How to Win in a Future with 100 Billion AI Influencers

20:45Gary Vaynerchuk:like you're a you're allowed but you must then find actual business partner and then the reverse you know you know this a lot of you've lived through this everyone's been told what I've been talking about forever which is like the business person should become the creator. And you know, once in a while they pop out and they're good. Some are decent, solid-ish, and others are really not great at it. And that's okay too. There's a lot of businesses that are massive that the founders are not known. And so I think it's a self-awareness game. But I do believe that this assumption that being an entrepreneur was so easy, whether it's a creator or just general society, has become a thing in the last 20 years because entrepreneurship got cool.

21:26Entrepreneurship, successful entrepreneurship is incredibly rare. You know, 95 % of businesses fail. I think we just see those success stories a lot. So maybe that's why. Bro, this is what pisses me off so fucking much. All of a sudden we've decided to compare ourselves to like seven people. Like I talk to like young founders and they're like, yeah but Gary, but Elon. I'm like, Elon what? What the fuck does your direct to consumer pistachio brand and have to do with fucking Elon Musk. Or other people like, but Gary Kiley, I'm like, she spent$13 million on plastic surgery. Like, you know, like I just, we've decided to compare ourselves to 11 people on Earth that are outliers versus realizing things I care about.

22:13For example, I am on the board of Charity Water. Do you know that as we sit here right now, there are 880 million people on Earth, over 10 % of Earth does not have access to clean water defined as they cannot get to clean water within four hours. There's almost three times the size of America in people that right now are walking on Earth as we sit here right now and cannot within four hours get to a glass of clean water. Why aren't you comparing yourself to that versus Elon and Kylie? This comparison envy micro jealousy framework that has eaten up the oxygen should not be blamed on social media, it should be blamed on you.

23:09We all blame social media, why don't we look at it? Oh my God, social has become the most convenient thing to blame, I wanna remind you, if social media's fucking you up, delete the app. Like, we got there with alcohol. Like, we banned alcohol in America because we blamed it. And then we realized, wait a minute, it's not the alcohol, it's the people. We're the problem. We're the problem. Like, Facebook, Meta and ByteDance didn't make you a racist. It exposed that you were one.

23:47So, Gary, we are obviously obsessed with virality, you know, we look up to short-term growth and something so important, but how do you think creators should think about that when they're building for longevity?

24:00Gary Vaynerchuk:To not. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, look, I think all of us, organic social media views is the most important currency in the world. A lot of you are winning and trading on that. I could not believe in it more. Being good enough to post something that gets as many views as possible and as you all know, following count is becoming less important, the quality of the content more important. I would argue that we've not been in social media for four years, that we've been in interest media. I can know so much about all of you if I just took your phone right now and looked at TikTok and Instagram. I will know what you're currently paying attention to.

24:37You know that. I would also say back to not blaming the platforms. If you think your algorithm is depressing you, you can go into search and type in rainbows, enter, like three rainbows, Sunshine, enter, like three posts. Gary Vee, you know, you can like three posts. You know, right, right, right? So, you're in control of your algo, but we're in interest media now. I would focus on incrementally getting more average views per post than searching for virality. I can speak for myself, I search for no virality. I search for things that I think are topics that bring value to people in my content

25:19Gary Vaynerchuk:and I try to do best practices with my thumbnail, first three seconds, my copy. I would also, I'm gonna say it again, everyone here is not on enough platforms. You're just not. And there's just so much opportunity. And it's as basic, it's not my favorite practice to just post the same video with the same copy on every platform, but at bare minimum, everyone here should do that. And so I would look for more, how many views organically are you getting in the month overall and how many per post as a metric more than having any relationship with virality. I have no relationship with virality. I'll take it when it happens.

26:00Gary Vaynerchuk:In fact, I don't celebrate, I analyze. When I get virality, I'm not like yay, I'm cool. I'm like fuck, why? and I spend a lot of time thinking strategically about it. That's where I'm at with that. That's great. Alright, so the other day, like last week, you posted on socials a video highlighting how other people's judgments, Sandy1999, should not affect how you built your own individual empire or social media presence and that like resonated with me. So to finish off our conversation, so what is your message to creators and entrepreneurs in this room who might be feeling scared, embarrassed, or judged by random people?

26:44That this room has the vulnerability

26:49Gary Vaynerchuk:of being over complimented. Yeah, let me tell you what's happening, especially for this room. When you're this fab, like I understand, like I see it. I mean up close and personal it's even more gorgeous. My friends, all of you are incredibly vulnerable to negative comments because you believe the positive comments.

27:20Gary Vaynerchuk:What I would say is that when you're getting complimented for your looks, for the words coming out of your mouth, for your content, when you're accustomed to complimenting, when you're accustomed to admiration, when you're accustomed, you become addicted to feedback and it becomes your currency. Which means you're so addicted to the cheering, you're vulnerable to the booing. For me, I was raised a certain way, my DNA was a certain way, my circumstances were a certain way. There was so much going on with me that mine was the reverse. Everything for me early on was internal. By the time I was even 12 or 13, In hindsight, I am stunned by how unaffected I was by peer pressure even in middle school, let alone as a grown up.

28:10Gary Vaynerchuk:Watching all of you still play high school breaks my heart. But all of you are still playing high school. And so what I would ask you, for me, it's funny, when I get my comments, I get 93%, 95 % goat emojis, legend, you change, I mean, multiple people came up to me just now and said I changed their life for real shit. You know, anxiety, depression. Like, I do real shit. And yet, I still do not hear them. For many of you that just came up to me and said, I helped your career, I started your career, I was foundational in everything that has worked for you, I still do not intake those accolades. I'm appreciative, it's humbling as fuck, but it does not make me think I'm better than.

28:55Gary Vaynerchuk:It does not, it is not what I'm searching for. and I would say to you and everyone what I'm really trying to get across in my content is you must start to detach from the admiration because what I am detached from is not necessarily the negative things are easy. When some, friends, when somebody comes on your platform and says you're not as smart as you think or you're not as pretty as you think or like, or Botox or whatever, you know, like all the shit they write, right? Like, why are you feeling bad for you? This is a human being. I don't know if any of you do this. I have a feeling some of you do, and you should change it, but the thought of spending some of my time to go to your world and leave a comment to hurt your feelings is just an indication that I'm hurting deeply inside.

29:47When people shit on me, on my children's health,

29:51Gary Vaynerchuk:bless you. There's a great Russian superstition that if you sneeze after someone says something it's true, so I appreciate that sneeze. On my children's health, when someone comes to me and says scammer, you suck, overrated, you talk too much, there is never a moment where I feel bad for me. I deeply go into like fuck man, that person's just in a bad place. So first, negative comments on your platform from a stranger, normally with a fake name and a fake avatar, is really not it. And two, you need to be more careful of everyone who's saying you're gorgeous and unbelievable and the best and the smartest and the cutest.

30:37Gary Vaynerchuk:That's what's making you vulnerable. Thank you.

30:47That means you two have a lot of work to do. No, I've gotten better in the last year. No, but, no, I'm paying you both a compliment. When you're getting admiration, listen, I had to go through it when my reputation became that. You know, and I think, and it's especially vulnerable when it's physical. Right? You know, and I just think it's something all of you need to give a lot of thought to. And once you get over the hump, or even further along, you will have more courage. It's extremely liberating. It really is. it's the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to live your life

31:23Gary Vaynerchuk:on what you have in your heart and soul, not based on other people's opinions. Exactly.

31:33All right, so we are going to open it up to a couple of audience questions. I don't know who has the mic, but, okay, all right. She stood up, she just heard. This young lady completely exploded, so we should, yeah.

31:54Gary Vaynerchuk:I'm here often, thank you. My question is, in a world where everyone is becoming a creator, what will separate the top 1 % of creators by 30 %? 100 % everything I just talked about. I believe the thing that will separate the creators are multiple things. One, the last thing I just touched on. If you are in a good place emotionally, you will then be consistent. And the reason you're not consistent is you're not in a good place. You're worried, you're scared about what the post is gonna do. So I think mental consistency is number one. Number two, I cannot push you more to start posting content about other aspects of your life.

32:40Gary Vaynerchuk:Now, quickly, as some of you know, I have actually probably been one of the five to 50 most consistent content creators of the last 20 years because I go back so far. But as a lot of you know, I share none of my personal life. So when I say post more, I don't mean start putting your relationship out to the world because then they own it. Or leveraging your children or your pets to get likes, which a lot of you do. I'm talking about your other interests, your other thoughts, the other things you're into. And so I would say consistency, but that's mental, not physical. And I would say number two, you're gonna need to be known for more things than a singular niche.

33:26Gary Vaynerchuk:And I would also say strategy. More of you have to do written word, audio, and video, and picture, and on seven, eight platforms, not one or two. That is definitely the formula. Welcome.

33:48Gary Vaynerchuk:We'll get you on this side too, don't worry. What's your name? For one, when you're talking about AI, on the brand end, how would you say that brands should be, which I'm sure they already are kind of strategizing for the next 36 months, but how would you say that brands should be shifting their strategies and kind of preparing for this influx of AI influencers and differentiating them between regular and should they be looking into AI influencers for brand partnerships and what's going to differentiate that from a normal individual? That was a loaded question. I don't think we're going to be able to differentiate.

34:27Gary Vaynerchuk:I just need everyone to hear this. This technology is real. In 36 months, it's happening now. I would argue every person in this room has already consumed an AI human influencer that you did not realize was AI. You've definitely consumed ones that you know are AI because we know it looks a little fun, right? But the latest updates are so profound that I would just tell you that's already here. So brands only have to care about what humans care about. The biggest brands in the world will not be making AI commercials just yet because there's still stigma. Like all of us humans are so scared about what AI is going to do to us that we're pushing back against it.

35:07Gary Vaynerchuk:And so the big brands are scared, right? McDonald's made an AI commercial, got murdered. It hurt them. So my clients are gonna wait another 20, 36 months before they start really doing it. Small brands, DTC small brands, should be doing it now. And my second question is, you say that we should be beggars by showing different parts of our lives that we might not be talking about. So how would you go about a strategy of implementing those things without kind of like your audience being super confused and like let's say for example you post about fashion and all of a sudden you feel like you're very educated in, you know, I don't know, marketing.

35:47How would you start to integrate that content without shocking your audience and then being like wait, I don't follow you for this?

35:53Gary Vaynerchuk:By realizing I was the wine guy in America for five years and that I was willing to take one step backwards in my views for five steps forward to talk about my truth, which was I'm a businessman. You could also set up net new handles. So this is huge, everyone. Five years ago, the worst advice someone could give you is to create new handles. Today, it's the best advice. Because we live in interest media, not social. What was your name again? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Amber. At Amber in marketing, with zero followers on TikTok, with your first post being something smart, can get 500 ,000 views or five, but we can now all stand up net new handles and make content there if we're concerned about shocking our audience.

36:41Gary Vaynerchuk:Let me remind you a couple of things. Your audience, less than 5 % of their consumption for a massive influencer is happening on your grid. Yet the amount of time you fuckers think about your grid and making sure it's aesthetically to your subjective pleasing, even though it's hurting you on getting views on your posts blows my mind. Your content is going to be posted in your Amber account or the people you work with. It's going to get posted. It's going to be consumed in feed. Your audience is not your audience that follows you anymore. Your audience is the people interested in the content you just made.

37:21Gary Vaynerchuk:I would also argue that if someone follows you for fashion and you post a marketing video, they're just gonna skip through it. No one's gonna be like, fucking Amber.

37:35Yeah. Like, this concept that we've created for ourselves. When I post about collectibles and all of you want me for business advice,

37:44Gary Vaynerchuk:you don't stop in the feed where you could see Gary's about to talk about comic books. You could give a fuck about that. But when my next post is about live shopping strategy to grow your personal brand, You stop. You understand? Do some people unfollow? Now, if you go into politics, be prepared to get unfollowed. If you go into certain areas, sure. But if I'm talking about, especially things that I think a lot of you could really, really go to, which is like little niche fun things that just round out your personality. Like you love to make clothes by hand, yarn, or like, you know, just little certain, maybe you can hacky sack.

38:25By the way, a lot of you are so precious and on a pedestal, showing some humanity would really help you. A lot of you in this room are a little too perfect, aka fake. You showing something that's a little bit dorkier or silly could do a lot of you a lot.

38:50And you know what the best part is? so many of you are dorks inside. Weirdos. Right? And you do really love to read manga. You really do like to watch 80s stand-up comedy. You love to talk about authenticity and then we don't execute on it. And by the way, that hurts you when people meet you in real life. And then you have to be an actor in every part of your life. And that's fucking exhausting.

39:23Yeah, I'm gonna be in the back.

39:26Gary Vaynerchuk:By the way, I don't know when I'm leaving, but if we don't go to this side too, like they're gonna kill you. Yeah, I'll stay a little bit longer. Yeah, go ahead. Hey, Gary, this is insane. Juan, hi everybody. What do you think the relationship of this room with the event industry? So with like fireside chat, like I'm in the speaking industry, but I feel like that is one way I've seen that people can kind of confirm. It's like, oh, you're real? I think I can reach you. So I feel like for this one, there's such a crazy opportunity. Juan, I'm very happy you asked that. Let me jump in. Couple things.

40:00Gary Vaynerchuk:The world is about to be a barbell. We're going extreme digital, AI, VR is not far away, and AR, we're going extreme digital, and I think one of the biggest opportunities for this room that can combat the AI influencers that I'm sure you're now thinking about is real life. I am obsessed with analog. People, by the way, watch this story. So you're a beauty or fashion influencer, but you also love running. You listened to Gary Vee in here and you started to make running content. Now you have a whole new world of people that kind of associate with you because they do love fashion, but they also love running and now you matter more to them than the other person that's just fashion.

40:41Now you're building, now this analog world comes, now you decide to start a running club where your fans can run with you and you're charging them and it's a business. I'm obsessed with analog. I think all, in fact, I have a huge, by the way, anybody living in Miami, in October, mid-October,

41:00Gary Vaynerchuk:I'm throwing a huge conference called VCon, which I've done a couple of times. This is the first time it's open to the public because it's always been the NFT as the ticket. It's gonna be massive. It's gonna be here. And I think all of you should come because I'm gonna have a ton of brands there. So we have a speaking bureau. at VaynerX, VaynerSpeakers. I think everyone here should get out into the real world, do more things with their fans, do more events like this. I could not be more bullish on analog, real life, tangible, pop-up stores, pop-up events, appearances. You know, listen, some of you are introverted.

41:38Gary Vaynerchuk:Some of you, listen, again, one thing that sucks about being fabulous, sometimes you have weird shit going on, right? You're worried about safety, like, I get it. but all of that included, there are workarounds and you can do it. I always tell people that use that. I'm like, there's more fabulous people than you and they figured it out. You can figure all those things out. I would highly recommend people getting more analog and out there and so I'm very bullish on it. That's why we're here. That is why we're here. AI can do that. That's right. Only we can do that. I could not believe in this, what is happening right now more.

42:10I would also say for all of you, when I get up and leave and you transition. And again, it's ironic. This is the crowd that tends to be bad at this.

42:19Gary Vaynerchuk:Friends, say hello to somebody that you don't know in this room today. More than one person. People are what create the opportunities. I know a lot of you are introverted. I know a lot of you are scared of rejection. But I could not push all of you to say hello to one or two people. Especially, I know a lot of you are fans of each other and you might be timid to say what's up. Please say hello to people in here. the human thing is about to explode in value and I could not push it more. Alright. Two. Two more. What's this? First of all, thank you so much. So I'm gonna like... What's your name, brother?

42:59Juan. Juan. I do international relations. One of the classes that I've spoken at by you was about AI and the art called how this perspective look in a couple of years. you were talking about yes we also see you touch important points is Asia global AI space deals have a lot of hours right now in Korea Japan China how does that look like a nice of country it looks like if AI is with the same thing as that so does that mean like me as a lifestyle partner here what happened to create an AI avatar and have it in your lower base? You don't have to, yeah. You don't have to, but I think all of you are going to.

43:48You understand?

43:50Gary Vaynerchuk:Like the market's gonna be the market. And to your credit, this is why it's been very easy for me to know what's going on, this has already happened. It's called Asia. Always. You know? Recently though, right? Forever, the West brought everything to the rest of the world. Right now, China in many categories is leading and bringing, you can see the preview of the human behavior there to here. Everybody here is going to be interacting with AI significantly. Definitely for content creation and efficiency and assistance and all that, but also in the actual creative output over time. Please.

44:33like AI working towards saving the US, looking at those ones like Asia, like China, Japan, Korea, should be important to have a better output of how we can sell those businesses. Of course.

44:45Gary Vaynerchuk:Yeah, the human consumer behavior is the same. There's cultural differences, right? Every market has its cultural differences. There's different things that are cool, but the macro human truth are the same, and that's how you want to analyze those markets. You got it. All right, last one. Last one. Okay. Laura, she's just so kind of. Hi there, it's Karina. Hi Karina. Okay, so my question is about affiliate marketing. Affiliate. Yeah, I do a lot of affiliate marketing and I feel sometimes, and I know I'm not talking about me, just me, I feel like I'm selling and selling and selling every single day.

45:23Gary Vaynerchuk:So put out more non-selling content. Okay. That's it. That's it. It really is, that's it. You're right. Some people, you all know this, you've all gone through this. At first, a lot of you sold nothing. You were just posting. And then it happened. And then brand deals came and all this. And so we all go through pendulums, right? I wrote a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook in 2013. The concept was give good content, give good content, give good content, and then occasionally ask for a sale in return. Get your ratio right. If you're feeling in your tummy that you're too much sell, sell, sell, you need to push yourself to say no a little bit to some selling and you need to add more content that's bringing actual value.

46:11And the ultimate value that you can all bring is access.

46:16Gary Vaynerchuk:This is why I talked about replying to some of your DMs and comments. This is why I talked about going on Zoom and interacting with your community. So, makes sense. everyone here is going to be a live shopping host and an affiliate or at least try it. Everyone here, right? In fact, many here are gonna be far more successful as live shopping hosts than as content creators because they're good at selling. Others will not be as good. But when you go into selling, selling, selling, you must up the ante on value, value, value, whatever that is. Make sense? All right, on behalf of Val and myself and the entire Next Gen community, guys, let's give Gary another round of applause.

47:00Thank you so much. 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.