Why Communication is the #1 Skill to Develop in 2027

0:00Hey podcast listeners, Team Gary Vee here. In this episode, you're gonna hear Gary talk about three very important topics. Why communication is the number one skill to develop in 2027, how to mitigate regret, and my favorite topic, how to juggle making content on different topics. Hope you enjoy the episode. Let us know what you think in the comments below. This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. I had a few questions I wanted to bring to you just to get your perspective, because as always, I've stayed close to your content just to make sure I'm relevant myself, and I know where the market's headed.

0:31But one of the things that is near and dear to me and the reason why I've created several different businesses over the past few years is I like the aspect of human flourishing. So whether it's my own products like Cleaner Standards that I'm developing because I really believe in putting good products out there for people to use and I've used AI to build the entire ingredient deck there or whether it's AI coaching or my weight loss journey or whatever. I only use AI because I'm interested in people and I'm interested in how people intersect with it and how we can use it as an accelerant. Where do you feel like maybe the market's kind of missing a beat when it comes to the discourse and conversation around AI?

1:15Because I feel like that's maybe one part that people don't dwell on enough, which is, yes, of course, it can come for jobs and it will come for jobs. but there's also so much opportunity in it. And I've been around you long enough to know that you're usually pretty pro-human and pretty pro-opportunity and finding opportunities in the moments like this. Do you have any kind of insight into how people can use AI for human flourishing that maybe they're not thinking about? I mean, I think in an extreme way. I mean, I feel like the issue has been politicized. I think that a lot of people have used it to create fear.

1:54And I think people have completely lost the plot on AI. I mean, the internet and mobile devices inevitably had things that they were going to create that were going to be challenges for the world. So has the television and the radio, electricity, the printing press, and many other things. And this level of prosperity that we all live in in the world has afforded us the opportunity to do the level of demonization that we've only seen in other prosperous times in Europe and other places, New York City, with electricity. And so, I mean, if you just take what's going to happen in modern medicine and the amount of lives that are about to be saved because of AI medicine, one could argue that's worth being pro-AI just on how substantial that impact is going to be.

2:59Yeah. I was thinking about that with Simon before the call was like, you know, I've been reading a ton of stuff about advancements with like longevity drugs. Like we might be sitting here in just 10 short years and the human lifespan might be 150. And you're going to have to rethink every day. I don't even see a path where that, I don't know if it's 10 years, but it's very clear that like the advancements, I don't see a scenario where AI doesn't debunk so many of the unanswered questions of cancer, which would create extreme levels of longevity in our society, kind of no different than when we got our hands around heart attacks.

3:40When I was a kid, that's how people died. And now, thank God, you don't hear about that quite often anymore. so and that's all heavy stuff without going into actually answering your question directly which is I mean AI is going to create levels of happiness and prosperity that the internet computers and cell phones could have only dreamed to have created I think it's going to be one of the great innovations of mankind and I think it will create plenty of headaches and problems just like the other ones have but I'm baffled by the the ability of the current political climate to have created so much negativity around this profound technology which is only going to accelerate the prosperity and the opportunities for the groups that use it.

4:43Yeah. Now switching gears a little bit, I've been reading a lot in the news recently about MySpace coming back. And I wanted to bring this to your attention just because I've done a lot of studying of your content recently. I know human media. I'm not human media. I know interest media and stuff like that. And I know your take on where social has headed or it's dead and it's moving into interest graph and stuff like that. But knowing that pendulums often swing sometimes, the prospects of MySpace coming back and being very follower-centric are quite interesting to me. And I also know your 80-20 rule.

5:19What would you say to small business owners, mid-sized business owners that have already bought into interest media and they're going that direction for scaling, but then they see something like MySpace coming back? Do you see that as an opportunity maybe for the younger, gen alpha, anti-AI people or some of the boomers who never really wanted to get with the technology of TikTok and stuff like that? I see it as an and, not an or. I mean like, you know, first of all, most people don't even know what's going on with interest media, they're still in social. Meanwhile, if they do understand what's going on with interest media and they yearn for the old social media, it's called SMS marketing, it's called email marketing, it's called Substack there's a million ways to reach all the people that want to be reached by you in marketing and so I don't think we need MySpace to have a top eight friends and all that but that being said my other macro thesis of nostalgia you know things come and go I'm actually very bullish that if MySpace was to relaunch and was executed well it would do well or could do well And then as far as small businesses or big businesses, you know this, you spend enough time at Vayner.

6:34I'll watch it every day. And the second it's got enough scale that it's worth the time and efforts to extract opportunities out of, then that'll be the day we start telling people that they should be doing it. Yeah. Now switching into more of an operational question, knowing that I work every day with service providers, people that are selling their time for money, and that AI is kind of collapsing that store of value. So if they're not going to get away in the near future with as clean of an exchange, meaning here's my rate card, here's my services, pay me for that service, if AI is going to basically shrink that unit of value down to something else, what is the thing that small businesses and mid-sized businesses are selling?

7:22I heard you say it a different way before, like what if you had to go back to zero and your response back was I would create an infinite content machine and sell a subscription to that. Is that kind of still where you think people should be headed? Or do you think there's maybe something else looming in terms of the way that we transact commercially? Well, I mean, it's like anything, right? Like you put your finger in a hole that's spewing out water and it's going to create pressure and go somewhere else. and show up in a different way. Like, first of all, the hysteria of like AI is gonna destroy you, your job, your business, like it's fucking September, 2026.

8:02I've been hearing this for two and a half years, like constantly, like, I don't know, like sure, there's been some efficiencies and things, but like, I don't understand this all or nothing mindset from everyone. And so, as you know what I do for a living, I had a very big bet that AI creative output was going to get scrutinized because I felt the temperature of the consumer and the fear. And so I knew there would be a window in that. For us, just to give you an update, VaynerX has gotten very deep into experiential production. And so doing analog things just in case is a hedge. But then if the unit of economics and value go down, they go down.

8:42Like if a video used to cost 500 ,000 and now it costs 5 ,000, you got to sell more videos, right? And so there's different services, there's different opportunities. Again, you know, if you're a graphic designer and that's all you can do and that's the value you provide, you were probably in trouble with Canva anyway or social media creators. Like, I don't know, like, or Fiverr or TaskRabbit. that like, I just, I would say this, like there's always gonna be millions of options, and so like you have to follow what's going on with the demand of the end consumer in the B2B or B2C space, and yes, if like, if you feel like you just saw something on Nano or Grok or Claude Code, then like, if you sell websites to small businesses for$5 ,000 and you see like your seven-year-old child building a website with Claude Code after a week of learning, like yes, you should anticipate like you might not get$5 ,000 for a one-page website anymore.

9:53But I think things will take time. I think opportunities will spring up. And while you're being scared about what AI is gonna drive down and hurt you, you could be using it to create a net new revenue stream. Yeah. Or even creating more time for yourself. One thing that I've been doing is I haven't checked the inside of my inbox since GrokBot came out because it can access all three of my inboxes and I physically spend no time in email anymore. And that saves me two, three hours a day that I can use to reskill myself and build something else and do all this stuff. So that's a fantastic answer.

10:31Real quick, because I want to keep us on task, I want to pop open my iPhone for you real quick, and we are going to take a look at the questions from the team. Okay, so this is an app that I built to manage coaching relationships with folks. I told Zach all about it, and I'm sure he'll give you a download eventually. But we're going to use it here in this context to just share the questions that the folks have with you. And then once we get through all four questions, you can pick which one that you want to spend a little time with, and we'll go from there, and we'll bring everybody back up and have a conversation.

11:02So first we'll bring up Austin. 14 months ago, I had an idea for a product. Two weeks ago, we launched that product and the business that it turned into by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. my challenge now is that my ideal clients are wealth managers like myself who are looking for tax-efficient investments for their clients my problem my challenge is that all of the wealth managers out there have different buying journeys they have different due diligence processes it It takes different things to build trust with each of them. And I'm great one-on-one, but I don't scale.

11:53So how do I build a system where I can effectively scale something that already has great momentum and take a hundred different advisors and support them through the buyer journey simultaneously? Then you've got Andrew. Hey, Gary. AI may give an ambitious founder the ability to 10 or 100x leverage, but it can't tell them if what they're chasing is actually worth having or wanting. Are we at risk of helping people run exponentially faster toward a definition of success that's not their own and one they may eventually regret? If so, what should a founder do to get clear before hitting the accelerator button?

12:40so that's kind of more of an existential question about not spending too much time pursuing one thing and then here is our friend katie down in puerto rico hi gary my name is katie calvert and i am in joe's second cohort um and and for my question that i wanted to ask you today is, well, I know you've built a lot of successful businesses based on attraction. I follow you on TikTok and love the short snippets and how I see AI being used today is for that immediate attraction and motivation. but what I'm not seeing and I'm curious where where you're using it in your business or where you think you see it going is how to maintain relationships or help relationships grow because those those immediate impressions or transactions let's say is not it's not just how I'm not building the business that I'm working in but also I think a lot of other people in the cohort would appreciate hearing from that.

13:55We're all in the business of relationships. And I'm wondering how you see AI being used to maintain those or to grow them. And I'm not talking about email campaigns and I'm not talking about building social schedules, nothing like that, like a deeper connection. So yeah, that's it. Thank you so much and looking forward to our call. So it seems more like how to use AI as scaffolding to better the human connection, that type of thing. And then last but not least, we've got Chris, who is our auctioneer up in Minnesota. Hey, Gary. Thanks for joining our group. Looking forward to this. My name is Chris.

14:41I spent 15 years in the auction space running a marketplace most recently that presented about 5 ,000 auctions a year. I left that company and am launching a jeweler to end consumer marketplace, which will have auctioned by now, eventually the live whatnot style of selling. But my question to you is not necessarily just on that, because I'm seeing a lot of opportunities with my peers and with the experience that I've had of what's coming in the market and other businesses and ventures that I could go down. So my question to you is, how do you handle that as a personal branding standpoint, especially without losing sight of the main thing that I'm working on right now, the jewelry marketplace, but also establishing, you know, my, myself as the expert in that arena and not close off some of those conversations, but be more prepared.

15:31So I know you're the master at this, so I'm looking forward to hearing some of your information and your take. Thanks. So he's interested in personal brand tips for an auctioneer. So which one of those conversations do you mean? I think I can get two and four. I think I get his and the existential crisis done with this. And Andrew and Chris. Okay, Jeremy, go ahead and bring everybody back up real quick, and I'm going to stop my share. So let's start in with number two. Andrew, since you phrased it so nicely, you want to go ahead and bring it up again real quick? What was the motivation behind the question?

16:05Just kind of lay it on Gary real quick. Yeah, I mean, it's the quintessential, are we running in the right direction? So, you know, everybody's hype about the, you know, 10x is now turned into 100x with scale.com and some of that stuff. But, you know, sometimes we're just running faster in the wrong way. And Gary, you're always talking about waking up and realizing regret. So how does somebody dial that in and stay dialed into that so that that doesn't happen? Yeah, I mean, I think the way you asked, you know, it's an interesting thing I think about a lot, which is we as humans are incredibly good at blaming things.

16:42especially new technologies, which are not the root cause of the issue, right? So long before AI was invented, long before the internet was invented, people have not been grounded in the proper things in their life. So I don't think productivity acceleration is gonna change that variable. I think the question becomes, in fact one of my favorite things about AI is that it's going to accelerate a lot of the things that are not going well in our society. You know I think until we hit rock bottom of this incredible obsession of consumerism and materialism you know and I'm such a big fan of freedom the USA capitalism but everything is a vulnerability when it's out of whack.

17:40And so, you know, I think that's called therapy. I think that's called faith. I think that's called consuming information that is far more heavy than just how to make a quick buck or how to use AI to be more efficient. So I think that's self exploitation, Andrew. I think adversity, I think a negative event will wake up people sometimes. I just think we, this is why I'm so convicted in how I produce content. And I'll get into your question, Chris S in a second. Like, I think we need more people talking about good shit. But we need more people to be accountable of what they're consuming. Because there's plenty of people talking more thoughtful, more spiritual, more grounded conversations.

18:33The internet is littered. social media is littered with incredibly good, thoughtful, righteous, super strong content. And so I think there's a lot of responsibility on modern parenting. I think that there's a lot of responsibility on us voters to start voting for people that have more civility and bigger, kinder thinking, not policies that help us with our short-term self-interest. So I think there's a lot there, brother. Thank you, buddy. You got it. Chris, to answer you, like that, you know, your question was about, you know, if I've got a wandering entrepreneurial eye of all these other things I could be doing, if I start making content around that, you know, what, what does that mean?

19:24How do I still be known for what I want to be known for? If it's my main thing, but if I got other things to talk about, I think the answer is it, it's just It's actually shocking how this works out, Chris. If you're a content creator around food because you have a restaurant, but you happen to make a piece of content around the New York Knicks or about your kids or about Labor Day or about live shopping because Gary Vee caught your attention with it and you're contemplating it, I'm fascinated by people's belief that you have to be so niche. Think about us in real life. everyone here in real life as a human being.

20:04You are who you are. You have your professional careers. You have your interests and your hobbies. But it doesn't mean you don't randomly sometimes talk about a random show you saw on Netflix. It doesn't stop you from referencing the big game last night or telling somebody you bought a lottery ticket because there's a billion dollar jackpot. For some reason, we think that how we have to show up from a content, personal brand standpoint is different than how we have to show up from life. We talk about authenticity being such a big pillar of being successful and making content, and yet we don't live an authentic life.

20:41We limit ourselves to a niche that we think is required because we get into these weird psycho things that if we do too many things, the algorithm will hurt us, or if we do too many things, we'll confuse the consumer. These are all academic ideologies that are not grounded in truth. So the answer to your question is just posting more and letting it play out. I will say for people that are uncomfortable with my belief in schizophrenia, that you can use different platforms for different things if that makes you feel better. But the truth of the answer is no one is penalized for being their true self.

21:19This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen? Snacks? A stapler? The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal.com slash protection terms. Just get it out. Just get it out. That's a great one. And that's a great place to end because, Gary, I know you've got a tight schedule. But thank you so much for joining us.

21:59and I owe you a debt of gratitude. Next time I'm in New York, I'll holler at you. Maybe we can grab coffee. Katie, Austin, sorry I didn't get to all of them. But I will say this for you two as well. One thing that's universal for all of you. I would argue that the ability to be a contemporary communicator to your target audience, what pictures, videos, written words do you put out and in which platforms, And how do you become, you know, how does one get to wealth managers on LinkedIn or substands? Like, I would make the argument that knowing how to be a contemporary communicator through your own videos, someone else's videos, the written word, audio, a podcast, random post across the 10 to 12 social networks or platforms that have attention, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, TikTok, that it is more important than knowing how to balance your checkbook for your company.

23:06And, you know, in all of your questions, that is what is the foundational truth. It is very hard for all of us because of how we grew up and where the world was when we were children or what we thought about college or life. It is hard for us to calibrate that almost everything is getting commoditized accept the ability to be able to communicate effectively. And if that's true, then I think the biggest thing I can help you with and why I'm hanging on for an extra minute is, if that's true, if you're like, you know, if you hang up and you're like, damn. For example, I think of myself as the one that needs to be able to market and communicate and then everything else happens.

23:48Then the wine has to be good that we sell. Then the collectibles have to be good. Then the services, that like literally secondary that we're in this scary era where most things are commoditized if the product is on par subjectively with most other things the differentiation is communication if that's true then the question that i ask all four of you is how much time money and effort are you actually putting into being good at comms and marketing as a human and as your organizations because then you will accomplish everything. The reason I can do this all day long is it's grounded in that truth.

24:26There's nothing anyone can say to me where communication doesn't become the thing that they need because we all need more demand. Whether you're trying to change someone's life to live a better life or whether you're trying to sell us a product or service, you can't do it unless you have someone's attention. That's true. So I'm psychotic about being great at that and then everything else flows easily. And I do not believe that people put an... enough time effort or money allocated to marketing and comms or to their own education at being good at it so they even know how to judge someone that does it for them.

25:00That's fair. So Gary interesting timeline knowing that NFL season kicks off do we have an official Jets prediction for a record this year we go in 10 and 7 11 and 6. If we go 10 and 7 I'm going to jump into the Hudson River naked out of excitement. If we can just go 7 and 10, I would lose my mind. We have a tough schedule. We're not there yet. We're one year away from being really competitive. So I'm going to go with 6 and 11. Okay, 6 and 11. We got you logged. All right, sir. We'll be in touch. Take care. Bye-bye. Thanks a lot. Bye. Hey, everybody. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes.

25:37They're loaded. I appreciate your attention. And thanks for being part of this. Push your limits. Train with precision. See the results. At Equinox, that's high-performance loving. Iconic spaces that inspire. Personal training backed by real data. Unlimited group fitness classes from yoga and Pilates to strength and conditioning. Elevate your post-performance ritual with saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges, and more. Everything you need to lock in and unlock your potential at Equinox. Start today at equinox.com.

26:11Journey. See you later.