How to Win in the Age of Interest Media: Live Shopping and AI

0:00This AI thing is not fucking around. And I promise you it's not going away because you wish it would. And so you have one choice, which has always been the choice of the human. You either get on or you get off. If you think I'm pumped about it, you do not know me well. I'm always adaptable and I'm always gonna be who I am because I have no choice. Like I'm in a place where everything that I've built for the last 30 years is potentially vulnerable if I don't ride this tidal wave and instead put my head in the sand and let this tidal wave kill me. And so like, if you signed up for entrepreneurship, you can't cry about this because this is the game.

0:39And so this is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Let's start talking about, you've been on a rant lately about, on social media, about all the like whatnot, selling live, the newest thing that Wave, is that the right way? It's a Wave that's coming out? Or is it here to stay? I mean, you know, like anything in business, I'm sure all of you are navigating this. I don't really know the life cycle of what the end consumer is going to do. What I try to spend time on is understanding what the end consumer is doing, and is there any other data points that support the long of that, right? And so with live social shopping in China, they're gonna sell over a trillion, let me say this nice and slow, one trillion dollars worth of GMV gross merchandise value will be sold in China.

1:43One trillion dollars worth of stuff will be sold in China this year through live shopping behavior. I don't think that's a China-only behavior because last year, tens of billions of dollars of product were sold on TikTok shop and whatnot. I think we're in the beginning stages of this and for many people in this audience, I'm sure all of you are thinking about different ways to grow your current business. I'm sure plenty of people are looking for other opportunities. To me, this has a lot of similarities to what I saw in social media in 2007, 8, 9. The world had not caught up to it, but there were still millions of people already doing it, and I anticipated that number to go up because to me the mobile device was not going anywhere, and what was dominating the mobile device, these social networks, seemed to make sense because I think people want to interact with each other.

2:47this was already 10 years after the internet was doing its thing similar here a lot of people here have bought something off of tiktok shop when they had no intention to you're just living inside of tiktok and then it showed up so i'm very bullish live shopping and i think a lot of people here who are trying to become personal brands and content creators actually have the natural talent to be live shopping hosts and would be better off, happier, and more financially successful being an affiliate and live shopping person versus a lifestyle content creator or a vlogger or a streamer. And so I think for all of us in this room, it's about reverse engineering what you're good at and what you like enough that you'll put in the time and effort because it requires so much hard work to actually make something meaningful.

3:42So yeah, I'm very, very excited about live shopping. Does it have to be, you just said a while ago, does it have to be something that's like their brand, their thing? Or could they just go, like I buy a lot of stuff online and it's someone selling, you know, on the farm. So I'm always buying random shit on TikTok and stuff. It's like, oh, there's a hammer. I'll buy that. Does it have to be like their - You bought a hammer on TikTok? Oh, they summon sets of like six, bro. It's a great deal. Yeah, so for anybody, Everybody who's curious by what I'm saying, you can write down two different things.

4:13One is being a live shopping host, that's QVC. You're on, you're selling, that is your stuff. Then there's something if you Google it or chat GVT it or Claude it, that is a TikTok affiliate. That is when you make content of someone else's product, you apply for it, if they select you, they will literally ship you the product for free, you will make a piece of content and God willing you make a good piece of content that gets a lot of views you will get an affiliate a percentage of every one of those products sold and there are tens of thousands of people making hundreds of thousands of dollars millions of dollars a year just being an affiliate.

4:58So if you're great at yeah thanks mom.

5:05You know I think about this all the time and I appreciate that my man like clapping that up like this is again you know how life works like I just said that you might have heard it or you never heard it you're now going to go home you're going to look it up and tomorrow you're going to be like how the hell are there tens of thousands of people making content around clothes or soap or vitamins like it's an enormously big ecosystem and I'm a huge fan of it because there's a lot of people in this room who aspire to be great entrepreneurs but what they are is they're very creative, but they're not actually business operators.

5:38And then there's the reverse. There's people in here that are actually very strong operationally or financially, but they're not creative, and them being on camera isn't it. And then there's some people that are just so charismatic and so good at business that they can do both. You know... Humbly, humbly do both. Humbly. All jokes aside, I do think life is a self-awareness game and I think a lot of people aspire to be famous in a content creator or aspire to be an entrepreneur. Look, I aspire to be the Jets' starting quarterback. It's not in the cards. And I think we've really lost our way in the last 30, 40, 50 years around being a little bit more self-aware, a little more humble.

6:22Everybody's gonna be a trillionaire. Everyone's gonna build the next, and listen, I'm the last person that wants to suppress a goal or a dream. But I think practicality matters. And, you know, I'm passionate about putting that conversation out there. Let me switch over to, we've had several conversations about AI. You completely revolutionized even what we're doing in our office right now and companies we're doing right now. Offer your AI conversation. Let's go a step further. What do you think about, like, the agents that are being built? Super practical? Should people start building out their own agents and sub teams or no?

6:59I mean, first and foremost, how many people here by show of hands are familiar with what open claw is? So if you did not raise your hand, disproportionately, the thing I ask you to spend five to 10 hours of research on is open claw. Understanding what an AI harnesses, which is a living and breathing computer that you can build agents on top of to run your world, is an inevitable outcome for all of you. This is no different than when I was sitting on stage, a much smaller stage with about 20 people in 1996, saying you're all gonna have websites, the internet is coming. You know, this is no different than in 2006 when I was like all of you are gonna have social networks, you'll all have profiles, everyone told me they wouldn't, who cares if I'm walking the dog or eating a sandwich?

7:47I knew that everyone cares. You know, everyone here is going to live in an agentic AI agent world. And no matter what everyone thinks about it, if they're scared of it, because listen, life is so basic. Humans are scared of anything they don't understand or don't know. It's why we have issues with each other around our culture and our races and our religions. And it's why people suck at business. You know, like you say no. Many of you have opinions about AI right now that are only grounded in your fear that it might take money out of your pocket. it's not your actual opinion you've actually done no homework in fact your entire opinion is based on fear and that is just a really fucking bad business strategy putting your head in the sand because you don't understand it or you don't want to put in the work isn't it

8:42so so what do i think i think we're in an unprecedented time in technology that this is as big as when electricity was invented. This AI thing is not fucking around. And I promise you it's not going away because you wish it would. And so you have one choice, which has always been the choice of the human man and woman, which is you either get on or you get off. And if you're coming to this event, like we're not at a rodeo. This isn't a movie premiere. Like, you're here because you are thinking about growing and business and marketing and life, and so if you came to this fucking thing and you're saying no to AI, it's almost like it doesn't make sense to me.

9:31And so, like, I get it. Listen, if you think I'm pumped about it, you do not know me well. I'm always adaptable and I'm always gonna be who I am because I have no choice. like if you know like i'd be super fine if i was 82 and did my thing and be like oh i'm glad i don't have to deal with that shit but that's not where i am like i'm in a place where everything that i've built for the last 30 years is potentially vulnerable if i don't ride this tidal wave and instead put my head in the sand and let this tidal wave kill me and so like if you signed up for entrepreneurship, if you signed up for business, you can't cry about this, because this is the game.

10:13And so, I could not be more bullish on its impact on society, I could not be more excited for a lot of people here, because they don't realize this little four minute rant that I just gave was the push that's gonna start you on the 30 to 50 hours of homework you're gonna do, which is gonna lead to you having a breakthrough that's gonna work for you, because for all the people that are gonna lose their job because of AI, which is absolutely true, there will be equally people who have a much better financial and happier career because of it as well. And that is something that is not being talked about.

10:49And again, I don't want to be delusional optimistic. Like this is a big deal. Like the biggest companies have big advantages, the super scalers. There's a lot no one knows about where this is going. I'm not like, but every big invention has pros and cons. You know, and so you might shit on AI because it fucked you up on your money, but when AI medicine saves your child's life, you might have a different point of view on it. So like this is a big technology, it's a big deal. I can't promise you as much as I try to figure this shit out what exactly is gonna happen, the only promise I can make you is if you're like, no, this is bad, this is fucked up, that's a bad strategy.

11:34You will get caught. so I'm very bullish on these harness technologies, Open Claw being one of them, many of them and people here are gonna learn how to build apps and like the same way you learn how to make content for your social media account is the same way you're gonna learn how to do this. The problem is most people don't want to admit they hate doing the hard work. We'd rather take steroids, we'd rather get plastic surgery, we'd rather take the pills than put the fucking hard work in.

12:15At your companies, you've got to obviously I think you've got a couple thousand employees throughout all your companies. A lot of times people don't know. Sometimes I think people think you're just a social media guy that makes content because you make so much fucking much of it. but you have a massive multiple multiple companies but here's my question uh what we've noticed in our companies right now is uh you have people that are terrified like i'm talking about our staff employees you have people that are terrified of ai yep then you have this other group of people that are like hyper leaning into it yep and i think it goes back to a statement you just said a while ago it's like those that are running away from it you can see the end coming in sight for them, those leaning into it are getting pay raises, extra money.

12:58I have to keep on cutting them in on deals because they're doing the work of five, six people almost. This is what happened with the typewriter. This is what happened with the computer. This is what happened with the internet. My friends, history repeats itself forever. Like, yes, what would you like me to say about that? Are you seeing the same thing in yours? Of course. Do you see the people that are not leaning into it on their way out in a general sense? Is it a dead in road? I prefer that we grow so much that even my B and C players have a job, but I'm not God. If we get beat up and lose revenue, I either fire people that are not living in real life or everyone's gonna get fired when we go out of business.

13:43What the fuck do you want from me? I mean that's the part that people don't get about what's tough about running a business. You know people love to talk about companies are bad, like companies are like sports. Like if I was a teacher in a public school, I could suck shit and I'm good, I'm part of the union, fuck you.

14:10Right, like if I, you know, if I was a professor at academia, if I have a good day or bad, this is the closest thing to sports. On the record, the number one thing that I hate about running a business, and it's not even close, is firing a human being. You don't know me like that, but I'm telling you, the people that know me, I like people over everything, the money, and so it sucks, especially if you know them and you know what's going on. The problem is, if you create entitlement and nepotism at scale within a company, the company goes out of business. This is not a government fucking official.

14:52This is not a teacher. This is not even parenting where you can debate with your kids if you sucked at it or not. This is fucking merit. The money doesn't come in. You can't pay it. That's why companies close all the time. and even if you're the best and you're trying to keep afloat, you realize at some point, for me it was my early 40s and I've been running companies since my teenage years that I'm like, fuck, when I'm keeping people around that suck, I'm taking that out of the people that are working hard and are good. And then that's one thing that you have to deal with as a boss when you go to sleep of like, are you actually hurting your best people to carry your worst people?

15:35But luckily I've never been to the step after that which is like you go out of business and then everyone loses their job. So people can talk about business all they want. It's the closest thing to sports. It's real life. Not like 99 % of the bullshit that's going on in the world. Yes, give me a hand. And so that was, I wanted to give that context because I know there's a lot of leaders in here fighting this and trying to figure it out. to answer your question directly I prefer not to fire any of those people I hope I grow enough but if I don't and I have financial needs and I have to make margin and things of that nature the first people that will go are the people that are not good we fire people all the time hey 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 we don't like you like here's something I learned that I didn't realize.

16:37I used to never fire anyone because I thought it was coming out of my pocket. But the problem with not firing people that suck is that the good players on your team know it. And it eventually becomes a real problem. And they get mad at you. So imagine the people that are most doing it are upset with you because you're coming from a charitable place. It's challenging. I have an incredible amount of empathy for the people here that run their own businesses. It's fucking hard, which is why 90 fucking plus percent of them go out of business. I think people forget about that too. We're in this golden era of entrepreneurship and business and it's cool.

17:12Almost everyone goes out of business. How many people here have had a business, it's their business, they've been running it for over 10 years, raise your hands. We need to clap it up for these fuckers.

17:30It's hard. And you know why it's hard? and everyone got confused because everyone's acting like one on fucking Instagram. It's hard. What do you, off of the AI piece for a second here, you know, right now for you, Gary, like obviously you're at a point where you don't have to do all this shit. Of course I do. What's Gary's thinking? You're saying that I have the financial means that you wouldn't have to, but I remind you like... What are you playing for? The same thing I've always played for, the game. Just the game? Of course. By the way, I didn't need to work anymore after I was 25. If you live within your means, you don't need to work for shit.

18:16I have unlimited friends who make$5 million a year who have to work forever because they spend$6 million a year. And then because I grew up from the dirt and grew up in a certain way, I have tons of friends who make$53 ,000 a year and don't need to work because they live the$29 ,000 a year lifestyle and now they're getting money from the government, they're chilling, they fish in fucking Florida and fucking smoke a little weed in Jamaica and they're good.

18:44Like, need, need is not based on how much you make, need is based on how much you waste.

18:53Clip it. Clip it. Because people get themselves, oh shit.

19:05On that bar that I dropped, here's the punchline of that. Too many people buy things to impress people they don't even like.

19:17It's so big, y 'all. Please, please pay attention to why you buy things. I ask everyone, do you buy things for yourself or do you buy things for the validation of others? And I think too many people have gotten caught up to keeping up with the Joneses. They blame social media, but the OGs in here know people have had envy and jealousy and insecurity long before TikTok came along. And, you know, we gotta get back to simplicity. You know, be a good person, love your family, be kind to strangers, keep it simple out here. So for me, for me, back to the other thing I worry about. When I was growing up, y 'all, like being an entrepreneur where a business person was looked down on.

20:04It was all good grades. Anybody over 45 in here knows, like, grades, grades, grades. What college did you go to? Right? Like, when I was like, I'm gonna be a business person, I got, like, ridiculed for that. Like, my teachers told me I was never gonna amount to anything because I literally told them I was gonna be a businessman. It was that far, it's hard for the kids to understand because it's been so popularized, everything's so different now, but just 30 short years ago, 35 short years ago, I was literally told that I would never amass to anything because I described, because I didn't know the word entrepreneur, it wasn't in culture, I described that I wanted to do business.

20:41Like it was that foreign. The only concept of business was go to business school to work in a corporation. So, you know, some of you, oh geez, I see the body language, you guys know. So, you know, I was doing it back then because you ever, the only analogy I have for this, Andrew, is do you ever know in the summertime when you're hanging out, hopefully in the back patio with someone you love and you got those lights that zap the bugs? I don't know why this has always fascinated me because I just watch these fucking lightning bugs and bugs just go right to the light and get fucking killed and I feel like they know but they can't help themselves.

21:22That is literally how I describe myself as an entrepreneur. That's a really good one. I just literally, Even when you said it, you were like, you don't have to. I'm like, I have to. If I sold everything, all my companies right now and got the craziest numbers and everyone's like, oh my God, Gary, you did it. Literally the next day, if I was forced to not build another business the next day, it's over. You all know this. Some of you had grandparents like this. There's a reason some people retire and die within the first six months. like they thought they had to go to Florida or Arizona when they're 89 and wrap it up but they're out literally dead within the first year because they love doing the way other people like leisure.

22:14The only people that want to retire fast and swim and golf and have leisure are the ones who hate their fucking job.

22:27Now, now, I believe in balance. You can balance all that. I'm talking about the ones who can't wait. Like they cannot wait to be 65 or 70 or 55 or whatever the circumstances. Like I desperately want to die at my desk. When I'm 99, not like tomorrow, you know. But like, I don't even, like I like building a company or running a meeting or having an HR meeting about an issue more than I like sailing or golfing or mountain climbing. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, I'm sorry. That's what I like more. So I have to. That's a really good analogy. All right, let me ask you a question. I want to get super practical because you give really good, like, hands-on practical advice.

23:18You've got a bunch of entrepreneurs in the crowd. I want to break them down into three categories. And I'm asking you, what would you tell this person, number one, for the person that's just started or trying to start, what's the thing they should do? Second one would be... Let's do that one first. The most practical thing going on in business right now is social media content creation. I just... Obviously, I've been saying this for 20 years. I get it. I'm sorry it's not new and sexy. I do not understand how people don't understand what's going on. You know how people are like, oh, the platforms fuck me.

23:52I got shadow banned, all this. Friends, they're free.

24:01Guys, posting on Instagram is free. Posting on TikTok is free. It might cost you some money to make the content, fine, but posting on it. I think we've so lost our way because these platforms have been around for so long, we take it for granted. There's some OGs in the crowd. Like, remember advertising before social media? you had to pay to get in front of people. A commercial cost a lot of money. A full page ad in the newspaper cost a lot of money. A billboard cost a lot of money. It's free. It still does. In fact, they're wildly overpriced now because they charge you for a world that doesn't exist anymore.

24:42It's expensive. These platforms are free. And now, in the last three years, we're not even in social media anymore. We're in interest media. where you don't even need fucking followers and if your video's good enough, you can get a million views. So if you're just starting out, even if you don't want to be in front of the camera, which is always a positive but not for everyone and not a requirement, even if you don't want to be in front of the camera, your business needs to be posting on social and I'm talking 8, 12, 19 pieces of content a day across eight, nine different platforms. TikTok and YouTube Shorts and Threads and Twitter and YouTube Shorts and Facebook Classic.