Why Live Shopping and Nostalgia are Winning in 2026

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0:43Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash brightsummer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. every single item that is sold in e-commerce will be sold in live shopping this is the gary b audio experience i know you've talked about koi koi we kind of have that one yes um so we'll just rattle off a few we have some questions but you can react you can go deep um raw wagyu and premium steaks. Butchers and meat folks are able to sell. I see it. You see it. I've seen it. What do I think about it?

1:31Do you feel like food is one of the next monster categories? Every category is in play

1:43and matters.

1:47This is all just an inevitable outcome. every single item that is sold in e-commerce will be sold in live shopping so my reactions like in fact I think the article can be like that's the point and I think the article can be fun by you just doing journalistic research and being like Koi this is how much was sold by this person in one show you can DM some of these people stakes it's almost just like an informational article about 10 things that you both find interesting you can reach out to them and DM them and CC me on it Gary's working on this article we just want to put some math around this how much have you sold you know what I mean but my statement to the camera and to you two you three is every single item that is sold on e-commerce which again remember is not just steak and koi fish but is also plane tickets right renting an apartment, everything will be sold on live shopping too, as well, over the next decade.

2:57And there's enormous opportunity if you sell things for you to be the first mover in that new category, period, end of story. Services will be sold live. Right now, I don't think TikTok, Shop, WhatNot are really there, but a plumber will be live, fixing a kitchen and have a swipe at the bottom and be like, book this plumber. It's that big. We're gonna, okay, so this will be mostly research on our end. Quickly, do you feel like one of the next phases would be a major luxury house as well? I'm sorry? A major luxury house going on live shopping as well. So you're saying it's not just the$100 items.

3:43It could be like a$200 ,000. Yes. Rolex will sell Rolexes on live shopping. Lamborghini will sell Lamborghinis on live shopping. Like this, like, Ryan Serhant is gonna sell a$13 million apartment on live shopping. Live shopping will eat up the universe. Fragrance is one of the fast growing spaces for this. That's nice. I'm curious like what do you think that says about live shopping? Because obviously usually historically you have to be in the store to smell it. I think you just transported me back to 1997 when someone said to me but nobody would ever buy groceries on the internet because you have to squeeze the tomato.

4:31That was literally verbatim. I was told at scale that people would not buy food on the internet because you have to squeeze the fucking tomato. You know how much fragrance is sold on e-commerce sites? The fuck's the difference between an e-commerce site and live shopping? Zero from a negative standpoint. But on the flip side, doing fragrance and talking about it for three minutes and smelling it and having you smell and be like, oh wait, I like that. Don't you think that's going to sell it better than a photo? This is a profound opportunity for entrepreneurs, brands, individuals, and people are dragging their feet and some aren't and changing their lives.

5:12Hey 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. It'll make my mom super happy. Okay, we're gonna switch gears now to another article which is the conducting strategy. And this kind of did some research on it and it's getting a lot of attention, especially now with like nostalgia. and it's actually, I don't know if you already know this, but a term coined back to the 1950s. So it was like describing adults who were fans of superhero cartoon shows. And then those early kidults like caused television studios and etc.

5:48And it's now like billions of dollars in toys and games. There's like a whole industry, right? so just my question is like how can someone use this industry of conducting as like a business leader or like a business owner in their own business or how can they catch on to that there's a couple you know I keep talking about this barbell and I think I want to mention that so you can link it to anything where I've talked about it with the explosion of AI the explosion of analog I think the explosion of stress is gonna accelerate what's been going on. Again, I'm 50 years old. Right? Like, you guys know me.

6:35Like, I am lighter. I am more joyous. I am more play. I am more silly. I think I'm a preview and part of a group. Like, there are people who are more active and, like, do more stuff and go out more. that's called being social. I'm talking about condolting. I'm talking about more play. And I'm talking about more grown up play. I believe that sports has predominantly held that place for people. I believe concerts have, you know, you go to a concert I think we can all agree even seeing how you all reacted like as you grew up you're like wait a minute like I'm talking about this you might have thought this at 13 you might have thought this last week wait a minute like when my parents or grandparents go to a concert, they get a little silly.

7:25They're more like childish. I believe there's a lot more room for that to show up in companies and I think humans are gonna start yearning for it even more. Here's something we don't see. We don't see 50-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 60-year-olds playing tag. You don't really often see a 50-year-old, 40-year-old 60 year old playing hopscotch right you see it in sports you see a 50 year old playing dodgeball but you don't see tag you don't see hopscotch board games you're seeing a real rise I'd like you to do the homework on backing up this statement I think you're seeing a rise of adult board games you know there was cards humanity that thing but I think there's a lot more coming

8:18here's some what ifs I think I did this well in Crush It. This is exactly why I wanted people to read Crush It. You reading it and bringing up the back of the book, I think that's back to my purest form. It was one of my first pieces of content that mattered. Notice how I needed the PSs at the end. And look how profound those ended up being. So I want to start writing articles a little bit more from a perspective of not information, but more from a standpoint of, for example. So for example, from a business lens, Why is conducting interesting? I am in the restaurant business with VCR Group. Let's link that to VCR's website.

8:56I feel as I'm writing this article, I should pitch to my partners to open a new restaurant that is for 40, 50, 60 year olds, high-end restaurant that looks more like a arcade or a gym, like just as a joint, like an elevated version of like, you know, a kid's playground. Just more fun. Here's what I would call it. Board games and Bordeaux. It's a crazy wine list. Unbelievable stakes. And not like a bougie board game room like you see in a hotel. More light. More like Chuck E. Cheese in between a bougie hotel's game room and Chuck E. Cheese. So that it's condolting. So that when you walk in it's all 80's nostalgia and you feel your youth a little bit.

9:48It's why Stranger Things did well. More than people realize. You know, like nostalgia's underpriced. When you're stressed, when you're angry, when you're dealing with it, you try to, you gravitate to mental lanes of when it was better. And for a lot of us, it's better when you're a kid because you have no responsibilities. Responsibilities are daunting and challenging. You know, not everybody had a good childhood. That's not what I'm saying. So anyway, I just think the condolting theme. So I think collectibles is trading on it. I think 90s fashion is trading on it. Like I think there's a lot of things happening that I could use your help in putting more meat on it.

10:32But the business opportunity about condolting I think is quite real. And I think anything that goes into 70s, 80s, 90s culture and throwback has opportunity. Anything that's a little bit lighter, a little bit more play. I think in general, play is needed. I just, and in general, I'm using this article not only to talk about business, but I'm ending with a challenge to everyone of like, when's the last time you played? You know, if you do not do sports, the answer's never. And so like, if you do sports, can you do sillier things? Like, go play tag, not basketball. If you do play board games or like Scrabble or Mahjong, great.

11:18Like, go a little lighter. Like a true board game with eight people. Like, play. Play. We're the Hartford. With decades of experience insuring millions of unique small businesses, when it comes to your small business insurance, Thank you. one size absolutely does not fit all. Get a quote or find an agent today at thehartford.com slash smallbusiness. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.

11:57Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. You said something interesting. It's the stress and obviously there's stats, but people are lonely, anxious, depressed right now. Do you feel like that's really the underlying root of this and why people are seeking so much? I'm sorry? Do you feel like you mentioned stress at the top, like all the stress, anxiousness, depression, loneliness that's out there right now is like the key driver in addition to your, you know, what you talked about, you know, everyone's on the seeking the analog.

12:45Yeah, look, maybe on my tombstone it might say a quote that says, in life you find what you're looking for. It might be my biggest mantra. like if you're looking for play if like you're looking like think about it right now like literally I'm not even joking I don't know how good you are at this game I'm very good at it sit here for one second right now and make pretend that tonight at 7 o 'clock you and your absolute best friends or relatives that you know are going to play a game you'd be looking forward to it it's a Friday like and I mean like paintball And I mean like a race. And like anything.

13:32We're gonna all race each other and then we're gonna drink beers and talk. Like that's probably better than what you've got planned tonight.

13:42You know? Yeah. I think there's a lot more that goes on in childhood than we think. I think we think it's lack of responsibility and you don't know yet. I think it's because you're spending a higher percentage of your time doing play. Go ahead, Sam. Do you think that, so like I'm kind of introducing the third spaces. Yes, yes, yes. We don't have enough for that. Yes, that's exactly, and I would argue this is the emotional third space, not the physical, you know? Because by the way, Sammy, there's unlimited third spaces. Why do you feel like we need to buy into it? Because we're mentally not there.

14:24This is my point.

14:29Like, we think, because everything with humans is, let's put a band-aid on cancer. What, you think you're gonna have a third place and all of a sudden you're gonna be so joyous? If you're not going in mental, like, I'm going mental. It's play. It's community. It's what humans need. We need more laughter and more joy and we need to be around more people. You think it's by accident that I built a company that required unlimited amounts of human beings? You think I'm pumped about AI? I'm surely not. Like all the business people that are so excited that are gonna make so much more money and have half the employee.

15:10Like, I'm not excited about that. I'm trying to figure out how to have more people.

15:16This is the company I have and the brand I started is literally called V Friends. do you know that in NFT land, everybody created Hello Kitty? They created one character that has a million different variations and I created a world of 250 characters. This is all so in my subconscious and I get excited when I can make it conscious like I did now. So anyway, thank you. Gotta go. Hey everybody, 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.