AI, Fear, Opportunity — and When to Go All In on Your Side Hustle

30:19But the most important part was, did everybody just hear what that guy said? Did everybody hear what that guy just said? He's happier than ever. He's happier than ever. He's happier than ever. So he already won. You learn from micro mistakes. You move on from micro mistakes. The end. that's it. I don't even sit on it. John is asking, can you talk about the resurgence of local communities? Do you think 2026 is the return of local culture dominance? No, I think that it's an and thing. Local culture has been going on. Local culture will continue to grow because we're going digital, but there'll be more growth in digital global AI and social media than there is in local in 26, but it's an and game.

31:09Again, friends, do not demonize the future. do not do who here is demonizing ai put i dislike ai in the chat put i dislike ai in the chat i know a lot of you are don't bullcrap me say it right now i dislike ai in the chat a lot of them are going to say this right now that they dislike it and i need them to not be scared of it it's not scary it's electricity history time oh i need a song for that what Watch it be the theme song when I say history time. We need like a song. Is there a song that has history in it or a good lyric with history? I just need like a jingle. It's history time with Gary V.

31:50It's history time with Gary V. Here's history time, friends. Electricity was demonized by everybody in the country and the world. When electricity was invented, everyone was scared. Everyone was scared, Pops. Everyone was scared of electricity. Do you know everyone was scared of electricity at the time? Do you know that? Do you know the thing you're using right now, the thing you use every day, did you know that everyone was scared of electricity? Go chat GPT it right now. Sid, you do it. Were people scared of electricity when it first came out? Invisible and mysterious. People were scared. Because new things scare people.

32:31People were scared of the phone. People were scared of beepers. People were scared of television. People were scared of the fax machine. Go read what happened when the typewriter was invented. the printing press really scared everyone. Somebody said I'm still scared. I know people want this. Follow VFriends. Everybody put at VFriends in the chat. Put at VFriends in the chat. You have to follow. You have to follow on TikTok. We got comic books. The motive. How sick is this? How sick is this? How sick is this? What do you got? Courtney? Courtney? What's that? Yeah, you got something good? Oh, I'm so impressed by the used AI.

33:12So good, Ben.

33:17All right. We're going to play that every time. Another question. Let's keep asking questions. Ask your questions. Ask your questions. Go ahead, Pops. Michelle is asking, I'm scaling a service-based business that's built entirely on creative quality and client trust. How do you know when it's the right time to hire and how do you protect the brand's personal touch while bringing in new people to help it grow? You hire as soon as you can afford and the way that you know is you don't know. You guess to the best of your ability of hiring people and hopefully they work out. And if they work out, that's amazing.

33:44And if they don't work out, you fire them. And if they make a mistake from the personal touch that you're scared of, you apologize to the person that was affected by their lack of personal touch and you can refund them and you just move on. I'm tired of being around the bush. I don't want to be around the bush anymore. That was it. no more around the bush. I was around the bush in my first half century. I'm done with being around the bush. Eight days to my next half century. I'm done with being around the bush. This whole I'm scared to scale, personal touch, I do it better. You apologize, jerk off.

34:22You apologize to the client and you fire. If Pob stinks and runs the media wrong, I fire him. He's out, out. off with his head. And then I apologize and give the money back. Jesus, I'm not gonna be around the bush anymore. That's how you do it. All right? Enough. You understand, everyone? Stop being scared. Only I can do it. Okay, then you're gonna have a only I can do it business. If you can only do it, then you have an only... Gary, how can I build a$100 million company when I can only do it? Well, I don't know. maybe get off your ego train and realize many people can do it all right let's keep going questions jill is asking what do i do if i feel stuck financially professionally and unsure where to go in my life as a 30 year old i work remote and feel like i've lost my curiosity in life drive and building relationships i can't envision where i want to be in five years why do you need to envision where you're gonna i'm not gonna be around the bush i'm not i'm not why do you need to know where you're gonna be in five years next you already know your problem.

35:31You're working remote. Working remote sucks for a lot of people. It was good in theory, like, I don't like traffic. I hate to commute. I like hiding. Working remote really hurt a lot of people who need other human beings. Friends, there's unequivocal data that people live longer when they're in a community.

35:58friends you're sitting at home and all this miraculous time that you've saved you're doom scrolling yay i've saved two hours from commuting so i can scroll in my phone and scare myself and build envy and jealousy because i see other people are happier than me yay you did it. You're super progressive. Congrats. You fought the man. You did it. You beat the man. Congrats. You beat the man. You found that 75 extra minutes so you could blow it and have no sense of community, humans, interaction. You lost.

36:43Now, other people, 33 years old, two kids, have a couple friends in the neighborhood, work from home, win. There's no absolutes in life, friends. There's just your circumstance. There's no absolutes in life. There's just your circumstance. Big shout out to everyone who works from home and found more happiness. But a lot of you, especially single, under 30, you lost the osmosis of the things you learn in an office, You lost the serendipity of meeting a new friend. You lost the serendipity of going out with your bar mates at night and then getting a little tipsy and hooking up with a coworker. You lost your buddies that sit next to you that are really into anime.

37:29You've never been into anime. While you're working, you're like, why are they talking about anime? And then all of a sudden, three weeks later, you're at Comic-Con dressed up as a super awesome person. I don't know, like, God damn it. I hope that really helps. How many people just heard me answer that question and it really helped them? They really understood that maybe working from remote has actually stunted them. How many people did that help, but helped? You might want to start looking for a job in office. You know? Like you just might. I don't know, like, follow me here on this. Like, here's our office, right?

38:09Like, you know, like, here it is, you know? what happened oh we're good yeah yeah we're good hi guys how are you people you know like there's Nick look Nick and JT are going people are just you know in it and like I feel you did lost audio but it's still video but video still

38:39I like

38:47lost audio oh i did have audio it's there's a range though all right nonetheless i think point was made right i think the point was made right did everybody get the point did we get the point was the point made you know like was a point made uh pablo back to you erica's asking i have almost one million followers across platforms, but I don't know how to monetize. I'm barely getting by, but I love creating content. Any advice? Join the stand challenge. Everybody, you know what the URL is. Join it. It has the answer. Kieran is asking, I'm 32 and about 18 months ago, I started learning sales as a side hustle from my nine to five engineering job.

39:27I'm now around four months in. I've landed a couple new roles and I'm thinking about quitting my job to go all in as it's hard to balance with work. People around me are saying I'm risking the safety and security of my career. She's wrong. They're wrong. She's right. Jump. The end. No more. No more being around the bush. I need a bush here, guys. I need a bush. They're wrong because they're scared. Why would you take their fear? Take my optimism. And here's the dirty little secret, everyone. Jobs will be there if you fail. And I know they're telling you that AI is going to take all the jobs. AI is not going to take all the jobs.

40:02People that know how to use AI. So jump and then work on learning AI and then that's that. What are five words that can change someone's life? You're in control. Comma. Got it?

40:22That's it, my friend. You are in control. You're in control. Not the new mayor, not the old governor, not this president, not the last president not the next president not your mommy not your daddy not your spouse not your husband not your wife not your brother not your boss not the Illuminati you are in control comma got it five words that will fundamentally change your life no more wah wah No more wah-wah. Let's be honest in here with each other. Who here is a wah-wah? I want you to own it and say it publicly. It will help you. Get it out. Get out. Get out your fucking bitches, you fucking crybaby.

41:16Who's a wah-wah? If you're a wah-wah, say I'm a wah-wah. I'm a wah-wah. Own it. No more complaining. No more crying. Stop it. No one's listening to you. Complaining and excuses are poison. And they're addicting. They're the heroin of emotions. They're bad. It's bad. Don't be a wah-wah. No more wah-wah. You are in control. You got a crappy job? That's on you. You took it. You're staying it. But Gary, I got bills. Figure out how to make money elsewhere. Get another job. Notice that gentleman. I said, what are you doing at night? Hanging and talking with my family. Great to have family time, but he's got little kids.

42:08They go to sleep. What are you doing 10 to midnight? I know what I'm doing 10 to midnight. I'm working a lot of times because I'm trying to build something. And then if I wake up and I'm like, wait a minute, I should spend more time with Mona or my kids or things of that nature. I'm not gonna wow that. I'm gonna change.

42:29Be accountable.

42:34I don't understand what do you want for me? What do you want me to enable you like your mom does? I'm not gonna enable you It's 100 % your fault Everything you're upset about is 100 % your fault 100 % Is there systematic sexism and racism? Yep Are there women and minorities that are prospering and making money and are happy? Yep So now what? there's everything there's everything there's everything there's always been everything there's always something is groceries expensive yes can you make 568 dollars and 43 cents on tiktok in an hour where you couldn't do that before yes so which one's right is there more opportunity or is it harder than ever

43:25oh don't like it we'll go somewhere else now the quality of life in sweden is so good go to You're a sweet dick.

43:36You says it's harder than ever. It's easier than ever, you. You, it's easier than ever. We have the most concentrated wealth of 16 to 26 year olds in the history of time because of social media.

43:56Don't be a la la. Of course Sweden's not that easy. everyone's like Sweden's so great people depress as hell from Sweden you know why? because a lot of people there are very talented and they realize they can't get the merits not there the systems like not socialism or communism but it's like if you're a gangster like you gotta kinda go somewhere else but you like Sweden it's cozy and that's where you were born there's always something everyone's gotta wah-wah your wah-wah's not more important than someone else's wah-wah you're pointing fingers

44:34you better pull this finger right now I'm not going to fart I'm going to tell you something you better pull this finger right now I'm not going to fart on you but I might fart on you verbally because you need to start looking at thumbs thumbs thumbs thumbs thumbs thumbs Thumbs, thumbs, it's your fault. And the second you realize it's your fault, life gets good. And the second you think it's their fault, life gets bad. I'm scared. They're in control. I can't do anything about it. I'm a fuel scroll. I'm a drink of alcohol. Let me blame them. Next question. Jacqueline is asking, what's your favorite way to show your employees appreciation that isn't monetary?

45:19Verbally. Verbally. warmth towards being there for them anytime they ask in a world where I ask them to ask me all the time.

45:33Jason is asking, originally I wanted to find a job quickly. After finding a job, I worked hard to earn more income, but it has been almost three months since I entered this job. The original enthusiasm is almost gone and it's difficult to find what I really wanted. What would you do if you lost the strength to work hard like this?

46:06Originally, I wanted to find a job quickly. After finding a job, I worked hard to earn more income. But it's been almost three months since I entered this job. The original enthusiasm is almost gone and it's difficult to find the original goal. What would you do if you lost the strength to work hard like this? George, you should apply for another job and try to see if you work.

46:31Go ahead. Deb is asking, I'm a late 60s former entrepreneur who never recovered from the 09 crash and had a bad divorce. My risk tolerance and cash flow really took a hit. Now I'm still working a full-time job at my age, which really sucks. I'm computer savvy and I have maybe two or three days a week to dedicate to a sidekick. I checked out Whatnot, but it seems kind of chaotic to me and I'd also prefer not to be on camera. Any ideas for someone my age that wants to build their income? Passion and knowledge. Check out the link to the Stand Store Challenge. Sell digital goods. Whatnot or TikTok or anything else is not for everyone, right?

47:09It's a real reality that not everyone's going to be able to do live shopping. The reality is that you've got to lean into passion and knowledge. And you've got to sell something that is viable. Maybe it's digital. Maybe it's access to you. Maybe it's tangible and selling stuff. Max is asking, my impressions are high, but I'm not getting any sales. Why is that? You might not be showing people what the value of what you're selling is. What you're selling might suck. Obviously, I need a lot more info on what is going on, but there's a million. You're not good at selling. You're not good at communicating.

47:49Your product's not good. Your product's overpriced compared to other people's products in the same category. There's a lot here. Hey, Gary. Hey, Ben. How are you? Good, man. How are you? Good, man. Great turnaround on that jingle. It's history time with Gary V. It's history time with Gary V. Oh, thanks. What's your question? Um, I am building a local community broadcasting business, using a lot of the tenants that I've learned from you over the last 10 years. We cover local high school sports, we have partnerships with community chambers of commerce, local business shows really took that whole be the mayor of your community, be the host of the party thing very seriously from the Ask Gary Vee Show 10 years ago and did it.

48:42And so right now we're in this situation where we sort of maxed out the first community that we were in and went from one school and one community district to eight. As of Thanksgiving, we'll be in eight. And now we're getting inundated with requests from other communities that want our company to come and grow and expand there. And so I just wanted some advice on scaling the up. Right. How many people do you have? Right now we have about 10 contractors that work with us. Are you profitable? We are very profitable. Yeah. Okay, well, what's the problem? It's a situation where the growth, like we need to grow, or we don't need to grow, but to grow faster, like we're in a situation where there's like 39 schools in the area.

49:44And also like at 11 o 'clock, I have a meeting with somebody from Washington, D.C. that wants to bring our company down there and franchise and all of these things. and I'm just like, I don't know. What do you want to do? Yeah, I got it. I got it now. What do you want to do? I want to create a model where we can offer this. So the main thing that we're trying to do is community first, right? So the games are all on YouTube. They're all free for the community. All of the shows, everything that we do is free. There's no sponsorship tiers. I mean, it's all community advertising based funded. And what we noticed, because we were a marketing company first, was that if somebody placed a direct ad on a social media platform, I'm not going to name another social media platform because I don't want you to get more dinged up, but if we placed a$500 ad on a platform, or if somebody gave us the$500 to run their ad on our shows, we were getting more reach than the direct ad was.

50:52Makes sense. So it's been great for local businesses. My question is, when we're going into a new place, we need five new advertisers, community partners, to make it break even. No, you don't. Okay, why? Because you have demand wanting to come to you. so you could use the school to get you the advertisers or use their own funds or other methods. You don't have to get the five advertisers. If I was your business partner, I'd say that's nice Washington high. If you want us to do it for you, you need to bring us 10 advertisers and when you do, call us back because we have 39 other people we have to call back.

51:42And then, what's that? I can't believe I have not done that yet. Yeah. Well, you're not Gary V, bro. I'm aware of that, Gary. You know, I'm here for a reason, my man. I know that. So listen, the other thing that's cool about that is, let's say that was North Hunterdon High School in Jersey. They might call me and be like, Gary, as a wealthy alum, you know, there's this local thing. We want to do it. Would you donate? I'd be like, sure. Because I like sports. I like local. So go through the school. Make everyone who wants you to do this give you double of what you need on break even. So it sounds like they need, how much is the money of those five advertisers?

52:222 ,500? Yep. Cool. So I think you tell the school, come with$5 ,000 in sponsorship and you're next. Whoever comes to us first, we'll get it. Standing by, have a great day. Love ya. If you need me to jump on a call with a local advertiser or an alumni or a booster, I'm happy to do it. But standing by, we're saying this to all 40 people. See you in a few minutes. Then the principal, the athletic director, will be like, wait a minute, I have$5 ,000. Can we just pay you? You'll be like, sure, we just did it. Yeah. That makes all the sense in the world. B to B to C, right? B to B to A in this scenario.

52:58Business to business to advertiser instead of you going advertiser. You're in a good spot. So that's your business marketing 301 class today, kids. Thanks, man. And thank you for everything for many years. so you're beyond welcome my brother and thank you for the history jingle we'll be using it often oh you're welcome dude take care let's get one more i was not expecting that how are you i was just in my case just the sofa how are you gary great to see you what can answer for you so i own a landscaping company florida i automated everything you stay i to just free our time and get back um just kind of like get rid of the repetitive manual stuff um receptionist everything so i completely fell in love with just ai automations and i quit on my partner my husband i said you know what you take over the landscaping company i want to help other businesses implement ai and smart i i just really think i could help people out but i don't know where to start i already i'm I'm technically already in business.

54:05I already got my first customers and whatnot, but struggling to risk. Yeah, do you know the stand challenge? The link is in my bio. You should look at that. You should sell consultations and an ebook and you should make unlimited content for telling your story over and over and over again, over and over and over again of how you used AI to do this for your business. And you can get a one hour with me for 800 bucks a session or you could buy my$99 ebook that's in my store and you should just cook with content and a structure like that. How do I differentiate myself in a flooded social media platforms?

54:45And I think this may be - By not worrying about that. It has nothing to do with anything. Okay. And just repeat and repeat, but I sound like a broken record repeating my story over and over again. Yeah, but today you've got your hair down and tomorrow you've got your hair in a ponytail. Today you're at the store. Tomorrow you're in your living room. today you give us a story about how you did the email thing tomorrow you tell us how you did like everybody in the chat have you heard the same thing from me a lot of times with different hats on in different places I mean how long have you been following me um years have you heard have you heard many things over and over yeah I just get whatever's new yeah yeah I see where you're going you see where I'm going like I do it every day how many people in the chat right now just discovered me in the last week, say one week, literally have never heard of me before and you know I've been active for 20 years, right?

55:38Yeah. As you may know. And you know like, yes, that's the answer. And you never know, look at this. You never know. You never, I mean 20 minutes, Louis literally found me 20 minutes ago. You go on TikTok Live and you do something like this where you just answer questions. Literally what's amazing about TikTok is people just show up. Yeah. I had a lady though comment on one of my posts. She's like, oh, we kind of should start asking AI to give us new ideas or new stories because it's just everything sounding the same. So I'm like, oh shit, like my content is getting boring. What am I gonna do now?

56:11You know, like - No, people have said I've been repetitive or I'm boring. Somebody in the chat said this guy fell off so hard. Like, don't worry about that. That means nothing. Just going. Yeah, what? some random lady's opinion is gonna stop you? Change you? No, it's just that maybe I feel like I need to reinvent myself and create something better and maybe I'm not doing good. I always say judge the judger. You have some random lady saying what she said and then you have Gary Vee telling you what I said. Which one do you wanna pick? I'm pretty sure you have more authority here. So just go for it.

56:50You're gonna do great. I can smell it on you right now. You're gonna do great. Thank you, Gary. Appreciate it. Yeah, good luck. But I can't live there. Thank you. What's that? Thank you. Thank you. Where am I ass off? I know you are. Take care. Pops, let's go. Laura's asking, I'm 31, still living at home with my parents, not making all that much money, even though I have a good job. Stuck in a dead-end relationship too. How do I turn my life around? Break up with the relationship today, right now. Break up with the relationship right now. Right now, the breakup. That's the easiest one. Two, move out.

57:22Your parents are enabling you. Move out. Live even more humbly and more crappy. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. That is 100 % what's right. When you're not happy, you have to change. We have tons of jobs available, Damian. Go to vaynermedia.com. Go to LinkedIn and look at VaynerX. Break up and get out. Break up. Yeah, I'm very bullish, General, on esports. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. Break up and get out. I mean, if you know that you're in a dead-end relationship, you gotta get out.

57:59Who's in a very bad relationship? Say bad relationship in the chat. Who's in a very bad relationship? Trains in love. Trains in love. Who's in a very bad relationship? Say bad relationship. Look at that whale.

58:17Toxic. I'm an enabler. I was for 10 years, just got out. I got out. sister needs to get out you know that man get out you can do it the reason you're not getting out is you don't value yourself you have low self esteem I can tell you right now you're amazing I need everyone to understand this this is a wild concept this is sad this is actually the saddest moment of the show ready everyone you are amazing you're actually amazing I need all of you to understand you're amazing Yousef says bad but got kids your kids are getting more affected by you being in a bad relationship than you breaking up it is very clear to many people at this point that people that stay in a bad relationship toxic are fighting or not showing love towards each other are showing their kids more damage than if you got separated the old way that you stay until they go to college actually showed that it screwed those kids up more.

59:27So you're either using the kids as an excuse

59:33or you didn't know. Didn't know. This is very important. All of you are amazing. And most of you think, real talk and I need, like please don't bull crap me. Just give me the number. If 10 is the greatest human on earth and zero is the worst, what do you judge yourself right now? Give me your number. Don't bullcrap me. Don't bullcrap me. Give me the real, real number. Your real number. Your real number. Don't gaslight me. Don't, you know, I need your answers. You know, when I see that three, when I see that six, when I see that five, when I see that three, and I see a lot of sevens, eights, nines, that makes me happy, but I need the people that put a three on themselves, that five, dear thugs, not a five.

1:00:22Natalie, you're not a six. I'm telling you you're not. You're a 10. Courtney in there, you're not a five. Dale, you're not a six. I'm telling you you're not. Even if you're doing something horrible, even if you're beating your spouse, even if you're doing drugs, even if you're doing infidelity, even if you're stealing money from your job, you're just hurting right now.

1:00:44Show yourself grace. You're just hurting. and you've got to audit who you're spending time with and what you're listening to and you've got to look at the patterns of your life and you've got to understand that you're able to get out of this. And if you hang out here for a long time, I'm gonna be doing this a lot. Who's excited that I'm gonna be doing this a lot in 26? Put the number 26 in the chat if you're excited that I'm doing this a lot in 26. Yeah, Gene Darusha, I wanna make you cry. I wanna make you feel.

1:01:19Yeehaw! I'm telling you we're gonna hang out here heavy in 2026. I'm gonna be on TikTok Live a lot in 2026. He with Gary Vee, live pop-up sessions. And I'm gonna be live on the road. Luckily, he trains a big dog. He's gonna have a backpack. Courtney will come out once in a while too because she's excited about that crap. Listen to me. We're gonna fix this for free. For free. We're gonna fix this for free. All right? And I want you to learn this. this is my universe I want you to learn this please learn VFriends don't buy things from VFriends if you can't afford it but learn it learn with the decisive duck and look at what this fearless fairy you need to fall in love with this so many ladies in here you need to fall in love with her the fearless fairy you need to fall in love with her and we have to change we have to change perception black cats are not unlucky this is the very very very very lucky black cat black cats are lucky and we need to be more decisive and we need to be more confident.

1:02:19My brother's daughter, her favorite character is the confident cobra. This is a cute little girl and she likes this scary ass cobra because she's confident. All right, everybody, I desperately need you to go here. VeeFriends cards. VeeFriends cards. Go check these guys out. Love you. See ya. Bye. Hey, everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.