Why Accountability, Substack, and Live Shopping Are the Keys to Winning 2026

24:28I just believe it. And as you can imagine, I want Accountable Ant. Kids books, comic books, video games, I want kids to love Accountable Ant, this little fucking ant that's always accountable. I want them to like and love that character as much as they love Spider-Man or Hello Kitty because it's called Accountable Ant. And so by the time you're fucking 19, you can just be accountable, which is the greatest issue in our society. Hey, everybody. I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast.

25:07It'll make my mom super happy.

25:13A couple of interviews ago, or maybe the last one, I can't remember. We had this unique conversation that you said something. I thought, dude, that's really, really unique. There's different industries that are out there. And one industry that you said that is coming, like, is going to be making a new, like, normal, everyday topic conversation is this thing called collectibles, where it becomes like the weather. It becomes like a thing that we do, like a normal conversation. Yes. Talk to you about the lane or the industry of collectibles. It's the coolest thing I've been watching for a decade.

25:43I think collectibles, and again, I view this as a business and entrepreneur conference. so I'm bringing up this stuff with the hopes that this opens up some paths to add to your business or create a whole new business. I believe that collectibles is starting to get dangerously close to joining music, sports, fashion as a lifestyle genre. We are getting dangerously close to almost everyone collecting something and you can see it, right? You look carefully at why Labubu happened, right? You look at what's going on with watches. I'm sure it's on the radar for many of what's happened the last five years with sports cards.

26:20You're starting to see it with like old stuff like VHS tapes and CDs and humans hoard. Humans have always collected. You're great, almost everybody in this room's great, great grandfather collected stamps. This is what we do. But now with social media, people are sharing their collections. It's creating tribalism. It's allowing people to flex. Why do people buy a BMW? They need the fucking logo to make themselves feel better. right why is fashion so huge it's a form of expression everybody literally literally are sitting here with a haircut and their outfit for a reason you may not even realize it it's subconscious it's a form of communication shit it's also creating tribes i don't know if you've ever been to a comic con but like you know like it's a sense of community it's why sports works I was like walking in the airport today and saw a guy wearing a Jets hat.

27:19I'm like, that's my brother. Right? You go to a sporting event or college. It's religion. It's real. We need to feel like we're a part of something. And I think as we get, as we spend more time by ourselves with our phones, stuff like this is important. In fact, the best thing you could do at this conference when you leave right now, forget about all the content that you've had on stage that hopefully has been good, you saying hi to two or three random people is dramatically more valuable. A lot of people are introverted, a lot of people are insecure to do that. They're worried about somebody not reciprocating a hello, which stops us from doing it, but it is the highest value thing you could do here.

28:00One relationship, two. And so I think collectibles has all the different ingredients. You notice how I think about things three-dimensional. Collectibles because of community and loneliness. Collectibles because everybody, because we have a gambling pandemic right now and it's a form of gambling. Collectibles because of sense of tribalism. Investing. It's getting very sound and very real and it's a lot more fun. It is much more joy for me to buy a rare Pokemon card and have that go up than 40 shares of Tesla. It's more enjoyable. It's more interesting. Antiques and art used to sell like crazy.

28:39They're not as interesting for my generation down. right we'd rather have a rare this or a rare that and so yeah it's very obvious to me it's a big and I would say any way that you can incorporate collectibles in any way into your business I think it could be a factor and if you definitely collect it as a kid you should do 20 hours of homework of what's going on with those you know Lisa Frank you know like trapper keepers you know like like it and you know nostalgia brings you back to a good place life was simple when you were nine When I was nine, my biggest fear was I didn't want to pee my bed because I was already nine.

29:15You know, and I peed my bed forever, man. I think I stopped peeing my bed at like 11. Let's talk about that. Okay. I prefer not to. Let's sub-stack that shit. Why, peeing your bed into double digits is a precursor for being a good entrepreneur. The peeable penguin. Gary P.

29:44Gary, what did you say to, you got a giant room of entrepreneurs here. You know what's funny about what I just did, though? Let's go that way. I just did that on purpose. That whole last minute I did on purpose because I so struggle with what parents struggle with. Like, there's a parent right now who literally has an eight-year-old boy who's still peeing, and I'm telling you it's a good thing. Yeah. And if that little two minutes can give you that sense of like, wait a minute, it might be a good thing, that's just like a better day and it's definitely gonna be better for your kid because I promise you he's gonna stop peeing one day.

30:23Right? It's like grades. There are people here that are anxious about their children getting good grades. It's fucking 2026. The fuck are we talking about? Amen is right. Like, look, lack of discipline, lack of accountability, that's scary. Right? You should ground your kid every report card if they get bad grades. My mom did. You should look at your kid when they're 14 or so and they get bad grades and tell them they gotta start working because they're clearly not a scholar so you better get the fucking work. There should be accountability. There should be repercussions. There should be adjustments.

30:56But this, like, you're grown. You know that grades have no indication to happiness and success. So why parent that way?

31:07Right? Why? Because you're worried about the judgment of other parents? It's so crazy. You know, I just had this baby girl, and it's so weird walking into a parent world where it's like I overhear these conversations, like weird shit where it's like, oh, is your baby going to be an early walker? Right. I don't give a shit. I guess she'll walk when she fucking wants to walk. But it's like this hyper weird, we set these expectations. Andrew, it's the punchline of life. If you were living your life for outside validation, your life is not as good as you think it can be. Like, as if some little kid walking before your kid means anything.

31:51Yeah, right. You know, if some parents said that to me, I'm like, I'm going to punch your kid. Now what? Like, it's just so stupid. Like, we're always stuck in high school. Yeah. I don't understand how grownups live middle school their whole life. I do not understand it. Literally living your life based on the judgment of people you don't even like. It's the great mistake of the human being. And I get that people are born in, listen, let me, I've said this publicly, but a lot of people here don't know me and others, I don't say it often. Why I have clarity is because my parents are complete opposites.

32:34and I got to see up close both versions. My mom is straight confidence, straight bundle of joy, pure optimism. Trust is given until you fuck up nine times, then maybe we'll talk about it. My father, who I love, and this is not a razz because I knew my grandma very well who raised him, deeply insecure, cynicism to everything, trust has to be earned, and it's not as fun. It's always fucking heavy. But life is binary. You're either in practical optimism or you're in delusional cynicism. And most people are in delusional cynicism right now because of the combination of contemporary parenting in the last 30 years and an incredibly good job by politicians that are all a bunch of fucking losers scaring the fuck out of all of you.

33:35That's what's going on. Yeah. Coming over to the last minute. And by the way, on that note, so there's complete clarity.

33:46Both red and blue play the same card. They just use different context. They're just scaring you. They're just fucking scaring you. And by the way, I don't blame them. They've always tried to scare you. I blame all of you. You've started to believe them. ah see not as many claps right oh yeah the politicians blow they suck yeah yeah yeah oh wait it's my fault

34:16it's just accountability

34:25go ahead go ahead i got you No, but the key. Just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

34:34I'm kidding. In a for real manner, are we coming to the last minute here, last question? No, no, no. Remember, we're going to add a little bit more. Should we go a little longer? Yeah, I'll go. Should we go a little longer? How do you feel if I get a couple questions from the crowd? I would, I mean - You game for that? I prefer you weren't even here and it was just me and them. I felt it. I felt it, just to be honest with you. And so let me get a couple questions from the crowd. I'm going to take... Let me hop up and get it. Give me this guy right here. Right here. Come here, right here, man. Give me this mic right here.

35:05Okay, right behind you. Right behind you. Gary, thank you for being here. You're welcome. What's your name, my man? Eric Wilson. Eric. Quick question for you. Please. You were talking about moving into the potential of feature films and stuff with all of your characters. Yes. If you need a voiceover artist, I'm here for you. Let's go, my man. I love it. Just a straight fucking right hook. I like it. That was it. No jab. No jab. Eric, he doesn't fuck around. He's like, give me my money. Go right here, man. Here, pink shirt. Gary, I'm a huge fan of yours. I've been following you for a long time.

35:40Thank you. I have a celebrity entrepreneurship podcast. Eddie was there already. And it's over 30 million downloads. I would love to invite you and be my guest. And I have a subsec. It's over 120 ,000. Is that right? Good for you. Tell them. Tell them about how meaningful Substack is. Let's break it down. I like this stuff. Let's get into the real of the real. Explain when you started Substack, how it's impacted. So I have over 2 million followers on Instagram, and any brand that launches any platform, they reach out to me right away, and I'm the first ones to try. I was kind of skeptical at first because I had a huge email list, and I was doing it because over years I had it.

36:21and they were like, well, you can transfer all the emails to Substack. I was like, well, it's fine. So they let me import all my emails and I started doing it. And, of course, you have to be very constant on it. Like, you have to post all the time. Just to jump in, I apologize. Like, friends, everything's consistency. It's all discipline. I said to my trainer yesterday morning, literally yesterday morning, I'm like, we're doing something. I was like, man, if I was fucking disciplined in the gym and with what I eat, the way I am in business, I'd be a fucking Adonis. You know, again, back to mom and dad for me, professional life versus health and wellness, like I've gotten much better like I referenced earlier, but the delta, and by the way, I go to the gym seven days a week.

37:11Seven days a week. You know, two or three of those are a lot of soft tissue, you know, it's not lifting every day. I'm wild, seven days a week, but it's like the next, all of you work. You all go to work, but what do you do between nine and 6 p.m.? 9 a.m. to six, I'm fucking like a fucking, like you understand? I'm fucking on it. I don't fucking have lunch. I don't fucking have a minute. You wanna get better in business? All of you have two hour meetings that should have been 17 minutes.

37:51This is, like, I apologize. This is all discipline. This is all discipline. It's all on you. You're it. Just you. And so the results are the results. And can I really help some of you right now? Get the word luck out of your fucking mouth. Luck is the weapon of choice of losers. No one's lucky. Of course there's serendipity. Of course there's things that happen. But my friends, that saying you manufacture, like luck, if you're sitting on like, well she got lucky, if you're looking at her right now, she got lucky, you're finished. You're fucking finished. I'm sorry, go ahead. So yeah. With SoftStack, I know many people make like close to 100 ,000 if you set up a paid subscription.

38:48Oh, if you set up a paid subscription, many people do make like close to 100 ,000, some of my friends, like content creators. And if you just start the Substack, you should start the paid subscription because you can charge for your articles. So between Substack and charging people monthly for your newsletter and live shopping and selling stuff, we're going into an amazing era for people that make content because we were all in that era for a long time of just get followers and hopefully brands will reach out to you and there's things or you could start a business. There are now really viable financial models for the individual empires that I think people are building.

39:26You can send me an email to Gary at VaynerMedia and I'm happy to look at your podcast. Thank you. Can we get some over here? Can we go right there? Hi, Gary. So I am... It's Joanne. Joanne Burgess. Nice to meet you. So I'm a hypnotherapist therapist but what I say to people is I'm not hypnotizing you I am um I'm unhypnotizing you so um I believe like I'm a little bit oppositional so I kind of oppose I feel like you have similar qualities how do you stay unhypnotized I just believe my mom I mean it I mean it's kind of funny thing to say but I I feel it's funny when you said that I don't know if you heard me like I whispered, I'm like, I like that.

40:13It makes sense to me. Honestly, this is why I probably am even sitting in this room right now. I am so driven by gratitude and even a percentage of guilt that the DNA I was given, I didn't control my parents had sex that night, right? Right. The serendipity of my life, I didn't control the fact that I was born in this terrible place. Americans don't even realize what the USSR was. the USSR that I was born in wasn't Iran, it was North Korea, you weren't allowed to leave. Nobody had a passport, it was jail. From 1917 to 1991, you were not allowed to leave the country. Not like Iran where people won't take you.

40:58Like, you know, so I wasn't, I didn't control where I was born and I got fortunate this lucky thing happened with America and Russia where a couple hundred thousand Russians got out and I came to America. I didn't control that my mom is the greatest human being of all time and she's the one that parented me. Right, right. I didn't control that I grew up my whole life having very little but had so much love in my life so I knew as a child that money had no correlation to happiness. I didn't control that I grew up in New Jersey where we fucking fought each other every day after school so I'm completely a fucking person that's willing to fight at all costs.

41:34Yeah. And so, you know, I'm detached because I was never in. Yeah. You know, when my fourth grade teachers said I was gonna be a loser because I was getting bad grades, my brain said to me that they were losers. Right, right. You know, I did not need validation from the pretty girls in my school or the coolest guys around or any grown-up. I just got fortunate, which is why I'm so desperate to communicate the steps to get more of it. I got more of it along the way too, right? I had to work to become a more stronger. So how do I stay detached? I don't know because I've never been attached. Exactly, exactly.

42:14And I have an 18-year-old son, and he started selling candy when he was 12 at school. He dropped out of high school because he has ADHD. He's very high on the spectrum. Yes. He bought his own Tesla, brand new, when he was 17 years old. Listen, the reason I won't clap for that is not because I don't like your son. Right. It's because you just told me the only thing I know to be true. Right. Which is, if you're lucky enough to have the DNA that doesn't conform with the bullshit academic system that's in place right now, you are likely going to be good at making money. My point to the world right now is being good at making money should not be what we put on a pedestal.

42:56I want to know how kind your son is. Right. He's 18. He's getting there. Yeah. But now, and I'm sure he's lovely, but I want to say this. I was uncomfortably kind at 18. Okay. And I think we need to change the calculus in our society of what success is. Because I know unlimited millionaires that are straight pieces of shit. Yeah. He took me out for dinner on Mother's Day to Mila. I like that. To Mila. All right, now I like that. It's awesome. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Gary. Hi. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Hi. My name is Claudia Laurent. And I just, I'm in the process of launching my brand, okay?

43:38at 55 I quit corporate America started menopause and completely did a 180 wrote six bucks launching the first series of four called the quantum omni mindset let me ask you what your opinion is on this there is a saying where people say there's nothing more constant than change I think that's what's wrong with our society why do we have to change because change could be for the worse or it could be for the better why not flip that and call it there's nothing more change than evolution I think that's semantic Yeah? So it doesn't really make any difference? I think you said the same thing. Really?

44:11But you evolved for the better. No, I get it, but you literally said the same thing, just used a different version of the word. Okay, well thanks, that's what I need to know.

44:22And by the way, I think that's great, but I think, let me even go deeper because it might help everyone. I think people, when you get into entrepreneur, my point to you is actually a little bit different, which is it doesn't matter what you call it. Do you know what McDonald's is? Can you hear me? Do you know what McDonald's is? Yes, it's a junk food restaurant. You know it, right? No, no, wait, wait. The name, though, if you didn't know McDonald's, if you heard the name, it sounds like an Irish pub. Like, what is Google? The fuck is Nike? The amount of people in this room that are overthinking things that don't matter, what you're talking about does not matter.

45:01You know what matters? What you're gonna execute against it. My personal brand name, publicly, is the stupidest name of all time. It's Gary Vee with two silent Es. I think I do. Can you see? Thank you. You feel? My friends, it's just execution. It goes back to how I started here. If you think coming here today was you doing the thing, it was not. It might be the lubricant you needed to do the thing. To heal. Right? But too many people do all the proxies and they don't do the thing. It's kind of like, you know, does anybody have that friend that picks up something new like tennis and then goes and buys an$8 ,000 racket and gets fucking the sneakers?

45:47And back to content creating, you get the best fucking camera and you get the best fucking lighting, but then you fucking suck at it. Buying the things, getting the lighting, all that stuff that's not it and then you start using excuses well I don't have good equipment that's why I can't make it I'm not good at content I'm like motherfucker you have an iPhone this is the game my friends it's all this it's all in your fucking head all of it and it all comes down to the most important part which is do you like yourself? like where you at with you? because I promise you if you don't think you're awesome you've already lost.

46:32You might as well not get out the gate. And let me tell you how quickly you can get into feeling good about yourself. I've got a secret that will make your fucking head spin. Everybody else sucks too.

46:50There's, I'm looking around this room. There's people that are more attractive than others. There are people that are stronger than others. There are people that are smarter in memorizing. Some people are more emotionally intelligent. Some people have scales capabilities. Other people are operators. Life is about being self-aware. Life is about leaning into the humility of loving who you are versus wishing you were someone else. Life is realizing you might be tricking other losers, but you're not tricking winners. Uh-huh. For all of you peacocking and posturing, we see you. We see right through you.

47:27you're not tricking me with your fucking facade all I've got is intuition I can see right through you and so can the other winners so have fun tricking everybody by putting entrepreneur in your Instagram profile but you're not an entrepreneur if you're not doing it you're not anything unless you're doing it and most of all you don't need to be doing it for people that can see it or can't see it. You need to do it for you. You have to do it for you. And when you start actually doing it for you, shit gets weird. I'll give you an example for the people that do follow me. At the height of my personal brand, and now I'm starting to show up in search results with all sorts of crazy characters who've built bigger businesses than me, Bezos, and so I'm getting, I'm fucking on fire in 2016, 17.

48:18Davos, and getting offered the billing. I'm turning down Shark Tank. I'm doing, my career's crazy. I wake up one morning because I just read my DMs and emails and I decide, you know what I'm gonna do with my personal brand? I'm gonna start filming myself going to garage sales.

48:37Yeah. They're my favorite too because they're me. Like I was just getting too many emails saying, bro, I don't know how to make a thousand bucks. The fuck are you talking about? How do I make my first hundred dollars? I got nine, like literally DMs of like a screenshot of a Wells Fargo with$8.09 in it. Help. And I was like, okay. Like I saw it enough that I was like, because me telling them to invest in the next Twitter wasn't gonna cut it. So I was like, fuck it. I will show them what I did when I had 20 bucks. And I literally started trash talk and making videos on YouTube of like literally going to garage sales, buying something for three bucks and selling it for 50 bucks.

49:17Buying something for$7 and selling it for 99 bucks. And I put it out and I said, now what's the excuse? And by the way, they still had excuses. The comments were filled with like, yeah, but what about the gas?

49:32eBay fees. You're either a complainer or you're not. And on real talk, most of you motherfuckers that I'm looking at right now complain too much. About shit you don't even control. Everybody's walking around like they're the fucking head of the UN. I don't know. That's what I got. Gadi? Gary, last question. You're out of time. You want to give a last piece of advice for 2020 or going into 2026? The fuck do you think I just did? I'm just, your last question is up. I'm already one minute over. You're good. I apologize. I know a lot of... Gadi, can I get a very quick one here? Can I get a very quick one?

50:15A very quick one? Yes. Gratitude and love to you I'm a film director and a storytelling coach and 10 years ago I was making commercials, making a lot of money in New York City, the very easiest city on the planet, I'm from Argentina and I lived in India and I always wanted to find how to live a fulfilled life and a friend of mine, Nicolás Casavecchi a very prestigious film director told me, look at this guy 10 years ago, you, and you appear boom, okay, I don't know, boom, boom, boom boom, show yourself show yourself, go to the street do what you, what? okay, okay, Gary, okay. I'm doing commercial for McEnrickson.

50:52Big, traveling the world, Japan. And I'm, I said, okay, let's do what Gary Vee said. I'm going to the streets of New York alone with my film camera and a big microphone without crew. Looking at, okay, I'm going to find my fulfillment. I'm going to find my happiness. Looking at people in the eyes in Union Square. And I start to stop people. I said, it's a social experiment. And I did 20 episodes of one minute. Are you happy with life? Are you scared of death? What is important for you? And people start to cry, hug me. It's a beautiful series. And I said, wow, I'm the new humans of New York. I said, I'm a filmmaker.

51:27And I thought, this is going to be viral. It was not. It was not. The series called Dreaming New York. Let's live my dream in New York. But I put it and I have like 200 views. And I go to a party. And the sister of a friend of mine, the CEO of a foundation, Marcelo, I've seen your... Can you do that for my company? Because it's emotional. I don't know anybody else. Fuck Gary Vee. What the fuck? And I closed at$125 ,000 doing what my passion. and since then, get ready for this one. I said, happiness. I made another city of happiness and another one and I interviewed Tal Ben-Shahar and Mo Gaudat and stuff and happiness became my light and I became now a film director but a storytelling coach connecting with people's happiness, soul and branding and you are a huge inspiration so gratitude for your crazy beauty, honesty tea, you have to have a big pair of baits in, Mr.

52:33Hitler. So, whenever it makes sense, I would love to maybe interview you in one of my series, if possible. Thank you, my friend. Alright, two things. One, I am so proud and happy for you. It means the world. I'm so happy for you. Two, you are so full of shit. You said it was going to be short, and that was long as fuck. I've got to go. Hug. Love you guys. Thank you. thank you give it up for Gary V everybody yes yes yes

53:14everybody 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