#80 The Biggest Bets I Made — And How They Paid Off: Gary Vee

30:13But like, you know, I had so many, you know, when I talk about my career, my life, I always think it's an homage to my parents and my circumstance. And so I had a lot of things figured out at 23, right? I, my mom really actually built self-esteem. You know, I continue to believe that most people get successful because of insecurity. And there's a rare breed that gets there through confidence. And I'm so grateful that I'm in that small group. But I see it in others. But that's not me. That's how I was raised. And just the circumstance of being born in the Soviet Union and Jersey boy in the 80s and a million other things that are not me.

30:55I think a lot about the youth, to your point. and there's just a lot. I think, first of all, both men and women, I think we throw it on men, but I see it in a lot of young women, we want to get validation from the masses. It was always a vulnerability pre-social media, pre-internet to want validation from the outside. But the outside in 1974 and 1983 was the Joneses, a.k.a. your neighbors. That was like maybe your church, Maybe you're like neighbor. Like it was tight. Maybe the people in the office, it was small. You know, there's an extraordinary amount of wanting to show that you're successful going on.

31:37So I think one thing that a lot of the youth is struggling with is an extreme need for the Lambos, the watches, the followers, the cash, the trophies, the accolades, just so much outside validation. I think there's a lot of lack of self-awareness. I think that in general, that's a human thing. But meaning, I think a lot of people chase the trend, you know, whether it's, you know, cannabis or NFTs or crypto or flipping or, you know, listen, I'm curious about a lot of trends. But I think a lot of people are like, this is I'm going to do this because this is where I can make my millions. you know so I think I believe that one of the great ways to actually be successful is to truly know the things you like because you'll work that hard like I don't think I could ever work as hard as I did if I didn't enjoy it I couldn't mustard it up it's why I don't you know back we were talking right before we started the gym this morning was a grind yeah like to me it was like I really didn't want to.

32:41I really don't want to. And my gym, my eating discipline, my doing things around the house, these are fully procrastinations. These are laziness. This is avoidism. This is non-accountability. This is like, look, a bird over there, run away. I do the reverse and more because it's my love. I do the reverse and playing basketball. I like it. I'm like, should definitely not be playing. I like it. I go out of my way. I was just saying to you, my back was hurting all week. And I played last night. That was like crazy. So I think if you love what you do, you will do the things that actually are required to be successful, which is persevere through the daily shit.

33:23Right. It's hard to beat. So I think those two things really stand out to me. And then the things, you know, like I always laugh when I'm about to say it because I know some people are like Gary. But like I do struggle with an obsession to try to teach these kids about patience. You know, I literally punted my 20s and early 30s because I was obsessed with building a business for my parents. But I truly had nothing at 34. Truly, actually. Like when I started VaynerMedia, my biggest company, we started it in a conference room the size of this podcast studio in another company's conference room because I couldn't pay rent.

34:01How big is it now? Now it's 2 ,000 plus people, 350 million a year revenue. you. Not valuation. Oh, you run a profitable business that actually makes money. Shocking. So, you know, it's a big business. And that's only one of yours. Like how many, I was looking it up today. It's like Vayner3, VaynerSports, VaynerRSC, VFriends, which I think is a different entity. How many like Vayners you got? There's VaynerX, the holding company that holds like, that holds like seven or eight of the, that's the marketing agency holding company. Outside of it is VaynerSports because that's a separate business. That's me and my brother.

34:42My brother runs that with Greg Genski. That's becoming a pretty big business. We rep over 100 athletes, might even be close to 200 now. A newer one is VaynerWatt, W-A-T-T for Eric Wattenberg. That's a TV production company. Our first shows are gonna start hitting the air here in the fall. And like that's starting to move and groove. VFriends is the other biggest business I run. That's my Marvel Pokemon. It's an intellectual property. I do actually believe in my 80s. That's what I will be known for more than anything else I've done. And probably nobody understands that right now, right? Like when you launch it, they thought, oh, this quick little NFT thing.

35:18Yeah, I mean most people don't understand me and Vayner. Most people don't know VaynerX. Most people when they just heard 350 million, like when people come to Vayner, they're like often they're like what is this i'm like this is my company they're like most people think i'm a motivational speaker or a content creator which is fine i mean i'm not overly worried about it um vcr group i have a very substantial restaurant group that's going very well we have that fly fish club which was also an nft membership it's just there yeah it's really going well it was beautiful thank you yeah it's crushing which is good because that was very high risk, high reward.

35:54You open up that kind of eight figure build out and the restaurant business is not nice. It's the hits business. Yeah. You should hate them. It's a terrible restaurants and sports agencies, bad businesses, passion though. Chef Capon, Chef Connor, David Rodolitz, my three partners in that business. This is their life. My brother punted a lot of money because he just wants to be a sports agent, you know? And now he's starting after 10 year itch of like, hi, what else? You know, so I think it ebbs and flows. So anyway, long winded, I think I wish kids were like, no, no, I really love sailing. Let me start a business around sailing, whether it's content creation, let me go work for someone who's in the sailing business for five years, learn and figure out like that move.

36:37Like when people hear me say this, they're like, but Gary, how do I do that? I'm like, why don't you go work for somebody in comedy in, you know, the fashion, like everyone has just decided like I can start a business and most people are not talented enough in their teens or twenties to build a viable business just yet. Yeah. You know, the thing is miserable. Well, yeah, there, you know, this most people, this was a real wake up call for me when entrepreneurship got cool in like the mid two tens, like 2010, 11, 12, 13, everyone started running towards it. And I had always been there. I didn't realize how hard it was for people that weren't natural born.

37:22But then it made sense to me because I was a really poor student. And like, I just think some people know how to do school. I wasn't one of those people. And I'm like, Oh, this is this is going to be hard for these people. Because, you know, it's because unlike school, like I never did homework and failed every test. and the system pushed me through. My school system didn't want people to stay back. They were going for a blue ribbon. They just pushed me through. I literally sit here today, no fucking bullshit. In my four years of high school, I never opened a book, never did homework, never studied for a test, never did a book report, never did a project.

38:01And they just pushed me through. Which I'm not sure that's good or bad. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's probably neither, but in business entrepreneurship the land of business merit there's no pushing through like if I did that same thing in business I'd be out of business very quickly and back at a job and so yeah yeah I saw this stat today actually it was on on Twitter and uh it was because you always talk about how hard it is yeah you know and so there was this tweet today that was like read this if you're not as rich as you want. And it was the odds of making it that in the US, one in 1 ,000 make over a million in a year, one in 11 ,000 over 10 million, one in 35 ,000 over 20 million.

38:49And so the truth is, if you want to make it, you need to be an absolute freak of nature. Basically, you have to have outlier behavior. And I was curious what you think and how hard it actually is, because you're oftentimes telling all of us, it's going to be harder than you think. when we, I'm 49, when the number went from, when I was a kid, the number was, if I could make 100 ,000 a year. I grew up in lower middle class, middle class, kind of like vibes, more lower middle class. 100K seemed, I mean, I myself, with, you know, I'm 15 years old, I'm gonna buy the Jets one day, but there was another part of my brain that was like, man, the only time I was pumped, professionally, financially, was when I broke the 100 ,000 barrier in a year.

39:30No other time. No other time. When that number for the masses became a million versus a hundred thousand, shit got ugly. Like, just like, do you know how fucking hard it is to make a million dollars a year? Like, really, actually? And the problem for someone like you and I, if we've gotten there and we spend all our time around people that have gotten there, it doesn't feel rare. one of the you know one of the great things that has always happened in my career is I grew again because of where I grew up I always thought about the other so one of the first offices I opened for VaynerMedia was Chattanooga Tennessee not LA not San Francisco not Tokyo not London and one of the reasons I did that was I always wanted to be grounded to everything up down left right you when you go to Chattanooga Tennessee if you make a million dollars a year you're fucking on a And by the way, Chattanooga has a wealthy area, old Coke money.

40:25There's some great entrepreneurs there. And it's nice. Yeah, it is. Clean, honestly. I like Chattanooga. But look, I think that it's incredibly hard, and I don't know why people think it's easy. And I do know why people think it's easy. In the 80s, there was Lifestyle Rich and Famous. In the 90s, there was like, you know, the crib show on MTV Cribs. now 24 7 people are looking at propaganda in their feeds of watches and vacations and and I say because I keep hearing everyone wanting to blame Instagram and wanting to blame social media I say stop consuming it you know like if you're motivated by a grape I don't believe that most people are motivated by it I think most people get jealous and envious get insecure get And so I think it's super hard because, again, overcoddling parenthood in the last 40 years.

41:19School is bullshit system. Government's bullshit system. Most systems are bullshit. The only two systems that aren't like the most not bullshit system in the world is sports. When little Ricky goes on the field and he's nine, if he sucks at basketball or soccer, like it's exposed. No matter how much daddy and mommy want to make up some excuses or right. Used to be. Yeah, I mean, parents are really getting their hands and shit, but still, they'll go and fight a teacher. Like, parents in the 80s didn't, when you got a C, your mom and dad didn't go to school and fight a teacher and try to get a B.

41:55They do that now. But even though the, I mean, I'm in this circles, I have a 15, 12-year-old, 16 now, and 12-year-old, like, growing up in this last 7 to 10 years, parents want to go on the field and kick the ball for their kid. people want to go do something but they can't and then thus the kid gets exposed sports is the most merit the next closest is business the reason i say it's not the same as you you know this people are like i'm a three-time exiting founder i'm like you raised 10 million dollars and sold it for 200 000 you're a fucking loser you know what i mean so people can bullshit a little bit in business.

42:33There's, you know, there is a, but it's, but it's 80 % to sports, you know, and I guess in hindsight, I was attracted to merit my whole life because those are my two passions. I love a, I love a game where you know who wins and loses because it tells you if you're good or not. That's right. So do you think like when you see that stuff online, I'm not a big showy person, don't get me wrong. And I, I like nice shit. Like everyone's allowed. Totally. But I don't really, I think it's almost an immediate red flag. When I see somebody showing the Gucci Fendi Prada, the fast cars and the private planes, I immediately go, I don't know if you really had that.

43:08Do you got to flex it? What do you think? Like if you're talking to a young person, you're saying don't fucking follow people that do that. Yeah. You know, listen, I've taken some lumps from a lot of contemporaries who get mad that I talk about this because so many of them are in it. Um, look, I think that first of all it's so funny where my chemicals just went one of the great things and it's funny because I pontificate and share and ponder online 24-7 first of all just to set the ground rules I do not have the audacity to think that I'm right about anything anything let alone everything for me I'm in your camp a little bit But it's because I think a lot of people do that to funnel people into them, to monetize them.

43:58So I think about that a lot. And again, I think it's doing real damage. Like when I post every morning, every evening, I genuinely post from the lens, deeply from the lens of why would someone give a fuck about this post? Why is this good for them? And I do believe a lot of people on the other side of this podcast are not growing because almost every post is about what's in it for me. I want people to buy my course, my book, my collectible, my, you know, you know, and so I believe that the flashy stuff is inherently selfish, not selfless. and so but look I mean people are allowed like you know people are allowed to share like I get it again a lot of people grew up insecure and wanted these things and they're proud and they want to share it my big thing is that people that have over indexed on that move I have found over the last 20 years tend to struggle to stay on top tend to be less happy um so it's not only that the audience that's consuming the Lambo or the watch that I'm worried about, but I'm even worried about the person that's sharing it.

45:14I'm worried that they won't be able to sustain it. It's a great, great move. I want to talk to you a little bit about building big companies. You've built a ton. And so with your current knowledge today, I'm curious, like, let's say you had to go back, back to your wine days, almost. Let's say you owned a laundromat because I'm into those things. So let's say you own one laundromat and you had to start your entire empire from one laundromat today. Like what would you do? What would be the playbook? Content. Yeah, you know, because, you know, you and I are part of a breed that admires a single laundromat owner.

45:52And I think you have really done a good job of tapping into something that I think is black and white, which, you know, we talked about the last time we hung like this whole, whether you call it micro P or just practical business. obviously Main Street is the way you think about it. I think there's a huge opportunity for a lot of those people to build a brand. In fact, that's what I did. I built my brand. I am that person. I didn't even own the business. It was my dad's business. I was the person who built it. But my original content as Gary Vee, after five years or during the five years of doing the wine show, my original first ever thoughts about business and life and perspectives were literally out of a liquor store, one store, and I built my brand.

46:40I could have easily, if that's what I wanted, opened up 10 more stores, did micro M &A, and I would have built a very substantial franchise or independently owned multi-unit business, which would be worth a lot of money and in today's environment would be a very attractive PE acquisition as every small business is going to get consolidated, it feels like these days. So I really, the number one thing I would do is get into content for two reasons. One, if you're capable building your personal brand, I do believe is a moat. I've always believed that it was the moat. I've talked about it for 15 years that it's the moat.

47:20It is the one true asset that doesn't get commoditized, even in the AI world. You still have your IP. It's your copyright. It's you. Two, if you learn to be a content creator, the other thing that worked with me, and this was hand in hand, and this is what I want for this person, is you start getting good at running ads and doing content for your business too. So in my brain, what I'm dreaming up right now is Sally's building up her. She's like, I did this. This is how I bootstrapped it or how I inherited it or whatever's real. Here's what I'm doing. Here's my day-to-day troubles. here's how I think about it oh my god coins when when people stopped having change on them we had to put in these you know uh swipe your credit card or you know like you know just like the the battle stories of that business but also what she will learn in the story that I'm telling is she'll learn what really every and by the way I know a lot of small businesses listen so let me give it to you very straight disproportionately the biggest opportunity to grow your business traffic to your business, average receipt size is to run, if you're a local business that people come to, is to run 10 mile radius Facebook ads.

48:31And so Sally, in this journey of building up Sally, the laundromat entrepreneur, would also start to learn how to be good at these things, which she would then be able to use to run ads to her business, which is advertising matters. It's always mattered and it will always matter. And so content. You know what's so interesting too? In your story, I remember looking back at those old videos of you in your wine business. And today everybody wants to have a set, right? We're on a borrowed set. This one isn't mine, but they want to have this fancy set. But you know what the sickest set is today? You're actually a laundromat.

49:07I think so. Because it's show, don't tell. It's like, no, no, I own this. There's no fluorescent lights here. Watch me do this. You don't think I own it? Look, I'm right here. I believe the best studio in the world is the world. I tell my clients, which are mainly Fortune 500 companies, I'm like, look, let's make content at stores, in parking lots, at festivals. I genuinely believe that. I've always believed that. I was honestly the Pied Piper in 2009, 10, 11, 12 of no production value. Wine Library TV didn't even have a mic. No lighting. No lighting, no mic. Literally whatever the camera picked up.

49:44And so, yeah, I agree with you. I think that Storys Studio is a big idea. It's a good framework. Yeah, I think so. Storys Studio is something that I've really championed more privately than publicly. So I'm glad we're getting to pontificate about this. And I think that's right. Yeah. And it means you don't have to have a bunch of money because I'm all about the great equalizer. Like yesterday, my husband and I were kind of laughing in New York because New York is such an equalizer city in some ways. In the best way. Yeah, so I could drive like a fancy black car, which sometimes I do. And guess what?

50:16If you hoof it or if you subway it, you're faster than me. And so like that's a cool equalizer that doesn't exist in a lot of other places. And so I think this is a good example for content. Like the best performing ads for a lot of our businesses are exactly what you said. It's like it's a window cleaner cleaning a window and then it reveals a price. Like that's it. there's no production. And so production often, often again, is disguising insecurity. A lot of people talk about production. If you listen carefully, it's just an excuse to not do. Anyone who says I can't afford it is full of shit.

50:56It's called an iPhone. You all have one. the end nothing else zero i did it for fucking a half a decade a 239 camera from best buy was the only thing i used nothing else nothing such a good point you know another thing that i really like about you is um you kind of said it earlier you're like i take some i've taken some punches on the internet and you have this tweet that i was coming back on which is first they'll call you stupid, then they'll call you lucky. Remember, just make sure that you're always executing and they are spending their time calling you things. And I loved that line. How do you deal with haters?

51:38Easily. I, um, with compassion, with empathy, you know, I couldn't comprehend living a life where I spend time trying to tear someone down. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, But Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web. Like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18+.

52:17Hey Chicago, class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new fave footwear? Step into a local Croc store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Croc store today. Ever? Ever. I was just about to say, you know, we're starting to get to know each other. I think it's one thing in these settings I think the thing you would find interesting and this is going to make sense to you because I assume I'm assuming circles and things you've run in as you've built your career the thing that blew me away growing up in the game was that A players in private settings would spend a lot of time shitting on other A players it blew my mind I remember it was happening to me when Scooter Braun, Maverick Carter some of these people in business were starting to do really well.

53:22And I'd be at these things. I knew both of them well. So it's probably why it triggered for me when people would be jealous or envious and they themselves sometimes more successful. I was like, this is weird. This is interesting. Let me take note of this. Oh, insecurity. Oh, like, you know, wow, they don't realize that the world is a butt. Like I was fascinated. I just, and I understand it because the one place I'm not me is sports fandom. and my level of envy and jealousy of Michael Jordan and Tom Brady and Bulls fans in that era and Patriot fans is like anger, like almost like the most extreme Republican or Democrat feeling about the other side.

54:02So I can tap into the emotion that is jealousy and envy. And, you know, because I don't feel in control as a fan. But as real life human, I feel fully in control and I couldn't comprehend the idea of deploying jealousy or envy against someone else. So how do I deal with haters? Compassion. I mean, they're just not in a good place. Like there's no other way to say it. Like, could you comprehend spending your time tearing down and so many people do it and you're like, I just couldn't, why would I deploy that energy? you know if I believe something stinks or someone stinks my immediate reaction is to just walk away in perpetuity I want to save my energy and time I got shit to do trying to win out here that I remember that tweet I remember that era when I was thinking about it I always wanted to be an athlete but it wasn't in the cards um being a publicly known businessman with you know opinions left, right, up, down.

55:06I'm like, oh shit, I got to taste it. Like, you know, everyone it's like, you know, it's like hot takes, you know? And so, and I think about it being an athlete, which is if you're an athlete, you know, just got done with this great Knicks playoff run, but it ended unfortunately just a hair too short. But when you're on the court and they're booing you, if you actually take that in, it's very hard to perform. If you take it in and you get excited, that's how I take it like it's the way I deal with it is 90 % indifference and compassion like I'm like who gives a fuck comma man just wish Ricky pants 49 lived a life where he didn't have to like be mad at me because I know I'm triggering insecurities for him and 10 % of like gangster I'm gonna slice your throat like all right motherfucker keep talking like oh really like you think I've made it now let me build disney in front of your face with v friends and you're really gonna fucking be angry at 80 so there's a little bit of that but only but only 10 which is i'm like very grateful for maybe 20 depends depends on the day i like being competitive i enjoy being competitive in fact one of my great angers in the world is eighth place trophies one of my great angers in the world is when two passive parents get lucky enough to birth a competitive kid probably took after grandma and then they tell that kid like this game that they're crying about doesn't matter it only matters winning and losing is incredibly imperative to the human race nothing is good out of balance of course people like gary winning and losing like is it okay to like hurt people to win no no it's not okay but is it okay to completely eliminate merit and competitiveness and winning and losing no no that leads to let me say it slow suicide this is what people don't understand when you start to not care about anything, you get into a very dark place.

57:00Teaching a young kid nothing matters is a dangerous game. Or sports don't matter, but getting A's matter. You start teaching them fake shit. Yeah. I mean, I think also going back and realizing that nihilism is real. And, you know, some of the greats have talked about the fact that the most horrible thing you can do to an individual is to take away passion in some way, shape or form. It's black and white to me. Yeah. Yeah. As someone who's like fueled by it, I can, you know, like we're animals, like I can smell it when someone has it and I can smell it only two versions I can smell. I can't smell the middle.

57:40Interesting. But with passion, I can smell the two opposites. I can smell when someone's got it. Yeah. Which is why I've associated, invested and been around a lot of people who went on to become enormous and I can smell when someone doesn't have it at all, which is why I fucking wake up every morning putting out content to get them out of their darkness. So we've told them that content matters. Yes. We've told them that if you're running a small business, you should think about building up your brand. We've talked a little bit about IP, like all of this talks about content. But the number one of the biggest questions I get asked by business owners in our portfolio is how do you find great talent?

58:14How do you find the person to help you with social media by realizing you need to be the person that first understands it a little bit how do you judge something you don't know if i went into a surgery surgery right now heart surgery and i needed to judge what's going on we have a problem it's called i have no idea what the fuck is going on everybody who's listening when you own a business it is hard when you own a business you have to be adaptable. When you own a business, you have to deal with the shit. I know that you don't like it. You may even have an ideological disagreement with social media.

58:53You must be the person that learns it a little bit so that you can judge the talent. It's not about finding the talent. It's that everybody gave the job to their 20 year old niece because they thought like, oh, you're a kid, you get it. The problem is the 20 year old niece and nephew use social media to fucking hook up, not to build a big business. So, you know, my answer, and I talk to a lot of these businesses as well, is you have to spend 50 to 100 hours educating yourself and then doing. You can't read about pushups to get the results. You have to read and watch videos and listen. I even made it easier for you.

59:33GaryVee.com slash attention. I literally took my last book, which is 20 fucking dollars. I'm like, you can't afford 20 bucks? How about this? A 44-page free deck to tell you exactly what to do. But I recommend the book. Thank you. I gave day trading attention to all of my social team. Thank you. Yeah, well, again, you said thank you, but I said no, thank you. No, I get it. Because it's actually super. It's why I believe in books. I'm like, I cannot believe I charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to clients for consulting, and this$20 fucking book is like pretty much there. Yeah, 100. Well, and, you know, to be fair, why wouldn't I steal your 27 years doing this?

1:00:11And more importantly, my actual living the thesis of the book. It's not my only 30 years of working. It's my last 12 to 18 months. Yeah, that was different. You know what I mean? Like, that's what's so interesting about the books I write. I don't write evergreen books. Day trading attention is just a follow up to jab, jab, jab, right hook. Yeah, you're right. It's just 10 years later because shit changed. All I want to do, I'm incredibly obsessed with the contemporary. I want to be obsessed with the history to understand the contemporary. And then I just want to be of today. There was this great line, actually, when I was coming up with a bio on you that I was reading to Kate that is, I think, perfect for you.

1:00:51And it was about the fact that you are pathologically practical about where eyeballs were moving. That is so true. You're pathological. Like you are obsessed. And I think that's what it takes to win. I guess I want to close out with two questions here. One of them is, you know, you've mastered these underpriced attention platforms at varying times. You talk about it in all of your books. At any given time, there's an underpriced platform. So let's give the people the non-Evergreen. What is that today? Where is the underpriced attention today? Live social shopping. If you sell anything, and this is huge for your crew.

1:01:30If you sell anything You know that's not Like a physical thing Not a service VaynerMedia doesn't do this I can't do this with VaynerMedia We don't sell a physical thing If you sell a physical thing Which a lot of you do Every one of you Has to learn everything you can About TikTok, shop and whatnot W-H-A-T-N-O-T Those are the two leaders right now I expect Meta, Google, Twitter Everybody to get into this game Live social shopping is the underpriced attention. There are a ton of creators right now who will never get millions of followers and make millions of dollars, but if they switch to being someone that sells something on social instead of making lifestyle content, they will make millions of dollars.

1:02:15So smart. I forced Mike to do a garage sale. Mike did a garage sale on Whatnot this Saturday and made 700 bucks? Yeah. now I know you sold some trading cards and stuff like that but you also because I heard you were going to do just trading cards I'm like no no no I need you to like sell some random shit in the house give me one example of something that was literally sitting collecting dust in your apartment and you sold for how much

1:02:47right do we include shipping and handling yeah you charge the like I love this every time I do garage sales and everything I'm like what about the shipping like you charge shipping What about the eBay fee? I'm like, everything has a cost. Like, you know, like people love an excuse, right? People look for the why not. I literally think garage sales and flea markets are gonna happen in live social shopping. It's not just someone who starts a beauty brand. Or like those storage units. Kate, we're doing your storage unit. She has one here that she's had for two years. Right, she's paying monthly fee.

1:03:18She's paying 25 bucks a month. We should just do it live on YouTube. Not YouTube, because they don't have that yet. well that's so i want to turn it into a youtube video but do it live on whatnot or tiktok you can make a youtube video because that's great because that's content but live the qvcification of social media is here yeah listen to these stats 30 what some this is a stat i'm always a little weird with stats but this is real china is fully here china's got obviously one of the biggest economies in the world live social shopping in china now by the most conservative estimates represents 30 % of all e-commerce in China.

1:03:58Get the fuck out. A half a trillion dollar economy of live shopping in China that is bigger than almost every nation's economy. In the US, I just had the CEO of QVC. He put out this stat that I'm going to try to validate this week, but it feels right ish. He's like, we're already at 6 % on live shopping in the U S and no one's even seeing it yet. What's that? Do we know what that is compared to what QVC used to be? Cause it was like a lot than nothing then now growing. QVC has always been a ton and it's not a lot. It was still doing an ungodly amount of business. There's something about the behavior.

1:04:42You're almost like paying for the entertainment. You're like tipping the host. You're like part of the community. I have this concept called commerce attainment. So ready, how about this? You're a hairdresser right now listening and you sell shampoos and other shit, soaps and all the fucking shit in your place, right? You can go live on whatnot right now. At the bottom of the screen is like this$12 shampoo and you could just buy it while you're teaching people how to use the shampoo on a customer, this is real. Tea with Gary Vee, which I really did really well during COVID, I've brought back, I love doing Q &A.

1:05:21On Tea with Gary Vee, I now do it on Whatnot, not on Instagram Live. I do it on all my socials, but I drive to Whatnot. I drink out of a VFriends mug, and the mug is pinned at the bottom of the screen, and while I'm doing the show, people are buying the mug. Get out. Commerce-tainment. I'm not even selling in that format It's just subliminal right there Yeah or I'll make a reference I'm like hey you like my mug It's a mini commercial It's not even a commercial And you just like experimenting That's part of your thing You just never stop experimenting Yes after it's been validated I have a trillion dollar stuff Sells in China Now we have those functionalities It's going to happen here It's happening here TikTok shop is insane You for your portfolio must deeply understand TikTok shop So live social shopping is one of them Within social I'm a big fan for people that are obsessed with TikTok On Snapchat spotlight So Snapchat spotlight is much smaller But it's their TikTok right It's in their UI And there's a fuckload of 15 to 30 year olds in it But here's the good part Supply and demand of attention Like I talked about in day trading there's a lot of kids on it they spend a lot less time on it than they do on tiktok when i say kids i say 15 to 30 so if you sell to 15 to 30 but nobody's but the supply is low nobody's posting on there so i i'm very hot on snapchat spotlight um substack i think is really really interesting i'm about to delve in irl streaming so twitch you got to check out beehive i'm an investor in it so obviously very biased.

1:07:05I will absolutely do that. And they're here. I've never met faster builders. We invest in a lot of companies and shout out Tyler Denk. He's an absolute psychopath. He's like what you talked about. Speed. I think he's going to eat Snapchat's, Substacks lunch. I love it. Good for them. Yeah. Yeah. Look, and it's not even, you know this, you're too smart for this. I don't think Beehive is going to eat Substacks lunch. I think it's an and not an or. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, like there's too big, it's too big of a dressable market. Yeah. Very true. Uber Lyft. That's true. Like when I was like, Oh, Lyft, cause I was an early investor in Uber.

1:07:37I was like, Oh fuck Lyft's going to do well. But I wasn't like, I want multiple to do well. Yeah. I mean, look, I like when you're on it, like I don't want the Patriots bills and dolphins to do well. Like I don't mind competition. I just know it is. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But if you have a few, then you grow the market share entirely. Yeah. But both of those companies are going into a trend that's happened. Yeah. Like medium was, I was an investor medium, which was Ev Williams, who's an iconic entrepreneur, co-founder of Twitter, and before that, ODO, and blogger before that, one of the first blogging platforms.

1:08:13Subscription, Patreon, OnlyFans, and then the social sites are going to start. You can already see some of the moves they're doing, like, fuck all these other places. We've got all the audience. We're going to monetize. So there's a lot to it. But these are things I'm looking at every day. Let's end on, on AI. So, uh, what's going to, what are your craziest predictions when it comes to AI? Well, I've gone pretty viral lately because I, my craziest prediction is that most people's grandchildren will marry an AI robot. Fuck my life. Some of them will, not everyone's going to, but I think this is the biggest thing we've seen since the internet.

1:08:49Um, it's that big. It's when the internet came along, my thesis when I was a kid was, oh, this is like, like I bet my life on it. And the bet was, this is the biggest transformation ever. And like, everybody will be on the internet. And when I tell you when I said that in 95, six or seven, people laughed, laughed. When people are like, when they talk about AI, I don't think they realize it's oxygen. Like when I get excited about the blockchain, NFTs, Bitcoin, that is a big deal when I get excited about social media that was a very big deal email google search these are big deals this is a level above this is internet and AI meaning I view AI as almost boring to talk about because is it fun to talk about the internet as a foundation like no we talk about the things on top of it to me AI is now like omnipresent it's a reality of life and there's a real decade of recalibration, reckoning, disruption, opportunity.

1:09:56I'm baffled at anyone who's not spending an hour a day learning about AI and using AI. I couldn't imagine. And I spend a lot of time prompt engineering, you know, just if you don't know what that means, Google it or AI it. And that's what's so funny. Like even Googling it, I noticed I said to somebody the other day, I'm like, AI it, like go Gemini it, go Perplexity, go Gronk it, go OpenAI, you know, ChatGPT it. Like, it's like, it's huge. And it's like the wildest predictions are the internet of things, it thinking for you, it ordering it. Like, I think all of shopping will be done by agents for you based on your behaviors.

1:10:35Like, it will know better that you wanted that outfit than you knew. Facebook already knows me better than my husband with my shopping preferences. I mean, most days know things better than husbands know. But we're a bunch of idiots. I think that it is very clear to me that we are going into a transformative half century where AI will be like the piping of this reality. Piping, railroads, infrastructure, oxygen, whatever you want to call it. This is the biggest thing that's happened in a long time. Let's give people a couple things to do on that. Somebody's listening They're like alright fuck it Gary told me to do AI What does do AI daily In order to get better at it look like Inside of Twitter X Using Gronk Perplexity Or Google Gemini Or probably the one ChatGPT is so strong And so easy and common for people Download it and use it every day Like and then use it Like here's how I use AI Hey AI Like hey This is what I do actually Almost every week what are the five AI apps that popped in the last week that I should pay attention to?

1:11:46AI is answering that question for me so that I can go look at those apps and understand what's happening. Also, real quick, because I know a lot of smart investors listen here, be very careful in investing in AI. The reason I haven't yet is every week, you think you just invested in the best X and a week later, somebody crushes that. The speed, you want to talk about speed? The speed in which these apps are getting updated and better is profound. It is the first time that I am annoyingly an evangelist for tech that is not something I've invested in or own. Like I won't shut up about like whisper flow.

1:12:22Fuck the keyboard. The keyboard's gone. You just, you know, yeah, you just voice text and it's perfect from now on. I mean, that's wild. What about what about what about the fact that nobody has to learn a language anymore? Everyone's going to have ear pods that like you're going to talk to somebody. They're going to be speaking Spanish and you'll hear it as English and you're going to speak English and they'll hear the Spanish and Portuguese and Korean. Like there's profound things coming, but the wildest one is we're going to fall in love with these, you know, AIs. And then we're going to put that in love AI into robot bodies.

1:12:53And those robot bodies are going to go from looking like RoboCop to looking like, you know, Megan Fox. Sydney Sweeney. And you know, that Megan Fox movie is a preview. Yeah. Does that make you sad? No, it doesn't. No, No, no. It makes me, uh, it makes me understand that this is how it's always been. You know, like cavemen were different than you and I were. Supposedly we were apes, right? So like, does it make our apes mad that we like, like, you know, like shit changes. Like I look, I'm not like people are always like, Gary, that's gross. Or like, you need Jesus. I was like, I'm like, look, I'm not advocating for it.

1:13:33Yeah. You're just predicting. In fact, I'm like advocating for simplicity. I think it's, I'm sad for people that wear gold chains and fucking like take pictures in private planes. So like I love when people are like, this is sad. I'm like, you're sad. You know, like this is what's brewing. This is what could happen. You're asking for a prediction. I'm guessing, but it fucking feels like it's coming. I think you're, sadly, I think you're right. I do think it's a little sad, but that is every generation. But by the way, I go back to this. We're in charge. like if you think it's sad as a human one day like you can parent and grandparent your kid into like understanding the value of a human versus a robot right the problem is like is that like we have to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable the reason the robots are trending in my opinion long term is we want everything perfect it's exactly why you know But by the way, like, are we like, are we robots?

1:14:37Like, let me explain. Ozempic vanity hair extensions, boob jobs, fucking testosterone, HGA, like makeup, like, you know, like people can argue we're sad. We become very, very, very visual. Like 40, 50 year old men and women like you and I. Two generations ago do not look like the way we look. and those people can say we're sad. Why do we have to alter ourselves? What's plastic surgery? What's Botox? You know? Gary's gonna be like this in 10 years maybe? I'm probably not but I don't judge people that are. I just judge when they say something sad when they're doing the sad thing. I remember in the 80s when boob, like I was a kid but I remember when everybody frowned on someone who had a boob job.

1:15:27And now they're everywhere.

1:15:31you know what I mean it's true and so and so like I don't know is lip filler like sad to a woman from 1949 it sure is they think you're fucking sad zoom out huh so just because you think a robot said like like it's just gonna keep doing shit and I get what people are gonna say in the comments like yeah but that's still a human being I'm like okay like I don't know like okay I had a I hired an AI specialist who's so amazing. You walk into my office. The first time I meet the guy in person because we were interviewing him on a project basis. Anyway, he's sitting in the front area of my office. He's got a hoodie on.

1:16:09He's got those, what are those things called? VR glasses. VR glasses. And he's just fucking maestroing in front. And I'm taking a little video because it's funny. His name's Chadwick. He's brilliant. And his entire job is to see where AI can play in our companies. But I started talking to him about this idea. And he pushed me really hard on our humans' robots. He goes, should they be able to vote? Immediate reaction, fuck, no, they shouldn't be able to vote. He goes, okay, what about a human with a fake leg? What about a human with two robotic legs? What about a human with a neurotransplant in their head?

1:16:39Where does it become a human instead of a robot? And I was like, poof. Yeah, and by the way, it might not even be right. Like, meaning like, it could be the end of the human race. And I'm like, okay. Like, I don't, do you think I want that? but my intuition is that my grandkids will be gone by the time that happens and like you don't get to control the future like what is this audate this is where this is where the whole politics thing has gotten me crazy like we've gotten to this era where people have the audacity to think the world should be how they see it i have passionate points of view we just spent fucking an hour on it i don't think i'm right and i don't think it should be the way i see it like I just most of all you can't stop it you know technology is undefeated by the way as I sign off electricity demonized when it came out actually the word demonized when electricity was invented people did not put it in their home and still chose lanterns and candles because the word on the street was electricity had demons in it we're scared of new shit And Gary V, you're the man.

1:17:53Thank you for being here today. Thank you.

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