- What up vlog?
Early morning,
Saturday.
You're about to watch a really interesting meeting
I had with two dudes.
Two great guys from Connecticut.
I went real specific advice.
Obviously, the $1.80 strategy on Instagram
has hit pay dirt for a lot of you.
The 2017 Flip Challenge.
I'm trying to force myself to give you guys
more black and white tactical advice.
I think this is it.
This interview kills it.
Enjoy it.
(hip hop beats)
What's cooking?
- Nice to meet you Vayne. - Nice to meet you.
- I've been watching you for a long time.
- [Vayne] Thank you man. - Yeah.
- Thank you man.
So what's going on, what can I help you with
in this short period of time we got?
- I don't think it's anything specific.
You remember our interaction last month?
- Mm-hmm.
- We wanted to come meet you guys.
I run my own business at this point,
I'm looking to see if ...
I really want to come here and see ...
- It? - This environment,
and see if it's something I want to pursue
as a personal brand.
- Good for you.
- Yes, so I sell a lot of physical products
now on Amazon, Shopify.
I usually partner with YouTubers
and have them direct traffic to Shopify stores.
- Yeah.
- It's kind of a turning point now
and I figured this is actually a great time
to meet you and see if this is something to ...
- Give me the story from the get.
- I left my job about three years ago.
I was working at Life America.
About a week after I found out
I was having my second child I decided to leave.
I think it was my last chance to ...
- Is that ... - Go at it, so I did that.
- It's always been in your dome?
- Yeah, I've been doing this stuff since I was 16,
ordering from overseas, reselling things.
I did it about three years ago,
went right into getting contract jobs,
outsourcing that,
transitioning to Amazon, eBay,
Shopify. - And lefty.
- Right.
- Yeah, I've been doing that for a while.
- Arbitrage, arbitrage, arbitrage.
- Arbitrage, arbitrage.
- What was your best little run?
- I do a lot of paper products for parties,
so like baby shower, games, wedding, photo with props.
- I like that. - So I sell a lot of those.
- It's a good market.
- Yeah, low cost ...
- Has Pinterest been a gateway drug for your net world?
- A little bit, yeah.
- You can if, yeah. - I have done Pinterest
as much as I should.
- You should man. - [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- You get the right pin. - [Visitor 1] I know.
- Shit could get ridiculous.
- I've pinned on Pinterest before,
- [Visitor 1] I just don't really understand
any traffic through Pinterest.
- Here's the best part and you've heard this from me,
go home after ...
This might be the best thing that comes out of this meeting.
Go home and be like, "How do I get traffic
"from Pinterest on Google?"
Just fucking give me 10 hours.
If you're still playing in that field, you love that field
you give me 10 hours of watching videos,
reading free content and then start hacking,
you're one pin away from insanity.
- [Visitor 1] I believe, yeah.
- And while everybody is looking
at influencers in Facebook.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- And that demo against that product.
(Vayne sighs)
You get the right fucking infographic
with the right Pinfluencer pinning it.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- Like what you feel from YouTube,
I think could be compounded by 50.
- [Visitor 1] Through Pinterest?
- For cheaper. - [Visitor 1] Really?
- Because their market is not as hot,
so they're taking money, right?
- [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- But the traffic is bonkers.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah. - On the right pin.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- You get the right one. - [Visitor 1] Yeah.
I've been a little of centric
party stuff and wedding stuff.
- You need to look at it man.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- Because this is search engine,
and you get the right pin to be above the fold,
or the fifth one in the feed around,
invites or ... - [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- Baby shower gifts, shit could get bonkers.
- [Visitor 1] Sure, I understand yeah.
- Got it? - [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- 10 hours, just lying in bed reading.
Watching videos and be like, "Oh, okay."
- [Visitor 1] I do it with everything,
I just haven't got to that Pinterest of yet.
- It's funny about short interactions,
you try to bring the most value.
If that's your answer to my question,
then you better get fucking focused on Pinterest.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah, I will. - Cool.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- Because it's all demos, right?
- [Visitor 1] Exactly, yeah.
- It's like, who are you trying to reach?
27-year-old kids, SnapChat matters,
54-year-old executives, nope.
You know? - [Visitor 1] Sure.
- Even Pinterest hasn't come out of my mouth
in fucking 45 episodes. - [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- It's the answer to that question.
- [Visitor 1] That's true, yeah.
- [Visitor 2] I have that feeling too.
- Everybody is trying to catch what's hot
without being smart about what they actually sell.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly. - Okay, cool.
What else?
Remind me, this part I can't connect
with our last interaction.
Wanted to get a taste of this world for what purpose?
- [Visitor 1] I'm trying to see if it's something
I want to pursue as a personal brand.
I'm more of a introvert, I like to do things quietly.
You grew up in the '90s, it's like ...
- Yeah, I get it.
- [Visitor 2] You do things quietly.
- My DNA didn't allow me to, but I know the culture
was definitely not where it is now,
where every 14-year-old thinks they're going to be a star.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly, so I'm trying to
determine whether that's something
I want to pursue.
- For what purpose?
To create more business opportunity?
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- How? - The leverage, demand is ...
- Leverage to more of your retail arbitrage
or write a book or speak?
- [Visitor 1] I don't know if I want to go into that world.
I don't know if physical products is really,
will allow me to have the lifestyle I want,
because that's really what I'm chasing.
- I think physical product will let you
have the lifestyle you want if you make
the commitment to build a brand.
- [Visitor 1] Of course, yeah.
- Let me phrase, you can make a million dollars.
There's plenty of retail arbitrage.
As you know, it's an always ongoing game.
- [Visitor 1] Sure. - But don't get it twisted,
so is being a personal brand. - [Visitor 1] Of course.
- You know how it is.
Everyone is like, "Oh, I wish I was a barber," until.
"I wish I was a basketball player," until you are one
and you burn out your knee.
The grass man.
That grass is green as shit on everybody else's lawn.
- [Visitor 1] Do you get burnt out from the camera running?
- No, but I ...
- [Visitor 1] You're a certain type of person.
- I'm a certain type of person, I found my zone.
I sat through a parent-teacher conference as a group
and like four minutes in I was sleeping.
You got to play to your strengths.
[Visitor 1] Sure.
- And so, if you're naturally an introvert,
you don't want to force it
because you think the money is there.
You may force because because,
okay, you're an introvert because of this
but you don't mind.
And you don't have to be a showman.
There's plenty of people crushing video that are, keeping.
- [Visitor 1] If it's there, yeah.
- Of course.
If you got good information, everything is an opportunity.
- [Visitor 1] I really like to try and,
I don't know if you know Al Haymon.
- Of course.
- [Visitor 1] I like his. - I'm a huge boxing fan.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah, me too.
- [Visitor 2] I'll check on fight this week.
- Yeah, it coming, it's ...
- [Visitor 1] Next month.
- Listen, I get it.
There's a lot of sex appeal in being the mysterious guy
behind the scenes making real fucking coin.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly, yeah.
- Especially if that's like anybody
who knows who Al Haymon is,
and then puts him on that pedestal.
I almost think that's the answer.
- [Visitor 1] Yeah, I do too.
Over the last two weeks I've kind of come
to that definitely. - Conclusion, yeah.
- [Visitor 1] I've just started to reach out to YouTubers
and I'm actually building a few sites
for a few of them to run their markets through
so I can have them drive the traffic to the shop.
- I think the biggest thing that you need to understand,
the difference between Al's game
and doing it for influencers,
is the influencers have disproportionate
more leverage than the boxers do.
- [Visitor 1] Because they have the audience following them.
- And they also have unlimited distribution.
They can do it anywhere they want for free.
They don't need the money up front.
AdSense is their bank.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- Think you're right, but I think
it's a very different game to represent fighters
as it is to, not to mention representing fighters
when you make a deal with CBS up front and you've got
the leverage and the dollars and the exposure.
You can't fight anywhere else,
and there are like two options.
That's not what an influencer is doing.
They have eight million people reaching out to them
to manage and get into their pockets
and help them and make their pockets bigger.
They have unlimited distribution.
They can be big anywhere.
SnapChat, Instagram and Facebook don't charge.
- [Visitor 1] Right, sure. - Got it?
So just make sure you're not trying to deploy strategy
that works in one world theoretically
being behind the scenes making that coin.
- [Visitor 1] That's what I mean.
- Yeah, I understood that's what you meant,
but make sure you don't try to be
too direct with the blueprint,
because the same variables don't exist.
- [Visitor 1] Of course, yeah.
- Where do you live?
- [Visitor 1] Connecticut.
- Where?
- [Visitor 1] Manchester.
- It's cool.
- [Visitor 1] It's a good little drive.
- Yeah, I was going to say.
- Anything else that you want to definitely ask?
- [Visitor 1] I dint have anything specific.
I just wanted to come here and see it for myself
and see if this is something I want to pursue.
- Good. - [Visitor 1] So, yeah.
- [Visitor 2] Great opportunity for me, yeah.
- Tell me about yourself.
- Grew up together, went to Connecticut.
We grew up playing ball, very diverse high school
got exposed to a lot.
And I'm actually a moon lighter, so I have a full-time gig,
director of engineering at Traveler Casualty,
we're at downtown Hartford.
- The insurance company?
- Yes.
But as soon as I leave work, tend to the family
then I get to grinding.
- The late nights.
- Direct messaging, so SMS, text to speech
and also email, mail messaging.
My clients currently maybe just for emergency notification,
general distribution of information,
we're getting it in front of their audience on time.
Right now I'm figuring out, okay.
- Do you have a SaaS business
or do you have a client service business?
- SaaS.
Skymarin.com
- Good for you man.
How's the going?
- [Visitor 2] It's good so far.
- How are you creating the funnel of clients,
word of mouth or are you running some ads?
- [Visitor 2] So it's going to be Facebook ads.
We've just finished a new round to the animation.
It's going to be targeted Facebook ads
for a specific demographics.
- Love it.
- [Visitor 2] And run it.
- Anything I can answer for you?
- [Visitor 2] Market research was challenging for me.
- Figuring out who?
- [Visitor 2] Yeah, figuring out that ...
- It's a tough one really.
- [Visitor 2] Looking at the administrator and your utility,
it's just like if you don't have power you know.
You don't have gas and it's cold you know.
- You feel it.
- [Visitor 2] Yeah.
- But sometimes you don't even know the difference.
- [Visitor 1] Exactly.
- When gas wasn't around in the beginning,
you didn't know you were missing that.
We didn't know we were missing a cell phone
until it was there.
I get that.
- [Visitor 2] Educating the perspective clients.
- Can I give you a really, really good piece of advice?
Running something in a 25 to 40 mile radius
around your business,
and then making the piece of creative
being an invite to a free dinner to talk about messaging.
All of a sudden you get collective,
and you make it an RSVP and you put in the copy,
first 12 people, because you're going to have to put up
500 bucks for dinner.
Super interesting to use Facebook as the gateway drug
to localize business transactions in a B2B environment.
- [Visitor 2] Would you target via their salary or ...
How do you target for amenities, salary?
- Yeah, I think salary is always a good one.
You know what towns have money
versus ones that don't in Connecticut.
That's sometimes a good one.
Employees of, if the business is big enough.
So now you look at the 40-mile radius of the businesses.
Truth is, his product is pretty agnost,
a lot of people couldn't use it.
So I would cast a wider net just to taste it,
see the quality of it.
You could also instead of say, "First 12,"
say, "I'm going to randomly pick 12 of you
"that RSVP to invite to dinner."
then you see who RSVPs, you google them
and look at their LinkedIn and see who they are,
you pick the 12 best leads.
Good, right?
- [Visitor 2] Yeah.
- People think of technology, digital or real life.
I like mixing the two.
I know that you'll have a much better ...
And especially make a video and be like,
"I'm going to buy you free dinner.
"I'm the CEO of my company or partner at my company,
"I'm going to buy you dinner and educate you,"
and shoot the shit a little bit
about the new jitter jitter world, go.
Or some people put a name at the face.
People decide to come, come.
There's something real human about that
and most people are always up for ...
Again, you know what I love about things like Connecticut?
You know exactly which restaurant people,
you know the seven restaurants people know.
You pick one of those, maybe you hit up two of them
and be like, "Hey, I'm going to do this.
"Are you willing to cover the cost?"
Entrepreneurship. - [Visitor 1] Yeah.
- Would pick the seven, I'd call and be like,
"Yo, I'm running this on Facebook
"and I'm going to spend $1,000 just trying
"to get people to come to a restaurant.
"You guys willing to cover the meal?"
Yes.
We've been meaning to do Facebook advertising.
I'll link you in.
Awesome. You know?
[Visitor 2] Yeah, definitely.
- That would work.
That's chamber of commerce 10.0.
- [Visitor 2] Really, sure, yeah.
That's a great business look.
- That's it, right?
I think a lot of times people think
that what got me here with these views is the pizas,
back to rounding up this whole thing.
What got me here was that part.
- [Visitor 2] The ingenuity of it.
- Just like knowing, being a practitioner, McGaiver.
Doing and never being too, I'll do that shit now.
Never being too fancy for that.
- [Visitor 2] Definitely.
Everyone is like, "Scale technology," nope.
- [Visitor 2] Even corporate is coming back.
I mean, one situation now,
you have leaders all the way up to execs
and now we get hands-on and get.
- They have to, they're being commoditized.
Your NBA is nice and cute until it's not.
Shit is getting very interesting
I'm glad you guys came down.
- [Visitor 1] Appreciate it. - [Visitor 2] I appreciate
taking your time off.
- Anything else?
I want to give it to you while I got you here.
- [Visitor 1] I'm on my path.
- Good man.
- [Visitor 1] I'm glad I came here,
I got to see it, I'm glad I got that advice from you.
- Good, I love it.
- All right, thanks.
Can I take a picture?
- 100%. - Can you take the selfie?
- Yeah. - Watch my vision of my head.
You take this selfie for me.
- I like doing it, because people,
everybody has always got a ...
There we go.
Love it.
My man. - I appreciate Gary.
- I wish you well.
Take care of yourself. - Thank you.
- Now do me.
- Let's go.
Love it.
That's right. - Yeah.
- Hey, take care of yourself.
- Thanks. - Good luck.
Try that, let me know how that goes.
- I am.
- Yeah, I think it's going to work.
Leave your two to four cents on what you thought
of this little meeting I had.
Did you get value?
See you.
(upbeat music)