Right About Now with Ryan Alford - How to Actually Build Brand and Sales In the New Social Media World with Gary Vee

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Gary gives us a sneak peek into his latest masterpiece, "Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World.” Gary’s new book is the textbook you wish you h...ad when starting your marketing and branding journey. Think charts, real-life examples, advice, market research, case studies, tips, and more–all while NOT putting you to sleep. Sound too good to be true? Ryan has read it and can confirm–NO BS.While discussing Gary’s latest book and why everyone should grab a copy, Gary stresses that the key is to not get too caught up in the future, or too stuck in the past. The here and NOW is free social media. We’re in the Golden Era, baby. While it’s the most freely available, most effective way to reach your audience right NOW, it’s imperative to take advantage of it to achieve the success you desire for your brand.Adapting to marketing trends like TikTok and other social media platforms (No, TikTok isn’t just for teenage girls who like to dance) is the key to grabbing attention in the new social media world. Your strategy should then be to turn that attention into intent. Take the BS out of business by turning BUZZ into BITE.Don’t look back in 10 years and wish you would’ve taken advantage of the massive opportunities social media provides right now. Additional discussions include the significance of building relationships, teamwork, authenticity, leading with empathy, and the influence of AI in the future of marketing.Gary also shares some practical and profound parenting advice about fostering self-esteem in the digital age (No 8th place trophies here. Just real reinforcement and nurturing).Huge thanks to Gary Vee for coming on the show and dropping these knowledge bombs for us!What did you think of this episode? DM me on @rightaboutnowshow or @ryanalford on Instagram. I’d love to hear your thoughts!Pre-order Gary’s new book on Amazon! “Day Trading Attention” releases on May 21, 2024. Don’t wait to get your hands on this goldmine of information.TAKEAWAYSPerspective is Key: Appreciate what you have because many have it worse. Gratitude can change your outlook.Relationships Matter: Gary emphasizes the value of teamwork and maintaining strong relationships. Leaders should prioritize serving their team.Value Creation: Gary's primary focus is always on bringing value, a principle crucial for success in any endeavor.Empathy and Kindness: Building empires isn't just about business strategies; it's about treating people well. Empathy and kindness can lead to significant achievements.Continuous Learning: Gary sees his new book as a curriculum, reflecting his lifelong commitment to learning about selling and branding.Brand Building: Nike's success illustrates the importance of branding. Playing your "greatest hits" repeatedly can solidify your brand's identity.Adaptation and Realism: In a changing world, parents must adapt while instilling real self-esteem in their children to withstand challenges.Attention and Intent: Turning attention into action requires more than just grabbing eyeballs. It demands offering genuine value and having a plan.Embrace Discomfort: Growth often occurs outside your comfort zone. Embrace discomfort to reach new heights.Seize Opportunities: We're currently in a golden era of free attention and distribution. Leverage social media now and adapt to future platforms to stay ahead.  TIMESTAMPSThe importance of social media (00:00:00) Gary emphasizes the significance of taking social media seriously for business and personal growth.Introduction and welcome (00:00:33) The hosts introduce the show and welcome Gary Vaynerchuk, highlighting his various titles and accomplishments.Perspective and gratitude (00:01:11) Gary and the co-host discuss the importance of perspective, gratitude, and controlling one's own destiny.Building a strong team and culture (00:02:37) Gary explains the importance of building a strong team, fostering relationships, and creating a positive work culture.Empathy and kindness in business (00:08:33) Gary reflects on the significance of empathy and kindness in leadership and business, emphasizing the need to do right by people.Balancing passion and capability (00:10:36) The co-host shares a personal experience of following passion in the car business, leading to failure, and Gary emphasizes the importance of being good enough in pursuing one's passion.Embracing current opportunities (00:11:48) The co-host discusses the quote from Gary's book about underestimating current opportunities and shares personal experiences related to embracing new platforms like TikTok.Salesmanship versus branding and marketing (00:14:51) Gary discusses the difference between salesmanship and branding/marketing, emphasizing the need for a long-term brand-building approach.Consistency in brand-building (00:18:27) The co-host highlights the importance of consistency in brand-building and references Gary's consistent messaging as a testament to successful brand-building.Parenting and social media (00:19:17) Gary and the co-host discuss the considerations of parenting in the digital age, emphasizing the importance of building genuine self-esteem in children to navigate the evolving digital landscape.Gary Vaynerchuk's New Book (00:21:10) Discussion about Gary Vaynerchuk's new book "Day Trading Attention" and its relevance to marketing today.Gary's Approach to Attention Marketing (00:22:03) Gary Vaynerchuk explains his approach to staying ahead of the attention curve and implementing attention marketing.Gary's Unique Position in Marketing (00:22:59) Gary discusses his role in a 2000-person global agency and the unique insights he gains from it.Impact of AI on Marketing (00:27:49) Gary discusses the impact of AI on various industries, including marketing and advertising, and the need to strategize.Turning Attention into Intent (00:32:15) The conversation delves into the process of turning attention into intent and translating buzz into action.Content Creation and Attention (00:33:07) Gary discusses the factors that capture attention in content creation and the importance of providing value.Understanding Social Media Changes (00:35:33) Gary explains the shift in social media dynamics and the importance of understanding individual content performance.Empathy and Authenticity in Marketing (00:39:14) The discussion touches on the importance of empathy and authenticity in marketing and its impact on human connection.Real Success vs. Proxy Success (00:43:00) Gary emphasizes the difference between real success and proxy success, highlighting the importance of genuine achievement.The importance of social media (00:43:23) Gary emphasizes the significance of leveraging free social media for marketing and branding.Leveraging owned versus rented land (00:44:16) Discussion on using free social media to drive traffic to owned platforms like websites and lists.Extracting attention from social media (00:45:19) Gary discusses the power of extracting attention from social media for marketing and brand building.Preparing for the future of marketing (00:47:07) Gary warns about the potential decline of free social media awareness and the need to capitalize on it now.Building leverage over time (00:48:14) The importance of building leverage over time and taking one's brand to the next platform. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I can't believe none of you, most of you, the majority of you are not f***ing taking this more serious. Social media is free. They don't charge you when you post. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now, where it's always right and it's always now. I'm joined today.
Starting point is 00:00:47 You know, he doesn't need much of an introduction, but, you know, I've got at least six titles for him. Serial entrepreneur, chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia in five times, New York Times bestsellers, and we're going to make it six. Gary Vee, what's up, brother? How are you, my friend? I'm good, you know, life is good.
Starting point is 00:01:09 I cannot complain. No one would listen anyway. Life is good when you decide it's good. That's right. We control our own destiny in what we think about. It's actually scary how much perspective is the punchline, right? Like there is for every person listening, there are millions, if not hundreds of millions, and probably if they're listening to this billions of people, actually, definitely billions of people on earth that have
Starting point is 00:01:36 it quote unquote worse than you. There's 800, of course it's billions. There's 850 million people on earth that don't have access to clean water. And somebody before listening to this podcast this morning was complaining that their flight was delayed for 30 minutes. Yeah. You know what, Gary? I just thought about the pothole that I cursed out on the ride over here to my office. I drive one mile to work. Brother, you need to make a video of you filling that pothole in the middle of the night and posting on facebook locally and i you'll become a local hero no shit i'll send it to city council you know they get my taxes i should uh fix this one pothole i'll do it for them for this for the sake of the sake of the whole town gary what the hell's new man i mean you got
Starting point is 00:02:23 your hands in so much shit like i don't even know you keep, I have my hands in a lot of shit and I watch you and I'm like, God, how do you keep your head straight? I'm in a earned luxurious place of eating a lot of crow and putting a lot of deposits down over the last 30 years. Right. So at 48, you know, when people are like Vayner sports and V friends and Vayner media and then Vayner X, there's eight companies under it. And then the pickleball team and then the restaurant group, VCR. And, you know, just like to your point, and there's a wine text.com. Everybody should be by wine, wineetext.com, sign up. Like that, like they see it and they're like, how?
Starting point is 00:03:08 And I'm like, well, AJ, my brother, Marcus, who's been with me for 15 years, runs the Sasha Group. Kaylin McNamara is my chief business officer for VaynerX. She's been here 11 years. Hannah's my chief of staff. She's been here for 10 years. Claude is HR for all of it, 10 years. Hannah's my chief of staff. She's been here for 10 years. Claude is HR for all of it, 10 years. Mark Yudkin, general counsel and conciliar and COO for VaynerX, 16 years.
Starting point is 00:03:32 Brandon Warnke's my best friend for the last 34 years, runs the wine business. Ryan Harwood's my GM and partner in the pickleball team, 13 years, you're young in your journey. You're a youngster. As you make, this is the reason people don't understand. If you want to build something meaningful, it's only relationships. If I had people that I just hired a year or two ago, in all the roles that I just mentioned, by the way, there's another 50 that I didn't mention that are here seven to 15 years, either running departments, offices, or important things. Andy K runs VFriends, 13 years. Sid runs my personal brand content, a decade.
Starting point is 00:04:12 Like Dustin, you've been here now four, six. You know, like it's, you know, build a culture, do right by people, give a shit about them, create longevity. I don't know how many people listening like football, the way I do American football, but if your offensive line is intact, the same offensive line year after year after year, watch how good your football team will be. Not real anymore with injuries and free agency, but Jesus Christ, that's how. Takes a village. And it requires you to love
Starting point is 00:04:41 them, not they work for you. And that's where everyone gets it fucked up. When you're a boss, you work for them, not they work for you. And the day you figure that out is the day you start creating continuity. And the day you start creating continuity, you start to build the blueprint for scale. Amen. I learned that the hard way, man. I did my time in Madison Avenue in New York in my late 20s, early 30s. And it was me, me, me, me, me, me.
Starting point is 00:05:09 Yep. You know, and I thought I could carry the world on my own talents or ability or, you know, whatever the hell. And you get grounded real quick. You cannot grow. You can't do what you want without others, without a hell of a team. If people don't like you, you're in trouble. That's right. And people are never going to like someone that is only in me life. When you flip that M and you go, we life, it gets real good, real fast. And then as a complex, thoughtful leader, you start to understand some people want
Starting point is 00:05:40 money. Some people want a title because they're insecure and they want the status. Some people want work-life balance. By the way, some people, and these are the people I'm always grabbing to, they want challenges and different things. They want it. Some people want to travel. So, you know, I mean, I don't know. Like I'm not in the business of judging what my employees want.
Starting point is 00:06:02 I'm in the business of trying to figure it out. Yep. And it sounds like you're doing a pretty fucking good job of it. You got a lot of longevity there. I saw Claude's post yesterday. I think it was like 10 years. And I was like, you know, your chief people officer hanging around for 10 years, that says a lot. In a real way. And, you know, it's the thing I'm most proud of. It's also the thing I'm most disappointed about in my career. I would have more people to name for you right now if I had the ability to be candorous to my employees in my 20s and 30s. Gary Vee, the one that all of you know, if you know who I am, he built himself on candor. It's my greatest strength.
Starting point is 00:06:37 I'm trying to tell the truth both in the macro and the micro, right, in the macro with, like, all my mindset stuff. This is why I wrote the new book, this shit. Did you get a chance to look at it, right? Oh yeah. Did you read it? Can you see it on the screen? I did. Did you get a chance to read it or did you see it or neither? I don't care. No, I got about three fourths of the way through it, brother. So you agree with me that it's a fucking textbook. Like it's detailed. Oh dude. It is. It's the, it should be in every school, in every business school. It's like it's detailed oh dude it is it's the it should be in every school in every business school it's it's it's more honestly gary as i read it i thought more like curriculum slash i was coarse like it was so you had charts and shit like i think you said that on
Starting point is 00:07:19 social the other day but that's so funny that's's exactly what I thought. I was like, it is, it's like a damn school book for how to own social media. It's not even social media. It's marketing. I feel like that. Yeah. It's market. It's like, you know, go where people are. Yeah. It's to that point. So, you know, when I think about things, I'm trying to bring value, right? That is, that is the number one thing I'm thinking about at all times. And so my candor is incredible because if you don't give it, you can't really bring value as a public figure. In my private life, both personal and professional, but sticking up professional, my inability to communicate when I love someone and I'm, I'm a lover boy, meaning like you work for me for a week and I think you're a good kid
Starting point is 00:08:10 and you got something. I'm like, ah, we're family. Like I go, I'm like into team. Uncle Gary. I'm very into that. Coach Gary, guidance counselor, Gary, big brother, Gary. I love that shit. It's my gift and at times my curse. And when I say my curse, it made me not be able to tell people that were bad at their job, that they were bad at their job. And then what would happen is I would get resentment because I wasn't communicating. And then at some point I would fire them sloppily because I didn't give them enough feedback. That is the great scarlet letter of my professional building culture career.
Starting point is 00:08:48 I feel like I've really super manned it. I think I will be revered, I believe that. And that's a ridiculous thing to say, but I really do think when I'm old, people may look back at all the footage, people will realize that empathy and kindness, people that, words that people thought were like soft sipsy stuff in business land,
Starting point is 00:09:09 that I looked at it as like a real thing, not because I'm altruistic, but because I want to fucking build businesses and build empires and it requires it. And I think people look back at me being a contributor to the evolution of finding that middle. Now, the problem is when people hear me say this shit, sometimes they think that I'm talking about entitlement. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:09:32 You know this. Yeah. Right now, the biggest issue for businesses, mine included, is you've got employees who don't want to work and get paid. Bingo. And so I just want to say it real fast. When everyone hears me talking about kindness and all this nice stuff, I'm not talking about like eighth place trophies. I'm not talking about entitlement. I'm talking about finding the middle.
Starting point is 00:09:54 And I'm passionate about that. Yeah. Well, I think you've found a pretty good balance of it. You know, I am going to come for my check, though. I lost a million dollars following my passion in the car business in 2014. And that shit didn't work. Yeah. I had Carvana's idea before Carvana. I just didn't know how to operate. I knew how to market. Yeah, I'm a marketer. Well, you just explained that I was actually right. Right. That all of your
Starting point is 00:10:21 passion almost led you to Carvana. it just sounds that you weren't good enough to pull it off i wasn't i say this all the time like passion's always right because you like it more you know this you're like look i i love marketing so i love vayner media you know i love wine collecting and trading cards and like it's easy for me to do well in things that I love. If you know, look, I'm a salesman. I could sell anything. But if you like something more, you're going to do it at 10 p.m. to midnight because it's your hobby. And if you're doing something you don't love, you're not. It's not complicated. And so passion is a great way to go. The problem is you have to be good enough yeah exactly that
Starting point is 00:11:07 way that's the that's the dame that's the slippery slope though is right as someone who's been like you know growing especially with the podcast up it's great to see from afar when you read three-fourths of the book so far this is now me being curious what was the biggest like moment we're like oh shit that's how it's being or aha. Like, did anything strike you? Yeah. I'm going to give you a quote. It's because people tend to dismiss what's underpriced today. Instead, focus on what used to work in the past or what might work in the future. The process to continue to underestimate what's working right now. And that was my favorite quote from the book because it was, I, I feel like I'm progressive, you know, I mean, if you're the king of progression, I mean, I'm on the second tier. And so I believe it, but then I start looking at the sacred cows that I have and I'm like,
Starting point is 00:11:57 I need to fucking get over that shit. You know, I've been late to the game on TikTok, even though I, I know it's big and I know that it's underpriced. And so I'm guilty of it, but that quote alone. In that scenario, is it that, how many followers do you have on Instagram? 200,000, close to that. So is it something where you're like, you have this great number on Instagram, you're like 200,000. Are you worried from a brand perception standpoint that if you go to TikTok and you have 83, it makes you look smaller those first couple of weeks and months? No, I don't give a shit what people think. The reason I asked you that is that's a huge one for
Starting point is 00:12:34 people. They underestimate the upside for the short-term worry of brand. Is it because you did the cliche thing of like, oh, it's just teenage girls and it just couldn't get out of that mindset? At first it was, and then I started posting and, and, you know, hit off, this was a couple of years ago, but then I became self-aware that I wasn't doing it right. And I stopped and I said, I'm not going to redo this until I get the team around me to do this right. And now I do. So we're about to go back at it. I think that's a much better answer than most. Yeah. But the reality is, and why I circled that quote and why it stuck with me and I was reading
Starting point is 00:13:15 is because I think that's what most brands and people are stuck in though, is these sacred cows. Or the future. I talked to somebody the other day that fits this perfectly stuck on seo right and infatuated with ai and no conversation social yeah right like tried and true i'm like tried and true for yes seo works but it doesn't work the same way it worked in 2004 no ai yes but but you don't even know what you're talking about yet, and your industry is not even affected by it yet. And meanwhile, all your action is on posting on LinkedIn properly, and you haven't posted on there once.
Starting point is 00:13:55 Romantic about yesterday, infatuated with tomorrow, sucking at today. That is the speed of the union of 99%. Yeah, and they get exactly the point you made. TikTok can't generate leads like this. Instagram doesn't do LinkedIn like that. Like, and they get to, it's all excuses. Like, let's be honest. It's not only all excuses. I'm starting to jump in, but also what you're, what a lot of people don't understand is, and you just broke it down. I want to, this is why I'm jumping in. I want everyone to hear this. You just talked about someone who's a salesman, not a marketer. Yeah. What most people don't know about themselves that
Starting point is 00:14:28 are listening right now is they're salespeople, not branding and marketing. Like, like what, you know, when I was coming up the game, everyone's like, Oh, Gary doesn't get it. He doesn't know how to do, he's not doing funnels. He's not doing that. They didn't get it. I was playing chess. They were playing checkers. Like they were looking for short-term arbitrage. I was playing long-term brand. If you're listening right now and you're saying TikTok doesn't get leads, you're a salesman. Yes. Which is, by the way, I'm a salesman.
Starting point is 00:14:55 I like that. But you know who salespeople are? People that don't know how to do brand and marketing. Yep. They have to be left with sales. And then you know what the 98% of the rest of the world is? They can't do either, which is why they work for salespeople or marketers. That's right. Everybody wants outcomes today, damn it. And everybody's impatient.
Starting point is 00:15:16 You know who's getting outcomes today? Nike. You know how they did it? By building a brand. Exactly. You know who's getting outcomes today? This motherfucker right here who's been doing this show for six years and Gary Vee's now sitting in front of me. That's exactly right. But that didn't happen six days in or six months in. No. Hell no. It's the game. By the way, people are like, oh, Gary. I was like, oh, Gary, nothing. Like, I worked every day in a liquor store for 13 years to figure out how things marketed and branded like and before that i spent my childhood in marketing and selling like um i don't know what i think malcolm gladwell's thing was 10 000 hours motherfucker i don't know i gotta
Starting point is 00:15:57 run the math but whatever fucking what am i 48 whatever 42 years of trying to sell or make signs or build a brand or sell, and I didn't do school like that. I gave it none of my time. Whatever 42 years subtracted by seven hours a day on sleeping on average, whatever that math is, that's how many hours I put into this craft. You got the, Hey, that's what I'm saying. That's why I've always, I've agreed with everything that you say, but I've always respected the hell out of you because you live exactly. You preach and you're do, if you really watch what you're doing, Gary, you've always done what you're telling other people to do. That's the,
Starting point is 00:16:39 that's the secret guys. A couple of things about brother one, I appreciate your opening line. I want people to hear this. No one should agree with anyone on everything. It doesn't even make sense. We all have different life experiences. We end up figuring it. By the way, we also all change our minds. Many people have written to me that they didn't believe something and then they believed it or vice versa. Or vice versa. This is why I call my book, Day Trading Attention. Someone emailed me the other day and said, hey, I watch this video. I've been trying it.
Starting point is 00:17:07 It's not working. I replied to him like, bro, I did that in 2009. That video's from 2009. Shit's changed. And so, you know, we should, and I appreciate that. I really do.
Starting point is 00:17:19 I'm scared to be wrong. So I talk about the things that I know or the things that I'm living and I stay in that pocket. The biggest compliment I ever get in social media is normally when someone's trying to troll me in the comments. They're like, Gary Vee, you say the same shit. And I reply, I'm like, thank you. Like, what do you want me to make up? I don't believe in just to say something different.
Starting point is 00:17:41 But that's the but what you're doing is the epitome of what you're preaching, which is brand and brand. You play your greatest hits over and over again. And you're literally, you know, cause if you're not consistent, you can't build a brand. I just saw a billboard for Rolling Stones is going on tour. I'm like,
Starting point is 00:17:58 these motherfuckers. I don't even stay upright. I'm like, when I go out with my friends like three weekends in a row. But to be touring as a rock star for 50 years, I don't know how the fuck they do it. But I digress. I think it was legal drugs. I think how they pulled it off. Yes, yes.
Starting point is 00:18:20 I will say this. So I'm a father of four boys. Yes. And I had like a couple things I had to get in on top of this I was like 8 to 14 and they're into trends but they're not into social media I don't really they're not really allowed to do it per se yeah how do you balance that like what's the but I know being in the business like you it's good it'd be fucking great for them you know but it starts with knowing the kid, right?
Starting point is 00:18:46 I'm sure, you know, I have 14 and 11, soon to be 12 and 15. So I'm in the same pocket as you. Got a couple more. First of all, that's epic. Having four boys between that age. Honestly, that's pretty, you should just be filming that. That's pure entertainment. Those characters are doing all sorts of crazy shit with each other.
Starting point is 00:19:04 Oh, dude, we're doing everything. Sports know yeah it's awesome um as you know out of the four kids i'm sure if i said to you you have to you have to have two of the kids be on social media 12 hours a day it's now law or you'll go to jail. You very quickly right now already know which two can handle it better than which two. Right, so, I think the way parents have to think about this stuff is first of all, every parent needs to do what's right for them. That being said, I do think we need to be a little bit
Starting point is 00:19:37 more thoughtful than just demonizing it. What is social media today is amateur hour to what they're gonna be dealing with in their 20s and 30s. The cell phone and social media today is amateur hour to what they're going to be dealing with in their 20s and 30s. The cell phone and social media today, when they're our age, is going to look like the beeper and the CD-ROM. It's mundane. When everyone's like, oh, you got to get them out of the phone. Like, I got to get them out of the phone. They got to see the real world. I'm like, motherfucker, when they're 40, they're going to live in VR 24 hours a day. There's no real world. You know, it's an empty container. Like, the world's going to live in VR 24 hours a day. There's no real world. It's an empty container.
Starting point is 00:20:07 The world's going to change. And so I think it's a balance. But I think the answer to the question is very simple in my mind, Brent, which is the sooner you can build actual self-esteem in the four of them versus fake self-esteem, the better they will be able to handle anything. When they finally do get to 16 or 15 or 19 or whatever the rules are in your house, and they're allowed to be on social and they post their first thing and people say they're ugly, they're stupid, they're idiots.
Starting point is 00:20:32 If they have actual self-esteem, they'll be able to deal with it. Yeah, that's the key. And we put them in, we make them do tough challenges. You know, like we don't shelter them. And that's, you know, they have to, they have to be on their own merit at times and see success from it. But no, I appreciate that input. So talking with Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Day
Starting point is 00:20:53 Trading Attention, coming out the 19th, I believe. Isn't that right, Gary? We're like, I think, days away. 21st. We're releasing this, I think, just before the episode. So go buy it. Amazon, all the locations, we'll have all those links. Gary, I mean, it's obvious to me, you know, like why you wrote the book. It's, it's the guidebook for attention marketing today, now, now. But, you know, how do you implement, how do you eat your own dog food? Like what's your process for staying? I mean, you've got the team, I'm sure. But staying ahead of that attention curve.
Starting point is 00:21:33 It's three things. It's team on team and me, meaning there's me and I live this. This is what I do for a living. There's my team of 30, 40 people, Team Gary. We're constantly flowing in a WhatsApp thread, what's working, what's not working, the analytics, the first three seconds of the video. It's so cool to be on this show
Starting point is 00:21:51 knowing there's not a single person listening right now that should not buy this book. That's insane to me. And I'll tell you why, because if somebody's listening right now and they're a principal of a high school, if they're listening right now and they're a middle manager in high school, if they're listening right now and they're a middle manager in a corporation, if they have a nonprofit, if they're a board member of their country club,
Starting point is 00:22:11 no matter who you are on earth, knowing how to get people to hear you for whatever you care about, raising money for a nonprofit, selling t-shirts, getting people to use your auto body shop, buying your new tequila, like whatever. It's so cool. That's why I'm so excited about this book. I know everyone's going to get value. And that's why I textbook it because everyone, most people can learn in that format. Ironically, I'm one of the few that can. Anyway, how do I do it? It's what I do for a living. It's what I do for 12 hours a day. But I also like to give people context, there's 50 people that work in a department in my company called the PAC department,
Starting point is 00:22:50 platforms and culture. All they do for a living is pay attention to what the platforms are doing and how the algorithms are working and what the best way to get 50,000 views instead of four views, the best way to get a million views instead of a hundred thousand views on every platform, Snapchat, spotlight, LinkedIn.
Starting point is 00:23:06 I'm one of the few humans on earth that have over a million followers on all of the platforms. Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. I believe in all of these platforms have way more attention than people think. Way more. And I believe that being the best at it matters. And so how do I eat my own goat food? I like, here's how I'm going to show it to you. I know this is probably audio for most people, but like, for example, literally this morning, eight 34 this morning, literally this morning, 8.34 this morning, right? I wrote the copy personally for my post on Instagram. I'm in it, right?
Starting point is 00:23:53 I'm in the gym. I'm in the gym. I'm the one. There's no steroids here. There's no Osebic. There's no fucking taking a young person's blood and transfusing it into me. I'm in the fucking gym. Oh, come on. You had a vampire facial last night. I know you did. But I'm fucking in it. I'm fucking in it. And I want to be the best in the world at it.
Starting point is 00:24:13 And then I'm very lucky. I also, well, lucky. I built a 2000 person global agency. It's one of the biggest, best social media and overall marketing agencies in the world. So I have data. social media and overall marketing agencies in the world. So I have data. My company spends billions of dollars, Ryan, on media, on social media and media. Billions. Do you know how much information I'm seeing? And for everything, chicken wings and sodas and hoodies and airlines and all of it. So, you know, I'm in a very unique position of seeing a lot more than the person you see in your feed that's giving you like an Instagram hack that's looking like a professor. And I like those characters.
Starting point is 00:24:57 I think they're doing, a lot of them are doing decent jobs, but mine is so omni. I'm unique in that like, I'm sitting with information that is like incredibly rare. There are no, there are zero humans on earth that have a 2000% global agency, global, Latin America, APAC, Europe, and they themselves are one of the most established content creator personalities in the world. I am that person. And I'm very humbled by that actually. And I'm so humbled by it. And I was so parented well that, and I'm such a weird character. Do you know what my team feels about this book?
Starting point is 00:25:37 The fuck? My agency's mad at me. For giving it away. Yeah, what are you doing? And I'm like, guys, this doesn't, the information can't sit with us. It doesn't sit that long. It's day trading attention. It's going to change, but I'm going to give everybody the principles and I'm going to tell them there's not one person that doesn't follow this. That won't get results similar to best practices in health and wellness. I promise everyone who's listening, if you cut down your carbs and sugar and you go to the gym
Starting point is 00:26:08 and actually start doing strength work, your body and your physicality will be better two years later. I lived it. You've seen my videos 10 years ago. I've lived it. Yeah. And I've got the emails from Brandon
Starting point is 00:26:21 from Wine Library from 2009. I was going through all my, I did that Gary Vee search through, like, I like, I don't know if I've known Gary Vee. Like, I look, I got Brandon's fucking email sending me a wine list from 2009, I think. So when you brought his name up, I was like, I totally know. That's so cool. Yes, yes. Day trading attention with Gary Vee. So you brought up 2,000 people. I asked my community, I was like, all right, what do you want to know from Gary? Repeat question. It was all about AI, right? Go figure.
Starting point is 00:27:03 and marketing and advertising will be impacted, has been impacted. So what are the industries that, you know, are going to be most impacted? And how do you reflect on it as it relates to like your company? Advertising. Yeah. Marketing. Like we're right at the forefront of this. We're the bookstores. We're the taxi cabs.
Starting point is 00:27:20 Like if you're an Adobe designer, if you for a living design images on Adobe for an agency, you better wake the fuck up. Like you've got a few minutes here because we've got to figure out copyright and trademark law. Companies are going to be, the big companies that use agencies are going to tread lightly, but I mean, this shit is coming, brother. It's really coming.
Starting point is 00:27:38 So I think a lot about it. This is why we spend so much time on strategy and thinking and not just being someone who makes something. I tell my team all the time, we get paid for our brains, then what we make. But I mean, to answer your question, everything. Think about the last 20 years, everyone who's so proud that they've told their kids to become coders and developers, and they've gone on to make good money. And now you can already see the early stages of like, wait a minute, in five years, am I going to be able to build an entire website
Starting point is 00:28:07 by talking it out? And then an AI will just write the code? Like it's, I mean, brother, I'm even worried about the only thing I've always thought I had, which was my brain. I believe that you can map everything that I've ever said and that eventually the machine learning and the technology will get so good that I believe at some point everybody on earth can think the way I think.
Starting point is 00:28:30 Can literally get answers to how I'm critically like, what is Gary Vee thinking about this? Let's say a new thing came out, Schmaga. It's the hot new app. What would Gary Vee think about Schmaga? Enter. And that because of everything I've ever said on the machine learning and all the work that the answer would actually be the answer. Exactly. If you aren't thinking about that, if you haven't made that connection, you're fooling yourself. Like if you haven't thought that deep down this rabbit hole. It's why I've always said this, the ultimate is brand
Starting point is 00:29:02 because it's the only thing that's left after everything gets commoditized. Which allows you to pivot to whatever is left. Gary V's carrots, organically grown. Good for your health. Buy now. Toilet bowl, whatever. I thought about blue collar stuff. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:21 To me, it's like, for me, as long as I believe in it, when I did Empathy Wines, I believed in it. I believe that with BeFriends, I'm building the next Pokemon meets Sesame Street. With this book, when people buy this for 28 bucks or whatever it is on Amazon, I'm like, oh my God. Like they're like, how do they not get $28 in value within the first second? They're going to do one. They're going to change. Everybody's going to change the way they make every piece of content. The first piece of content, instead of normally getting 800 views is going to get 8,000. And those 7,200 impressions are worth more than 28 bucks. Like that's a great feeling. That's people are like, Hey Gary, I'm scared of selling. I'm like, that's because you don't believe in what you're selling. I'm scared of selling too.
Starting point is 00:30:04 If I don't believe in it. One of the reasons I'm so weird and say different things than a lot of people is I don't know what to do with, I don't even know how to sell something I don't think is right. What do you do? Yeah. Well, authenticity, you know, that proves that you are authentic, doesn't it? Yeah, I think so. I think it really matters. Like, I really don't understand. This is what my argument is with a lot of people in Madison Avenue and you were there, right?
Starting point is 00:30:31 Yep. They sell shit they don't believe in. Do you really think if you're sitting right now at Omnicom and selling banner ads on the web that you as a human think that's a good idea? Fuck no. Like, if you're selling, like, do you really think the best deal in marketing
Starting point is 00:30:46 is a billboard outside like do those people really think that hell no they know they know i think they know they know let me ask i do have this question and then i'm going to talk about a A couple of these charts and shit. Okay. Brand. Outcomes. Attention. How do we, you know, I have friends that go, well, you can, you know, take your shirt off and run around and get attention all day. Well, what is that attention?
Starting point is 00:31:22 How do you turn intention into intent? How do you turn buzz into bite? How do you turn buzz into bite? Having a good product or service that people want, asking. This is the follow-up to Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. This book was originally called Jab, Jab, Jab, Left Hook instead of Day Trading Attention. To your buddy's points, like if people are going to look at you because you look – being attractive is a really interesting concept to me, right? So like I think about why people would stop in the feed, right? And really why would somebody sit?
Starting point is 00:31:53 There's humor. I think we can all agree that humor is like a great place, right? There's attractiveness. I don't think this is going to confuse anyone. We tend to stop in our feed. Right? Yeah. There's, and there's what I think I've lived on, which is like value of information. And I think of those things in macro and micro, there's some people that are very good at perspective and mindset and blueprint. And then there's people that will go very tactical. I've played both in a lot of ways.
Starting point is 00:32:30 So when your buddies go, well, easy for you, Rye, to get attention. I'm like, look, if Rye is selling, if he's got his shirt off and they stop, but he's selling like B2B SaaS products and none of those people convert, then what do we achieve? And that's true. But if people stopped, and this is why I think people don't mix their content enough. If someone stops and you're looking all diesel and they're like, look at those fucking packs. And then they click your account. And the prior post is you talking in detail about a B2B. I mean, just think about how wild this concept is. We need a SaaS product for enterprise corporate. If three of the thousand people that stop to look at, either they want to look like you or they're attracted to you and then click that other one and be like, what is this? If three of those thousand
Starting point is 00:33:17 are actually in that industry, one of those three may lead to a leak. So I think where people get hurt is they do content for the sake of getting attention, but never have the other part of it. And then they don't do the other part of it because their grid doesn't look good or it's not on brand. They don't get it. They're in the business of the academia of marketing or the insecurity of marketing. The reason most people don't put out content that will help them sell more stuff is they know it won't do as well. that will help them sell more stuff is they know it won't do as well. So they keep putting out photos of their abs or their ass.
Starting point is 00:33:48 Yeah. Right? Because they want a thousand likes or they want a million likes. Yeah, with that dopamine hit. Yeah, exactly. It's all just high school. It is. I'm on page 72.
Starting point is 00:33:59 Literally a chart. Amplification, spending against what works, a not wasting a penny, teaching you how to literally make sure you double down on what you need to double down and what you're learning. It's kind of a learn cycle in a way. It's like, okay, what are we learning and how do we double down on it? I'm simplifying. Yep. I'll make it very common sense for everyone. I think you've been paying attention. Everyone was listening. Social media changed three years ago. It's now about the individual pieces of content, the TikTokification of social.
Starting point is 00:34:30 It's not like when I grew up in social where you try to get as many followers as possible and then a certain percentage of those followers see the content. Ryan's got 200,000 on Instagram. I have 10 million. Both of us can post right now, today, and he can get twice as many views on a video than I can if his video hits right versus me putting out something that
Starting point is 00:34:52 really does not hit right. That is insane. Once you know that that content hit right, the algorithm has mitigated the biggest risk in marketing, which is the creative. Once you mitigate the risk of creative, you can then decide if you want to amplify it. More importantly, or equally as important, you can also extract insights from it. Why did it do well? That's like what I spent all my time on, Rye. I'm obsessed with why. Why? Why? Why? The most successful people are the curious people. Like, that's what it is. You got to know why. Your body, your mind, your soul, your being won't let you not ask that question. Yeah. And especially towards the human. That was always what I like. That's what I got.
Starting point is 00:35:39 That's who I became. Like, I was just always curious, like, why? Even when I didn't know that bullying was based on kids that were unhappy at home, even in third grade, I was just always curious, like why, even when I didn't know that bullying was based on kids that were unhappy at home, even in third grade, I was like, I naturally felt bad for the bully. I'm like, something's wrong. And I was scared of the bully, like everybody else. And the bully back then in the eighties in Jersey in third and fifth grade, they were big kids. The Williams brothers, they were big kids. I was scared of them, but I fucking knew in my heart, I'm like, nah, they're not beating the shit out of all of us for just kicks and giggles.
Starting point is 00:36:07 There's something wrong. Why, why? People are mad at their boss for being mean to them, even though the boss has always been decent-ish. And now they're like, oh, my boss is a dick now, or I hate him, I gotta get out of here, fuck him. And they don't realize the why is, well, a month ago, he found out that his spouse
Starting point is 00:36:23 has terminal cancer and he hasn't told you yet. So why don't we give people the benefit of the doubt? And the story that I just told, why would you, if someone's been good to you for five years or solid, or at least neutral, that at the first turn that they were not as good as normal, like it wasn't good. Why do you immediately go into, I hate that person, I'm done? I'll tell you why, because you yourself are insecure. You're not in a good enough place
Starting point is 00:36:50 to have the compassion to be like, wait a minute, Johnny's been decent. Now he's like really not riding me this week in a nice way. People are selfish. They go into what they're feeling. To me, that logically is like, something's wrong with Johnny.
Starting point is 00:37:03 Empathy. I'm very bullish on it. And that same ability in human interaction helps you be a good salesman and marketer. The reason I put out good content is I have a good feel of what the world is looking for right now that I feel that I can contribute to. There's a lot of things I know that would do well, but I don't think I can contribute to it. I don't know it as well.
Starting point is 00:37:24 It doesn't come natural to me. You know, I'd love to speak a lot more. Here's one. Let me give you in detail. You'll like this stuff. You haven't heard this one. I would love to talk a lot more about grieving. I think it's a big subject matter.
Starting point is 00:37:35 I just have been fortunate and unfortunate that I can't speak to it. Here's why. Fortunate because I'm 48 years old and my mom's mom, my grandma, who I really knew, my great uncle Misha, who was a father figure to me, that's where I'm at. My great grandmother when I was little.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Like, unfortunate because so many of my family members died before I was even born, both my grandfathers, one of my grandmothers. So, you know, I'm a small family, Holocaust stuff like that. So, you know, I can't speak to it, brother. I have thoughts on it, but I just don't feel comfortable. You know, I can observe from afar, but back to what you were saying earlier, I like to talk about stuff that you've lived, you know, one day I will one day, unfortunately I will. And I have a funny feeling in 30 years, I'll have content on it because I
Starting point is 00:38:23 think it's a big one out there. Yeah, it is. I mean, social media has made us more connected than ever, but yet disconnected from some real discussions. Well, that's because we're incredibly emotionally vulnerable as a society. The last 35 years of parenting specifically has been incredibly bad at getting people to be comfortable with discomfort. I mean, bro, I hope your 14, your eight to 14 year olds don't have a place for you. I hope you know. Dude, you're singing from the playbook, man.
Starting point is 00:38:59 The soonest I came home with the, you know, the medallion that thing went in the uh like bottom of the trash can like not didn't do it in front of them but like that's not hanging that's not hanging out you know there's a really positive way to throw it in the trash can like it doesn't have to be like cliche like oh alpha dickhead dad no no talk about it yeah talk about the reason look their kids are more grown up than people think. You sit down with an 11-year-old and be like, listen, it's not that I don't want you to have this bullshit six-place trophy or medal.
Starting point is 00:39:32 It's that you have to understand losing is good. You guys came in sixth. You guys lost. That's good. You shouldn't be rewarded for that. Exactly. In the game of a basketball tournament. There's a positive way to talk about it.
Starting point is 00:39:45 Anyway, I think we have a lot. The reason we're lonely is we're scared. Yeah, we are. We're scared of losing opinions. We're scared of losing in front of others, keeping up with the Joneses, blue check marks, followers, money, status, how attractive is your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband?
Starting point is 00:40:03 How much money do they make? All these vain fucking bullshit, bullshit shit. I'll say this. That's why you need to focus on what's real and what you can do that actually impacts what you're doing. That's what this is about. Like, we get too caught up in shit. It's excuses. You know this.
Starting point is 00:40:19 We all know this. You get caught up in it. You don't know it. But once you really reflect, you know it's excuses because you're focused on things that you don't have control over. You know, and that's what they're trying to do to us. Right. Like, that's what the news is. That's what society is.
Starting point is 00:40:33 That's what politicians, that's what parents are like. It's what schools do. Like, it's you don't control shit in like most of your life. This is why I love, you know, it's so funny. After my last rant, like none of that matters. Meanwhile, I'm trying to build an empire. I'm not demonizing success or winning. That's all I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to get people to be healthy about it. So once they get there, they can stay there. Bro, I'm sure even at, you know, I'm sure at this point in your life, you've seen in front of your
Starting point is 00:40:58 eyes, circles or close circles, people get real paper and real money. And then three, four years later, it's all gone. 100%. And a lot of times in that story, the family's gone. The reputation's gone. It's not a good life. They got to success in the wrong way. Yep. And it's because it wasn't success. It was fake success. It was proxy success. Exactly. But that's why we got to be day trading attention. We don't want proxy success. We need all success. I'm telling you right now, it is crazy. I can't believe I'll leave it with this for all of you. I can't believe none of you, most of you, the majority of you are not fucking taking this shit more serious. Social media is free, right? It's fucking free, brother. It's fucking free. They
Starting point is 00:41:46 don't charge you when you post. Do you know what a newspaper ad costs? A lot. Do you know what a billboard costs? A lot. Do you know what direct mail costs? A lot. Television commercial? A lot. Sponsorship of an event? A lot. Google AdWords? A lot. Pre-roll YouTube? A lot. Hulu interstitial ads? A lot. Influen influencers to plug your product a lot like i don't understand what the fuck people are doing organic social media is the most important thing in the world figure it the fuck out stop crying stop bullshitting this is fucking it bingo free i almost called this book It's fucking free Double F Fucking free
Starting point is 00:42:30 And you got the guidebook to do it Day training intention Gary, a question Own versus rented land Do you leverage The free to get them to the owned You know, the website list. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:47 Of course. By the way, I think I talked about, I know I talked about it. Please have your default URL proper on your social. Hell yeah. Of course. Attention is always being set to the owned, right? Yes. When you, you know, like, I don't know, I'm on this right now getting attention.
Starting point is 00:43:04 And if it's, and if people like what I'm saying know, I'm on this right now getting attention. And if people like what I'm saying, they're going to buy a $20 book. That's yours. Right. In this scenario, I'm obviously sharing that with Amazon and my publisher. Yeah. But at least my publisher had to pay me a big bag to be a partner in it. But yeah, brother, of course. Because you built brand over time and you had levers to do that.
Starting point is 00:43:25 Correct. And of course, like you want your podcast linked up there or something else like and i change my links depending on what i want people to know about and so of course you're sending them to other places but you're extracting everyone's like the algorithms are fucking me i'm like no no you should be fucking them it's free extract the attention from it 100 powerful everyone cries about social but it's their most Extract the attention from it. A hundred percent. That's why they're so powerful. Everyone cries about social, but it's their most important thing. Yeah. Cause the attention's there.
Starting point is 00:43:48 Yeah. That's what, look, what is a six hours a day for what? 18 to 24 year olds on fucking Tik TOK. I mean, 18 to 24 year olds, all of us older fuckers are on it all day.
Starting point is 00:44:00 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Everyone's on it all day. If I'm not working all what are you, all day. Well, that's why I do it. Most people watch television with social as the companion. Definitely Twitter. Definitely in sports and politics.
Starting point is 00:44:13 Your phone is the TV and your TV is the radio. That's what I'm saying. That's right. That's right. Gary, I know people know where to find you, but I want to be respectful of your time. We've come up to it here. Always, again, respect the hell out of your directness. How you I don't know, man, it's always been relatable. Again, no matter what you think or what you see, you've lived it.
Starting point is 00:44:39 You've done it. And I, you know, I led the witness a little bit with how you're eating your dog food, because I wanted them to hear that Gary isn't writing this book. He's just giving you the roadmap of what he's already fucking doing every day. And he's living it. I just, I want this for everyone because I think it's going to go away. My belief is the, look, there might be another invention, but I do believe that in the next 15 to 20 years, we're going to be in VR heavy. but I do believe that in the next 15 to 20 years, we're going to be in VR heavy. And when we're in VR heavy, social's dead. And I don't know if Apple and Facebook or Amazon or Google
Starting point is 00:45:10 or whoever wins VR, if they're not in the mood to give you free awareness, then guess what? People are going to be talking about how there's golden era of free awareness and we all fucked up and didn't go hard enough. You know, people have regrets of like, oh, wishing college I went to more parties
Starting point is 00:45:23 because now I can't. Or like, oh, I wish I spent more time with my dad because he just passed and now I can't. Like, I believe marketers and businesses are going to regret the living shit out of the social media free distribution era. And that's why while we're still in it, I'm yelling at the top of the mountains, like, please go get more attention. So that you can then pivot and do whatever you need to do when the tide turns. And that's the biggest, that's the takeaway. That's the big aha, right? It's like, yeah, it's about, you need to sell more today.
Starting point is 00:45:53 Of course you do. But you need leverage over time. That's right. You get to take your brand to the next platform. Whatever it is. I mean, I did it. I just did that. My original platforms.
Starting point is 00:46:06 Wine Library TV on fucking YouTube. That's right. And I'm Gidler. I'm Gidler. And on Ustream for live. And Meerkat, I got attention in. And Vine, I got attention in. And Social Cam, I got attention in.
Starting point is 00:46:21 And Photo Booth, I got attention in. And MySpace, I got attention in. And, you know got attention in and my space. I got attention in and you know, it just ebbs and flows. Let's grab dinner in New York sometime. Looking forward to it. Thank you, brother. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Hey guys, Unified Gary. We got all the links for them. We'll have all the links to the book. Go buy it, man. This is the best value in business. It should be, it should be literally the curriculum. My kids are going to read it. My wife is a middle school principal. She will be reading it. And you know what? You know going to read it. My wife is a middle school principal. She will be reading it.
Starting point is 00:46:46 And you know what? You know where to find us. Ryanisright.com. We'll see you next time on Right About Now. This has been Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

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