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I believe the reason most of you struggle with social media content is because your content is selfish. Buy this home for me. Come to my open house. Like we do I said this 20 years ago at a real estate convention. Be the PR agent or the mayor of the town you sell in. Let the world fall in love with you. If you're How many people here are into golf? Raise your hands. Raise it. I think people here should make more golf content because I'm like, "Oh, I like golf. I like you." That's a good piece of content. Now I know you. Now I'm more interested in potentially buying from you when I see a house thing. When you look at A lot of people
DM me, "Gary V, I'm so pumped. I'll see you in Atlanta." I went on people's accounts. I like to be prepared for these talks. Every post out of your mouth is Here's a picture of the listing. Buy from me. Let's say you owned a laundromat cuz I'm into those things. So, let's say you owned one laundromat and you had to start your entire empire from one laundromat today. Like what would you do? What would be the playbook? Content. Yeah, you know, because you know, you and I are part of a breed that admires a single laundromat owner. And I think you have really done a good job of tapping into something that
I think is black and white, which you know, we talked about the last time we hung. Like this whole whether you call it micro P or just practical business. Obviously, Main Street is the way you think about it. I think there's a huge opportunity for a lot of those people to build brand. In fact, that's what I did. I built my brand. I am that person. I didn't even own the business. It was my dad's business. I was the person who built it, but my original content as Gary V after 5 years or during the 5 years of doing the Wine Show, my original first-ever thoughts about business and life and perspectives were literally out
of a liquor store, one store. And I built my brand. I could have easily, if that's what I wanted, opened up 10 more stores, did micro M&A, and I would have built a very substantial franchise fran- or independently owned [clears throat] multi-unit business, which would be worth a lot of money, and in today's environment would be a very attractive PE acquisition as every small business is going to get consolidated, it feels like these days. So, I really the number one thing I would do is get into content for two reasons. One, if you're capable building your personal brand, I do believe is a moat. I've always believed that it was the moat. I've talked about it for 15 years that it's the moat. It is the one
true asset that doesn't get commoditized even in a AI world. You still have your IP, it's your copyright, it's you. Two, if you learn to be a content creator, the other thing that worked with me, and this was hand in hand, and this is what I want for this person, is you can start getting good at running ads and doing content for your business, too. So, in my brain, what I'm dreaming up right now is Sally's building up her She's like, I did this, this is how I bootstrapped it, or I how I inherited it, or whatever's real. Here's what I'm doing, da Here's my day-to-day troubles, here's how I think about it.
Oh my god, coins when people stopped having change on them, we had to put in these, you know, uh swipe your credit card or your, you know, like you know, just like the battle stories of that business, but also what she will learn in the story that I'm telling is she'll learn what really every And by the way, I know a lot of small businesses listen, so let me give it to you very straight. Disproportionately, the biggest opportunity to grow your business, traffic to your business, average receipt size, is to run If you're a local business that people come to, is to run 10-mile radius Facebook ads. And so, Sally in this journey of
building up Sally, the laundromat entrepreneur, would also start to learn how to be good at these things, which she would then be able to use to run ads to her business. Which is advertising matters. It's always mattered and it will always matter. And so content. You know what's so interesting, too? In your story I remember looking back at those old videos of you in your wine business. And um today everybody wants to have a set, right? We're on a borrowed set. This one is a wine, but you know, they want to have this fancy set. But you know what the sickest set is today? You're actually a laundromat. I think so.
You know, cuz it's show, don't tell. It's like, no, no, I own this. I'm not There's no fluorescent lights here. Watch me do this. You don't think I own it? Look, I'm right here. I believe the best studio in the world is the world. I tell my clients, which are mainly Fortune 500 companies, I'm like, look, let's make content at stores, in parking lots, at festivals. Um I genuinely believe that. I've always believed that. I was honestly the Pied Piper in 2009, 10, 11, 12 of no production value.
Wine Library TV didn't even have a mic. No lighting. No lighting, no mic. Literally whatever the camera picked up. And so yeah, I agree with you. I think that store is studio is a big idea. It's a good framework. Yeah, I think so. Store is studio is something that I've really championed more privately than publicly. So I'm glad we're getting to pontificate about this. And uh I think that's right. If someone had that basic question of, how do I start and be an influencer? What would you tell them? The two things that always stand out for me are passion and knowledge. So let's name it, the PK framework, right? Like I think there's only two ways to become someone that people
follow. You're so passionate uh or talented. I think we can add a T in there. Like, you're just so inherently funny and so talented. I think the reason I always go to passion is there's a lot of people that are talented, but if you don't have the passion to get there, the drive, the energy, it's too hard. It's actually too hard. You know, right now currently, as you probably know, 4 billion people are trying to become famous. I think we can both agree that 4 billion people have not achieved it. It's actually shockingly easy and shockingly hard to make it right now.
What's the easy part? The easy part is distribution has been commoditized. There's no gatekeeper. You know, when our grandpappies were growing up, if they wanted to be known, they had to go to Hollywood or New York, and someone had to discover them, say yes. So many people gatekept distribution. The internet is now distribution, and if you're Sally Pants McGee in Peru right now, and you have a smartphone and an internet connection, you have the ability to start making content that for some whatever reason people will give a crap about, and that is a level of meritocracy that I think is intoxicating. Um so, that's changed dramatically.
I feel the same thing with music cuz I live in Nashville, and so a lot of new artists, or artists that maybe aren't new but haven't hit yet, they're talking about, "Hey, how do I make it?" And it's like, you have every opportunity because even 10 years ago, Correct. it was you had to be signed to a record label because you had to have distribution. That's right. But now it's universal distribution. Like TikTok is real discovery. Every A&R is living on there. They want to see it work before they take the risk. It's not going to a bar at 2:00 in the morning and being like, "Molly Cyrus is going to make it." And so, yeah, I mean, I tell
artists all the time, and I have a lot of fun receipts on the internet, Gunna, Doja Cat, Saweetie, people that were so early in their careers where I'm like, "You have a shot, but this is what you need to do." And it's the answer to your opening question, which is And this is going to hurt a lot of people's feelings. Quantity is a secret part of the equation that everybody who has pride does not want to admit is true. There's this inherent conflict between quality and quantity that so many artists and ideological uh individuals want to uphold, but the truth is quantity is an incredible ingredient in breaking through. It is really at bats at making the piece of content that changes your life. And um
and I'm a very big believer in it. Now, many people will make 10,000 pieces of and never make it. Quality has to be a part of the equation, but you'll appreciate this. Quality is subjective. What is handsome? What is attractive? What is fun? Right? Quantity is not. And while we have this era of social media where you can post something with nine followers and get 4 million views, I hope everyone understands that is out of control. That is a mitzvah. That is a wild phenomenon. And I think many will regret when they look back at their lives, realize they were born during a time of opportunity and merit that was never pre-available. And I actually predict there'll be an era where the glasses or some other
medium will come along and change our world and that the cell phone with the internet, with social media was an incredible gold rush of opportunity for people that had passion, knowledge, or talent, hopefully a mix of the three, and that's how you become the LeBrons and the Beyoncés. And I think [snorts] that's where we're at right now, brother.
