How to Get Your Business the Most Attention Possible | Game Changers Summit Keynote 2019

Introduction

This is black-and-white, I don’t know what emotional hurdle you need to get over to get into this. I don’t know if you don’t realize how content you actually are. I don’t know if you don’t realize that the words coming out of your mouth from ambition don’t match your action because you don’t actually mean it. I don’t know what, but I know it’s happening. And that’s what we need to break through here today.

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Discussion and Q&A

So super excited to be here. A lot to talk about. I also spoke with the organizer. So I’m going to try to do quite a bit of Q&A because I think the framework of where I see the opportunity for many in the room is not overly complicated and what I’d really like to do is give this audience the opportunity to ask a detailed question about maybe their attempts within the execution and why it didn’t work or how they see the perspectives in a different way, so very simply.

Attention as the Most Important Asset

To set up this conversation. I believe that attention is The singular most important asset for anybody trying to achieve anything whether that’s to cure a disease run for office sell a sneaker get a client to create anything. To create anything, you need one’s attention, and then the variable of what comes out of your mouth or what you create becomes the way it happens.

Relationship with Attention

I have had an incredibly interesting relationship with attention my whole life. It took me probably until five years ago really questioning, you know, in a knock on wood why is this going so well? What what has allowed me to be successful? What has allowed me to be happy and successful? Why is this working? Why is this so obvious to me yet continues to not be for the masses? What is this thing? What is my life?

Not Hearing the Cheering or Booing

Why is this work, and what it took me back to? Ironically is which would make sense? everyone’s origin stories, but it becomes a DNA thing at some level. The thing that actually brings me happiness is I can’t hear the cheering and I can’t hear the booing. And that’s why it’s very easy to navigate through life. That came from probably the circumstances of being born in the Soviet Union, coming to America, very humble beginnings, you know, studio apartment multiple family members in it, you know, complete and utter lack of entitlement while also having a wildly loving mother who built disproportionate self-esteem but knew how to stop right before it became delusion. And that is really the balance I think many parents in the room are trying to figure out, and we’re starting to understand eighth-place trophies are a really stupid idea?

Lemonade Stand Business

And so that happened, but but it where really took me to was my first business, which was a lemonade stand business. Amasou Diallo when I was six, I Seven years old. I legitimately tricked my friends into standing behind lemonade stands all day. And and I used to tell that story in my early keno career, and then I actually In a keynote while I was telling the story, in the other part of my brain was trying to figure out what was like doing all day if they were all behind like I actually couldn’t recall. And then finally triggered what I was doing was I was making signs for five to seven hours a day as a seven-year-old walking in the streets of New Jersey, sitting on corners watching cars drive by and trying to legitimately figure out which tree or which sign or which bush or what angle their eyes were looking at while they were driving and where to put my sign. I did not learn that in college. I did not learn that by watching a keynote video on YouTube. I did not learn that reading a Seth Godin book. You know, I learned it because it was inherently in me, and then it transformed forever. I did baseball card shows when I was 13 making $4,000 a weekend. I I was the only dealer amongst grown men to spend the first four or five hours not setting up my table.

Chasing Attention

But walking around and understanding where the attention was going, I would spend a lot of time looking at my table and understanding where to put things because I knew they’d be walking by fast. And could I stop them with a Ken Griffey Jr. or a Michael Jordan or whatever it was. I’ve been chasing attention my whole life.

Transformation in Dad’s Liquor Store

That manifested when I transitioned into my dad’s liquor store business, and it really transformed because I stood behind the register and I watched people walk through the store. The first impact I had on my dad’s business was moving around things. I said, “Dad, when people first walk in, we should not have a huge display of six-dollar stuff. We should have a display of twelve dollars.” It was just it came natural. It continues to come natural. I have written more than I’ve read. I consume almost no content other than reading people’s comments to things that are going on in the world. I know that Felix Hernandez retired from baseball last night by sitting in the greenroom right now, reading 20 people’s comments about it.

Focus on End Consumer

I only care about the end consumer. I only care about the potential customer and I care about her and his behaviors and attention. I do not care what’s currently working for you to get leads. I’m not I don’t care what’s currently working for me to get leads. I’m always putting what’s working yesterday through massive friction of his that behavior best today. I built my dad’s liquor store from a three to a sixty million dollar business in five years on the back of spending every penny properly, even though the data showed me that direct mail and newspapers and radios would work better than email and Google search. It didn’t matter what it was showing me. What mattered was what were human beings doing right now to be a person in this room looking for leads and growing their business and to not think social media works is audacious at best and downright fucking stupid at worst.

ROI and Skill

Now I understand why people think that because like anything in life, the ROI of something is completely predicated on how good you are at it. The ROI of a basketball is a billion dollars for LeBron. It’s zero for me. Just because you ran a thousand dollars worth of Facebook ads and it didn’t work doesn’t mean that Facebook doesn’t work. It means that you suck. That is not my opinion. That is my knowledge that the shopping app Wish has spent ninety-five percent of its money on Facebook and has become a business that sells 8 billion dollars worth of product. That is not my opinion that Instagram can work. It’s that Fashion Nova does a billion dollars in revenue on the back of a hundred percent Instagram influencer strategy.

Shifting Landscape

I, for the record, could give zero shits about social media. I cannot wait to give a keynote in ten years making fun of people doing social media because voice or augmented reality or blockchain or whatever is being invented by a thirteen-year-old girl in Tennessee right now is the better thing to do than right now. Now, this does not mean that something is dead. I’m very happy for you if your billboards are converting. I’m thrilled if your Direct Mail strategy is rocking it. My question is, is that the best use of your four thousand dollars? Just because you get 18 leads from it, could you get 49 from something else you spent $4,000 on? This is the debate at hand.

Importance of Attention

If there is anybody who’s confused that this is the single most important thing in our society, then you’re just downright confused. These plap. I literally sit with friends, including this. I have a friend deeply in this industry and we were having a conversation here ago. Which is why I was so excited to come and give this talk and the debate.

Skepticism about Social Media

The conversation starts with, and actually, I won’t use his name because he didn’t go that far into it. Let me actually paint a much clearer picture. I spend my life sitting down with people about marketing and communications and business. And they’ll spend the first 30 minutes, and it’s a little less white-hot right now, but the election’s not too far away. So it’s gonna come up again. But a year and a half ago, I would literally spend the first 30 minutes of a one-hour business breakfast with the executive telling me that Facebook is terrible or social media is terrible. It’s ruining our democracy and all this stuff. And that, like, it literally is all this. And then when we segue into the normal business, this one meeting sits in my mind.

The gentleman is the CEO of one of the major makeup beauty brands in the world. We were talking about makeup. He basically looked me in the face 20 minutes later and said, “Look, I just don’t think Instagram and Facebook can sell makeup, you know, I really believe in Vogue and all this other horseshit.” And I said to him, I took a step back. I said, “Love it five seconds just for myself because I’m confused here over my scrambled eggs. This is correct what you’re saying? You’re telling me in this breakfast that? Facebook and social media is so powerful that it can destroy one of the most powerful things in the world, the American democracy. But it can’t sell lipstick. It’s real.”

Lack of Personal Interest

Let me make it perfectly clear before we get into QA. I have zero point zero interest in you doing anything that I talked about this morning. You’re not my mother. You’re not my brother. I genuinely don’t give a fuck about you. I am doing this keynote because it’s being filmed, and I want to be historically correct, and I will re-air it in eight years when I’m talking about something else. And if you follow me on Instagram, I’ve quite enjoyed the last year of pulling up my videos from 8 and 9 and 7 and 12 years ago because I’m looking to build my reputation. If you want to go back home and do exactly what you’re doing, I actually am happy about that because the less money that you put into these systems is making the bad attention a better deal for me. So, there’s no confusion. I prefer you don’t do anything I’m talking about this morning, and the good news for me for doing this for the last decade is I know that 98% of you will not.

Credentials and Expertise

I will do a nice job here for the next 44 minutes. We will get fired up. A lot of things are gonna make sense to you in its mix of cursing and comedy. I will answer very direct questions that show you a deep Practitioner ship in this; this isn’t fucking college up here. This is everyday real life. I’ve built two businesses from scratch, one from scratch, excuse me, to a two hundred million dollar business over the last nine years in revenue profitable, not valuation. I’d built a three million dollar business doing three hundred thousand dollars in gross profit before expenses with no credit line and no venture back money to a sixty million dollar business in five years as a 22 year old.

Understanding Consumer Behavior

I’m Mariano Rivera, and if you don’t know what that means, Mariano Rivera is a Hall of Fame pitcher that just retired and went to the Hall of Fame recently, played for the New York Yankees. He was an extremely good pitcher. He was their closer for two decades. But ultimately, if you’re a hardcore baseball knowledgeable fan, he had one pitch, he had one pitch that literally not one human being besides Edgar Martinez knew how to hit and that’s me. I suck at a lot of things; the one thing I don’t suck at is understanding what the consumer is doing at this second. I understand human behavior, and I understand human attention, and I understand it not like buying a mutual fund. I understand it like day trading. I know exactly what’s happening right this second on LinkedIn, on Tick-tock, on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, in print magazines, on the radio, in billboards, on TV, a Netflix. Period end of story. And that currency is going to be the single most important thing in perpetuity because as the Internet continues to evolve everything in the middle is commoditized. The amount of people that give a shit of what college you went to or how many years of experience you have is staggeringly low.

Importance of Knowing Who You Are

Knowing who you are is super duper important. This industry as a whole has had a quite a historic understanding of personalities being able to build quite big businesses by arbitraging where attention of the consumer was. Sometimes that’s outdoor media. Sometimes that’s direct mail, often for the tippy-top. It has been remanent television commercials. Today that opportunity sits at scale at an under priced nature in pre-roll YouTube.

Obsession with Leads and Conversion

Everybody here is so obsessed with leads and conversion, which is why if you’re current you love search, you love SCM, obviously if somebody’s typing something in that’s intent and I understand why everybody loves it here cuz 99.999% of this room is in the sales business not in the brand and marketing business. It’s your turn, conversion. It’s math. This is why I always beat you. I always beat salespeople. Salespeople look at short term ROI. I don’t care if I’m losing 27 to 3 at halftime. What’s the score at the end, dick? That is my marketing strategy.

You being completely a No-name on these social platforms means you are in the process of becoming less relevant. What do you think we’re going, you think this is going backwards? You think we’re gonna wake up tomorrow and give up our cell phones? If you are not relevant in building brand today, let me actually go right to the punchline.

The Power of Brand Building

Everybody, how many people here are spending money on Google AdWords or search or care about SEO? Just raise your hands high, high. Makes sense, and I’m a fan. I built my dad’s business on it. You want to talk about real? Good Google. I was there day one, literally day one. The words were five cents a click. I owned the word “wine” for five cents for four months. Nobody knew what it was. It wasn’t good. I went to little conferences, conferences as big as that table at the Springfield, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce event where the pick guy who was selling yellow pages made fun of me for this internet bad. I remember those days. Those days are happening right now.

Of course, you can’t put out organic content on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or anywhere else as much as a Google search term, that’s a conversion. There’s intent, it happens quick. The math is right there. You can’t see what happens when you’re building equity and brand; it takes time. I understand. I’m happy. I’m happy that everyone is so this second, this basic math, this not thoughtful. This is my great advantage. It doesn’t make it any less true. Let me tell you exactly how search is gonna play out over the next decade.

The Rise of Voice Search

How many people, actually how many people here are retiring within the next six years? And before you raise your hand, I don’t mean you’re gonna crush it over the next six years and buy a yacht. I mean, you’re fucking old and you’re finished. So real quick hands, next six years, raise your hands retiring next six years, firm. Okay. So for the five of you, for the five of you, I think at some level you can take some of this with a grain of salt.

But for the rest of you, pay very close attention to something that is about to happen over the next decade that will be very important. Why I’m telling you that brand over search or conversion will transform your businesses in a decade when somebody needs you, they will be in their kitchen, in their car, in their office, and they will say, “Alexis, Alexa, excuse me, Alexa, Google, Apple, Samsung, or whoever wins. I need a lawyer. What are you gonna do then? Just curious, what are you gonna do then? You’re gonna be so clever with your copy. There is nothing left besides brand when that voice machine gives an answer in the back.

Either they will give the business they bought and take all the business, or if you think Google search terms are expensive, wait to see what a referral from a voice device is gonna cost you. Oh, no, by the way, only one person can get it. You don’t see eleven people. I don’t get to make a choice because you put a clever name in it or I like the way your last name sounds or you have got some sort of other variable. It’s a binary thing, and you better be in the fucking business of this. Alexa, get me Susan Thompson. Because if you’re not, you’re gonna be finished, and that is how it’s gonna play out. So I hope you keep enjoying your philosophy of lead generations and sales-driven. I’m super excited that you can’t figure out how to put out content and give people advice of how to avoid using you or how to avoid getting in trouble or other things that people should learn, which would then give you equity.

The Importance of Personal Brand

This is real, and in a room, we’re only five people are retiring in the next six years. And by the way, three of them looked way too young to be retiring in the next six years. I highly recommend everybody understands that we’re at a massive crossroads in technology where personal brand is not some goofy thing or some audacious thing or something we look down on because we don’t like the word, because what it really means is reputation. You don’t like the word personal brand, fine. Call it reputation. I have a funny feeling a lot of people in here know exactly what that means.

And if you are not putting out content at scale on LinkedIn and YouTube and Instagram and whatever else emerges, if you do not have a podcast around what you do for a living or show up on podcasts, if you are not digitally native because either traditional media of print, radio, television, those other things are appeasing you enough and your only digital behavior is just sales-driven intent from search queries and you’re overpaying of the next guy or the next gal a little bit more to be the first result in Google AdWords, your strategy is uncomfortably vulnerable.

Now, how do I know this? Not super complicated. I gave this talk to 2011 limo and car services and told them this Uber thing was not a joke, and they laughed me out of the room. I went in 2014 to Toys R Us, which was my favorite store as a kid, to meet with the CEO and pleaded not even for the business, for them to take their strategy. I don’t have to tell you what happened to that business. The bookstores were very naive about Amazon. This is historical. This is not a prophet, a futurist, you know, I’m not Yoda. I just respect two core things: what customers are actually doing this second and history always repeating itself.

I just don’t understand how anybody is not pot-committed in a service business predicated on human beings and building awareness around that human being. I don’t know, and that’s it. So that’s what I think is happening. I couldn’t recommend a couple of things more, and we’re about to do Q&A, so start thinking about questions.

Content Strategy

A couple of things, number one. When producing content to use it as lead gen for your business, the number one rule is to do everything reverse of what you’re feeling right now. You have to make content that actually brings people value and not mix in a sales call. It’s very disciplined. It’s very difficult. It’s why I wrote a book called “Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook” years ago. Give, give, give, and then ask. Too many people bleed their give and their ask in the same piece of content. Thus, it’s actually an ask, thus you don’t convert. Building equity in the ecosystem around things that you’ve learned from your experience, whatever that may be, is completely imperative. There’s also a lot of people that may just hire you because you’re a cheap span, and sharing that variable matters too. You don’t have to.

Self-Awareness in Communication

I produce more content today than maybe a hundred pieces going across eleven platforms, but I share nothing about my personal life. No family stuff. You’re fully in control. The machine and algorithm don’t take you over; you get to put out what you want to put out. But you have to provide value, not put out a sales call. Number two, you have to be self-aware of how you communicate. There are a lot of people in here that would never put out a video because they don’t feel good about the way they look, they’re insecure when that camera light goes on, they just don’t like it. And that’s fine, that’s amazing. Everybody is wildly charismatic and handsome, I get it. However, many of you here can write 11 sentences in a way that I never could and post something on LinkedIn that would absolutely.

Finding Your Communication Style

Crush and become the awareness to you. Maybe you draw. Well, I’m not kidding. Some of my best content right now is the transformation of the things I believe into comic format that looks like a Sunday comic. Maybe you’re audio. Maybe you’re the kind of guy or gal that walks around Earth, has a thought, started to understand the kind of value people are looking for, and you take out your iPhone or your phone, and you hit record and it’s a memo, and you talk for two minutes, and you get stopped, and you post that on these platforms.

Communication has been established a long time ago. It’s visual. It’s audio. It’s drawings. It’s videos. It’s words. It’s basic radio. Television. Print. It’s the Internet. Now. It’s all the same shit. You have to figure out how you communicate. Unable to be you. You’re a one-woman shop. You better understand why MetLife has Snoopy. You want to go real extreme? You’re super private. You can’t do it. You can’t put yourself out there. It’s really interesting for you to come up with a logo to come up with a character to speak on your behalf.

Not building brand on the digital platforms of today is completely unacceptable, and before some classic dog raised their hands and says, “Gary, I didn’t grow up with this shit. That’s why I’m not doing it.” I want to remind everybody in this room: none of us grew up with this shit. And more importantly, the customer doesn’t care that you were born in 1964 or 1952 or 49 or 92? You didn’t grow up driving; you figured it out.

And before you outsource this to your twenty-three-year-old niece because she’s young, I want to remind you that if this is your business, it is now as important in one man’s opinion, that could be wrong, it’s as important to understand this as it is to balance your checkbook. If your business and company does not understand contemporary communication, it is far more vulnerable than you think. It just is. This is happening quickly. Please be thoughtful. Please audit your businesses.

Please notice a lot of your clients may be historical, and that there is no lead gen that you’re not acquiring new leads in the classic way. Or more importantly, don’t get high on your own supply if something’s working now because you’re crushing some search term or you’ve got some ad buy, and that actually represents 63% of all your business.

Things change, and the whole thing breaks. Somebody was crushing this industry on the yellow pages because they were Triple A lawyer guy, and then that medium went away. You have no ability to be successful in AR, VR, blockchain, machine learning, new platforms, all the things that are coming in the next decade if you are not at least somewhat capable of understanding what’s happening now. You’re gonna miss the whole middle part.

One of the biggest reasons I implore people here to produce content at scale on these platforms is just to get on the treadmill of being a digital native communicator because when the next thing comes and it does really crush what you’re doing, you’re not even gonna know where to start. This is why everybody declines. This is why everybody declines. I don’t want you to decline. I want to faticalee create energy in this room that might make three people actually say fuck it. It’s time.

Building Trust and Educational Content

So, keep your hands up. We’ll get as many as possible. So fast, very good, big fan, follow you. Thank you. What’s your name? Paul Foust Ryan, all of us texted you. Yeah.

Do you have a sense of, you know, percentage when you’re spending like right now? But you let you say LinkedIn is where I see Facebook was. And how much should a brand be spending on the platforms of today, the Facebook, LinkedIn, and what percentage should we be testing on? I mean, I just set up a TikTok account on my niece’s. I’ve no idea, you know. Is it 5 percent and throwing out to these other things that might happen? Versus what? You know, where’s, yeah. Please let me bang on that real quick. Yes, we need a picture. But we’ll do that at the end. But to answer your question, I think of it as three stages.

The majority of people here are spending their dollars on something that I think has less of an ROI than Facebook and LinkedIn and podcast advertising right now. So, I would spend seventy, and these are arbitrary numbers in tuition. I’m going seventy there. I’m taking my hundred or eighty of the traditional stuff, Google search, Direct Mail. I’m taking that 220 and I’m doing five or 10 percent of weird new stuff just to get myself used to it.

The problem is 99.999 percent of this room is not going to do that because within the first hundred days, you’ll have a decline of leads and they’ll bail because they’re soft. Hi. Hi, Amy. Rebecca. Hi, Amy. So, fascinatingly, we are in an industry that’s super traditional where lawyers, doctors, accountants, right? Yep, one of those three, but we barely ranked above prostitutes and trust. Yeah, according right, according to all the media surveys because a small group that show up on television historically look like such douchebags. Nobody trusts.

So, my question to you is on social media for the long play. How do you build trust by not? I mean it by being a douchebag. That’s how you build the trust by not, by not, by not. I think, and I’m making a joke and I’m trying to really like frame up the conversation. We as animals are always inherently cynical to something that feels fast. By the way, it’s my great issue as a personality. I’m so Jersey, fast, hyper, that so many people judge me at first based on my energy, not the words out of my mouth.

There are so many people, how many people here and watch this, how many people here, by show of hands, started out thinking I was full of shit and a douchebag? Right. So like, thanks. So, you know, so, so, I think it’s how things are said. It’s the context. Everything is like, have you been wronged? I’m gonna hook you up, call this number now. We got this and it’s just it’s built up. Whereas instead, nobody’s educating. Who’s putting out the five-minute video of like, hey, if this happens, here are three things you need to think of and be out and be out, not end, call me, or if you want more information on how to really do it. Then you like, everyone’s so, basically, everyone in the industry treats the customers the way not, you know, scummy dudes go to the bar at 11:30 at night. They’re trying to close in that moment.

And a little romance goes a long way, right, ladies? Like, just give me five fucking seconds, fuck that. On social media then. You’re saying just push out as much educational content as you can, you know. And you did raise your hand so you consumed a little bit of my content. Yes, great. So, you know how I always say, watch what I’m doing, not what I’m saying? I am putting out my best advice every day. There are literally agencies that are built 100 percent on the back of watching my content and the more I get emails from, hey Gary, funny story, my company watches all your stuff in the morning and then that’s what we sell and we sometimes even steal your own customers, hahaha. Two things run through my mind, one, fuck. But for a second, then I go and that’s why I’m gonna be the top dog. The world is abundant and there’s confusion on that theory too many people here think they’re competing directly against the person next to them. They’re confused.

Number two, yes, I think you put out all the best content you can possibly bring to somebody. There are plenty of people that never need to use you and waste dollars if you’re the lawyer in this room that educates the world of how not to use you and waste dollars. You will be the biggest person in this room. Doesn’t come natural. It’s a little different. But that’s how the biggest things in the world are built. Of course, you got to play it differently to be much bigger. You can continue to play in the margins, grow 3 percent, 2 percent, 9 percent until you don’t.

Practical Tips on Social Media Advertising

Sir, how are you? Thank you. Oh, I’m. You don’t have a mic, right? No, the gentleman in the back of the mic. You don’t need to get a mic, brother. Sorry. Good. Sure. Thank you. Anthony Knowles from Phoenix, Arizona. Anthony. I’d let you said produce content at scale. Can you define what you mean by at scale? How much content do you produce now, Anthony?

Very little. You mean zero? I know you lawyers. Here’s what I would say. A couple of things. I think that Facebook and LinkedIn are a really good place for you to do original content. I think Facebook groups are an incredible place for you to join, be part of the community, but don’t go in hot. You know, you’re just part of the Arizona group of professionals and you’re bringing value. And like when I started my career, you’re part of the community, which I know has worked for a lot of you that have an app.

The people in here who haven’t advertised, leveraged being part of the community and built a word-of-mouth kind of business. So, I listen, even if you did a thought of the day. How long have you been doing your job, sir? 22 years. I think that is one of the things I’m talking a lot about is I believe one of the most under-conversated issues in our society right now and when it comes to inclusion and diversity and acceptance is ageism. I am fascinated by the growth of technology creating a narrative where we completely have not valued wisdom and experience anymore.

I think if you did something called 22 seconds on my 22 years of experience on LinkedIn every day, and you just talked about things you learned or things you thought, you will not believe how much value for your own business you get when you bring value into the world. Even if you talk about how you built your practice, a fellow lawyer in Ohio may subconsciously refer you an opportunity.

Like doing good and putting out good stuff is always the right thing to do, so I would, for you at this point, just something that made you do something consistent. Notice how I framed up an idea. That seems kind of easy. It’s like okay, that’s not. You know, you see where I’m going. The other thing you could do is film. Literally film meetings and things of that nature. Obviously, so much you could never share with disclosures and things of that nature, but there might be some internal meetings. Just getting into the habit. This is no different than being wildly obese and out of shape and you have to start working out.

You got to start somewhere. If nothing else, just your opening post. Just everybody leaves here today and makes one post on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is wild right now. LinkedIn is going through a Facebook-like moment. You can have no followers. You could post something and a thousand people will see it because there’s so much consumption and not enough content. That is a tremendous. Even if you did a hello world post. Hello, the LinkedIn. I’m starting this. I’m gonna try. I went to a morning keynote that inspired me to do this. I’m gonna start putting out content of things of how I built my firm, what I’ve learned, things that I think people should look out for, and my expertise tips. So that’s what I would say, sir. Thank you. You’re welcome.

Hi. Hey. Hey, good. What’s up, Gary? I’m a Leo Wad and I get my clients a lot of money. My question, is this Jesus. Go ahead, bro. So, there there’s a huge age difference here. Some of us are in our twenties and thirties. Some are in our fifties and sixties. Not a lot of us have the benefit of being on billboards, radio, TV ads for so many years.

So, we want to talk about practicality. I know you bring this up all the time. I started doing some social media right when I was in law school. Last year was my first full year in business. I spent about six thousand dollars in ads, made a little over three million in revenue. Okay, guys, you know this shit kind of works, right? Practically, if you’re saying you made a specific number four thousand dollars and you’re putting out mailers or billboards, practically if someone has four thousand dollars to spend.

Where do you think would be the best? Facebook Ads only. Yeah, is it more important, the marketing dollars, or in the content creation? The marketing and amplification dollars. The content creation, when you have such limited money, should be you and an iPhone. Okay, the distribution of dollars. In a reason I say Facebook, Facebook’s dominance from 50 to 90 year-olds is remarkable. And there’s a lot of business to be done there.

So Facebook’s not cool. I don’t give a fuck about cool. I’m trying to build businesses out here. So, you can also be crazy contextual on Facebook. You know, you’re targeting 55 to 60 year-old people in Chicago. You make a reference about the 86 Bears. You make a reference about Illinois. You make a reference. You make context in your video. You know where you’re targeting?

Targeting Local Cases on Social Media

Hundred bucks to get in front of a feed, a ton of people that are 55 to 60 in Chicago, Facebook. Awesome. Thank you. You got it.

Yes, sir. James Done. Hey, James. I’m from here in Georgia, and a very rural area. Okay, there are several attorneys in those various counties that we practice in. For 40 years, for 50 years, have just been killing it there. The brand makes it that somebody wants a criminal defense attorney. They go to this guy, and that’s it. I get it, even though that guy’s retired, and it’s his associates now that are the ones doing it. How does running Facebook, run a Facebook ad, yeah, to that area, yeah. How do I overcome that level of you make a video and you say, “Hey, everybody in Thomas County, it’s me. Fun fact, you know, George Tom said that you all use. He’s been retired for four years, and you’re actually getting Carol.” That would be the ad I would run. And then I would quickly move and be like, “And by the way, this has nothing to do with George Thompson, and I’m sure Carol is lovely. Let me tell you about me.” And then you’ll build. Thank you. Welcome.

Who’s got the mics? Let’s make sure we spread out. Hey, sir. Yep, big eared. How are you? I’m excellent. I feel excellent. Good. I’m Howard Spavone, trial lawyer from Savannah, Georgia. Okay. I’ve got 35 crisp videos. I’ve had a charity since 1999. I’m in all the parades. Here’s a problem. Here’s a problem, please. I don’t care what anyone says. Good. If you have someone who’s catastrophically injured, you’re never going to get full justice unless you do one of two things. Go in the courtroom and get it, or be willing to go in the courtroom and get it. Okay. Otherwise, they laugh because they paid you three million at mediation, and they would have paid you twenty at trial. I understand.

Here’s my problem. Those guys you’re talking about on TV, yeah, in Savannah, yeah, none of them. The only one I’ve ever seen at the courthouse was getting sentenced for stealing from his client, but yeah, they don’t get full justice, and they sell people down the river. They take the quick money. Most of the time, they take the million that’s offered. No, or they take the two or they take the three at mediation. To me, yeah. Well, here’s the problem I’ve got. 43 years in martial arts, and I’m a warrior. Okay, and I like to go in the courtroom and change people’s lives, and some people are so badly injured, you can’t do that unless you go in the courtroom. Okay, but see. They call the guy on the truck or the hammer. I mean, I get calls. I get cases. I’m blessed beyond means, but how do I keep. That’s your fault. That’s right. And so I need you to tell me beyond what you’ve said. I just fucking told you for the last 35 minutes. Beyond what you’ve said. What you were just saying was super compelling, and I genuinely believe you much more than you know. Other content. And you need to put that on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter, right? Well, one question, please. It’s nice to all over the country attract cases, but I don’t want fifty states. Only one hundred fifty-nine counties we have unbelievable commercial trucks with timber and logging in the ports since in Savannah. Those are the cases that I want. I want all the catastrophic in. So let me run your ads in your area. Don’t put out a single piece of organic social media content in your life. Only run content against the target area. You can run our ads only to people in this specific ZIP code in the specific age group. My friends, this is a game of headline reading versus being a practitioner. The amount of opinions in this room about what social media is or things of that nature are opinions, and I run ads every day. I’m a practitioner. Like you said, sir, you’re a practitioner. They play one on TV. I don’t understand why people don’t spend 10 hours on Google or YouTube consuming information to become educated on how to make pictures and videos and run ads on the 7 platforms that we all know our society is living on. To this young man’s point. There was never a time when a young man, with 6,000 bucks, could build that much revenue because it cost too much money to do radio. Tell guys I built my daddy’s store on radio television Direct Mail. It was hard. This shit’s way easier. You just judge technology because you’re old. Or because you’re ideological. It’s not an old or new thing. There’s a lot of 20 year olds. They’re like, I don’t like that. My friends are on the phone. I’m like, who gives a fuck? You’re trying to sell t-shirts there on the phone. Go on the phone. People are making decisions about their marketing of their business based on their subjective opinion of society.

Competing with Big Firms in Los Angeles

Nobody cares about your opinion that the kids don’t go outside. Nobody cares you think it’s weird that they use Tinder. Fuck you. Like, I don’t understand what we’re doing here. When did you have the ability to judge society? Who the fuck are you? I’m serious. I don’t, by the way. I don’t think my opinions are right either. I only, this is why I don’t guess. I promise you every word that you’re about to hear has already happened. I’m not guessing because I don’t want the vulnerability. This is not opinions, sir. Run Facebook and LinkedIn. You can run ads on YouTube that are based on what people search on Google. If they’re searching for an attorney in Savannah, Georgia, but then they go to YouTube to watch a Georgia Bulldogs, you know, highlight, you could pop up and say, “Are you from Savannah, Georgia?” And I’d be like, “Oh shit, that’s weird.” But at least they’re gonna know who the fuck you are. Because you’re losing the people who they know who the fuck they are. It’s just like that dude back there. Just like everything else. This is very obvious. This is black and white. I don’t know what emotional hurdle you need to get over to get into this. I don’t know if you don’t realize how content you actually are. I don’t know if you don’t realize that the words coming out of your mouth from ambition don’t match your action because you don’t actually mean it. I don’t know what, but I know it’s happening, and that’s what we need to break through here today. Gary, I’ve followed you for years, read your books. I love your energy. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And my friend, as you can imagine, what I hear, that is the parting shot, and I want you to win versus the alternative. I need you to start doing. You need to leave this conference right now and go home and run $1,000 worth of ads. I’m a Crispex client, and I’m now running on all those, bro. I don’t care if you’re fucking the Lord Jesus Christ. I need you to go fucking home and run ads. Thank you. I like getting jerky in the South.

Yes, you’re him, Gabriel Sanchez, Angeles Legend, big fan. Wait, good morning, like a treadmill listening to your podcast. Thank you, a lot of value. Thank you. Thank you. So, personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles. I have some of the, it’s super. Makes. I’m surprised I even exist. Yeah, I got guys spending millions of dollars a month on advertising. Some of the biggest firms are in Los Angeles. They’re all over the world. Yes. I got like 12 attorneys, personal injury attorneys, just in my building. So, most of my business, it’s all referral-based. I started off with five clients about four years ago. We have 190 now. My question is a lot of these firms, a lot of the big competitors already or they’re starting to do the video ads. They’re starting to get on, they’re already on social media, paying Facebook, Instagram. They’re doing that, and that’s what pisses me off. Yeah, because I’ve been yelling about this forever and I wish you did it four years ago, and I don’t know when, you know, like, yes. That’s what, wait, there’s only one feed. It’s not like there’s a separate feed for personal injury lawyers and then one for sneakers and one for weight. The biggest companies in the world. Stop spending on dumb fucking TV commercials and start spending properly. The price to get into a Facebook feed is not gonna be 12 bucks. It’s gonna be 450 bucks.

Growing on Instagram Stories

I literally sit in my office, make a video that’s a macro point, and then film for like five minutes saying, “Hey Detroit. Hey Cleveland. Hey, contextual, this is a context battle, not a content battle.” Got it. Got it. I love it. And what the big firms are gonna do is every one in Los Angeles and so they’re gonna sell vanilla to everyone, and you need to sell chocolate, mint chocolate chip, triple-decker, and you need to make it contextual. Got it. Got it. I respect it. I fucking love that shit. You know, I just don’t make a douche. You know, it’s just me and you. I’ll tell you what, you’ll love this. There’s people that grab me in the street. We take a quick selfie or in the airport, and then I find it because they tagged me, and in the caption are like long full-day meeting with Gary Vee strategizing the future. No, just put “legend is in the house,” and then I jump in the comments. I’m like, you’re a fucking dick. I know you’re gonna call me out if I put some bullshit in there. So I’m out to do that. Go ahead. Anyway, here we go. Um, about a year ago, I saw something from you saying how underpriced stories were. Yeah, Instagram. So my story is straight. Just for everybody, there’s the Instagram feed, and then there’s the stories, the ads, and they are super underpriced still. So keep going. So I pretty much took that to heart. I was at a point in my life, had my first child, said I need to make an impact. So I’m gonna go all in on the stories. The stories are linked. My Instagram, my Facebook, they’re linked, and I have about a thousand followers. Probably ten people in the room have already come up to me from this week and said, “I love your stories. I’m going ham.” But it’s a personal thing. I’m all jabs. I’m not barely asking for anything. People love it. How do I… I’m struggling to push that and grow that and shit, get my people to share it. When I put some ad budgets on the stories, people get confused because they’re like, who is this guy? Just talking about being motivated or having a child. He’s, you know, what I’m saying.

It means your personal friend. It means you’re running the ads poorly. Like, think about it. You’re going too generic with the ads. They’re just showing up in random person’s feed in story ads, and you gave them no context on you. Then you become vulnerable because you’re back to the vanilla business, whereas if you target it—where do you live, Miami? Doral, right? If you’re like, “Miami, what’s up, you know, or I mean you could target—Dolphins, man. No, worse, no. No, I gave up on the NFL a long time ago. Respect. Do you like anything? I like Tiger Woods. He went through a huge back. Gave up on the NFL but not on Tiger Woods. And I’ve been proven right. There’s some hypocrisy shit going on in here today. Anyway, what you need to do is not run vanilla to vanilla. You need to go a little more specific with those, and you need to create some context, and you need to say it right away because you have a second in the story. So, which is it? It was fun. That’s the transition notion. Notice how I said I record, “Hey, Cleveland,” that “Hey, Cleveland,” before I go into parenting or whatever is what keeps somebody in there because they’re like, “I’m from Cleveland. I got it.” Then if I make my Bone Thugs-n-Harmony reference, now we’re really tripping. Got it. You have to bring context, so that’s why. And then as for the first, the right hook, like if you’re looking for something for them to use you or what have you? It’s okay to ask. Like nobody’s trying to give more value than me, but you’re wearing my sneakers. This gentleman’s wearing my sneakers. I’m not even wearing my sneakers because when I have something to sell, I’m happy to ask. It will not convert as well as the dream sounds. Not enough people buy Empathy Wines for the value.

Building Trust for Lawyers

Keep the mic. I want to make sure I understand the framework of your question. When you say early adopters, because you were going towards the end of that question around trust. And then you kind of pivoted a little bit there at the end with early adopters. So what I want to understand is, are we talking about the content you can put out on the places where people currently are or start building early reputation on things like TikTok or when anything comes?

I’m thinking like adaptation, like you did with your wine business. You know, you’re out there. You did Google before anybody else did Google. And yes, you’re providing value, providing value. But one of the things that’s a thread is that people think lawyers are just out there to money grab. Most of the lawyers I know are out there to help people. Yes, we like getting paid for our work, but that’s why we do what we do.

Response

Well, I mean look whether its African Americans, you know, I grew up in the Soviet former like a lot of community likes to work with that community Right is this so you already? Have a leg up? It’s just that you have to note whether you look like you or me, or that lovely lady Just ask the question at the macro its value. You know the reason athletes and hip-hop artists like me is when I DM gonna when he has 800 followers on instagram and I speak to him about navigating how to build up his profile He remembers that I’m not hitting up Ghana today. I’m not hitting up the baby today I’m hitting them up when they’re on the come-up and trying to give them game that allows them to navigate business that’s that’s why it works and Even better. I asked them for nothing Because I know reputation matters You know the reason we’re gonna break the whole sports agency game and do the whole Jerry Maguire on everybody’s face is because we’re gonna bring more value to the kids It’s not super complicated So the way you break through is a if for example you want to go after the african-american community, you know You already got a leg up They’re gonna trust you more on the get and all you have to do is provide them value You don’t take advantage of that you lean into bringing more value. It’s empathy

Question about Advertising

Hey, thanks so much for all your comments. Love them. So, you know with my firm we’ve started doing Facebook and LinkedIn I want to know if there’s any other platforms you’d recommend to start, you know Shuffling a little bit of the ads how much money and content a day Do you spend on Facebook and LinkedIn we spent about 2 grand a month, right? Facebook and LinkedIn? Okay, and there’s no other platforms like faces two grand stories. Oh one final question.

Response about Advertising

And here’s why I like Instagram stories I do think they’re grossly underpriced But I love Facebook and LinkedIn cuz it’s very very very much going to be a place where a lot of people here do business There’s business to be done. And if you’ve been listening and you go narrow and you go demographic psychographic Sir, its contextual even the words I was using with you are more like it’s not acting different. It’s just relevance We people have different slang terms I can’t go to the Upper East Side and talk to an 84 year old woman and use the word slut She’s not gonna know what the fuck I’m saying you know, so you have to be contextual right slang matters it that’s not disrespectful that’s being a chameleon and being empathetic if you actually mean it so, you know, the thing that I want you to do is Really be contextual in those two platforms because they’re grossly underpriced with their targeted ads Lengthen is underpriced on organic. Now. If you post organic, you might get somebody from st. Louis. I don’t know how your industry works I assume maybe I’m wrong that referral business is a potential So if you have somebody super interested in you that but you’re here and something you don’t want to litigate or camped in st Louis thank you for confirming I assumed I mean I Probably be I can walk into your business tomorrow. And in three years make more revenue than everybody here just on referrals Don’t make me do that It would hurt your fucking feelings It’s what I did in the ad world. I was the liquor store guy coming to Madison Avenue billion-dollar companies They took shits on me until they did it It’s all the same fucking game. That’s why I’m walking into sports. I could walk into anything Whoever provides the most value always wins. It just takes a few minutes people aren’t patient They can’t wait to get that first check to buy that dumb shit to impress people that they don’t even give a fuck about one That’s what’s really happening out here But final question, what do I have to do to get a selfie with you? My wife said run up here right now, sir Oh, oh You’re actually running shit, okay You took that very literally I Said don’t come home without a selfie Awesome real patient. Take care

Question about Legal Practice

Hey, how are you Russell doing good, how are you? Good. I’ve been practicing law 16 weeks and You know, what’s funny you delivered that so great you even got me And I mean I’m looking it’s a little dark and I’m like, all right, you know how your brain can work fast? I’m like this man’s about to say 16 years. Did he start when he was 4 look good? Well, my background was in video marketing before I went to law school So I know this shit worked, but now I work for my father and his partner who are the 70 year old guys Who are gonna retire in six years? Okay, they just want to preserve the business One of the partners complains about spending 400 bucks a month on his legal library for online research instead of books So how do I convince them in the value of this stuff that I know is gonna work

Response about Convincing Partners

Because I’m I’m gonna be running the business one day one of two ways a You deploy empathy await your fucking turn because they built a huge business Or you do be which is what I did which is put heavy pressure on the system on a daily barrage of words Until they succumb to your annoyance You know, what’s really interesting about and I know I’ve got a wrap on I’ll try backing one or two more out What was really interesting about the answer to that gentleman’s question if you heard both of my versions? It’s probably the best way I could sum up how I think about the world. This is about Practicality the answer. I just gave that young man is actually practical in a family business Dynamic when somebody new comes in who absolutely often is much more right about the contemporary way to do something often There’s too much audacity audacity and lack of Patience and it’s like whatever and we don’t take into account that these two gentlemen the father and the partner had worked 45 years to build this thing that we get to walk into and we just need to deploy patience I want to remind everybody of my story because it means a lot to me I walked into my dad’s business. I built a business from 3 to 60 million dollars I worked seven days a week for 15 hours a day and at 34 years old I left that business owning nothing and I never paid myself anywhere close to the proper amount because we poured all the money back into the business I was an executive that built something from 3 to 60 million and never made over $120,000 a year because that’s old-school family stuff in at 34 I had no net worth because I didn’t own the business because if you’re part of an immigrant or family business You know how it

works. You don’t get it until they fucking die So I then started my next business vaynermedia out of the conference room of another company because I didn’t have money for rent and That’s why it’s easy for me to tell people to be patient That’s why I believe in this that’s why I believe doing the right thing is always the right thing Yes, sir I’d would like from the Long Island in Florida two questions for first first of all your voice alone Good a bit great brother. I could monetize that thing for at least 10 million Okay, we could talk we could talk look it up. Go ahead. I could do some voiceovers. Let’s go

Question about Personal Branding

how do you By the way, I apologize This matters. I want to talk about real life I have a funny feeling that not every person in this room’s dream and happiness forever is being a lawyer Let’s talk about this sir I believe if you made videos the way I’m talking about that it is a not a ridiculous thing to believe That somebody would reach out to you cold saying hey, what’s your name again, sir? Hey Edie, it’s perfect. Hey You know I happened to catch your you know your video about this legal issue Have you ever considered voice over and then miraculously? This is real. This is real. This is how the world is actually working I know you didn’t grow up with something called the internet that opened up every gate and there’s no gatekeepers Anymore and was gonna completely eliminate the value of all the gatekeepers College resumes and all sorts of other shit, but now we’re living in it and So anyway, I just want to know like a dis my question. Go ahead See even your person I fucking love you Edie. Yes, my question everybody wants to do with business with you personally They when they when they hire your media company they want you you’re wrong head. You’re wrong though And that’s what I’m asking. Well, I’m giving you the final answer. How did by telling them upfront you? Don’t fucking get me So so you’re branding yourself? But they’re not getting you because my organization follows my fucking religion, but when you’re a trial Wainman this is important when you’re a trial lawyer your reputation. Oh, oh Mourad no. No, it’s based on your Understand where you’re going brother. Yes, I sure do they want you, correct. You don’t do an associate They’re gonna go but I wanted you there’s only two fucking things when you sell yourself you either tell them they don’t get you upfront but Susan and Ricky are your fucking cronies and this is how we do it or You say you want me pay me fucking five times more? There’s people pay me a hundred thousand dollars an hour to consult and that’s my question charge more but wait a minute So what you’re saying to me is you personally is worth more than the people who work for you So then when you’re handing them off to the people who work for you? You’re saying they’re not as good as me because I’m not charging as much that’s exactly what I’m saying yet But what I’m saying to them if my people are better than the old Better than the fucking old tell me that why are your people better than somebody? Who’s now branding themselves who has time for me personally? I got really my issue because the law firm with lawyers and market yourself. I’m in the single, brother I’m literally in the same business as you I’ll tell you why cuz I’m a better fucking operator. Okay, because I hate my people Because I have process But you have to be you have to you have to get people to believe that’s the truth rather than oh I’m branding and then I’m just gonna turn it off cuz I really don’t want it. Yes work. That is how life works. Yes I have to get them to believe it but here’s what I do. If I sense they don’t and many don’t heed Okay, I don’t try to convince them. I go to the next guy or gal The second part of this is well, how do you handle the negative reviews which you seem to get a lot? I read you’ll you know, I’m on. Yeah, and and we get Part of the reason. Okay, let me back up. We do a lot a lot of Facebook advertising. Yes, sir five six figures a month’s not sometimes and when you put a Facebook ad a Legal and round up. Everybody’s probably seen you get 90 percent of negative Yeah reviews and I’m concerned about that earning the reputation and I should help your law firm And how do you handle those negative those negative reviews? I replied to them as often as I can keep it with that a little bit here cuz I’m wrapping up and just in case because Asking great questions and we might bring some value here number one. How long have you been running five or six figures on Facebook? So my intuition is actions over words are important So I have a funny feeling ed because I can feel you because I see your no Sheila meal I have a funny feeling you continue to believe that that’s a good thing for your business. I do here’s why Here’s why it’s working attention as I started this talk with is the number one asset in society As much as people don’t believe lawyers People actually don’t believe other people’s reviews as much as we think they do And that’s why it’s working for you right you’ve been doing for a couple years, I don’t know what is it’s the amount I don’t understand it because if I look at the comments ninety percent are negative yet. I’ll get leads all day long. So Really understand gave me the answer because people don’t believe other people’s reviews as much as you think they do and Because it’s your baby just like when people say things about my company it hurts more It’s funny to say some other kids ugly. But when they say that about your kid you want to fucking kill So you’re taking it in that way which makes sense, but the other people don’t which is why you’re getting leads all day That’s the actual insight. It’s no different than my favorite thing that’s happening in society now everybody is all about in their hash tagging on social media about me too and black lives matter and the bottom line is 99% of people fucking talk and they act different I’m glad that everybody’s a social media warrior I love all the keyboard warriors and then people go and fucking do totally different actions And because we know that about ourselves, that’s why we don’t believe in reviews as much as you think Thanks ed and thank you Atlanta.