What you need to know in advertising today

Gary Vaynerchuk has made a name for himself by speaking at hundreds of keynote talks, conferences, and events that bring in crowds of #Vaynernation fans fascinated with his hustle-and-grind work philosophy.

Now he's making a new business out of it.

Vaynerchuk is launching VaynerSpeakers, which is a standalone company under VaynerX (which also houses companies like ad agency VaynerMedia, Gallery Media Group, and ad-tech firm Tracer). The company will operate as a speakers bureau and help find people to speak at conferences and private events.

Click here to read more about VaynerSpeakers.

In other news:

Russia has allegedly been spreading far-right propaganda on Facebook to try and influence the US midterms - here it is. A Russian woman has been charged by the US Justice Department with conspiring to interfere with the US midterm elections.

ESPN has a huge opportunity to dominate the future of sports, but it has to fundamentally change its business model. Barclays analysts say ESPN+ is a potential big win for Disney in dominating sports digital media.

Twitter is shutting down bot accounts posting pro-Saudi tweets about missing dissident Khashoggi. Twitter has suspended hundreds of bot accounts identified by NBC News as being involved in a coordinated campaign to defend the Saudi government's role in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

A shadowy group spent £257,000 on Facebook ads asking people to drive a knife into Theresa May's Brexit plan. Politicians have uncovered evidence of a dark advertising campaign on Facebook, in which Brits were encouraged to lobby against Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan.

A former Coca-Cola executive turned cannabis startup founder reveals why crafting the Apple Store of weed is a multi-billion dollar opportunity. Toast, Herbessntls, and MedMen are mimicking tech companies' style of marketing and branding.