If You Want to Start a Business in 2026, Listen To This

0:00I need to meet a man that has 10 kids and wants a garage sale. That is a man I need to do. Jeff, I'm literally gonna have Team Gary DM you. I'm flying you in here for 15 minutes on this show. We're gonna answer it live. That's what we do here, folks. This is a crazy show. We just randomly fly people in. This motherfucker is in a rural area. He's gonna have to drive to some airport, probably connect. That's literally what can happen here. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. Before you go to the podcast, I've got a big announcement. I know several years ago, a lot of you bought 12 books of 12 and a half to get the NFT, the book games NFT.

0:36I also know that a lot of people have dropped off on their journey with VFriends, which is a massive mistake because what we're doing on Burn Island and what we're doing on base with book games is remarkable. So you need to go to VEEFriends, VFriends.com slash old books. Go to VFriends.com slash old books with an S. You will go to that landing page and we will help you explain if you are trying to figure out where your NFTs are, how to bring them over to the website, and how to start activating them so that you can start using them for all the incredible exchanges and draws and raffles and experiences that we're doing for people that actually own the book games.

1:17So please go to vfriends.com slash old books where you can start your journey on reactivating your book games journey. G, what do you think the best type of company to start right now is given the current state of the economy? The economy should have no impact on what kind of business you start. Great companies have been started in shit economies and horrible companies have been started in great economies. The business that everyone should start in this room is one that is actually something they can do. I do believe that self-awareness is one of the great unlocks to happiness in the world. When you're self-aware, you actually are rolling with a lot of humility and a lot of understanding for yourself.

1:57A lot of people here need to start businesses that will actually work for them. Meaning, are they a salesman? Are they an operator? Right? Are they good at promotion and marketing? Are they good at making stuff? I'm very big on live social shopping. Starting a TikTok shop and selling on here I think would be a monster. So I'm big on that. RT, you are very welcome. Christian W. So the business has to be very predicated on yourself. Not on a trend. It's not about cannabis or crypto or streetwear brands. We need to really get in there and understand who we are. And I always like passions, right? The first book I ever wrote, right?

2:37Duck, Charlie, just duck so I can point to it. There we go, right there. That book right there. Crush it, right? This first book I ever wrote, right? Like, this book was cashed on your passion, right? And so, for me, that's a very big deal because I think that when you love it and when you know yourself, you have a better chance of actually creating a good business, everyone. So focus on what you're good at. Focus what you know. Focus what you care about. Is craft beer dying? Of course not. Is it red hot like it was in the mid-90s and like it was 10 years ago? No. But can you start an incredible craft beer business right now?

3:14Yes. It's about execution. It's about knowing yourself. It's about building. The markets that you are all considering, right, are big enough. When people are like, oh, craft beer are dying? Well, watch this. How big is the craft beer business in America? How large is the total volume in sales of the craft beer business in America? In 2024, the U.S. craft beer market reached about$28.9 billion in retail sales. Even though production volume dicts to around 23.1 million barrels, it's a bit of a mixed trend with sales values increasing while production volume fell. That's it. So there it is, right?

3:56Then it's at 28 billion. That's right. So what I just did there for everybody is you've got to understand just because something is trending down doesn't mean it's small. You know, 28 billion is more than enough for the person that just asked that question to get their little tiny slice. Right? Right. You know, 1 % of the craft beer market is 280 million for that person. you know, cut that in half,.05 % of the market, like 140 million. Like, that person's probably thrilled with doing 14 million, a fraction of that. So, I need all of you to understand that. Sid, what questions you got? Who's got questions?

4:32Let's all ask questions in here. Yeehaw! I'm a cowboy. You know, like, so keep throwing things on my face, everybody. Mike Kirkpatrick, good to see you. Buffbets, good to see you. Thoughts on the Pokemon market? I think it's red hot. feels like it's a little frothy. You know, the economy's getting a little soft today, right? Like, when I see the stocks going down and everything is real ugly, I mean, ETH is down quite a bit today, 10%. Like, Bitcoin's under 100. Bitcoin's, you know, under 100, which people said would never happen. You know, like, listen, you know, like there's a lot of, a lot of, you know, destability in the market and I think that will affect collectibles.

5:11Like, collectibles are not a necessity. This is not a necessity. This is not a necessity, though I think you should get it for you and your kids. This is not a necessity. You know, like these are not necessities. But G, what are you showing? These are V friends, my Pokemon, my Marvel. Thank you for that. I like that one. Keep throwing that one up because I look cute with that. Alright, let's keep going. Things to generate income while I'm down with bicep surgery. Arizona Stoner, go on live and do live shopping. You could do it right here. I'm doing it from a phone right now. Live social shopping, if you don't know it, get it.

5:41Go ahead, Sid. Do you think digital products market is oversaturated? Like what? Ebooks? Yes, sat. I think everything's oversaturated. I think everything potentially is oversaturated. I think everybody in this chat that's asking questions, everything's oversaturated. I think most people in a chat like this asking me these questions are looking for the angle. Gary, what do you see? Oh, bro, everybody's everywhere. It's over. there's no angle there's no shortcut there's no seeing around corners the second you see it, it's everywhere am I right about live social shopping is it an opportunity? Yes but like is like nobody see it?

6:24not really, millions of people see it do not work and Danos said wow I'm trying to get people into the right mindset, right which is like of course there are things that are underpriced, real estate collectibles, business opportunities. That's not where I want you to focus. I want you to focus on your self-awareness of what you want to do and what you want to make and what you want to sell. Ready, are digital products, ebooks, and things of that nature oversaturated? Yes, potentially. How many people have done the stand challenge and have made money? Tons, we see it every week. Every week I'm on the call, people are like, I can't believe this.

7:02And they're all not great. Most of the people last week that said they made money had never made money before in their life. Alright, let's keep answering questions because I love it. Because I see Barry Epstein's in Einstein, Pink Phantom, yes, train. Someone in the chat said how can you get over, or what's the first step to take to get over years of bad habits? Accountability, hold on, somebody just said something about the Jets that I just want to make sure is true or not true. No, I don't see that yet, okay. What's that? How to get over, what is the first steps? To get out of bad behavior?

7:31Bad behavior, bad habits. Full accountability. Boom. Your bad behavior is 100 % your fault. Like, you know, for example, Gary, you don't get it. I'm an alcoholic because my father and grandfather was. Next answer, my rebuttal to that person. Do you know anybody who stopped out, you know, that alcoholic track in the world? Has there ever been someone who had a great granddaddy, a granddaddy, and a daddy who were an alcoholic and they decided to go the other way and created massive mental discipline, surrounded themselves with different people and broke the pattern. Broke the trauma pattern. If there's a single person that's, the answer is yes, everyone.

8:08The answer is yes. Every single thing that's ever happened has happened. Meaning, somebody has broken the trauma link. Then I go to that person, you could be that person. First in generation, do it. The amount of, I'm the first to go to college. I'm the first non-alcoholic. I'm the first one to, you know, it's happened a million times. And like I don't understand how nobody understands that you're fully in control, you're fully capable. Alright, people, give me questions. The energy is electric. Because I love you when you're filled with gratitude and optimism and A.I.O. which stands for accountability and optimism.

8:45How do you break bad patterns? By realizing you're the problem. That's a big thing. Night star, brown fishing guy. Look at that. Love it. Yes, go ahead Sid. I've identified some trends with your behaviors. I want to ask you this question. Please. How do you consume your news? because what you just did with the Jets thing, you didn't go on the internet. And I feel like because of just how much you're in so many different conversations, you're probably just consuming more inbound than going and looking at information on the internet. At this point, at the scale that I'm at, I'm getting a lot of my news coming to me because a lot of people know I'm in marketing, I'm in business, I'm in investing.

9:24But there I went to my Jets thread because my Jets thread breaks news before ESPN. Like everybody's in, AJ's an agent. Like there's a lot there, but you know, I like this app a lot. This is an app that I would recommend. Break the Web, if you see that right there. See Break the Web? I'm very big on that. Break the Web is just kind of like trend. Yee-haw! You know, these are trending topics, right? Dick Cheney died, New York City made Rebecca unighted. You know, like this is really interesting for me. Like, so this kind of takes trending items on AI. So I look at that, I skim that like four or five times a day.

9:58I read Twitter quite a bit, Reddit. I get millions of DMs. I'm just in the ether. And then on long flights, I just read things and get into rabbit holes.

10:12What else are we seeing here? What else are we seeing here? What was your strategy when you first started your marketing agency? Alana, I put out a lot of content on the internet about what I believed that social media was gonna do, and that led to people reaching out to me. All of you should be using LinkedIn and Twitter and sub stack to share your thoughts about what you see. Courtney likes music quite a bit. She would love to have a career in music. Probably secretly is waiting like, when's this fucker gonna create Vayner Music? Loves music, right? I think she should be putting out on LinkedIn her thoughts on emerging artists that she discovers.

10:45That could lead to an A &R reaching out to her and saying, I like your sensibility. Would you like to work here? And she'd come in here, Gary, I don't know because you're the best boss, but I love music. Should I go? And then I mentor her. That's just like, eh, that's life. You need to be putting out information around the things that you want to accomplish. My points of view on marketing became profoundly historically correct and I trade on that equity now. But I believed in it, I had thoughts. You can't just throw a bunch of things against the wall and see what sticks. You have to know your stuff.

11:16And a lot of you need to be putting out, actually, here's a good question. For all 1 ,200 of you, what is the thing that you know best? Out of everything, like cooking, tennis information, Star Trek facts. Like what do you, I need all 1 ,200 of you answering right now. That's cute, yay. You know, myself, fine. What do you know most about? Real estate. What do you know most? Metal work, dog training. Automotive. You know, self-help. Like that's the content. That's the content. And it's at scale. You have to put out content at scale, everybody. At scale. I need people to answer. Can we do questions and polls here?

11:52Yes. Okay, let's do a poll. Corey, you ready? Absolutely. Let's do a little poll here. Let's try the first ever poll. First ever poll here. Alright? The question's gonna be like, do you post, the question I want you to ask is, do you post on social media three times a day? So this is for everybody who is trying to run a business. 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. So my poll that I just put up is do you post three times a day when you have a business and you're trying to sell something?

12:34If you're trying to sell something and have a business, not if you're regular, like you're not into it. I need to know if you're posting three times a day. I need these votes. I need these votes. Some of you are voting. And again, one of the things I need all of you to understand is the more you post, the luckier you get. The more you post, the luckier you get. The more you post, main page, not stories. Everybody loves a good story top out. Right? Because people are precious about your grid. Stop worrying about your friggin' grid. I said friggin'. I'm worried about my alga. Stop worrying about your friggin' grid.

13:07Guys, if you've ever wanted PG Gary, P-G-ary, P-G-gary, P-G-gary is here and he's on TikTok because I'm scared of the alga. I'm scared of you, out there. PG Gary's here. The ADHD is coming through strong. Listen, I can bounce around. I think it's a superpower. I can focus on a lot of things. I'm looking over here. I'm looking at my team. I'm still worried about the Jets because they have 20 minutes to make their trades. There's a lot going on in this brain right now. Hospitality's a great one. Friends, Substack Beehive. If you don't know that, how many people here know Substack or Beehive? What other questions you got?

13:43Where do you see live streaming going in the next five years? You and I were on the same page. I think it's going to explode. I think live streaming on all the platforms, TikTok included, is gonna explode. You know, the backpack thing. We all know what's going on. I will be live streaming quite a bit. How many people here have caught three or four? How many have I done of these now? Three, four? This is the fourth. How many people here have caught all four of my lives here on TikTok and how do you like it? Who discovered me? Literally discovered me this last week because of TikTok Live. How do you like it?

14:13Are you enjoying it? Is there a way that it's easy for them to make sure they join all mine. Just follow me and it pops up. What's the best way? Turn on notifications. Oh, at the end of the show. Friends, when I end this show, there's a get notified at the end of the screen where you just click it so that you get notified every time I go live. That's epic. I make a good income, but I'm miserable and burnt out. I'm an entrepreneur at heart and love to grind, but I have zero ideas for business. I also have 10 kids, so the risk factor of quitting stifles me. I'd love to do your garage sales idea and sell on other platforms, but I live in a rural town of 3 ,000 and there are hardly ever garage sales.

14:53I feel it in my bones that there's more to life than this. Any ideas for a guy like me to jump into? I love this person. This is Jeff. Jeff, I'm gonna fly you to New York to sit with me. Jeff. You should have Jeff to come on. Oh, this is a great poll. Jeff, I need to meet a man that has 10 kids and wants a garage sale. That is a man I need to do. Jeff, I'm literally gonna have Team Gary DM you. I'm flying you in here for 15 minutes on this show. We're gonna answer it live. That's what we do here, folks. This is a crazy show. We just randomly fly people in. This motherfucker is in a rural area.

15:29He's gonna have to drive to some airport, probably connect. But that's literally what can happen here. You better say your notifications. You never know. Charlie, you never know what I might just literally say to a random man with 10 children in a rural town in America. Hey man, I'm flying you to New York City. And by the way, this is real New York City. Like, this is what's outside. That's Madison Square Garden, y 'all. That's what you're looking at over there. That little curve to the left, that little curve. That's Madison Square Garden. This is real New York City. I got it. This is real. Just duck train.

16:01This is real New York City. This is real New York City. We're in real New York City and now you're getting flown here. That's what can happen on this show. What questions do we got? What's your advice for a 22-year-old? Fucking party out. You're 22. You have it so good. Like 22 to 30 should be like having fun and figuring out what you're into, but getting off of mommy and daddy's payroll and living humbly. When people are like figuring, like when I say 22 to 30, like just get off the payroll so no one controls you, so you're not some entitled brat. Go live with four people in a studio apartment and live your dream.

16:40Come to the big city, figure it out. Follow your dreams, what do you want to do? Alright, next question, I need questions. G, do you think that unscripted, raw, authentic content is on the rise? I mean, of course, what do you mean? Give me an example, what do you mean? Live streaming or do you mean something different altogether? You don't have a script, you pick up your phone and you just talk to the camera. It's been that game. It's been that game. That's worked for so many people and for other people, they need to make a whole skit and make it high-productive. everyone's different. Like, I can't even believe we have lighting so I don't look like death.

17:15I'm very happy. I'm shocked we even got to that. You know, like for me it's easy to go like this. But for a lot of people, they can't hold an audience with 1 ,400 like this and just entertain and you know, and educate and answer questions. They're actors, they don't want to do SNL. I'm gonna star in SNL before I die. I'm gonna host SNL before I die. In the next 30 years, I'm gonna do something that's so culturally relevant that I'm gonna be asked and I'm gonna say yes, thank you very much. And I'm gonna be like, live from New York. You know, and so that's how we're doing it. All right, what else?

17:48What's the most important thing I should do in the first year of starting my business? Work every second. When you start a business, you're no longer an employee. No such thing as Saturday and Sunday. Thanksgiving, take a bite of the turkey, take a scoop of cranberry, kiss your aunt, and get back to work. Like that first year, you have to go hard. A business? friends, everybody's businesses go out of business. Watch this. 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.

18:22It'll make my mom super happy. How many people have had a business go out of business? Look at this. It's gonna be everyone. I've had two. It's hard. Businesses are hard. It's the hardest. so few people can do it and we got into that era a couple years ago where everyone thought they could do it everyone I'm going to be an entrepreneur, cool I'm going to be a male model that plays quarterback for the Jets like okay say things that are impossible most people can't do it it's hard and by the way let me be on the record as someone who can do it there's nothing special about it meaning I feel great about it but it's not like I'm curing polio.

19:10I'm just building a business and that's nice. And like don't put entrepreneurs on a pedestal. Put nice entrepreneurs on a pedestal. But like don't even do that. Like I don't know. That's where I'm at with that. All right questions. I want to go questions. Prophet Nick in number 18. Colleen Moon in number 19 spot. Heart of a refugee. It's hard but I'm trying. Good for you. You want to try. Oh yeah let's get somebody up here. Let's do it. Yeah like Natalie. Diana? Yes. How are you darling? Oh well, I can't believe it. You're on. Yes, you're on. I'm new to you for some strange reason. Well thank you, how new?

19:47Is this your first time ever seeing me or before? No, no, no, no, no. Like live is the first time. Live is the first. And what about overall? When did you first stumble on my content? Through J.F. Gotlib probably a few months ago. Amazing. Well it's so nice to meet you. How are you? Lovely, you're so raw. Do you speak Russian? I don't know.

20:11It's Irish. It's Casca. Thank you, Bajra. So what can I answer for you? Alrighty, I'm new to this. I'm in the aesthetics business and I'm new to this. And I hate to do what everybody else is doing. And everybody is saying, you know, look up the outliers and, you know, master the algorithm. And I feel that there's so much more to at least what I do. and I love how role you are being and I'm trying to learn from you. So I'm just looking for some tips to be myself because that's what I ultimately want to be. I love that that's... But also succeed. I even asked AI, if AI was you, what would be my big day game plan?

20:53But Jen got that a lot. So listen, I think when I hear what you're saying is I think you really need to follow your intuition first. before you listen to everybody else about being an outlier or master the algorithm, I think you should make content and go live and be who you are. Like do things that come natural to you and do them for several months before you adjust. One thing that why I've always really worked is I've always innovated because I always follow my intuition and what I want to do. And I also keep, I'm very, I always persevere. I really work through it. You know, you know this about our culture.

21:32work ethic is not our problem. We work. We come from a place where people just work. That's true. And so what I would tell you is go with your gut, make the kind of content, go live, and stick with it for three, four months exactly how you feel. And then when it doesn't work, then start to take some different angles on it or tweaking. But I think being your true authentic self and talking about what you're interested in, you have to understand, for everybody who's watching right now, You have to either be interesting or passionate or knowledgeable to make it work, right? And you need to rely on all of those things and that's a thing to focus on.

22:12I'm super passionate. My background is art and Russian and everything. I think you need to put out what you want to put out as often as possible for a long period of time and then adjust to the results, whether they're pro. Okay, but this would be more in lives and stories because this isn't like the type of content which is structured to convert. Correct, this is brand. Everybody, when I hear you say, everybody wants to convert, that's sales. What you want to do is, you want to build as much brand as possible. Sales is great too. Like selling on, I don't know, do you sell a physical product? Service.

22:49Service. So then what you want to do is build brand, let people discover you, and then click the URLs in your profile to buy your services. Uh-huh. Okay. Alright? Super. Good luck. You were amazing. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we got a special guest here everyone. I wanted a gentleman who emailed to come in here, tell your story. This is gonna be a five minute, little five minute thing but a nice little gesture. Let's have this moment together. Tell everybody what happened, how you got here. Is that his or mine? Mine is amazing. Hi everybody. about 15 years ago, 12 years ago, I was struggling a little bit.

23:31I saw some of his social media posts, commented, he commented back actually, followed some of the - Let me jump in here real quick. Everybody, I see you, Brandon Cormier, 6767, Christy Ramirez, Too Much As, Raz Mataz, Derek Blake, Gigi West Travels, listen to me. If you're trying to build an audience, and a movement, you have to reply to your comments and your DMs. From 2007 to 2011, I literally replied to every single tweet and every email I got. All of them. According to three and four in the morning. All of them. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean I can vouch for it. He replied to me and I had zero followers.