¶ Build a Brand or Become a Commodity
Everybody in here is looking to build a brand , because if you do not build a brand , you will become a commodity . Your business needs to put out 20 to 30 pieces of content a day . You don't have to . When people come and visit me at VaynerMedia and see 2,000 employees , half the people that just raised their hands think I'm a motivational speaker .
I run businesses . You do as well . I admire that . It is my great admiration that I have for all of you , because all of you know what I know .
I want to start with a question that is really important for small business . The word resilience , yes . How do you see resilience for us as business people and business owners ?
Well , this you know . First of all , thank you for having me at this great conference . It's kind of I don't know if you noticed . It was very important for me to say what I said up front . I love this audience . You know I've been in corporate Fortune 500 land for a while . This is my favorite crew , because how do I think about resilience for this crew ?
Like oxygen , that's all they know . The greatest thing about entrepreneurship and owning your business is you have no choice . You have no choice If they're here , every single person here is actually delivering on a level of resilience that is not found in society , because if they weren't , they'd be out of business and they wouldn't be here .
It is my great admiration that I have for all of you , because all of you know what I know and I've known it since I was 20 years old the buck stops with you If you aren't resilient , if you're not adaptable . This is what I'm talking about . That was my whole talk . The entire talk I just gave is strictly about adaptability .
I know that they're about to feel pressure for the optionality of their employees , so I'm trying to get them to care about their employees a little bit more , because that's going to create more retention . I know that the biggest way to grow their business by a country mile with no money is social media creative .
But when it comes to resilience , that's my great admiration of this room . That's all they know , otherwise they go out of business .
So you ended off saying Google adwords dying . How do we get found on chat gpt today ? How does chat gpt bring us business ?
so for the people that are most advanced here , there is ways to do seo on chat gpt and good news . This is why I'm yelling at you for social media , chat gpt and whoever else wins , whether they win or somebody else , whoever the Google is or the Facebook is of the AI era , I have good news for you . They're going to be very happy to take your money .
When you type in I need a plumber , they'll take your money . What I'm more scared about is the companies that are building the best tech . I'm not sure they're going to be as gracious as Google and want to give away the business when someone types in I'm looking to buy a new home in Bristol .
I'm not so sold that chat GPT is going to send you to a real estate agent . I think they're going to send you to their real estate agent . I think we're going into a very dangerous era of big tech where they're going to be like fuck the nickels that come along with advertising .
We're going to take the whole funnel . Yeah , google started free . Chatgpt started with money .
You got to sign up , you got to pay right from the beginning and that's because the tech was so expensive in the processing . But we all know this All tech starts off expensive and gets cheaper . Remember the cell phones that looked like this ? They were like $2,000 in the 90s .
Right Now you know they go down and down and down in price and I think we've seen with you know all the deep seek and all that stuff like there'll be free versions of this . I'm more worried that we have to build a brand , because when I I don't want to be at the mercy of people like this going to chat gpt and say , hey , chat gpt .
I've got an entrepreneurial question . Let me ask you this . I want them to be like hey , chat gpt . What would gary v think about this ? I'm out here trying to brand got it , got it . Brand not hey , chat gpt . Hey , alexa , send me a pizza . No , no , no . Hey , alexa , send me a pizza . Hut , send me dominoes .
Everybody in here is looking to build a brand , because if you do not build a brand , you will become a commodity so I'm going to steal a little bit of Gary's time for my own personal reasons here , but I think it'll , it'll .
I . I've built the
¶ Building a Business Brand vs Personal Fame
biggest business coaching company in the world a thousand offices , 84 countries , two and a half billion dollars in sales . I still don't want to be famous . My company should be a lot more famous than it is . The people we help , the way we help them . Father of five , I always worry about that .
How did you yeah , because you know you're a dad you got all of that .
Well , by the way , the opening of who Doesn't Know Me ? Let me do the worst . How many people here would consider solid fans , or have good knowledge of me , or follow me carefully ? Raise your hands so one more time . Raise them high . What all these people , brother , will tell you is they don't even know what my kids look like .
I have a 15 and 12 year old . The people that just raise their hands , you include . I'm the most private public person on earth . I don't share my life . I'm exactly like you . I have no interest in people being in my life . My family is sacred . My personal life is sacred .
Again , a lot of people just raised their hand and if you're at a table with them , you can ask them right now . Is that true ? I put
¶ Resilience: The Entrepreneur's Oxygen
out an ungodly amount of content , but it is not about my puppy or my fiance or my kids . I keep my personal life private . I put out content about business . That's number one . Number two you still don't even have to do that . You can make your business famous To your point .
You still don't even have to become the face or famous , but you need your business to do a much better job in being a brand and build a brand . Nobody knows who johnny coca-cola is , coca-cola markets . You don't know the ibm ceo or founder . You know ibm , right . You don't know . You know salesforce . Spark bettyoff is pretty known .
Way more people know salesforce than know mark . So you just need to make the business market data . Your business needs to put out 20 to 30 pieces of content a day throughout social . You don't have to , and you can do occasional stuff . The clip from this can be clipped and used , and so I think there's ways to do it . Do you see ?
Yeah , I think from a logical standpoint I can get all that . But being a little more esoteric at heart , I know that there's a way that if I don't want to do it , it doesn't matter how much content I put out . If in my heart I don't want that to boom , it's not going to boom . Brother , I don't like anything .
I just know what I have . By the way , I hate working out and eating . Well , I hate it , but I do it because it's right . I don't give a shit about your feelings , brother , I care about your business . You don't have to do it , you have to hire someone to do it .
All right , you've all heard the advice Makes sense , right ? Oh , it makes a lot of sense . I don't know if it's also a bit of the Australian in me . Like I watch . You know other guys . I won't name them , but I'm not the guy that stands up . They're going look at me in my freaking jet .
If you're that rich , you shouldn't be showing photos in your private jet .
By the way , I'm that rich and there's zero photos of me in a private jet . I'm with you , I'm not a douchebag either .
Some of them are . It kills me .
At the highest levels .
If I do any of that , all my Australian buddies call me up and do it . What was that shit you just bought ? Why on earth would you do that ? I don't know . Some days I read Gary Vee books and it tells me to just keep putting out content .
Yes , you're exactly right , but it doesn't say put out douchebag content Again . If you're really looking at how I do it , I do none of that . I don't even have a piece of jewelry on . I think the shirt's like nine bucks , like that's to your point . Some people sell the lifestyle , other people live it . I'm a confusion to a lot of people , thank you .
I'm a confusion to a lot of people when people come and visit me at VaynerMedia and see 2000 employees . Half the people that just raised their hands think I'm a motivational speaker . I run businesses . You do as well . I admire that . I think that's the content you put out .
By the way , just so you know , unlike a lot of other people to your point , all the advice I just gave for the last 45 minutes , I do that . Everything I just talked to you about , just so you know , in a world of many speakers that talk about shit , they don't do Everything .
I just told you about one-on-one time with employees at scale Content every day at scale . I'm gonna show you something , bro . This is my WhatsApp . This is where my team and I make the content . That is me . That is me writing the copy to the content that I put out . This is me with my team . I wrote the copy .
I'm still writing the copy on my social media posts . I'm in the fucking trenches .
I'm in the dirt . I'm in the dirt more than most of you Get to do the bits , though , that you love . Still , you don't have to do the bits you don't love as much anymore .
This is what I'm trying to tell you . This is why I'm doing this little shtick . You don't have to do the content on social . I don't do the contracts of my company . Yeah , I've signed 45,000 contracts , probably in the last five years . I've read none of them . I'm being dead , fucking serious . But I have Mark Yudkin , who's my brother
¶ Chat GPT and the Future of Marketing
Not my actual brother , but he's been with me now for 20 years . That's it . Fucking . Figure it out .
Uh-huh , but I am certain someone's going to play that clip back to me every fucking year for the next , like forever .
You know , I'll tell you why I'm passionate about it . I love you for it . I love that you don't want to do what I also don't think is good , which is you're tricking kids and thinking lambos and watches . That's not what this is about .
What why I admire so many , so much about the people in this room is a lot of them are not doing it for the Lambo and the private jet . They're doing it because this is who we are . We're fucking business people . We're entrepreneurs .
So Business question
¶ Content Creation Without Being a Douchebag
charging more , charging what you're worth , being the top of the tree , not trying to be the competing on price . People thoughts .
Always Until the market says go fuck yourself . Right , like the concept of not constantly trying to get more money for what you do is crazy . Why wouldn't you ? Because the market is the market . When you're like I mean , this is how speaking worked the first time I did a speaking gig 15 years ago , I get this email .
They're like would you like to give a speech ? I'm like cool , it was like I was running a wine store at the time , but I was starting the internet thing , right . They're like you want to come and give a talk ? So I'm like yeah . I'm like , yes , I'm in . They're like it's in florida and whatever . I just was excited to get asked to speak .
He then replies he's like how much do you charge ? I'm like , fuck , you can charge for this shit I my first ever gig .
Robert kiyosaki took me to hawaii . I was a 20 year old kid and he goes what's your speaking fee ? I said what's yours . He said this much .
I said same as mine mine was pretty funny , I'm so . Now I get the email from this guy . It's like 2006 . He's like , he's like um , what's your fee ? Now I'm like sitting there looking at this email and you know , remember , you know this . You know laptops and cell phones like big monitor . I'm looking at this thing and I'm like okay , because I'm no dope .
Back to the answer I'm giving to everyone here . I'm like I got to come up with the biggest fucking number I could ever imagine to give a speech and I reply I'm like $5,000 . Like $5,000 . The guy replies in two seconds to that email . He's like done . I'm like fuck .
And the way I got to my price was I kept going and then the market told me you're not that guy yet , gary .
Right , when I got to that 25K number at that point in my career , they were like that's it , because every point in my career they were like that's it , because every time I said 30 , 35 , 40 , it was no , we're gonna go in a different direction and I was like respect . The one thing I love about this conversation is this is a .
This is a humbling , fun process . Don't be insecure about this . Don't be scared to ask . But when they tell you , you know , don't be scared to ask . But when they tell you no , don't be offended by it , just keep asking for more . The market will tell you what you're worth .
Where people get this screwed up , brother , is they're like I know my worth , I'm worth more . I'm like no , you're not , nobody's paying you . But you need to ask for more as often as possible and don't stop . The other mistake people make is they get excited about what I just said . They get motivated whatever they're charging . Next time they charge more .
The first person says no and they go right back . You need 10 nose , seven nose , before you've really figured out your price . The first time someone said no to me at 30 K , I'm like you know cause . Then another no , 30k . I'm like you know because .
Then another no , then another , and then I had to look myself in a mirror one day and be like okay , you're a 25k speaker now and obviously that's evolved well , yeah , I know how much it's evolved . Quite well , in fact thank you , sir , but this goes back to why I want you to build more brand .
I want you to be in a place where you can fill out 10 times this many people without needing you know , to use keynote speakers like brand is brand is brand , and it doesn't have to be how would I do it well it the more content put out more content . that's right , because then you have more .
That's right and more people are gonna be your fans , and then this becomes double the size because they're there to see you , which gives you more leverage to not have to get a top tops Like it's the game . Yeah , it's the game .
Um , actually speaking of so , we've been in business coaching now for 31 years . Uh , your thoughts on ?
coaching , having a coach . I'm a huge fan of that concept . I think it all depends , like , for example , in business . I never had a coach because it was my God given gift and I learned more by losing . So to me , my brain does not process how to be great at business from a coach , because I need to taste it . I need the L's .
But many far more successful business people than me a hundred percent attribute their success from coaching . I need it everywhere else in my life , whether it's therapy , whether it's personal training , so I'm incredibly bullish of someone looking from the outside in . By the way , I would benefit from business coaching financially .
I just like scraping my knee and banging my elbow in business , so much that I keep it away , but it is not lost on me . There are many things in my own game that occur and I could see it . You know you all know this right you could see the flaws in everybody in your family , but you can't see your flaw .
You know what mom and dad and your siblings and your spouse suck at , but you can't see yours . If I had a coach , for example , let me be very vulnerable my kryptonite , which is crazy . Some people are going to laugh right now . My kryptonite in business has been candor . Gary Vee on stage , is very good at candor .
Gary Vaynerchuk , the human being , is so into the stuff I told you about employees . I get into family vibes with my employees . You know those lover boys that fall in love at first sight . I'm like that in business . You've worked for me for a week . I'm like we're fucking working . I can't help it . I'm just very team , very family .
But what that created was the more I liked you , the harder it was for me to tell you the truth about what I thought you were as an employee , which led to me working around it . I would always be very like giving on the way out . I would have to get years of resentment before I finally had the courage to fire you .
And then I gave you a huge severance and you haven't done shit for two years . And now I'm giving you a huge severance and , the worst part of all , you're
¶ Charging What You're Worth
then mad at me because I never told you and I surprised you because on thursday I'm like brad , you're fucking the best on the best weekend . And on monday I'm like hey , monday , come in and come like and you're the fucking fat . Literally thursday , you're the fucking best . I fucking love you . Hey , by the way , monday come in .
You come in monday , I'm like brad , we're gonna let you go . What ?
Yeah , and so candor was my kryptonite and it took me 20 years and I would tell you , as I sit here today , in a world where I'm a 10 out of 10 and a 9 out of 10 and so many things in business , I'm on a good , I'm still a five and a six out of a very important trait of a leader and I work on it every day .
If I had a coach , I think that would have been addressed much earlier .
Yeah , fun thing , the Jets , the New York Jets , not that fun lately .
No , no , very fun . How many people here are proper football fans that are diehards of their team ? Raise your hand . What about of any sport ? Who here is a diehard fan of a sport ? Raise your hands . So here's the weird thing about me , and this is why I'm such a good entrepreneur . I love my New York Jets , my American football team , so much .
They have not won a championship since January 12th 1969 . They fucking suck , but I like that part .
See all the scrape , the knees and the New York Jets . It makes sense , got it ?
I grew up a New York Yankees fan . Yeah , when they won my first championship with them in 1996 , I never watched another game . Really , really . I actually make fun of all the fans of very successful teams . I feel like you get your self-esteem from their victories , but you're not doing shit . I love the pain . I love the grind . I love the hardship .
I love the grind . I love the hardship . I love when people make fun of me about the Jets . I love that shit .
I'd love you to help us out with our foundation at some point , because we educate kids for free to leave school and be an entrepreneur In Because , yeah , in , that's uh In You'll email me In Because , yeah , in that's in , you'll email me in .
In fact , I might have mentioned it earlier . Actually , I don't think I brought this up . If I may , for a second , yeah , the thing I'm actually working on right now in my career is the thing I'm most excited about that I've ever done . I've started something called VeeFriends , v-e-e-friends , veefriendscom .
Especially if you have somebody under 10 in your life , you should go look at it .
It is my Pokemon , it is my Disney , it is my Marvel , and it's 250 characters patient panda , you know , accountable ant , competitive clown and it is strictly built to help along with the parenting that is so challenging in today's world , and a lot of it is targeting the kids that should not go to university and should be entrepreneurs .
There's plenty of kids that should go to school . They're built like that , but we got into this place in the last 40 years that everyone should go to university and college , which is insanity , and in America it's a real problem . I saw that Because at least in most parts of the rest of the world , the government pays for it .
In America , these kids are going into massive debt .
My eldest daughter $350,000 to go to college . My ROI on that
¶ Business Coaching and Personal Vulnerabilities
Negative $350,000 .
Of course A hundred percent . It's a joke for half of the .
But I put her to work with my great friends . You guys all know the Irwin family , Australia Zoo , Steve Irwin , Crocodile Hunter . She goes and works with Terry and Bindi and Robert . She's getting the best lessons in life working for real entrepreneurs , real planet savers . She's working with them . Robert , she's a photographer .
Robert's taking her under his wing , teaching her photography . That's better than me .
That's why I'm smiling , because the creative set should never go to university . It's not built for that . It's built to make workers .
I'm going to turn it back over to Rachel and they're going to take your questions now for Gary . Thank you , I'll see you in a minute Cheers .
Let's clap it up for the man .
Thank you .