How to Start a Social Media Agency in 2019: VaynerMentors Consultation

- You're also making gold that has no context for the distribution. - Correct. - Yep. - That's right. - Which is vulnerable at some point. You got your perspective. (crowd cheering) I just wanna be happy. Don't you wanna be happy? (chill hip hop music) - I am Paul Daly, AKA Paul J Daly. I'm the founder and CEO of Congruent Creative Agency. So, it's been a crazy six months since the first meeting with Gary and the mentors. That kinda sounds like a band. Although we had a lot of stuff rolling already when we started the mentors program, I can definitely say that the strategic guidance and mentorship that they have given me have really fast-tracked the growth of the agency. Our revenue since the mentors' program has almost tripled and our head count has almost doubled, so it's making a real difference. Look, there have definitely been a number of setbacks since we started the Vayner Mentor Program, but the real point is they have been available for us whenever we've hit one to help coach us through it. I can say Vayner Mentors changed my business for the better, continues to improve it for the better, and I think will in the future as well, so here's to the journey. - [Man] So, what do you see becoming your core product as an agency? - I think our main in-road is gonna be through this incoming generation of dealers. There's a lot of transitioning going on right now who are progressive, who are following you. That's the emails you're getting. We need to show them there's a solution that they can bring to dad and say, dad, we need to do this. - So, let's talk about that. What do you wanna sell? I agree with you 100%. - Absolutely. - I'm Gary. Sasha, right here, we have a dealership, fuckin' dad's wasting all his money on TV and radio and doesn't believe in this shit. I wanna do it, and I know it's early, but what do you think it is? - I wanna create a brand, clarify your messaging. - Branding, I got it. - Branding, messaging, and content production. This is how you produce content. - How much? - How much content? - How much money do you want for that? - I think we could have hundred thousand dollar relationships. - Quarter million to a 100,000. - 100 to 250 is what you're thinking a year. As a retainer? - That's what we're working towards. - Sure, yeah. - Yeah. Listen, that's why we're here. - I'd love to get away from project-based. We work with local and national brands. - Yeah, honestly, the reason Vayner Media became a big company fast was we did no project work. We've layered project work on top now, but I hate it. - Yeah. - So, what's the current... You're doing 300 plus thousand in the business now. What are people paying you for today? - On the agency side? - Yeah. side, yeah. And why did you project 800. - They're just seeing cool stuff out there. So basically, major global brands are producing amazingly cools stuff. We just started producing cool stuff at a very local level. People are like, I want that, I want my brand to reflect that, so they call us, hey, we want - And when you say cool stuff, a video? - Video, yeah. - Yeah. That's fine. - Social media executions they come in and say, we want you to make us a video. We're like, well, why do you want a video? Who's gonna watch it? Where's it gonna live? And then, we kinda back in and they realize, walk out, say we need a lot more help than just a video. - Yeah, so they hire us not for one video, but a series of 20 videos and we execute to that. - Cool videos, cool media, cool photos, cool animations. - But you're not doing the media placement, right. You're doing the creative production. - Very little placement. - Yeah, we brought on Pat, that guy with the orange sweatshirt over there, do that, to start executing to that 'cause we give them this piece of gold and they totally fuck it up. - They don't understand what to do with that. - Yeah. - Exactly. - Correct. - Yep. - That's right. - Let me tell you my personal end game. - Go ahead. That's a great way to start. - Yeah. - That's where we should Which is? - So, I was kind of ready, 'cause you're to the point, so I'll just beat you to it. I wanna help people. I wanna help people get clarity. This was born in Claude's office a year ago. I wanna help people with business, with relationships. - Yep. - If you're not making decisions based on clarity, you're just guessing, at best, you're guessing a general direction. I think that having an agency leverages my ability to communicate, builds my personal brand, and if I can do it in business, I wanna keep doing it in business. If it's dealership world for the next five years, awesome. That will give me 20 years in the dealership world. - My blueprint is attractive to you. - Absolutely, 100%. - That's what you're saying. - That's why we're connecting. Yeah, absolutely. - That's what I'm doing. - That's why I trust you, that's why I'm like, I don't know how it's gonna work out, but I know being closest to this sun is gonna help me get there. This is the same thing. It's literally, when you're talking to that, I'm like, you're talking to me. - 100%. - It was so important for the whole team because there's an element of getting close to the sun that I wanted us to experience as a team of creatives. It's one of those things, we don't know what we don't know and when you get in an environment that's completely outside your regular life and you can start to see people

operating on a different level, all of a sudden, you start to realize, you know what? This is possible. - Let me give you a couple pieces of advice that I think will really matter. You need to be very, very thoughtful about the products and services you do for this company. Let me give you a great piece of advice: Immediately, from day one, and I know we're kinda of in day one, but post-acquisition, we're in a new day one, I want you to announce a date for Clarity Con immediately. The thing that you'll learn very quickly... You're gonna get your moneys worth right this second. Your even business will be more profitable, more fun, more profitable, more impactful for you mission of why from day one. If you're able to do Clarity Con, say Clarity Con looks like this: It's $1000 ticket, but you also get 30 minutes Q and As or one hour Q and As on a closed door live stream with me once a month. Got it? And then, that all of a sudden becomes also something you get free, that if you're a client of your company, as part of the retainer... I think if you build a model... If I could do it all over again, which is what we're talking about here, knowing your industry enough, you do a $5000 a month retainer, a strategy retainer, not a creative output, and then a contractual, minimal guarantee of another 5000 in social media content. - Output. So now, they're locked in for 120 to even be in your world and then above and beyond project work. So, it goes five, five - I'm gonna come around and hug you in a second. - This is what's good. This is it, man. what I would... If I - And I'm not taking notes 'cause I know Levi is. - So now, what you're doing is you're creating perceived value. It's like, okay cool, I'm getting something that's 1000 bucks, I'm getting access to him, you're building that, you're building in, you're building, you're building. You're building stairs. You get this, but now it's like, hey, it's 5000 a month retainer and obligation to do 5000 a month of output, so they're gonna be like, okay, it's $10,000 a month, right? By saying 5000 for that and 5000 you have to buy for output, what you've done is a very good job of not mixing the two. They've now bought into the fact they're paying you $60,000 a year to be smart. That's a lot of upside for you and your organization, long-term. That's why I want you to break out that Clarity, 'cause we used to do it as you're gonna get $10,000 worth of community management and pictures and you get the value of our strategy, but whenever anything is free, it's free. - Got it? So, I want you to start with it's $5000 a month retainer for strategy and brand positioning, comma, even for us to say yes to that, you have to then do another $5000 in the output and that's where you'll get your pictures and videos and cool stuff. - Yeah. - That's your day in and day out. Above and beyond that, you can do one-off videos for your big fall sale, you're sitting on too much inventory, you need an extra boost, or if you wanna go down the path of internal culture, kinda of the Claude stuff, fine. You'll decide how you wanna build out your company and your services, but I do think that 120 base for thinking and pictures and videos, you're at a really sweet spot to build on top of, along with they get a ticket to Clarity Con, which is 1000 bucks. - Yeah. - Anyway, that would be the model, I think you need to go with, but I think Clarity Con from day one, when you announce it, literally it's we've been bought and literally comma, we've been bought, we've got an agency, we've got Clarity Con coming, in fucking wherever on whatever. - What's realistic? What's the attention length that we can actually push that? You know what I mean? 'Cause I'm thinking, how much time do we got to execute to a conference. - And here's the good news, here's what's amazing about video, and I think we see it a lot in my internal coms, as long as you're humble and transparent, this is how you hedge: It's humility, it's self-deprecation. Let's say you make a video in September, everybody's away for the summer, you say, guys, Clarity Con, March 2109, super excited about it. To be very frank, we're gonna start opening up pre-sales and getting a sense, it's $1000 ticket, also you get it for free if you're a client of ours. Very simply, I have no idea if this is gonna happen in a Dunkin Donuts or if this is gonna be done at Buffalo Bill Stadium. I think probably more likely Dunkin Donuts than Buffalo Bill Stadium, but if there's one person that comes or one million people that come, we're gonna put on a show. You've now eliminated any expectations, got it? That's it. Now, you're not vulnerable. Now, you've taken pressure out of selling it. Now, if you sell seven - Everything you announce that's gonna happen in the meantime, it's an upside. Oh, this is actually gonna happen now. - That's exactly right. - That's right. - This is live.

- I just think - We watch Gary Vaynerchuck, can you believe it? - Yeah, and you're only 150,000 in the hole. (laughing) By the way, by the way - That would be yours, so - By the way, by the way. It's really right for you. You'll win that game. You've got all these personalities that you've been able to get into your ecosystem. You'll be able to call in favors. You're gonna put on a real show and it can become a real thing and what's great about Clarity Con is maybe year one it's a little bit more towards that world, but to your why and where you're going, you'll be able to expand out. It's agnostic. - Step, man. - Proud of you, man. Congrats. - Thank you. I think it's really important to say that the value of this program is not just Gary, but it is the team that he's assembled and I think he'd be happy to hear me say that, but for real, the mentors team is accessible and ready and willing to help whenever we have a setback. (camera flashes) There was this sense of we're about to take the first steps on a trip that we're gonna talk about for a long time. It was this knowledge that, I don't know what we're gonna learn, do from here on out, but I know it's gonna be meaningful and I know it's going to be one of those moments that we look back on and say, can you imagine if we hadn't done this? (upbeat Spanish hip hop music)