- On this episode we're gonna rescue you.
(hip hop music)
- [Gary] You ask questions,
and I answer them
This is The #AskGaryVee Show.
- Hey everybody, this is Gary Vay-ner-chuk
and this is episode 257 of The #AskGaryVee Show
and I've gotta say this that a lot of you
who watch or listen to the show know
I just don't really consume a lot of content.
I produce a shit load of content
and then I watch how people engage with it.
But I'm very fired up to have our guest today
because I'm really, besides watching the New York Jets,
I think his television show is one of the few things
I've consumed in the last three years
and I go on binges right,
'cause they play it back to back to back to back.
I remember I was in Canada once, yeah it was Canada once
and I stayed up from like midnight
to like four in the morning back to back to back
on who knows what channel there.
Jon I'm really excited you're here.
- [Jon] Great to be here yeah, big time.
- [Gary] Why don't you tell the Vayner Nation
who you are and a little bit about your career
and then we'll answer some questions
and I'm just really excited you're here.
- Good to be here, you know
looking at your background,
you and I have a similar background.
So you know I didn't start in the wine business
I started in the restaurant business
and I started as a bartender, became a general manager,
hotel manager, resort food and beverage director,
resort general manager.
Did pretty much everything in the industry that I could
and I've been giving speeches to night club
and bar conventions all over the world--
- [Gary] 'Cause you have that kind of personality.
- I do and I give very good speeches
and they pay well for it. - Yep.
- So I was giving a speech at a convention,
somebody comes up to me one day and says,
"Jon you should be on TV." So I wrote up a little
piece called 'On the Rocks', went to a friend of mine
who ran Paramount Television, sat down in the office
and he looks at me and he goes,
"Jon, you will never be on television. You're too old,
"you're not good looking enough,"
He goes, "Forget it."
So I walked out of that office with a vendetta.
- [Gary] Yeah. - So I went--
- A chip on your shoulder.
- I shot my own sizzle reel-- - No you did not?
- I did. Produced my own write up of the show on my own,
brought the sizzle reel to four different
production companies.
Within five days, Gary, I had four offers.
The network picked up the show
four days after I signed with the production company
and in less than a year from that guy saying to me,
"You will never be on television,"
the series premiered.
- [Gary] What's that guys name? - David Goldsmith.
- Hey David Goldsmith, you fuckin' lost this one.
- [Jon] Completely. - Good guy?
- [Jon] I must tell you--
- Is he a good guy? A good guy?
- A good guy but I did send him a dozen black roses.
- [Gary] I love it.
- Just to button up the whole issue properly.
- Jon, you know we have a lot of who might not have,
you know, what's the show like you know...
How many seasons, what network?
- Sure, it's on Spike.
We just finished our--
- Which is gonna be rebranded, right?
- January 8th Spike gets rebranded
as the Paramount Network. - [Gary] That's right.
- Which we're really excited about
because you're in the know Gary
and I started the show six years ago.
We've done 147 episodes, I just signed for 20 more
and we're getting into the record category
in business transformation shows,
almost nobody's crossed 150
but Kitchen Nightmares never crossed 100.
So you know,
none of these shows really make it past 100 episodes,
so now last season about 90 million Americans watched it.
It's now on 5,000 channels on five continents
in six languages.
And if you think it's intense to watch me in English
you should see me in Peruvian.
(group laughter)
It's something to see.
- How many of you have seen the show?
Dunk, they don't play this in Sweden?
- [Dunk] Not in Sweden, I haven't seen it--
- In Norway.
- [Dunk] In Norway? - We are in Norway.
- You need to move to Norway--
- [Dunk] Do you speak Norwegian? - I do not speak Norwegian
but I believe it's in English in Norway.
- But he translates--
- [Dunk] I don't think you can be
aggressive in Norwegian so like--
- I'll figure it out.
(Dunk laughs)
- Jon, before we get into some Q&A
you know, the thing that stood out for me
and probably why I associated with it
besides the fact that you know we got Type A personalities
and forget about the personalities,
shtick, style, vibe, DNA.
Take that completely over here.
You're practical.
- Yeah.
- You're an operator. - And it's real.
- I'm aware, because I am only,
I think a lot of the times
people can get caught up in my sizzle
but it's the steak that I'm most proud of.
I'm an operater.
Like I think of it as a business like I can't...
Not that I can't lose, you can always lose
but I stay in my little narrow lane, I know what I know
and when I watched it even with editing for television
I'm like, "Fuck it that's right, yeah he's right."
And you do a lot of EQ stuff.
- [Jon] I do.
- Like, you know I have 800 people that work for me
what probably also attracted me, and I'm like,
"I like this guy."
And whenever we first connected on Twitter and I'm like,
"Yeah, I wanna get to know this dude."
is you operate and it's about margins
and it's about shelf play.
All this stuff that I grew up with
in the liquor business right? It was all that stuff
but it was also like,
"Oh that manager's insecure." So you're finished, so--
It's, to me the thing I'm most proud of is
the content that I produce at scale.
The reason I'm excited that people,
when they watch it is if they can get over certain things
with themselves, with me even, my style they'll win.
If they listen they'll win - [Jon] Yes.
- And I believe that your show and you are powerful for that
because I do believe when I watch it as a person
I will always win in business.
If they listen they will win.
- Well you know what I've learned is every
failing business has a failing owner, Gary.
- [Gary] It's always the owner's fault.
- That's a given. So if they have a failing owner,
after 147 Bar Rescues
you know guys like you and I learn everything about success.
- [Gary] Yeah. - What do you do to
be successful, the blocks of success, the planks of success.
After 147 Bar Rescues, Gary I've seen a depth of failure
nobody's seen. - Yeah.
How many, Jon real quick, I apologize to interrupt you.
So I just did this show also for Apple, Planet of the Apps
where I'm helping these app developers right?
I was blown away by how much I gave a shit.
Like, I didn't like it.
I didn't like when I was mentoring them like,
"This sucks, like I really want them to win
"and they're not li--"
Not that they weren't listening, actually that's not true.
It was more just like I wanted them to win.
When you shoot an episode, like how long are you even there?
- [Jon] Four days.
- [Gary] Like when you're hear,
you've done six seasons right? - Yeah.
- [Gary] When you hear though the grapevine
or random email, just when you hear, when your team hears
when you hear like,
"Oh Taco Johnies became Hotrod Johnies
"and now it failed."
Hurts?
Or are you like a merticracy system, you're okay.
Like you're okay you understand that's the game?
- Not really, and I care.
- [Gary] I get it. I know you do, I get it.
- I care that houses are on the line,
I'm their last chance, they're weeks--
they have enough money for weeks.
- Go ahead.
- There's an independent website that tracks my success.
- [Gary] Is that right?
- It's called Bar Rescue Updates
and it was started to assassinate me.
But now they're pretty honest
and they're pretty straight about it.
They have a tracking--
- [Gary] Do you genuinely believe
it was started to like razz you?
- It was 'cause I watched it when it first started.
- Got it.
- Now they're very fair, they have an advertiser base
they give before and after Yelp reviews and stuff.
- [Gary] Right, right, right, that's cool.
- So they have been tracking at a 75 to 80% success factor.
- That's amazing. Considering,
look, you're at 100% success factor for a guy like me.
Just so you know. You're at 100%
It's just basic.
It's basic to us cause we've known it our whole lives.
You're at 100% success rate to me.
Your advice is always right.
You're just at the mercy of Rick.
- Yes.
And what happens with these people is
they've made decisions that way for a long, long time
and they get stuck in this, you know that.
- The fact that three out of four of them
tasted what it should look like
and had the ability to stay the course is phenomenal.
- But why is that?
And that's worth picking upon for a second.
- [Gary] Let's go ahead.
- The two most powerful motivators we have is fear.
- [Gary] Yes.
- And pride. - [Gary] Yes.
- So let's say you have a family bar.
I'll start to play with pride
'cause I gotta change you to change this business.
- [Gary] 100%. - So I'm gonna work pride.
How would you feel if you were successful?
How do you imagine...
Okay, that doesn't work.
Now fear.
What happens when you lose your fuckin' house?
- [Gary] Yeah, you're a loser.
- Look at this picture of your kid,
what happens when you can't-- - 100%.
- So I gotta make them terrified to change.
- Do you guys,
in real life versus TV life
which I think you've got a real show but
I assume, tell me if I'm wrong,
a lot of bars fail because a lot of times
the owner likes to drink, cliche right?
- Yes.
It's almost like if you're into drugs becoming a pharmacist.
I think it makes no sense whatsoever.
- It's real right? - Yes.
- Now you guys try hard--
- [Jon] Or too social.
Right.
You guys try to filter out that one variable right?
- [Jon] We do, you know-- - Yeah, that would make sense.
That's just smart. Makes sense.
- [Jon] What I wanna do is I wanna tell stories
that people wanna hear. So family dramas,
partnership dramas, you know it's intense.
- Those are real. Those are real.
- Yeah and it's very Shakespearean,
guy in trouble, resists change, transforms himself,
redeems himself in the end.
It's really very Shakespearean if you think about it.
- Oh are you kidding and it's fuckin', it's great TV right?
Like you pick up the tile
and there's fucken worms everywhere
and pa-dow it's like,
"Oh shit, there's slugs everywhere. What the fuck?"
- I wanna tell you a story I never told before.
So in the four--
- [Gary] Yes. Guys we have exclusives here
on episode 257 of The #AskGaryVee Show. go ahead.
- [Jon] The fourth episode of Bar Rescue
was shut down by the network.
- Really?
- And it was shut down by the network because
I was doing my thing and the network executive came on set
and tried to fake something.
- [Gary] And you lost your shit--
- And I told him to go fuck himself.
- [Gary] 100%.
- Made him sit in a McDonald's for three hours--
- You know who I do that to all the time? DRock.
- [Jon] Well I can see just taking one look at him
I can see why you do that.
- He's a real piece of shit. He tries to tell me what to do.
Go ahead.
- Finishing the story, so they shut down the production.
Now the senior VP of the network flies
into Chicago to talk to me
and he's walking me around the block...
- Yeah, and he's like, Jon you gotta understand.
- And he says "Listen Jon,
"you can't tell the vice president of the network
"to go fuck himself, you just can't do that."
- [Gary] Right.
- So I took control of the show, they never did it again,
and I've told 'em to go fuck themselves now
about four or five other times, right.
- [Gary] Makes sense.
Now they're wonderful, but what happens is,
and I'm not putting them down at all they're great people.
- [Gary] I know, they have their job and you have yours.
- Production wants to know
what's gonna happen before it happens.
- [Gary] You can't.
- And I won't do that. - I can tell.
- So there's a push and pull that's constantly
going on between us to protect that reality,
and I'm guessing you can relate to it.
- Well, I'd say-- - Well, if it wasn't for the
reality we wouldn't have lasted this long.
- 100%, and I do think, you know,
I wouldn't have you sitting here.
I'm stunned that you guys,
that story makes a ton of sense to me
because being empathetic to that universe,
you guys have been able to pull it off.
It's really cool. I'm glad you're here.
- [Jon] Thank you, thank you.
- Let's get some questions going.
- Great.
- So Andy's gonna get some questions.
We're gonna answer some of them,
but before we do that, where'd you grow up?
- Great Neck, Long Island, not far from here.
- Please Jon, please tell me you're a Jets fan.
- I am a Jets fan. - Tell the truth, don't bull...
I will get crazy on you right now.
- I'm gonna show my age.
Back to the Joe Namath days, I'm a Jets fan.
- So how old were you in January 12, 1969.
- In 1969, I would have been-- - [Gary] January 12th.
- 17,
- So you really were in a prime year when they won it.
- [Jon] That's what I'm saying.
- Were you walking around like, yeah.
- [Jon] I remember it big time.
I remember management, I remember it big time.
- Were you a Knicks fan?
- [Jon] So I was a Knicks fan as well,
but those were the days of DeBusschere and Clyde.
- And were you a Mets fan too? Or a Yankee?
- I was a big Mets fan because I lived on Long Island,
we would take the Long Island Rail Road to Shea Stadium
we used to watch Kingman Blasts
that would stay in the air like four minutes.
- '69, '70 you literally won an NBA, NFL
and World Series Championship.
- That's correct.
- You were the king of the world.
- I thought so. - Yeah I get it.
- But how do you not be a Jets fan after
going through that at 17 years old?
You're a Jets fan for life after that.
- Namath was like the,
he was like McGregor times a thousand.
- And cool as hell.
- Well that's the point. Mcgregor's pretty cool.
Who's this? - [Andy] Nick. From New Jersey.
- You sure 'cause it doesn't sound
like it's dialing anymore, Nick?
- [Nick] Yes.
- Bro, what's up man? What part of Jersey are you from?
- [Nick] Wildwood.
- Wildwood, man I spent a summer
there once for five minutes.
- [John] A lot of people did, right?
- [Nick] There you go.
I figured you'd know it from where you're from.
- Say hello to Jon.
- Hey man.
- [Nick] How you doing Jon? I saw you on there, yep.
- [Gary] What's your question, my friend?
- [Nick] Just started a new restaurant
and it's funny you have him on there,
'cause obviously I didn't know that.
- Yes.
- [Nick] But, the best way to get it out there
without spending a fortune?
- Where is it before Jon asks his questions?
- [Nick] It's in Wildwood, which is a resort town,
we only got a few months to do what we do.
- Are you open already?
- [Nick] Yeah, yeah and I had restaurant before
with a partner.
I walked away from that with nothing.
Threw everything against the wall.
I know it will stick, I got faith in the risk.
But, I need to get it out there.
- Okay, so in your business, let me get to the point for,
in your business you gotta pull the eye,
then pull the body, then pull their wallet.
You don't get the wallet until you have
the eye and the body first.
So, you gotta look at the exterior,
the front of your business
and make sure you're drawing attention.
'Cause off the top of my head,
what is the food item you're known for?
- [Nick] Actually, burgers, gourmet burgers.
- So, you put greatest burgers in the world,
I would create eight or ten picket signs,
wooden poles with cardboard signs.
Say world's best hamburgers, prices unfair to competition,
buns softest in town, best burger or it's free.
I would positive picket in front of your restaurant
for five consecutive days, make sure people see
you understand your commitment to quality.
It'll make a difference.
Hopefully the newspaper will pick it up with a photo.
- [Nick] They will.
They already did last year when I was with the partner
and I was the operational one, so they'll be back.
- [Gary] So look, I think my version of that,
which is all right and definitely the way I grew up
is I want you to go to Instagram and type in
Wildwood, New Jersey and search it
and see the nine trending pictures on Instagram
right now and I want you to either DM or comment
the individuals that are there because usually
if they're one of the nine most popular,
they're the people that are over-indexing,
have the biggest audience and I want you
to one-on-one engage with them at scale
and then really win, a lot of times we talk
about hashtags on Instagram, but I think that there's
a big white space to search by location
and engage with the people in that location.
I think you could basically pull eyes and bodies
into your restaurant by engaging virtually,
through people that are putting up content virtually,
especially these three months and you could do
it hand to hand combat digitally.
- [Nick] Wow. Okay. I'm new to the internet game too.
I kind of do stuff old school.
- Well, I got good news, it's not a fad.
This shit's real.
(group laughter)
- [Nick] Well, thank you Gary and Jon I appreciate it.
- Take care, talk to you soon. Good guy.
- Look at the Jersey, that was some East Coast shit
right there for everybody who's watching.
Let's get another call.
Talk to me about your journey on social.
Are you doing your Twitter? Is your team?
It's okay, I just want to know.
- We started doing it, and honestly, you know,
in our profession, we're in the the bar business.
We're in the hospitality business.
We're not in the social media business.
- I get it, I get it.
- So, we've gone through four, five different agencies
and found the process extremely frustrating.
- [Gary] Understood.
- So we brought it in house, we've taken it out house.
We've put it in house, we've taken it out house.
We've never parked it in a place where I can actually
feel good about it to be honest with you.
And it's tough to keep it in my voice as well.
- [Gary] Are you just adamantly against doing it yourself?
Is it hard? It doesn't come natural?
- [Jon] No, it's that I travel 40 weeks a year,
I shoot 12 hours a day and it's hard to allocate
the time to do it.
On the other hand, you'll tell me Jon,
you're crazy no to allocate the time to do it.
- [Gary] I'm also gonna tell what you tell
the other business owners, right?
In a 2017 environment, with, you know,
what's ironic is you are so built for it, it's scary.
- [Jon] But, I'm in a bar guy, you're in a social media space.
So, I've never perfected it and honestly,--
- [Gary] Yeah but, you know what you are?
You're a communicator.
You're a bar guy who happens
to be a phenomenal communicator.
That's why you spoke in the first place,
which led to the TV show in the first place.
I genuinely believe in the same way
that you've taught operators,
the cadence of doing the right thing,
that if you actually bit, you know, you bit the bullet
and you did it for a week or two,
it would come so unbelievably natural, based on your DNA.
- Hmmm. - [Gary] I really mean it.
- I just do it in a casual, intimate sense.
- [Gary] Be you. - In the moment.
- I don't know tell the people to go fuck themselves.
Look, you can't lose and I think once you actually taste it,
for real, it will come as natural to you as it came to me.
Because guess what? I was 32 years old.
It wasn't like I grew up with this shit.
I was on a computer five minutes in my entire life
until I was 20.
It's about communication and you've got
that pouring out of your fuckin' eyes.
- Well, I'm gonna tell you something, you've inspired me.
- [Gary] Well, thank you.
- I'm gonna pick this up tomorrow.
I'm gonna start doing this.
- [Gary] I'm fired up. You're pumped. You are pumped.
You are so happy with me right now.
- He is. He's been pushing me to do this for a long time.
- You're gonna kill it. On Twitter, you're gonna kill it.
- [Jon] It's interesting how I can be comfortable
in front of 90 million Americans on TV,
but that phone and social media environment I'm not.
- It makes sense. And you know this, right?
We're great at our lanes, but we know
that we're not as comfortable in other lanes.
I just know that it's the context of it
because your ability in it is gonna dominate.
Your gonna find yourself on wifi in the plane,
engaging on Twitter left and right.
I mean, asking you questions, you should have every...
- [Jon] I engage in Twitter, I engage in Facebook
and I type and I answer as many as I can.
But, what I'm not doing is I'm not using my camera
very often and I'm not going live very often.
- Don't worry about live for a minute.
You know where you can crush?
I would die and a bunch of people watching
would die to follow this, as your walking through
the airport, you see a restaurant, front facing,
you take a picture and you leave your two cents.
You know how many people would love that?
- [Jon] Yeah, that's a good idea.
- Great coloring on the letter, shit signage, got it?
- [Jon] Yeah. - You'll dominate that.
- That's a great idea. Great idea!
- You got content everywhere.
- So I can be a dick all day long and critique people?
- Can you imagine?
And on the flip side, you know the way this show's edited?
I think you can create a second path,
which is on social, maybe you go the path
of showing things that you think are done well.
'Cause first of all, let's think about this,
you're walking through New York City,
you see something you think is well.
You take a picture, you go this was extremely well executed.
When that bar sees that, they share it.
This, that. You see where I'm going.
- [Jon] I do. Brilliant. It's brilliant.
- Who's comin' in now?
- [Andy] Kevin from Chicago. - Kevin from Chicago.
(phone ringing)
Let's see what Kevin from Chicago...
I'm fired up now, John.
I think you're gonna dominate. - You got me fired up.
- I think you're gonna hit me up in four months
and be like, "Fuck, I shoulda done it."
Kevin?
- [Kevin] Hello? - Kevin, this is GaryVee,
and you're on The #AskGaryVee Show.
- [Kevin] Gary, my man.
- How are you?
- [Kevin] Amazing, how are you?
- Good, bro, you're on with Jon, can you say hello?
- [Kevin] Hey Jon, hello.
- Hey, buddy, how are you?
- Kevin, you're as chill as fuck!
- [Jon] Yeah, man, did we wake you up?
- Did you smoke like a fuckin' fat blunt?
Like, what's going on here, Kevin, you're chill, bro!
- [Kevin] I'm trying my best not to freak out right now.
- Okay, got it, got it, got it.
What's your question?
- [Kevin] Alright, so my brother's
13th birthday's coming up in July.
- Okay?
- [Kevin] And I was wondering if you had any ideas
what kind of gift to give him that would be like
very good for his life and life-changing.
- Okay, so what's his story at 13 right now?
- [Kevin] Uh, loves basketball.
Starting to go through puberty, voice changing.
- Is he on Instagram?
- [Kevin] No, he's not.
He's on Snapchat, though, loves Snapchat.
- So, I have an idea.
For this 13th birthday,
I think you should have him create his Instagram account
and my friend here, Dunk, who has two million followers
in the basketball space--
- [Dunk] 2.2. - 2.2 million,
is gonna give him a shout-out and send people his way.
- [Jon] That's great. - He'll shit his pants.
- [Jon] And link to his favorite players
and create a whole community around it.
- Jon, it's better than that, he'll get like...
He'll get like 4,000 followers on Instagram
and not know what to do with himself.
- [Kevin] Yeah, he'd freak out.
- It's a done deal. Email me at Gary@VaynerMedia.
Dunk sells these things for like $50,000.
I just gave you $50,000, Kevin.
Appreciate it, thank you, Dunk. - You're welcome.
Dunk! (group laughter) - Very excited.
He was very excited about it.
Kevin, that's for calling.
We just made a 13-year-old's life.
Kevin, if you're...
Gary@VaynerMedia.com.
Dunk, you're the best.
- [Dunk] Yes, I'm gonna do it.
- I know you are, 'cause you're the best.
You're a good dude.
While Andy's getting another call,
what...
What, in your career growing up,
what was the best-run organization that you worked in
before you went onto the next part of show...
What was the place where you really learned how to...
A lot of places I'm sure you learned not to do it.
But where was the place that really...
Who was a great operator?
What was a great experience for you early on?
- It wasn't somebody I worked for,
it was somebody I worked with. - [Gary] Okay.
- And you'd be surprised by the answer.
It's going back a number of years, but Disney.
- [Gary] That's not surprising to me at all, keep talking.
- I mean, Disney's commitment to employee orientation.
I mean, Disney, you don't wear uniforms, you wear costumes.
You don't work at a station, you work on a stage.
Every door is a stage door,
to the front of the house to the back of the house.
You never break character.
Their depth of training was incredible.
Even a janitor, the guy who sweeps up,
they knew that he would get more questions than anyone.
So he knew everything. - [Gary] Interesting.
- Their depth of training and commitment--
- You said "worked with," under what context?
What was the story back then?
- I'm not permitted to publicly say
because we're on non-disclosure--
- No worries.
- But we worked with them-- - That sounds awesome.
Sounds really cool.
And what about early on?
What brought you into the industry,
just literally just making two bucks and hour?
- [Jon] No, I was going into politics, believe it or not.
I went to University of Denver, started tending bar.
But I had two loves:
politics and cultural anthropology,
which you'll find interesting.
So I loved the study of primates and animal societies,
which are just like us.
So I've learned to analyze people
and my crew calls it "Dr. John."
I can analyze somebody in seconds.
Just their landing point defines everything.
- [Gary] 100%.
- Do you land in selfish interests?
Do you land in gracious interests?
Where do you land, 'cause where you land is truly you.
Then you try to fix it after that.
- [Gary] That's right.
- So, it's all very primal,
and it's helped me a lot in my other careers.
- [Gary] Clearly, I mean, I brought up earlier,
even through the editing process of a television show,
it was interesting and obvious to me
that you traded on EQ, what I would call EQ,
emotional intelligence. It's all people behavior.
Like, I've got a very good read
on everybody who I interact with
very quickly as well, predicated on...
It's pretty basic.
If it comes natural to you, if you've learned it,
things of that nature.
You got something? - [Andy] Yep.
- What's your problem over here? Going a little slow.
- [Andy] I'm just waiting for you guys.
(phone ringing) - Respect. Who's this?
- [Andy] Glen from California.
- Glen from California?
Okay, let's see what Glen's got for us, Jon.
- [Glen] Hello?
- Glen, you're on The #AskGaryVee Show.
- [Glen] Oh, shoot, this is crazy!
- It sure is, how's California?
- [Glen] It's freaking amazing.
You see the weather out here, it's crazy.
- (laughs) What's your question?
- [Glen] So, um... alright--
- Well, first, please say hello to Jon T.
- [Glen] Hey, how you doing-- - Hey, Gary.
How you doing, man?
- [Glen] Doin' great, so...
I do a YouTube channel.
I have about 24K subscribers.
I have about 50K on my Facebook, doing pretty well.
- Yep.
- [Glen] Only been doing it for a year and a half.
It's called Beleaf In Fatherhood, shout it out.
But anyway...
I just did a deal with Apple.
Apple was like, "Hey, I love your picture.
"I love this picture that you use on Instagram.
"It'd be dope if we could use it for our campaign worldwide."
So literally, there are 90 billboard-size
pictures of my son around the world.
- That's amazing!
- [Glen] Yeah, it's great.
So I know that this is just like a,
it's a cool thing, you know what I'm saying, that happened,
and I know it doesn't really get me anything
besides the money that we got off top, which is cool,
but I'm trying to figure out
how to leverage this opportunity
into something bigger and to put some more brands,
you know what I'm saying?
- I do know what you're saying.
- Guess where he is? - Where?
- No, in other words, you can have some type
of an online activity that's interactive
where you can guess where he is.
Locate him, something along those kind of lines
to create engagement.
Not bad?
- [Gary] Yeah, so real quick,
how old's the child?
- [Glen] He's four.
He's adorable.
- I'm sure he's adorable.
I mean, um...
So, it's interesting.
So one more time
because I wanna make sure I heard this right.
Apple obviously licensed the image from you
that they saw online.
Through what, through Facebook or Instagram?
Just I wanna get all the details.
- [Glen] Instagram. - Okay.
- [Glen] Through a freakin' hashtag.
Only think I every hashtagged.
- Wild.
And they bought the rights to the photo, obviously.
And they're using it in how many billboards
in how many markets, I wanna hear it one more time.
- [Glen] 90 different billboards.
Around the world. - Around the world.
And so you're saying to yourself,
"Okay, my four-year-old son is on 90 billboards."
You took the photo?
- [Glen] I took the photo.
- And you're thinking about how do I leverage
this opportunity, right?
- [Glen] Right, and keep in mind,
though I had very low numbers, like, 24K isn't a lot,
if I put up a video for an ad on Facebook,
it gets two or three million views,
you know what I'm saying?
So I can create very heartfelt
stuff for the black community,
for church folk, and stuff like that.
But I'm trying to figure out how
to present this to brands better
because I have all these working relationships,
but I can't get real money, you know what I'm saying?
- Of course I do because brands oftentimes
are paying for distribution
and are commoditizing out creative,
and you're playing in a creative world.
And obviously you've shown some distribution capabilities.
Let's take it a step back.
What bucket do you wanna put this talent into?
What do you wanna build?
Do you wanna build an agency?[ Do you wanna build a product?
I think one of the things that,
back to the reason Jon's shaking his head now,
these are the practical questions, I think.
The model of "I wanna get brands to pay me more
"for branded posts on social networks" is fine,
and I think is an emergingly massive market.
But you're also at the vulnerability of the platforms,
the terms of service changing, the market behaviors.
I think the question becomes,
what do you want to do with your creative talents?
Are you trying to build a service business?
Are you trying to build a product business?
Are you trying to build a personal brand where you--
- A father-advocacy business.
It could be something on those lines as well.
- Where do you wanna take it?
I think you have to make those decisions on where you--
- [Glen] I already know. - Go ahead.
- [Glen] Yeah, so I wanna be, you know,
the thought leader on parenting five years from now.
Everything I do with these vlogs and these videos
only shows my validity in how I can speak on these topics
as a father from the father perspective and as a husband.
So six, seven years from now,
when CNN is having some issue with parenting,
they can bring in and talk to me about it.
- I understand.
- [Glen] But in the short-term, I need to make financial...
I need to make some money, you know what I'm saying?
- Of course I do.
- Well, advocacy and money
don't always travel hand-in-hand together.
So I know from one, and this is just my view,
if you wanna monetize this, then, you know,
you need money for charity.
No money, no charity.
So you start with the monetization
and then you build to the advocacy.
I don't think it's the other way around.
Would you agree, Gary?
- Yes, but I think what he's asking is a little bit...
It's a little bit interesting what he's up to.
So, real quick, you've been able to make some money
from brands on creating content on your personal profiles?
- [Glen] Yes sir. - How much, like $500 a post?
Like that kind of numbers?
- [Glen] Nine, $900, yeah--
- So Jon do you know this phenomenon?
There's like, we believe that it's like a two to three
billion dollar market of people with large social
network accounts, mainly on Instagram and Facebook
where brands will pay them for, in essence commercials.
Post, you know-- - [Jon] Uh-huh, yes.
- Advertorial, as the way we grew up right?
- [Jon] Yes, I've had those requests on my page.
- I'm sure, so I look, I think there's a,
I think there's a couple ways to do this.
I've got a very rogue answer for you.
Are you self, are you trying to make this
your full-time living?
Do you have a job currently as well?
- [Glen] I came from hip hop,
I'm trying to get out of hip hop.
I'm moving towards fatherhood, cause it's--
- Understood, but when you say you came from hip hop,
do you have a job right now
or are you trying to live your life--
- [Glen] No.
- Okay, I'm gonna throw you for a curve,
how old are you? - [Glen] I'm 32.
- So, when you become the person that the big media
companies in six or seven years call for fatherhood
in your genre, things of that nature,
is your plan to get, a million dollar book advance,
to get paid $40,000 to give speeches?
Are you looking to ultimately-- - [Glen] Exactly.
- Okay, I would tell you,
that I think you should get a job.
And I think you should-- - [Glen] Alright.
- I think you should get a job for somebody
who's a personal brand.
I think you should-- - [Glen] Yeah.
- Look under the hood. The great advantage,
the thing that allowed Jon and I to sit here today,
and have all these people watching, and listening,
is we did the thing for decades
before we talked about the thing.
I believe that if you got a 45,000, an 80,000, an 9,000,
I'm not gonna speak to your finances.
But I believe if you worked the nine to six, nine to seven,
to be the social media guy
for any personal brand,
whether it's in your genre or not,
and it probably won't be in your genre,
an athlete, an actress, a politician,
if you could see somebody,
I'm a big fan of working for somebody who's doing the thing
you want to do, you get to see everything under the hood.
And I would love to see you get, pay your bills
and learn the do's and the don'ts,
and then use that platform to build yourself up.
I'm a very big advocate of the advice that I'm giving,
and let me be clear, I know it's taking a step backwards,
to take two steps forward.
A lot more fun, to kinda sell your $900 post here,
your $800 post there.
But I genuinely believe that a year or two of that work
could become disproportional powerful.
Because that you're gonna do,
is, I love when, I see what Dunk does or he sees what I do,
and then you work it on your account, like
it's incredible to see the do's and don'ts.
And I think that there's a way for you to possibly
get that job, and then build off of that.
And that's just one way to go about it.
By the way, the other way is to keep scrappin'.
- I just gotta say something-- - [Glen] Yeah.
- As a father of a 28 year old,
I'm just not sure you're an authority on being a father
when you have a four year old.
Talk to me when he's 15.
- [Glen] Well, that's the thing.
That's the thing, people want,
they see me as successful because
they see how well-behaved my children are.
But they don't realize that I still have to
raise a 30 year old.
You know what I'm saying?
Like he has to get to 30 in order for me
to be considered a success.
So, I'm kind of in a weird position where
people wanna see what it's like to,
be proof that fatherhood is even something that they want
because they don't believe in it cause they're,
you know, some people don't have their fathers around.
So all I am is proof, that's success, I'm proof.
- I think Jon's right and I think you're right,
which is why I created that whole genre of
document don't create. - [Glen] Yeah.
- All these people faking it saying I'm a great father
instead of look-- - [Jon] Here's the proof.
- I've been really pushing my audience Jon to like hey,
faking that you're an expert at bars
because you worked in one for a year,
and you wanna be known in that cause it sounds cool,
or it seems like you can make money that way is fine.
You're gonna trick a couple of losers,
winners are gonna look-- - [Jon] Mhmmm.
- As a winning A-type--
- [John] I'll see through in a minute.
- Yeah, you jumped in right away and said,
"Wait a minute bro! Your kid's four."
But, what I think he's doing,
and culturally he's painting a picture.
- [Glen] Is documenting--
- That's right, he's like, "I have a four year old".
"And that's where I'm at now".
So listen, I think you've got two options,
a couple of options.
You've got probably way more than that.
I think the thing that you can do,
is deploy massive patience,
produce far more content than you're producing now,
hustle more, produce tons of content,
and build a very slow burn for seven, eight years.
I did five episodes a day of Wine Library TV in 2006
for, I don't know, about four years before it
kind of like meant a little something.
Four years every day, you know--
- [Glen] Yeah.
- pumping out that show daily, five days a week.
You know, I think a lot of you in my audience know,
a lot of you have just discovered me in January.
I've been putting out content on the internet,
every single day for a decade.
For a decade-- - [Glen] Yeah.
- at scale, successfully.
So, I think you either deploy patience,
and make you $900 here,
your $100 here, your $500 here.
One month is $4000, you feel like you got it.
The month it goes like to 80 bucks,
you're like "What the fuck?"
Or, you take the route that I painted first
which is, you go and get a job as a social media
content person for a very famous athlete, or actor,
or actress, so you could see it at a higher plane.
So you can see what it tastes like--
- [Glen] Yeah.
- at the $10,000 posts, at the $100,000 speaking engagement
so that you're like, "Okay, that's what it takes
"to get there." Got it?
Or you do both. - [Glen] Got it.
- It's funny, that's the same advice I would give
to somebody who asked that question about the bar business.
- [Gary] I believe you man.
- Go to work for the best one you can find in town.
- [Gary] 100%
- You know, work for an example,
and learn from that example. - [Glen] Yeah.
- Same deal.
- [Gary] Glen, I appreciate you calling man,
good luck to you. Keep hustling.
- [Glen] Appreciate it brother, thank you.
- [Gary] Jon, you know what's interesting right?
It's fun for me to hear you say that right now 'cause,
literally, I mean I think that's generally what attracted,
why, I mean fuck!
To watch four hours, I always watch around
Thanksgiving and Christmas too,
I feel like they were always doing marathons,
I was watching with my family, I'm like
"Let's all watch this".
Like, it was, you know, it's just, it's unbelievable
how if people deployed patience,
they could get what they want, they just don't want to.
They want passive income quick.
- [Jon] Well there is no quick.
It took you a long time to monetize your work didn't it?
- Nobody's got quick.
Nobodies, Beyonce's been dancing, fucking singing
since she was like 4.
Like every athlete,
outside of like the super freaks,
like 88% of them, it's the hard,
and by the way, there's the
the 400 best football, baseball, and basketball players
on natural talent, aren't in the league,
'cause they didn't work hard enough.
- [Jon] You don't become a household name for no reason.
- I believe that too. - [Jon] In almost no case.
- [Gary] I'm a big believer.
- It takes a lifetime to get to that point--
- [Gary] And it's talent, and hard work.
- You bet. - [Gary] Listen, I could work--
- And substance
- [Gary] 100%, I could work really, really hard at baseball,
like real hard, 18 hours a day, it wasn't gonna happen.
Like, there's a little self awareness in it.
That's why I love business and entrepreneurship,
it gives everybody a little bit more of a chance,
it's not a physical attribute.
I mean it's a mental one but, one more?
Last one, who's this?
- [Andy] Glen sorry, - Oh Glen again, Chandler?
(phone ringing) Chandler Parsons?
- [Andy] Chandler Lyles
- Okay, alright.
(phone ringing)
- [Chandler] Hello, this is Chandler
- Chandler this is GaryVee and you're ask,
and you are on The #AskGaryVee Show.
- [Chandler] Hey, how are you doing?
- Doing really well, please say hello to my
phenomenal guest Jon.
- Hey.
- [Chandler] Jon, what's up man, how are you?
- Good man, how are you?
- [Chandler] I'm doing well, I gotta tell you guys,
you're both idols of mine, so this is awesome.
- Sounds like you're a very smart man.
- Yes, obviously a man of great taste.
- Great, clearly
(group laughter - You are a winner!
- [Chandler] Yeah, it depends on what day
you talk to my wife about that. - Chandler, you are a winner!
- What can we help you with?
- [Chandler] Yeah, so I run a barbecue restaurant--
- This is great.
- [Chandler] In Lexington, Kentucky, and you guys
are marketing geniuses, both of you.
So just, what advice do you have for
small guys like me, you know,
competing with the big guys out there?
- Jon, before you answer that,
Chandler, can you give us a little more context?
How many years?
What kind of revenue?
Give us something to give you a real,
we could give real good answers to that question,
but here we are, let's go even a little further.
- [Chandler] Right. - Give us a little more context.
- [Jon] How long you open? How much you doing in sales?
- [Chandler] Sure so, we started as a food tent
a couple years back. - [Gary] Nice!
- [Chandler] Worked our way up to a gas station.
- [Gary] Love it.
- [Chandler] After that, we actually just closed
that location to open our next location,
which is a real location now so.
Yeah, we do about a million dollars in sales.
- Good for you!
- [Chandler] Yeah so, we've done a lot of social media
stuff to this point.
But, you know it seems like, I don't know.
- It's been tapped out?
- [Chandler] We hit a plateau--
- Yeah, happens.
- [Chandler] You know what I mean and I'm,
we're getting ready to bring a video guy on full-time--
- Where's your location?
How you feeling about your location?
- [Chandler] Our new location is really strong,
but I'm one of those guys like,
what we're doing now is plenty to make enough money.
The problem is that we're just like,
I always want more.
You know what I mean? I'm always trying to get better.
I don't wanna be complacent.
I really just feel like we hit plateau.
So I don't know-- - How many cars go by each day?
What's your traffic count?
- [Chandler] The road we're on,
probably fifteen thousand or so.
- Okay, so you're on a road
that would qualify for a national franchise,
so he's got some got some good potential.
- [Gary] I love that. - Based upon the traffic
on that road. You know I'm gonna say something
and I think Gary's gonna agree with me.
We're not in the content business,
we're not in the restaurant business,
you're not in the barbecue business,
we're all in the business of creating reactions.
When a post creates a reaction, it works, doesn't it?
When it creates no reaction it doesn't work.
So, the post isn't the product,
the reaction is the product.
The post is the vehicle. - [Chandler] Wow.
- To you, barbecue isn't the product.
Barbecue is the vehicle.
The product is a reaction.
Are people reacting well?
Are they sitting up when the food hits the table?
Are their feet tapping to the music you're playing?
How are your guests reacting to what you're doing?
- [Chandler] Yeah, everything reaction-wise
has been fantastic.
You know, they're all my mom's recipes, all home made.
We like to joke she was farm to table before it was hip.
She grew up on a farm in South Georgia,
but, yeah, people love the food
tons of positive reviews online. - So you got a story.
- [Chandler] Yeah, yes sir, yeah.
- You have a story, and a most powerful asset to marketing,
particularly to Millennials these days is to have a story.
Is that story online?
Do people know that story, your mother's recipe?
Are you creating curiosity online and in a marketplace
to try your mom's recipes?
- [Chandler] I'm the guy that does the marketing.
I'm probably dropping the ball on not really hammering home
the mom side of the story.
- Not only that, you're not hammering home shit
because you haven't posted on Instagram in four days.
- [Chandler] Uh, you are right about that.
- I'm aware, and so to me
hitting a plateau from a marketing standpoint
you as somebody who's got such a great piece of,
you have food for Instagram.
Like, you've been given a gift.
I'm working with people that have concrete companies,
like fencing, like doorknobs.
You have barbecue food in Kentucky.
You should be posting four times a day
on Instagram, right, and you're not.
So for me, you haven't tapped out anything.
You haven't even started.
- [Jon] But it's even more than that.
I'd be posting pictures of the smoker,
the product smoking, the raw product.
You know, making real quality statements
in what you're doing.
You've got to create curiosity
so people wanna walk through the front door and taste it.
- And Chandler, when you have a baby that ridiculously cute
sitting next to you and working on the business,
like this is, so wait a minute,
you've got barbecue in Kentucky, which allows you
to speak about a lot of things like sports and other things.
It doesn't have to always be about the food, right?
You could talk about the basketball team and things
of that nature, the recruits.
- [Chandler] You think so, you think people like
that kind of side? - 100%, brother.
If you literally post and use the hashtag
whoever Kentucky recruited, and I promise you
five of them are superstars, and you use their hashtag,
of those five, I promise you that people are gonna
discover that 'cause they're clicking that hashtag
Kentucky Bas-- - Kentucky Basketball, forget
about it. - It's religion
- It is religion. - It's religion, it's religion.
So yeah, I absolutely do.
Like when I look at your Instagram and great job
by Andy here, pulling up your stuff,
we haven't even begun here, right?
And, you could do one day just on the beans,
one day just on the coleslaw,
like one day just on the beans!
Like four pieces of content just on the beans!
Are the beans good?
- [Chandler] Man, that's so easy to do, too.
I mean you're a 100% right
because it's all made from scratch, so the essence
of making stuff from scratch is a story.
- Chandler, are the beans good?
- [Chandler] You can see the path there.
Yeah, I mean, they're the best fuckin' beans on the planet.
- Dude, I love beans.
- So I gotta tell you something.
I'm looking at your page right now and there's
a bottom left picture which I gotta tell you guys,
as one who takes professional food pictures,
that picture sucks.
And the reason why is
you're showing little, unimportant things.
You gotta come in on the meat.
You gotta show the juiciness, the thickness of the ribs.
- [Gary] He did a good job here on this one, right?
Like, what is that? That's a hush puppy, right?
- But you're getting closer to the product.
You can see the crisp, the flavor.
Try to make these pictures a little closer.
Try to get people to connect, those are okay,
but that's almost a little too close.
- [Gary] Look at that shit! - There you go.
- [Gary] That's some shit right there.
- Look at the U.S. Air Force.
Is there a base nearby?
- [Chandler] No, not here.
- And this post on May 14, the one that said
Happy Mother's Day, right,
you know, you've got the Mother's Day hashtag
but there's no other hashtags that you used. Right?
You've gotta get into best practices too.
And remember, you called in, that means you know me,
and I always say, watch what I'm doing,
not what I'm saying, and you know that I'm treating
my Instagram very differently than you're treating
your Instagram, right?
- [Chandler] Right, yeah.
I guess,
I guess I just had to double down on,
I mean I'm not, I guess for our market
I'm just not believing in Instagram
but that's probably dumb.
- It's not--
- [Chandler] We do a bunch of Facebook advertising
and really go into that, but--
- Look, it's not about being dumb or not,
or it being dumb or not.
It's mapping your output
to your ambition.
You've achieved-- - [Chandler] What do you
mean by that? - Well I'll explain.
You've achieved something incredible.
Most people will never build a business that does
a million dollar years in revenue, and I have no idea--
- [Chandler] A million plus. - Million plus. God bless.
To me, I just heard from you.
You opened this, and let's rewind it, that said,
you're still hungry. - [Chandler] Right.
- Listen, you've got a little one at home.
I'm not telling you how to do your work-life balance.
I'm not telling you, you do you.
Here's what I can tell you.
By looking at your Facebook and YouTube and Instagram,
in a 2018 environment around food culture
that is completely being dominated by consumption online,
I don't think your actions are speaking to you being hungry.
- [Chandler] Okay, so what,
your answers always do everything,
but obviously Instagram-- - Yes.
- [Chandler] What are the two other things I can do in 2017
to set us up right for 2018?
- So again, I think watch what I do and not what I say.
I think you should literally get an intern
from a local high school or college.
If you can't afford it, or if you can afford it,
or you have a relative, I think they should
literally film you every single day
and you should put out a piece of content
for 3 minute, 7 minute, 19 minute video on a day to day
basis, Lyles Barbecue day to day every single day.
From those videos, I think you should do four posts
on Instagram, seven on Twitter, five on Facebook,
and I think you should start a barbecue podcast,
Kentucky barbecue podcast and put out a show
once a week on audio
above and beyond working every day,
and taking care of your little guy,
if you're as hungry as you fuckin' say you are.
- But if you were then you would've posted
and that four day gap wouldn't exist
'cause you posted before the four days
- [Gary] Jon, I'm empathetic.
Chandler's deemed that that's not as important.
Facebook ads are working better, and Chandler,
you know it's fun to talk to you.
You know my spiel, which is like
fine, that's doing better now, but it's also
'cause you're not doing Instagram well.
- [Chandler] Right, absolutely. You're right about that.
We just need to go back to doing some homework
and get into practicing. You're 100% right.
- [Jon] I wanna add one more thing if I can for you.
If you can increase your guest frequency
by one visit a month, that's a 12-15% increase in revenue.
- [Chandler] Right.
- One visit more per month is 12-15%.
You need to work on that as well.
So you need to have the frequency programs in place,
you need to have programs to get people that come mid-week
back on weekends, people to have a propensity to come
on weekends to come back mid-week.
You need to work this in a more immediacy type of way.
You've got to increase frequency as well,
especially in a market like yours where you can
only get too many, so many new customers.
You got a lot of barbecue in your area.
- [Chandler] Sure, yeah, absolutely.
so sometimes it isn't a question of adding more customers,
sometimes it's a question of adding more customers
and more frequency, and that's the combo that together
will make you much more successful.
- There's also an insight to the way--
- [Chandler] Jon, let me ask you this really fast.
In restaurant business, pricing is key.
And I know the difference between
a fast casual restaurant, Jon.
Where do you think the price point needs
to be averaged ticket-wise?
'Cause I'm under the belief that,
'cause we make everything from scratch,
we're priced just a little bit higher,
and we do a lot to try to differentiate ourselves
with marketing and telling stories on Facebook and things,
but we're going to have to do better, obviously
it sounds like, but what price point do you think
and does that play into it at all?
- Well, let's say you were selling a steak
for half the price of somebody else,
and somebody comes up to you and says,
"Your steak is too expensive."
They're not saying it's too expensive,
'cause they paid twice the price
for a steak someplace else.
They're telling you your steak is not worth the price.
So, I don't think you should ever lower your price.
You need to make the statements that provide
the value commensurate with that price.
So, are you saying the things, recipe,
spec, our best ribs are the best in the world,
the meatiest, it falls off the bone?
You don't have an absolute value issue.
You have a value perception issue,
and there's a difference between
perceived value and absolute value.
- [Chandler] Sounds like Gary saying--
- I wouldn't lower your prices
I would build my value statements.
- And what's interesting about that advice is,
there was something in the way
that you were communicating about Facebook versus Instagram.
I would highly recommend you think
about branding versus sales.
Too many people-- - [Chandler] Sure.
- Right? It's, you know, if that's the case...
I can just tell that you're a smart enough man
to know a shitload of eyeballs are on Instagram.
- [Chandler] Right, yeah, yeah.
- So... Go ahead.
- [Chandler] No, I was gonna say they are.
I guess I'm just, I'm doing that stupid thing
where people justify that it's not happening
in their area, of course, but it's happening
everywhere else in the world, but that's it.
- Yeah, this whole notion-
- [Chandler] That's it, right. - That ran through your mind
that nobody in fucking Lexington, Kentucky
is on Instagram is ludicrous.
- You know, honestly, what you're doing
is you're assuming an excuse, which is worse
than making an excuse in and of itself.
Don't assume anything until you know it.
That's what's exciting about this environment
and the things that you're doing,
is you can test all of these,
and it's not only what you do,
it's how you do it, as Gary's saying,
to make it more work effectively.
But don't make the excuse out of the gate,
'cause then you're gonna discount
your initiative and your effort before you start.
- It's interesting, I believe so much
in driving people to your...
If you've got quality, the cost of acquisition
is something that is fascinating to me.
So, for example, we're about to do something
at Wine Library, my family business.
We have a huge gourmet department,
I wanna continue to build it up,
and we're about to create something
called Free Food Friday.
Like, we're gonna give away a fuckload of free food.
Just like, I don't know, show up
between this three hours, and we're
gonna give you a $20 food gift certificate.
And the truth is, the cost of acquisition
for us, that $20, because we know our business
is so much better than a lot of other people's business,
that we can make that ROI positive
in a two or three-year window.
I am fascin...
Now look.
- Can I make that work for him? - [Gary] Go ahead.
- I'm doing exactly the same thing in a different way.
If you buy a guest through traditional media,
the cost of that guest is typically $40 to 80.
- [Gary] Bingo.
- So, let's say you're ribbed in across your five dollars.
Food costs, the ribs, the potato,
the platter, the whole thing.
I would give out 100 coupons for a free
rib dinner to people that have never
been there before, no restrictions.
So now, Gary walks up to the front door with a coupon,
"I got a coupon for a free rib dinner,
"never been here before."
"Come on in."
First of all, I don't pay 'til they come,
second, I'm paying $4.65, not
40 to 60 dollars for each customer.
And then here's something that nobody else will tell you.
If somebody goes to a restaurant for the first time
and has a flawless experience,
the statistical likelihood of them
doing a second visit is about 40%.
They come back a second time--
- [Chandler] I believe that too, because--
- And have a flawless experience,
the statistical likelihood of a third visit
is still about 42%.
The third time they come, the statistical
likelihood of a fourth visit
is over 70%.
So, you gotta market to three visits, not one.
Visit one, free rib dinner.
You sit 'em down, put a red napkin
on the table, not a white one.
Identify 'em as a first-time customer,
connect with 'em, and work to get 'em back
a second time and a third time.
Once they're there the third time, you own 'em.
- My man Chandler--
- [Chandler] The red napkin thing is genius
'cause in a fast, casual environment,
we're not hitting that tablecloth, but-
- Let me give you-
- [Chandler] See a napkin that's red on the table-
- Chandler, let me give you-- - Can I detail that for him?
- Go ahead, go ahead.
- Okay, so you put a red napkin at the table.
Gary sits down, he's eating dinner,
now he's getting his free rib dinner,
oh, and his water costs him nothing.
I know he's a first-time customer
'cause he's got a red napkin.
When he's leaving, the manager comes
to the table, writes on the back
of a business card, $5 off chicken.
"Did you like the ribs?"
"Loved 'em."
"You gotta try my chicken.
"Come in for the chicken."
Now I'm prompting a second visit,
not with a printed coupon, a hand-written card.
Now he comes in for the second visit,
drops the business card on the table,
everybody knows this is a second visit,
'cause red napkin was the first visit.
Second visit, you finish the meal,
you go up, you say, "So, how was the chicken?"
"It was frickin' great."
"Are you full?" "Totally stuffed."
"Man, next time you gotta try my cheesecake."
Free piece of cheesecake.
Now, three visits.
Ribs cost me five--
- Wait, a piece-- - [Jon] A piece of cheesecake.
- Oh, I thought a pizza-flavored cheesecake.
I was like, "That's fuckin' brilliant."
- So the rib dinner-
- Keep going. - Costs me $5.
The chicken was a washout 'cause it was a discount.
The cheesecake is $1.35.
For about $6, you got three visits
out of 'em with a 70% likelihood of a fourth.
That's the way you market a restaurant
within the four walls of it.
- [Chandler] That is huge.
That's why you two are the best.
- Chandler, let me give you,
listen, let me give you one more for the road, mister.
- [Chandler] Give me whatever you want, man.
- There's a very interesting thing
that Jon said, because I grew up
in that environment, too, and Jon's
from the traditional marketing world
that we grew up in, pulling from his world.
Notice how he said, "First-time customer,
"I'll give it to you," because the traditional
retail and bar thing is like, look, it's more...
If you've already got somebody in the funnel,
the cost of acquisition for a new buddy
is very, very, very powerful.
I used to do that, too, but it was tricky, right?
Because now some of your old-time customers
may see that, and they got that angst of,
"Wait a minute, why am I being not treated
"that way as a loyal customer?
"You just want new people."
And it's always been a friction for us, right?
In the retail, right? - [Chandler] Right.
- Now, I just went to Instagram, right?
I typed in Lexington, Kentucky.
Got it? - [Chandler] Yes, sir.
- I'm looking at nine posts right now
that are top posts, and ungodly amounts,
unlimited amounts of people's posts
that are from Lexington, Kentucky.
I went all the way down, and that's from 48 minutes ago.
40 pictures down, 48 minutes ago.
Thousands of people are posting right now
on Instagram from Lexington, Kentucky.
I go to the top nine posts, I click the middle one.
It's a nice little cute couple, right?
They got 298 likes.
Abby, she's from somewhere, she's part
of a sorority, it looks like.
She has 2,387 followers.
There's a triple dot in the top right corner on Instagram.
I hit it, it lets me send her a message.
I send her a message, "Abby, see you're in Lexington.
"We love being part of Lexington.
"Here's a $20-off coupon, $10-off coupon, free chicken."
Only she sees it.
You're grabbing somebody who has a big social media profile.
You've not hurt any of your loyal customers
like me and Jon had to back in the day.
She comes and she posts a picture
of the food and creates word of mouth.
Now that $5 acquisition created no friction
to loyal customers, and, because she's now media,
she amplifies it, and you're getting
an $80, $500, $4,000 media amplification
against your five fuckin' dollars.
- And, last, one thing. Don't discount.
People get addicted to discounts,
they don't get addicted to free.
- [Gary] That's right.
- So, give-
- [Chandler] Yeah, no, that's the one thing
we've probably done right that we've
never wavered on, was discount.
I mean, that's, you don't cheapen the product, for sure.
Well, guys, I appreciate this, and I just
wanna say one thing.
When I separated from the Air Force,
made it three years ago now,
I watched a ton of Bar Rescue and I watched
a ton of Gary's content, and you guys
and the content you put out really helped me
build this business from, literally,
we were a tent on the side of the road,
to now we have our brick and mortar business
with very little debt on it, and that's something
you guys helped me with.
So, I am eternally grateful, and if you're ever
in Lexington, first rack of ribs is on me,
and no red napkin needed.
- Okay. (Gary laughs)
- [Gary] And I'll end with, thank you for what you've done
for this amazing country that has created
a framework for us to be all able to do this.
- [Jon] That's right.
- [Chandler] Alright, and if anybody out there,
YouTube, Lyles Barbecue Company, check us out.
- I love the plug at the end.
Jon, this was such a pleasure, my friend.
- A pleasure. - I really enjoyed this.
- Do it again.
- Yeah, we should definitely do this again.
Now, it's customary-- - So you gonna be watching me
the next few days when I go on?
- Are you on this, are you gonna be on?
- No, I'm gonna do what you advised me to do.
- 100%.
- I am, the next week-- - I'm impressed with you.
- Gonna focus on working on this and connecting greater--
- Let's clap this up, team, I'm excited.
(group applause)
- I want you to take a peek,
give me a little advice next week.
- Well, the best part is the Vayner Nation,
tens of thousands of people are about to bother you.
This is a piece of cake for me, I'm just gonna chill.
(Jon laughs)
Jon, the guest gets to ask the question of the day.
So you're gonna get thousands
of answers on YouTube and Facebook.
What question do you wanna ask them?
A selfish consumer insights one for you,
a general one, something that's funny to you?
What question of the day do you have to take us out?
- You know, I have a rescue tour that starts on July 10th.
I'm going to 27 cities in six weeks
to teach small business people how to make money.
- [Gary] I love it.
- And it's my passion.
It's a three and a half hour program, means the world to me.
I wanna hear from everyone, what is the most
important thing that I could teach them
to increase their revenues, improve their business?
I think I know what it is,
but I'd love to hear it from them.
- [Gary] Well, we'll get you set.
- What is most important to you,
'cause that's what I wanna do.
- I appreciate it, my friend.
You keep asking questions, we'll keep answering them.
(hip hop music)