The Content Formula That Still Works | Forward Keynote/Q&A

0:00On today's episode of the Gary V Audio Experience, we're sharing a virtual keynote and live Q &A that Gary did with Neil Dingra, a top content creator and marketing expert, for the Forward Event, a real estate-focused conference designed to help professionals grow through branding, content, and modern marketing. In this session, Gary talks about how to actually win in social in 2025, why mindset and humility are key when the market gets tough, and the power of storytelling and building trust. He also shares tactical advice on live selling, running better ads, and what creators should really be paying attention to on every platform right now.

0:33let's get right into it. Gary, what I want to talk about with everybody here today, and we've chatted about this before, is the new way to win on social in 2025. And I know you guys have put out a bunch of content on this on YouTube recently. I feel like, bro, I feel like you used to do a ton more business strategy on IG and now it's more mindset. Did you get away from doing the business stuff on IG? Because I find it only on YouTube. Yeah, I think I have been flow, you know brother I think

1:06it's kind of like life you just go into different chapters and it's coming in different waves right now what's like look I put out day trade attention I'll put this in the chat right now I put out this deck garyvee.com slash attention like it's black and white what's become clear to me Neil is like the 3 ,000 people and I'm looking at everybody right now and if everybody could please share the garybee.com slash attention, it will help everybody. Everyone should read it. Neil, the answers are there. You don't even have to buy the fucking cheap$15 book. I literally made a deck so it could be fucking free.

1:46And yet the reality is is that most people on this call won't do it because they're insecure deep down and they don't even realize it yet because they're entitled, but they don't realize it yet because they are not passionate about it and only want to make money. I mean, brother, I would bet my life that a substantial percentage of people on here right now are not passionate about being in real estate. They just think that that's where they can make some money. And so like there's real stuff that I think. And so yeah, I'm stuck on mindset right now because I got to get that fucking cavity. I got to get that fucking cavity out.

2:26But I'll ebb and flow. I'm about to give a ton on live social shopping because I'm obsessed with that. AI agents is something I'm getting educated on enough to be able to talk about at some point. So I have been flow. You know, brother, you know this. I mean, unlimited TikTok content in 2018, 19, 20, 21. So it depends on what's grabbing my attention. Yeah, I love that. And so what's interesting is when you talk about the tactics, you're right. I teach a bunch of tactics. but if you're not going to, if you're not in the right space to execute and you don't feel good about what you're doing, you know, I think about this too a lot, Gary, like maybe the reason why people don't promote their product or service is they don't believe in it.

3:10Oh, brother, do you know that I'm a shitty salesman if I don't believe in what I'm selling? I. Do you know how naturally gifted I am at sales? I am a shitty, and by the way, I know this because I don't do it. Like maybe when I was a kid, I'd be like, you know, like buy Sprite instead of Coke when I like Coke better. I mean, I don't know. Like I don't even, I know it because I'm not even, you know why I'm shitty? I don't even do it. I'm not even capable of pulling it off. Yeah. You got to sell something you believe in. Even when others don't. For example, VFriends, right? As you know, NFTs, it got crazy.

3:45And then thank God I made those videos saying 99 % would go to zero. But a lot of people still think they're scams. They were worthless. They were beanie babies. Bro, they're not. There was just an administration in the White House and the SEC that didn't allow builders to build. That's going to change. I believe that 1 % of NFTs are going to be very collectible, but I've done VFriends cartoons. I've got Topps trading cards. I'm proudly selling VFriends. I want everybody here to buy a VFriend NFT and to buy VFriends stuff because I know I'm going to build a Marvel Disney Pokemon. And it's okay if 90 % don't see it yet.

4:22like I know that I read comments like I love Gary V except that NFTV friends thing but you know but but you could do this is like I think it's so dope that we can tie it to our business so for example I was just talking about this so like with personal brand with content I've noticed with my own personal content Gary that when I teach things there's an audience and sometimes that those videos go viral but you know a lot of times it's a limited audience it's still impactful because it's more bottom of the funnel but when I just tell stories about things that are going on in my life. People connect with me.

4:51Now, what's interesting is those are the things that people say when they see me. So they come to the events, they come in like, bro, did you find like, what happened with your son? What are you doing here? What are you doing this? And like, so I feel like that's where we should lean. Almost 50 % of our content is on storytelling because I see those videos blowing up every day on social. And then when you're pitching your stuff all day, all running, basically ads trying to be organic all day, it's dead. Yeah, man. I mean, the book was written a long time ago. It's right there. It's called Jab, jab, jab, jab, right hook.

5:21Give them what they want. Give them what they want. And occasionally you can ask for something and it's not going to convert as, I mean, do you know how frustrated people that are givers are when they don't convert on their ask? But I keep reminding them, they're like, Gary V, your fucking jab, jab, jab, right hook is not working for me. Like, I've given my life to this community for a year. I asked for them to buy the book and like only 3 ,000 bought it. I'm like, 3 ,000 is better than zero. And by the way, like when I wrote the book, I didn't say give, give, give and then trick them into buying it.

5:53I said give, give, give and then ask. Yeah. And so yeah, I mean, of course content. But that's the reason why they will do business with you, you know? Of course. Of course. Like nice guys finish first. This is the misnomer of society. Nice guys finish last is the worst statement in the world. Kind, karma driven, good men and women always win in the end because winning is not how much money is in your pocket winning is how peaceful your sleep is yeah that's a bar yeah that is a bar you like that one too that was good you know i think as you get older i'm like my face goes gray and as i get older like it's like dude what is the extra x dollars now i know if you're on this call and you're in a place where you do want to double your business and all that stuff that's awesome but i will tell you this that the fulfillment and the peace is more important because you'll find, and I know it's so freaking cliche because Gary says all the time and you know, all these people tell you and they're like, well, it's easy for you guys to say cause you got money.

6:56But I will tell you for sure that once you get past a certain level, it really, it's really like about your time and what you're spending your time on and your peace. I made less than, I mean, I built my dad's business from three to 60 million. He never paid me more than a hundred apex. I got a hundred thousand. and I have no money, but I love life because my life was simple. I wasn't like, when you have a family, you're worried about your children. Your parents get older, you're worried about that. You get older, you realize like, you get scared. Like, you know how many people are scared? Bro, I'm reading all these awesome notes in here.

7:33Just loving it. Loving all this interaction. Like, most of these people are scared because media has scared them. Bro, I turn on Fox News and CNN and NMSNBC and all, because I watch everything, social. I want to know everything. 100 % of mainstream media is fear selling, both sides. And 85 % of social media is fear selling because they got fear from that and they're just passing it on. Yeah. So as you get older, you fear more. When you're 20, do you know how many 23 year olds give a fuck about politics, the LA fire? Like a 19 year old right now in college is trying to hook up tonight. They're not worried about inflation.

8:15They don't give a fuck about the LA fires. I mean, they do because they're a human being and it's a tragic event. But like, you know what I mean? Like, it's not eating up their 400 hours a day. They don't fucking worry about like politics. They don't know the speaker of the fucking house. They don't give a shit about the Supreme Court. They're not worried about the BRICS Alliance. They're not worried about what China's trying to do. They don't worry about Putin trying to bring back the Iron Curtain. They're not worried about fucking some bird flu kicking up. They're fucking drinking beer. Yeah.

8:42and so bro it's funny how you were like as happy as you ever been when you're broke you know what i mean he knows over here laughing bro but he knows it's true bro it's so true bro and take it back further when you're nine you're really fucking happy yeah so anyway well here's the thing but this is the thing bro i think like that's you got to get right mentally and i know people are in here somebody says they're getting goosebumps in here it's like yeah it's true sarah says live peacefully and then you'll get more bit like you'll attract more things because you're not chasing it as well. I told people, I said, bro, you don't, I said, you don't have to show up today if you don't want to just, if you want to be here, here's what we're going to do.

9:16It's going to be dope. Your call though. And then we got maxed out versus me trying to sell, sell, sell, you know? Of course. And Neil, I, if we were doing this and one person showed up one and you're like, Gary, I'm so embarrassed. My shit's fucked. Bro, I would be giving this fire right now with one person here. It's being a good person. Um, Neil, this is a good one. I think this will teach all these people more than anything we could possibly do. You've been going hard. You followed the playbook. You have the skills and talents. That means you've met a lot of the people out there that have personal brands, right?

9:49You know the people now, right?

9:54You know where I'm about to go. All the people these people look up to, me included, you've learned some of them are even better in real life than they show up on social, but that's a small little group. What you've really learned is most of them are way worse. Yeah. And unhappy, insecure. And what I know more than I know the sun will come up tomorrow is I know I'm on the good side of that because there's never a moment where I'm not a nice guy. Yeah. I love that. You know what's interesting too? So I want to just say, I'm sorry, please go ahead. No, you can finish your thought, but I just wanted to say, this is like when Gary said, he's just a good dude.

10:43You guys, if you want to go to my YouTube channel, right, where we've been crushing it lately. If you search oldest video, the oldest video, the first video on my YouTube channel was me hanging out with Gary in that office that he's in right now, like six years ago. Bro, he did a meetup where you could just show up at his office. I don't think he does this anymore. you know but back then you could be like yo bro can i come through and he'd be like yeah and the team dm me back and we got to hang out and he's like everybody gets a five-minute meeting he was launching a shoe a sneaker we bought some sneakers we got to hang out we got to watch a live ask gary v show being filmed in the office and like i post i posted about this and so um you know gary's just not just telling you this for those of you've been following a while like you know but he's been doing it you know and i was a nobody bro like who am i to come to your office and hang But Neil, you know this, thank you, comma.

11:32I'm even talking little shit, that's one thing, right? How about like when you have your conference, how people act in the back room with the person that's micing you up. And by the way, before I get too far down this path, yo, I'm a human, I've got tons of fucking shortcomings. I suck at a ton of shit. Just being a good human is not one of them. You know what I mean? You've invited people that you've looked up to, they come and speak at your conference and they're talking down to your fucking, they're being nice to you. No, I hear the stories afterwards from the staff. Of course. I know the stories the staff said about me.

12:07Not that I do, but I just know that I think being kind to another human being is the requirement for this entire game. Sure, I'd love for you to fucking know this inside out because it will work, but that's fucking basic. Memorize it. Listen to it. Learning that how you treat humans will impact your fucking wallet it is something that people do not believe they do not believe it they think i'm talking push shit they think like nah they're gonna be like well gary i tried to be nice i got walked all over no that's not true you might have tried to manipulate someone by doing a small thing that was nice because you wanted something from them yeah 100 dude this is the game guys and so i want to get into this is what we're going to talk about now is we got a content strategy i'm going to ask Gary his opinion on.

12:59And then a few of you guys have submitted questions. We're going to pull you up live to ask Gary a question. I know you've been looking forward to that. So stick around for that. But here's the deal. The strategy, this is going to come full circle. You put out a video. I don't know if it was a year or two ago. And you said, bro, if you don't believe in marketing, I want you to watch this. Post organic content. Get to views. Then you want to run your hook. You want to run your ad. run an ad and target the people who've been watching your videos and you'll believe in marketing forever bro i did that shit and i'm telling you it is the i feel like even today it works and better even today than it did then it is the unlock because the people already know like and trust you and now you're giving them an opportunity they watch your ad they engage with it and they take you up on your offer versus just running an ad to cold traffic where they never saw your face ever before so this first of all i just want to you know thank you for putting that on the radar.

13:54And then I want to get into like both sides that what's the content that you put out that gets the views. And then what's the retargeting piece look like? The content that gets views is the extremities of random ass shit. When I in the green room of a talk said blueberries were underrated, and I love them. That was one of my most successful videos of all time. I promise you that wasn't on my strategy sheet. So back to your point, sometimes it's the human stuff. And then there's other videos that are the emotional stuff when that young woman came to me after a talk and she said one day I'm going to be somebody and I'm like you're somebody now which was wild because Miles Garrett did the same thing to a football player the other day very similar piece of content that works the emotional and then the third one the tactical like when I put out a video showing how to do something in black and white on a on a bulletin which I do rarely these days to your point earlier but I probably will I have in flow I'm sure in three years I'm like all right let me show you know so something of value now value comes in all shapes and sizes.

14:54Why does somebody that's unbelievably attractive, male or female, get a lot of likes? Because being attractive is value. Why does somebody who's a comedian get a lot of like, because being funny is value. But mentorship, coaching, skillset learning, those things are value too. It's just value. The problem for almost everyone in this chat right now is when they get excited to make a piece of content, it's to tell somebody to buy a house from them.

15:29Yeah. Well, my thing is like, we were talking about authentic storytelling as the big unlock for this call, one of the big themes. And I'll tell you guys this, like I'm excited to share a story. Now, I think, you know, I don't know where I heard this or maybe I freaking thought of it. I don't know, but it's been etched in my mind for the last few years. Don't say no for the audience. I said that. yeah maybe you said it Gary fuck uh but I was like by the way I don't think I invented it but boy I yeah that is you did actually now I think about it you did yeah bro it's by the way you know why why I just jumped in it was the first thing I told AJ the day we started VaynerMedia the first thing the first thing 9 a.m first thing I looked at my brother I'm 34 he's 22 and I was like the number one rule is do not say no for America yeah don't say no for the don't say no for the other guy is actually what I said.

16:18And then I explained the other guy actually met every consumer. Everybody here talks themselves out of it. Yeah. You're thinking about, you know, authenticity is like, well, how do you be authentic now? Well, just here's the thing. People, authenticity is not telling someone the truth. It's like revealing your truth at the risk of maybe somebody not engaging with you or scrolling past you. Let me tell you one of my favorite examples in all of business fits in real estate. authenticity. When a 22 year old is insecure because he or she's never sold a home, instead of documenting their journey of learning how to sell homes the right way, teaming up with OGs, they think wearing a suit.

17:02Facts. Yeah. And getting a watch, which is fake, is going to fucking make you be like, oh, the fuck are we doing? You're fucking 22. too. Yeah. And people do this all the time. They're flexing, but yeah, it's just real. Melissa said in the chat, being real. And I think the audience has gotten really good at sniffing out who's being authentic and not being authentic because they've consumed so much content. You ever see a young person like scroll, bro, it's insane. Like you can scroll 20 videos and then all of a sudden they stop. And it's another talking head video. Why? Like, why do we watch somebody and not the rest?

17:36It's probably, it's a big piece of this is how they tell stories, but also being real? Being fake is a short-term game and you might be able to trick losers, but you're also losing equity with winners. Hey, everybody, actually, if you're a really hardcore listener and you know I never do this, I'm sorry to be jumping in the middle of the podcast, but the truth is I'm like shitting the bed on this. Everybody else is getting people to review on Spotify and Apple and like the VaynerNation does none of that because I've never asked. so if this podcast has ever meant anything to you please go to Spotify or Apple right now and leave a review by the way even if you give me a one star review because you think it's shit I respect it but just leave a review an actual review four or five stars and the actual details of why yeah that would mean something for me so thanks now back to the podcast let me say that again because it's incredibly important being fake faking the funk tricking people scamming people not being authentic you can trick people you can trick people for a short period of time for a period of time no you can keep tricking people but what you're doing along the way is you're also losing the real ones and if you're ever going to want to be in the big leagues you need to understand that yeah um one thing that you've been you just previewed this a minute ago but you've been talking a lot i've seen on the news um is live selling so yes qvc style so i know you're gonna talk about this trend but bro I was on TikTok and I know there's some talk of TikTok ban coming back I'm pretty sure it's going to be here and by the way you can do this on other platforms but I saw it crushing on TikTok I saw a mortgage guy on TikTok going live for two and a half hours answering questions live and then the people that were ready to move forward he's like oh he passes them off to the team he just literally turned his live on and there was maybe 12 people on at one point there was three people on at another point he was answering questions live so I feel like bro this and I I've seen maybe like three people do this in the last year.

19:36So it's not, it seems like it's new to our industry, but live selling, I know people think of it QVC style, like you're selling widgets, but like you can also do this with services, correct? Yeah. I mean, obviously it's going to be, it's going to have a smaller effect. It's a lot easier to sell a t-shirt live selling than a car or a house. But of course, because it's, because one of the things that's happening when you're doing live selling is you're just building brand and building awareness. you know and so yeah i'm a believer of live selling for everything i do not believe that it's as easy to sell a home but let's not forget there's unlimited shows on tv where they show homes and put a listing up yeah but i think it's not about selling a home it's about selling someone on the process of you know starting the process with you so it's like hey what maybe there's a checklist you have maybe there's stuff you're going over with people who want to potentially So now you're going into the smart part, which is branding and reputational build.

20:32Of course, there's multiple things going on at once. But do I believe that somebody is going to actually sell a home from a TikTok live? Of course, somebody sees it. They're like, wait, my aunt lives in Mesa, Arizona. They text them like the world is connected more than ever. It's crazy. It's so cool. It's so amazing. So when you think about, OK, we're posting more content. and I've noticed the algorithms always changing. IG is the toughest one sometimes, and maybe get more reach on TikTok, maybe you're getting more reach here. But I will tell you this, on the videos that we've seen take off, I feel like it's more feast or famine, like less will do good, but then you can still hit one out of the park.

21:14And maybe you're seeing, you and your team are seeing the same thing, but as far as what do you see for trends right now in content? And also, I've noticed that this is a big skill for ads. It's like just making ads, the cost to run the ad is so exponentially lower. It gets so much easier if the creative is good, right? You talk a lot about like the creative is everything. It's the variable. It's the whole variable. It gets like incredibly cheap if you make a viral ad, right? So if you're talking about content like or ads, it needs to be a good video. So what are you seeing are the trends? I mean, on converting to ad, my favorite thing is to take something that went viral or really over-indexed organically and then slightly refurbish it to be an ad.

21:57Right? So then like that video, but the video that did viral, what if it was a brand video? It just was, there was no call to action. Let me go left field. I make a blueberry video that gets 5 million views. I then take it back to the shop and run most of it. But then about three-fourths of the way there be like a banner ad at the bottom that says, you know what's delicious like blueberries? Gary's new book, Day Trading Attention. Think about how weird that connection was. But I can tell you that that will cack at LTV better than a lot of my best A-B testing because the video itself is a good video and then you're just in it, right?

22:39Then you're in it and then you've got a shot. And if somebody is in the market to buy a book to read about their business or marketing, that may trigger it. And so it's wild. That's an extreme left field version that I gave. So for a small creator, it's like, okay, you say you post 10 videos, small creator, two of the 10 do better than the other eight. And then one of the did was the outlier. And when Gary's saying millions of views, that's for bigger creators, but like it could happen to you. But even if it was 10 ,000 views and your other views get 200, that's that one that got 10 ,000 views.

23:09You're saying that one is the one like there's magic there. So that's what you should use for an ad. you should you should take that bring it back to production and try to convert it with a maybe even just change the copy to be an ad you can do that put a call to action on it something a button yeah okay and so one thing guys just the takeaway for this that would work for everybody here and we've tried this and many of our crew has tried this is to make the thing that you're offering not the end result but just a step or two before that so these are lead magnets you know many people are familiar with this on the call, but like a guide or in Gary's case, he just talked about a book.

23:46Like he's not selling, you know, a contract with VaynerMedia. He's selling a book, you know, which is like multiple steps before then. So I think if you back up the truck of like, okay, what do you want in the end? Well, the end result is like, I want to get somebody a mortgage or a house. Well, that's cool. What is a couple of steps before that? What's a resource you could offer? That's the thing that people will click on, on these ads. Yeah. And I think, I think testing and learning, I think humility and curiosity and creativity are three words that we should all talk about right now. What are the trends?

24:15What's the breakthrough? The person that doesn't pay attention to what's working and does something completely random. What's definitely worked for my career is not watching what's working for everyone else, trying to make up random shit. You know, I saw people vlogging Casey and I said others, they were doing it. I'm like, I can't do that. I'm like, wait a minute. What if I had a huge, you know, like, that's like reality TV. You know, trying different stuff. You know, a lot of people, when they're selling an active book, Don't put out a free PDF that sums up the book. I'm like, let me try that.

24:47Maybe that people will feel so happy that I helped them. They might buy five for the team after they read the, I don't know. And by the way, also being okay if nothing happens. That's the other thing. If you do something with just the expectation of the monetizable event, you're gonna get caught. Right? So I think humility, let's go to that one first. Being okay with getting three views. Neil, the reason most people don't do random shit is they don't want to get three views when they're used to getting a thousand. But who the fuck cares? Nobody notices. There's nobody walking around being like, hey, dude, I just scrolled all your videos and I saw you bomb twice last week.

25:21Nobody cares. And what if somebody did? What if somebody did? Like, what? What is this fucking third grade? The fuck are we doing here? Yeah. People are like, hey, do you delete your content? But you know what? But you'll love this deal. Everyone loves, like everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but a lot of these people aren't doing it because of that. And to your point, You delete or archive your content. No, I do not. But other people do it because they want, when someone comes on it, to trick them to think that every video they make gets a million. That gig is up, bro. That's five years old. By the way, that gig was never.

25:53Yeah. Well, you could fool people five years ago. That gig was never. Because if you're in that place, you're already in a place of insecurity. Yeah. So this is the key, guys, is like testing more things and not worrying about it. Like I talked about it earlier, you got to make more flops to get a banger, but it's also like the cost of the flop is less than the cost of doing nothing. Like for me, just walking to the car, telling something, it's easy. It's bigger than that. The learnings of what doesn't work. Yeah, that's true. Bro. Oh my God. I am a man that stands here today with a good track record in this craft based on all the micro losing, not the winning.

26:36Yeah. guys if you uh by the way if you have an idea we're going to look at some of the questions now we're going to get into this and i got a couple people i'm going to call up before gary has to bounce i'm going to bring up a question right now gary um okay so is sam may on the call and then we'll move on to what's up brother there you are what's up sam gary i love you neil love you you guys are the shit thanks for doing this for all of us but gary i got a question for you, man. Morale sucks right now in our industry. And I think it's affecting a lot of people's ability to just to operate and market and sell.