Live Shopping Is the New 2012 Social Media

0:00There is no original ideas. There's no niches. There's no original ideas. There's no originality. People want to be original. I want a breakthrough. I want my own niche. I want my own lane. They're all fucking taken. They've all been done. What's not been done is you. Fully you. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. We are live and we are going to answer people's questions. Happy 2026 everybody. Hanging out in my office again for a little Q &A session, a little jam session, a little hangout session. Cynthia, great to see you. Dylan, almighty, thank you Shannon. Thank you so much for joining. Really appreciate, actually let me see something here.

0:42No, no, I don't wanna do that. Everybody hope you had a great, great new year. Hope everybody's super well, excited to answer your 2026 questions. Hope everybody is focused on making this the year that they decide to get really going and living the life they actually want to live. Long Island Sign Guy, great to see you. Talk about someone who's really affected. Long Island Sign Guy, so I'm a big fan of bartering. Like I think a lot of bartering should be done more. And my dad needed a new sign for his liquor store. And my dad is, you know, cheap. And he's like, I don't want to pay for this sign.

1:20I was like, well, let me, I have an idea. Like everybody wants my business and marketing advice. Let me see if I can find one. I found this gentleman who's in the chat right now. He came in, I did a bunch of consulting for him. He crushed, in my opinion, because I know what people pay for me. But also you have to kind of value something that's not black and white. He put up the sign and there's a lot of costs in that. But what he has done is he's actually executed on my advice and has absolutely annihilated Long Island. Basically I feel like everybody in Long Island's buildings are now his signs.

1:54But he'll answer that in the chat if that's true. So, Mean Man, thank you. Olivia, great to see you. Boy with the OZ, good to see you. Wolverine, great to see you. The chat is blocked by that camera right now. Like, that hasn't happened in the past. Can we do something about that? Yeah, let me just. Yeah, thank you. Look, the big cheese, Bellmore says Long Island Sign Guy has done sign for me. That's awesome. Anyway, everybody, thank you so much for being here. Everybody, can we pin my book? Yes. I wanna pin the book. That's been very, that's been probably the most exciting thing. we do live commerce on this show as well and a lot of people have bought this book.

2:31What's that? Oh, Meet Me in the Middle is Penn, right, the kid's book. I got it. You are right, Courtney, sorry. This has also been, these are the two big massive wins. You can see right down below, if anybody has a kid in their life between the ages of two and seven, put the number seven in the chat. Two and five, two and five, put the number five in the chat. if you are one of those people or you're an awesome aunt or an unwavering uncle or a grandparent, this is the book to get. This is your opportunity to check out. Do we have a discount or coupon? Nothing like that right now, right? Okay, this is in the shop right down here below, but let's get into the questions.

3:11Looks like it's 25 % off right now. Is it 25 % off? I love it. Very nice. 25 % off. Let me know if you pick up a book. I can see if you go into the cart, so click it and just learn. This is less about you buying the book, though if you have a two to five year old, I think you should, because it's awesome. This is more about you seeing how live shopping works and then you can do this for your business. So, alright, we're here to answer questions. The mics are on, the team is here. If you have a question for me that you would like answered, please ask the question in the chat. Use five question marks.

3:43Also, join the fan club. You just saw it. Join the fan club. That's the bottom right little gift box, right? Yes. At the bottom right of the screen, there's a little gift box. bottom right, it's the second thing in. There's the share button all the way, and then there's that little, right down below, that bottom pink red gift box. Click that box, join the fan club, join, join, join. There we go, I love fan clubby. I like Fanny up there. I like Fanny over my head all day long. I want Fanny over my head all day long. Also, I need one massive double tap right now from all 500 of you. Double tap, double tap, double tap, double tap, double tap, double tap.

4:18I want the hearts going. And now, I need you to actually ask your questions. Let's fire away. Let's go into it. I'm ready. Someone said, currently out of work. Would love to know how to get started on TikTok Shop. You know, so TikTok Shop is, 90 % of TikTok Shop is affiliate and only 10 % is what I'm doing right now. Has anybody not bought the book yet? Alright, I'm pretty upset right now. I need someone to buy the book just so I can show everybody an example. You need this book to read to the kids.

4:5190 % of it is affiliate work. So you're literally making content for things that people have affiliates for. So I think you need nothing now. It used to be 5 ,000 followers. Now it's much less. There's an approval process. Everybody should go to ChatGPT and just type in TikTok affiliate. TikTok affiliate. How do I become a TikTok affiliate? We're living in this amazing world where I used to have to give details here, but now I can just tell everybody if you actually want to do it go to ChatGPT or Perplexity or Gemini type in how do I become a TikTok affiliate in Germany in America in Canada because a lot of people there's some places you can and can't but you're literally just making content for product and then if your organic post sells some of that product you're making a affiliate fee this is a massive industry I think TikTok affiliate is a huge opportunity for people here everyday people that don't even have a lot of followers, don't forget how TikTok works.

5:50You make one good video. You don't need 15 million followers like me. You can have 800 followers. You make one video around hair care or a fan or a clay play set that you just like. You make a good piece of content. You post it. For some ungodly, unknown reason, it gets 9 million views and you just print. This is real stuff, my friends. How many people in the chat have made money as a TikTok affiliate? How many people in the chat, I made an AI video of a mask and sold 40. Look at that. That's real life. This is real life, my friends. This is real life. I believe the content affiliate commerce live shopping and affiliate shopping content thing is the 2012 version of social media content creator.

6:37So many of you will have your life changed if you go all in on this and I cannot recommend it more. please everyone look at Trend Sniper I made 17k on December in TikTok shop please share more of your treats in here everyone so that the people that are saying nah like a lot of you how many of you just said no how many of you were just like nah that's not Gary's wrong like that's a pipe dream own it say I said nah N-A-H I said nah I need to know that you said I said nah because everybody who is struggling on earth is in the business of saying no when approached or presented something of optimism and work.

7:23I'm in the business of maybe skewing towards yes. Many people on earth are fully in no. They live in nah. That's not for me. I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. Or Gary's full of shit. It's for people. They always think it's only for people that made it without realizing the people that fucking made it were in the business of maybe skewing to yes. That's an article, Matthew, as you join the team. I want to have a conversation of why no is definitively a loss and why maybe skewing towards yes is a pondering strategy based on practicality and optimism that could change your life. I know for a fact that so many people here could change their life by being a TikTok affiliate and live shopping thing.

8:12I know that for a fact. I've watched more everyday normal people pop off last year on this and I need more of you in the chat that I know are living this life to actually say what details, what's happening right now. TikTok, shop, affiliate is a gold rush right now similar to social media in 2012. I believe it, I believe it, I believe it and I think it's one of the best side hustles in the game. I think everyone's capable of making content. Don't forget. Insecure about how you look? You don't want people to see the bags under your eyes? Good news. You could do this. You could literally be a content creator that does this.

8:56Hey everybody. So it's me Gary. Obviously the camera's not going to be very good. Hey everybody. It's me Gary. These new little Gary V replicas of the jersey his mom knitted that are really fun, they're really awesome. I think you'd get a lot of good luck and love from this. As you can see on the link below, it's$9.99. I highly recommend you get one of these. It will bring you great luck for five years. If you want five years of luck, if you want five years of luck, guaranteed, get one of these things. Literally, literally, the amount of people that can do what I just did is literally almost everyone.

9:33What did you just do? Sorry about that. Train's big thumb, touch something. I should have just done it myself. Get out of my face train. Let me do this. I'm good. I got it. Don't worry. Everybody, what I just did is something all of you can do. You don't even have to be on camera, McKenzie. You don't even have to be on camera, Charlie. Like, I don't, like, Jesus. People can make AI content to be affiliate. Like, this is an amazing opportunity. Right? And I highly recommend it. I highly recommend it. And I think so many people struggle with the negative feedback. Somebody just said, this guy's rude, doesn't understand my humor and my jam.

10:15Another one said, this guy fell off. So many back-to-back comments in the chat right now. There's so many people that would literally stop screaming by hearing those two things or they would lose their focus and they would lose their energy. I'm invigorated by those comments, not because I'm like, oh, I'm gonna show you and battle, but because I am strictly here, because I am the corner of the internet that is positive and practical and I want to bring love to those two individuals who literally feel like communicating negativity is going to make them feel better in a world where I know that doesn't work.

10:52In fact, why so many people feel so much tension going into 2026 is everybody is on full tilt right now on like just deciding to be mad about something. People are just looking to find something to be mad about or to be insulted by. And people are talking all sorts of rhetoric and conversations about shit they don't know versus choosing positivity and understanding where they're at. Anyway, nonetheless, great to see everybody. And oh, interesting. Someone said, it's hard to read the comments with my sweater. Interesting. Is that true? Can you guys see that? That's interesting. Yeah, that's so incredible.

11:37Good call. All right, hold on one second. We're always looking for media buyers. You know, by the way, there's always a fucking solution. And you can always adapt in real times. So, Ninja, great to see you. What happens if a larger creator steals your idea? No, so. So there is no original ideas. There's no niches. There's no original ideas. One of the biggest reasons, Mona and I, my wife and I were walking on Sunday and we were talking and I actually made a note, which I rarely do because I want to make a piece of content about this. There are no originals, ideas. There's no originality. People want to be original.

12:20I want a breakthrough. I want my own niche. I want my own lane. They're all fucking taken. they've all been done what's not been done is you fully you there's like 800 people I can listen to right now live talking about sports but I pick the person that I like their vibe, their energy their slang terms, their uniqueness their visuals their subtleties my friends so many of you are not looking to post because you think You think you need some crazy strategy of originality or niche, they don't exist. Because the second you create it, someone will replicate it. There's a million Gary V's from the shit I did in 2013.

13:08You think you knew something original? You think Alex Earl was the first person to ever get ready with me? Thank you, thank you everyone for that giggle. The fuck do you think is happening? You're the originality, you're the niche, you're it you so don't worry about people stealing anything it's not yours you stole it from someone I love these people what happens if a bigger person steals my shit you stole your shit what do you think you just fucking never consumed everything everyone's affected by everyone the fuck you think Michael Jackson made up that shit James Brown you think James Brown came up with fucking Little Richard this is just how it works it's 2026 bad news You weren't fucking born in 807 BC.

13:54You can't be original, it's over. It's a wrap. And people got unlimited complaints. You're a trust fund kid, I'm sure not. I made my parents trust fund kids because I built a business for them. People are gonna look for their all sorts of excuses. You don't know my story, bro. I'm the furthest thing from a trust fund kid. You know nothing. This is what, you know, This is where people don't get it. It's so interesting. Anyway, nonetheless, I mean, I'm a perfect mother kid. I got here on the back of my mother being a remarkable parent. That's real. So anyway, ooh, I own a mustard company. I like that, the mustard life.

14:39Good for you. Emily, great to see you. Yeah, let's go. Let's go to questions. For short-form content, does niche matter anymore? or can you just post whatever you want? You can post whatever you want. Niche. Wide. I don't understand how people don't understand that everything works. Broad works, niche works. But again, I just talked about it. The reason it works is you're uniquely you. You're uniquely you. I don't understand how people don't get this. Name me every person out there. name them all and I'm gonna like Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson's podcast you know obviously it's niche by nature that they're Knicks players and Knicks fans like that content but there's a million athletes doing stuff how do I pick one lane and go after it if I'm finding a lot of success in so many side hustles that I start you don't have to I have a million lanes too what's the goal is the goal to maximize financial upside well then you pick the lane that has the most financial upside.

15:47If the goal is to live your best life and be happy in what you do, well then you pick that lane. That's what I do. I'm a juggler. V friends, VaynerMedia, Gary V brand, Fly Fish and Capons for the VCR group, Wine Text, Fives Pickleball, Vayner Sports, VaynerWatt TV and film production. Do you want me to keep going? Like who does what I'm doing? And I enjoy it. Now if I put 100 % of my energy into any of the companies I just mentioned, would that company do way better? Yes. Of course it would. But that doesn't make me happy. You know? That doesn't make me happy. So that's it.

16:34Let's keep it going. I'm feeling paralyzed by over analysis. Okay. What are the first couple things I can do to get out of it? By realizing you're just insecure. The reason people overanalyze is they're scared to do. They're scared to do because they might lose.

16:56Like PPL3 just said how to be confident in the camera. By being willing to go in front of the camera and get one view. Like nothing hurts my feelings. Like nothing scares me. Right? We just had a thousand viewers, now we're down to 733 because for some reason TikTok algorithm thought I did something. Somebody comes on, goes this guy has 15 million followers, why does he only have 723 viewers? That doesn't affect me. I don't understand why everyone's so affected by optics. Most people lease a car that they can't afford because they're worried about what people are gonna say about their used car.

17:39I don't know what to say. You know, I really don't know what to say. The reason you're overanalyzing is you're scared to do. You're using analyzing as the excuse to not play. I'm a perfectionist. You don't get it, Gary. I'm a perfectionist. I'm like, no, you're fucking insecure. Life is basic. Confidence, insecurity. Confidence, insecurity. Confidence, insecurity. Pessimism, optimism. Pessimism, optimism. Pessimism, optimism. This is why your youth is so impactful. Your framework of how you see the world is so impactful. But this is also why accountability is so impactful because if you blame your parents or your circumstances and you're 25 years old, when the fuck are you a grownup?

18:32Friends, can everybody answer in the comments right now on when you become a grown-up? What's the official number? 18. You think it's 18, Court? Yeah, I mean, you're allowed. I mean, you feel like, no, no, I know, legally. When do you think, I'll say it different. Court, when do you feel like it is time to stop blaming your parents and everybody else, the government, the world, and you can say, I can maneuver around it no matter what shortcomings I'm dealing with. Like, I am capable. Like there's so many people crying, rich people, I love it. Eh, Mondani, move.

19:13Move. So, or like, but that's like politics. Let's talk parents. Let's talk like, I'm not capable because of my parents. When does that stop? When do you think, general number, just for fun, everybody please answer in here. What age does, are you like actually a grown up and it's time to shut your fucking mouth? By the way, it doesn't mean you're wrong. This is the part that I don't think people understand. I have unlimited things I would love to tell you about what I'm mad about, how I've been wronged by my family and others. I just don't think it's good energy. Therapy good, meditation good, but crying around people all day long on social media and your loser friends, or that one person that's an enabler of you because they love you, nothing changes.

20:04So what age is that in the world that you need to make that line in the sand be like, no more crying, more accountability and adjusting? What number do you have? We'll go reverse. What's your number? Real talk.

20:2124. Cool. 21, 22. 21, 22. Kenz? 25. 25. 22. 22. 22. 22. Norea? 16. 16. That's fine. Raghav? That's so funny. I actually, this may surprise people, I'm actually on 25. I'll tell you why. I think 16 to 22 for most people, you're still really transitioning from a child to a grown-up. And I kind of want to give grace to everybody for a couple of, like I'm talking about me. You guys know me. I'm talking about my level. Like no complaining. None. Zero. It even shows up in how I play basketball, right? Like you know our pickup games. Like when someone calls, like you have to literally murder someone with a gun to get maybe a foul call when we play.

21:13Like it's my favorite thing. I joined pickups that call unlimited fouls and a year later like through my life, no fouls. No fouls. I like 25 because I think it gives people 22 to, it gives them 36 more months to be a bitch. and I like that because then you can be like okay but you're 25 now you know what I mean? So I like 25. Ooh appeal approved let's go. Let's go. This is a big day. 2026 is off to a huge chart. Everybody my appeal was approved. We're gonna start growing. Everybody double click and hit the share button. We're back everyone. We figured out the algorithm. You know so I'm I'm a big fan of 2025.

21:56I really excuse me of 25 years I was a big fan of 2025 but I'm a bigger fan of being 25. This is only$14.99? Yes. Oh, everybody, real quick, now I feel good about this. I need you to literally buy this. If you have a two to five year old in your life, put the number five in the chat. Tino Toys, Kenneth, Orlok, Van Locke, J-Mail, thank you all for buying this book. Thank you all for buying. When it says number two and number 10, is that their number of purchases in the history of the store? That's a great question. I'm not sure. Find out for me. No, it's... Tino Toys purchased the number... I think it's the product that's in the store.

22:29Got it, okay, got it. Everybody, please check this out. All right, let's keep it going. Let's answer questions. Wait, let's go back. Can we please go back to the age? You can go to anything. Go, Trent. Can we go back to the age of 25 becoming an adult? Let's finish that thought. Finish that thought? I just think that 25 gave you, like I want to get everything out of the system. Like I feel a bit, I view it as a cancer. And like if you get most of the cancer out, but there's still cancer cells, God forbid, right? I feel like 22 to 25 is a great number because at 25, I feel like you had those last three years of like wah-wahing it out.

23:03Hey 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. And like 25, you know, there's a lot of research around the brain developing. You've kind of lived in the real world. You're in such a fantasy land if you go to college. Like you're not in real life. Like look what's happening to so many people that first year after college. Especially now with what's going on in college we have you know mckinnon's obviously got a huge degree like like i'm watching a lot of content right now like like somebody was trying there was a college football thing where like university of georgia fan was making fun of the other fans like their degree and i was like fuck georgia like ivy league students are like realizing like everything's shifting and like whether you're a great student a poor student like for both of us 22 was like whoa new new regime right and for me that was great because i was horrible didn't even understand the system didn't know how to thrive in it.

23:58Others really know. Fuck man, we lived through 50, 60 years where if you knew the school system, you were fucking coasting into something very cushy that you understood. I always say this, this is a good opportunity for me. I do not look down at great students. I don't look down or think that people that have good educations are bad. My big rant for the last 10 years was I was just worried that it wasn't guaranteed. For two different groups, definitely the one that I most talk to, which is if you collect debt and you're entrepreneurial and or creative, yikes. And then if you're not going to a specific field, nursing, legal, right, those kind of things, that a generalist in a top school was coasting, but I thought was walking into an era where it was not as obvious, and I think we're there.

24:47I think historically I've looked right on this issue. and that doesn't mean anything to me per se but it's just an interesting observation and so in general, I think we can win something here, especially with everyone here. Who's under 25 in the chat? Put under 25 in the chat right now, everybody, please. I think everybody under 25 realizing two things. You know how like at 18 to 22, back in the day you knew you were gonna get married, you knew you were gonna go to college, all those things. I actually think the healthiest thing we can do is actually make a big deal about 25 being the year you're now grown, no more complaining.

25:25Kind of like, I think, for everybody who's under 25, could you imagine if it was that accepted by eight billion people that 25, when you turn 25, you're now grown and shut your fucking mouth? Don't you feel in some weird way that would help everyone? Yeah. Right? Right? It'd be like, then you could like, because I feel like a lot of 22-year-olds kind of know they're complaining, so they feel shitty about themselves. McKenz? I was gonna say I feel like it would take the pressure off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like it would take the pressure off because I feel like people come out of college and they're freaking out like, I don't know what to do.

25:58Correct, which is insane. But if you felt like, all right, I got to 25 to feel like what I am without a syllabus in my life. That's right. Then you could level some. It gives a little grace. And I will say this, like too many people are caught up into, I don't have a significant other, I don't have a child, I don't have cash. Right, let's talk about the 20s more. what's fucking up 20s? I don't have a significant other I don't have a child or I don't have and child's kind of now pushed into 30s but don't get it twisted there's a lot how many people here live in a culture whether it's your own house or your neighborhood where you're a woman and you're expected there's social pressure to have a child in your 20s how many of you are there?

26:41say that's me so I think there's again not in LA and New York but look, look, right? You know, there's a lot of people that feel that so you've got to, everybody I think feels in their 20s especially as they get older, I don't have a significant other I don't have as much cash as I wanted. Some add another thing, I don't have a child. My other friends have children, I don't. So we've got these three things that are really there and you know, I I wish we could, I don't have anything to say on that. I have one thing to say on something much more narrow. When you're 25, all the things you're upset about, money, significant other, anything else, that's the year you can't blame your parents anymore.

27:33That's the rule I think we can establish. That's, you can't blame your parents. You can't blame the system. like that's what's look this happened in the 60s with the hippie movement and it's happening again right now in youth culture everybody wants to blame the boomers the government and corporations and it's not going to work out because they always exist and they're everywhere like what are you going to do it's like I don't you know it's like trying to eliminate competition it's a human trait there's going to be government there's going to be corporations there's going to be politicians and my big thing that I don't understand is the people that have been crying for 10 years in New York City.