A Great 1 Hour Talk About Creativity, Art, Commerce & Collecting with Your Kids

0:28Podcast friends, how are you? my Care Bears and My Little Pony. I think this is gonna be a really fun listen. I think you're gonna see a different side of me and it. And I hope you enjoy this podcast. And please hit me up on all my socials. Leave a comment on my Instagrams or tweet me or send me an email. Like, I have a feeling this one's gonna hit for a lot of you. And I also think this is gonna bring a lot of value to a lot of you that have kids between two and eight years old. Wait for that at the end. And let me know how you like this. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Happy New Year, everyone.

0:59Jim, DJ. Happy New Year, Gary. It's going to be an exciting year, 2026, I think for us, comic-wise. I think we have an ambitious slate, and I'm excited about it. I think it's going to be a breakout year. I think last year is really the breakout year, but I think we'll up that in a considerable way in 26. and I think it was funny, timing in life is always so interesting. I was DMing with somebody on Instagram yesterday who said that they were talking to me about the cards that they were buying and they were pretty high-end cards that they're searching out for in Be Friends land and they said that they had always kind of been bullish on me and V friends, but they were concerned that there wasn't character development and thus they were concerned of spending the kind of money they're talking about, which is significant.

2:10And they said they, in the last 30 days, have become more confident in that was happening. And I assumed that they had gone deeper into comics and they were aware of them, but I sent them to the vfriends.com slash comics, you know, URL. And about an hour later, I got a DM and it was just 10 times more enthusiastic because, you know, he read three or four of the comics. It was funny. He first replied and said, I read Versatile Viking, I love it. And of course I was like, well, you got to read number five, The Motivated Monster and things of that nature. So, you know, I think the character development that is happening through comics is an imperative part of the process and excites me quite a bit of what we're up to.

3:03Hey, everybody. I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. Gary, I was curious about the fictional storytelling that these comics entail and that all the V Friends entail. How different is that for you in terms of storytelling from what you've done in the past? One more time, Jim. I apologize. That chopped for me for a second. I'm just curious about writing fiction, you know, and how different it is for you telling fictional stories as opposed to, you know, kind of motivational speaker, entrepreneurial marketing.

3:39It feels like fiction is different. Let me throw it back at you and DJ. You've all been, you know, DJ's been in multiple sessions with me. You've been at one. We're about to do another one. You know, what are your guys' take? This is a part of my life that almost no one knows about. Definitely nobody publicly. I mean, probably until we started doing these comic offsites, I would argue that my brother, AJ, most knows about it because when he was five and six and seven years old and I was 16, 17 and 18, I was a very big part of his life and he wanted me to put him to bed a lot of times. and in hindsight, my reading comprehension was such a big factor in my poor academic career.

4:28So I didn't have a whole lot of interest in reading AJ books. So I just made up stories and would really just riff, like truly riff for like 30, 40 minutes without a breath. You know, my gift and my curse is my brain goes quite fast. as a podcast host, it's a negative because I interrupt. But as a storyteller, as a public speaker who does improv, when I eventually host SNL one day, I think those things will come in handy. But I think fiction, make believe, pretend, my sister knows, there was a game I used to play. I think I've mentioned this once publicly. There was a game that me and my sister, Denise Laurie, her best friend and my best friend Robbie Turnick played in Edison, New Jersey in 85, 86, 87.

5:20So I was 10, 11, 12, where it was called Adventure. And I was the warrior and my sister was the princess and Robbie was like the goon and Denise was the fairy. And we would literally walk around town and I would narrate make-believe in real time. Like, watch out, there's the pig warriors. they come from like literally narrate from the top of my head, sometimes for two, three hours. You know, my gift of gab and being able to just talk not stop is something I think everyone knows publicly. But the imagination and the creativity was a very big part of my life. So I would say it comes incredibly natural to me.

6:05But I'm a little bit more interested in your guys' observation, given that you've been around. yeah i mean for me it's weird because he listened to hear you say that you know my imagination when i was a kid was very similar we would just make up stuff i live now maybe two blocks away from the creek where i when i was five or six i tried to make a craft to escape this neighborhood and go away and ironically i live here but i was all about comics and then you know it's not the most lucrative career to do so i got into marketing and of course that's why i followed you and a lot of the other, you know, marketing gurus or whatever.

6:43But I realized really early, I was like, wait, marketing is just storytelling. And whoever tells the best story with their marketing and advertising really wins, whether it's true or not, right? So I was like, oh, I could be pretty good at this. So I was in marketing for 11 years, but I was itching to get back. I still did comics on the side, but itching to get back. So working with you and the comics team and just other creators like Jim, it's just as natural like when we get together and just jam and brainstorm and like any ideas on the table those are the fun that's it's almost like role-playing or you know people that play Dungeons and Dragons or something like that it's very similar I agree yeah you mentioned improv Gary and that makes total sense to me like I think about that a lot and whenever we had the first retreat that I attended that's what I found and you know we had other other creators were there too.

7:36So it was a lot of what felt like improv. My first successful comic Street Angel was co-written with the guy that I worked with at a day job. And we worked the same way. It was like, we're trying to get each other to pop, right? You know, it's, you throw out these ideas as wild as they may be, but you're looking for that reaction, especially in a collaborator where you can kind of like see in real time, oh yeah, that hit, that, that did exactly what I wanted it to, you know, keep going in that direction. You know, it's, it's a litmus test that, that you're running as you're kind of riffing and it's fun.

8:05It's very enjoyable. Like DJ said, just kind of throwing it around. I think the other thing that you guys are seeing come out in these sessions with me is I have more of a knack for an origin story. Like I feel like I am more built if I'm being self-aware and observing, I'm incredibly built for an origin story. It's why I love people's first rap album as a kid who likes hip hop and music, I am so much more into the lyrics than I am into the music, to the beat, to the composing, to the melody. And it's because I love a true rags to riches story. I like adversity. I'm curious. I like to know people.

8:55I like to know where they where they come from and why. And I think one thing you're seeing in these sessions and obviously, you know, for the community that's watching, you know, Fearless Ferry, Motivated Monster, a lot of the ones that are coming up, Ninja, you know, some of them have a whole lot. You know, when I look at this slate, right? I would say comic number one has a lot of DJ DNA with tiny sprinkles for me. the X-Men concept, I think I was involved in quite a bit, but I think that one has a whole lot of DJ in it. You look at Fearless Ferry, that's like me, right? Like number two is me.

9:39Like, you know, I have years to think about this. Probably one of the most exciting things for me in all of 2025 VFriends was unveiling to our community that Bad Intentions and Fearless Ferry were brother and sister. You know, for everybody who's in here right now, let me know if that was like a fun moment for you as much as it was for me. Maybe it's a little nerdy, maybe I'm being too romantic. But like that comic really has me in it. You go to comic three, DJ, again, less me, right? More of the team. Obviously, you know, comic four, Harpic, I would say again, a little bit less me. You know, you kind of look at one, two, three, four, it has less me, you know, two is all me or all me.

10:22nothing's all anything, but you know, quite a bit me. Five is very much, I think, I can't wait to look back at the video of that 40 minutes of me in Minnesota telling you what five is. That's very me. Six again, a little less me, let the team kind of cook. Seven, a lot more me. But that was, if I remember that jam, a little bit more collaborative, that was fun. I had certain pieces, two and five, I had like, you know, like everybody was kind of watching it. Like everybody was trying to get in there a little bit and I was like, eh. You know, and like, I think six, excuse me, seven with Ninja, I had 70 % of it, 50 % of it, the team, you know, was involved there a lot.

10:59Eight, I think the general concept, can't wait to go look back at the videotape on how we came up with the concept of kind of that silent comic. We got there as a team that was fun. Obviously a lot of it has to do with me and there's a lot more coming with, you know, for everybody's watching, if you're speculating, I will say that eight is an interesting comic to collect long-term if we can pull this off. It's gonna be a meaningful comic. You'll see why. Then, you know, Nine, again, really, that was a fun one actually to put together. You know, I feel like Kate had a lot and then we kind of got in there a lot and that was a fun one.

11:36And I think a lot of, correct me if I'm wrong, DJ, you probably have the best read on this. Jim, you may be deep enough now as well. But one thing obviously, and I'm just gonna use the word selfishly. selfishly, I'm excited about 2026 comics, because a lot of them have a lot of my DNA in it more so than I would say in there, there are less comics in 26. If any, I got to go look at the slate that don't have as much of my DNA in it. And I think, you know, that's exciting for me as a storyteller. Do you think that's because you're kind of learning how comics are made? You know, you're able to sort of know, because I think one of the coolest things you've said, when you can and you're like, wow, these comics, you guys are making them, I have a very clear, to me, how something, one of the, and you could break down what you meant by that in a minute for everyone, but for me, comics are, we need to tell a story.

12:31And whether, I was watching a documentary last night with my wife called Dior and I from 10 years ago about Christian Dior and how they had a new creative director come in and he didn't sketch, but he had a whole different process and you know i know what it's less about knowing what comics it was more about where we were in the business my trust in dj my obsession i hope you've seen this both of you i think have with letting other creative people have their thumbprint on this product instead of me just being a dictator and everybody just servicing me so i think it was what I was focused on, you know, you could see in the first five, six, seven, a little less, all of a sudden, it becomes a bigger priority within the company.

13:18And now you see my hands in it. I think as a captain of projects, I'm incredibly obsessed with understanding where to put my finger in which holes to not let the boat sink. Right? And this just became a higher priority whole yeah absolutely it felt like to me like the first off site we did in march like was just kind of like the first time we did it we were kind of figuring out that's where monster came from issue five and that was like a big moment for us and then the second off site like you said all the all the things that are coming in 2026 pretty much from the start here in january's issue is basically nuggets of like you had the top idea like hey it's 555 years in the future you know like whoa what's that you know like and so then the whole room kind of just like listens and then you're really like as far as the creation process goes somebody might throw out an idea that we don't like or we not that we don't like but just like no that doesn't fit even with kind warrior i was just remembering as you were talking about that because kate kind of pitched the overarching thing but you come in and actually add more to it so that it's even better like the floating sword i think people have read it some people have read it so the fact that he's not just holding a power sword well i think i think you know i think you two being similar to my age range you know i'm sure at some point both of you like talked when i wasn't there and like huh Gary comes from like our like vibe, right?

14:56Like I was affected by that 70s, 80s storytelling. My general ideas feel Marvel-esque, feel Transformer-esque, feel G.I. Joe, like feel Star Wars-esque. Like I was very, very, very affected by that era of storytelling. Don't forget the other thing, DJ. I have a huge advantage over all of the rest of the team. I've been thinking about these stories for five years. I invented these characters. Like when I invented the kind warrior with, you know, like I know what I'm thinking, you know. Now some of these things have evolved in my own mind from May of 2021 to these comic offsites that one day hopefully, you know, it's funny when I just said these comic offsites, like our ambitions are very high here as a team.

15:46Like I dream about these being like iconic one day. Like I hope in 20 years, somebody invents their own universe and is inspired and they're sitting around a campfire and they're like, we're going to take the V friends approach of these off sites jam sessions. You know, but yeah, I've had the luxury of like, yeah, there's a photo. That's such a great photo. We're in it. You know, we're in it. We're being incredibly creative. I'm always take one thing that's interesting is I'm always taking myself out of I can't do these at the office. I can't do these in a conference room. I got to take myself out of my Gary Vaynerchuk of it.

16:22And I go into Gary Vee, the creative person. And I leave a lot of my, I leave most of my normal business, you know, operational self at the door. I bring my motivational and aspirational self to this, but I definitely go into a version of myself that I really believe no one gets to see full creative, creative. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that retreat, one of the I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course, that was the first time meeting you and meeting the whole comics team and really thinking about doing this seriously. It felt like an artist retreat, you know, or a residency, which I have done. And it's it's exactly what you describe.

17:00You know, it's the whole idea of getting out of your normal space, you know, the normal routine and just kind of focusing on a project or working with a group of artists on something collectively. It's a beautiful experience. It's very tried and true. You know, like this is something that's been going on for centuries in terms of the arts. And it was something that I found that retreat to be when I would describe it to people. That's how I would describe it. You know, very similar to an artist residency. It's really like I just saw I'm reading the comments. Rip says the dinners are the best. I love when we go hard all day.

17:31And then at dinner, we're kind of recapping. We're kind of cheerleading some of the stuff we're excited about. Sometimes we're killing some of the, you know, like there's, you know, it's so funny. Being creative very much maps the way I see the world. Nothing weirdly excites me more. And we've done this two or three times, DJ. I think it happened a little more in Minnesota than it did in Jersey, but nothing excites me more than spending two and a half hours down a road of like, and we're making this up for everybody's watching. And Patient Panda is gonna do like two and a half hours. And then sitting down for like dinner and being like, fuck that we're scratching all of it dead dead and i think that's a lesson that a lot of people could learn i say this a lot about quitting a job you know it's obviously january 2nd so let me do a little gary b here like a lot of people will not quit their job this month because they've given that job 13 years and they feel like if they quit they've wasted that time without realizing it's the reverse.

18:37That time has enabled them to make a good decision. You know, in a much less important thing and much more frivolous thing and less time, we spend three hours. We feel the pressure in these offsites. We got one coming up. We know we got to get work done. You spend two and a half hours down a path and then you kill it. I love that about us. And I want to continue that energy. On the flip side of that, there was a memory from the last one where, so Gary will watch i see him watching the reactions of the faces of the 10 people in the the offsite and uh i think ali made a gasp when i'm not going to say what story it was but gary was like and then this happens and she was like no he was like oh we're doing that now you know because like that reaction really like tell them about that like when you see that what what makes you think oh that's it you know that's that's my whole life you know it's so funny i mean you're touching on something very important.

19:31You're touching on why I'm better as a creator in a group setting. You're talking about why I'm good at improv, why my public speaking career is what it is, why I'm a big content creator, why, you know, I'm an empath. I'm a reverse engineer, right? I'm a, it's about you, not me. I don't hold any of my ideas or contemplations or hypotheses near and dear or ideological. I'd lean so much on humility and curiosity in a way that's not obvious with my overarching energy as a human. But yeah, I need that. I need, I'm doing it right now. I literally have the YouTube link open on the side. And when I go into listening mode, I'm listening twice to you and to the chat right now because I just, I feed off of the response, both pro and con, you know, when I'm giving a keynote speech and similar to when I'm riffing in these comic off sites, I'm yapping and I can feel like, oh, this isn't great.

20:39That's incredibly helpful. And I don't go in thinking, this goes back to why we probably have to, I know we have a list brewing that you guys are building on which characters we want to most focus on in this one. I'm just gonna say it right now. Like I think humble hedgehog and hummingbird, like I was just about to say, it's why humility might be the single most powerful attribute on earth. And it's, you know, it's, it sucks. Cause it's hard to talk about as a content creator about humility, because if I'm like, if all my content this year was like, you gotta be humble like me, being humble. So it's almost like counterintuitive.

21:17If you're talking about humility as a strength of yours, it's almost like, are you actually humble? People get confused. I don't see it confusing. I know the audience does. But I would argue that humility is at the center of so much of my joy, yet it seems so foreign because my confidence and competitiveness and conviction are much more outwardly obvious. and by the way this is one of the now in the meta of this entire little rant this is why i built be friends like i get to use humble hedgehog and humble hummingbird to build up the fame of humility and get kids to be pumped about being humble and realize that being humble is much stronger than being physically strong and um that excites me in a very big way man i agree 100 with the uh humility and and humbleness is not something you hear people talk about you know usually in in the entrepreneurial space which i consider a lot of art to be in that space as well you have to you have to talk about yourself you have to talk about the work you're doing what you're making what you're selling all of that and it's hard to to express humility while you're sort of promoting something yeah and and what sucks is that i don't I don't think people realize, you know, for me as a salesman, like why I love selling VFriends and have sold VFriends.

22:40You know, I went five or six years in my content selling nothing. Maybe once every three years a book. And now I sell VFriends so hard. When you sell something that you fully believe in, I think it's the purest form of good in a world that I know that people think salesmanship is bad. But like to me, when you're selling something you believe in, that's closer to being a pastor.

23:07Right? Like this is almost, you know, I'm being very frank. I love being a salesman, you know, wine. I loved selling wine because when someone came in asking for a$35 bottle of wine and I had tasted something that was$19 that was better, that got me going. I felt proud and by the way a lot of people would be cynical especially when I was young and looked five years old and I'd be like no no buy this luckily for me I always knew that if I was going to really recommend something it had to be cheaper than the thing they wanted you know because if you came Jim if you came in and said hey visiting my relatives here I need a nice bottle of wine I like this wine do you have it and we sell it for 35 bucks and I'm like yeah yeah we do have that Jim but you got to try this wine and it's 52 bucks well immediately you're like yo this fucking guy But if I'm like, yes, we've got that.

24:01But I also want to tell you about something that I just had recently that I actually think is better. And it's 19 bucks. Now you're like, okay, you still might not believe me. But for me, selling has always been more similar to being a religious leader. Like on Sunday, like tomorrow, it's Friday. On Sunday, there will be hundreds of thousands of people around the world selling. And we view them as very noble. you know, people of, you know, and by the way, like they're selling something and just to remind everybody, like the dish goes out and they want your money. Right. So, you know, before anyone gets, so I don't know, like to me, I wish more creative people, I find a lot of, you know how, and this is in your world, creative people often talk about not being good at business and they hate the business world.

24:54I find that a lot of creative people are good at business, but repress their business DNA because they know the other fellow creatives are going to frown on them. Yeah, that's for sure. I've noticed it in comic book conventions. You're tabling next to other artists, sometimes artists that I admired greatly. And I would see people come up to their tables and ask them about their books or pay them a compliment. And they almost sheepishly will point out why the book, where their shortcomings are, rather than take the compliment. You're almost belittling this person who loves your work as a result.

25:28it helped me at some point I started to think describe the work as clearly and concisely as you can and you do a service to everybody because we're in a hall with a thousand books here if you come up and ask what my book's about and I can tell you in a sentence or two clearly what it is you can quickly decide yes that's for me or no it's not but either way it's sort of salesmanship but to me I think it's a service too because if I'm on that side of the table please I there are books I want to find and I have limited time. You know, I think being able to describe this stuff clearly is a huge help to everybody in the circle.

26:03I think for the artists out there, like, you know, this demonization of the black and white of it, like if you're an artist, well, you can't be a capitalist, has really been a detriment to the art world. You know, it really, really has. And And it's unfortunate. I think about it for authors. I still believe some of the greatest books of all time are completely unknown because they didn't sell. And I think in reverse, I think the creative and artistic world needs a, listen, very carefully, I'm gonna say something very nuanced. In a world where artists who did not have commercial capabilities were yelling the loudest to not allow the artists who had commercial capabilities to feel comfortable to do both.

27:01It left a void and created a world where commercial capable people were able to sell things that had less soul. If you're an artist that's so mad about commercial and capitalism, Well, then add a little commercial and capitalism to you to eat up some of the oxygen, thus rendering what people buy to be of higher quality. That is a very big part of how I see the world.

27:36This feels so far outside the normal comics conversations I've had online. It's very exciting. It's a lot to think about. Well, I'll tell you what's most exciting about this. You guys have really gotten to know me off camera. You've seen me in different settings. We had a really iconic jam session post Comic-Con New York. By the way, I'm actually getting on a Zoom with Rob today. Oh, sweet. We were texting.

28:05I have a lot of heart for the comic book business to be better, to allow the comic book essence of creativity to have more room to be. I just do not have some, I don't understand how the world has the audacity to tell people how it should be versus understanding how it is and creating a reality for that. Meaning, to have the audacity to say that there should be no business interest, that's not human. That's not human. So understanding how to do good, proper business to then build up air cover to do great creativity is a big agenda of mine. And I think we have some really good ideas and some real impact.

29:04And it goes even into where this all started. Let me talk about NFTs for a minute. I've gotten some really nice comments on my happy new years from people that used to be in NFT land who moved on, who saw me on Netflix's golden show, talking about be friends or saw something like dozens in this last two weeks, all said the same thing in different words, their admiration that I'm still going at it. And I was laughing, I'm like, of course I'm still going at it. I don't think NFTs are a fad. I didn't see this as a get rich quick scheme. I think we're building the most meaningful IP. And I feel the market is starting to adjust to seeing that like V friends is real, we're building this and comics is meaningful, trading cards is meaningful and NFTs are meaningful, but most of all character development which is why comics is so damn important.

29:59I cannot get people to want to buy a very expensive trading card or NFT unless they fall in love with these characters that can only happen in story and comics currently and we'll animation and movies and manga and anime we got many many many other ways we're gonna do it but i i'm really i'm really grateful for you two men the rest of the team ali and katie and chris and the rest of the team i i really think we're up to something here and i can feel the market feeling it we have to be commercially viable here's actually a a little PSA real quick. V friends collectors for more than three years.

30:41This is very important for you to hear. Last year between comic books, between stickers, between treasure chest, we put out a lot of stuff. I need you to hear this once and for all. I have no interest in you buying any more stuff. I am interested in making stuff to get more people to collect this product, to make the NFTs, is collectible and sought after creating demand. I have no interest in more purchasing from the original community. You're more than welcome, but I am not making all of this stuff for you to buy more. I am making it for me to have more things for more people to buy, to take them down the yellow brick road to get to the NFTs.

31:33there's something in there gary that uh i identify as you know building an audience but specifically because comics are my life building new readers and it feels like that's another element of v friends that really impressed me early on but is in line with what you're describing here right it's very exciting for me i've always tried to get new readers because in my mind so few people actually read comics. You know, I've had friends who would do a book with maybe a 2000 print run and sell out and kind of go, that's it. I've reached everybody. And in my mind, I'm like, what are you talking about?