– 212-931-5731 Hey guys, first of all,thank you for clicking. You’re about to watch a new video,or another video onYouTube and before you do,212-931-5731. If you are getting valueout of my YouTube videos,what I’m doing in my textcommunity is bonkers. It’s instant, it’s access, it’s exclusive,and it’s just been a lot of fun,and I’ve just enjoyedtexting back and forthwith a lot of you. 212-931-5731. I’m sure they’re editing something,team, I know how you do it. Please join my texting community,and now enjoy this YouTube video. This portion is, like with me,so I think this is whenyou need to get selfish,like you need to ask your question. Hiring is guessing, firing is knowing. You gotta go fast, that’show you get shit done,that’s how you figure stuff out. This is the television andthe television is the radio. The 4Ds, motherfuckers. – That samplewith guitar amplifiers,and so it’s a pretty niche thing. Yeah, I spend gapes ofmy time spinning contentaround that stuff andhard to find amplifiers,I’m on a mission to cover every amp, ever. – That’s cool. – Which is too much. – And, where are you based?- Out of Nashville. – Nashville. – So, I just started workingwith Jonathan, but my background like,I just started last week,my background is visual bridge strategy,and I’ve work with, in the past. – Awesome, what was your name, I’m sorry. – Shelly, I’m sorry. – Shelly, that’s okay. – Yeah. – Awesome. – I’m admin of the National . Personal brand, content creator,takes on a lot of the complacement,mostly we create FacebookWatch shows . We average three millionweekly viewers now,I host four Best Vines,Instagram Network ,just started coming onto revamp that show,so it’s more like, we do a rundown,like a daily–– Yeah, I remember it. – There’s like (muffledspeaking) in the bottom space. So, just started that and revamping that,creating pockets for ,and all in all, going back to be more,it’s not technically coming down to Facebookepisodes, so we had a scale,so that bottleneck ison . – I understand. – I’m Brad, I do awoodworking and DIY channel,so it’s my own personal brand. I make content around YouTube videos,I’m teaching people how to do woodworkingand home repairs, things like that. Most of my stuff is basedoff Spofford content, fireplaces, those type things. But, I have growing piece of my businesswhich is digital plan download. So, that was a PDF that teaches youhow to make a coffee table,and so that’s one of my bigthings I’m trying to figure out,is how to help them, and let them know. – Understood. – Jordan Stupar, I’m fromMilwaukee, Wisconsin, came here. I have a company calledSales Domination System,I come from a sales background. I actually met you about five years agoat Grant Karpin’s office,and what we do is we build a CRM product,similar to Salesforce, so on and so forth,with a lot of extras. So, that’s what we’re doing–– SaaS. – Saas. – Understood, good tosee you again. – Justin Johnathan agency,the is a,so like, cities, states,vacation rentals, hotels. Priority for the business isvacation rentals and hotels. Where property management companiesthat manage hundreds ofproperties, they hire us to help— Drive leads, revenue, yep. Understood, where areyou based out of, sir?- Knoxville, Tennessee. – I’m Jody Statin,I work with a company called Earthscapes. I am pretty much theirsales marketing team. We are a professionallandscaping based in Chattanooga,and we are looking to grow. So, relatively new in the media, branding,we’re trying to kindof, solidify who we are,and get kind of,the right people using somenew different techniques. – Is it an individual business,or is it a franchise model?- It’s individual. – One company that’s servicingthis channel area, or?Awesome, pleasure. – My name’s Rob, andten weeks new to Chattanooga,just moved here. – From?– My background isa Fortune 100 company,a degree’d engineer,was in HR for basically 13 years,and wanted to own my own business. Got into HR in 2000, Imean, real estate in 2006,the worst time ever. So, that was a lot of fun,but we burned through that,and we ended up having a retail companywith the Christy’s brand. So, we carried Christy’sin the Tampa Bay market,and we grew that into 13offices and 225 agents,and I just decided Iwanted to make a change. So, sold out and wantedto be back in my HR roots,and so now, I own a coaching company,executive coaching company,that I started called theReturn On New Investment,which is basically a play onthe driven CEO of your life. So, everything that’s in aCEO’s role, and description,and job, and responsibilities,you’re in control of in your life. Again, or what platformdid I online courses with, membership based,and I also need a lot ofwork . – I understand. – Hi. – Hi. – I’m Angie Geiser, and I’m from Kentucky,and I do content creationand influencer marketing. – I’ve heard of it, and you do that as a service, for others?- Yes. – Understood. – We’re opening notas a service for others,it’s through our accounts. – I see. – But, we work with brands. – I see, got it. – We work with brands. – You have media properties?Or, you have your personal property?- Personal. – Yours?- Yes. – It’s you?- Yes. – Understood. – Yes. – Awesome. – I’m Stefanie Baker,and I’m from just outside of Houston,and I own a company where we go inand we create outdoorlearning spaces in schools. We build vegetable gardensand teach kids how to grow their own food,and harvest it, but thenit’s all built around,using the garden as a toolfor teachers to teach science. So, we send our educators in,and they are the classroomteachers for outside,for the outdoor classroom. – And, your client in thatscenario is the school system?- The individual schools because— The individual schools. – I don’t even wantto go near the districtbecause they don’t— And, individual schoolshave enough anatomyat a superintendent or principal levelto make that kind of call?- Principals. – Nice. – Yeah. – Cool, that’s really neat. That’s okay, all right,good to see you guys. – You too. – You too, the same. – I know you guys super well, I guess,actually let’s do it that way, I mean,actually why don’t youintroduce yourselvesfor context for everybody else. – Oh, yeah, sowe’re a mentor’s program,and what, it’s been likea year now, over a year. So, just working kind of,intimately with now The Sasha Group,no, no, no, that’s like a terrible phrase,but we still reach out when we need help,but it’s working thesteps to scale business. – In the furniture business, in Florida?And, you names for everybody. – I’m Ada. – John. – Awesome, so let’s go back around,let’s rock and roll,yeah, what can I answer?- Dude, I’m sonervous, I love you so much. For real. – Thank, thank you, man. – If he was my mentor,I’d . – That’s very sweet,thank you for saying that. – Yeah, no, I mean that. – So, in that, in aworld where, obviously,I’m always so like, petrified to alwaysbring the most value. I think what’s going to be interesting,and it’s a really fun starting off point,it’s super important to think about,are you looking for affirmation,or are you looking to fill in somethingthat I was unable to touch on,since I have to gosomewhat broad at times?And, both are cool, I think,it’s wild to think abouthow valuable affirmation is. Sometimes it’s just, the push,I always talk about the storyof being late to swimming,it wasn’t affirmation,it was that my sister starting swimming,I heard it playing knock hockey,and the thought thatmy six year old sister,as a nine year old, wasgonna swim before me?Forced me to run, jump inthe pool, as a non-swimmer,scared shitless ofswimming, and literally,next eight minutes, figureout that I was swimming,and then spend the next decade tryingto make pretend I swam first. But, it’s one of the fewthings she didn’t let me win,yeah, I really appreciate that comment,and then what that makes medo is tell that story to say,hey, are you thinking about it,is it going to be affirmation?’Cause you know, and you’veset, felt the nuances,and what’s the double down?Or, is there something Ihaven’t been able to touch on,that you’ve been curious about, or,which I’m sure some of you know this,I think so much of my strength is pullingfrom opposite directions,so if you listen long enough,the amount of potential contradictions,while what I think it is,balancing for both sides,may lead to a clarification need. Because, if you’re not pulling from both,then you can’t pull it off. I think a lot of times I’mlike ,I’m throwing so manyingredients at everybody,that what I’m starting to realize is like,fuck, all of it doesn’t workif you’re missing one of the,I’m like, why is itworking and why is it not?Why are people walkingin and like completely,where they’re from external,internal, transforming,and why are others not?Which led me to insecuritiesand all that stuff,but when that’s done I’m like, right,you need to do all these things. It’s like a really well cooked meal,if you hold of the spicethen it’s just not,there’s a lot there. So, I think that’s agood way to frame this upfor everybody to think about. I don’t know if that’sinspired, maybe, a question. – Hi, so I had my side thing,that became my main thing. I left my family business,working with my dad,and I was gonna takethat kind of, over ‚til,’til I wasn’t. So now–– Is there disappointmentin the system with that?– No, no, no. – Good. – But, here’s thething, I ran his business,and now I just hired Shelly,and I have somethingthat’s really working,and I’m scared aboutbuilding this culture,because I didn’t always havethe control over that culture,and that was my excuse, tonot do it, to not always— You’re not sure if it’s in you or not,because you had the ability tonot even have the ability to do it. Well, I think, even the factthat you’re thinking about it,already makes me optimisticthat you have it in you. The fact you even recognize that question,means that it’s something that you value. – Yeah, yeah. – I mean, here we are, I’m,you’re nervous to ask me a question,and the place where you naturally gois actually caring about culture,which already makes me knowthat you’re probably gonnado a decent job with culture. – What would you say?How do I show that even in a small— By overvaluing human beings,it’s not super complicated. If you’re playing along,like, I’m not Mother Teresa,I’m just playing along. I mean, when I look atDRock, Mickey, and Jesse,and think about,we’re now over 20 fuckingyears of collective,and just three peopleI’m looking at, right?This is ludicrous, we keep people, I mean,Nick is doing such interestingshit on his own right now,and I watch that and I’m just like pumped,I’m rooting for him so heavy,I don’t even have time,I’m so busy that I don’t even have timeto tell him that directly,I use these moments todouble-dip, to like keeptelling him keep going. – You’re super bad at it. It’s super bad. – It’s true, though, you know?That’s not the way, my dad would’ve been,would’ve fired Nick atthe first indicationof a leisure apparel brand,he felt like everybody hadto do it for him, you know?Just lean into people,it’s not super complicated. Fucking, we’re sitting herebecause I promised Mickeythat if he joined VaynerMedia,I’d open something in thesouth, that is real talk. There was no good strategic reasonto open this office, you know?Other than I promise Mickey,and he luckily went tobaseball camp here afterI came on a trip here andfell in love with the city. So, I would actually sayit’s stunningly easy. Do you value people more thanyou value short-term profit?Most people don’t, which is fine,but it’s really easywhen you care about it. I think where you have to be careful of,is where I’m at my weakest,which is you create entitlement,because you lack candorwhen you need to make peopleactually perform on a business. I think, my shortcoming, mykryptonite has been, ironically,something nobody wouldbe believe on the waythat I communicate publicly,which is I’ve been too soft,which has created entitlement. A lot of stuff that I put in the systemis trying to coach myself into it. Fire faster, you know like,these are real things. So, I’m a bleeding heart, I’dbe a great guidance councilor,and a great therapist, anda lot of other great things. It’s where some of thecross-over’s different than me,than others that people have worked for. I’m different, and that’swhy I feel different,and it’s true and it makesme have less economicsin the short-term,and people out theremake fun of me for that. It’s only ‚cause they’rejudging in the second quarter. Let’s see how this all plays out. It’s real easy, just choose it. I think the question becomes,what you might be struggling with is,you see certain things thatdo work for that business,on doing things that maybenaturally you wouldn’t do,but you haven’t seen the alternative, yet. – Right . – You’re like, oh, right,but dad, or whoever,your mom, they do that,and then fuck, that actuallydoes make more money,you just haven’t seen the alternative yet. My brother, my dad, others,make more profit short-term,but they never build the sizeof businesses that I build. So, I don’t know, the last time I checked5% of a billion is morethan 29% of $40 million,last time I checked. You have any questions?I know it’s early, butthere might be something. – It is very, very early. – But, theremight be something. – I would say ,I just asked him this earlier,but with my visual branch strategy,I was less into the knowledge ofall of the ad space,all that that allows youas far as technical stuff,like geo pins–– Yes. – Things like that,so how is it just a visual, how do I stay, in all those changes?Because, that gives meevery change that I see,and how it explains,gives me different ideas for howI can speak in the ad. – By fully committing to it,I think— What are the ways to kind of?- By doing the work to beeducated on everything. – Okay. – By reading, watching videos,by putting in the education work. The biggest issue whenpeople go from somethingbigger to something smaller,is the speed and the needsbecome way different. There’s so many corporate,so many people in corporate right noware trying to join smaller startups,and they obviously come and talk to me,’cause I’ve known them. We had a client from Unilever, you know,you worked on Unilever atsome, that’s what I thought,Jen Bremner, I sat down with yesterday. Yeah, who like, we didn’t necessarilyhave the greatest run with,and she’s looking tomake a move from Unileverto a mid-size company and you know,even though we didn’thave the greatest rub,I do actually think she’s got chops. And so, I was giving her advice,I was like, hey, you know,we were talking about thattoday with The Sasha Group,Sasha verus Vayner. You guys care in a different way,like it’s you livelihood,it’s not even caring,it’s surviving versus gettinga different job somewhere else. The speed in which,but you still have things that you canreally bring to the table. You have to go through thefilter of practicality and speed,instead of ideology and lack of speed,and that’s somethingyou have to get used to. – Yeah, okay, cool, thanks. – How’d you know that?- I know it because I’m reallygood at pattern recognition,it’s why I listen. I talk a lot about melistening over talking,’cause I’m always, especiallyI’ve such a bad rap,because I do interruptmy guests on my podcasts,but it’s because I already know. I know what they’re saying,and I’m thinking about theaudience, not my guest,and if they’re aboutto spend nine minutes,and I know they have to leavefor another appearance somewhere,’cause that’s just so everybody knows,I’m not like this chill podcast whereit’s what you do for the day,and it’s all I do for a living. My guests and I are ona very tight schedule,and I’m saying to myself,this woman, this man,is about to talk for nineminutes about somethingthis audience fully knows andis gonna be complete vanilla?So now, I’m gonnainterrupt, add my two sense,that brings value, and move them forward,and so I’m willing toget judged and ridiculedby my audience to bringmore value to my audience. I believe my interrupting on my podcastis the single nicest thingI’m doing for my audience,while my audience scrutinizesat me for the most,but I’m willing to take thatscrutiny to bring value. Because, what the audience doesn’t knowis what the show would’velooked like if I let them run,which is we would havegotten to two things,pure vanilla and see you tomorrow. That is about being consumer centric,that is about pattern recognition,that’s about knowing, and sojust hearing it and knowing it. Which goes to the mostinteresting part which is,you two can win,you just have to have humility and honestywith each other and over communicate,instead of thinking it in your heads. – So, I’m a videocreator, I work for myself,I’m an entertainer,but also for branding ,and you learn thoseFacebook ads, whatever. I started as a musician,I was on the Hoist Tourwith my coach, Blake Shelton, for a while. Hated being at the mercy of the system,and sit behind a desk,and need permission to be successful,I ate Cheerios insteadof oatmeal that day. And so, he hated the song I took,worked on for three yearsto get that meeting,and one night I got offers to createfor an Instagram Network,and just do more personalityduring the steps,and I put chickens in a bathtuband it got 19 million views overnight,and it changed my life on Facebook,and I was like, okay, that’s easier. I’m making more of that, thatfeels good . – You can actually be creative, go figure. – Yeah, and so Iloved it just as much as,started seeing two chickens,and then said whatever,people love that because it was authentic,I wasn’t trying so hard,and so fast forward,I’ve been losing moneymaking videos, everyday. I have a blog 17 peoplewatch, I didn’t care,I fricken loved it, and thenFacebook Watch got ahold of usto make original content,we do two episodes a week for them,and now we’re just getting all sortsof really cool opportunitiesfor distribution,and different–– Makes sense. – Partnerships,and I’m having a ball. – Good for you. – I just hired my firstgroup of people to tryto remove the bottleneck,some in editing, somejust taking over emails,and some things I don’t need to do. – Let me give a couple ofquick pieces of advice on that,83% of somebody else, isbetter than 100% of just you. The number one mistake that people makewhen they start to delegate?Is they make a subjectiveopinion in their mindof what that should look like,and that’s not the way to scale. – I think it’s gonnabe my biggest hardship. – 100%. – You know, one little— 100%, it’s why I jumpedin, back to you know,that’s the game. The game is that I’venever even talked to DRock,like after, when we started the vlog,I had to watch a little bit,because I had to teachhim, hey, you’re complete,and that’s who he was at that raw state,mindset is to make the best YouTube video. You can’t put the part where I’m tellingMickey to fire Susan,she doesn’t know yet,that’s gonna be a problem. You can’t put the part of afterwe have the client meeting,I look at one of my team mates and say,that clients a fucking idiot, that’s bad. So, at first I had to watch,but that was,help me here, 11 episodes,not a lot of episodes, and since then,I don’t watch anything,I don’t watch anything. Now, on Instagram, I’mtitling those things,I’m writing all the copy,there’s a way for youto come in at third and a half base,just don’t judge the dugoutto third and half base,and also know that in an houryou’re putting outanother piece of content. – Yeah. – You know?Especially when you have the un-luxuryof having a viral hit,too many people then arelooking for that moment again. – Yeah, yeah. – It’s a real killer,if you get unlucky andhave something go crazy,you then get stuck looking for crazy,which means you stop making, make sense?For me, I make a hundred pieces of contentthat add up to four million views,instead of being crippled for nine days,just making one video, hopingfor four million views,that gets 37,000 views. – ‚Cause of now,now that we didn’t do it so sustainably,and just transparent,one month we’ll make $30grand on the Facebook Page,the next month it makes five,and so in hiring I’m trying to allocatewhere necessarily, if I’mpaying her $20 an hour,to do TikTok to get my there,because reach is amazing,then it’s, I’m not necessarilymonetizing that yet,but also–– It’s also recognizingthe second you’re overfocused on monetization,is the second you’re limiting your upside. So, to mean it’s more about,can you get into amental place of realizinghow little do you need to live,so that you don’t thinkabout monetization at all. Every time you pander to the monetization,you’re limiting your upside,because inherently you start making thingsfor the monetization,not for the audience. You get into a newmachine, your own machine. – Who’s gotauthenticity ?- Whether it’s authenticity,whatever word we want to put against it,the second your day is about waking upand figuring out how much money YouTubeor Facebook’s gonna make to you?Versus, what’s going to make somebodyreally wanna watch this?Is the day you start the processof not being able to win. You know how fun it is thatnot a single piece of my content,back to a lot of business models here,you know what it feels liketo not make any contentwith the thought of how does this createa top of the funnelscenario to a landing pagethat converts to my livelihood?Yeah, you know, looking at some of you,knowing your business models,that puts me in a positionof being able to win,that’s why it’s happening,it also is why you’re here. Whoever brings the most value, wins,not whoever creates theperception of the most value. That person wins in the short-term. – The last thing, if I may,would be, I actuallywanna build something,I wanna build a personal brand, not just,I mean, Facebook videos,‚cause that can be done,and I actually want to build something. And, I think there’s lightin the gap in the marketplacefor like a female James Corden,that doesn’t have onJ. Lo and Justin Bieber. – Let me tell you a couplethings real quick on that. That is absolutely true,but don’t think of itin a traditional way,think of it as, more of like,everybody’s gonna monetize. We’re all individuals,everyone here has the actualability to pull this off,it’s just that some peoplewill make $17 a year,and some will make $17 million,but there are plenty of female,the more you spend timein the classic model,the more likely you’ll be upside. All you need to think about,is how do you bring the mostvalue, period, end of story,and then, it will manifest. I never think about,everybody I see who wins,does a much better job of nottrying to be some variationof a sentence applied againstsomebody who’s already famous. Don’t even think that way, think 100%,how do I make contentthat people will like. That’s how you put thechickens in the tub. You need to basically livein a humble framework,in perpetuity, and that’show you get the most stuff. Just then, just then,then,because that leads to creativity. We’ve been our most creativewhen I finally broke throughof saying over and over,don’t pander to the machine,even though I knew and Iwould tell DRock, I’m like,fuck, we’re pandering tothe machine on Instagram. We know what’s working,and the second I finally,finally after a month, ‚causeI’m like, fuck you, dude,don’t be a hypocrite, do your thing,that’s when, if you look atthe last 100 posts I’ve had,they’ve been far more creative. That’s where the cartoons come from,that’s where the upsidedown post comes from,it’s just where thecreativity’s coming from. And, inevitably therewill be a piece of contentthat changes the course, because of it. All the Trash Talk content,the over-indexes, thatwould’ve never happenedif I wasn’t willing to dosomething that wasn’t obvious. – Do you think there’s value,you that the skin your favorite YouTubers–– Yeah, of course,curation, DJing, always works, we’re busy,and if I can go to Best Vinesand you can tell me what thefour best memes of the day are?That saves me time, curationworks ‚cause it saves time. We want time saving. – Messenger?- I think text messaging is the mostinteresting platformemerging in the world. So, that would be my first choice. ‚Cause you’ll get 100%consumption against your list,Messenger does a verygood job of that, as well. WhatsApp can make you go global,email still works, you know?- You’ve been the choice?– Yeah, 100%, all, all of it. It’s what I do, that’s why I always say,watch what I do, not what I say. You want audio? Got you. You want video? Got you. You want email? Got you. You want written? Yep. LinkedIn? Good. Cartoons? Good, I don’t care. No friction for consumption. – So, I’ve been, much like Allie,been doing the one manstand for the whole time,so I hustled full-time,and what I’ve got theproducts I have to do,the products downloads. – How much are those, howto build a coffee table,how much do they cost?– Per transaction. – Keep going. – Yeah, and so,and what I found is thatI’ve been growing those, and so it’sstarting to dig isimportant to my business— How much, what do youspend on acquisition,and where do you spend it?- It’s all organic. – All organic?– 100%. – That’s great. – So, my whole business— But, you know why that’s great?’Cause that’s terrible. – Right, because I’mnot through the upside. – Correct. – Right. – And again, in a world,’cause I know a lot ofyou have this context,you can’t underestimate howunder priced this media is. Like, Instagram swipe-up adsfor you with the right content,would be uncomfortable conversion. Pay two, get nine, pay two,get nine, pay three, get nine,at scale, this is how businesses go fromfour million to 40 million in a year,because once something works,you can pour lighter fluid in perpetuity. – Right, the scale,I’m trying to figure out how to scale. So, usually my business is sponsorships,in between direct,long-term, product placement,things like that, about 20% into plans,about 20% into ads, GoogleAdSense . – The plans. – That’s what I was gonna say,for like steeling down, likeI said, I’m a one man team. – Hire, than invest. – And so, from there,that’s my question is, where would that,would it be getting a Facebook Ad Manager?- Yes, it’s getting a math person. You’ve got the art down, you need math. – I have a math guy, but–– By the way,I believe that to be true,then you got–– I need the hands to do it. – Math is a commodity, art is not. – Gotcha. – Got it?If you’re like me, math and art?You always, I gave upon math a long time ago,I’m good at math. I understand what it costs to,I understand the conceptof pay nine dollarsfor a wine customer,and look at the back-endand my profit’s 11,and keep going until that doesn’t work. And then, if I’m upside down,then I think about the lifetime value,and I look, oh, we’re the bestwine store in the country,so they keep coming back. So, actually 11 is okay,most companies it’s not,’cause they don’t have returnbusiness and ,but I gave all that up,because everybody can do math. Meaning, anybody that can do math,does math ‚cause it doesn’t move. Art moves by the second,the culture moves. – So, how would you–– I’d hire a math person. – And, where do I go to find,that’s what my problemis, try to find folks?- Where are you based?- Nashville. – So, there’s a millionways to do this, right?A, we’ll try to send yousome recommendations,I don’t know who former Vayner employeesare that live in Nashville,there might be like,you could hire, I thinkone of the great movesis to hire a small agency,and then steal their employee. You know, like that’s a good idea. Interview 10 small Facebookagencies in Nashville,and meet them all and be like,oh, I really like Karenand she seems sharp,hire that one and then try to steal her. – The staling of theproductry and product offering,so, I now bundle, soinstead of doing nine,I’ll do five plans for $29, 30% discount,you can get all my plans for $99 bucks. Looking at, from the product persp— You know what I don’tlike about that yet?Is you’re making all that judgmentoff the history of organic,and I don’t know what theupside is yet on proper media. – Right, that’s my–– I would sell themindividually at the highest dollar amount,and test them, how manydifferent products are there?- I’d say about 30. – I would test them all at scale,across all LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, whatever,for six months, have a real understanding,and then make the decisionthat you’re asking right now,off of far more data. – Okay, my concern wasjust the acquisition costand product, would be too high. – It might not be, whenyou’re actually arbitragingagainst the most under priced attention. It might be, but it might not be. There’s also the question of,if you have a ton more customer,you pay 14 against nine. First of all, why nine?Like, if it’s costing you14 and you raise it to 17,and it works,and now you’re using that audienceto triple your sponsorship business. A lot of things that people don’t do,is they don’t play chess,they go too binary. If I’ve got those revenuestreams that you have,I would say to myself, you know what,I’ll break even on the products,’cause I wanna go to scale,but I’m gonna siphon that attentionfrom the products on this content,so that I can ask 10xon the sponsorship side. – I think I’m reversed,’cause I got a huge following on YouTube. – You’re the reverse‚cause that was the cadencein how you did it, youcan also reverse it back. – Gotcha, right. – Right?All of a sudden,I may wanna pay you a milliondollars a year, it may. You gotta play on both fronts to find out. Clouds and dirt, right?The reason that works for me,is like, that’s how I think,you always have to playon multiple fronts,because it might be the upside down thing. Could you imagine?You know, and business aremore likely to overspend. – Right. – Got it?So, you might be able to geta half of million dollar sponsorship,that makes no fucking sense,which then allows you to say, oh, fuck,you see where I’m going, right?It’s more likely you getgrossly overpaid by a sponsor,to then use those dollarsto sell lower funnel,than the other way around,‚cause that’s the market,got it?– Absolutely, thank you. – All right, so I have a question. My CRM, my SaaS companybasically it consistsof about 72 different products,depending on the problem itself,and so it’s pretty complex, sophisticated,and everybody has theirown legality system. If I called on you, youmight be interested infive out of 72 of those things,but if I don’t mention them upfront, and tossed away. So, my main issue is, from amedia standpoint of marketing,and just from, I’m calling you,crossing my fingers that you pick up,what do you think would bethe best way to kind of,condense the entire 72products, into one easy,simple to say, this iswhat the fuck we do. – There’s no way to condense72 different value props, quickly. I think one, you need to look at it,how long have you been doing it?- We’ve been building it,developing it for two and half years,and we’ve been inbusiness for about a year. – You may wanna figure outif you have 72 features,versus 72 products, first of all. You also need to figure outwhich 10 products, most convert. It’s like, any retailstore, or any dot com,what retailers are starting to figure out,I mean, this is the big challengeI’m gonna push to my wine store,it used to be, like it was my agenda,we have the biggest selectionin the fucking world, we win,it’s actually, that becomes crippling,and I even tried to push my dad to createthese WL50 stores, wherethey’re tiny storeswith only 50 wines from Wine Library. You know, because peopledon’t actually want choice,it’s why WineText works,one product a day,very simple, boom, I don’t wanna think. So, I think you’re makingpeople think too much,so I think that there’sprobably four productsthat are 80% of the actual action,and that’s where my comms would come in,and you might be going ontoo much of an ideology,that I have to get to all of these things. I think you really need to look at usage,what I would do, is look at usage,that’s why I asked you how long. I would look at all theusage of the product,which is what’s greatabout a SaaS business,and say, fuck, actuallythese six things are 80%,and that’s gonna happen. Because, some of thoseproducts are dog shit,and some of them are the fucking thing,that’s the nature of the game, right?That. – And, the other questionthat we’re leading to is,how do I go into market, ifI was gonna do paid media,I make a lot of content,and I try to do my best to kind of— Who’s buying your product?- Primarily, anend-user, a sales person,or a small organization right now,with maybe 10 sales people in it. – LinkedIn, bro, youneed to make 25 piecesof content a day for LinkedIn, specific. When people think ofsalespeople as one thing,versus a saleswoman whohappens to be a Falcons fan,that’s a whole different,my game is in perpetuity. People are like, salespeople,and I’m like, no, no, no. They’re like, how do I makea hundred pieces of content?I’m like, okay, well firstof all, there’s 50 states. So, there’s 50, hey, Alabama,hey, salespeople in Alabama,it’s your boy, that’s already 50. ‚Cause I can promise youwhen you run ads againstsmall businesses or salesorganizations in Alabama,and it starts with „what’s up, Alabama. „That already does better than it says,“what’s up, it’s your boy, Gary. „I know it’s true, you start then saying,you’ve seen them do that piece of contentwhen the Auburn, Alabama game is going on,and you make some sort of reference point. That says, if you’re an Auburnfan, then leave a comment,or if you’re a BAMA fan,leave a comment in LinkedIn,whoever wins the game,that person gets 10% off,the other one gets to cry twice. And, so if you look at thecollectively action to that idea,that’s why I win, ‚causeI’m in the game of ideas,and then just making shit. LinkedIn is uncomfortably under priced. Organic, let alone paid,you need to go . If you made no content anywhere else,which is so against my macro thesis,but if you didn’t, and youmade a hundred pieces a day,for LinkedIn, that wasspecific to psychographic,demographic, location, age,gender, sex, you will win. – Crush it,okay, that helps out a lot. – It’s really, I know it will,and what’s really awesomefor me is it’s gonna work. – Yeah, I believe it. – Good. It’s kind of like believing,that if you eat well, andyou work out everyday,you’ll look better. I know you believe it, I’mtelling you to fucking do it. – What would you saywould be the second best place?- Nothing. Meaning, you can’t imagine,you know what that would be like?If we were like kids andonly wanted to eat candy,and I literally walked in right nowwith a fucking truckfull of candy,and you’d be like, yo,where else is there candy?I’m like, motherfucker wecan’t eat all this candy. That was the question. – So, push all my (muffledspeaking) onto LinkedIn?- Yep. – And, just destroy it. – Yes, but bring them value. – Of course. – Well, like that’s a challenge, too. You know, that’s not so easy. – Nothing’s terribly easy,but I think with enough contentI can start digging into— And then start, correct, andthen start reading comments. Ask questions, one of thethings that very few people dois make content to askquestions, I love that,because then you getanswers in the comments,which then leads you tothe next piece of content. So much of my content is actually not madefor any other thing thanan insight to a hypothesis. It’s how I got all the contentthat I talk about today. There was no strategysession where I’m like,I’m gonna make content about parenting. That was a thing thathappened out of makingall the content, that mademe get to the realization of,so many opportunities and vulnerabilities. That’s why it resonates, thereason my content resonates,is it comes from the community. – Thanks. – Okay, so we haveabout 40, 45, 50 person agency,we coach centerism, we’restrong in two markets,well I wanna stay on theother markets first — Mark, it’s in like genres,or in physical markets?- Physical markets, so like,Destin Florida, Wisconsin Dells,and Myrtle Beach, for example. We over saturate a market,then we go to a next one,but we’re strugglingbecause they aren’t marketsthat we physically live in,they’re markets that we’re going to. We have clients there,but not any major footballlike we do in the others. So, there’s literallylike a hundred thingsI think I should be doing,so then we try a little bit of it,and then we don’t see theresult and then we just try— Bail. – Yeah, we’re trying too much. – And, the reality is,and I understand whereyou’re going with this,is you know in your soulthat you are not doingenough to actually seethe full results of it,so you’re just kind of,caught in this hamster wheelof half-pregnant and then like, I get it. I’m emotional about this,because there’s like 10 thingsI tried to get Wine Libraryto do, they did it for like a,there was this incredibleconcept that I hadof pricing every wine in thestore at a one bottle level,a six bottle level, and a 12bottle level, like that’s it. Like, case discount, itfucking was going to be big,literally because Passover was coming up,my dad wanted to putKosher wine in that spot,tore down the whole concept for three daysworth of business, of no money,and didn’t give it the full chanceto do what it was gonna do. What I think you need todecide is, profitability. The answer to your question’sactually very easy,you know exactly, I can eventell the way you asked it,you actually know it’s right,you just have to make less money. You have to plop someonethere, or plop it longer,and eat the crow of no results,’cause it fucking needs ninemonths to get to the results. You’re in the sales transaction mindset,not in the brand buildingmindset, and you know it. And now, the questionbecomes, can you afford it?You know, that becomesthe thing I don’t knowin a moment like this,but then when the person says, no,and you know I’m alwayspushing, and you guys know this,make less money this yearto build something bigger. Make less money, that’s how you do it,it’s called investing in your shit,and then there’s alsoaudit the 20% of thingsyou spend money on thatare fucking garbage. Your worst employee,some dumb thing that you’renot even paying attention tothat you’re on recurringgetting billed for,your snacks are overpriced,that was the big brouhahaat Vayner this year. I eliminated, we were spending hundredsof thousands of dollars on bars,and 4% of the people were eating it,so I fucking eliminated it. Of course, everyone actedlike they ate everydayof their fucking life,and I’m fucking Hitler,but you know,that was just a good business decisionbased on what was actually happening. Yeah, they’re good, they’re scrappy here,I’m talking about fucking New Yorkers. Got it?That’s the fucking answer. – Okay, so I’m Jody,I work in landscaping— I apologize, and if youcan really find a systemwhere you can get thehighest kind of personto make the impact, atthe lowest possible cost?You can really scale the fuck out of this. You know, and you’re lookingfor a Swiss Army Knife, right?She or he’s gotta, you’ve got the findan entrepreneurial tendency person, right?- Yep, okay, Jody, EarthScapes,we’re a professional landscapingplace in Chattanooga,and I don’t actually own this company. – I heard. – So, I’m sales and marketing. So, I am wearing two hats,and they’re small enough for a lot of usin the office to be wearing multiple hats. – That makes sense. – So, I have two questions,the first one is, how do you balance that?- Sales and marketing, ornot owning the company?- The sales andmarketing, is the first piece. So, I wanna–– Well, the good newson that is, that’s likea brain and heart, yeah. It’s like, that’s honestly,if you really synthesizewhat I’ve been up to, andeven so far halfway through,people think they’re marketing,but they’re actually selling. – Totally. – Totally. – Well, and thenthe other piece of that is,is there separation reallybetween your businessand what you’re doing in yourself?I mean so, we’re hearing a lotof people talk about content,putting content out, butcontent doesn’t necessarilyhave to even directly relateto what you’re trying to sell. – Not only doesn’t it have to— It shouldn’t?– It shouldn’t, to getthe maximum upside. Now look, some ownersare not made for content,yours may not. This is where you get into Snoopy,like maybe your breakthrough is a cartoon,in stick figure form,and that cartoon is thething that can do everything,but yes, for everybody here who’s doingany kind of personal branding,I do far more, so much more works for me,because I’m into wine andthe Jets and garage selling,and all of it, people try totheoretically say is wrong. You’re stretched thin,what do you represent. I mean, when I startedgarage selling on Trash Talkand on Instagram,so many of my smartestfriends hit me up immediately. On Instagram Story firstday, before Trash Talk,I’m like, yo, you can’tdo this, you look stupid,this is crazy, you’re on the vergeof becoming one of the mostimportant business people,what are people gonna think?I’m like, what the fuckare you talking about?You mean, you want me topander to the Ivory Towers?What are people gonna think?I think, that hundredsof thousands of peopleare about to make an extrathousand dollars a yearthat they need for abetter family vacationand their life will be better,and I’m not worried aboutthe fucking CEO of, you know,worried about the fact that I garage sale. – Okay so, I mean,I’m honestly speakingfor the company when I dothis marketing for them,so can that just be me?Can that be my voice?- Of course it can, Ithink more importantly,the question becomes,the voice needs to besomething that bringsthe most value to the audience. And so, the voice take on a lot of layers,of course it can be you,but let me give you an example. I think the voice shouldbe all of the following,you, when you’re out todinner with your girlfriends,you in the office, the founderwhen he or she is golfing,what people don’t understandis, it’s not a singular voice. There’s a million differentreasons why I would considerletting you cut my lawn,or hedge my flowers,or whatever the fuck you do, right?There might be a million different things. – Totally. – And like, how you do thaton Facebook, and LinkedIn,and Instagram, and Twitter,and all these platforms, Google. You know, on Google where it’sall intent based marketing,that is more sales,Google AdWords is selling, not marketing. On Instagram, it’s fuckingmarketing, it’s visual, right?- Totally. – So, don’t get caughtin that place where I think,a lot of us were taught to do,which is, what’s the voice?Even if it was just you,I have a funny feelingthere’s at least 13different versions of you,given the circumstances that you’re in. I have a funny feeling, you’rea totally different gal,when you’re with your bestfriends on a weekend in Vegason a girls trip, than youare in this room right now. – Totally. – You should see Dio,when he’s with his fucking boys. Should go directly to jail. So, I think thatthat’s creative contextually at scale. Knowing enough about Chattanooga,there’s the hills and across it,there’s different things going on here. – Totally. – Right?And, they need to see different things. Some of them are only going toplay at certain price point,others want a different,that’s how you have to reverseengineer the attention. What is the company spentmoney on historically,or currently?- In terms of marketing?– Yep. – Not that much. – All word of mouth?- It’s a lot word of mouth,a little bit of print advertising. – Direct mail?- A little bit. – Yeah, you know, directmail and print are great,because Facebook can do better. That’s where you have totake 20, 50% of that budget,and show them. How much scrutiny areyou under by ownership?A lot, right?It’s a small business, yeah. – We don’t have a huge budget. – I believe that to be true. There’s no reason,a landscaping business in Chattanoogashould not have a large budget. But, why do you exist?They understand that marketing matters?- Yes. – Like, I would arguethat that’s incrediblyprogressive to begin with. An employee for a family-owned businessthat is in landscaping tohave a marketing executive?Means that somebody there understands. – Totally, andthey’re trying to grow, too,and they know that’s the best way to grow. – It’s awesome, I thinkinfluencer marketing,you should absolutely,right now, open your phone,go to Instagram, search Chattanooga,find the top posts and DM people,and offer them free service. So, if you go to Instagram,one of the things any local business here,searching the city that you’re in,then they give you all the pictures,and there’s top or recent,you hit top, you click it,you see if somebody’s visitingChattanooga for something,or do they live here?If they live here you DMthere and say very simply,hey, I think you’re aninfluencer in Chatttanooga,I believe that if you tooka photo or made a videoon your actual feed, not in your Stories,’cause that disappears too quick,about us and we will giveyou in return, a 200, or 500,or I don’t know thebusiness ,free service for it, thatthat’s good for our business,and good for you, two outof every 10 will say, yes. Five out of every 10 will say, yes,that’s a whole lot of local awareness. – Cool. – Tactics. – Thanks. – First year, whatpeople don’t know is that80% of my comments were „stayin your lane, Wine Boy. “ Meanwhile, I was like,I was a businessman beforeyou knew me, I’m in my lane. – Right, and so,(background noises drownout speaker) my question is,you know, just from aprioritization standpoint,’cause that audience matters,it’s worth something,and so, I don’t wanna just let it go. – It’s worth less than you think, yes. – That’s where I was gonna–– I get it, it’s just,it’s worth less than you think. This is why these are so fun,it’s only worth something ifthey’re willing to use you,or bring awareness to you,in a literal sense of,is it worth somethingin a raw business form?The answer is, the onlyaudience of Wine Librarythat was worth something to mein a transition of business,in theory, was people thatalso had interest in business. Which many didn’t, and thoseare the ones that called me,a sell-out, or I hate you, or I miss you,or whatever they said, others came along. It’s not worth something. – So, that’s wheremy dad was telling me, ‚cause you know,looking at, okay–– You know what’s worthsomething, in my opinion,how I would launch your absolute business?I would ask everybody, in theory,if they’d like to hire you,and then I would create contentaround the first 10 people that hired you,and then, if nobody wanted to hire you,I would pick 10 people and do it for free. – That was kind of,where I was gonna go with it, boss,I was gonna launch with ,and do whole lock-ins, and get a back end,see if he wants to useme, and if they don’t,then just know that’s right–– The other thing you can do,and this works for a lot of the peoplethat just asked questions,so I want to make surethey’re gonna hear this,you can start a Q&A show. Look, one of the, I always talk about,watch what I do, not what I say. My reintroduction into contentwas the #AskGaryVee Show. My audience was notthat big at that point,because I had transitioned to business,but I went dark for twoyears building VaynerMedia,and the way that I reintroduced myselfwas off a small base tobe able to create content,’cause we weren’t vlogging yet,I didn’t have a podcast yet. Was to start a show where peopleask me questions on Twitter,which off that was my biggest base,which led to some awareness,’cause they had to use the hashtag. So now, people see they’reasking me a question,so that got me by accident viewers. I then picked five of them, answered it,put it out for free,and it was incredibly valuable. You can do that with HR questions. You can literally putright now on your LinkedIn,I’m doing this, I don’tknow if you notice,by the way, who’s got HR macro questions?Take five of the questionsfrom the LinkedIn comments,record either video oraudio, you answering them,and then re-put out thecontent into the system. – Got you. – The HR content thatI put out on LinkedIn,and obviously, I’m off a big base,but it’s standardized,always over-indexes,it is the conversation. – ‚Cause, right nowwhat I’m looking at is,I’m looking at, okay,I’m spending all mytime on LinkedIn, right?So, that’s where I’m spendingthe majority of the time,and so I’m looking at what’s trendingfor business executives andwhat they’re talking about,what articles are out there,and what troubles they’rehaving, those kinds of things. And so, I’m trying to run off of that,and then push out contentpieces on those triggs. – I think that’s good. – Asking the audience— I think both are good. – Okay. – But, the asking’s easier,quicker, more scale, ‚causeyou’re doing a lot of workto get to that one piece of content. LinkedIn, I would also verymuch consider doing a podcast,and I think this would work for you,I think it works for a lot of people,I mean, back to being the mayor,if you started the ChattanoogaBusiness podcast, you,your landscaping business, theChattanooga Business podcast,and interviewed business people here?It would just bring awareness. – We do, so when Ifirst moved to Chattanooga,I actually met Jody–– Randomly?- just on landscaping. – She went to (backgroundnoises drown out speaker). – This is awesome, keep going. – And so, when I was in Florida,doing the real estate business,I took your digital layerthing, I got 101 episodes. – Love you. – I went to Dallas Live. – Love. – Right? And, it destroyed,it was awesome, it was great, I loved it,and I had so much fulfillment— It’s just, it’s the life I’m living,I wanna be the greatestentrepreneur of this generation,and I do not think that comes solelyfrom making the most money,I have to give back to the system,and they both work hand-in-hand. – So, two weeks after moving here,I called her and I said,hey, let’s have a meeting,and I say, hey listen,I’m gonna do this thing,and you’re gonna think I’mcrazy, but hear me out. And I said, do you wannacohost a show with me?- Unbelievable. – And, it’s called NoogaLive,we’re 11 episodes into it. – Unbelievable, love you guys. – And, we have thebest time . – And, it’s gonna lead to business. – It’s been so much fun. – It’s been so fun,and it performs really well,he will watch the whole video. – It also leads you to go to the open,the new restaurant thatopens, you walk in,and somebody says hi toyou, and you’re like,whoa, they know who I am?And then, after you get offthe one second high of like,am I famous?You then, convert it intoa business opportunity. I’m far more proud of beingthe architect of GaryVee,than being GaryVee,because I know what it means for business. I mean, it’s amazing totake selfies, and I love it,I like people, and I likeattention, that’s fine,but that is a distant second comparedto the actual strategy behind it. It’s great, you’re on your way,you need to create a wayto make more content?Q&A is a great way to do it. – Yeah, and thanksa lot, man, thank you. – So, with the work that we do,in homes and marketing,we probably do 75% is through agencies,and not directly with brands. So, my question is,how do we build morelong-term relationships?- By reaching out to them. – To the brands directly?– That’s right. – Okay, thank you. – I know it’s sucha simple answer, butthat’s actually the answer. Now, the question becomes how, what size,what do you do when you reach out to them,what value property are you offering them?- Right, because what we’re doing,a lot of times our agencywill only be working ona project–– You’re a vendor,you’re a vendor here’s what I would do,I would reach out to allthe businesses around you,email them, or let me go old school,one of my favorite movesis overwhelming somebodywith something physical,doesn’t‘ work on me,because I get so much mailand so many things sent to me,and I don’t like stuff,that we actually have thereverse problem where,I feel bad that people aresending me $500 items that,I mean, Dio’s stealing ‚em andselling ‚em on Ebay. – And, some nice headphones. – Right?Like, it’s really, actuallysomething we have to figure out,but in the reverse, ifyou were to send somebodysomething that lookedlike a wedding invitation,high-quality, or like a fruit basket,or influence marketing, just you know,homemade cookies from a local companythat you want to give some support to,and inside were a bunchof cookies in TikTokand Instagram logos, with areally nice letter that said,look, hi, Nancy, you’re the CMO of Aflacin Atlanta, we think influencer marketingis being greatly underused,we’ve being doing it for five years,this is where it gets important. In 34 to, where are we,October, on November 19th,at a private room at thishot restaurant in Atlanta,I am hosting a free,dinner and talk aroundinfluencer marketingfor the first 25 people that respondto these beautiful cookies. I hope this caught your attention,I hope you understand whatI’m actually saying here,if you’d like to RSVP here’sa link, or you can call me,that would work. Now, you’ve spent $2000 oncookies, mail, invitations,a private room, wine,and here’s what happenswhen you send 100 ofthose, three people come,and you’re sitting there and you’re like,fuck Gary, I fuckingwasted all this money,this and that,but three become six, and six become 18,and god forbid you’regood at writing a letter. And, god forbid the cookies look good,maybe the first one is actually 39,maybe you even have a problemthat goes the other way. It goes one of two ways, it’s always,for reason nothing everends up being the middle,it ends up being two peopleand you’re like, fuck Gary,or it becomes 89, you have like,four months of events lined up,and you’re like, he’s a fucking genius,but it’s gonna be one of those two. It’s gonna be one of those two. Go direct to brand, notice what I’m doing,break through the noise, andgive them something of value,with no expectation in return. And, if you make thatdinner a conversation,if this was one big funnel for youto pay me $500 thousanddollars a year at Vayner?Everything out of mymouth would be different. I’m looking to never see you again,and get an email from youthat says, I love you. That’s different, that’s whateverybody should be doing,that’s how you build something monstrous. – Okay, so from the agency’s side,how do they look at influencers?Is it–– Agencies care about,agencies, it doesn’t matter. Agencies care about agencies PNL,it doesn’t matter what they think,it will always be here,’cause John Wayne is nodifferent than you two. Word of mouth from ahuman always will place,and I think we haven’t even started. Every 16 year old in Americawants to be an influencer,that is their number one goal in life. That will mean much more supply,and the demand is unparalleled,there’s a reason there’s trafficwhen somebody gets into an accident. The reason we rubberneck is‚cause we’re fucking nosy. There’s a reason thatreality TV is a monster,even though it’s not real,‚cause we’re fucking nosy. We like each other,it’s why we’re not dead,there’s been bombs thatwipe us off the fucking faceof the Earth for 60 years,and we’re still here,humans like humans. – I’m so glad,I was just gonna say,that I wasn’t first,because my heart ispounding out of my chest,between you, and Nick, andDRock, all in the same room. – That’s very sweet,thank you. – Anyway, another funny thingis that leading up to this,I agonized over, I don’thave any questions,because I consume so much,everything I can think of,I already know theanswer, I already know it. – Yeah, yeah, that’s right. – But, now I havea million questions so— Yeah, ‚cause you can see thatwhat’s so great about this,and why I think this hasbeen a successful program is,some of this shit, likethis is where it gets good,what’s really great about this is,when you have a product that hasa cost of entry the size ofthis, you have real people,we’re pretty intense about howwe scrutinize anybody trying to come in,and one insight given to a real person,that’s why strategy exists. Nobody really wants to pay from strategy,it seems like a bad ideakind of, in some way,but the blueprint matters,and I can get very specific,and there’s been a lot ofstuff I feel good about here,and I’m excited to see howit manifests, so go ahead. – The other funny thing is,leading up to this is,I already know howyou feel about school. – Yes. And, you’ve failed science. – Yes . – But, I think you may also note,that’s a focus group of one. History is the subject thatI got the best grades in,and I continue to useit everyday in business,’cause I patternrecognize on prior things. I already know what’sgonna happen with Netflix,and Amazon, and all the OTTs,‚cause that’s what cable did,to network, like I alreadyknow, and more importantly,something that I’ve done amuch better job of clarifying,and I’m trying to do a better job of is,there are plenty people that get valueout of learning that way. I write books becausepeople learn that way,and as you can probably imagine,active is always gonnaresonate more with me, right?That could’ve potentiallybeen the thing that unlocked,somebody dictating to me informationto memorize next Friday,was not gonna cut it forthe way that I was built,but actually being, I couldhave absolutely learnedsomething from working a gardento understanding the processof those nine weeks tomake something happen,that I could deploying insomething I’m doing today,I just wasn’t given the chance,’cause everything is so one-size-fits-all. – And, that’s why I think,the core of what I love and do,is that I was that nature kid,and I was that kid playingwith the bugs and outside,and so it bring me so muchhappiness to see kids that,I mean, I would look for that. I look for the kids,there was a kid last weekthat walked up to the garden,we go and teach the kids in the garden,they come out one class ata time to water the plants,and they grow, and all that. And, he just looked broken,he just looked very sad,he looked, I mean, and Igo to those kids first,and through the whole time, by the end,he was carrying, he washelping me, I gave him a job,he was carrying these hugepile of buckets and soil,and he was like a differentkid after 30 minutes,just being out there. I don’t know what he was sad,I don’t even know the boy,but just to see that, andbeing in a school environment,to find something to connect. So, I guess the one thing,if I had to pick one,was the influencer aspect of it. So, I know I can’t, I haveprincipals that love what I do,but they love the programfor their school and for their students,and then there’s the wholegroup of parents that lovewhat their kids come homeand say about when they’re in the garden. And, I’ve not done anything with that,as far as, I think it’s just goldthat there is a principalthat’s already an influencerwithin her principal space for a mom,but it feels like that’s off-limits,or that I can’t–– Right, and thatframework also, I’ve neverbeen a monster fan of like,hey, client can you make atestimonial so I can put it,which is why I love the idea of podcast,host the party, right?If you had, if you startedsomething called theProgressive Principal podcast,and you’re interviewing people,and yeah, you’ll touchon two minutes of like,hey, Sarah, thanks for being here,obviously we met a couplemonths ago with my business,but that’s not what we’re here for,tell me why you evensaid yes to my program,what other programs are you doing,what are you doing that’sprogressive in comparison?That’s how you blow up your business. It’s imperative that everybody understandsthey’re in a mediabusiness, above and beyond,whatever the fuck you do in here,that’s how you get tothe place of creatingthe Progressive Principal podcast,and then that becomes the gateway drugto the testimonials we were looking for. Because, in that interview,just like DRock and Iare doing eye contact onthe things we’re doingright this second, youwill be talking to her,she’ll reference somethingthat you did to get her attention,that’s what you then clip,where she’s naturally giving you a cosign,not a forced testimonial. We all hate those testimonials,’cause it’s like a weird situation,the person’s wearing atie, and they’re like,I like using DRock’s video work,you’re like, fuck this, you know?- I did, I only have one episode,but I started a podcast,I built one, I got one,but it’s kids in a gardenand it’s just so cute,and they’re like squealingabout the carrots— But, what you canimagine, and I apologize is,what I like about the principal podcast isyou’re making something directlyfor the person you’re trying to sell to. I wanna get to the decisionmaker, fuck agencies,go to the decision maker,or the person that influencesthe decision maker. The number one mistakethat people are makingabout TikTok right now?Is that they don’tunderstand that teenage girlsmake moms buy shit. You win a 14 year old daughter,you can sell shampoo to a mom. They go too literal, they’re like,we don’t sell to 14 year olds. I’m like, do you sell to 42 year olds?They’re like, yes, I’m like,do you know who makes 42years olds buy things?Their 14 year old daughters,’cause 42 year oldwomen wanna act younger,and they’re making theirdaughter’s friends, not kids. Right?I want you to go to direct,I want you to make a showdirectly to who, I want it, here’s why,I want principals towanna be on your show,which inevitably meansyour likely to convertthem on what you’reactually doing, got it?- That makes sense. – Back to watch what we’redoing, not what we’re saying,we have on the gallery media group side,where we do originalpodcasts, a show called,the CMO Podcast. It’s a good idea. So, I think theProgressive Principal angleis gonna lead to the mostlead-gen for your product. If they’re decision maker,if I’m hearing it right. – Right, yeah they are,and then there’s also a group ofparents who want that–– That makes sense,who by the way, and Ithink you’ll know this,anybody who’s a parent that’s so involved,is inevitably also gonnabe interested in hearingabout Progressive Principals,’cause you know parents love to hearsomething that they canbang their principal on. You need to go listen tothis, principal, right?So, I think they bothwork for that reason. – And compete with each other,I learned earlier thatTwitter’s been good for me,’cause all I have to do isfollow all of the principals— Half follow you back, andthis and that, I got it,whether it’s a podcast or a video show,I really think hostingthe party always works. I’ve been pushing it for awhile now, you know that. It works, you just gotta do it. Just like, hey, Alabama, andhey, Cleveland, you know?The Washington Nationals pulled offa huge upset in baseball right now,and there are people inWashington who are sales peoplethat are pumped about it,and you could make a videoright now and be like,you know how you just stunned,just like Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam,you can hit a grand slam, that will work. – So, two morethings, sticking to baseball,a very dear friend of mine’s son,it’s his Rookie year for the Astros. – Is that right?– So, all of thebaseball stuff, andwith the whole podcast,or whichever it was theywere listening to about,who are the Rookie cardsthat are under the radar,that nobody knows?So, I call my friend, andso this is his Rookie card. – That’s amazing. – He was number 56in the draft in 2017,and ,but the main thing thathis dad said to me,who is my friend from high school,is that he’s just areally humble, sweet kid,but he’s also super good. So, anyway thisis a card for you. – What’s his name?- Corbin Martin. – Oh, I know,I know exactly who this is,as a matter of fact,Lou, who’s one of my admins,is gonna lose his mind,he’s like a big, big fan of Corbin’s. That’s awesome,thank you so much. – You’re welcome. – That’s awesome, DRock,I don’t wanna lose it. Yes, gang?What’s been up?No storms this season?- We were close. – I know, I saw. The context there is,we were rocking and rolling,and like, thank god, wewere rocking and rolling,’cause they had a realstorm, unfortunately. Is that right?That was rough. – But, we’re coming back. – Good. – Slowly back together. – Anything I can answer?Obviously, there’s–– Oh yeah, okay so,kind of what you were touching on withgoing back to retail, promotions,so obviously, you know our background,and that’s kind of how Mr. Lindseybrought everything up wasjust cheap, cheap, cheap,and so I think, where mystruggle is right now isour sales have been decent,only because of the storm,and people really did haveto replace everything. – Oh right, I didn’teven think about that. That makes sense. – Then how you knowwhen you do an incentive, or do a coupon,or run a sale, how long do you say,we’re gonna run this until we,do you say 30 days?And you’re like, well,shit nothings happened,and then you just like,move on to something— The second you show peoplethat you will go away from your word,because you’ve lost the leverage’cause you didn’t move something,is the second you start dying. It’s the number one flaw that Wine Librarydid the last decade,and I’ve completelytaken ‚em away from it,as I’ve gotten a littlebit more involved to like,customers are smart as fuck. They’ll just wait for the, you know,tent sale sounds awesome,except when everyone getsinto a behavior of waiting for it,because it used to be once a year,and now it’s once a quarter,or whatever it might be, right?It’s all about,I always tell, I recentlyhave been yelling, I’m like,I rather die with that fucking wine,than to show the audience, the customer,that we’re willing to bend,when we don’t sell enough. ‚Cause then, they won’ttrust anything, that,and there’s also repackaging, bundling,I mean, I rather, laws withalcohol are pretty tricky,but I rather donate wineto the local PTA events,I rather give that fuckingfurniture to the homelessand call the local news,you see where I’m going?Can’t give up yourleverage, we’re too smart,it’s why so many of thecompanies in retail are dead,they became sales orientedand we were just like,why do you think freeshipping is mandatory?They did it too much, wewaited, they got caught. You gotta hold the line. – So, really building the brand,because the whole yearwe’ve just been trying,and so I’m actuallystarted putting myself, cameraa little bit more— And, what are you saying?- So, just tryingto show on their face— Yeah, what are you seeing,anything interesting?I mean, it’s early. – I mean, locallyI get a lot, I workout at Orangetheory,so it’s just funny ‚cause they’re like,hey, I saw you, and I’mlike, oh my god, you know?We see each other day so it’s okay,but it’s just interesting to kind of seeeven people that I knowthat are just reaching out,somebody I may not haveheard from in a while,or even my mom’s friends. They’re like, oh, we saw your daughter,and she’s like, oh, on what?And, she doesn’t even know,you know, so it’s still kind of early,and I’m toying with a coupleideas for some education,like I know you say,entertain and education. – The other thing I’mobsessed with with your store,and you might remember this,you have so much square footage, I can’t,I mean this is the numberone thing I’m thinking about,my dad’s second floor isa complete waste of time. People don’t like going to second floor,when we used to have aton more foot traffic,like every retail establishment did,that worked because peoplewent upstairs on Saturdays,and really shopped premium wine. The foot traffic setup,it’s just not the same,and I’m like,you wanna go real funny,right now betweenWineText, and helping out,like I’ve really fixed the business,so right now I have a ton of permission,I literally called my dad and was like,I think I wanna turn the second floor intoa baseball card store. And he’s like, okay, he’s just so happy,I still think that you guysturning part of your store into a WeWork,into a sports bar, likeI will push you on thisevery time, it’s your biggestasset, that is underutilized. I think every book club, every PTA,you should become the community center of,you don’t need it as much as you have it,cut out the, you know, store-within-store?Like, fuck it, go to thethree hottest stores in town,the ice cream store, and be like,you want a second location,I’ll charge you nothing. It’s an asset, it’s anasset, you’ve gotta,and literally, I’ll go on a call,I know I have to run toAtlanta soon for a speech,but I’ll do a call withyou, we can keep innovating. You have to turn that into an asset. – ‚Cause I thinklike, what we talked about,was in a mentor program, that x-factor,I still feel like we’re missing it,the new e-comm is getting ready to launch,so we’ve already startedto implement some of that— The x-factor is going crazy. Why can’t you build a stagein the middle of your thing,and do open mic nightfor all local talent?You could, you’ll have to use Facebookto get them to even know that’s a thing,but I’m telling you right now,the atomic bomb in yourbusiness, I believe is,your square footageinternally, and I do think,and this is gonna seemlike a contradiction,I do think you should look into texting,and I think you shouldhave a weekly text deal,but I think you have to besmart with the deal list,so it doesn’t undermine your core. – ‚Cause we havelike, a texting program,but right not it’s reallyjust sort of like a coupon,so I’m looking to get away from that— And, do something that’sa little bit more, engaging. – To value. – Yeah. – To have you driven. – Because, coupons can diereal fast if people justdon’t value the coupon. Discounting is a drug,and it can turn out bad. – We’ve had that,so we are, because Mr. Lindsey,that’s how he built it— I remember it, you know,if you remember it came so natural to me,because I’m like, I get it. – Yeah, I mean . – I know. – Take $500 off, you know? – Honestly, between beingthe way my dad built his business,between retail, between garagesale and auction culture,I remember you guys breaking it all,I remember a lot, so Iremember a lot of it. I remember thinking like, man, I wish,the action must have beenfun in at its heyday,just to go there, I’m surepeople just went for the action. – Oh yeah, sure. – Yeah. – I think, you need to turn your placeinto a community event. I think, you need to hack,you need to get very creative. Why can’t kids come andEaster egg and pumpkin pick,in your store?I’m being serious, it sounds crazy,but I’m like, why couldn’t you buy,or forget about buy,why couldn’t you go tothe people that sell pumpkins, whatever,say hey, let’s make a deal,I want you to give me 100 pumpkins,I’m gonna put them throughout our store. I’m gonna spend $100on Facebook ads saying,we got pumpkins from this, we’ll tag you,come this Saturday forfree pumpkin, you know?- And, that’s beenideas that have popped up,I guess I was more concernedwith Easter egg huntingwith the kids,’cause then I can already see it’s likepillows and cushionsare just flipped over,and then that was more of my concern. – By the way, that’s a reallygood answer to that idea,and DRock will tell you,all I wanna do is id8,and then try to make itoperationally practical?If I was partner I’d be like,fuck it, we got employeesstanding around all day Monday,we’ll clean up the fuckingcushions on Monday,instead of jerking off. That’s what I would say, that’swhat literally I would say. I’d be like, fuck it,Mario and Nick and Sarah,will fucking actually work on Mondayinstead of standing aroundwaiting for somebody to come in. That would be the answer, that’show I think operationally. – Right, and howyou say, don’t say, no,for the other person, that’swhere I’m stressed with— But, you didn’t say,no, in that scenario,you’re worried about the ramifications,and then I said, and by theway, you might be at a placewhere you don’t have that many,I’m making assumptions here,but if you have employees, well good,Monday morning in retailis not the busiestfucking thing of all time,we’ll clean ‚em up then. But, having fucking 100families come to our storefor the first time in months maybe,or even ever heard aboutit, is a good thing for us. This was the biggest frustration I had,I like picking on my dad ‚causewe see things differently,I created this program two years ago,you might remember DRock,think you remember this too,where we were doing freefood at Wine Libraryon Facebook events and it fucking crushed. But, because my dad saw a couple people,and this is the best part of the story,’cause they were Russians,’cause he knows how Russians work,trick the system to come back inand get another $20 worth of free food?He killed the whole thing,he couldn’t stomach it. Meanwhile, it was building his business,because even though wewere losing on the food,we’re acquiring customers,the store was busy,even the fact that thestore looked packed,on a Saturday and it normally didn’t,’cause we’re on a very busy road,made more people just come to seewhat the fuck was going on. But nope, the emotion ofsomebody double-dipping,Igor trying to break the system,made my fucking dad kill it. Retail is in deep shit,everything retail needs to do,is figure out how to getpeople to fucking come in. Permanently, like a stage, or WeWork,or your promotions forfun, locally, idea machine,and you take advantageof Facebook and Instagramlocally to drive awareness and conversion. That is the framework you have to do,or you go super macro andgo store-within-store,and you lease out. – Part of it?- Yeah. – Yeah, like I basicallytold you, we bought the store,so we’re actually pricingout clearing and building,so moving the warehouse back,opens up even more space. – Which is even scarier for me,I want you to have less space. If I could chop off WineLibrary’s second floor?I would, I can’t, but going laterally?I’d be condensing and fuckingputting up a wall, leasing,and have a set like, retail is in trouble,I don’t have to explainto you what Wayfair,and all of this stuff is,the trends are not coming back.