Gary Vee: Rules of billion-dollar brands

There's a reason a lot of people go out of business, and it is almost always directly correlated to them missing the mark on the customers they're trying to reach

Most companies, big or small, are really struggling in assumptions or yesterday tactics to reach customers

I believe that there is not enough emphasis put on the actual consumer

Caring, when it comes to marketing, is respecting one's time. I think we don't respect consumers' time

And if we're gonna fill them with messages, wouldn't it be nice for them to enjoy it

When you come from a lens of caring and empathy, you just tend to make better advertising

You tend to make better advertising. I'm Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia

VFriends, and my latest book is day trading attention. I view myself as an entrepreneur. I grew up in my dad's liquor

store and innovated by having one of the first e-commerce websites. I was an early investor in

Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. And in more recent years have been an author and a speaker, but also

running a 2,000 person plus global advertising agency. And at the end of the day, I could not

explain to all of you watching or listening more how many marketing ideas literally spend no time

on will the person on the other side like this it's just this is the way it's always been done

or how many do we have to sell sell sell sell but i did not buy this sneaker because somebody

knocked on my door and sold it to me or i landed on a website that explained why i had to own this The Super Bowl I would say is a place where we do a better job caring We try to actually make

that 30-second video entertaining. I think I see it every day in social media. I see young brands

actually make content that people want to watch. When your lens is caring and empathy to connect

with the consumer, you're actually thinking about that. Will the person on the other side like this

for me that's the million dollar question so do you have strategies for how to connect with your audience

I would say my number one strategy is something I've done my whole life which is

before I start talking I listen literally your biggest advantage is time don't buy into an antiquated process you're entering

the greatest five-year window of your life. And, you know, obviously it seems like I'm always talking

but almost everything that comes out of my mouth has been predicated on me doing a lot of hours of listening

Social media's greatest power is the ability to see what people are thinking. We are living in the golden era of consumer insights

because of social media. And I think the best businesses in the world are fixing something that everyone's complaining about

but hasn't been fixed yet. Here's a good example. drive-through fast food

People value time. And obviously, someone eventually said, you know what? Instead of making them park and walk in

and wait in line and get their burger and fries, why don't we just let them drive through

That was a very strong innovation. A good idea. This is one big game of listening

Historically, this is what you do through focus groups. This is what you now can do

through social listening at scale. the question is what do you then do about it The last 10 years of storytelling has evolved tremendously We are no longer in tribes sitting around a fire telling a story

News cycles are now 12 and 24 hours, not 12 and 24 days

So the speed of keeping attention has changed dramatically. Also, the ability to storytell has exploded

You don't need an editor-in-chief. You don't need the local newspaper. You don't need someone at the TV network saying that you're allowed to be on camera and talk to the world

That's gone. There's not a person watching this who doesn't have permission now to tell the world their story as a human

or their story about the business or organization, nonprofit, or whatever other body they're working with to the world

On the flip side, it's never been harder. What pictures? What videos

What animated GIFs? What copy? What time do you post? How long is the video

Audio? Lighting? I mean, this has become a profoundly complex game. Here's the good news for everyone who's scared by how hard and fast it is

A great story will still find its way. Even if you don't know the best practices of how to post on YouTube or Instagram or TikTok

you'll be stunned how much a story can find its audience if it's just told from the heart in a pure form

When I talk about patience, it drives ambitious people crazy. I have a lot of high energy, in your face, loud, New Jersey style

And when I throw out patience, like, wait a minute, you're going off cue

Like, this doesn't sound like you, Gary. And I like that because you don realize that patience is not complacency Patience is probably one of the most important ingredients in building something meaningful One of the reasons most people don have patience is because of fear

They fear failing, and so they try to go fast, because if it's not going well, they can't deal with the music

aka the judgment of the people around them. If patience is not one of your partners, you're dead

You're too short-term, you're going to deviate from the plan, and you're probably going to make a misstep

You know, I always hear people say, well, okay, Gary, I'm into patience. I'm building something meaningful and brand

Like, how do I know it's working? And look, I think the answer is results

When I was building my father's wine business, the way I was noticing if we were building

brand was based on the fact that I had to spend less money on advertising every year

but was achieving higher sales every year. Because after five or six years of good work, I could see that the word of mouth and the

reputation, the brand was carrying the business. And so, you know, I think at the end of the day, you have to measure brand based on business results

But you've got to play that out for a long time. Because when you start thinking 100 year terms versus 100 day terms, you're playing a totally different game

When you think long and when you think about leaving a legacy, you tend to ironically make more money because you're building a stronger foundation

I ask you to take this video, this energy, and deploy it to not just your content or your marketing strategies or even your business

Deploy it to your life. It will help you be a better father, mother, sister, brother, child, human to make the future more joyous and impactful

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