3 Non-Obvious Networking Strategies That Work

0:00when I thought about what it meant to throw an event maybe years ago it's like oh it's so expensive like you need sponsors you know everything you need to do open bar you need to do this like overthinking it you don't need to do any of those things yes you can yes you can build it up to that you need to host have the space and whatever you negotiate from there is great people are just very excited to go to something like that it doesn't matter that they're gonna have to pay for drinks that's fine if you don't have a sponsor don't want to cover the cost for people's drinks or

0:29the venue or whatever that's fine like there there isn't this expectation or anything I think you just need to go that Mile and host what do you what are you pouring I hear you pouring a beverage uh I am I'm pouring the most prestigious and pristine sparkling water that I found in my journey for said product uh it is the Saratoga Springs sparkling water you know the quality with the blue bottle not Financial advice not an investor I'm also drinking some sparkling water you know about this Arc I don't know about this what is this it's like it's like a Sodastream but way more beautiful looking and

1:08so also not sponsored or anything like that I'm saying I'm trying to one-up you I'm saying you did I mean it's more environmental and you know I can just less waste see I see where you're going with this but I gotta be honest with you I'm not just drinking sparkling water I'm also drinking it with Como's tequila excuse you all right then fine I will crack open the bottle of body vodka okay it's gonna be one of those podcasts if you're gonna start the opening trying to one-up me I'm not not going to feel threatened and try and over compensate yeah I'm looking forward to this podcast

1:52this is gonna be good okay while you pour yourself a drink am as well you pour yourself a drink I uh I checked your LinkedIn before this and you have it could go a few ways yeah my LinkedIn is either the worst thing um in the world or the best pre-qualifier for who I want to work with or not yeah well well usually I'd like to introduce people your your title is insert very important Title Here at vaynerfund what is what does that mean that's that is accurate it is it's not really important what the title is uh in our little fund I guess um it could be partner it could be

2:35janitor it could be anything but whatever it is it is very important and I want people to know that that I am very very important at vaynerfund but it's actually just a litmus test because one of my life models is don't take life too seriously you'll never get out alive and I think that being the Marquee title on my LinkedIn stresses that so I I truly don't take it that seriously I don't care how important anyone thinks I am but if you can't take the joke and you scoff at that title we're probably not going to work well together exactly and that's the reason I wanted to bring you

3:09on is because I think you live a really happy and good life and you don't take things too seriously and you kind of just go with your curiosity and I'm curious just like is that intentional and and yeah how do you think about crafting your life definitely um it is absolutely intentional at this point um I think it was subconscious prior to recent years I'd say but now I take a very active role in I guess just a value evaluating how happy things make me from a business perspective but also from a life perspective because it has been drilled home that what do you know we only have

3:57one life I won't go so far as to quote our beloved neighbor to the north um we all know what I would say but um had a minor Health incident that wound up not being a big deal at all that I'm aware of because the doctor did uh close the loop on that by saying I guess we'll just call it a medical mystery which was not very comforting but as far as I know totally fine happened last year but it really put life in perspective because at for a brief moment at a time I genuinely was convinced I was going to die and that reframed so much for me where it's like

4:32oh how could you not want to just optimize for being happy every single day of your life because it's the most important thing and like you're the one that has to wake up and live in your body every day so you gotta go you first so I saw I saw a tick tock video as I was like I don't know it's like two in the morning I know you don't have Tick Tock and maybe that plays a role into your how into your happiness but I was like I was like trying to fall asleep it was like two in the morning I'm like swipe swipe swipe

5:00and I get this video of like why why are dogs always happy and apparently you know this whole Tick Tock around like well they you know for every one week that a human lives or sorry for one day that is the equivalent to one week for a human so basically dogs know their own mortality and they know that you know their life is short so they're just by definition like you know when you leave even if you leave uh your apartment to go get like the the mail or something or coffee or gone for two minutes your dog coming back to you and and they're like

5:37stoked to see it it's like oh my God where Bill where have you been and I feel which is which is great like everyone go get a dog um completely what do you think yeah what do you think about that do you think like this new like almost like having a lease on life kind of kind of just chain it just changed your perspective and now like what what concretely did you change in your life after after you had this new lease on life I ate that Tick Tock does resonate with me it doesn't push me so far is to sign up but I do like that

6:11I like that that exists and Rings very true but I guess I guess the new new lease on life um I would say it empowered me to say no more and say no more confidently because I just felt confident in saying this doesn't suit me right now and or ever and that's speaking in generalities but I think just empowering me to take control where I know I can take control and that's that's a really beautiful thing could you give an example of something that you said no to over the last year and something that you said yes to that you might have not five years ago definitely

6:51um I think best example is perpetually attempting to eliminate the word should from just overall commitments in everyday life there are certain things that we all have to do that maybe we don't want to do and I'm not saying you can just completely throw everything to a whim and I don't want to do this so I don't have to do it there are things you have to do but having an honest conversation with yourself around are you just doing this because you think you have to do it or because you have to do it so the easiest thing is mostly cutting out networking events and those

7:26have always been somewhat of a bane of my existence because in the field of venture capital kind of important to schmooze and network and mingle but it's usually done with a lack of intention that I think is detrimental um I'll go so far as to say to your mental health because you're kind of floating around you show up to this event whether or not you drink doesn't matter but you're just showing up with no real goal and hopefully meeting people and then you have folks just like staring at the name tag if there's a name tag and oh you're not important or I don't think you're important or

8:00whatever and it's just kind of soul-crushing so really looking at how you spend your time and showing up in person is a really powerful thing in my opinion so you should only be showing up if you actually want to show up um because people can tell and you just lead a happier life do you yeah like if you're if you're trying to make it like in startups or Venture like do you need to go to networking events because both of us don't really both of us don't go to networking events really like I think yeah I think our Vibe is just like incorrectly I'm wrong our Vibe is like

8:36we'll just like bring together interesting people and good things happen but it's it's more just like among friends like it's never like yeah yeah although we did meet at South by Southwest and but that was that was before that's like we're talking 2010 2011. that's who knows yeah exactly what do we know why yeah thank you what did we know yeah knowing what you know now Phil do you need to go to networking events if you want your best shot to win at startups or Venture I think it's it's yes and no I think you still have to show up places I think if you are showing up

9:16intentionally at certain events that are hyper specific to what you're interested in um I think that's great I think you can pre-curate um a hat tip to what you're passionate about what I know you're excellent out which is community I think you can find a sub Community or two either on Reddit or on X now or something and go to events either online or in person in that Circle kind of to the point that you said like we like to only go with friends well usually our friends know interesting people and one of my favorite things to do is to to host a small event where it's like hey you show

9:55up bring one person that nobody knows or you think nobody knows and say that to 10 to 20 people and what do you know you have a 50 person event but it's really close-knit intentional I brought this person because and I think that's a much more interesting way to go about it but if you are trying to get your start and you're trying to break in I think you find you find are you trying to narrow in on what you're looking for a bit first rather than the broad I want to break into Tech but like what sector do you want to be an engineer do you

10:26want to aspirationally be a CEO one day do you just want to be a CEO or you have ideas something hone in on what it is and find the sub community and I think that's a really powerful and interesting way to go about it because you can learn a lot more that way I think totally and also like the host is underrated right like if you're the host it's like if you if you're the person reaching out to people and being like hey I'm curating this dinner of like d2c Founders in New York who have between one and five million a year in Revenue it's like even if you're not one of

11:02those people but you're trying to be one of those people like it's it's I feel like it's a pretty good move yep and people remember that you bring people together and that holds a special place uh in people's hearts and it's it's really nice to facilitate that I personally enjoy that feeling quite a bit and I'd say even to this day it happened maybe two days ago the listeners don't know this but they're gonna know now we co-hosted an orange wine party in Brooklyn right before the pandemic yeah somebody literally brought it up to me yesterday that was a plus one saying how fun it was and this

11:37happened in 2019 and it was pretty low lift from our part and it was awesome yeah we did however I full disclosure we did bring the covid-19 virus uh to America and and spread it across the world because it was January 2020 I think and uh we did have one member the DJ in fact Tyler lemko comedian Tyler lemko did spread that were using names oh you know I thought we're having like a you know an honest conversation open honest yeah I appreciate the transparency yeah the comos I guess is starting to hit he hasn't officially yeah maybe but that that also hasn't been confirmed nor denied I'd say right

12:24but there is a lot of data suggesting that it may not have been it wasn't not not a super spreader event totally but we didn't know yeah but we didn't know uh so but yeah I mean I also randomly get like people people hit you know mentioning that that of those events and that event and uh it pays dividend both like work wise and just like personal like some of my happiest moments have been throwing these events and I feel like people people listening should just like don't go to events throw events yeah like to summarize like I I think that's great advice Okay cool so dude do what you

13:07would do I mean do what you do just trying to get on a call with somebody if you don't know a group of folks like slide in the DMS respectfully have a plan on the event doesn't have to be a blockbuster thing you don't have to spend a ton of money it could literally be a meet up in your City's local park of marketing minds or something or whatever Niche you you kind of want to touch on doesn't have to cost a lot of money it doesn't have to involve drinking you can craft your own event and just see who shows up invite people and see who show

13:43up it's as simple as that and maybe nobody shows up and that's fine too and figure out what went wrong product product test on your event invites and yeah iterate totally what's okay actually let's go back to so that's something that you learned I guess in your 20s no networking events be the host um so you're saying no to networking events what's what's something that you're saying yes to more of these no no two no to I think no networking events is too rigid I think no two attending events without intention I would say yeah yeah so what's an example of a yes um an example of a yes obviously I mean

14:26it's a unique experiences where something's curated or it's a Once not necessarily once in a lifetime thing but it's a very unique opportunity where you wouldn't otherwise do something specific example to stop being so vague this isn't in the past year or so but um a few years back I I was at a group dinner curated dinner great awesome on theme with what we're talking about uh this gentleman uh wearing a very wacky Blazer hindsight it wasn't that wacky but in the moment I was like oh this is a pretty cool fashion combo way to go guy talk to him for maybe 10 15 minutes and

15:06he invited me in a few weeks to his birthday party the birthday party was a bit unconventional because it was a three-day event and it wasn't hosted in New York City or where we met he was going to host a large group of people in Tulsa Oklahoma and program an entire trip to Tulsa to show the city because there's a huge entrepreneurial Vibe he was leading the charge on awareness around Tulsa's a hub for business and SMB and technology and opening folks eyes to a city they may consider just a flyover situation that in that moment I said yes I'd known this guy for 15 minutes and I couldn't

15:51think of another time that I would have just a curated view into the inner workings of Tulsa and I was like yes this sounds interesting worse comes to worse I book a flight and leave early if it's terrible I didn't think it was going to be and I wound up being awesome and I met a lot of incredible people that I'm actually super close friends with to this day so long-winded way to say unique experiences what about that Blazer guy turn you know made you think that this was this you can trust him he I didn't know actually he just he was very personable charismatic I mean the that's that could go

16:29negatively obviously because it could wind up being a co-leader but uh had a good vibe cool yeah I think uh I actually said yes to something that I wouldn't otherwise say yes to last week so which is which is I went to a Tony Robbins event last week incredible so I got it fun segue off of what I just said but yeah yeah I mean I wasn't gonna publicly talk about this or even privately talk about it to be honest but here we are um so I went as a guest to the Tony Robbins event it's the business Mastery event which is like more focused on like how

17:17do you grow your business so it's yeah I don't know if that makes it any better but that's that's what it is and I was invited to as a guest from Ali abdall who's like a big YouTuber and this guy Joe Gannon who uh helps me with the podcast and a few other you know social content stuff so they invited me they're like hey it's like literally tickets start at ten thousand dollars you're gonna be sitting Courtside like front row and Tony Robbins was literally like spitting on me like I I should have brought an umbrella honestly in retrospect and uh I gotta say one of the better things

17:57that I said yes to in the last 12 months is going to this Tony Robbins thing what what's driving that uh and I want to I want to preface it with I always had a lot of mixed feelings about Tony Robbins um because I was kind of like it's he's like a cult leader in a lot of ways and he he feels a bit like I felt at least before going to this he's like a bit um taking advantage of people like selling these crazy expensive uh seminars and like maybe people don't have the money and like bringing them into his quote-unquote cult but I went

18:37under the premise of two two reasons I went number one I was like he's probably the greatest sales person ever so I just want to like be in the room with like a world-class salesperson number one and the second thing is if he is leading a cult there's like a fine line between a community and a cult so I want to understand like how he does it right fair right that feels very fair yeah very fair so I I gave up I just curated a hell of a community yes he has he has like say what you want about him like objectively he has so I give up five

19:14days of my life to spend it in West Palm Beach and I went to it and it was so good for so many reasons but number one he is the greatest salesperson of all time like how he structures his like the whole seminar and how he like uses music like basically what he does is like he'll like the whole five days he's using like the same five songs over and over again he gets you to like get up and like shout and then like at the point of like Peak state he like comes in and he'll be like oh by the way you should like totally sign up

19:51to another seminar of mine you're like so stoked and jazzed yes um so there's yes yeah yes yes yes so he so what he would do like to give you like a concrete example like he would you know let's say we're learning because it was a you know business Mastery let's say we're learning about uh finance and he would be talking about like hey let me go through like Robin's research which is like one of his um companies uh and like the p l from Robin's research and you're going through it and you're like see if I you know if I do these strategies I can

20:25increase leads and if I do this and then he after after you know he'll like put like uh Katy Perry's um what's that song what's the big Katy Perry Firework yeah like fireworks come on he would be like it's your company and like fireworks comes on and it's like raise your hand if this is your company and like you're stoked that this is happening to you and everyone's like yeah yeah yeah and then at the end of it he like makes an ask and be like hey by the way like buy my thing um so that's just one example he's an incredible sales person he understands

21:00the power of State um and uh I I like it I liked it I thought it was very valuable I also not to put words in your mouth but as you were telling that story I was thinking around and I don't know if this is going to be the next episode theirs or anything but I know you've been very hot on the concept of multipreneur and I would say that is a peak example of multipreneurship where he is essential well not a personal holding company but he like he has a holding company of sorts in every piece he does in and he does I see why that probably resonates

21:36with you he's a multipreneur that curates a rabid Community yeah seems like a Greg Eisenberg cup of tea first and foremost yeah I I didn't I actually didn't realize the multipreneur bit until until going so first of all the guys nearly a billionaire didn't know that he co-owns 110 companies that's and like yeah it's wild absolutely Wild and the you know the way it was struck was like the event like it was at Palm Beach Convention Center so there's like the stage in the convention center and then as you're walking in um there's like different booths but the booths are his companies right it's like his accounting firm his

22:25legal firm um so he doesn't accept advertisers and sponsors to his events which is like totally like multi-preneur Creator LED sort of entrepreneur vibe is to like obviously sell your own stuff that that seems like the the dream the entrepreneurship dream yeah yeah he's he's definitely doing it um and he's got a lot of subtle ways that he's able to sell people another kind of like interesting thing that I didn't know is if you're going to a Tony Robbins event like bring uh a Canada Goose jacket because he sets the he like I literally walk by the thermostat it's 60 degrees he sets his um 60 degrees Fahrenheit so he sets it

23:12to be really cold and the reason he does that is he wants people to like get up and move so that they get like the energy flowing and it's like a Tony Robinson apparently interesting yeah it was that what about 16 degrees Celsius something like that yeah yeah cold be care cold yeah yeah it's cold it's cold temperature called degrees so yeah I think uh overall five years ago 10 years ago would I have said yes to a Tony Robbins event no uh this time said yes learned a lot glad I went I love that you went that's that's fascinating yeah I agree probably one of the greatest salesmen of all time

23:58yeah and the interesting thing is while that while the event was happening Alex hermosi who's like a popular like he's really popular do you know you know him now nope okay I love that like I feel like I'm not surprised you don't know him but he's basically so Alex and Rosie wrote a book called 100 million dollar offers it's like how to craft an irresistible offer he's like big on YouTube and I also keep in mind I asked Steph Curry to his face what he did for a living because I just didn't know and I didn't I don't really follow the NBA and this is years ago but that just

24:36especially if I don't know somebody that's the worst litmus test I I don't really know if anybody is totally what did Steph Curry say by the way he said he played ball for the Warriors and then we moved on he's so nice you know who co-owns the Warriors Tony Robbins Tony Anthony Robbins I didn't expect the middle name to get in there but no I think it's it's Tony I don't know if his middle name's Anthony no it's it's Anthony Robbins is a co-owner of his 110 companies is uh that's definitely yeah it's wild so all roads lead back to Tony Robbins that's right anyway I I let us astray I'm sorry

25:18Alex or Mosey guy went from like zero to millions of subscribers in the last 18 months Milli you know now he went out he got on Twitter like 18 months ago and like now he's tweeting and getting thousands of likes within the first hour he also threw while the Tony Robbins event was happening he threw a launch event for his new book called 100 million dollar leads and he had more than 500 000 people in the live stream at the event wow yeah which is that's wild yeah completely wild and anyone who's interested in like crafting offers or you and or lead like how do you like

26:00get leads like you should watch it just because like the same reason I went to Tony Robbins like learn how to be the best sales person of all time Alex hermosi same sort of thing and the interesting thing about Alex hermosi and Tony Robbins is the stage for Alex or Mosey when he was doing his live webinar was the exact same stage that Tony Robbins has where in the back you have all these like Zoom people watching and it's all these like kind of Brady Bunch style you got you gotta check it out so while I was at the event I will while I was at the Tony Robbins event I was like

26:36Hey guys did you did you see uh the ultra Mosey event yesterday um and and they were like yeah and I was like doesn't it look like the Tony Robbins set and one of the people I was with said oh Hermosa is like one of the biggest Tony Robbins followers and he specifically crafted his uh stage and vibe to be like a Tony Robbins event which leads me to my thesis that Alex hermosi is the modern day Tony Robbins for young people I I don't think that as much of a stretch based on the facts you have presented yeah so that's my that's my goal I thought you were gonna say

27:20initially that you were at the Tony Robbins event in the live stream simultaneously

27:31airpod in one ear Tony's spitting on you on the right ear yeah I think that would have been a lot but uh yeah I'll be real with you I'm still like processing I'm still processing the Tony event um I'm sure yeah yeah I'm not a no what uh what's an event that you've gone to over the last year too besides from the Tulsa thing that's really like changed your perception on things and really like because you're always going to events traveling and stuff like that I like to just show up where there's a large cultural event happening not necessarily going to the event itself because a that gets wildly expensive and

28:19be you you just don't have to I mean case in point we met at South by Southwest the only time I've ever had a badge to South by Southwest is when for some reason they let me do a panel or speak I've never gotten one on my own but I've gone what eight times at this point you go because it's the largest group Gathering of people that you likely want to know or or are relevant to either your goals or interests or something showing up at a large cultural event and all the ancillary things that happen around it is a huge unlock because you just you go where the people

28:58are and you figure it out for the most part but just showing up is is a big piece of it and I feel like I'm stumbling over my words and not quite conveying but uh the Pat I used to make fun of people that would show up at things like that like the Super Bowl or whatever but I I've walked back that stance I have dropped my judgment because now I do it too I don't I don't go to the Super Bowl like the game itself but I show up in the city that it's happening and you go maybe a day earlier leave the morning of and there's

29:35a lot of relevant things as long as you know a few other folks going Serendipity lends itself very well to these situations and you wind up leaving with a bunch of either new friends or contacts goals and it is actually wildly productive where I thought that previously it's You're just showing up to party you don't have to party you just have to be there yeah yeah totally and it's like going to these events some sometimes because there's also like you don't want to go to too many events right you want to be someone heads you actually have to work sometimes yeah you have to work sometimes

30:12but you know yeah I guess that's a question for you like how what's the right amount of lifting up your head versus putting your head down I mean if you're not going to events three nights ever I'm kidding I have no idea um I I think the balance is different for everyone because sometimes I'll I'll show up places and go to these events and part of it is to meet other people but part of it is also I have learned that exploring new places or going places that I know and just being a part of that event that inspires me creatively and that creativity could mean strategic structuring of an

30:56investment or a deal or something or it could mean creating content or a piece of art or thinking about things differently creativity means a lot of different things to me but that inspires me to be my best and makes me happy and I feel top of my game when I'm doing those things so and as long as that feeling persists I'm game to keep bouncing around and and checking things out and I know I know when I'm getting close to my limit and that's when it's time to kind of hunker down and I guess I guess go a bit more heads down but heads down along the way because I mean

31:31we can work from anywhere we have the the blessing to be able to do that and as long as you responsibly balance it I mean you just have to listen to yourself yeah I think that's really that's good advice like listening listening to yourself you're good like I feel like inherently you know like oh hey I'm going to too many events I'm tired you know or but I think like thinking about it as like I I like how you kind of think about it as like a dose of inspiration you're like okay I'm gonna go to the Super Bowl because or the super like I'm gonna go to La when the

32:03Super Bowl is happening because you know there's these two or three like side events almost that I want to go to and I'm gonna come back like I'm gonna come back to New York with like ready to go and hit the pavement and then like boom heads down one week two weeks three weeks and then you're like okay another thing ready for that dose like thinking about it almost is like a battery and like charging your battery in and it depletes is that how you think about it totally yeah that's exactly right that's it is very battery based and then another point to the whole just show up

32:37where things are happening other people are more prone and open to to meeting and engaging so if you there's always something to be done for me and probably you in La there's always like some sort of business deal or some thing we can accomplish if we visit there but the pretense of it being a major cultural event I think people are more apt to meet with you or get that coffee whereas like if you just show up randomly January 21st for no other reason hey I'm in La no sorry I'm busy there's there's there's stuff going on whatever but if you you're there and other people are there for an event and

33:17everyone's already in that mode you're more likely to be able to sit down with folks you aspirationally wanted to sit down with or needed to book time with or something there's just um the The receptors are a bit more open I find so it's it's a good hack but isn't isn't the the counter to that like I have a friend who lives in Austin and I actually went to South by Southwest you know what was it six of a few you know five months ago six months ago and yeah and when I texted him he was like dude like you wait you know South by Southwest is so busy like meet me at

33:50this dinner uh uh you know and I spoke to him for like 15 minutes he's like why don't you come to Austin when like you know it's it's not touched by Southwest do you find also it's helpful like I feel like going to an event a big event you can kind of get like quick hits of people but like if you really want to spend time with them I don't know if it happens during the big events what do you think oh no I I fully agree with that I think to to deepen or Advance a relationship in a meaningful way like whether it's friendship business whatever it's really

34:27it's really tough to do in that setting yeah but I think for the initial contact and kind of yeah the initial contact and making making an inroad I guess it's perfect it's the quick hit like it's great like you see if it's even interesting for the other person for you and then you can take it from there because then you necessarily don't have to be in person you could hop on a zoom FaceTime them you have the open line of communication to text or send a message or send an email and you just have the context of that quick hit and meeting in person that I think is is

35:01more important than anything because you're never going to forget the initial feeling of meeting somebody or the initial like 15 minutes that you spent with somebody and as long as that went well the door is open and it's kind of yours to mess up from there and maybe you book a follow-up trip to Austin because you met a bunch of cool people and there's strategic things you can do by revisiting Austin then yeah you can you can further build that relationship and it doesn't necessarily have to be in person so I definitely agree with you that it's really tough to go deep and like build something super meaningful in

35:34that context but it opens up way more doors in my opinion to to get that to fill the top of your funnel I'd say for a marketing term what do you think in terms of like closing the funnel or going to the bottom of the funnel I was chatting with someone this morning who was like who's telling me having a place like a secondary home you know in a cool interesting place as a destination to throw events uh she was saying that that's like probably one of the most valuable Investments that you can make because like you can throw like what was it Michael Rubin you saw you

36:10through the white party uh that was crazy tell people tell people I know you know what that event was tell people what that event was who Michael Rubin is and why that that was the event of the air Michael Rubin is a wildly successful businessman that has catapulted in popularity in the past few years despite him being a wildly successful businessman for decades now uh I'd say um he's done an absolutely incredible job of tapping into culture as a whole and making sure that he is top of Mind culturally hanging out with the most interesting rappers up and coming rappers musicians television stars surrounding himself with key people and seemingly doing it

37:04in an authentic way um where he has established this this white party that he does in July uh every year now as the the event of the year for the most part it's the who's who of relevant folks held at his house in the Hamptons um the the video that was cut up this year from this white party essentially looked like a Hollywood trailer for the most part like it was wild um I was super jealous that Gary got to go um and has gone to go to everyone still don't have that plus one but that's okay um that's that's on me for not being relevant enough but that's fine uh but

37:48another point to Michael Rubin in this strategy it's not just him kind of swaggerjacking well that's a terrible term it's not just him trying to commandeer culture and inauthentically just post selfies with famous people like sure he posts that but he did uh have a pretty interesting sound bite where somebody's like well what do you what do you get out of speaking to cuavo or or another rapper or something like what's what's what's the point are you just trying to be relevant he's like well no they have really interesting techniques for how they've either marketed their own music or products that they've sold and it gives him a

38:26different perspective to accomplish business challenges that he has as you know in his own business by speaking to these musician musicians because they've obviously been successful in their own right and it's just a thought exercise for him where maybe he can add some value from a business perspective to them and they provide insights that he normally wouldn't have so he's really really intentionally smart around curating that so Michael Rubin just just to be clear he's the founder of Fanatics which brings in billion dollars a year billions in in Revenue they own the licenses to like the NBA NHL stuff like that I'm looking at some of the guests

39:05like it's pretty crazy like the guests were Kim Kardashian Jack Harlow Travis Scott Lori Harvey Justin Bieber um like it goes on and on and on I guess like I look at that and I'm like yes obviously he's a incredible businessman and has done really well for himself but like Gary for example like has like in my mind at least like he's on the same level ish and like why isn't Gary throwing the white party right why why like this guy obviously took wanted to it must have been his one of his main his main goal like to to throw an event like this right and was one of his main goals a

39:46and and B and that go this goes back to like my earlier point which might not relate to a lot of people but like having the second home as the destination super valuable like I think I'm looking at pictures of his place it's like pretty pretty insane oh it's epic yeah yeah but it goes back to what we started speaking about almost at the beginning where it's be the host and listen to how we're speaking about it right now like it's it obviously makes an impact we have not gone we haven't been invited but now it's maybe this aspirational thing and we see that he is

40:18this Beacon that brings together real really relevant people that's really interesting and we're talking about that so that yeah in and of itself I think is pretty important and then I know you mentioned like maybe it's not attainable or accessible for folks to own this own the second home as the destination but I think we can even walk it back quite a bit as a host and have a destination you don't have to own it I mean you know you could have an agreement with a coffee shop or something that where you can host things for free as long as you bring folks in and just to have the

40:50ability to be the host and have a destination those are two massive keys and a big unlocks I'd say um I mean when we hosted our party in in Brooklyn and Williamsburg it was we got a free space right at a lot of gerties gerties that's right and they basically were like so picture this listeners because anyone could basically throw their own version of a white party that's that's my come to Jesus moment right now so I agree with you yeah I love where this is going yes basically I started having coffee here and yeah coffee at this coffee shop met the owner he basically was telling me yeah I've

41:35got this amazing space downstairs um and I wish someone would use it and I was like well me and Phil might you know could use it and then he was like yeah well you can you know he's a brunch place in a coffee place right like they they close early and he was like if you if you give me a percentage was that how it worked I don't even remember I think we give him like a percentage of yeah he he was operating the bar and we gave him percentage of the bar yeah yeah yeah so which is totally cool for us we got to use this

42:13great space and he made money because he wasn't using the space uh actually he was stoked and I remember him in fact he was like oh come back any time like he was so so excited in fact when covet hit he was like oh I wish we you know during like Pete covet he was like yeah they're in a van I was like dude like I don't know but um the point is the point is like you don't need to own the place you need to just you you need to own the mission and you need to own like the idea of the event and and then you know you could

42:45knock on some doors get the space and then the space could be an attractive like oh I you know gerties maybe isn't that place but like you know or maybe it is that place what our goal was yeah it was it was perfect yeah but yeah no it was perfect totally agree with you you can and you can do varying scales of this I mean when when I thought about what it meant to throw an event maybe years ago it's like oh it's so expensive like you need sponsors and everything you need to do open bar you need to do this like overthinking it you don't need

43:17to do any of those things yes you can yes you can build it up to that I'm pretty sure that the white party didn't have a cash bar sure but you just you need to host have the space and whatever you negotiate from there is great people are just very excited to go to something like that in that context that I mean it doesn't matter that they're gonna have to pay for drinks that's fine if you don't have a sponsor don't want to cover the cost for people's drinks or the venue or whatever that's fine like there there isn't this expectation or anything I think you just need to go that Mile

43:51and host yeah No One's Gonna figure everything else out No One's Gonna remember the the cop like the cash bar like that's not what people remember of from the event right they remember and if they do then there probably was something else wrong with the event yeah Charlie if if people are coming to the event because they're getting free free wine or free whatever free food like I don't know if they're there for the mission right and so that's the most commodity of Commodities this is the free food and drink it's like well our event has free food and drink it's like so do the other

44:2510 that I probably found on Groupon so like yeah thoughts exactly so yeah I'm just thinking to myself like man I should be throwing some more events um yeah I am throwing I am going to be throwing some multi-preneur events um which as you should yeah I hope you do one in New York yeah I think um I also think I want to say that we you know IRL is just underrated like IRL events are underrated especially like post covid people are just trying to like people are excited to go to events and so there is an opportunity right now for people for people listening who like

45:05your the chance of your event working in 2023 is higher than the chance of your event working in 2019. I agree I totally agree with that and it all is rooted in in what you mentioned like the the purpose the mission why are you holding this event what's the theme as long as you keep that top of mind and and organize it accordingly and curate the right people that you think fit the bill for the room that will would get value on any side of it and you host that it's great before we uh head out give me one or two stories of some of the best

45:41events you went to and why they were so so good because I know you've been to a lot of events I think one of the most fun events um this is from years and years ago and I thought about it because you mentioned like why doesn't Gary throw his own white party he did um back in the day he had what was called the secret wine party back in 20 no not even 20 2007 2008 even predates me and we've been working together for 13 years he would um literally roll up to a bar you did this started in South by Southwest say hey I'm gonna bring a bunch of people

46:21here is it cool if we just throw a party and they're like yeah yeah okay and just watching it come together was insane on the third iteration like it had done it successfully we bring wine down there would be wine available I won't expand on that because I don't know if it's fully on up and up whatever uh if you can do that in Texas fine but would literally send out a tweet hey secret wine party happening at the address thousand people would show up line out the door and it was so fun and just watching it come together as a community and evolve and then it did get a little

46:54weird at one point because people would start following some of us around the city because they thought that we would be sculpting out venues and they'd be trying to get the jump on the the Tweet but um the spontaneity and the the relevance of it just being his community that was super special and very cool to see um another oh one of the the best events that I've been to is was thrown by my friend Dan who I actually met on that Tulsa trip that I mentioned he he is super creative loves bringing people together he created a dinner series that is no longer in the mix

47:32where it was an experiential dinner and part part of it was it was all themed and it was course based and there was an activity or a theme per course one of them he had a train going around his dining room table he was wearing a conductor hat of course and the train was carrying arancini and one of the courses was you had to build your own plate and it was a jigsaw puzzle and I was tied into what the the food was being served and that was just so special and memorable and the underlying guest list was hey I invited these five people you all bring one

48:09person that no one knows and we'll have a dinner and meet people and the curation and experience was amazing I'll never forget it I hope to replicate it someday but I don't I'm not as big of a Visionary as he is do you remember the dinner you oh my God I just pulling this up I was like what's the name of that guy who because I the craziest dinner I went to was in New York in February 2020 and I just pulled up my email and it was you who invited me and it was at Dan's Place yeah and I was at one of these dinners

48:44I'm looking at the environment it wasn't insane so first of all I'm reading the invite now do you think I can read this or is it too like um I think he'd prefer if we didn't okay anyway it's a terrible reference I'm sorry that's let's just say it was it was rule based yes you're looking at the rule flyer exactly that's right what can we say about this dinner that could give people insight into how to throw a really interesting event I can't say what happened at the event correct um no you I think and let's not but yeah the Pinnacle Rule The Pinnacle rule was

49:23you cannot talk about work yeah or what you do that's right and that in and of itself was powerful and I think freeing at the same time because I I think a crutch that people tend to use for Better or For Worse is just the first question out of your mouth what do you do yeah that's that's a pretty loaded question and usually the context means like what do you do for work but it could be anything but eliminating that I think is really key especially in a place like New York where there's a lot you know yeah do I don't I don't even need to explain that and I guess like

49:59that's you know bring it all back like insert very important Title Here at vaynerfund that's why you're like okay the re like real people will will get it and you'll hopefully you know you'll be you know maybe that's like the best way to do it like to get like really interesting people to attract you know attracted to you maybe yeah so some takeaways I have from this is one be the host uh two be like Dan and create something that's unique and interesting and unlike everything else out there uh three go to go to you don't need to go to the event like you don't need to go to the Super Bowl but there's

50:41something that magical happens at some of these bigger events where it's like go to the side of it don't go to the main event and um I don't know if you're familiar sorry to throw you off from you're taking it but group chat if you're familiar it's drama D Murthy and on on they have a term called boondoggling and that's what uh essentially showing up at the major cultural event and just kind of being there and not necessarily going to the event itself they call that boondoggling and that I think is a pretty interesting I mean I like the word I like the word yeah yeah so boondoggling and then

51:21I think it's just taking stock and what and what you're saying yes to and what you're saying no to and being okay intention yeah setting attention that's really that's very Tony Robbins of you Phil hmm well well and then last but not least like in terms of Entrepreneurship like Tony Robbins in terms of Entrepreneurship and sales you know prowess like go go watch Tony Robbins and listen to him just as like you don't have to listen to what he's saying but just like in the fact that like understanding his techniques for talking and selling is just and creating events is mind-blowing and and same with the

52:01Alex her Mosey event like go watch out listen to that and it's no matter what you're doing like it will be it will help you become a better salesperson and and life is sales so so it's a good skill to know life is sales it's mic drop mic drop Phil Toronto one of my one of my closest friends it's an honor to have you here and jam on on this sort of stuff people you're you're kind of you're light on social media but where could social media yeah where could people how do people get to you and learn more about you good luck um [Laughter] yeah yeah I'm Phil Toronto on everything

52:40whether or not I actually post or consume things on any of those platforms changes at a moment's notice but I I have profiles yeah chances are the way you're going to learn more about Phil Toronto is if you like this episode and you want more Phil Toronto uh we'll bring them back so and by we I mean I um so the best the best place to find Phil Toronto besides his his handles is is this podcast and my I would say it's where it happens exactly and my YouTube has now changed to add Greg Eisenberg so because I'm now throwing up other YouTube stuff so Phil

53:23tell the people to subscribe to me on YouTube subscribe to Greg Eisenberg on YouTube please if he brought you any value whatsoever stop what you're doing don't necessarily pause the video because we want the view count but please subscribe do yourself a favor do me a favor there's no ads on this podcast there's no ads on my newsletter so check out check out the YouTube subscribe on all the podcasts Spotify or apple whatever you use and and uh my newsletter as well laycheckout.substack.com and filterano you know where to find him thanks for hanging out it's been a pleasure cheers man thank you cheers