Lessons From the Back of a Baseball Card
By Seth Maiman
The keynote speaker of Auto Glass Week™ 2024 asked the large audience filling the Orange County Convention Center ballroom in Orlando, Florida, to raise their hand if they were wondering: “Who the f— is GaryVee?” A tour de force of an industry convention center presentation was off to a rollicking start.
So, what did I know about GaryVee, or Gary Vaynerchuk, as I sat among the crowd? Not much, except that he was some kind of entrepreneur. And I knew that in the oddest way possible.
An avid baseball card collector, I managed to acquire a card of little-known Colorado Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta in some random box of cheap cards. It was labeled one of “GaryVee’s Top Entrepreneurs in Baseball.” The back of the card read “GaryVee Says” that Iannetta started a winery business with a former Major League teammate. The bottom of the back of the card, numbered GV-7, reads, “A successful entrepreneur and social media and Internet personality, Gary Vaynerchuk (a.k.a. ‘GaryVee’) celebrates those MLB players who have shown similar talent for business, both on and off the field.” They should have put the word personality in bold print.
When I wasn’t laughing at GaryVee’s jokes and cringing at his every-other-word cursing, I was marveling at the number of ingenious things he had to say to the gathering of auto glass entrepreneurs.
He quizzed the crowd, “Are you asking for less business” by not using social media as a business tool? He challenged the crowd to “get over it” if they thought they were too old or didn’t like social media. He told them that if using social media for their business hasn’t worked, maybe they aren’t very good at it.
GaryVee urged the crowd to spend at least ten personal hours learning, and then to post, post and post some more. If the initial posts don’t get many views, keep trying; eventually, you will get it. He said that the videos do not even have to be about auto glass. Post any content about anything that you are passionate about and can show in a fun, exciting way that will draw attention. (If it were me, I could post about baseball cards.)
But make sure to end each video with “If you want to talk Topps baseball cards and need a new windshield, stop by my auto glass shop …” and then give your contact information.
All this insightful information was presented uproariously, complete with the occasional T-shirt or other merchandise flying through the crowd.
But then GaryVee delivered his jaw-dropping version of the apocalypse. He said that in this new world, a “satisfied” shop owner who did not want to go in this direction would eventually not have a business to be satisfied with. He declared that social media was NOT a growth opportunity but a required strategy to prevent the rapid decline of the company you worked so hard to build.
GaryVee humbly said that no matter how much he dances on his head, he realizes that among the many hundreds in the audience nodding their heads, the reality was that only six or seven of them would go home after Auto Glass Week™, follow his blueprint and change the way they market their business.
As I surveyed the cavernous convention center ballroom that assessment left me wondering which six or seven people among the crowd would it turn out to be.
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