Navigating Through The World of Public Speaking: Tyler Cox - VaynerSpeakers

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Sebastian Frost. Tyler Cox is in the building. Ladies and gentlemen, how we doing.

brother, I'm good man. Thanks for having me. I am pumped to be here, Nice to have a good conversation with good friends on a Tuesday.

It certainly is Break up the meetings. Break up the meetings that's for sure, absolutely, so we've decided to venture it off into uncharted waters. I don't normally go live on podcast interviews, but we're trying new things around here at the Beyond the Story podcast, so we're live on YouTube, linkedin and Facebook, allegedly on here. So hello, everybody. Tuning in. My guest today, tyler Cox, is the director of marketing and growth for Vayner Speakers, a speaking agency started by a dear friend of mine you might have heard of him, gary Vaynerchuk Years back, and it's grown into something really, really special. Gary, I remember when he initially had the idea to start this and, as he did with VaynerMedia, he wanted to disrupt the speaking world as he knew it, and I thought that was absolutely brilliant because it needed extreme disruption from the way that it was. The traditional world of public speaking has changed and evolved, just like the world has. So, dude, I'm stoked to have you on the show. I appreciate you taking some time out of your day to hang out for a few minutes here, and I figured we'd kind of dive into this world of public speaking because, as we're in this content creation era, as Gary would put it, and we will be indefinitely a lot of people building personal brands, doubling down on figuring out what it means to build a personal brand, and sometimes part of that is speaking, writing a book, doing the whole thing with all of that. So first off, let's for context. Let's help our listeners better understand a little bit more about you and your back story. What really brought you into the world of Vayner Speakers?

Yeah Well, first off, sebastian, pleasure to be here and you know you're hitting the nail on the head. It is an exciting time for the speaking industry, speakers bureau, industry talent agency, whichever you want to call it. But a little bit of background on myself. You know I've had jobs in sales, in customer development, in business development, in partner relationships, did some TV and film acting back in the day in my early 20s and then found myself into marketing and, coming up in April, I'll be here at Vayner Speakers for two years. So Vayner Speakers itself just celebrated five years this past October, a couple months ago. And, like you said, gary had started this, this company to innovate, disrupt, create something new when it came to motivational speakers, to keynote speakers, right to to providing more than just motivation. And Zach Nadler, who had worked with Gary for over 15 plus years, came over as CEO, started the company, grew it throughout the pandemic and then, since I've been on here again in April it'll be two years we have just been on a trajectory of growth that has been exciting, has been emulating just empowerment and, honestly, full transparency, recording in progress. We are just, we're all good. We're just getting started. We're just getting started, which is the exciting part Now, as you and I had spoke before this right, you know it took you kind of 15 years to figure out your lane and what makes you comfortable and how you're crushing in, how you're waking up happy every day. So the fact that we're five years in and we're feeling that already is really, really exciting for what's ahead. 2024 is going to be a big year for us and you know we've got a CEO here that is just an incredible leader. I wake up happy every day to be here at work.

Yeah, that's Zach. Now there's a good guy yeah you guys should keep him around, for sure.

Yeah, we're going to keep him around. He knows what he's doing, so how?

is it? You guys have continued to grow year after year, and it's no mystery why you and I were talking a little bit about how you guys identify the talent that you guys decide to work with, and it's not just yeah, is this individual a speaker and do they speak well? There's much more than that. There has to be a little bit more substance to the whole offering of what the talent can bring to the stage and, most importantly, to the audience.

Yeah, I mean and you kind of said it earlier, sebastian, alluding to it perfectly there is an aspect of having your own brand, right. I mean, just in general, we are all creating our own brands. If we're putting content out there today, right, that is just a statement. And whether you are creating a brand of value, authenticity, you know, giving people familiarity, creating trust with them, those are all parts of building a brand. Right Now, it is great to bring on a speaker that has a large audience, a built brand, maybe somebody who's releasing a brand new book. You know, these are all things that we take into factor. But the biggest aspect and what we love about our roster and what we're doing over here at Vayner Speakers and our mantra is no two events are the same, right, and what comes with that is that behind the scenes we do a lot of questioning of the client, the customer, what they're looking for, and we tailor right. We are, we are White Club service here and we tailor our speakers. And what our speakers do outside of just motivating is the exciting part about VaynerSpeakers they educate, they give insight, they give value. You know, anybody can hop not anybody, but a lot of people can hop on a stage and make you feel pumped up, like you just worked out and you're back at your desk feeling real excited. But you wake up the next morning and nothing's changed, right? What we have within our roster and what I love about us, compared to any of our competitors and people that we work with I mean love everybody in the industry, but what I love about our roster is that they are educating, they are innovating on themselves and sharing it with audiences. They are giving them insight. The audience members are leaving their seats not just pumped up, not just excited, but going back to their desks and there's a flip, there's a switch of a flip, right. That just changes in their mind. Minds has changed. They're doing something different because of the way and what our speakers are talking about and how they bring it to the table. And it's exciting to see, it's exciting to see your testimonials about it and, like I said, you know we're just five years old, so we're just getting started.

Yeah, you guys definitely are. So that was my next question, but you had mentioned it, you know. Is that based on the feedback and testimonials that you're getting from the clients, and are they taking an attendee poll? So are they getting feedback from the to really understand what your clients are delivering?

Yeah, so I mean, when it comes to testimonials and customer feedback, a lot of the clientele does do polls. They do do polls, they do do ask their customers. You know what hit you the most, what hit you the best. And we get that information and it's really exciting to pass along to our speakers and exciting for us as a team to see, because, you know, there's not only compliments for our speakers and what they are doing on the stage but there's compliments to the process as well, and that's what I love about the team that we have here at Vayner Speakers we are detail oriented, you know. We, like I said, we like to give and make sure we're giving the customer exactly what they're looking for, right, so it's a good thing that we get those. But, yeah, they do polls, they do you know questionnaires, and it's usually a big hit not to toot our own horn, but it's exciting.

Toot it, baby Toot it. So I think about this a lot and, as a speaker, maybe you know it's my opinion is a little stronger than the average, but it's no mystery. We're living in this content era which, by the way, gary has been predicting for 15 years now and everyone will be running around with a camera and a phone and the computer in their hand and creating content, and personal brands are going to lead the way, and one of my favorite things he ever said was you know, your personal brand in perpetuity is your reputation, and that is true. Words have never been spoken, but the downside of all that is, there's an adjustment period, and I think that the pandemic really brought everybody out of their shells because a they learned how to use technology and be forced to be on a camera, whether they liked it or not. So, getting over that I don't want to be on camera, I don't want to be on a microphone kind of went out the window, and then the people that were sitting on the sidelines, that had not been creating content, were finally like well, let's get in the game. So there's been a just huge, humongous, just flood of content, and I believe that contributes to a tremendous amount of noise online, and there was already a bunch of noise online with the internet and social media in the onset of social media. But now, with everyone doubling down and it appears that everyone and their brother starting a personal brand, writing a book and becoming a speaker, there's a lot of noise there as this onset continues to happen and as with anything new. So I always say there's there's a lot of regurgitated motivational quotes and content being shared online. It's no original content, if you will, and I like that. I can recognize that because it allows me to make sure I'm really dialed in, to staying in my lane and in truly communicating from my authentic self thought, you know, thought process and heart versus, you know, I saw Gary talk about this. It's a good idea to go talk about this as well. And again, you know, crazy example there. But how do you guys mitigate? Through making sure that the talent you guys are bringing on board is not being regurgitated and just, you know, reused, if you will, and just another form, fashion and human being that's communicating it.

So fantastic, freaking question, and I love that because and I want to say, you know the brand. Your brand is simply what people are talking about you when you're not in the room right Now. If you're just out there creating noise and you're not providing value, then I don't care for your brand. Now, what a lot of people need to start doing is, like you just said there is noise. It is stuff that you can just regurgitate and it is constantly replicated. Now, there's nothing wrong with replicating something else from somebody else. That's honestly how a lot of people become successful these days. But when it comes to our speakers and making sure that the ones that we bring on our side and the ones that we are bringing out there have a background that is unique, um, you know, executive coaches have a lot of knowledge and experience working with C Suites, executive leadership teams, fortune 100, fortune 500 companies. Executive coaches are great people to to bring on board and great speakers because they have a lot of experience. Now, gary, is, you know, one in a million, right? One in a trillion at this point? The guy has been calling things out since, you know, 20 plus years ago. So, um, and I'm excited for his new book day traded attention coming out in, uh, may of next year, which is just more predictions about social and what we need to be focusing on. And I think that goes back to your question of you know the noise and how do you make sure it's not being regurgitated or replicated? And the people on our roster it goes back to my original point is that what they're doing is they are talking about and being authentic with their storytelling. Right, you know, we have Jesse Itzler. We have Ryan Holiday. Now, ryan Holiday is such a unique speaker because he takes stoicism and turns it into philosophy for today. There, not many people out there that can read stuff about, you know, um, socrates and, uh, marcus Aurelius and and make it valuable to an audience for 60 minutes about how they can use these techniques for today. Right, we've got Jesse Itzler, who's a passionate entrepreneur who has just been, you know, can blow, you know, shaving his head off. You know, at shaving his hair off at V con last year. Right, you know, um, I think that's also the other value that we bring is they can't be replicated. The people on our roster are unique in their own ways and that's why we're very particular. Not very particular, but that's why we go through our due diligence and we make sure that the people that we have on our side are bringing something different to the stage and, like I said, are not just leaving you motivated but leaving you with value and feeling like you can almost do anything that you want to do, anything that you want to put your mind to. Our speakers are going to get on that stage for 45, 60 minutes. The Q and A's are big now and and they love hearing directly from the speaker. So it's a unique. It's a unique process looking for a speaker, but when you find one, and the ones that we have on our roster, that's what they do. They are unique in their own ways and there aren't anything about them that can be replicated. Now competitors have big names where, if you just put their name on a on a big roster, you know, or on a on a big sign, people are going to be excited about it, but they're just going to be excited for a day or two after. They're not going to change their mindset, they're not going to change the way they go about things, and that's what the that's what. That's what makes Vayner speaker is very different and that's only only going to be elevated next year and the year's coming.

Yeah, absolutely, and I look forward to to watching all that unfold. When it comes to being able to provide large names for events, that's another thing that kind of gets me thinking a little bit. How sustainable is it that Magic Johnson great speaker, by the way, great experience there and and you know Alex Rodriguez and like so what's the sustainability do you think for the crowd pool of of, because of large names at events, or are we? Are we continue? Are we going to continue to evolve into the space of, again, experiences it doesn't really matter if the person's a celebrity or not Did they contribute to the actual experience of the event? Did they allow people's thought process to be disrupted and leave them differently? I think is is where we're headed on there. Have you guys considered that at all? Cause I know that you've got amazing speakers on the roster and I know a lot of them and I follow a lot of them and huge fans of them, but it's not a ton of gigantic. You know celebrity names, which I absolutely love, because if you're a celebrity, not too hard to get booked as a speaker. I mean, it's just not, and it's not too hard to ride the coattails, once you are booked, of being able to build a pretty profitable speaking business. But I see these events constantly and it's like big name after big name, after big name after big name, and I'm you know, I've been to a couple of events, I've already seen these speakers already. So where's your, where's your mind go when, when it comes to events and celebrity names? I guess we could sum the question up.

Yeah, so I think you said a lot there, which which brings into play where, where you, we have the capability to innovate and and change the industry a little bit. Now, look, big names. It's never going to go away because it also does depend on your event, right, if your client wants to just bring a massive audience in, then they're going to pay a top dollar to get a big name in and that's fine. There's, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's why these, the Alex Rodriguez, the Damon John, the, the Magic Johnson, you know, the Tony Robbins, that's why they get booked, that's why they get paid. They bring in the audience, but they do add value, for sure, and they, they, they motivate and they inspire because they've got good stories and they they've got good backgrounds as as leaders and, you know, ceos and what so have it. But I think, shifting to the idea of providing value and the experience I love that you use the word the experience is where we're going to have the capability to change in this industry. Now, like you said, our roster is not filled with big household brand names. Now, that doesn't make me nervous because we're doing a great job over here and it makes me excited for the people that we're going to bring on, because we, in our mind, are going to make them brand household names In the industry. Correct, we are going to do that right, we have a team that is capable of doing that and we're only going to continue to grow that team, which is even more exciting. So, when we bring on people, it's not All of those things that we spoke about before. Having a brand yourself. If you have a social media team or anything of that sort, you know we work with you closely. If you have a book coming out, or if you're an author or what, so have it. Those things all do come into play. But what we look for, our VaynerSpeakers, is how can we help you, how can we help each other elevate an event, how can we help you become a better keynote speaker and how can you take your keynote speaking skills to the stage and create an experience, as you said, for the audience, because that's what you want. That's what you want walking out of a room. Like you said, you've been to ones with big names, so have I. I've been to ones with small names and guess what? Almost all the time I walk out of there with one, and I don't want to diminish or say small names, but you know I walk out of there with insight, Sure, sure, it's easy to motivate, but it's a lot more fulfilling working on this side when you know you are you're bringing something completely different to the table.

Yeah, absolutely. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my buddy, jason Hewitt, incredible entertainer and speaker, and he wrote a book called the Promise, and it's the whole premise of making a promise to the craft, making a promise to the audience, making a promise to yourself to continue to deliver at your highest level for the craft, and I never, ever forgot that and this guy is an unbelievable entertainer and keynote speaker. He does this Elton John impression that it's mind-blowing. In fact, that's why I found him on YouTube one day. And then, through the world of speakers, the world continued to get smaller and smaller. We ended up linking up and had a very thoughtful conversation on the show a few years back, and I never forgot about that and I think about that every time I take the stage. Myself is that we're here to be committed and to that promise, the promise of making sure we're delivering to the audience, to the craft, and staying true to yourself as a speaker. I mean, I look at being a speaker as a responsibility. It's not a job, it's not a role, it is a. It was a responsibility because it's a gift that I've been given that not everybody has, and I take that very, very seriously. I think that a lot of people in the speaking world do as well. I mean, there is a certain breed of a person that actually is a speaker at its core on there, and I think that's the beautiful aspect of the world of speaking, because that's what allows the world to continue to evolve in the event space specifically, and give people exactly why they actually spend their time and money to go and attend an event.

Yeah, you're pulling at the hardest strings with that one, sebastian. I love that. I'm going to have to check that book out, but it is. It's a craft, but, and that's what I like that's what I love about this industry is that there are speakers out there that they don't look at this like a job. They look at this like this is my responsibility to pass this off to these people listening to me, and they're excited about it. Right, there is excitement. It is not waking up and like, oh man, I got to do this today. It is like, oh man, I cannot wait to share this new 30-minute part of my keynote with these people because they are going to be blown away. It is excitement about, like you just said, the craft and sharing the value and the promise to the audience. Yeah, absolutely. You are promising them to give them something unique, different and something that's everlasting. And if you can do that to an audience and change them in a way outside of just motivating, then you are doing an incredible job as a keynote speaker.

I. It's not the most responsible thing to do as a speaker, but Gary's done it since day one. And that is no, no planning, none, zero, none. Now, if you're listening to this right now and you're like I want to become a speaker or I am a speaker, I do not recommend that you just cold turkey and go start with this strategy. But as we continue to to grow and evolve as humans and in our inner profession as well, it's important to to challenge ourselves in certain things, and I have. I've stayed committed to no slides as much as possible, unless they're like we really want a how-to, step-by-step deal, and I've also been able to Really stay focused on. You know, whatever I'm supposed to say when I'm up there, I'm gonna be given the words. I'm a man of faith. I believe that the words are gonna be put on my heart and mind, on what needs to be shared at that specific time for that specific audience. Now, that's not always the case, the case for people. And again, disclosure. I don't recommend you start doing this at all, but Gary has mastered it. I mean, there's been countless times I'm like what are you talking about today? I have no idea. I'm gonna figure it out in about five minutes on here. Now you have to really, really, really, really know your stuff. But I did a gig in North Carolina a couple weeks ago and that's exactly what happened. They said what are you gonna talk about? I said I have no idea. I'm like what do you mean? You have no idea. And I said we'll figure it out, I promise. I can guarantee you one thing, though You're gonna leave different. Okay, you're gonna think what there's one thing. This can get in your head, that little earworm, and you're gonna hear me over and over and over again, and thank God I've been able to pull this off. You know, as as as of late on here. You know what's your thought process around. I don't want to say maybe professionally wing, it would be a, would be a proper term. You know for that what? What's your thought process around that?

Yeah, I would say, unless you have years and years of experience of some type of improv and and you're, you're really, really honed in on your craft. Now, there there are lies the thing. Right, if what you're talking about is something that you've been doing for 30, 20, 30 years, then it will come easily to you and you can probably just say here's the top. Someone could say to you here's the topic, and you're like all right, I got this. I could talk about this for four hours if you really wanted to, right, but I'm gonna need you to pay me for those four hours, sure, but you know, winging it, it depends. It really does depend. It depends. It goes back to what is the client looking for. Are they looking for a specific speech topic? Are it? Is the audience there to learn about Marketing? Are they there to learn about selling? Are they learned there to learn about, you know, future of work, or AI, or transformation, or or you know Branding, right? Those things all come into play. So it always does come down to what the customer is looking for, right? And then keynote speaker speak. Speakers have specific speech topics, but they go offhand plenty of times, and it's the art of storytelling. Some people need slides to tell their stories sure, that might not be slides with words, but it might just be slides of pictures to be able to share what they're trying to emote with the audience. Right, some don't. Here you can talk for 60 minutes and have your attention for all of it, right or not?

a or roster, or a hundred and twenty.

Yeah, yeah, exactly right, you know you can press record and and be there for four hours and you'll listen to all of it, sure? But a lot of people on our ours, our roster, every single person on our roster is a storyteller at heart. Now it just depends on how they tell that story. Some do need slides, some don't need slides, and it depends on, again, what the audience is looking for, what the customers is asking for and what they want to be told there. Absolutely so, it's, but it is always fun to do a little improv and go up there, you know, with nothing on your mind and but one one thing, and and that's that one thing that they want for the audience.

So and it has to be the right. It has to be the right environment, the right event to obviously, a majority of the time, the clients very clear On what they're looking for and what they correct. Absolutely from the talk on there and we've got a reverse engineer. You know what they're looking for to the best of our ability on there, but I'm always curious well said on. You know the professionally winging it, if you will. So you said that you guys are absolutely stoked about 2024 and everything going on. A Vayner speakers, let's, let's chat about that for a minute. I.

Yeah, I mean I can't talk too much about it, but just really, really excited about the growth that we had in 2023. We had added some great people to our roster. You know big announcements to come out next year, but Long Story Short man is that we are just getting started and it is really exciting to be a part of it. I did not ever see myself being in this industry, to be honest with you, but the moments that I connected on my interview we went from a 30 minute interview to an hour and 15 minute interview, just because I think we saw a vision, a growth that really was just aligned. And that alignment whether it has curved or grown, you know, in whatever path, has been the same and it's really exciting to not only have a CEO to work for but to have a team that is along for that ride. 120% Right, we are a team. This entire company that we have here at Vayner Speakers works very, very cohesively. Transparency is intentional on everything that we do and you know part of my role here is growth and that's what we're doing. We're growing in both our roster and our company. So 2024 is going to be a big year for us and I guarantee it. The following three, four, five, six, 10 plus are going to be just as exciting. So it's an exciting place to be and I can't talk too much about what's ahead, but it's exciting, big stuff.

The teaser has been dropped without so much information on here. Yeah, there you go.

How about that? So be on the lookout for Vayner Speakers in 2024, folks, absolutely so.

Guys orchestrate the absolute phenomenon, which was the speaker lineup for Vekon this year.

Yeah, that was, that was nuts dude Praise. Yeah, there was Zach Nadler, I mean him and him and you worked very closely with the Vekon team and it was just I could not believe it I literally it was an incredible thing to watch, to be honest with you, I mean I was behind the scenes to just just step into his office. He had, he had the countdown to it. I'm not sure if he has it up for 2024, which he probably does already actually but he would be in the middle of a meeting and he raised like 41 days, 40. And it was just the just seeing him work and what he did for that, what Vayner Speakers and some of the folks on the team did with, with working directly with Vekon and Gary and the location and the events team. It was special to watch. It was something where it got me excited and I wasn't even going and I was just, you know, but it was just hearing oh, we got this person, yeah, we got this person, this one's next and this one, and it was just 200 plus speakers and I'm just like, how did he do this? What did he do? Yeah, and it's just, you know, it's hard work. It's the relationships that Zach has built over the years and it's just the, the tenacity and the, the leadership that he has and knowing that this means so much to Gary, who he's known for so long, that it means so much to Zach too, and to put something on that successful is just a testimonial to what an incredible individual Zach is and how hard he works.

Yeah, that's quite. I've not been to a Vekon yet, but I'm, I'm getting. I've been very active with the V Friends cards community as of late. There you go, yeah, they're pushing it. Yeah, and it is. Is V? V Friends trading cards. If you haven't checked those out yet, oh yeah, definitely do that. I'm hoping to get a bubblegum black cat card here in one of these days.

Biggest cross for you, my friend.

Yes, absolutely, tyler. It's been great to sit down and chat with you and just better understand, hey, how you got in the mix and what you guys are doing here no one, gary, for so long. I just warms my heart to continue to see things just continue to grow and expand, and for good, like lives are being changed and impacted. The world's being impacted for for the better and it's it's, it's all a, you know, a direct result of. Gary has crazy ideas and I never forget Zach telling the story of him and Gary deciding that they want to start up speaker agency and he but he was telling the early days at at at CAA, where it's like when he first came around, they're like what the hell do we do with this guy? Like we're we're not used to like this kind of different type of keynote speaker, now one of the world's biggest. To ever actually go and do it and to see what you guys have done in five years is just extremely encouraging. So wanted to encourage, speaking of encouragement, encourage you guys to keep up the great work and I look forward to staying in touch with you guys and supporting you here from the sidelines.

I appreciate that, sebastian. Yeah, we are. We are pumped. We are super, super pumped for what is ahead and, like he said and I've said here before, we're just getting started. So, yeah, look out, I appreciate the time.

Sebastian, absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, tyler Cox VaynerSpeakerscom More information on that as well. I'll put the link in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode, in case you're wondering what in the world a show note is, tyler. Thanks again, brother. I should be in New York first of the year here, so we'll have to link up and grab a coffee over there at Hudson Yards. I look forward to that.

If you're around, let me know your dates and we'll figure out a time to meet up.

I will absolutely do that. Thanks again, brother. All right, take care, man. Until next time. Friends, thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way, you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast launchlabcom studios. We'll talk to you next time.