Le Web Fireside Chat Gary Vaynerchuk | 2009

you're you you've been uh you've been busy right a little bit yeah I just want to wish everybody a happy holiday so Gary let's have fun what's that let's have fun what have you been doing for year uh I wrote a book uh it was called crush it uh did very well I'm very happy with it I started a uh consulting company with my brother AJ who I love more than life and that's called Vayner media and we've been Consulting for a lot of big Brands the National Hockey League uh cadberry Adams uh and done some work for saxi Avenue and Proctor and Gamble so that's been interesting and I've been doing some Angel Investing oh really that's new uh yeah that's been fairly new uh yesterday you might have saw goala got announced I was in on that um so I invested in goala a simple Geo uh daily Booth uh Tumblr Oh yeah Del Booth you take a picture itory of your face as you when you lose your hair for example it reminds you it's very cool I love it yeah and so I've uh I've been doing some things I've been out meeting people uh I always love to come to this kind of stuff because I've already got to meet a lot of people that I've not met before yeah it's a people business L too many people give a [ __ ] about money and all this horeshit and metrics and SEO and all this garbage but it's all about people so it is so you know that's why I really wanted to have you back is we you know you did your wine show last year and that was really cool fun wine Li Wine Library tv. com if you guys don't know it you have to watch it's uh Gary is becoming the uh Parker of the internet I don't know about that but yeah come on there's some people that watch it it's it's fun as a matter of fact yesterday night I did a uh an event at a Paris wine School uh which was a lot of fun um you know Wine Not only and you know this is the wine world right this is where wine does its thing but in the US people are scared of wine they're intimidated so I started the show because I wanted people to try new things and to trust their own palet it's not about Parker or me or wine spectator or tradition I mean Bordeaux we all love Bordeaux but really we're still completely influenced by something that happened in 1855 I mean things change you know teris is Tera but you know wine makers and things change and so um my passion is to get people to trust their own pallet by the way not only in wine but in business there's way too many people looking at all the pretty faces in the crowd I know for fact in my heart that 95% of the people in this room don't love what they do 100% no not this room well how many people in this room love what they do 100 whoa whoo 100% okay so you know what that's you're wrong 20% % no VC is a very that was 20% Max that was maybe okay one more time how many people what don't [ __ ] 100% love what they do L that's okay 33% like this is by the way this is on camera so I'm sorry this is not 20 fine how many people are not 100% happy raise your hand 10% that's not 10% but fine listen the fact of the matter is my hope is that people recognize how big the social shift is right now how the cost of getting involved and building a business around what you love is so low go you stop so you guys if you're not if you raise your hand the second time you just stop what you're doing and you do what you love that's your point no because you have to be practical you have to you know pay the mortgage you have student loans there's practicality but the fact of the matter is I don't want people not doing what they love when they can come home and instead of at 8:00 at night or 9:00 at night play Nintendo Wii or drink six beers or watch Lost season 2 on DVD I want them to start building a business around what they love because the cost is zero okay so tell me how I do that that's your book right well that's the book but I don't really want to talk about the book oh really no because I want to talk about one thing I have well I do want to talk about the Jets all the time no we don't well you we have some time but what I think well I know you probably want to ask some questions right no go ahead no but you ask a question first what do you want to talk about consumer expectation okay so here's what I'm fascinated by and I'm curious if you guys have been looking at this or thinking about this in 1999 when I launched free shipping for one day on wine library. com people lost their mind people bought wine for like 30 years people were like buying wines for their daughter's wedding when she was like six years old it was chaos why because it wasn't something that everybody was doing at the time wine is heavy so you know for a lot of people it cost $3 a bottle to ship the wine for and so we

did this and it became insanity and everybody lost their [ __ ] mind right but what's interesting is over the course of the last decade free shipping has become standard it's it becomes something we're used to what I know is that if any person in this room flew to a hotel in any city in the world and they went in and got their internet and they tried to sign on for the wireless or whatever and they got dial up if they heard that they would [ __ ] their pants they would call everybody they know and go this place sucks that's unbelievable we get very used to things very fast and what I think is very important to understand going to impact everybody's business in this room is that consumers are going to expect a far greater level of customer service what I know is that like I tweet that you suck at 3:00 a. m. right you have to answer at some level so you know here's what I know people are going to come up here and talk about Facebook connect and the Twitter fire hose and all this [ __ ] right what I know is this if you don't care about your customer and if you're not delivering on actually giving a crap about them you're going to lose going forward because word of mouth has become so activated we are all so connected in a way that we've never been that here's what I know Small Town rules are going to start to apply and like the Bakers doesn't you know the baker used to give you 13 donuts and charge you for 12 because he gave a crap if you go to Whole Foods or Tesco or anybody place right now and buy 13 Donuts they're going to charge you for 13 you're in a country where we like cant and so we know what you're talking about so that's right and so what I'm fascinated by they call you by your name that's right and what I'm fascinated by is that when I grew up I didn't expect my favorite Sportsman to come to my house Patrick Ying from the Knicks and say you know Gary thank you so much for supporting the Knicks you know I didn't expect Prince to like at reply me and or send me a letter or come after a concert and shake my hand but we're living in a day and age now where the cost of entry for us to engage with everybody is so low that our expectation is growing what ooo is doing what zapo created in corporate culture T is here that's right he's probably crushing it somewhere right now you know where what's starting to happen is our expectation what I do for wine fans they didn't expect Robert Parker or Janis Robinson or the owner of chat Lor to care or give back or answer their email I think that's starting to change so you crush it by answering every single email that guy answers every single email I I try it and it's and you can't scale it when you're one person I understand that my inbox has plenty of things from August and September why don't you just arive I mean come on like you make it a point to answer to help why you want to help people so much I'm you know I used to think that I was driven by being an immigrant I was born in Belarus in the former Soviet Union and I came to the us and we lived in a studio apartment with eight family members smaller than that stage so my whole life I thought that I was driven and I was successful because I was an immigrant because I know what it tastes like to have zero not have toys and games I understand what work is right but what I've come to realize recently is that I'm driven by gratitude I don't think we're grateful enough I'm grateful I I mean it I was born in a country where my DNA would have either put me in jail uh got me murdered or I'd be one of those crazy billionaire Russian dudes but you know one of those three careful we had a panel in Russia fair enough I love the listen it's my place from was Keat um they crush it but I got lucky I got to leave communism come to you know the US I have the greatest mother in the world I my dad are you going to thank your whole family yeah my dad cuz that's what the game is my dad dragged my ass into the liquor store when I was 13 14 and taught me hard work PID me two bucks an hour to bag ice for 8 hours a day so I'm driven by gratitude when you have health of you and your family everything else is massively secondary I'm very disgusted by what I saw last year when the economy got soft the no well a little bit but you know what what I was really it was cold it's much warmer now it's warm we fixed a few things you did a great job you're amazing so what I think is um what I think was very interesting last year was when the world economy got soft all I heard in America and plenty places around the world was oh [ __ ] it's the depression we're dead we were all dead everybody you know and nobody was outside eating food out of the garbage see here's what happened we've all become very soft you know he everybody wanted to buy a 50in TV screen that December that's why they were upset buy your 29 in shut the [ __ ] up and get to

work we don't need a Nintendo Wii JuJu we don't need [ __ ] what we need to do is be happy and the fact of the matter is this that we live in a day and age you know who I feel bad for the people that are just like us the entrepreneurs and business people just like us journalists just like us who lived in a day and age where The Gatekeepers controlled the game when cash ruled everything around me cream you know that is who I feel bad for who I feel great for is every person in this room because we live in a world where the platform not [ __ ] Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr the internet that thing the internet that's 15 years old by the way the consumer internet is only 15 years old the [ __ ] thing hasn't had sex yet and it's dominating the fact that every person in this room for very low cost which is by the way zero sweat lot of hard work but when did building a business not take a shitload of work I promise you all your grandparents that built businesses they didn't get VC funding and talk about users they built real businesses and it took a long time the fact that every person in this room can use the internet and build a platform and I don't give a [ __ ] if you live in Silicon Valley or France or New Jersey everybody's got a shot the cost is zero that to me means we're living in The Best Time Ever where everything's being exposed UST streams putting out live I mean you're not gonna be, people watch V yesterday you think Tiger Woods is a extreme example everybody's going to get called out everybody nobody's going to be hiding anywhere because everything's going to be exposed and the fact that we can all build a real business and the cost of Entry is so low I feel bad for the entrepreneurs from the 50s and 60s and 40s who didn't have that the entrepreneurs in the 80s who needed $100,000 to start up a business the fact that you could start a business now create content around that and then backend it if you want to open a coffee shop a retail coffee shop start a coffee blog get your [ __ ] hands dirty and get involved in every coffee Community online stay up to 3:00 in the morning build real relationships not spam [ __ ] have people give a crap about you and when you open your coffee shop guess what's going to happen you're going to be a little bit better you're going to have a few more customers that blueprint is in play and we as a the human race not San Fran or New York or France or Europe we collectively are underestimating how big this is I promise you it's so blatantly obvious we are underestimating how big this shift is how big this opportunity is it's a gold rush it's a land grab and there's going to be a lot of winners it's not just one winner this isn't Oprah you don't need to be the Oprah of wine you could be the haraldo or the Ricky lake or the Sally Jesse Raphael the 57th best blogger around exercising is going to be just okay they're going to do great because what's happening is traditional media's money is starting to go away see since I started Vayner media and I'm working with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies these people want to spend money in different places they know I mean really TV neelen ratings there's a box in every 6,000 homes and that's the stats in a day and age where we know when people sneeze while they're on the computer it's crazy things are shifting money's coming down L there's a half a trillion dollars in ad Revenue that's coming down see anybody in this room that's taken marketing classes and has gone to University knows that word of mouth converts yeah we should do exactly the opposite as was marketing classes that's well word but what they learned in that class was Word of Mouth converts right word of mouth converts in the 80 percentile eight out of 10 times if you can afford to buy what your friend tells you will buy marketing advertising banners bus stops 12% just give me one sec 12% if you think about what's happened over the last 36 months with things like Twitter and Facebook and all the mobile stuff we are being connected where our m word of mouth explodes the biggest yenta on the upper east side of Manhattan 5 years ago 8 years ago could tell 40 or 50 of her socialite friends the weirdest most introverted person living in Minnesota in the basement of his mom's house can tell 6,000 now that's gamechanging Gary one thing is when you start I you know I know many people who really want to follow your advice and how do you say crush it crush it crush it no crush it that's your book so how do you start because that you need to leave your job you need to you take J no you don't here's the [ __ ] I want people if you're not happy and you want to build a business around World of Warcraft or tea or bike riding the fact do the M matter is that most people not everybody there's single moms with four kids

there's extremes right a wife passed away and the husband has to work three jobs there's extremes but a big chunk of society they're getting home at 7 or 8 at night 600 at night right the fact of the matter is there's a lot of hours in between 8:00 pm. and 2: in the morning and if you're not happy you deserve and you owe to yourself to [ __ ] work and instead of watching three hours of television or doing this with the Wii controller for 4 hours you can apply it to building a business there's a real opport now is everybody going to win no Talent you know content a little bit of luck what I know is that most so for example yeah you love video I love video too and this is yeah I remember seesmic I loved it I used it I loved it oh that was a compliment actually yeah well I think we love video and um that V I'm not coming back next year am I of course you're coming back sism has half a million users so everything is cool go ahead agility is something interesting too right no but you know what one of the chapters of my in my book and one thing that I've read your book I'm trying to crush it you know I'm trying really hard so no but listen I mean one of the things I respect about you so much is probably the most important thing to me when you're an entrepreneur is reactionary business I vomit in my mouth when people come to me and say here's our three-year plan three years in this world that we all live in are you crazy you know three weeks things change you know you read Tech meme Tech crunch Mashable three weeks the whole game changes you have to be able to be a reactionary business person for example for me mobile is clearly coming it's here and it's coming more and more so you know because I can't do everything some of my have mess Mets simple Geo goala are going in that space because I want to learn I want to be on Advisory Board a part of that because there's so much coming there um you have to be reactionary you just have to be so video give me your water please uh you have yours actually I don't I'm not sharing you have you heard of all those things these days I'm not scared of that [ __ ] all right go ahead some people don't you know are not comfortable with the uh you're advising to do videos you know they don't have your charisma I'm not advising to do video If you read the book like you said you did what I said was you need to what I'm fascinated by and what I almost called the book was brand DNA what I know is that every person in this room not everybody is the same not everybody is over the toop listen everybody thinks they have to be like me to be successful there's plenty of people in the crowd that hate me because I'm too over the top you many people who hate you I don't have many I have some but you know you have to be who you are what I know is that for everybody that I turn off I'm going to get in the trenches and meet them maybe I'll meet them here one by the cheese stand how about people really think you're completely full of [ __ ] those guys I you know I I've got it better than a lot of people you know very e a m he's like yeah he talks a lot yeah super I built a $70 million wine retail business you know it allows me to have a little bit of an excuse right if you know it's kind of nice when you did it right I was making you know $100,000 a year selling baseball cards when I was 14 years old I mean you could say anything you want and you could disagree but no but like for example please you say you know old media we don't need you said that no what I said was you said it sucks I said it sucks with Roi I bought Billboards and magazines and taxi tops for crushit but when they came to me and said the billboard is $155,000 on the highway I said [ __ ] you I'll give you 2,000 and they took it see what I know is this I I am not romanced by New Media I don't care about Facebook or Twitter honestly I don't even really care that much about the internet even know that's the game if people still looked up in the sky and looked at smoke signals I'd climb those Rafters right now and this I care about the message listen I wrote a book right A lot of people busted my traps Mr New Media why'd you write a book yeah why did you write the book because people read them you know I mean the fact of the matter is that I'm not romanced by anything but the message the platforms that we deliver them on is irrelevant which is why I'm so passionate and why I wanted to talk today about customer service because I'm telling you Tony Shay are massively underrated if you re I promise you when we look back at it culture DNA and culture is what wins the game not price in a day and age where price is so available to us the fact that here the guys who just won this thing

strive they're going to be great and all that they don't win unless they give a [ __ ] and the more you care about your users and the more effort you put into that and don't [ __ ] it the more upside you have as a company I firmly believe that in a world where our word of mouth is so activated that when you have a good experience or a bad experience it's going to travel dramatically more than three years ago I actually think we have a big advantage to a corporate large companies because they cannot change that fast this Twitter you know acid buff that is being done by all of us twittering about you know this brand is great this brand is you know sucks he really tough to manage because they cannot answer that fast so if you take espresso for they can they have so much money can I plug an espresso no they can because here's the problem they have the dollars to do it they just haven't made the cultural you know decision to go there when I hear big companies can't do it because they're too you know they're too big they have tons of cash they can absolutely positively hire 7 10 20 100 people the National Hockey League which is a league a professional sports League when they said to me when I told them I want you to at reply and reply to every email and every Facebook wall message everyone you get they looked at me like that's impossible I'm like [ __ ] I get more than you I'm one person and I'm doing it how can't you do it here's the difference people don't want to do it because they don't recognize why it's valuable to their business because in the old days our little individual voices didn't carry enough weight that's starting to change consumer expectation is starting to change and when it starts ringing up on the radar it's going to become culture what I'm talking about right now is going to be standard business practices in five years because of necessity I'm just recommending people to get there first because it is an absolute differentiator I just want to say one more thing because we don't have that much time L keep going Gary conferences are very interesting to me I will not come back this is not a conference what is it this is a community okay if it's a [ __ ] Community why are we not doing Q& A we're all up here talking if it's a wait a minute if this is a community why are we all sitting around here jerking ourselves off and talking about stuff when I refuse to come back next year unless my entire presentation is Q& A you we could have done that entirely if you want that's what PE you know we can all go up here they can read about this they know that the real value is I want to do Q& A all the time the Gilmore gang's going up here they should do Q& A we should do you know what let's kick the next ACT off and let's do 20 minutes of Q& A right now I'm not sure violet blue will appreciate that oh yes violet blue the future of sex it's going to be way better than this you know what you can do as well he's I still have two minutes he just stay with us for the two days in the corridors and meet everyone no but honestly I'm being serious if this is a community and this is an amazing turnout and you put on an amazing show and and the food is quite impressive that's why I really come and so but I honestly think that every presentation you know one of my big goals for 2010 you could see them growing a beard right in hockey in America when the teams go into the playoffs they all gr [ __ ] sorry they all grow beards and so 2010 is going to be a big beard year for me you know I'm going to talk a little less I think I've talked enough I'm going to put my head down and build V media I'm going to build corked my wine social network which I'm passionate about um and uh and I'm thinking about launching a conference that's Q& A only because I don't because if it is community we're not engaging enough with them in my opinion well we're on Twitter we've been you know exchanging a lot and there are actually some participants here never showed up to this room which I think is fantastic listen L I'm not busting your chops I love you and so does everybody here how many people love L raise your hand how many people hate two three you did better than the uh love your job hate your job um listen I'm not busting chops what I'm saying is that I'm very fascinated about Q& A I think there needs to be more of this you know we're all talking about social media right everybody gets up here and says engage with your community and then all we're doing up here is giving a presentation so I I'm very passionate about Q& A so next year we will have you do only Q& A I'm going to do Q& A after this I'm not even going do you want this guy back next year yeah well it looks like still you know they liked it listen the bottom line is this I'm very appreciative to be up here and spend some time with you guys I'm going to stick hope to meet a bunch of you in the crowd after this and uh I wish you guys nothing but health and a great holiday and uh thank you very much thank you Gary Gary thanks so much so Q& A next year with uh Gary ve at Gary ve on Twitter if you don't follow Gary facebook. com put his mic back uh

facebook. com/ gar oh that's new g a r y yeah oh okayy twitter. com gar V crushit the book I think we and it's cool it's really cool what's next fure sex TV show or something not yet thank you so much thank you Gary