The Most Import Thing to Think About In Your 20's

27:51So both, the whole thing and then post production. Yep, yep. So I've got the video and I've got the audio. The video's on YouTube, the audio's hosted on Buzzsprout, which then goes out to all the platforms. I get a sense that the video isn't getting me the traction that the audio did. Like audio only. So when I post it, when I throw it out there on IG, LinkedIn, wherever I'm throwing my stuff, would you post the video, which gives you that beautiful thumbnail, and then here's the audio only version, which is what I've been doing, or do you just say screw the video side of it, let YouTube search handle that, and I just throw out the audio only version, which was good for me for a while.

28:29Remember, I'm in a small pond, so that's question one. Well, there's a lot there. First of all, first answer is both. You literally post them both. You literally post, in big letters, audio only, and then you post the next six hours later with the video and you know, video. Like you do. So not the same post? The same post. Okay. You can. Because you said six hours later. Yeah, the same, well, one's the, you said should I put out the audio or should I put out the video? I'm putting the video, which gives me the thumbnail, and in that post, here's the audio only version. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, that's exact.

29:04And by the way, you don't need to put the link to the video because you could just take a screenshot from any moment you liked and then just post the audio link. So he's saying you can have a hero image that displays as the audio plays. So even you can have two pieces, right? You can have the video and then you can have the... That's right. But I think you subconsciously or consciously got to the more important part. Of course it worked more up front. You were just getting your penetration to your pond. You were just starting to fish this new pond. You've eaten a lot of fucking fish out of that pond.

29:39And because your thing is so narrow, which is great, because I love narrow depth. Well, there's only so many fish in there. Right? So now what ends up happening is you've got to start creating micro strategies. For example, what is the content you're making for the kids that are in school to become ortho? Right? That's going to be very different content than someone who's 17 years into their career and is trying to maximize their profits or their lifestyle or are transitioning. So what you've got to now do is micro segment the pond. Right? Which is what I've started doing. Good. I've really started focusing much more on the residents because my demo is orthos are out of school, you know, a year to 12 years, give or take, ages 30 to 42, 43, that's like my demo.

30:31Yep. But most of the average orthodontist is coming out of residency with five, six, 800 ,000 in debt. Yeah. And so getting them ahead of the curve and going, okay guys, you guys get to school soon. Let me teach you how to hit the ground running. Let me show you, I know what you're living. And what you, yes, comma, what you can also start doing, and this is where you can widen your world, you could be talking to them while they're in the process of collecting the debt and what could they potentially be doing. Right. And that's where the narrative sort of switched at this point in the game. And again, the last question is, again, I didn't want to take too much time.

31:07this isn't the big problem, but it's hard. Do I chase, like what I talk to orthodontists about, I can talk to anybody in this room about, it's the same stuff you talk about. 100%. The culture, the hustle, the plan, right? The team. You should absolutely start flirting with broader content. 100%. It needs to be part of your mix. It's hard to serve both masters, but. Are you kidding me? The first 50 pieces of business content I made, every comment was, fuck you, stay in your lane, wine boy. The fuck do you know about business? I'm like, Jesus Christ. I was like, that's all I've been doing. I just became wine guy to you because of YouTube.

31:45I'm like, I am business. So, you'll get some of that. Probably less because it's not as big of a jump for you because you've been talking about the business of ortho. You should absolutely mix that in. My shorts have been focused on broad. But you need to be insane, insane about Facebook fan page output. Number one. the game is back at scale. And that's where I live. So Facebook fan page number one, YouTube shorts number two, TikTok number three. You must dominate those three arbitrages. How many pieces of content, like a day would you say? Ideal four per platform. Per platform, 12-ish. On those.

32:26And then there's Twitter and Instagram and regular YouTube and LinkedIn. So I can do content creation. Because that's what I love doing. And content creation is more about post-production than actually your time. It really is. If I've got, which again, I'm working purposely to make sure that I've got those moments, those times where you can take pieces and throw them out later on. That's right. Like you talked about it, right? 100%. You're not wearing the same clothes every time. That's right. Right? And so the last little one, which it may not be that little, but I don't think it's huge, is it's been on my mind for at least three years now.

33:00And listening to you talk a lot about the culture, the social consciousness of a company. I feel like I have to do this. This is like keep me up at night, but I'm afraid of the resources it's going to take because I've been trying for three years in my head to create something called embracing our warriors where too many PTSD injured hurt vets come back and the VA doesn't take care of them. They deserve a smile. They deserve to feel good when they look in the mirror. And I've been talking to the VA. I've been talking to the nonprofit folks about developing because I've got the sponsors or companies that create ortho brands.

33:38I've got the doctors all over the country. That's right. To be able to develop this non-profit where a vet can be vetted, like legit, like they're a disabled vet, and them and their family can find a doc that we hook them up with who will get free product from a company. So just crawl. Just get it started. Yeah, I mean, it's always work. When you're winning in one part, it makes a lot of sense because you're playing at this scale over here that it feels natural to get this thing over here to be at that same scale immediately. And I think, you know, the resources is a real thing. But I think what you do is you just decide today that you're going to do it for 25 people.

34:20You're going to alpha test it out with a brand or brands with a couple of doctors or when you get the applicants, you'll just bubble gum and tape it one by one. and you'll call Ronnie or Sally and be like, this guy's in Minnesota, will you do, like you just alpha it. I got the contacts, just hey. Yeah, because what you're trying to do rightfully, I get it, you're trying to come from here and push it down, like here's the platform, this is what we do, and then you're boiling the ocean, and this is what you get into this moment. Instead, do it behind the scenes as bubble gum and tape, get the taste of it, and then scale it.

34:56Right on, yeah, I can do it from within. It's the biggest reason content doesn't work. I alluded to it when I was talking about a show can just be clicked. Everybody, everybody, the biggest mistake is they try to make it too big and it's all in their head and they never do anything. It just go this way. Just start doing. Best way to do it is we call 25 of my friends, tell them to post in their communities. Hey, anybody know anybody who needs? And then I connect them to sponsors and get it done. You've got a big enough platform that you just say, here's the Google form. You make one Google form, you make one video, you send people, and then you see what state they're in and then you reach out to the people.

35:31You are traffic control, because then you're more in control. Great idea, thanks. You got it. The big one. And I brought this one legitimately to dozens. I worked with a guy named Todd Brown, who's a really brilliant guy, helped us a lot. That's awesome. I don't know if you know Todd or her, but he's an amazing guy. I do, that's awesome. Offers. That's good. Nobody can solve this. So I've got a group called Orthopreneurs RD. It's a regional dominant, stupid name, I made it five years ago. But nonetheless, it's a group of about 195 ,000. Google and Nike are stupid names. Why are they not? Names are just proxies.

36:02Names are made. Gary Vee with two silent Es is a stupid name on the record. Two silent Es is a bad idea. Men? I think we're in a Jordan. Oh, sorry. It's good. No, I'll make it work on the back end. Don't worry. Go ahead. Please. Just moved out here for an internship. I'm 22. Still not quite sure what my end goal is. I get asked what's your five year goal. I want to figure out my five year goal. Not by me. Clearly. Yes, but I do. I don't give a crap shit. She didn't look seven more years. I guess my question is, if you were in, knowing what you know now, what would you say to your 22 year old self?

36:40Because I've been throwing some darts, trying to see which one sticks, but I'd just love to hear it's a real way. My, if I gave you the actual answer, it's so complicated, because at 22, the only thing I wanted to do was build my family's business for them. And I was kind of like, the talks I was having were weird, which is like, you're gonna give up the best years of your life for your parents because they did it for you. And I have this altruistic, noble, family immigrant vision, and I was psychotic about it. Like, literally did not, like, actively tell people like I went to, everything is best in balance.

37:14Like, it would have been okay if I went to the Jersey Shore once in my 20s. It would have been okay. But I didn't. That's how psychotic I was. I think, but the reason I'm so happy is because I'm gonna give you the answer of what ties that together, which is the only thing you should be thinking about is if everything was perfect. Like as if I was a genie from the future and can grant your actual wish, you have to try to make that actually happen. Meaning, even if you've never said to your dad, only to yourself, not even your best friend, like if you've said to your own self that I want to be an actress or I want to be a doctor or I want to be a Supreme Court justice or an entrepreneur, whatever that is, whatever it actually is, that's what 22 to 30 is about.

38:00It's all high risk. It's the biggest fucking falsity that has been sold to kids. Now you've got to actually know what the fuck you're doing. As if. You're actually in the best position ever to execute something that's not practical. You don't need a lot of money to live. You can live with 40 of your fucking friends, let alone three. You could. You can eat like shit in your 20s. so you can buy dollar food. And like, you can just, you don't have kids. You don't have, you don't, oops, sorry. You know, you are in the most practical place from 22 to 30 to do crazy ass shit, but the world has taught kids that that's the time you're supposed to have it figured out.

38:40It's insane. So my advice to you is whatever your biggest single dreams are that you've kept to yourself, have been scared to even think you could, you've got to challenge yourself to try. And that looks like this. Whatever I just said, if it is Supreme Court justice, it's interning, it's paying a law firm, even though you didn't go to law school, to be an assistant. People don't understand how life actually works. If you could just get into the game, weird things happen. Right? If it is Hollywood life, you need to move to LA and fucking work for, it's working for free, which comes in all shapes and sizes.

39:17Your dad is a successful business person. You might be able to afford to work free, and that's okay. Hey, that's like family dynamics. Work for free is also working at Safeway. Ryan Reynolds worked at Safeway. That's working for free. That's nine bucks an hour. Like, you know, that's the theory, right? Like it's zero if you're miraculously in that situation. Most people aren't. Some are. It's okay. My kids will be, for example. It's okay. Or minimum wage, but in the thing. Or a shitty job that gives you plenty of hours to be in the thing. I tell a lot of people who want to be influencers to get like a job at 7-Eleven and just make content all day while they're standing behind the register.

39:57Like, you know, get a job that's not actually making you do anything so that you have time to do the thing. It's true. I mean, I don't even want to think what people are doing right now that I'm paying them. You know, like, you know, like, so you have to go for your actual dream, the one that scares you the most because it's the one you want the most but you haven't even thought you had a chance to do it. That makes sense. It actually makes sense. This is why I'm so passionate about it. If not now, when? But the world really fucked everybody up. Like this concept that you have to, now you went to college and you thus now know what the fuck you wanna do.

40:31Who? Of course, ironically, orthodontic, doctor, lawyer. Yes, of course there are a small group of professions that the passion and the school and you know, for everybody else, nobody's doing the fucking thing. What? Exactly. And that's where everybody is. And you guys know your options. You have so many options because of technology. But the real answer to your question is the dream that you haven't even felt comfortable believing in. I love that. Thank you. You're welcome. Julian, why don't you guys introduce yourself? Hey, Julian. Yeah, sorry about that. No worries. But I definitely wanted to say thank you for taking the time.

41:10Happy to do it. Schedule to meet. Happy to do it. This is amazing. It's fun. So, yeah. Yeah, sorry, my name is Julian, founder and CEO of Momento NFT. I've been in crypto since about 2012. Yeah, your homie's been giving me the, I got that context. Yeah, so we help celebrities, influencers, and athletes turn their short form video content into NFTs instantly from their phone. Got it, so the content is the NFT. Yes. And the person that buys that NFT owns the content or does not? And then number two, does it have a utility? So all three, yeah. Go ahead. So they own the content. Right, so if I am a housewife that's on TV, there's obviously, there's the version of I get paid through Cameo and I make it, hey Sally, happy birthday.

41:58That's one thing. But you're saying if I'm a housewife and I make any piece of content, like reviewing a glass of wine, instead of putting it on Instagram, which is for brand building and awareness, I can put it on this platform and if one of my fans wants to buy it, they can. Right, yeah. Okay? And that gives them the commercial usage rights of it. So that's what we're working towards? But you're not there yet. Right. Yeah, there's a lot to that, which is why I'm poking. Yeah. Keep going. So right now, because you're not fully there and you'd like to be there, but you need some clarities of law and a lot of other stuff and sign off, right now it still sits as a collectible, which is okay.

42:36I've spent billions on, not really, but like a lot of money on collectibles. so at this point it's still a collectible plus if you're able to negotiate with them to put a utility behind it. So we do have utility. So the template you sort of negotiate with about talent is with utility. So we do anything from live streams to tickets, passes, merchandise is really huge, that sells really well. And so all that comes together. It's really like, so what I was telling your team last night was there really hasn't been a huge phenomenal fandom Web2 platform. So we're kind of like leapfrogging fandom from traditional meet and greets at the mall to the 1-900 numbers to Web3.

43:21I mean, you saw how I structured VFriends. It's my entire belief of the reason it hasn't happened is the blockchain technology, as you know, enables this in a way that the internet didn't. I fully agree. It's much more direct. It's around ownership. Yeah, you just know who owns the asset at all times and you can't do that on the internet. Right. And you can't make a royalty on those transactions. Yeah. People are very confused about the consumer blockchain. They don't realize that it is enabling certain things that the internet couldn't the way the internet enabled certain things that the real world couldn't.

43:58Yeah. Right now everybody's into the greed moment and we obviously know where we're at right now with NFT pricing and where we are in the crypto moment, but that will be four seconds or four months or even four years, but the inevitable is the inevitable. So what's the question? Because I really understand. So right now I'm really just hyper-focused on building a brand, right? Have you been able, when did it launch? So it launched three months ago. Okay, good. So you've been in a bear market pretty much the majority. I mean, I'm sure it didn't seem good at the time, but actually it is. So you don't have the problem of people buying them with the thought that it was going to be worth a lot of money?

44:35So week one and two, yeah. Got it. we kind of pivoted. The idea then was big one of ones, right? And we sort of pivoted to higher volume, lower price point. Yeah, what you should spend 100 % of your energy on comms wise and marketing wise and energy wise is utility with the collectability being a nice to have if it happens. Because then you won't get into what's probably happening with that small group in your Discord now which is they're mad at you at what the value of the price is. I feel like for us that is a position you're a fan of someone I want a ticket from them, I want a live stream with them that is at the base of it is the as the CMO it is your number one job, it's my number one job the number one job of the next 36 months is to get everyone to understand everything you guys all thought about with NFTs was always the second the reason I made unlimited I'm sure you saw it, unlimited videos that 99 % of these things are going to zero, was because the collectible part was the nice to have sprinkle.

45:44It's about the utility. Which is why VFriends was 100 % VCon for three years from day one. My timing was better for collectability, which was bad. I was anxious all last year. I was like, these things, I don't want them to be$200 ,000 a piece yet. Maybe in 30 years if I accomplish everything I want. But so this is great, but this is what you have to be. You have to be the company that over educates of like, let us tell you what the blockchain's meant to do. It's meant to have this be, you know, clickable, affirmable, that's the key to it. I just clipped a David Letterman, Bill Gates interview from 1995 that I'm putting out on my social ASAP.

46:31and Bill Gates is like, this internet, to Letterman, you know, I listen to a ball game on the internet. And the big joke, Letterman's like, have you heard about the radio? And the whole crowd laughs. And that's what's happening now. People are like, well, if they were watching this, if we were live streaming right now, all the comments would be like, but you don't need an NFT for that. You can get an email confirmation or you can use a QR code or a paper ticket. You could. but this technology will enable a lot more things than those things do. Just like the internet did a lot more. You could listen on the radio but when you listen five years later from that clip, I was, because I did so much fantasy baseball, I was listening to games on my laptop and trying to trade players and seeing the visual and like, you know, there's and, and, and, and.

47:22And that's what you're gonna have to make everyone educated. Sure, you could buy a cameo but in nine years, if you still own that little funny Will Ferrell video from our platform, we may say all Will Ferrell owners, tonight 20 of you have dinner with Will because we can affirm who has it. That's what the technology does. Yeah, for us, what we're really trying to like hone into is like those collegiate athletes, those up and coming TikTokers, right? Who knows if three to four or five years from now they're gonna be like the next big celebrity and if you bought it early, you can see like, you just need to make sure that you talk, even hearing that sentence from you, make sure you always say, you're, it's what I, if you look back at how I positioned VFriends, which is why it's, why it worked for the people that bought it first.

48:10Obviously, then it got so valuable, people bought it at a different price point, which put, which I can't control. But if you look at the early thing, I'm like, I'm pricing this in the way that I see VCon's worth as a three year ticket. If there's collectible value, that's added bonus. And that's why that original group was so happy. You've got to make sure that you go that route because then you'll have a much healthier community and company. You're buying the access, the utility. You also have the collectible as added value. And if God willing, you know, this person goes on to be the most famous actor in the world, maybe there's a collectible that.

48:51You've got to do that. Otherwise, you will get what you're, you've already got it. I haven't looked and I know. Because I know the market. And so, one of the biggest problems that I sort of think about, I'm not sure if it's a problem, I guess it's just the nature of the industry, but because we deal with a lot of celebrities, right, you work with their talent managers, so there's a significant amount of sort of pay for play. What are you seeing in the sentiment of like, not brands, but much more of the celebrities themselves wanting to track with NFTs? What would you do to? Celebrities are transactional.

49:28Celebrities life, the majority of them. This is why a Rock or a Ryan Reynolds, like, or even like what Reese Witherspoon and like Gwyneth Paltrow, if you look, there's just a very small group that thinks non-transactional. And by the way, with respect to everyone, usually you have to get to a level of wealth that allows you to not think transactional. What do I think? They're transactional. I love, like, I was having a meeting with a very thoughtful individual who's been very successful, and he was talking about, like, we have to do music festivals where the artists finally get taken care of. I'm like, they did get taken care of.

50:11They got paid$8 million to play that set, and then they left. They were more than welcome to take$2 million and get a piece of the gate. celebrities are transactional. Everything they think about is how do I make the most out of this one moment, which is why they've had such a tough time in NFT land. They're not there for the long game. It's why I get a lot of misjudgment, because too many people think I'm celebrity, I'm like I'm not, I'm business man, I'm building this thing. I think you're gonna have a massive challenge with anybody who's even got a half a level of fame. They're only thinking about the short term bag.

50:45They're not thinking about anything else. That's their business. they rent out their fame at the moment of the fame. I don't blame them. I don't think you're going after Pee Wee Herman. But guess what, 15 years ago he could have gotten 500, you know what I mean, that's just the game, that's the business they're in. They're in the business of, when I'm the most famous, I need to take as much off the table as possible, unless they have an entrepreneurial part, then they can get more thoughtful, let me build a brand. But most of them don't, which is fine and normal, like most people aren't entrepreneurs.

51:14So that's different than emerging TikTok players and that crew is seeing the world differently. They all think they're entrepreneurs and a lot of them are willing to negotiate differently. I think what you need to do is not waste your time convincing. What I would do if I was your third partner, I would say, here's our offer. It's sharp as fuck. This is it. And if they start hemming and hawing, we're like, this is the only thing we can do and we just take who says yes and instead of wasting our time with UTA or CAA or this celebrity or whomever trying to spend all that energy of going into these people, let's just take who comes to us and over time more people will come to us.

51:59That's the biggest mistake people make. The biggest mistake people make when they are doing business with people that make the call is they spend time trying to convince. The number one reason I think I build massive scale is I have zero interest in convincing anyone. I've shut down three minutes into a business pitch.

52:26I don't want to be rude. You know, it's been weird. As I've gotten more popular, I'm even more conscious that I don't want to be rude because I don't want to think anybody, that I'm big timing you. I'll sit through the meeting, but my brain shut off three minutes in when I'm like, they're out. Because I have nothing in me. And not because I've been sick. even when I was a kid trying to sell wine, if someone's out, they're out. That energy for me to try to get them in is not interesting. I'd rather take that energy and build leverage with someone else or do the thing that will make them in. Convincing is the worst game in the world and it's the game the majority of people in business play.

53:04And by the way... Cool, right? Yeah, man. And if you convince, there's regret. By the way, we do have a third person spot. I wish I had time for shit. I'm so, and as you can imagine, I'm actually in a really shitty spot in NFT land. I'm scared to buy anything. I'm in such a place in NFT land where people see me buy one piece and they're like, Gary, you have to drive this project, make me money. I'm like, fuck you. I bought a little thing. I just wanted to look at it. I'm not the fucking CEO. I'm in a shit spot. I'm in a very shit spot, which sucks. Like, you know, it was funny. I was really into sports cards.

53:40I am really into sports cards. Next week I'm going to Atlantic City for the sports card convention. But, you know, people started making up shit about me. Like, he bought all these, and I was like, this sucks. Which is why the NFT thing was amazing. I'm like, oh my God. I could do my collectible thing and it's all transparent. Everybody will see that I don't pump and dump. That I buy and I hold, right? And that's been great. That has worked for me. They can see everything I've done that's been huge. But then a different bad thing happened. You know, now it's like, if I buy anything, I'm like responsible, which is like insane because everyone's in greed mode, which is what you're feeling with the people.

54:15Like they didn't buy it because they believe in you or that they bought it because they thought they were gonna buy it and flip it. You need to make sure that you take all that math out of your mouth, excuse me. Just make it about, this is about the utility with the potential. It's utility with a hint of collectability. So just, I guess, just two more things. So we definitely are trying to engage the creator economy. So 80 % we anticipate are gonna be creators, Gen Z. And then 20 % are the celebrities. Yeah, makes sense. Hire somebody, back to ironically, one of the biggest dreams of a lot of 18 to 22 year olds is to play in creator land.

54:54Like you know, you're just living this, so you know this to be true. Almost all of them, from 15 to 22, either want to be the celebrity on social or be in it. Manager, supporter, PR. So your ability to hire at minimum wage of like really talented 18 to 25 year olds because their job is gonna be to DM creators on TikTok and get like, that's like, I would scale the fuck out of that. And by the way, in America, it's minimum wages. Like I'm looking a lot at LATAM. Like back to the way I wanna give, I had another big breakthrough on this theory of like, I don't wanna give to, not that I don't wanna give to the American Heart Association, but I want to give to a friend of mine that has a problem.

55:41Similar to how I'm thinking a lot about scaling low cost scalable jobs. I'd love to, in America, I believe getting a job at Vayner in entry social is the greatest gift of all time because if they sit here for two or three years, they're going to leverage that for the rest of their career. If we're a penny below market, I'm getting murdered in the press for being like, you're a fucking savage trying to hurt kids. Like, you know, it's very, very, and I'm so socially liberal, so I'm empathetic to it, but it's very hard. And New York laws and LA laws are impossible. Like, it's getting really actually hard, right?

56:19So then I'm like, wait a minute. I can pay people in Argentina half, but they'll be rich. Like, rich in Argentina. And so, like, why do I have a bigger emotion to somebody here than, and so, like, I'm trying to figure out ways. So back to the point, You could be a good person, it might just not happen to somebody in America, it might happen to somebody in Colombia or somewhere else, and get people that could do this at scale. I mean, you're literally asking people to do robotic work. It's the modern day entry level manufacturer. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's the modern day, like a lot, you know, we now demonize what happened in the 40s and 50s, but it's how a lot of people bought their homes, right?

56:58Like they didn't have any other skill, and they're like, I can do this task. What's crazy is the kids actually can do a ton of things. they just want to do it for a year or two because it's their favorite thing. They want to DM the people they think are hot or funny or cool. They get a thrill from it. And all of us would have too. If I think back and be like at 22 I could have worked at the NFL and reached out to football players I'm like I'll pay you. So I think that's how you build that. You have to build scale on it so you have to do that. Because most of them are going to say no so you need to DM a billion people.

57:29So Q1 of Xero we're planning on doing so we're calling it Creator Beast. We just want to appeal to YouTubers, TikTokers, people in the Creator economy here in the East Coast. That's cool. What do you think about a physical? I love it. I love physical. I just think that DMing at scale is going to do more of what you're trying to achieve. DMing at scale will give you the width. Creator East will give you the depth. Even right now on our Instagram, it doesn't happen crazy amounts, but we do get DMs, like if no one's like actually replying to them or looking at this frequently enough, there's missed opportunity there.

58:09So they're important. Every company needs to realize they have to build a triangle and most don't fast enough. Meaning a triangle organization has a lot more people at the entry level fee to create scale. When you start a company, it's usually like founders, it's like two, three, four serious people up here, like one junior person. It needs to be the reverse. It's almost like you need four junior people for every senior person. And what a lot of entrepreneurs make a mistake on, they start with you two, and the third person you hire is also 150K, like a dog, she or he is awesome. What you needed to do was hire four 30s.

58:47Because shit needs to get done.