good evening inbound how are you I’m
super excited to be here so excited can
we hear it one more time for that that
was fucking remarkable good shit I’m
really excited about tonight it’s a very
special day in our amazing country and
for me it’s especially special because I
wasn’t born in the US I was born in the
Soviet Union I came here as a little boy
both my grandfather’s spent substantial
time in jail just because they were
Jewish and I know that there’s a lot of
tension and different beliefs about what
should happen tonight but the fact that
we’re even able to vote and to be in
this amazing country is something that
we have lost perspective for and I’m
very thankful to be here tonight and to
me it’s super interesting because I want
to talk about the journey of an
entrepreneur and by hands how many
people here are entrepreneurs raise your
hands
very nice and how many people here work
within organizations that aren’t
tripping oriole within them raise your
hands very nice if we can keep these
lights on that would be huge for me if
you don’t mind so for me I think the
opening statement is going to be this if
you are sitting in this room tonight and
you believe that whether Donald or
Hillary wins impacts you you’re a
and I want to explain this we are so
lucky to be here in this playground
where the impact of the president only
has so much impact on you because the
reality is we are dramatically and I
mean dramatically more in control of our
lives than the media pounds down our
throats and so I hope if anything if
anything whether you’re 16 or 97 and you
leave here tonight you understand how
unbelievable our opportunity is to play
in this ecosystem what I want to talk
about tonight is a couple of things one
we are living through the greatest era
of communication change that we’ve lived
through since the printing press and
regardless of what you do in here it is
gonna impact me tremendously over the
next decade because it’s already
impacted so much over the last decade
and so for me that is a very important
thing but before I go into the tactics
that I want to bring to everybody so you
bring home something tangible I want to
start with something that I’ve been
spending a lot of time with and haven’t
really expanded outside of the content
that I’ve put on the Internet so on
stage tonight I thought a really
interesting thing to talk about would be
self-awareness if I could spend two to
three minutes with all of you and make
you understand that self-awareness is
probably the single most important thing
that you can spend time
for your outcome for your future life it
would be so exciting to me if hundreds
or thousands of people left here today
and started really realizing who they
actually were we’re living in an era
that we have forever where people have
sold us on the optics of what we should
be where we should go let me tell you a
story about myself it’s really it’s
really funny I got an email earlier
today or yesterday from a friend of mine
Jay that I went to college with who
works with Carolyn who I went to high
school with are you guys here can you
guys stand up can I find you get up
there they are can we clap it up for my
homies what’s funny is both of them know
how bad of a student I really was and
what’s really interesting to me on that
is both of them also know that for some
reason at a very young age I was
extremely self-aware I knew exactly who
I was and I was able to bet on my
strengths I think that when I think back
to my life and the story of my life and
what I really want to impose on others
to be able to navigate through is I was
lucky enough to have a mother who
instilled so much self-esteem into my
body I was able to navigate through the
universe of not worrying about what
everybody else thought about me and what
I’ve really to be very frank with you
I’ve come to realize it over the last
year or so that I feel so much guilt
just general guilt that I had it so good
that a I came from nothing which is a
massive advantage and the immigrants
raise their hands in this room
let’s clap it up for these people that
have a major advantage it’s robot one
thing immigrants realizes how good it
really is so I had that I had nothing
and then I had a mom that did all the
right things for me and made me feel so
phenomenal and so basically I’ve come to
realize I’ve been asking myself over
last year like why am i producing so
much content like what the fuck am I
really doing here I’ve got this hundred
million dollar your business to run like
why do I fuckin d-roc followed me around
everywhere like what am I really doing
here and I’ve come to realize that I
have so much guilt inside of me for
having it so good that I want to use my
content that if I can play the role that
my mom played for me for anybody in this
room then then I’ve accomplished
anything that I could ever dream for
because look there’s a lot of people
that are gonna make money but to me the
most important thing is how you make
your money not how much you make and
what I realize thanks mom and what I
realize what I realize is that we live
in a year now where we can all document
and create content around these
narratives and communicate in the
different world the thing that I’m
completely taken aback by is the fact
that this is now the television and the
television is now the radio and it’s the
late 40s and early 50s and the people in
this room that understand that and
understand that snapchat and YouTube and
Facebook and Instagram are ABC NBC ESPN
and MTV it’s a good one right but I’m
not done yet you fucked me up all right
and that the businesses and individuals
in this room that realize how to make
mash or Seinfeld where the best shows on
those platforms will win we are living
through a major shift where every person
this room has a binary decision either
you go on the defense because of all of
this or you go on the offense either you
realize this is the greatest opportunity
we’ve ever had as humans and
entrepreneurs or you’re scared of all
these changes and you judge them and you
fear them and so for me in this huge
shift of technology and communication
comes the greatest opportunity ever
again
because the theme of the night for me
the fact that mainstream media has been
able to pass such a cloud over this
ecosystem is fascinating to me I’ll be
very honest with you I’m not sad I’m not
sad I’m pumped I am thrilled that so
many people think it’s bad cuz that’s
more opportunity for me and so what I
implore you to do is spend a hell of a
lot less time worried about other things
that will impact you and spend a lot
more time to figure out who you actually
are what are you actually good at are
you actually in a position to be
successful what do you like doing
because the opportunities are endless
the problem is we are scared to do
different things because the fundamental
core reality is we worry about what
other people think we worry about
getting judged if we fail
one thing that I’ve been very blessed
with is I’ve traveled the world quite a
bit for business and speaking and one
thing that a lot of people may not
understand is that entrepreneurship does
not work in a lot of other countries
because failure is a scarlet letter here
in the US we’re so lucky that
entrepreneurship is met with when you
fail you pick yourself back up and you
go and to me that is unbelievable and we
are blessed to be in that ecosystem and
we need to take full advantage of it
– look I like the back
yes back step up this is real fucking
shit we are fucking like can I ask you a
question
do you understand that you’re only gonna
live one time everybody has a lack of
perspective and reality of what’s going
on here we have so much opportunity
you’re in a fucking Convention Centre in
Boston listening to fucking Hamilton
wake the fuck up shit seriously you have
the only thing I fear besides the health
and well-being of my family is regret
the thing I’m so scared of and one of
the tactics if I could inspire 20 people
to do this that would be big a fuck I’ll
take one if one person in here can start
spending more time in a retirement home
go and donate your time your most
valuable thing and go spend time with
7089 here is do that for one day two
days a week or two and you will
understand very quickly that the only
thing that is scary is the things that
you didn’t do right it’s those things
and I sit here tonight and people are in
their tactics they’re in their business
their startup they work in their
companies and the thing that I fear and
the thing that I’m passionate about
deploying tonight is really pushing a
little bit more what I would call
practical risk practical risk is
something that I’ve been thinking a lot
about a lot of people tell me they can’t
take the chance of going and doing what
they want to do whether it’s a different
job whether that’s by the way I’ve done
a hundred emails in the last six months
of people that needed the courage to
shut down their startup and get a job
because they were worried about the
ramifications of being made fun of for
not executing on their business whatever
it is as you sit here tonight I wanted
to ploy and I want to start talking
about practical risk and what practical
risk means to me is the thing that I did
not understand and I started getting
thousands of emails a year from
individuals is we’re fucking fancy
we’re fuckin fancy it’s not that you
can’t it’s that you’re not willing to
give up dumb shit for a better life
you’re not willing to go backwards
you’re not willing to make yourself
dramatically happier to move out of your
home and downsize and go into a
different neighborhood you’re not
willing to go backwards that to me is
fascinating the fact that things were
their home car watch clothes going out
is holding people back from a
substantially happier life is
fascinating to me and something that we
need to debate because at the end of the
day that one iPad is all we’ve got and
so if I can absolutely push you one
tangible item I see some people have
pads and pens and I’m fascinated by that
go ready go to a fucking F uck ing
retirement home spend time collect data
realize regret is the worst and do
something about it got it awesome let’s
clap it up for her
[Applause]
I really want to talk about the phone
and Facebook and Instagram and snapchat
cuz it’s a place I come from and I want
to get a little bit away from the heady
shit right now and get a little bit back
into practicality if you are not
producing content on the 5 to 6 major
social network platforms today you are
creating an enormous vulnerability for
whatever you would like to happen in
life
the person you want elected getting
money for your kids charity selling shit
communication has shifted forever and
these platforms really really matter the
problem is even at a conference like
this where there is so much marketing
skill I am flabbergasted by the lack of
practitioner ship in the actual creative
ability and paid media amplification of
creative to make a business action I for
a lot of you that don’t know built my
family’s liquor business really on the
back of Google AdWords Google AdWords
came out I bought the wot word wine for
5 cents a clip and even though I was
doing direct mail and doing local
television and billboards I get a lot of
accolades in this ecosystem from
building my dad’s liquor store from a
three to a sixty million dollar business
but the truth is I stand here tonight
and admit to you not excitingly that it
should have been 150 million dollars
because if I actually understood how
unbelievable the arbitrage was unclad
words I would have spent a lot more
money on it and my business much more
but I was too patient I did well not
enough I did not go in and I built a
nice business but in reality I left a
lot on the
tonight as we sit here tonight as we sit
here tonight the number one arbitrage in
marketing in the world and I don’t give
a shit if you do b2b how many people b2b
raise your hands
uh-huh I know you fuckers how many
people b2c huh
so even better I look this way I do this
it allows me to go in a certain
direction
b2b clients for me at Vayner and the
startups that I’m involved with are
doing even better than b2c clients on
social specifically Facebook because
there’s one amazing thing about b2b we
and I’m in it now with vaynermedia we
know the name of the customer
we know the businesses we want we even
know the decision maker we want the
problem is we suck we get real lazy and
we send bulk fucking emails unlinked
can we make a pledge tonight actually
you know what let’s do this if you’re
willing to pledge to no more bulk email
horseshit spec email on LinkedIn stand
up so I can clap for you personally make
a pledge let’s let’s wait get up more
fuck this pull email shit don’t sit back
down dude with the beard get the fuck
back up I see you I’m talking to you
yeah you there we go let’s go down in
the women on internet let’s clap it up
guys best part is the shit doesn’t work
how many people here have done email
marketing in their career raise your
hands are you looking for your seat Hey
look seat got it how many people here
have done bulk I have done email
marketing in their careers I’m just
curious in 1997 I had a 200 thousand
person email newsletter for Wine Library
and winelibrary.com
that had 91.3% open rates not because it
was a hero but because email marketing
hadn’t existed yet the thing that I’m
most fascinated by is that I know as a
marketer and I’m a marketer as a
marketer the number one thing the thing
that I know more than the Sun will come
up tomorrow
it’s what we do when I saw that little
fucking ghost I’m gonna fuck up that
ghost
I got you snapchat I’m gonna ruin the
shit out of this platform you show me
attention and I’ll show you place that I
want to sell and that’s how it gets
changed and the bulk email in 2016 is
insanity nobody’s opening that shit and
what just cuz you have an algorithm that
says hey Gary and by the way I saw 10 of
these emails today all the fuckers in
this room that have the hey Gary thing
that’s in a different font than the rest
of the email you suck right I mean
b2b I’m gonna go tactical cuz I want to
leave what I wanna you know lately I’ve
been trying to get even more tactical in
my keynotes because I love the emails
that I get where hey thank you so much
and help my business here’s the tactic
I’m gonna give you the best blueprint I
have for b2b selling right now and I
really hope it brings you some value and
I’ll go into I’m gonna go into a detail
I’m gonna get a little nerdy if you’re
gonna beat a beat environment you have
to run Facebook Ads and you have to do
it now they cost about five to six
dollar CPM right now on average the cost
of these CPMs will be thirty dollars
thirty six months from now I’m saying
this because I’m gonna have the video of
this and in three years you’re gonna see
me share this clip of you and I’m gonna
tag it I told you so motherfuckers
it’s gonna be $30 a CPM because
everybody’s gonna figure out how much
attention is really on that platform so
the supply and demand curve is gonna
change just like why now is a six $7
word got it okay so now you’re gonna run
Facebook ads and first and foremost
you’re not gonna outsource it to
somebody else you’re not gonna find
little Suzy that’s 23 in the office be
like you you’re young you know social
media not gonna do that
you’re gonna actually spend ten hours
and read and watch videos it’s crazy you
can learn anything so many people like
Gary but I don’t know how to use the
Instagram product I’m like I get it you
go to Google and you search it fuckface
okay that’s what you do it’s not super
complicated
it’s crazy anything you don’t know you
can search in two seconds
everybody’s crippled like they don’t
know it’s fucking there you do that and
so here you become a practitioner you
actually deploy the Facebook Ads
yourself so you have some ability and
knowledge so somebody can’t hose you you
need to be the person that knows that
the best you then target there’s a way
to target employees of at one more time
b2b raise your hands you guys know who
you’re going after I want you to target
the employees of that company one by one
the employees now you take a step back
now you know you’re targeting 15 17 22
different businesses if you want to get
really crazy you target them one by one
and you make videos or pictures just for
that company
but if you want scale you can put them
all in a bucket and now you’re gonna
make a video or a picture you know a
billboard or print ad or a television
commercial
and you’re gonna make it and what you’re
gonna do is you’re gonna make the
creative start with does your CFO know
does your CTO know does your CIO know
you know exactly who in that
organization in that organization is the
person that needs to see that content
and you’re gonna start the video or your
picture with that statement and I
promise you for hundreds of dollars
depending the size your business
sometimes for a thousands of dollars
that person is gonna get twelve to
twenty five to a hundred people
forwarding them that piece of content
and that piece of content will be the
gateway drug to your sales team to
that’s it right I can talk about you
like that right it’s practical black and
white you got it right I can talk about
one life and all that ship and that’s
fucking up in the clouds right that’s
okay that’s one good next to the single
best arbitrage in marketing and I want
to take a step back I want to make sure
everybody understands
I think the slide was up there we’ll end
with a slide I day trade attention I am
NOT a technologist I’m not a digital at
I’m somebody who’s obsessed with
attention from when I was six years old
and instead of standing behind the
lemonade stands I wouldn’t sit and watch
cars drive by and figure out where to
put the signs sick you know to now so I
stand here and actually say if you have
the money in I would say HubSpot if I
ran the marketing the number one think
that I would do is run a Super Bowl
commercial I stand here today as a
marketer that trades attention and I
believe that the number one deal in
marketing today is actually a Super Bowl
commercial it’s six million dollars but
the entire country whether they watch it
on YouTube we’re doing the game will
know exactly what you’re up to
now most people fuck it up because they
try to make some funny video for 30
seconds and then we forget but that is
to me the number one play the number two
play in the world is Facebook video
because I believe that Facebook video
not confined to 30 seconds has the
ability to build enormous awareness
vaynermedia had a very special thing
happened last week I don’t know if any
of you guys caught this but when the
Cubs won the World Series
we ran who’s from Chicago finally right
fuck 108 when the Cubs won the World
Series we ran an ad an ad after the
World Series first it was Nike then it
was us and we brought back Harry Caray
from a classic 1984 commercial and that
went big and everybody said we were
geniuses and I got a lot of emails that
night and it was super awesome and I
replied to everyone saying wait until
tomorrow what tomorrow was was the next
day we deployed a two minute plus video
where Harry Caray we took 30 years of
him calling games and chopped it up and
had him over two-minute video call the
final out of the Cubs winning the World
Series that video has 30 million plus
views at this point and has drove a lot
more incremental growth and awareness
and b2b activity for the brand than the
did though the commercial media like
buying the commercial and making sure
you all saw it cost multiples 20-30
times more expensive than what we
deployed in a facebook environment this
is what’s happening my friends I want
you to become historians of marketing I
want you also understand what marketing
is
we have confusion in the marketplace of
marketing and branding versus sales we
have a lot of people in this room that
are digital natives and they really
understand sales they understand
optimization ui/ux they understand cost
per click they understand how you
convert and change things and things of
that nature but what they don’t do is
actually brand and market and if your
business is growing you have to have a
healthy balance of marketing and sales
and branding my friends I did not buy
these sneakers because Nike fucking cook
eat me and sent me to some fucking
website and converted me I bought it
because of brand and there’s a lot of
people here that are mixing it up and
the reason Facebook is so special is
it’s the first platform that I’ve seen
that this marketing and brand and sales
in one place with underpriced attention
if you could open Google like I did
there was no brand there we all had blue
letters and bran was eliminated so if I
had one plea for the collective room
tonight from a marketing and branding
and business standpoint it is that we
have to understand the following and
this is tough for the digital landscape
but very easy for the Madison Avenue’s
landscape creative is the variable
creative is the variable of success the
one thing that we all trade on in this
room no matter how and what you do
whether you’re b2b or b2c whether you
sew sneakers or wine or books or your
services no matter what we are all tied
to attention we are all battling for
your attention but once you have my
attention that creative is the variable
if your video sucks shit I can give you
9,000 ideas on Facebook you will lose
and that to me is something that has to
be debated in this ecosystem much more
the other world I live in Madison Avenue
where they believe in commercials
they’re the other way they just think
it’s art if you understand and start
respecting both art and science math and
creative equally friction creating that
diamond you’ll be a successful marketer
over the next decade the problem is we
usually fall into one camp or the other
so if you sit here tonight
please start understanding respecting
and building your skills around the one
that you don’t actually do because
what’s happening is we have unbelievably
overpriced attention and the other thing
that’s happening is we have people that
lack self-awareness to know what they’re
good at and what they’re not good at and
when you start understanding those
variables you start actually making
results happen I’m blown away by the
world that I live in today for a lot of
you doesn’t know no I run a 750 person
firm called vaynermedia I’m leaving here
right now if there’s taco in London we
just opened a London office and what we
do is we work with the biggest brands in
the world
Under Armour and chase and Toyota and
Pepsi and the amount of money that is
wasted just just watch what I’m about to
show you and I think we can all agree
there’s not this is not a
fourteen-year-old girl crowd raise your
hand if you now when you watch
fast forward every single commercial or
watched Netflix or HBO go if you when
your favorite show airs you don’t watch
what it airs you watch it now on your
time raise your hands I just want
everybody look around keep them up
especially front row look at this let me
just give you the punchline everybody
and how many people here if they’re
still using DVR TiVo fast-forward every
single commercial when given the option
and so even if something crazy like the
every person here grabs this anytime
that there is a commercial yet eighty
billion dollars is spent by the biggest
brands in the world to make 30-second
videos of a jeep going up a hill or some
guy grabbing a beer for some lady with a
baby using some oil eighty billion
dollars it is completely not practical
it is broken and is the reason that 95%
of the fortune 500 biggest brands in the
world have declined in market share over
the last two years here’s what matters
to everybody in this room all that money
all that money is coming into our
ecosystem once they start calibrating
how bad it actually is when coca-cola
and BMW and the biggest print IVM start
taking that money from page 147 of
Sports Illustrated and from a commercial
of guiding light and they take those
dollars and they put them into Facebook
and Instagram the price of our attention
is gonna go through the roof so I sit
here today and plea and I plea that if
you are not activating your marketing in
that ecosystem you are gonna miss the
golden era of Facebook marketing and you
will regret it and people run around
here there are people in this room that
run around here with an opinion on
Facebook marketing and they’ve never
deployed a single ad on it there are
people here that run around and have
opinions on Instagram marketing and have
never deployed a single penny on
period also we sit here today in early
November 2016 when the greatest
marketing arbitrage besides Facebook
advertising is influencer marketing you
may not like it you may not think it’s
cool that people have detox tea pictures
in their Instagram or that fucking
but it doesn’t take away the fact that
right now even in a b2b environment that
if you took the hours and map the people
that had 400 followers 500 followers
gonna go back into practical details you
go into Instagram you go into search you
start searching hashtags for your
business whatever your industry is about
and you start finding people that post
you start building a database and then
you email them one by one with context
we already made a fucking pledge don’t
break it already and you asked them to
promote your shit and the price points
are incredibly under priced for the
amount of attention you get and the
business development opportunities yet
we continue not to do that meanwhile
what’s overpriced Twitter’s overpriced
it breaks my heart a lot of you guys
know that Twitter was my coming-out
party it is absolutely the platform that
put me on it’s not fun for me to sit
here and say that it’s overpriced but
the problem is Twitter has a firehose
problem there’s so much and we don’t
populate it it’s just like email going
from 90% to 30% and that is a problem
and the ads are overpriced and that’s
just an ecosystem so unfortunately for
them they’re dealing with what we’re
dealing with the other thing that’s
overpriced is all programmatic
advertising banner ads
are such a mistake for businesses today
because there’s nobody here of going to
the right side of daily daily org and
clicking a fucking banner ad and so we
sit here tonight with an ungodly amount
of ridiculous
marketing tactics and looming ahead of
us is so much technology how many people
here have Alexa Boyce in her house
Alexa raise your hand stand up actually
let’s get the blood going stand up I
[Music]
yes I know you’re on the screen you’re
pumped alright
it’s fucking awesome right get up here
with me very athletic
Jesus thank you man it’s good to see it
good just chill right here I know we’re
just yeah no no you can do whatever the
fuck you want your fucking big boy I
like it do you think all right man hey
man how are you it’s me Jesus man you
look really young you look good all
I mean that’s good but this is way
better right free advertising um when
you start thinking about Alexa and all
these other things one of the things
that my career has been completely
predicated on is the fact that I am
willing to take chances on things that
aren’t mainstream yet because I
understand that if I go after social
code and if I go after fine and if I go
after Mi’kmaq and if I go after yak and
if I go after all these things that I
only need one of those seven to actually
hit snapchat Instagram to win that bet
we have enormous fear in this room too
I have to wait or let’s wait to it’s big
or what if I waste my time
awkward right yeah so brother you could
leave if you want but you can chill
chill
got it well I waste my time on these
platforms right well I waste my time on
these platforms if it doesn’t become big
and so one of the other themes that I
really wanted to leave here with tonight
knowing the demo of this room is we have
to have a lot more risk tolerance on new
platforms if you’re not playing back to
details that I don’t you’re taking notes
if you’re not playing with Marco Polo
and after school and house party then
you’re not there potentially at the
platforms that can become the next
things at the top of our tongue how many
people here let’s be really honest let’s
be really really really honest with
ourselves
inbound please raise your hand if this
is true how many people in this room and
I want everybody look around set two and
a half years ago three years ago maybe
even a year ago that they would never be
on snapchat that was stupid and now have
a snapchat account raise your hands
raise it high higher this this is where
all the action is this is where all the
action is this is the opportunity in
this room but we continue to down play
we continue to downplay the upside
because we fear the risk of being on
there and wasting time if you have not
achieved what you want to professionally
or in life time is the number one thing
you’ve got you need to deploy as much of
that as humanly possible that is the
asset when you have not achieved the
things that you want to happen in life
and it is because of time that you ever
wanted to put in to these platforms of
worlds that is a massive mistake it’s
the one asset you have not everybody in
this room has money it’s true you agree
right so are you gonna work your fucking
face off thank you
it’s the one thing we have it’s the one
thing we have because everybody wants to
come up with excuses I spend my life
reading excuses on social media and my
inbox um this I wasn’t born that way
I wasn’t born here this a female I’m an
immigrant I’m a minority I’m a
transgender I excuses reality by the way
I truly believe those are disadvantages
I’m not naive to the shortcomings of
this country the problem is nobody cares
the market doesn’t care so we sit and we
dwell and it so what do you think we’ve
been doing for the last month and what
we’re gonna do tomorrow morning we’re
gonna dwell and complain and that’s
utter defense instead of going on the
offense and so we spend unbelievable
amounts of time dwelling and wasting our
time on dumb shit like people literally
email me and say you’re so lucky and I
wish this was happening to me and then
the third tweet or the third Instagram
post is awesome Saturday stayed home and
watched entire season a fucking Game of
Thrones
[Music]
we need to start understanding how big
this opportunity is because for
everybody in this room you will sit back
in 20 30 years and regret if you didn’t
execute in this era and by the way I
don’t want to hear that this is for 20
and 30 year olds 40 50 60 70 it’s an
equal playing field if you’re willing to
be a practitioner and understand the
ecosystem that I’ve been speaking about
tonight there’s never been a better time
look it’s very obvious these kind of
characters there was no respect for 20
year olds in the business world 20 years
ago when I came out but now because of
technology there’s a lot of
organizations that absolutely respect 20
and 30 year olds also what is happening
is I’m spending so much time with 40 to
60 year old executives who were dwelling
and are upset and tell me dumb shit like
but Gary I didn’t grow up with this shit
neither did I Alice I was 20 before I
even was on a computer I didn’t grow up
with this shit I figured it out and so I
sit there and see completely capable
operators that have made it happen for
the last twenty thirty years being
crippled by I don’t understand how
snapchat works it’s so confusing
we’re just filled with excuses we are
people are just losing their hunger and
then and then by the way let me get
really mad for two seconds with my fancy
rich friends
the thing that I’m completely blown away
by that I had no idea what’s going on in
capitalism and meritocracy is once you
get rich you actually try to spend your
dollars to create laws that allow you
not to work and still hold on to your
money a hundred percent right
I mean I’m blown away by this you were
benefit you were benefited because in
your 20s to sixty four forty years you
grind it and out executed somebody and
you were able to make lots of money but
now that you’re tired and you’re
finished and you’re older and don’t want
to put in the work you don’t want the
next young buck to come along and eat
your lunch
that’s not how capitalism works true
it’s just not and so we have all these
trends and we have the great fortune of
living in an era where things have been
really good for a very long time and so
I walk around the world and I told my
wife Lizzy I’m like Lizzy listen to me
I don’t care clearly because I’m such a
shit student what the kids do at school
but please they can’t be in programs
where we give away seventh place movies
[Music]
I have no idea who wins the election
tonight but we need to fucking band
seventh place trophies in America so we
have all these macro situations going on
and not to mention for a lot of people
here under 30 you haven’t been in the
game during an economic downturn because
things have been very cushy for the last
seven years where if you’re 23 years old
and you have an idea your companies
miraculously worth four million dollars
and so we’re living in a very intriguing
time and I think that the passion and
eggs and the energy that I bring tonight
are predicated on a couple tried two
things number one if you’re not making
long-term decisions
the markets change it very quickly and
anybody who’s looking for short-term
stuff gets short-term stuff and then
gets hurt it
things like Airbnb guys Airbnb should
have been invented by Brian and Joe
Airbnb should have been invented by
Marriott but Marriott is looking
short-term and isn’t creating business
models to put themselves out of business
uber should have not been created by
Garrett and right they should they
should have not been created by Garrett
and Travis they should have been created
by the guy or girl that owned the most
medallions in New York City or by
greyhound if you sit here tonight and
you’re doing well you’re in danger
because there’s somebody young and
hungry that has the internet which is a
platform that creates a zero cost to get
into the game that’s coming after your
shit so if you don’t do what I do which
is wake up every single morning every
single morning and try to put yourself
out of business somebody else is gonna
do it for you
it is much more fun my friends to put
yourself out of business than have
somebody else do it for you and so
please if your cushy whose cushy raise
Jesus Christ three people raised their
hand I think you need to shut down this
fucking you don’t good muscleman what
was that I was like you doing video yeah
we’re doing okay I don’t he always so
you’ve gotta understand the only thing
that’s interesting to me and the only
thing I have I always say that basically
my career is predicated much more
similar to Mariano Rivera than anything
else that I can think of if you’re a
baseball fan he was a very good closure
for the New York Yankees
where basically his entire career was
predicated on one pitch he had one pitch
for 17 years and nobody could hit it and
that’s basically my business career I’ve
got one pitch which is the following I
know what you’re gonna do before you are
gonna do it it’s the thing that I was
gifted with just like if you can sing
just like it’s you I’ve always had the
intuition I was made fun of and
aggressively made fun of for launching a
website in 1996 because just like people
sit here and think that vine or snapchat
is a fad there’s people in this room
that remember where the whole internet
was a fad but I bet on it
and I built a big business and then it
was made fun of because this thing
called YouTube came out and I took a
chance on that because I thought it was
gonna be big and started a wine show and
sat in front of a camera and drank four
bottles of wine for 20 minutes and
hundreds of thousands of people watched
it
and then that worked
and then Twitter worked then I invested
in Twitter and Facebook and things of
that nature
but I had so many losses along the way
one thing that’s never talked about with
my genius career was that I was on
YouTube super early but I left six
months in and started producing Wine
Library TV exclusively on viddler I was
wrong one thing that’s not talked about
is that I thought that the biggest
startup in the world in 2010 was gonna
be yo Bongo I was wrong and I continued
to be interested in being wrong for the
rest of my life because I am a purebred
entrepreneur because I’m not scared of
trying things and wasting my valuable
time because I want things and most of
all and this is the most of all the
whole thing I just genuinely don’t give
balanced with I really care about what
everybody says about me and in that
friction I mean that you have to deploy
real ego and real humility around this
course because we live in that world but
if I could inspire anything in the time
that I was here today it’s very simply
this please do me one favor I’m gonna
wrap it up with this and this matter so
much to me please whatever it takes call
your grandmother go to your great
grandfather’s burial spot go back to the
old country go to a shelter do something
do something that recalibrates your
perspective on what is actually going on
here we have never had it better my
friends
I’m gonna leave you with a very
interesting data point you guys like
data who likes data great let me give
you some fucking data more people in
America will die from a coconut falling
out of a tree and hitting you on the
head and killing you then terrorism yeah
I see you tentative like is he fucking
kids seven to eleven watched more twitch
eSports than all the four major sports
combined that’s data we are living
through a totally different time ten
years ago the weirdest thing in the
world
was your friend dated people online now
every single person swipes to the left
and right 24/7 and so the trends in our
society have changed and either you’re
gonna sit here and buy never and this is
a black-and-white conversation either
you’re gonna leave here and understand
how fucking awesome it is and you’re
gonna take full advantage of it and be a
winner or you’re gonna sit and dwell on
all the negatives of it and be a losing
player it’s just the truth it’s not
complicated it’s not fun for me to say I
don’t want you to lose I desperately
want you to win but this is on you
nobody else is in control there are
people who deal with things like the
loss of their children
or real diseases were sitting and
dwelling about not getting enough likes
on fucking Instagram we’re sitting and
dwelling about forces that don’t really
have impact on us it is time that this
collective room and our space
understands this is the greatest golden
era of not only business but life and
you’re really and I mean really need to fucking grab it thank you
super excited to be here so excited can
we hear it one more time for that that
was fucking remarkable good shit I’m
really excited about tonight it’s a very
special day in our amazing country and
for me it’s especially special because I
wasn’t born in the US I was born in the
Soviet Union I came here as a little boy
both my grandfather’s spent substantial
time in jail just because they were
Jewish and I know that there’s a lot of
tension and different beliefs about what
should happen tonight but the fact that
we’re even able to vote and to be in
this amazing country is something that
we have lost perspective for and I’m
very thankful to be here tonight and to
me it’s super interesting because I want
to talk about the journey of an
entrepreneur and by hands how many
people here are entrepreneurs raise your
hands
very nice and how many people here work
within organizations that aren’t
tripping oriole within them raise your
hands very nice if we can keep these
lights on that would be huge for me if
you don’t mind so for me I think the
opening statement is going to be this if
you are sitting in this room tonight and
you believe that whether Donald or
Hillary wins impacts you you’re a
and I want to explain this we are so
lucky to be here in this playground
where the impact of the president only
has so much impact on you because the
reality is we are dramatically and I
mean dramatically more in control of our
lives than the media pounds down our
throats and so I hope if anything if
anything whether you’re 16 or 97 and you
leave here tonight you understand how
unbelievable our opportunity is to play
in this ecosystem what I want to talk
about tonight is a couple of things one
we are living through the greatest era
of communication change that we’ve lived
through since the printing press and
regardless of what you do in here it is
gonna impact me tremendously over the
next decade because it’s already
impacted so much over the last decade
and so for me that is a very important
thing but before I go into the tactics
that I want to bring to everybody so you
bring home something tangible I want to
start with something that I’ve been
spending a lot of time with and haven’t
really expanded outside of the content
that I’ve put on the Internet so on
stage tonight I thought a really
interesting thing to talk about would be
self-awareness if I could spend two to
three minutes with all of you and make
you understand that self-awareness is
probably the single most important thing
that you can spend time
for your outcome for your future life it
would be so exciting to me if hundreds
or thousands of people left here today
and started really realizing who they
actually were we’re living in an era
that we have forever where people have
sold us on the optics of what we should
be where we should go let me tell you a
story about myself it’s really it’s
really funny I got an email earlier
today or yesterday from a friend of mine
Jay that I went to college with who
works with Carolyn who I went to high
school with are you guys here can you
guys stand up can I find you get up
there they are can we clap it up for my
homies what’s funny is both of them know
how bad of a student I really was and
what’s really interesting to me on that
is both of them also know that for some
reason at a very young age I was
extremely self-aware I knew exactly who
I was and I was able to bet on my
strengths I think that when I think back
to my life and the story of my life and
what I really want to impose on others
to be able to navigate through is I was
lucky enough to have a mother who
instilled so much self-esteem into my
body I was able to navigate through the
universe of not worrying about what
everybody else thought about me and what
I’ve really to be very frank with you
I’ve come to realize it over the last
year or so that I feel so much guilt
just general guilt that I had it so good
that a I came from nothing which is a
massive advantage and the immigrants
raise their hands in this room
let’s clap it up for these people that
have a major advantage it’s robot one
thing immigrants realizes how good it
really is so I had that I had nothing
and then I had a mom that did all the
right things for me and made me feel so
phenomenal and so basically I’ve come to
realize I’ve been asking myself over
last year like why am i producing so
much content like what the fuck am I
really doing here I’ve got this hundred
million dollar your business to run like
why do I fuckin d-roc followed me around
everywhere like what am I really doing
here and I’ve come to realize that I
have so much guilt inside of me for
having it so good that I want to use my
content that if I can play the role that
my mom played for me for anybody in this
room then then I’ve accomplished
anything that I could ever dream for
because look there’s a lot of people
that are gonna make money but to me the
most important thing is how you make
your money not how much you make and
what I realize thanks mom and what I
realize what I realize is that we live
in a year now where we can all document
and create content around these
narratives and communicate in the
different world the thing that I’m
completely taken aback by is the fact
that this is now the television and the
television is now the radio and it’s the
late 40s and early 50s and the people in
this room that understand that and
understand that snapchat and YouTube and
Facebook and Instagram are ABC NBC ESPN
and MTV it’s a good one right but I’m
not done yet you fucked me up all right
and that the businesses and individuals
in this room that realize how to make
mash or Seinfeld where the best shows on
those platforms will win we are living
through a major shift where every person
this room has a binary decision either
you go on the defense because of all of
this or you go on the offense either you
realize this is the greatest opportunity
we’ve ever had as humans and
entrepreneurs or you’re scared of all
these changes and you judge them and you
fear them and so for me in this huge
shift of technology and communication
comes the greatest opportunity ever
again
because the theme of the night for me
the fact that mainstream media has been
able to pass such a cloud over this
ecosystem is fascinating to me I’ll be
very honest with you I’m not sad I’m not
sad I’m pumped I am thrilled that so
many people think it’s bad cuz that’s
more opportunity for me and so what I
implore you to do is spend a hell of a
lot less time worried about other things
that will impact you and spend a lot
more time to figure out who you actually
are what are you actually good at are
you actually in a position to be
successful what do you like doing
because the opportunities are endless
the problem is we are scared to do
different things because the fundamental
core reality is we worry about what
other people think we worry about
getting judged if we fail
one thing that I’ve been very blessed
with is I’ve traveled the world quite a
bit for business and speaking and one
thing that a lot of people may not
understand is that entrepreneurship does
not work in a lot of other countries
because failure is a scarlet letter here
in the US we’re so lucky that
entrepreneurship is met with when you
fail you pick yourself back up and you
go and to me that is unbelievable and we
are blessed to be in that ecosystem and
we need to take full advantage of it
– look I like the back
yes back step up this is real fucking
shit we are fucking like can I ask you a
question
do you understand that you’re only gonna
live one time everybody has a lack of
perspective and reality of what’s going
on here we have so much opportunity
you’re in a fucking Convention Centre in
Boston listening to fucking Hamilton
wake the fuck up shit seriously you have
the only thing I fear besides the health
and well-being of my family is regret
the thing I’m so scared of and one of
the tactics if I could inspire 20 people
to do this that would be big a fuck I’ll
take one if one person in here can start
spending more time in a retirement home
go and donate your time your most
valuable thing and go spend time with
7089 here is do that for one day two
days a week or two and you will
understand very quickly that the only
thing that is scary is the things that
you didn’t do right it’s those things
and I sit here tonight and people are in
their tactics they’re in their business
their startup they work in their
companies and the thing that I fear and
the thing that I’m passionate about
deploying tonight is really pushing a
little bit more what I would call
practical risk practical risk is
something that I’ve been thinking a lot
about a lot of people tell me they can’t
take the chance of going and doing what
they want to do whether it’s a different
job whether that’s by the way I’ve done
a hundred emails in the last six months
of people that needed the courage to
shut down their startup and get a job
because they were worried about the
ramifications of being made fun of for
not executing on their business whatever
it is as you sit here tonight I wanted
to ploy and I want to start talking
about practical risk and what practical
risk means to me is the thing that I did
not understand and I started getting
thousands of emails a year from
individuals is we’re fucking fancy
we’re fuckin fancy it’s not that you
can’t it’s that you’re not willing to
give up dumb shit for a better life
you’re not willing to go backwards
you’re not willing to make yourself
dramatically happier to move out of your
home and downsize and go into a
different neighborhood you’re not
willing to go backwards that to me is
fascinating the fact that things were
their home car watch clothes going out
is holding people back from a
substantially happier life is
fascinating to me and something that we
need to debate because at the end of the
day that one iPad is all we’ve got and
so if I can absolutely push you one
tangible item I see some people have
pads and pens and I’m fascinated by that
go ready go to a fucking F uck ing
retirement home spend time collect data
realize regret is the worst and do
something about it got it awesome let’s
clap it up for her
[Applause]
I really want to talk about the phone
and Facebook and Instagram and snapchat
cuz it’s a place I come from and I want
to get a little bit away from the heady
shit right now and get a little bit back
into practicality if you are not
producing content on the 5 to 6 major
social network platforms today you are
creating an enormous vulnerability for
whatever you would like to happen in
life
the person you want elected getting
money for your kids charity selling shit
communication has shifted forever and
these platforms really really matter the
problem is even at a conference like
this where there is so much marketing
skill I am flabbergasted by the lack of
practitioner ship in the actual creative
ability and paid media amplification of
creative to make a business action I for
a lot of you that don’t know built my
family’s liquor business really on the
back of Google AdWords Google AdWords
came out I bought the wot word wine for
5 cents a clip and even though I was
doing direct mail and doing local
television and billboards I get a lot of
accolades in this ecosystem from
building my dad’s liquor store from a
three to a sixty million dollar business
but the truth is I stand here tonight
and admit to you not excitingly that it
should have been 150 million dollars
because if I actually understood how
unbelievable the arbitrage was unclad
words I would have spent a lot more
money on it and my business much more
but I was too patient I did well not
enough I did not go in and I built a
nice business but in reality I left a
lot on the
tonight as we sit here tonight as we sit
here tonight the number one arbitrage in
marketing in the world and I don’t give
a shit if you do b2b how many people b2b
raise your hands
uh-huh I know you fuckers how many
people b2c huh
so even better I look this way I do this
it allows me to go in a certain
direction
b2b clients for me at Vayner and the
startups that I’m involved with are
doing even better than b2c clients on
social specifically Facebook because
there’s one amazing thing about b2b we
and I’m in it now with vaynermedia we
know the name of the customer
we know the businesses we want we even
know the decision maker we want the
problem is we suck we get real lazy and
we send bulk fucking emails unlinked
can we make a pledge tonight actually
you know what let’s do this if you’re
willing to pledge to no more bulk email
horseshit spec email on LinkedIn stand
up so I can clap for you personally make
a pledge let’s let’s wait get up more
fuck this pull email shit don’t sit back
down dude with the beard get the fuck
back up I see you I’m talking to you
yeah you there we go let’s go down in
the women on internet let’s clap it up
guys best part is the shit doesn’t work
how many people here have done email
marketing in their career raise your
hands are you looking for your seat Hey
look seat got it how many people here
have done bulk I have done email
marketing in their careers I’m just
curious in 1997 I had a 200 thousand
person email newsletter for Wine Library
and winelibrary.com
that had 91.3% open rates not because it
was a hero but because email marketing
hadn’t existed yet the thing that I’m
most fascinated by is that I know as a
marketer and I’m a marketer as a
marketer the number one thing the thing
that I know more than the Sun will come
up tomorrow
it’s what we do when I saw that little
fucking ghost I’m gonna fuck up that
ghost
I got you snapchat I’m gonna ruin the
shit out of this platform you show me
attention and I’ll show you place that I
want to sell and that’s how it gets
changed and the bulk email in 2016 is
insanity nobody’s opening that shit and
what just cuz you have an algorithm that
says hey Gary and by the way I saw 10 of
these emails today all the fuckers in
this room that have the hey Gary thing
that’s in a different font than the rest
of the email you suck right I mean
b2b I’m gonna go tactical cuz I want to
leave what I wanna you know lately I’ve
been trying to get even more tactical in
my keynotes because I love the emails
that I get where hey thank you so much
and help my business here’s the tactic
I’m gonna give you the best blueprint I
have for b2b selling right now and I
really hope it brings you some value and
I’ll go into I’m gonna go into a detail
I’m gonna get a little nerdy if you’re
gonna beat a beat environment you have
to run Facebook Ads and you have to do
it now they cost about five to six
dollar CPM right now on average the cost
of these CPMs will be thirty dollars
thirty six months from now I’m saying
this because I’m gonna have the video of
this and in three years you’re gonna see
me share this clip of you and I’m gonna
tag it I told you so motherfuckers
it’s gonna be $30 a CPM because
everybody’s gonna figure out how much
attention is really on that platform so
the supply and demand curve is gonna
change just like why now is a six $7
word got it okay so now you’re gonna run
Facebook ads and first and foremost
you’re not gonna outsource it to
somebody else you’re not gonna find
little Suzy that’s 23 in the office be
like you you’re young you know social
media not gonna do that
you’re gonna actually spend ten hours
and read and watch videos it’s crazy you
can learn anything so many people like
Gary but I don’t know how to use the
Instagram product I’m like I get it you
go to Google and you search it fuckface
okay that’s what you do it’s not super
complicated
it’s crazy anything you don’t know you
can search in two seconds
everybody’s crippled like they don’t
know it’s fucking there you do that and
so here you become a practitioner you
actually deploy the Facebook Ads
yourself so you have some ability and
knowledge so somebody can’t hose you you
need to be the person that knows that
the best you then target there’s a way
to target employees of at one more time
b2b raise your hands you guys know who
you’re going after I want you to target
the employees of that company one by one
the employees now you take a step back
now you know you’re targeting 15 17 22
different businesses if you want to get
really crazy you target them one by one
and you make videos or pictures just for
that company
but if you want scale you can put them
all in a bucket and now you’re gonna
make a video or a picture you know a
billboard or print ad or a television
commercial
and you’re gonna make it and what you’re
gonna do is you’re gonna make the
creative start with does your CFO know
does your CTO know does your CIO know
you know exactly who in that
organization in that organization is the
person that needs to see that content
and you’re gonna start the video or your
picture with that statement and I
promise you for hundreds of dollars
depending the size your business
sometimes for a thousands of dollars
that person is gonna get twelve to
twenty five to a hundred people
forwarding them that piece of content
and that piece of content will be the
gateway drug to your sales team to
that’s it right I can talk about you
like that right it’s practical black and
white you got it right I can talk about
one life and all that ship and that’s
fucking up in the clouds right that’s
okay that’s one good next to the single
best arbitrage in marketing and I want
to take a step back I want to make sure
everybody understands
I think the slide was up there we’ll end
with a slide I day trade attention I am
NOT a technologist I’m not a digital at
I’m somebody who’s obsessed with
attention from when I was six years old
and instead of standing behind the
lemonade stands I wouldn’t sit and watch
cars drive by and figure out where to
put the signs sick you know to now so I
stand here and actually say if you have
the money in I would say HubSpot if I
ran the marketing the number one think
that I would do is run a Super Bowl
commercial I stand here today as a
marketer that trades attention and I
believe that the number one deal in
marketing today is actually a Super Bowl
commercial it’s six million dollars but
the entire country whether they watch it
on YouTube we’re doing the game will
know exactly what you’re up to
now most people fuck it up because they
try to make some funny video for 30
seconds and then we forget but that is
to me the number one play the number two
play in the world is Facebook video
because I believe that Facebook video
not confined to 30 seconds has the
ability to build enormous awareness
vaynermedia had a very special thing
happened last week I don’t know if any
of you guys caught this but when the
Cubs won the World Series
we ran who’s from Chicago finally right
fuck 108 when the Cubs won the World
Series we ran an ad an ad after the
World Series first it was Nike then it
was us and we brought back Harry Caray
from a classic 1984 commercial and that
went big and everybody said we were
geniuses and I got a lot of emails that
night and it was super awesome and I
replied to everyone saying wait until
tomorrow what tomorrow was was the next
day we deployed a two minute plus video
where Harry Caray we took 30 years of
him calling games and chopped it up and
had him over two-minute video call the
final out of the Cubs winning the World
Series that video has 30 million plus
views at this point and has drove a lot
more incremental growth and awareness
and b2b activity for the brand than the
did though the commercial media like
buying the commercial and making sure
you all saw it cost multiples 20-30
times more expensive than what we
deployed in a facebook environment this
is what’s happening my friends I want
you to become historians of marketing I
want you also understand what marketing
is
we have confusion in the marketplace of
marketing and branding versus sales we
have a lot of people in this room that
are digital natives and they really
understand sales they understand
optimization ui/ux they understand cost
per click they understand how you
convert and change things and things of
that nature but what they don’t do is
actually brand and market and if your
business is growing you have to have a
healthy balance of marketing and sales
and branding my friends I did not buy
these sneakers because Nike fucking cook
eat me and sent me to some fucking
website and converted me I bought it
because of brand and there’s a lot of
people here that are mixing it up and
the reason Facebook is so special is
it’s the first platform that I’ve seen
that this marketing and brand and sales
in one place with underpriced attention
if you could open Google like I did
there was no brand there we all had blue
letters and bran was eliminated so if I
had one plea for the collective room
tonight from a marketing and branding
and business standpoint it is that we
have to understand the following and
this is tough for the digital landscape
but very easy for the Madison Avenue’s
landscape creative is the variable
creative is the variable of success the
one thing that we all trade on in this
room no matter how and what you do
whether you’re b2b or b2c whether you
sew sneakers or wine or books or your
services no matter what we are all tied
to attention we are all battling for
your attention but once you have my
attention that creative is the variable
if your video sucks shit I can give you
9,000 ideas on Facebook you will lose
and that to me is something that has to
be debated in this ecosystem much more
the other world I live in Madison Avenue
where they believe in commercials
they’re the other way they just think
it’s art if you understand and start
respecting both art and science math and
creative equally friction creating that
diamond you’ll be a successful marketer
over the next decade the problem is we
usually fall into one camp or the other
so if you sit here tonight
please start understanding respecting
and building your skills around the one
that you don’t actually do because
what’s happening is we have unbelievably
overpriced attention and the other thing
that’s happening is we have people that
lack self-awareness to know what they’re
good at and what they’re not good at and
when you start understanding those
variables you start actually making
results happen I’m blown away by the
world that I live in today for a lot of
you doesn’t know no I run a 750 person
firm called vaynermedia I’m leaving here
right now if there’s taco in London we
just opened a London office and what we
do is we work with the biggest brands in
the world
Under Armour and chase and Toyota and
Pepsi and the amount of money that is
wasted just just watch what I’m about to
show you and I think we can all agree
there’s not this is not a
fourteen-year-old girl crowd raise your
hand if you now when you watch
fast forward every single commercial or
watched Netflix or HBO go if you when
your favorite show airs you don’t watch
what it airs you watch it now on your
time raise your hands I just want
everybody look around keep them up
especially front row look at this let me
just give you the punchline everybody
and how many people here if they’re
still using DVR TiVo fast-forward every
single commercial when given the option
and so even if something crazy like the
every person here grabs this anytime
that there is a commercial yet eighty
billion dollars is spent by the biggest
brands in the world to make 30-second
videos of a jeep going up a hill or some
guy grabbing a beer for some lady with a
baby using some oil eighty billion
dollars it is completely not practical
it is broken and is the reason that 95%
of the fortune 500 biggest brands in the
world have declined in market share over
the last two years here’s what matters
to everybody in this room all that money
all that money is coming into our
ecosystem once they start calibrating
how bad it actually is when coca-cola
and BMW and the biggest print IVM start
taking that money from page 147 of
Sports Illustrated and from a commercial
of guiding light and they take those
dollars and they put them into Facebook
and Instagram the price of our attention
is gonna go through the roof so I sit
here today and plea and I plea that if
you are not activating your marketing in
that ecosystem you are gonna miss the
golden era of Facebook marketing and you
will regret it and people run around
here there are people in this room that
run around here with an opinion on
Facebook marketing and they’ve never
deployed a single ad on it there are
people here that run around and have
opinions on Instagram marketing and have
never deployed a single penny on
period also we sit here today in early
November 2016 when the greatest
marketing arbitrage besides Facebook
advertising is influencer marketing you
may not like it you may not think it’s
cool that people have detox tea pictures
in their Instagram or that fucking
but it doesn’t take away the fact that
right now even in a b2b environment that
if you took the hours and map the people
that had 400 followers 500 followers
gonna go back into practical details you
go into Instagram you go into search you
start searching hashtags for your
business whatever your industry is about
and you start finding people that post
you start building a database and then
you email them one by one with context
we already made a fucking pledge don’t
break it already and you asked them to
promote your shit and the price points
are incredibly under priced for the
amount of attention you get and the
business development opportunities yet
we continue not to do that meanwhile
what’s overpriced Twitter’s overpriced
it breaks my heart a lot of you guys
know that Twitter was my coming-out
party it is absolutely the platform that
put me on it’s not fun for me to sit
here and say that it’s overpriced but
the problem is Twitter has a firehose
problem there’s so much and we don’t
populate it it’s just like email going
from 90% to 30% and that is a problem
and the ads are overpriced and that’s
just an ecosystem so unfortunately for
them they’re dealing with what we’re
dealing with the other thing that’s
overpriced is all programmatic
advertising banner ads
are such a mistake for businesses today
because there’s nobody here of going to
the right side of daily daily org and
clicking a fucking banner ad and so we
sit here tonight with an ungodly amount
of ridiculous
marketing tactics and looming ahead of
us is so much technology how many people
here have Alexa Boyce in her house
Alexa raise your hand stand up actually
let’s get the blood going stand up I
[Music]
yes I know you’re on the screen you’re
pumped alright
it’s fucking awesome right get up here
with me very athletic
Jesus thank you man it’s good to see it
good just chill right here I know we’re
just yeah no no you can do whatever the
fuck you want your fucking big boy I
like it do you think all right man hey
man how are you it’s me Jesus man you
look really young you look good all
I mean that’s good but this is way
better right free advertising um when
you start thinking about Alexa and all
these other things one of the things
that my career has been completely
predicated on is the fact that I am
willing to take chances on things that
aren’t mainstream yet because I
understand that if I go after social
code and if I go after fine and if I go
after Mi’kmaq and if I go after yak and
if I go after all these things that I
only need one of those seven to actually
hit snapchat Instagram to win that bet
we have enormous fear in this room too
I have to wait or let’s wait to it’s big
or what if I waste my time
awkward right yeah so brother you could
leave if you want but you can chill
chill
got it well I waste my time on these
platforms right well I waste my time on
these platforms if it doesn’t become big
and so one of the other themes that I
really wanted to leave here with tonight
knowing the demo of this room is we have
to have a lot more risk tolerance on new
platforms if you’re not playing back to
details that I don’t you’re taking notes
if you’re not playing with Marco Polo
and after school and house party then
you’re not there potentially at the
platforms that can become the next
things at the top of our tongue how many
people here let’s be really honest let’s
be really really really honest with
ourselves
inbound please raise your hand if this
is true how many people in this room and
I want everybody look around set two and
a half years ago three years ago maybe
even a year ago that they would never be
on snapchat that was stupid and now have
a snapchat account raise your hands
raise it high higher this this is where
all the action is this is where all the
action is this is the opportunity in
this room but we continue to down play
we continue to downplay the upside
because we fear the risk of being on
there and wasting time if you have not
achieved what you want to professionally
or in life time is the number one thing
you’ve got you need to deploy as much of
that as humanly possible that is the
asset when you have not achieved the
things that you want to happen in life
and it is because of time that you ever
wanted to put in to these platforms of
worlds that is a massive mistake it’s
the one asset you have not everybody in
this room has money it’s true you agree
right so are you gonna work your fucking
face off thank you
it’s the one thing we have it’s the one
thing we have because everybody wants to
come up with excuses I spend my life
reading excuses on social media and my
inbox um this I wasn’t born that way
I wasn’t born here this a female I’m an
immigrant I’m a minority I’m a
transgender I excuses reality by the way
I truly believe those are disadvantages
I’m not naive to the shortcomings of
this country the problem is nobody cares
the market doesn’t care so we sit and we
dwell and it so what do you think we’ve
been doing for the last month and what
we’re gonna do tomorrow morning we’re
gonna dwell and complain and that’s
utter defense instead of going on the
offense and so we spend unbelievable
amounts of time dwelling and wasting our
time on dumb shit like people literally
email me and say you’re so lucky and I
wish this was happening to me and then
the third tweet or the third Instagram
post is awesome Saturday stayed home and
watched entire season a fucking Game of
Thrones
[Music]
we need to start understanding how big
this opportunity is because for
everybody in this room you will sit back
in 20 30 years and regret if you didn’t
execute in this era and by the way I
don’t want to hear that this is for 20
and 30 year olds 40 50 60 70 it’s an
equal playing field if you’re willing to
be a practitioner and understand the
ecosystem that I’ve been speaking about
tonight there’s never been a better time
look it’s very obvious these kind of
characters there was no respect for 20
year olds in the business world 20 years
ago when I came out but now because of
technology there’s a lot of
organizations that absolutely respect 20
and 30 year olds also what is happening
is I’m spending so much time with 40 to
60 year old executives who were dwelling
and are upset and tell me dumb shit like
but Gary I didn’t grow up with this shit
neither did I Alice I was 20 before I
even was on a computer I didn’t grow up
with this shit I figured it out and so I
sit there and see completely capable
operators that have made it happen for
the last twenty thirty years being
crippled by I don’t understand how
snapchat works it’s so confusing
we’re just filled with excuses we are
people are just losing their hunger and
then and then by the way let me get
really mad for two seconds with my fancy
rich friends
the thing that I’m completely blown away
by that I had no idea what’s going on in
capitalism and meritocracy is once you
get rich you actually try to spend your
dollars to create laws that allow you
not to work and still hold on to your
money a hundred percent right
I mean I’m blown away by this you were
benefit you were benefited because in
your 20s to sixty four forty years you
grind it and out executed somebody and
you were able to make lots of money but
now that you’re tired and you’re
finished and you’re older and don’t want
to put in the work you don’t want the
next young buck to come along and eat
your lunch
that’s not how capitalism works true
it’s just not and so we have all these
trends and we have the great fortune of
living in an era where things have been
really good for a very long time and so
I walk around the world and I told my
wife Lizzy I’m like Lizzy listen to me
I don’t care clearly because I’m such a
shit student what the kids do at school
but please they can’t be in programs
where we give away seventh place movies
[Music]
I have no idea who wins the election
tonight but we need to fucking band
seventh place trophies in America so we
have all these macro situations going on
and not to mention for a lot of people
here under 30 you haven’t been in the
game during an economic downturn because
things have been very cushy for the last
seven years where if you’re 23 years old
and you have an idea your companies
miraculously worth four million dollars
and so we’re living in a very intriguing
time and I think that the passion and
eggs and the energy that I bring tonight
are predicated on a couple tried two
things number one if you’re not making
long-term decisions
the markets change it very quickly and
anybody who’s looking for short-term
stuff gets short-term stuff and then
gets hurt it
things like Airbnb guys Airbnb should
have been invented by Brian and Joe
Airbnb should have been invented by
Marriott but Marriott is looking
short-term and isn’t creating business
models to put themselves out of business
uber should have not been created by
Garrett and right they should they
should have not been created by Garrett
and Travis they should have been created
by the guy or girl that owned the most
medallions in New York City or by
greyhound if you sit here tonight and
you’re doing well you’re in danger
because there’s somebody young and
hungry that has the internet which is a
platform that creates a zero cost to get
into the game that’s coming after your
shit so if you don’t do what I do which
is wake up every single morning every
single morning and try to put yourself
out of business somebody else is gonna
do it for you
it is much more fun my friends to put
yourself out of business than have
somebody else do it for you and so
please if your cushy whose cushy raise
Jesus Christ three people raised their
hand I think you need to shut down this
fucking you don’t good muscleman what
was that I was like you doing video yeah
we’re doing okay I don’t he always so
you’ve gotta understand the only thing
that’s interesting to me and the only
thing I have I always say that basically
my career is predicated much more
similar to Mariano Rivera than anything
else that I can think of if you’re a
baseball fan he was a very good closure
for the New York Yankees
where basically his entire career was
predicated on one pitch he had one pitch
for 17 years and nobody could hit it and
that’s basically my business career I’ve
got one pitch which is the following I
know what you’re gonna do before you are
gonna do it it’s the thing that I was
gifted with just like if you can sing
just like it’s you I’ve always had the
intuition I was made fun of and
aggressively made fun of for launching a
website in 1996 because just like people
sit here and think that vine or snapchat
is a fad there’s people in this room
that remember where the whole internet
was a fad but I bet on it
and I built a big business and then it
was made fun of because this thing
called YouTube came out and I took a
chance on that because I thought it was
gonna be big and started a wine show and
sat in front of a camera and drank four
bottles of wine for 20 minutes and
hundreds of thousands of people watched
it
and then that worked
and then Twitter worked then I invested
in Twitter and Facebook and things of
that nature
but I had so many losses along the way
one thing that’s never talked about with
my genius career was that I was on
YouTube super early but I left six
months in and started producing Wine
Library TV exclusively on viddler I was
wrong one thing that’s not talked about
is that I thought that the biggest
startup in the world in 2010 was gonna
be yo Bongo I was wrong and I continued
to be interested in being wrong for the
rest of my life because I am a purebred
entrepreneur because I’m not scared of
trying things and wasting my valuable
time because I want things and most of
all and this is the most of all the
whole thing I just genuinely don’t give
balanced with I really care about what
everybody says about me and in that
friction I mean that you have to deploy
real ego and real humility around this
course because we live in that world but
if I could inspire anything in the time
that I was here today it’s very simply
this please do me one favor I’m gonna
wrap it up with this and this matter so
much to me please whatever it takes call
your grandmother go to your great
grandfather’s burial spot go back to the
old country go to a shelter do something
do something that recalibrates your
perspective on what is actually going on
here we have never had it better my
friends
I’m gonna leave you with a very
interesting data point you guys like
data who likes data great let me give
you some fucking data more people in
America will die from a coconut falling
out of a tree and hitting you on the
head and killing you then terrorism yeah
I see you tentative like is he fucking
kids seven to eleven watched more twitch
eSports than all the four major sports
combined that’s data we are living
through a totally different time ten
years ago the weirdest thing in the
world
was your friend dated people online now
every single person swipes to the left
and right 24/7 and so the trends in our
society have changed and either you’re
gonna sit here and buy never and this is
a black-and-white conversation either
you’re gonna leave here and understand
how fucking awesome it is and you’re
gonna take full advantage of it and be a
winner or you’re gonna sit and dwell on
all the negatives of it and be a losing
player it’s just the truth it’s not
complicated it’s not fun for me to say I
don’t want you to lose I desperately
want you to win but this is on you
nobody else is in control there are
people who deal with things like the
loss of their children
or real diseases were sitting and
dwelling about not getting enough likes
on fucking Instagram we’re sitting and
dwelling about forces that don’t really
have impact on us it is time that this
collective room and our space
understands this is the greatest golden
era of not only business but life and
you’re really and I mean really need to fucking grab it thank you
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