Notes from A3C Festival Speakers Gary Vee and ET the Hip Hop Preacher

The 15th annual A3C Festival - a five-day festival and conference centered around culture, music, tech, film and entertainment - was definitely a moment that will never be forgotten by anyone who attended. Especially me!

Just a little background - The festival has made it's name in Atlanta amongst many creatives and those pursuing careers in the entertainment space; however, due to recent partnership with the Gathering Spot, the A3C Festival has taken on a new life with conference style breakout sessions, keynotes and a more diverse range of topics for audiences of all walks to dive into.

The highlight of my experience was getting to hear a key note from Gary Vee, the serial entrepreneur, speaker, author, owner of Vayner Media and Vayner Sports amongst a host of other accolades. If you don't follow this guy, especially as an entrepreneur, do yourself a favor...follow him.

I also had the opportunity to hear from one of the top motivational speakers in the world, ET the Hip Hop Preacher. This guy is changing lives every single day with his raw, passionate delivery on how to be your most authentic self and succeed beyond your expectations. Another MUST follow.

I'm a student of the game and any time I can take notes from some amazing, successful people I'm the first with my notebook out. So... I wrote down all the key messages they discussed and I want to share them with you.

I was going to type them all out but I figured I'd spare you all the reading, give you the outline and break down all the key points via video.

Check it out :

Key points:

ET the Hip Hop Preacher:

1. Put some energy on your goals

- Write out your big goals 5 times a day

If you put energy on it you will achieve it. It's not about TALENT it's about ENERGY

2. Fight for your authenticity

- Don't compromise for anyone. Be yourself so you can give people 100% of you

- How much of your authentic self have you lost trying to be affirmed by others

- "Apologize to yourself for selling out"

3. Always Add Value

The way your dreams become reality is by adding value

- Don't give your audience the stuff YOU THINK they want. Give them the value they need. LISTEN!

-"Some of you don't have a tree because you ain't planted nothin'."

-Some of you are giving your stuff away for free and when no one want's it you get offended. That's no place to get offended, that's a place to learn. Go back to the drawing board.

4. Always share your knowledge

Your knowledge isn't yours to keep.

The school he went to had a sign on the archway that said "You enter to learn. You exit to serve."

It's not about you. Those who serve get blessed in return.

5. Make your vision look sexy

That's how you attract people. That's how people will start to want to be a part of what you're doing.

Gary Vee

1. Take advantage of the technological era we are in (THE INTERNET IS GOLD)

There is literally nothing standing in the way of you and your audience. You can reach them any time any way you want.

2. No one wants to hear your excuses

If you don't make it, or something doesn't work it's 100% your fault.

- It doesn't feel good to not have any excuses.

- Your ambition out of your mouth doesn't match the work you're putting in. People who WIN put in work.

3. The biggest issues in the system

1. Patience - everyone want's everything right this second

2. Selflessness - no one wants to give what they have. We live in a self-centered time

4. You will always find what you're looking for

If you want to find negativity it'll be right there. If you want to find something positive, you won't have to look far.

- We need to push out more positive messages, more wins, more happy moments. Everyone wants to share the bad.

-When Delta performs the miracle of flying a big ass piece of metal thousands of miles in the sky no one wants to tweet about the blessing of landing safely, but let Delta lose your luggage or not have those cookies when the flight attendant comes around.

- "We're loud as fuck about negativity but silent about the positive things."

5. Content

-"The truth is always the best story"

- If you're not putting out content out every single day you're leaving opportunity on the table

- The #1 way to expand your reach is to find underpriced attention (examples: TikTok and LinkedIn)

- Linked in is acting like Facebook 5 or 6 years ago. It's organic reach. There isn't an algorithm set up yet showing the people who are connected with you what they like or not showing them the things or people they don't engage with.

-You HAVE to figure out how you communicate best. "How can you communicate and give people to give a fuck?"

- Diversify - Don't put all of your content in one basket.

6. How to stay motivated

- The problem is - "Too many people do shit they don't actually love but they do it because it makes them money"

- Be aware of who you are, be patient, do the work

7. Patience and what people think

"We have a shitty relationship with time"

- We get caught up in thinking we don't have enough time to reach our goals, when in reality we're going to live 5 lifetimes in our life.

- We're impatient because we care too much about what people think.

- "Why so many people struggle when people boo them is because they're getting too high when people cheer"

- Don't worry about your L's, worry about your happiness.

8. Miscellaneous gems

- Don't underdeliver or underpromise

- If you don't deliver it speeds up the inevitable failure

- Always know the room and make it contextual

- Don't break what's already working"