(applause and cheering)
(fast paced music) - Wow. Brother, with
that you better deliver. I am not going to waste your
time introducing the one and only Gary Vaynerchuk. There are people in this room
who traveled 24 hours by bus just to see this man. So you better have
something smart to say, Gary. #AskGaryVee is Gary's
fourth business book, his fifth book total. His first one about wine that's where he got his
professional start. I'm hoping you didn't have wine
before getting here, you can have it after because this is
the moment, this is the hour where you're going to learn
I love this word, I love this whole focus
learn a bit of Gary's genius. And I'm going to start because
Gary's team gave me the first first question and is just so
special that I want share it. Genius does not
have a timetable. When did your's
first manifest Gary? Are you kidding me with that? - It was a sunny day. - In Belarus. - In a very serious note forget
about the context of that word I think it was around the time I
turn 30 that I understood that understanding people and
consumer behavior was something that I had. And that there was a way to
deploy it against something besides selling more wine. I'm not comfortable with the
word genius, Steph, but this singular thing that I think
will allow me to create a lot of success in my life is predicated
on emotional intelligence and I started to understand it a
little bit more in my early 30s. - I actually want to go back to
the word genius though because your success is based on
really, really hard work. And grinding it out. And there's a risk out
there right now with all this enthusiasm and key terms
like disruptive innovation and finding your genius and being
your best self that there's all this noise that it turns into a
vacuum we're forgetting you need to work really hard
and be good at your job. Yeah, I think that were living
through a period of time right now between "Shark Tank" between
"The Social Network" the movie that people are confused and
think that it's just so easy to build a business where
you make $1 million a year. The top 1% earners in
America make $400,000 a year. We are not grounded in any level
of practicality right now of what it takes to be the number
top 1% executor in America. You make $400,000 a year pretax. I look at Instagram all day long
and there's people just spewing how easy it is to become a
millionaire if you just sign up for my three-course thing. It's just unbelievable
the lack of practicality. One of the reasons I like
producing the content that I'm producing now is it's becoming
very clear to people that it takes in an enormous amount of
work to be successful on top of which you actually
have to have talent. Being good enough to run a
business or be an entrepreneur that has a successful
business is a talent. No different than singing,
no different than being a basketball player. - Are you good at singing? - I'm atrocious at singing. - How about basketball? - I'm terrible at
basketball unfortunately. And when I say terrible I put
that in the context of who I am as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur,
I'm an NBA All-Star. As a basketball player, I'm a below average rec league
basketball player. Right? I could be working on basketball
every day since I was 12 until I was 25 and what I
would be an above average rec NBA basketball player. This thought that if you just
try hard enough or you work hard enough or you read enough books
or what have you that you can become this thing
that you weren't naturally gifted with is wrong. What you can be
is the best version of yourself in something. No matter how much I worked on
cooking I would not be as good as Eric in the front row. Right? it just wouldn't be,
it just wouldn't be. It's what he's great at. It's what he's gifted at and
it's the work that he's put in and so I think the biggest thing
the reason self-awareness is one of the main things on the book
we have to start understanding what were good at and putting
our energy against that because that's where you can
start having an impact. Whether that is a great
fundraiser for NGOs, a stay-at-home dad, a radio
personality it doesn't matter what it is but we have gone way
too far in the American dream of entrepreneurship and everybody's
going to build a million-dollar fuckin' business. - Well is one of the
problems the way were evaluating entrepreneurship is not about
profitability but it's about notability and having your
name and face out there. Because you go to as
many conferences as I do. And it's sort of a round of of
the same voices over and over and I wonder when are these
people running their businesses. Are there business
is making any money? That has a lot to do with
the world that you come from. Bloomberg knows that if they use
those people to get more clicks on the website, they'll get more
views on their show so it's a self-fulfilling machine, right? - Is it a self fulfilling
machine or is it a symbol that were heading into
yet another bubble. Are we going to look back at
this moment and say "Ah, when the bubble burst it was right
there when I asked Gary genius, when I asked Gary genius when I
asked Gary V at what point did you become a human genius? Honestly, questions like that
make me think of the year 2000 when we thought anything with
the dot-com at the end was your recipe to be a zillionaire. - Steph, I'll be
very frank with you. I really don't give a fuck. (audience laughs) Let me tell you--
- That's what I wanted to do on my Sunday at five,
I don't give a fuck. - Let me tell you
what I mean by that. I have no idea if we're in the
bubble or not this that or the other thing it's just
not what I think about. I think about
executing and doing my thing. I've built two
businesses in my life. I did them both
during bad times. Wine Library happened right
after 9/11 is when I really started hitting my crescendo. I lost an enormous amount of
clients because they either died or they lost a lot of money and
I navigated my business through a very difficult time. AJ and I started
VaynerMedia right when the financial crisis happened. None of these companies wanted
to spend more money on marketing let alone something
they never heard of. I think every
moment is a bubble. Because I know on going to win
my craft and that's just what I think about. As an investor I've been far
more conservative in the last 18, 24 months because I kind of
had an epiphany 20, 24 months ago the people were coming in
and they had no stomach for this they were good students that had
friends and relatives that got them into great
ecosystem that got them funding. Everybody was
chasing the start-up. There was no
practicality to revenue. It was all about raising next
round and so I don't look at start up culture or
entrepreneurship any different than the stuff
you cover everyday. Wall Street and shit of that
nature, it's all the same game there's a ton of stuff. What? it's the same game, right? I'm not intrigued or it doesn't
seem like an interesting use of time to debate if
something's a bubble. To me it's about
execution I like communicating. I put my stuff out there is
a proxy that fulfills me. I like the admiration. My mother complemented me 500
times a day so I need people to come and do this. I need that.
I like that. - Does your
self-worth come externally? - Yes.
- Are you afraid of that? That's a risky place to be. No because I equally have
self-worth internalized as well. - I'm that awesome. - No I'm just that pulling
from opposite directions. Right? As much as I want
it, I don't need it. As much is I really care what
individual people say on the Amazon. On Tuesday somebody's going to
leave a one star review of this book and I'm going to read
it three times and really internalize it and I'm going to
really care and I'm really not going to care. - How do you make
your money, Gary? - I make money in a lot of ways. Wine Library is a very
successful business that I built that kicks me distributions
at the end of the year on it's profit. VaynerMedia's going to do $100
million in revenues this year and I'm in at substantial
distributions from that. I'll probably make several
millions of dollars public speaking. I've got companies that
will exit this year hopefully. If the bubble doesn't burst. That will give me
profit from that. I'll probably go garage saling
at random days this summer and buy some stuff and flip it on
eBay make a couple thousand bucks that way. - How can you be your best
self doing all those things? I'm guessing if I'm a consumer
product company that works with you and I see all your
Instagraming and all your events and have public speaking, I
would pick up the phone and say Gary I pay you shit ton of money
what are you doing out there promoting yourself. You should be working for me. - Sure. I think comes in a
lot of different ways. First of all nobody's paying
me, they're paying VaynerMedia. - That's you. - No, it's not that's what you
think it is but it's not true. VaynerMedia is not me. I am Gary Vaynerchuk. - So if you left, VaynerMedia
would not lose clients. - VaynerMedia would lose clients
but not because of Gary V but because I'm disproportionately
the operating CEO of the company and when you have a CEO that is
great and runs a business and leaves a business
loses business. - But that's what
I want to get to. We have so many people in this
room who are entreprenuers or they want to be entrepreneurs
but they have day jobs and they have lots of other commitments
and they look at you and all that you do and they think I
don't have the time to compose a tweet. Walk me through again how can
you be your best self and all these different verticals and
deliver on every single one? - Because I'm self-aware
of what makes me tick. I need a lot of chaos. I'm the same person that comes
the office and everybody's head down and had headphones on can
somebody please play music and make it louder I need chaos. It is my oxygen. I need to be doing 4, 5, 6, 7
things, it's when I met my best. And Steph, really simply this
is a results driven business. Your big girl, GE and Pepsi and Unilever
and J&J they're not overwhelmed by the
GaryVee mystique. They're not keeping us and
renewing us because I'm clever. Or because it's fun or because
I razz or because I curse. It's because we deliver. I've built a company that is
a machine, not me, that can deliver on the KPI for
several different reasons. First and foremost, Madison
Avenue agencies are not good at what they do in a 2016 world. There's an enormous white space. That's my sister. - Can we answer?
- Yes. Sis, I'm on stage. - Why isn't she here? - Why aren't you here? I love you more. Love you more. (audience laughs) So I'm able to--
- She didn't want to come? - She didn't want to come. - She didn't want to come. Eric came 24 on a bus from
Sioux Falls and my sister didn't want to come. - As my sister would
say, I know that bullshit. I grew up with it. I think that it comes down to
the fact that I just outwork most people. I'm working on
VaynerMedia 10, 11 hours a day. That's more than enough by most
standards in the marketplace that I'm in. When you're working
15 and 16 it gives you time to compose a tweet. - You decided about 18 months
ago that as hard as you wanted to work and is committed as you
were, you then made a decision in order for you to operate
your best level you had to make health, wellness and fitness a
huge priority in your life that you hadn't before. - Yes. - Has it changes
your performance? - No. (audience laughter) - It's made your selfie
look better though? - Yes. It really hasn't. My energy level is not up. I don't feel that different. I feel stronger when I
grab my suitcase from seriously I feel stronger. My energy level is the same. Mike and I were
talking about it today. My energy level is the same. But maybe when I'm 59 or 72
my energy level be different. It just became obvious to me
that that was a vulnerability for me and that I needed
to address it and so I did. - That's exactly want to get to. - Okay. - For you you look for
vulnerabilities across your life, against your businesses
because you need to narrow the margin of error. If anything you spend a lot
of your life risk managing. As you look across your life
now, where do you see those vulnerabilities? What are you
attacking and addressing? Because people are young
don't really think about risk management they just are
grabbing and going and grabbing and going and they're not
necessarily paying attention to what's around them. - You know in business, not a
lot to be very honest with you. Meaning in the business world,
I feel very comfortable that things are going
according to plan. I'm sure there's something
going on that I don't see. As we sit here today, I
don't see a huge vulnerability. I'm building a very conservative
business, client service. Think about what I did.
Steph, for a second. - When I think Gary I
think conservative, totally. - You know it's funny, I think
I'm stunningly conservative. The story on this, six years ago
at the height of my momentum I hanging out with Mark Zuckerberg
and Travis and Sacca and all this stuff. I've just made all these
great angel investments. Things are going super well
I have a book that's a year straight on the New York Times
best selling list with Crush It! I'm getting all
these opportunities. Everything is going phenomenal I
decide to take a step back and not do a start-up, which I
could've made $50 million for in a heartbeat, not start
a $100 million fund. Stick with me because as a real
business and this is where your going with this conversation. I decide to build a client
service business which is an eight times EBITA exit business
because I thought the most stable and conservative thing I
can do was to scale the skill set that I had around marketing
and that I would build a client business and I got
enormous pushback. I got made a fun of by all my
Silicon Valley friends this was the golden beginning of the air
of this whole thing and I took a step back and I
built a very boring 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s business. - But it wasn't boring because
if you look at consumer product businesses, if you look at
Fortune 500 companies they are desperate, I'm going to use this
event's word, for your genius. They couldn't figure out. - I don't know about that. Everyone of my clients spends
80%, 70% of their money on television, print and outdoor
media and not on digital. And of the 30% they do spend on
digital, 80% of that is spent on horseshit banner ads or
pre-rolls on YouTube. They're not so fucking
desperate with their actions. - But hold on. But in theory aren't they but
when it goes to practice if you look at any monster business
you can look at finance, media, healthcare, whatever they
are those are titanic size businesses that don't make good
decisions because they're filled with with middle management
who make short-term decisions to preserve their own jobs. - Be careful not just
middle-management the CEOs that you sit with every single
damn day, every morning looking bright and peppy every fucking
morning you sit with CEOs who make short-term decisions
because they just care about their bonuses and their
stock options in the 12 to 18 month period.
- Yes, and the reason the hire you is
because they can point to it and say digital look I pay
Gary all that money. And then they can check
it out there to-do list. - That's 100% right. (audience laughter) - So that being the case,
who cares about they're making their
digital spend in nonsense. They just need to
get to one more day. - I do. I care. - You don't, you just
need to paid by them. - That's where
you're being confused. I do. Let's take a step back. Why do I have VaynerMedia? I have VaynerMedia because seven
years ago I decided the best course of action for me to buy
the New York Jets was to buy brands, grow them and flip them. I needed to buy big
brands because that's where the dollars were. I knew how to 50 or
hundred million dollar business. I wanted to buy a business
for $200 million and grow to a billion-dollar business because
the $800 million is a nice profit margin and
that gets me on my path. What I needed to go learn what
Corporate America and Fortune 500 companies were doing
that I didn't understand in entrepreneur and tech land. I don't want their money, Steph,
I want the client that actually lets me do my shit. If I'm only able to spend 1
million or $2 million when they're spending 400 million
overall I can't move the needle or understanding of my thesis
or my bullshit actually works. I don't want their fucking money
I can make more money speaking than have J&J as a client. I want their permission to
reallocate those dollars to actually drive business results
so I can learn at scale so once I fully believe I got it I
can go do it for myself. That's what I need. (applause) - Makes sense, right? - In your experience, you are
with private companies you work with companies that are run by
founders, you work with public companies run by employees. - The full gamut. It's important, I
need the context. - Is there a difference in the
way they conduct their business because those public companies
are forced into short-term decision-making and the
people who run as companies are employees not founders. Do you see a
difference in their behavior? - Yes because on the reverse so
that's bad but on the reverse so many of the kids in this
audience and in the game right now when they get
funding aren't trying to build an actual business. This is been something I've been
ranting on its fun that you were skiing this weekend, I've been
saying this over and over the last 90 days but you are more
than allowed because the way you're playing, I have people
who are literally about to go out of business literally in
the next 180 days if they do not raise money they are out of
business that are literally fucking skiing this weekend. Are you out of your
mind as an entrepreneur? We are living through-- - Yeah
but they're skiing with their friends that they
met at Burning Man. That's important.
- Yeah. And you and I are both wise
enough to know this this is exactly what happened in 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001 when a lot of these Burning Man's
were invented. And a lot of those same people
who were skiing on the weekend and then had an eight year
career working at Nabisco or NBC or Bain and McKinsey because
when the money runs out they go and get jobs. And that's
was going to happen which is quite sad because the
2016 Internet versus the 2001 Internet is very different. It is quite practical to build a
business we can make 100,000 or $200,000 in today's day
and it wasn't in 2000. And so all these entrepreneurs
that are choosing the glitz and the glamour and the brand of it
versus actually spending time to build a practical business are
going to be quite they're going to be so sad in three years when
they're in the cubicle working for somebody else realizing they
wasted that opportunity to build something practical versus
just shooting for the dream. - But Gary, they're
choosing to waste it. - Yes. - When you speak to many of
these entrepreneurs and you ask them about profitability
they say we don't comment on profitability but can I tell
you who is on my board and can I tell you how much
money have raised. Great. You've raised money because are
so much VC money in California right now, it's coming down from
the sky and sure loads of people would love to sit on your board
because it's a free option. When are you going to see a
shift is it going to be that unicorns are going to die
this year that will face them to wake up? - Of course, of course. You know this world better than
I do, you start the first year and China fucking goes (mouth
fart sound) that starts making everybody scared here. Things have
already tightened up. For example in the angel
investing New York tech landscape the idea of walking
into these 10 to 15 firms here in New York and saying here's my
idea I want $4 million valuation has quickly become I want
to $2.5 million valuation. You're going to hear about an
enormous amount of down rounds. - Then in a perverse way you
actually like this because for you this is an only the strong
will survive environment where a few years ago companies you
invested in sure the valuations were flying through
the roof but now this is a survival of the fittest. - I'm sitting on an enormous
amount of paper money on Uber, Pinterest, Snapchat--
- That you can't get out of. - Nothing would make me happier
than the market completely collapsing and me going
to zero on those things. - That's a lie. - It's not a lie. - That's a lie. It's just not and
let tell you why. Because I truly first of all my
behavior in parallel was not to completely just
invest in that world. - You don't want them
to go to zero though? - If they deserve to go to zero
based on meritocracy and market behavior than fuck it
let them go to zero. I swear on my children's life. Yes that is how I feel. Now I think that Snapchat and
Uber and Pinterest won't because I actually is a good businesses
but do I think there's a ton of unicorns that will be exposed
as rhinoceroses yes, I do. Do I think on a totally
different level is there thousands of startups that are
running around right now that will quickly go to zero? Yes, I do. I think that is my
financial best interest. Because I've built a very
practical business that kicks a lot of cash and I'm very
intrigued to take the cash and buy shit on a nickel on the
dollar as they go to zero because they
couldn't get funding. So maybe on paper I take one
step back but I know exactly what I want to do
during this war time. - Do you ever wish? - Yes. - You're going to say no. I'm gonna rephrase it. We are telling young people
today we are preaching the merits of joys the
beauty of entrepreneurship. And not working for the man
and fat cat corporate America. But are there lessons
to be learned working for Corporate America? Is there a big positive and
maybe are we painting too negative a picture of
what it looks like? When I finished school I never
asked myself should I go work for the man? I simply said God, I hope
there's a guy out there who will hire me. So have we gone too far and
doing a disservice to young people coming out of school? I think we've gone
too far in pockets. Let's look at the big data. The data overall is not that
many people are starting their own companies. There's unlimited amount of kids
that can't wait this May to go work for the fucking man. There's plenty of practical. What I think we've done is we've
told 2 to 4 million individuals who should have gone and
worked for the man because they would've gotten a lot of
value out of it and skills and learnings and stability
that they too should be an entrepreneur and that's
where we got a little too far in our little bubble. By the way, that's their fault. That's you not being self-aware
or auditing your own skills. That's you hoping and wishing
that you could build the next Facebook. And that's my fault. For writing you a check. I had a meeting with
a kid the other day, who's going out
of business. That's it. That was the meeting was, "Hey
man, I'm going out of business. Can you help me with
some other stuff?" We're going through the meeting
and this is a kid that I wrote $150,000 check in to his
business and he's like going out of business and I'm sitting,
I'm concerned not a good face because I invested and he lost. He goes, "Gary don't
worry, man, I learned a lot." And I said I'm not
worried about that, fuck face. You lost 150,000 of my dollars. What I'm most
worried about, Steph-- - My daughter's here.
- I'm sorry. Well don't bring your
daughter next time. (audience laughter) Are you really confused
of what I was going to say up here? I think I've branded myself
quite nicely to know-- - I just think "fuck face"
is pushing it. Look, I think that I was
stunned-- - Who says that?
- I say it, Steph. Stay with me here. - Alright, while
you're laughing. - I'm with you.
I'm with you with you. - I was like this is insane. This kid literally thinks
that I'm worried about what he learned or didn't learn. We completely gone
into bizarro land. - Yes, but we've
done that to him Gary. - That's great. Listen, I don't think
I've done shit to anybody. And you guys know this, a lot of
you are here, you know my spiel. This is why I've been talking a
lot about on DailyVee which is this is how I roll. This is what I do, I'm not
telling you you have to work 18 hours a day. You can be
on the softball team. I'm not telling you have
to reply to everybody. You don't have to. I'm telling you this is what I
do so that there's no confusion that for me that the level
of talent that I have, that outrageous all time work
ethic is part of the equation. You're more than welcome to
think that's interesting, not interesting so--
- But he said, "Gary, I learned a lot."
- I got pissed. The other thing I got mad about,
I shifted I got mad I said, listen you have a problem here. You thought this was a smart
move, easy money, you'll learn, better than getting a job. I can always get a job. What you don't realize is the
email chain that's gonna happen when you walk out of here
with me and Dave Moran and Chris Sacca and First Round Capital
and we're all going to be like loser, loser, loser. - So you can't
actually get a job. - No, no he'll get a job but
it's gonna be really hard to raise money again from the
people that he actually wants to raise money from. Our reputation matters. Taking a loss is real. And there's this whole kind of
feeling that space that it's not. - Why does he have
to raise money again? Why does entrepreneurship-- - 'Cuz it's easier that way, Steph. - That's my point. Why does entrepreneurship
have to be a career? Why is it now taboo to
say I'm gonna get a job? I'm going to say one more time, 97% of people say
that exact thing. So you living in New York
bubble-- - But we're not
celebrating those people. - I agree. There's a thing I did on
Bloomberg before you were on Bloomberg. Years ago, it was TechStars. Were you at Bloomberg when
they did that TechStars? - I wasn't.
- Okay. TechStars did a show where
it was around TechStars on Bloomberg where they were
following eight startups. The last episode was
like a Real World event. There was people sitting there
and talking about what happened on the show. You know how Real World is to
the wrap up show that's what they were doing. I'm there with five other VCs. Seven companies go, Hi I'm Rick
and we created donkeydonkey.com and we raised $4 million and
everybody clapped and he would sit down. Hi I'm Stan we created
loofyloofy.org and we've raised $7 million and he would sit
down and everybody clapped. Finally this kid gets
up and he goes Hey we're Red Rover,
we didn't raise any money we got clients out of the
exposure and we didn't raise any money and kinda starting
to get going, silence. I lost my shit on TV. - Shocking. - I was like this is why
this is all gonna be fucked. Because literally everybody just
stood up and said hi I'm Johnny boogie-boogie-boogie and I give
away 30% of our company and we clap them. These guys actually build a
business and nobody cared. - Hold on, back it up. Right there for an aspiring
entrepreneurs when we say I raised $4 million I made raised
$1 million that means I gave X percentage of my business. Do you believe that budding
entrepreneurs realize what the implications of raising
money actually means? - 96% no. - That's a bummer. - I think most
people don't get it. I think it was very attractive
you're young you're gonna build the next Facebook
and let's go and that's what happened in culture. - Then right there you're young,
what do we say, I'm 40 so are you, does being an
entrepreneurial genius is that only for people
under the age of 35? What if you are 40, 50, 60 or 70
this whole entrepreneurship game isn't in it for you because
we keep using the word you're young, you're young
what if you're not young? - A couple things on that front.
It's funny you said that. it's something I've been
spending some time thinking about a lot. Number one, if you're at 35,
40, 45 and you've worked as a non-entrepreneur,
you're not an entrepreneur. First of all, I think
anybody-- - And you couldn't be.
- Sure can be. You're more than welcome to
be but you're not a pure bred entrepreneur. Listen, this is something that a
lot of you go that I get razzed on online because I say that if
you ever work for anybody else you're not an entrepreneur
because my definition of an entrepreneur is you can't
breathe at the thought of working for somebody else that's
my personal point of view on being a true bred entrepreneur. If you are true entrepreneur the
notion of working for somebody else is so devastating that
you would rather live on a couch with your four buddies with
fucking cockroaches and eat shit food every day to try
and build something. I truly believe that. - What about the argument
that we're all entrepreneurs? And I can say that
Stephanie Ruhle, Bloomberg Media,
I work for myself. - You'd be lying to yourself. - And if you respect but why? - Because somebody
pays your paycheck. Google fucking entrepreneurship
that's not what it says. (laughter) - But why can't entrepreneurship
why can't one take an entrepreneurship
approach to their own self. - They can. They can. Again a lot people that follow
me know that the way I decipher from entrepreneur is I use the
term "entrepreneurial tendencies." I think you have them. You've been very smart in my
opinion from afar, that's why like you, that's why want
you to be here tonight. First of all, I knew would
be some of them are probably confused, I knew it wasn't
going to be a cush interview. - This is a cush interview. - But it wasn't going to be
the normal Gary hey-- - It wasn't gonna be when
did your genius first manifest? Because I was wondering, yeah. - That was interesting for me. More importantly, I do think
we can have entrepreneurial tendencies, I think that's great. And I do the people need to be
practical. I do think if you're sitting in this crowd right now and you have debt
from college or if you have you know how many people are
dealing with real life stuff? Including stuff like that
nobody ever talks about. Including like I sit up here an
be like be an entrepreneur and meanwhile you're sitting in that
audiences and saying my spouse died. My fucking spouse died. My spouse died I've got two
young kids, it's not so easy to be entrepreneur land. There's real stuff that
happens in people's real lives. Here's what I'm saying, we are
living to the luckiest period of time ever for all of us. Because there's
something called the Internet. When your spouse died in 1972
you had no practicality after seven or eight or 9 PM when you
got home to change your life. You kind of came home. The world shut down. You got rest is probably what
you did or maybe if you were really hustling an
overnight grave shift job. Now we have the Internet.
The practicality of turning your life into an
entrepreneur is very real. From 9 PM on 'til two in the
morning every day everybody here is welcome for five full hours
a day, which oh by the way is about the amount of time that
most people actually work in their nine hour day. Because these fucking bullshit
hour lunches and the 20 minutes that you watch some random video
on YouTube that your buddy sent you and you're texting all day. - And you watching #AskGaryVee. - You're damn right. You're damn right. People are really in these jobs
to deploying only five or six hours and so there's so
much time to do your thing. The problem is people say things
and then do different things. - We say things--
- We say on Facebook what we like and on
Amazon they know what we buy. - Correct. As a nice point to
sneak in there, Steph. I think more importantly-- - You don't pay me to be here, you're going to need to be nicer. - I'm being very nice. We say things like if Trump wins
I'm moving to Canada and then we don't. We say things like we say all
the things that go against our, we say give a shit about privacy
and your giving way your data all the time 24/7 365. I play in a white
space of what people say. We say they'll never be on
Snapchat it's so stupid. We say things and then I've
spent a career trying to figure out what we say versus what I
think is eventually going to happen and then I bet my
energy, time and money on that. - Give me an example. - Facebook. Everybody said
Facebook was just for kids. People forget Facebook. E-commerce let me start
with my first career. E-commerce I was a 22-year-old
kid and every told me directly in my face Gary you're an idiot. Go open a second liquor store. Nobody's going to buy wine on
the Internet, the Internet is a fad. - Who were those people? - I don't know your
contemporaries. They were on the Today Show saying that the
Internet was a fad every single fucking day.
- Wow. - And listen all the 40,
50, 60-year-olds if you're fifty-year-old, sixty-year-old
here you remember your first encounter with the Internet,
I'll give you one forward. Everybody in this room in 20
years is going to live in a virtual reality world. They're gonna have a tough time
even quantifying the difference between is this real life or
is this virtual real life. When I said that right now as
you for thinking about what I just said they said ugh. As I've been talking about this
with people they're like we'll always be meeting each other. Of course. But if you don't pay attention
to how people are living our lives out there tonight where
they're looking at their phone even though they're in the wild,
we're already living our lives in a virtual world while were
in a physical manifestation. We're already doing it. I think my whole
life is been that. For e-com to email marketing "why
don't you catalogs instead it's better what's email" to the
YouTube show I started that's so stupid who's
gonna watch YouTube? Older people aren't going to
watch that it is going to be kids. Facebook's just going
to be for kids, right? My whole career has been that. - What did you do
that didn't work? - The things that I've done that
haven't worked have been more predicated on me thinking that I
could run multiple businesses at a time. Let me explain. I'm only running one
business right now. - What is that? - VaynerMedia. I'm working, I do content for my
personal brand, I invest but I'm not actively
running the business. In 2009 when I started
VaynerMedia I also started another web show called Obsessed
TV, I started a social wine network called Cork'd. - What happened? - I'm not done yet. And I started another
social network for designers and developers called Forrst. I had a managing partner in all
three of those businesses but I was relied upon to do my part. Whether it's money, whether it's
marketing, whatever it may be. What happened was they
all failed because I was over-promising what I was going
to be able to deliver for that business out of having big eyes. I can work 18 hours a day but
I can't operate more than one actual business at a time. And that's a struggle for me and
it's one that I feel like I'm getting caught in all the time. I secretly think I can do it
again now even though I know I can't. I'm very drawn to it
but it is a vulnerability, I get big eyes. - You are drawn to bright
lights and big ideas and you follow them. - Yes. - There's only a few things
that we can't control the world. We can't control health, we
can't control the weather, and we can't control time. You cannot can affect them
you can't get them back. Is there anything you're afraid
of that you can look back and say I know I'm racing I know I
keep going towards the shining light because I think
it's the right thing. There have to be things that
you're not tending to and in the dark of the night at 2:01 AM
when you go to sleep what are you afraid that your missing? That I'm tricking myself that
I'm running the right pattern of work life balance. - Gary overachievers never had
balance so why do we even use that term? I'm using it
context the conversation. - I'm guessing you
were never balanced. - No, I'm not. - And people whenever super
successful people are asked about's work life
balance it's a mistake. They were never balanced people. I can't speak for others but I
can tell you easily one of the biggest regret of my life
are the first five years of my marriage not taking 2 to 3 extra
weeks of vacation with Lizzie. Easily. One of the no questions and
I have almost no regrets. I regret not hooking up more
chicks just my 20s I worked every minute and I regret not
not spending 20 days a year with Lizzie before we had kids
when I easily could have. And so I think about
that in the time that I spend with my kids now. - So what--
- I do the best I can. I do it my heart tells me. Before the health thing that was
little more public to everybody, before the health thing three,
four or five years ago I started taking seven weeks vacation or
three years ago, four years ago. - You take seven
weeks vacation a year? - I do. - When you're on vacation--
- Instead of two, let me just finish this thought. So that's a hack, right? One thing I'm talking about
right now quite a bit and I don't know how you guys roll I'm
a very there's a smoke there's fire kinda guy. I literally am selling myself. I'm talking a lot and I mean a
lot about the idea coming home every day now from 5 to 6 and
eating dinner with the kids or giving them a bath and
then going back out. I haven't done yet and I talking
about the same I did with my health for about a year
before I pulled it off. But I think I'll do that. All I can do, Steph, is try and
just try if it's on my mind to hack it and make it better. - When you're taking the seven
weeks of vacation a year, do you disconnect? - I would say 80% of the times
or of the time I've been able. I've done a really good job. Yes, but once in a blue moon
something bad will happen AKA this last year. I did really well until I read
a quick little thing on some of the data that I was looking at
around Snapchat until DJ Khaled is starting to get momentum on
the Snapchat thing-- - All he does is win.
- That's right. And so for the 17 or 14 day
vacation I took at the end of the year the first
11 days were really good and the last three were really bad because I caught the
Snapchat bug and I shifted. It's just the truth. - Are you being honest with
yourself about do you disconnect? If we ask Lizzie, she's here. - Well fuck, I just fuckin' rolled
the first 11 days, the last three days I fucked up. It's not like I said
yeah, I'm cruising. Do you want to ask her if
it's 67% instead of 80? - Alright we have to share some
audience questions, you ready? - Always. - What is the number one
timeless lesson you learned and carried forward from selling
sports cards as a teenager? From Roger. - Roger good question. - Not Goodell. Maybe? - I learned that
attention was the only asset. - One more time. - I learned, this
is straight up. This is why I think
I was good retailer because of baseball cards. I learned that attention was
the only asset that mattered. So I would go into baseball card
shows and I was 14 years old. Do you know how young that is? And the dealer would be like a
40-fucking-year-old man, right? - So like you?
- Yes. And he would be like hey
kid that's your table. And the first five or six
shows I ever did I have the shittiest table the whole mall. The side entrance over
here when the whole main thing. By the fifth or sixth one
said wait a minute this is bad because when I go get a pretzel
there seems to be more people over here than over by me and so
there's a classic story that I have with Brandon
who runs Wine Library. Who is my best friends in high
school, we did shows together it was a show and we get this table
and I go Brandon there's this is whole main thing and we had this
random table on the way out. And I'm like Brandon, this is
bad we need a different table. I was really feisty. He's like no, no no
this is super fine. Literally the first guy that
came into the show 8 o'clock in the morning walked the whole
show bought a ton of shit and on his way out he looks at us and
he goes oh shit I didn't know you guys were here. And there's something about that
moment the triggered for me and what I did on every show when I
negotiated forward was pick the table. I would go Thursday, negotiate
my table before I even pay the guy and what it did was it
taught me about consumer behavior how they walked around
and when I got into my dad's store I started reorganizing
shelving based on profit margin and things that later I would
learn is really common practice of great retailers and that
came intuitively and that was absolutely taught to me through
intuition but also through behavioral stuff the
baseball card shows. - Seeing that you
understand retail. You know what a great retailer
is, you know what iconic brands are, are there any brands out
there that you look at and say ugh that is an iconic brand that
has meant so much in history but today it means nothing, I'd
love to get my hands on it. - Nintendo. - Why? - Because they're fucking up. There's no 15-year-old the fact
that Nintendo's not winning in app gaming is ludicrous. They have the IP. The fact that Kardashian apps
and Minecraft and other things are winning while there is in
the 15-year-old that gives a crap anymore about Mario or
Zelda or things of that nature, that was a huge mess. And they got romantic that it
was all about the console where they made their money and they
were romantic and they didn't deploy against the next
attention place and they allowed that romance to kill them. - People think the end of your
story is buying the New York Jets.
- Yes. - You buy the Jets, then what? - Then they make a big
fucking movie about my life. - There you go. How would you define
emotional intelligence? - I think it's the things that
are actually happening in our world. I think it's the things that
are happening that we can't explain this. Of course we can. Charisma matters. Intuition matters. Deploying empathy
and gratitude matter. These are real things. That's why they exist. That's why they're words. They are real things so I would
define them as all the things that aren't about
black and white. Either data or math or written
words or information that really separate people
from success or not. I consider it likability I think
likability is, likability is completely predicated on
emotional intelligence. I actually think because
information is becoming commoditized by the Internet
it's never been, I'm a complete byproduct of the Internet
becoming important because I so over skew in emotional
intelligence and under-skew IQ that I think I'm a
preview of things to come. - Do you think we become
too reliant then on big data? The fact that we talk so
much about it takes out the element of surprise. I take you to the NBA Mark Cuban
would say implementing big data is the key to
having a winning team. And at the NBA tech conference
Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson sat there and Charles Barkley
said "big data, big data "you know when a boy
has basketball skills. "Forget big data." - What's the right lane? - Both, both. It's just both. I love big data but do you
know where my success in VaynerMedia's for their client
success comes with big data? Having the human ability to
interpret it and turned it into something. And talent trumps all. What Barkley's argument is and
Barkley's very right in a lot of areas and a little wrong in some
other areas in my opinion and I know his argument on this which
is talent is gonna trump anything. Basketball especially look is
one the NBA title for the last 30 years. It's been like the 11 guys.
In basketball, one player unlike any other
sport fundamentally dictates the outcome because they play
both ways not like football and baseball right its
just clear, right. That being said-- - You can maximize your talent.
- You can maximize and that's it. And you can maximize getting
a role player who hits corner threes because that's the
highest percentage and so the Spurs have used that. The Rockets have used
that to win more games. So, it's both. - What's the number one thing
you want everyone in this room to walk away with? This question comes
from Alana McMillan. That I think there's literally
300 million different ways to win in the US. If that's how
many people we have. There is no blueprint
there is no exact way. It only comes down to being
able to factor in the 40 or 50 indexes, input points and
context points around your life. And then
navigating through that. What I really want is for people
to understand don't do it like me, don't would like you, don't
do it like Zucks, don't do it like Travis don't do like Cuban. Spend as much time as you can, Steph, I'll be honest
with you maybe you know the answer, I'm actually
weirdly asking you if I knew how to help people create
more self-awareness, it's what I would sell. I don't know if that becomes
your therapy or some system I don't know, I really don't. - My fear is actually the
reverse in terms of with all the information with all the
self-help with all the people on and Instagram saying
these three easy steps. The fear is we are telling
people as soon as you have a job if you have a job like, click,
and when you meet a man that you like, click, and then you can
afford a house and you have a baby all of these things
are the recipe for success. Well, if you're using some
kind of Cosmo checklist for the recipe for success you're going
to end up very unhappy because success is internal. - So I'll go different way. Fine. But I actually think were in a
much better place than we been in the past 60
years on this issue. - Why? Prior to this world where we
had so many more opinions and platforms we had three channels. That told everybody that thing. There were three old white guys
that owned ABC, NBC and CBS. That completely push down to
them what it was supposed to be. Now at least we have a lot more
voices and there's more things to navigate.
Thank you. - One thing when I look at your
career, Gary-- - Listen, I get excited when you say that's a good point
because I know how you roll and it is a good point. - I think it's
really good point. - Three people said this is
the American way, woman you stay-at-home, man you do
this everybody go work for the machine because that was in the
vested interest of other people in the top. And so now at least
to have more options. - Find your American dream. Now look there's a lot of bad
from that because of a lot of fucking hucksters that are
selling you guys bullshit that would have never would've gotten
on TV that you are now listening to because you know the renting
a $300,000 car for the day taking an Instagram
photo of it and saying yo it's so fucking disgusting. - But hold on but is not
those hucksters fault. So everyone in the audience who
complains that the Kardashians were on magazine covers 110
times last year, it's, hold on-- - 100% - It's not the
Kardashians' fault-- - it's the market's fault-- - It's not
the media's fault-- - It's the market's-- - The media will
sell whatever you will buy. The problem is if you
don't like and stop buying it. - 100%. More importantly stop
judging people escapism. Like I don't care if
you like, good for you. I like the Jets. That can be a waste
of five hours a day. - Hold on a second, if we Lizzie
it's way more than five hours. - That's probably right. I mean look the fact of the
matter is is that everybody needs escapism. Everyone needs it. It's what music and
entertainment and everything is built on. I think were wasting
too much time judging people's choice of escapism. I'm saying don't listen to these
hucksters because I think going to be played out to be
right because I know what their intentions are. I know them. There not doing the right thing. I'll be very blunt with the 600
people in here I don't care if you do it. I can't. I can't. I don't have enough time
or energy in the day to individually care if you figured
out that there is no quick fix in building selling that put
you at the top 1% of society. - Okay, that's the fear
to Gary, that's the risk. - Stopping being scared. - People who are rushing to say
Gary solve my problem fund my business. - I have it everyday. I have it everyday. I'm very comfortable
in that environment. I give answers
every day to that. And I'll decide what I want to
do on an individual basis and if I lose then I deserve to lose if
they lose they deserve to lose. I am an absolute believer that
the market is the market is the market is the market. As so you can trick the market
for a few minutes and we can be upset about all the fake
entrepreneurs or the funded companies but there'll be a day
that comes and they'll all be gone and it'll be
fucking awesome. And it'll be awesome I'll
tell you why because that's what supposed to happen. Guys nothing good comes easy. What good stuff
should come easy? I use this word audacity. If you
have the audacity to be in the 1% which one more time which
means you're making $400,000 a year before taxes. Which is by the way of booby
prize to most of when they think about entrepreneurship. I don't know any anybody
entrepreneur tech land or entrepreneur solo-entrepreneur
that thinks $400,000 a year is the North Star. It's much bigger than that. I get emails every day. Everybody thinks that 1 million
a year is a minimum cost of entry to anything. Right? - Okay but Gary
somebody always has to pay. This whole idea that I'm gonna build a multimillion dollar business. I want everyone to get free
pre-K, there is no light, there is no gold at the
end of the rainbow. Someone has to pay. So this idea that while no
one thinks $400,000 is a lot of money when we going to click
and realize oh shit it is. - Never. Our whole entire human race
from the beginning of mankind is proven we will never do that. It's just not a human way. And that's fine there's
nothing wrong, great. By the way on the biggest fan
of humans we're still here. I actually think are the most
underrated brand in the world. I actually believe that. - What does that mean? I'll explain. I'll explain. - (mockingly) The humans are
the most underrated brand in the world. - Big media has done a really
good job in convincing every mother in here that they should
let the kids play outside. Because they fuckin' reported on
kidnapping until they couldn't get enough of it. Now we have a generation of
people that don't want to put their kids outside yet were
safer than ever because of devices nobody's kidnapping
anybody yet the propaganda filled us nice and good. What does it mean? I mean humans can do
anything to each other. We should a blew each
other up a long time ago with the atomic bomb. I can stab you in the face
with this fork right now. - That'll be streaming on MSNBC. - But think about this. Think about how much damage
we're capable of to each other. We do so little the problem is mainstream media
reports on that .01%. I really believe that. I really think, I really am a
big believer in that. I'm stunned how good
people are. I love it. - Okay but here's the great
part, mainstream media reports on that because it's the way the
system works but the beauty of social media, the beauty of
their more outlets today than ever there are no longer three
networks telling you this is the news today. Now you're a news creator. You're a content creator
that's the beauty of it so the criticism that you have is valid
but the barriers of entry have gotten so low that anyone in the
room can decide this is what the narrative's are going to be. Arianna Huffington's good
news vertical is the biggest money maker she has
within the Huffington Post. It's about making a decision,
you talk about Unilever it's CEOs like Paul Pullman that make
a decision, to say no I'm going to put good in front. - 100% I totally agree with you. I actually have a more
optimistic view on this. I actually think once we wrap
our head about privacy we're about to go through a real
unbelievable era I think I'm going to miss it.
- What do you mean? - I think once we go through a
full cycle, I think 80 years from today humans are going to
live a much happier life than we do now because
there'll be less privacy. I think once we all
wrap our heads around. I think I live a happier life
and I'm a better man because I know a lot of people are
watching me and it's changed my behavior so I'm optimistic. - Why? What were
you doing before? - Nothing. - You just opened-- - Alex, Liz's brother,
my brother-in-law had a wedding. We went to Vegas and I decided
not to go to the Spearmint Rhino because I was exploding on
Twitter at the time and I thought it would be a bad
idea if somebody took a picture. - For those who don't know what
Spearmint Rhino is, it is the most well-known gentlemen's club
just off the Las Vegas strip. - Right. Just little things like that--
- I looked that up. - I just truly believe that when
you're living your-- - So had you not been blowing
up a social media you would've been front and center
throwing dollar bills. - And that's right, yes. (audience laughter) And more importantly not that
that's bad but I'm watching a lot of people's behavior shift
and look who decides what is good is bad you can get into
very big arguments but I'm telling you right now when you
wrap your head around knowing that everything you write and
everything you do is searchable your whole world changes. If I told my homies right now
hey bro every single thing you send to a girl on Tinder
eventually will be searchable under your name I think
some of the shit they'd write would be different. - Okay, all right. That's perfect segue. Gary if you are 22 to 32 in
2016 how would you document your journey as an entrepreneur
would you show everything? The ups and the downs especially? - So this comes from something
that I've been talking about which is too many people are
posing, are crippled by two things. One, they don't want to put up
content because they don't think they made it yet and they don't
deserve to which is something I believe in. - So when I say to you Gary I
don't that picture was very flattering of you I don't
think you should've posted it. - No, that doesn't bother me. No, really I mean people saying
things like I don't know if you know this, Steph, but there's
a lot of people who want to be 22-year-old life coaches. - I do actually. I find that intriguing and so
I'm trying to help some of them and say look that's a bad place
to go because no normal person thinks that you're a
true life coach at 22. But I tell them look you
could be talking about your experiences as a 22-year-old
looking at the world and you can bring value to other people
because you see the world differently than a 45-year-old. That question is predicated on
something that I believe which is how cool would it be right
now if you wanted to you could go to YouTube and watch how
Vera Wang learned to become a dressmaker. If she was producing this is my
first day at the internship at whatever place. So I think everybody's truth had
the potential to be interesting especially if
they've got the chops. - Okay but here's
the scary part. When people put themselves
out there like that what if no one cares? What if, hold on--
- It's a great question. - What if no one cares? What if no one follows them? What is no one like them? Right? That's a really
hard place to be. To truly put yourself out there
and say here I am world I'm starting a gym it's the first day.
I'm ordering this, I'm buying this. What if nobody gives us a shit? - if you're wired like I am when
you know but stick with me-- - But most people aren't. - I'm going to give you a couple
scenarios if you're wired like I am, you love it. Because you know eventually
you're going to win and everybody's going
to look back on it. Fine, I know I'm
in the minority. Steph, it comes down
to self-awareness. It depends on how you
feel about yourself. Am I watching the patterns of
14-year-old teenagers who are taking 3 minutes to 7 minutes to
15 minutes to take a selfie then post it on Instagram and then if
they don't get enough likes in the first 20 minutes take
it down and start over. - Gary I'm afraid of that. - That's great. I'm afraid of a lot of things. - I'm afraid of what are we
doing to our young people-- - No, no. Stop over. We're not doing jack shit. This is what's happening. No "we're doing." This is the reality
of human evolution. If this was 1961 and we're doing
this, you're like Gary, I'm worried about Elvis
shaking his hips. What are we teaching? - I would never be
worried about that. - So this notion that you and I
get to say what we're worried about this is happening
whether you or I like it. This is what's happening. It's evolution. The end. You're gonna be much more scared
about what's happening in this VR world in 20
years than any of this. You're going to wish for the
day of selfies in 20 years when people put on contacts lenses
and don't come out for a month. - Ok, you know what
Gary, you're a dad? You're a dad, you have two kids. What are you going to do when
your daughter is 14 and she's locked in her room desperate
to make selfies and videos that people care about and when she
walks out of her room and says no one likes me in this world. - I'm going to say Misha,
step up your fucking game. (audience laughter and applause) I'm going to say to her, Misha, if you're not making stuff that
people want to watch, they're not going
to watch, darling. That's what I'm going to say. 'Cause that's the truth. - Why is being loved by millions
have to be how we define ourselves? I don't know, tell me. You're putting yourself on TV. - I might want to do that
but maybe other people don't. - I'm not telling fucking
Misha she has to do that. - But if that's the way
we're going as a society. - What are you talking about? Do you know how many
people don't do that? There are unlimited people
who don't do social media. I met like 40 people under 30 in
the last six months. A girl cutting my hair, she's like a 25
year old girl in San Francisco during the Super Bowl weekend
I'm like so what do you think about Snapchat? She's like I
don't have any social media. I'm like "None?" She's like no. Ever? She's like nope. I'm like fuck. You know? (audience laughter) I was like tell me more because
is this a trend that I need to figure out. There is no this is
what we have to do. There is no difference between
Misha doing that in her room than her laying in her room in
1984 asking Lizzie and I for three way phone calls
so she could sit there. Nothing has changed it just gets
it accelerated and what happens is we get scared
'cause we get old. That's what happens. We get scared 'cause we get old. We get scared of everything
that we didn't grow up with. It's what human beings do. - And then they hire you--
- So all the 23 and 29-year-olds in here that are super comfortable
with all the shit, when VR comes when they're 42 and they have
kids like whoa this is fucking, you know? That's what happens. And so I don't. I know that it's evolution
I'm very comfortable in it. I'll always be
comfortable with it. I have a six and
a three old now. Nothing has changed on my point
of view and guess what when something bad happens my point
of view will still not change. I'll be sad that a micro event
happened in the data didn't go in our way. I'll be sad that that Misha's
crying or Xander got hurt. I'll be sad but it's not going
to make me say well now let's shut down evolution. We're going to
shut down evolution. This is what's going to happen. Period. - You can help shape it. - I don't know about that. I think that people grossly
overestimate their ability to shape it. - How important is
it to brand yourself? For everyone out there who is an
entrepreneur they're starting a business, how important is it
to tie their name, their face to the business to
make it a success? - It's only important
if they're good at it. So for example you know this
there is unlimited amounts of companies that are
successful that nobody's ever heard of the CEO. There's unlimited number of
people that are worth billions of dollars that
nobody's ever heard of. Right? It comes down to
knowing oneself. For me this is very important
because of a couple of things I think I'm good at it there's
another important thing I really genuinely like it. I like looking out there and
seeing chef and Eric and I get to know people I know them. I like it. I like people. So I put myself in the
best position to succeed. I like people. The social network world was
about people interactions it was going to naturally work for me. However, I have tons and tons of
startups and founders who ask me every day they take my money,
they want my advice and they're not into people and they don't
want to put themselves out there and are very happy to put
their head down and build a good product. - But our consumers
demanding that they-- - No. No --
- I use Uber as an example. - Nobody here gives a shit
about Perry Chen is fairly quiet. If they like Kickstarter
they're going to use it. - But here's where you're wrong,
people give a shit about Uber and Travis. - I'm not wrong that just
another fucking different example. (audience laughter) Steph, I'm not wrong. Nobody here cares about I
don't know the CEO of Nike. - Mark Parker. - Great if you told me I'll give
you the fucking Jets right now I couldn't have answered that. And I don't give a fuck about
him or his life or his selfies but I like these fucking kicks. It's just another option. - Then explain the Uber
phenomenon to me, hold on, how there are people who criticize
Uber and their management and their founder and don't think
guess what it is a great black car that shows about my house
and cheaper than a cab instead-- - Those are the same people who
moved to Canada when Bush and Obama got elected. - Oh, okay. There you go. If they cared they were mad
at Uber for whatever current headline grabbing thing that
somebody wants to write because it's good for Business Insider. They're traffic, it's
good to say something. But then they get in to
an Uber 40 minutes later. Do you know how
silly human beings are? - That's where I
wanted you to get to. I understand. Listen, I know you're leaving
I'm just following, tell me where to go to next. - Gary's a follower, right? - I don't think people care. I think care about their things
and if their yenta and they love that shit then they care. - You know who cares
and has always cared? Your mother. You said your mother,
complimented you 500 times a day. - She did. - For me, every day, my whole
entire life my mom calls on the phone and says you can do
anything and then hangs up. There's somebody in the audience
is a stay-at-home mom and she wants to be that
kind of inspiration. What does she do?
What you mom say? My mom balanced accentuating my
strengths while letting me know that my weaknesses were not
completely acceptable to punt but kinda. - One more time. - Yep. What she did every time I made
$1000 at a baseball card that's an unbelievable do you know
how many people can't do that as grown-ups? And that's what she would say
or whatever she would say silly shit like she like the way
I swung my wiffleball bat. It could be anything. I skipped well on
the way to the park. She would go there but when I
would get F's or do something that wasn't right she would make
me understand there should be consequences for that,
she would punish me. My mom would punish me even as a
junior in high school for F's on my report card. - Did you get a lot of F's? - Unlimited. - There is not unlimited F's. - Steph, I have one report card
I've actually tried it up North Hunterdon High School to give me
access to my report card because I want to throw it on
#ThrowbackThursday. - I don't think they have it. - They don't. I've been trying to get it. Because literally I
only got D's and F's. I'd get a B in history I'd get
an A in gym, and I'd get F's or D's for everything else. - Why? From the first day of
high school until last day. I never opened a
single book once ever. I never did one piece of
homework in my entire four years of high school. Why? - Because I knew I was and I
knew they were going to push me through. And that I needed the time hone
my skills on my future and not figure out where Saturn was. So when I got home as a freshman
in high school and then the new Beckett baseball card guide
would come out, I would lay in bed for six hours and memorize
the prices on everything because pre-cell phones and information
when I went to the baseball card show on Friday if I had of the
prices memorized that was an advantage over the
other people that didn't. - Seeing that that's your story,
is that your journey or is that a path you recommend for others. What you going to see your kids
when they're in the ninth grade they're going to New York City's
finest and they say I'm not opening a book? - I'm going to say if you have
the chops to be an entrepreneur let's fucking start right now
but if not you need to explain to mommy and daddy what
the fuck you're thinking. (audience laughter) - Do you think this is the year
we been saying for the last few years content is king, content
is king and there's so much content at this point, do you
think were coming to a point in time we were actually going to
stop really curate and separate and say a lot of this is noise,
here's the high-value product? - I think we do that every day
and have done it for every day for our existence. So what I mean by that? I mean we choose this weekend to
watch entire seasons of House of Cards because we decide that's
content for us and instead of watching something else or
reading something else we chose that and I think the marketplace
is already been on the marketplace I think that's
been happening all along. That's what happens everyday. There's been more than enough
content to fill our days for much longer than the
Internet has been around. Once cable into 36 channels with
the amount of newspapers and books that were produced we been
picking and choosing what is good every day. These people chose that this was
the best of their time and this is what they wanted to do on
a late Sunday afternoon I'm humbled by that
because Sundays are tough. That's family time this that and
the other thing we do it every single day of our lives. And what I love is that
there's even more content now. There's just so much. I know when I do
DailyVee that's the sitcom. That's a 20, 30 minute video
that they're going to watch instead of
watching something else. I think that will
always go on forever. - When you do DailyVee and you
look back on it, are the days were you say that was
garbage or do you get all great? - I think it's all great. - Really? - Sure. Because the think it's all true. - That doesn't mean it's great. - Sure it does. For me that's what I
want to make sure. One of the things that I'm
most proud of is that DRock will always be able to tell somebody
over a drink 25 years from now that like he didn't
tell me to do anything. I like that I stay away from it. He does it. - Walk us through for people
who don't know what that is. - I do a daily vlog, I get it. Episode 19 is where
were at right now. It's a 13 to 30 minute show that
we put out it's called DailyVee because DRock and I had a big
eyes that were going to do it five days a week. It's really fun for me to
watch is happening with DailyVee because is getting a lot of
accolades and a lot of credit because not only is he
filming, he's editing. And he's working his face off. Think about this, I talk about
how hard-core I am, he follows me are for 15 hours and then
sometimes he'll literally then go to the office
and start editing. It's really great for me to see
him get his due and people are really talking about his talents
in the comments and I saw somebody the other day same when
we need Staphon to follow DRock who follows Gary
because I want Daily DRock. And so it's really cool to watch
it but I feel great about it because I've never felt such a
feedback loop on anything I've ever done like DailyVee because
people to know me well are like shit man, I didn't realize you
really work that hard and I have to be honest with you we
only started DailyVee because I wanted to make sure everybody
knew that I was working harder than them. It came from a very dark place. - Gary, everybody in
this room loves you. They want you to love them. What quality, I don't want to
use the word genius I know we're and the genius dome, what
quality do you see people that you gravitate towards? What do you love? - Optimism. I love optimism. I hate cynicism. I want to build
an empire on good. I hate Steve Jobs's narrative. He change the world. He's
unbelievable but he didn't make people happy. That worked for him. I don't like that. I don't want to do that. My biggest ambition if I can
pull off what I'm going to pull off your is to build a--
- Gary, you are pulling it off. - Yeah, I know but
I got a ways to go. I am pulling it off
but anything can happen. I truly live, Steph, in a world
where I'm only as good as my last at-bat. I'm not interested in
consuming my hyperbole or reading my headlines. I like them. They make me feel good. But I'm not confused by them. I've got a long way to go to
pull off what I really want to pull off which is to become a
standard of building an empire, a professional business empire,
on doing good stuff not on I was tough on you because I wanted to
get the best work on out of you. I don't like that. I want to win with
honey over vinegar. I like that. I like happiness, optimism but I
want to finish optimism that is loaded with practicality. So many of you in here and I
know you you're loaded with optimism without practicality. You wish you're something
without really understanding who you really are. And in that wishing you change
your behavior and you make yourself vulnerable for upside. And so I'm good at
a couple things. And if you notice the reason
I have so much bravado and confidence as I mainly
talk about my stuff. Look I've been on your show
and you know when it's subject matters and I'm part of it and
I gotta say stuff if it subject matters I don't know. I can be pretty, you
know, I'll get out of there. I don't want to talk about. I'm in full promotion. Tuesday night I'll be on CNN. So I'll be with Don Lemon and
what are we going to talk about? We're going to
talk about politics. I'm going to fucking dance. Because I'm a headline reader
I have not even begun to really pay attention to the
presidential race. - Do you vote? - Yeah. I'm very proud of the way
that I vote. I've voted very consistently on both sides of
the aisle and that's because I make it
practical, not emotional. There'll be two candidates and
I'm going to pick the one that I want to be there. I'm not to get cripled by oh I
live in a state where it doesn't matter like I'm going to do
my thing I'm going to make my decision and I'm
going to move on. There's one thing that you
didn't want to talk about that I want you to, you talked about
being optimistic and you want to create an empire and you want to
do through love and not through hate, but I think you also do it
with a level of brutal honesty. And that is something that in
the PC hyper human resource wrapped world that were living
in in a professional environment many criticisms is honesty has
been taken out of the equation because we're forced to be
so supersensitive, you're not supersensitive. - Not in the subject matter. Mainly because I'm selfish. And what I mean by that is I
want to be historically correct. And if I'm not
honest I won't be. And that's it. I'm telling you right now this
is where I balance my good is so often so self-serving but
it manifests in a weird way. - That's okay if
you're honest about it. - I agree. The fundamental reason that I
try and spit my honest answer to every question is I have a very
good long track record of being right and I want to continue
that and I think there's an enormous leverage in an so if I
answer honestly and it becomes true it really helps me. And I want to
continue to do that. - Well you're doing and Gar. We are out of time. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you for
asking me to do this. Hold on. Sorry. We are done with this portion of
the program but it would not be a GaryVee event without a
book signing outside as well. Don't you want to
selfie through with this? How are you getting
all his followers? Gary this is the
end of my portion. Thank you. It was an honor
to stay with you. Please stay! Get your book, get it
signed get a picture with Gary. Thank you.
