Listen in on live Q&A from Gary Vaynerchuk (Part 1 of 2)
On this special episode of Marketing Secrets Podcast you will get to hear the first half of the Q&A section of Gary Vaynerchuk’s presentation at the viral video launch event. Here are some of the questions Gary answers:
So listen to this first half of Gary’s Q&A and tune in for the second half tomorrow.
---Transcript---
What’s up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome to Marketing Secrets. For the next two episodes I’ve got some exciting things for you. As you know we just got done with our viral video launch event, which turned out amazing. And our keynote speaker was Gary Vaynerchuk, and in his contract he said we are not allowed to stream nor share his presentation, but then he did the presentation and messaged me after and said, “That was probably one of the best presentations I’ve ever given.” I was like, “Sweet man, can I promote it on the podcast?” and he was like, “You know what, go for it.”
So that is what’s happening, so we actually have his presentation. The first 15-20 minutes of his presentation he kind of just rambled for a bit, but didn’t really have…. I think he was just trying to figure out what he wanted to talk about. And then he switched to Q&A for the next hour and a half. And Gary’s the kind of Q&A and it was really, really good.
So what I’m going to is, we pulled out the Q&A, so I’m going to do 45 minute episodes here for you. But for all of you, my fans and followers and people who listen to me, you know I keep my podcast nice and clean, I don’t swear or curse or anything, Gary does a lot. So I had my brother go through and bleep out all the bad words, so hopefully it will still be PG rated for all the kids at home. And that’s kind of the game plan.
So hopefully you enjoy this episode of the podcast, appreciate you all and have fun listening to Gary.
Audience member: My question is, I know you say it’s going to end all with robots killing everybody. Until then, what role do you think artificial intelligence and robots have and are going to have in the next 5 years in the marketing and digital marketing space?
Gary: Huge. Even in the 15 minutes that I’ve gotten a better taste of what these characters are up to, they’re going to love it. The math people are going to love it because machine learning and AI just do [expletive] that we shouldn’t be doing. It’s just efficiency. It’s going to have an enormous thing.
But the good news is there’s so much that we still can do. So basically how I think about ML and AI, at the pad, get me to [expletive] third and half base. And I’ll take care of the rest. And whatever AI can do for that, cool. And whatever low priced employees can do, cool. But everybody is spending way too much money to get to third and a half base and then the magic is the last part.
So that’s what AI’s going to mean for everybody here. There’s a lot of dumb [expletive] that people have assistants for or managers for, that’s nonsense. Zero value that the biggest AI companies in the world are going to get their nut off on.
Audience member: It’s really exciting to be here in this room with you and everyone here. This is awesome. I’m really…experiences that help people save time are awesome, I’m really interested in experiences that are time bending, help people lose time. The world’s most connective music festival where festival goers are connecting with each other like never before and with the artist and the artist with their fans. So in 2021, music festivals, connection, the best time of people’s lives, what do you see happening in the context of music festivals that you’re excited about and that you’re excited about creating?
Gary: If I dissect that right, a couple of things. One thing I’m super fascinated by that I would have never seen, by the way, I never spend any time predicting like voice….not predicting [expletive] that’s happening. What I think I’m good at is recognizing when it’s practically and then going pot committed right. Which means you’ll lose money for a couple of years and then get it. You don’t lose for 7 years and never get there.
The thing that’s been super fascinating to me, which I never would have thought, just [expletive] social media is making people do more [expletive] in real life. Like literally some dude is hiking right now just for the [expletive] Instagram photo. So what’s been amazing about music festivals is because everybody here now is not only themselves, but they’re the PR agent of themselves for what they’re putting out, people are going to more concerts than ever because of that whole dynamic.
I think what you’re alluding to is kind of like, what’s going to happen in society? Like in general, like mixed reality and things of that nature, you know it’s going to be funny. Technology is making music, going to music grow, and then it’s going to take it away, but I don’t think it’s as soon as 2021. But I think that right now a lot of music festivals are failing because they all have the same [expletive] acts and it’s just supply and demand.
So when you were first, 4, 5, and 6 years ago, you went and now there’s 87 micro festivals and big companies sign the same 13 artists and they’re [expletive]. So I think there’s a huge white space for the next generation of that. Like the people that the streets [expletive] with, and then I think ultimately it’s going to be interesting in general what happens when we live in a mixed reality world.
I think the big albatross, the only thing that’s going to break the internet is VR. But VR is quite a ways a way. Nobody here spends an hour on VR in a month, in real life. So we’re a long, it takes time. Behavior takes time. But eventually when we’re switching between completely virtual, like I don’t even see you guys right now, my contact lenses have me in Afghanistan. Switch it off, I’m right here. Switch it off and it’s AR and Santa Claus is sitting right there, you know, Santa. You know, that world I think is super interesting and is going to change all our businesses. Thanks man.
Audience member: Gary, you just came back from August and you said, I’m bringing YouTube Fire, new shows are coming out and you took the Ask Gary V. show to Facebook only. So what are your latest strategies and why for both YouTube and Facebook?
Gary: I think you have to make content that is native to the platform you put it out on. I’ve always thought about that, I [expletive] wrote a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook five years ago on this. I wasn’t doing that. So now that the Ask Gary V. Show is on Facebook watch, and the Daily V is on YouTube when DRock, whenever the [expletive]… DRock? Now I can say, “what’s up YouTube?” Where I couldn’t do that before. And those little nuances [expletive] matter.
All the action is in those little edges, so I broke them up mainly because of Facebook video. Now that there’s watch I’m fascinated. Any of you watch a show yet on Facebook Watch? Just raise your hands, just curious. Higher. So this intrigues me. Everybody here has to watch one. Not because, I don’t watch [expletive]. I’ve watched one, the Ball Family, because I just want to see what the [expletive] they’re doing. To me this is the most interesting thing that I’m doing that the good market isn’t. You’ve gotta taste everything. If you want to win and [expletive] there’s no way you’re [expletive] in Boise Idaho if you don’t want to win right now. I mean that.
When I think about who’s here, [expletive] these people are hungry. So to me, 19 hands, which means maybe 31 because people get shy, two weeks into Facebook Watch, haven’t watched. That’s it. That’s where I play. That’s my margin. That’s why I did it. Because I wanted to make it native, I have two active shows. I needed to do something on Facebook. And because I watched Facebook……actually [expletive] I’ll tell you, it’s not fully announced yet, but we’ll see how thing goes, but because I watched Watch, and I watched it for kind of four days in a row, looked and understood what the [expletive] they were doing, so I sent them an email, pitched them a show and they bought it.
So now I’ll have, kind of anybody can put a show on Facebook, a page, a Watch page, which everybody should be doing here. I’ll have my YouTube show and now I’m going to have a produced by Facebook show that’s going to get big even more, listen man. I talk and doing and hustling and all this, I just do so much more than I talk, which is [expletive] crazy because my mouth is always running, but I’m just doing. I’m doing, doing, doing because I’m tasting, I’m tasting. I never think I’m fancy.
So many people in here, I know you, so many people here make it a little bit and get fancy and stop doing the [expletive] that go them there. That’s the minute you’re [expletive] dead.
Audience member: I have a question, there’s a guy I follow online, you might have heard of him. His name’s Gary Vaynerchuk, and he told me to push all in on whatever it is that you’re good at. So I’m making this big push as Marshall Live, I’m going to everything live. Like straight to ask me questions, I love that aspect of your brand. So the question is, if everything’s moving to voice, is Live streaming podcast going to end up being bigger than iTunes, or a recording you can come back to?
Gary: so first of all, you said something interesting that we all do. If everything is moving to voice, nothing is everything. We will always have the written word. Do you know how much virility there is through long form written Facebook and instagram posts? If you’re sitting here and you can write, write long [expletive] posts on Facebook and Istagram and watch what the [expletive] happens. We’re humans, we’ve been around a long [expletive] time bro. Marshall, written word, audio, video [expletive] locked in. Got it?
It’s not like you’re going to lose it. [expletive] If you’re great at smoke signals, get the [expletive] up there. Communication doesn’t change, the pillars of communication are set. Where we communicate changes. And then you have to be contextual, right. Some people are incredible at making a 6 second video, I keep looking at him because it’s fun to see him and I haven’t seen him in a while. Others aren’t.
I can’t put two [expletive] sentences together in my life. I have 5 New York Times bestselling books because I have a ghost writer. Because I didn’t try to become a great writer when the blogging thing happened, because I bet on my strengths. I do believe everybody here should bet on their strengths and surround themselves with their weaknesses. I think, back to an earlier question, I think AI and machine learning is going to help a lot of us in here who are creative, close the gap on a lot of our weaknesses, which is going to be really awesome.
Audience member: I think a lot of people in here, using Clickfunnels or not, have kind of come into a lot more money than they have ever been used to making. In one of your previous sentences you said, “Yeah, you only care about money and all the sudden you’re 47…” But then you didn’t finish your sentence. I was hoping to hear you elaborate on that.
Gary: Sure. I’m sure a lot of people here who have come into money. It’s not as great as advertized for a lot of people. Some people love it. They like watches and lambo’s and houses and that [expletive] rad, mazel tov. Other people don’t, and you start questioning what the [expletive], right. Because when you’ve got nothing and you’re on the come up and you’ve got numbers in your head, whether it’s a million or 5 or 3, whatever the [expletive] it is, it’s [expletive] empty when you get there for a lot of people.
So you know, I’m just trying to make sure people are being thoughtful. Much like what I just said to Marshall, life is pretty simple. People play on legacy, family, money, there’s just a couple pillars, I just think in our space right now. I know a lot of you have heard me rant on this. I do think entrepreneurship has taken a turn towards club promotion. And that’s just dangerous. It’s just dangerous for the people that are going….I don’t give a [expletive], it’s dangerous because people need to realize they need to build a business, not a perception that they’re good at business.
When the market crashes, nobody’s going to Vegas with you when you work at Bank of [expletive] America. You know, I’m just trying to get people to be more thoughtful.
Audience member: Russell and you are two……Last year I was selling websites, I was getting really frustrated that I wasn’t helping people. It felt like they weren’t growing their sales, but they had a really nice site. So you guys inspired me to start a podcast, didn’t know exactly what for, but s
Gary: You’re like, “[expletive] it, those guys are doing it. I will too.”
Audience member: More along the lines of, I was listening to a podcast in the gym, host asks the other guy, “what would you tell your 20 year old self?” and the guy answered, “I would divorce my wife earlier.” I was super pissed off, I’m married with two young kids and wanted to have a podcast from a different perspective. So a year later, thank God, two weeks ago I got to publish my interview with Russell. I’ve had Dean Graziosi …..and so my question is, number one is how do you grow even further? And number two is not just for me, but anybody starting or in progress, what should your priorities be?
Gary: So let’s see here. You know, both of those things I can’t answer because you need to decide. First of all you have to define growing for me. Is growing being a top 50 podcaster? We all get into our micro gains, and by the way I think micro gains are good. Little short goals, micro. It’s kind of good. You scratch it, it’s fun for a little bit. I think you gotta have your macro point of view. If you’re telling me the truth, like you felt the conversations were going in the wrong directions and you wanted to go a different place, well the answer to your question is just do it every day until you’re dead. That’s my plan.
My plan is hopefully it gets me to this one little funny weird thing that I want to buy a football team. But other than that, my plan is to put out [expletive] for free that is historically correct, so I can continue to live the life I’m living which is, I made the money I wanted to make a long time ago, but getting 50, 60, 70 emails, 80 emails a day of people like, “[expletive] you helped me.” That’s just intoxicating. That’s what gets me off.
And by the way, I’m not sure that, I understand why that wouldn’t be meaningful to someone else. So you just have to do what you have to do for yourself. That’s how you grow, by consistency. You’re a year in, you grow when you’re 19 years into your podcast.
Audience member: More specifically, in terms of actual numbers and taking what you’ve done and now specifically on the number aspect of it, what do you recommend in terms of taking your platform and kind of skyrocketing numbers?
Gary: Buy underpriced attention. Whether that’s buying ads on Facebook and Snapchat right now because they’re underpriced. If that’s working with influencers, because many are still underpriced. Whether that’s taking the high risk of trying to make a ten to fifty thousand version of what you just saw, they’re incredible video. Because that one video can be your Dollar Shave Club of your brand.
Saying yes to everything. If you want it, if you’re hungry you do what I did which is 4 years ago, I didn’t jump into podcasting right away. The first two years I just went on everyone’s. I could have went to sleep at 11 pm or I could have went on Lewis Howes podcast at 11pm. That was a decision. It’s just about awareness. Where are the eyeballs? Just putting your time and effort into that. Some of it’s free, some of it costs money.
Audience member: Hey Gary. My first time seeing you, you’re honesty is so beautiful and it’s so wonderful listening to you. If someone was trying to build their brand and get a podcast and get more into Facebook and all these sort of things. What kind of tips do you have for building a powerhouse team around you to help you accomplish all these things?
Gary: First there has to be, stay here, first it has to be practical. So some people in here can afford people, other people can’t. So they either have to learn how to do it themselves by spending hours looking at YouTube videos on how to or read. Or finding people, we’re an incredible era right now. There’s so many kids 14-21 that want to be creators and think it’s cool to do it for free. You just need to test and learn.
Everybody’s over thinking. Just do. I don’t know, post right now. Literally right now, as soon as you sit down. Go on [expletive] whatever platform has the most, go on all of them and be like, I’m looking for a video and audio intern and see what the [expletive] happens. Again, I always tell people, watch what I do, not what I say. I know a lot of, there’s a good amount of people here that follow me, randomly out of nowhere…. I [expletive] tweeted today, “Does anybody make customizable retail floor mats?” I needed a retail floor mat. You do? Good. Do you do them for free in exchange for some awareness?
I would ask and then try somebody. The amount of people I’ve hired when it was early in something and I didn’t know if they were good or bad, I just thought it was much smarter to just do it and then figure out if it was working. And then I’m like, oh [expletive] they sucked. I’m just not scared to waste money or time and everybody’s petrified because you worry about what other people think about you. That’s why, if you’re curious. That’s the [expletive] answer. That’s [expletive]. That’s the [expletive] answer.
Your answer is so easy. How do you build a team? Hire some [expletive] people, bro. But it’s like, you’re like, I don’t understand. People are scared to get “had” because they don’t get it. Okay, put in a [expletive] load of time to learn the craft or bring someone in and watch what they’re doing carefully instead of outsourcing it and falling asleep because you’re all [expletive] income and I got a team doing (bleep, bleep, bleep) stupid. Got it?
Audience member: Hey Gary, my name is Jay and I run the Inner Changemaker podcast and I want to ask a question that goes a little deeper in what you’re saying in terms of sound and watching what you do. We’ve noticed that you’ve launched a couple other podcasts outside of Ask Gary V.
Gary: Within my experience? Like the brown paper bags and all that [expletive]?
Audience member: The brown paper bags, kind of like the 365 daily.
Gary: the 365 is on the Lexus skill, briefing excuse me. I’ve been doing sub-branding in my podcast because I’m testing to see if there’s traction and I’ll spin the amount and create new pillars.
Audience member: Okay, so I guess my real question is, where content creators started on one platform, for example I started an interview based show, you have a Q&A show…If you kind of have that urge to branch out……
Gary: Do it within the interview show because you have an audience there. Don’t worry that you may lose a couple of people. Like right now, as I’m sure everybody has seen, for two strategic reasons, out of nowhere I’m talking a lot more than I should be about wine. I’m doing it for a reason. There is no question that there are people unfollowing me because, “Yo bro, I [expletive] came here to [expletive] get pumped up because I have no [expletive] juice. What the [expletive] are you trying to sell me actual juice?”
But I don’t give a [expletive] because I’m playing a macro game, I don’t want to lose people from it. I’m sad, I don’t want to disrespect your attention and know what you came for. But I need to test something and this is what I have. So I think it’s better off for you to try it, because one, you may hit pay dirt. One thing a lot of people don’t realize is your numbers look good, but they’re disguising the fact that you’ve plateau’d and you’re tired.
So I think you try it within it, you take the risk of a little decline for enormous upside. Because you can always go back. Instead of starting a whole new thing that’s going to take energy. Got it?
Audience member: My name is Prince, I own a company called Art of Visuals, we have over a million content creators in 122 countries. You said something earlier about everyone from 14-22 wants to be a content creator, I absolutely agree with that and have tons of those people in my community. The problem is with there being so many content creators now, how do these content creators, how do they create a business? How do they make money when they have thousands of people doing it for free etc.
Gary: By being better. Guys, it’s supply and demand. And then once there’s too much supply, you have to be the best. Just move onto the next thing. I bought every Google Adwords of every wine term for 5 cents a click the day it started. That was good. Then everybody jumped on and they started becoming $2, $3, and $4 words and it became different. I had to be better, I had to be more crafty.
Then what I started doing, was the day the wine spectator would come out with good scores, we would buy that exact wine, that exact vintage, that became our new albatross for a year or two before everybody caught up. When a market is mature you’ve got to better.
Audience member: Do you think it’s good enough just to be a content creator, or do you think these content creators need to also have products and other things that they’re pushing as well?
Gary: If you’re [expletive] Steven Spielberg, you probably could end up just being a content creator. But if you’re like Sal, you’ve got to consider other revenue streams. It’s just very basic business. Supply and demand, Prince. 4 years ago there were people that landgrabbed, they were good and they were first. It’s just real estate. If you were the people that bought Malibu beachfront property first, you won. You won, you made money. But there was a reason you were the first. It wasn’t [expletive] Malibu yet, Prince. Now people who buy Malibu beachfront properties, they’re just better.
So all those kids, that they’re going to aspire to be the next this, they’ve got a rude awakening. To be the next this, you’ve got to be 5 times better. It’s evolution. When people debate these athletes versus other, these athletes would destroy every athlete from every other generations. Because they work out 24/7 now. They have data now. It hurts my feelings too that my childhood…..they would get [expletive] destroyed. Lebron would step on people’s heads in the 80’s. People don’t get it. It’s [expletive] evolution.
Audience member: I don’t really have an ask for you. I’ve watched your stuff a ton, I just want to say thank you for giving me the permission to pursue my passion and now do what I love everyday and spend time with my family and make things. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say thank you, because I don’t know if I’ll ever see you. If you ever want to play bubble hockey, I’ll destroy you. I know that say that you…..
Gary: Are you filming this? Where do you live….First of all
Audience member: I live here. There’s a spot right down the street I can take you to play. I’m a winner in Boise, Idaho Gary.
Gary: That’s going to happen now. It’s so crazy. You’re funny, you’re smart, you know me. You know that now I’m getting….now I’m blacked out and want to destroy your face. But the only, what’s more interesting though, your [expletive] whalers hat is [expletive] me up because I’m like, man he’s got a Hartford Whalers hat, this team hasn’t been in the league for 20 [expletive] years, he probably is awesome at bubble hockey.
I’m going to do something for real, based on what you just said. I want you to come to Vayner media for a day, I’ll pay for your flight and hotel and during that day we’ll play bubble hockey and we’ll see what’s up.
Audience member: Hello Gary, I first want to say thank you to both you and Russell. You two are kind of like the Jesus of marketing and branding. I come from a poor country, Dominican Republic, and if it wasn’t for you two, I wouldn’t be here. So I just wanted to say thank you.
So my question is what are you doing in other languages? Because right now, my main language is in Spanish and I see a blue ocean. Russell’s always talking about a blue ocean, and other language is ridiculous, the blue ocean that there is. Marketing, fitness, whatever it is, you name it, the ocean is blue. So I want to know what you’re doing because I’m going balls deep into Spanish.
Gary: What I’ve been doing over the last 6 months, I’ve poured an ungodly amount of money into infrastructure to transcribe all my content into a ton of languages and pay distribution in them. I’m spending an enormous…I’m going to Singapore, which is my second trip to Asia in the last 3 months. I’m going to mainland China in January, I’m going to India in February. I’m spending an enormous amount of time, and I’ll spend millions of dollars next year just on the transcription and distribution of the content that I’m natively making in America in the English language. So a solid amount.
Audience member: Okay, there is also influence marketers in other language. It’s cheap in English, in Spanish is pennies on the buck.
Gary: Again, because I just can’t. I miss him, I haven’t seen him. I remember when Jerome and I, I was like, “Jerome you need to go and [expletive] figure out who these [expletive] influencers are in Mexico because even in music right now, there’s so many.” I’m spending a lot, maybe you guys are paying attention because I love hip hop, I’m spending more time with these artists, I keep telling them that, “you need to go down to south America. There are so many artists there that are really popping, you have the leverage because the brand of America. They’re much bigger artists than you, but you’re America. So you’re automatically bigger than them.” I mean it’s very…..I totally agree.
Audience member: Gary, Caleb Maddix’s dad, I want to thank you personally for your impact in his life. Between you and Russell Brunson, seriously. I mean, coming from a dad, there’s no way I can repay you. The character that you’ve taught him, I thank you for that. I have a two part question. One, you gave him some advice last time you were with him about patience, and I hear you talk about that a lot. And I want to know as a dad, can you expound a little bit more on that. And I’ll wait til you answer that, and I have one more part about that.
Gary: you know it’s super fun for some of us in this space. We’re literally watching your son grow up. I literally just saw him like, [expletive] dude, you don’t look 14 anymore. Now he’s hanging around with all these [expletive] faces. So he’s going to get into trouble. Like patience is important because he’s got more swag now. He’s sneaker game is stronger. He’s going into that time of his life where dumb [expletive] decisions are going to be made because he’s making decisions to make short term cash because he’s trying to arbitrage it for other things in his life.
Why do I preach patience? Because it’s the only thing that keeps people away from being straight (bleep, bleep)holes.
Audience member: That’s good. I like it. So what did your dad do? You talked about….
Gary: I didn’t have my dad in my life. I luckily still have my dad in my life, but I didn’t know my dad until I started working at the liquor store. My dad left before I woke up and came home after I slept. As a matter of fact, it’s probably funny how I feel about you guys, it’s fun to watch because I didn’t have that. But what my dad did do for me, ironically, is because I have that kind of salesmanship and charisma, I was completely full of [expletive].
I would be, everything I make fun of subtly, I would be if it wasn’t for my dad. Because at 14-15 I went into that liquor store, and you walk into…it was called shoppers discount liquors back there. I was 14 years old, I looked 9. You’d walk in and be like, “Do you have this product?” and I’d be like, “Yeah we have…” Because I was already full sales kid, I’m like, “We have that product.” But I knew we made more money on this one, I was like, “But this one’s better. I have it.” It was phenomenal, I’m 14.
People are like, “you have it.” I’m like, “Yeah, it’s my dad’s store. I taste it.” I don’t think I…..talk about making [expletive] up, I don’t think I said a real thing once. So my dad took me and taught me that. My dad thinks embellishing is straight lying and he suffocated me over a three year period. That really changed the course of my life. And I think a lot of my success comes from, I have all the skill sets of that character, but between being old country and really my dad not allowing me to be that guy. So that’s what he did for me.
And I think that’s what you, as a dad, you need to just keep watching him evolve and when he goes into territories that you think are historically incorrect, not new ideas and doing new [expletive]. No, tried and true [expletive] human dynamics that win and lose. That’s how you try to guide it.
Audience member: One more if you don’t mind. I’m sure a lot of these people probably have kids as well. So your dad was a powerful business man, and you had a lot of ideas and passion at a young age. What did he do to not…how did you guys balance that? Was that decision of him making you stop selling baseball cards to come work in the liquor store, was that the right decision? Would you do that for your kids? I’m only asking out of curiosity because when I hear that I’m just very curious about it.
Gary: I get it, it’s a tricky one man. First of all, we’re an insular family. We’re an immigrant family. We didn’t know [expletive]. There was no internet. We didn’t know anything. We literally just thought when you turn 14 you go work at the store. We were merchants. You know people like that, you know that cliché story. It’s just what it was. It was my 14th birthday, it was [expletive] time.
My D’s and F’s in school weren’t helping me with any compelling reason that I could get out of it. As far as how we did it, we [expletive] fought. I fought for every inch I had and then I got lucky. What happened was, when I came from college, my dad had saved up a lot of money through these years and started building a dream house for him and my mom. And he took that year off, and he was just not around. And that year I took the business from 3 to 10 million in sales. And that was the end of the debate.
Audience member: My name is Sarah, I’m really enjoying your speech so thank you. I was wondering, in retrospect, you’ve built a brand around yourself and your name, is that what you would recommend looking forward? Or rather more of a brand around a brand?
Gary: I think you have to do both if you’re going to build it around yourself. Because what you’re alluding to is you can get pigeon holed and you can live or die by the person. I think a lot of people forget with me, I built my library first, Gary V. came later. So it’s not like I went the Caleb route per se, I didn’t come up with the game. I know how to build….I’m serious, it’s a little [expletive] up now, I don’t think I could pull it off, but I kind of want to….
Actually, you just inspired me Sarah. I’m going to build a 25 million dollar business in the next three years, that nobody knows is mine, just to remind everybody for myself, because I’m weird like that and I need it, that I build businesses. Now, let me promise everybody in this room one thing. Fame is the number one arbitrage in our society. Fame, it’s not Snapchat ads, not being the first result on Google. Fame, full brand awareness is the number one arbitrage. So I built my brand as a bus-dev machine.
Audience member: Sure. Well, I’m glad I can inspire you. Let me know if you need a goalie in your bubble hockey.
Gary: I might, he’s wearing a Whalers hat, I’m scared.
Audience member: Hi Gary, I’m Rachel, that was cool for a second and then it wasn’t. So I’m the mom of two young daughters, I’ve got a third on the way and it’s awesome. Being a parent is obviously quite challenging as an entrepreneur. You talk a lot about what you were taught through entrepreneurship through your dad’s mistakes and successes and you’ve had a lot of success as an entrepreneur.
So for your…you have two kids right? What are the three main things that you hope that they get out of life and how are you going to instill those three principles into them?
Gary: The biggest reason I’m obsessed with entrepreneurship is it’s the clearest and most obvious thing that allows you to do the following. Which is do what you want to do today. Waking up and being able to do whatever the [expletive] you want to do is incredible. So the only thing that I want for my kids through that standpoint is the ability to do what they want to do everyday.
Now what scares me about that, they’re probably going to have that no matter what because they’re going to inherit extreme wealth. So much so that I’ve been having feelings……I used to make fun of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in my head of like, “you’re going to donate 99% of your money?” It’s funny, you talk [expletive] until you live [expletive].
Now I’m like, [expletive] I don’t want to give these kids (bleep, bleep) that. Because rich kids have a huge disadvantage because when I wanted Sega Genesis in 1989, my mom’s like, “cool, go get it.” You know, when I wanted to go to a Knicks game I had to sell baseball cards [expletive] in [expletive] sit in the [expletive], you know [expletive] top row [expletive] Carmello’s coming over my Hampton’s house to play with Zander. It’s [expletive] up.
So I don’t know what. Here are the things I give a [expletive]. Number one, more than anything, and I will kill them, murder, go to jail. They have to be kind. Kindness is the most important. Number two if I ever see them, even an inkling, even an innuendo, even a subtle little joke of imposing my or my wife’s wealth on somebody else because they think they’re part of that, I will break their [expletive] neck.
And then number three, I will not raise them in the politically correct environment we live in now. They know there is no such thing as fourth place trophies or participation prizes. Now if they want to be non profit. They’re going to look at daddy’s mountain and they’re like, “[expletive] that.” Or they’re may be, do what I do. “My dad’s seems big, mine’s going to be a hell of a lot bigger.” Other people have made it bigger than me and kids have done this, they’re going to look at that and they’re going to say, “[expletive] that. I’m going the other way. I’m building schools in Afghanistan.” Or they’re going to be like, “[expletive] it, I’m going to climb that mountain. I’m going to stick it to big mouth.”
I don’t care. I don’t need my kids to be entrepreneurs. I just need them to be as lucky as…..my mom, I got D’s and F’s. Every immigrant got good grades in the 80’s. There’s a couple of people a little older here, there was no entrepreneurship, school. Good school. That was it. My mom spit in the face of all those parents that made fun of my D’s and F’s and gave me ear cover to be me and it really [expletive] worked out. Not only for me, but the world became it.
If my kids want to paint in tomato sauce, I will back them to the earth’s end, as long as that’s really why they’re doing it. Not because they’re doing something to run away from something. Just blind support as long as they’re kind.
Audience member: And the last thing I wanted to say is I’m going to buy the Minnesota Vikings, so I’ll see you in the owner’s club.
Gary: No, no, no. Superbowl. Jets, Vikings 2047, I’ll see you there.
Audience member: My question is about time. You’re an angel investor in 100 companies, you have books and an 800 person agency and a family. It’s unreal to watch how much content you’re putting out. How do you choose between the thousands of startup pitches you’re getting and which interview to do or which speaking events to do? There’s just so much.
Gary: It’s 100% blind belief in my intuition. You know this. Everyone’s hustling. Eventually you lose, eventually you don’t have enough time to do the opportunity, so you’re crippled by opportunity. You just have to go that route; otherwise you’re going to spend all your time thinking about the process to make the best decision. And you’re going to waste being able to do four things that would have included the two things you’ve been debating for the last [expletive] day.
So just the belief in my intuition. And then lots of making fun of yourself. This one’s a perfect example. I have to, talk about time, my son has a birthday now, he’s an august birthday, I didn’t realize it was this Saturday, and I think it actually came after we booked this, but all the money from this talk is going into the [expletive]. I was originally going to go to Seattle, now I have to take a private plane out to…. I just [expletive] it up. And the whole day I’m just complaining, I’m like “I’m a [expletive] idiot.”
So you’re not always going to make it right. You’re always going to play micro/macro, but I think everybody’s saying no. Everybody’s saying no to [expletive] because they think they’re being thoughtful or they’re smart. You know how many people are saying no that aren’t even fancy enough to say yes yet? So I just say yes, man. A lot.
Audience member: Great to meet you. I have a two part name, Frank Jay. I want to appreciate you and your dedication, your consistency and your communication. We own a company called International Tribe design where we bring a style of communication, which is very simple but yet rare in this society, which is honesty and authenticity. I feel like you embody this. And I feel like a lot of us entrepreneurs, well at least for me, it was like shall I present myself strategically or authentically? What I want to ask you, the first part of the question. What do you think sells more influences more people, authentic honesty, or strategic marketing, neurolinguistic program and communication?
Gary: I think in the short term it’s a real battle. I think either could win. I think in the 30 year macro, the radical candor authentic way always wins. And the thing that [expletive] with people is a lot of people can win on strategic, you’re being very politically correct. A lot of people can win on bull[expletive]. Play it out for four years, get out of the game with their chips and win. Not a lot of people can though. But then once you know of one of those examples, it sounds exciting, because it’s a [expletive]load easier.
Audience member: and what do you think the future is for collaboration versus competition? So what we’re all about is collaboration, let’s bring us all together. I think we can all do great things as a team.
Gary: I think both will work. Competition matters, I want to destroy [expletive] Whaler hat, I wanna kill [expletive]. I want to kill Viking’s girl. Competition matters. Zenning this all out, but I’ll tell you in real life, Terroga five. David Terroga, phenomenal business man, has an incredible angency, he’s going to get his. Let me tell you one thing that a lot of you are making mistakes because you’re saying [expletive] behind people’s backs. You can’t stop winners from winning. Winners win.
I don’t remember when it became obvious to me, but it’s unbelievable. If I see a winner, I’m like, she’s a winner. It’s binary, even if she’s taking David Terroga. Winning in my world alongside Vayner Media, I’m pumped. I’m happy for him. Because if you’re also a winner, you’re going to always eat. Winners win. A lot of people see somebody who’s a winner and they’re not there yet, or they feel like they’re taking away from them and they’re talking [expletive] and really all that’s doing is exposing where you’re at. It’s unbelievable.
I hang out with a lot of people, people start yapping a little. I’m like, winners win. So unless you’re doing something really not noble or something of that nature, winners win. So I think that I collaborate with other winners that take from me. Complex and vice and they’re going to win. You’re not going to stop a winner. So keep that in mind. I think that’s something that does hold back this competitive, driven, hungry demo more than you might realize. Envy is stupid. It’s just not practical. I just don’t spend any time on it. Why? I don’t know.
Audience member: Gary, great to be here with you man. Seriously, it’s been about three years since you came across my Facebook feed, you were talking to some millennial kid and you just owned him, and you just had me hooked from that moment. But a couple of things, you talked about….
Gary: I apologize. I’m really anti the downplay of millennial kids, and I don’t think that’s what you’re doing, but I just figured I’d put it on film. I’m 42, there were plenty of lazy losers, entitled [expletive] when I was 22 too. This notion that millennial’s, millennial’s are first and foremost dramatically better human beings that the other generation, it’s actually not even close and you can’t be mad at them. The market, this has nothing to do with millennials, and over parenting. This has to do with economics, the last nine years have been phenomenal. We haven’t had a crash…..
How many people here are under 29? Raise your hand. You’ve never tasted the game when it was hard. You’ve never been punched directly in the [expletive] mouth yet. You don’t wake up like I did in April of 2000 and the market collapse and every invoice and every order is over. You don’t know what it feels like when the corporations that want to give you $10,000 for a selfie, don’t spend money anymore. It gets a little harder to be an influencer when there’s no cash in the system.
So I’m not mad at millennials, I’m mad a people’s not understanding of why. They’re awesome human beings because they’re far more rounded and they just had it good. That’s not their fault. We could have had that. I got into the world in New Jersey 2000 [expletive] got [expletive] on. 9/11 got [expletive] on. 2007 got [expletive] on. So I’ve tasted that. Just keep that in mind. And by the way, the reason I told that story, please keep in mind that the economy has been phenomenal for the last 9 years. A lot of the good is coming for you because of what’s happening at a macro level. You’re just average. I’m being serious. I’m not saying that to razz. I’m saying that to make you reflect so you can step up your game so that when the [expletive] ravage comes, you don’t die. So good, you got a little zing that you’re average, but now you can actually stay alive and not go [expletive] work, or go back to business school. Sorry, bro.
Audience member: I didn’t know that was going to take it on that course. So you talk about how companies are kind of behind the 8 ball on the whole social media, Facebook marketing, it’s how it’s a good value right now. Are you starting to see that trend diminish and when do you see that being not a value, Facebook?
Gary: As soon as math and art combine to not be valuable. Like on television. Meanwhile the Superbowl is the best…anyone who’s got 20 million throwing around, run a Superbowl ad this year. The problem is they’re 7, it’s only 7 for the ad, which is phenomenal, but the network makes you buy some other [expletive]. That’s where it get’s [expletive] up. But Superbowl is an incredible value.
I don’t know, I’m stunned that these big companies that I work with, still question it’s ROI and want to run commercials and billboards. It’s so fun to watch them all go out of business over the next 20 years, they deserve it. I can’t wait. Seriously.
Audience member: Last thing is you mentioned political correctness and your kids, which is awesome and I think that’s what everyone loves about you, you just say what’s on your mind. I think we could all take a page out of that book of just being pure honest. With this crazy climate, with the whole Google guy that got fired from there, the whole ESPN thing. How do you see this political correctness and what do you do to mitigate that in your company?
Gary: It’s a really good question Rob, and it’s a really tough one. A couple of things. Number one, I said to something the other day that finally articulated how I feel about all of it. I said to a friend, “[expletive] people, there’s only one place in my life where I’m not logical or practical, American Football. Against all data, I think that the Patriots are cheaters and Bill Belichik is a terrible guy and even though Tom Brady is clearly, and I’ve spent money on investigative journalism, he’s the nicest human being ever, I still say things like, he left his pregnant wife for Giselle. He’s a piece of [expletive].” I will do anything blindly.
Even talking right now, the chemicals in my body are different. I feel it. I hate them so much. I really want Bill Belichik to die. You know it’s funny. I wonder if people think I’m going for… I want it. So cool. We’ve established that.
I’m clearly irrational, over emotional, not logical and just the worst version of myself in that one narrow place. There are people who are fans of me who have DM’d me or have tweeted that I’m a bad guy. I’ll yell at children at games. I’m not joking. You know how people get beer muscles? You know that term? You drink and then you want to fight. I have sports muscles. I go to a game and even though everybody would probably be able to beat me up, I want to fight you because I want to fight you because it feels better than feeling the pain of your team beating mine.
Like a week ago I realized, holy [expletive], that’s how blindly everyone is about politics. You’re either red or blue and you deploy no logic, no rational, you are blindly emotional, you have no idea what the [expletive] you’re talking about and that’s it. We’re about to turn every issue into a political….how the [expletive] is climate a political….what are we doing here?
So I have a huge office in New York and LA. 84% of my employees are liberals. 84, right. So I have liberal points of view all day long. The thought of hating anybody or disliking another human being for any reason, other than maybe being a patriot, is insane to me. Insane to me, insane to me. But I have clearly republican….an 8th place trophy is why China is going to [expletive] on us with such a big [expletive] dump that we’ll never be able to breathe again.
How I handle is one by one. It’s very hard. You cannot handle this at a macro right now, because our society is on tilt. That’s how I do it.