Neel Dhingra shares how he got Gary Vaynerchuk to keynote his Las Vegas event. He met Gary through a podcast interview, then used persistence and strategic outreach to turn that connection into a speaking commitment.
So today I'm going to tell you how I met one of my heroes in business, Gary Vaynerchuk, AKA Gary Vee. How I ended up having a quick meeting with him by just chance luck, how this led to me having him on my podcast, and how eventually this led to me and him sharing the stage at my event Forward in Las Vegas in July of 2022. The reason why this was so important was Gary had been a huge inspiration to me. His content actually helped me change my business and my life. And it's a big piece of why I even do content today. So check this out. This story is pretty crazy, and I think you'll find it really interesting how it all came to and how it can actually lead to ideas that you can take in your own business journey. A lot of people will say, dude, how do you get the opportunity to do X, Y and Z? There's opportunities that come up all the time and people just ignore them. So remember being in Instagram, following a story and then a video comes up, he has a thing, says, I just launched a new sneaker. Anybody who buys $5,000 worth of sneakers can come to a meetup at my office at VaynerMedia. And I think what most people do is they see these opportunities and they just fucking keep going. They're just like, oh, co. Whatever. And every time I saw one of those, I said, fuck it, I'm going to do this, right? I'm buying this shit. I'm going, I'll figure it out. I didn't say, oh, am I going to get $5,000 ROI? Let me do the math. What's the tickets going to cost me to fly out to New York? Or what's the hotel going to cost? Like, I didn't say any of that shit. And then the next opportunity comes up. He had launched a wine company, Empathy Wines, and he put it out there that, hey, you know, if you buy X number of bottles of wine, we'll do a barter with you. So I remember saying, okay, shit, I'm gonna try this thing again. I just did it with the shoes. Maybe I could do it with. So I sent an email to Gary's team, said, hey, I'm willing to buy $5,000 worth of wine. Can I just get maybe five minutes to get a quick podcast with him? And at the time, I didn't even have a podcast, by the way. Hey, guys, it's Gary. Vee, Neil and Arjun and I are just chopping it up. The Nevada and San Francisco markets need to listen to This. I got a reply from Gary at, like, a weird hour saying, I'm in for 15. And that was cool. Like, just shot the shot. And he replied, and I don't know if I just got lucky, but whatever. Like, he repl. And then I was able to get that interview. What I love is you can win twice, and someone might say, well, $10,000 for a few minutes of GaryVee. That's a waste of money. No way, dude. Like, I got value from the meeting, and then the leverage is the next part, right? So now I want to get the next guy. Hey, I just did a podcast with Gary Vee. Would you like. You know, like, I would love to interview you. Recent guests include Gary Vaynerchuk. Like, leverage the shit out of it. You know, micro content. Get the leverage that you can. It is way more romance and patience, but people try to go in too hard. One day at a time, One day at a time, one day at a time. And then you wake up 40 years later, and you've created a legacy. Good to see you again, man. It's great to see you again. So you asked your question. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of people are just, you know, asking, and then they're like, yeah. And it's just like, I just tried. Like, we just started. Like, just start. It's like, you always talk about they're worried, but then the other thing is they need to see the whole thing before they start one. Yeah, they need all, like, the whole map laid out. What's gonna happen? What are we gonna do it? What? Like, people fear the unknown here with Gary. They're about to head in, so stay tuned for the podcast. So I email him to ask if he could speak at the event because we did a podcast before. They're like, you need to talk to Gary's agent, and he's like, this is the minimum that he'll do from a cost perspective. And these are the requirements for the event. Please let know if you can meet these requirements. I had zero of the requirements. Yeah, like, venue. Who are the other speakers? What's the. What's the event? Yeah, what's all that? So I literally made the whole thing up. Like, right there on the email. It's like, here's the event. Wrote the check that you had to then cash. Yeah. So I wrote the thing. Hey, here's the event. Here's the dates. We don't have a date yet, but here's the range. Let us know when he's available. Yeah, here's the location. And I knew they just opened this new resort, like, let's do an event there. And then I put in, here are the other speakers. And I named people off that yet. Had. Hadn't yet agreed. So this is probably, like, you know, it's probably not advisable for 99 of people because you don't want to do that. Right? But I just figured, hey, I need this guy to get these people, and I want people to get this guy. Yeah, right. So it's like you're playing a little chicken in the egg, right? So I just said, hey, I have the venue. This is how many people are coming. In reality, I didn't have the venue, and no one's coming. Yeah, no one's speaking, and no one's speaking me. That's it. But here's secured the venue. There's no venue. It's just an idea. Right. And so I'm like, here, in an ideal situation, here's what would happen. Would he be willing to do it? And then we went back and forth and negotiated on a few different key terms, found a date that he's available, and he says yes. And then now I take that yes. Go get the venue. Go to the other speakers, say, hey, I'm doing an event here on this date, and Gary Vee's the keynote. Do you want to be a part of it? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Everyone's in. Done.
