How You Build a Brand That Actually Wins in 2025 | Adweek Leadership Voices

#QOTD: Who is the biggest influence in your life right now? As an entrepreneur, I default into assuming it's always going to be competitive. It doesn't matter if "nobody is in your space" because if you're any good, and you've figured something new out, EVERYBODY is going to be in your space eventually.  To me, competition between startups is the same old game: Better product, better service, better execution. Those are the things that will drive your business.  When you're David, you shouldn't play Goliath's game. When you're Goliath, you should CRUSH David. Here's an example: Did anybody think it was weird that, for three years, I NEVER mentioned VaynerMedia. The truth there was that my size (or my lack thereof) was my advantage, and I couldn't let these other big guys know how huge we were getting! I was learning the landscape. Now that we've got the money and the scale to compete, you'll see that I'm talking about it more.  The important thing is to NEVER PLAY THE OTHER PERSON'S GAME.

10 Loka 201412min

#QOTD: Would you pay $10 a month for Ello? Look the bottom line is that Ello raised venture capital. The investors are looking for a return on their investment, so they're going to have to figure out a business model. So the question becomes, if they're not going to sell your info to advertisers, are they going to charge a fee to use the service? Now look they may come up with something totally new and innovative, and God bless Ello if they do. I'm rooting for everybody all the time. My big thing is that **people don't care if you're selling their data**. We actually want targeted ads. When I'm in the market for another pair of Nikes, I WANT to see ads for them. Now there are those of you who disagree, but the data shows it. We'll take them when they go from ads to content.  So here's the thing: 1. I think the way Ello is financially structured has vulnerabilities. 2. This has happened before with things like Diaspora. It didn't work. 3. I'm not in love with the actual product, but I'm glad they're moving and innovating. I'm not Nostradamus. I like to make my call when I actually see something happening, and so I think it's too early to say that, but my intuition says they're going to eventually charge, which is going to turn a lot of users off.

8 Loka 201413min

#QOTD: Who is the person that you are SO afraid of letting down, it's keeping you from starting something big? It was so incredible to participate in Dave Ramsey's event. Thanks to everybody who came out, and a HUGE special thanks to the lovely people who stayed after to help me make this episode. To me there is no such thing as "an entrepreneur with a JOB." If you're a true entrepreneur, you can't breathe when you have a JOB. If you're not out there making it happen and running a business, you're not an entrepreneur, you're a person with entrepreneurial tendencies. Now that's fine. As long as you're HAPPY that's what matters.

8 Loka 201415min

#QOTD - What are the first three sites you look at in the morning?  I always find that the best way to attack your own industry and innovate is to spend *zero* time in it. I spent an extreme lack of time in the wine industry, and I spent almost no time dealing with the "agency world" right now. I think I've been to like six other agencies because we had meetings there, but that is literally it. I don't read AdAge, I don't ask my senior people what they did at other agencies.  For me, my lack of industry knowledge, and my lack of education have actually allowed me to innovate even more. I go with what I think works, not with what everybody else in the industry is doing.  So pay attention to the food industry, or the rock-climbing business. The best way to not innovate is to pay attention to everybody else in the business, because they're just doing the same crap, too.

8 Loka 20146min

#QOTD: What is your favorite restaurant right this second?  If you were to go back to a caveman and ask him what he thinks of our media consumption today, he would reject it. it would be weird and unnatural. But the fact of the matter is that it's where we are today, and technology is just a part of our world. I'm not the dad who is going to tell my kids to "get off the computer and go play!" Frankly our kids are already eating a hell of a lot better than we ever did at that age. Kids are just growing up to be different characters than we are. Information is a commodity, so they're not going to be as "fact-smart" as we were, but they're going to be much more intuitive about learning how to use new systems.  Sure I'm worried about them being active enough, but if you're a good parent you can make your kids do literally whatever you want. What I'm *not* going to do, though, is restrict Xander's time on the iPad.

8 Loka 201410min

#QOTD - What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Just because you decided to build a business through Kickstarter doesn't mean you should be thinking about it's promotion differently. Facebook Dark Posts targeting people interested in related products, Medium updates in blog form, GUEST CONTRIBUTING! Email every single blog, regardless of size, in the industry relating to your product and reach out and say "I'd like to guest contribute to your publication" in a way that't not spammy. It's all about creating content, and not about creating infomercials.  To many of the people watching this show, when they hear about content marketing, think "Billy Mayes infomercial." When I think about it, I think "New York Times" or "Scandal."

8 Loka 201410min

#QOTD: What will the results of the Jets-Lions game be? Look, I'm a salesman. I'm all about the CTA (Call to action), but at the end of the day we're talking about the difference between sales and branding. Anybody can be a great salesman, but creating a great brand is something totally different. Being a Nike, being a Puma, as opposed to just selling sneakers, is totally different. Sometimes I don't go for the CTA, sometimes I don't go for the popup, or the other growth-hacking techniques. The reason for that is I believe in the Jabs. I believe in branding. I believe that there is a time and a place. I believe there's context. In a 2015 world, people watch this show, and they see that I'm not selling them anything; that I'm taking the time to do this in my favorite place in the world (the Jets' parking lot). Sure I COULD throw some call to action at them, but by asking for that, I leaving something huge on the table. That person has the ability to google me, find out more, and develop a real relationship with my brand, but by selling up front, I could very well ruin that. By trying to score on the first date, I could be passing up the chance to get married.

8 Loka 20147min

#QOTD: 1) How do you like your iPhone 6? 2) What do you think about the Ali Baba IPO? I love it when a random question leads me back to my core value: Create content (JAB) to grow the audience, and then sell (RIGHT HOOK) them your product. It's so simple, it's so straightforward, and it applies to just about ANY situation where you want to sell something.

8 Loka 20149min