Social Media is Dead:Why You Need to Start Creating for Interest Media in 2026

0:00The greatest way to sell is to bring actual value. Convincing is a bad sales energy. Conviction is a tremendous sales energy. The content you should be putting out on social is maybe educating people how to be more financially literate so they can afford the life insurance versus talking about the life insurance. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. First of all, thank you for being here, man. It's a pleasure. It's our pleasure. I wanna get right into it. We got a room full of people that are trying to build their brand. They're all different levels. Somebody started, yes, yes, I've been in 12 years.

0:41And, you know, I was messing around with social media a couple years ago. And somebody was like, who do you see the most on social media? I was questioning myself. And I said, Gary Bitter. And he said, how did that happen? And I went, I don't know. I'm not Gary Bitter. You've seen my social media, so it ain't working, so I don't know. Marketing genius is an understatement, in my opinion, from a distance. Can you start by just building their brand, most of them are trying to recruit agents. They got leads, they're buying leads, they have prospects to sell that for sure. But 95 % of people in this room are trying to build a business, recruiting people they do or don't know.

1:2499 % of that is through social media. Can you talk to us about any basis, foundation that you're looking to start with or anything that we need to know now? Well, I have some really good news. You know, social media, when I got involved back in 2005, six, seven, came very natural to me because I had built my dad's liquor store on email marketing. And email marketing was get as many people on the email as possible, put out good information, a good wine deal, a good price, good information, and a percentage of them would convert. Social made sense to me. Get followers, put out good information and that will build a real brand and then if I wanted to sell wine or books or collectibles or hats, that would work out as a business.

2:12I have really good news for all of you. I have, and thank you for the kind words and I think a lot of you know this, some may not, but I've done a damn good job for 20 years doing the game and literally four years ago, all the advantages I had on every one of you went away. And that's good for you. And it fucking sucked a little bit for me. But it didn't scare me because the game of marketing is the game of marketing. We talked sports in the back. Business has always been like sports to me. Like there's no crying in baseball. Like things change. We've watched the greatest athletes of all time look a shadow of themselves because mother time is undefeated as they say.

2:57And so this is really important because it's going to make a lot of you feel very encouraged. I'm happy because seven, eight years ago I would come and if I did this talk I would have to talk to you about the thing that I know most people are not good at that I'm very good at which is patience. I would have sat here six years ago and told all of you that you need to make an enormous amount of good content for the next two or three years. Seven days a week. Every day. And you'll get to some nice baseline and then you'll start to cook. We no longer live in social media, friends. Social media died four or five years ago.

3:37Now, nobody has coined a new term. I'm trying to say what I call it. It's called interest media. All of you know this. How many people here have been on social media? one of them, Facebook, Twitter, one of them, for over eight years. Raise your hands. Should be an enormous amount of the crowd, right? You know what I'm talking about happened. Ten years ago, eight years ago, you would see content from the people you followed. Now you're seeing content based on what recently you're kind of paying attention to. Whether it's bullshit politics, whether it's sports, whether it's bikini-clad girls or dudes with abs, cooking, baseball.

4:16We are now in interest media. Why is this super intoxicating for everyone in this room? It's because so many of you have actually been horrible, underperforming, not diligent, not disciplined, not gangster about the single most important platform of attention in the world called social media. And now that's irrelevant because you've actually not lost time, not lost advantages, not been outflanked. Because literally, if you start tomorrow, your third post with nine followers on TikTok or 48 followers on Instagram can get more views than my post in three days. That's a level of merit and opportunity that is insane and it should have every single person here running the fuck out of this conference room right now because you know what I'm about to say for the next 45 minutes anyway and go and post some shit.

5:11Hope 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. Did everybody really understand what I just said? It really is, like I'm sorry to interrupt but like it's insane that that happened. Like again back to me being like I'm not pissed because I love the game but damn I was so right for so long and put in all that work and literally we're on even playing field. The creative now, the creative itself, the video and the picture itself is the merit of distribution, not how many followers you have.

5:52That is profound. What I know is I'm still gonna outflank all of you tomorrow because I'm committed to posting on all eight platforms. I've got millions on LinkedIn all the way to Snapchat with TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and YouTube shorts and Twitter in between. Even the best people at social just want to do one or two platforms. Most of you don't want to do another platform because you don't have the humility to start at zero again. Watch this, Chuck. How many people remember in 2017 when I was screaming at the top of my lungs to do TikTok, but you didn't jump on because you thought it was teenage girls and you didn't want to start over because you had Instagram followers?

6:35Raise your fucking hand and own it. That was huge. That was a huge miss. I'm gonna give you one right now. It's called Substack. How many people here consume Substack? Raise your hands. Almost no one. I'm telling you right now, Substack, I saw that man with the hat, shake his head and said he was right, but I'm stunned by how few, Substack is fucking huge. It was predominantly newsletters, very long form written content for free or subscriptions, but I'm watching them move. They're bleeding very heavy into Twitter's category, and now they're doing video and podcast. Every one of you need to write down Substack.

7:09How many people here are embarrassed or like not in love with video but they feel like they're very good writers? Raise your hand. Just want to see. So every one of you that just raised your hand, you have to spend two hours on ChatGPT or Google and learn what Substack is and you must start. These are platforms of attention. Attention is the only currency that matters. You can't sell shit if you don't have someone's attention. You cannot sell shit unless you have someone's attention. And you can do that door knocking, you can cold call, you can do email, but there's nothing you can do where you make one post and it can reach a million people for free.

7:54I'm about to leave, I'm good, thank you. Like, I don't know where you're gonna go, Sean, but like, it's so fucking, you know what's funny about about marketing, I think of it as health and wellness. Do you know how not, how many people here by show of hands would like to get a little more fit, get more muscle, get a little more tone, raise your hand. Watch this, do you know how you do that? You fucking eat better, stop putting shit in your body that's chemicals and eat cleaner, go to the fucking gym and do the exercises properly, easy, done. There's a problem, now go do it. My friends, information is fucking worthless.

8:34We live in a world where information has become worthless. Memorizing and knowing information is worthless. You can ask, chat, GPT, or Gemini anything and get the actual answer. Life is now fully about mindset, perspective, motivation, discipline, execution, and all the emotional intelligence strengths it requires for somebody to be a winner versus a loser in any game they play. And that's where we're at. And for some people it's great and for other people it's not great. I just wish on everyone here besides health the accountability and self-awareness to know they're fully in charge so they can go and get it.

9:16Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so I've heard you for a long time talk a lot about patients, but I had absolutely nothing. Like, literally nothing. Like, I don't have, and I work hard at it. So when I'm talking to a lot of patients, it's pretty mother-in-law. Yeah. Because I don't have them. Yep. And I started, like, watching a lot more. Like, okay, here's what I was making. Here's how long it took. So our, you know, you look at a company, it's a little over 10 years. But we have folks that have been here a year that are not going to have a million dollars a month, 12 million a year, and it's still like, but I haven't, I haven't, or somebody that's not even getting there yet.

9:54It's been around five fucking months, I'm like, I quit. I'm like, well, quit and do what? I don't have a job. Why do you quit? I've been doing five months. Can you talk more about your thought process perspective and how you literally were able to take patience because it's a long name that you're playing? I don't know. I don't have to. I'm sorry, I'm trying. Like, I'm trying hard to do it. and the sales part came easy to me. What you're talking about did not. The recruiting part didn't, the posting didn't, and also I didn't want to do the fucking work. I wanted to sell, I was using my application.

10:26I didn't want to do the recruiting and social media stuff. So from a patience standpoint, how do we get people to continue to push? Patience is easy for me because I don't give a fuck about other people's opinions about me. Yeah.

10:46There is one core reason people are impatient. You want to make as much money as possible to buy dumb shit to impress people you don't even like.

11:01Let me say it's slow because a lot of people just got called out and they didn't clap. Patience is a problem for a lot of you in this room, specifically this room. because you're trying to make money as fast as possible to buy dumb shit like a watch, like a handbag, like a Lambo, like a house, like a dress to impress people that you don't even like.

11:39I'm getting a little excited if I may. Listen friends, on some real shit, I'm coming really with it. You guys know that I've always played this a little bit different than the people that look like me. You know it. I know it, you know it, I know it, you know it. It's because, not because I'm so great, it's because my mama was so great. Let me break it down for you. And now what I'm gonna try to do is channel what my mama did for me. all Gary Vee's been doing for 15 years is trying to do for you what my mom did for me. Now let me tell you what my mom did for me. My mom didn't do the modern parenting shit where she would tell you you could do anything because you can't do anything.

12:26Not everyone I'm looking at right now can do every single thing. But she made me feel unstoppable and she clapped about the good shit. She grounded me when I got D's and F's. but she didn't make me think my self-worth was in my grades. When I opened the door for an old lady when I was eight, she made it seem like I won a Nobel Peace Prize. She put kindness on a pedestal but she also put accountability on a pedestal. When I did wrong shit, I would pay the price. There was no looking the other way and she definitely didn't fucking deal with disrespect. If I, you know when I was like 11, I was scared to even think about disrespecting my mom because I felt like she knew that I was thinking it and she was going to smack my face.

13:12My mother's an angel. I'm built on her shoulders. I'm a nice person. I get no validation from how much money I have or followers I have or the claps you gave me. When this man nicely said, let's give him the biggest claps and make him feel good, I was right there. I laughed. I'm like, that's not what makes me feel good. What makes me feel good is when the Jets win a football game. which is why I don't feel that good that fucking often. My friends, many of you are compromising. My friends, I'm really coming here for you. Many of you are compromising who you want to be as a human for the money. When you stop compromising and you start talking about the right stuff, The important stuff.

14:05There's always good and bad stuff in everything. When you focus on the right stuff, people will feel it. When people feel it, the thing you want to happen happens more often. It may take longer than the people that are selling the short shit. It might happen. You're actually right, Sean, and I appreciate the way you said it. Because you are business oriented and you're not 18 years old. I could tell the way you say, because I've done this a long time, you're playing long. I could feel that you know exactly what's happening, which is, I'll just say to all of you, if you think I've accomplished anything already, I haven't done shit yet.

14:44I haven't even fucking begun to build my empire. My foundation is uncomfortably strong. Concrete and steel. Not a fancy chandelier or a Porsche in the lot. My shit is strong. Non-compromising. I will not compromise on kindness at any turn. I will only speak my fucking truth. I will only sell something I believe in. Period. End of story.

15:20And you can go back and look at videos of me 10, 11 years ago and I said it then. I said watch what's about to happen this next decade. A lot of people that look like me on the internet or like me or people think we're the same we're different. I'm different. And my difference will continue to grow from this point on because to your point, no matter what you sell, whatever you're saying on social is going to attract the quality of what you're getting. You want a good team, you want good clients, you need to say good shit. If you say dumb shit, aka sell all the sizzle, not the actual steak, you're putting garbage out, you're getting garbage in.

16:03No wonder you're rolling through a bunch of people, teammates, clients, team, because you're selling the fucking small thing. Don't sell me on fucking bullshit lifestyle. Sell me on truth. Thank you.

16:32I was making my money, I hated my boss, period. And I was saying this earlier, you go out and get your first death plan where I write a book, it's not as a liberal changes, the whole world changes. My frustration, it is a frustration for me to be open, is when I had leads and I knew that it was about people's families, my mom didn't write, I didn't. Good for you, I'm happy for you. That's great. I'd have that. I get it. In fact, if I may, because the way you said that, I would argue so much of my motivation as a public figure is a blend of gratitude with guilt. I know it was, you know what I mean?

17:19I don't sit here thinking I'm a great, better, I don't think I'm better than, real talk, on that high horse I just came from, I promise you, I don't feel like I'm on a high horse, I don't think I'm better than anyone. I think I just got lucky because it wasn't just my mama. I was born in the Soviet Union. A lot of you were born in America. You won from day one. You didn't even realize it. I knew that I got lucky coming here. I was born in a shit place. It got even better for me. When we got here, we were poor as fuck. I lived in a studio apartment with six, seven family members. I remember it.

17:55And when you have love in your home, but you have no money, you are taught from the beginning that money has no association with happiness. That is the, Sean, the greatest gift that anyone could have in earth, in my full belief, I've seen it a million times, I'm grown now. I'm fucking 50, I'm grown. The greatest gift anyone could be given is to be put into a home, born into a home that does not have much but love is coming out of every fucking door and window. That motherfucker won. So I respect that, I know that. I love you, thank you. And I think for me, seeing these families, our target, our leads, middle American families, if they're buying life insurance, it's probably the first time they're buying it.

18:44And they might have a small policy here and there for work, and they probably filled something out because something happened and affected them. Somebody died, they knew. Family member, work, somebody got sick, can't get life insurance, and now it's something like, damn, I'm 40 years old. I got a wife, three kids, and no damn life insurance. And I make X amount, she makes Y. And she can't live without it. So you've been selling. Where my frustration is, when I saw this, I was like, I don't want her to do it. And I actually believe, I believe to my core that if somebody fills out a lead and we don't go ahead and put all our shit aside and give them the best shot we got, we're hurting her.

19:23Literally. Because I'm not selling this. They get water and fall off. I'm selling. So from a sales standpoint, what advice do you give all of us as it pertains to that they're calling people up, they got each, not cold calling. This is the person buying the insurance. The person buying the insurance. Let's break it down. I'm telling you, I can jump right in this. This is the curve, we talked a little baseball. This is the curveball I want you to think about. The greatest way to sell is to bring actual value.

19:54Convincing is a bad sales energy. Conviction is a tremendous sales energy. Let me break it down for you. The content you should be putting out on social is maybe educating people how to be more financially literate so they can afford the life insurance versus talking about the life insurance. You understand, Sean? I'm talking about this like chess or like boxing. Very hard to knock someone out if you throw right hooks every time. You've gotta set them up with a jab. My point of view is if I have to sell life insurance, I'm selling it a year before I'm actually talking to them by putting out content every day about stop buying fucking Starbucks for$5 a cup and put that$5 in your saving account and make some fucking Folgers at your house.

20:49I'm doing little pieces to educate people how to save a little bit of money because the biggest reason people that are in that demo don't buy insurance is because they can't afford it. Because they're buying some shit. Yes. Real talk, this is important. Everything in your life right now, relationship, buying dumb shit, whatever, literally every single thing in your life right now that's a problem is 100 % your fault. This is incredibly important. Because whatever you're about to tell me about your mommy or daddy or boss or circumstance, someone else lived that life too and had the discipline to figure it out and get out of it.

21:32And since that person exists, what the fuck is your excuse?

21:43That's a macro statement, that's for y 'all. That's what's keeping some of you in a C or D place instead of an A place, every minute you spend on complaining or dwelling or blaming is a minute you're not spending on offense. And by the way, if you're a complainer, if you could be honest with yourself right now, you may not want to even call it out, but to yourself, you're like, yeah, I do bitch a little too much, pay very close attention to who listens to your complaining. There's only two groups. Other fucking losers or someone who loves you and your family and they don't realize and they're just enabling you.

22:23So, there's incredible systematic issues with every place on earth. I could sit here for the next 44 hours and talk about things that are in place that create separation of wealth, systematic racism, sexism. We could talk about it forever. But again, when there are people that look the part, born in Gary, Indiana, to an alcoholic father that get out of it and I ask you again, what are you gonna do? Are you, like, Shawn, do you know that there's women in this audience that immediately need to break up with their fucking idiot guy? Yes.

23:04But for whatever life circumstances, they're insecure and they need that companionship or that validation or they're, by the way, I have this issue. They just like, I struggle with, to this day, I just want to help people that are broken. I was trained that way, I grew up that way. Whatever it is, all of this comes down to you. You can sit and have a glass of wine with your girlfriend and both shit up on your boyfriends, but you can also just break up with the fucking loser. Uh huh. The ladies are getting excited, you can see their fucking faces, I see you all. Same for guys, same for partners, same for siblings, same for people in family businesses with their dad or best friend.

23:50All of this is on you, so yes, I think they should be making content, educating people, hey, do you know why you're buying these things? You're buying these things to close gaps of insecurity. Right? You're choosing convenience over safety. You're taking Uber instead of the bus, but that 20 bucks three times a week is the money you need to fucking have life insurance. Yes, bro, I'm cooking. I'm fucking cooking, bro.

24:22So, again, what I'm trying to get people here to think about is intentionality. Have the discipline to make content on LinkedIn and YouTube shorts and TikTok, but then what are you gonna say? If you're gonna make all your content, like here's the lifestyle, watches and Lambo's, fine. knock yourself out, you're going to lose eventually. I promise you, I've watched the movie 100 times. But if you're gonna put out good shit, consistently forever, you're gonna find a very different outcome and that is the pressure. I'm pressing this crowd, Sean. You know I'm pressing them right now. I'm fucking pressing y 'all.

25:01Out of straight love, cause it's the only answer. That's it.

25:15I said what's the best way to build my public eye to how he was building business the best I see it makes sense okay bro smart go to the most agents walk me through any any deal I know my team like I'll probably take you more money and he said all right do you give a shit what people think I'm like no not at all for money different reasons yeah dysfunctional I don't he's sorry I need to scream yell about what you're building but the talk shit about it look kind of about recruiting in my home actually what we can do the opportunity I mean it's need-based products many people have to have any money across life I'm like cool I'll do it so this is the time walk around last days like hey man how come you know recruit security should I mean it's one and overwhelmingly people say I just am uncomfortable talking about what I do in one way they're scared like this restaurant this restaurant we do no sending messages like it was a good guy he said he sent this he said what would you say now I'll be honest with me no I was like I would say fuck you somebody said to me but you don't need to watch you ask him why he's asking to be blessed for one to recently I told you I believe it they want information for this kind of part And I was like, does the guy want information from you?