Connecting Vegas One Brand at a Time: Ben Laifsky on Local Marketing That Works

Vegas doesn’t run on luck—it runs on people.

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, we sit down with longtime marketing strategist and community builder Ben Laifsky, co-founder of Hunter Marketing and a key player in organizations like AMA Las Vegas, LVIMA, and Tech Alley. From digital marketing to grassroots organizing, Ben has spent nearly two decades helping Las Vegas businesses connect, grow, and thrive.

This episode isn’t about flashy tactics—it’s about foundational trust, longevity, and showing up for your city. Ben breaks down what it really takes to build momentum in Las Vegas, not just in marketing, but in the messy, human parts of entrepreneurship.

“Too many people just talk about themselves, and that’s what falls really flat.”

We talk about the power of collaboration, why most businesses misunderstand branding, and how real growth happens when you shift from selling to solving. From AI tools to in-person events, Ben shares what’s working in today’s evolving ecosystem—and what still comes down to good old-fashioned relationship-building.

“Our goal is to provide that for everybody so that they know what we know what’s going on around town.”

We also touch on what Vegas needs to support its entrepreneurs—from better infrastructure to tighter networks—and how a few committed people can spark real, sustainable change.

Key Takeaways:

• You don’t need more tactics. You need to know your customer and earn their trust.
• Being known in Vegas isn’t enough—you have to be reliable.
• Local events and associations are an underrated gateway to real opportunity.
• AI is a tool, not a strategy. You still have to do the thinking.
• Long-term business success is built on relationships, not just results.

Resources:

• Ben Laifsky on LinkedIn
• Hunter Marketing
• Network Vegas
• Tech Vegas

If you care about this city, you’ll want to listen.

This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at what’s really fueling Las Vegas’s business scene—and how to be part of the next wave.

Thanks for tuning in to The Pursue Vegas Podcast!

Transcript

0:00:02 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of Pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

0:00:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

0:00:13 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility is to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are. All right, welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host Tawny Nguyen.

0:00:26 - (Dave Burlin): And we're pretty excited. Are we pretty excited?

0:00:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Contain yourself, Ben.

0:00:31 - (Dave Burlin): You're not the boss of me. Get your shit together. No, definitely excited for today's guest. Ben is an incredible entrepreneur here in Las Vegas. There's so many great entrepreneurs here in Las Vegas. But what I love the most about Ben is his community spirit. Right. And that's part of the reason why he's on the show today. But Ben, tell us about yourself. What are you excited about and what are you into?

0:00:55 - (Ben Laifsky): All right, well, starting out Ben Levsky, my company is Hunter Marketing. We're coming up on 12 years out of Henderson. It's myself and Autumn Hood are the partners. And then we have our cast of Mary, our merry band of misfits.

0:01:11 - (Dave Burlin): Now how big is that Mary band?

0:01:13 - (Ben Laifsky): About eight.

0:01:14 - (Dave Burlin): Cool.

0:01:14 - (Ben Laifsky): And then we have others that we pull in when there's different jobs that need to be done.

0:01:19 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:01:20 - (Ben Laifsky): So we do design work, we do strategy, we help with branding and with generating leads and raising brands visibility. So we have all kinds of clients that are mostly local businesses. So your doctors, your lawyers. We have a number of e commerce clients, contractors and home services, some entertainment and people around town, some of the startups in town. So we have little of everybody.

0:01:48 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, you have the whole portfolio.

0:01:50 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah, we support diversification.

0:01:53 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:01:53 - (Ben Laifsky): Three different marketing associations. So we provide their events and mostly their ticketing and you know, sell sponsorships on those sites. So we have a variety of things going on.

0:02:06 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, well, it's funny that I'm pretty. We got connected at events and it's only been in the last year that we actually started dressing exactly alike. Not today because we had to actually do a memo. But oftentimes we show up, we look like each other. We show up. Yeah. We show up at the same event. And the last three I think we've been to, we were dressed exactly.

0:02:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): I gotta see photos of this. I just, you know, like, no, photos didn't work.

0:02:31 - (Ben Laifsky): Identical cousins.

0:02:31 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Well, speaking of photos, the whole message thread between Ben and I is like, if you look at it, it's just all pictures that he's taken of me taking photos of other People. It's like the whole thing.

0:02:43 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah.

0:02:43 - (Dave Burlin): Out of vents. Cause I'm always like taking these angle photos and he's got all the photos of me.

0:02:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you have like the dad shots and stuff?

0:02:50 - (Dave Burlin): Exactly.

0:02:51 - (Ben Laifsky): It was suggested that I make a calendar or a nice book of those. I'm sure that will sell out in minutes.

0:02:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): The book of Dave. Yeah.

0:03:01 - (Dave Burlin): It's like this is just a fun. As we're talking about marketing. I could talk about marketing forever. Just as much as I would love to talk about pizza. And they go hand in hand. But there's. Have you seen the video where the guy's like, oh, I hired a gen zer or whatever to edit my videos and the guy's just like. And it's just like all him taking a breath in and that's all it is, is edited over and over. It's like that's brilliant marketing to me. I'm just kidding.

0:03:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): That was like last year, right?

0:03:30 - (Dave Burlin): I think so. Yeah, I think so. Now when it comes to the events, I started seeing you at all the events a couple years ago. You're involved in a ton of those different marketing associations and stuff like this. So what are all the organizations that you're a part of? Just so we can shamelessly plug them for Pursuit Vegas.

0:03:50 - (Ben Laifsky): The first one that we've been involved with for almost 20 years is called lavima. It's lvima.com that is all the digital marketers around town. Oh cool. So if you work at a brand, if you work at an agency, tech providers and it's free for local marketers but it's paid for by sponsors for us. You may apply, I don't know. But anyway, I was a longtime board member. We did their branding when we rebranded about two years ago.

0:04:23 - (Ben Laifsky): My business partner is the current president. So we've been involved with this group. It's an event based organization that has networking and content events all around. What's coming, what's new in marketing. So it's always on the, you know, if you think of the strip you're thinking about, they're going to use every tool available. So if something comes out, that's one of the first places you'll find it and you'll learn about things that become commonplace in the rest of the market.

0:04:50 - (Ben Laifsky): You know, that's cool. On the kind of cutting edge of things. And then we're very involved with the American Marketing Association.

0:04:57 - (Dave Burlin): Nice.

0:04:57 - (Ben Laifsky): So that AMA Las Vegas is a great group and that's a little bit more of a general marketing. There's a lot more local marketing folks there.

0:05:06 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I've been to one of those that said, is that at a steakhouse? Am I crazy right now?

0:05:11 - (Ben Laifsky): Most of their events are at Fogo de Chow, with occasional events here and there. Their upcoming event or their biggest event every year is their super bowl roundup of where they review the ads from the Super Bowl. That's a really fun one.

0:05:24 - (Dave Burlin): Ooh, that'd be cool.

0:05:25 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah.

0:05:25 - (Dave Burlin): Nice, nice. And then other organizations, techally, which is.

0:05:30 - (Ben Laifsky): Probably where we mostly connected, got really excited about the local tech and startup communities. So going to a lot of those events. That's your startup Envy. That's your Zero Labs, your startup Vegas, your tech alley. Tech alley in particular is one that I like to make sure that I point out to people because it's just got such a nice open feel and you meet so many different people there and you can grow a lot in that fertile soil.

0:06:01 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, it's a great collision point. Right there's just because you have all the different groups that are meeting up, everyone kind of shows up there and it's an all day thing. People can come and go as they like. So. Yeah. Always a super fan of that one.

0:06:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): I was told that's the Tech Church of Vegas. Hallelujah.

0:06:18 - (Dave Burlin): I don't know what that.

0:06:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Take that with a grain of salt, whoever's listening.

0:06:23 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, that reminds me, like, I have to pin Josh Levitt down because we talked about him coming on the show.

0:06:29 - (Ben Laifsky): Oh, absolutely.

0:06:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:06:30 - (Dave Burlin): I love it. Yeah. And again, it all starts with community. That's where we did start to connect more often. And then you also got very involved in Global Entrepreneurship Week. And when I say involved, there's been people that have helped with different avenues, but you took the role as the community organizer for Henderson, so thank you so much for that. And then you're involved in groups in Henderson as well that are more specific to that community.

0:06:57 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, a few years ago, we started running some what I call community sites. The first one is coming up on 4 years old. This summer is called Network Vegas. And our goal is. That is the business calendar of Las Vegas.

0:07:11 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:07:12 - (Ben Laifsky): All your conventions, your chambers, which there's 20 chambers in town, your professional associations. There's about 100 of those business groups. Like there's all kinds of events and it's just ridiculously hard to find things that are going on before they happen.

0:07:29 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:07:30 - (Ben Laifsky): After you can easily find out what you missed.

0:07:32 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:07:33 - (Ben Laifsky): So our goal is to. Is to provide that for everybody so that they know what you know, we know what's going on around town.

0:07:39 - (Dave Burlin): And for that, for people that don't know, it's pretty easy to navigate. Right. Like you can search it, you can break it down by different categories and things like that. And what was the website for that one?

0:07:50 - (Ben Laifsky): That is Network Vegas.

0:07:52 - (Dave Burlin): Network Vegas. It is a real website, folks. And the joke here is because a lot of times people are like. Or if you fill out forms sometimes I started putting stuff under Daveursue Vegas and it's like, this may not be a real website. And it's like, oh, it's real. That Vegas is a real thing. You were one of the first ones probably. And now people are kind of coming around to that.

0:08:12 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah, we have a number of these worth because we talk tech. Tech Vegas is one of ours that's just turned two years old.

0:08:20 - (Dave Burlin): Nice.

0:08:20 - (Ben Laifsky): And again we're trying to make it easier to find all the startup and technology related events in town.

0:08:26 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So for people that might not be so tech savvy like myself, are the events from Tech Vegas probably are on Connect?

0:08:36 - (Ben Laifsky): No, it's sort of a separate.

0:08:37 - (Dave Burlin): Or Network Vegas.

0:08:38 - (Ben Laifsky): It's a separate focus.

0:08:40 - (Dave Burlin): Okay, gotcha.

0:08:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think tech is its own beast out here. Right. Because if I can get around network based which thank you for the invite on that because I was asking him, I'm like, hey, I'm looking for specific things because people like myself that are transient and now are becoming more local. There's a lot of events here and as much as we would like to think that all of them are of substance, I'm like, how do I filter to the more cherry picked versions of like, you can be honest with me because I'm like, hey, I'm thinking about going to this. I've gotten a lot of feedback from people like, don't go there. It's a waste of time because we know the personalities.

0:09:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what I mean? So I think that's a great place because there are people that want to hit everything and there are people like myself that are a little bit more introverted. I'm like, I don't want to go to everything. I want to go to like one new thing a month and then just really connect with people.

0:09:29 - (Ben Laifsky): On well, you asked about construction and development and when you talk about construction and real estate, there's like eight or nine very large groups in town in those spaces and they're very active. But you're right, you want to pick and find the place that you're going to feel.

0:09:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Because eventually I'll put in like Henderson networking And it's like, here's your 38 pages. I'm like, I quit. And I was just like, exit out of the town. And for those reasons, I'm out.

0:09:59 - (Ben Laifsky): And Eventbrite. Oh, it's a great service, but it's kind of overrun with people selling courses and the same event that looks like it's local, but it's really not.

0:10:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's like an MLM thing. You're getting pitched something. And honestly, as a business owner and as an entrepreneur, you don't want to be sold any more than you are already. You're bombarded on LinkedIn. You're bombarded like, I don't want to open my Facebook. Like, anything that I feel like we're opening that, like, window to Pandora. It's like every time you open a social media channel, you're just like, buy this.

0:10:28 - (Ben Laifsky): You're pouring my heart out here. Yeah.

0:10:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): Have I tapped into the same frequency as your brain?

0:10:34 - (Dave Burlin): Yes. Oh, my God. That's right.

0:10:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): See enough eye contact, what we're doing here?

0:10:39 - (Ben Laifsky): Right.

0:10:40 - (Dave Burlin): No. So. And well, and also, I just want to say this. You didn't just become a community organizer. Your team also took care of the website for GLOW Architecture.

0:10:51 - (Ben Laifsky): CW Nevada is something we produced. It's something we're real proud of and we're excited to be a part of again. This will be the third year.

0:10:59 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. This year, it'll definitely be one that really brings a lot of stuff together. Because that's kind of. Of part of what I don't want to say that's the whole intent of this show. But I'm very involved in that organization, and it just naturally.

0:11:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's a little biased.

0:11:14 - (Dave Burlin): It's pretty biased.

0:11:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I'm gonna put this into the universe, since we're all sitting at the table together, that I'm gonna get a little feet wet with the Henderson stuff that you're working on.

0:11:23 - (Dave Burlin): There you go.

0:11:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cause I think when you mentioned Ben's last year for gw, you're like, this guy named Ben. I'm like, he lives in Henderson. I'm like, henderson is huge. I'm like, I don't know the five people that live in Henderson.

0:11:33 - (Dave Burlin): He's closer to your side of he.

0:11:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Which I'm closer to Boulder City.

0:11:39 - (Dave Burlin): He's definitely closer to that side than. Yeah, no. So that's a great segue to this because there's always the technical side of everything. Right. There's the networking at events. That's a big part of it. But then there's also the marketing and communication how do you take all of the things that are going on in the greater city of Las Vegas and the Valley, but for you, putting you on the spot here, you are more involved in the community aspect of it than just the digital part.

0:12:13 - (Dave Burlin): Why is community important to you? What is it about being here in Las Vegas that you feel so called to just be engaged?

0:12:24 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, the two part answer in general about community, I'm finding that the really successful people online pair community with a product or service or series of them. And when they, when that's executed well and it's well branded, that's really the top, the pinnacle of what you can achieve online these days. And you look at these different brands that have either started by growing an audience and then layering in these products or services, or they start as the provider who comes and then builds an audience.

0:12:58 - (Ben Laifsky): However you get there, that's where you're executing. With all the tools that are available to us, you're using these platforms to really bring people together and offer value. So that is a general feeling about the current world we're in, the terrain on which we're deployed. In terms of Vegas, I got here 25 years ago and a couple months and I fell in love with this place. And it's only grown since then.

0:13:28 - (Ben Laifsky): And right now I just couldn't be more excited about everything that's going on in this town. We work with one of the institutes in UNLV called UNLV Sports Innovation Institute. And they're creating like thought leadership and programs helping to grow the next leaders in sports, whether that's management science, research or personal performance.

0:13:54 - (Dave Burlin): Nice.

0:13:54 - (Ben Laifsky): You know, the stuff they're doing is helping athletes, it's helping first responders, like they're helping with brain research. That's been. And that's all being done at unlv, which I'm incredibly proud to support.

0:14:06 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, absolutely.

0:14:08 - (Ben Laifsky): So sports is obviously huge these days. Yeah, obviously entertainment conventions like just go down the list and Vegas is just killing it on every category.

0:14:19 - (Dave Burlin): Well, and it hasn't always been that way and obviously there's been a lot of growth that's happened that needed to happen since Pandemic. But for all that, what do you see? Because you've seen it for a lot longer than I have, a lot longer than Tanya and I both have combined. What do you see as the biggest challenge in, in the Valley right now from just a. Is it, you know, whether it be an entrepreneurial level or, you know, government, any of those things, what do you see as the biggest challenge right now?

0:14:54 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, we're at the preview event, which. A great event every year the Vegas Chamber puts on, or if you attend one of the LVCVA's big events, where they talk about, you know, like, preview.

0:15:04 - (Dave Burlin): And stuff like that.

0:15:05 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah. And obviously we need a little more infrastructure on medical. We're growing education. That's an area we have to double down on. We have a really great program for how we use our water. But figuring out more there is very important. Our infrastructure has to keep growing. Like, they're talking about the next version of the next airport. We're going to max out on. On Harry Reid is gonna max out at some point, and we have to offload some of this, you know, so we have a lot of challenges that are all byproducts of great success.

0:15:48 - (Dave Burlin): Right.

0:15:48 - (Ben Laifsky): Like, they're all, you know, we have a lot of great problems to have.

0:15:52 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, yeah. From the. From more, I guess more from the ecosystem itself, where we're down on the ground very much. So every week we run into each other often at some of those events. What do you see as the biggest opportunities then?

0:16:07 - (Ben Laifsky): You talking about more like the tech and startup ecosystem.

0:16:09 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, the startup ecosystem. Any of that stuff that you see More from your perspective, what do you see as the big opportunity in the next few years to come?

0:16:18 - (Ben Laifsky): I think we just need to keep growing the institutions that are locally that support the entrepreneurs. There's great people at the state with the city of Las Vegas and Henderson both have great, great team members. We know them. The county has wonderful people. Like, there's. There's all kinds of really talented, sharp people working on this, but we need more.

0:16:42 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, absolutely.

0:16:43 - (Ben Laifsky): You know, and the really successful communities are all, you know, carrying that flag and marching in one direction, and we have a lot of different voices and maybe we could, you know, pull together. We have to support each other and. And just grow. Grow. What's going on here?

0:16:59 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I mean, I've seen that, and it happens with a lot of the other communities that I've been a part of or been connected to. Because a lot of the stuff that I do in the veteran space. Right. Is in pockets of communities around the. Around the country. When I grew the wedding business and stuff like that throughout the Midwest, I would spend a lot of times, like a year plus in some of these other startup communities, I would always see people that didn't necessarily communicate together all the time.

0:17:25 - (Dave Burlin): That's always going to happen. There's going to be people that are doing stuff in pockets that don't know about the other People, even though this is a small town, right. They say it's like the. You know, what is it? We made the joke. There's 2 million people, and we know all 200. But with that, one of the challenges that has come up in the past, I think it's getting a lot better. Is, like, it's one thing to not communicate, but it's a totally different thing to work, like, kind of against each other. I think a lot of that stuff has really changed, and now, you know, we are kind of marching in the same direction, especially as we had, you know, so many people that have come because we've opened up whole new pockets, like sports and stuff like that.

0:18:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I'm huge on the infrastructure side. And, you know, to be honest, like, when you hear digital marketers, like, I tread a little bit lightly because everyone online now is a guru. It's a digital marketer. And like that, you know, it's kind of like not the faint of heart because there's so many people here, there's so many businesses coming online and thinking that they can just bring a new business and just make it in Vegas.

0:18:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): But what they don't know is a relationship town. And you've seemed like you have your roots planted here, and I love your story of how involved you are here, and you've had your hands in all of these pockets of industries and all the leaders and, you know, people, like, at. At the very end, like, we like human connection, and we like to do business with real good people. And that, for me, I think, is what separates kind of like the good from the great.

0:18:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because these guys that come online and, you know, they build these businesses and they're driving huge revenue, but they don't last. They don't stay in this town for a very long time. But it kind of makes the rest of the local business owners kind of feel like, oh, what am I missing? Because we're diving deep into, like, a digital age and AI, which I'm all behind. And I love the infrastructure of AI.

0:19:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): And, you know, the flash terms now is optimizing and using it to optimize and workflow and all these fancy, you know, smashy things to where older businesses are kind of like, if you don't get on board now, like, you're gonna be behind in the next few years, which, if you're not already having that conversation, I feel like they are kind of behind in the marketing world. So that's something I would like to, like, unpack a little bit in terms of, like, how Vegas itself is in infancy, as I call it, in the first, I don't know, 10 years. And as it grows with the sports and the whole governmental side and spaceport and pahrump and just the expansion of all of the infrastructure of real estate and construction, which, those are things I'm behind. I'm a blue collar girl at heart, you know, and I believe in the good work ethics of like, good people that are now confused because they're like, what's up with AI? Like, we should be a tiktoker. And then, you know, and then they had their, their life flash before their eyes and their dreams gone in like 24 hours.

0:20:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): So that's like a topic that I love talking about because, like, who's gonna really build Vegas? It's gonna be the people that's gonna stick around that's gonna want to grow it with like a certain set of ethos that want to build this town with like a certain set of integrity. I hope we want to do business with people that are kind of like us. Right. So what are your take on that whole infrastructure versus AI versus human versus where Vegas is going in the next five to 10 years?

0:20:34 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, something you said that really resonated is there are a lot of people that come here and they want to make an immediate splash and. And you really do want to. Like, when you live here for a long time, you really want to see that somebody's committed to being here. And some people come here and some people can't be here. Like, I've known people that, you know, they needed to go. Like there's aspects of Vegas that they just weren't able to be adjacent to in a healthy way.

0:21:05 - (Ben Laifsky): But you look for somebody that you look to see that somebody's genuine about the community that's committed to being here that really does have the highest good and they're not here to just grab what they can and run. So that part is huge. There's a huge air about that in the current craze that's going on with all these tools. And the tools are incredible. The moment we're in could not be more exciting.

0:21:37 - (Ben Laifsky): The things, you know, every day we're all learning something new and we're all kind of new at it together. Even though there's a lot of people that want to tell you that they've been, you know, they've got their 50 years of AI experience and they'll teach you, but they've been doing it the exact same amount of time as we have. And the tools require a lot of time and attention to get proficient at them and to really leverage them so that you come out with something that's of value and not something that's just kind of a copy of a copy of a copy.

0:22:08 - (Ben Laifsky): So the people that are really committed to the community, the people that are really getting deep on the tools that are. That are brand new, the people that are really trying to build something, and you just kind of have to sift through a lot of. A lot of folks till you find those people that you really can connect with. And. And that is a challenge these days.

0:22:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): It is. I told Dave, I was like, when I first moved here, I had no idea because I thought it ran the same way as California, which is very transactional. Big money, lots of marketing dollars. But people don't like working together. So, you know, when we make the joke, we're like, yeah, we had to kiss a lot of frogs before we got to this community. And just. Even just the handshakes now, it's a lot more valuable in terms of what it actually takes to earn trust and credibility in this town. And not just exactly what you said, like, just come in and take, but it's like, hey, how can I serve?

0:23:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): How can I just be a go giver? That's almost a buzzword now, but I think people are finally shifting their perspective on understanding what that term really means. It's like, be of service, like, help somebody else first, and then you naturally, with the byproduct of that, will, you know, manifest your own. Whether it be money, whether it be success, however they define it, it just naturally comes with you being a good person in this town.

0:23:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): So something that kind of resonates, that sits on our heart with this show. It's. Sometimes we have to understand the extent on what, you know, the ask of, like, what we do at the table. Right. So, yeah. So those are something that I love talking about.

0:23:41 - (Dave Burlin): For me, it's been really interesting because, well, this is just me. It's not for everybody. But one of the first ways that I really start to measure people is I invite them to stuff. And it's not always my stuff. I invite them to other people's stuff. And yes, we live in a busy day and age, and sometimes there's a reason why people don't go to things, and that's totally fine. But sometimes it's like, oh, like, it's kind of like, what is the excuse? Like, I'm not asking you to come support me.

0:24:12 - (Dave Burlin): If I invite you to something, It's. I'm inviting you to this community. Like, I'm inviting you to show up. And sometimes that's where it starts. Yeah. Some of the stuff is free, some of the stuff is paid. It's really interesting to see the people that do show up to things. I feel like everyone's pleasantly surprised. They're like, wow, I didn't know this was going on. Or, you know, I didn't even know this was a thing.

0:24:35 - (Dave Burlin): There's a gal that I met on. It's so funny. I met her on Bumble Business, and as soon as she reached out, yeah, it's totally above on business.

0:24:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): I don't even think that's a real app.

0:24:47 - (Dave Burlin): It is, it is. I've met incredible people from the app. No. So when she reached out, the first thing that she said was, hey, Dave, I want to check out your podcast. And I had sent her the episode that we did with Tori Gordon, and it was so remarkable because she was like 30 minutes into it, she called and she was like crying almost, because she was like, I didn't know she just moved here from Mexico.

0:25:10 - (Dave Burlin): She's like, I didn't know that I would be able to find like minded people in this community. So it's like there are. There's so many unicorns of people here that come here because this is. To your point. There are people that have come because nowhere else made sense to them, you know, and they can stay here. But it does get to be challenging sometimes because. And I think that's one of the reasons why I feel like the community really does lock arms and comes together, because I make this joke often.

0:25:42 - (Dave Burlin): Like, I feel like in some cases, like, this is a be like a total reference to a movie, but like the movie Independence Day, the first one with Will Smith, like, the whole world came together because we had to fight aliens. Well, we're all coming together as a community not because we're fighting aliens from the sky, but we're not fighting tourists. We're trying to understand how to kind of create our own culture that isn't the strip. Like, so many of us rely on the strip for different things. Like, a lot of the clients and friends and stuff that come in, they're all coming here for different conventions that are coming through the town.

0:26:23 - (Dave Burlin): We can all leverage that in different ways, but in a way, we're also trying to create our own community. I've said this before. Marketing in this city for the everyday man is very challenging because a lot of times we don't have the money that the strip has. Like, you know, to get a billboard in this town. I remember I went to one of the AMA meetings, I think, and there was somebody there that worked from billboards. And I was just, like, just curious, like, how much is a billboard?

0:26:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): $10 million.

0:26:50 - (Dave Burlin): They're a lot of money. It's like, but. And it's like, I don't have $14,000 to get 10 seconds on a billboard every, you know, four minutes. I definitely don't have the kind of money to get. Like, there's some, like, hotels that get like seven billboards in a row because, like, they're telling a whole story just as you're coming in a certain side of town. And it's really interesting to see how so. For me, it's like, the people that are local here, one of the things that we should be able to count on is each other.

0:27:26 - (Dave Burlin): And I think that starts with just showing up and supporting other people, however that can be. I got in the habit of if I see something that I think I'd like to go to, I buy a ticket. I started buying two tickets, and I would just invite somebody to go with me. Sometimes if I can't go, I'll still buy a ticket and I'll give it to somebody who I think would benefit from going because it just. It's a little bit more support.

0:27:53 - (Dave Burlin): And I would challenge other people to try and do the same or even share it. Did you know that it costs money to share stuff on social media? It doesn't.

0:28:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Did you know I can't register sarcasm. Cause I'm on the spectrum.

0:28:05 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, I forgot. I forget that every episode.

0:28:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, but it's funny you say that. That's a nice way to pay it forward in this town, especially with just act of service. Because people, it's so diluted because they're expecting so much socially and social proof has gone way downhill. And they're like, what's the secret? You go out, how do you manage your energy? And I'm like, remove the expectations you have from people, number one. And number two, the secret for me is be as unhinged as possible.

0:28:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, skip the elevated pitch. Skip telling people what you do, because there's enough of that. And there's no offense to, like, the new guys coming around town. Of course you're going to have to get your, I guess the belt color. I don't know what color it is. Once you go up in the fighting.

0:28:49 - (Dave Burlin): I don't know the blue belt.

0:28:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): I've depended on it. But, you know, from someone that's been around town, you Can. I can tell when a person's been around enough to where you're like, what is this about? And I don't want to turn into a cynical person, but sometimes, you know, and I turn into like a cranky old lady. Like a fucking pumpkin or something. I'm like, if I hear one more elevator pitch today, I'm like, I can, like, keep my face straight, but be unhinged because that's how we met. I said, I don't know, we probably met and I said some joke and, like, it's just bs, authentic as you are.

0:29:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Maybe trauma test, dump a little bit. Yeah, kind of. Just a little bit, like, vulnerability.

0:29:25 - (Ben Laifsky): And I'm proud of myself. I did. I didn't run away.

0:29:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): You haven't cried, so it's right, you know, like, we need.

0:29:31 - (Ben Laifsky): It's early.

0:29:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): And then we test the meme game. He texted me, that's my love language. It's like, I was like, I was this guy's meme game. Can I be in this room with this guy for an hour? Can I roast you a little bit? Is he gonna cry? Is he gonna report me? Like, where's this relationship going? And I think that's kind of where I call it old fashioned. Like, you gotta court a little bit. But also, like, cut the fucking bullshit. Like, show me who you are so I can decide and you just stop wasting time in this town.

0:29:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because our time is so limited, it's finite and everyone's just buying a piece of attention. I'm like, I don't need two minutes of what you do. Like, show me who you are and I'll decide if I want to know what you do.

0:30:07 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah, and that's, that's what a lot of people get wrong about. Well, LinkedIn and networking, like on LinkedIn, they gurus will teach you, oh, just send people a compliment or a review, people you've never met, and then instantly that's your end. To ask for something or to pitch or they, you know, connect and then instantly drop the sales pitch on you. And it's tiresome.

0:30:33 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:30:34 - (Ben Laifsky): You know, people think about, Well, I got three responses out of 100. Well, what about the 80 people that don't ever want to hear from you again? Like, where's your personal brand in that? And with networking, you see the same thing. Some people have a great conversation and they just want to get to know the people they meet. And then some people, they're watching your lips moving because whenever your lips stop, that's when the pitch starts.

0:31:00 - (Ben Laifsky): And that's just you know, I mean, it's just part of the game, I guess, but it's tiresome.

0:31:07 - (Dave Burlin): This is so funny, because when you talk about marketing, right? And I always figure out a way to insert Mike Kim into this show because his book, you are the Brand, is so great. And his book was on. It was on the shelf in another podcast studio. And I had saw one of Tawny's podcast episodes, and then I saw Mike on it, and that's when I reached out to her. But I literally use this as a shameless plug as I look directly at the camera, because I always hate it whenever, like, in big syndicated podcasts, it's like, in the middle, they'll be like, did you know the sheets that I have that I got for Christmas? Or, like, made of this Egyptian thing? And it's like this whole thing with a promo code.

0:31:51 - (Dave Burlin): But no, this is like, I met. I literally met Trevin from the video podcast studio.

0:31:57 - (Ben Laifsky): Is it time for us to stop and do our best mattress commercial?

0:32:03 - (Dave Burlin): Did you know the best mattress is the purple mattress? Yeah, it just comes big asleep.

0:32:08 - (Ben Laifsky): My sleep was a problem.

0:32:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): And then one day, I'm like, snap, crackle and pop.

0:32:15 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, no. And for that, I met Trevin at. I think I met him at an American Marketing association five years ago. I never tried to sell him anything like, I was actually doing at the time. I was working for a large sales and leadership coaching firm. That was. My job, was to go out and sell that. But when I go to events, especially when I was kind of new in town, I just wanted to know kind of what everybody was doing.

0:32:39 - (Dave Burlin): And the funniest thing is, I think I just didn't piss him off. And, like, because it's so easy to get pissed for all of us. It's so easy to just get pitched and. And get frustrated with it. But then here we are, it's like, five years later. We've known each other for a long time, and then it's like. And then he became one of the sponsors for the show for here at the Pursue Vegas podcast. And it's helped because we've been able to work together.

0:33:04 - (Dave Burlin): So it's been built on relationships. So for me, you know, and a lot of people do know this, like, to me, relationships are everything. And that's what I was gonna ask, because somebody that comes from such a digital marketing background, like, and you have such a community spirit, what is. You know, and I'll tag Mike Kim on this as well, because one of the things that I loved about him is marketing isn't about, you know, closing the next sale. It's about starting a conversation.

0:33:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): For him, it's opening a relationship.

0:33:37 - (Dave Burlin): Opening a relationship. Yeah.

0:33:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:33:38 - (Ben Laifsky): For you, that's the best way to put it.

0:33:40 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. For you, what is marketing at the core? Like, what. What are the things that really inspire you about marketing? What's good marketing, what's bad marketing? Like, what are all the things marketing for you?

0:33:53 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, for me, I think it's important to understand your customers, who they are, what the issues that they're having, the pain points they're having, and the value that you can provide or that you're. In my case, your client can provide. Like, if you're talking to people about things that concern them and showing people that they've been seen that we hear you, we understand what you're dealing with, and hey, we have this option, you know, that to me is really great.

0:34:21 - (Ben Laifsky): Too many people just talk about themselves and that's what falls really flat. You know, people aren't going to really get too invested in who you are until they know what you can provide for them. So getting the messaging really tight, that process, I think is fascinating. Understanding the real what does this brand really mean and trying to convey that not by saying we are this, but by demonstrating it.

0:34:52 - (Ben Laifsky): That, to me, is just the most fascinating thing. When we can use design and figure out the right way to put something together that really shows what we're talking about or tells a little story, that's what we all respond to. So those are the things that I just get really excited about when we're doing our work.

0:35:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Because good and bad only exist when it's in comparison.

0:35:16 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:35:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): But for me, it's. What makes me tick is sometimes in this town, you think you're making like a connection and you go to coffee. Right. There's only so many cups of coffee you can grab with people. And I've told Dave this story. I'm like, you know, coming from the marketing, kind of like, ick that I had is sometimes people will write you a proposal before they meet you and they'll call you. And then, you know, I had. I had a guy that like, called me or whatever. We met each other at a podcast studio. So I thought it was just about getting conversations, just kind of like, you know, vetting each other out. Let's grab a cup of coffee, see what you're about. And, you know, the whole complimenting thing, the whole tactics and strategies and oh, by the way, like, I wrote you this, I think this is how we can work Together. I'm like, you pretty much just got on your knees and like, asked me to marry you.

0:35:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): What? You know, and it's just like. And that's kind of like the superficial layer of the sales process. And that's what we dive into a lot is understanding how these businesses really actually operate. Because if it's just a sales guy at the driving front and it's just putting people. And I'm like, first of all, like, don't call people a lead or a prospect. I'm like, that's just rude for me. I'm like, if I, you know, you know. So I think for me, those are some of the things that now that I'm in conversations with a lot more business owners, they're like, you know, how do I get more leads and all this stuff? And I'm like, let's just see what you understand. Well, anyways, that's a different conversation. But I think from the marketing standpoint, I think they're more practice, or I call it like a by code of principles on how you should just operate as a person first before you get into the weeds of like just throwing your business in people's face and hoping it sticks like a spaghetti. You know, it's like, ah, like, maybe you'll buy my products. Maybe, you know, got them?

0:36:52 - (Dave Burlin): I got them.

0:36:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Here's my card. Call me. And I'm like, no, like, I'm going to use your card as a toothpick and never see it again.

0:36:59 - (Ben Laifsky): I always use the example of a young man walking up to 100 young ladies and asking them to prom that he's never met. You know, he might get one prom date out of that.

0:37:09 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:37:09 - (Ben Laifsky): That doesn't mean it's successful if you've just turned off the rest of them.

0:37:12 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, yeah, exactly.

0:37:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): The role probability. Right. Some of them are too high into conversions. Well, I converted three of them, but I love your point on that. I'm like, what happened to the rest of them that you turn off?

0:37:23 - (Ben Laifsky): Yeah. They don't want to hear from you.

0:37:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because that's not goodwill. You're just building kind of like bad karma. And you're carrying that around for a while in this town especially. It's huge on reputation and asking the next guy kind of like, and how.

0:37:33 - (Ben Laifsky): Deep is the transaction? You might get a transaction out of it, but you're not making anything that's going to be a lasting business relationship.

0:37:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): You're not putting good energy into the world because you're just taking from like, how can this person benefit my business and then I never have to talk to them again.

0:37:48 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, that's where the tools that make marketing easier have also made connection a little harder. I can sit down and scrape 100,000 emails in a half hour and start blasting out to them, but if I don't have an understanding of what's a good offer or what would be valuable to them or who they really are or what they care about, I'm just going to be shouting to the wind.

0:38:14 - (Dave Burlin): Actually, that leads to. As we start to close, I wanted to ask you this. I thought about this before we hopped on today. I don't know that we've ever really had that conversation of what makes great marketing. I'm the kind of person where the people that have had the most impact in my life, no matter where I was at, are the people that can make me laugh and make me cry in the same setting. Right. For some people, marketing is can you make people feel pain to where the only relief to that pain is a transaction? Some people, it's like it's about laughing or, you know, there's great stuff like liquid death or things like that. But is there for you? For you, what is good marketing? Are there pillars or are there people that have really sparked that interest to you and it's really relevant to you? Just today, as I was on my way in, it's come up a couple times where somebody had mentioned Seth Godin's new book, this is Strategy.

0:39:12 - (Dave Burlin): I love his perspective on just the world in general. That's somebody who, when I think marketing, I think Seth Godin, I think Mike Kim. Those are just the people that immediately I start to filter through. How would their brains work around this? So for you, are there any sort of masters of marketing that have really given you kind of a perception of how you tap into that?

0:39:37 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, Seth Godin is great and he also is really expert at taking really complex sets of ideas and just making them so plain and simple. And that's just an amazing skill. I go back to the old days like I go back to like the 60s and 70s. David Ogilvie is a very famous marketer, created one of the most famous agencies in Irvine. Yeah.

0:40:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): And he's at their agency.

0:40:06 - (Dave Burlin): Nice.

0:40:07 - (Ben Laifsky): Well, he's a genius. Now you have to translate the types of advice he's giving you. But the part of it is don't treat the consumer like they're dope. That's your wife. That's, you know, the consumer is an everyday person. Don't talk to them. Don't talk down to them. Or don't assume that they don't understand, you know, honor the fact that they have concerns and who they are. So a lot of that kind of stuff really gets to a timeless place and you have to bring it forward and adapt it to our technology and our crazy platform driven world.

0:40:45 - (Ben Laifsky): But I go back to the really old, the old ones to see what they did.

0:40:49 - (Dave Burlin): I love that. I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming today. This has been exhilarating on a couple different levels, right? The community level, the technical level as well. Where can people find you name every single website. Just throw it all down. Shameless Plug. Here's the broad business card.

0:41:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): Let's see how googleable you really are.

0:41:13 - (Ben Laifsky): You can Find me on LinkedIn. Ben Levsky on LinkedIn. Our company site is Hunter Marketing.

0:41:23 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, nice.

0:41:24 - (Ben Laifsky): Thank you. I love that we have Network Vegas, Tech Vegas, and we have a brand new site that we're just launching now called conventionsolutions Vegas, which is a directory of all the providers that support this amazing convention industry in town.

0:41:42 - (Dave Burlin): Ooh, did I just hear all of the ingredients for episode 2? I just heard we gotta bring them back.

0:41:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think I heard the light bulb go off in there.

0:41:53 - (Dave Burlin): We gotta. Yeah, now we gotta bring you back because that's a. We've had a little bit more in depth conversation about that, but there's definitely a lot of room to open that.

0:42:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Gotta save the sauce.

0:42:02 - (Dave Burlin): Gotta save the sauce.

0:42:03 - (Ben Laifsky): It's barely out of the oven, but.

0:42:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): It'S getting marinated a little bit.

0:42:07 - (Dave Burlin): You know, let it sit, let it cool off.

0:42:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm thinking about pizza.

0:42:11 - (Dave Burlin): It's sourdough. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and we look forward to having you next time.

0:42:16 - (Ben Laifsky): Thank you both very much.

0:42:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Thank you, Ben, for being here. I'm glad I didn't make anything too inappropriate.

0:42:22 - (Ben Laifsky): I'm glad I didn't cry.

0:42:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Not yet. Part two is coming. Well, guys, thanks for tuning in. Please connect with Dave and I directly or Ben slide into his DMs. Don't be afraid. He's very friendly. And it's not a bot. He's a real live man answering his own messaging. Thank you, Ben. Again.

0:42:44 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

0:42:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

0:42:54 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility is to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are.