What do I think you should be expanding or declining in things you like the most. Second can be the things that make most business sense. If you don't like it and you're doing it because it's the money you fall into. What people lost money on Nfts, People lost money on cannabis, People lost money on fashion brands, People chase the thing they think the money's in, but they don't actually like it or like it enough.

Three things you're good at. Or the people you have over and under. Expansion comes from two things: the subjective opinion and strategy of the founder and number two: the capacity of that founder to build family. Yeah, right.

And when I say build family I mean you know you've gone too fast. Either because you're defining that as the things that have worked or not worked, you're defining that. Thank you so much. Joe You're defining that based on, um, how you feel about your leadership, right? If you're feeling amazing about her, well then you're like, oh, the campaign agency is good.

If you're not feeling great about and what he's doing over here then then it's not going well. So for a lot of us in this room in different like what I like about this format is. sometimes the advice hits for everyone. Every single person in this room's 100 variable of how much they could expand is completely predicated on their relationship with the people that are leading those subdivisions, those projects, those companies, those offices.

And this is why I spend so much time talking about the people Dynamics So you know if I go back to that time or if I'm thinking about today. It's a very similar game. which is a how do I sit with people watch this? How long have you been here? Great, Yeah. 11 years? All right? Yeah.

Two? Yep. James Dust. All right? Yeah, let's keep it on Memo: Eight and a Half right? Like. And there's obviously newer like Europe But like that's a lot of eight, nine tens.

Yeah, that's a lot. and by agency standards across this whole company, it's a part of why. Because we really do focus on the relationship part of the people that work here and at Ebbs and flows when I look at all of them. There's been different times when they've been overly busy, sometimes not as busy.

Like what I'm very good at is. Somebody was talking to me the other day who's been here for nine years and literally saying they feel guilty because they don't feel like they've been productive for the last three and I said that has a lot to do with the way your first six booked five of your first six. You worked way too crazy. You were hungry, we were close enough that you were feeling, you didn't even realize we were working that much because it just felt fun.

and I'm like and then covet happened and then differently. you know, and again. Like again, you know. Ironically, actually.

Jesse Joe Maribel James Bay Ball worked at Vaynermedia before Sasha Those are different speeds, different things. They've had different roles. You know we've talked about that. We're like there's so many different things going on.

So I think a couple things. One to answer you directly. What do you like? doing the most is a very good. Like if you're going into notes mode.

Number one: What? What do I think you should be expanding or declining in things you like the most? You personally the things you like the most. Second can be the things that make most business sense. Almost everyone starts with business sense. Where's the most money? Where's the most opportunity? To me? I Think that's important when it's a human.

All of the sizes that our companies are. If you don't like it, and you're doing it because it's the money you fall into. What people lost money on Nfts, People lost money on on cannabis, People lost money on fashion brands, People keep chasing the thing. People lose money on social media when they expand it like people chase the thing they think the money's in, but they don't actually like it or like it enough.

So things you like the most: Number two: things where you see the business opportunity. It's still important to know the addressable market and how good is the opportunity. Three things you're good at, or the people you have that are good, Or the people you have right. like.

One of the things that's very obvious to me is most leaders when they start to expand, hire someone they think is good at the thing, but they themselves are not good at the thing. Killer crushes people right because they don't even know how to judge the thing. So those things stand out for me tremendously. Early on in the first three four years of Vayner I was very good at training up people.

Then for five or six years I got away from it because I was thinking about not that I would not that I cared any less about it I felt a couple things happened. there was enough people around to do osmosis. plus I was trying to learn other things and bringing in other capabilities. I'm like wait a minute, we're not good at social media, not like you're not good at social media.

I mean by my standards that there was a big Delta That's exactly the thing we were growing. but we were growing because we're competing with a world that's really bad at social media and I realized that the Delta between me and the companies was so great I've even you know as James knows for the last year and Sasha team. One big thing right now is that Vayner over Covid for three years really got its together and now I'm like hey Sasha I want to get our together like so you know one thing you need to do is a couple things. Don't get crippled by the company not being as good at the craft As You Are Figure out how good the company is at the Craft compared to the other things that companies could hire I wasn't judging Vaynermedia against Garyvee I was judging Vaynermedia against Droga 5 against social Code against its competitive set.

Sometimes a Founder has ego wrapped up in their own capabilities and it cripples them because they think the machine is not executing to their level. but you're But you're not comparing the machine compared to the other machines. You know there's a really good chance that I'm one of the true best people at social Media. Like a lot of data supports that.

I can't expect 2 000 people to be doing it as well. Plus this plus, they can't do it as well. The clients aren't letting us, right, so there's a lot of that, right? So so I think I think that's a framework that you need to get comfortable with. Don't compare it against what you want the work quality to be compared against the Alternatives of what they could be doing with that same money.

And that always gave me peace of mind because boy oh boy, are people really bad at social Media as agencies and especially creative agencies trying to do it. And even like Standalone social media agencies? Really, the truth is, the people that are really good at it are doing it for themselves, not doing it for clients I was weird in that I had a crazy big Vision that I was like I felt that I could do both and I ended up being right. but even in my earliest days I'm like why don't you just do this for myself but I knew that I wanted to build this massive machine mainly on the back that I knew I was going to have relationships with people for a long time and felt I could I Think the biggest vulnerability is that the as everybody on Earth that doesn't live in this exact City has a has a feeling that they're not like even in the like. even like even big places like San Francisco and L.A and Chicago have inferiority complex to New York that's America you start getting into places like I get a hundred emails a year I'm the third biggest in Poland but it sucks I'm feel scared, too small and I'm like and I always try to tell those again I'm excited to tell you this until you have 50 market share of Austria yeah don't talk to me about this place is too small.

Yeah you know people love to say my country's too small Gary I'm like you do .0001 of the business in your country and so they get so fixated on the ideology that they're in a smaller country without realizing like you could do 20 times more business, you should focus on the most profitable product you can sell to People based on the realities of the budget in your Marketplace That is also something you feel good about. Yeah, if you can't create a business, it's why the Sasha group exists. Your question is actually answered in The Meta of us even being in this room. yeah, two so many people were coming to vaynermedia that looked more like us because I'm us much more than Pepsi and Starbucks that I was like we're saying no to everybody because I couldn't make the math work.

Okay, cool, thanks for reaching out. Do you have 500 000 a year minimum to get out of bed? All of you are like no I'll keep watching your videos and then my brain's like this is stupid. Like let's figure out how to create a company that does provide value for five thousand bucks or 50 000 bucks or a hundred thousand bucks And so we built something from from scratch. You could do the same thing.

Your fourth company could be the one that actually is more in tune with the actual budgets of Austria or you can expand your services to Germany which is a much bigger Market you could. Yeah, it just depends on you. Yeah, I Keep going back to people because the reason you're not in Germany in a big way competing at the highest levels is you need teammates that can hold it down in Germany Or you need to move to Germany I Don't know, but those become the real options. Make sense? Absolutely.

So it's one of two you either understand. Okay I need to build family and then I feel comfortable sending someone to Germany because you can't keep. you can't have a lot I Learned a lot of great things in my dad's store. like the people who were at the register.

you needed to kind of trust right? So right? So if you're gonna open an office in Germany the reason you have it or I haven't is I don't have the per you know one of the things I keep trying to build scale like memorable. doesn't even notice I'm like the other day in a meeting literally this is real talk I said to Marcus I'm like you think Maribel would leave America because we're thinking about expansion and this is like real I know I'm funny and I say personal stuff out loud I'm sorry, but did they reach out to you already? Yeah, right? You know, right? James knows that everyone's in play at every moment. He's happy to hold on to you as long as possible. Yeah, right.

They talk to you right? Remember? Well, they did right? Yeah Market they're like these are like so why? Because I know I'm family with Maribel we've I She was close to me when she worked in proper Vayner for three years. then she worked directly for me in the office here. We really got close. During that time we talk we we talk Now the way I talk to like Brandon or my mom I Don't talk to her every day but we're talking even looks in the office.

That lets me say would Maribel move to Colombia like like these are like real things you can say to yourself that are real. You can't do that if you don't have family I can't do that. We haven't had the time for me to be able to do that with. you know, like you know what I mean but you know? But he did go to Tennessee yeah like from New York like grew up in Jersey like in New York and we're like we're opening up and he actually went for how long? Four, Seven years, seven? Yeah, you know, like this is why everyone here is completely limited.

Yeah, completely based on how much they build family. Yeah, family. you can't grow because you're too scared, you're too smart, You won't take the risk because you don't know, you know, you won't know who that person is. So what I would do right now for every business here is build as many teammates that are forever as possible.

From day one, hire a kid off the street for 12 bucks an hour. Like to be like make it like be like you want to be here for uh San Francisco 20 bucks an hour Like to? You know to you know you you from and you know this. Some of you know this, you know like I'm weird Day one I'm like you're gonna be here forever I'm like I know you don't know how to answer that yet but do you want to be Are you that kind of person? If you don't want to be that's amazing I'm not trying to get you to say yes I'm just trying to get into your mind and see what kind like and so and you know what happens after time is then people start seeing things happen. People saw him go and be a leader and Echo people saw these all go to Sasha and people saw Nate and trouty who were like inter both started his interns become my partner in a wine brand and people start to see things then everyone believes you.

they don't believe by the way, nobody believed me at first, not one person I was like they didn't believe me and that's okay and expect them to believe me. but they believe me now and you. That's what you want to start building from day one, that is your limiter. First of all, thank you for everything.

I've been following you since 2013. humbled. You've definitely helped me navigate a lot. We have a similar story: I Wasn't a good student.

Started off in the high school, airbrushing t-shirts literally, in my grandfather's garage, built a wooden screen for the press. All of that now I Love it doing executions with the Warriors It's great. It's crazy, right? It's crazy I mean just from the ground up of just doing and learning. So that's how I've always been seeing.

I Guess my question is around infrastructure so I I took a step back from I used to make a lot of content I had our in-house manufacturing facilities did all screen printing right across the street from Tesla did a lot of stuff with that realized I was miserable. good for you So in 2016 2017 I sold the manufacturer and I went into I'm like we're more of like a creative agencies right where we want to. You tapped into what you liked. Yeah, exactly.

And the merchandise part. We liked that but it was a piece of it. It wasn't the whole thing right? You didn't have to do that part exactly until I realized oh we can partner got your stuff and ever since we did that everything kind of got better worked out good for you and so notice how it's started with him knowing what he liked. So many people at the table are doing they don't like but it's just still making a million bucks.

They're still doing fine. it's killing people. keep going. and that transition was hard because super hard t-shirts and that's how I made my money.

So it was a leap of faith and it was hard in the first couple years. Um, but we slowly built built it. um I took a step back from making content I would do videos and stuff like that and in 2019 I had my daughter first kid good for you I realized like all the content that I was putting out was to like kind of for validation more flexing Exactly yeah. So I took a step back and I have not put out any content anytime.

built the infrastructure of the business, got it into a really good place and so now you feel like you're ready to come back. Yeah good for you. Oh we're looking to launch a company called Doing Everything Different Media company. that's basically all the stuff that our agency does but from a brand standpoint so not an agency standpoint.

So brand Consulting Media collaborations and products I understand and so looking at how we want to scale that up and I'm just wondering just and you see a path where your personal brand can be a lead gen to launching it and getting Business Development that's good and it brings some stuff to the world because I think that from my experience and how I grew up in the stuff that I learned you're gonna do for people what I did for you. that's right and that's that's a hundred percent what is a motivated life. Not to mention when that little girl grows up it's gonna be cool for her to see her dad's content. Yeah my kids are starting to get to the place where I'm like oh my God All that I used to talk about 10 years ago was about to become true.

You know, you know and it's so so. It's a cool I got you? Yes I think just infrastructure right So like, what do you need to pull that off? Yeah, and how do we just where the Ages were? We have never really like done that internally. So I'm just wondering how you set up the different departments. like what is that? Really it's somebody who.

There's multiple things that you can go about a bunch of different ways. A couple things. One, if I'm you, you're trying to put your like. One thing that's amazing for me is I live my life and content comes from it like I don't I'm not really a Content producer.

it's why I'm not I can be four times bigger on Tick Tock About if I was a full-time content producer. Tick Tock's such a specific platform where I can't get away with the I got away with on Instagram and Facebook where it's just the videos. you got to kind of do it and I don't have that time. This is what I do for a living.

but but you can absolutely build up a couple ways. One going on small podcasts to interview you is a killer. It will crush like because you're just doing it anyway and then you're just post producing from the content. You need somebody who can do design and video That could be one friend or two people, right? You need somebody who really cares to know a little bit about the platforms.

Like you really need to know and look. Everything about the site could be five people. it could be one person. It's hard to find one.

Supernova But to win in this game, you have to produce it. So you have to make it, film, post, produce it. make the images right. So Photoshop or final cut right? Like you know you need someone who understands the platforms.

The platform strategy like knowing that green screens work or posting three times a day or like today, you know. Dustin You know this in our thread someone in the team said Gary we're testing using the word quit versus the word stop is making your content do way better. We call this the S and sock strategic organic content. So good news.

The best part about starting now versus three years ago. Organic Content's back. You're one. Tick Tock away.

one Instagram away, right? So you know three years ago, this hard you know. Build followers and be like that's a grind. Get a pay ads. Now your content can be seen and can explode on one post.

harder. I was yelling and screaming about Tick Tock four years ago. Now it's supply and demand. it's harder.

But YouTube Shorts, you know Facebook Facebook Reels is incredible YouTube Shorts They're going to go through a lot of this over the weekend. What I would say is for you personally based on me making some assumptions the size of the business kids that you're putting on at minimum wage that actually care about making this content. Every small business needs to drive down the cost of Creative. For me, the way you drive down the cost of Creative is you put kids on who are thrilled to get paid minimum wage.

not kids who are like you. There's groups that are thrilled. There's groups that are you. You as a business have to find the group that's thrilled and it's always good for a street kid because you're not worried about them going to Stanford right? You know that you made it from the street, Then you know anyone can do the same.

Plus, so many kids want this job, but it's platform, it's creative and then it's putting you in a position to make output. This is a big one. This is why I want you to do podcasts because it made you make four pieces 40s This This project exists because I want the content. This is not Roi positive For me it's not.

but it's Roi positive when I Magnified got it. Same for you. You're busy so you got to figure out. You know, do you want to do the office and have one person who's an intern just film your whole company and you're just putting out on YouTube you could? Yeah.

I think we have the the team in place to be able to do it right now that we're setting up. It's more so like from a standpoint of platforms that you use to communicate is all through text threat. Is it through slack? like oh with each other? Yeah oh that's that's choice of like I Hate structure because I think people fall in love with the structure over the output so our team runs on WhatsApp Okay, the whole team I mean they've got their own. What else do you use? Asana No no Dustin What else do you guys use slack I don't even like speed and I always think like you got such a small company.

Yeah, let them talk to each other, let them work and talk. How do you build that? From the standpoint because everybody's remote like that and we went from having office to everybody kind of all over the place. We did the team off-site recently like that dude. I'm thinking you know Honestly bro, this is the biggest thing I'm worried about is the following.

It is now crystal clear to me that and we have so many because we've grown so much that every 24 year old that works here AKA two years out of school been working here for two years is super behind people. Five years ago, two years in, they're losing out on osmosis in the office and it's not even close. and I'm up because I want to make it good for them. but I know if I come down with like five days a week in the office, they're like you are a tyrant and I'm like what do I do with this because it's so crystal clear to me that the osmosis of the office was teaching them I mean kids are way behind like there's some smart kids in my company that I can see that I'm like oh, like everything's a meeting now.

yeah, it takes you two weeks to do a meeting when you used to be like yo. Can you explain this to me? Okay, good like so a couple things. how big are you about 20 people? You know you. If I wish I had 20 because I'd start the path on.

no really I wish I had 20 because I'd start up the path of like hey, six month warning back in the office, you're not about that life. Let's talk but like cool five of you or not I'm gonna rehire those five positions because I think at 20 it matters or you go on Zoom full time everyone's on the whole time. You've gotta fight like I'm thinking everybody on the on the stream non-meeting in Zoom so they can talk like literally unmute and be like yo John Can you help me real quick and they go off and like I Gotta figure out either to force back people in seats in Serendipity or created virtually because the non-serendipity moments hit on slack set up a meeting next. Tuesday What the next? Tuesday was two seconds.

Yeah, so for me, it's hard I have thousands and it's like a whole corporate to do for you at 20. you know of that 20 if they're working like the rest of the world half already know they want to be back together. Yes, and everybody's all over the place now. especially I Get it? I Get it? I Get it.

I Got it. Then put everybody at 20 I would put everybody on a zoom. If you work nine to five, you're on Zoom Ninety five in the background. Try it.

Try it for try it. Um, otherwise it gets really hard. Yeah. Discord Could be good technology.

Try to create osmosis. This is the real North Star let's keep going. Yep, Oh cool cool. I Just at that point I Remember the first time I ever came to this office that James bought me here.

you had people sitting in the stairway because they couldn't get a desk. Yeah, okay, yeah it was. And like the buzz and the osmosis, people complain about things that they're creating for themselves. like literally Gary I'm feeling lonely might come to the office.

Okay, what do I do with that? Help me here. You're lonely, but you don't want to commute like like I'm not a genie, you know. So basically and just a quick background I Started my business back in 1981 out of my parents basement. I was in the printing business, type setting and servicing other printers.

Yep, grew it to a small uh, printing business, then grew into an agency. So that's kind of a short form of yep of my trajectory and at where I am now today and I'm looking at all the things that are going on and you know and talk to James about the situation I said what is it for me in order. Obviously everybody's looking at scaling their business and how do I get bigger and all those other pieces. but I want to know about telling the story as it relates to social media because I was I was really kind of outside of it because I've been in business for a while and I was moving along.

You know, making my bills and like you know, people work for me and I'm okay I'm comfortable I go to trips I do what I want to do? You know I know it. it's all good I know I say to myself, well wait a minute now I am this point in my career and I'm like no, no either you're going to think about when you're going to retire or you're going to start pushing this thing and put your foot on the accelerator. Not to mention not to mention the longer you stay out of it, the more market share you lose. There's also that part, most assured.

So I was very excited about this because I'm really looking I understand about storytelling. but I want to understand if there is a formula to that storytelling as it relates to socialize. Yeah, well, let's talk about what? What would you? Let's go even more raw. What would you like to accomplish? More customers? Certainly more customers.

Um, more quality customers Of course, right? More quality customers. But yes, more customers in order to grow the business. And then of course, to scale business. Of course it's just obviously my objective too is to scale a business for sale of course.

Okay, I mean I've already sold a business one of my other businesses Yep, before. So I know what that's like. Yeah, people will go their entire life and not figure. Yep, Yep.

Um, so I know how that works and I understand the formula of that. But there's also pieces I want to do after you know what I mean? you know Consulting and things of that, right? So the bigger you build your personal profile, the more likely you can sit on a board or consult. or things of that nature Perfect. There you go, Pink.

That's it. My intuition is you need to think about the format I did with askgaryvee and T with Garyvee. Your biggest strength by a country Mile is 1981. you can't experience right like you know.

it's when you think about a world of competitive options. You one of your biggest competitive leverage points is being in business for 40 years for yourself is being business for 40 years yourself. and that's really hard to, you know. And so you know I think a couple things.

Where are we at with LinkedIn anywhere yet? Have we even started this journey? Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I've started one. Yeah, basically out for so long. My objective of using LinkedIn was slightly different than other people. of course of course I'm just looking to reconnect with the thousands of people I already know.

Okay, who can come to me and say hey, pick I'm like holy I forgot about you I Saw you on LinkedIn This happens to me now all the time of course I saw you LinkedIn oh my God I need you for this particular Have you? Have you gone down and like sat down and gone through your phone and your email contacts and like sat with like a beverage of your choice for like a full day together with your team? maybe? Grandma Respect. So have you gone through your phone from A to Z and gone through it and then linked up with the people on LinkedIn Only in pieces so straight up super. I Love the time of year we're in immediately. I Need you to act as if you took a personal day or went on vacation and take an entire full day or two a Thursday and Friday and literally go from A to Z on your phone and from A to Z on your Google or your mail.

You know if you just type it like I literally want you to have another tab open and connect. Just connect with every single person on LinkedIn Got it? Because what's going to happen is eight to twenty percent of those people are going to link back with you, but all of them because you've connected with them have a higher likelihood of seeing your content. The essence suck. Got it? Got it? Got it? Thanks.

Cool. I've got just a little sidebar that everyone here should do, but that, but how often are you posting on LinkedIn For right now we're doing three days a week. I Did a little bit of research on that. They say the best days to post is Tuesday Wednesday Thursday We try we we kind of ping pong back and forth.

We did five days a week but I noticed that his reach decreased. Um, her post? Yes, But what about Net? Now it's it's it's increased. So one of the things that yeah, one of the things that people make a mistake on is they're like oh, I'm getting 700 views per post now. When I was doing five days a week, I was doing 500 posts I'm like right? but one is 2500 views and one's 2100 views if you go three times seven versus five times five.

let's just do a quick look on what happened with Net. The other thing is what I really want for all of you is to get to the content that does well to inform your content going forward. So I'm less worried about how well each individual piece goes for all of you I want you to take more at bats to be better at it. So right now what's happening is too many people are trying to be cute and like higher quality, less quantity because it deep down because it's easier.

like because it's work. it's hard. You got other things I get it. I'm not judging but I'm trying to tell everybody you're all trying to get better at tennis and if you practice five days a week instead of three days a week, you'll be better at tennis in 24 months.

One of the things I'm concerned about is when people go with that model is they're not doing enough pieces of content to figure out the thing that's going to work if I wasn't posting as often. I don't know if I would have gotten into a lot of the content I got into because I wouldn't have the feedback loop from all the content. So what you know? one of the things you all need is to post about more so like it's not just like the Journey of branding. it might also be like the post that might change your business is what it feels like to be a girl dad.

what did really well was there I did out there. If you can change your business and it like go figure right? Like for you it's storytelling and that's and when you said story like you did something from when I First one of my businesses that I started years ago I'm shopping at work I started this yeah and Channel 2 News did an interview. yeah I was able to dig it up and post it. Yeah and we actually did You talk? yeah because it was on the free I got it? Yeah, yeah of course.

Um, you have no idea how many people reached out. Oh Vic you had black hair and you know Nick The other thing the other thing you haven't done is you haven't played with him so you posted it. What about doing a split screen like I do where you play 13 seconds from it and then do two minutes of your observation of it right? You know what would be a mate. One of the things I love about having a library is in 20 years making content where I'm telling you what was in my mind at the time or what I didn't tell you at the time or couldn't tell you at the time or didn't understand at the time.

So I also think story time with you would be huge as someone who has like Gift of Gab and like I sense your energy. just what I would do if I were you is I would tell stories of big mistakes notice but like I love telling the story of passing on Uber twice because I overextended myself on an apartment and see the one time I overextended myself and didn't live my thesis. It bit me in the ass because I would have made 500 million on Uber if I invested normally like I always did like you. you've got plenty of Stories of the and I've always wanted and I'm probably at that point in my career and you definitely are.

I Think the best series that an OG can do is 20 part series on things I said no to that cost me because most business people say no too much right? and so like. If you can think about like and like, this is where it gets fun. This is where maybe like two two grand marnies on a rocks make you remember you forgot about yeah, like you know, like you know what I think a lot about I think a lot about the meanings I didn't take and how they could have been the meeting and sometimes you just don't even know but sometimes you do know and so like there's some things to talk about there. Yeah, okay, that's fantastic.

Thank you, you got it all right. Answer: Um so so far lots of great nuggets to safer through. Um so my background is: I was a footwear designer for 17 years I worked for Beyonce I worked for Kenneth Cole I've done all this great product and actually that Joe's wife is uh in the Footwear Biz as well. Um and so coming up with this company um my joke is always that I have a landfill out there with my name on it I was building all this great product I was building product for Costco and Payless and Marshalls and TJ Maxx and I found myself in this position of like what now like I've been doing this for so long and I'm not feeling passionate about it anymore and happy circumstance.

Ended up in a Masters for Sustainability and had a taskrabbit come to my apartment. They helped me go through my closet and they pulled out this bag and they're like what is this and I was like oh that's alterations I have to do and they're like are you gonna do them I was like and so I you know I ended up donating them and I I looked back at that I'm like, wait, hold on like I'm literally in a master's sustainability I Love fashion and that bag probably had the best things in my closet that I had a story for to tell and I wasn't telling it And so I started asking people, well do you have a bag in the back of your closet and it was either the trunk of a car, the back of a closet. Um and Kate's one of our customers and for her and I was part of that luminary community and so we started seeing this opportunity that every single person here has something in their closet that something is wrong with whether it's a tear or a button anything. So how do we solve that problem? So for the customers I've asked you that So smart.

Thank you! For small businesses you have Mom and Pop shops who are being totally you know, broken by this technology that's helped air and and travel and all these things. but they're left behind so my question is going to be small. Brands Customers Brand Easy. We're taking their budget dollars for sustainable initiatives and effectively using them to badge them with local tailors.

So Macy's you buy something in New York But let's say you bought it online and you live in Kentucky How are they connecting you with a tailor or a cobbler in your location that you can connect with? And so finally the planet we you know If you can extend the life of your clothes by just a few months, you can actually increase your decrease your carbon footprint by 20 to 30 percent. All that to say I Have these four main stakeholders and I love them all so much and we're about to start our pre-seed fundraise and I my co-founder her background's engineering Consulting she's worked for luxury Brands and data and analytics and I'm the I talked for a long time and I love what I do and I'm so happy and excited. Um how do I most effectively speak to these four stakeholders, speak to investors and create that road map for them because like my real vision is reinvigorating the industry through certifications and trainings and making it so sexy to repair or revive your wardrobe that we're actually taking these tale these designers out of school who are absolutely like I literally had no idea this is what designing was and giving them the opportunity to work directly with people and learn from these like skilled Artisans who are not passing down their their work understood with the purpose in the short term to raise Capital Yes so um I think that in the short term there's only two ways that you would do that. One is go bananas on you being the face of the brand and doing content or two you going through an exercise similar to the last one of I Do not think business people realize that almost all the gold is in their iPhone contacts from A to Z.

To me like when I think about notice how like you just gave the beautiful like statement and the nicest thing anyone's ever seen. No, it's real, it's real. It's the reason I gave you the answer of maybe you should be making a lot of content I think it would go well yeah but notice how when I got to speak after all of that I just went right to the punch line which is like right now you need capital and so I go to yes I could tell you to start making unlimited tick tocks in LinkedIn in seven months you'd probably get inquiries, ask you to make a video or six so they're not all the same and be like hey friend I'm actually texting this to about 20 30 of my friends on my cell phone to tell you like what I'm up to but if you if you give me three minutes, just watch this and you make like four different versions because obviously from A to Z you have the people you talk to often then you have tier two, then you have tier three they haven't talked to in six months to a year but you kind of know and then tier four you're like I'm not even sure if I know this person right? Yeah, you kind of need to make a video for all of them. and literally what's your grandma? Yay! Water, wine, coffee? What do you drink? Fair enough.

Same literally if you're raising capital I think it's in your phone like literally follow-up question please. Um I Have been building this brand for the last I apologize for a second and so for like all of you literally the video is like and again four groups homies kind of. Homies know them. pretty solid but haven't talked in a year I have no idea who this is and making four different videos and literally for you it's like hey I'm just doing business development I hope you've been well like because remember the first 13 seconds for those four groups are going to be very different.

Yeah hey the fourth one hey how you been yeah is doing some Karma out here What you know want to tell you what I've been up to what I want which is I want some customers on my hit me back with what you're up to. Maybe I can help you just some Karma that's gonna Land versus you know versus your first group. we're gonna text and be like hey I made this video for like my 25 closest friends. Watch it because you know you can get away with that with that video Anyway, keep going.

So I've been building this for the last couple years and luckily I like thrive in the awkward and I'm ha like I have the Goldfish Memory like I keep going. but what we built was a mobile tailoring company and what we saw was that it's really labor intensive and asset heavy and so I've always thought of it like I have a quota to reach with with my friends and I through the pandemic we built a New York City face Mask initiative. We built we made 40 000 masks for Frontline providers using tailors because we were supposed to launch the company on March 20th, 20 20. um but it was really it was an amazing like of course I wouldn't change it Yeah I've had like happiness.

What is this community and the family I've built? Here's the interesting thing that now I finally I'm like I get it I know what I'm doing and I feel like I've tapped like you've tapped everyone. Yeah and I I do you're gonna annoy people? But I also I'm like no I've got it now. come back, tell them the truth, make different videos. you know that your best homie you've actually like truly cried wolf not only on this project but through the years.

and so that person's got to hear something different than me who met you once at a conference and you have my info Like here's the bottom line: What's the alternative? Yeah, like as long as you're empathetic in your communication, look everything that is anytime. I've ever wanted to sell anything when Empathy launched when I had books be friends I go into the rare occasion of empathetic sales mode and I go into a cocoon sometimes a 20-hour flight I've actually gone to our age office once because I had to work for 10 straight hours and didn't think I could do it any other way besides taking a flight Asia that's how hard it is to sometimes get into the zone for some of us other people I really put I've never done this. Actually, that's not true when I had to do V friends I knew that I had to draw 250 people I literally rented. Uh, actually, that's not true.

One of Mona's friends had a house in Malibu's I come and stay and I went for a week with five or six of the crew and just Drew just was creative. This is the biggest thing you're working on. You have to go off the grid and ask everybody from A to Z again in context. maybe for you with 700 videos because every one of the people you've annoyed needs their own individual.

I'm serious. Yeah, and that's okay. Yeah, because here's my question. What's the alternative? This is the worst fundraising market we've had.

Yeah in forever. Yeah, The end? you're not gonna. It's so hard to raise Capital If you're going to raise Capital the terms are going to be obnoxiously bad. Yeah, so you have the option of getting a huge waste of time with VCS that won't give you the money anyway, right? Or you go back to the well.

But you go. but notice maybe you've been on the kick up group one and two. You never know in group three and four. I mean when I tell you in my group one and I'm a giver I've had people who I've like changed the rep I'll just paint you a very clear picture when I go to sell books four that I've talked to Once forget about me being Gary B I'll take it back seven or eight years ago where I was like Garyvee but like not this Garyvee right like nobody did it because I was cool.

they kind of knew me a little something I had people who I barely knew bought 50 books just because they're like me and they're on some karma and they're like I got you I people in group one who I got them I would one person as you can see the passion's coming through one person I went to bat for on an investment re -round to get them in it was closed I put like I went out of my way he put in 50k and made 13 million dollars on that exit and he bought zero books yeah and I was and when I tell you I'm still very friendly person that doesn't even register yeah I go into empathy like baby was busy, maybe you didn't see it I did hit him up four times because I thought it was because I thought it was gonna be a big one because like this man made a lot of money. he's gonna buy a thousand books like I really took it like you know and and and you know some people don't see the world the same way. like I was mortified when I found out six years into traveling that you're supposed to leave a tip for people at the hotel. That was one of the worst days of my life in my entire life.

One of the worst days was somewhere around mid-30s somehow I don't even remember now I was like what you know because I didn't grow up traveling I didn't know I didn't I never heard of it I didn't know it was like the worst feeling ever in my stomach because I was very passionate about tipping and I just sometimes you don't know the etiquette yeah like you know so like I was like well who am I to judge this person I didn't know that every time I was in a hotel I should leave something I just didn't know I knew if for a driver I knew for someone taking out a package I just didn't know yeah maybe he doesn't know. If someone makes you 13 million dollars, you should buy something you know? Um, this. Why am I telling you that's so long-winded You got to reset and you got to go with what's reality for you. And my one follow-up question again is in terms of accredited Investors I've done my research, safe notes on this and what are you looking for and that's the one thing it's like if you want to end up in a VC and at some point we'll probably end up in like a circular VC for circular economy but we don't want to do it now we want to do precede we want Angel Investors We want friends and family but some of my friends are like how and I I've thought about crowdfunding and it's like all these questions of what's the best way to fundraise and you're saying go to these people Do I want to go to them and say do you know anyone who's an accredited Professor Don't worry about the incredible everyone who's in creditvisor knows credibester comes from.

like how their financial status yeah, don't over. You're getting scared of something that doesn't matter. but how do I What if someone isn't one and wants to invest in us, your lawyer, or whoever is helping you will figure that out. Most people almost no one hits that realm because you're not asking for 500, right? You're asking for 10, 15, 20, 000 minimum and that's Gonna Knock most people into that realm, she can help your daddy all right Bye So um, we are in year four of the company self-funded the business and um, we're further ahead than I ever thought we would be in year four thanks to the pandemic.

Sure, totally change the mind, transform the business and we were very nimble. I am the brand? The brand is me? Yep, um I've heard of the concert, My Struggle or I guess why I'm sitting here and is you talk a lot about like the posting, how do you really create capacity right? So I do a post a week on LinkedIn It gets a hundred thousand views right? Amazing. great, Fantastic. Um and it's driving a conversation because that's all I want to do.

It's not selling the business, it's not talking, it's about the conversation. So how you talk about you know right up right off the top. When I hear that yeah what? my Immediately my Spidey senses are like ah, she hasn't realized that she is a content creator that happens to have this business. I think me making content is more important than anything you don't because you're only posting once a week on LinkedIn you haven't gone to that perspective.

yeah of holy, this is that important which is wildly easy to not see. Yeah. I get it because I'm old enough to know where this sits. You know, for a 20 year old coming up the game like this is like such a big deal.

Like it's like the framework and then. But for a lot of us in this room that did business before this world existed, the thought of being a Content like that's always sounded like a side dish. but it's the main dish Now you like me? Okay, yes, I figured it out that it was the main dish. but I do 15 hours a day work with no content creation right? What you need to figure out is the next part of like how are you going to make yourself make content So then because it's the most important thing I was like I'm gonna hire people to work on this.

When you think it's the most important thing, you're not scared to spend a hundred thousand dollars a year on two people. Okay, right. like for me and people like, well Gary a lot of my friends like that's a lot I'm like how much money are you making? What do you want to accomplish like you know All of a sudden like I underpaint that for to this hour I underpay my salary at my companies because I want the money to keep feeding the company right? Right and so. But again and then it gets really interesting.

All of a sudden you start how many employees you have. Uh, 22. I am positive on my heart the 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd most important person in the company if they're not doing something that nobody else does. if they're a second person or a third person or a fourth person, that does what the others do, a true content on you person is more valuable than those four so it's either a little less take-home yeah on the P l or if you're like Gary you don't get it I'm like a bare minimum and I need this for to sustain My Lifestyle Great Well that's not the case.

Hire two people, right? So I guess hire the two people I guess we're You know you talk about more and these young people nobody else that work for 28 an hour? Yep, they do Okay, they can help me because I'll help you ready, make a video. Yep, post it on LinkedIn of the feelings you have about this and find. Listen, a lot of these kids are right and a lot of these kids are right I know like when somebody says to me you Gary you're paying minimum wage I'm like I get it I get them I'm like you have an ideology that's from scarcity or abundance. It's one of those too.

but I'm like but you do understand like this really works for some people. Yeah and like I'm just following the law like I'll pay 90 an hour if New York wants to make that the minimum I'm just you know, like there's a lot of people who want to get in the door here and are willing to like. A lot of us can come up with like like cool I love when I get the emails like you from Harvard Johnny I'm like easy for you to say Harvard Johnny you You're like like you went to private school your whole life and went to camp in the summer instead of work at Best Buy Like and by the way, and then there's the Other Extreme that's Harvard Johnny And then there's the other person who's like you I should be getting I get why? but they don't get to make the rules of life nor do I I'm just living Yeah I Promise you there's two people would rip their arm off. There's both a Yale 20 year old woman or 22 year old woman Yale graduate and Street kid 22 year old that would die to work for you for 20 bucks an hour doing social media content.

both one of each. And by the way, if you were building a two-person team I would immediately build it that way. give me Yale Yale Yale Susan give me street kid Monica work with me just to work with you Yeah, that's where I have no struggle because you know you know because you get this I Gotta put it into the company. you are the market I know your opening line is I am the company and the company is me.

Yeah, a couple things. yeah, how long does it take you to make that one post roughly in your mind 20 minutes, right? If that, 20 minutes becomes 40 and you're doing a podcast you could get on if I'm on tons of podcasts. Well, every single one of those you should post produce the video and that should be your content on LinkedIn Yeah, Yeah, she just doesn't have to. She's in.

she was. Hello, Yeah, I'm aware. So yeah. I'm more worried about getting her in the mindset of it.

Notice: notice how she's like I'm like she knows who I am I assume you've seen some of my content. You're aware that my content is post-production for me being on podcasts, right? Yeah, all of a sudden you can see the path of how to get to 15 pieces of content. Yeah I Still publicly speak for the content? Yeah I do four? D's right for the content? Yeah I Went to an army base in New Jersey today and spoke to them for the content content. Okay, the content's the reason I'm doing it and then all the other stuff is the nice to have where everyone perceives the nice to have to be the thing.

I Don't have time for podcasts I have time for podcasts when it gives me 24 pieces of content. Okay, the podcast I'm doing now are smaller than ever because I want them to be more Niche for Content I'm trying to get out right. A female entrepreneur is going to ask me different questions. As a dude that like right? uh, a skateboard podcast I did not too long ago I did it because they're gonna ask me different questions.

get me into a different Zone Okay, got it. I got it. The other thing you can do is do open Q A T with Garyvee and Askgaryvee are still what I Really want to be doing? So fun! You're like you literally are helping young female entrepreneurs accomplish what you did. You're just answering four questions.

They're pumped. I Do it all day long. Exactly. So then literally have one person illuminary filming the out of you.

Okay, yeah, thank you. You'll have unlimited content. Let's do it. You're welcome.

It will be massive for you. You especially. It's gonna be like it's a grand slam. Foreign.