Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 20

Announcing the All In Challenge TikTok Telethon

Tuesday (5/26) is a humongous day! 

I am going live on TikTok from 9am – 9pm ET raising as much money as possible for the #ALLINCHALLENGE.

TikTok is matching every dollar donated during my 12 hour live stream – there’s going to be a “donate” button on the live stream which will make it super easy. This will be a fun opportunity to tune in and see what happens over the course of 9am – 9pm ET – and most importantly, it’s a great opportunity to give back to those who need it. 

If you can’t give money, TikTok will be doing a fun thing where they’ll give you money to donate. There’s going to be a “treasure chest” icon in the top left corner of the screen – you can tap it every now and then to automatically send money.

Here’s a little example of what it’ll look like: 

I’ve got dozens of celebrity guests lined up, some of the hottest people in culture who will go live with me and jam on a bunch of different of topics and have some laughs as I’m on camera for 12 hours straight. Gonna be a ton of fun!! 

Also – you guys have heard me screaming at the top of my lungs about TikTok as a place to put out content – this is the time to finally set up your account if you haven’t already! 

Would mean the world to me if you tuned in and dropped $2, $4, $8, or more – whatever you can into helping feed the hungry. 

Thank you so much for your support – hope to see you there, follow me on TikTok so you don’t miss it @GaryVee.

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Why I Knew Joe Rogan’s $100M Spotify Deal Was Inevitable

News has come out over the past few days that Joe Rogan signed an exclusive deal with Spotify for over nine figures!

According to BBC and the Wall Street Journal, the multi-year deal is believed to be worth $100M. Rogan’s podcast, a top-3 ranked show on iTunes, will shift over to Spotify on September 1. All previous episodes reportedly will be removed from all other platforms.

What’s crazy is back in 2019, I said in an interview I did in Armenia that Joe Rogan will inevitably do “Howard Stern 2.0” and exclusively put his podcast on some platform in exchange for $100 million. Same number that’s being reported today. See the moment here:

The reason I knew, is because attention always eventually gets monetized. Whoever has attention has leverage. 

In the business world, a lot of people rely on reports, a simple ad product they can wrap their heads around, or justification why a platform is “ROI positive.” The ultimate fact of the matter is, when tens of millions of people are paying attention to something, inevitably there’s an opportunity to monetize. 

It’s how platforms work – you build up traction in all platforms and if you’re at the top like Joe Rogan, you then have the leverage to go exclusive somewhere and extract big dollars. 

Congrats Joe, you worked hard for this!

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A post shared by Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk (@garyvee) on May 19, 2020 at 4:44pm PDT

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Why Companies Need To Lean Into ECommerce Now More Than Ever

In the current environment with how coronavirus is impacting large and small businesses, putting a focus on e-commerce is absolutely essential.

I’ve been in the e-commerce world since 1996 (when Wine Library launched an online store) so I’m a huge believer. 

But at this point, the cat’s out of the bag. I just can’t imagine anybody not recognizing the need for an e-commerce presence in 2020. This is a tragic event on so many levels that’s happening right now, but if it wakes up a business that would have been inevitably put out of business by not taking this seriously, then I hope that the decision maker understands what’s happening here.

I hope more businesses have finally figured out how it is literally essential if you want to sell something in today’s world. 

Here’s my two cents on how the current pandemic is affecting the e-commerce world, and what retailers and businesses need to consider as they transition. 

The short term vs long term impact on e-commerce

In the short term, the numbers have exploded for most companies that sell essentials, for sure. Not all e-commerce companies are the same obviously, but most people who are in a consumption-type business (i.e. grocery stores, super markets, etc) have seen their numbers skyrocket. 

I think the long-term impact on the industry centers around people changing their buying behaviors. That’s what could potentially create a shift. For example, a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise buy their groceries online are now starting to get them delivered.

People who wouldn’t otherwise get basic items and cleaning supplies delivered to them are now starting to consider that option. According to Rakuten Intelligence, order volume for online grocery retailers surged 210% from March 12th – 15th of 2020, compared to the same dates a year ago.

There are some e-commerce companies that unfortunately won’t survive this time for a variety of reasons (i.e. the kinds of products they’re selling, the category they’re in, or a number of other factors) so it’s not one-size-fits-all.

But in 2019, e-commerce share of total retail sales was around 14% – I think we’re going to see that grow given how we’re seeing online purchase behavior speed up. People who might not have been as comfortable ordering things online are now getting into the market. 

Companies like Amazon and Walmart are of course going to win big from this – data shows that Walmart is winning over half of all new online grocery shoppers. But when you have giant winners like Amazon and Walmart, there are inevitably going to be other winners too. For example, people said there couldn’t be another “eBay” till StockX emerged as an auction site.

We may see more brands selling all their products on their own site vs Amazon because the current landscape allows them to do so.  

The other shift that I think could happen is the realization that diversifying supply is super important. Depending on where a company’s product supply is coming from and where it’s sourced, there could be more issues at play when it comes to fulfilling orders in this time. One of the other long term insights I hope businesses will take away from this is to not be one dimensional when it comes to that source. 

Leverage content to build an e-commerce business 

No matter what you do — no matter what industry you’re in, no matter what product you sell, you are in the media business.
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That quote is how I think companies need to start thinking in order to grow a business online in 2020. 

It’s the mindset behind a wine business starting a wine reviews show, a lawyer starting a content machine around golf, or the Michelin tire company starting the Michelin guide. It’s about putting out content not necessarily about your specific niche, but content that would interest the people that you’re trying to court. 

It could be a content series reviewing the best products in your space that gets distributed across social in audio, video, pictures, and written form. It could be a content series storytelling around how you make your products or how you got started. 

The best way to compete with other businesses that are massive and can throw money against things like Google ads is by becoming a content authority in your space in some capacity. It’s why I started Wine Library TV – I “became” a media company in the wine space. 

The ideas and strategies around this might depend on what industry you’re in, what your brand is, and what you’re comfortable with, but starting the process of building content pillars in your world is a key strategy for any business building out an ecommerce presence. 

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Post-Tea Interviews: How Jenna Stepped Out Of Her Comfort Zone After Tea With GaryVee

I’ve been spending a lot of time every morning doing live streams on Tea With GaryVee – hopefully bringing value to all of you as we get through this time!

Over time, I’ve been getting to get more and more inbound emails and DMs from people who have been on & started to take action after. I’m seeing messages from people who are sharing more of their truth, people who are finally starting their podcast, people who are finally posting on TikTok, and more – I wanted to start the process of sharing more of these post-game stories with everybody and hopefully bring some additional value. 

So I asked my team to interview Jenna Malone, who was on Tea With GaryVee #4, about what she did after. Here’s our full conversation:

On the call, she asked about a few things:

Juggling different things at once and having multiple different interests… 

How to balance her interest in art with her clothing business…

And the fear of spreading herself too thin by “not being an expert in one thing.” 

 I tried to really drive home a few things…

1. It’s OK to do a lot of things at once

2. The answer’s “yes” to everything

And 3, Life’s about perspective.

A little while after she came on the show, Jenna sent me this email – and that’s when I asked the team to interview her and dig deeper:

Jenna’s Post-Tea Interview



“How’d you feel about your experience being on the show?”  

I probably rewatched the video 50 times and completely judged myself. It was pretty harsh. 

I think very pessimistically a lot. Being on the show really opened up my eyes and made me realize I had to shift my perspective. I need to start thinking more optimistically, instead of thinking about everything that can go wrong, which I do all the time, I need to start thinking about what can go right.

And Gary proved that when he told me to put up a drawing $80 and I kind of laughed. I didn’t think it was going to sell. But I put it up and it DID sell, so it made me realize this is an example of “what if it goes right?”

“What changed after?”

I’ve been listening to Gary’s content for so long now, definitely a couple of years at least. It’s weird that you could listen to his content for so long and still not take action, but when you’re actually talking to him and he tells you to take action it’s almost like you don’t want to let him down in a way. I think that definitely helped. 

As far as my art, I didn’t really think that I could ever make it as an artist. I had so many people, like my parents, and just society’s narrative of “starving artists” convince me that it wasn’t a thing that I could do. That’s why I went back into trying to sell t-shirts because I thought maybe t-shirts would appeal to more people. 

When it comes to painting, I was like, well who’s going to buy that? Who is going to want that? It was just this negative, “what if it goes wrong” mentality instead of thinking about “what if it goes right?” 

And the fact that I put that drawing up and it sold kind of showed me that you never know, you just got to do and then see what the results are. Because you never know what the outcome’s going to be.

“In terms of balancing different interests, how are you approaching that now? Still doing multiple things or focusing on one?”

I took a lot of the pressure off myself. 

I was putting so much pressure on myself because when I would draw, or when I would make art, I would feel this guilt. I would feel like, “well, my clothing brand still hasn’t blown up so I should be working on the clothing brand – I shouldn’t be drawing right now.” 

That’s something that I’m getting over. I’m actually doing more art now than ever, especially in this quarantine. I’m trying to get into doing custom shoes so I just bought a couple blank pairs of shoes and I’m going to paint them. And I bought some plywood, and I built a wall in my backyard, and I’m going to start spray painting it because I do graffiti.

As far as balancing things, I think it’s just about having to accept that I want to try different things right now. I have so many ideas that pop up in my head. I want to design a coloring book for adults, I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. And I’m going to pursue it! I may not get as many t-shirt sales because I’m not spending as much time on it, but I think I owe it to myself to try out these different things because I never know what’s going to happen.

As an artist, I can’t just restrict myself to one medium. That gets boring to me, so I want to try out different things and see what I like best, or see if I like doing them all. That’s kind of how I’m balancing it now. 

I think talking to Gary helped that a lot because I feel like there’s such a narrative that you have to just pick one niche and go all out in that niche. The fact that Gary kind of told me that it’s okay to do different things, and that the answer is “yes.” 

That really stuck with me.

“Talk to me about what you started doing on Twitter and what results you’ve already seen.”

It’s going well. I’m not doing it every day, I probably should. Time management is still something that I struggle with. 

I did spend two hours on Twitter the following night, after that interview, and I gained a couple of followers. Someone sent me a message saying that they were interested in buying and so it kind of proved too that if I continue doing this, this could actually work. 

And looking back on the interview, I feel so stupid for say that “I only tried it once” because you can’t just try something once and expect it to work. You gotta keep trying it for a while, at least, to see if this is going to work or not.

I think it’s just the fact that Twitter is just such a different platform. It’s not visual. I think I just had the mindset like, “well how is clothing going to sell on there?” 

But it’s more than just the clothing, it’s about the message, what the clothing brand is about. And I think that Twitter’s definitely a great place for that because you could just type in a search term and find everyone who’s having a conversation about that word. You can engage with it.

“What are your plans going forward with everything?”

My goal is to step out of my comfort zone even more. 

I had mentioned when talking to Gary about wanting to start a podcast, and just starting one is like completely out of my comfort zone. Again, I build up these thoughts in my mind like, “who am I to start a podcast?” “Who’s going to want to listen?” “No one’s going to listen.”  These are the things that are going through my mind, but you can’t think that way. I don’t know if people are going to listen until I actually start the podcast.

Last night, I actually had my first livestream and recorded the whole thing. I’m going to post that as an IGTV video and then I’m going to strip the audio and I’m going to make that the first podcast episode. 

I also did a livestream with another business owner. It was great to get his perspective on the subject, on being underpaid (the name of my clothing line). 

When it comes to stepping out of my comfort zone, I relate so much with Gary’s content about overthinking things. I haven’t been posting as much on TikTok because I’ve been overthinking it. I get this perception of like, “unless I’m dancing or doing something with music, no one’s going to want to watch it.” 

But I still posted one video on my clothing brand TikTok, and it got 20,000 views. And then I posted another video and it got like nothing. You don’t really know it’s going to work and you don’t know what content people are going to really drive with until you actually do it.

“Where can people find you?”

Here are my social links:

Instagram: @underpaidclothing and @jenna_jams
Twitter: @jenna_jams and @underpaid_co
Facebook: Underpaid Clothing
TikTok: @underpaidclothing and @jenna_jams

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Top 5 Suggestions To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

The current pandemic causing businesses of all types to go through some challenging times.  

Some are forced to reduce their workforce, cut hours and more – if you are one of the many unemployed, going through a transition, or just looking for a change, here are my top 5 tips to beef up your LinkedIn profile (written by Justin Novello, recruiter for Team GaryVee). 

Are you Open to New Opportunities? 

You have the ability to update your profile to flag to potential recruiters you are looking for a different job, without having your current employer know.

The setting can be made to full time, part time, remote work, contract, and/or freelance. I recommend choosing as many of these types of employment you are willing to do.

When it comes to choosing a title, be smart about it. You can actually just keep this open. Titles can mean different things at other companies, so if you leave this open, recruiters can approach you. 

This gives people a chance to go through the hiring process again or feel free to say no thank you. I always recommend answering every inquiry from a recruiter, you never know if that recruiter will have a job you want later!

This is what recruiters see using LinkedIn’s recruiter package



Update your personal summary

This is the place you can reel potential employers in. 

You’ve got their attention for a few seconds so you’ll need to make an impact upfront.  

Make sure these first lines are humble, consumable to the layman (i.e. not too technical), and, most importantly, you demonstrate how valuable you’d be for those who hire you. 

Make the reader feel something. You can show your career aspirations, explain your strengths, but I need to emphasize, keep it humble. 

Lastly it is good to show you are also a human. Give the reader personal context so they can relate to you personally. For example, if you have a side hustle, major hobby or fanatical about something write it in here. Add your website, blog site, GitHub and or portfolios here. 

For example, check out Madison Russell’s profile from ONE37pm – her personal summary is solid: 

Example of what a good personal summary looks like



Make your skills specific

Get specific! 

Show what you know, such as creative software, programming languages, project management software are all good examples. 

Be accurate. Adobe Creative Suite isn’t enough, add each program. Add any of these skills you’ve touched in your life.

The most impactful skills should be listed in your personal statement, all others can be added lower in the profile where you can create a list. See the example above on how to integrate your skills into your summary.

If you have any other skills such as leadership, languages skills, certifications that are all relevant to what your aspiring to add everything you can. There is a language section for LinkedIn, but if its important to your next job, add it in the summary. 

Remember: Your resume and LinkedIn profile are NOT the same!

Your LinkedIn profile should illustrate your work history in a manner which is digestible to the most ignorant about your field of expertise.

For example, stay away from industry specific acronyms on Linkedin, but you can be safe with them in your submitted resume.

Your resume should be reversed engineered from the job description you are applying for by using the most relevant examples of your job experience and skill sets. Never apply to jobs without adding something contextually relevant to your resume. Research the company to find context if you need to, its out there.

Your picture is more important than you might think

This is more important than people think.

You should have a profile picture, don’t leave it blank. The picture should show you in a tasteful, respectful manner. You don’t need to be in a suit and tie, but you also shouldn’t post a picture with a Snapchat filter on it. Somewhere in between is fine.

If you have more questions about setting up your LinkedIn profile, DM me @Justinnovello!

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4 Insights To Help Businesses In Challenging Times

As we’re navigating through this challenging time, I wanted to share some insights and hypotheses around what businesses can consider as they’re adapting and innovating in this environment. 

Here are a few things on my mind: 

Leaders work for their employees, not the other way around

Many large organizations are having to adjust to the work from home life that haven’t had experience doing it before. That means employees are having to work in environments that feel a little different or uncomfortable – they might be used to collaborating side by side and now are being forced to adjust. People may have their kids at home which can also create challenges. 

Depending on how they’re wired, they may like it more or less, but as a leader in an organization it’s important to understand that you work for your employees at this time. 

Consider getting on a call with every single one of your employees one by one if you can manage it – if you have hundreds or thousands, consider getting on a company-wide call and help them address some of their issues. It could be as simple as calling up Sally and saying something like “Hey, I know you love sitting next to Cindy and you guys collaborate that way. Try to do it on Zoom, and if you can’t or if you struggle, don’t overly beat yourself up. If your productivity is an 8 out of 10 at this time because you’re a person who loves to collaborate in-person, don’t over judge yourself.” 

It’s about helping them create frameworks and holding them accountable but at the same time working with them and having empathy for the adjustment process.

This isn’t the new normal, it’s the new “temporary normal” 

I think this is where a lot of people – especially business leaders – are getting confused. People are calling this time “the new normal” but in reality, it’s going to be a very, very small percentage of most people’s lives. I don’t know if it’s several weeks, several months, or if it goes away and comes back later in the year, but it will end at some point. 

Calibrate your actions towards your ambitions and what you want to accomplish. But don’t overly judge yourself if you struggle to be productive during this time. Having 3 months, 6 months, or even a year where you’re not feeling at the top of your game can happen in life to everyone – happens to me too. 

But it’s a temporary period of time – and if you and your family are healthy, you’ve got a ton to be grateful for. 

First-time entrepreneurs: Don’t demonize getting a job if you have to

There are a lot of first-time entrepreneurs in this time who might have to go get a job somewhere.

Having to “go back” and get a job isn’t necessarily as bad as some entrepreneurs think if you can be strategic about who you work for. You could start the process of rounding out your skillsets or work for someone who could act as a mentor.

Tell stories: Now’s the time to get people to know you

I think storytime is a big concept, too. I think right now is a great time for businesses to start the process of telling stories around things like how they got started, their biggest mistake or their craziest experience. 

It’s a practical concept for many right now, since we’re not working in offices and don’t have the option to create content at work. It’s a good opportunity to take a step back and start digging into that “origin story.”

Ultimately – people buy from people. And people connect with others on different concepts or subtle personality traits. For example, people follow me for all kinds of things – some people found me through my business content, others like my motivational content, others like wine, others like garage sailing or flipping stuff, others might have connected with me over something small like the fact that my favorite number is five. 

That’s why I talk so much about showing different “looks” of yourself. 

People might connect with you because of the way you talk, how you look, the fact that you love Call of Duty, or that you sold CDs in fourth grade. 

Right now is an interesting time to tell stories and show people who you are. 

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Free Content To Paid Access: A Business Model To Consider

There are different business models out there for content creators and professionals to monetize, but I want to suggest one in this article that I’m a huge fan of.

Let me explain:

When you’re a content creator on the internet with an audience, you could monetize with a course, membership products that send people audio or video content, ebooks, or other types of information. 

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with those things, and I think there are plenty of people that have built incredibly valuable courses and information based on their expertise. I think it’s amazing if you built a business you love that you’re passionate about that’s built on the back of that. 

But a business model that I really love – that I think is incredibly valuable – is the concept of putting out free content and monetizing with paid “access.”

“Getting an hour of your time is less scalable, therefore more valuable.”    

I think ebooks and online courses are stunningly commoditized, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate from people that are putting out more and more of that information for free. There’s a value in curation for sure – there’s value packaging information and advice so that people don’t have to spend time searching on Google or YouTube. But at the end of the day, what others can’t replicate is you the human. 

You could sell a $19 ebook or a $19 / month membership on – say – How to train your sales reps, and that could bring people a lot of value. But getting an hour of your time once a week or once a month is less scalable, less replicable, and thus far more valuable. 

When you’re talking to a closed group of people doing Q&A, somebody might ask you a question that leads to you telling a funny story about a sales team you once led, or a crazy sales call that one guy had. And that story and unique experience could lead to a breakthrough for a lot of people that otherwise wouldn’t have had that same breakthrough reading the story in an ebook. 

For example, I’m doing Q&A every morning now on Tea With GaryVee. A lot of what I’m saying on the show and a lot of the answers I’m giving are the same as what I’ve given in the past, but because I’m giving so much access to the person on the other end, it’s hitting them differently than before. 

The more contextual the advice, the more valuable it is. 

“You’re able to react to something in the moment, and that creates even more value.” 

The serendipity that comes with access is also incredibly valuable. For example, somebody might ask you a random question about how to deal with conflicts with your father, or they might ask you about your favorite wine on the way out. In this environment you’re “living and breathing”, which gives you the ability to react to something, 

If you think about it, most professions today are based on this model already. It’s the business of being a doctor. It’s the business of being a lawyer. A lawyer could put out free law content all day long, but the real value comes from sitting down and consulting you in your specific situation. 

As a therapist, you could put out content about parenting, insecurity, and other things but the real value comes from sitting down with a client for an hour and really digging. 

Being contextual is about reacting to the moment – which creates more value for the end user. 

How access puts your brand in a much better position 

All of this is to say that while it’s still possible to monetize through a course, or a membership product where you’re putting out content, access can put your brand in a far better position. 

For a couple of reasons: 

One, the sheer value of it. 

And two, when you sell “paid information”, in some cases it means that all your free content ends up driving to your paid content. It can sometimes change the intent of the free content you’re putting out – everything becomes part of a “funnel” to set up a sale instead of truly providing value to the other person. 

Again, this isn’t always the case – I think platforms like Medium (full disclosure, I was an investor) do a really good job of leveraging a “pay for content” strategy. 

When you sell access, you tend to put out your best content for free because that’s not where you’re monetizing. That then makes your content much more valuable because people can feel the intent. 

I’ve watched so many people do such a great job of building an audience, and then all of a sudden when they started creating a $100 / month product with more content, their behavior changed to only wanting to sell that product. They think they haven’t changed, but subconsciously in the back of their mind, they’re thinking “hmm, how do I get 14 more people to sign up for my membership” when they’re putting out their free content. 

People can feel that intent switch, and it makes a big difference.

The reason I believe my content is successful is because I’m pouring my heart out trying to answer people’s questions, not leave them with a “cliffhanger” that makes them want to pay $99.99 / month to be part of the GaryVee world or something.  

Something to consider – curious to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

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Ant farms, gratitude, and expanding businesses: Tea With GaryVee 3/23 Recap

For a long time, I’ve been thinking about doing a Q&A show called Tea With GaryVee.

With my schedule and other things, it just didn’t work out — I never got around to doing it. But during this challenging current time here in late March where we’re all working from home, I thought I’d set aside some time and really do some deep Q&A for everybody and bring some value!

Some moments below from my 2 hr Q&A on 3/23 – hope you enjoy!

1:01 — How do you keep your clients calm and motivated to do business while being empathetic to the current situation? 

8:02 — What’s the best on getting clear on what you really want in life? 

19:08 — How do instill a sense of gratitude in kids?

26:49 — “I started an ant farm competition on TikTok…”

39:28 — How do I market a business in the exotic animal hobby space?

50:19 — How do you determine content quality vs quantity?

55:37 — Should I expand when there’s a contraction?

1:08:25 — How do you sell to businesses affected by an economic downturn while being empathetic to their situation?

1:19:05 — How can fiction writers expand their audience and get more book sales?

1:26:42 — “How do I balance following my passion while planning to support a future family?”

1:48:14 — How can a small agency get clients in this economic contraction?

Tweet me your favorite moments, insights, and lessons learned @GaryVee on Twitter!

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LinkedIn 5: Hot Takes On Hershey’s, Levi’s, Supreme, AT&T, and Medium

Hope you enjoy the second edition of “LinkedIn 5” !! 

For those of you who missed the last one … a while ago, I came up with this new content format:

“LinkedIn 5” will be a bunch of quick, deep business hot-takes on what I see in the corporate world, marketing opportunities, new product categories that companies can get into, and more. Not saying I’m 100% “right” about everything I share – just passionate about sharing my POVs and perspectives. Hope you guys like it and get value from it!

In this one I talk about some opportunities and points of views on Hershey’s, Levi’s, Supreme, AT&T, and Medium –

Hershey’s could get into meaningful chocolate extensions

A few couple of thoughts on Hershey’s…

When you hear Hershey’s you hear chocolate.

So whether it’s direct to consumer chocolate shakes, protein shakes, smoothies, or other products, I would focus on line extensions where their chocolate-focused brand has “permission” to go. I also would probably create a super premium chocolate bar like a ~$25-$30 Hershey’s bar that elevates the brand, which could create sales and also make their core products feel like a good deal in comparison.

Could Levi’s create smart pants?

What I think Levi’s should consider, as an iconic brand with denim, is to be a pioneer on what’s next.

Levi’s feels like the brand that can really win the first “smart pants” game. I believe that the things we wear will eventually get “smart” – in other words, your pants will one day connect to your phone and tell you that you need to lose weight as they start to get tighter (for example). Your pants will be able to “talk” to you (some athletic wear brands already do this). As things like IoT and voice get more and more traction, I think that’s going that route will be a real business, and it’s Levi’s for the taking.  

My hot take on Supreme

I think Supreme has achieved a level of status as a cool brand, but in my opinion they need to be a little careful to not extend its brand too much. 

It’s funny – with Hershey’s, I want them to extend it. With Supreme, I want them to be thoughtful about where they extend it. When a brand starts doing a ton of JVs with other brands, it can create a vulnerability that can lead to saturation.

They’re a big business and so I have a lot of empathy for that, but in one man’s opinion, I would tighten that brand up and be thoughtful about where it’s extending. When you think about other brands that extend their brand to everything, it eventually gets to a point where it means nothing. I think Supreme did an incredible job of building and achieving that “cool” status in culture, and now they need to be very thoughtful to not overextend their brand to places that could potentially be create a decline in that status.

It’s less about “where” they should stick to – it’s just about being super thoughtful going forward about who they decide to do JVs with. 

The positioning of AT&T’s HBO Max as more “family friendly” makes sense 

AT&T’s really a media company at a scale at this point – it’s a media conglomerate.

I think they need to find the best IP in the world and attach that to their distribution products, so I’m a little less versed in what I would actually do there – other than understanding the importance of IP. For example, looking at when Fox got The Simpsons, when they got NFL games, or realizing how important it is to have another “House of Cards”, etc. Networks are built a lot of times on IP. OTTs are now networks in theory, and doing a lot of thinking around what content they’re going to fill their pipes is important – hence why they did the Turner deal. But I think it needs to extend even further now they need franchises. 

The positioning of the upcoming HBO Max to be more family friendly makes a ton of sense, in a world of competing with things like Disney Plus. We think about HBO we think high quality, more adult – and I think the HBO brand much like Hershey’s has a lot of opportunity to go and expand its wings. 

I believe in Medium’s pay-for-content strategy

I should disclose first that I was an early investor in Medium. 

They’ve gone with the “pay for content” model, which I’m a supporter of. I’ve found myself in the last 12 months clicking articles that I find on social, and then feel the desire to read them even though they’re behind paywalls. I haven’t paid for one yet, but last week there was an article that I really wanted to read, and I was close to paying. I thought that was an interesting chemical feeling that I was close to signing up for $9 / month, even though I didn’t have interest at that moment to read any other articles on that site. 

I think Medium has that potential for sure – original, creative content would really play. Think of Medium like Sirius. If they get some original writers that only live in that environment, their subscription product can get really good. It comes down to casting. 

I talk about putting out content for free but I also think anybody can charge for content if they’re good enough. However most people aren’t good enough from the start, which is why it can help to put free content and build leverage. For example – last time I checked, nobody on earth would pay to come watch me play basketball. Right? But there’s an entire league where people would. That’s how I think about content – a percentage of content creators today are not good enough to charge for their content directly, AKA the market doesn’t enjoy their content enough to pay for it.

But some are good enough, and I think there’s big business there in written / audio / video form and I think you’ll see that continue to play out over the next decade.

The post LinkedIn 5: Hot Takes On Hershey’s, Levi’s, Supreme, AT&T, and Medium appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

Why I’m Investing So Much Money In Sports Cards (Examples Included)

Sports card culture is back! 

The market is super hot right now and it’s so exciting to watch people have fun, get back to their childhood passions, and learn the game of supply / demand and buying / selling.

This is a market that’s growing in demand, but doesn’t have more supply. That’s a recipe for opportunity – it’s a big reason why I put over a million dollars into sports cards over other alternatives. 

I really think you have to take a hard look at the market before you get in, please read this article carefully (and this one) because you have to be educated before you buy. The long term stuff is super safe, and the short term stuff is where you’ll see ups and downs. 

To give you a taste – here are some cards I’ve been investing in, and their prices today. 

1986 Michael Jordan Fleer Stickers

To me, the ’86, ’87 Fleer stickers are in similar production runs to the regular card and oftentimes even harder to get in good grades. I just think the whole genre of the stickers of that set are grossly under-priced. 

I think over next decade, this is one of the things that I can see the hobby making a collective decision on – like “wait a minute, if this is a supply and demand game, why is this card remarkably less in value when it is in the same supply and demand grade?” 

I think what’s the sports hobby is really interesting – when the market sometimes collectively decides something is under-priced, it has a huge opportunity for financial upswings. And I think ’86-’87 Fleer stickers is one of those cards.

I bought at around $700, they’re ~$2000 today at the time of writing this.

2003 LeBron James Topps Chrome

This might be my “mother of all shots.” The video below lays it out very clearly – in mid-April, it was $1050. On a national radio show, I was desperately begging my audience to buy it. I thought that it would go to $5000 within 3 years. It’s gone to $6000+ within 9 months. I don’t know what else to tell you. This is as black and white… The video is the “receipts.” I don’t have to tell you more. 

And don’t let LeBron and the Lakers win this title because who knows when that card can go to?

Luka Doncic 2018 Panini Prizm 

This probably rivals my hot-take above with LeBron, as one of my best picks or the Giannis rookie card that I talked about as well last fall. Luka was very obvious to me as an All-Time potential player. He’s proven that this season in his sophomore year. I think a lot more people believe now and because of that it’s gone up from $55 (the price I bought at) to over $300.

It’s tough to 6x your money in almost any way in life. That’s why I’m excited about sports cards. I’d be shocked if Luka doesn’t go to $1000. Stunned, I’ll probably start buying more soon.

1986 Fleer Basketball Hakeem Olajuwon

I think the ’86-’87 legends, ’86-’87 Fleer rookies are going to continue to go up in price. I think Hakeem is an All-Time top twenty player. I’m betting on this card super long. I think Africa is gonna have a very interesting kind of half-century. I’m looking forward to being an old man and sitting on these when they’re $2,000, $3000 a piece.

2013 Giannis Antetokounmpo Panini Prizm

I famously made the mistake of selling 10 of these for $200 or so on my Instagram stories. 

After I bought them for $120 – $130, I was buying them up heavily at $180. Now, they’re going for around $2000.

That’s over a 10x return on investment. And let’s call a spade a spade – it is wildly likely that Giannis wins the title in the next 36 months, and when he does the sky’s the limit, not to mention this man is wildly, is just incredibly charismatic and a good dude, and one of the clear front-runners to be the next face in the NBA.

If you’ve got money and you don’t need to liquidate it, one of the best places to put your money is old basketball cards. Cards like Dr. J, Kareem, Jordan, barkley, Larry Bird and Magic rookies – I think basketball for the next 20 years will grow in popularity, and I think basketball cards are underpriced. 

I’m desperately interested in 5 – 15 people who read this article to go hardcore, rekindle their childhood passion, or use their sports betting knowledge to make real money! 

The post Why I’m Investing So Much Money In Sports Cards (Examples Included) appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.