At our November Leadership Conference, “Forward Together”, marketing legend and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVee) shared several ideas, experiences, and lessons learned with our audience. I tried to capture the gold. Below are the key thoughts!
Thoughts on Marketing….
- Most people grossly underestimate marketing, and more importantly, don’t understand it and therefore are not contemporary operators of it.
- Many companies overspend on marketing considered good yesterday. Conversely, they underspend on marketing that is working today that can disproportionally change the trajectory of your business.
- If you are paying for - and running - television commercials for your business, you are taking good, hard-earned money and burning it. No one is watching these ads. No one.
- If you are running static banner ads on the internet, you are doing a worse version of the thought above regarding television. A banner ad on a website is doing you nothing.
- If you are not marketing with content consistently on LinkedIn as a B2B seller, you are missing the boat. It is like shooting fish in a barrel. What does consistency mean? Post three to five times per day with good media & creative behind it.
- Creative is the variable of success. The lack of empathy for the customer on the other side of our message is audacious. Why would a prospective customer want to watch or read something you post? You answer this with good, thoughtful, engaging, and valuable creative. Further, spend the money to target. Spraying and praying is not a strategy.
- Marketing speeds up the ability for everyone to know what your product is all about. So, yes, your product needs to be good. If you are going to grow, you need the word of mouth and retention, not just your marketing.
- Jab, jab, jab, right hook. Give, give, give, then ask. That’s the marketing game. Asking all the time gets tiresome. People are too focused on transactions. Give value, then ask.
- How to hire for Marketing and know you’re interviewing someone who gets it? You won’t like the answer. Today, Marketing is as essential as Finance. How do you learn the craft? Study it. Put in the 50-100 hours to learn it.
Thoughts on Recruitment & Employees…
- Why in the world would young people come to work for our businesses? Your workplace culture will be the currency for recruiting and retaining employees successfully. Most of us are unprepared for this. Why? Due to platforms like Tik Tok, NFT’s, and others, twenty-year-olds have options to make six figures per year by simply playing around and making videos. Why would they take half and give up the baton to work for you? You will have to answer this question.
- Do you think the great resignation is a problem? Wait until the era of “not even applying” is here.
- Want to drive greater purpose, meaning, and engagement in your company? Scale HR. I spend 15% of my day on HR through 1:1 interaction.
- Hire Fast because you’re guessing. Fire faster because you know. Promote fastest because you really know.
Thoughts on Leadership & Entrepreneurism…
- Everything that goes wrong at our business is 100% my fault. I am the leader. I am fully in control, which should be exciting and liberating for any business owner.
- For every entrepreneur who doesn’t have a board or a peer group to work through, you should run through the vulnerability tunnel as fast as possible. There is no downside. Sure, your ego and insecurity may flare up periodically. But, from a business standpoint, you build incredible trust and brand and can get a ton of help along the way. There is no downside to that.
- Kindness, empathy, warmth, gratitude, and accountability have emerged as the new alpha skills to building an empire and massive business success. All of us are underestimating how vital these things are.
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