- Hey everyone this is Nick,
I'm the program moderator and manager
of the 4Ds at VaynerX.
And what you're about to watch right now
is a very special episode of our last 4Ds,
hosted here in New York City.
Now if you've been following along to 4Ds at all,
you know that these are confidential,
behind closed door sessions,
but every once in a while, we get the sign-off
of everybody in the room.
So these are the Six Top Takeaways
from our last session of 4Ds in New York City.
Enjoy.
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- Never, ever be at the mercy of something else.
That's why I'm the best at my craft.
I don't even wanna be at the mercy of my own employees.
It's why I got my hands in absolutely everything.
What if they quit?
What if they get sick?
What if they get bored?
What if they win the lottery?
That's literally how I think about everything.
That's why I'm in everything.
I don't micromanage, but I'm dangerous enough in everything,
'cause I don't want a point to failure.
Your point of failure is called Google.
They literally change it,
no matter how evergreen and white hat you've been,
they just might decide that video content
is part of their macro strategy.
- [Man] Competitor has videos then apparently.
- So what, what I always think is
when you got something working,
always have a nest egg of 20% of your money and energy,
of building up other things,
that if God forbid, your 80 goes to zero,
you're on the course of being okay.
(rock music)
Good news, I stood in front of this company in September
and rolled out a new vision, called the Vayner Volume Model,
98% of them thought I was out of my mind.
Didn't believe in it at all.
Thought that I'm like the crazy founder and like I'm silly,
but like when it becomes real this... lead!
Anytime you have full buy-in from your employees,
you're in a dangerous place.
- You should make a video after that model.
- [Man] Why do you say that?
- [Man Off Camera] So, so let's say that we...
- It means there should be some sort of friction
from somebody who's leading up in front and sees everything
and is driving a company.
Versus people that work in it,
who are in, the like, they're different...
Like my job is to be like, "Oh shit there's an iceberg.
I'm gonna move this way."
And everybody who's downstairs is like,
"What do you mean the water's been super clear
the whole time?"
I'm like "No no, there's an iceberg."
But they're in the fucking basement.
They're like "It's been such a nice fucking ride.
Like this has been so smooth."
Leaders need to understand what's happening next,
employees are executing on the current,
and overvalue the past.
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Here's the thing, back to just
because we have a TV advertiser in here,
here's my big thing with TV advertisers.
TV works, like people seek, like,
as much as I struggle with the concept of commercial, like,
they see results.
They just have never spent the money that they spend on TV
on a proper digital execution,
to compare the two.
This is why I still run direct mail,
and some stuff for my dad, and other businesses
and I look at it, like, to me it's not about,
"Does something work or not work?"
It's the delta of perfect execution in both.
The only TV thing that scares me against Facebook,
is Super Bowl.
That's why I keep talking.
I mean I believe in Super Bowl the most.
Yeah, whether it's 220,
and you can imagine that's hyperbole,
like what I know is the following.
If you are in a hardcore...
if you are a perfect executor, of current digital,
the margins are on parallel to anything else.
- [Man] And that's where you go.
- Bro, you can do one YouTube pre-roll video
that hits pay dirt, creatively,
against search, google activity of people searching
for fixing the roof or placing...
Like all the things we can all imagine.
If God forbid, okay, God willing,
you have a Dollar Shave clip like video
that converts on YouTube,
it's in perpetuity.
It's why I love ads.
Google and Facebook will always take your money.
They're gonna change your organic.
(rock music)
- If we're building my brand,
and now we're at a second location that we're opening,
we're building my brand.
The best way to book when then in is when we speak.
- The same thing as you're doing now.
- Just stay the course.
- Stay the course.
It was literally the video I posted yesterday on Instagram.
I've been saying for the last six months a lot,
randomly and shit like this,
I don't understand how people understand
that the thing that you fucking did to get you there,
is the thing that gets you to the next level.
But people think once you get to a level
now you got to change it.
- [Man] Yeah.
- I think that's when you got to double down on it.
- People change once they get some level of success.
Like notice my reactions I'm like,
"Whoa, you got to spend more."
Second location, same.
It's very funny how humans work.
Like they find something that works,
this is like in health and fitness, this is in business,
and for some reason there's this need to find
something else when you've just shown yourself what works.
So yeah, yeah it's like, am I missing...
There's this insecurity,
am I missing something that could be better?
When something's clearly working.
You know, I always think about,
I don't know why this is the analogy,
I always bring it up, it's like a fruit from a tree,
it's like here's a beautiful fucking huge orange tree
in the back of your yard.
You're pulling the orange,
and you're only squeezing like 30% of the juice out,
and you're like "This is delicious fucking orange juice,"
and you're like "Should I grow an apple tree?"
And I'm like "No motherfucker. Like squeeze more oranges!"
(rock music)
Everybody should have a podcast because podcast is easy.
You just interview people.
It's actually remarkable, how scary to me, podcasting is.
Everybody should have a podcast,
and the amount of people in this room
that are trying to get to somebody that they can't get to,
but now instead of asking for their business
in a cold email or a LinkedIn, they email and say
"I want you to be a guest on my podcast"
and get that in a minute, and now you got a hole.
Now you're hosting the party.
I know you guys have heard this from me,
like you're not here if you haven't consumed my content,
I say the same things over and over 'cause they're work.
(rock music)
The only way to build a personal branded B2B,
is to bring value to the decision makers
that have nothing to do with your direct business.
Let me say this because it'll be important
for a couple of you.
If you think about it, my audience,
for Gary Vee the last six years, seven years,
was not mapping to what Vayner Media was doing.
- [Woman] That's right.
And even Sasha, and even 4Ds,
has been a very passive execution for me,
because I feel like it's starting to bleed
into the people that do follow me.
Right? The way you gain credibility
is when the content is bringing value to the audience
when it's not a lead generator for your business.
When we read the newspaper,
advertorial sections don't get us as excited as the regular.
The reason I've been successful
is I've been able to provide value without expectation
in return of business and if the karma, or serendipity,
or if you're friends with the CEO of GE,
and you're like "You should meet this guy."
Like the serendipity of the right event, worked out.
So let me explain what I mean by that.
There's reasons why your business is successful.
If you started a podcast, or started making white papers,
or putting out content on LinkedIn,
which is where you should live.
You need to be thinking about who you're trying to reach
which is the decision maker who drives private label.
You should almost start a podcast called
The Private Label Show, but every guest
should have nothing to do with your industry.
A show about private labels, is not a show that exists,
and is directly attributable to your business.
Now, interjecting when you interview
another female executive, some of those nuances,
may be a smarter way to integrate it
than making it the pillar of the content.
I don't have a Jets show.
I don't have a garage sale show.
But I do show my other parts of my life, in my content.
See where I'm going?
What I like about you interviewing other people
who are the private label provider to Costco for shrimp,
frozen shrimp, and she gets to, or he gets to,
tell you the story of how they did that.
Now you're just creating a halo of private labeling,
which inevitably is gonna lead to you.
The number one thing you want to do
when you're in B2B content marketing
is never make your content about what you're selling
and always make so much value for the audience
that they click your profile
and they do the homework of what you sell.
That's what I do.
That's what works.
I'm not asking for the business,
I'm putting out as much value in the world.
I'm gonna either be right or wrong about TV marketing,
I think I'm gonna be right.
And as that continues to play out that's only leading
to more opportunity not less,
but I'm never asking people for
their direct business in my content.
(rock music)