Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 21

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!

The post Ant farms, gratitude, and expanding businesses: Tea With GaryVee 3/23 Recap appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

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.

Linked In 5: Hot Takes On Microsoft, Samsung, IBM, And Calvin Klein

I’ve been brainstorming ways I can do more when it comes to sharing my thoughts and ideas about the business world – it’s something people have been asking me a lot about and it’s an area I want to talk about more. 

The other day, I came up with a new content format to do this: I called it “Linked In 5.” 

“Linked In 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. Hope you guys like it and get value from it!

In this one I talk about some opportunities I see for Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, and Calvin Klein –

How Microsoft could be a significant competitor to Hulu

A few thoughts on Microsoft …. 

I think Microsoft needs to look back at what happened with XBox when they went outside of where you expected them to go, and executed extremely well. 

I think the acquisition of LinkedIn was a win. That’s a big reason why I think the company’s pretty hot – so right now if I were them, I would maybe look at OTT. Why can’t Microsoft be a significant competitor to Amazon Prime or Hulu? I think with a name like “The M”, they could be a huge OTT platform.

For example – when you own LinkedIn, you can do CNBC-like shows for just LinkedIn. When you own XBox, you can do original programming just on esports. So my hot take for them is to start an OTT, call it “The M”, and triple down on esports and business. And I’m sure they own a ton of other stuff that I don’t even know of that would do really well. 

Strategy-wise it would be interesting too when you think about how OTT could work with their business as a whole. Like, what if they created the next “House of Cards” (aka a ridiculously popular show) and put “season 2” exclusively on the Surface? Could be a way to use content to drive their hardware business.

Could IBM’s Watson compete with Amazon Alexa and Google Home?

I only have surface level knowledge of Watson, but Watson feels to me like a true Alexa and Google home competitor. I feel like they could make a voice device that could humanize the Watson (i.e. Max Headroom – all you youngsters can Google that). 

My thoughts are, if Watson’s so smart, why not make the voice device play? Because I think that will be one of the biggest plays and it would give IBM the opportunity to do to Google and Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook, what they did to them. IBM could do it by winning voice.

How Samsung could win using the 8-mile strategy 

Samsung was so dangerously close to winning. I don’t think people understand how much the youth loved them right before that phone went on fire. It was right there. 

And I still think, deep buried in there, there is a underlining “Gen-Z” who are very open to embrace a non-Apple product in the US because Apple – to them – is the establishment. I think Samsung has the most permission. 

They did a lot of smart stuff with Casey Neistat. I think that they need to go back to those roots – they’ve gone away from that a little bit because they went on defense with the phone on fire. If I were them, I’d go on offense. I would make a commercial that’s like, “yo, you think our phone was on fire last time? We’re really on fire now. Look at this.” I would literally come out with something called the Samsung Fire. I’d own the joke. 

It’s my favorite move in high school. They’re gonna make fun of you for braces? Own it. They’re gonna make fun of you for acne? Own it. Once you take it from them, you own it. They don’t. 

And that’s what I would do if I’m Samsung. I would literally come out with the best innovative phone we could possibly put out. Go Project Fire and then just own the whole fire story. 

Ideas for Calvin Klein and fashion brands

I think fashion brands need to really think about collaborations, youth culture, a lot of TikTok, and a lot of finding their Off-White, their Shaun,, their Kendrick, their Kanye, their Travis Scott, their Joey Fresh. They need to find collaborations. 

For example, I think there’s a crazy collaboration with Calvin Klein and a male or female celebrity for their underwear, like we saw with Marky-Mark and Kate Moss back in the day. I think there’s a real heavy collaboration that could be done with whoever the next-generation cultural icons are – but not the way they’ve done it for the last 8-10 years where it’s like Justin Bieber or Hailey being the face of the brand. I’m talking about a true collaboration, where that celebrity / influencer has a say in how the product is made – like maybe we see a different kind of band on the product or maybe the pockets are different. Just something cool that comes out of a collaboration with the “creative director” aka the celebrity influencer.

That’s what I’d do. AND I would focus heavily on TikTok if I were Calvin Klein. The platform isn’t just for kids anymore and I think if you’re a fashion brand that targets anyone 30 or under, you should be spending a ton of time on TikTok. 

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Jordan-LeBron Card Sells For $900,000: Here’s What It Means

If you haven’t seen it already, it recently popped up on TMZ – a Jordan-LeBron card sold for $900,000.

$900,000 for the Jordan-LeBron 1 of 1 card with pieces of their game-worn jerseys embedded in it.

I’m telling you, the culture of sports cards is here. It’s back. It’s being driven by 3 main things:

People who are into sports betting putting their money into sports cards (you could pull a $100,000 Zion in a pack of cards).
Parents who used to buy and sell sports cards in the 80s (who are getting their kids into it now).
Kids who flip sneakers are getting into sports cards (since they’re able to get them in higher volume compared to sneakers).

If you love sports betting … if you love fantasy sports … if you think you know something about a rookie … if you want to bet long term and buy classics the time is now.

The culture’s happening. Don’t miss out.

If you thought this article was interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could share on Twitter!

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Team GaryVee Is Open For Consulting

Over the years, Gary has built a real reputation as someone who knows how to build businesses and grow brands – first by building Wine Library, then VaynerMedia, then other VaynerX companies. Over the last 10 years, he’s stayed consistent by leveraging underpriced attention. He’s also invested a lot of time, energy and resources in the team behind his brand: Team GaryVee.

From reading all your comments, emails, and DMs, we saw a lot of you guys wanted to know more about what we do and how we help grow Gary’s brand. So… in a continued effort to bring value to more brands and scratch our own entrepreneurial itch… we’re opening up Team GaryVee for business for the first time. As some of you may already know, we are a team of ~30 individuals who have experience in different areas of marketing and brand building including: community management, paid media, influencer marketing, data & analytics, copywriting, design, videography, and cutting edge platform-specific strategies to bring the most awareness & engagement. 

Below, we have laid out a few offerings that we think can help brands at different phases of growth, but we would love to hear from you. Which of these would you be interested in? What other products/services can we add here that would help your brand? Please don’t forget to fill out the form at the end of this article if any or all of these interest you:

Personal branding workshop:

How you can start thinking about building your brand, and building the right team to grow your community on social media.

Paid media workshop:

Learn how small brands can use paid media strategies to make the most of a small media budget, and how you can leverage the data your brand already has.

Community management workshop:

In-depth understanding of community building and the benefits of “surprise and delighting” your audience.

Platform deep dive workshop:

Deep dive into best practices and opportunities on how to build an engaged audience on the platforms that matter today, and how your brand can produce contextual content for every platform.

Complete consulting service:

Come in for a full day where we’ll break down all of the above with you and work closely with you through quarterly check-ins to get the best social media execution for your brand / business. 

Please note, to make sure this is the best use of your time: only fill out the form below if you have a budget of at least $20,000 and you’re interested in learning more.

If we have an offering that best fits your need, you can expect a response from us within 14 business days. If you don’t hear from us within that time frame, please be patient! We’ll respond to everyone in the order in which we received their submissions.

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Announcing YummyText.com!

I launched a brand new text service for my dad called YummyText.com!!

As many of you know, I started a service called WineText last year as a way to innovate and keep growing Wine Library – it was to bring greater convenience to the wine game by sending you the best deals directly … especially for those of you who buy wine from sites with “deal of the day” concepts.

So many people loved it and it was such a big success for my dad’s business that I wanted to expand “text-first” to other categories, like gourmet foods.

YummyText.com is for those of you who buy things like olive oil, honey, high end jams, cheese, chocolate, pastas, rare hot sauces, and more – sign up and you’ll get a crazy deal everyday on gourmet offers. You reply with a simple # of how many units you want, and it gets shipped straight to your door. Just like WineText.

If you’re interested, fill out the form here (if you’re not pls don’t because it costs $$ to send texts!

Announcing The GaryVee Challenge “Best In Class”

As many of you may know, near the end of 2019, I launched the #GaryVeeChallenge to push more of you to go through the free 270-page free slide deck I put out.

These were the rules:

Participants referred to my content deck on how to create 64 pieces of content in one day.They chose the tactics that fit their style, content, and social platforms.They put out content.And they added the hashtag #GaryVeeChallenge to their posts.

Here are some of the “best in class” and “honorable mentions” from the contest:

Best In Class

These were people who really caught my attention with their content – either with their creativity, persistence, message, or all of the above.

These three will be flown out for an ~hour long group podcast session with me! Hit them up and show them love!

Colin Darke

The #garyveechallenge has been impactful this month — (part 1 of 2) I always hesitated posting too much content—thinking I would come across as spammy and I randomly get friend/trolls who question my work ethic because I draw and paint a lot

— Colin Darke (@colindarke) December 27, 2019

Handles:

TikTokInstagramTwitter



The365Movement

Handles:

InstagramYouTube



NailThoughts

@nailthoughts

Like how- whet??!! Thanks for even following along. #nailtech #garyveechallenge #salonowner

♬ original sound – emilymkrueger

Handles:

TikTokInstagramYouTube



Honorable Mention

The following accounts did a great job of creating and posting content on some (or all) of their platforms that the team liked and wanted to feature in this post – incredible work everyone.

VintageStockReserve



TikTokInstagramYouTube



Russel McDonal



InstagramTikTokYouTube Twitter



JustinTalksPuppets



InstagramTikTokYouTube



Maayan Gordon



LinkedInInstagram



John Vavrecka



InstagramYouTube Twitter



Eric Okon



LinkedIn



Toy Tester Tom



YouTubeTwitter



Jonny SKC



YouTube



Wayne Partello



LinkedIn



Rohit M Thakur



TwitterInstagram



Buffalo _AF



InstagramTikTokTwitter

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3 Insights To Create Instagram Content In 2020

You don’t need a giant team or resources to start producing Instagram content.

In this blog post, I break down some insights on how you can get to a place where you’re producing more volume of contextual content (aka content that takes into account the nuances of the platform) for Instagram without posting just for the sake of posting.

1. Turn tweets into Instagram posts

One way to increase your quantity of Instagram posts is by repurposing your tweets.

You can take a tweet that got more engagement than average on your Twitter account or a tweet that you feel strongly about, and turn it into an Instagram post using just your phone.

Once you have a tweet picked out, screenshot it.

Then, crop it:

Then post it!

See how the extra text around the tweet was cropped out? That was done to make the picture more contextual to an Instagram world (more on “contextual content” and what it means at the end of this article).

It’s not hard to make, and you could post in different platforms even outside of Instagram – like Facebook or LinkedIn.

2. Use your Notes App

Another insight is to use your notes app (or any notepad app on your phone) to write copy and screenshot it for a post.

Start by opening up a notepad app on your phone. On the iPhone notes app, you have the ability to type or draw out your thoughts.

Write out long form copy recapping your day, a thought you had, or something you feel strongly about.

Then, screenshot and post!

You could also post it on other channels too, like LinkedIn or Facebook.

3. Design quote graphics

If you have design skills or have someone on your team who does, you can create designed versions of quotes you’re passionate about.

You could layer the quote over a picture of yourself for branding, or you could keep it ridiculously simple – with text on a white background with your logo.

There are a ton of free stock sites that you can use if you don’t have your own pictures – like Unsplash, Freepik, etc.

What it means to make your content “contextual”

Contextual content means producing and publishing content that’s built for the platform.

For example, I made the move to censor my video content on LinkedIn after spending several months reading the comments. It felt like it was the right move for the community there.

My content on Instagram is more applicable to a broader, more casual audience. When I can, I’ll add long copy to supplement the post and add context.

On Twitter, I’ll have copy that’s shorter (obviously limited by the character limit) and very casual content.

For more content insights, check out my full 270-page free slide deck: How To Create 64 Pieces Of Content In A Day

The post 3 Insights To Create Instagram Content In 2020 appeared first on GaryVaynerchuk.com.

How to get the information you want from my texting platform?

Let’s start with the basics, if you’re not signed up for my texting platform, hit me up at 1-212-931-5731 and we’ll take care of that!

Second, if you are signed up, I want you to know that we now have “groups” that let you opt-into and receive the texts you want most.

It’s super simple – just text me with the following hashtag or hashtags you care about, and you’ll get all the messages I send out on those subjects. See the quick video demo below.

Get early access to merch

#FirstOpportunity

Topics you can follow

#sportscards

#esports

#rokkr

#wine

#NFL

#Jets

#NBA

#Knicks

#music

#hiphop

#playlists

#shoes

#wrestling

Programs/tips you can follow

#AskGaryVee

#WeeklyVee

#Interrupted

#TrashTalk

#Instagram

#LinkedIn

#Facebook

#TikTok

#YouTube

#Twitter

#Podcast

How to opt-in and opt-out to groups

You can opt-in by simply texting me the hashtags you’re interested in. If you ever want to opt-out of any of the above groups, just reply with #optout and the group name and we’ll remove you from that group. There will be no confirmation message in either case.

Here’s a little video demo on how to opt-in and opt-out:

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