Hey guys, this is Steli Efti with Close.io.
I'm actually recording today from not so beautiful Germany, it's August, but it's actually pretty
dark outside and rainy, and I'm in the back-office area of my brothers' mobile shop.
Today I wanted to talk about something that somebody asked me just a few days ago.
I was at an event speaking and a guy came over to me and said:
You know what, Steli, I just watched your interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, and... Dude!
How the hell did you get Gary Vaynerchuk to do an interview with you?
So, for all of you who know, most of you should probably know, Gary Vee is kind of like, a
big deal, right? An author, an internet celebrity, an investor, just an all-around amazing guy,
a hustling superhero... and I started to tell him, and try to explain to him, how I got
Gary Vee to actually do the interview with me.
But before I go there, let me give you guys some backstory.
First, let me tell you what the interview did for us. So if you go online, and we'll
link this up somewhere in the video, you'll actually going to be able to watch it. It
was a 30, 40 minute interview with @garyvee and me where we talk about sales and entrepreneurial
salesmanship.
That video got over 10,000 views. It's our most popular video on YouTube right now.
And more than just that it got us tons and tons of signups, and thousands and thousands
of revenue for our product, Close.io.
And even more than that, it got us a crazy amount of love, and branding, and recognition,
and kind of street-cred.
And we're going to utilize that video and the success of it... although the production
value is really bad, the content of the video is amazing. We're going to leverage that content
to get more and more amazing interviews with people that are just incredible in the hustle
game.
So, how did we get that interview in the first place?
Well, let me give you the backstory.
Years and years ago, probably like four years now, I actually reached out to Gary Vee for
the very first time. And the reason was that, at that time for a few months myself and a
few of my friends were trying this new crazy idea, we were experimenting with this project,
and basically what we were trying to do was to create a QVC, an online shopping channel,
a shopping channel but completely online.
So what we did was we were streaming from a studio in LA, we were bringing up amazing
products in real time.
We were actually spending thousands and thousands of dollars on Facebook, buying the audience
in real time and funneling them to that website.
And on that website we'd have a little streaming video of our host, presenting these different
products.
On the right side of the video you'd have like a buy button and the product description.
And below it there would be a live chat.
And we did, I think 4 or 5 of these shows, and we sold tens of thousands of dollars worth
of product. It was a pretty interesting experiment.
And during that time I read Gary Vee's book Crush It. And if you haven't read it, you
absolutely have to read it.
I read Crush It, and at the end of that book, Gary Vee gave away I think 5 to 10 ideas that
he said he won't have time to do, but that are billion dollar ideas.
And one of those ideas was an online shopping channel. A native, web-based QVC.
When I saw that I was like: Holy shit! Let's get Gary Vee to invest in us! Let's get him
involved in this venture!
And what we did is, my friend and I, we wrote him this amazingly detailed email that was
way too long in hindsight... and we created this website that was like garyveeinvestinus.com
or something like that...
where the background of the website was all in like Jets logos, because if you know Gary
you know he wants to buy the Jets one day.
And we put in a few video snippets and a reel of our streaming show, we had a business plan,
we did this whole customized thing just to get him to invest because we poured so much
energy into that, that he surely would want to invest, right?
So we sent him that email, and we heard nothing.
And then we sent him another email... and we heard nothing.
I think I tweeted him once or twice... nothing.
I think we might even have tried to call him or call his office with no success.
And eventually we gave up.
Funny enough, it was during the time where we were experimenting with that idea that
we experimented with a few other ideas, and one of them that ultimately led to what we're
doing with Close.io...
so we kind of like, abandoned that project, and never really looked back.
And I never felt any particular way about Gary Vee ignoring us. I always knew he's busy.
We did all we could do to get his attention, and then we didn't have anything else anymore
to get his attention for, so we kind of just left it where it was.
Two years later we're doing Close.io, it's going fucking awesome, and a friend of mine
and I are watching a Gary Vee interview where he basically says, and I'd heard him repeatedly
say that he's, in his heart, at it's core, he's a salesman.
And I thought: Holy shit! He's right. I mean, Gary Vee is an amazing storyteller, an incredible
sales man, and nobody has ever interviewed him about his perspective on sales and the
hustle.
It's always just social media, and investing, and wine, and all these other things that
known for; but here's the thing that he tells us, is that it's core who he is, and nobody
ever asked him, and it's a topic that's incredibly relevant to our audience.
So I thought: Well, why don't we try to interview him, and interview him on sales specifically.
Now, at that point, and this is now, I don't know, maybe 8 months ago.
So 8 months ago, we had this idea of doing a sales-focused interview with Gary Vee and
we thought:
You know what? One of our investors is actually a really good friend of Gary.
So I pinged one of our investors and said:
Hey, here's the idea we want to do an interview with Gary Vee, focused on sales and hustle.
Do you think he'd be interested?
And he said: You know what, I don't think... right now he's on this book tour thing. Ping
me in a few weeks and I'll try to email him and see if he's interested or not.
That's what we did. A few months, a few weeks later, I pinged my investor again. Said: Hey,
can you please ping Gary Vee and see if he's interested?
And he did!
And I think just a few weeks later I followed up once or twice.
And eventually, Gary Vee's team got back to us and said:
You know what? Gary is interested. He wants to do the interview.
Awesome, right?! Gary Vee, we got him!
You know how much more time it took to actually do the interview?
We had to follow up multiple times. There were all these scheduling conflicts, sometimes
it took 2 or 3 follow up emails to hear back from his team.
Gary is a crazy busy guy, and he's doing so many events, so many interviews, he's pouring
his heart out, and he's trying to be as successful as possible.
And what comes with that is that you're overwhelmed with requests, and there's so much shit going
on that just because I don't hear from him or from his team doesn't mean that I am entitled
to that, or that I should start thinking badly about him, or that I can just wait and have
them do all the work to actually make this event, this interview happen.
No, man! I hustled!
I email. I follow up. I follow up. And eventually two months later we actually got the interview
done.
And if you watch the interview today... I mean, the production value is shit! The internet
connection was horrible!
At the beginning of the interview, you could actually tell that Gary was not that excited
or energized by the idea of doing another skype call.
He's in some hotel, missing his family... but then, once we actually got started, and
we were able to ask some questions that he had, never had a chance to actually talk about,
he got really into it. And he got really passionate.
And he started sharing stories and ideas and philosophies he had never shared before.
And by the end of the interview he said that it was one of the more enjoyable interviews
he's ever done. And a few days later he actually tweeted that it's probably one of his best
interviews in years, at least that's what his wife told him.
And I'm super proud of that.
And that comes with a lot of background story, how we got there.
But the core thing that dawned on me, that somebody just asked me that simple, innocent
question:
Oh, how did you get Gary Vee?
Is that, there was this massive backstory. I didn't get him with my first attempt, I
got him with the second attempt.
And even with the second attempt, I didn't get him with the first request. It took multiple
requests and follow ups to get them.
And I realized that, you know, your current results in life are a lagging indicator of
your past hustle.
And I looked at everything that's going on right now.
All the interviews we're doing, the podcast stuff, all the guest articles... and when
I meet my friends they are like:
Dude, you're on fucking fire! Your shit is out there, I see you everywhere! How did you
get this article, how did you get on this podcast?
But you know what?
All that shit that's happening today are things that I started preparing 6, 9, 12 months ago.
Things that I in some cases started years ago in terms of studying the person, like
with Gary Vee, reading his books, being a true authentic fan, knowing the dude so when
I had the opportunity to interview him, I actually was able to have an interesting discussion
with him, ask him really relevant, itneresting questions, and get real nuggets of magic out
of him, just because I knew the subject matter.
I knew him, I knew his interviews, I knew his stuff, his books, all of that, so I was
actually able to get something out of that interview that was good for him, and really
amazing for us.
So anything that you accomplish today, if you're not happy with those results, it's
not because of the activities that you're putting into the market or the world today.
The results you're getting today are the results based on the things, the work, the hustle
you've put in 6, 9 months ago.
And then, conversely, again, if that's true, the hustle and hard work you're putting in
today, don't expect the results tomorrow!
The results might take you 6 to 9 months from now!
Your current results are a lagging indicator of your past hustle.
Which means you always have to hustle today in order to reap the results and the rewards
a few months down the line.
So, today I have to ask myself:
How can I outhustle my past self?
How can I make sure that in 6 months, the results are amazing?
Not next week. Next week is already set.
We already have interviews. We already have stuff in the pipeline.
The next 4, 5, 6, 8 weeks are already built up with shit that's going on, and that's good.
But we're hustling today in order to make 3 months from now, 6 months from now even
more amazing than the past.
So, a couple of lessons learned.
Nr 1 obviously: you have to hustle today, and you have to have the patience and the
energy, and the follow through, and the follow up to actually see those results come to life.
And manifest into reality.
But also, when you'r reaching out to people that are way beyond your level or class or
whatever, when you reach out to people that are incredibly busy, incredibly successful,
and you ask them for shit...
you have to be... you have to leave your ego behind basically.
You can't be entitled.
They don't owe you shit.
And you can't be like: Well, I can't believe this guy didn't answer my email. I can't believe
we put a website together for this guy! Why hasn't he ever emailed us?!
See, the only reason why I reached out again to Gary this time around, and we succeeded
with doing an interview, was because
A) I had something relevant to say and I thought it would be beneficially and valuable to him
as well,
but also because I didn't have any bad feelings towards him.
I didn't feel any funny type of way about him, just because he ignored me the 1st time
around. I didn't care!
I knew he was probably busy, and I didn't deserve shit. He didn't know me! He didn't
owe me a reply to any email or any funny website that I made for him.
So make sure that when you reach out to people that are amazing, or that you desire to be
connected with for whatever one reason or another, you're totally ok with the fact that
they're probably going to ignore you.
Not just because they don't like you, but because they are probably busy, they have
other things to do.
So, reach out to people that are amazing, but be fine with it if they don't reach out
to you.
And keep it going. Keep studying these people. So when you get the chance to actually interact
with them, you actually are able to provide value because you know them.
You don't ask the old questions, you don't say things that are stupid or obvious for
people that actually know the individual.
Study them, and study their work, so when you get the chance to interact and engage,
and start building a relationship with them, you actually are empowered to build value
and create something that's enjoyable to them, and then realize that nothing good comes from
work that you're doing today, instantly, tomorrow morning to you.
Most of the time you're going to have to hustle your ass off, and then the results are going
to come in the future.
And also, when things are going really well today for you... don't slow down because the
reason why they are going well for you is because you hustled 6, 9 months ago.
So if you start slowing down, your future in 6 to 9 months is going to slow down. And
it's gonna suck.
And people always struggle with that lag, that lagging indicator. It confuses us as
human beings.
We think: Oh, we're doing amazing today because of the shit we're doing today. And then that
obviously dramatically decreases our control of or future, because we confuse cause and
effect.
What caused the amazingness to happen today is the stuff that you did 6 months, not yesterday.
And if you want 6 months from now to look amazing... you better hustle your ass off
today.
All right, I hope that that was useful. I hope that for all of you out there that are
hustling every single day, that you take the few nuggets of wisdom that I was able to share
today with you, you go out there, and you get'em!