The VaynerMedia Empire: My Latest Chat W/ Gary Vee #TheOnePercent

This is real, like, very fancy people. The most fancy people, all the smartest people I knew said they were disappointed in me to start VaynerMedia. Really? Client service business. Not smart. Yeah, I can raise a $100 million fund easy. I can start a brand, I can start a business. I can start a wine app. I can do all these things. In 09, I'd already kind of hit the scene. I'm one of the most followed people on Twitter. I'm getting a ton of accolades. I'm rubbing elbows with Kevin Rosenberg, Zucks. Like, shit's happening for me. And I start a client service business. And people are like, you're not literally. People later on have told me things like, yeah, we had dinner and all agree that you're just not as smart as we thought you were. What I knew was I was playing long.

It takes one free person to create change. This is the show for them. We are the creators of the free world. This is capitalism.com and we are the 1%.

What's up, capitalists? Ryan here. Welcome back to the show. Today I'm sharing with you the latest chat that I had with Gary Vaynerchuk in his office in New York City. I flew there with C Money and my buddy Mark, and also one of my old friends, Kamal Ravikant. And if that name sounds familiar to you, his brother is Naval Ravikant, who's the founder of Angellist and is a frequent guest on the Tim Ferriss podcast and also the Joe Rogan Experience. So we were in his office talking about a variety of different things and boy, did Gary give me a lot of wine. So the longer you listen to this, the sloppier that I get. And we were in his office for about an hour and this is the conversation that we had about the state of entrepreneurship and also recapping how things have evolved and changed over the last decade or so. So you're going to really enjoy this if you are looking for new areas of opportunities and also to see the trend of entrepreneurship. Because one of the things that Gary said to me was he reminded me that he didn't even get started until his really his mid-30s. And he reminded me how long of a game he is playing. So if you are within the first few years of your career, you're really gonna benefit from this conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk. Fun fact, we sat in his office for hours after this conversation with his and talked about the platforms they're using and the opportunities that are pursuing. It's a really, really great team.

And.

And it's a real testament to the leadership that, that Gary has built over at VaynerMedia. So this is a really good one. Enjoy this fun chat with myself, my friends and Gary Vaynerchuk.

Over the last three years, I think I've became, you know, aware that how much gratitude drives me. Like, just true perspective around this is amazing that we even get to, you know, I really, really. There was that one video that went super crazy for me when the first time I realized that the current scientific math around people being alive is 400 trillion to one. And it still sits with me. It's like, it's. I always, I make the joke on stage sometimes. Like, your mom could have got a glass of wine. Like, I really think about, like I think about my dad basically forcing my mom to marry her. Like she wasn't that interested in him, but he just persevered in old Soviet Russia. He just kind of nagged her into it. And I'm just like, and that's me. Then I don't exist. If my mom stayed strong, like, you know, like, it just. I really can get weird on that shit. And I. It really is true. Like, it really is true. Like, I don't think we really. I think if we actually fully grasped that and time, that's the other one that I'm really hot on. I don't think most humans have a good relationship with time. I don't think they really realize how much time they have. Of course you could die tomorrow.

You mean longer?

Yeah, people, you know how hot I am on this patience. Like if you could contextualize it. Like so many people are so insecure and they want to achieve, to prove to everybody and if they just understood that if you achieve at 36 instead of 24, you'll still pull off what you want and. But they just can't get there and they start cheating and looking for shortcuts and.

Relationship with time and perspective around gratitude of actually having a life, if we can instill that at scale, we could have some really interesting stuff. Yeah, the time's an interesting one. Time's like one we need to be slapped in the head multiple times. Just kinda like it's, you know, like the samurai, they used to meditate on their death every day. Seriously. That's what made them those old, the fierce, fierce warriors. I wonder if. You know, bro, honestly, I think about it all the time. I think about the death of myself and my favorite people all the time. I probably meditate on it every day in some shape or form it is always on my mind. Which is why I think I am so happy. Yeah, I mean it. Cause it's still up here instead of in reality. Here. Let's do it ironically. To good health. To good health. Good health. Danny, you want one? Hey, Ryan, you sure you want some?

Thank you for being. Thank you for being alive.

Thank you for being alive is right.

Jeez, Gary, could I book you for a glass of the red?

Yeah, of course. Of course. We're gonna get to them all, or you wanna go over?

Yeah, we'll get to them all. Yeah, you'll roll me out of here. Awesome.

What were you gonna say?

So my best friend's name is Mark. And Mark and this Mark worked together for a while.

Your best friend Mark and this Mark have worked together for a while.

We were talking about him earlier and how he grew up with not nothing.

Your friend Mark.

Yes, he grew up with absolutely nothing. He just exited a company called RV Share. It was the largest peer to peer RV rental site in the world. Great company. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And you.

And you were on the board of it. And he's just. He's the happiest person, but he was happy before, too. And I think there is something, just the contrast between losing it all. If you know you can be happy with nothing. Like, that's. That's like the secret.

I couldn't agree more. When you feel you get more that.

Way too, that's when you can be.

Relaxed because you're so relaxed. You know why? Because you enjoy the game more than the stuff. Like, I almost weirdly fantasize of losing everything. Taking on the judgment that, see, he was full of shit. He wasn't that good. And then doing it again. I genuinely fantasize about that. I actually do, too. Every time I'm driving and I see, like, a homeless person, I always tell my wife, you know, if I was homeless, someday I could be fine. I could get a job pretty fast. I'd hustle my way back. Yeah.

Well, we did a video once where I was talking about how I used to be really afraid of losing everything and having to work at Dunkin Donuts again. And then I was like, but I would be the best damn donut salesman ever.

It just comes down to, do you love your process? Are you able to not care about judgment? And then how does that manifest it's really real?

I don't know. I'm just super grateful. And honestly, I think the newest version of myself over this last 20 years, doing content. These 12 years, doing content. The last Couple years. This last run I'm on this one I'm in right now. This is about genuinely realizing that I'm making an impact and just feeling a tremendous sense of responsibility to put out this content.

Cause it's counter to a lot of what's being put out. That is true.

Gary, there's one thing I'm itching to tell you.

Please.

And it's the last time I was here, you said, thank you.

You're welcome.

I have hundreds of bottles of these that just arrived while we were traveling. So I have not tried this yet. And I've been excited for it.

You said, right now you believe me 92%.

Yes.

And you were saying it from the.

Context of it was more than the time I saw you at the Core Club. That I remember, too. I don't know if I said it out loud, but I remember that as well.

And you said that. And that meant the world to me. And then you said, but right now, you still only believe in 92% about there's no ask, there's no.

Yeah, yeah.

It purely is just a give because it feels good.

Yep.

And I believe you 100% now.

So.

It has been a lot of personal work to get to that point.

The fact that you're getting to this point now is so scary good.

Thank you.

Honestly, dude, it's really. It makes me so happy.

I just want you to know I get it now. And it was.

I don't know that I would have gotten there as quickly without your example. And so one of the things, like the reason why I put a lot of energy into seeing you once a year or so is because you're kind of like a mirror of where I'm at. Because I think you're really clear internally about who you are. And it acts like a mirror to me of where I am. And so I just wanted to thank you.

Makes me happy, bro. I really get it. And honestly, it feels so, like. It feels like it's not the alcohol. It feels warm. It feels warm in my body. And it's actually to think about the kid that I met at the event to this moment is the actual dead example of the process that I'm trying to do at scale. I think some.

Thing happened where I get the great blessing to be the communicator that takes a lot of alpha winners and eliminates the bad behavior and instills more. I don't know what else to say. If it's super, it's super heady, it's super in the clouds, it's super. It can even be consumed as obnoxious. It's just actually I still believe it. I believe that it took a very unique voice to take guys that look like you and me and actually get them to think empathy and long game and kindness was actually the cool thing, not all the other stuff.

Because there's a lot of versions that try to push it in but 26 year old Rick can't hear that person and comes across.

Poor Rick, man.

But you know what I mean? Poor guy. 26 year old Rick is not gonna hear it from, you know.

An academic or from a scholar or from, you know, you're relatable. I was just. I'm. That I don't know what happened. I always kinda give my dad credit for scaring me straight from bullshit. But there's a lot that went into it. But like I almost feel like I'm on such a fine line. I'm so close to it but yet so far from it that it makes me connect with that person that's going through their process. How do you, how do you keep that balance? Walk that line? It's, you know, no different than like how he has epic hair or like, or like, or like he's in shape. Like it's funny. It's just. It's what I am. It's what I've always been. You know, it's funny to like recreate, find. Yeah, you kind of. There's a consistency to you. It gets even crazier. You know, our team has been really finding old videos that have like 88 dan you as a fresh eyes. Like I know you've worked on this. Like it's ridiculous. It's 2009. It's the same exact fucking words. Finding stuff that I can't even get in 360p like so low. But it's him like yelling about Twitter. It's crazy. That makes me happy if you.

Actually this. It's so funny you segued that way.

I'll tell you why I've been so consistent. And the only thing that changes is me trying to help kids figure out, kids everyone figure out where the underpriced attention is to put that into the system.

The only thing that will be new about me forever is being good at what I've been good at my whole life, which is understanding consumer trends a little bit quicker than the masses and then getting good at understanding the creative to fill it contextually to it. Cause the craft of being good on Twitter is different than Instagram, different than email, different than Google AdWords, but it's the same game. And so right now. And the reason I always get excited about things like TikTok or actually LinkedIn right now is I'm always trying to talk to the person that can't afford to run media. There's always something that's underpriced, organic.

Can I ask a stupid question? Got it. I saw your interview with Dababy rapper. Yep. Like that makes sense for the youth market. Does that make sense for Ryan and capitalism.com and like trying to go after that, like younger TikTok market? I think that. I think it could. I think it could. I think there's a couple things. Let me give you an example for capitalism dot com. Let me tell you the story of Social Cam. You remember Social Cam? It had. It was like four seconds there. It was like four months.

Do you remember that name? Yeah. Remember? It was like that orange. I think I know who. So there was an app called socialcam that him and I would remember. Cause what we were doing back then, it had a moment, but it was fast. I'm not talking Vine. This was like four months. It hacked the Facebook algorithm at its peak. Got like a drillion downloads, got all sorts of fun. And I think it sold. It was like with the app, when they opened the app. Can you Google Social Cam sold? I'm curious. Cause I think Twitter or Facebook bought it back or some other third party.

It was hot. I used it made no sense for me to use at the time. I wasn't anywhere in. But what I learned about first party video phone to this, because that's the first time I did it became the framework of how I used vine, which then became the framework of how I used Snap, which is why I exploded on Instagram 2012 and it was sold to Autodesk. Autodesk. That's when they open up their eyes. The developer platform. Actually, no. The developer platform was 2000. You want to hear something crazy? Yeah. Early. It was 2009. You know what's crazy about the developer platform? The first app I built was called AskGaryVee, but it was a Facebook. It was on Facebook only. And it was a wine app. You would ask me wine questions that I would answer. Yep. All these different things. And it was like AJ, to his credit, calls me the day F8 or whatever they were doing or on TechCrunch. Who knows? He calls me. He's like. I'm like in a wine deal. He's still in college. He's like, Facebook just did apps. I think this is gonna be important. Remember what you told me about the iPhone? They're doing it. I'm like, okay, that's important. And I remember we also made some sort of other. Oh, my God. I just remembered. We made an app. AJ Calls me, says we should make something. And actually, the first app was not AskGaryVee. The first app I made was called University Rivals.

You would just go. It was like, basically. Do you remember Color wars on Twitter?

No.

You remember that, Dania? No. Really? Good for you. Ze Frank. Remember ZE Frank, in 2007 started. I think it was ze Frank started something called Color Wars. And everybody on Twitter picked a team. The green team, the yellow team, and we all changed our avatars to have a color behind it. Remember? Remember that? I remember that. So 2007, early Twitter, before, like, retweet before, there was retweet buttons, and you had to write RT colon and control copy someone's tweet. That's how it started. So Color wars happened. It was hot for, like, a week on Twitter. So then I was like, Facebook college. So we made an app that all you did was just click the team you were supporting. But we made brackets, like Duke versus North Carolina. And then we just ran like.

I'm trying to remember how we even did it to, like, grow virality. But basically it was like, hey, Duke, go on this and click Duke. Cause North Carolina's ahead of us. It went batshit crazy. And then I think Howard linson or Dave McClure. No. Seth Gould's. Nope. Goldstein, like the gold from a social. Yes, yes, yes. Whose wife, I think, is actually credited for the term social media.

Really?

Yep. We're talking about the same guy. They ripped. They copied our fucking app. They tried to buy it. They built the whole company off and then ran it to the ground. Correct.

He tried to buy it from A.J. i was like. I was like, I didn't know. This is early tech for me. I was like, no, we must be onto something. No, aj, don't sell it. Let's keep going. And then, like a week later, they copied the whole thing. Like, the code might have even been, like, ripped. It was that much of a copy.

Really interesting time.

You agree with me, right, that 2006, 7, 8 was really fast. You know how I think when that gets replicated? Alexa. Yeah. I think the thing that's looming is full scale voice AI devices really playing. Somebody creates a killer app. Everybody downloads it, it opens up the Pokemon Go of Alexa and Google happens. We all get used to it. And it triggers. I really think voice is gonna be a very big ui. I think it's gonna take some time, but it's just too convenient. Alexa, get me an Uber that's just faster than me. It's just gonna. It's speed.

I will get back into investing when that gets going, because that's when I'm good. I'm good when a new toll, a new highway is created. And I'm very good at understanding the best toll booths, which is why I understood search and browsers, which is why I understood social so well. I understood iPhone social, okay? Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. That's when I'm at my best. So really, you think that what you understand best is what's gonna capture people's attention before everyone else realizes it? Yes. And I don't guess. And when I guess, I lose, but I end up being right. So let me give you, like, literally, I wish this. I can't find the video drock. We don't have this video. Cause I don't know. Made the video. But you might remember this too. There was an app called Yobongo. You remember that? There was an app that got hot for four minutes at south by 2008 called Yobongo. It was people remember highlight. Highlight got hot. So it was before highlight. And I invested in it. Several other people invested in it. And this great kid Caleb, you know, that's when I learned, like first kid rodeos you got. You can't just be the idea. It was highlighted. It was people discovery. But I knew it was a hooking up app because me and AJ were gonna make a Facebook app a year and a half earlier called Booty Call. That only worked. That only worked from midnight to six in the morning only worked. And it would be proximity. And you both had a match. I think this kid.

These people are cute. In my dorm, somebody else says they're cute, it tells you, hey, you've matched. It only activates then Booty Call. That became. That's what Yobongo was positioned as. People discovery. So was Highlight. But I know humans. And then it became Tinder.

And when was that? It was before Tinder.

Oh, yeah, like three years. That was the theory. My theory was dating apps were gonna become because the phone existed and we knew where we were, that you could really get into a good game. And that's what happened, flat out. What happened?

I'm asking selfishly, please. I sometimes contextualize my path through your path. The thing that drew me to you back in like 2007 was this dude Says he's gonna buy the New York.

Jets and you're gonna buy the Indians.

I remember 10 years ahead, I start watching.

And so you said something to me when we had. Was it core?

Yeah, core club.

And I had just had my exit and was having my Shipmont. And you're like, don't be in a rush.

Yes, I remember that very well, actually.

And it was like a really. Like.

That was a good one. I apologize for interrupting you. That was a good one because we had a lot of time and Louis was there and a couple other people, and I just remember you were listening. That's what really drew me to you, because I try to do that every time because I want people to win and be happy. But it's hard. It's hard getting off the high of something like that to hear somebody else. No matter how successful, you have this exit, you know, like, I do it too. Like, it's hard. Everybody does. When you're winning or when you have success, no matter even if somebody's more successful or what have you, it's a nice validation. Like, this is not hyperbole anymore. You've had success at that moment. To hear advice, that takes a lot of humility, and I took note of that. That's why the next time even happened, it was what you did in that one.

Appreciate that. That's why I believe you when you say what you did. Now I'm watching you build the blocks.

It's very obvious to me.

Thanks, Gary.

Anyway, go ahead.

I think I was saying that I'm in that period where I'm not in a rush, but I'm looking.

That's good, though.

Like, I'm dating, if you will.

Yeah.

Next ideas. And so I have a few that I'm kicking around. And it's just really helpful to hear you talk about when you were in that stage.

How old are you right now?

I'm just turned 32.

Yeah. I mean, at this point, I'm still 32. So I'm still at Wine Library. You know what's happened at 32? Do you remember when I was on Conan? No. So in 2007, in July 11, 2007, I went on Conan and the entire Web 2.0 community lost its mind because nobody besides Perez Hilton had been on real TV from the Internet. And when I tell you, front page, Dig, Slashdot.

Metafilter, techcrunch, Ze Frank said something. Rocketboom said something like the Internet. I mean, I remember multiple people that were way more fancy than me at that point. Waxy.org, anil-like the blog establishment hitting me up on Twitter and being like, you're doing this for. Not those guys specifically, but, like, people. Gruber, right? Daring Fireball. Like, people that. I was like, ooh. Cause, you know, as I was learning the tech world, I'm like, okay, these are the names hitting me up and like, dude, you're doing, like. It was a big. I was treading on Twitter that day. Like, it was like, you're doing this for us. I remember the moment very well, being in my green room reading all the tweet DMs, and they're like, you're coming on. And I'm behind the curtain. And I'm like, all right, so corny. I'm doing this for Web 2.0. Before it was called social media. What did Conan ask you? Oh, you gotta. I'll send you the link. It's a really funny first. It was really funny. That's where I was at 32. 32.

Maybe I'm not a wine retailer.

Think about that. Think about how much I believe in patience. You're dramatically, professionally further along than I was. Not only that, I was going to leave two years later. I was making 75,000 a year. And in two years, I was about to leave and start VaynerMedia and have no money because I didn't own wine library. And because it was a family business, I never paid myself a lot of money. And I was gonna. I started vaynermedia in the. In the conference room of Buddy Media.

People really don't, like, like, you know, at its worst, when people want to razz me, they think, my dad gave me everything at its best. I don't think people realize how crazy what I did was. There are very few people that have the stomach to build an enormous business for their parents and leave with zero.

How did you know that VaynerMedia was, like, the play?

I knew. It was the opportunity in front of me. And I had this thesis that if I built. Built a machine. At that point, though, that was now 2009 at that point. Zucks, Travis, Saka Ev. Like, I'm starting to wheel and deal a little bit in Silicon Valley. And I had to ask myself, why do these people think I'm smart? Why is Fred Wilson. Why am I getting invited to the lobby in Hawaii? Why am I winning in this world that I think is leading the charge of the world? I'm a wine retailer. What am I doing here? Why are Mike Maples and, like, why are these people listening to me, yes, I have a gift of gab. But that can only go so far with this crowd. Why do they keep coming back? Why is Zucks every time he comes to New York and staying at the Ace Hotel, texting me and asking me to talk when I already had decided he was gonna win the biggest company? So I took a step back and I said, okay, I'm really good at believing in myself and I'm really good at being humble. This is a point where I have to go and not be humble and like, really challenge myself. Like, what do I bring to the table? That the people that I think that are about to win the world think I'm smart. And I decided it was communication. I decided I was much better at most people in what I do as a human. Which is why I think today I sit where I sit and what I thought I could. What I did for my. That's when I was like, wait a minute. Actually, I marketed a liquor store. I'm not the liquor store runner. I'm so much better at marketing that, yes, I can operate. Yes, I'm a retailer. Yes, I'm a manager. It's why I built a big business too. But. But I'm a special communicator. Let me build a Death Star. This is literally the terminology I used. If I'm the emperor. And I'd like to think I'm a good guy, but like, that's. But the Death Star is what I wanted to build, so I had to use that analogy. But I'd like to think I'm Obi Wan more than that. But if I'm. I'm gonna build a Death Star, it's not gonna just be me. Cause I can only be here with Zucks right now. I can't be with, you know, Fred Wilson. Like, I'm gonna build scale. And then I also knew something very interesting. That I loved people. And while Jason Fried and DHH are making fun of me that I hate remote working. And I'm old and I don't get it. I knew that. It's a self awareness game. I believe in remote work. If you're DHH and Jason Fried. Cause you believe in it. And I believe in like smushing my team right next to me when I'm me. Cause I like people and I like it. I like the serendipity of it. I'm a good operator. And you see Daniel shaking her head and like, I know her career here, like, it's through osmosis that I do my thing. And I can't do that through, you know, any other way, you know. And so, and so I had a real self awareness moment and then a humility moment. This is real. Like very fancy people. The most fancy people, all the smartest people I knew said they were disappointed in me. To start VaynerMedia. Really? Client service business. Not smart. Yeah, I can raise $100 million fund easy. I can start a brand, I can start a business, I can start a wine. I can do all these things. In 09, I'd already kind of hit the scene. I'm one of the most followed people on Twitter. I'm getting a ton of accolades. I'm rubbing elbows with Kevin Rosen Zucks, like shit's happening for me. And I start a client service business and people are like, you're not literally. People later on have told me things like, yeah, we had dinner and all agree that you're just not as smart as we thought you were. What I knew was I was playing long. What I know is that with this cloud kitchen infrastructure, with everything the Internet does with blockchain, the only thing left is communication. Everything else is commoditized.

And it's my superpower.

Would you help me understand how, like, when I hear communication, Gary's good at.

Communicating and I can sell a billion of those capitalist pick T shirts without using Gary.

So by using the skill of communication through the skill set that you then.

Leverage to create scale. No, no, no. Clients is just a. Is the facade. This company's the superpower.

Is why VaynerMedia?

Because now I can do it at scale. Like again, at scale. Like a private equity firm or a hedge fund or a VC firm. I have built scale to be able to do empathy and 43 other things. Okay, so VaynerMedia is your engine. This is all platform. This is more WordPress than it is espn.com I understand it's the vulnerability to this. As humans, you have to be a charismatic and empathetic and wonderful person that makes people want to work with you for 25 years. Otherwise it breaks. Which is why nobody tries to do it. It's not a good model. Right.

It's real work. But I'm up for the task. What were some of the early clients that you had when you were just getting started in a conference room? Well, the first client we had me. This is actually a great story cause it involves Travis. Before Uber, me and I convinced this guy took me to a Nets game that my father in law introduced me to. And just as like business, not even like Vayner. This was almost wine library. But I knew Vayner was coming. And he's like, in marketing. I started telling him about social media. He's like, I don't even know what you're talking about. This is early. This is 08. I started showing him, you know, like, people were just like, it was early. And so he's like, oh, we're doing this thing for Gillette. He's like, maybe let me try to upsell this. Can you get on a call with them? I get on a call. I do Gary. It crushes. And they give us 85,000, which seemed like a billion. I was like, that's a lot of money, you know? So we did a Vegas activation for Gillette Razors. Travis flew in and hung out with us to just hang out. And we did. We didn't do anything. It was terrible. I almost, almost actually gave the money back. Cause they were like. They thought like, us doing a Tweet was worth 85,000. I'm like, no, no, no, we gotta do more. And they're like, no, this is great. Thanks. I'm like, thanks, Juan. I thought we were gonna do like eight months of work, but, like. So I was a little confused. But that was one Pepsi. The Nets, the Jets.

And GE were early, early clients. I already had a lot of gravitas for what I had the permission to walk into big companies because I had a little bit of a network. But more importantly, I had at the time, 400,000 followers on Twitter. And they weren't even on it yet. And it just. This was, you know, what happened. Actually, there's a really interesting moment. Ashton raced CNN to a million followers on Twitter. Remember that? Remember that? Ashton Kutcher went on CNN and said, look, I have this many. You have this many. Nobody's ever had a million followers on Twitter. Let's race. And it went viral. That's clever. That led to the world knowing. But that was DJ Khaled on Snapchat and Ashton on CNN are the two moments that I can speak to that were tipping point moments for social networks.

That made people know what Twitter was, that made more people interested in it, that made companies think they should be on it. That made people say, you have 400,000 and we're Pepsi and we're not on it. You help us. You must know what's going on. That started originally. We actually. You know what's funny? We started a website called Daily1to10.com on a Tumblr that was really Buzzfeed in hindsight, which is really what we built first. And we were building Facebook pages that were getting like a million followers and siphoning organic posts onto daily1to10.com and Facebook shut us down and that made us pivot to services.

When you say we, is that you and aj?

Yeah. I would argue if Facebook doesn't shut us down, they don't shut down a lot of pages. I called Dave Morin. He was like, yo. He's like, yeah, like, I can fight it for you. Do you want me to? I'm like, nah. Because, like, they didn't shut down a lot of people. We were just being very effective. We knew what we were doing. I still to this day think that I would own Vice or Vox or buzzfeed today instead of Vayner if those don't get shut down.

So it was very. What I knew was I wanted to be in communications. What I knew was I wanted to get a bunch of kids around me and make them my family at scale.

And I knew that I wanted to have companies pay for it so I could learn Fortune 500 land because I wanted to buy businesses that were big when the next economy collapse happened. And that's what I'm still basically on. The K Swiss deal was because of that. Empathy is because of that. I'm testing. I'm hypothesizing every day.

They're tough sometimes.

That's really interesting and innovating. I'm going to show you something. You can't show this.

This is. I'm dropping this at Complex Con a couple weeks. So this is my next sneaker. So this is the O5, the fifth one, but. But check this out. This is something I've been wanting to do forever. This is like this new innovation idea I have where I believe that people will buy little inserts to like, customize. That's clever. I think so. That's clever. I knew you would like. Actually, I kind of knew you were gonna like this. So I'm gonna sell these little, like, things like at 6.99 as one offs and do clip parties. You know, you see where I'm going? So this is what's fun for me, right? Like, I could have saved this for me one day. This was an idea I had. And this is like real ip. Like, if this goes, this changes this company forever.

But I'm okay with leaving money on the table for being historically correct, being associated with it. Like, it's all in me. Like I always so. But cool, right? Yeah. Clever. And wait till you see how I'm gonna actually do it. I'm gonna go to like da baby. I'm gonna go to like real fucking, you know, influencers and celebrities to do collabs on these and sell them and rev share with them. This makes me capitalism dot com. It reminds me of like the off white where people leave those little red like racks of course. But this takes it to another like, right? Yeah. Cuz now you got a whole ancillary business. Uhhuh. Yeah. So we'll see. I'm pretty excited about it.

Gary, would you tell us.

You know, look, most of. And you know this a lot of what I'm. Listen, we're very lucky. Not lucky. That's not fair. We've all worked like a lot of people in this room. You for sure. You for sure. I don't know enough about yourself, but like we're in a place that's different than the majority of the world. I'm desperately. The garage sale stuff, there's nothing, you know, when I hear what you said to me earlier that feels really remarkable. That's at the top 1%, top 10%. When I get emails from people who are like, yo, on some real shit, you really helped me. I went garage sale on this Saturday, bought some shit and made 80 bucks this week. And it really helped my family. Like we ate like, like real stuff. Like stuff that only my team really knows about me. Like my DMs are emotional. Like real stuff. Like teach, you know, bring the. Teach the horse to drink and stuff. You know what I mean? Like teach a man to fish. So I'm teaching a man a fish and I'm doing it where it's needed at scale. So a lot of these people really, really started making money. 100 bucks a week. 100 bucks a month. Lot of people who follow me on Instagram, YouTube. A hundred bucks a month from garage sale has really changed our game. Just gave him a little breathing room, you know, so easily knock on in that direction too, bro. Everybody ra like again, back to the elite. Like coast homies. They are like, you look stupid. Like people that care about me. Yo, you look stupid. Like, you know, like, why are you doing that? Like, like you're on fire right now. You're like about to take that next step. Like, what are you doing? I'm like, you know, I love my friends. I'm like, you just don't understand what I'm up to. Back to 92%. I'm like, you don't understand what I'm actually about, you know, so that really affected me, which led Me to this. I'm just living. I'm just always doing what I'm doing, watching. And I'm like, are sports cards about to pop? You know, it was really like that, like. Cause I'm watching, right? It's little things. It's seeing like a sneaker flipper post a sports card. It's going on, you know, which makes me then go Google sports cards. You read a Forbes article that sports cards have gone up 50 has outpaced wall street the last year. Really? Somebody won a charity fucking dinner and he was in the sports card business and he's telling me about it. That's real life. Obviously I grew up with interest in it, so now I'm digging a little bit more. All of a sudden, 1am going on eBay, looking up stuff is like fun instead of a chore. I'm like, this is happening. Went to my little guys getting into it two years ago, I took him to Cleveland to the national convention for one day. I'm like, okay, it's still little seedy. Older guys, nerdy, not great. But I'm like, but an undertone of like, I see a couple kids, you know, you see the fucking 48. I see the 53 year old me that could have been me if I didn't pivot like, you know, like. And it's a little sad and a little like homey and a little like, whatever. But then you see a couple kids who are like, again, look like cool, right? And like they got like a fucking, like they got a fucking, like a Yeezy fucking sneaker box. But when you open it, there's some LeBron's in there. And like, I'm like, okay, okay. I mean, look, I mean I've been saying this. Like StockX just started listing sports cards like, like when I a year ago, 18 months ago was like, they're about to get cool and work. People like really were like, okay, now you're just making up shit. And then when StockX announced sports cards a month ago, like, people hit me up like, man, you really fucking know what the fuck you're talking about. I'm like, cause I don't predict.

I don't predict. I didn't predict. TikTok tens of millions of users on it. It's just that people look for no and I look for yes. And so look and look. Let me give you a real one. LeBron PSA 10s, which is like how these things get graded up here. This is the biggest company PSA and like you get like nine, seven, is not as good, obviously. Six LeBron PSA 10s, four months, let's just say at the show. No, before the show. So the show was July. In May. In May, you could buy a LeBron rookie, which I have in the safe. Alex, do you know the safe combo? Can you ask Lou for it and open the safe? LeBron PSA 10s were 1100 bucks on eBay and liquid. You could buy scale. That was the thing. My big hypothesis was the following. Gambling. So what I learned about the sports card world is I can pull in this box a $5,000 Kawhi rookie.

Right now you can. You can buy a pack of cards and pull a $200,000 Zion.

Gambling. So gambling, they force scarcity. They created cards called one of one. There's only one of them. And people have gone on tilt to own them. So scarcity gambling. Let me phrase gambling. 43 year old males who grew up in the prime, who now have sons or daughters who are seven who are into it. So the nostalgia, the whole way the toy market works. GI Joe, Transformers, they all reboot on the flip. Star Wars. That's how it works. It's generational. My Little pony, strawberry shortcake, 20 year cycles. 20 year cycles.

Is that why there's a Griffey?

Where? Just in here.

Card that you had on stack?

Yeah, that's. No, I bought those Griffies for different reasons, but.

And then number three sneakers. Sneaker flipper. Kids can't get enough inventory. We're going to wait in line. We can run algorithms against things. It's super hard. But if you thought like I did, that Giannis was the best basketball player in the world last year and was underpriced like I did, you could do what I did, which was buy 700 of them at 200 bucks a pop. And then four months later, when I was right, they were 800. LeBron went from 1100 to 2,500 in how long? In the last four and a half months. Best performing assets out there.

On a very serious note. On a very serious note, because of what I know about sports, because what I know about consumer behavior, I know that I can make a lot more money in the next year on sports cards than I can on real estate or angel investing or Wall Street. It's liquid, like.

And it's. Honestly, it's fun when I'm sitting with Tumblr and Facebook stock. Yeah. Years later, when you put in a frame way up there, whatever. But like you can touch it. And then if you're kind of like that guy or gal, you can gamble.

And by the way, why do people like the sports bet? They like to prove to their friends they're smarter at sports than. Well, this is a way to like, really prove it. Like, you know, I'm trying to think of a good Indian's prospect, actually. Did I ever tell you the greatest flip of my career was Kenny Lofton rookie cards?

You did not.

Let me tell you the story. Kenny Lofton is my favorite non Yankee of all time. I know he was, but, like, he's an Indian to me. Yeah, actually, he's an Astro to me. Really?

He was playing Astro for half a season. He was in the minors, but.

Correct. But when I invested in him, his cards were Astros. His cards were Astros.

Fair enough.

So. And you'll never believe why. So now I'm a big dealer at 17, making real money, $4,000 a week at shows. And I'm like, I'm going to invest heavy in one player next year. I've gone through the Kevin Moss, Todd Van poppel, like those 90 rookies. I'm like, next year I'm going to buy thousands, tens of thousands of one rookie. So I waited. The cards came out. So I buy a box of donruss92 and I open it and I'm just. Because there's no Internet and the new Beckett and tough stuff isn't out. So I'm just opening up packs, looking who the rated rookies are. So I go through them and I read the back of the cards. But when I pulled the Lofton, I'm like, is that Kenny Lofton the point guard from Arizona? Because I was such a big March Madness fan, Kenny Lofton was the point guard of the Final Four Arizona team in 88 or very good. So that kind of caught my attention. So I put him on the side. Then by reading stats on the card and like, the little bio, there was a Mariner outfielder named Patrick Lemon who I thought was actually going to be the best player. So now I have Lofton and Lemon, and I'm like, one of these two guys is going to be the guy. And I'm like, I think logically it's going to be Patrick Lemon, but emotionally I think it's gonna be Kenny Lofton. This is how I talk to myself even back then. So I go, you know what?

I don't know.

I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna flip it up, and if one shows heads and one shows tail, this is literally in my room, on the ground, in my carpet. I mean, I'll never forget. God, I wish I filmed everything back then. I'm like literally sitting on my carpet and flipping the cards. And the first time they both show tails. So I'm like, let's do it again. And I flip it up the second time and Lofton goes heads and Lemon goes tails. And I go Lofton. I go on to buy 14,000 Kenny Lofton rookie cards for less than a quarter. I bought some of them and then sold it during the World Series against the Braves for four to eight dollars a piece to dealers in Cleveland.

Made a lot of money. Like for me at the time, it was like a lot.

You asked me last time I was here if Raj Davis home run was top five moments of my life. One of the other ones in there was when the Indians traded for King Lofton back.

Oh, that makes sense.

2007.

I was pumped about that too.

So I mean, oh my goodness.

I did win Kenny Lofton two years ago. It was one of the best nights.

You're saying though, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Alex can't figure it out. Lou gave me the wrong one and tried too many times. Is locked. Is it locked forever or no? I think it times out for a little bit, but I'm old red kids now.

The city was on fire. It was like it was a lack.

He was a great kid. That team was up. Charles Nagy and, and Joey Bell and Manny Ramirez. Seven later.

Yeah, it was like they brought back the whole.

I went to game one of that World Series.

Did you?

Yeah. Cuz my best friend Brandon, who runs Wine Library, is a Cubs fan. I. I promised him in first in eighth grade when we became friends that within the first two months of knowing him. I've known him since I was 14. In the first two or three months, we become quick friends because he does baseball cards. And I go, brandon, when the Cubs make the world. Because even back then it was a story. When the Cubs make the World Series, I'm gonna take you to the first game. And I did it.

That's great.

That's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool.

You said you were trying to think of an Indians prospect who would match that. That would be Oscar Marcado right now.

Yeah, Marcado. He's a real. So like bro. Let me give you a number because I ran the math. If you invested $8,000 into Cody Bellinger because he was not a top 100 prospect, you would be able to flip it right now for 280,000.

Geez.

Now, now I'm giving you an extreme example. Minor league baseball is A real crapshoot. But, like, it's my favorite. This is a Brewer prospect. Like, high risk. If you want to talk about real high risk, high reward. What's in my safe is the easiest money in the bank. LeBron, Kobe, Bill Russell, Kareem. I think basketball is grossly underpriced. You can buy a PSA8, which is a very good grade, Dr. J rookie for $850. Nothing.

And I think old basketball players are going to go through this marvel, like, renaissance. I think that because when I talk to the cool new basketball players, the Durants, the real cool guys, they really like the old school guys. Pistol Pete, Wilt. There's something about 60s and 70s basketball cards that I think are uncomfortably underpriced. Pokemon Magic the Gathering. I wasn't nerdy that way, because I was. But that was later. I was a little older. Those are two incredible places to invest in as well. For the kids in the 20s and 30s who grew up with it, real money.

Real money, actually.

Gambling, real money.

And street cred. It's like fun to be. Right. I mean, like, if all my tech friends that love Steph Curry, they could have made a fortune. There's no investment any of them made that would have outperformed if they bought up all the $100,000 worth of Steph Curry rookie cards seven years ago.

Gary, I don't know how much time we have. And I have a few rapid fires.

Let's go.

Really like to hit.

Let's go.

There's a couple asks in there, Please. And I'm really nervous about the ask. I feel like I'm asking a girl on a date.

No worries. Go ahead.

Number one. Could I have more red wine?

Yes. That's an easy one.

Okay.

Please. I've got my four. Do you let us. That's yours. Okay.

I'm really enjoying this.

It's really good. Right? This is such a big outcome. This is $65 wine that we're selling for 20 bucks. Because all the farmers hooked me up. Yeah. Like, this was one of the more fun arbitrage projects I've ever done. Like, everyone's like, man, your wine's so much better. I'm like, yeah. I mean, people gave me. You know, when you have 25 years of equity with people, they really hook you up. You know?

Point number one.

Yep.

I've learned in the last year or so that your thesis of just being in a give place all the time feels really good.

Good.

And that it, like, it costs. It costs too much both emotionally and financially. To get out of that place.

Yes.

Very smart observation.

Chris has been with me for about two years. He's a different person than when we started working. I'm a different person when we started working together.

Thanks, Mark.

Mark is starting to work with us kind of on the side, advising us on strategy. I just wanted to tell you that, like, I'm still work in progress.

We all are.

I'm committing to as much as possible operating from that place, brother.

I don't know if there's a more practical business maneuver than karma.

I agree with that. I don't.

Look, you know this. We run in enough similar circles but haven't spent time reputation from people that have actually spent time with you. Because, by the way, there's people who think I'm a snake oil salesman and I suck, but that's only because they're in a bad place or. And they don't know me. Yeah, reputation from people that actually know you is the entire currency. You know what's funny, Gary? I've been following you for, I don't know, probably four or five years, and you actually helped me through a lot.

Of bullshit that I dealt with.

But you're even better in person. You're more obviously genuine. I understand that. Like, I always knew you were genuine. But you know what's really funny? You want to read something? There was a kid. Is Zayn gone?

Yes, he just left.

Fuck. I bet you if I. How close is he? Like, how long ago? Call him. Get him back here. That's the Gary I know. I really, really, really, really want. I really want to get this kid back. I hope he's not far away. I had a meeting with him today. Super fan, commented on every single post. I'm at a talk in Dallas. He in the Q and A asks the Internet or get a job? I said yes. Oh, yeah, I showed the clip recently. He sat down here. I'm not going to get. If he comes back, I'm going to save it for him, but I'm going to build on it. But go ahead. What?

The story that I tell that always changes people's mind because somehow I, among certain people, I become Gary Defender. People are like, I don't know, hustle porn. But the thing that is the story that I tell that always changes people's mind is that when we were at. When I hired you to speak at the event and you came backstage, I'm expecting this high energy, like, come on.

Let'S go.

Let'S go. Exchange.

And he slipped in the back was really quiet and My daughter was nine months old. And he's like, Pam is just sleeping through the night, no phone on him. And then this. This is the moment that I was like, all right, I'm on team Gary. I'm on stage and I do my intro for.

And he comes out very slowly. And as he's coming up the stairs, he. He does this.

And then walks up on stage and then goes, all right.

And it was Zane, you were. Were you. Wait a minute. He was in the bathroom. He telephoned me. What? I texted him, 91 1, come back. And Zane, were you in the poop? Were you pooping? No, I was going down the elevator. Zayn, nice to meet you. How's it going? Mark. Awesome.

Zane, nice to meet you, man. How's it going?

Nice to meet you, man.

How's it going?

Thank you. Zane. Zane. Mark was just saying, like, it's so interesting to me that you're more genuine here than I see on video. And I was like, it's funny you said that today. This kid Zayn who works for me and I was looking for you, who was like a super fan, engaged in everything.

Like, just was like, what's your biggest. You've been here, what, now? Two. Just about two months. When I asked you today what was the biggest thing that surprised you? What did you say? Yeah, the biggest thing that surprised me so far. And it's funny, like Gary said, I'm a huge fan. Like, that's how I kind of hacked my way here.

Crazy story.

But the biggest thing that started surprised me so far is like, genuinely how involved Gary is on the content. Like, I, you know, I know that.

He was involved, but before I came here, like, I'm sure he's touching a.

Little bit reviewing it, but he's like actually creating all the context. He's creating the copy like he's making it. And I didn't expect that. Like, I didn't expect the deep involvement that he has. And Mark, what the punchline of that actually is like this whole game right now, like you on the outside but being kind of team Gary to right now, more to him. Basically, here's the punchline to Alex who's sitting out there. Fundamentally, this is how I judge everybody and how I judge myself. Whoever knows the most, what do they think? So I just think of it as pieces. Right, you right now got a little closer, which gives you even more belief. He got even closer than you. He has even more belief. Alex, who has all my information, who like Alex, let me ask you a question. When you Started as an admin out of all back to, like, the point I'm making to these guys, about, like, you knowing me way better than anybody in this room because that's. You're in my inbox and there's shit that goes down in there. What was the biggest surprise? I mean, Alex worked here for two years before. 18 months. Yeah. @ the front desk. Interacted with. Which is a big job here, actually, which is real gateway to, like, being administered. What was the biggest thing that was surprising to you? Like, just your life in general or your.

Inbox?

Me. How I roll. You answer a lot of emails compared to what he receives. Like, just random people. So Gary's like, cool, yeah, great, whatever. And I'm like, whoa, hands down. Two, Gary's available. He's like, just text me. It's fine. Cool, I got you. And like most CEOs, they don't even know, like, the people like, in the corner, you know, Gary's like, oh, hi, Jill. How's it going? And I'm like, oh, wow. If Gary doesn't know, then he's like, hey, you must be new. How's it going? Most people. People don't do that now, you know, But Gary, instantly, he's like, all right, I'll remember you next time. Like, oh, I remember that time. And Gary's like, I definitely remember the situation, period. All the time. He just needs, like, one little thing to kind of like remind him and then that's it. Which I think is amazing. It's effortless. I think the biggest thing. It's so interesting to listen to Alex. She doesn't even know the stuff. She knows the most important. Because you're so wired for privacy. So I'm so wired for privacy. Even though I'm so accessible. Alex knows when I fund people's like, Alex is so trained. Right? But you're so. It's so. It was so I was wondering where you're gonna go. You're so in the cocoon. That was interesting to me. The point I'm really making. The things I am singularly most proud of in the world. Not a person knows yet. Everybody thinks I'm a self promoter.

I'm comfortable promoting business. That's business. The real humanity is quiet as fuck. The people I don't fire, the people I support, even though they shit on us. The random acts of kindness.

The real shit.

Obviously, I know, but I'm just like, yeah, it's like in a black. I love you for that. I love you for that. I was impressed. So that's it. That's how I decide what I think of a woman or man. Whoever's the closest. If they admire you the most, then you're winning. I really think most people are doing it the reverse. I am shocked going through this world that we all run in. I was naive. I shocked how people act as good people and then anybody that's actually close to them hates them. People choose money. People are broken. People are insecure. So that's so true.

That's it. That's the game. That's what I think about a lot. Yeah. Cause that's how it plays out. I'm not surprised. I believe you, but it's still good. It's good to know. Mark. You know what I think we do on that, by the way? And I think Zane did it. I think Alex did it. I think we protect ourselves to not be disappointed. I think the reason Zane thought that coming in is first, I think people are just. First of all, I have a lot of energy and I'm very efficient and I'm very good at not wasting time. Everybody takes an hour, meeting for something, that's eight minutes. So I'm really good at that. Game two. I think there's a subconscious protection. Zayn is a real fan. So he comes here. He's probably subconsciously protecting himself. If there's actually everybody's doing it for me, so he's protecting that. When I disappoint him, it won't hurt that much. I actually believe that to be true. Yeah. That way, if you turn out to be a dick, he's like, well, I kind of. Right. It's like, that's why they have that great story of, like, don't meet your heroes. Right. Like, I said it to him today, like, my big goal is to be the reverse of that, to be better than you thought I was. Yeah. Well, mission accomplished. Isn't that cool? Mission accomplished. When I say that, I'll credit you every time, but I'd love to. Thank you and I know you will. I like how you roll. I like you and your bro a lot. I like how you. I like when I spend time with you guys. I was so bummed just now when I walked in and saw you. Thanks to him, man. It was a beautiful. Well, I got really shook with your thing, man. I'm so glad you're okay. Jesus. Glad to be here. Thank you for my first wine after the experience. Makes me happy. Isn't that a cool one, though? I'm glad you picked up on that. I thought that was. That's an.

Important. Would you grab.

His new edition? This is Kamal's new.

Book. It's a big alley. It's coming out in January. Dude, dude, come on my podcast, I am selling an uncomfortable amount of books for everybody. Everybody's hitting me up now. Somebody leaked. I could feel it. It happened six months ago. Somebody must have been on my show that sold an uncomfortable amount of books, because now everybody, and I mean, fancy people, people that don't even like me, are trying to be on the show already, saving lives. Like, senior executive at HarperCollins are calling me. Like, they're using it, saving them. Good for you, bro. I'm actually excited about this. When is it coming out? Whoa. He just stole my gallon copy. Okay, take it, take it, take it. I don't need it. I don't need it. First, by the way, I will not read this. This is the truth. No, no. By the way, by the way, honestly, on some real shit. On some real shit. No, no, but this is important. You'll read it. I.

Won'T. I.

Will. It will die there, so take it. I'm just excited about having him on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you, man. When does it come out? The 7th of January. Great. But I'm here, so we can do it any time. That's what we'll do. I love the whole new you, New Year shit. I love that shit. Context matters. Thank.

You. Well, that's a great segue to my ask. Okay, so my first book comes out in May. Last time I was here, I asked, would you give me a quote that I could use? And you said, no, I don't read, but I'll give a quote about.

You. You and I will.

Okay. You're comfortable with.

That? I will. Yeah. Especially.

Now. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Gary. What are you gonna write.

About? It's called 12 months to 1 million. It's the entrepreneur's path to building a real business and hitting seven.

Figures. Good for you. And honestly, you know, that's a little. You know, that's a little bit against my shit. So it's gonna be an interesting quote. Let's come on. Comment. Go ahead, Kamala. The first half is actually goes into what the reality of it is.

Cool. The first half is, like, this is.

Harder. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I already know where I'm going with my.

Quote. Cool. I.

Think. Thank you. Like, literally, it's gonna be, like, as douchey as this title is. Like, literally and honestly, let me give you a real interesting. And I know you're smart enough for this. Do you know why I almost didn't have a K Swiss deal? Everything was green out. I got paid nothing. I didn't give a fuck about the money. The number one reason it took a while to negotiate with K Swiss was because of this.

I refused to only wear the to only wear K Swiss product because it wouldn't be true to you.

My quote on the back of your book with that title saying, exactly what I just said is the best thing for your.

Book. Oh yeah, I'm pretty pumped that you just said this. Douchey. Is.

This. No, I love.

That. What's the other.

Half? I'm gonna say, look, this kid's. Yeah, you know, like. Yeah, that's it. Just that. Gary Vee. Follow me. 212-931-5731.

The COVID is actually a picture of Gary with his sweater on. This I believe this more than anything. I believe in the world. People see what they're looking for.

When I tell you that anybody who hates me or dislikes me I have deep empathy for because it means in the current moment they're not in a good place. Because I've come to realize, oh my God, my life is a mirror.

It's been one of the most fascinating observations of my life, which has allowed me to really be a very kind person to a lot of people who start off disliking me. I basically immediately go into deep empathy and compassion on negative impact.

I will. What I've come to believe, whether I'm right or not, is the way I communicate is so at it that what happens in that moment is when I'm calling you out on your bullshit, you're uncomfortable.

And either you're at a moment where you're ready to actually say, fuck it, he's right, I wanna fucking do it different. And then you go into admiration over time. Or if you're not ready and I'm making you uncomfortable, you reject it. The reason two people who see the world fundamentally different was they both saw what they were looking for in.

Me.

Soak.

It. Because I have both. I call VaynerMedia. I don't know if everybody has. I call VaynerMedia and me the Honey Empire. Yeah, Honey over vinegar. Kindness, empathy, compassion. Good human. I want to fucking win. Want to build the biggest fucking company in the world.

People struggle with that balance. We're demonizing on the coasts, the Empire part. And we're incapable of it. The honey part in the middle.

That resonates a lot with me. I feel like in My circle of friends, obviously, everyone in this room, I think is probably more successful than I am at this point. But I love that. I love the fact that you add it at this point. I love that. I love that. I believe in that shit so much. And it wasn't the reason I loved it so much was the way it was delivered. I like. Good for you. Keep going. Well, the people that I spend a lot of time with now I'm in this phase where I'm trying to grow. Okay. So I've spent time with a lot of people that are actually not as far along as I am, and they seem to not be able to hold those two ideas. Like I tell them. It's very hard. I want to be a.

Billionaire. I want to do.

This. I want to. That want to help these people. I want to do all these things. And they don't believe that I'm genuine. I believe that from a good place. And by the way, you might, by the way, you also might be in a. In a process of not being all the way there. You're so young, you know, like, even the terminology of want to be a billionaire is an interesting framework. Yeah, it's a very quick off put. I talk about the process of trying to. Buying the jets as opposed to.

Being.

Yeah. Being the owner. Yeah. Or you may. I'm actually picking up wordsmithing is a very interesting conversation. But that's the other part. Like. Yeah. I mean, honestly, just let go of people's opinions, you know, it's hard to let go of not wanting to show people. Look, when you're. What's happened is we're in this time now where.

It'S all cyclical. You know, in the mid-2000s, like, I'm gonna be a billionaire is heralded. That's a dirty word. It's a very, very dirty word. And I have a lot of empathy for both sides of the argument. But what's happened is over. Correction. People who don't wanna do anything, look, this is how. Listen, let me tell you something right now. If I go take Marxism, chop it up, change a couple of the adjectives and tweet it, everybody in Silicon Valley and New York will herald me as the best.

So it's a tricky line. On the flip side, to me, being cruel to someone is fundamentally unacceptable at all costs. To me, capitalism, where you try to change the rules for your advantage, isn't capitalism.

Correct. Amen.

Brother. It's corruption. So, like, to me, like, these are nuances and this is why.

We'Re in a Place where it's gonna take some time for us to get back into some sort of middle because we're pulling. So it's just. It's like parents have two different points of view. They overcorrect for each other and they stretch their kid.

Middle.

What.

I'm fascinated by people who don't understand that arguments on the conservative side and liberal side, the Republican side and the Democratic side, that there are actually good strengths in both. Like, it is bad for 8th place trophies.

I love AOC in a lot of ways, but you can't parade somebody on video and say, this girl had a dream to go to college. Like, you know, I have a dream for a lot of things. I have a dream to have a house. Can you guys please pay for it? You know, you start getting, you know, things become slippery when you go into ideology. I'm telling you again, I believe that Marxism.

Is one of the most unbelievably written documents.

Ever. He's a great.

Writer. It's just compelling, if you like where he came from. Correct, correct. And it's just. Honestly, it's compelling. It's like, I genuinely want everybody in this room, especially for me. I can't speak for others. I wildly want people to be happy. Like, wildly, I've come to realize. So it could be compelling. The problem is there's inherent animalistic truths and we're.

Animals. It's compelling when done privately. Like, I want to take care of people I love. I want everyone to be happy. It's when it's done via force. Yeah, now, now it's no longer a.

Choice. But then you decide where for. I mean, like, I give up, you know, 60% of every dollar I make to have people that I think are losers spend it.

That's real.

Life. You give up 60% of your dollar so that government can.

Allocate. That's what I said. I said.

Got.

It. God bless you.

Gary. You know, people that I do not believe are practical practitioners who are either trust fund babies or ideologicals or like no real people. I have unbelievable disrespect for politicians. Unbelievable. No different than I have people in education. Like, how can you believe in the current education system how that just eliminates any level of practicality. We're making kids. 80% of schools still make kids memorize shit when the answer's on their.

Phone. Gary, since you don't predict, don't you think that the majority of Americans now are socially liberal and economically.

Conservative? No, I think that's the.

Coasts. You think that's the.

Coast. Yes, I do. I think at its. Let me rephrase. I believe at the coast's best, it's that. Yeah. I don't think you find that as like, a lot of people are not socially liberal, bro. Yeah, bro. People are not socially liberal. Like there's some inherent suppression going.

On. Some.

Man. No more. You mean rural. Rural America. Rural America goes further than you think. More importantly, let me say something else. There's a shocking amount of people in all parts of America that are willing to look the other way for their financial vested.

Interest. Yes.

Sure. That's where the rub really comes in. The thing that I'm most proud of is that I'm willing to lose everything because then I would believe that I deserved it. Watching old dogs who were killers in their 20s and killed the old lion, but when they become the old lion, want to use money to completely protect it. Yeah, I disrespect it so much. Like I'm honestly more like an athlete. I believe the best. I actually really need to start meeting some hall of Famers and ask them the question when? And by the way, when I tell you that Kobe and fucking Brett Favre, like, I am convinced that when I start, I'm actually going to do this now, I decided I'm actually curious to ask an athlete of all time status. Kobe would be at the top for me. Cause I just respect that mentality. When was the moment you knew it was different? That's a good question. Right. I'm genuinely looking forward to being 78, having a health scare, having a tragic death in my family, a world event, something that shakes me and says, you know what? I don't want to go. I right now, forget about ideology. I, the human don't want to go 15 hours a day in my passion anymore. There's other things I want to do that will happen that could happen tomorrow.

That I like. Versus what I see from a lot of 80 year olds who are like trying to pay off politicians, change rules to keep their monies up. I don't care about the money, I care about the game. I almost am looking forward to when I lose my step. I'm in my prime where I actually don't even think that I'm in the early parts of potentially my prime. The dawn of it. Right. I'm curious what it feels like when I can feel like right now I feel invincible.

There's not a single person, LeBron, like, like.

Bezos though I really have a lot of respect. That one is the one I probably put the most on a pedestal that Amazon and Bezos, in a lot of ways, is probably the biggest manifestation of what I believe. In a lot of ways, they're consumer centric. And in that blind consumer centric nature, which is what I am with my audience, with my businesses, they have complete dominance. One thing that makes you special, man, I've known you for a while, I've seen you grow, and you are.

Sincere.

Thanks. You've always been sincere. That's your rock solid foundation. And in my opinion, the day I met you, you had subconscious aspirations for sincerity, but you.

Weren'T. I think that's a fair.

Analysis. That was my.

Sense. Kamal, I can almost guarantee that.

I. Interesting nuance.

Right? Thank you. I can almost guarantee I won't get it right every time, but I promise you that I will at least.

Try. And. And to me, that is the reason I think I'm attracted to you in return is you're the manifestation of my hypothesis that I'm the right guy for the hundreds of thousands that look like you. And had I not come along, or if somebody else came along and did it, that this is the little switch, the little two sentences that we just said. And I know you know I'm right. I just know that's what I know.

It's a real thing. And I'll tell you why. I'm in a real spot. When we met, and then we. Even at Core Club, which not that long ago, 14 months ago. I don't know, I'm trying.

To. A little over a year.

Ago. What has happened in the last six months? Something's turning and I'm kind of like, okay, I have a real responsibility here. I gotta keep this going. I'm changing the conversation.

I'm watching it. I'm watching fucking thugs put out fucking Instagram posts that say gratitude. I was say, you're fucking culture. You're changing culture. I see it and I say it matter of factly.

I think I'm watching it and it's almost too heavy. Like, the way I take responsibility. Not even that. It's like, I can't believe this is happening. It's almost like, did I just see the coolest rapper or this scumbucket kid who used to put up ridiculous content? Just say, kindness is cool.

Real shit. It's really cool.

Meanwhile, to your point, people get caught up. When I put Hustle on the map with Crush it, it was 2009, the economy just collapsed. Like, work ethic mattered.

Work ethic always matters. There's. I literally say the word happiness and Balance way more than I say hustle. But people want to demonize.

There's never been anything that I. Anything. There's never been anything that I've said that is even remotely to hustle until you burn out and commit suicide. Yeah. But the way I say shit allows people to make assumptions, and I respect that. Actually. I actually think the way you say things does matter. But when the coasts decide to get at me, they decide. I have fucking since I had Arianna Huffington on my podcast four years ago talking about the fact that I love sleeping. People don't hear. People see what they want to see. Yeah.

They just filter the rest out.

Just to complete the.

Point.

Yep.

I promise you that I will at least try to continue that legacy.

And carry that faith, bro. I actually think you won't try. I think you see it. I think what made you successful is the same reason you're gonna do it. This has nothing to do with anything else. This is actually a selfish act. You're aware that it's better, and then you're like, fuck, how can this be better and feel.

Better. Sorry, say that.

Again. Act out that legacy.

I actually believe you because I know enough about you and it's almost the same way I feel about myself. You're 100% gonna do it. Cause it's better on both fronts. This is what people don't get it. You're gonna get more of what you wanted selfishly by being more selfless. That's right. It's actually true if you're talented.

That's a big part of this equation. I think people struggle with that part. Like, some people genuinely don't have the talent to be able to play out the selfless play. You have to be good. The reason I don't need to monetize my audience and sell you an island or a mastermind or a top of the funnel is cause I know how to make business otherwise. I built a wine business before. I didn't make a piece of content until I was 34. About business. I was 34 years old the day I made my first business piece of content. I was 31 years old the first time I made a wine piece of content. Mm. Really? Really? Yeah. See, this is why time. I know, of course, because you're gonna walk down. You guys, I gotta go right now, actually. You're gonna be like, fuck, Gary. Only hit the scene at this age. I've already had an exit. I'm fucking this. Like you're just starting if you're good enough. Forget me, Sidney. Frank started grey goose at 78. Kentucky Fried Chicken started by a 70 year old Vero Angua I think was 40 or 50. Like people are confused. I would rather invest in a 50 year old entrepreneur over a 21 year old entrepreneur every day of the fucking week by a.

Thousand. Gary, can I list off what my rapid fires.

Were? Yes. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Go. So my rapid fires were I'm having a son in six.

Weeks.

Wow. And my daughter is four. Every time she sees slime she says let's sell it on.

Instagram. Really? Yes. Because my daughter on the other hand is like, no, daddy, I don't want to sell.

Anything. Well, one of the ways we bond is we talk about Lil.

V.

She actually asked me when are there going to be new episodes. So I would like to hear if there's any advice you have about raising a son based on how you were parented and raised him. My other rapid.

Fire. Let me give you the son answer and I gave it to you real quickly already. It makes me happy that my daughter doesn't want to sell a single.

Thing. Oh, I agree. I have no interest in trying to make an.

Entrepreneur. That's it, bro. That's the answer. The number one way to raise a child is to reverse engineer their truth and support the fuck out of it without creating.

Delusion. My parents did that for.

Me. Me too. So ready? Do it. Your biggest problem is you're gonna have a lot of resources and the discipline to hurt feelings when they don't understand is ridiculously.

Hard. Okay, that's.

Good. To think I have a 10 month old son I shit up to. My brother has his two kids. I'll tell him. He said that. Fake environments. I believe the greatest we. We're about to put out a video like. Cause I went into it on the ride to my keynote. Just, I just did. Fake environment.

You know, kids running around. You mean shelters at home made by parents, Our friends and contemporaries, all of us, by the way, who are actually getting paid still in their 20s and 30s. Some amount of money by their parents. All of it. Some of it make pretend they don't. Is leading to great amounts of depression. We would talk about that. When you do shit, when you earn it yourself, living within your.

Means. Oh, you appreciate it so much.

More. We gotta put that on pedestal.

Again. My last question for you is, I've been doing some business with the guys at Daily Wire. They've been really, really interested in having you on their Sunday.

Sermon.

Okay. It's about a million downloads a.

Day.

Okay. I just want to know if.

You want send it, connect us. I gotta go. Cool. I'm super late already. But I was having too much fun. It's good to meet you, dude. When we were just talking now. Yeah. That's the last time I'm gonna say that I want to be a billionaire. I believe you, bro. I believe you.

Bro. Cause I.

Don'T. By the way, when I think about the amount of times in my life where somebody said something thoughtful, whether directly to me the way I did to you, or indirectly, and I just heard it and it completely forever changed the way I framed it up. Yeah. Happens all the time, by the way. That's why I was sitting here. Like when you get into these, it was just bad words. These are the moments, these are the. There's nothing wrong with the.

Ambition.

Right? It's about creating context. Absolutely. I needed to do it. Everybody thought it was a douche. Cause I'm gonna buy the jets and see you're gonna fucking. I was like, no, no, no. It's chasing it. Yeah, that's. I love my process. I myself had to realize that it only took when I started leaving real money on the table in the last decade, time after time that I'm like, oh, wow, I didn't even know that about myself. How about that? You guys are so young. I did not know the majority of things about myself at your age right now. Thank you for that. You didn't. I believe it. Nobody was talking thoughtfully. Right. It was just not like this. Nobody stumbled our way through this. Nobody was talking thoughtfully. We didn't. We didn't have the Internet for all these thoughtful voices. Yeah. You know, I'm. I'm the person I wish existed. That's what I'm actually.

Doing. Remember we talking about that like we become the parents that we wish we had for the next.

Generation. What I'm doing is 15 year old me needed.

Me.

That's. That would have been my.

Follow. I so get that. So get.

That. It would have. It would have. It would have. Fast forward now. It's our turn to keep propagating that. And that's what. And that's what. Like a lot of what I do with hip hop and sports is to be cool, to actually get you to do it. I fucking get it now. I've always wondered why you were so into the hip hop culture. It's because you realize you have the power a. You love it and you realize you have the power to change the culture. Kelly Slater. The skaters and the surfers love me. Notice I'm not doing it because it's not authentically me. I'd love to go there because I'd have a whole group of long haired blonde guys hearing me too. I can't do that yet because it's not authentic. Right. Hip hop and sports is authentic. It's you. It's me. Yeah. It's my interest. It's what I grew up with. Get it?

Yes. Thank you.

Gary. You're welcome.

Man. I appreciate.

It. Pleasure, guys. Take care. Enjoy. Hey, by the way, hang with the.

Team. Do. Okay.

Deal. We'll do.

It. It is really good wine, actually. This label is perfect.

For. As I return to wine after almost not being here, you know. Yeah. And it's a really good.

One. I'm really. I'm really drunk. I'm really.

Happy. Don't worry, we can rewatch it. That's actually a great. Chloe's gonna give.

You. Yeah. It's douchey.

Yeah. It's so. It's so Gary. Yeah. It addresses the title people will be skeptical about zero to a million in 12 months. And then they say, Gary Vee's. Yeah. Thumbs up on it, dude. I'm reading people. Trust me. You know.

That.

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