direct mentor. It was more all the people I was surrounding myself with. So I'd go to the cigar lounges. As you know, from the TED Talk, I met guys like Rudy Giuliani, the Prince of Finland, the owner of Bacardi. These guys are super successful businessmen. So just being in that proximity, having cigars with them, able to pick their minds,

I learned a lot of different things from all these guys I was around. But not one of them was a direct mentor, but I would take something from every single person I came across. And being in the business I am with the social media marketing agency, I'm able to work with so many business owners across so many different industries that I'm a constant sponge. So I'm learning about bagel company operations, and I'm able to apply to a mortgage company because they might not see how it can connect, but me hearing from him, how it can integrate into the different business. I'm able to plug that from them and he can integrate into his business. And it's just really been such a great tool that's helped me so far on my journey and to be able to help me help

others along the way too. Yeah. I love that. That's such a cool, like your journey is just, you know, bits and pieces. I think of every entrepreneur. I mean, when I first started out, I didn't have a roadmap, a mentor. I didn't even know how to run a business. I just knew that I had an idea and I knew that I had a, um, a craft if you will, but that doesn't get you so far. You've got to do the other thing. Yeah, there's a lot more that goes into it, as you know. Exactly. As long as you have some value to give,

that's, I think, where the opportunity starts to come about. And that was my biggest thing. Even at the cigar lounges, the beginning days, I had no value. But then I started to slowly realize my value was, I was just happy to be there and willing to listen and learn from the guys that are around there. And those guys were happy to sit. And they just wanted to talk. They wanted to teach.

You know, their kids may not have listened to them, even though I was their kid's age. It's my dad talking, whatever. He can tell me this tomorrow. Me, I was so enthralled in everything they were teaching me that they appreciated it. And again, no value to give, but that was the value. Me being there, attentive, willing, and wanting to listen and learn. I was going to say, because they're at that level of mentorship, right? Where they're so experienced in their field and you were just willing to listen.

And of course, they probably had every story to tell you. Oh, they had the best stories to tell. And a cigar takes a long time. I was going to fly on that wall. Yeah, exactly. I was going to fly on that wall many times. And it just taught me a lot. And it's also helped me mature at a faster rate than my peers in my industry.

Just because I was around these older, successful guys, I was able to carry myself in a different way to be able to connect with them. But I'm also still a younger gentleman. I'm 31. So I can still connect with the younger generations before me. So it's a cool blend that I've been able to piece together with the events that I do and the business that I have. I'm able to blend that gap between the younger entrepreneur and the more established, successful businessman that's been in business for decades. Yeah.

So how do you think your presence, how do you think you've progressed from that 20-year-old kid walking in his first moments into the cigar bar to, let's say, five years after that? Like what changed in your walk, your presence, your talk, anything? I would almost say a confidence in knowing what I was delivering was helping others. Because in the beginning, you're just starting out and you're building the foundation of success and what you're able to accomplish for others. But as time passes and you're helping more people along the way, whether it's directly in the service I do, bringing good people together so they can make money and have opportunity for themselves and I get nothing out of it. It was just a confidence of, OK, I can do this. And the more of that I saw that, OK, I'm able to help that person that I work with. I'm able to bring those two people together.

they were able to do a deal together. I saw that vision ahead of me that really propelled me to know, okay, there is opportunity that I can offer others. And from there, I have not looked back. And it's been cool. I really do feel like when I first started, I was a kid. And now I'm growing into this businessman that I always dreamed of and wanted to become because I've served myself with good people. I've always done right by people. And I think the biggest thing, I still see this to this day, I do what I say I'm going to do. And it's for little things. If I just tell you, Celeste, I'm going to email you back tomorrow. You're going to get the email tomorrow. be it sometime that tomorrow but you're going to get emailed tomorrow and too few too few people

in this world today do what they say and i think that's what's built my brand that's what built the trust behind me to get me to where i am today and where it's going to push me forward yeah i had this conversation yesterday with one of my guests and we talked about have you read the book the four agreements i have not okay so there it's don miguel ruiz i think r-u-i-z and one of the four agreements is be impeccable with your word because the word is all you have and so every time i hear that and you talk about the trust, that's 100 percent what happens when you do what you say and say what you do, you know, or say what you mean. So, yeah. Yeah. Even in little things like I really believe that it annoys me sometimes, too, when someone tells me, just tell me the truth.

If you're going to get back to me in a week, just tell me to get back to me in a week. Don't tell me tomorrow. And then I'm waiting for an answer tomorrow. Right. That's not going to look. And you lose trust immediately, whether it's client, whether it's a regular relationship, whether it's a vendor of yours. Just doing that consistently over time is compounded to where I am today. And people now know if Tony says something, it's going to happen or I'm just not going to say I'm doing it. And that I think puts me in a different position than most people because they can take my word as value. Okay, great. When did you create Why Not You Media? And let's talk about the name. Yeah, sure. So we created it back in 2018, November 2018 to be specific. I was working

in construction at the time and I wanted to start a business. So what I started doing about a year before then, I was doing like a small little networking group and I had my friends come every Wednesday night to the Cigar Lounge and we'd just, you know, chop it up. Who was a sales professional, who was an entrepreneur, who had their own business. And again, nothing was coming from it, but there was two guys that came every single week. And those are my two current business partners. So I said, Hey guys, we're coming together every single week. Some people come in here and there once a month, let's just shut down the doors and let's come out of business together. So at the time I was building my brand on social media. I had about 13 different niche

accounts, all different industries from food to fitness, to motivation, to tattoos. And I had over 400,000 followers across all the accounts. It wasn't making any money. It was just people, there was no face of the pages. So it was all niche content. So if it was motivational, I was taking someone else's quote and I'm tagging them, giving them love. That was all it was. And again, no money coming from it. My partner at the time, he was like, why don't we start a media business? Because we were all passionate about helping others and making a difference. And I would go to these entrepreneur conferences and you pay all this money.

And again, we had jobs at the time. So it's like not money that was expendable, but we would show up with the intent to hopefully gain something from it to better ourselves and progress forward. But that wasn't the case at a lot of these events. You pay a lot of money and it was a pitch fest, right? The guys get on the stage, they talk for 15 minutes and it's a 45 minute pitch about their program that's a discount because of that day. I'm like, okay, this isn't right for the people that are really trying to become something

because they're not there yet. So our whole goal was to create events that you would pay for and there was no pitching allowed. It was just pure value driven. But again, we never hosted events before. We didn't know anybody. We actually opened up an LLC on LegalZoom.

That's how few connections we had back then. No accountants, no attorneys, nothing. And at that time, it was okay. The events are a great idea, but we couldn't fund the event with the hope that people are going to show up and we're going to know somebody. We didn't know anybody.

So we had to figure out how can we make money in the meantime to eventually do the events? And part of Fran said, well, you're already doing the Instagram growth for all these accounts. why don't we sell this as a service and we'll become like a marketing company. And then we do the events in the future. Great. So that's what we did. And at that point in time, we were trying

to figure out what are we going to name the company? We're sitting down having a cigar, of course. And my partner, Fran, looks up and he says, why not you? My mother always told me, why can't you be who you want to be? And me and my other partner, Michael, were like, we love that. Like, that's a great mentality that, you know, goes through to the events that we want to host in the future about having the right mindset of why not you, why can't you be what you want to become? And it'd be kind of cool because now we're helping businesses and brands become who they want to become online because why not you? So it all tied together. So that's how the name came about. And again, we became an LLC in November 2018. At the time, I was still working

in construction. So I was a general contractor. And my first three clients were my subcontractors on the job site. One of the guys was a hardwood flooring installer. And now he's the largest in the Hamptons. And he has over 800,000 followers on Instagram. But he gave us a check at the time for $500. He goes, I'm gonna give you guys a chance for three months. We took that money. That's what we paid LegalZoom with. And at the time, he had 34 followers. And we're still great friends to this day. We help them out and we've never looked back since then. And I went full time for myself, February of 2019. Awesome. And here we are now. So you help out all local businesses. Is that kind of your niche? Mostly the tri-state, I would say. So Westchester,

Connecticut, Jersey, the city, the Hamptons, Long Island, wherever, like New York, Connecticut, New Jersey. But I really play in two different lanes. So one of them is professional service based industries. So think accountants, attorneys, realtors, developers, mortgage title, coaches, consultants, things like that. And then a lot of retail businesses. So restaurants, gyms, salons, body shops, jewelry shops, you know, custom tailors, places like that. Yeah. Because I see you post like a slew of different types of businesses. So I wasn't sure if you had like very niche down, but it's more location.

It's like you do pretty much all things. All the tri-state. And then the reason we like the localized, like we can still consult on Zoom, but it's a different working relationship with us, right? Like the people that we're working with locally, we're supporting their business. I'm able to give them referrals to get work done. We work with a lot of construction companies. So if I don't live close enough, it's hard for me to refer someone that needs their flooring

done. but that's an intrinsic part of you becoming a customer of ours. We're going to open up a network to you. So I'll bring the clients together. We do client dinners so they can network and mingle with each other. So that's a perk of being a client of ours. So I really try to bring the online and the offline together where a lot of the competitors in our space are mostly online and they don't try to keep that personal relationship. And again, most of my clients are between the age of like 35 to 65. So they have that older school mentality and they really appreciate that in-person belly to belly interaction. Yeah, I was just going to say that

they appreciate that because I'm in that middle range too. And I just love that human connection. I feel like especially after COVID, like it was just like, oh, this is so hard. I couldn't wait to just get in a room and like talk to somebody or hug somebody or just feel like that connection is for me. And same with clients. I do probably 50-50. I do virtual and in-person, but there's nothing like that in person. Just like why I'm doing this interview with you in person. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the podcasts that are on Zoom because there's a different level of energy transfer, right?

Yeah, you can't pick up on each other's vibe as you're going through the conversation and you can just build a deeper relationship in one hour in person than four hours of Zoom. So I'm a big proponent of it does end up lowering my time because now the relationship got so much deeper that you can see my genuineness when I'm with you in person versus on Zoom. It's kind of tough to tell. You don't even know if I'm wearing pants, you know, like that's the reality though, right? So I always take it with a grain of salt and these older guys, they definitely appreciate the younger guys and the younger generation going above and beyond to try to accommodate to what they're used to and what they appreciate. Yeah, I'm sure they 100% appreciate it. So now tell me about if someone were to come work with you and they were in the tri-state area, what's the process like? Can you tell me like a step by step? Yeah. So typically I do a discovery call. I like to learn about their business, like what their goals are, what have they done in the past for marketing, what have been the hurdles to not achieve their goal, why they're coming to me, and then everything about their business. The offer, the pricing, the strategy, the long-term value of the customer, what platforms are they on, what are they comfortable doing?

Do they want to be on camera? Do they want their employees to be on camera? Is it only going to be one employee? So really getting under the hood of that operation. And then from there, I kind of custom piece together a proposal that makes sense for their business. So we offer four main things, one of them being content creation. So videography, where with our videography, the cool little nuances, you don't just get a camera showing up. You have one of my business partners on the set coaching and directing the customer.

Which again, I do a lot of older gentlemen. They've never been on a camera before. So that is paramount to their success on camera. Hey, take it from the top. This is a better hook. Look this way. Don't look that way. Lower your tone.

Increase your tone. So that's been a great value add for those types of guys. Past that, we also do advertising. So we'll run ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. Most of the time, it's Facebook, Instagram, and Google just because of the clients we deal with. Sometimes we sprinkle on LinkedIn if they're really more tactical for specific job titles they're looking to target. LinkedIn's a little more expensive, but you get a better quality lead. Facebook and Instagram, you get more leads in general, and then Google's right in between pretty much.

Then also we do social media management. So we'll manage their accounts for them, posts for them, because what we saw the opportunity was we're creating content, but they weren't distributing it. So we just had to help them stay more consistent on social so they had more reason to be able to put out more content over time. And then the bread and butter, consulting. So we do a lot of consulting work for companies that, you know, anywhere from half a million to about $25 million a year, top dollar revenue. And we come into companies that might have in-house marketing department, in-house marketing person. And we're consulting with that person to give a more tactical approach on what they're already doing to enhance it. And they're going to be the ones that are executing all the labor.

So that's pretty much the gamut of everything we do. I'll piece together what makes most sense from that discovery conversation. What I always do is I always have a proposal meeting or call. I don't just send a proposal blind and say, hey, let me know what you think. I like to walk everyone through exactly what we're going to be doing with them and what the vision and the goal that we have in mind for them. And, of course, answer any questions they have, and then I give it to them to digest internally. And then we take it from there. Well, I see how all those pillars can make a whole, like, successful media approach to, you know, whoever their customer is.

Because I think you kind of need every piece of that. You should be doing every piece of that, you know, in the right word. again, budget always has a factor into it. So sometimes you have to pick, do I want to go more in the organic and create content, have a more outbound strategy? Can I do organic plus pay for the ads as well? Or sometimes you got to pick and choose. So then it becomes, what's the goal? You need more assets in the seat, then ads might be better because it's just direct lead gen, right? But once you stop advertising, the sales stop. Versus the organic, you're building an asset. As you know with the brand, once you build that brand, it's its own living, breathing thing.

So it's not like advertising, when I stop to spend, the leads stop coming in, the brand lives and breeds and grows on its own at some point. So that's phenomenal. And like you said, there's a lot of people out there who need the consulting part because, yeah, I also have the same experience. Like, do you know how to take a selfie? No.

It's like, what? But, you know, how is coaching them in as far as really dialing down their brand and making sure that they show up on the videos that they're doing? How do you coach them in that space? It's coming from a place of what's their goal first, right? And we always work backwards from there.

Sometimes it's more visibility. Sometimes they just want to stay front and center. Sometimes they just want to be positioned as a thought leader. Sometimes they want leads in sales. Sometimes they want more leads just to give to their team. So it really comes from what their goal is. We work backwards from there. But the consulting is definitely our best value service, I would say, because in those

consulting sessions, we're giving you so much knowledge and information that's taken us so much money and time to go through to learn that we're just giving you pretty much the cheat sheet. You have everything you need at your fingertips, whatever links or resources you need to do to execute on those tasks. And then you just let it rip from there. So the return on executing on those consulting sessions outweighs other services in general because it's just a brain dump of everything that we've learned through the years by helping so many different people. And sometimes, you know, the industries overlap.

So if I'm helping someone in the same industry, we know things that have worked in that industry. That's something that that person, they're not going to know. It might take them seven years. It might take them a million dollars to learn that. But we're expediting that growth curve by giving them the knowledge that we already have. But consulting has really been a big difference in them knowing what content to make. yeah a lot of times they're like what am i going to create they have no idea they need the help right you know it's an attorney i'm word of mouth my whole life and i don't know what to talk about

you know a lot of stuff we're going to help you take the stuff out of your mind that you think is normal and just regular to you but to the consumer super valuable and that's kind of how we we pull the onion away pretty much yeah do you guys consult on like how they show up on camera like what they're wearing they're grooming like a little bit you know most of the time we're like wear your brand so be you type of thing right a lot of times you know the customers they have polos or if they're typically in suits they wear a suit or if they're more casual be casual whatever you're going to show up to your customer as that's how you should show up on camera too you just want to keep that same image both online and offline so it matches that that's the biggest thing for us

yeah being congruent on all platforms is really key to so like if someone's on linkedin and then they go see the same name and they don't have the same picture you know seeing the same picture oh that's the same person because some people go by different handles yeah right it's true yeah so you want that consistency across all platforms all my platforms even my gmail account has the same profile pictures all the social icons it instills that trust it's like okay i saw his profile picture on this picture it must be him it's not another fake account or something like that right there's so many fake accounts these days oh my god all right so you lead the circle a community of 200 plus businesses in the tri-state area in a world of superficial networking

How do you keep relationships real and results focused? So love that question. Kind of the reason I brought the community to life. When I first started the business, again, I didn't know anybody. I didn't come from a background of having a large network. I didn't have entrepreneurs in my family to make introductions. So I kind of had to hit the boots on the ground. Social was a big avenue for me to build relationships online that I then took offline.

But I was also a big proponent of doing stuff offline as well. So that led me to do a lot of networking groups and communities, the B&Is, the Chamber of Commerces, all the stuff that everyone tries. And the biggest thing I saw for them was it was just the same thing, everything you went to. You pay this fee for the year and maybe they have an event once a month or a meeting once a week, either online or offline,

usually not the blend of both, it's one or the other. And that's really it. There was nothing conducive in between the gaps of the in-person or that meetup. And I was like, how do you bridge together the in-person stuff and also give people conducive community that they can be there to plug in and have network at their fingertips?

I slowly became the guy that always has a guy. So I said, how do I become the person that helps others always have a guy in their fingertips. That's how the circle was born. So it was a blend of everything I've learned through the years of what I wish I won in a community for a super low price. So what the circle is,

every other month I host an in-person member event. Some of them are member only. Sometimes members can bring guests. So that's the in-person interaction. Then separately, there's an app. On the app, there's a calendar where I share the best 15 to 40 networking events I know about on a monthly basis.

If I get discounted tickets, the members get discounted tickets to those. If it's an event that I'm hosting to the public, the members get discounts to it too. Then in the app, you can ask for referrals. You can promote your services. You can share discounts, special gifts to the members. So it can be circle code, whatever.

And you're getting a discount to your barber because you're a circle member. So everybody washing each other's hands all along the way. And then past that, you can promote your own events in there. I share all the members events to the audience, both in the circle and then also to the public that I have as well. So getting their message out there. And then we have a really active Instagram community chat as well. And that chat just goes off all day.

Hey, I need a tile guy. Hey, my client needs someone to do this. and you know you're getting someone trusted to send that away otherwise they're going to get booted out of the community. So you know, okay, if someone's making

that introduction, I know they're going to come to me quality, they're not going to screw me, I'm going to get the best level from that level of care there. And that also extends to their customers. So if a member of the circle,

they get a referral from someone and they send it to their customer, they know their customer is going to be in the best hands. And that's paramount for any business. I don't care what industry you're in, whether you're in real estate,

whether you're a chef. If you have a business, you want to be known as the guy that always has a guy. You want to become the resource because then more people are going to come to you for the other things they need. And then when they need what it is you offer, they're most likely and willing to come to you as well. And that's kind of how I positioned myself and built the circle around being a hub for everyone to have access to as many people as they possibly can. I have not heard a group or community as great as that when it comes to business.

Yeah, I appreciate that. It's my brainchild come to life because it's the things that I saw missing in a lot of the networking communities. Exactly. Exactly. I hear like you've got some things and some things and some things, but like. Try to bring it all together. Yeah. Oh my God. I know you were promoting, you have a big event coming up at the end of June. Do you want to talk about that? Sure. So it's the largest charity golf outing on the East Coast. I have over 1,500 professionals

come out to it and I'm going to have 55 food and drink vendors. We do it for a children's hospital in Westchester. And this year's going to be my fourth year doing it. It's going to be Thursday, June 26th. And that's another brainchild come to life because I would go to all these different golf outings and not a golfer growing up, but got into it for business. And I had this idea when we first started, this was a, you're going to appreciate this. So the beginning of 2019, right before the pandemic happened, I said, I'm going to do a golf outing. I've never played golf. I'm not a member anywhere. I still don't know how to golf, but I know a lot of people that I'm working with, they like golf. And I wanted to partner my accountants. They had a few golfers

that they were friends with. They're like, oh yeah, we know a few golfers. We can put together a golf outing. So we went to the course, we put the deposit down and we were booked. We're going to have it in June, 2020. Pandemic happened in March. Everything came to a screeching halt. Obviously that got stopped from having that 2020 year. We got pushed back to 2021. During that span, I learned to golf. I joined a country club. I started going to golf outings. And thank God I did because when I first had this idea for the golf outing, it would have been a regular run of the mill golf outing I was used to going. But by going to more outings in the meantime, I saw what the gap for improvement was. And it was the same thing every outing you went to.

You pay a lot of money. You take the whole day off. There's maybe one vendor on the course giving you some drinks. Your swag bag has like a pack of balls, maybe a t-shirt, maybe a towel, a few things like that. And wherever you buy your ticket in the golfing lineup is who you're paired with. Now, me, I'm not a good golfer. I'm there to socialize. I'm going to have a cigar. I want to network and mingle. I would get paired with some guys that are scratch golfers. And we just wouldn't get along because they're really serious. They're there to golf. I'm not a great golfer. That's not what I was there for. I was there to mingle, hit a few balls, have a good time. You're out and about, right? And my big thing was the whole pitch was, oh, it's for charity. So it's

okay. We don't need to think about the golfer too much. And I said, you know what? If I thought about the golfer more, they're going to spend more money, which means more money for the charity. So I said, okay, what would I want to go to? So my first year, the golf outing was 18 vendors on 18 holes. So every single hole had a different vendor giving you something, a massage, a cigar, shots, chicken parm sliders, whatever the case was, food, drink, everything in between. And that was the claim to fame. It sold out up to the day of, had 144 golfers that first year. And then the evening cocktail reception, I angle as a networking event. So I didn't want just golfers to stay after i want new people to come as well they can spend on the raffles we raise

money for the charity i had about 250 people come out for that first year then the second year same thing 18 vendors and 18 holes it sold that in 10 days said okay there's a lot of demand for this now i think i'm onto something that year the evening cocktail reception at over 900 people came out oh my god absolutely insane the venue wasn't prepared it was pretty much a clusterfuck to be quite honest with you um the whole block to get in was jam-packed and uh it was like wow okay this is really coming to life now so then last year said okay well we have a lot of demand for the golfers what can we change to make it better and different and the course that we do it at they have two courses which is great okay they have so i said you know what we're going to

take both golf courses this year and i'm going to do 36 vendors on 36 holes and we're going to have 288 golfers so i set out to do that and that's what we had we had 288 golfers last year and we had 58 vendors on the 36 holes and the evening cocktail networking reception we had over 1500 100 business owners and professionals, and another 55 food and drink vendors giving out food and drink to the guests. Wow. So this year will be my fourth year doing it. I sold out of the 288 golf spots in 20 days, which is crazy. And as of right now, we have about 75 vendors prepared for the 36 holes and another 55 for the evening cocktail reception.

Wow. You definitely were on to something, and it's just continued to grow. That's amazing. I know I've seen your ads and everything, and it looks like an amazing event. It's a great time with great people for a great cause. That's kind of how I position it. And I just try to put myself in the shoes of a customer or as a person going to the event. What would I want? What would make me leave and say this is the best event I've ever been to? From the golf standpoint, from the evening cocktail portion, from a networking perspective, from a charity perspective, from a food perspective, like every little nuance that I can think of, I try to heighten. And one of the things I did too that most people don't even see, I have to talk about

because you will never really know, it's the golfing lineup. So as I mentioned before, when I would go to the outings, I would just get paired randomly wherever I bought the ticket. I don't do that for this golf outing. I strategically pair the two foursomes that are going to be on the hold together, the two foursomes ahead of them, and the two foursomes behind them based on their golf ability. Can they get along? Are they degenerates?

Are they fun? Are they sober? And can they do business together? And what ends up happening is these guys become great friends. They end up making connections on the golf course, then take to the evening cocktail reception and have a good time together with more people that they just met from the golf well you really found your niche i mean you're really just your brain is constantly thinking how to connect and how to bring people together and everything that you do so i think you're on

to something keep doing what you're doing and building so i love that so much i appreciate that can i um let's talk about this fit you're wearing today um so when did you start wearing suits so not too long ago, actually, pretty much this year is when I made a big difference in my brand image to take it to the next level professionally. I want to be speaking at more corporate places after doing the TED Talk. So I said, okay, this is a nice time now. I'm 30. I have this next decade ahead of me. For the people that don't know me, I know you don't know me too well before the TED Talk, five years leading up to this has been very casual Tony Peck, where I grew up in tracksuits and everything else I wore was very casual. You know, the most dressy thing you would see me in

is a polo. And that's because I have to go to the country club. You got to wear the college shirt. but besides that I was always very dressed down and I kind of been known as more lax dresser and people know me as being in the tracksuit all the time in the winter time

so that's like a staple I still wear that to this day but they said okay you know what by having that brand assimilation of the more lax casual dresser the good thing with me is I always wear black

so my color is very consistent no matter what the lax or the more classy outfit is it's always the same color scheme but again I had brand assimilation as a casual dresser and a guy that wore tracksuits now I started to turn

the wardrobe up a little bit the heads turn it's that much more noticeable now because they already assumed me being more casual and less dressed. When I show up more dressed up, it always, oh shit, Tony, you look great. I can't believe you're wearing this. And it creates more conversation. So it was done in a strategic way where you allow enough time to pass being known for wearing one type of fit, and then you switch to the next one. And again, it's not drastic in all my colors are

changed. I'm still black and my accent's always red, but now it's a different type of outfit. Now this is a custom suit, right? So all those little nuances of what I build brand-wise online is what I'm now taking offline to enhance my image and elevate my style overall. Well, I've noticed and I love it. I love custom. I'm really into custom suits. And I think that it truly does elevate you and it brings you up to that next level, even though you can still be the casual Tony, right, on any other day. But you're looking, again, to speak more on stages, to be kind of taken a little bit more serious. so yeah I really enjoy this it looks really great on you and I'm sure you know just going through the journey of what where you started to where you're at and you can just see the evolution yeah it's really cool to look back and see and me and my girlfriend we've been together for a while and she has to look back on the stuff that she didn't know me before and I was like can you

imagine this is what I was before and now what I'm doing now what I'm wearing and and I see the difference and it's really cool to see in such a short span because it's only been a couple of years right six seven years which isn't that long in the grand scheme of things I still have 30 40 more years to go. And just to see that little difference and what it's done in the small little changes I've made over a short span to end up being a big result, I know the next decade of the differences I want to make, how much bigger of a ripple effect it's going to have for the goals that I have long term. But the suit stuff, you know, I feel like I'm more like the godfather now. The godfather never wore the tracksuit, right? He always wore the suit. So now I feel

like I'm just fitting that image more of, okay, I'm a little more bunned up, a little more professional. And that's who I am. I am a businessman, but I'm just always dressed very casual. But I had this look and this style in my mind. I always wanted the all black suit. I like the red accents and that's it. So this is my style, the pure class cufflinks with all the dress shirts. So I like that as a nice little touch, a little old school, even though I'm new school. And I try to bridge the gap between both. But it's coming back and it's classic. It's something that's timeless. The suits, the look, the cut and the feel, and that's your personality and you're able to wear that. So people know that that's you still, even when you're wearing the

suit versus the track suit yes i agree with you i think my personality shows through like even me i have a few bun down shirts now they're all black yeah and the accents are all right like you saw me in that one when i the a to b kind of wear the gray suit red accents yeah so i have my style that still lets my personality shine through yeah as long as i can do that no matter what i am then i'm cool because it's still me being there authentically tony that's what you want to present every single day exactly awesome well i have a couple just um quick uh lightning round questions? Go for it. Good thing I talk really slow. Quickfire legacy round. All right. So your go-to mindset hack before a big speech? That's a good one. I don't think I have one. I'll be

honest with you. I feel that it comes in me being so prepared, knowing I know what I'm speaking about, that I don't need a mindset hack to be ready to present. Because I think when you have to get in that mindset, it's like for the TED Talk, for instance, that was a really big challenge for me because most of the talks I do are on subject matter of social media, branding, sales, business, mindset, stuff like that. And it's just off the cusp. You ask me questions, I can have an answer. I know what's in my mind already and what I'm thinking. Versus the TED Talk, as you know, I had to have the speech written out. I never wrote a speech before. Had to have it approved and then I had to memorize it. That was a task in and of itself for me. So that was a whole

different animal, but that would kind of help me shift the confidence in, okay, that TED Talk, I studied from that Friday night to the day that talk was Tuesday. All I did was rehearse it. I listened to it. I spoke it out loud while hearing it in my ears and I would say it out loud. And then by Monday, I was able to rehearse it blindly. But by the time I got on the stage, I wasn't nervous anymore because I knew I gave it my all and I was as well rehearsed and as practiced as I could have been. And that's how I treat every talk I've ever done. I just know that me showing up, I'm confident in what I'm going to deliver because I know what I'm speaking on. And the ones I think have to pair in advance, you might be a little nervous because you're not as confident

in what you're going to be talking about. So the best advice I can give is get better at what you're doing. And then by there, when you speak, you'll have more confidence because you know it's going to come naturally to you. Yeah, that's good advice. All right. Your most underrated Instagram strategy right now. Oh, being social on social media. That's my number one by far and wide. I'm going to give you guys two tips that are really tangible. Yeah. One is if you want to generate more conversations, more leads, more business. And this can be if you're a retail business or if you're a professional consumer business, whether it's construction or law or accounting. What you want to do is you want to find accounts that have your audience. So if you're

a local business, think about local restaurants, have a decent audience, local salon, local gyms, whatever the case is. You want to go to their accounts and you want to go to their most recent posts. From their most recent posts, you want to see who engaged on that post. Out of the people that are engaging on there, if their account is public, they have a profile picture, their name's in English, and their bio doesn't explicitly say they don't live somewhere you can't service, you want to go engage and maybe leave two comments on some of the posts, like about eight or 10 of their posts, and then you shoot them a DM. Now, the DM, that's the nuance. It's kind of where we consult on what you should be saying. It could be an offer. It can be a question. It could be

an introduction. Those are probably the three staple DMs, I would say. And you should do that 400 times a week. I would say give or take. That's how we started the business. I would do that two to 400 times a day. I didn't know anybody, mind you. So that was the only way to get in touch with people was me using social media as my outlet, my fingertips. So that's one. And then two, another little tip. This is what I've been doing for a very long time. I go to my Instagram story every morning and every night before bed. And I go up to the story that's been up for the longest duration. So if it's up for like 20 hours, 22 hours, whatever the case is, it's going to have the most visibility, the most views. I go to see everybody that's watched that story. If you watch

my story and you have a story up, I'm going to watch your story and I'm going to like every one of your stories. I'm going to comment where I can applicably, because now it lets me know what you have going on in your life. So when I see you in person, we can kind of pick off from something that I've seen you do in your past week or past month. And you're like, oh shit, Tony, you're so big. You saw that. So it goes that much deeper there. And we don't have to have that small talk. I can say, Hey, I just saw you were in Italy. You know, what do you recommend? I'm going there next month. Right. And you just pick up from that conversation there. So that's really helped me build deeper relationships online that has then transitioned to my offline relationships.

So those are the two biggest things. Thank you. Okay. Your favorite power look or statement piece. Power look right now, this outfit. This is my go-to. I told Lindsay, when we get married, I'm going to be in this suit. I love this. This is with the cufflinks, the thing, the red, this is, this is the power suit right now. And if not this, a Sergio Tichini tracksuit in the winter. Oh, I like this. Okay. What does success feel like for you today? I don't feel like I'm successful yet. So that's a tough question to answer. It's more that I know I'm on the right path of where I'm looking to go. And I've seen that all the work I put in has resulted in some type of level of success and some type of achievements that I know by continuing to push

further, I'm going to get where I eventually want to be. That's great. Okay. Last question. And one thing you'll tell, sorry, one thing you'd tell your 25-year-old self? Keep fucking going. Honestly, yeah, I didn't realize how young I was then. I still know I'm really young because I'm around older people that I would kill to be 31 again. But just keep going. It's going to get better. It's going to get easier because you're going to become stronger and you're going to become wiser.

You're going to become more experienced. And again, in the beginning, you don't know how much better you're going to become. You don't know how much experience you're going to become. You don't know the network you're going to be able to create. But if I knew what I would turn into in six years, it would have been a little bit easier in the beginning to just be like, okay, I don't have to stress as much. I know if I just put the work, it's going to happen.

But that's the biggest piece of advice. Just keep going if you're listening. Well, thank you for that. All right, let's tell the audience where we can find you. Instagram, Tony Peck, T-O-N-Y, P-E-C underscore. Best way to get in touch with me, shoot me a DM. If you guys have any questions, I'd love to connect. All right, guys, if you love this episode,

hit that subscribe button and follow. Share this with someone who you think will take a lot of these tidbits of information and be more successful in their business and their image and their presence. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you for having me. It was a great time.

Yes.