What Do You Want to be Remembered For?

0:00But I truly had nothing at 34. Truly, actually. Like when I started VaynerMedia, my biggest company, we started it in a conference room the size of this podcast studio in another company's conference room because I couldn't pay rent. How big is it now? Now it's 2 ,000 plus people, 350 million a year revenue. Not valuation. Oh, you run a profitable business that actually makes money? Shocking. So, you know, it's a big business. And that's only one of yours. Like how many, I was looking it up today. It's like Vayner3, Vayner Sports, Vayner RSC, VFriends, which I think is a different entity. How many like Vayners you got?

0:41There's VaynerX, the holding company that holds like seven or eight of the, that's the marketing agency holding company. Outside of it is Vayner Sports because that's a separate business. That's me and my brother. My brother runs that with Greg Genski. V Friends is the other biggest business I run. That's my Marvel Pokemon. It's an intellectual property. I do actually believe in my 80s that's what I will be known for more than anything else I've done. This is the Gary V Audio Experience. I am looking at the V Friends collaboration with Topps. Like Topps that we grew up collecting. Can you please tell us all about this?

1:17Look, I'm trying to build the next Pokemon, the next Marvel, the next Disney. IP is one of the things that is gonna be the big winner. So for the last 40 years I've been building this is a huge moment for us with VFriends. Today's the day Topps Chrome comes out. There's cartoons on YouTube kids made by the people that make Cocomelon. There's digital collectibles and NFTs. There's a kid's book that is crushing. But this is a signature moment because today in a thousand GameStops around the country, people will walk in and see VFriends cards. In hundreds and hundreds of local card shops, they will see VFriends.

1:51on this new live shopping, the QVCification of social media is here. So what not TikTok shop? There'll be hundreds of people opening up packs of VFriends cards. VFriends is a universe of 250 characters that are obsessed with practical positivity, with optimism, but accountability. And, you know, it's very inspired by Marvel and DC and Disney and, you know, Hanna-Barbera and DreamWorks and all the great IP storytelling things going back hundreds of years to astrology and Zeus and Romeo and Juliet and all the great stories of all time. I'm gonna give it a real run here for the next half century and try to have the world fall in love with Patient Panda and with Rare Robot and Vibing Vampire and Motivated Monster and obviously this is a big moment.

2:53It's almost impossible to articulate what I'm feeling. You know, cards are the foundation of my entrepreneurial journey. They represented a time when I was getting Americanized as an immigrant that was born in the Soviet Union at an age where I was really getting into my, when I was 12, 13, 14, 15 that was the early seeds of who I am today. I was starting to get strong emotionally and knew that bad grades in school weren't going to define who I was and that I was a businessman. The word entrepreneur wasn't out there yet. If you told 15 year old me that I would have my own top training cart I'd be like what happened?

3:37How did I get good at sports? And then if you told me no, no, no you invented a Disney like Transformers, G.I. Joe, this is at the time Pokemon hadn't happened yet. You know, Universe, Hanna-Barbera, Scooby-Doo, Universe, Sesame Street Universe, and those are the cards. I'd be like, you mean like Garbage Pail Kids? And you'd be like, yeah. I'd be like, get the fuck out of here. That's what would have happened in 86. That's so cool. How did you even come up with the idea of V Friends? I'm an 80s baby. Like the 80s was crazy for intellectual property. If you go from 1975 to 1985, here are the things that were invented out of thin fucking air.

4:18Star Wars, E.T., Donkey Kong, Atari, Pac-Man, Transformers, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears. I can go on and on and on, and I was affected by that. I thought that was cool, but I was also super into sports. That's why I was into cards. And then later, I got into comic books and a little bit more collectible toys. so I was very blended in the Comic Con and the national stuff. I mean, I am a public figure known for being a successful entrepreneur and there is no question that what I learned at baseball card stores and the malls and the firehouses and the elk stations of New Jersey in the 80s is the foundation of who I am today.

5:04You know? And so, yeah, it's like, it's my true first love, you know, in a lot of ways. Somebody just said, why are you showing us Pokemon? That was the highlight of my day. These are VFriends cards, which I'm hoping to build into the next Pokemon, so thank you for that comment. Why? Because I'm the creator and the builder of this IP. I always talk to all of you about going for it, going for big dreams. This is my big dream. I want to be Walt Disney. I want to be Jim Henson. I want to be Stanley and I'm building a universe. What would you say if someone was starting at zero, how do you apply patience to their life?

5:42Well, there's many things when you're starting at zero that you need to understand. My favorite thing about starting at zero is you have no fucking choice. Like, good news. When you're starting at zero, you have no choice. Like, what, are you gonna cry on the couch and be like, I'm starting at, like, what's great about zero and the dirt and the start is you have no choice but to be patient. Meaning, you can go the get rich quick scheme route and a lot of people do, D-Rock. They're always chasing the next trend and this and that and I feel like, you know, I'm a big fan of, you know, people understanding that to build something meaningful takes real work, it takes real time.

6:28And, you know, patience has been a huge partner in my success. I wish on you guys, besides health, for you and your family, the biggest thing I wish for you is to dream big as fuck and then watch it unfold. Because you actually worked for it, not because you hit the lottery. So how does it feel? Fucking insanity. What are you talking, like I can't, I'm like, there are Tops Chrome products that is a good product of a world I fully invented in my own head in hundreds of the best card shops in the world right now and 1 ,000 GameStops are about to open across the country and have blasters in, what?

7:15Here's what's going on for everyone that's brand, brand new. VFriends is a universe that I created five years ago. It is a world of 260, 270 or so characters. Empathy Elephant, Entrepreneur Elf, Resilient Red Devil, Ambitious Angel, Charming Cheetah, Reliable Rat, Notorious Ninja, and our Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, the very, very, very, very lucky black cat. It's a universe we've created and it's a collectible universe with incredible characters. We're developing all the characters through comic books so you can learn about these VFriends if you go to vfriends.com slash comics. You could literally go read a bunch of those comics for free.

7:56But we're massive in trading cards, as you could see, we were just showing. We're exploding in comics right now. The holy grail of our world is the NFTs. And we have apparel, we have cartoons on YouTube Kids, if you go to vfriends.com slash cartoons. And most of all, we have an incredible community of collectors. The coolest part about our world is, we have a saying here, strangers become acquaintances acquaintances become friends friends become family and it really is that way and so if you're going to Fanatics Fest if you're going to the Sports Card National in Chicago or if you're going to Comic Con at the Javits Center in the fall please stop by the VFriends activation which I'm really excited about last year was the first year of this but here you can see sold items these are prices that are all sold this is all sold yesterday on eBay this was all sold yesterday So as you can see, there's a huge amount of demand for vFriends physical collectibles.

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