INBOUND 2012 Keynote: Care Immensely or Die!

please welcome to the inbound stage G vaynerchuk morning um yeah so I'm really excited to be here uh I have a whole bunch to talk about um but first i'm GNA ask you guys a question to allow me to figure out what direction I should go with uh my talk how many people here are fairly familiar with me and my Spiel raise your hand and how many are not [ __ ] bad start um okay that's kind of what I thought though actually so I'm going to uh give a little bit of my backstory I apologize for a lot of the people that have heard this but it creates such a context to the things that I believe in and I'm passionate about and more importantly I think we'll really round out the entire story so I'll go a little faster than normal because luckily and I appreciate a lot of you do know this um but since there's more of you that don't I'll start with this I was born in uh in bellus in the former Soviet Union my family immigrated to the United States in 1978 when I was three years old uh we lived a very very ghetto immigrant lifestyle uh I lived in a studio apartment in Queens New York half excuse me a fourth of the size of this stage and uh with eight family members including my crazy great-grandmother so it was pretty intense um it was one of those things where my dad worked a bunch of side jobs and I never saw him I actually didn't know my dad until I was 14 because he worked so much he left before I woke up and got home after I went to sleep one of the jobs he got was in a liquor store in Clark New Jersey and he used to commute from Queens to Clark and uh he was a stock boy my dad's first four words in English were Budweiser Mad Dog 2020 and Boon's farm so you know kind of Great American Dream stuff my dad worked really hard and we eventually moved to Edison New Jersey I uh started my entrepreneurial career in I had seven lemonade stands um do you guys remember big wheels those little bikes you like those I used to ride my big wheels around Edison New Jersey and picking up my cash from my friends that worked the lemonade stands like I was little Tony Soprano or something um it was a good gig good business I did well and then when I turned 12 I started my first really big business uh when I was 12 I was selling baseball cards at the malls and Convention centers baseball cards got really big around that time I was making $2 to $3,000 a weekend selling baseball cards when I was 12 years old I don't know about you guys but when you have $30,000 in cash under your bed and you're 13 and you're not selling weed you're doing a good job so I was excited about that was awesome I as a matter of fact in hindsight I don't think I've ever been more Rich than that moment I mean you really do not know what to do with that kind of money when you're 12 um bazooka is like five [ __ ] cents um so that was that and I was rocking and I wanted to build the biggest baseball card business in the world I wanted to open up 500 locations of baseball card stores that was going to be my life I was set I didn't care about anything else school I didn't care about girls I wanted to build this that was it that's who I was going to be and then when I was 14 my dad ruined my life I was getting ready for the biggest card show of the year it was at the Ron Expo Center in Edison New Jersey a th000 table it's like the thing I prepaid for the table I'm getting ready in the morning I'm pricing my Ken griffy Junior rookie cards I'm super pumped and my dad walks in and goes you're coming to work now and I'm like Dad I think you're mistaken I got the biggest show I'm not sure how many of you up in the rafters have Soviet fathers but I lost that argument you have a Soviet Dad let's talk later to nice Russia represent um so I lost that argument which was devastating we lived 45 minutes from the liquor store at that point so I cried the entire way down it was devastating and uh finally with about two minutes before we got there I asked my dad how much he was going to pay me I composed myself he said two bucks an hour and then I really started crying and that's how my Wine Liquor business career started for the next year and a half of my life um I went into my dad's store every single

weekend every single holiday I walked directly into the store and went directly into the basement and bagged ice for 13 hours a day for two bucks an hour it sucked [ __ ] how many of you have seen the movie The Goonies please raise your hand I was like Sloth from The Goonies I was chained to the basement by the way I'm devastated Cindy didn't sing the Goon song did she the other night crap anyway side note I uh I hated it I wasn't your normal teenager I didn't care about liquor and beer I just didn't and finally when I was 16 and finally allowed upstairs something very interesting happened probably the reason I'm standing in front of you it was a normal Saturday kind of summer day the wine spectator had just named c special select 1990 the Cabernet the wine of the year and every single person was coming in and asking for it and after about 20 people coming in and then leaving because we didn't have it I decided I was going to take a back order we didn't have a back order system in the store but that didn't matter because I was going to school on Monday anyway so I wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath and so I said the next person that comes in I'm taking a back order because this is ridiculous guy walks in do you have the C no sir I'm like how many you know uh let me take a back order he's like sure I'm like your name address I'm like how many bottles would you like he says I'll take six cases I said oh [ __ ] an alcoholic I go six cases I go are you having a party and he said no I collect wine and that was it because I was so passionate about baseball cards and sports memorabilia and all that stuff that connection to me was humongous I was like I remember do you know when you like hear a song or smell something you can like literally like rewind in your mind to a moment as I'm telling you this I don't know if you guys can zoom in straight Goosebumps I literally remembered that moment so vividly I was standing in the middle of the sh a section in my dad's store and I remember saying to myself huh Wayne Gretzky Michael Jordan Ken griffy Jr Silver Oak cist Opus One same [ __ ] I can do this so I literally took all my effort of learning about like statistics and sports and that and started learning about wine and decided I wanted to build the biggest wine businesses blah blah here's where a story starts mattering for you guys and makes it worthwhile for you guys to be here this morning I always thought I'd open up hundreds of stores hundreds of baseball card stores hundreds of liquor stores it's how you built businesses when you were doing to consumer in the 80s and 90s it's just how your brain worked when I went to school my freshman year in college the next moment that changed and shaped my life the theme of my talk which is we are living through the biggest culture shift of our time and you've talked about a lot of things during this conference and as matters and social matters and all this stuff matters but what I want to talk to you guys about today is what really matters which is how substantial this culture shift really is how many dollars are really in play and why all of us including me standing on the stage are grossly underestimating what is really going on let me explain I was playing mad in 94 against my roommate dominating him by the way and my friend walk in and goes you have to come and see this I am standing in front of you as somebody who's made a lot of money and been successful and continue to hope to be successful around technology but I stand in front of you here today and I want everybody to understand this the only reason that I love and adore social media is because it sells [ __ ] let me say that again the far majority of what I'm going to be talking about for the rest of this keynote is going to sound very very very Mother Teresa and I am not that the reason I'm doing this is because this is where I think the cash is going the reason I believe in this and put all my effort into it is this is where I think the customers are going that I want to tell my story I don't give a rat's ass about [ __ ] Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram or any of that horeshit what I do care about and what every one of you should care about whether you're B2B or B Toc is where do the customers attend go and if you're not there and you're not playing properly within that you're going to lose and so we are living through the biggest culture shift and I realized that on this magical 1994 day because in 1994 at the age of 19 I still have never had a computer in my life as a matter of fact I'm not even sure if I've ever yeah I did I played like Oregon Trail and some [ __ ] class once I basically never used the computer at 19 years old I was writing my papers on a word

processor my friend runs in and says you got to come and see this I'm like let me finish winning this Madden game I finished winning that Madden game I run into this dorm room and I hear the following thing my friend is sitting in front of this thing and he click some buttons and I hear remember that [ __ ] remember paying 13 [ __ ] dollars a minute to be on the internet [ __ ] AOL anyway it's another story so I hear this thing right we were getting do you guys remember that bill I mean there's some youngsters In This Crowd you guys don't remember we were getting killed out there my friend signs in he goes into this chat room he types in as slsl another classic and he looks at me cuz he's sitting and I'm up here I'll never forget this look for the rest of my life he looks at me and he goes we can get chicks on this thing and as long as I let the pause just happened now while you were laughing because that made me feel really good by the way thank you was about as long as I paused before my brain said I can sell [ __ ] on this thing and that was it my life changed again right there and there I waited like seven hours after every person sat down and tried to get chicks and thought they were getting them and I it was like three in the morning and I finally got to sit down in front of it I had no idea what I was doing but somehow I found a baseball card Forum within AOL and it was just very obvious to me that this is what was going to be the game changer of my life I started like reading about the information Super Highway and all this stuff the internet was here and it really [ __ ] with my brain and I realized right then and there I wasn't going to open up 600 liquor stores I was going to do something on this thing I launched wine library. com in 1997 my dad's liquor store was called Shoppers discount Liquors I didn't want that I wanted a brand I wanted to build something and I launched wine library. com in 1997 I went on to run that organization from 1998 to 2004 or so 2005 dayto day in that 5 to six year span I took it from a three to a $70 million business and I did that strictly on one thing Innovation see I launched wine library's email service in 1999 but I didn't realize it what I knew was this when I think about sports which is something I care a lot about especially football which makes me sick that I'm here this weekend in the precursor of the Jets and Patriots season but we'll talk about that another time I really hate the Patriots I'm sorry I'm sorry um yeah I know you guys know I really hate the Patriots um all right break out of it um so what I know is this that when you think about where the business World goes you've got to innovate and we're living through a huge Innovation platform right now I launched my email service in 1999 without realizing that it was an email service here's what I knew like the sports reference speed kills right speed kills and what I understood was that my competitors were putting out catalogs once a quarter and sending them into the mail and letting people buy wine that way or if they were really innovating they were faxing their wine offers remember that thing to their clients and then there's this email thing do you guys remember the first time you found email I want you I want to take you guys back to that moment we loved email when it came out I remember looking at it and saying wait a minute I'm never going to write a letter again buy a stamp how's the post office going to stay in business subsidize but that's another story but that was a game-changing moment I I know for a lot of parents in the crowd here your kids went to school that was the first time you got to stay in touch I mean this was a game changer we loved email how do you guys feel about email right now we hate it you know why and this hurts because I'm standing on stage as a marketer I know we're talking about the love of marketing let me make one statement Rafters pay attention especially that dude all the way up there dude pay attention to this [ __ ] statement you ready marketers ruin everything it is what we do it's what we do we ruin everything it's our job we see something shiny and we squeeze the [ __ ] out of it until we can get as much cash into our pockets it's

how we roll and that's [ __ ] great I just want to make that statement right now so you understand that everything I'm going to be talking about for the next 45 minutes has about a shelf life of about 36 to 48 months gut feel because we're going to then ruin everything I'm about to talk about and then we'll find the next thing Google Glasses will come out we'll start [ __ ] with that [ __ ] figuring that out you know it's all going to happen right but everything I'm going to talk about right now will be ruined by us collectively and that's just the way it is and that's fine now speed kills so I launched the email service and it was great I launched it was the weekly Wine Library email service and you know what happened I sent an email I started collecting it this is 98 99 97 you do not realize how far we came this is how it worked people would walk into my wine shop you haveen e this great I'm like you should join our email service oh yeah cool I think I just got one of those great what's your email pen and paper pay attention what's your email uh I think it's AOL yahoo. com I mean that's where we were lucky for me Wall Street was fairly early with email we were in a place that was very close to that so people actually had emails but it was really crazy like people didn't really know but here's what I know we hadn't ruined email marketing yet so my open rates were up like 86% I mean like stuff that you can't even imagine go look back at 1994 Banner ad click-through ratios when you have time you'll see numbers like 87% I mean if you're like 87 you're a genius now like I mean think about that so like marketers ruin everything that's great and that's what we do but my email service really mattered and at first it was the weekly email service and it was great and it did tremendous and people would open it and buy it and then I got smart and said you know what I'm going to do this the bi-weekly email service right and so we did that and that worked and then I did it every day five days a week and that worked and that kind of is the way we stayed for a while and our sales exploded and then one day driving to work on a Saturday I said to myself people open email on Saturday right and so we did that and that worked but then you have the diminishing returns see there's something really interesting going on right now in the world that not enough of us are talking about you've spent a lot of time during this conference and you spend a shitload of your time thinking about customer acquisition we think about customer acquisition in a B2B or a b2c world at enormity and when you think about some of the sites that have been successful in B2B or b2c business their acquisition is great the tool that is the foundation of this conference is unbelievable the tool is getting better and better in the release that just came out ridiculous the tool is phenomenal but with all due respect to HubSpot if you guys suck [ __ ] at using it you're not going to go anywhere where people talk about what's the ROI of social media all the time to me what's the ROI let me ask you guys a question what's the ROI getting to the tool conversation what's the ROI of a piano let me explain to me is Jack [ __ ] zero I don't know how to play it I don't know what to do with it nothing the ROI of a piano for Billy Joel and Elton John has been substantial the ROI of social media to a lot of people is [ __ ] you know why cuz 99. 9% of the people that are using social media today at this moment suck [ __ ] at it right you know why because they're all acting like 19-year-old dudes if you look at how businesses and how so many of you and I've been watching you and looking at the hashtag some of you are using social media you're trying to close on the first move that does not work and so when you think about what's going on in the marketplace today it's a very interesting time because so many people are focusing on customer acquisition and they're not focusing on the game that we should all be paying attention to because if you've been listening carefully over the last three days or more importantly what you've been doing for a living customer acquisition in an internet world where we can follow everybody doing everything is starting to get mapped when you start understanding what banner retargeting ads are doing and how efficient they are to build up list if you start understanding why zingga or Groupon or living social or guilt group why they happened so fast a lot of it has to do with customer acquisition the science the Quant of that being mapped where I think the huge opportunity for every person in this room is not customer acquisition because I promise you it's going to be a bigger commodity in 5 years than you think the game for everybody in this room is the game that's always been the game but

it's super not sexy it's not really fast and nobody really wants to do it which is retention is the game My Friends the game in business is not how many customers you can get it's how many you can keep the game for me is not acquisition it's lifetime value and the percentage of wallet that I get from that person we are thinking about things in a very American way more fast want and it's great and I love it and that entrepreneurial Spirit really matters but I'm telling you right now there are way too many data nerds that are really [ __ ] smart that are figuring this [ __ ] out I knew my Goose was cooked a couple years ago when I'm the best wine marketer in the world at the time I don't [ __ ] care if you felt like that was an egotistical statement I was the [ __ ] guy right I could write an email and [ __ ] sell and crush and kill every time and was dominating and then one of my developers came in and said uh Gary I think if you make the add to car button orange instead of blue we'll get a huge lift and I was like [ __ ] you nerd I was like nerd you don't tell me I know the customer you [ __ ] hit those buttons dick but you guys know what happened [ __ ] was right pissed still we are now living digitally we are tracking we are watching we're watching every move there's a little secret that nobody's told you we collectively don't give a [ __ ] about privacy they want to tell us we do but we don't you know why you know what the most under marketed best brand in the world but is completely misbranded and is the shittiest brand and the worst marketing towards but is the best thing in the world human beings the news and the things that you guys consume have convinced you we're bad meanwhile if you look at the data we're obnoxiously good it is stunning by data how few bad things happen but when they happen you know about them every night we're pounded all the bad things the 0. 00001% of us do remember when Myspace and all these social networks came out remember when this all came out and the kids were going to go to the malls and they were going to get raped because of Myspace remember that whole story do you know what's really happening happening in our society crime and child crime and kidnapping is going down do you know why because all of us are media companies because what technology is doing and social is doing is we're exposing the shadows of our society it's kind of hard to steal a kid now when every [ __ ] is doing what you guys are doing right now with your phones you can't get away with it and so we're living in a very interesting time we're living through the single biggest culture shift of our time and we completely disrespect it we talk about a lot of tactics but when you really understand what the tool that you guys are here under this arena for what that leads you to and then what you have to do with that tool then you start really understanding where business is at let me explain culture shifts how many people here by show of hands have reconnected with somebody that they had not talked to in 5 years because of Facebook raise them don't get lazy almost everybody how about 10 years look at that almost everybody 20 give it to me guys 70% of this room has reconnected with another human being that they had not talked to in over 20 years because of the growth of social media let's also take this moment to understand right now one thing I hate the word social media hate it you know why because it confuses people remember when we called all this [ __ ] Web 2. 0 six minutes ago we need to call things because it makes it easier to talk about I'm cool with that where I'm concerned about is all the people that are debating if social media is good or worthwhile or most importantly and all of you are thinking this and I get it is it worth all the time because the thing with social is if you want to do social right there's no automation there's no Auto retweets there's no Auto DMS there's no automation social is human so it takes time humans time is expensive so then you start debating the ROI I get it but to debate the validity of social media is nuts because the word social media is only a word that is referenc ing the current state of the internet to bet

against the internet in 2012 is a really bad idea I don't think anybody's walking around and you know what's nuts is anybody willing to today stand up right now this would mean the world to me is anybody willing to stand up right now honesty is the greatest thing on earth you're not going to want to say yes to this but I'm setting you up is there anybody in the house that is willing to honestly stand up right now and I want you to stand up that rememb saying the following thing in 19967 this is going to be tough but if you said it please because the truth is the greatest thing in the world please stand up who here between the years of 1995 in 1999 said that the internet was a fad stand up holy [ __ ] I found him sorry give me one second good thing I've been working out otherwise i' be tired how are you man good what's your name Chuck let's give it up for Chuck's honesty first of all Chuck so you remember fundamentally thinking like we'll be on this thing for a couple minutes but then it'll be over I was 14 at the time I had uh a very close friend who was obsessed with AOL he spent all his time on chat rooms and playing games and looking at porn right and uh I figured you didn't like the porn part well that part I could see the appeal but it just sucked all this time and I didn't see it as anything being really productive I mean I was only 14 at the time and I'm thinking you know my God there's so much other stuff out there and this thing is so damn slow and slow damn expensive you know I mean I get it did you think that Twitter was the dumbest thing you ever saw when you first saw it actually no you felt I was one of the first people to sign I was able to get my full name got it sign so how many people in this room don't lie lying is the devil how many people in this room the first time they saw Twitter thought it was the dumbest [ __ ] they'd ever seen good everyone just me and you didn't chuck thank you so much let's CL it up for here I need to get a belt um here's why you all thought Twitter was the dumbest [ __ ] you ever thought because you're marketers and you're business people and you know what we do when we look at things we looked at Twitter and we said wait a minute who gives a [ __ ] if I'm eating a pizza right you looked at Twitter and you said that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen what am I going to say that's where the whole thing breaks that's why so many people are underestimating what's happening right now the same reason almost all of you thought that Twitter was stupid is the same reason that people are struggling to understand how big and powerful this thing really is because all of you looked at Twitter and said what am I going to say and I said holy [ __ ] I can see what people are saying and engage it and that's why I love Twitter when I looked at Twitter and more importantly when semi. com came out and I could search every single thing that was being said on Twitter when I searched the word wine I could engage I didn't act like a 19-year-old dude I didn't come and say hey Sally I see that you're talking about Peno ggio we have a sale on it no I said you're drinking penio are you nuts that [ __ ] is whack [ __ ] penio how many people in this room love Peno ggio raise your hand don't be scared so for the 150 of you please do me a favor Suave s o a half the price don't buy the bow of suave in the big bottle don't be cheap go for like the8 to12 Suave from Italy 20 vintage really strong you will stop drinking the PG horeshit okay we defaulted into saying what are we going to say because we want to sell I'm telling you guys if you go counterintuitive on this whole thing the upside is dramatic I am thinking about writing a new book the title is called jab jab jab jab jab right hook and by the way Harper Collins if you don't let me put in all those Jabs I'm not writing the [ __ ] book dicks you're killing it [ __ ] it I'll just go direct so culture shifts right culture shifts we are living through the biggest culture shift of our time and it's happening because almost all of you have reconnected with a human being that you hadn't talked to in 20 years now let's talk about what's really happening the attention and eyeballs of the end

consumer no matter if you're doing B2B or B Toc the only thing you want to do whether you're apple or you're a firm right now trying to get to three specific buyers because they represent 80% of the market no matter if you're that or if you're Apple the biggest company in the world you myself and everybody in between we're in the same business one thing we have a story to tell and we want the atttention of the consumer to tell it the person that's best at getting the attention combined with telling the best story converts the best yes there's other things and landing page optimization that's all important that's part of the story if you think about the marketing aspect of it all matters whoever tells the best story to the people wins where are our eyeballs and ears going that to me is the thing that I'm completely obsessed with right now where are we spending our time we are spending our time more and more on social sites on other places that don't look like the places we used to how many people in this room use a TBO or DVR or on demand or Hulu to watch the far majority of their television please raise your hand Oh weird everyone how many people in this room have not consumed a single television commercial in 2012 because of this modern technology please raise your hand an enormous amount if you think about it how many people taking out live sports and the [ __ ] Grammys have not consumed a commercial this year more meanwhile the far majority of my clients at Vayner media are spending 80% of their budgets tens of millions of dollars on reaching you through commercials yet you're not consuming them how many people here do direct mail for their business please raise your hand it's good I do too don't worry raise your hand I always find this to be a funny question because a lot of people do it but every time I ask it you should have seen what just happened how many people here do direct mail and this is what I saw how many people here feel that they consume direct mail that when you come home and you open your mailbox you love all that dog [ __ ] that's in your inbox how many people consume it hardcore that's good [ __ ] nice you like it catalog go through It's Entertainment fair when you think about the cost of that delivery or more importantly my favorite example of traditional marketing versus new marketing how many people here are really giving thought to the one thing that I think Oprah Winfrey is most right about in the entire world which is when you leave here today do good old Gary one favor a lot of you going to be traveling home back to your apartments when you're driving in the cab or your car I want you to look at four people while you're driving while you're in the car remember this keynote look at four people while you're driving I guarantee two of them are texting it's dangerous out there I have not driven this carefully in a long time because I'm really paying I feel like I'm 17 again I'm really paying attention because two of them are driving so in a world where two out of every four people that are driving are clearly texting while they're driving why are we spending billions of dollars on outdoor media guys we're living through culture shifts people are not looking at Billboards they're not even looking at the [ __ ] road then you think about display ads right you think about the ads do you know that there's an interesting study I'm looking at right now I don't I hate to quote it because I haven't done all the homework but the basic thesis is if you're 24. 6 years old you basically are struggling to see the right side of a website because that's where the ads have always been you've fundamentally trained your body to not see it right and think about I mean we I think a far majority of people here are doing some sort of sem or display advertising or have played with it or have seen it I mean think about what are the accepted click-through ratios you know could you imagine living in a world where less than 1% was considered [ __ ] awesome [ __ ] right but they work and they bring value and I get it but when you start thinking about the movement right now to Native ads integrating it to the things that BuzzFeed is talking about share through we're living through a very interesting time we only care about breaking looking through and then telling our story and here's what's happening here's where it all ties in we are living through a stream economy every person in this room and more of our customers are now living through a world where they do this and it's fast and it's hard to tell stories there and all of a sudden micro content really matters being in this room and understanding that of a video on Facebook is over 10 seconds it doesn't do as well as if it's 9 seconds that shit's going to start mattering because here's the most important picture I want

to paint you when the television came out Barbie put out a commercial one of the first commercials you know what the commercial was it was the dude that was doing the radio ad sitting in front of a camera reading the radio ad that was it that was the commercial you know why because there was this huge culture shift and there was a new platform and what they did rightfully so because it's what we do is they put what they thought worked there onto here and figured at work clearly that is evolved but what I see going on in Social today from a day-to-day basis is people doing the Barbie commercial on television we continue to do things on there as if they were websites a banner campaign as if they were copy or print mentality and we're living in a world where stream economy whether it's Pinterest which is a little more like this Facebook a little bit more like this Tumblr Instagram we're living through a speed place where we want to tell our stories and so how do you break through two ways tremendous understanding of micro content and what that means and where that's going but number two the thing that I love the most if content is King and we've all heard that context is God the word that every person in here is going to care about over the next 10 to 15 years is context we are now getting more data on people than ever before you know why you've all reconnected with people that you hadn't talked to in 20 years you know what they're saying on Facebook Snickers are delicious we've all agreed that the music industry has been disrupted right we've all agreed that you know you don't buy CDs anymore you buy one song at a time you don't buy in bundles disrupted Napster iTunes disrupted we all based on what I said about my next book you guys reacted we can all agree that publishing is on its way to being really disrupted right direct to Consumer on your iPad your Kindle disrupted the one thing I implore you to think about on this talk the one thing I beg you and I'm gonna get I'm gonna sit down because this is a very big moment this really really matters to me and if I can get this across Then I then we've won the one thing that we are not talking anywhere close to enough about is that communication has been disrupted the way we communicate as human beings has been massively fundamentally disrupted and changed there are grown ass men in this room that texted in the last 24 hours the following thing OMG do you remember how many people here have are parents have nieces or nephews or something that's somebody that's very important to them in the ages of now uh 15 to 22 please raise your hand quite a bit of you do you remember three years ago this conversation maybe four when you rolled up on Little Ricky and said Ricky I don't give a [ __ ] how you talk to your friends but when your father calls you pick up the [ __ ] phone remember that just curious how's that working out for you and it's not because little suszie or Little Ricky were so smart it's that they had technology on their side some poor sap bought 10,000 horses the day Henry Ford created The Car Technology doesn't give a [ __ ] about you or me it's just going to continue to move and change and we are living through the biggest shift ever let's talk about B2B for a second we are now living in a world where you could figure out exactly who you're looking for to sell to by going into LinkedIn now because of the way LinkedIn has been evolving though could change a little bit with where Twitter's evolving you have a great opportunity to actually see who the person is in real life see we have data and you guys have data on business on who people are as a customer you know what they spend I know a shitload about you if you're a wine customer of wine library. com from a wine standpoint I know that you drink [ __ ] Peno gregio right I know you do X Y and Z I know your average spend and where you live but what I don't know is who you are see what Facebook did was it mapped the social graph but if you're paying close attention to what Tumblr and Pinterest and Instagram are doing right now they're starting to map something that I think a lot of us are going to be playing in over the next decade which is the interest graph my friends I'm telling you right now the interest graph really matters here's why you can know a whole lot about me but if you know that I love and live for the New York Jets then you have a much better chance of selling me and so anybody in this room who's a salesperson or sales DNA knows the more you know about the person the better shot you got

it's why you take them to dinner the ball game it's why you do those things that face to face time but now what's happening is we're living a digital life we're sharing more things on the phone into the public than we ever did before we're saying things on the Social Web that we would have never picked up the phone and called our friend about nobody in this [ __ ] room picked up the phone 10 years ago and said Pinkberry yogurt's delicious but you're all doing that now and what that does is creates context on who you are and what you like and if you use that I mean to think about how to do business in a B2B world today it's so [ __ ] easy Jesus you go to LinkedIn you find out who the [ __ ] is then you find them on social you watch what they like and you reverse engineer the whole thing it takes eight seconds let's do it I mean it sounds ridiculous and sounds fast but it's actually the way it's doing we as a to see retailer now we are trying to map every single person's Facebook and Twitter account for our Wine Library customer base for one reason we want to know who you are so that we can jab jab jab right hook you we just sent somebody tickets to a barbecue festival in Kansas City because we knew that he liked it the end the tickets cost me more than the profit I've made on him so far but guess what knowing from other stories he's about to tell 437 people about it and you know what that called customer acquisition because what I like to say is something I love this saying I'm curious if this is going to be the most retweeted one I set that up I really like this though it capitalizes exactly how I feel as our world goes more Jetson the business people the marketers and business in this room that act more like The Flintstones are going to win see what I know looking at all your pretty faces right now is that every one of your grandparents was more prepared to be successful over the next 20 30 years than you are you know why because they really gave a [ __ ] and you know want to hear some bad news you don't you do but you don't you can't help it as much as you think you do you don't because effort for your end user is such a limited thing our time is being spread into so many more directions now and time is such a valuable asset that you can only build so much you know hard day there's only 24 hours in a day and so effort we have a massive effort supply and demand issue right now people want effort which is why when a company as brilliant as zapo creates effort we let them get away with murder we all [ __ ] love Zappos I love you Tony but I have to do this we all love [ __ ] Zappos right nobody ever talks about that it's why Walmart and Costco and all these things work right we live on price but because they give a [ __ ] we're willing to pay more oh my God they ship us stuff back and forth no [ __ ] they're charging you for it but you love it right you love it and that's great marketing that's great storytelling that's great execution and they found what people cared about were willing to pay more I mean I've literally had people tell me they're much happier to this is a true survey that we did for Wine Library people are happier to pay more in total in their wine for the year more in total if we charged them more and gave them free shipping want it and I'm like [ __ ] you why but they want it good we'll give it to you I mean that's what's so interesting understanding where Market shifts are going what they care about let me give you a free shipping story supply and demand culture shifts I did free shipping for the first time in Wine Library in 1999 it is still one of the biggest days in Wine Library history we are 15x the size of what we were back then but in 1999 free shipping from an internet company was rare it caught people off guard we sold so much wine over that 8 day period I felt like people were buying wine that week like they thought the Cure was inside of these [ __ ] bottles right I didn't sleep me living in the thank you economy back then had a interesting moment some guy bought a bunch of wine and in the comment section my guy in the order Department did a great job he knew I cared about things like this he said in the comment section he said um thank you for doing this is incredible I just bought this wine for my daughter's wedding me living in the thank you economy back then call him and say Jim thank you so much for the order can you please tell me the date of the wedding and where it is I've got a really special bottle of champagne I'd like to send for you and your daughter to enjoy he replies oh no no my daughter's 12 Gary I said what he goes yeah my daughter's 12 years old but this is such

a sick [ __ ] deal I'm going to put the wine in the basement and wait now we're all collectively spoiled we don't buy [ __ ] unless it is free shipping consumer expectations change and let me tell you one dirty secret about social that's going to [ __ ] with all of us if you don't give effort to your customer you're going to lose you know why because of social and because it's scalable effort is much more scalable on the internet with these platforms a lot of people are going to see want to talk about what's the ROI of social media or all these new sites what they're not taking into account is the dilution of the other platforms do you know that I have not gone to Google to search anything in the last year like I just don't go there I don't go to Google Now yes I have a lot more followers than the average person so for me to tweet or Facebook a question or thought is a lot e but I don't go there you know why do you guys remember Google in 1999 2002 2001 do you remember that remember when you never went past the first or second result it was that good remember that thing what happened marketers ruin everything right we started filling out meta tags and all that [ __ ] figuring it out and gaming it so we're living through that now ironically and this thought is not fully fleshed out which is why I'm only giving you a sneak peek of it because I don't want to be that on the record but when you start thinking about what Google+ is doing I'm actually man this is going to hurt I'm actually pretty bullish on go+ let me explain go+ I don't think is actually a social network it's a social network API it's a layer I started seeing some stuff that kind of blew my mind imagine a world where you search for wine on Google and on the right side is my profile and my latest status update because I have the most social equity in the wine space so we're living through a place where things continue to change and what I know is this humans like to buy from humans we want to have a relationship you have to care about the end user because somebody else is going to because the tools are being put in place through amazing SAS products like we've got here and other things in out there just the public data the data is now out there for the first time to be able to have a relationship with the end consumer and it really matters and more importantly understanding who you're selling to matters more than ever we are living through a Time right now right this second where Innovation is happening so fast I don't know if you guys saw this but the travel websites the top travel websites are now getting more traffic on their apps collectively than their websites and that's mobile and. com together what does that mean that changes the game I mean we're living in a world where this thing is the precursor to the robot that we were all promised remember that robot that was going to clean your room in the 80s this thing is now that what happens in a world where we're paying for everything with this what happens in a world where the kind of apps that are going to be built on the technology this for example here's where I think innovation's going I want to lose 10 pounds I'm going to have an app that's going to help me to do that and when I have to go pay for something at Burger King because I'm running through the airport and I'm hungry when I go to pay my app's going to tell me to go eat a [ __ ] salad we are living through the single biggest culture shift using the tools really matters you being here makes me realize that you understand one of the best tools in the marketplace and you know what you have to do what concerns the living [ __ ] out of me is that I think you think the Tool's going to do it for you get you to the place but you've got to execute and the execution is hard the way you scale social is human beings it just is the automated our [ __ ] Radars are incredible do you know how good our [ __ ] radar are remember this trick in email marketing remember this one when we started figuring out we could put the person's name in the beginning you know how uh you know how you feel when you get an email from somebody and your name comma is in a different font and color than the rest of the email you want to punch the [ __ ] screen with your neck right [ __ ] that hurt actually our [ __ ] Radars are greater than ever the kids that are growing up today and our future customers they've been marketed too from the second they started breathing unlike some of us their [ __ ] Radars are better than ours authenticity really matters it's hard to scale that it takes a lot of Manpower a lot of hours there's a lot of cost to that the tools will get us there but understanding what to do with that data is the entire game I am shocked we do something at Vayner media called surprise and Delight where we map our customers and our own employees interest graft it's quite easy you look at what people are taking pictures on Instagram and you know what they're into you look what they're talking about on Twitter and you know what they're into I am blown away that and this is like and

this comes from me being a really hardcore salesman so I can feel it I'm Blown Away by how many people want to figure out the best tactics on SEO the best landing page optimization the best this that and the other thing and are completely lost that everything happens after they swipe their credit card with you for the first time everything happens in year two and three the problem is it everybody's treating social you know this one doesn't go over so well with the ladies so first of all I just want you to know the top Executives in my company are women my mom is my favorite person in the world but this is the perfect analogy and this doesn't mean I'm talking about you I'm probably talking about that girlfriend of yours you know that one I'm talking about ready this is how I see people looking at their business right now and especially social I actually have a very dear girlfriend a friend that is a girl that uh fundamentally put dramatically more effort into her wedding than she has into her marriage and it's not even close and as I look around the room I saw a lot of people shake their head I think when you look at the marketplace and how big weddings have become and how that industry has become that there's a lot of people out there that are spending more [ __ ] time on planning their wedding than the effort that they're putting into their actual marriage that is what I feel is happening in marketing as well so many people are worrying so hardcore about the tactics that you've learned over the last three days they're not paying attention to what happens next my friends is going to be the whole [ __ ] game do you know why because if they're teaching at you this conference they're teaching it at 40 other conferences the tactics are a [ __ ] commodity your effort and how much you give a [ __ ] about a customer isn't if you learn how to scale that and how to afford that you will win going forward because the Collision of people's [ __ ] Radars what they expect from companies and expectations and the fact that the commodity of everybody being able to get to everybody through the same means are colliding which leaves one thing who's going to care more about the end user how are they going to scale that and in a world where we're only going to have 20 hundreds of a second to reach people because no longer like the 1970s do we sit down 80% of us and watch [ __ ] happy days and then don't get up and go take a piss or make popcorn and watch a commercial the new Proctor and Gamble B that day is over and the days of me in 1998 getting people's emails and getting 86% open rates because nobody else [ __ ] emailed spam them are over and do you remember 36 months ago when you [ __ ] loved Groupon and living social because you couldn't [ __ ] wait to get $40 worth of sushi for $20 you remember that how do you feel about those [ __ ] sites now you hate them because they spam you into a [ __ ] Oblivion and you don't give a [ __ ] about spa treatments anymore so as awesome as that feels and as much as we clap it up you're doing the same [ __ ] in your business and so am I we're doing the same tried and true it's converting we understand the math but what we never look at is the diminishing returns see life's funny right you see something happening and you're like that's a terrible [ __ ] move right because we don't know what would have happened otherwise you just don't know that's what I'm hoping Heaven Is by the way I can't [ __ ] wait when I die if I get up there and it isn't where I could watch my whole life and instant replay and then say well what if I did this and then see the outcome I'm going to be [ __ ] pissed anyway sorry went off a tangent there I'm just super hot on that theory it' be so [ __ ] cool like oh [ __ ] holy crap if I left 4 minutes later I would have met Kean Johnson amazing anyway you know what's working because you're looking at the data but T the data my friends is the post game intuition and common knowledge of what consumers want and what you want as a customer impos into your business really matters understanding that in a world where we are getting pounded with information I mean no wonder our kids are add right I mean you hear the Eric Schmidt quote bless of the amount of data that we're creating now in every 48 hours is equal to the amount of information we created from the beginning of mankind until 2003 I want you to hold the hands of the neighbors next to you because this one matters that much I'm going to repeat it again the amount of information that we you guys aren't [ __ ] holding hands please a little something it's nice it feels crazier than you think doesn't that feel nice do you guys know each other and now you feel like you know each other a little more right yeah best the amount of information we created from the beginning of mankind when we're [ __ ] pounding Dinosaurs the beginning until 2003 which was like 16 minutes ago that Collective amount we are now replicating in every 48 hours so what do you think is going to break through your [ __ ] landing page yeah it is at times if you know the funnel and you this that the other thing but I'm telling you with all my heart it is a clear ation if you pay close attention to what's working you've got to build a

brand otherwise it's a tactic and the brands that are going to survive going forward are the ones that are behind the backbone of effort because all the other stuff that you talk about and all this other stuff that this conference has been about you're going to do it anyway you know why when push comes to shove we get desperate and we start converting I'm just trying to shift you a hair just give me a [ __ ] inch give me some give me uh give me something because I'm telling you the residuals that are tremendous now what's really most interesting to me is that we can now track it a lot better in 19 in 2001 it snowed in New Jersey uh on December 23rd which was the one of the busiest days of the year typically December 23rd is the busiest day of the year in a liquor store um and a woman called us we just started shipping and her case of Behringer white zin fendel wasn't delivered first of all I appreciate the people that know what baringer white zin is good job the entire case by the way 15pack the entire 15pack case cost $45 we're doing about $40,000 an hour in the store she calls I find out about it somehow it was buzzing cuz I was on the floor selling I am the premier salesman on the floor as you can imagine I find out about it and we're debating what to do she needs it for her Christmas dinner I grab the case throw it in my car and drive to Bergen County to deliver it takes me two and a half hours to complete the whole thing the woman was 194 years old we didn't have a lot of lifetime value on the back end there she looked like fu [ __ ] Yoda and the best part was I delivered it all pumped with myself and she said great and close the door awesome everybody especially my dad who was pissed that I left because all the customers that came in asking for me or that I could have sold everybody's baffled I can't tell you what the ROI of driving through the snow in my car to deliver a case of $45 pink [ __ ] to a woman that looked like Yoda was but I can tell you this over the next two to three years that story became the foundation of how we treated every single customer it became our Competitive Edge and those are the things that matter to me I love black and white data I'm obsessed with it the day when the nerd beat me I [ __ ] understood that the Nerds beat me and I respect the living [ __ ] out of data conversion funnels all that [ __ ] but I'm telling you right now that there are way too many [ __ ] running businesses today with this and not enough people running businesses with this and again I swear on my life I am not Mother Teresa and I'm far from run my business just on this but I'm telling you right now the reason I amassed my following the reason why I continue to retain it is because my percentage of this far outweighs every [ __ ] in this room I mean it that's how I feel and that's how I try to roll every day and I promise you if you are able to figure out how to afford the allocation of this in your business more your long-term value will be dramatically higher your long-term business success grandparents your great-grandparents built businesses based on this it's how we built the whole thing we got really lean and mean when we went to the suburbs and big box stores and all we cared about was dollars and it's great and the data matters and continue to use it and use this tool and understand it but I'm asking you one final thing when you go home if this talk meant anything and by the way I fundamentally believe only three of you are going to act on this talk I do because what I talk about is ridiculously hard and massively frustrating and takes forever you know like everything that's good in [ __ ] life if you do anything because of this keynote there's only one thing I ask you to do because as Zen as I got I'm a practical [ __ ] here's what I want from you when you go home look yourself in the mirror and audit everything you and your business do I promise you that if you audit from top to bottom of expenses and effort and time and energy and payroll and all that [ __ ] if you audit all of it even the best of us even the inbs which is the company that bought Budweiser they built their whole business on like printing on both sides of the paper and all that hor [ __ ] even the most efficient ones of us are doing 20% dumb [ __ ] if you take

that 8% that 133% that 16% of dumb [ __ ] that you're doing paying that person that's not bringing any cultural value to your business having that contract that you've just been in and you just renewed because you're busy as [ __ ] whatever the [ __ ] you're doing if you take any piece of that percentage and you apply it to giving a [ __ ] about your customer it will be better for your business going forward because for the first time since we all lived in small towns where your reputation was the complete backbone of how you did business for the first time because technology is bringing us back together in a small town for the first time being good and caring and following up matters it [ __ ] matters how about doing something random act of kindness for a current customer not the ones that unsubscribed or left you know how you always do nice [ __ ] when they're going how about while you've got them reallocate your thought process I'm telling you because the tools that the is the umbrella of this organ of this event are getting so good you know what that means all that shit's about to become a commodity emotional EQ is going to dominate business over the next decade and I implore you to start paying attention and oh by the way I'll leave you with this you know what the best [ __ ] part is it feels good thank you that's so nice thank you so much thank you guys