If You're Under 50, This is the Podcast For You...

0:00When you're like 15, 16, like you don't realize that you're not even born yet. They literally are sitting there thinking they they're getting close to having to have their shit figured out kids I got a big one for you You know how your parents and teachers are telling you like you got to get fucking focused you got to figure out your shit You're not gonna believe this. It's really fucking funny. None of them have their shit figured out

0:24Attention is the number one asset Gary we're gonna go through a couple questions here with you First of all, what about last week in the Jets? Oh, I saw Jets shirts. I see you, I saw you. And I also saw a tiara whack fucking, there we go. Let's fucking go. The Jets, it's all about this weekend. We're at a crossroads. We're two and three. You all know our shit got fucked up four fucking plays into the season. But we got the Eagles, who are ridiculously tough. I actually like the Eagles a lot because we both hate the fucking Giants. But I'm hoping for a miracle because if we can win this week, it starts getting exciting.

1:01And if not, it gets a little tricky. You start looking towards the draft. Tell me this, man. We're obviously at the Spire event. But you just announced another one of your events, VCon. Yes. Coming up in LA. Yes. What's the passion of throwing these big events for VCon and stuff? You know, the NFT thing, for a lot of you, that either were paying very close attention or weren't paying attention at all. When the NFT thing hit, obviously, I believe in it so much, and I believe in the blockchain heavy. In the height of the height, August 2000, I started making a ton of content saying 99 % of these things are going to zero because I was starting to see everyone just went to the greed side, not the building and the patience and the IP side.

1:39But for me, VFriends, the characters you saw up there, it's my Pokemon meets Sesame Street. You know, I have a lot of passion for what I just talked about. You know, a lot of you have been along this journey. You're starting to get more insight to what makes me tick. I know that me as a person has been able to amass an audience. but I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea. Watch this. How many people here, the first time they saw me, were like, fuck that dude, he's a douche. Make some noise. Yes! Dude, what the fuck? So, you know, luckily, luckily, for the people that raised their hand, you get lucky sometimes and people will give you, you know, you get a couple more at bats, they hear the right thing and you can make that jump.

2:20But there's a lot of people that will never even give me a second chance or someone that looks like me. I get it. And I'm not for everyone. We all consume differently and there's different voices, different backgrounds. I get it. With Bee Friends, my Sesame Street meets Pokemon. If I can't teach you patience, well then I'm going to make Patient Panda so fucking popular that they're going to get to your kids. And so it's a very big mission of mine. At first I thought I was building Disney, but then as I learned more about what Jim Henson did with Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock, there was a lot of meaning behind those characters.

2:54And I'm very inspired by that. And so, anyway, when I did the NFT thing, I kind of anticipated the chance that it would take some time. I didn't anticipate the prices would get so crazy. Greed really took over. I didn't anticipate the government sending everybody free money. You know, there was a lot of shit that went into it. But I knew that the blockchain allowed me to do unique things. So the fact that you would get this collectible, right? This BeFriends collectible. I wanted to make sure there was real life value. So I said, for a long time, I've been wanting to do a South by Southwest meets Rolling Loud.

3:26Like what would the coolest business conference look like? And so when I did VFriends, I'm like this is my chance. I'm gonna sell these. I'm gonna make the initial selling of them, the collectible, have three years to this conference. We did it in Minnesota. The first year we're at Vikings Play. We did it last year. We're at Colts Play in Indianapolis. This year I wanted to try a different format so we're doing it in LA Live in August and I'm really proud of it and I've learned a lot about events. It's 10 ,000 people. It's a big event. you know, Snoop and Pharrell and Drew Barrymore and just like a lot of pop culture.

4:00You know, Andrew Schultz did stand up. Busta Rhymes performed. Like, I'm really going for it. It's almost like I didn't have the kind of money as a kid to go to summer camp, you know. But for me, having this event to look forward to every summer where I can really talk about pop culture and business and marketing and innovation. And so this is the last year that only the NFT holders can go. And then I've got a decision to make where I go with it afterwards. But I'm really excited about it. Very cool, man. Let me, obviously in a room full of entrepreneurs and business owners, and we're all growing and scaling.

4:30If you can, paint a little bit of a vision that we can see down on scaling. I think you just surpassed 2 ,500 staff employees now. 2 ,000. 2 ,000 at your company. For us that are in the room growing and scaling, scale that up. Give us a vision. What is that like? When I went into my dad's store at a school, we had eight employees doing$3 million, and five years later we had almost 200 people doing$50 million a year. When I started VaynerMedia, because my dad really never paid me much money, I don't think people, it's funny for me when people try to razz me, they're like, he inherited. I'm like, motherfucker, I inherited nothing, dick.

5:06I built a huge business for my father and left and didn't have anything, which is why I had to start VaynerMedia in a conference room of another company. I promise you if I inherited it, we would have had fucking shares. So I started VaynerMedia very humbly and in 14 years, not knowing anything, about that world, we built a$350 million business with 2 ,000 employees. I feel confident that I can speak about scaling. The number one reason, brother, that most people here will not scale to the level that they want to is because they don't love their employees enough. Mm, mm.

5:42The real answer to the quiz is realizing you work for people, not they're beholden to you because you write their check. The way that employers treat employees when they have big aspirations and it's their company. I'm not talking middle management in a corporation. You're both in fucking jail. I'm talking it's your shit and you want it to be as big as possible. The two biggest mistakes people make is they don't invest in people like really. Like really. For example, I have 2 ,000 employees. That's just VaynerX. I have V friends. I have fucking Vayner sports. I'm always still helping my dad because that's our relationship with Wine Library and Wine Text.

6:24I've got the Gary Vee brand. I've got a pickleball team. I've got a ton of shit going on. And yet, if you looked at my calendar, I'll show you right now. Real talk. Watch this. Tomorrow, I promise you. Shit. Forget that. Don't look at how many. It's what. It's what in these 15-minute meetings. It's with Paige, Carlin, one-on-one. Destiny John, one-on-one. Right, Charles? one on one. Yeah, one on one, one on one. 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes. You just don't fucking care about them enough. Wow. And if you don't care about them first, how the fuck do you expect them to care about your shit?

7:06That's number one. Number two, the biggest reason most of you will not get to where you want to get to, promise you, the biggest reason is because you have a business to buy dumb shit. what ends up happening is you got it going a little bit you're doing two million a million you got 200 ,000 in profit and you take all that shit and buy some shoes instead of leaving it hiring more people and doing four million the next year you're using your business for your lifestyle instead of you building your business so for me I don't think I had a salary over$100 ,000 until almost 40 because my dad definitely didn't pay me shit and then when we started VaynerMedia, I was already kind of in that mindset and so I was just reinvesting.

7:57VaynerMedia went from zero to 1.8, 1.8 to three. Then I went full time, three to 14, 14 to 27, 27 to 48, 48 to 72. But the way I was able to do that was along the way, I wasn't trying to buy another house or a fucking boat. I was trying to build a business and the biggest reason people will not scale here is they don't care about their people at all, sometimes, or enough, and they use their business to fund their lifestyle and they don't build a business, they build a machine of cash to live, which is, by the way, do you. You can do whatever the fuck you want. This is America.

8:40But if you're asking me why I see people stay at 2, 3, 4, 5, it has to do with all the shit in their closet that they don't wear. Yeah, yeah. I want to do this one thing. I found out today, we came here, Gary, a school teacher that teaches entrepreneurship and finance to a group of kids paid for probably around 50 high schoolers that he teaches to come to this event. It's amazing. He got the bus for them, paid for the bus, paid for the food, did the whole thing. We found out here, and we put a special room together for them and did some stuff with them. But where's that group of high schoolers at?

9:19There they are, right over there. There they are.

9:31If obviously you work with a lot of young people. Yo, kids, don't take the 8th place trophy. It's going to fuck you up. So when they hand it to you, throw it back in their fucking face. You got it?

9:45What uh you obviously work with a lot of people but young people in high school in my fucking favorite what would you what advice would you give them let me tell you one other thing when we shit on gen z you need to hear me loud and clear as you're gonna go home tomorrow and complain again that nobody wants to take this job that you're offering 18 an hour for gen z is not lazy gen z has options we have to they know that they can just fucking make tiktoks and get brand deals They know that they can flip shit on eBay. They know they can do a Shopify store. I promise you if we all had the internet We wouldn't have worked at Kmart either

10:23Motherfucker if I had the internet I wouldn't have graduated middle school let alone High school I would have been out by 11 be like peace mr. Dennis Fuck all right, I would have the Jets 20 years ago I had the internet when I was a kid. Fuck. Fuck, I wish I had that shit. Fuck.

10:47What piece of advice? If you gave one piece of advice around high school, what would you tell the high schoolers over there? There's so much, which is why I make so much content on TikTok. And we all remember, when you're like 15, 16, you don't realize that you're not even born yet. They literally are sitting there thinking they're getting close to having to have their shit figured out. Kids, I got a big one for you. You know how your parents and teachers are telling you like you got to get fucking focused you got to figure out your shit You're not gonna believe this. It's really fucking funny.

11:15None of them have their shit figured out

11:20None

11:26So what I what I would tell them is and I would tell this to a lot of people in this room Especially looking at the 20 30 and 40 year old 50 60 year old faces. We have such a bad relationship with time It's a big passion of mine. I know that people that follow me here know how much I pound this. With modern medicine, do you know that they're gonna live to 130? Yeah. Like, real shit. Like, I don't know if anyone's paying attention to what's going on. It's crazy. Modern medicine is moving fast. We are figuring out a ton of shit. Like, people, like, literally, if you're 12, 14, 15, 16, buck 10, buck 15, buck 20, buck 30, for real.

12:04And before you're like, nah, just do your homework. Look at what's been happening. 85, are you kidding me? If somebody lived to 60, in the 1970s they were like, you fucking made it. So what I would tell them is, and I would tell a lot of you, and this goes back to like, this is gonna be a fun one because I'll tell them and then I'm gonna you. For them, they need to be high risk. Yeah. They need to follow their actual dream, actually. They need to mitigate regret. You know what is really hurting for a lot of people in here? the shit they didn't do at 20 and 30 that they wanted to.

12:43Right? Because they thought they were supposed to or their mommy made them do it or society told us. I get it. Shit. When I was a kid, entrepreneurship wasn't even a thing. At 14, 15, 16, everyone told me besides my mom that I was going to be a loser because I got Ds and Fs. Kids, I got Ds and Fs. like you know like we didn't have the you know who Gary Vee is online besides trying to make my mom proud he's the person I wish existed for me when I was 16 yeah you understand which is why I talk about the bullshit of Nike like if I like I needed someone to look up to there's too many people that say win at all costs kill everybody fuck you I don't believe in that shit I believe there's two ways to build the biggest building in town one One, just have the fucking talent to do it.

13:34Or two, like most people, tear down everybody else's building. And so I think about that and I want to be that role model. I want to be that person for 15-year-old me if they happen to sit there. But if you're a musician, if you want to be a stay-at-home dad, if you want to coach Little League, I don't know what you're about, but whatever it is, at this age, for the next 20 years, nothing but that. And then, if you didn't have the talent, if it didn't bounce your way, if you weren't good enough, if it just didn't click. Then, at the ripe age of 33, you can go get a regular job. And for this crew, I wish they knew what 50 is in today's world.

14:16When people are like, it's over. What's over? You're gonna be 30, 40 more, like what, you're just gonna dwell for 30 years? I wish people knew that the number one thing they should do right now, if they're not enjoying it. Though I don't know if you heard everyone's happy in here. Yeah, they're happy. But if you're one of those two people that didn't clap, if you're not pumped with what you do, do you understand how much time we spend on working? Add sleeping and then figure out how much work is your life. It's the majority of your life. If you don't like it, you're making a mistake. And I understand.

14:57Fuck you, Gary, that's dream shit. I got a mortgage, I get it. But I don't understand why people don't fight for their happiness. Yeah. And let me go into detail. Let me go into detail. In my way of seeing the world, if you can't quit your thing to go try to do another thing, you start looking at everything that costs you money. If you're actually miserable, real talk. Like if you don't wake up on Monday and you're like, yeah, right? Like people that live for Friday evening, that's not life. If you're one of those people, the first thing you look at is, do you own a home? If you own a home and you're not happy, like really not happy, but you can't afford to jump, I think it's a debate to say, let me sell this home, let me take out the equity, give me a year, I'll have the humility, right?

15:56I'll go back to an apartment, I'll go to a smaller home, I'll rent a smaller home, but we don't do it because we're worried about judgment. Most of you will not do the thing you should do to get to happiness because you don't want to be embarrassed. And that fucks me up. It's like sports. Most of you are living your life. Can you imagine if every athlete reacted to every time they were booed? When you're an athlete, you don't even hear the fucking crowd. When people try to tell me or judge me on what I'm doing, I'm like, motherfucker, you're in the crowd eating popcorn. I'm fucking playing.

16:36So if you need to fucking sell your home because you bought a home that was too big for your skis and you... The realtors are motherfuckers, aren't they? And you have a home that has, I don't know, four rooms that you never fucking use. and it's fucking you up, because that mortgage is fucking you up, and your lease is a fucking Tesla, and you go on three vacations for the fucking photos on the gram to show people you're winning on the outside, and you're actually losing on the inside, swallow some fucking humility and fight for your happiness.

17:20Last, Gary, last question here for the day. Alex, if you've got me to come out. So Gary, me and you were talking backstage, and what a lot of these guys don't know is a spire would actually never exist without the very first interview I ever did with Money Is. Kind of launched this whole freaking thing about four years ago in your office, and we were talking about backstage. So you were the first person we ever did that interview with. I don't know if you remember your answer, but I remember it. I didn't tell you what it was. but if I asked it to you again, money is blank, what would the answer be and then why would it be that?

17:56Money is an exposer. An exposer. My friends, money exposes. If you're a piece of shit when you're poor, you're really a piece of shit when you're rich. I love when people are like, Gary, money changed him. I'm like, it didn't. I promise you, money is an exposer. Money exposes people. Real talk. It fucking exposes people. It just accelerates your truth. It just does. You're good people, you get paper, you're real good people, promise. Watch it, pay attention. It's never ever been any other way. Money, money is an exposer.

18:43Perspective is what we think money does. when you decide to not look here and you look here and you see completely different shit, you can possibly act different. That is what people think money does for them. Putting in the work, having the humility. It took me time to get to understanding candor was a flaw. I used to blame them. I was doing this, right? I'm really good at this for almost everything but when I wasn't strong enough to fire you because I liked you because I mean, back to what I said earlier, you coming to my company, we're fucking family. Like I think in sports terms, you're like on my team now.

19:21Right, like we're gonna kill everybody and I start getting feelings, I do, like I love my fucking teams. And so when someone sucked, instead of having the ability to say, hey you're not good at this, and have the ability to build them up, I would just, because I didn't want it, and it would get worse and worse and worse and then after three years of them sucking, and I would sloppily fire them out of, I mean, it was bad. In my 20s, it was out of control. At 28, I could walk by somebody at the liquor store and be like, Johnny, you're the fucking best. See you on Monday, on a Saturday night. And then Monday, be like, yo, can you come to my office?

19:56Real quick, yo, by the way, you're fired. And Johnny's like, motherfucker, you said I was the best on Saturday. And I was like, fuck, I'm sorry. I'm like, here's more money. Just get the fuck out of the company. It was sloppy. It was sloppy. And you know what I did? I blamed them. I'm like Johnny, fuck you Johnny. How didn't you, you fucking sucked. You knew you sucked, what the fuck, you know? And I wasn't there. And I think we do that on a lot of things. And so I think we need to be way more accountable. Like the second you realize the world is how you see it, even in times like this, if you want to look outside right now, you can find unlimited positivity.

20:36And the second you realize that anything that is bothering you is on you. It's on you. every single person here is more than capable of fixing it maybe not this minute but if you believe otherwise you've already lost if you believe you can't fix it I'll never get my mom if you believe that then it won't happen and more importantly back to before at VCon I said a funny line with passion I said fuck your grandparents I'm really excited about this Yeah. Let's talk that out for a second.

21:16So many people shit on their parents. Because that's what we do as humans. We blame our parents. Like, you don't get it, Gary. Especially the way I talk about my parents and my mom, you can imagine, right? Going through the airports on DM. Gary, you don't get it. I can never, because unlike you, my mom was poison. And I'm like, but then, when you really go deep, as I have over the last 20 years on this, People are all mad at their parents, but they love grandma, because when they went over there, she gave them pie. Meanwhile, your grandma's the one that made your mom the way she is. Yeah. And so we give granny a pass.

21:55Yeah, yeah. But we shit on dad like a motherfucker. Yeah, yeah. And then there's a funny game. Once you get to that place, then you realize, wait a minute, great grandma was a real bitch. And so my question is, you can sit here and continue to blame the president, your mom, or you can decide, I'm a grown-ass man, I'm a grown-ass girl, and instead of doing all these proxies to make up on my problem, let me go do work. Let me do work. Because it's super easy to blame. It's easy. you just do it but people are not putting in the work and what again so to me money it's that people swear that that's just shit that's gonna fix it if you got fucked up shit that shit is not fixing it it's gonna make you spend that shit on more fucked up shit and you're going down down fucking town I love it I love it Charlie Brown motherfucker like you know alright that's it Gary you guys give Gary a round of applause man Gary V thank you San Diego

23:14Thank you.