Affiliate Summit

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The following is a transcript of the keynote address delivered by Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ, at Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Las Vegas, NV.

The speech was delivered on Monday, January 12. Video is available at blip.tv and audio can be downloaded or streamed at geekcast.fm.

Jim Kukral: And with that, I’d like to bring up Gary Vaynerchuk, Master of the Universe, Wine Library TV, (author of) “101 Wines”. Thank you, Gary. [music]

Jim: So one last thing. Shawn and Missy have a very special thing for Gary. And with the first pick in the Affiliate Summit draft, Shawn and Missy take Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary Vaynerchuk: Oh, awesome. Thank you so much. Yes. I went in the seventh round. It was exciting.

Jim: There you go.

Gary: Thanks. That’s awesome. Can I wear this now?

Jim: Sure.

Gary: Thank you, Shawn. That’s awesome. Joe Klecko’s number I like that. Thank you so much. You’re very kind. JK, thank you so much. You are still my favorite head coach. You are going to like Eric Mangini. I promise. The Browns will be OK, though nobody wants to be the GM. Thank you so much for having me here today. I have been real excited about this keynote, maybe more than any other keynote that I’m giving this year because fundamentally, this room has the DNA of what most excites me.

See, the fact of the matter is the people that live in this universe know something. They know how to make money, and that is extremely good. And that is a part, believe it or not, that a lot of people miss.

A lot of people talk about content and talk about community and talk about crushing it and talk about killing it I saw killing it was one of the bingo words, so I figured I put you guys in motion and the problem is they don’t know how to monetize. And this community does.

That is a very powerful situation, a huge aspect in creating a business, because it is funny, but the last time I checked, you can’t pay the bills with Twitter friends. Last time. So it is imperative to understand how to monetize, and I think, as a whole, when we think about this community, I think it knows how.

Last year, I was here, and Jason Calacanis keynoted and threw our pictures of people and made fun of them for taking pictures with checks next to themselves. I, on the other hand, started clapping because I was thrilled that people made $100,000 by finding a keyword that converted well. I respect that. I respect this whole sector so, so much.

On the flip side, I think there is a lot of opportunity in this sector. See, the thing that I thought about when I first thought about doing this keynote was singles. I feel that there are way too many people in this sector looking to get a single when they have the talent to hit home runs.

And I think that is a fundamental missed opportunity for a lot of people in this room and this entire space, and I’d like people to start swinging a little bit more for the fences. Thank you. No, I’m just kidding.

[laughter]

Gary: All right. So, one thing I want to say is that I am looking to do a lot of Q&A. How many people here know “37 Signals,” Jason Fried? Raise your hands. Jason and I have been talking a lot about creating this tour and going on tour and doing just Q&A because I think a lot of times you come up here and talk about what you’ve done,

“Oh, I build a $50 million liquor store.” Who gives a s***? I don’t want to talk about what I did.

People want to get answers about maybe things I see, things that I am privy to because of the thousands of emails I get a day, trying to find a nugget, trying to find an opportunity to think about maybe what can happen. I think a lot of times in a keynote; you talk in a lot of general terms. Of course you’ve got to kill it.

You know what’s really funny? This term “social media.” Social media doesn’t mean jack s***. I’m serious. Social media is business. There are way too many people walking around thinking they have a Twitter account and they are about to make a trillion dollars.

When the hell did a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page automatically guarantee you straight cash in the “bizank?” It didn’t. Thank you for the amen. More of those. All right.

So, what Twitter is and Facebook and any other tool used usefully, they are tools. They are a frickin’ fax machine. They are a sundial; they are a pencil. Seriously. We use them to communicate. We’re always going to be the same thing. We like each other believe it or not.

For the few d*****bags who don’t like each other, the majority of us love each other, and we want to communicate. And we do care when you take a dump or eat bananas.

[laughter]

Gary: We would like that. It is cool. It is real. It is authentic, and it is important. Now, everybody uses these tools differently. You know, I heard somebody take a jab at me, saying I broadcast too much on my Twitter, that I don’t @reply enough. Well, you know, the way I look at my tool, if I @reply everybody that hits me up, my screen is going to be filled with @replies that might not be relevant.

That person doesn’t know, like the majority of you know, that I will go back and follow you and direct message you and thank you and hit you up and talk to you and talk to you on AIM and Ustream and all that jazz.

There’s something that I want to really talk about content. No matter what you do, whether you blog… How many people here blog? Raise your hands. Just trying to get a sense of the audience. How many people here video blog? Raise your hands. I’ll stay on this short because it doesn’t seem more than 50%.

If you blog or video blog, way too many people are spending too much time on their actual content. Content is important, very important, because at the end of the day, if you have the skills to get eight trillion people into a store, but you don’t know how to sell to them, and you sell nothing, you have accomplished nothing.

However, there is not enough emphasis put on community and marketing. I always say content is king, but marketing is the queen, and the queen runs the household.

Ladies?

[applause]

Gary: Where are the ladies? Usually there is like, “Yeah!!” No “yeah.” Damn. There is always one of those. It is early in Vegas. Shawn, next year, 2 PM for the keynote.

[laughter]

Gary: I think there are way too many people that focus on putting out great s***. I get 600 emails a week, “Gary, what camera do you use for Wine Library TV?” Are you f***ing kidding me? [laughter]

Gary: Who cares! Some $2.00 camera I bought at Best Buy, a Flip cam, it doesn’t matter. Have you gone to YouTube and seen the videos that have the most views? They are not using professional Hollywood lighting. It comes down to the content you are pumping out, and you know what? The authenticity. There are so many people that I work with in the video sphere that start over. I’ll do an interview, and they’re like, “Hey, everybody. This is Tom Thompson from 20 Minute Workout Session Moneymaking Gold Session.net, and we’re here with Gary.” Oh, let’s start over. What? Authentic. Be authentic.

I have never, ever, ever taken a second shot or stopped Wine Library TV. Ever. If the phone rings, phenomenal. It changes up the fact that I pump out five shows a week, 20 minutes long. It gives the fan base something to laugh at. At least it’s a little different.

You want to be as authentic as possible, and if wine spills on you or if the Jets lose or make a big trade in the middle of your taping and you have to stop and walk off camera and find out what happened and come back, then that is what you need to do. You have to make it authentic.

But here is the funny part. I spend 45 minutes to an hour max on content a day, max. Sit down, tape Wine Library TV, bang it out. Maybe I’ll do a GaryVaynerchuk.com, which is where a lot of you guys know me from, batting that out.

And then the rest of the time is spent on monetizing, biz devs, phone calls, jumping on people’s blogs and doing interviews, and probably eight to nine hours a day of pure interaction within Facebook and Twitter and whatever it may be.

If you are not searching, vanity searching as people call it, ego searching, if you are not searching your name on the blogosphere and on Twitter and on any other platform that has users every single minute, you are a fundamental clown, like “Boop, boop, a boop, boop,” that kind. It is a monumental mistake.

Whether it is your name or your company, you have got to have a pulse for what people are saying about you and your company. You’ve got to. You have to know everything pros and cons, and the cons need to be addressed immediately, absolutely immediately.

Listen, I am not confused. There are people in the crowd who don’t know who I am who are listening to me right now and are saying, “This guy is a d***!”

I get it. I know my DNA. I know how I come off. I’m pumped. I’m excited. I’m over the top. I know that when I when I start Wine Library TV with, “Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library…” that I lose 13% of my audience before they even get a chance to realize I know a s***load about wine. But the fact of the matter is I’m authentic for myself. And I know out of pure hustle, I just keep oh, people are marking off “hustle” on the bingo cards.

[laughter]

Gary: You’re welcome. Trying to remind you. You might win. Huge prize. Number 73 Vaynerchuk Jets Jersey. [laughter]

Gary: I think what’s really neat is that, you might be an introvert. You might be the polar opposite of me. You might be shy. You need to embrace that. Never ever, ever fold from who you are, ever. There’s absolutely no reason. Because, if your content is good, and you know what you’re talking about, it doesn’t matter if you whisper.

Maybe you’re not the greatest at marketing, but your content will be found. It’s nice to find somebody who can maybe help you with that.

And of course there’s a lot of people in this space and a lot of space that focus on Google and SEO, and that’s imperative. And it works. But back to hitting singles. There’s also a lot of people in this space that do things that may not look good on their legacy.

One thing I always think about…

Audience Member: Bingo!

Gary: Bingo! Nice! Already, huh? What are we giving him? I’ll give you a $500 gift certificate to Wine Library. [cheers and applause]

Gary: And a 73 Jets Jersey. I’m wearing that every day. Congratulations. There’s a lot of people here who don’t do things that are going to look good on their legacy, that do things that they are not proud of, that do things that they know are kind of shady. But it gets them clicks, or referrals, or makes them cash. I think that’s where the divide really needs to come in the entire space.

You’ve got to really ask yourself, where am I going? I really do believe that, especially this space, the majority of people do understand how to make $50,000 $200,000 a year. I really do. I mean there’s a lot of ways. There’s a lot of referral action. There’s a lot of ways.

But the question you want to ask yourself is, do you want to juggle 900 different sites that are selling cupcakes and travel and kangaroo hats? Or do you want to create a brand that you can really sink your teeth into and really monetize against.

Because the funny part is, is that when you get on Conan or the Today Show or front page of the Wall Street Journal, that’s the feeds that you’re able to really build. You’re able to really build something. And I think there’s way too many people.

When I first got to really looking at the Internet space, I lived on Digital Point, and SitePoint, and those forums. And I was thrilled to see pictures of Zack Johnson wearing a crown, and Shoe Money and all his chicks that he likes to take pictures with, and all that jazz.

And that’s cool, and that’s great. And there’s a lot of money to be made in that. And I believe in that. And that’s totally one way to skin a cat. There’s way too many people that I think preach to this group. You’re doing everything wrong. I get all that. I really do.

I think what I’m passionate about, is crushing it every day for making yourself happy. And I think when you talk about, and you build a business around a passion, that’s when you can really knock it out of the park.

As a matter of fact, I think the far majority of the people in this room have the ability to build their brand while they fool around with the other stuff that maybe got them here, or make some side cash, but should really sink their teeth into their fundamental passion.

The thing that they want to do for the rest of their lives, if we went through the greatest depression of all time, and nobody got paid ever again, what the f*** would you do? That’s what you want to do. Because I promise you, if you do that, and you spend as much time with your family, you’ve lived a solid life. Because guess what, we only get to play this game one time. Once.

Can one person clap for that, because I believed in that. I believed in that.

[applause]

Gary: Thank you. One person. I’ll take the 30, that was good. You know, one thing that I really like to do is make money. I think it’s a good thing. And I think that a lot of people in this space are scared to do it. Any time you see anybody do anything that they look to monetize, people start freaking out. Right? I mean, what if tomorrow, I sent out a Tweet about something, and in the Tweet it said “Sponsored by Nike.” There would be a lot of discussion, wouldn’t there? A whole, whole lot.

The funny part is that, there’s a really interesting divide in the global social media Web 2.0 world, right? You’ve got the artists. And you’ve got the entrepreneurs. And I’m completely blown away by why we can’t be both.

I don’t understand why we can’t be both. I don’t understand why we’re not allowed to make money. And you know what the funny part is? If people don’t like the way you’re going about making money, they don’t have to buy it. They don’t have to follow you. And they can call you all the bad names in the world.

Let them knock themselves out. Because, if you want to make money, then you should. And if you don’t, God bless you, don’t.

Audience Member: Amen. [applause]

Gary: You know, just do what you do. And I think if you really fundamentally execute against what you want, you’re going to win. Let me talk about something else. I’m really fascinated by transparency. I think it is a fundamental necessity, right? I mean, let’s be honest. If you have a company, if you have a pizza shop right now, and you got cockroaches in the back of your office… eight years ago, you’re pretty fine, for the most part. Now? One of your eight dollar employees is whipping out their camera and Internet for the whole world.

So if you got cockroaches in the back of your pizza shop, clean that s*** up. You know what I mean, right? On a global scale.

[laughter]

Gary: So, absolutely, positively, clean that up. Because anything you do that’s wrong will be exposed. It’s just a matter of time. It will come out. Don’t even think about doing it. You will be caught. It will hurt your brand. And that’s a fundamental bad move. But, on the flipside, you can go the transparent way. My brother AJ and I, AJ really came up with the idea, launched a website called “Please Dress Me.” It’s a search engine for t-shirts.

Luckily it’s called “Please Dress Me,” brilliant AJ. I wanted to do some stupid s*** like t search, or something like that. AJ fought hard for Please Dress Me, because now we can sell hoodies and earrings. Mari Smith can buy new glasses on Please Dress Me. It’s amazing.

You can do a lot of cool things with it. We came out right from the get go and said every single search result is an affiliate link. Every one. If you hide that, and you don’t talk about it, and people figure it out, you’re a jerkoff. If you say it up front, on the day you launch, you’re on the front page of LifeHacker, Boing Boing, and TechCrunch. That’s pretty interesting to me, and I think a really good lesson.

Before I go into Q&A, and I really hope you guys ask a lot of Q&A, I know, what’s the mics over there guys? In the middle. I know nobody’s going to want to get up, so we’re going to have to walk around with the mic, but please do. Three dollars apiece if you walk up there.

The biggest thing that I hope that people leave with today is something I learned a long time ago in the wine industry, and something that AJ and I have been able to execute in the Please Dress Me world. It’s that I was analyzing a lot of the sites that are successful in this space, and in every space for that matter.

And I noticed that people are not creating multiple channels to monetize. See, I had to spend millions of dollars to buy property in New Jersey to make a bigger wine shop, to build displays, and have more stacks of wine, and give customers more ways to buy stuff from me. Millions. All you guys have to do is spend maybe a thousand to redesign your blog and add a couple of blocks on the right side to make more money.

See, way too many people in this room right now have a destination site, or 70, depending on who you are, that work on affiliates, but stop there. The funny part is, AJ what did you say, 50/50? The revenue of Please Dress Me, probably 50/50. 50/50 is affiliates, right? Because that’s what it was meant to be. But the other 50 is sponsorship of “shirt of the day”, selling the front boxes on the home page.

And we have a random thing that we haven’t monetized. I’m a total jerkoff on GaryVaynerchuk.com for not doing it yet. I am a hypocrite right now as I am talking to you. But I wanted to make a video before I did it; that’s why I didn’t do it yet.

You need to create more angles, more opportunities for you to make money. The easiest way for you to make money in 2009 is to go and grab it. Pick up the phone and call somebody and sell them some sponsorship.

See, the funny thing is in this entire space and entire world of marketing right now, we have these big brands with lots of cash, and we all sit there and we scratch our heads. I personally throw up directly in my mouth about the fact that they spend millions of dollars on newspaper and radio and television and so little on Web presence.

And when they do spend it on Web presence, you guys know, it is on some straight s***, some banners on some bulls*** site that used to mean something 30 years ago.

The ROI is obnoxiously awful, terrible, and we are all frustrated, right?

The funny part is who gives a s***? They are all going to go out of business or the person that is making the decisions is going to get fired. It is the agencies in the middle that are really f***ing us up.

And the people on the VP level, they are set. They do not want to show ROI, right? They do not want to show that they did a campaign for $50,000 that got nine clicks. They would much rather buy an ad on television.

And Proctor and Gamble comes to them and says, “Oh, dude, I was watching the Phillies game and I saw a razor commercial. You are f***ing awesome. High five!” You got three frickin’ people from that, d*****bag.

But people don’t want to see the ROI numbers. But that is going to change because the 37 year old lady executive that is going to be the boss in 12 months, she knows. And the economy is tougher, right? The economy is tougher now, and guess what? ROI is going to become much more important.

So the newspaper industry, they are going to get their face beat in. There is not going to be a single. Start buying newspapers, because the amount of money you are going to make on eBay selling that artifact is going to be huge.

[laughter]

Gary: And every single person just overheard that right now on Twitter. Let people see that s***. And the same goes for all the other traditional stuff. See, the funny thing is everybody thinks this social media is some potion we all drank and we’re all so f***ing smart. You are wrong. All social media is the extension of business. All this is is business. When eyeballs go to different places, that is where money goes. If we all started hanging out in a new clubhouse in a tree on Venus, guess what? You would make a s*** load of money monetizing against that spot.

That is how businesses work. That is what happens. Eyeballs matter, and the funny part now is eyeballs are so spread. Right? There used to be, I always call it my Conan O’Brien theory.

If 20 years ago, I was on Johnny Carson instead of Conan, I would be bigger. And if 50 years ago, I was on Sullivan instead of Carson or Conan, I would be a damn cult leader. It would be tremendous. I’d be huge. It would be phenomenal.

So the fact of the matter is that eyeballs are now spread more than ever. There used to be 13 channels and cable came. They all said they were d*****bags. They weren’t. They won.

Now the Internet came. Everybody said they were d*****bags. They are wrong. They won. Now there is a new layer of social websites. Everybody said they were d*****bags. No, they are wrong. They won.

The fact of the matter is you can see what is happening now. You don’t need an executive to tell you what is happening. Go look at a 13 year old and pay attention to how they interact. They are not going to read the New York Times. They are not. And they are not watching the Nightly News with Katie Couric. F***.

[laughter]

Gary: Sorry. I just don’t understand. It just makes no sense. Things are changing. There is huge opportunity. And please, and there are a lot of people in this room. I know a lot of you. Please just do me one favor, just one. Way too many people are frustrated, and you guys are trying to rah-rah, cheerleading style, people to understand our space, “No, you don’t understand. Twitter is good. I will show you. It is not about eating bananas. There is business to be done.”

Everybody is always, always trying to convince the mainstream of its value. Guys, don’t tell them. The longer we know and the longer they don’t know, the more straight Benjamins are going to be put in your back pocket.

I don’t want them to know anything. I am disgusted that they know. I get pissed when I see CNN’s Rick Sanchez say, “Twitter.” F***! That’s what I say.

[laughter]

Gary: Rick! Give me one more year, Rick! One more! As a matter of fact, this bad economy is the greatest thing that happened to us hustlers and people in the trenches. It’s the best thing! [applause]

Gary: Because Johnny Jerkoff at Gillette is saying, “What is this $100,000 social media s***? Cut that.” That is what is happening. That is good. Now, for some of us, that is bad. I get it. You are an agency; you want to collect. But I am telling you, there is pretty much a s*** load of cash still out there. This is not the Great Depression, people. Please. Please. It is not even close. The fact that we are here they did not do this in the ’30s. Trust you. I mean, please. Do you see how much food is still being left around in the halls of this hotel? That s*** was snatched up in the ’30s. F***, depression.

[laughter]

Gary: All right. I want to go into Q&A soon because that is really what gets me going because I want to get into details because I can do all this rah-rah stuff all day, but the fact of the matter is details is what really builds business. But, please understand. If your business is reliant on another website, you are broken. If your business model in build on Google, you are broken. I promise you. Build brand equity. When you build brand equity in America…

Audience: Bingo!

Gary: Well, everybody can win? F***. It is going to cost me like 40 Gs. Didn’t one person already win? Shawn, what kind of frickin’ thing are you running here? [laughter]

Gary: When you build brand equity in America, it is unbelievable. You can almost never lose it. I mean, when is the last time Microsoft did something right? They are still in business. [laughter]

Gary: And then I saw Davey Jones on a commercial. I know he got paid for that. Davey Jones hasn’t done something important since 1971, on the Brady f***ing Bunch. And he is still getting paid. [laughter]

Gary: So when you build brand equity, you are always able to make money. Whether it is a product, whether it is around yourself, around your business, you are always able to monetize. But, if you are relying on a search word scheme or a couple of sites what happens when Google redoes s***? What happens when Google is not the play anymore? You know, Friendster was pretty damn hot. Everybody was pretty sold on Friendster. If you think Twitter is going to be the main play for the rest of your lives, you are an a**hole.

[laughter]

Gary: I got nothing else to say. Man, I promised I was not going to curse. I have been all over the place. So much for New Year’s resolutions. [laughter]

Gary: It is going to change, guys. The platforms are going to change. What does not change is you caring about people. I promise you. If you care about people, if you care about your customers, if you really care, not the lip service that so many people say, if you care the way I care when I had to drive a case of White Zinfandel three hours in the snow to Westchester because FedEx screwed it up, when you care like that, you win. You win.

And that’s what you need to build. You need to build a business that matters and cares. Look at Peter Shankman. He created HARO, Help a Reporter Out. I know he spoke yesterday. Let’s clap it up for him, right?

[applause]

Gary: That is free opportunity for everybody. That changed the game. If you don’t think somebody right now I’m kind of working on it if you don’t think somebody right now is working on a site that is going to connect you directly to Tide and to Crest, they are. The same way that any of us now can be on 60 Minutes if we answer a HARO. The game is changing. See, what has happened is the gate keepers have been eliminated. There is no editor of a magazine any more that could say, “Your writing sucks.” That person has no power any more. You put out your writing, and the world decides if your writing sucks.

When CAA, which is the largest talent agency in Hollywood, signed me, one of the partners pulled me aside and said, “I’ve got to tell you something. If you came in here and pitched us two years ago when you started Wine Library TV that you are going to sit in front of a camera and drink wine for 30 minutes non stop, act the way you act, and 80,000 people a day are going to watch it? We would have kicked you directly out of the room.”

See, that’s the beauty. I didn’t have to go pitch it. I didn’t have to go wait tables in L.A. and go around town kissing everybody and trying to get a shot. I just went direct to consumer. We all now go direct to consumer. It is a very powerful shift in media. It is the game changer.

What’s changed is direct to consumer and word of mouth. All that Twitter is, is word of mouth on steroids. Twitter is Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens. That’s what Twitter is for word of mouth. It’s a fundamental shift. It is word of mouth on steroids, because the biggest yenta, the biggest socialite on the Upper West Side in Manhattan liked something you did, how many people could she tell? A hundred, if she was really working the scene?

Now, people can retweet your stuff and thousands and thousands of people see what you’re doing. It’s word of mouth that’s changed. That’s important to understand. It is very powerful, and is a seismic shift in the way we do business.

I’m excited about it because, the fact of the matter is, this room specifically has a trait that is so imperative. A lot of you know how to make money. Now what you have to build is brand equity in something you’re passionate about, so that when you wake up in the morning you feel like Rocky. You want to drink eggs and climb mountains. I’m talking about the Russian Rocky. Remember when he was doing the wheel barrel s*** in Russia?

Drago was doing steroids. That’s the big companies. We’re Rocky. Let’s keep doing push ups on rocks and eating snow. That’s what we are. Hustle is what wins, and that’s what I feel every morning. I want to eat snow and pick up people in a wheelbarrow in the mountains of Russia, and not because I was born there.

I really want people to start lining up. If you have a question, please start lining up so I can get a feel of how many people are going to ask, so I can time this. Again, three dollars if you ask a question. Thank you, sir. I’ll give you all quarters. Just keep that in mind.

By the way, Shawn, no more Vegas keynotes. I actually got paid pretty well to speak today, but I lost money on the Strip so far, so no more of that. No more four card poker anymore, AJ.

That’s a scoop. You know, you’re going to get the same s*** from me. What I believe in is family first. You’ve got to love your family. You’ve got to position yourself to run a business that allows you to spend as much time with your family as possible. I’m running around and traveling quite a bit. It makes it difficult, but when you love what you do, you never lose.

That is what I’m most passionate about. If you love managing 900 websites and everything is off link bait, and this, and that, and this. God bless you. Knock yourself out. Be thrilled. But if you’ve got any inclining, a quarter of a hundredth of a percent, that you’re not happy doing that, there’s other ways to do it.

The biggest thing that scares me every day is not achieving what I think I can achieve. I want to buy the New York Jets. That’s what I want. So I need to make billions of dollars. F***.

That’s what I aim for. That’s why I try to build brand equity. That’s why I want to be on Oprah and all that stuff. That’s what I have to achieve towards. That’s how I feel like I have to make it.

But if you want to smoke weed in Jamaica and fish all day, then guess what?

[applause]

Gary: You like that, huh? Sticker Giant, baby. You know what, Mr. Fischer? Then you know what? Then I’ll buy a couple more stickers and you’re well on your way, my man. Go smoke and catch fish. That’s the thing, though. I think way too many people have no idea where they’re going. If you leave with anything today, anything, promise me you’ll leave with this Where the hell am I going? What do I want?

Because I promise you, when you mark that in your mind, you are 90% of the way there.

Q&A

Jay Berkowitz: Hey, Gary.

Gary: Hey.

Jay: Jay Berkowitz, Ten Golden Rules. Nice to see you again.

Gary: Good to see you, Jay.

Jay: You’ve done a good job with personal brand, but you’ve got some different brands. You’ve got Wine Library TV. You’re @garyvee on Twitter. You’re GaryVaynerchuk.com. Talk about the tactical stuff, like how you’ve built the brand up, given the different personas.

Gary: That’s a funny thing, because I do roll in some really interesting circles of brand equity a lot of Fortune 500 companies, and a lot of different Hollywood types, and this, and stuff. They all think I’m an idiot. They think I’m building too many different brands. You know the old saying, right? Be the wine guy. That’s all they want me to do. Be the wine guy. Why are you doing this whole speaking and marketing and business? Why? Because I love it. Because I love building brand. And so, I think that in 2009, agents and these gatekeepers we’re talking about? They’re not in control. I think in 2009 and beyond, our brand should be our DNA.

And so, I am the wine guy. I know a crapload about wine. But I also know a lot about building brand, and I also want to be the Jets guy, and the family guy, and the connoisseur of Whatchamacallit candy bars. You have to be who you are.

And so, I think that the tactics are very simple. There are no damn tactics. Just be who you are, talk about the s*** you love, and different brands will establish themselves based on how interesting you are in the platforms and the subsections and the niches that you’re passionate about. Why can’t you be the Nirvana expert and the person who knows more about Hostess cupcakes in the world than anybody else? Why?

That’s my answer.

Peter Doyle: Hi, Gary. My name is Peter Doyle with Storyboard Life. I heard you say a little bit today, but also I saw on YouTube you talk about the importance of legacy is more important than currency.

Gary: Legacy is greater than currency.

Peter: Yeah. I’ve gone with that, even though my Twitter profile is focused on doing those things that make your grandchildren proud. You talked about, on there, they’re going to see this because it’s all being videotaped.

Gary: That totally freaks me out, by the way. That my great great grandchildren are going to watch this and be like, “Grandpa was on some crazy s***.” [laughter]

Gary: Go ahead.

Peter: I have two questions. The first one is, how do you, when do you create boundaries for your life you talked about putting all your work into your brand, but where do you go and start separating. You go, “OK, now I need to focus on my family.” A couple of times, I’ve seen on Twitter that, “All right, I’m going to hang out with my family. See you guys later.”

Gary: You know, I think the first thing you need to do is understand your family, right? There’re people in your family that need more face time, might need more phone calls. One of the things that attracted me to my wife was that she was a very independent gal. That was important to me. I think if you’re not married, you need to really look at yourself and who you are and find a partner that really compliments that and allows you to do things you’re passionate about. Because when you’re really passionate about something, you get in the zone, right? You’re really… You’re just there.

AJ always calls me a robot because when we’re hustling on a new launch or something, I don’t eat. I don’t drink. I don’t eat or drink for 24, 36… I mean, it’s crazy. It’s just because I’m pumped. It’s how I’m built.

I think the way you separate family and hustle… This is from somebody who spends 15 hours a day, 17 hours a day in the hustle part of my work, is knowing. For example, with Lizzie, we’re taking more vacations because I think she’ll whip my a** if we don’t.

That gives us quality time. No TV, no Internet. I think you just vibe it. Sometimes I’ll see my mom’s face and I’ll say, “Oh crap. I haven’t been hanging with Mom enough. Maybe we’ll do lunch.”

It’s just about knowing the players in your world, and knowing what they want, and never chintzing on what they want. They leave you with the time that you’re allowed to hustle. So, that’s how you have to work it.

Now, if you have a family member who wants to eat up 13 hours a day, that’s tough. That’s just something you have to really work on. But, I think it’s about feeling and knowing your family, and that’s what’s most important.

Peter: All right, and last, are you going to be here for, because I’d like to talk to you about it over coffee. Are you going to be here for lunch at all?

Gary: Am I going to be here for what? Lunch?

Peter: Lunch.

Gary: I have a flight at 2:00. I’ll be here for an hour after this talk. Hanging out here, and then I think I have to go.

Peter: All right. Thank you very much.

Gary: Sorry about that. Thank you, man.

Gail Goodwin: Hi, Gary, my name’s Gail…

Gary: It’s always nice to clap, by the way. Good for you. Go ahead.

Gail: My name’s Gail Goodwin. I’m with a website called Inspire Me Today.

Gary: Hi, Gail.

Gail: I just needed to ask you a question in reference to our Global Hug Tour. In case you don’t know what that is, my husband and I leave in May of this year in a single engine prop plane. We’re flying 31,000 miles around the world, stopping in 50 different cities and countries, in each of those places gathering inspiration from various luminaries to bring back to feature on Inspire Me Today. Additionally, we’re giving 2000 hugs per location to…

Gary: Hugs?

Gail: Hugs, like hugs.

Gary: That’s frickin’ awesome.

Gail: So literally we have to roll in 100,000 hugs and additionally, we are sharing a million dollars of abundance with non profit causes the whole way around the world. So with that little background, my question…

Gary: I will hug everybody.

Gail: Thank you. My question to you is how can we have an even greater global impact on this, get the word out in a bigger way, specifically because the more people that come to the website and buy hugs for $10, that $10 goes directly to the causes that we are supporting, we’d like to raise 10 million not one million.

Gary: Remember when I talked about when I talked about hitting singles instead of home runs?

Gail: Yes.

Gary: I would focus four to seven hours a day on trying to get on Oprah, the Today Show; I would just go for the jugular. I think way too many people don’t think they can and that’s a problem. I think this is great, this is phenomenal, I want to hug everybody. By the way, I will stand here after this keynote and hug every single damn person in here. [applause]

Gail: Yes, thank you.

Gary: So I think that, what you need to do is allocate first of all it is going to take a lot of work and time, right, which I am sure you are putting it into, because I could see the passion in your voice and it is a very ambitious goal. You need to allocate a lot of time to just pound, you figure out how you get to producers on major television shows, you reach all the top newspapers and then, because I said all those platforms were dead, you start hitting up places like the websites that matter, places like LifeHacker and Huffington Post and TechCrunch and whatever it takes, just go right down the damn line and pound those people into submission to talk about what you want to accomplish.

Gail: Excellent, thank you.

Gary: You are welcome. [applause]

Ken Peters: Hi Gary, thank you. Ken Pierce with GolfGym.com.

Gary: Nice Ken.

Ken: My wife is here, Vicki, with me, it is her birthday today.

Gary: Happy birthday. [applause]

Ken: We were invited here by ShareASale, we just started working with them on an affiliate program and I didn’t really have a grasp of this whole thing, I still don’t. A lot of what you are saying is foreign language to us.

Gary: Sure.

Ken: We got a website and we sell at retail and we have been on for a while and we do OK. We are trying to grow this and we have seen so many different people in the affiliates and the talk yesterday and Andy Rodriguez was great, and I am just wondering as kind of a newbie in this, in being a merchant and looking for the best way to once we get rolling, we start to pick up steam and that has happened with everything we have done, but as a newbie in this whole thing, what would you say would be one of the next steps that we would take. ShareASale we are working with are really helping us in a great way, but what would be the next thing that you would advice?

Gary: You are a retailer?

Ken: No, we are a manufacturer and we sell online and we sell at retail as well our products.

Gary: Understood, there are a lot of things you can do. I mean first and foremost, it is all about building brand equity, right?

Ken: Right.

Gary: So your brand needs to mean something, I mean look at the t-shirts industry or clothing, I know my brother AJ loves Bathing Ape or Bape and they charge hundreds of dollars for sneakers. I mean once you establish brand equity, you can really start growing your profit margins. So the things that I would do if I was in the golf game is try to get endorsements of my product from the biggest people I possibly could, whether you start at Tiger Woods, which you are not going to pull off, because he is pretty locked up, but you work backwards. And more importantly, if you are going to start really working in this online space, I think what you do is the same thing. See the funny thing is that you have already built a business, right?

Ken: Actually yeah, I created the product 20 years ago and mostly recently we are working with a coach from the PGA Tour, we got a connection with that, so that part of it is starting to build on the brand side. So GolfGym is a known name in the golf world right now, but as far selling at this level, this digital marketing, viral, thing that is going on, that everyone in here seems to know about, that is the end at what is the next step of these crazy people.

Gary: These crazy kids.

Ken: No, we are great, this is passion, this is terrific.

Gary: Sure. Everybody is hugging each other, hug the… [crosstalk]

Ken: Vicki, we will hug every… no.

Gary: I think the fact of the matter is that it is… The funny part is there is no separation between what is going on here and what is going on in the real world. It is just different platforms, the same things that made you successful. You went out and reached out for a PGA coach to build that brand equity, right?

Ken: Yes.

Gary: I mean that was part of your process. Well, now you want to go out and reach out to people in digital space that have equity, right? So if you can get people that have audience to say they like your product because they really do, not some scammy crazy s***, then I think that fundamentally you start building momentum. As long as you give them a destination of where to monetize, if you have a place for people to buy this product, I mean there is a lot of people here who will send traffic, create landing pages and all that and that is fine, but I think what is even more important is building up relationships in as many places as possible, with as many people as possible.

See the funny thing is there is a scary four-letter word that a lot of people are just completely petrified of and that is called “work.” See that is what you have to do, here is what you have to do my friend. You have to spend seven to ten hours a day online learning about everything that these crazy kids know about.

Ken: OK. If we are trying to run a business at the other end of the retail and doing all that and doing seminars and getting out there and doing all that, then it is best to really hire someone to be able to do that seven or eight or ten hours a day. [crosstalk]

Gary: Be careful, my friend because you really want to know what the hell you are doing too. It never helps to have somebody that is not you know a hell of a lot more than you, because they can leave, right? And I just think that there is value in the proprietor to know what the hell is going on, don’t stay over here because it is what you are cozy with, cut some slack out of here and bring it over here and start learning this s***, because I promise you this is where business is going to be done, going forward.

Ken: Great! Thank you very much.

Gary: I know, you are welcome, thank you. [applause]

Stephanie: Hi Gary, Stephanie Agresta, Internet Geek Girl.

Gary: How are you?

Stephanie: Good, how are you doing?

Gary: Good.

Stephanie: You and I get to hang out in a lot of conferences.

Gary: Because you are a Jersey girl.

Stephanie: Yes, I am.

Gary: How many people here are from Jersey, raise your hand? [applause]

Gary: I like the guy way in the back there, yes.

Audience Member: How many people are from Colorado?

Gary: Zero. [applause]

Gary: Broncos suck. They collapsed even worse than the Jets. All right, go ahead.

Stephanie: So I have been lucky enough to be in this community for many years and I also get to hang in other Internet marketing communities because there are little pockets of expertise in different shows and places people go…

Gary: And you are a hustling networker?

Stephanie: I am hustler, yes, you are right. And I was wondering if you could give some recommendations to this crowd as to like what they could do and where they should go, where are other places you go this year, how do you cross-pollinate among different expertise within Internet marketing?

Gary: You know that is funny stuff, because that is one of the things I believe in most. I didn’t want to talk about it because I want to pump out of GaryVaynerchuk.com on this. It is called “fishing in other ponds.” The funny thing is if you think about what I did, I was a wine retailer, and I saw opportunity in social media or Web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it, I just saw it as opportunity as there is business in this damn computer and I am going to figure it out. I think that your message can cross-pollinate all the time, the funny thing is everybody gets together in these conferences and we all know each other and we all basically will have an internal fight about the subject of the day, but we are all like, hey you are on Twitter, I am on Twitter.

The fact of the matter is, what is really funny about that is what you should be doing is going to the conferences where nobody knows what you know. So here, all your knowledge is trumped or equaled by everybody else because we all kind of know the same things. The fact of the matter is go to a chamber of commerce event in business, walk in there and you are like f***ing Yoda, right?

[laughter and applause]

Gary: And if you don’t overheard that on Twitter, I am highly offended, I will be searching, but that is the case. I mean that is the funny thing. There is way too many people that keep fishing in the same ponds you keep going to Affiliate Summit West, Affiliate Summit East, Affiliate Summit Bahamas, Affiliate Summit Moscow, go somewhere else, because when you go somewhere else, there is a lot of business to be done because… Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[laughter]

Gary: I guess I am never keynoting again. The fact of the matter is there are a lot of free places to go to; there are a lot of local business opportunities. I mean every single person in this room fundamentally has a massive advantage over a large majority of business people in the world right now. [applause]

Gary: It is true and a lot of people are not using it and that is why I get frustrated when people are creating things when they really have skill sets to make $1.47 a day when I know times eight billion, I get it, and you make a trillion dollars. And that’s great. And I’m pumped for that, especially if you’re pumped for that. But the problem is way too many people that do that, when I speak to them, want other things. They want brand equity in other places. They want to be a regular contributor to x, y, and z. And the way you do that is by building more equity in yourself and your message, and getting it focused and cutting off.

Even I’m stretched too thin, and I’m pretty messaged. And I’m fooling around with way too many things. I think the fact of the matter is, there’s so many place for people to do business, and there’s so many creative things. Listen, you guys understand marketing and converting and making dollars.

The problem is, there’s eight trillion people walking around, saying they’re social media experts, and they haven’t made a dollar in their life. It’s a little bit of a problem.

[applause]

Gary: That being said, you guys have the ability to walk into other circles. Go into your local large family run business. We all live in places, when I was in Portland doing a book signing; I was blown away by Powell’s book store. Right? [cheers]

Gary: Big up the Powells. And so I was blown away, because I was like wow. God, if I lived in Portland, I would go right to Powell’s, get their top brass and say, listen, hire me. I can really, really help you. So, there’s a lot of those kinds of opportunities for people here, where you can do that kind of consulting and stuff. While you’re still running your stuff, maybe learn from traditional business over here. Because there’s a lot of people here. Sure, you come from traditional manufacturing. There are a lot of people here who’ve never done traditional bricks and mortar business. And there’s a lot to learn from that. There’s a lot of interesting tactics in that world that can help you learn what to do here.

Martin: Hi Gary, my name is Martin from the Danish company Spring Florida.

Gary: How are you?

Martin: I’m very good, how are you?

Gary: Phenomenal.

Martin: Fantastic show, thank you for that. Well, I totally agree about working with all social medias like Facebook, Twitter, and all that. And I do it myself. But, well you can see, the problem is the more success you get in that area, the more people you have to be close with, the more people you have to interact with. And that’s of course, nice for business. I know you have huge success in that area. How the hell do you, or how much time do you spend on there? What do you do when you get 1000, or 2000 or 3000 messages a day? Do you hire people to answer them, or you sit 24 hours a day. When the hell do you do business, my man?

Gary: So, it’s all about what you think business is, right, my friend? I took a major step backwards in my wine business to devote more time to building brand equity online, building Wine Library TV and all that jazz. See, the funny thing is, there’s another word that nobody across all business platforms, likes and embraces, and that’s called ‘patience.’ There is nobody that has enough patience. Everybody’s like, when is it going to happen? Dude, you’ve been doing this for three months. Are you kidding me? So the funny part is that patience is lacking from so many people.

I pumped out an episode 20 minutes a day, and jumped into wine forums, and wine blogs, and became part of the community. Not, hey check out my site. For 8 10 hours a day, for 18 months, while my $50 million a year business stopped growing, because I was the real catalyst, or it slowed.

For 18 months before anybody gave a crap about Wine Library TV. That’s hard. That’s patience. You have to persevere. And so, really comes down to this, my friend. It’s a balance game, right? Really I want to tell you, it should be what you like to do. Do you know what I mean?

If you want to hire people, fine. You have to understand that it depends on how your brand is positioned; it’s going to be a little less authentic if it’s interns. But the fact of the matter is you have to balance it. And the problem is, a lot of people like yourself say the same thing.

When do I do real business? The problem is, people don’t realize, building brand equity by building relationships and interacting with people, is the biggest damn real business anybody here can do.

[applause]

Gary: And so, if you have patience and the ability to wait, and build that, I promise you, you can monetize that. You know what I mean?

Martin: I’m from Denmark. It’s a small country. I’m one of the best known businessmen in Denmark. So, I have a very large brand in a very small country. And I think I spend 10 hours a day answering emails and all that. So I’m saying, hey, you’re doing the same thing as me, but in a market with 300 million people instead of five million. Then you would have to spend 300 hours a day, and that’s quite impossible.

Gary: Are you happy?

Martin: I love it.

Gary: Then you’re set. Next! [laughter]

Gary: It’s true.

Scott Jangro: Hi Gary.

Gary: Hey man.

Scott: Scott Jangro, Jangro.com.

Gary: Two more questions.

Scott: Disappointed Patriots fan.

Gary: I’m so glad you didn’t make the playoffs. [laughter]

Gary: Sorry. Go ahead.

Scott: I think a few people in this room are probably interested in your success as a transparent affiliate marketer with your Please Dress Me. Congratulations to you and your brother on that.

Gary: Thanks.

Scott: My question about that is, I remember the minute you guys launched that site.

Gary: Appreciate it.

Scott: TechCrunch, LifeHacker, and all that stuff.

Gary: Yep.

Scott: My question is how has that carried on in your success. There was the flash that you had, the spike in traffic, all the attention. But not a lot of people are your customers on those platforms.

Gary: Right.

Scott: Could you share with us how that’s kind of carried through down the line, more long term?

Gary: Sure. It’s the Conan O’Brien, Ellen, Mad Money game, right? Because people go on my site and see that I was on Conan, they think for themselves that I’m not just some bulls***. Right? That’s brand association. And so, when AJ and I reached out to Threadless and Busted Tees and Snorg and every single t-shirt blogger and all that stuff, we didn’t sleep. And we just crushed it. And we were having fun. All those people took us more seriously because we were just on Tech Crunch and LifeHacker and Boing Boing. And when I got to the CEO of CafePress and all those stuff, it happened quickly, because of that. So it’s like, creating the hype to leverage the hype, right?

And so that’s how it worked. We used that blast of promotion to get us into the door to talk real business. And then by talking real business, we were able to build a business model and plan. And then we were able to just keep hustling, right? And people get impressed by stuff.

I mean, think about any time anybody in our space gets mentioned in anything mainstream. It’s exciting. We’re all collectively happy. And I think for a lot of people, Boing Boing and LifeHacker, those are big. Those things sent massive juice. And then it gets regurgitated a lot. And it just opens up a lot of doors. You leverage the hype to create business.

Scott: Thanks.

Gary: Sure. Last question.

John: Hey Gary, I got the last question. It’s John from Sticker Giant.

Gary: Hey John.

John: You just asked us all to spread our wings, so why don’t you take a moment and tell us exactly what this Thunder Cruise is.

Gary: [laughs] I have a cruise in April and we’re going to drink a s***load of wine for seven days. And I worked really hard on creating a cost-effective vacation before an economy collapse, so it’s become a pretty popular ticket. And I’m not really super comfortable pumping, that’s very nice of you, thank you. But it’s a cruise. I’m on it. Come and check it out. I know I have to get off, but I just want to tell everybody here that I was really honored to speak at this conference. I have a strong affinity for this general space. I think there’s so much more that can be done.

But I know you hear that. And I don’t want to be that guy that says you can do it. I get that. But I think there is. And I think that if nothing else, I hope you leave here today with a thought of maybe where you want to position yourself. Because once you position yourself to love what you’re doing and monetizing against that, we’re awfully lucky.

I’m really pumped that I wasn’t a cat or a tree or a bottle of Coke.

[laughter]

Gary: Being a human in 2009 is pretty awesome. Thank you so much! [applause]

Gary: Thank you so much.

Jim: Thanks Gary. Look at that. Gary, thank you very much. Great work as usual.

And we will see you all tonight at 5:00 for the Pinnacle Awards, I believe right here in this room. So have a great day everybody.

Gary: Thank you. [music UB40 "Red Red Wine"]