3 Keys to Building a Powerful Brand | Arman Naféei

0:00This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Gary, welcome to Are We On Air? Thank you for having me. My pleasure and you're here at the Kiosk Otex in Los Angeles. Yes, I'm pretty excited about it. Yeah. And for others. Yeah, you'll see people will be like walking through, they'll be like honking and stomping. I love it. I love it. And that's the whole idea of the Kiosk Otex, like the high low. It's amazing. Right? Like, and there's no barrier, there's no hierarchy. It's like we're on the street. Yeah. So why don't we go straight into it? Okay. Three songs to describe who you are. Probably Eye of the Tiger.

0:33Oh. Yeah, like I think that song, it's amazing. I first heard it obviously as a kid when I saw Rocky. I've probably listened to that song 25 times this year. Normally before I take a shower in the morning, I'll have an Alexa in my bathroom and I'll be like Alexa play Eye of the Tiger and I will pump out like 52 meaningful proper pushups right in the fucking mouth of the day. I kind of just like, I'm telling the day that like, don't fuck with me. I'm about to win this day. So I, the tiger, definitely stands out.

1:12What's up, brother? How are you? I told you. It's amazing. I literally might want to do this full time in my life. I might just work like this 12 hours a day in the middle of the street. We have Wi-Fi here. We have a laptop. We have lunch at the Chateau. I know, we have lunch at the Chateau. We come back here. We sell some products. That's how we roll. So here's an interesting one. I'm going to go next with Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Now, what's interesting about that song is I'm not even sure if I can recall right now I'm trying to do it. I don't actually think I know what that song's about, which is kind of silly because it's so iconic and one should.

1:54but for me, I've always thought as the oldest son of an immigrant family, I was raised, I had the DNA and I was raised in a manner where from the time I can remember, I told, my mom told me that if anything, God forbid, ever happened to her or my dad, that I was in charge of taking care of my sister and then later my brother. And I've always been such a stable framework, both emotionally and then later financially, for most of the people in my life. And so I've always been very attracted to bridges. I also am attracted to them because I like things that pull hard from opposite directions. I like being nice, but I want to kill you when I compete with you, right?

2:45I'm very ambitious and hungry and high energy, but I'm incredibly patient. So I've always found myself as like a strong contradiction and I've always associated that with bridges pulling on opposite directions. So at a very young age, when I would hear Bridge Over Troubled Waters, I kind of viewed that I was the bridge over troubled waters for my friends and family and that song has really spoken to me. Wow. Beautiful. I also love that you found a song where it actually connects to your story on such a level that you actually felt like the bridge. Yeah. Does that mean I'm also looking for the juxtaposition and trying to bridge the juxtaposition?

3:29Well, what's interesting about it is I was attracted to the song before I think I had the realization. Ah, okay, okay. And then later it kind of like really played out for me. And yeah, it really, I think, like nailed it for me. And in my late teens, early 20s, I was like, wait, this is maybe why I've always loved this song. You know? So those are two. And I, you know. And it's talking about your family though, your heritage, Belarusian. That's right. I was born in the former Soviet Union. So when I was born there, it was called the USSR. I love your hat. You're welcome. It was called the USSR.

4:04It's now known as, it's now Belarus. You know, very, very challenging upbringing, right? Like was born in a shitty place. Got very lucky to get out and had a very immigrant starting from the dirt kind of US life. And the American dream is a very big impact on me. And yeah, that's where I come from. Because I love Soviet disco. So the question is, do you have fond memories as well of your heritage? I left when I was three. But from your family growing up in your culture, there's no music, there was nothing. Oh, I'm sorry. The police was a bad place. not fond from that, but fond from like all my uncles pounding vodka to the face and playing like Russian music and like eating pickles.

4:52Like, yeah, that's fond. Like that was fun. Like that, that kind of like family. But you, I will say this, unlike Persian culture, Latin culture, it's a very sad culture. There, there's a reason that alcoholism is rampant in the Soviet Union. It was not a happy place and it is a less joyous culture than many though music and dance and food there's plenty of fun things to look at but all net net not the greatest place on earth give me one Russian track that you like there was a Russian song called Atlantic City

5:29basically it translates to Atlantic City I'm sure everybody understood that part and the hook is like keep pouring the alcohol and keep betting keep pouring the alcohol and keep betting so that was in the Russian restaurants when I was like 13 I was like wait a minute that's a good fucking song so Atlantic City by Sister Rosa I think is the artist but I could be wrong on that somebody correct me on the internet we'll find it we'll find it third one third one I was as we were talking about the last couple things I was like where am I gonna go with this you know I'm gonna go with an interesting one on the third one it's not a song-ish probably, and I've brought this up many times, some of my homies that are behind the camera right now are gonna be like, uh-huh, I am infatuated with the last scene of 8 Mile.

6:23Oh, okay. Where Eminem is in a battle rap, for anyone who's not seen it, most of you have, and he goes first, which is a very challenging position to win a battle rap because you're giving the other person last licks. And what he does is he decides to completely shit You're aware of what I'm talking about? Of course. That song, the amount of times that I say in my brain, but I know something about you, in real life meetings, where someone's trying to do something to me that is in their good and my detriment, the amount of times I say something in my own, to myself, that says, but I know something about you in that I'm gonna let you finish, but I'm gonna fucking kill you now and end this checkmate is probably somewhere in the ballpark of a hundred to a thousand.

7:20It's just a lot. And that scene, I actually think, is the unlock to happiness for all eight billion people on earth. That if you are willing to lean into full humility and shit on yourself to the world, then the world has no leverage on you on shitting on you because you did it first and i think it is literally one of the most profound songs even though it's very quick and i will go with that third damn okay you got my respect that's for sure well for me you know i that means a lot coming from you i think you know i'm up for the challenge of like not just saying shit yeah no no no stuff music for I will say this, I don't think I understand melody super well.

8:05I'm not musical by nature. Like when music hits, it doesn't like, but boy, when I tell you words matter to me fucking heavy. And so the lyrics and like what the point is and the context, it really matters to me. Yeah. And you don't have to be musical to have a moment in the memory with a song or a scent. Well, I think that's what's so profound about what you're doing. I think that's exactly right. I feel like even the least interested people on earth to music or least musical, it's probably impossible for them not to be able to reference a song in the context of the day something remarkable or something horrible happened in their lives or meaningful and I think that is why music is so uncomfortably forever.

8:55100%, and it's timeless, and it changes. Your soundtrack changes all the time. But one thing that doesn't change is, and I have to read this to you, becoming remarkable at the craft of doing social media, staying humble enough to adapt and being where the attention is, aka on the social media platforms where everyone's spending time on. Yes. Sounds familiar? Day trading attention. Yeah. Now the big question is, what are the top three key things to do in branding, in building a brand in 2025? And what are the worst things to do in building a brand in 2025? The number one, two, and three thing that's being done worse by everybody in 2025 and late 2024 is that almost everybody who's watching this is producing content for selfish wants, whatever that might be.

9:45Selfish wants. Okay, one second. They wanna become famous, they wanna become rich, they want more followers, they need more likes, they wanna get the girl, it's all very, for me. That is the number one, two, and three mistake of everybody making content. that every brand selling Reeboks or sneakers or Toyota just drove by or whatever, Hard Rock Cafe or everything I'm looking at, crackers, I want you to buy this, I want you to buy this, I want you to buy this. The macro framework, what's up my man? The macro, the macro framework. The macro framework that everybody's misplaying is they're making content for themselves.

10:22I'm gonna make myself look good. I'm gonna make myself look smart. it's very selfish. The entire opportunity is when you make content to make it for them. I'm gonna make them smarter. I'm gonna make them look better. I'm gonna let them grow their business. This is a huge challenge for people. People by default are incredibly good at being selfish and really struggle with being selfless. It's a huge deal. So that's the macro one, two, and three. In the micro number one the biggest mistake that people are making is that they're over-relying on Instagram and TikTok. They are so one-dimensional in those two platforms.

11:05Spread your portfolio. 100%. The amount of opportunity on Facebook, Snapchat, Spotlight, which is their TikTok and Instagram, YouTube Shorts is profound. Secondarily, it's harder to blow up on Twitter, but you can. LinkedIn. those five platforms are equally as important as TikTok and Instagram yet 99 % of the people watching or listening right now don't even post on them or at best it's secondary repeat and rinse content and meanwhile for most people and this is going to be the most important sentence here follow along friends most people watching aren't good enough to break out on Instagram and TikTok because you're competing with the world and the best in the world.

11:53So you can find your niche going to a different platform. Maybe you can go training wheels. It's like a boxer. Before you go fight the heavyweight champion of the world, why don't you go win a couple of local easy fights? Before you try to dominate face Instagram or TikTok, what about getting your feet wet on Snap or YouTube shorts? So that's a huge mistake. Number two, not enough analytics. Too many people, and this is so fun to say in LA, Too many people are fucking artists about this shit. It looks good. They think their subjective opinion of their taste, visually, is the punchline in a world where most of the people that think that don't realize they look like everybody else.

12:39All your fucking grids look the same. You've all got the same fucking aesthetics with your throwback camera and your fucking beige and gray. Like it's all the same shit. Get rid of this. So what I think is happening is the aesthetic subjectiveness of humans that don't realize that they are actually pretty much in a group of three different flavors that you like. You're all vanilla, strawberry or chocolate. And you think that's the punchline without looking at the analytics of what time to post, how many words should be in the, Like, no math. All ego art. No practical math. That's pretty much me.

13:20And everybody else. Now, by the way, this is a very important side note. But on that note, though. Yeah, okay. And then finish, finish, finish. Go, go, go, go. That's okay if you want to make yourself happy. But don't fucking cry about being shadow banned or the algorithm. Because you stink. I actually smell quite good. but so that's a big question and fundamental question yes quality versus quantity the real answer is both okay meaning if you're good enough kai sunette is putting out unlimited content and he's good enough to do it i've had a high career of volume and i and i'd like to think and i'd like to think that i've been good enough Most people, to your point, can't do enough volume of quality.

14:17And so it makes sense for them to have to be less. But if you are good enough, if you are good enough, Kevin Hart and Ryan Reynolds are everywhere all the time. There's no overexposure. They're good enough. So I think everyone has to be humble and self-aware and say, how good am I? And if I'm good enough, I should put out more good stuff because that will only be good for the audience and myself. But to your point, if you don't have anything to say or you can't contribute, less frequency is probably your partner. But I think everyone should achieve for quality quantity ratio at the highest level that their talents reward them.

14:55AI influencer, is that the new TikTok? It's not the new TikTok, it's a new TikTok star. It's a new Charli D 'Amelio. It's a new Alex Cooper. You know, Alex Cooper, it's the new, it's the new, it's the new influencer. It's what started with Tila Tequila and Dane Cook on MySpace, and is now Alex Earl and whatever. All those years in between, all those people that popped, Perez Hilton, my career, many others that are much bigger than me, Casey Neistat, you know, anybody you wanna mention that's ever achieved millions and millions and millions of followers, the next group of people aren't gonna be regular people.

15:40This town got very surprised by regular people becoming famous. Regular people that became famous are about to be surprised by AI influencers being famous. So as a brand, as a company, as an individual, how can I utilize this new tool for myself? You should create your boyfriend, girlfriend, younger brother, fake mother. Like you should create your Mickey Mouse. if I was a 25 year old super attractive boy or girl right now that was single or if I had a relationship for that matter that had four million followers on TikTok or a million on Instagram immediately I would create my AI boyfriend or girlfriend and have a relationship with them because you're going to build up a huge audience you know that that whole Ashton Kutcher Mila Kuna like you know Demi Moore the whole Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift that one plus one celebrity becomes a superpower couple thing.

16:32That can be done by influencers right now at scale in a really meaningful way. But they own the AI influencers, so that's what you should be doing. I shall. When you get ready for talking at a conference. Yes. Or even heading to the gym. Yep. Besides Eye of the Tiger, what's the go-to track to get you pumped? Do you actually listen to music before you go? I really love the game. Music is every morning in the bathroom for me. Music is when I'm traveling a lot on a plane or an airport. Those are my core places. I run the gamut. Right now, I'm very stuck on Hungry Eyes from Dirty Dancing. Okay, Patrick Swayze, shout out.

17:16Maybe not the coolest thing I could have said. Why? It's beautiful. Well, again, I've been... Plus, in Hollywood, come on. Fair enough. So I'm also listening to Polo T a lot, like Polo G, excuse me, a lot. And I'm just mixing it up right now. A lot of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Damn, okay. Shout out to Cali. Meet Me at the Crossroads. Cleveland. Cleveland. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is Cleveland. Really? Uh-huh. Straight out of Cleveland, blah, blah, blah, bleeding. Hello, Cali. Cleveland. All right. Well, maybe you thought Cali because they were discovered by Eazy-E. Ah, that's why. Okay, there you go. That's what your brain did.

17:55Yeah, okay. Okay, good, good. Talking about Cleveland, I also read and saw that your dream is to own the Jets eventually. So, there's this whole thing happening right now in sports team, how they're converting into lifestyle brands, right? Yes. Like we're talking about Pali San Jermaine, Jordan. Yes. Dinger Arsham and Cleveland. Yep. And so forth. What would you do different? if you would own the Jets? I mean, for me, it would be what my big bet, if I literally bought the Jets today. Yes, please. If I bought the Jets today, the biggest battleground I would have is I would wanna make them more popular than the Giants in New York.

18:37So I would think a lot about a lot of things because you have to win on a lot, you know, what's amazing about New York, which makes it, I don't know, dramatically better than LA, is that it has so many, many things. I mean, we would take up 10 podcasts for me to finish this sentence. Well, you do can take a ride here on the red line. That's, I asked Woody Allen, wasn't it in Manhattan? The cultural, what was it? The best thing that came out of California is that you can take a ride on the red line. Sorry. No, no, it's great. I'm all for that, that razz. I would want to win in food culture in New York.

19:12I would want to win in fashion. So I think the Jets, what I would do with the brand is get very contemporary. So for example, one of the things I thought about as soon as you said it is, I would create signature cocktails and foods that would have pop-up, you know, that pop-up bagel thing. Like, by the way, this is why I'm so enamored by this. Yeah. This is just fucking brilliant. I think you should do a takeover. I'm in. Let's set it up, Dio. Yeah. And so, you know, at first I would focus on the football team because I'm a diehard. I love our current GM, so I would try to sign Joe Douglas to a longer extension.

19:46But from a cultural standpoint, I try to win Manhattan in a meaningful way. Yeah, real come, bro! He was wearing a cowboy hat. I was about to say. So I like cowboy fans, because we both hate the Giants. My number one objective would be to out-culture the New York Giants. Interesting. Because you know, we just talked about Will Nair and this little think tank for Scott Malkin, who also owns the New York Islanders. I'm aware. Yeah. So we have this conversation a lot because in New York, it's a big market, but also you have all these different brands within this market, right? So who's doing what?

20:23It's kind of interesting. There's really, you know, it's funny. New York, and obviously, I'm having a little fun here. LA is a great place. But like when I tell you, as someone who's very grateful to have traveled the world significantly, there's just nothing like that place. Like New York by itself, almost feels like the rest of the world combined in its nuances. That is obviously hyperbole, but it's not as far off as some may think it is. That's how profound that place is. I remember I used to live in New York and I still have that sticker talking about Nike, New York against the world. Nowhere to be seen was the Nike logo or nothing, but it was Nike, you know?

21:05It's funny you say that. It's kind of what I'm saying. If there was any place against the world that would even have like a puncher's chance, it's fucking New York. What's the soundtrack of New York for you? What's that sound? Oh, this is interesting. It's funny what came to mind right away. So I sleep with a sound, the answer to your question is white noise on the sound machine at full blast. So I'll share with you. This is literally what I sleep to. Ready? Full blast. This is full blast.

21:45As you can see, it's a mix of seven sounds. This is the soundtrack to New York to me, and here's why. I believe the reason I sleep to the sound machine that I just shared, which is full blast, white noise, seven different sounds in a mix, full blast, highest on your iPhone, is because when I went to sleep over my grandma's in Regal Park, New York in 1985, we were still very like immigrant life, so no air conditioning. It was 100 degrees in New York and the windows were open because it was so hot in the apartment. And I went to sleep and all the sound outside that was coming into the apartment put me out like a light.

22:34I actually, wait, watch this. Do you see it? I'm literally starting to get goosebumps. I recorded. You got it? I can feel it right now. That sound hit me. And like, I knew that that was my sound. The sound of the fucking jungle. Maybe a different song that I, maybe a different answer to your question could have been like, Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses. We'll add that to a playlist. Because the jungle of New York City hit me that night. It was like 10 o 'clock at night. My grandma let me go to sleep a little late for a young kid. It was hot as shit, kind of like right now. The window all the way up and just the sounds and it became, the chaos made me comfortable.

23:18I need that action. You put me in the middle of nowhere. Where it's actually silent. Where it's actually silent. I don't mean like the woods, which works for me sometimes with the fucking frogs and the crickets and the birds. I mean actual silent. I hate it. Which actually one of my question is, do you meditate? Because you're so high energy. When are you actually switching off? Like when you're like nonstop. I got a funny answer for you. Because with every high there, it's got to be a low, right? Do you have that? Do you have the balance in your life? Back to bridge. Yeah, there you go. I believe that I'm meditating right now.

23:52Interesting. So I don't actively meditate. No Joe Dispenza. I don't do it actively. I think I'm doing it passively. I would argue that my form of meditation is a unbelievable, and I'm grateful for this. This is luck of the draw. I don't take any credit for this. Let me preface it. I believe that I have an uncanny, healthy perspective on life, which keeps me in a constant state of neutrality. And so in my outward chaos, and the cell machine, and this, and right, our kind of personalities, I'm really fucking chill. I feel meditated. I'm also detached from myself a little bit. Like I don't think I'm cool because I'm Gary Vee.

24:39I don't think I'm special because I'm a good businessman. I don't get my validation for my life from my career or my Gary Vee-ness. And so between that and that all I care about is the health and well-being of my family and everything else is manageable. and even that's manageable in the scheme of things, I think I'm meditating 24 seven. What I think people try to do in a plunge, in a workout, in a meditation, in readings, I think that's what comes most natural to me. I like that because that's the ultimate way, right? When you walk through life and you're in the meditative step. Like, but yeah.

25:18As a matter of fact, to be even like a little bit weird about it, which I'm sure is wrong, this is my own Mishagas, I am scared to meditate because I don't want to throw off my meditation, my rhythm. I'm actually not joking. I'm like, why would I fuck with it? If everyone's trying to achieve a day or an hour of this level of peace of mind and I'm living it constantly, the fuck would I fuck with that for? I like that. That's the ultimate. Well, one thing we love and share is culture. Culture is a big topic. Culture is big in advertising. It's big in our lives. what is culture to you A and B obviously here at Are We On Air we're a cultural brand what potential do you see in the Are We On Air cultural brand well the answer let me answer the first one so we can jam on the second one which I'm excited to do I view culture as two things current popular culture and historic culture that leads to kind of like stereotypes things that are ingrained I referenced it earlier, like Latin culture tends to be more joyous than Eastern European culture.

26:27That's historic. Family, you know, Sunday night supper for Italians, right? Culture, historic culture, and then popular culture of the moment, Kai Sinek, right? Aiden Ross. A 90s baggy fucking clothes are back after we were just fully skinny jean the fuck out. mullets which were made fun of for 20 years are now good the ebb and flow right of uh rebox versus air force one like the ebb and flow and so that's how i define culture of the moment popular culture fashion food people and then the mix of that with historical forever culture as far as your thing yes and I'll tell you why. I believe that the way things become popular culture is based on format and how you fill the format.

27:20So social media was a macro format and the humans that knew how to fill it won. I believe this entire framework of being in the, like this incredible, like when I, I mean I, my brain works in a way where I'm thinking about multiple things at once. I haven't gotten over the fact that you were there and you saw this and you knew, like that level of brilliance of seeing underpriced attention, that's what I live for. So this format is incredibly conducive to culture and then your talent of filling it, to me this is structure and this is distribution and filling the distribution and I think that most things don't even start with good distribution.

28:02That's what you hacked here. But then if you sucked in doing this show and getting guests, Well, as good as this was, it would fail. It'd be like a Super Bowl commercial. Super Bowl commercials are the best attention, but if you do a bad ad, you lose. On the flip side, if you did this up there and nobody saw it, and it was still the same show, your distribution wasn't as good, even though the content is. The fact that you have one plus one, I view that as equals 11, not two. That's why I'm bullish, that's why I say yes to this. That's why I root for you. My man. Awesome, my brother. What a pleasure.

28:38Thank you. I'm glad. Really. And to your success. Thank you.