Why Positioning Yourself as a Production Company is Your Biggest Opportunity

Make sure you don't become too transactional, because that's when you become your most vulnerable. This is the GaryVee audio experience. Thank you guys so much. Super pumped to be here. Quick little six hour flight, this keynote, and take a red eye home tonight, so hustling. Look, I think there's a lot that I want to cover. I see the mics here, so I definitely want to do some Q&A during this talk as well. I've been getting some context to the audience makeup, and so obviously a very entrepreneurial crowd. There's a lot going on. It seems like a good amount of you have some context for me. I'm sure some of you don't. But what I really want to speak about is really just the current state of things, right? Like the thing that I think will index for anybody in this room, whether today's your first day, or you've been in it for a while, whether you're in a B2B environment, a B2C environment, trying to build your personal brand, trying to sell homes, trying to start an app. Whatever it may be, I want to really kind of go on the things that I see that are happening that will bring the most value, and that I think through Q&A will go into the stuff that brings more individual value, and I encourage you to be selfish when you get up here and ask your questions. I think the place to start with a healthy mix here of young faces, and some that are not as young, along with my face that is not as young, is the following, which is for the 20-year-old crowd, and here the early 30-year-old crowd, there's a lack of context of realizing how special the environment we are in is, because it's the only one you've ever known. This is what you've grown up in. You've grown up in this environment. You've grown up with the internet, and there's a lack of understanding of how ridiculously big this is. On the other hand, the people that have been successful over 10, 15, 20, 30 years, there's an understanding that all this new stuff is different, but there is the cliche fear and curiosity versus the tried and true that is super interesting. And so for me, the thing that I want to really drill home in my opening statements is the following. I really need this audience to understand that we are obnoxiously fortunate to be in this position, right this minute, because actually this is fun, because I know there's a lot of real estate DNA here. I genuinely view what's happening on the internet right now, similar to when some of the great cities, somebody bought up New York for fucking nothing. And when I mean nothing, I mean dollars. Not millions or a hundred. There was human beings who actually bought, and I don't even know, this is where I wish I did a little better in school, but like the Louisiana purchase was a fucking steal. And I actually genuinely think that that's what's happening on the internet right now. Now I think it's 10 years in, the consumer internet that I'm passionate about is really only 20 years old. It was really Windows 95 that got normal people to figure out how to get onto the internet. It was AOL, right? It's really only 20 years. But the web 2.0 into social media internet is really only a decade old. And I think everybody here now, whether it's the presidential election or Brexit or the Arab Spring, or something that happened in your family amongst eight people, I think everybody realizes now, unlike a decade ago when I was talking about this, that this is big shit. That this is not some little cable TV extension of main TV. This is not some fad, you know, that's going to be a round for a little bit. This is the fundamental shift of how human beings interact with each other, which is the currency of our lives. And so I guess the thing that I'm trying to frame up for a lot of you right now is, I don't think this room, including myself, actually understands how big of an opportunity this is in whatever you care about. You sit in this room as I do today, caring about business aspects of your life. But this goes far beyond that. I mean, we're in a world now where just 10 years ago, if you did online dating, you were reared in awkward and lived in your mom's basement. And now, and now it's the only way people do it. Like, we need to understand how big this really is, because when you start understanding that this is oxygen, that this is oxygen, that this in its current form and soon contact lenses, when everything is virtual reality or AI, or wherever it goes, that this is our currency. Literally, so many of you would struggle to function without your cell phone by your side. You would not realize the detox that you would actually go through if you didn't have your phone. You run to the Apple Store. Run to the Apple Store when you lose or break your phone. You cry for the four-hour delay that you have to wait. So, and by the way, many of you are gonna sit as I say this right now and think it's sad. I don't. I think it's evolution. I don't think it's sad. I really don't. I think it's nothing. I think it's the thing. I think people thought a lot of things were sad, like the television and the telephone and the car. People thought things were sad always when it wasn't what they grew up with, right? There's people that said, you know, they always think it's not important until it becomes mainstream. I grew up on the East Coast. Hip hop wasn't supposed to be a real thing. It is the main currency now. Like, this is what always happens with humans. And so I tell you all of this because I can get into the details of, what do you do on direct message on Instagrammer? What does it take with work-life balance and work ethic and how do you do Facebook ads? And all the cliche shit that I know you're gonna ask me? But before, but before, (audience laughs) but before we get into that, I really wanna get everybody, I feel like if the one thing I can do for everybody, if you leave here and realize that this is all just the beginning, that it's never going back, that it's way bigger than you think. I mean, I have people email me every day selling eight million dollar homes from one Facebook ad. Like, this is real. Like, this is, we're here. Like, this is not coming. This is not your 14 year old daughter. This is now. This is happening right now. And if you haven't, there are people in this room that haven't fully committed to being relevant in the mobile device for their business, they're basically not relevant. They're trading on the history of what got them here. You're trading on the word of mouth of the people that you've done business with in the past, but that do windows every day. And if you have any interest, how many people in this room are actually retiring in the next five years? And I don't mean you're going to fucking crush it and buy an island. (audience laughing) I mean, you're just fucking old and you're finished. (audience laughing) How many people? Five years, raise your hands. Love it. Five, got one, two, great. For you, it's an interesting debate, right? Can you hold on to what got you here for the next five, kind of hold on to it? It'll be diminishing returns of attention and things of that nature. There'll be other young upstarts that activate against the opportunities. But for five years, even though that's a long time, I actually think all the stuff that I believe in the most, you could probably hold on, right? For everybody else, this is binary. You're basically in the same position right now that every person that owned a bunch of taxi medallions and black car services did the day before Uber started. For everybody else in this room, except for those two lovely people, who by the way, both look pretty fucking good and I'm not so sold or completely done in five. (audience laughing) For everybody else, you're basically the owner of four very good bookstores in your town, the day before Amazon decided to get serious. Your entire life, regardless of industry, over the next decade, will be eaten up by technology and either you're on the eating side or you're on the other side. And I don't think most people here want to get shit it out, right? (audience laughing) Right? And so for me, for me, this is not fun games. This is like really important because you have to understand, regardless of what you do in this room, regardless, there's only one thing I'm sure of. We all trade on the same currency and that is attention. Attention is the number one currency in our society. Before you tell me how great you are at what you do or how great your service is or what you do or how nice you're fucking dressed because this crew rolls that way. (audience laughing) Before you do that, you need my attention to even be able to tell me that. And if you don't have it, you fucking lost. And the attention of our society is right here. And you may think it's sad and you may not like it, but it's the punchline. And the romance of how you want it to be or how it used to be is fucking irrelevant. This is reality. So now, I say to myself, if we all agree that this is int, right, that this is the dominant place for the attention of our consumers. Well, then you got to start looking at social media super differently. Because social media, my friends, takes up 50% of every human being's time on this. And now, all of a sudden, it's not just a nice to have or this emerging kind of thing or kind of cute. Now, all of a sudden, it's the yellow pages and the billboards and the bus stop ad and the direct mail and the local commercial. And the TV show, if you're lucky to be one of those four realtors and all of it in one place. And here's where it gets crazy. There's no gatekeepers. There's nobody in between you and the person you're trying to reach on this platform except the platforms itself, which is why Facebook's such a big company. Got it? And so, this is a mindset shift. I recognize that 20 to 80% of this room is not pot committed to this environment. Even the most committed young players, and why is it young just real quick? Young mentality. It's not an age thing. There's a bunch of 27-year-olds running around like it's 1942. And there's a bunch of 61-year-olds that fucking try everything and they're fucking pot committed. This is a mentality. So, 20 to 80% of the people in this room, to me, they're just not pot committed. And for me, when I know something's happening, Google in the early days, which built Wine Library, Facebook and Instagram influencers right now, you know, I'm not a poker player, but I do know this. If you have the best hand, it's a good idea to go all in. And so, we have a little window here. I've been doing my thing for 20 years, not forever, but long enough to know this. I've only seen it twice. 2001 to 2003, Google, which oh, by the way, Amazon and eBay built their entire businesses on the back of Google. Underpriced attention. Everything still works. Somebody raised their handgun lined up. Gary, I do direct mail and it works. It's a puzzle, tofric. I know that it can still work. And I just also know that you can do Facebook ads as direct mail and convert four times more. So, you spend $10,000 for X, and I can spend $10,000 for four X's. It's not about what does it work or works anymore. It's what's underpriced and what's overpriced. Television commercials can work. It's just not fun to spend a million dollars on them today compared to 1974 when we didn't have remote controls and actually fucking watched them. So, this is what I think about. This is what I trade on. And we all know it's going only in one direction. The number one job, dream of every 13 to 16 year old in America is to be a YouTuber, end-door, and influencer. That is literally what they want to be in their lives. This is now over. That's it. The amount of people that don't have cable is staggering. The amount of people that will never get to page 106 in a magazine to see your ad is staggering. Your car is going to drive anywhere you want to go for you. It's happening now. This isn't coming. Get a new Tesla. Shit does it all of it. Like, this is real. And so, what I don't think people know, and why I brought up the five-year question, is if you think back to 10 years ago, we're just getting the first iPhone. Yeah, guys, 10 years ago, none of this shit existed. YouTube and Facebook are babies and are like, for very small niches. We don't have smartphones yet. Like, where do you think this is going? So, what I'm fearful of is while you can sit and debate if you should be doing Facebook or Instagram influencers or Snapchat or have a blog or sort of blog or do a podcast, while you sit and debate this minor leagues shit, which is right now the major leagues. The majors are coming. What are you going to do about Alexa skills when people like Alexa, I want to go to open houses and Alexa tells you which open houses you're going to. And if you're not playing there, where are you? 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. Don't make my mom super happy. Right? Like, where are you? Because what I'm most worried about is I'm worried about all of your digital DNA. If you're pushing them against this shit, you're really going to get ran over in the next decade. You'll never be good at augmented reality if you weren't good at Facebook. I'm right. I'm right. I mean, like, how are you ever going to be ready for the next shit if you're still fighting this and like super pumped to like spend your money on a fucking bench ad? So I guess where my energy is clearly going since I never really know what the fuck I'm going to talk about is, is I think the stakes are higher than you think. And I think that when you wake up in three two years and see that Ralph Lauren Polo has gone out of business. And when you wake up in two or three years and see that, you know, the game stop is out of business. Like when you start seeing it and you're seeing it, right? And you could feel it. I mean, any of you that are, have you been to a mall lately? I mean, shit is sad. Right? And like, and what does happen? There's a lot of youngsters in here. Let me go into a 15 year innovation talk. What does happen when we have self-driving cars? And we actually enjoy our commutes. And all of a sudden, prime real estate is not as prime as it used to be because all of a sudden, now on 15 minute commute, when you can do everything in it, all of a sudden becomes a more interesting thing for humans to do. You guys know macro trends. The cities in this country over the last 30 years were dead and they resurged over the last decade because the youth is more interested in living in the cities because the dynamics have changed. What happens when people actually figure out it's not a good idea to own a home? Because the math is super intriguing and the game's changing. And so I really want to push everybody to understand this is big stakes. This isn't how am I going to build my personal brand on Instagram, Gary? I don't give a fuck, Ralph. Do you actually understand the era that you're living through? This is the industrial revolution. This is getting electricity. This is big shit. And this is big shit, not only in your business life, but in the dynamics of who we are. All this stuff going on wherever you are on politics, this is not him or her. This is the dynamics of media in our society. This is the dynamics of all of us having media 24/7. This is what's happening. We're about to change. And so bringing it back to the micro business, that means a lot of money is about to be made and a lot of money is about to be lost. And what I haven't figured out is how many of you are willing to draw a line in the sand and say that you hate all this technology stuff and aren't willing to put in the 20 hours to read and watch videos to educate yourself out of your raw emotion when it's going to wipe you out. And I think that's awesome. I think you deserve to go directly out of business if you're not willing to put in the work. I do. If you're wrong about what's about to happen and you want willing to put in the work, you deserve to lose. And so that's what's going to happen. And so I would say this, please, please understand that this is the beginning. We are definitely, definitely going to live at this point in my opinion in an augmented reality world, which means what you see happening with Snapchat and Instagram where you have your face and then puppies and fucking cacchella things and all that stuff. That's about to go super far. You're all going to wear contact lenses in 20 years where you're seeing the real world, an augmented world and a virtual world on an everyday basis blended always and forever. That's what's coming. And so look, I'm just as pissed as everybody else. And I'm not looking forward to the robots killing all of us. But they're going to win. And so we might as well enjoy our time now. And I'd like you to be on the side of it instead of against it. I'm not super special. The reason I'm going to win at the highest levels is I don't fight reality. I'm brutal in my complete lack of romance of how it should be and my complete investment into how it actually is. Right? And that's the right. Guys, do you know how pissed I was that social media came along? I had digital media figured out. I was winning on email and Google AdWords. Like I won. Like it was devastating. I was like, fuck, this is going to work. You know? And by the way, and you're going to see it, you'll watch 53 year old me completely be obsessed with V.R.A.R.A.I. or whatever else that is about to be invented. I have no idea that I'm going to believe your attention will be. And you're all gonna actually see it. The first time nobody knew who I was. This time I'm so associated with this stuff. When you see me in seven years and whatever the Facebook feed of the day is, and the video's gonna be like, you're still doing Facebook, you fucking asshole? (audience laughing) And you're gonna be like, what? Isn't that what he believes in? No, I believe in trading attention in the day that we actually live in. I believe making my actions allow me to sell what I want to sell. And when I say sell, I mean selling a home a pair of sneakers or raising awareness for Crohn's disease 'cause my brother, AJ, has it? Or raising money for the PTA or whatever, maybe? Selling or bringing awareness to whatever matters to me. And as we all know, what matters to you today was different than five years ago and in five years it's gonna be different again. And that's just the way it is. And so I implore you. And I see a line starting to gather. So if you wanna start gathering in line, 'cause I don't think I'll get to all of them, it's a good time to start moving. I implore you to understand, yes, I believe in social media, be, I think that's a slang term for the current state of the internet. People call YouTube and LinkedIn social media sites, they are not. As a matter of fact, there's only one social media site left, it's called Twitter. All the other ones are just content push. There's no back and forth really in a lot of places anymore, right? So that's just a word, don't get hung up on it. Everything you see that's happening with me is 'cause I'm trading attention. I believe in sound. I think every person here needs to wrap their head around the following statement, which is this. You were a media company first and then whatever else you do for a living. You have to start understanding that you're a media company. Now, that may mean, and for a lot of you, it means that that's you, you. For others, you don't have to, it doesn't have to be you, right? The Huffington Post was an area on Huffington and every post, you could be the platform, but you better realize you're in the media business. Because the cost of being in the media business is now zero in distribution, opportunity, in production, it's so low, it's so low. D-Rock and I did an episode of DailyVee, our vlog. Yes, that came out today. My latest vlog right now on YouTube was all filmed on this. So I don't wanna hear your bullshit excuses that you don't have a fucking camera or a lighting and all this, everybody's in the fucking excuse business. Every one of you is running through your head right now of why you're not in the media business or why you're not doing this and it's all bullshit. It's because you have decided not to. It's binary. This is simple. Either you're in it or you're not. 'Cause once you make the mental decision that you're in it, maybe you invest in a nice camera instead of another fucking suit. (audience laughing) - Yeah! (audience applauding) - I think it's on. How are you? Do you guys have to turn this on or see what happens? - Here we go. Hey Gary, I'm Rich from Austin. Number one, I'm a retired attack helicopter pilot for the Marines and I brought a patch for you. - Pass it. - For you at D-Rock, can I bring this to you? (audience applauding) - Thanks for having me. - Thanks for joining us. - Thanks for having me. - Thanks so much for your support about this one. - Okay, please. - All right, so real quick, I know there's a line. So, I work full time. I don't have time to do what I want to do yet. My plan is this. Another pilot and I want to get together and we want to go around to successful veterans in all types of industries that we know and interview them for free. All right, I don't need your fucking money. I don't need anything. I want to show veterans who are gonna transition because it's incredibly difficult. And there's another problem. There's also a group of veterans, I think they're entitled to shit. All right, and we need to dispel both those rumors. - That's right. - So, what I want to do is go interview and just paint the picture like, "Hey, here's what you can be." The only thing that's not allowed me to execute and I'm over-analysing Danny for sure, is that I want them to be authentic. It's your. - Take the risk. Everybody's scared to waste time when time is your number one asset that you have. So go interview Charles and then three-fourths of the way, you're like, "Fuck, this guy's so full of shit." And don't show it. (audience laughing) - So, that's right. So what I mean is I guess part of the vulgarity is authenticity is what attracted me to you as a holy shit. I've never seen a guy like this. And I don't want them to hide behind whatever logo they work for or whatever. And then not to see the real picture. I want them to know, "Okay, they're still that guy or gallon, uniform there, right there." You know what I mean? So I'm not sure. - How about financially? Can you do it now? Because I have a really good idea. That's why I'm asking. - I collect retirement, so that's good. And then my full-time job is great. I would have limited time, but my partner and I want to go probably three or four interviews a month, just fly out to wherever and do what we got to do. - Great. So, I mean, you're ability to get a sponsor for this is very high. Like most businesses can't get a sponsor on spec, but because of the subject matter, literally if you just cold email the top 1000 corporations in America, you'd probably make so much sponsorship money, you'd be like, fuck. Anyway. (audience laughing) I think, you know, I mean, I don't think that's valid what you said. Just go do your best. - Okay. - Like maybe get an extra sponsor to hire somebody to vet people so they can really vet, but like that's not scary. So because then you just don't have to show it. - Yeah. - You know, it sucked to fly somewhere and it didn't work out, but you can hire an intern or a $38,000 a year employee who could do ridiculous research on anybody to get you to third and a half base and then you watch that paper 10 minutes and make it this gut decision. Thank you so much. - You're welcome. (audience applauding) - So, Brian. - So, you did a video on sales versus marketing? - Yes. - About a month ago. - Yes. - So, my question to you, and you alluded to it earlier when you said, you know what happens if people inside they don't wanna buy a house anymore. I'm a direct salesman, a direct salesman for seven years and a lot of people in this room are. My question is, where in the future, say five to 10 years in the future from now, where are you pushing your chips? Are you pushing it into sales? And sales, or are you pushing it into marketing? Reason I'm asking is, you know, with Amazon and your boy Jeff Bezos and Tesla, they don't do tons and tons of, they don't spend tons and tons of money on marketing or on advertising. I don't think I know. - They do. - They do? Okay. So, my question I guess is. - They both work. - They both work. - They both work. - Right, they both work. - They're the two foundations of how shit gets done. You either retarget people, affiliate, all the tactical shit that sells something. - Yeah. - Or what is much more interesting, which is people don't even realize why they bought the shit they're wearing right now, because they were marketing it too. - Right. - Marketing and branding is just grown up sales. - So in the future, when people are able to buy anything they want to just go through an experience on their phone. - Yes. - Right? Does that cut out the direct sales portion of it? - Of course it could. - Okay, so where are you putting your money in five to 10 years forward, like the car industry, the home industry? - Right, I mean, I think, look, I think who, I think what the internet does and technology does, is it squeezes the middle man out because the internet is the middle man. And so, yeah, I mean, I think I'm putting my money on whoever's making shit, because they're going to be able to, at a much higher level, do the sales and marketing themselves and not be at the mercy of the middle. However, that market will always exist, 'cause guess what? A lot of people are good at sales and marketing, right? So there's, I wouldn't worry, you're young, dude. I wouldn't worry, like, your sales skills translates for us. - Is there anything, right? - 100%. - I just started the business and it's why I'm, but I would say that, I would say that, make sure you don't become too transactional, because that's when you become your most vulnerable. Yeah. (audience applauding) - Gary, what's up? - Life is good, my man. - Hey Gary, what's going on? Danny Gold, selling Silicon Valley. It's my dear rock right here, Dusty. So I have a YouTube channel right now, Facebook channel. Really right now, I'm doing a lot of just daily vlogs, right? And so, you talk about reverse engineering and bringing value, disproportionate value to those that you're trying to market to, as opposed to what you expect in return. And right now, my business is doing really well my real estate business, right? But I'm looking at this vlog thing as more of a long term, like, personal brand celebrity type of endeavor, right? So then, you know, I understand how to bring value to my community per se. But then, like, how, as a daily vlogger, do I actually bring value to people that I don't even know? - Right, or that are not in real estate, right? - Or that are not in real estate, or have no interest in real estate. - I think you've only got one move to really be successful, which is to not pander to the camera, and to live your true life, and see if people give a fuck. (audience applauding) That's the right answer, right? Because either they are or they aren't. But the thing that you need to trade on is your truth, because that's the thing that's scalable because it's always there. You know, fun, it is for me to always just always have to be me. It's super exhausting to try not not be your second. and it doesn't scale and people taste it. So the reason reality TV worked was it was a little further than acting, but it still full of shit, which is why vlogging is better than reality TV. And so, and I think the people that you see pop are really in their zone. They're not trying to become a celebrity for say. They want what celebrity brings, which is, celebrity is the number one arbitrage in our society. Like it is the number one arbitrage in our society. It's leverage at scale. But I think when people try to pander to it, it comes off. So what my biggest advice for you man, is to just live your actual life. I think the biggest problem for the modern young male entrepreneur vlogger personality is they're fronting to a lifestyle that isn't always true to the reality of what they're living. And then it just gets convoluted, right? It's like, right. People are starting to already get called out for making pretend or taking private flights, but they're not. That's hit this right. So, so I, I would give you a really good piece of advice from somebody who I think really knows what he's talking about. Just live it. Just live your fucking life. Like that's, you'll do much better. (audience applauds) - Steve, thank you. Take care, Dusty. - Holy shit. This is a dream. First, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart and to express my deepest gratitude for all the content you put out. And just since I started listening to you a couple of months ago, it's how big of an impact you've made, not only in my business, but in my life. I think everyone, you're gonna test to that. And I just wanna give you a huge round of applause. (audience applauds) One thing that I've really been paying attention to you with lately is about, don't listen to what I say, watch what I do. - Yeah. - And so for me, in business, what I'm trying to do right now is really scale and build a great culture and build a great team. - Awesome. - So I wanna know, what do I need to do to earn the opportunity to fly out to VaynerMedia for the day and just be a fly on the wall and shout at you 'cause I just wanna learn and I just want so bad and I'm gonna do whatever it takes. - Done. Fuck. (audience applauds) - Thank you. - Welcome. - Thank you. (audience applauds) - I was going Gary when he was-- - Right, you don't get it, you don't ask. (audience laughs) - My name's Mike, that's pretty freaking awesome. We just did it for that guy. He probably gonna change life. So I'm a real estate agent with Intero. I just wanna know what's-- (audience applauds) - Probably my favorite thing about the real estate industry is the team dynamics, right? (audience laughs) - So what's the future for real estate agent? You think we're gonna be taking our fight? - I don't think so. - I don't think so. - Things are not going anywhere until the robots kill us. (audience laughs) So I think, so here's how I think about it. I think there's a tidal wave of technology coming. I framed that up, right? But I don't think it wipes out humans. I think it wipes out humans that decide not to get their surfboard and jump on it. So I think what's gonna happen to real estate agents is, first of all, the real estate industry is fascinating because it reminds me of the tech industry, the startup tech world now reminds me a lot of real estate now that I've been in it because the real estate industry has cycles when it's so good that losers win. (audience laughs) And it's just true. It's just true. And so, but it's not just the real estate industry. Wall Street has that, the tech industry has it. But it is extreme in real estate because the crashes are extreme, right? So I think I would tell you far more scary to me than what's happening with technology in real estate is people's blind belief that it's always gonna be good and they over leverage themselves. I'm just so fascinated by, and when I say over leverage, there's people that buy up stuff and you're over leverage and you have debt. And then there's just people that are just selling and making commissions, but they're over leveraging themselves in the way they're treating their lifestyle. Like they think it's a good idea to buy shit and not save money as if the market will always be good and then when the market's not good, then it's not good. (audience laughs) So I think real estate is fine. I don't think there's any major stuff happening other than I think that the people in this room that use the new technologies to build their firm or personal brand within it are gonna disproportionately outshine people. And the people most worried about are the people have very good reputations in their market because that's always been consistent for the last 100 years that you can trade on your reputation and word of mouth. And I think they don't realize that the word of mouth is about the shift to only the digital environment. And so like literally, there's not even gonna be an opportunity for people to like give you the word of mouth 'cause they're gonna be endorsing people with a share on Facebook instead of giving your name out at a barbecue and it's gonna happen faster than people think. So that's my fear. It's the people that have tried and true reputations in their market and have seen generations before them trade on that and they got caught because they're in this moment and six years from now, there's gonna be seven upstarts, not one that is gonna take the market from them. - Appreciate it Gary. Oh really quickly, what's your favorite logic 3-1 song? (audience laughs) He's my favorite artist, that's why. Bobby Trentina, I think, you know what's interesting? Before I, it's funny, I'm thinking about the new album that he has trapped. - Yeah. - Let me give you a different route with you. You know what I really like about him is why he won and what I'm trying to get across here. Bobby and Russ and Kyle and all these characters are winning and they're gonna be the biggest hip-hop artists in the world on everything I've been talking about for the last 20 minutes. Got it? That's the game. (audience applauds) - Wow, that's out Gary. So I'm 23 years old, entrepreneur, I believe it's in my DNA and you've really made me question that. So the reason why I wanted to ask you this question been to kind of hold it out. Every one of us in this room has to battle mental strength, right? - Right. - When shit hits the fan, your bank accounts are negative, it's your third failure, right? Like what do you do? So we hold onto the optimism, right? And that comes from mental strength. - 100%. Especially when your optimism is blind and doesn't have practicality wired into it. - So my question for you is if you are an entrepreneur and it's in your DNA and you listen to your intuition and that's what gives you your optimism, how do you create the difference between mental strength as the source or intuition as the source? - You have to make sure that your intuition is speaking, not your delusion, right? That's the key and that's, and by the way, they're kissing cousins. - But yeah. - So here's what I would say. I would say that in my delusion, I'm an athlete, right? Like I want to be, I've got competitive spirit, I'm a good, deep captain type. There's a lot of things there, but going on to the playing field, I'm going to consistently lose at the highest levels and can't make a living doing it. So here's what I would say. I don't want you at 23, first of all, at 23, you're golden, right? You're golden because you can literally do nothing right for the next seven years and still be young as fuck. (audience laughs) The only piece of advice I'm going to give you is do not collect debt. And so if you have already, and you have credit card debt or what have you, do you or don't you? - I mean, minimal. (audience laughs) AR is about debt, so you know, your back is out, right? - Get rid of that. Like go work at fucking 7-11. I don't give a fucking, get rid of that. Get rid of that. Never buy another thing in your life and live with nine dudes and do your entrepreneurial thing for the next decade. - Cool, thanks, Gary. (audience applauds) How you doing, Gary? - Really good. - I'm excited to see you, man. I watch videos all the time. - Thank you. - I have a brand called Next to Get. Next to Get's all about taking action. - Yep. - You can't be next to getting unless you take action. - Yep. - So I know you love the jets. - I do. - So I got you a shirt that says, Next to Get the New York Jets. - I love that. I'll wear it. Give it to me. (audience applauds) One more question. - Right, I got that. Make sure to hear you out. - Yeah. - Thank you, Berman. - Next day. - So I know you say when you get the jets, that's gonna be like the worst day of your life. - Yes. - But it actually should be one of the best because then you gotta figure out how to get to them and be next to the Super Bowl, right? - I agree. - They gotta be next to the Super Bowl. - Look, I think the reason I say that is, hey, there's a little truth to it. I think for me, no question one of the reasons I think that I'll be successful. It's really funny that you asked this question prior to the advice that I just gave. Like for me, it sounds exciting to be 23, have no money, live in a basement for seven years and try to do your thing. I genuinely like that because I love the game, right? I love the game. And so, to me, that's what a true bread entrepreneur is, which is it has zero to do with the stuff. It has to do with the game. And so this game that I made, made up for myself somewhere around fourth grade to buy them, has been the narrative in the background for me the whole time. And so there's a little bit of that going away. But at the same token, the reason I talk about it is I don't want people to get confused. I want them to realize that if you fall in love with the journey, that is the ultimate gift in our lives. Because that's happiness, right? Like we're spending so much time at work. Like when you actually just get practical and look at the data, the amount of time that you will all spend in your careers as a percentage to your overall time on Earth is extraordinarily high. So it's super important to make that something about more than dollars if you're unhappy, if you're neutral and money's there awesome. I'm just scared of people that complain. That's all. I would tell you that 98% of my advice is for people that complain. Why in the world would I have advice for you if you're good? Like you're good. So one more thing I have to ask is I would love to be able to meet with you and maybe you can become a mentor or a business partner. I know you can help me. There's no shock. I got to ask. I got to ask. I just don't have that bandwidth. Like that dude that got lucky and get got the first thing and is going to come to visit Vayner, and I'll see him for 4.8 seconds. That's all right. I didn't like turning into 19 minutes or might turn into four hours. But like I never want to bullshit somebody. And the one thing I don't have is time. Time is everything. It's why the mobile device is so important. It's saving you time. Time. Check me out at next gig. Check me out. I will. [APPLAUSE] Gilgiri, how are you feeling today? Phenomenal. That's great to hear. It's awesome. Just talking to you. I've been following your content for the last year or so. Thank you. You taught me what hustle really was. I thought I was working. I owned my business for last four years. I'm 20 years old now. So I start speaking on Team Suicide Prevention on 16. Love it. After some experience I went through. And right now I'm really growing my media. And I'm really focusing on being a media company. So I started podcasting. And the question I have is with Daily Vlogging. So this might also derog my jump in. But I'm logistically thinking of Daily Vlogging. And what's the process of getting of your Daily Vlog getting up on YouTube? Do you post it the day after you film it? Is it the next week? We've done a bunch of stuff. I think the first couple of weeks it took us three days. Then we went through a long period of doing it the next day. And now we're on a two day Dilt Lay. Even though we have more people. I mean, D-Rock went through a hardcore year of filming the whole thing and then having to edit and getting it out the next day. I think you can do anything. I mean, I think you can't cripple yourself. My buddy Casey stopped vlogging. So the next day I was like, I'm going to vlog every day to pick up the thing. But then literally in my vlog yesterday, I was like, you know, the summer's coming. I feel like I need a little more time with my family. And don't want to be thinking about producing content. So maybe I won't. I think it's about reverse engineering, what you can get done. And for me, you know, only two years ago, three years ago, there were three people on my team making content. It took me four years to build up Bane or Media to have one person work with me on my content prior to that. It was just me. And now I'm at 15. I mean, you build. You build and you do different things. And so I think the process is as fast as you fucking can. OK, so do you think it's valuable? Do you think a Dilt Lay vlog is valuable enough over something like sales? Because I do a lot of sales to high schools, colleges, conferences. This is the classic branding versus sales, right? I think you need to sell at the most minimum to make you whole for whatever you need. Pay your bills, right? So that-- and then invest as much as you can in building your brand. So Media comes after sales. You would recommend. You got to pay your fucking bills, bro. Exactly. Well, right now I'm living at home. Well, then you're fucking smart. [LAUGHTER] So to me now, it just becomes a question of how much money you want. My big recommendation is, listen, I only give advice that I took myself. I'm a big fan of that. I took over my family, liquor store business, and I grew up from a three at this window that I'm talking about from a three to a $45 million business in my early 20s, right? I'm 27 years old. I built a $45 million business. And I was paying myself $37,000 a year. But I wasn't the typical dude that needed money as a leverage to get girls. Exactly. And that's the thing is, I don't need a lot of money right now. So I'm wondering whether to build myself up as a speaker without really worrying about the sales aspect of it. So of course. Right. And as you say that, I think that's what Gary V. would say. I hear your voice to my head sometimes. And I think Gary V would say that. Sometimes I dream about you answering my-- actually, I had a question earlier. Last time I dreamed about you answering my question. So your content is so effective. Now off of that little story, watch what I'm doing. Not what I'm saying. Yes. Yes. Got it. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE] How much time left? 20? 20. 20. Hi, Gary V. First, I want to say thank you. Again, everything-- all of your podcasts, all of your videos on YouTube are kind of my real education. College was just the paperwork. I am a marketing manager for a nonprofit organization, which is a unique position that I'm very fortunate to have. Now part of my job-- and it's a new job-- I'm building up our presence on social media. I have three different target audiences. I have the women we serve, the volunteers, and donors. My question to you is, does it make sense to use one platform or each platform-- But one account? One account to target all three? OK, instead of focusing on one platform per group. Yes, because the way we consume content in social is not binary. But content finds what needs to find. It's not email 1996, where people open up 90% of the renault. Got it? It's just one feed. We don't even know who the fuck it's coming from. You're looking at the content, not the little logo that's delivering it. Got it? Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. [APPLAUSE] Hi, Barry. My name is John Firstafall. It's a dream come true. Six months ago, I wrote it down. I'm going to meet Gary Vaynerchuk. And here I am right now. Good shit, bro. It's awesome. And then I met Danny Morel. I want to thank Danny real quick for having that vision and clarity for making it happen. [APPLAUSE] I'm with Inter-Roll State. So what's up guys? [APPLAUSE] It's actually my first week in real estate. And I'm super excited. I'm door knocking. My question is, what were you doing last week? What's that? What were you doing last week? I was calling and door knocking and hustling. I love it. And I'm doing Facebook Live. I'm doing videos, all the stuff. But my question is, when your parents is saying, when you bring the clients or talk about the clients, that, oh, you don't know what you're talking about. Oh, you have to make sure all this stuff is correct. Oh, what if it embarrasses off? What would you say to that? Well, I would say your parents are probably right a lot more than you realize. Right. If I was in real estate for the first week-- Right. [LAUGHTER] --what I would probably do. So I'm now actually super interested in watching one of your Facebook lives, because what I'm curious about is, are you faking it till you make it? Or are you documenting the journey of a young man trying to learn the industry? My intuition is number one. What I would do, what I would do if I was in week one, what team were you on again? Let me see all the people that wooed again. [CHEERING] Me, if I was standing there, I would straddle up real close to all those wooing people and spend one year shutting the fuck up and listening. [APPLAUSE] Me. Because then you'll learn. You'll taste. Then you'll know what to say. You're not going to lose your charisma and showmanship. You're a baby. You just don't know what the fuck you're talking about yet. [LAUGHTER] I have a follow-up question. Should I keep doing Instagram stories, just documenting? And-- Dude, I think it's far more interesting. It was the advice I gave that other young man. Tell your truth. You know, you may lose a lot of people. Like, I'm not going with this dude on his third week. But if you're actually running a marathon in six years, you could have everybody who's buying their first house. Thanks, Gary. Appreciate it. [APPLAUSE] I think now I'm going to pander to the crowd. How many people over 40? Right. So the thing that I think is super interesting for me for everybody that just raised their hands, nothing's changed. Like, technology is not going to allow bad things to all of a sudden populate. Like, tried and true is tried and true. All the technology is doing is exposing. things. You guys haven't changed because of all this technology. You've just been exposed. Hey Gary, thank you so much for being here in Danny. I'm really excited. I saw a video that you're doing the other day about success and that somebody who's entrepreneur and makes $150,000 that's a lot higher form of success than someone who's you know nine to five not doing what they want making this a good one. Yeah, it's not about being a job or an entrepreneur. My trading desk is on happiness. My point there was if you're making 150,000 a year at being a lawyer and you're not pumped or you could be making 98,000 a year selling slime on Instagram but it's your dream because you love making slime with your eight year old I think it's a worthwhile debate. I'm just blown away by people that are literally willing to buy narrowly be dramatically less happy for an extra $8,000. So they can go on a fucking cruise bro. So my question was based on that delimation there. Yeah. How should people be thinking about their success? You also talk about natural born entrepreneurs like as much as you would want to be LeBron you know that takes a certain amount of natural talent. So what can you speak about success and the role that patience plays in that? So let's go. Instead of that what do you ask in me? What's your situation? My situation is I'm new right? I'm listening to everything that you're saying. Days sometimes don't go well so I'm like okay I'm a turn on Gary Vee see what he has to say try to get some golden nuggets and I want to know a big thing that you talk about is patience and that role that that plays when you're young and you're starting and and so I wanted to kind of hear what you say so I could kind of like like put that in. Who are you playing this game for? It's super interesting to me. So one of the tough things that a lot of young people in this room have is they've got chips under shoulder because they want to prove their mom wrong because they want to prove that their older sister isn't the only star in the family. You know where I'm going with this is very simply almost everybody in this room is living their lives to the judge and jury of somebody outside of themselves and that fucking blows and so where I'm going with you is there's a lot of questions I'd like to ask but the first one is for what and for who? The reason I win you know there's a scene it's really funny because I was born in Russia in the Southern of former Soviet Union. There's a scene in Rocky for where Drago loses at the end but he takes the mic and he's like fuck he he talks in Russian I understand he was basically saying fuck you Russia that wanted me to beat this America I was fighting for myself I was in this ring for myself the reason I'm winning young man is because I'm in this ring for myself I don't give a fuck with anybody says about me no but now that that is a bless that is nothing to do with me that has to do with my DNA compounded by extremely strong parenting and environment right so I don't say that as I'm cool I'm telling you my truth and I'm trying to get as many people as close to that as possible because I don't have the answers for you but what I can tell you is if you do it for yourself if you're judging yourself shit gets real easy knives is zero bad days because I'm in that binary place of knowing my intent and doing what I do and then the only thing that can drag me down is outside forces around the health of my family and friends and luckily for me the far majority of those days aren't going to be the critical days where I lose some of that right that's it man like what are you trying to do is it about the money is it about proving something to somebody because if you're trying to prove it to yourself you have your whole life to do that you have your whole life to do that guys life as a lot of you know I love football let's call it a hunt 80 years it's getting better even closer than 90 just break them down in four quarters like do you really this is why I hate flashy 25 year old young entrepreneurs do you really want to be up 21 nothing in the second quarter and lose 37 the 28 because you're sure acting like it so that's what I'm intrigued by bro so what am I are you asking me the questioner and that's it I have the other like confused man I'm not going to figure out who the dog is last yeah go ahead last question I do a video every day 30 seconds or less with people in their favorite quotes can I do with them with you before we leave yep yes all right thank you can I give you my card sure hi thank you so much nice to meet you didn't realize I was coming to write hook con go ahead so I'm not a real estate agent I own my own clothing company my company turned five yesterday congrats thank you we're a wholesale company and my target audience actually is women over 40 okay and we yeah I'm a female over 40 motherfuckers so we're wholesale and we sell two bunch of different stores we are very successful in wholesale and are you doing are you doing direct to consumer yet we have a very small part of our business only about 5% of our business that's sold dot com are you trying to challenge yes our challenge is our demographic buying online I know snapchat and it's grand a face but younger generations they buy online you know you're probably out of your mind right like completely well we've we've done surveys we've asked our customers block your service I'm trying to figure out what the best platform is for my age grace and converting that to a Facebook store or no selling it driving them to your dot com like do you know which fashion is sold to 40 to 60 year old women in e-commerce in this country a lot okay because you just told me your demo it's not doing that you know what I mean you're just me you might not know how to do that that's my challenge I don't know me on on the wholesale side yes we know that part but on the retail end of it it's just trying to figure out what best investment invest your money into bringing somebody who has a dot com direct to consumer fashion female background and let her or him be your director of e-com direct to consumer and go do your thing you're you're in a you're you're making it convenient to your strengths and weaknesses which is the quickest way to go out of business that's not you know what I mean plan so I think you know that I can tell so I you know I don't know your business but I would make a little less money and immediately hire somebody who can flat out and call references go hire somebody who's sold you know to that lovely lady on the internet you know and hire them and then siphon and then and then when you hire them don't go okay great I got Ricky or Sally and go do your thing you get real fucking close and you siphon that information now because it's your fucking company and you don't want that to grow to 38% of your business and then Rick's got all the fucking leverage right guys last yeah last question guys last question sorry everybody in line sorry he's a real dick hey my name is Della sir thank you for the motivation I actually think I look up to you because I'm also an immigrant and you give me a good example that success can actually be reached no matter where you come from so thank you immigrants have the advantage they really do I really I I'm by the way American born people dominate but the advantage is we know the alternative my kids are fucking gonna be losers like you know you know it's just hard when you've got it and don't work for it so I'm glad that's the case but I want you to realize how good a bit of advantage you actually have yeah actually my younger's brothers actually tell me all that time all the time so they say well you just work harder because you're an immigrant you have the immigrant mentality and you look them dead in the face and say that's right motherfucker I'm actually recording it so no no here and then also tell them that you're also working smarter now what dick it's all right here I hate that fucking argument Gary yeah it's cool you hustle but I work smart me too dick face now what yeah I do both so here's my situation I I recently started a business on my own thank you and so it's been going pretty well it's a retail business it's a brick and mortar business and I know that you actually talk about how brick and mortars are possibly going out of business soon if their economics are too tied into unrealistic leases and they don't have alternatives right so it's remember how I said like everything everything immediate can work it's what's under price and over price retail is not gonna die people it's just retail are not gonna pay eighty seven dollars a square foot when the way we buy now it should be sixty one got it and instead of spending their money on fixtures they may allocate 25% of their space for you to drink coffee or for a band to be there they're gonna need to draw they have to change is all that change so that's that's what's on my mind keep going so my thing is I have an opportunity now because of businesses doing well to expand into a second location, which is also brick and mortar. But my -- Let me give you a good piece of advice. Yeah. Whatever projections you have or whatever your business is currently doing, just siphon out 20% of it, like just make pretend you lost 20% of it, and if the math works, then go for it. Okay. Got it? Got it. Just anticipate the decline. The 20% decline is that over a -- That's my intuition that the macroeconomic climates of what retail is doing will affect you. You may not even ever feel that -- you may feel 50% of it, but you can't be blunt. What do you sell? I sell fitness supplements. Yeah, fuck, man. Like, like, people buy that shit at scale on the internet. So like, don't get fucking crazy. Like, you know, like, keep that in mind. Yeah. So I sell the stuff online as well. My question was whether I should take the second brick and mortar store and continue doing business online or if I should just take that full lump of money that I would invest into a brick and mortar store, which got me here in the first place and just take it all that invested in my e-commerce. What gets you somewhere easy relevant to where you're going? Got it. Got it. Perfect. So I think you know the answer. You don't need to pay homage to that fucking store that got you there. And then this other question too is kind of interesting. No, no, no, no, that's it. Stop here. I told you you was a tick. All right. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. You know what? Gold digger, because I like that one more. Go. Thank you. Is there -- I got sent you with you Gary. You made me -- you helped me realize that I need to quit my job selling cars so I can actually go into business for myself. I like to thank you for that. And I really like to make sure it's -- Come on. Get up here. Come on. You can come up and you can ask. Go ahead. Oh, you're taking a picture. Got it. Okay. [ Applause ] Hi. Hi, Gary. Oh, my gosh. Okay. I came down here from Northern California just to say thank you for all of the content you put out because I found you and I was at a really tumultuous part of my life. And my life just being like fully accountable and just not going for perfect, just getting my self -- just getting it done and just making micro adjustments is just quantifiably made my life so much better. And I just wanted to say thank you. Welcome. [ Applause ] Can I take this off too? I like your skirt. Awesome. Awesome. You've got it along the applause, everybody. [ Applause ] So, hold on. I got to tell you guys a little story. It was kind of awesome because last night, I highly respect this guy and I'm going to tell you why because I had the solution that I mean I know he says he works hard but I mean I didn't really understand how hard he works. So I'm thinking if I'm going to do an event, I'm going to fly in the night before. Relax, hang out for a little bit, wake up the next day, maybe do a little workout. You know what I'm saying? And maybe do some work in the room and then when it's time for me to speak, then I come up and speak. That's normal, right? Well, last night I noticed on his Instagram story, I'm like, "Fuck, he's not on an airplane yet." And then this morning, I'm stressing I was like the money went through, right? So, there was a lot of money, right? And I'm stressing, I'm watching D-Rock and I'm watching Gary and I'm watching both of them and they're still not like on their way to the airport, right? And then it was like literally like 10 o'clock AM and I finally see you guys on your way to the airport. I get off stage and the dudes are literally walking in from taking maybe a three minute shower. We sit down on our podcast and you know afterwards we're just kind of shooting the shit and the podcast is done which went fantastic by the way and it goes, "So what's up? What are you guys are doing after?" Because you know, I'm ready to like invite them to my house to come barbecue and now have a party, relax, he goes, "Oh, I'm going to hop on a plane, I got a red eye." Like the guy literally woke up this morning, got on a plane, flew here, talked for a little bit, is going to get on a plane and go back. Like that's legit people. That's legit. So give them a round of applause for that. Thank you. Take a red eye, land in New York, drive an hour in New York early morning traffic, take a quick shower and then go do a 11 hour day and then hop on a flight and fly to Ghana. Oh! I'm a pencilist promise. I'm part of a nonprofit called pencil promise so I'm going to go build some schools, check on what we're doing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. Thanks for watching. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.