Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - GaryVee: My 2024 Blueprint For Building Brand and Sales on Social Media | E291

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

GaryVee worked at his family’s liquor store until he was 34, but even as he loaded up cases of Dom Pérignon in his friends’ BMWs, he knew exactly where he was going. He grew his father’s compan...y from $4 million to $60 million in annual sales before leaving to start his own thing from scratch. The company had over 800 employees just nine years later, servicing clients like Johnson and Johnson, PepsiCo, and GE. Today’s episode is a masterclass in day-trading attention and social media marketing. Gary reveals some of his best tactics for mastering modern advertising. He also explores emerging trends businesses can leverage to enhance their brand presence. GaryVee, is a serial entrepreneur, a New York Times bestselling author, and one of the leading marketing experts in the world. He is the chairman of VaynerX and CEO of VaynerMedia and Veefriends. In this episode, Hala and Gary will discuss: - Why humility is a strong competitive advantage - The importance of doing what you love  - Why entrepreneurs must have the stomach to fail - How he can guess the next hot thing  - Why money does not buy happiness - The interest graph trend on social media platforms - Going viral vs focusing on valuable content  - His approach to niching down for more relevance - His ‘day trading attention’ framework for modern advertising - Why it’s essential to know pop culture - Why strategic organic content is the most important thing in marketing  - The importance of storytelling - And other topics… GaryVee, is a renowned entrepreneur and CEO of VaynerMedia, part of the larger VaynerX holding company, which includes several subsidiaries. A leading thinker on digital trends, he helps major brands stay culturally relevant. Gary has made successful early investments in major tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, Snapchat, Coinbase, and Uber. He is a prolific content creator with over 44 million followers across various social media platforms. He is also the bestselling author of several books, including his latest, Day Trading Attention. Gary hosts the top-rated podcast, The GaryVee Audio Experience, and was named to the Fortune list of the Top 50 Influential people in the NFT industry. Connect With Gary: Gary’s Website: https://garyvaynerchuk.com/biography/   Gary’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/   Gary’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/garyvee  Gary’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/ Gary’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gary/  Gary’s Podcast, The Gary Vee Audio Experience: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-garyvee-audio-experience/id928159684   Resources Mentioned: Gary's Book, Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Trading-Attention-Actually-Social/dp/0063317591     LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course.   Sponsored By: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting. Yahoo Finance - For comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit YahooFinance.com Kajabi - Get a free 30-day trial to start your business at Kajabi.com/PROFITING LinkedIn Marketing Solutions - Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at linkedin.com/YAP Industrious - Visit industriousoffice.com and use code PROFITING to get a free week of coworking when you take a tour!   More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting   Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala   Learn more about YAP Media's Services - yapmedia.io/

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode of Yap is sponsored in part by Industrius, Kajabi, Indeed, LinkedIn, and Yahoo Finance. Industrius is the leading workplace provider for companies of all sizes and stages. Use code profiting to redeem a free week of coworking at industriusoffice.com. Kajabi gives you control of your content, brand, and income. Get a free 30-day trial to start your course
Starting point is 00:00:23 at kajabi.com slash Profiting. Attract, interview, and hire all in one place with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash Profiting. Reach top level decision makers by advertising on LinkedIn. Go to LinkedIn.com slash Yap for $100 credit on your next campaign. Yahoo Finance is the number one financial destination. For comprehensive financial news and analysis,
Starting point is 00:00:49 visit the brand behind every great investor, yahoofinance.com. As always, you can find all of our amazing deals in the show notes. What's up, young and profitors? Welcome to the show. We've got an exciting conversation in store for you all. We are live at VaynerMedia offices. I have the honor and privilege of interviewing one of my all-time favorite entrepreneurs, one of my role models as a marketer, Gary Vaynerchuk. And we are going to talk all about his come-up story.
Starting point is 00:01:30 We're going to talk about how to become a successful entrepreneur, how to do what you love. And we're going to get into his new book, Day Trading for Attention. It's literally a masterclass on social media marketing and advertising. I can't wait to share this conversation with you all. Let's get into it. Gary, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks for having me.
Starting point is 00:01:50 I'm so excited. You have been one of my inspirations as a marketing expert, as an entrepreneur. I've been listening to your advice for a long time. And one of the things that I really respect about you is that you're always giving consistent, productive, positive advice, very different from other leaders out there. You really spend time with the underdogs, with the small dogs.
Starting point is 00:02:10 And so my first question to you is why is being humble and having humility so important to you and why do you spend so much time teaching young entrepreneurs? That's very sweet. Thank you. Well, why is it important to me? First of all, I would say that I got very fortunate. I think it's in me. If I'm analyzing at 48 years old, it was in my DNA,
Starting point is 00:02:31 and then it was reinforced at scale by the person that probably gave me the DNA, my mom. And it's interesting. I appreciate you saying that. I think as I'm getting older, people are seeing it in the action. Because you know, I'm an interesting communicator. I'm competitive, I'm Jersey, I curse.
Starting point is 00:02:48 And I think early in my career, I was very empathetic that like humble wouldn't be like what people first saw. But I'm very proud that as a leader in my career, the actions, like for you it's easy as somebody watches carefully enough, that it's something I'm very proud of. And there's much that goes into it.
Starting point is 00:03:07 Why is it important to me? I think it's an incredible trait. I think it's a very attractive trait. And I also think it's a very strong competitive advantage. I think humility protects you from delusion. It protects you from getting high in your own supply. And it just protects you from a lot of things that I think are yucky for people that win.
Starting point is 00:03:26 I enjoy being liked more by the people that actually know me than the ones that don't. And there are many people that we all put on a pedestal that are living the reverse life. It is in my essence. The reason I give back so much is I never wanna get away from the kid in the dirt. I know where I came from.
Starting point is 00:03:43 It's important to me. I'm aware that we live in a world now where I will literally say something on this podcast, for sure, because I'm confident in that. That's my confidence. That is going to have a positive impact on someone in a real way, like actually. And that is incredibly fulfilling. It gets me high. And I'm so hardwired to understand why wouldn't I. But I'm very empathetic to why I wouldn't and why others don't. I'll give you an example.
Starting point is 00:04:11 I have a friend, she believes leaving the home looking pristine is like the most important thing in the world. And you know, is there a mix of insecurity there? Sure. But like in her soul, like I know her well enough, it's like, no, no, this is important. I don't know if I'm taking a minute to get ready and go out, but everyone's allowed to have things that are religious to them, right?
Starting point is 00:04:34 That are their North stars. For me, being a nice person and providing back to the game that put me on is everything. You know, it's everything to me. Entrepreneurship as a framework, especially for kids that came from the dirt, is what was the game that allowed me to have my life. I must contribute to that game at all costs,
Starting point is 00:04:56 and that's that. Amazing. Well, that's super powerful, and I know that me and you actually have a lot in common. We both have marketing agencies, both entrepreneurs, both have podcasts, both bullish on LinkedIn, both grew up in New Jersey. So we've got.
Starting point is 00:05:10 What part of Jersey? Wachung, New Jersey. Oh, I know it very well. The Wachung Mall, the Toys R Us and the Wachung Mall was like a very substantial spot for me in 1992 and three when I would pick up toys and flip them at flea markets. A blue star mall, that's what he's talking about. Was there a Cal door there as well back in the day?
Starting point is 00:05:28 Yep, back in the day. All right, anyway, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, so we're both from Jersey. Now, I'm nowhere near as successful as you yet, right? So there's 500 million entrepreneurs, I'm just one of them. How did you reach the top of entrepreneurship? How are you so successful?
Starting point is 00:05:43 Why are you an outlier when it comes to the other 500 million entrepreneurs out there? My perception of it is it's similar to the iconic people in other merit-based worlds, sports, music and entertainment. I think what's cool about business is you can't hide. What I love about sports is you can say you're good at it, but you have to actually play one-on-one basketball. And if you lose 11-nothing to your buddy
Starting point is 00:06:09 that you said you're good at it, you're not good at it. Same with business, you know this. I grew up in an era where entrepreneurship was not cool. You're growing up in an era where it went completely the other way. Everybody is. And everybody says they are, but are they? You know, I'm a rapper, but am I?
Starting point is 00:06:28 And so, couple things. One, I think because there's more entrepreneurs than ever, but they're not really entrepreneurs, they're aspiring entrepreneurs. They have entrepreneurial tendencies, and so it seems like there's a lot more. That's one. So to your point, the base is bigger.
Starting point is 00:06:43 When I was a kid, the word didn't even exist. When I was 13, 16, 19, I'm like, I'm going to be a businessman. That would be the only word I would use. I didn't even know what an entrepreneur was. As a matter of fact, the first time I even remember hearing the word, it kind of seemed like you were a loser actually. You said you were an entrepreneur, but you were living on the beach and your parents like, it had a really negative, and then it went like completely the other way.
Starting point is 00:07:04 So that's one. Two, back to sports and music, Beyonce was born with her voice and her swag and her talents. Now she put in an ungodly amounts of work as a child to today. LeBron as a child. I think where I really lucked out
Starting point is 00:07:21 is I put in a work as a child in a world that almost nobody was doing what I was doing at the time. When I tell you I punted school, I don't believe that people will believe me when I say this. But I know that the Adam Blums and the Garrett Van Fleets and the Pam Moseses and the Robin Martzes and the Robbie Turnix that grew up with me know this to be true.
Starting point is 00:07:43 In high school, I did not do one homework assignment in all four years, not one. Not only that, somewhere around, I believe sophomore year, but it might even been second half of freshman year, I, for four years of high school, did not open a book once. I did not hand in one book report, and I guessed on my Scantron all four years, A, B, C, B, A, all four.
Starting point is 00:08:08 I got zeros on tests. I was 243 out of 254 in class rank. I had a 1.6 something GPA and I got a D in speech. I went so to the extreme. Even today where entrepreneurship's allowed, we're like a 14 year old entrepreneur now, we're like, yo, you got it, you're the next Zuckerberg, right, and we champion them, even those kids
Starting point is 00:08:30 aren't 100% entrepreneur in completely pun school. It's very rare. So I think the reason I stood out was I put in way more work than everybody and had natural talent. That's really the answer. Yeah, and so I'm the same. I was always selling things as a young kid, leading things as a young kid, inventing things.
Starting point is 00:08:49 I was naturally an entrepreneur. I dropped out of college to become an entrepreneur. So it was very natural to me. For people who don't take risks naturally, who aren't naturally creative, do you think they're cut out for entrepreneurship? No, it was different. But risk is the requirement.
Starting point is 00:09:06 Because you're naturally risking from the second you start. You are saying, I am good enough to stand on my own two feet and I will either succeed in all of your faces or I will fail in front of all your faces. And the majority of human beings on earth do not have the stomach to fail in front of everyone's faces. One of the other ways I could have answered your last question is because I'm not scared to lose.
Starting point is 00:09:26 Why did I achieve a lot? Because I wasn't scared. There's many things I was scared to do. I don't want to jump out of a plane, so I'm not a good plane jumper. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, my giving a fuck about people's judgment on my failures is zero.
Starting point is 00:09:44 And it's been zero for so long that it's so ingrained in me. And if you can't deal with judgment, and if you can't deal with taking a step back, you know how humility works? Do you know what it feels like? You're going through a very interesting journey. And so a lot of entrepreneurs right now, one of the worst feelings in the world
Starting point is 00:10:01 is to make a lot less money professionally than you used to, because you once taste the alternative. Never making $100,000 a year and living $70,000 a year and being happy is one of the great lives of all time. Getting up to 400,000 a year, but then having whatever happened, that job loss, side hustle loss, and going to 180, ooh, that's, mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Fine first class and then never being able to afford it and now sitting middle seat coach that fucks with people's psyches, not me. What are you going to say to me that's going to make me value your opinion in a world where I know you've got a lot of things not going well too? Okay, so sticking on this being a successful entrepreneur, I know something that you talk about often is doing what you love and how it's so important as an entrepreneur to actually do what you love or you're gonna burn out.
Starting point is 00:10:48 So talk to us about that and how VaynerMedia is doing what you love. I love that, that's a great question. Doing what you love and also having the capacity to be comfortable with discomfort and being patient in eating shit is a very interesting enigma. And I appreciate the way you asked the question
Starting point is 00:11:10 because it's gonna allow me to double click into it. The reason VaynerMedia and VaynerX, the holding co, is me doing what I love, it's because I'm willing to eat the crow in building this infrastructure to be the foundation of all my other future behavior. So is VaynerMedia my full Nirvana moment? It is not, but I like it.
Starting point is 00:11:30 I love operating. It sounds like you'll resonate with this. When you're a real purebred entrepreneur, you're happy selling anything. Yeah, it's fun. Like I'll sell sneakers. My favorite thing to do. But I also have the capacity to be strategic,
Starting point is 00:11:44 make less money, be uncomfortable. I worked in my dad's liquor store until I was 34 years old. I need every kid to hear this. I worked in my father's liquor store until I was 34 years old. So I had patience. In one side, the reason I did it was I was so thankful and grateful to my parents for bringing me to America
Starting point is 00:12:04 and changing the course of my life. And I love them and we're very close in age. My parents were 22 and 20 when they had me. So we're like borderline friends. And like, it's the best. And I believe that I was gonna be a great entrepreneur. And I somehow had the wisdom at 22 years old to say, you know what, I'm gonna go in here
Starting point is 00:12:22 and build something huge from my parents. And then I'll have time to bounce out and go do it for myself. That was the greatest decision I ever made, but fuck, it was hard. Like, you know what I mean? Like, did she? Yeah, a lot of people end up presenting their parents
Starting point is 00:12:34 that they push them towards anything that's in the family business, but you're grateful, right? No, my parents, honestly, they were agnostic. It was weird. By the time I was 16, it was pretty clear to both my parents that I was good. But the reason I love my parents is they didn't go weirdo
Starting point is 00:12:50 on me and try to turn me into like a slave, right? It kind of just was. We were all just kind of moving, you know? I was very immigrant. We're just like, you know, you're doing what you have to do. And I walked into it. I was like, I'm gonna come at rec house and literally took shoppers, discounted liquors
Starting point is 00:13:07 and built Wine Library, one of the biggest wine retailers in the country. And everybody from watching went to Wine Library. It was awesome. And it was really a great chapter, but fuck. I'd be lying to everyone if I didn't say, I'm unstoppable with judgment, but I promise you five years after college at 27, when I'm working the floor, but I promise you, five years after college at 27,
Starting point is 00:13:25 when I'm working the floor, helping people select wine during Christmas, and some of my buddies that I grew up with now are in Wall Street and driving into our parking lot and they're BMW and they're buying a case of Dom Perignon and I'm carrying it out to their car and putting it into their trunk and I see the way they're looking at me like,
Starting point is 00:13:42 oh man, and I know I'm gonna fucking be bigger than everyone, holding your breath is fucking hard. And I'm fucking unstoppable. So if it even registered to me, the normal person with their relationship with judgment, fuck, that was hard. And the bigger thing that was hard was my dad was not paying me that much money.
Starting point is 00:13:59 And I was building a huge company. And then I started forming, I think calling it resentment would be too much, but I started having feelings. The business went from four million to 60 million and I'm still making 80,000 a year. I would have been better off going anywhere. I would have been making millions.
Starting point is 00:14:14 But again, I was making my own bed. The reason it was cool was I knew I chose to do it. Just like I chose to leave and start VaynerMedia. Makes a lot of sense. Okay, one more question on entrepreneurship because I want to spend most of the time on your new book. And this one is about mental health. So I feel it's going to become a hot trend where entrepreneurs are going to start focusing
Starting point is 00:14:35 more on mental health. As I'm doing my podcast, I feel like more people are talking about it. And I read that entrepreneurs spend 73% less time with their friends and family. 49% of entrepreneurs have some sort of mental health issue, anxiety, ADD, things like that. So my question to you is for all the entrepreneurs out there or people who want to be entrepreneurs, what's your advice to make sure that we're taking care of our mental health and our relationships? I mean, I've been pretty consistent on this. Long before I think we've gotten more thoughtful about the mental health aspect. I will never, to the day I die, understand why anyone would
Starting point is 00:15:13 choose anything over being happy. I think people think money will cover up the scars and make you happy. I believe that people that don't have money believe that money is happiness and that if they buy a BMW or get an attractive husband or wife or have three homes or have a seven-carat ring or a private chef, that that will unlock the happiness. I have lived a life where I came from the dirt and now live a life where I see all the tippy-top 1% and I can promise you, and one day you'll find out if you don't believe me that money does not buy happiness. It creates convenience, it creates opportunity to do things,
Starting point is 00:15:53 but I'm talking about happiness. So what is my recommendation? Fuck around and find out. That's my recommendation. If you do not believe me or the other people that spit it, who've lived it, the reason people burn out is because they choose money, not entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship without the money is the game.
Starting point is 00:16:13 You and I weren't picking money when we were selling candy in school. We were just like living our life. It's some of the- Inventing. Yeah, people were gravitating towards trumpet. People were gravitating towards Spanish class. I didn't read a business book in second grade
Starting point is 00:16:26 and open up a lemonade stand. My mom didn't tell me to do that. It was the light. It was all I knew. It was my hard wiring. And that's why this fake entrepreneurship era is tough because a lot of them are making a bad name for the game. They're like, entrepreneurship fucked with my mental health.
Starting point is 00:16:42 It's because you fucking were trying to use it to cover up your issues. Therapy should have been what you were doing, not entrepreneurship. Yeah. You know, I've never said that before and I appreciate your reaction. Like that's actually the truth.
Starting point is 00:16:55 People thought the money could cover it up. The money accelerates it. Money exposes you. It doesn't change you. So what would I say? I would say what I've been saying my whole life. Even my first book, coming out the gate, my message, even you said it earlier, like it was crush it.
Starting point is 00:17:10 Cash in on your passion. Everybody who's listening right now, think about the thing you would do 24 seven if you really could. What is your play? What is your downtime? What is your leisure? What's your favorite?
Starting point is 00:17:20 Golf, cooking, music, skiing, travel. If you can spend your 20s trying to make a career in that, you will win. If you go and try to be practical and be an accountant because your dad said so, or you think it's cool and be an entrepreneur when deep down you know you don't have the stomach for it, you will lose.
Starting point is 00:17:40 And so I think the reason that people are struggling is that they're not in their right path. But what about the entrepreneurs that are doing really good, but they're obsessed with being an entrepreneur and they're spending so much time on their business that they ignore their relationships? It means that they may not value their relationships as much as they want to say they are. You know, a lot of people like to talk shit without going to the third level. Gary, but you don't get it. I'm not spending enough time with my boyfriend.
Starting point is 00:18:05 I'm like, maybe you don't like your boyfriend. Because I promise you, if you were obsessed with your boyfriend and your business, you don't make the time. Actions over words. We become very wordy. We're really fucking wordy. And this is not just Gen Z or millennials.
Starting point is 00:18:19 Boomers are wordy as fuck on Facebook. Humans have become incredibly wordy because there's somewhere to put your words. Social media has allowed us to talk. And most people talk straight bullshit. Gary, you don't get it. I miss my kids. Go see your kids.
Starting point is 00:18:35 People are not accountable. People like to posture for optics, but have a different reality. Because if you actually mean it, you would do it. Yeah, be honest about it, you know, be honest about your priorities. I think people just are getting really good at looking for pity.
Starting point is 00:18:53 I'm gonna struggle to cry for someone who is actively fully in control as an entrepreneur, who's crying about it. And now someone's gonna be listening and say, well, I have a job, I'm stuck. No, you're not. You could sell your home. You could pay rent at a smaller apartment.
Starting point is 00:19:08 You could sell your car and take public transportation. Many people did for many generations. We've just gotten so entitled and are looking for easy. Do you know how many people complain about money and buy Starbucks and take Ubers and go to Coachella? If you're complaining about money, save it. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Young and profitors, they may call me the podcast princess, but I'm also the LinkedIn queen. I've been a LinkedIn influencer for six years now. And I teach one of the most popular courses about LinkedIn. And I love to teach sales on LinkedIn because when it comes to B2B sales, LinkedIn has got that on lock. LinkedIn is where all the decision makers are hanging out.
Starting point is 00:19:53 There are 180 million senior level decision makers on LinkedIn and 10 million C-suite decision makers. These people are on LinkedIn and they're in the mode to buy. They're using LinkedIn for their buying journey to research vendors or sales reps that they might work with. To look up how to solve their problems, to learn from industry thought leaders. They're in the mode to buy, whereas on other platforms, they're in the mode to be entertained. You want to get them in the right mindset.
Starting point is 00:20:21 You want to cut through the noise with LinkedIn ads. In fact, 79% of B2B marketers rate LinkedIn as their top channel for paid media. And LinkedIn has the best targeting because they've got all these different inputs. People are putting their resume basically up on there. And so there's so many keywords that they can use to target the right decision makers so they can hear about how you solve their problems. And I've got a special gift for all you young and profitors who want to try LinkedIn ads. You can get a hundred dollar credit. LinkedIn was super generous.
Starting point is 00:20:55 If you want to make B2B marketing everything it can be and get a hundred dollar credit on your next campaign, go to linkedin.com slash yap. Y A P. Again, if you want to claim your credit, go to linkedin.com slash yap, Y-A-P. Again, if you wanna claim your credit, go to linkedin.com slash yap, terms and conditions apply. Young and profitors, we are all making money, but is your money hustling for you? Meaning, are you investing? Putting your savings in the bank
Starting point is 00:21:18 is just doing you a total disservice. You gotta beat inflation. I've been investing heavily for years. I've got an E-Trade account. I've got a Robinhood account and it used to be such a pain to manage all of my accounts. I'd hop from platform to platform. I'd always forget my fidelity password and then I have to reset my password. I knew that needed to change because I need to keep track of all my stuff.
Starting point is 00:21:39 Everything got better once I started using Yahoo Finance, the sponsor of today's episode. You can securely link up all of your investment accounts in Yahoo Finance for one unified view of your wealth. They've got stock analyst ratings. They have independent research. I can customize charts and choose what metrics I want to display for all my stocks so I can make the best decisions.
Starting point is 00:22:03 I can even dig into financial statements and balance sheets of the companies that I'm curious about. Whether you're a seasoned investor or looking for that extra guidance, Yahoo Finance gives you all the tools and data you need in one place. For comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor,
Starting point is 00:22:20 yahoofinance.com, the number one financial destination, Yahoo Finance.com. That's Yahoo Finance.com. YapBam, we launched Yap Media four and a half years ago, and that was right when COVID was happening. I love having the freedom of working wherever I want, but to be honest, I've been getting burnt out from the whole working from home thing. I am sick of it. And although I'm on call to call, I talk to people every day, there's something about face-to-face interaction. I want to feel everyone's vibes. I want
Starting point is 00:22:53 to feel the energy of the room. And I knew that something had to change. If I wanted to be my most productive self, I needed to be able to go somewhere to work with other like-minded people. So I was on a mission to find the best co-working space for me. And I found Industrius. Industrius delivers co-working spaces and flexible office solutions. And they've got everything you would need from private offices and suites to co-working, dedicated desks, and on-demand meeting rooms. Industrius has locations all over the world.
Starting point is 00:23:21 The US, UK, Australia, you name it. And my favorite thing about Industrius is the community. They have a really friendly staff, first of all. And second of all, all the people that I bump into at Industrius that mingle with seem to be rock stars. They're all entrepreneurs like me, startup founders, solopreneurs who are crushing it. They're smart, they're stylish.
Starting point is 00:23:41 And it's just the right kind of energy that you want in a work environment. And as an adult, it's so hard to find like-minded people and to find your community. If you're an entrepreneur or solopreneur or freelancer and you've been working from home these past few years and you feel like you're in a rut, maybe it's time to start coworking at Industrius.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Industrius actually found out that I have a popular podcast and they gave me a nice gift for my listeners, a free week of coworking to try Industrius actually found out that I have a popular podcast and they gave me a nice gift from my listeners, a free week of coworking to try Industrius yourself. If you wanna give Industrius a try, visit industriusoffice.com, click join now, and use code profiting to redeem a free week of coworking when you take a tour. Again, that's industriusoffice.com, click join now,
Starting point is 00:24:19 and use code profiting to redeem a free week of coworking when you take a tour. That's industriusoffice.com and use code profiting for redeem a free week of co-working when you take a tour. That's industriousoffice.com and use code profiting for a free week of co-working. And who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other. Well, let's move on to some of the marketing and tech stuff. I want to talk about your day trading attention new bucks. So you've been on the cusp and the cutting edge
Starting point is 00:24:43 of a lot of things. You were on the internet doing e-commerce before it was hot with Wine Library. You were one of the first pioneers on YouTube. So how can you tell when things are gonna get hot? You know how there's like good A&Rs in music? Like how'd you know Lady Gaga was gonna be big, whoever discovered her?
Starting point is 00:24:58 He or she was just had a knack for it. Usually that knack is because you know how people are gonna feel. So I have a very good feeling of what the general public likes and doesn't like. But also, I put in the work. Back to what we were talking about earlier. When I jumped on YouTube in February of 2006
Starting point is 00:25:15 and went all in, I spent most of the summer of 05 reading TechCrunch every blog post. And they would write about the new startups. If I hadn't put in that work, I would have never clicked on the articles that led me there. If I didn't work 15 hours a day building winelibrary.com sitting next to Eric Castrum,
Starting point is 00:25:34 my developer who probably was the one that said, read this TechCrunch article, because three years earlier I asked him, can I put wine videos on the website? How much would that cost? And after he told me like a billion dollars to host them because it was old back then, he was like, you're probably gonna like this because it's free.
Starting point is 00:25:48 I'm like, it's free? And so I'm good at human psychology. I'll give you a real interesting one that you might find interesting. Since you're such a young buck. Back in 2007, when I was yelling about Twitter, almost everyone would say to me, this is so stupid. Who cares that you're walking the dog?
Starting point is 00:26:05 Who cares if you're eating pizza? And my answer was everyone. And people were like brain fucked with that. They're like, what do you mean? Now that must seem mundane to all you youngsters. Everybody shares everything about everything. Back then, nobody shared anything about anything. So, you know, I think human psychology helps me.
Starting point is 00:26:24 Why did I understand musically? Because I understood that when it was only 14 year old girls, it was still putting in content in front of them based on content they liked, not based on following someone. I saw that in Tumblr when I was an early investor in Tumblr, and I knew why Tumblr was winning. It wasn't the social graph, people. It was the interest graph. What are you into? Yeah. And I always thought that was more powerful because Dustin and I could have been best friends
Starting point is 00:26:48 in junior high, but then by high school, if our interests changed, right? We all lived through junior high and high school, high school and college, college and post life. We all saw, you know, one or two or three people stay forever. A lot of times it's just because they've been there for so long and you just got war stories together.
Starting point is 00:27:03 It's not even like you are into the same shit anymore. But the natural human flight is you do change friends based on interest, times in life, and so that made more sense to me. So it's the skill of human psychology, it's the putting in the work. I wake up in the morning and I look at the app store, and then I play with things.
Starting point is 00:27:19 If I think ReClip is interesting, I download and play with it. And right now the only ones that are playing with ReClip are Jen Alpha. It's like me? I'm and play with it. And right now the only ones that are playing with ReClip are Jen Alpha. It's like me and the nine year olds. You know, like, and so like I put in the work, I stay curious, I watch, and then there's always moments where there's a tipping point.
Starting point is 00:27:35 And I've been pretty good. Dustin's filming me in the back. For all the people that really follow me, obviously D-Rock is doing his own thing and I always have different people filming. Dustin's now really been locked in with me for a little while and he's been here five, six. So he's now seen a cycle and here's what I mean
Starting point is 00:27:49 where I'm about to go next if we're getting very marketing nerdy. He was here when Be Real was starting to get hot. He was in the meetings filming me when I was like, ah, I think it's a feature. Now it's not him reading about it. Everyone who's listening right now on podcast, me talking about, no, no, he lived it.
Starting point is 00:28:03 So he can see there is a skillset to being good at it, not just throwing against the wall and see what sticks. And so, you know, I'm excited about this skill. I focus on it very heavily. For example, the cliche question people ask me all the time is, okay, so what's next? I don't know. But the second I see it, I go all in, I taste it.
Starting point is 00:28:21 And whether that was Vine, where it did mean something, but then it sold quickly or it was social cam Or Vero or all these other things that peach Was a big one for a week back in 2014 I'm very focused on paying attention putting in the work saying maybe you know what fucks everyone up. I say no Tick-tock no, and I always say maybe with a hope to yes I say maybe with a hope to yes in a world of people that say no, TikTok, no. And I always say maybe, with a hope to yes. I say maybe with a hope to yes
Starting point is 00:28:47 in a world of people that say no. Yeah, because you wanna make sure you capitalize on it while they're still underpriced attention, like you say in your book, right? That's right. The thing that many people will definitely understand right now that are listening is, if you did move on TikTok
Starting point is 00:29:01 when I was yelling about it every day six years ago, that would have been good. And now that I think people have gone through a cycle, because I was big enough at that time, unlike 10 years earlier, that enough people heard that. Enough people didn't go, you know why? Insecurity. Everybody that could and go crush it was on Instagram and they didn't want to start over.
Starting point is 00:29:18 Well, I got a million followers on Instagram. Like zero on TikTok. And people got caught. So talk to us about the supply and demand curve that happens on social platforms. At first, if they're meant to be big, the ones we all know, there's so much attention there,
Starting point is 00:29:32 but there's less content creators. And so anybody that's posting is gonna get more of the percentage of the attention. As it becomes normalized, it gets harder to go viral or get as many people to see it. And then at some point it becomes really challenging. Kind of like the thing everyone's dealing with on Instagram right now. Because so much attention got deviated to TikTok.
Starting point is 00:29:51 Not that anybody on TikTok is only on TikTok and not on Instagram. Obviously the very young may be that way. But most people are on both. It's just that pre-TikTok, it was four hours on Instagram for that person instead of two. Because two is now on TikTok. The problem is at the same time that that went down from an attention standpoint, the amount of content that's being posted on Instagram is through the roof.
Starting point is 00:30:12 So yesterday more content on Instagram than any day prior in Instagram's history, yet the attention is now fragmented between YouTube shorts, TikTok, by the way, streaming services, by the way, Twitch. And so what ends up happening is there's only 24 hours a day, there's only so much attention, but there's more and more supply of content. So you have to know how to day trade it,
Starting point is 00:30:33 like somebody who day trades stocks, you're buying in nanoseconds, whether it is the actual social media platform, buying ads on the platform, the influencers on the platform to do deals with or anything else in between. And across all these platforms from LinkedIn to Pinterest to Snapchat to YouTube to YouTube shorts to Facebook to reels to Instagram, and then the units inside.
Starting point is 00:30:55 Do you post carousel? Do you post a video? Do you do a reel? Do you do a long form picture? Do you do a lot of copy? Do you do no copy? Do you do emoji? What time do you post? This is fucking science.
Starting point is 00:31:07 And like talent, like if you're remarkably beautiful, that will probably work. If you're remarkably funny, that'll probably work. But for the most people, being good at it is the point of this book. This is the most textbook that I've ever written. Like I'm going, going there. And you know, I'm very proud of how well I've played
Starting point is 00:31:26 all of the instruments. And I just want to try to help people get better at it. Because it is the game. I loved your book, by the way. You guys gave me an advance copy, and I read it, and it was great. Can I reverse this on you for a second? Sure.
Starting point is 00:31:39 You might be the first person I'm really, or maybe second, but I didn't get to ask them. So obviously, because of your success, and your your knowledge and your strengths, I kind of wrote this book for someone like you. I'm curious what parts or what things or what hit for you. Well, it solidified things for me. So for example, I'm one of the biggest LinkedIn marketing experts. I teach a two-day class.
Starting point is 00:31:58 It's the most popular class. I can hack the algorithm and that's why people hire me. So one of the things that's happening this year is that they're prioritizing interest relevancy over engagement probability. It used to be that you would post something motivational, something inspirational, if people shared it, you'd go viral. Now, it's all about posting a specific topic, educating people, and then LinkedIn will match
Starting point is 00:32:20 users based on the things they like, the interest graph. Exactly. Can you go super deep on the interest graph because I feel like this is the major trend happening with all social media sites. And that's what I from your book. I was like, oh, he's right on the money. I told my brother that I thought Tumblr was going to be bigger than Facebook and Twitter. I went Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr in my investing. Those are the first three companies I invested in in my life out of a liquor store in New
Starting point is 00:32:43 Jersey. You can see I'm laughing at my, it's so improbable. Like it's absurd, comma. I thought Tumblr was gonna be the biggest because of this conversation, it just took 15 years for it to happen. Again everybody, social media for the first decade plus was very simple, it was like email marketing.
Starting point is 00:33:01 You would get as many people to follow you as possible, and then you would post, and a percentage of those people would see it. That was the game. And that was easy for me to figure out, because I did email marketing in 97, 98, 99, when that was new, and I was a big winner in that game.
Starting point is 00:33:15 That was underpriced attention. I was competing against liquor stores that were making catalogs, but I was getting to the customer for free, instead of how much a catalog costs, and getting to them faster. It was huge. It was foundational.
Starting point is 00:33:27 So I saw the same thing in social. So I masked big followings. That was the focus. Tick-tockification of social media like I talk about in the book. That interest graph algorithm is now gonna eat up everything because it's better.
Starting point is 00:33:38 It keeps you on the platform longer. Let's use common sense. You go to your Facebook, you're now 27, you went on Facebook at 18, the people you followed are people you met like one night hooking up or at a random party or whatever, and now you're seeing posts of them in Ohio
Starting point is 00:33:53 with their aunt and you're like, I don't give a fuck. But just like email, we don't unsubscribe from our fucking list, we just delete it or archive it. We don't put in the work to clean up our shit. So you kept seeing shit you didn't give a fuck about, which made you not spend four hours on it, it made you spend 14 minutes on your feed. Then you go to TikTok,
Starting point is 00:34:12 and you're seeing unlimited shit that you fuck with. And four hours later, you're like, what the fuck just happened? That's good for TikTok, that was bad for Facebook, now all of them are gonna be like TikTok, and every social network is gonna have the for you page DNA in them for quite a while now. Maybe forever, cause it's more humanly true.
Starting point is 00:34:30 That's what I focus on. And that's why focus on your niches about the fuck up everyone. You're gonna need to talk about more things than ever that are true to you, because you're gonna need that content to find more different audiences for you to be as big as you want to be.
Starting point is 00:34:46 I was gonna ask you, does that mean riches are in the niches now because of the interest graph? But to your point, if you've got multiple topics. It's an and game. Got it. Think about how weird I am. The reason I know everybody from afar, especially in the game you're in, are like, what?
Starting point is 00:34:59 Like, garage sale videos. My grid has been fucked up for 12 years. And I was like, make a good grid. It's gotta be on brand. I'm like, you fucking have no idea what you're talking about. The grid is like 5% of the consumption. The feed is the whole game. So you go to my fucking thing, you're like, who is this?
Starting point is 00:35:17 Jets video, garage sale, keynote, board meeting. I'm confusing the shit out of people because I don't care about the grid. I care about being as relevant to as many different people as humanly possible. Let's talk about viral. I'm gonna use baseball. I know it's not as popular anymore,
Starting point is 00:35:34 but it's the easiest one. Going viral is hitting a grand slam. Do you know anything about baseball? A little. I know, enough. Enough to be dangerous. You know what a strikeout is? Yes.
Starting point is 00:35:44 Good. Most posts are a strikeout is? Yes. Good. Most posts are a strikeout. Okay. Right? Doesn't do what you want it to do. I'm in the business of singles and doubles and triples with the occasional home run and grand slam, but could give a shit about hitting a grand slam.
Starting point is 00:35:57 Or if you don't follow baseball, everyone, I won't use an analogy. I don't ever think about going viral, ever. I only think about making good content that is valuable to the people on the other side, and that means that most of my stuff will consistently do solid, occasionally do better than solid,
Starting point is 00:36:14 and once in a while go viral. I believe that most people suck at social media because they try to go viral on every post, and when they don't, they cry to mommy. So you're more about posting as much as you can, hopefully they all do pretty good. about posting as much as you can. Hopefully they all do pretty good. And posting as much as you can is also based on self-awareness.
Starting point is 00:36:30 I start with, do I have something to say that could bring someone value? Again, I need everybody to hear this. That comes in all shapes and sizes. I mean this. If you're funny and you do a skit, like King Batch, that's value. You made somebody smile.
Starting point is 00:36:45 And it's a fucked up world out there and the feeds are fucking negative and media is negative. That little ha ha ha. If you're attractive, people like looking at attractive people. If you know something about LinkedIn, that's valuable to the people that want LinkedIn.
Starting point is 00:36:57 We all have value. If you know something about BMX or wine or sneaker, like value, value, value. I think people have niched themselves in a corner. What happens if you know a lot about sneakers and you know a lot about bourbon? Post both. But I don't wanna fuck, I gotta fucking, they all gonna,
Starting point is 00:37:12 and then people are super insecure. They almost never post because they don't think it's gonna do well. As if that means anything. Okay, you normally get 5,000 views on your video and this one got 49. What is the matter with this? It's like we're treating our lives and social media
Starting point is 00:37:28 like we're still in junior high. Speaking of niches, let's talk about creating audiences. Cause like you just talked about, we can talk about multiple topics. We don't have to be scared about that. We can be a dynamic person on social media, which means we're gonna be speaking to multiple audiences. That's right.
Starting point is 00:37:43 And you say we should develop cohorts with teeth. So what do you mean by that? When I make content, sometimes I'm like, this piece of content that I'm gonna make is gonna hit 45 to 55 year old first time moms on the coasts, more New York LA mentality than London, than Ohio, than Spain. So if I know that I'm doing that,
Starting point is 00:38:04 don't you think that my adjectives and analogies tone intent right? So I want everyone who's listening to start thinking about cohorts. Gary, what do you mean? I just do sneaker content. Okay, well there's a lot of different niches within sneaker content.
Starting point is 00:38:18 There's people of high net worth like myself who can afford bougie fucking Nike Air Force One collaborations. There's other people who just really like New Balance, the Reebok movement that I'm getting into as well. Like there's a lot going on. Crocs, if you want to expand it a little bit. Do you know who you're making this video for?
Starting point is 00:38:35 Because everyone's going to vanilla. I make content for entrepreneurs. I'm like, okay, knock yourself out. Like, imagine how much better a piece of content is, is that you know that you're gonna make, I'm gonna make content for first generation Hispanic entrepreneurs that are 18 to 22 that came from immigrant parents that came from Mexico.
Starting point is 00:38:55 I'm gonna use analogies. I'm gonna make reference to rigatone. I'm gonna talk about San Antonio culture. Use their slang and however they talk. 100%. It's called relevance everyone. If you're not relevant to someone, the second I make a long-tail barstool joke,
Starting point is 00:39:09 every barstool dude is like, fuck, yeah. It's not super complicated. Because everyone gets so boring in vanilla right away, people say to me all the time, they're like, it's a really funny thing that I fuck people up with because I've been so consistent in growing and all this stuff. But then sometimes they'll be like, but Gary, you say the same shit.
Starting point is 00:39:26 I'm like, what do you want me to make up stuff I don't believe in? And then if they stick with me in that combo, they start to realize, I say the same macro 15 things, but the way I say it differently and how and where and what and to whom, that's the game. So cohorts, these are consumer segmentations. In old television talk, it was, we're trying to reach the 18 to 35 year old demo. I like to think, and I know I'm looking at your crew a lot
Starting point is 00:39:51 because I like doing that. I like to think everyone in here is at a point in their lives where they realize an 18 year old person and a 32 year old person are very different. But that was television, you didn't have the internet. Now that we have the internet, everybody who's listening should be posting on Facebook. It's huge, still.
Starting point is 00:40:09 I'm getting 25, 30 year old audience on Facebook. Now they're on there like once in a blue moon compared to whatever, but you should be relevant to Facebook audience. You should be relevant to TikTok audience. Snapchat's culture is slightly different than TikTok's and TikTok's. It's all different rooms out there
Starting point is 00:40:25 and you wanna be in every room. And so what I talk about in the book about cohorts is consumer segmentation. And the reason I say with teeth is AdLand, Don Draper, advertising, marketing agencies, the big brands that we work with, the biggest brands in the world, they like to talk about consumer segmentations,
Starting point is 00:40:41 but they have one. They're like, we're gonna sell this beer to health-seeking enthusiasts. They make it fucking broad as shit. Because they're gonna make one commercial on television and health-seeking, what they're basically telling you is, let's make a beer commercial where like, the couple went to yoga and after had a beer.
Starting point is 00:40:59 You see what they're doing? What I'm saying is, if you want that beer to be relevant to a lot of people, you need to go deeper now. It needs to be like young yoga moms in Kansas City, you're gonna make a very different piece of fucking Facebook content or Instagram content than if you say Professional moms in New York City who are having their first child at 40 and fuck with yoga Can you imagine how different those two pieces? Yeah, very different. Well, that's called fucking cohorts with teeth.
Starting point is 00:41:26 We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Young and Profiters, YAP Media is growing so fast. I have 10 open rolls just this month. In the past, it would take me so long to find hires. I have to go on all these different job sites. I have to create my own skills assessments. That's why I let Indeed do a lot of this heavy lifting for me.
Starting point is 00:41:48 Indeed is the powerful hiring platform where I can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Indeed has things like skills assessments, where when we have specific roles, we can find an assessment that matches that role and we can make sure they have the skills that we need. Then I can focus on culture fit. we can make sure they have the skills that we need. Then I can focus on culture fit. I can make sure they're scrappy enough
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Starting point is 00:43:31 You need indeed. Young and Profitors, as you may know, I launched my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass a little bit over a year ago. It was my first course. And so far I've generated well over $500,000. And the best part is I didn't have to figure out how to set up my mastermind subscriptions, how to do abandoned cart targeting, and all of that tech geeky stuff. I just left that all to Shopify.
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Starting point is 00:45:47 If you're thinking about starting a course, then you need to hear about Kajabi. Kajabi is the OG of course platforms. I've got creators in my network like Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield who have been using Kajabi for over a decade. These ladies know what they're doing. They are literally the course queens. And so I took a page from their playbook and I started using Kajabi.
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Starting point is 00:47:28 That's K-A-J-A-B-I dot com slash profiting. Go to Kajabi.com slash profiting and join the creators and entrepreneurs who have made over $7 billion. That was your first variable of your modern advertising framework, also the day trading attention framework. And then you lead into something called PAC, platforms and culture. PAC is huge. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:52 Platforms and culture. If you take anything out of this interview and you want to crush social, obsess with platforms and culture. Platforms are what are the platforms currently doing that they give a shit about? So when Facebook announces carousels, good news, they need to test it. That means you should be making carousels because more people are gonna see it organically, right?
Starting point is 00:48:14 If the trends of the consumers on the platforms are people like Skits, that's a platform and culture thing because you gotta always know what's going on in culture. Culture is pop culture. Do you know that baggy pants are back? Because tight jeans were fucking crushing seven years ago. Do you know that Crocs came back five years ago? Because six years ago they were dorkville USA,
Starting point is 00:48:35 but 20 years ago they were killing it. Do you know what's going on with Aiden Ross and Sexy Red's controversy or don't you? Do you know pop culture or don't you? Because if you do know pop culture, you're able to create crazy relevance because you're able to integrate that into your copy or the creative itself.
Starting point is 00:48:54 There's a few moments, there's three weeks to seven weeks there where the corn kid is a social media obsession or that the Walgreens private label nice mango gummies are hot with Gen Alpha for a week. But if you're in the fucking gummy business, you should know that. Like, do you have a pulse of popular culture on everything? Because what's pop culture to maybe us
Starting point is 00:49:18 is definitely not pop culture to somebody that lives in Peru. Literally, I had a friend, literally, because I'm 48 now, so most of my friends are fucking finished. And what I mean by that is like deep pop culture. I literally had a friend six months ago text me, yo, have you heard of this guy Bad Bunny?
Starting point is 00:49:34 I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, dude, please don't text anybody that. Like, you know what I mean? I literally took a screenshot of me DMing Bad Bunny in 2017 for him. I'm like, yes, I've heard like, you know, razzing him of like he's finished and he's a fucking suburban dad.
Starting point is 00:49:48 Do you know or don't you know? So culture matters heavy for content because we're gonna have to be better than everybody else. And if you can interstitial pop culture, you will win. Like, do you know it's a lavender latte at Starbucks for the season. But notice what just happened. She like shook her head cause that one hit for her.
Starting point is 00:50:06 So imagine if I want both of them to give a shit about me, I've got to do both those things because I've got one second in feed for them to give a fuck. So platforms and culture, to me that's very point in time, right? They're always changing, you've got to know what features are hot on the platform.
Starting point is 00:50:21 You've got to know the algorithm, right? You've got to know what's hot. Then you have strategic organic content. And to me, that's more about understanding human behavior. Strategic organic content is the content that follows the PAC framework in my mind. If you know those two things, then you make according to that, that is the outcome.
Starting point is 00:50:42 That is the content. I'll give you an example. It sounds like I haven't dug under the hood, but I will after this interview, that you're doing real work in LinkedIn. So that means most likely that you want on the P part, the platform. I know that because I also heard you talk about
Starting point is 00:50:56 what the platform's doing. This is how you get way better. This is how I get way better every day. In the PAC framework, you can get to a place pretty quickly, six months, where you really know how the platform works. You've clearly done that on LinkedIn. What is really cool for you to go to the stratosphere
Starting point is 00:51:14 is if you actually knew what was in pop culture talk for literally SaaS salesmen. I know this is gonna resonate with you. Like if you knew the fucking slang and the shit that every Fortune 500 CFO cared about, or every late stage VC CIO, now you're fucking cooking. Got it?
Starting point is 00:51:34 Because now it's not just you know that this kind of content will work, now you know even what the video or picture needs to do. Got it? That's pack. And then what we call SOC, strategic organic content, is the framework. The reason I created SOC and we run it heavy here at Vayner
Starting point is 00:51:51 is organic content, meaning posting without media behind it or amplifying it, is now the single most important thing in marketing in the world. It's the game. If I needed to put the S in front of it, because by making it strategic, I'm trying to make sure that everybody in my company and all my clients and anybody around me
Starting point is 00:52:08 realize I need you to think about this. That's what we've been talking about for the last 10 minutes. There's a lot of people listening right now that I can feel them right now as they're walking the dog on the treadmill, I can feel them saying, oof, there's a lot to this.
Starting point is 00:52:21 No wonder my videos are not doing good. There's something to this. That's how I think about this. Yeah. I want to dig in on strategic organic content. So one of the things that I want to write my first book on is human behavior online. Because I feel like if you understand human behavior, even if algorithms are changing, certain things don't change.
Starting point is 00:52:39 You always want to see a face. You always want to have a hook. Everybody wants things shorter and skimmable, right? So there's always things. That last one, the first two I have a hook. Everybody wants things shorter and skimmable, right? So there's always things. That last one, the first two I liked a lot. The last one's an interesting one for me. I guess it depends on the platform and what the purpose is.
Starting point is 00:52:52 And you'd be shocked. I mean, I promise you, we'll clip this in the future. There's gonna be seven minute videos on TikTok that crush in three years, crush. This goes back to a big thesis in the book. If it's good, you can do anything. If it is a wildly compelling 19 minute video, you can crush on Instagram,
Starting point is 00:53:12 though it is very unlikely to be good enough to be able to do that. The reason I jumped in is you're not wrong. I just wanted to add a curve ball to everybody listening. It's not universal. People make unlimited seven second videos that people stop watching after a half a second because it's a shitty seven second video.
Starting point is 00:53:29 And there's also incredible amounts of outliers if you pay very close attention of longer form video in social, a minute, two minute, three minute, four minute that have a lot of validity. And honestly, for a lot of people listening, they might've just heard something that got them excited because in their gut, they're like,
Starting point is 00:53:45 you know what, I really can make epic four minute videos. I guess TikTok's not for me, but it is. There's a reason these platforms, back to P, have extended the length of their video time. What should we do when we have really good performing content? We should amplify it. If you can afford to spend media dollars
Starting point is 00:54:03 after a piece of content went crazy, then you should do that. And if you're just a creator by yourself and you're like a kid, if you're listening right now and you're 16 and like you dunked on your little sister in the basketball room in your room and it has 3 million followers on TikTok
Starting point is 00:54:18 and you have ambition to be known and you wanna do something with it, don't let the algorithm be the only way you get reach. Google, how do I run ads on TikTok? Chat reach. Google, how do I run ads on TikTok? ChatGPT, how do I run ads on TikTok? Read and learn how everything works, or watch a video, and then you as a 16 year old, take your 40 bucks and spend it
Starting point is 00:54:37 on getting more people to see it. Because the world has shown you that it's good. You're not guessing. You didn't dunk on your sister and then spend 40 up front. This is how all advertising work as you know. We guess. Now we can live in a world where we can do it post spend media, not pre spend media.
Starting point is 00:54:55 It's huge. So once we see something working, lean into it, invest in it, don't just invest in things that you haven't tested yet basically. Think about it, it's like working out. Like if you see something's working and your physique is looking bad, why would you stop and try to do something else and hope it works? Like you haven't tested yet. Think about it, it's like working out. Like if you see something's working and your physique is looking bad, why would you stop and try to do something else
Starting point is 00:55:07 and hope it works? Like you got it, go. We have not figured it out because the way media had worked forever was you spent the money on something you were guessing on. You thought the commercial would do well. You thought the billboard would go well. You thought your newspaper ad was good.
Starting point is 00:55:19 You know what I mean? Yeah. So where does storytelling fit in with all of this? Like oxygen. Storytelling is Omni. As you know, I barely, it's not something I really touched on a whole lot cause it's oxygen.
Starting point is 00:55:31 Life is storytelling. Everything's a story. I don't want to get super philosophical here, but everything, every person in the world, all 8 billion of us, everything we believe in is a story. All of it. It's the whole game. The reason I don't really go into like storytelling all that
Starting point is 00:55:47 much is my book on storytelling would be literally one page. It's everything. The end. Meaning like the reason you believe in anything you believe in is because you bought the story. So I think a good way to round this out would be to get a full example of somebody using the modern advertising framework. If you can just think of an example and walk folks through.
Starting point is 00:56:08 Mr. Beast, let me make it easy and lazy for everyone. Be perfect at one of the greatest platforms with attention. Thumbnail, first, second, every beat at three or four minutes or whatever the science is there. Copywriting, what time to post, language translation. Crush, be consistent, eat shit for years to figure it out, then explode, then use that attention as a platform to build a absolute media empire and CPG empire.
Starting point is 00:56:35 And notice what he does, he goes and tests Twitter, right? I'm hearing Twitter is gonna give me a trillion views. I've never really fully crushed YouTube because there's a lot of post-production and I'm not living that life. We've had better years and worse years, but that was a commitment. I mean, King Batch, I mentioned him,
Starting point is 00:56:53 but like Vine comes out, bring value, you can be funny, make skits. It was underpriced attention, him and Jerome Jarre and Logan Paul and all those characters, you know, Rudy, Moncuseau, like they're like literally in fucking, like I mean, is anybody paying attention who's in these movies?
Starting point is 00:57:07 They were from Vine, right? They stole, I almost said stole. They didn't, they operated as a great marketer on that attention they built. I was there, so I'll tell you what they did. They took all that attention from Vine and most of them put it on Snap and became big Snap story people.
Starting point is 00:57:22 And then boom, TikTok and Instagram kind of went to short form video and they took it over there. And then to YouTube and then to television and then to film, right? And it works hand in hand. Clicks, the video game player like, and all these streamers, I mean streaming is such an opportunity.
Starting point is 00:57:40 Kais and Ed and like Aiden and Clicks and Bugha and like all these, you know, like there's really unlimited opportunities. Poppy soda, prime energy drink, ocean spray. I spoke about they didn't even do it. Opening of my book, a random guy is drinking a fucking ocean spray with Fleetwood Mac music in the background, going down his skateboard longboard.
Starting point is 00:58:04 It goes viral on TikTok and it sells out of Ocean Spray around the country. This is marketing now. The era of television commercials is over. Outside of the Super Bowl, where it's very important and I recommend anybody who's listening, who's a Fortune 50, Fortune 500 company to deeply consider the Super Bowl because it's very underpriced attention. I can run every wheel and cranny that I have, and I can't spend $8 million to get 150 million Americans
Starting point is 00:58:32 to watch a full 30 second video. Are you fucking kidding me? What Super Bowl does, people watch those Super Bowl commercials. The problem is if the video's not good, you've lost, right? But we no longer live in a television commercial world. We now live in a social media advertising world and everything starts there
Starting point is 00:58:48 and then you can do marketing campaigns and billboards. Everybody's billboards. Every big company's billboards should be imagery that was already proven out to be successful on social. That's a very different world for everybody who doesn't come from marketing. It's the reverse. So a short question before we close this out.
Starting point is 00:59:05 In terms of entrepreneurs and your marketing advertising framework, your day trading attention, how can they use this to compete with the big dogs, the Fortune 500 companies? It's the first time we can, because for the first time ever, the creative is the variable of the reach.
Starting point is 00:59:22 And that's marketing jargon, so let me say it again. For the first time ever, how good your picture or video is can lead to millions of people seeing it that never existed before. In the history of time, you'd have to be on television, or on the biggest magazine or newspaper to ever get a million people in America or the world to know anything,
Starting point is 00:59:39 and you'd have to spend millions of dollars for that. Now, every day, we all know, every day that happens to somebody. Now, what we've also learned is, just because you go viral once, doesn't mean you're gonna be a billionaire. It usually means that you're gonna have this moment that you refer to your whole life,
Starting point is 00:59:53 and you're actually gonna be sad six months later because you weren't able to capitalize it. That goes into being a real entrepreneur. But, for the first time ever, entrepreneurs, you have a fighting chance. Amber Chamberlain's coffee can compete with Folgers. Charlie D'Amelio's popcorn can compete. Logan Paul and KSI's energy drink is really competing.
Starting point is 01:00:14 Mr. Beast's chocolate is really competing. And they're the preview, not the anomaly. I started a wine brand and sold it to Constellation for tens and tens of millions of dollars because I made organic content on the internet about wine and then started a wine brand. That will be a very normal occurrence for a long time. Well, Gary, this has been amazing. This has been a masterclass in day trading attention and social media marketing.
Starting point is 01:00:37 So I end my show with two questions I ask all my guests. What is one actionable thing our young and profitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? The number one thing they can do is to be honest with themselves every single person stop this podcast right now go to the mirror and Literally actually tell yourself. What are you actually good at not? What would you wish you were good at? What are you actually good at if you're asking me though? I'm answering your question literally how to be more profitable is actually good at. If you're asking me, I'm answering your question literally.
Starting point is 01:01:03 How to be more profitable is completely and utterly based on self-awareness of what you're good at and or what you like. And most people lie to themselves because they hope instead of their being real with themselves. And what is your secret to profiting in life? And this can go beyond business and money. By giving more than you're taking.
Starting point is 01:01:24 The reason most people struggle on growing in social and in life is when they post on social and when they act in life, they worry about what's in it for them. I'm looking to go viral. I wanna get followers. I wanna sell something. If you think about your audience instead of you,
Starting point is 01:01:41 the things you want will come to you. Amazing. Well, you're really easy to find. So where can everybody go find you? I'm Gary VEE everywhere, so that should be it. Amazing. I'll put all the links in the show notes. Gary, thank you so much for joining us
Starting point is 01:01:54 on Young and Profiting Podcast. Thank you so much. Yeah fam, this is an interview that I feel like I've been waiting for my whole life. Well, for at least the past six years. I've been trying to interview Gary Vee since I started this podcast. And I can't believe that in my first interview with him, I got to meet him in the flesh at his office and do an in-person interview, which by the way, I'm going to be doing a lot more of.
Starting point is 01:02:22 Gary Vee inspired me to become a podcaster. Gary Vee inspired me to start doing a lot more of. Gary V inspired me to become a podcaster. Gary V inspired me to start my personal brand on LinkedIn. He is hands down my idol. And they always say don't meet your idols in person. But meeting Gary in person did not disappoint. From the moment that he walked into the room, he was so humble, so kind. He shook everybody's hand from my assistant to the video producer. He treated everybody like equals. He was highly engaged. He was super smart and he really gave a damn. He really does care about entrepreneurs. He's not just about making billions of dollars. He's so successful, but he cares to take the time to help entrepreneurs.
Starting point is 01:03:01 He is the GOAT of entrepreneurs. He is the GOAT of marketing. And if there was somebody that I would recommend to listen to when it comes to all things entrepreneurship and marketing, it would be Gary Vee. This conversation with Gary got me so reinvigorated about being an entrepreneur. I love being an entrepreneur. It really is something that I was destined to do. I've really always been an entrepreneurial person since I was a little kid. But not everybody is born to be an entrepreneur, just like not everybody is born to be an athlete
Starting point is 01:03:32 or a musician. You have to be willing to embrace risk, to stand on your own two feet, to fall flat on your face when things don't work out. Entrepreneurship is not as glamorous as people make it out to be. It is hard work and it is stressful. I love it, but it's not for everyone.
Starting point is 01:03:48 And Gary attributed his success as an entrepreneur to a lack of fear. But that didn't mean that he was reckless or hasty. He took a long time before he became an entrepreneur. He worked at his father's liquor store until he was 34 years old. But he was willing to experiment, to F around a lot and find out as he put it.
Starting point is 01:04:07 And he always put entrepreneurship ahead of money. And he doesn't let age be an issue. I really believe that you're never too old or too young to start something new. And Gary is of the same mindset. You shouldn't think that because you're 30 or 40, it's too late for you to become an entrepreneur. It is not too late. I started my podcast when I was 30 years old and everybody told me I was too old to start a podcast. Look at me now. I'm literally the number one business and entrepreneurship podcast at any given day. Had I listened to everybody else,
Starting point is 01:04:42 none of this would have happened. So listen to your intuition and don't let age ever be a barrier. Gary also had a boatload of useful tips for digital marketing. We are in a war for attention online and on social media. You have to know your audience, your platforms and your own strengths inside and out to succeed in that kind of a marketplace. Gary talked about what he sees as the major current trend, the TikTokification of social media. With other social platforms moving to imitate TikTok's interest-based algorithm, there's never been a better opportunity to make waves online
Starting point is 01:05:16 and to even compete with large established brands. Because it's all about relevance. And to succeed, you need to be plugged in to understand pop culture and the latest trends. You have to day trade attention, as Gary says. And that's the title of his new book that comes out May 21st. It's called Day Trading Attention. I was able to get an advance copy and boy, does this book deliver. If you're an entrepreneur or a marketer trying to compete in 2024 and beyond,
Starting point is 01:05:44 this book is a must read. I'm going to be making it mandatory reading for my team. And if there was one book that I would recommend to get this year to transform your business and the way you approach social media, this book would hands down be it. Day trading attention. It comes out tomorrow and thanks for giving us your attention. If you listen, learned, and profited from this conversation with Gary Vee, then please
Starting point is 01:06:07 share this episode with somebody in your circle who could benefit from it. And if you did enjoy this show and you learned something, then please drop us a 5-star review on Apple Podcast. If you prefer to watch your podcast as videos, this is a good one to watch on video. We did it in person, so if you want to watch it again and take notes, I recommend that you go find it on YouTube. Just look up Young and Profiting and you'll find all of our episodes on there. You can also find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala
Starting point is 01:06:34 or LinkedIn by searching my name, it's Halataha. And I did wanna shout my incredible Yap production team. Today, I wanted to highlight Kate, who is my business partner. She's a VP of social at Yap Media. And she also comes to all of my in-person events with me and helps to coordinate. And she does such an amazing job. And Kate, I just want to say thank you.
Starting point is 01:06:52 Thank you for coming to this interview with me. Thank you for making my day as easy as possible and just for always being my rock and my right-hand woman. I love you. This is your host, Hala Taha, AKA the Podcast Princess, signing off.

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