The Brand You Build is the Only Arbitrage You Can Rely On

23:57Gary Vaynerchuk:especially since it's a very young crowd looking around, I think a lot of you are gonna have grandkids that marry AI robots, so get ready for that insane shit. I'm laughing because humans are so fucked up. We get fucked up with marriages between race and religion and gender. That's gonna be child's play to when your fucking granddaughter brings home a fucking AI robot dude. Thank you. Questions?

24:28Gary Vaynerchuk:That shit's gonna be crazy. Hey Gary, my name's Matthew. Matthew. Yeah, so I know you were an early investor in Facebook and you're just talking about AI. What AI companies would you suggest investing in right now? I haven't invested in any of them because unlike when I invest, my first three investments were Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, right? I came out the gate like fucking rookie of the year. Then I fucking got high on my own supply and fucked away a lot of money.

24:58I've been smart with AI. A lot of my friends have lost a lot of money already and there'll be some big wins, but the problem with AI, how many people here would say tangentially they're following the AI stuff, nano, banana, like raise your hands, anthropic, one more time, just hi. Oh, a lot of you. So you all know what I'm about to say. Unlike the last 30 years that I've been in the game and then the history that I've learned, this shit moves too fast, right? The reason I haven't invested in anything is you get three smart kids and they're like, we built this. And then like an hour later, Google's like, we built this.

25:28That's 10 times better. And then like a day later, Anthropics is like, fuck Google's thing. We built this. And it's like the speed in which the tools and the apps are being built are so fast. So I don't want to bullshit you.

25:40Gary Vaynerchuk:I've literally not deployed any capital. I'm waiting. And I also think the incumbents are going to be the big winners. How the fuck do you compete as a startup when Zucks is paying$150 million signing bonus to an AI engineer. This is going to be a Microsoft, Google, Facebook. There'll be startups, but I haven't gotten deep into it because a lot of stuff that I like is just going to get destroyed by the bigger platforms. Thank you. Of course, man.

26:14Gary Vaynerchuk:We got one here and then way in the back. A man in the cut back there. What's up, man? It's Brett. Good to see you again. Yeah, good to see you again. You talk a lot about AI being a tool. Yep. Obviously, in our business, the biggest tool is probably us, the person and what we bring in value. And you also mentioned earlier about other things that tie into our skill sets and where we tie into selling different products and flipping. I guess where do you see in learning about what we do, where do you see us translating to in some of those different areas you mentioned earlier? All of them. how many people here think they're good at buying and then reselling something raise your hands

26:57Gary Vaynerchuk:you fuckers just stumbled into tickets

27:02like literally this skill set that you sit on all of you is one of the single most important skill sets in the world it works it's real as shit the reason I said yes to this talk

27:15Gary Vaynerchuk:is I identify as a salesperson I also identify as a marketing and brand person. Sales is what you do when you're not great at marketing and brand. When you're great at marketing and brand, it comes to you. And that's what I want for all of you, comma, that's a different game and we can get into that. I just think that anything that you put your mind to to learn what the arbitrage is is in play for you. And I believe there's an enormous amount of buying and selling arbitrage that is now going to be in play because of AEO, GEO, live shopping. Literally e-commerce and social are resetting. Think about what fucking e-commerce and social has meant to the world for the last 20 years.

28:00So now it's getting reset with all this change

28:04Gary Vaynerchuk:and when shit resets, that's when opportunity comes. And so that's how I see it. Yeah, bro, when I first heard cuckoo, you know, fucking Jordan wasn't even fucking born yet. Like, I was like, shit, this stuff is gonna really fucking matter. Do you know my number one plan when I was 17 was to open up 100 liquor stores? That's what I was gonna do in life. And then I heard that thing, and I was like, fuck that, I'm doing this. I didn't even know what the fuck it was. I just knew the information superhighway was gonna be a thing. And then that's been the course of my career. I always have a good sense of the thing.

28:42And here's something I would say to all of you

28:44Gary Vaynerchuk:that I think is very important right at this moment. I'm always most interested in putting myself out of business before someone else does it. And that's what I'm thinking about while I'm right here with you.

29:00Yeah, or if, you know, as you start playing this out and things start happening, you know, whatever that might be, I just like you all realizing you're buyers and sellers, not a ticket broker. And like, how many people here have flipped sneakers in their life? Great. How many people here flipped sneakers

29:23Gary Vaynerchuk:when I started making content in 2018 saying the sneaker kids are about to go into trading cards? Raise your hands. Raise it high just so I get a number. So these set 20 people, you, you saw it. I saw that this thing was coming and the same skillset that worked on flipping Yeezys or rare Air Force Ones was going to work, but there was more scale coming in cards, easier, more arbitrage. That financial boom has been significant. And just, I think that's gonna keep repeating itself. And if you and everybody else gets good at managing your AI, you'll be able to flip everything. Not just sneakers, not just tickets, not just cards, comics, coin.

30:06Like, that's what I'm hoping for some of you, right? You sit in the death star of your AI ecosystem and you can do the work of 25 people by yourself. That's what's coming. And so the quicker you learn what the fuck I'm saying,

30:19Gary Vaynerchuk:the quicker you can make more money and go downstairs and fucking blow it all. Because you're all psychos like me. It's just our DNA. That's why I'm here. All right. Yep. So hi, my name's Tony. Tony. So I'm working on this product called Seat Century, and we build solutions and tools for brokers to actually scale their business and do better and buy more tickets and faster monitor restocks and stuff like that. So outside of going to these conferences to kind of market our product, what would you suggest we do to get more brokers on our platform? So you've heard of social media. But let me tell you what that joke is meant to do to set up.

31:05Gary Vaynerchuk:how many of you are aware of what I'm about to say which is social media died four years ago and for the last four years we've been in interest media which means you no longer get the content on your feeds from the people you follow like your fucking cousin or your best friend from middle school you get content based on what you've recently been into does everybody agree with that? raise your hands so this is your biggest opportunity brother it's super crazy where we are in social. Do you know that if you went outside right now and made a video of eating a banana and drinking a rum and coke and posted it that people that have a high propensity of interest in bananas and rum and coke might be the first people that see that content.

31:52Gary Vaynerchuk:All you have to do is make organic social media content that starts with why every ticket broker should use this over and over and over again in as many different ways as possible across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, different thumbnails, different hooks, complete insane psycho discipline and hopefully the product's good enough that when you acquire you're getting LTV and getting word of mouth but your whole business, you can actually reach these people in their feeds by making the contact organically without them even following you. You need to become a psycho at that.

32:38Gary Vaynerchuk:Questions?

32:51Hey, Gary, my name is Chris.

32:52Gary Vaynerchuk:Chris, just go a little closer, brother. This work? Yeah, brother, thank you. All right. My question for you is about, like, a lot of people in this room are young entrepreneurs, maybe with one company, maybe with a handful of employees, maybe none. How did you go from, or do you have any advice for people very early in their entrepreneurial endeavors, like going from one company to maybe two and being able to wear those different hats? And now if we even look at the screen, all of the different companies that you're a part of? For me, that screen, like most of my richest friends shit on me for how I do it, right?

33:22That screen represents not maximizing dollars and maximizing what I'm interested in. I like juggling, I like the chaos. I'm like really involved in a lot of, if not all of those business. Here's what I would say brother, if you actually, if that is scratching your itch. So what I'm trying to say with my first answer is, you don't need to do more than one company. In fact, a lot of people should only do one company because they struggle with the juggling. I don't know who the fuck the best juggler in the world is right now, because I'm not into circus shit, but whoever that person is, I am a business version of that.

33:57I'm very good at this. This is all built on turning employees into family. The reason this works is because my brother runs our sports agency and somebody I've known for 20 years runs my TV production company. And Rezzy, how many people familiar with Rezzy, the restaurant app? How many people here had no idea that I co-created, invented, and ran that company? So there's so much shit I do. That was done because I had dinner with one of my best buds in business, Ben Leventhal, for seven years we had a really strong relationship and I just started a fund and he had just left NBC and over dinner on December 15th we invented Resi which was the restaurant app like the Uber of restaurant apps is how we first thought about it and then we evolved and evolved.

34:43Every single thing there VFriends is run by two kids that have been with me for 15 years. Everything there is based on my first core business that was my own, VaynerMedia. Building it, building employees that stayed there for a long time because I cared more about them than I cared about myself. And then I had the emotional and financial leverage to create more opportunities with them. And so if you wanna go into a lot of stuff, you can't run, you can be the, I am the CEO or chairman of all. And how many people here have more than three children or three or more children, raise your hands. So the people that just raised their hands are gonna understand this.

35:25You know, when you have three or more children, you're giving your energy to the child that's most fucked up at the moment. And you bounce around. Same with me, right? I'm driving, but my weeks, my days, my months can go into different places. That works for me. That does not work for everyone. It's not even the most efficient thing for everyone. But it will be creating family members. The way you do that at this young of an age just really give a shit about the other people too. You know, to start building that longevity. I love football, American football. Like I think about offensive lines that have continuity, always leads to good stuff.

36:05That's how I think about businesses. I want continuity. But ultimately for everyone in this room, the biggest financial upside is on the other side of the self-awareness rainbow. Do you know yourself? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you're good at? What I knew was I was in a nice guy's finish first. I knew I was gonna be good to people,

36:26Gary Vaynerchuk:which allowed me to build a huge human infrastructure. Most people in business are straight dick faces to people. They can't build that same thing, but they can build something else. And so it's a self-awareness game. You gotta know yourself, but if you wanna do a lot of different things, you're gonna need real relationships. Because if it's just based on the money that's being made, it will break. Thank you.

36:56Gary Vaynerchuk:Thanks for all the questions, everyone. My man. I'm Randy. Randy? This summer I'll be a 50-year OG, so you were a twinkle at the time. Can't wait to see you there, bro. Anyway, my thought is this. Is the customer always right in your world? And if they're not, what do you do about it? The customer has been right 100 % of the time in my entire 30-year career. because my opinion that they're wrong based on my emotions or my financial status is always wrong. This is sports. The customer's always right. I mean, they can, like, you can, I'm going macro. When I say the customer's always right is your business results are your business results.

37:44Do I, like, in the individual instance, can a customer, like, do the wrong thing? Of course. they can commit fraud or lie or do the wrong thing. But in the macro, if my shit's not selling,

37:56Gary Vaynerchuk:that's on me. So that's what I spend all my time. So I don't have an answer for you of when they're wrong. All I think about is product market fit. The results are the results. This is sports. It's my favorite thing about sports, Randy. Do you know why everybody loves sports? Because everything else is fucked with. Politics, university, corporations. sports it's sports that's why I love UFC it's the best version of sports nobody can get knocked the fuck out and then in the post game be like I won but we do that in life all the time on some bullshit and that's why I love sports the most and business second most it's the closest thing

38:47I'm so glad. My man. Hey, what's going on, Gary? It's Greg. Pleasure. So as you started multiple companies and met more and more successful people, how did your views and mindset on money change?

39:00Gary Vaynerchuk:On money? Yes. Zero. My relationship with money has been the exact same my whole life, which is I'm aware of it. I understand what freedoms and leverage it creates, but I got really fucking lucky bro. Like genuinely lucky both DNA wise and circumstance and how it all played out. I've just had a very healthy relationship with it my whole life which is I really don't think I definitely do not believe that my self-worth is wrapped up in how much of it I get. And so thank you. Thank you. Thanks Randy. See us 50 year olds know what the fuck is going on. You know what I mean, bro? Like I have, it hasn't really, you know, I've gotten more strategic, like I've learned along the way from like being a street kid with like, oh, like this is how you can raise money.

39:57Gary Vaynerchuk:Like I've learned things about it, but it, you know, has always been the same thing, which is I've always lived within my means of it. Like how many people under the age of 28 in the room? Raise your hands. You're gonna like this one, youngsters. from 20 to 28, the most money I made in a year was$54 ,000. I just lived in a fucking shitty apartment and didn't do shit. So, and I was fucking pumped. I was building a huge business for my father. He was fucking me, but he's my dad. And so I was fine with it. Plus we're immigrants. Like he wasn't really fucking me. Who here is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant?

40:39Raise your hands. You know what I'm about to say. My dad wasn't really meaning to fuck me.

40:43Gary Vaynerchuk:For context, everyone, I started running my dad's business at 22. I was working in the liquor store since I was 14. It was doing$3 million a year from 98 to 2005. I grew it from$3 to$65 million, and I didn't get paid shit. But my dad wasn't trying to fuck me. He just thought I would inherit it because that's what immigrants do. He was like, you'll get this when I die. I was like, Dad, you have remarkable genetics, and I'm 20 years younger than you. I'm gonna inherit this shit at 70 fucking eight years old. And that's why I left at 34 after I built it and kind of did my own thing. But you know, like, so in my 20s when I think a lot of people are fucked up with their money, it's just not, and I know that you live in a world now where everyone's like flashing what they're flashing on social and all that, but like the outside world has never been a factor in how I've navigated my life.

41:37Gary Vaynerchuk:And my relationship's been really healthy with it. I also am a psycho, bro. Do you know Rocky V, the weird one where he goes back to Philly because he lost all his shit? That's my favorite Rocky. This is real. This is now some therapy shit, so just bear with me. I secretly want to lose it all to just start all over and build it up again. So I've got some problems. There's a little bit of that.

42:07Gary Vaynerchuk:Questions?

42:15hey Gary it's Ari Ari how are you good um so I see you invested in the pickleball team yes you own the fives I'm a big fan Annalie and the squad thank you um question how did you decide to get into pickleball what what got you to that and if I wanted to invest in pickleball because I love playing it um is it too late and if not like where would I start I invested because I have a business

42:39Gary Vaynerchuk:partner in the VaynerX world. I bought his company. You could see on the purple screen called PureWow. His name's Ryan Harwood. He played number one singles tennis at Penn. He's like a tennis fucking nerd. Like he's got real problems. Like he named his son Roger. He loves Roger Federer and talks about him every day and claims that he did not name his son Roger because of Roger Federer. So he was interested in pickleball. he kind of brought the opportunity to me. I did some homework on it. What caught my attention was how many views pickleball was getting on social organically when no one knew what the fuck it was seven years ago.

43:20Gary Vaynerchuk:So I was like, this is interesting. I thought it could be a good TV sport. The team only cost me$500 ,000. Not only it's a lot of money, but like to own a whole fucking sports team in a league, teams are now selling for 16 to 20 million. So I've done well on paper. It could all fold. is it too late? Not if you think what we think, which is like it still has, it's early, but you know, sports is so high risk, high reward. You know, like to become a real league, but there's so many ways to invest in it. Do I think people are gonna play it forever? Yes, I do. And so you can invest in the gear companies, the racket companies.

43:58Gary Vaynerchuk:At the league level, you'll have to wait for the league to go public or you'll have to have real paper to be able to get into the league there'll probably be more leagues that pop up. There's Padell that's got a lot going on. So there's individual units like pickleball locations that you can invest in. I think the sport has real legs mainly because people watch it. Thank you. You're welcome, my brother.

44:29Hey, Gary, what's up? My name's David. David? David, yeah. Pleasure. I have, being a ticket broker, obviously I think a very big important part of the business is sharing leads or sort of like collaborating with other brokers okay find out how to expand your business yep I've personally been burnt in the past by another broker by personally giving some deals over and not really receiving yeah it's come to the point where I'm obviously successful but I want to also expand my business how many how many times has someone really fucked you like that it happened once And since then, I... Yeah. That's fucking unacceptable.

45:09Yeah, but it happens, and it's going to happen, and it's going to keep on happening. But, like, you're letting fear dictate your business. Right. So how do you not... The question is you have to... Not you have to, but you should collaborate with other brokers. So the question is, how do you do it the right way where... By stop being a bitch and try it again. So stop being a bitch and try it again. Yes. Okay, so what would be some tips that you can give me to stop being a bitch and try it again? by not being scared of getting fucked again,

45:35Gary Vaynerchuk:but also trying to rely a little bit more on reputation. I assume there are people in here who have a very good reputation in collabing, and so doing a little more homework on reputation. But why I went there with you is because I'm just trying to help everyone. I just said it with my Rocky Balboa thing. I'm just never scared to get fucked. I need to put that into context I mean I'm not scared either but you are right and I want to help you because it is I'm proud of you because you can feel that it's limiting you you're taking one bad experience and deploying it and to me it's like if I was sitting out here and 13 people here fucked me I'd be like who's number 14 that's just where I'm at with double offense you know and so So I just think, you're good, brother.

46:32I hope this interaction gives you the ability to leap again because do not take one person.

46:37Gary Vaynerchuk:Bro, that had nothing to do with you. That had to do with them being a piece of shit. That should not stop you from growing. Right, okay, thank you. You got it.

46:49Hey, Gary, name's Tim. Tim. Congratulations on being fucked by a lot of people. You said you secretly want to lose everything. If you could, with all the technology, AI and everything in 2026, if you were to lose it all, you know, what would you go into and start today? And second question, being in Vegas, I know you're a huge Jets fan. Lions have five and a half games this year. Are we going over or under?

47:20Gary Vaynerchuk:Fucking Nepo Patriot fans are such fuckfaces. I think we might go under. We have a tougher schedule this year, a little bit. I still think we're rebuilding, but a nice little trade today that I thought was strategic.

47:40Tim, it's so funny you asked me that question. I've already referenced it once. No bullshit. If I got wiped, I would literally do this. The first skill I have to go from zero to something is to buy something for less than I can sell it for. like if I really went to zero like let's just go to the full extreme and my face got ripped off while I went to zero so I couldn't even leverage my personal brand remember that weird movie like Nicolas Cage and like if my face yeah face off thank you if my face got ripped off and nobody would believe that I'm Gary and I'm like dead zero I'm literally going to fucking flea markets

48:17Gary Vaynerchuk:and garage sales and the goodwill and buying shit for fucking two bucks and selling it on eBay for seven. Buying and selling, I think, is one of the great gifts some of us are given. My admiration for all of you having that is very high. I am literally here because of that, because I'm picking and choosing the places I want to speak to. I want to be in my gush books. I want to be in my crew. That's what I feel towards all of you. And ironically, it is my safe haven. When all else goes to zero, I can buy and sell shit. Awesome. Thank you. Yep. Hey Gary, Mike Gow. Mike. Thanks for all the content you put out.

48:56Thank you, brother. Been a big fan for a long time. Thank you, brother. What are the most important qualities you look for in hiring people? You've obviously got a lot of people that you surround yourself with to help you be successful. Number one, I did two hiring meetings today. Like literally the entire meeting is, if you are insecure, this is literally me talking to the person on Zoom today. If you're insecure, you need to know that that is the seed for you being political in our company and you will be fucked. So the number one thing I look for is people that are just naturally content or self-confident, not rearing with insecurity.

49:36You probably know this, a lot of people are very good at things because they're insecure. But it's short-term fuel and it runs out. And so a lot of people get confused and hire people like that

49:47Gary Vaynerchuk:or some of you are literally running on that fuel right now. You're making money because of your insecurity. But bro, I don't know if you know this, all of this shit, this whole world, it's all Star Wars. It's all Jedis versus the dark side. They're very close. But I don't know if you know this, like Darth Vader loses, Emperor loses. Like you lose with that. So I focus fully on self-esteem versus insecurity. And then I look for people that are capable of communicating and being communicated to. Because once you're in our family, I'm desperate to make you successful. I'll give it everything I've got.

50:24Gary Vaynerchuk:And we will give you kind candor if we're like, hey, this, that. And so insecurity and confidence and then communication capabilities, everything else I can train. Got you.

50:41Hi again, it's Brett. Two-part question. Number one, with all these entities and everything you have going on, how do you personally stay focused and do one thing at a time yourself?

50:52Gary Vaynerchuk:I don't do one thing at a time. Okay, and then the second part of it is how have you incorporated mental health awareness and stuff that's important to you in that area to all your companies? So back to the question about money, I think a lot of mental health issues are around money, but I don't think it's not having it. I think it's not living within it. And so detachment matters too. Like, I think it would surprise people in here how little I give a fuck about my companies, my bank account, and my personal brand. So it's very easy for me to prioritize my mental health and my family because it's what I prioritize.

51:31But that doesn't mean, like literally you saw my opening, you know how fucking pissed I am that I'm here? My son's team lost their first three fucking games of the year. You think I thought they were gonna rattle off 11 in a row and get to the championship? So when I booked this, I thought I was safe, but I was fucked. and so I'm dead in the green room right now so it's not like I choose family over like I could have canceled this I can't because the way I was raised is I couldn't make this commitment and not be here but it crushed me today because I missed a moment that I would remember for the rest of my life so it's you know but then I'm okay with that because I don't think my son's gonna fucking hate me his whole life the way modern parents think they have to be at every fucking thing right so you know it's just having balance you know having balance and trying to make the best decisions i can and being okay that i'm a bro you know how many things i fuck up like i don't understand how everybody here doesn't understand that we're all humans for everybody who beat real talk let's be a little vulnerable for a second just out of curiosity who feels like they beat themselves up pretty good when they fuck shit up raise your hands good because i don't so So this is, I'm pumped right now.

52:42I need you to listen to me. One more time, every hand up. Friends, everybody else in this room fucking sucks too. I'm serious. I do not understand why we're putting other people on a pedestal. Everybody, back to sports, not every game, not every play, not every season is good. We need to have more self-love. So, you know, all of that's, you know, back, I'll wrap up your whole thing. And how I run these companies, I have three full-time assistants and two chiefs of staff. There are five human beings whose full-time job in life is to maximize every minute of mine. So it's a lot of infrastructure.

53:20Two, I'm doing the thing I said earlier. I'm giving the love to the thing that has the most offense or the most defense needs. I never play in the middle. Make sense? So I'm always looking at like, where's the biggest opportunity or biggest vulnerability? So I'm playing there. And then mental health has always been super easy for me because I'm utterly detached. even the joke that I'm making about you know being rocky it's because I'd be okay and I would secretly you know why this is like you know who I would have been great as? being a visiting athlete in a stadium booing the fuck out of him I would have loved being that fucking person there's something about that that I love and so the reason I secretly want to lose everything is so all of you make blog posts and social media posts saying that I was never really that good and I was always full of shit because I enjoy rebuilding up in the adversity.

54:12I love the fucking dirt. And then, you know, from a human standpoint, I'm just trying the best I can. You know, when you know you're trying the best you can, if you can actually get there. Now, some of you may be beating yourself up because you know you're not. You know you are being selfish. You know, like, that's different. That you've got to work through.

54:31Gary Vaynerchuk:But for me personally, I'm fucking trying.

54:37Gary Vaynerchuk:Thank you, bro. Hi. Hi. I'm Allison. Allison. So you talked about being detached. Yes. I also know you talk a lot about empathy. And so I'm curious how you're able to. I'm detached from my selfishness. You know what I need. Because I'm good. And then empathy comes. You know empathy is a gift. You know and there's a reason there's three different words. Compassion, sympathy and empathy. They're different. Do you know why I'm a good salesman? because I know what you're thinking and feeling. That's a fucking gift. And you can do a lot of damage with that gift or you can do a lot of good. And I just had a world-class mother that made sure I went down the good path.

55:20But empathy comes natural to me. I always think about the other person, which is why back Chris, why I was able to build that, right? Because I did care about, like I'm not saying it to be, I don't even know if it's cool. I'm not saying it to be cool up here. I'm saying it because it's really what happened. So empathy just like, you know, I see that my son, when he was four, they're outside playing when another kid falls and cries. He stops and comes over and he's sad. I'm like, fuck, that was me. I just feel it. Is that you? Yeah, so it's hard for me to stay detached. It's hard to balance, yeah.

55:51You know, it's funny. It's harder for me to be detached for other people than it is for my own success. It's hard for me too, when you're overly empathetic. But honestly, I've learned how to, to the best of my ability. Because you have to protect - Boundaries. What's that? boundaries. Yeah, and you gotta do things that are uncomfortable. Right? Like, I used to struggle giving people feedback because I thought I would scare them and they thought they would get fired and I sucked at it, which created entitlement, which fucked up everything.

56:20Gary Vaynerchuk:So like, you live and learn. Thank you. Thank you.

56:27Hi Gary, Frank here. Pleasure. Congrats to your son, first of all. Thank you. I'm sure we all really appreciate you. He had three degrees late, so I'm super fired up. I got to see the highlights. In your career and building your empire, how did you make sure to stick to your own intuition and gut and not to make sure your judgment was clouded by anyone else? It came easy to me because I have a very big belief. I'm really happy you asked that question

56:56Gary Vaynerchuk:because I think you're going to help somebody in this room, especially the youngsters. I need you to hear this. It is so much more fun to die on your own sword than someone else's.

57:12So I got lucky. I was a kid and my dad had this local business and at 14 I'm like stocking shelves and bagging ice for 10 hours a day and about three weeks in because I've been slinging baseball cards for three years, I tell my mom one day in like sixth grade, I'm like mom I think I'm a better businessman than dad. Like just knew, just fucking knew that I was better. And what ended up happening was in my late teenage years when I was kind of running the business with my dad, many times because I was a kid, I would have to kind of go with what my dad wanted to do versus me and it would always not work.

57:49And it fucking sucked and I hated it. And so I just promised myself when I would get to a place that I would never do that again. and it's one of the reasons, even with my brother in VaynerSports right now, it's sometimes a struggle for me because I'll also never be that guy. My dad did that to me. He would come in, even though I was working 15 hours a day, he'd come in and try to make a change and I was like, I'm in the trenches. My brother's in the trenches on VaynerSports and so I'm the one B. Now, I'm big bro and I'm me and all that but there's many times where we do things that he wants to do and like it kills me and when it doesn't work, it triple kills me.

58:29So how? Because of the way I grew up, it was always instilled in me that I'm dying on my fucking sword

58:35Gary Vaynerchuk:and I promise you everyone, it's way better. It's way better. Now, if somebody around you is right three times in a row, that might just mean they're better than you. Like if somebody was right around me four times in a row, I would start only listening to them. That just hasn't been the case. Not because I don't have good people around me or better people than me around me. It's just that I don't make decisions by guessing. And I'm in my shit. I'm not some executive that's living some sort of bougie life fucking playing golf and shit. Like I work and I'm in my shit and I know my shit. And so when you know your shit, the fuck would you listen to someone else for?

59:20Thank you so much.

59:23Gary Vaynerchuk:I got time for one more, I apologize. guys. Hey, Gary, I'm Noah. By the way, I'm sorry to interrupt you, brother. Anybody who didn't get their question asked, I'm flying home tomorrow. The phone number there is a platform I use to answer people's questions. If it's a burning question, you need it. You can take a photo and text me. Go ahead, Brian. I know you've been passionate over the last many years about NFTs and thinking about your take right now. Where are NFTs, blockchain, crypto, and especially in a world that's becoming more competitive with AI around actual physical energy infrastructure?

59:54How do you think about that in the future?

59:56Gary Vaynerchuk:The energy infrastructure is above my pay grade. I spent a ton of time reading about like the big tech companies and all that stuff. But honestly, I got Fs in science for a reason. So I won't talk about that. I will talk about a couple things. One, everybody here is about to realize why the blockchain matters. The blockchain is a ledger of proof. Every video on the internet in 48 months is gonna be fake. Every one of you, I just need everyone to wrap their head around this. everybody in this room, me included, will not believe a single video they see on the internet in three years. None. You will not believe it.

1:00:33So the blockchain's gonna get important. Like minting the original, like we're all gonna know everyone's official public address. There's a little bit of tech there that I don't fully understand, but I believe the blockchain's gonna really help us in AI. Comma. I'm obsessed with digital collectibles. As I stand here today, I'm aware that 99 % of the world thinks that NFTs are scams. I'm also aware, because I'm in it every day, that$11 million worth of NFTs were bought by collectors last week. In a world where everybody believes it's a scam, literally 99%, to sell$11 million in a week is profound.

1:01:12Just like in the, Randy fucking left. Who's over 50 in the room? Raise your hands. Thank you, OGs. oh geez, remember when the internet stocks in April 2000 all went from$150 to$3 and it all crashed? And all the articles in the Wall Street Journal was, the web was a fad? For the kids in here, Jordan, you will not believe this shit. In April 2000, all the internet stocks were overvalued because Wall Street got greedy on this new profound technology and everyone got ahead of their skis. and literally pets.com was worth$4 billion and had$0 in sales and went from$130 a share to zero. Amazon, eBay, and PayPal were there and went from 200, 300 a share to three, four bucks.

1:02:02That's what happened in NFTs. Digital collectibles are gonna be real forever. But 99.9 % of NFTs were always destined to be zero just like 99 % of sneakers are not collectibles and 99 % of watches are not collectibles and 99 % of comic books and trading cards are not. But I'm buying more NFT stuff now because it's a shit market waiting for the other side. Can I just ask, what's interesting to you in the NFTs that you're buying? The only one that I believe 100 % is Iron Cloud is CryptoPunks because it's got history on its side. The other ones are characters like me with V friends. Who's the Vince McMahon and Dana White and Walt Disney and Jim Henson that over a 10 or 15 year period can get people to give a fuck?

1:02:50The, you know, that's hard right now. I'm taking a bunch of different bets, but I know I'm gonna do it. But the problem with me, like the problem with someone here, when people are like, Gary, should I go crazy on VFriends? I'm like, maybe. Like, I know I'll do it in the next 25 years and make it Spider-Man and Superman. I know it. But I could also die tonight. Especially in this fucked up town. You know, and so, So anything you, you know, it's just like an artist, right? Like you're betting on the artist, you're betting on the operator, but there will be seven to 10 projects, collectibles, in NFT land right now that are three, four, seven, $800 a piece right now.

1:03:28That will be the Jackson Pollocks, will be the Andy Warhols, will be the Spider-Man first appearance in Amazing Stories, will be the Mickey Mantle rookie card. And I know VFriends is gonna be one of them. if God gifts me with enough health to let me get through it. And I think you would all know that too

1:03:47Gary Vaynerchuk:if you went to eBay right now and typed in VeeBrands and saw hundreds of trading cards in comic books sell every day. And the ultimate collectible in that world is the NFT. All right, I gotta run. Everybody, thank you. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention. And thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.