The Next Big Opportunity for Creators (And How to Seize It)

0:00This is the GaryVee Audio Experience. Hey everybody, before we start today's podcast, I put out a new deck. I know the pyramid deck changed everyone's life. Go to garybee.com slash attention. A free, how many pages is it, Sid? A free 47 page deck that is free that will change your business, your life, your brand, your world. Go check it out. Now to the podcast. This is about education and entertainment. Right? How good are you at those two things? I popped off in 06 on YouTube because my show was Wine Library TV I was deeply educated because I grew up in wine and at that point I knew everything I mean I really knew everything you couldn't even imagine I was tasting fucking 500 wines a week for 17 years at that point like it was in me but then I also happened to have charisma and gift of gab and it got better you go look at those early episodes of Wine Library TV it's a different version than who I am you build, you learn, you all know some of you are way better today than you were just even six weeks ago or six months ago.

1:03When I wrote Crush It, my first book that kind of put me on back in 2009, I wrote it in 2008, it came out in 2009. In that book, I said that influence, I didn't use the word influence, I said people who were on YouTube were gonna make$100 ,000 a year. And I got shit on by everyone. Like if you go, if you literally went to Amazon right now and sorted the reviews of my book by oldest and read the first reviews when it first came out, They're like, this fucking snake oil salesman, he's trying to convince you that you're gonna make$100 ,000 a year on social media? What a fucking asshole. And so, I don't think people understand.

1:43Like, this is that moment again for the people that have figured out affiliate and live shopping. It's a big deal. It's bigger, there's nothing I'm gonna be able to do. Now, any of my energy or my articulation, my gift of words, that's going to be able to explain to all of you how perfect you have it right now and what I'm worried about because I was there for all this shit. I was there when Tila Tequila and Dane Cook were fucking dominating my space. I was there with all the early Twitter. I was one of the first 50 people that had a million followers on Twitter in the world. I watched the others.

2:19I was there. I've been there everywhere. I'm one of the few humans on earth that has more than two million followers on every platform from Snapchat to LinkedIn to YouTube. so I've watched my contemporaries. Some people just live in LinkedIn. Some people just live in Snap. I've watched it all and what I can tell you is gonna happen to a lot of you is you're gonna regret. Let me get very serious with you because I want this for you. A lot of you don't realize how big of a deal this moment is and so you're not gonna go hard enough. You're gonna take it for granted and you're gonna wake up in 18 months and everyone's gonna do it and you're gonna cry to me the way so many influencers cry today about like where they were six years ago but where they are now and this is my favorite one.

3:06You know what all these influencers that had a moment four years ago say to me? Dear Gary, I've been shadow banned. And I reply, no you haven't. You've been outflanked. I don't want you to get, you have such an advantage right now. Like honestly, all of you should get up right now. Like right now and leave. Literally leave and go live or make content. This is like literally 100 % obsession for the next year to distance yourself while you're in the lead because this is going to be it, it. It's a big deal. So what do I think? I think in the way that everyone underestimated social media, when I started the first influencer agency, Grape Story, with Jerome Jarre, who was a Vine star, we signed Logan Paul, we had King Batch, all these people.

3:55People were like, influencer was like not even on people's like I used to say that influencers were gonna be more famous than famous people and again laughed at laughed at I think a lot of people here are gonna do more revenue than a lot of stores that are littered throughout New York City here easy easy humans are stores now at scale but you need to go hard because the moment closes fast because then everybody figures it out right all of Hollywood do you know that Hollywood did not go on social media in 0678910? They thought it was beneath them. I would beg celebrities, athletes. I'm like, please.

4:34They laughed at it. That's why anytime MC Hammer or fucking anybody who went on Twitter or started an account, they would get so much love because they were all making fun of it. And now they got so many real celebrities are sad because they're way less famous than influencers. Just like I'm right now yelling and screaming and asking all of you to start your own virtual influencers, create a human that's not you, and build them up because what influencers did to famous people, virtual influencers are about to do to influencers over the next decade. In 10 years, hundreds of the most famous people on earth are gonna be AI people.

5:12Fake people. Owned by people. And by the way, and by the way, those motherfuckers are gonna sell shit and outflank you. I need you to listen. I need you to fucking listen you need to go hard and understand everything because you're going to have this moment and then you're going to have to adjust and you need to become the IP owner of other humans that aren't you you're going to need to actually get that skill so that you own the thing you want to put yourself out of business versus somebody else putting you out of business you're going to have a moment and then shit's going to keep changing I need you to go hard at this moment you have to go hard the next 24 months and separate yourself I think you're spot on about the shift in what we're seeing and it's a lot of brand deals historically and some people are a little hesitant because they've always gotten brand deals and as we shift towards a cost per sale model there's a certain hustle and grit and finding the right products and the ceiling is much much higher right because a cost per sale model there's an ROI there that you're getting versus a brand deal there's a contact requirement in a ceiling so while those can be good the shift to the cost per sale model as many of you here are realizing can be a great way to run your business and to make incremental revenue.

6:26Well, it's going to be like, it's a game of merit. You know, like, what's cool about where this is going? First of all, it's going to be and, not or. You can do both. Do brand deals and sell shit. I don't fucking, you know? Come and do stand-up here sometime. Like, fucking do shit. Like, you should do both. Comma, what's amazing is for the best in here, the affiliate model's going to work better because you're going to get your true value. Because there's no hiding behind it. When you do your first thing and you sell fucking 18 ,000 units, everyone's gonna know. And that's good for you. They're also gonna know if you sell seven.

7:03So it's just gonna create more meritocracy around brand relationships with human beings. And some people don't want that because they've been ripping brands off. And some people are about that. But the people that don't want it, you don't get to decide. The market's going to evolve into this. and so you can hold your breath that it doesn't become about merit if you're one of those people but you will lose so you might as well get good at it. Can you go a little deeper into the role that you think trust and safety and authenticity is going to play over the next five to ten years as they're creating content?

7:43To be frank, back to like shooting it straight, I think a lot of that is just like corporate mumbo-bum-jumbo. Like, I don't know, to me that's like you're asking me how important will oxygen be going forward? Right? Trust and authenticity that's how the world fucking moves. I think I'm aware of why we bring up those words in advertising because big brands are very tone deaf to the reality of the new world. So they talk about dumb shit in their boardrooms and it's the fucking mishigas I have to deal with all the time. But I mean yeah that to me is a very like funny question how it runs through my head which is like yes I think it's good to be trustworthy.

8:29Good to know. I love it. And I think and then back to like let me actually bring value instead of being silly about it and what I like about this model of selling how trustworthy and authentic you are will show up on how well you convert. And let me say this because I've been selling shit my whole life so this came you know since I was six selling lemonade to this moment I turned 49 in two weeks I've been selling shit for 43 years let me tell you something that a lot of you and I know some faces in here because I watch everything some of you are fucking up on something and I hope this helps you the consumer can be tricked in the short term but is not stupid so some of you think you're clever and you're only tricking for a very small moment and we will forget about you.

9:22The consumer is smart. So for some of you, change your shit up. You're not as clever as you think you are. You're getting away with that it's early. And better versions of you are gonna come and take your shit if you disrespect the customer. I'm just hoping one of you hears me. You know what I mean? That needs to, it will change everything for you. My journey, Wine Library TV. February 21st, 2006. I sent a stock boy in a liquor store to Best Buy to buy a little camera so I could put up my first YouTube video. I sit down and put four wines in front of me, three wines in front of me. I think that I'm doing this.

9:57I think I'm doing QVC for wine. That's literally what I was saying. The camera turns on and literally the camera turns on. Literally, it's a blue light right now but it was a red light. Eric Kastner, my former CTO, was behind it. The camera turns on. The second before the camera turns on, I think I'm doing QVC. The second the light went on, I decided to become the wine spectator. Let me explain that to you. QVC is me selling whatever the fuck we needed to sell at the wine library. The wine spectator was the most trusted wine magazine in America that scored wines. I know some of you buy wine. You see the 91 points, the 92 points when you do that.

10:36I realized that if I was gonna sell stuff I didn't believe in because the show format was I was gonna taste wine and tell you. But I also know that I think a lot of wines are below average and overpriced. it was stunning it's one of the signature moments in my life it's the foundation of what I just told all of you it changed everything for me I would literally be on camera reviewing wines that we were selling and telling people it was just okay that's weird in this format but you could be reviewing things that you don't think are great that you don't have affiliates on not because you're trying to razz it and make your other product better because you just genuinely don't like the flavor of this toothpaste or this shirt.

11:24Authenticity is everything, bro. If you're listening to this before 9 a.m. Eastern time, which I know a lot of you are, dog walking, the gym, just consuming on your travel. I'm live right now probably if you're hearing this or shortly. I'm live at 9 a.m. I'm live on all my socials and then the questions themselves, the Tea with Gary Vee show is back if you're unaware. The questions themselves are on Whatnot. So go check that out. We're at vfriends.com slash live for that. I'm excited to be doing Tea with Gary Vee. I'm gonna do a lot in 2025. It's my home. I miss it. It was such a big deal in COVID and I hope to see you there.

12:05I'm gonna shut up and turn it over to some questions. How are we on time? Are we okay? Cool. If you have a question, raise your hand. I will not be biased. I will try to find you and hand you the mic. We'll take three questions so just go ahead and raise your hand. This young lady over here has one.

12:26Okay, so first off I started out as a reseller. So I know that's your heart as well. Oh my God, literally going to a garage sale? Like the second before I walk into that person's yard? That's a level of excitement that I don't know how to replicate. Yeah, so that's how I started out social media. Actually, it's kind of watching you. I thought, I love estate sales and yard sales and restores, and I just started TikTok and do that. And that's what I did. Ended up with a Patreon way before shop, and now this is what I do. And I live stream a lot. Good. And I love doing it. And so when you're talking all the time about being in front of people and live streaming and growing a community, for you, I do it mostly on TikTok, of course.

13:12Yep. I'm a fan of it. Yeah. Look, listen, notwithstanding our beautiful hosts here, like you need to hedge. You never know anything. Forget about the ridiculousness like TikTok will be here, all that. And TikTok's way ahead. Like let there be no confusion. They're way ahead and they continue to innovate. Watching TikTok navigate the last six, seven years has been a joy. They continue to innovate. They continue to, like they're outflanking their competitive set. But look, Look, I think it is crazy as a business model to ever have all your eggs in one basket. That's just not being smart. So I think you should always constantly dabble and that's what I think.

13:52And the flip side of that, the second part is, I am one person, I cannot clone myself currently. I've heard. That is an issue when it comes to time management. It's not an issue. It means that you need to stop buying things with your money and hire people. Issue fixed. Yeah, yeah, issue fixed. One of the biggest things that will hold a lot of you back from building the biggest thing you could build is you view the money right now to buy things instead of to build your business. When I built my daddy's business from ages 22 to 34, I never made more than$80 ,000 a year. All the money went back into building the business.

14:30It wasn't even my fucking business on some immigrant family business shit. So you could see my tone changed on that. When I hear people like, Gary, I can't fucking scale. I'm like, you better not buy a fucking Lambo then. The best way to own real shit is by not buying dumb shit along the way. Cool. Right here? And then we'll take two more. So we'll go here and then we'll go right there. We'll make it quick. No worries. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. Hi, how are you? What's your name? Kelly. Kelly. Thank you. I'm a seller and a creator. They're both on TikTok. Yes. I'm a mom of two boys that are all in club sports and all that.

15:14How old? Six and nine, two boys. Okay, great. First of all, anyone who has an under 10-year-old in your life, I need you to check out something that is my biggest thing right now. So literally the biggest professional thing I'm doing right now is we just launched the VFriends cartoon on YouTube Kids. It's at vfriends.com slash cartoon. Please check it out. Is it cartoons or cartoon? With an S. Cartoons. It's made by the people that make Cocoa Melon. the first four episodes it's not Coco Melon and honestly as a mom especially of six year old boys you will really get what I'm trying to do I basically was like Gary Vee was like 30 and then TikTok came out and Gary Vee became 16 and now I'm trying to bring that real energy to like 6, 7, 8, 9 you will see what I'm doing with VeeFriends I'd love for you to check it out please I guess that kind of segues into my question because you give a lot of parenting advice on my husband.

16:12I'm obsessed. Thank you. So I'm super curious of how you, I hate the word balance, but how do you balance both lives and also bring your kids along the journey and teach them the safety of social media as well? I'm not scared of social at all in the way that people talk about it because I think parenting is collectively using social as an excuse to not parent. Like TikTok. I mean, a lot of you know this. I've been yelling about TikTok since the get, since it was fucking musically in America, right? Plenty of people, especially when all the baloney started happening, would roll up at me at like an airport or a restaurant and be like, Gary, you know, I know you, I like you, but this fucking TikTok thing, like it's a real fucking problem.

16:59And I swear to God, I would look at them and be like, then take it off your kid's phone. I'm not your fucking kid's parent. If you think, like I don't know, I'm 49, my parents thought like alcohol was a problem, which meant they didn't want me fucking drinking when I was 14, so they scared the fuck out of me. Like parenting has become unbelievably ludicrous. You don't like shit, be a fucking parent. The problem with parenting now is y 'all wanna be friends. You've got friends. you can be friendly but your child is not that is not your friend that is your child then slash can be friend and so if you don't have the fucking backbone cause you're on some soft 2024 shit to be a fucking parent but social media is life we act as if I love that people are like there's bullying I'm like I grew up in Jersey in the 80s like bullying like there's nobody who didn't deal with it Bullying was like, we didn't even know it was bullying.

18:07It was just like living. Yeah, so look, here's what I think about it. One, the ultimate anecdote to what people are scared about is self-esteem. Our number one job as parents is to build actual self-esteem in our kids. If you're a child, and you know this, you're all living life. You've had friends in college, high school. You've lived, we've all lived a little something. Whether you're that person or you know people, you know when somebody's got real self-esteem they're not fucking falling for any dumb shit. So first we have to establish self-esteem and then second if you're really scared of something and you're allowed every parent's allowed to think what's bad and what's not good some parents don't let their kids listen to me because I curse.

18:51Okay. Like that makes me sad that's why I made V friends. You know like really I want to make a positive impact I get a real high on it like I get that like if in your family if you're being raised by your southern grandma who went to church every weekend, cursing's bad. I respect the shit out of that. So you're allowed. But then you need to be in control and be accountable. Not only just block my TikTok, go check the next day if I'm still blocked. I don't get this lack of accountability. Be fucking parents. Build self-esteem and then whatever scares you, monitor it. Problem is parents want to be kids and do all sorts of other shit besides parenting and so they didn't have time so they throw the fucking iPad on the phone to be their fucking partner in parenting.

19:36Well, guess what? If you have a partner, you have a partner. But you're in control. The phone's not alive. You can throw that shit in the fucking water. Yeah. Love that. Thank you. Got it. Good. Woo!

19:49One of my concerns is I've been on TikTok for a while now. And even a year ago or two years ago I think we might all remember the trend of there's room for everybody here on TikTok. Yep. You can just scroll forever. Mm-hmm. There's a place for everyone. And now that I've transitioned more over to the TikTok shop, somebody's gonna buy my dragon egg or they're gonna buy her dragon egg. I feel like it's more of a competition. It is a competition. I feel like I don't feel right about that. Ursula, first of all, you're fucking the best for putting it this way. Why? Why do you feel that? Because I do really feel TikTok is a community.

20:26That's why I joined it. I joined it to be part of a community and have a TikTok family. and now I feel like they're my coworkers and we're all on the sales team.

20:36Do you feel like they're coworkers or do you feel like they're competitors? Because the way you framed it up was more competitive. I feel like we're coworkers. Okay. I keep visiting, I'm learning things, I'm watching other people that made new friends face to face is great, but at the end of the month, one person gets the bonus. Not true. So they're my coworkers. Not true because every person gets, yeah, to your point, if TikTok shop an affiliate was built that whoever was best at the month took everybody else's money and got it all then you would be right. But one person doesn't get the bonus at the end of the month.

21:08Everybody gets the bonus that they earned at the end of the month. Woo! Yeah. And Ursula I will say this I am wildly empathetic when people that grew up that weren't sales oriented weren't like it's a transition to your point community and selling stuff in an open marketplace those are very different energies the cool part is you're allowed to check out so for example back to accountability let's say you DM'd me after this and we're like hey I want to follow up on that let's say we went back and forth on a flight we were talking I would say look Ursula good news like if this bothers you and doesn't make you happy don't sell go back to community

21:55I'm just going to say I feel like that's been taken away from me Why? Because now the views that I get have links on them and then my good old But you're allowed to you're allowed but stop doing that then don't sell Right but I like selling Ah Ah Ah It wasn't taken away from you you took it away from you Yeah I don't have affiliate Affiliate?

22:25You. This is a very big theme that I want. This is gonna make people happier, what I'm saying. You are in control. It wasn't taken away from you. You took it away from you. You clicked affiliate. Accountability is a beautiful energy. Do you know why I'm so happy? Because I think everything is my fault. You got this. And by the way, I think your spirit on this is beautiful. Can you tell her? I got goosebumps because I think you're coming from a good place. But I just want you to know how in control you are. If it gets too much for you, because listen, I was born hunter-seller. Not everybody is.

22:59And that doesn't mean I'm better or worse. I promise you, especially for the ones in this room that are on the journey of going from little money to a lot of money, you're going to learn when you get there. Money ain't the thing. I know people say, cool, let me find out. Cool, find out. Don't find out. You'll learn. But good news, you're in control. like you can go back to that Ursula and that TikTok relationship turn off affiliate and if not learn how to put things in compartments I think one of the things that works for me is I love being selfless as much as I like being selfish I want to take care of me and my family you know but I also love doing the things I do you know like I love saying yes to things that I don't get paid for like I'll do shit on karma on love and a lot of you that follow me you know how much I give away my best advice for free I'm not sending you to some now pay me 99 bucks you guys know you know that's what helps me feel okay when I sell something because I sell things I believe in why do I want all of you to buy VFriends trading cards on eBay because I think I'm going to build the next Pokemon in the next 40 years and I think they'll go up in value and I think it's going to teach yourself and kids good values I feel good about that I'm proud as fuck of what I sell everything and so that is a great way to end And don't sell shit on this incredible platform that you don't like.