- The reason I spend my
time talking about this is not because I want to be a
fucking motivational speaker and fluffy, fluff, fluff
and ra-ra-ra, it's because it's the fucking thing! ♫ We're unstoppable - Yo, yo, yo, what up, vlog? Busy day today, didn't
really film anything on this Friday, just work,
work, work, work, work. Did film an Ask Gary V,
how did that go, Seth, was it a good Ask Gary V? - Great one. - Awesome, nonetheless,
gave a talk in Portland a couple weeks ago to
Dutch Bros coffee company, it turned into an epic, I mean an epic. D. Rock, how long was it? - Two and a half hours. - So, this is gonna be a
two-and-a-half hour episode of DAILYVEE? Two and a half hour episode of DAILYVEE, touched on a ton of new
content, I think you guys are gonna super-enjoy it and sit back, pour a glass of wine from
the Gary V. Wine Club, oh wait, what, you're not
part of the Gary V. Wine Club? D. Rock, are you part of the Gary V? You are, Seth, are you part of the-- - Not yet. - Dude, what the fuck? Guys, don't be a dickface,
sign up for the Garry V. Wine Club and watch this now. - Let's welcome to the
stage, Mr. Gary Vaynerchuk. (audience cheering) - Hello. Thank you. Thanks. All right, let's go, let's
go, sit down, let's do this. - [Audience] Gary, Gary, Gary! - What up? What up, what up, what up? Thank you for having me, thank
you so much for the awesome intro and reaction, very
frankly, how are we doing the Q&A, where is the Q&A gonna come from? You guys have runners? Awesome, cool, I just can't
wait to get to the Q&A, so I just wanted to get
that out real quick. And the reason why I want to do the Q&A to be very frank, is I
think I get to speak a lot and when I think about
speaking, at the end of the day, I'm trying to reverse-engineer
the audience, right? To me, as a lot of you
know, how many people here have seen some of my content
online, raise your hands? Thank you, actually, real
quick, how many of you have not, raise your hands, okay, fuck you guys. (laughing) Kidding, kidding, kidding. So, for about 70% of you, you
guys have seen the content and I'll go through certain
things that I want to talk to you guys about, for
the 30% or 40% of you that just raised your
hands that you haven't, you can go to YouTube or
Facebook and see this, so what's super-important
to me is to make this talk contextual and when I
think about this audience, and whether it's of age or mindset, the youth in the offense
of this organization is super-attractive to
me, from afar, right? For me, I'm 41, I'm old,
but I feel 16 in my mind, right, and I work like I'm 19, you know, in my prime, because I'm on the offense. It's a mindset. And so the thing that I
want to first start with is intangibles, right? I've been thinking about this quite a bit, and let me tell you why this
is the first thing I want to start with, yesterday,
for some of you that know, I'm a ridiculously
die-hard Jets fan, right? And yesterday, the Jets fucked me up because they won a football game. So for some of you that
aren't into football, my strategy for this
season was to go 0 and 16 and take a quarterback with the first pick and so I literally was
in the stands yesterday in New York, really upset
as my team was dominating an arch rival in the Miami
Dolphins and all the fans around me were pissed because I was booing when the Jets were doing good shit, and it was fucking awkward, okay? But here's what happened. The Jets took a player this
year by the name of Jamal Adams out of LSU and he basically
was disproportionately impactful on the game yesterday
without doing anything that you would normally
consider a turning point. He didn't have an
interception for a touchdown, he didn't do any of the
things that would show up in the stats sheets
that would make you say, oh he won the game as a defensive back, what he did was intangibles. What he did was, the hour before the game, the way he interacted
with all his teammates didn't look anything like a
kid playing his third game of his life in pros, it
looked like a 16-year veteran doing the little things. What he did was, on every
play when the Dolphins made a mistake or an
off-side, he basically looked at the entire crowd, which was
half-empty and would get them excited, what he did was
when a teammate came off the field that made a nice
play on special teams, he ran over and gave him dapps. He literally, fundamentally
willed the vibe of the game to go in the direction
that created the outcome. I am not physically structured
to win all my competitive battles through my life. Yet, when I think about all
the one-on-one basketball games or the floor hockey
matches or ping pong matches or tennis or football or whatever, like 80% of the time when
I fucking win something in a physical confrontation sporting event it's because I used intangibles
to mentally outmaneuver or disproportionately
figure out how to win. I am fascinated, fascinated by this. I am fascinated by fucking
mindset, I am fascinated in a complicated world that
we're all growing up in, it's a binary decision if
you're gonna be positive or negative about shit. I'm fascinated that when
you're addicted to kindness and optimism and positivity,
it just, you know, it's so funny. You know stuff like the secret, I love when people talk
about like the secret, people think you sit on
your ass on your couch and you're like, "I wish
I had a million bucks" and it's like, bloop and it just shows up. What I'm fascinated by is
the reason people succeed that put their mindset into it
is because it does something that has really also caught
my attention over the last two years, which is the following. When you bet on optimism,
when you're on the offense, when you're playing towards intangibles, you do something super-duper interesting. You start suffocating excuses. If you asked me what
the number one things is that I'm thankful for
that my parents gave me, taking me from a communist
country and moving me to the US. You know, parenting me well, nothing bad, you know, roof and
clothes, all good stuff, if you asked me the
number one thing I wake up every morning and thank
that my parents did is that I never saw either
one of them complain about jack shit and they
basically created learned behavior for me, I'm incapable
of actually complaining about shit. And that has become the
foundation of my success. When I was in my 20s
and early 30s, I spent eight, 15, 16, 17 hours a
day for 13 years, building my dad's liquor store for him, I own nothing of Wine Library, right, I leave that business in
my mid-30s, I've no wealth, I've built a 60-million
dollar wine business for my dad and I don't
sit there and complain, I think about it as I did
the right thing by thanking my parents and giving back. Literally, literally, no joke,
if I leave this conference today, right now, if I
leave, right, if we do this, we have a nice little
Q&A, it's a good talk, it's fucking cool, I leave,
I go to cross a street to go into my car, to go to the airport, and I get hit by a car,
literally as I'm laying there, I'd be like fuck, I shouldn't
have left the conference that early. It is in my mindset that
literally every negative thing that happens to me is my fucking fault. I recognize that that's
not true, you know, when I talk about this publicly, everybody starts bringing up
stuff like what if you're raped and what if you're this
and that, I understand. I'm a logical, practical
person, I'm not talking about knowing or thinking
everything is my fault, I'm talking about living
a life where you default into believing that as your
mindset because what happens is you start spending all
of your time on offense. My friends, listen, here's
what fucking freaks me the fuck out, do you
understand, you like that? Let me get to it, it's
really interesting to me, I wish everybody in this
conference, including myself by the way, who spends
all this time on this, I wish we had better perspective. I wish that there was some fucking crazy, that dude right there with
the weird fucking horse T-shirt, I wish he was some
weird genie that could take us back in time 80 years ago
so that every one of you could live one fucking
day in your great, great grandparents shoes and
understand how fucking good you have, like if you
really, really understood how amazing the era we live in and listen, I'm not
naive to what's happening in our society, I'm aware
of the political current climate, I'm aware of everything. Let me just say thins very
clear so everybody gets it through their fucking
dome, this is the greatest year to ever be alive in
the history of mankind. I am super-empathetic, again,
when you make those kind of statements, do I believe that there is suppression around? Of course, but on a macro
data, macro data, health, life expectancy, how much
hate and negativity actually is in the complete
world, this is the best. We have it the best and all I
see is people sitting around and dwelling around dumb
shit around what they don't have instead of focusing
on what they do have. My friends, the internet
is a fucking miracle. It's a fucking miracle, the
scalability in which you can achieve, the things
that you could be doing, the fact that you could
be laying fucking naked in your bed at two in the morning and doing productive
shit is fucking crazy. It's crazy, if you got your side hustle, if you think about your side hustle or you're crushing it
with these guys and doing side hustle, there was
no side hustle for your great-great-grandparents. Like, when it was 9 p.m. it
was dark and cold outside, it wasn't practical. We take things for granted,
do you know how upset, do you know what's crazy to me? How mad I get when my internet
is a hundredth of a second slower than what I'm used to. Like, literally, a
hundredth of a second slower and I feel it because I'm
used to what speed it's supposed to be and that's
frustrating like on a plane because the Wi-Fi on the
plane is a little slow which is so ridiculous because
I'm on a fucking plane, and then it's Wi-Fi, it's there, I'm old, I remember not having it,
it's crazy how quickly we take things for granted. So, London just banned Uber
and my buddy landed there and he's like what the fuck am I gonna do? I'm like, I don't know, what
everybody has done for the last 300 years, dickface, take the train. We just get used to shit so fast. And in our speed of getting
used to how fucking awesome it is, I'm just desperate
this afternoon for you to not lose perspective,
perspective is the fucking game, right? Both my grandpa, look,
I sit up here, get paid super-duper-duper-well, get
people to think I'm cool because I have entrepreneurial
DNA and the timing of it was cool because entrepreneurs got cool. Both my grandfathers had
the same exact thing I had and because they were
Jewish in communist Russia post World War Two,
their communism put them both in jail for 10 years in Siberia. Just think about that,
timing, opportunity, yes, it is absolutely
difficult for all of us, we all have stuff, do
I believe a white male has more privilege? Of course, yes I do, here's my problem, if anybody has ever done
it with your circumstances, then you have nothing to
talk about in the mindset that I want for you to win. If anybody has ever
achieved something with two alcoholic parents, that's the
blueprint that you can follow versus looking the other way. Life is binary, it's
either offense or defense, you are there sitting
in your seat right now on the offense or you're
not, there is no fucking half-pregnant, there is no
in-between, you're either this or that. And so, I come here with the
energy to let you know about how I see it from afar
not knowing every nuance of your life, A, I think this
is the greatest opportunity to be alive because the
internet has created infinite opportunity for all of us. B, I love something
that I'm fascinated by, which is that everything gets accelerated. What you're living through
right now, my friends, in society and the business
world, is everything is getting accelerated, what
the internet has done, it hasn't changed us, it's exposed us. What the internet has
done is not necessarily suppress things, it's made
everything at the forefront, there is no hiding,
everything is so clear, out in the open, difficult to hide. And so I'm fascinated by thing
because it leads to bigger opportunity, the speed
at which good can happen is extraordinary, it just
comes down to actions. So, what's really happening? This first and foremost, this
device, if you're sitting in your seat and you
have any entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial DNA, aka,
do you want to be the CEO of this company one day
and grow in the ranks or do you want to do something
for yourself one day, if you have either one, which
I assume is one or the other inside your body, you have
to take a step back and wrap your head around the
following, this right here, this device is the remote
control of our society, this is everything. Everybody keeps trying to
tell people to spend less time on this, I recommend you
spend all your time on it. I don't give a fuck if you look at another human being's eyes again. This. This. Because where do you
think the world is going, I have two young kids now
and I love all these parents, like, Gary, you're into
this social media stuff, this is terrible, right? I'm like, no, Dick, this is the best, because, they're like,
"But I'm gonna tell my kid "to spend less time on technology." I'm like, why, what world
do you think your kids are gonna be living in 20 years? I love the naivete, the
naivete, this is all history, my friends, people thinking
we're gonna go backwards, every person in this
room is gonna be wearing contact lenses full time,
on their body in 20 years and triggering between real
life, augmented reality, where I don't know, Santa is
on here, on stage with me, right, and complete virtual reality. Everybody in here, in 20 or
25 years is going to be living a mixed reality world, you
may not like it, you may think it's weird, but people
used to think online dating was weird, people used to
think the internet was weird, people definitely thought
sending a 14-year-old girl into a stranger's car was
super-weird and that's what we do with all our
daughters now at 14, and put them into Ubers
and strange men's cars every day, social norms
are changing at a speed we've never seen before. So, this amplification of
everything is what I want to focus on right now, I wrote a
book six years ago called the Thank You Economy, I want
to talk to you guys about it today, because it maters
to most of you right now. It is stunning to me how
doing a good deed now travels to such greater length
than it ever did before. To me, if you took anything
away from my talk before I go into the Q&A, I want you
to understand the following, somebody is always watching now. There is no interaction that you're having ever again that is just
between you and that person. And let me tell you why I
want you to think this way, though that may be true,
because it becomes he said, she said, thought that
may be true, if you switch and live the mindset that
I've been living for the last seven years, I really believe
that a lot of good things will happen for you, if you
believe that every single thing that you do is on the record, you'll be stunned by how
your behavior changes. If you actually believe
that every single thing you do is actually being
documented, is actually going to be recorded, is
actually being watched, a miraculous thing happens,
you change your behavior, not that you go from being
a dick to being phenomenal, and I'm telling you
because I've been living it for the last decade, you
just start sliding every so often a little bit
towards a better place and start changing your
behavior and what happens is you start having
momentum of positivity. I believe that karma is
practical, I believe that doing the right thing is always the right thing, and so how many people here
are managers, raise your hands. Actually, can you guys stand
up, if you're managers, can you stand up real
quick, don't get lazy on me, let's get the blood going, let's not clap up for them,
they don't need to be clapped, I'm trying, fine, clap, clap. All right, you can sit,
can we keep the lights on, it's better, I like seeing their faces. I'm fascinated by management,
how many people became a manager within the last
two years, raise your hand. Funny shit, right? It used to be fun saying
your manager was a dickface until you became one. (laughing) And now you're like, oh now I get it. Management is super-interesting to me, I'm super-fascinated by
it, I have 800 employees at VaynerMedia and I
love watching somebody go from super star, entry
or specs tier and when they go to management,
shit changes because everything flips. Let me tell you something,
managers, I run VaynerMedia, I'm the CEO, 800 employees,
I work for everybody. I don't have people working
for me, I work for everybody. The biggest issue that
managers have when they make that leap, is they get very
fucking confused, they think that people work for them
and they don't understand that they're working for those people. So, when I think about
the Thank You Economy and being documented and
what I really want from you, I'm not here to raz the
managers, I want everybody who just stood up to get to
the place that they want to in their lives and in their
careers and I want to suffocate, real quick, for all of them
to leave their fucking fancy PoVs at the fucking door,
because what happens as you grow up the ranks of society
and life and in business, is you have to start
deploying humility, not ego. And that has been the
most fascinating thing that I have watched throughout my career, watching that shift become difficult, because the way to succeed
within an organization that has people working
is you have to figure out how to learn to eat shit
and that is super-difficult and the higher up you
go, the more shit you have to eat, the amount of
shit that I eat every day is so fucking staggering to me, and it is basically the
blueprint of my success and every other person that I have seen. Literally your ability to
be the bigger man and woman in every situation, even
though nine out of 10 times, you may be right is the
variable of your success both within your organization
and compounded when you go out into the real world
and this takes me back to where I started. Please understand the following, being nice is ROI positive. It is traveling, it is
be known, it is leverage, the ability to be not nice, politicking, on the defense, always
wins up-front, which is why people are seduced by it. But it never wins the
long game, you're winning the sprint for about 40
seconds, but you never win the marathon of
what's being played here. It is now compounded
because information about us travels at a level
we've never seen before. Being a dick in Portland
in 1974 was super fine, because you could move to Minnesota. That information now
travels with us at scale, you don't even want to
know how much of a jerk your great-great-grandfather
was, all that stuff is lost in history. All of our baggage, here forever. The biggest thing I remind
people when they go on tilt, whether it's politics or life or whatever, is just remember, everything you're saying is going to be there forever. Everybody in this room is
going to have a conversation with their granddaughter and
they're gonna have to explain their points of view on everything. Let's forget politics, life. Everything. And so I'm fascinated by
thing dynamic, I think it's a super-interesting time,
and I really want to, not inspire, it's really
funny, I think about, I don't get a super-high to
inspire and make a fun event, I get a super-high on the
emails I read on the way out to this flight this morning. The people that were in the
audience, the guy who just told me backstage, when he saw
me speak two years ago, quit his job and went on the offense. I'm in for one thing, legacy. I'm in it for one person
sitting here, emailing me in six years and saying, you
know, I was a little fancy as a manager until you came
to Portland, I was a little high on myself and thinking
I was special, I was building towards the wrong path
that wasn't going to be historically correct. And I am just fascinated by
the fact that that the most simple of traits now
is the fundamental game we're playing, that is
crazy to me, as we go more Jetsons, the people that
know how to play like the Flintstones are gonna win. Literally I believe the manners that your great-great-grandparents
have are far more suited for where we're going
than the majority of us. Now, we don't realize
what's actually happening in front of us, which is we are all, not just me, all day putting out content, D. Rock, where you at? Not just having a weird
dude following you around full time, filming you,
not me, all of you. Maybe mine's an extreme
version, but for all of you, all of you, you are
documenting your entire life at scale forever. And when you start wrapping
your head around that, two things unfold. I hope, for 95% of you, number
one, the quality of the life that you're trying to live
as a human so that you're proud about the conversation
you have at 60, 70 and 80 and when you get
there, a funny thing happens, as you push yourself to be a
better fucking human being, better things start happening
for you in your actual selfish business wants and needs. And so, I hope that I
can suffocate and ignite a mindset here today of
people actually understanding what they're doing. Think about all the dumb shit
you believe five years ago that you don't believe anymore. We keep evolving, we
keep changing as we grow. I implore you to understand
how big the stakes are in the world that you live in right now. The opportunity is so ridiculous. And so let's get into the
details before I get into Q&A of this. I am desperate for every
person in this room to understand couple of piece of data. Number one, if you believe
that this is the remote control of our society the way I do, then it gets really interesting
when you start thinking about social media. Social media is this nice
little, in my marketing world, it's a slang term for
nice to have, that you support with television,
things of that nature, I see a lot of young
faces, it's norm for you, it's the main communication
funnel, but it probably has a balance between
business and your real life of what you're doing as a human. I need everybody to understand something, more than 50% of the time
spent by all Americans on a cellphone is on a social network. This is pretty much the punchline. How many people here are
retiring in 10 years, and I don't mean you're gonna
open up a bunch of these and you're gonna fucking
crush it and buy an island, I mean, you're fucking
old and you're finished? How many people are retiring
in the next 10 years? Great, zero. So, for everybody here, please
understand the following, everything, everything that
is running our society's attention right now, Facebook and YouTube and Instagram and SnapChat and Twitter, everything, 12 years ago did not exist. The smartphone did not
exist, Uber did not exist, Airbnb did not exist, nothing. You know, back to the
awesome dude with the fucking horse T-shirt, the reason I
wish you could take everybody back is we don't have
context to how remarkable, it's tough, the people that lived during the Great Depression,
the people that lived during the World Wars,
people that lived during the industrial revolution, it's
hard because it's our lives, it's hard for us to understand
how different it is for us than the prior two generations. It's difficult because you
have no context to anything else, but the stakes and
opportunity are all time, they're all time. Our great-great-grandkids, everybody else, will look back at this era as the moment. So, I implore you to take
a step back and really fundamentally ask yourselves
a couple of questions, one, what legacy are you
building because it will be the leverage for everything that you want over the next 60 years and
that is based on your actions, and two, very honestly,
are you squeezing the shit out of this moment as much as you can? The thing that I'm super-passionate
about as a lot of you know is I think work ethic
is the one thing that's super-fucking controllable. Right? A lot of us were born with
what we were born with, you're only so pretty,
you're only so smart, you're only so fast,
you're only what you are, the one thing that I'm
fascinated by as you sit here, the way you were parented,
where you were born, what you got, the one thing
that actually is in your control is the decisions of
what you do with your hand. It's like a great poker player, right? A great poker player doesn't
need the best hand every time to win, it's how she or
he navigates with that hand. We're not gonna change who
we are or where we were born or to whom we were born with,
but no matter where you are in the lifecycle right now,
we all have the opportunity to start looking at it a little different, and to me, very frankly,
I just think we spend an enormous amount of time on dumb shit when we have ambition to do so much more. Now look, you do you, I'm
not interested in peddling being a workaholic, I'm really not. You can do whatever you want. The happiest friend I know
from growing up, I think he makes $50,000 a year,
he's on 17 fucking softball teams, he takes every vacation day off, and he's happy as shit and
I love him and it makes me so damn happy. I have friends who are
employees at Facebook, they have a hundred million
dollars in their bank, and they're miserable and it's shit. This is not a money conversation, this is very simply, do your actions back up your mouth? To me, looking at hashtag,
looking at people talking about this, looking at their social media, when I have the whole
East Coast to West Coast long flight, I get into
a lot of work, I get all my work done and then
I start looking at all of your social media on the way here. And I'd look at the
hashtag and what you said about the earlier speaker
and I do my thing, right? The thing that fascinated me
a lot about this conference is you've got a lot of people peacocking in this organization, aka,
a lot of you are talking big shit and I don't mean
about this conference, I went back and looked at all your tweets, did you know there are 37
billionaires sitting with us today? I'm fascinated by that, I'm
fascinated because we're sitting in a world right
now where entrepreneurship is on a pedestal of cool,
and so everybody is flocked to it and everybody is talking
about how they're gonna crush and what they're gonna
do and who they're gonna be and then you look at their
content, and every Friday night, they're at a fucking concert,
and every Sunday morning they're this and every Tuesday
afternoon they're that, and they watch a shit-load
of fucking Netflix and they're incredible
at fucking Candy Crush and fucking, fucking, fucking. And so, I go on this rant
not to do anything to raz or to fucking call anybody out, I'm just asking a very simple question. I promise you, if you want
to be pumped professionally and personally there's one
thing that will drive you to the biggest success,
it's called self-awareness. Do you know who you are, do
you know who you're about? Are you actually talking about
shit that you care about, are you talking because three
or four people that you love talk that game and you
feel like you got to fit in or appease your mom or dad or
uncle or aunt or grandmother's ambition? The thing that helped me so
much was just self-awareness. In fourth grade I punted school because I knew I sucked at it, I
knew I could make $3,000 a weekend as a 10-year-old
selling baseball cards, but I couldn't spell 90%
of the words that were being thrown at me. It was just who I was,
it was how I was wired, and I implore everybody in
this conference to really think about this incredibly interesting thing which is when you're self-aware
and you can get to that place of understanding
yourself, I implore you to triple down on your strengths and punt your weaknesses. This country is really good
at selling down our throats what we're not good at. We're always being sold what to fix. I truly believe that
most people in this room will succeed by not
addressing those things, now, something could be
fatal, right, something could really hurt you, but I
think that you need to just lift those, get them to a certain place where they're not a
vulnerability and triple down on your charisma and triple
down on your salesmanship and triple down on your work ethic. Whatever those, three to
four, one, two, three, four, five pillars are, it's
fascinating when you study who's winning and who's not,
it's the people that have the confidence to suck
at shit that are winning. I can't read. Right? I'm terrible at it, like,
reading a second grade book to my daughter is like, you
sure you want me to read, you should go look at a bird. Yet, standing in front of
800,000 people, I'm like, cool, I'm good, we need to start
thinking more and more and as you're going through
your careers right now, I implore you to be confident
in what you're good at and to punt what you suck at, because I promise you, everybody
else sucks at shit too. Everybody's got strengths and weaknesses and I'm fascinated by
people's obsession to pour all of their efforts into
fixing the weaknesses, which is playing defense, and
not tripling down on their strengths, so if I
leave you with anything, structurally from a strategy standpoint and mindset standpoint, I
highly implore you on that. And that's it. Those are the things that
are really kind of happening to me, I'm fascinated
that we're in this era. I want people to take bigger
advantages of it, right? I need people to understand
how ridiculously unbelievable it is and to figure out
do they really want stuff, how many people love working
because they just love the game of trying to win at a career
or building a business? Raise your hands, those
people are gonna have a disproportionate
advantage because it doesn't feel like work, it's just their zone. For the rest of you, you
need to figure out what you like about it and spend
all your time on that, because if you're in a place
where you don't like it, you're not gonna put in the
amount of work that's needed to actually achieve the
things that most of you want. It's very, very simple, put yourself in a position to succeed. Put yourself in a position to succeed. And how many people here
feel like they are not self-aware? Because I want to address this if I can, just raise your hands if
you struggle a little bit with self-awareness, raise your hands, nobody wants to do that. I'll just go to it, I
respect that's a tough one, and why we got half the
hands that we should have and more importantly the ones that we got were fucking crocodile hands. (laughing) If you were listening for
the last seven minutes, I'm going through awkward
territory, I'm going there because it has been clearly
in the last four years the thing that I've seen as won and lost. I would highly implore
you take the five people that spend the most time with you, co-workers, or family members
if you feel like you're struggling with this issue
and invite them to dinner, create a weird event
where it's like your mom and a co-worker, and she'll
say what the fuck is happening, create a weird event and tell
everybody you really want to figure out what you're good
at, what you're not good at, and spend three hours
getting people that love you and know you the best
comfortable with telling you the truth because nobody
wants to tell you. Because most people are
kind, we don't tell people because we like each other,
especially the people that are closest to you,
but this is something I threw on about a year
ago in a blog post or maybe two years ago and it's been
the thing that I've been the most emailed about, it's remarkable. And it's an unlock because
when you don't see it, when you're blinded to it,
you're doing the same repeat behavior that's stopping
you from the thing and once you can break it,
if you have the humility to be comfortable with
yourself, to go there, it's a humongous unlock and
it's the disproportion reason. Listen, my friends, a lot
of people when they talk about technology and social
media and investing in business, they want me to talk about details, right, like we're about to do
Q&A, we'll go to it now, in two minutes, I promise,
and if you want to ask me a simple question of how to
get more Instagram followers, I'm thrilled to answer
to you, I'm thrilled, I will give you everything
I've got in detail, but if you ask me why I
got to sit here today, if you asked me why I believe
he's been able to build this business, my friends,
all the magic is in the gray, it's not in the black and white. All the tactics you can Google right now, you can Google anything you want. You want to do Facebook ads better? It's the best deal in marketing,
you want to sell shit? You Facebook advertise it. Your company should do a
shit load more Facebook advertisement, I should do
more Facebook advertising, it's a fucking steal, it's the steal. Right? Instagram influencers, fucking steal. People don't know how to price themselves, they give you awareness,
some are overpriced, some are underpriced, fucking steal. Under 30? Snap-chat ads, 3$ CPMs, swipe
up, people watching videos, these are details, but if
you're fucking insecure it's not gonna mean dick. If you don't know what the
fuck you're doing with yourself it's not gonna mean shit. The reason I spend my
time on talking about this is not because I want to be a
fucking motivational speaker and fluffy-fluff-fluff
and ra-ra-ra, it's because it's the fucking thing. It's the thing. If your operating system
isn't right, you've got no fucking chance. Do you know how fucking unbeatable I feel? Do you know if you
think that I'm the best, then I'm fucking the best,
and you're wearing my hoodie and I'm the fucking best, do
you know how good that feels? Phenomenal. Do you know if you're
sitting here right now, never heard of me, and
you're like, fuck this guy, I don't like this bravado,
I don't give a fuck either. I don't care if you think
I'm the best, I don't care if you think I'm the
worst, I'm just in my shit because I'm grounded,
'cause I know what I am and I know how I'm trying to live my life. And I want that for every
fucking person, because let me tell you something,
it fucking is the best. It's such a good place to be. Do you know what it's like
to be in your own head, and nothing else matters? Do you know what it feels
like to give a shit so much about what everybody
thinks, yet not care at all? Do you know when I leave
here, I'm gonna look at every single Tweet about
this talk and if somebody says eh, I'm gonna be
devastated like I fucking died, yet I equally don't give a fuck! When you can get to that
place, amazing shit happens. You know why? Because you stop being scared. When you're not scared, you do shit. When you're scared, you do nothing. And when you're not scared, you do shit, and even better, when you're
coming from a good place, and your intent is good
because you're good and you have good to give,
shit really starts happening. So, I implore you, let's
go, get the mics ready, I'm ready, let's go into the Q&A, but I implore you, I'll
go into every detail, but I implore you to get
inside your head real quick, figure out who you really
are, and figure out if what you're talking is being
mapped by what you're doing. Because the second you
put those things together, shit fucking unlocks. Thank you. (audience cheering) Let's do it. Let's get to the good part. How are we doing this? Just line up in the rows, line up behind you and line up behind you? Great, what's your name? - [Audience Member] Hello. - Hello. - Wow, that's odd. My name is Angela, I'm from Dutch Bros Hillsborough Cornelius,
a huge fan of yours. - [Gary] Thank you, thank you. - Okay, so I watched tons
and tons of your content, your videos, your daily Vs,
I listen to your podcast, I question that I was
thinking about for a while is how do you as a leader
motivate your team to be just as hungry and passionate
as you are and make them want to bust their ass just as hard? - I don't. I think it's crazy for CEOs
and owners of things to expect their staff to bust
their ass and be as hungry as them because when you own something, it's different. And so, what I do, is I try to motivate by meeting each and every one of them. The reason you've seen it,
that I meet with all of them and do those meetings, I want
to buy the New York Jets, I need like seven billion fucking dollars, I work 18 hours a day, I wake up at 4.30 to be here today, I'm going back. This was originally, I was
supposed to sleep here, no, I need to get three
meetings in tomorrow, I'm taking a bullshit red-eye tonight, I don't expect that from others, because most people
aren't insane to have this romantic point of view
of not being able to buy a Jets jersey for 20 bucks
when he first came to America, to owning the team. I've got a fuck you, on me, got it? I don't expect that for anybody else. What I want to know is what
makes every one of them tick. Do you know how many people
just want to make 200,000 a year and have great work-life balance? That's fucking
unbelievable, that's fucking hitting the luck. If you are the kind of
person that is obsessed with making $200,000 a year,
and being able to go to all sporting events of your
wonderful children, that's incredible balance
and if that's what you want, I want to empower you to do that. I think the biggest mistake
the leaders make is they expect others to care about
their shit as much as they do, that's fucking ludicrous. I want to figure out what you care about and it's my job to put you
in a position to succeed, to be hungry, and if that
means seeing every fucking recital of your little
Suzy, I'm gonna fucking do that for you. - [Audience Member] What up, G? - How are you, bro? - [Audience Member] Good man. I'm Logan, I work for
West Vancouver franchise. - Oh, is this the thing we
do, you say where you're from and then your four people are like, yeah, what up, motherfucker, what's up! I got it, I got it, just
trying to get it down, I got it now. - They're my groupies. - [Gary] You all from VaynerMedia
New York, give me some! All right, go ahead. - One thing I've learned
from working with the company for so long and stuff is the passion. Everybody here has passion. - [Gary] Clearly. - And we give so much. I mean it could be passion with our job, it could passion from outside, it could be whatever it is. - You guys are so ridiculously lucky, we've an internal job board,
I have full-time employees trying to help people get
jobs to leave our company 'cause we want it better for them, I've literally never sensed a truer purity of that mission as much
as you guys have as well and it's remarkable. You guys are very fortunate. It stems from the top and
like-minded people find each other, it's really rad,
I'm really impressed, I'm super-pumped to be here, go ahead. - Basically my question is,
do you ever hold back any of your passion, does it ever
maybe get the best of you sometimes and that you
have to maybe take a couple of steps back and realize,
I may have gone too far. - The answer is no. But, more importantly,
for me it's kind of like, I do lots of things out of
passion that I'm not pumped about, for example, let's
go back to football, two years ago, at a Jets-Steelers game, Jets were beating the
Steelers, this was four years ago, for no reason,
Steelers were much better, Jets were bad that year, Jets
are on the verge of winning, this 85-year-old guy is
coming up the stairs, and I get sports muscles,
when I'm in Jets world, I'm not me, it's the
only place I'm not me. I get too emotional, right? So, the guy is walking up
and the Jets are winning, it's the fourth quarter
and I stand up 'cause I'm ridiculous and I'm like, hey,
old man, you're finished, old man, you're finished, right? And everybody is kind of
looking at me because it was super-inappropriate and then I go, and I don't mean the game. Right. So, my passion went too far there. So, I understand. I get it. I guess, first of all I just
wanted to tell you that story because it's so fucked up. I needed to get it out
of me, it's so horrible, I'm glad I was able to share it, I feel better now. - I guess this is more
like, maybe I feel like sometimes when I give off my passion-- - [Gary] It makes people creep out? - Kind of, yeah. People basically get
scared the shit out of them just because I did so much-- - Bro, honestly, as long
as you're coming from a good place, I did the
same thing, I curse, but I'm coming from such a good place, that I'm not trying to
impose any negativity, as long as your passion is
coming from a good place and it's not a shtick 'cause
you think it's helping you and it's an act, and it's
not trying to do something that's bad for them, you're fucking good. Let the chips fall, you
know what I'm saying? This is back to self-awareness. You got to ask yourself two
very important questions, number one, is it a shtick? Are you doing it 'cause it's self-interest and it's a narrative you're trying to pave to do something selfish for you? Number two, are you doing
it to suppress somebody because you're insecure about their skills that you don't have, as
long as it's neither one of those two, fucking be
as passionate as you want. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. Wow, yes. - [Audience Member] Hi, Gary. - Hi. - I'm Erika, nice to meet you. - [Gary] Nice to meet you, Erika. - I run the social media pages
for the Spoke and Dutch Bros. - [Gary] All 10? - Yeah. So, six months ago, I
was at an agency, running their social media
department, I was miserable. Not my kind of humans, just not my place, I watched your videos for about a year, telling me to hustle, telling me to do it, just work hard, so I quit
my job, I started my own social media company and I feel blessed, but in three months I've doubled my salary and it's really taken off, a
lot to do with these people, but, so my next question
for you is how do I go to the next step, you know
I've got this small business, I'm hustling, working 12
hours a day, how do I get to 800 staff? - [Gary] Is that what you want? - Yeah, I picture, my company
is called Talk Fast Social, I picture a TFS on a building every day and I work for it. - [Gary] Love it, so how old are you? - I'm 26. - Good, all right, step number one. The next 10 years of your
life you have to close your eyes and think about nothing else. Now, that doesn't mean
you can't find love, it doesn't mean you can't do other things, but the only way you can build something very, very, very big is
you put those on a building and you put in the back of your mind and you close your eyes. The biggest reason almost
everybody fails in their big ambitions is 'cause
of lack of patience. You know I talk about this all the time. People struggle because what they do is, they get a little success
and they start getting greedy in a good way, I'm
using it as a slang term for, okay, you've got a little
momentum, you're like, wait a minute, fuck, I can
do this and then people start getting greedy and
they over-extend themselves because they're rushing so fast. People literally say things to
me, I got to do five million or I got to put my name on a building. They make up these things,
like the Jets thing, the Jets thing is not even real for me. I've talked about it a little bit. I desperately want to buy
the Jets because I think I'm more likely to win
a Superbowl for them than any other way, but the
chase of trying to buy them is what gets me off, not getting it. I've forever in my have
never needed anything. Not a certain dollar amount,
not some vision of a building, you know what I mean,
I'm just telling you it's one step in front of the other, patience and doing tried and true things. I leave money on the
table at extreme levels every year because I'm
being patient, I'm building real legacy and real
relationship step by step, by step, by step, you just
got to close your fucking eyes for the next decade. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. - [Audience Member] Hey. - Hey. - [Audience Member] I'm Gamby. - How are you? - I'm great, how are you? - [Gary] Great. - Good, I'm from Chico,
there's like six of us. - [Gary] That dude like
yawned, he's like, yeah. Go ahead. - So you have a chief hiring
officer at Vayner Media, right? - [Gary] Yes. - So, when you bring her on,
what's that discussion like when you talk about her
objectives, do you have KPIs, things that are
available, are there incentives, how much detail can you
go into and obviously you don't have to tell
me how much she makes, stuff like that, but whatever,
how much can you tell me about how to make it
something that's as objective as possible for someone
like that to be successful with what you put in front of them? - So, first of all, it's a great question, and asking about the
black and white around it is super-interesting to
me because it's the most gray role in our organization, right? So, for example, lifetime
retention of employees is not a KPI because if we think Karen, I mean, like the young woman we just met, we may encourage her to
start her own company, I'm trying to push six or
seven of my best people out, like you need to start your
own company because we're gonna have a problem in
three years because you're such an A and you just
need to scratch this itch. So, I'll be honest with
you, I micro-manage HR for 20 years that I ran my
company, my entire life, until I found a soulmate
in Claude who literally looked at all the situations the same, and she was on the account
side and then she left Vayner and I courted her to
come back to do a totally different role because
the truth is, the KPI is how do you keep 800 people,
1500 people, 4000 people happy with the machine, and
by the way, it's impossible. The level of cynicism
that is in our society is extraordinary. It's so hard to prove to
somebody that you care, everybody is so scared to
trust because they don't want to get hurt, that
it's easier to be cynical. I understand, but all that Claude may do, the whole flight here, we
text about individual people, I know exactly what's going on right now with Kristsuz Valdi,
right, and exactly what's going to happen with Joe
Catrone and why we've moved Natalie Karie into a different pot, I'm so fucking in it, but
we have lightweight KPIs, but Claude and I are outside the lines. We surround ourselves with
people making sure all the things that are black and white, simple things, like people getting raises
appropriately at the time they're promised. Not just silly shit that, we've
got the special part down, we surround ourselves to
make sure we don't drop the ball on the commodity, the key is, how the fuck do we get
everybody to feel good every day, right? That they know that we've got their back whether they work with
us for one more day. Every time that somebody
quits in a weird way, I always grab them,
always, I'm like, dude, what the fuck, man, I put
out content every day, I've told you, I emailed
you, why didn't you use me if you were so unhappy, I
could've gotten you a job, the other way, like I
thought I was underpaid, I'm like, dude, you've got $11,000 pay up, A, I would've been
thrilled to give it to you, but way more importantly,
there's 11 people like you that I'm friends with
right now, let me help you. Basically what I'm trying
to do is build real trust through scaling the unscalable. One-on-one conversations, the problem is, that we're learning, at
first it worked unbelievably, but now she becomes too much of a machine, so it's me and her, now
we're like the parents or the siblings, so you got
to bring in other things, I used to have an open-door
policy, not working. 2018, mandated 15 minutes
with every fucking employee I have twice a year. Mandated, it's gonna take
me enormous amounts of time, I don't care, it's all I've got. Religion, you know, I don't
care what the church or the synagogue, or the temple
or the mosque is decorated like, I care about the
religion and too many people care about, you know. She makes hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of thousands of dollars, nobody is bonus
at Vayner Media because I want everybody to be
obsessed with the logo, and so when people talk to
me about their incentive packages or things of that
nature, I just match it and put it into their salary. Some people go, well, then
they're de-incentivized. No, they're not, if you
don't fucking achieve, we fire your fucking face. Cool. - [Audience Member] Hey, what's up, Gary? - How are you? - [Audience Member] Good, how are you? - Amazing. - My name is Mick, I'm
with these lovely people from around California right here. - [Gary] I saw that move, I saw that move. - So, I took over managing
in my stand earlier this year and one of the more interesting things, challenges that I've come
across is identifying qualities in people that
I think would translate well into them moving into leadership and management. So I was curious for you
if you have someone in your company who you're looking
at to put in leadership or management, what are
some of the most important qualities that you look for? - Empathy. Empathy is fucking disproportionately
important for leaders, if you are not capable of
thinking about the other person first, you are finished. Empathy, work ethic, I
think work ethic matters, it's tough, right, because
if you're not working as hard as your team or
harder, that starts becoming the vulnerability,
gratitude is one that I look for quite a bit, are
they actually grateful or are they entitled and
think, of course I'm gonna be a manger. But empathy is fucking 80%
of it and then the other 20% is work ethic,
gratitude, things like that. Yeah, you got it. - [Rich] What's up, Gary? - Hey, bro. - I'm Vince, and I guess
I'm here with everybody because I think we're all
here for the same reason. Also, this adrenaline rush
is like the best adrenaline rush I've gotten since
high-school, so thanks, man! - [Gary] Real quick, paint me the picture of what was happening in
high-school when you felt this. - Honestly, I'd say it
was like my last home-run when I was playing baseball. - [Gary] Respect. That's not what we thought. All right, keep going. - So, my question for
you, you talk about the seven to two. - [Gary] 7 p.m to two in the morning. - And I just kind of want
to know because I know you're trying to be that
Jets owner, by the way, William Johnson doesn't have shit on you. - [Gary] That's for damn sure. - I just want to know
what's your side hustle looking like right now because obviously if you want to get to that, what steps are you taking? - So, when I talk about side hustle, I talk about either
really wanting something that you don't have
right now or getting out of a bad situations. I'm so in my zone, my
side hustle is my hustle, I'm working 7 a.m to 10,
11, I don't think I've been home before 10.30 in the last three years, on a week day. My work life balance is
in the extremes, I take seven weeks' vacation, I
have the weekends, but Monday through Friday, I don't even see my kids. That's just how my wife and
I, we're comfortable with, that's my reality. So I don't have that, I
would say my side hustle is probably Gary V, I'm
spending all my time being the CEO of Vayner Media,
but because of the concept that D. Rock and I and
my team have figured out, it feels like I'm me out
and about, but it's because I only show, and I only
talk 30 times a year. I'm able to create so much
content, so I think my side hustle is Gary V, because
I enjoy this so much, I enjoy jamming with you guys. Bro, if I could make you
guys feel what I felt like when I heard that young woman say to me, I was in a job and I watched
your shit for a year, you pumped me up, gave me
the courage, let's call it what it is, to make
that leap, and now I'm doing twice as good and do
you know what it feels like to impact people? It's knarly. So, that's my side
hustle, thanks, brother. All right, yes? - [Audience Member] What's up, Gary? - [Gary] How are you doing? - Doing good, name's Kyle, East Vancouver. - [Gary] East Vancouver. - Nicely done, guys. Yeah, I don't affiliate with any gangs. - [Gary] Respect, huge
mistake, keep going. - I appreciate that. So, for one, I know there are kids here, but holy fucking shit, nice job. - [Gary] Thank you. - That was pretty impressive. I listen to you for hours,
I tried audio books, and I fall asleep to your
voice because it's pretty fucking-- - [Gary] Done bro, done. - So, actually I'm standing
here still scared shitless, and that's kind of the
transition, so with these moments in time, these
monumental steps that you want to take towards success, I
know how you're talking about being unbeatable in your own
head, reaching that status of your own self-awareness, just kind of like with the basics, what would be your tactics for-- - [Gary] To get to that place? - Yeah. - Step number one, more than
anything, I alluded to when I talked, but this is
why I love Q&A, you have to figure out whose opinion
is dictating your actions beside yourself. You have to figure out who has say, let's keep it on him right
now because this is gonna matter for a lot of people. Let's actually play through
this, who in your life has say when you do shit, who factors in, who runs through your mind,
who are you curious about, about how they would react or think? Who are those people? - Honestly, that would
probably be like, actually Pierce right here, Pierce,
if you saw the viral video, or I saw, viral picture, he
was the one that was pranked, he's a very good friend of mine. - [Gary] So, Pierce's
opinion matters, good, and who else? - My girlfriend and my
parents and my sister. - Great. You need to get into a
place where you respect Pierce, girlfriend,
parents, you love Pierce, girlfriend, parents,
you'll do anything for Pierce, girlfriend,
parents, but you get into a place where you don't give a fuck about Pierce, girlfriend, and parents. And listen, it's pulling so
hard from opposite directions, like, I want to stay on this
because this will really be a big unlock. If I can get one person to
shift a hair, it's huge. It's crazy to me how much
I care about everybody's opinion, like these two
people in the fourth row have hoodies with my
quotes on, I care so much about what they think about
me, you would not believe, while equally really giving
no shit about what they think. And it's about this crazy
balance, I never let somebody else's opinion matter
more than mine of myself. You know, there's just
nothing you can say, from people that know me the best, my mom, there's nothing you're gonna
be able to say about me that makes me not realize,
of course you think that, you don't really know me
and that goes all the way to my mom, right? You know what you've seen,
I know why you think that if that's the only piece of
content you've ever consumed from me, this is where
I'm a different version, I get it, I get it, I'm empathetic to why, but the way to get there
man, is very simply, you first. It's so weird to say
do everything you think you should do, but that's what I do. And I think maybe for me it's easy because somewhere along the line
I figured out that I can get everything that I
wanted for myself by myself, so I don't need anybody,
which is a really important thing, to be in that place
where you know that you don't need anybody emotionally
or financially, it's just a very lonely and very not-lonely place. So, it's hard, honestly,
I wish I could give, like fuck, man, I think I'm
trying so hard to put out so much content because it's
the closest way I'll ever get to giving it, I wish I could give it, because it's fucking,
so peaceful, you know? - Much appreciated, man. - You got it. I can keep going, right? I'm in great shape, right? Cool, fuck it. - [Audience Member] You can
go as long as you want, Gary. - I really want to go long. You guys want to keep doing this? - [Audience] Yeah! - Let's go. - Thanks for being here and
setting a bunch of fires in this room, we need
it, we always love fire, but this helps. - [Gary] What are we, double firing? - Big fire. On the subject of self-awareness, I saw you at the Hologram,
super-dope, it was fire. - [Gary] Thank you, thank you. - On the subject of
self-awareness, I wanted your opinion on someone else's content. They said that strength isn't
something you're good at and weakness isn't
something you're bad at. Strength is something
that strengthens you, an activity that strengthens you, and weakness is an
activity that weakens you, I've just been stuck on that
and I wanted your opinion. - [Gary] One more time? - Strength isn't something you're good at, you can be really good at
something and it can bore the shit out of you, you
feel no passion, whatsoever. - [Gary] Understood. - A strength is something
that strengthens you, a weakness is something that weakens you. - [Gary] Yeah, cool. - How much of that comes
into self-awareness? - I think there's a lot
there, it makes sense to me, now that I've grasped it. Look, I'll be honest
with you, for somebody that talks so much and puts
out fucking four quotes on Instagram every day, and
fucking does all this stuff, it's insane how much I hate words. I was just thinking,
you saying that to me, I'm like, man, if somebody
is saying one of my quotes to their buddy, I hate that. I don't want that. To me, that makes sense,
but my whole big thing is, and now what, okay, cool,
a strength is a fucking strength, right? I don't know, every fucking
thing that I've just said, to me, it's about the engine. To me, why I like that you brought it up is that it hit you in a way
that made you thoughtful, now my question becomes,
are you gonna do anything with it, right? To me, what I think has
worked for me, is the reason 25% of people don't like
at first is I'm suffocating excuses, people want to think
it's other people's faults. It's fun to think you're
suppressed, it's fun when you're not a manager 'cause then the
manager sucks shit, right? And when you become manager,
it's the regional manager that's an asshole, and then
when you're the regional manager, who's an asshole, and then. (audience cheering) But who does he get to blame? And the answer is nobody at
least from this organization or like many CEOs that
I've met, my mom did this. Here's the thing, to me, I
just hope it inspires you to do, if it broke an
insight to you to make you do something differently that tastes better, then that's all I want. The reason I try to
suffocate excuses it's 'cause it's the thing that holds
everybody down, right? It's the thing that you
can rely on when you don't want to work 15 hours a day. It's the thing you can
rely on when it's hard, or it's painful, or you
can't figure it out. And so, sounds awesome,
but what's most interesting to me is it meant something
to you, now I'd rather you not care about my
opinion on it, that person, I want you to internalize it
and go do something with it. (applauding) - I swear I'm gonna pass out, right. - [Gary] Thanks, man. - So, personally I think
that growth and development within a company is
super-huge, you've got to grow your people so that-- - [Gary] A 100%. - So, I just want to know
what are some of the methods that you use to grow somebody,
whether that's somebody that you see potential
in or somebody that's-- - [Gary] Listening, listening. - Listening? Okay. - It's listening. There is no blueprint,
there's 3700 different things, maybe you're slacking
because you're in pain because your parents are
going through a tough time, there's just eight million things. I always tell my employees,
even once I get you to a perfect place, I'm
prepared for your family to die the next day. And I say a very extreme
thing and I know it's a weird thing to say, but I
say it because I need them to understand that what
I think my responsibility as a CEO is, is to be
prepared for everything. Even if I get you to a
great place, the next day you may lose a loved one,
or something else happens, or something silly, like you're upset, or Bernie Madoff happens,
like I had a friend who thought he was fine
because he was gonna inherit all the money and the
family lost all the money, life, right? Life, you're cruising in
Puerto Rico and you have a mansion and weather, like shit. Stuff, right? So, to me, it's always
listening, every day, forever. It's not an X-ray of
today, it's not hey Susan, oh Susan, you were a little
overconfident because you were a good student,
but that doesn't actually translate to life, so let
me deploy a little humility so you understand what
the real world looks like, oh now you're in a better
place, you understand? But a leader is always
on oxygen, it's forever, so that's how I think about it. - [Audience Member] I've got one more. - Go ahead. - Can I take a selfie with you? - Sure. Who's next? Go ahead, I can double task. Dude, what's up with your fucking screen? It's shattered. - It got ran over by a go kart. - By a go kart? You're gonna get a new one? - Yeah. (audience cheering) - Hi, I'm Marisa, I'm from EG Oregon. First I'd like to see I
acknowledge the Russian-Jewish heritage, I am too, so I'd like to say (speaks in Hebrew). - [Gary] Thank you, thank you. - Also, I was just wondering,
how long did it take you to find the balance between
your work and your life? You say you work 18 hours
a day, do you work while you sleep as well and just-- - [Gary] I sleep really easy. - Good, I'm glad. - Because I'm exhausted. I've never thought of them separate. Hold on to the mic, hold on. It's funny when you asked
that, I've never thought of them separate, I really haven't. And that's cool because we work a lot. It's funny because a lot
of people are confused by my message, it's
when I bring up my buddy in Califon, New Jersey,
making 50K, on 17 softball, I want that, I don't want
the Jets or I'm gonna buy the Sea Hawks, I want people
to just figure themselves out. I figured myself out, by
the way, being a workaholic is frowned upon. By the way, somebody
wrote an off-hand piece in New York times that shit
on me because I work too much. There's always two sides,
there's a lot of people who judge my parenting style, they
think just because they come home at six o'clock and don't
really pay attention to their kids, but they're
physically in the building, that they're better dads than I am. I respect their point of view,
I understand how they can go there, it makes them feel
better about themselves, I just understand, but you
know, to me, I want you to make work and life the same
whether that's nine to five, whether that's nine to three as a teacher and having the whole summer off, whether that's 18 hours
a day, because it's just too big of a percentage
of our time on Earth. It's literally what we
spend the most time on. It's crazy. So, to me, the only people
I know who make a $120,000 a year, who if they made
89,000 would be 50,000 times happier and the only variable
difference is instead of driving a BMW, they'd
have to drive a Toyota? It's crazy how people get
caught up in the wrong shit, so to answer your question, I've no idea. I've never thought of it differently. I grew up in a family business, so it's super-intertwined, right? - That was kind of my
question, have you always known that you were going to be
a CEO and an entrepreneur and all these big
businesses that you have? - I knew that I was a
fucking terrible student, so education wasn't going to be my path. I knew that I wanted
to pay my parents back for being the best parents
ever and getting me out of communist Russia, I felt
a real passion for that, so I did think, okay, I'm
not gonna get a great job because I don't have a
good education, so I'm gonna go into dad's store,
I'm gonna build it up for him, and then during that time, you know, all of us are still
learning about ourselves, whether we're 45 or 14, you
just keep learning, right? Somewhere along the line, I'm like, wow, I'm a really good salesman,
and then I'm like, wow, I'm a really good
businessman, oh, I'm a really good manager, oh I'm a really good boss, I'm a really good marketer,
you know, you just start building and then when YouTube
came out and I predicted that would be big, after
email, after Google Ad Words, then I'm like, I've got a
knack for what people are gonna do before, then I
infested in Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr, and you just
build it, and even now, I never thought that I'd inspire people, I thought I was a businessman. Who thought that
entrepreneurship would be like an athlete or a rapper, it's crazy. For me, I went to the Jets game yesterday, 30-year-old dudes, I'm like what the fuck, be up in this bitch, so
you don't know, right? But I do know one thing,
doing something for a living eight hours a day, when
you sleep eight hours, I mean, it's a third of your life. It's so, maybe half of your life. I'm just desperate for
people to do shit they like, and if they like something
that pays them less, you don't need fancy shit,
you'll be much happier at the end. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - Welcome. - [Audience Member]
What's up, Gary, I'm Mike, and I'm here from Arizona. - This is the best. - [Audience Member] Nailed it. - I'm like seriously
thinking about starting a new Jersey location, just so
they could be represented here next year. - [Audience Member] I grew
up at Bridgewood, so we got someone there. - [Gary] Let's go, man. - So my question for you is, as manager, is we spend a lot of time
hiring people who are like that millennial generation, I'm in it, a lot of us are in it. You talk a lot about self-awareness, how do you recognize that in
a 10 to 15 minute interview, how do I know that the
person I'm gonna hire is-- - [Gary] You don't. - Dang it, Gary. - I got really good hiring
advice, learn to fire fast. If you guys, especially
for what you guys do for a living, I get it,
I used to pay people 9.50 an hour, 12.50 an hour,
stock guys at liquor store, I did, I did what you did
for a long time in my life. Everybody has their ego tied up in hiring. You guys have your ego
tied up in your hiring, you think you're so good
at hiring and then you hire somebody and they're
shit, but you may pretend they're not because firing them admits that you were wrong, so it's
your own ego that's holding you back, my ego is only
balanced by my humility. I hired somebody for hundreds
of thousands of dollars the other day, six months
ago, I interviewed them three times, three times,
that's a lot of time for me, I fired him one day into
him working at Vayner Media. One day, now I fired
him four months later, but in my day, he literally
got fired the first day. Like, fuck. So, especially for this
business, for all of you guys, check your ego at the
door, you're not that great at fucking hiring, but
good news, nobody is. Get good at firing. - [Audience Member] Thank you, Gary. - That one's gonna work for you guys, that one's gonna be a big one. Watch margin explode. - What's up, Gary? - Because let me tell you why
margins are gonna explore, if you're not sitting and
dwelling about what you're gonna do with fucking suckie-ass Rick, you guys are gonna
worry about the customer and maximizing margin. Fire! Go ahead. - So, my name's Daniel,
I'm from Corin, Idaho, got my group over there. I actually kind of hopped. - [Gary] Yeah, I was about to ask you, what the fuck are you doing there, their line is right there. - Shorter line, man, hopped
over there, came here, just one person. - [Gary] I appreciate the hustle. - Anyway, so I got a couple of questions. - Actually you know what's crazy by that? I'm actually weirdly intrigued by you now. I'm being dead serious, that's just a smart hack. I like it. - You know, word, I thought it would maybe give them some more time,
but just I came here, so it worked. - [Gary] Good shit. - Anyway, couple of things
I wanted to ask you, first thing, how do you
not burn yourself out when you're pushing yourself
so hard all the time? I always hear people
tell me, my whole life, Dan, if you push yourself
so hard in this area, you'll burn out. - [Gary] Do you feel it that way? - No. - Because you love it. If you asked me to hang
a picture on that wall, I would burn myself up
before I even got halfway to that wall. But if you told me to run
like a 500 million dollar business for the next 17
years, 18 hours a day, I'd be like, you bet. - Okay, so another thing
I wanted to ask you, if you are that point I guess,
great leaders can inspire people, bringing them kind
of the same point, right, the same goal, same
mission, how can you inspire other people to feel that same desire to keep pushing it non-stop, not feel like they need to take a break every other day, you know what I mean? - By listening to them,
it's gonna be the same shit, guys, it's not about us,
you're like, you're a great leader, inspire them,
yeah, by never thinking about my part, I'm a
great leader and I inspire because I listen, because
I deliver when people ask for things, including,
hey I don't like this, I'm like, look, you don't like this, so there's somebody I'm
about to let go, right? She's on her seventh department, she didn't want to do this,
she didn't want to do that, right, and I've been
trying, trying, that's it, I'm over it, tried, really,
seven is fucking crazy. And so, it's about them, bro. By the way, to build a great organization, you need Bs and Cs. I love C-players. Who's gonna do a C-player shit? If we all had As, nobody
would be doing anything. Everybody would be
strategizing and architecting, and I love people on my vlog are like, what do you do all day,
you don't fucking work, you have meetings all day. I'm like, yeah. Understand, 16-year-old
Charlie from Calgary that doesn't know what the
fuck he's talking about, you'll one day hopefully
understand what it is, because you're thinking all
day, you're making decisions all day, that's what an executive does. I miss the times of stocking
shelves, it was easy, it was fucking fun. And so, yeah, man, it's
about them, and they're not gonna be you, they're
not as ambitious as you, and that's awesome. What you should do is figure that out, and then try to make them the best version of that player, not everybody
can be the quarterback, man. Long snappers matter too. - [Audience Member] Hey, Gary, what's up? - How are you, my man? - Good, man, my name is Chris. First of all, I've been
sitting here, listening to you, it's amazing, stumbled across
your USC video a couple of years ago, and I've just
absorbed tons of your content. - [Gary] Thanks, brother. - And I also think it's cool
that my wife and I were in New York about a year ago
and I sent a Tweet at you, asking if you wanted to
go to the Knicks game and I thought it was so cool
that you actually responded, like you say you do. - [Gary] Thanks man. - And you sent a video,
I thought that was rad. - [Gary] Thank you man. - Yeah, that was cool. - [Gary] I appreciate it. - Question that I have for
you kind of in my head-- - And by the way, real quick, I apologize, that to me is super-important,
especially for a lot of managers here, when a
customer tweets anything about your business, take
the 13 seconds on the way to going and taking a piss
to make a video and be like thank you or I'm sorry, it's so powerful. I'm busy as fuck. Dude's in New York, like, you
want to come to the Knicks game, that's not the
shit that you're supposed to be answering, but because
I did, it builds a deeper relationship with us, it's just real. So, actually I got something fun, while we're having this
conversation, I want everybody to open up Instagram, and go
to Oprah Winfrey's account, @Oprah, and I want you to
scroll all the way down, all the way down, to her first photo ever, I want you to look at it
while I'm giving this point. I'm sitting with her and I'm
putting Oprah on Instagram, I'm in a room with Oprah-fucking-Winfrey, and I'm like, Oprah, Instagram,
it's gonna be important, and she's like, t-d-d, I'm
trying to explain to her why it's so important to reply to people. And I go to her, when
you were doing your show at the height of your
popularity, when you guys would stop and reset the cameras, right? I'm like, do you ever look
at anybody in the audience? And she's like, yeah. And I was like, did you ever
smiler or wink at anybody? She's like, yeah. I'm like, do you know they
will be telling that story for the last 15 years? It matters, man, depth versus width. The way you get more customer
count in your locations is by over-indexing on the
ones that are coming in in the first place. Go ahead. - Something going along with
that that I've told a lot of my crew about is that
Ricky Henderson effect that you talk about, I think that's huge. - That's what I call it. Just real quick, when
I was 10, I went to a Yankees game, it was my
first game, we were poor, going to a game was crazy,
I think I wore a suit. And Ricky Henderson was
coming off the field and I stood up and he winked. Now, what's crazy about the story is, it's like, 80 people just
thought I winked at them. Right, so I don't know if
he really winked at me, but the amount of Ricky
Henderson baseball cards, jerseys, here I am, right,
30 years later, talking about Ricky Henderson, depth,
man, depth versus width. And by the way, that's how
you've got to manage Sally who works for you for
four months at the front of the store because you
really gave a fuck in 13 years when she's a top executive,
does a business development deal with you because you did the right thing, because kindness is practical
and karma is ROI positive. Honestly, honestly, this was
not a big enough reaction to that statement, you've got
to really get it to your head, those claps are dick for what I just said. It's a big deal, it's a big deal. - Yeah, so my actual question,
I've seen you scale from 400 people a couple of
years ago to 800 now, and we've grown a lot, my wife
and I have about 250 people on our crew and it's
been really hard on me, we've grown quickly in the last year, we've went from about a
hundred to 250 in a year. - [Gary] More locations? - Yeah. So, how do you connect with your people? - [Gary] Technology. Do you have everybody on your text? - Yeah. - Lay in bed and text them. Here's a big one, here's a big one. Don't judge yourselves, there's
230 Vayner Media employees watching this video right now, being like, fuck that guy, I haven't heard
from him in seven months. I don't judge myself, I
know I'm trying with all my fucking might, but if
something slips through the cracks or if I go through a bad rally, or to maybe my number
one, two, three, my guy who's like, fuck you don't talk to me, I don't judge myself. I try real hard, but I don't
cripple myself by shortcomings because I know that I'm trying
harder and better than most and life is about alternatives. When I'm most down on
fuck, I say to myself would they be better off
somewhere else, the answer is no. - [Audience Member]
That's good, thank you. - You got it. How are you? - I'm doing phenomenal, man. - [Gary] I love it. - I couldn't ask for any more. - [Gary] You're the best. - And I don't even work
for Dutch Brothers. - [Gary] You snuck in? - Yeah, I just rolled in,
but I love all these people. - [Gary] Yeah, they're great. - And this atmosphere. - [Gary] So did you
literally break the fuck in? - No, I got a free ticket. - Oh, respect, respect, I would've thought it would've been way cooler
if you just snuck the fuck in. - I heard you were speaking here, so I came down from Southern Washington. - [Gary] I'm flattered, how are you? - I'm doing phenomenal,
I'm a dishwasher at Trapers' Sushi currently and
have been for a few years, but I'm trying to break
out of that and move up in the restaurant. And hopefully one day become
a sushi chef and hopefully not cut off any fingers. - Though, if you did, that
could bring a lot of awareness to you and maybe create a
viral moment that could be ROI positive. - [Audience Member] True, true. - Just keep that in the back of your mind. - But between my multiple sclerosis and my traumatic brain injury I had from when I was
a kid, I have symptoms, defects, whatever, that
would hold me back, but I'm still moving forward,
I'm a marathon runner, I run races all the time. (audience cheering) It's because my legs are
hurting from this half-marathon I ran yesterday and the day before I ran the (mumbles) in Washington, but anyway, I've written
one book and I'm becoming what I am, a motivational
author, and wanna-be speaker. - [Gary] Love it. - Thank you, and yeah, I'm
just wanting to move forward with that, and I'm working
on my second book right now, and I've started, and
watching you in the past few months or a year, I've
been totally fired up. - [Gary] Thank you. - And I love you, man. - [Gary] I love you back. - Thank you. - [Gary] Are you trying
to figure out how to make that more successful? - Yeah. - [Gary] Are you putting out
content on a daily basis? - Yes, I am. - [Gary] How? - On my Facebook. - [Gary] What about YouTube? - I'm working on, I've started
on YouTube, I just haven't done very much all. - What about Instagram? - [Audience Member] I've
downloaded Instagram and begun putting content on
there, just haven't gone full force into it. - What's your name, Shane? - [Audience Member] Shane. - Shane, let's go a different route. Shane, I want you to do
me a favor, I want you to send me an email to
gary@vaynermedia.com, okay? - [Audience Member] Okay. - You got that? You know Vayner Media right? - [Audience Member] Yeah. Vayner Media. - Just say, Shane, I'm the
guy who spoke at the event, and the marathons, you made the
joke about cutting the thing and all that, put it
all in the title, okay? - [Audience Member] Okay. - Instead of me giving
you one tid-bit, Shane, I'm gonna fly you to New York city, to Vayner Media, and you're gonna spend a day with me and my team and
we'll show you what to do. Love you back! Let's keep going. How are you gonna top that, bro? Worst spot, ever. - How are you, Gary? - [Gary] How are you? - I'm good. Name's Dan, and I respect
that you're a straight shooter, you don't sugar-coat anything. And I'm just curious what you have for us, as a company, as your biggest
criticism or some advice for us as a company. - That's a great question. You know what's cool about that? That's a super-great question, and fuck, I'm really sad with what I'm about to say, which is, so at marketing
conferences a lot of people say, hey, this happens every conference, hey, Gary, name one brand
that's doing social media really well that's not
a Vayner Media client, and I always look like a
douche because I don't know. And the answer, this is
such a great question, and it's a great follow
up to that moment, I can't answer because I've not
spent one minute auditing the marketing or the organization. I understand the founder's
intent very clearly, we've had some people out
from the organization, at four D's, for one day
section, so I got a little vibe, I spent some time, I clearly
got a sense of the energy. I've made a living by treating
my company like a family, which means that you get all
the things that come along with a family, I've made less
money, I've got weirdness of people that have been
with me for a long time that are probably in bigger
spots than they deserve to. When I start auditing
this company from afar, the critiques that I would
have, I can't critique because I'd be a hypocrite because
I do so many of them myself. But as far as from the
marketing standpoint, what you guys are doing on
Facebook, bigger marketing, digital, things I could really help with, internally, operational,
I love all the strengths and all the weaknesses, I
understand they just happen over and you fixed those over
time, that's a commodity. I don't have a sense of the marketing, so in a world of shooting
it straight, the answer is I don't know. And that sucks, but that's true. - [Audience Member] I respect that, Gary, I respect that a lot. - Cool man, thank you. - Hey, Gary. - [Gary] Hey man. - I'm Logan. - [Gary] Hey, Logan. - Number two, I guess. - [Gary] Number two as in
you're the second Logan that spoke today? - Actually, maybe the
third Logan, there's like a couple of us. - [Gary] Who's Logan in here? All right, Jesus, let's go. - So, my first question of two, I assume maybe you've taken a look at some of our company's social? - [Gary] Nope. - So that's question is easy. The second question-- - But I can tell you one
thing, because it doesn't matter, you're not doing enough Instagram, influencer marketing, you
should be the fucking farm on it given the nature of the business, you can, and you guys are West Coast. You have to understand,
there's an alpha mom in Tampa, Arizona that
you could give $50 to or five free this or 10 free that, or one month free this,
who's the alpha mom of your entire five mile radius, by her just giving you
love, three times on her Instagram, it's gonna
disproportionately change your business at a local micro level. Multiply that by 74,000
humans and you change your fucking business. How the fuck do you think I got here? Humans are amplifying my shit. I do it two ways, I hack
attention and understand where people pay attention,
and I do nice human things, and I'm a good dude, and it
makes people want to talk about me, and I'm smart as
fuck, charismatic as shit. Go ahead. - [Audience Member] So, I
still have two questions. - Go ahead. Respect, Logan, the third. - First question is we
have a social media account times three, probably for
each thing, for almost every location that we have. - [Gary] So, every location
has three different handles? - No, every location has
a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and probably SnapChat. - [Gary] Okay. - I was curious about your thoughts. - I like it. If you're doing anything with it. Like, having one, for this
location and it's somebody's fifth job who's also on
shift and does it once in a while, that's bad. But if it's actually being run, it's good. It's like, what's the ROI
of having an Instagram handle for every account? It's the same question of
the ROI of a basketball, for me, zero, for LeBron, a billion. If a location uses those
four things properly, they're gonna get ROI. I don't think it confuses the market, I'm not one of these people
that thinks just the main handle should do all the work. They should work hand-in-hand
because you could do different things because the local context of a single location can
reference the high school football games victory,
and that's how I see it. You can't give it to
Sally on her fourth job, to do in-between, you've got to invest. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. - Second question, you just
got done with Tony Robins and Wim Hof, is that right? - [Gary] Yes. - I was curious as to
what your biggest takeaway from that whole experience was,
working with those two guys? - We didn't see each other
because everybody is flying in and flying out. So, my biggest takeaway
was we're busy as fuck and we didn't see each other. Hey man. - So, how would you define
success and I can expand on that if you need. - Sure, my first answer to
that is doing what you want every single day of your life. Right? And again, this has been the theme today, if that is to be a part
of 17 softball teams, mazel tov! If that is trying to buy the Jets, great. To me, I lived 11 years
or so of my life waking up every morning up sick because
I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to do that. I remember what it feels like. This time of year, fall,
I love the Jets so much, right, that I was pumped, but
Sunday nights were the worst, knowing that the next
day was the start of this terrible fucking week
that I fucking hated. Now, to wake up, I'm
fucking on vacation always. I can wake up every day,
fucking fired up, right? So, being able to do what
you want, when you want, and it doesn't take a
lot of money to do that, people are very confused
how much money it takes to do what you want, how you
want, it's that you don't know how to spend your
money in the right places, so that you're like, fuck, I need 300,000, you don't need 300,000, you
need to figure yourself out and put yourself in a position to succeed. But that's the answer, do
what you want every day. - Awesome. One other thing, as far
as relationships go, you kind of focus on
your own opinion first, how does that keep you
connected with people? - Easy, my selflessness
comes from my selfishness. Right, if you talk to the
people around me, I'm the best because I'm in the
giving game at all times, I've got a couple of things
that I have to do for myself, but once you're good, your
connections are better. People are confused,
you have to go selfish to get yourself right
because once you're right, all you're doing is giving and
everybody is fucking pumped. And then all you have to do
is to make sure that the thing that you're selfish about
isn't something that breaks one of those seven people, right? You just got to make sure
those things you're selfish about are the things that
your partner can deal with, whether that's being a workaholic, whether that's being
home, whether that's being into golf, and you've got
to golf every Saturday, it can be a million little weird things. You just got to make sure
that's okay with the other person, that's where
people have disconnects. Right, if we were all ripped
down to, you can only do these three things, we
could all get there, and I would recommend
everybody to have a few lines in the sand and then give
and that really creates the balance, you got it. (applauding) Hi. - Hi, I'm Kaytlin from (mumbles). So, I have a couple of bullet
points, I didn't want to forget anything, so bear with me. - [Gary] I'm ready. - I 100% know what I want and
will accomplish with my life, I want to impact the
world, people specifically, massively and I'm not talking
about ripples or waves, it's like tsunamis, I want it to be big. And I have my why, I know
why, I'm still figuring out the how, that's something
I've been on for a little bit. - [Gary] What's the why? - I love people. I love people so much. - I hate dogs because
I love people so much. Dude, me and you, I love people so much, I think the whole animal
thing, I'm weirded out by this whole issue. I hate dogs. Super-unpopular, people
are freaking out right now, seven people were just
like, I fucking loved this guy until that moment. Fuck that dude, people
love fucking animals, I don't know, I just love people so much, that it makes me weird against
animals for some reason. Not that I want to kick a dog, but fuck, I just wish people would
like people a little bit more instead of their fluffy schnauzer. - [Audience Member] Anyways. - Yeah, sorry. - So, also, what really
fascinates me because I love people so much and you do
too, I have no idea how you could say, fuck it, I don't
care, that's something that super-duper fascinates me. - And honestly, maybe
that's the thing, right? Because I think what allows me to deal with every single day, people are like, you're a charlatan, you're
full of shit, you're snake oil salesman, you
suck, your daddy gave you a liquor store, they
don't know my story. So, I think the reason I can deal with it, the reason I can love so
much is I don't care so much 'cause I know who I am. When people try to troll me and be like, easy for you to say, daddy
gave you a liquor store, they don't know the truth
which is that I gave up 13 of my best years of my life to
build my dad's store for him and I left at 36 years old
with no fucking collateral value and no money in
the bank, starting over. But what am I gonna do? Spend all my time replying to everybody? What am I gonna do? Go on fucking TV and say, that's my story? - What about, you said, even
your sister, your girlfriend saying-- - [Gary] I'm married now, let's
not talk about girlfriends. - But how do you say I
don't care about that too. Sorry, it was only-- - I'm kidding. I don't care because I know
where they're coming from. Everybody is coming from a perspective, I deploy empathy and I know
why my sister thinks that, I know why my wife thinks that, I know why my mom thinks that. - [Audience Member] You don't
worry if they're disappointed? Or not happy with your decision? - I only care if I'm
doing something wrong. Wrong is different than
doing something that somebody else doesn't want you to do. That's very different. I worry if I hurt somebody or
try to do something malicious. I'm only trying to do good, so it makes me very appeased with myself and
sometimes that means I have to be selfish for a moment,
but I know what my macro effect is, and if you want
to build a fucking tsunami, you better fucking figure
out how to get real selfish real fast, because if you
look at Gandhi or M. L. K. or anybody else, they're the
most selfish fuckers going. I'm serious. Go break that down. This dude is dying laughing, brother, I'm telling you, if you go look at them, you start realizing that they
were selfish about having a legacy and figured out
the code if they're giving at all times and everybody knows about it, that's going to build a legacy. I know why I'm standing here today, and I'm getting paid
unbelievably, but it's not ROI positive to me, I could
make more money other ways, it's why I'm going overtime,
because I know I have a little more time than normal,
and I want to keep going, and I know in the last 20
minutes, there's one answer, two answers, it's gonna matter,
it's gonna build legacy. You better get real fucking
selfish 'cause you're not gonna have a ripple,
you're gonna have nothing because you won't be strong
enough to deal with it. Everybody likes the come up,
everybody wants to be big, you don't know what
happens when that happens. You got to be strong. You don't know what happens
when you get the fucking other side of it. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. - [Audience Member] It was really helpful. - You're welcome. - That wasn't my question, though. This will be fast, I promise
guy, I promise so much. So, I know how I said, I'm
still figuring out the how, I don't want to be stuck
figuring out the how and not thinking about the next step,
and in order to accomplish something that huge of life
purpose, I have to have some key components, what are those? - The first thing you need
to have is what do you have to give? - [Audience Member] So, once
I figure out the how, then-- - You can't figure out the how, for me, once I figured out that
I understood how to build businesses and that
entrepreneurship was a gateway to the outcome for so
many people because it was independence, I spent 15
years of my life building a business, to have
then credibility to talk about building a business, right? Which gave people more
confidence to look and listen to me, because if you're
a 20-year-old life coach on Instagram, you're gonna
be faced with cynicism because you're 20 years old. So, I think the thing that
you have to figure out is what do you have to give. I've confidence to give. Got it? I'm up here, on full
fucking attack to inject you with confidence and
eliminate insecurity which leads to having very
difficult questions about how you judge other people's
opinions in your inner circle, that's how I got there. I was like, wait a minute,
all of you aren't doing your thing because your mom
parented you in a weird way, 'cause she was miserable
and misery loves company, so she tried to make you
feel insecure 'cause she was insecure and that's why
you're not confident, and that's why you're not
doing shit and that leads to you got to go confront
your mom and that's like fuck! That's what I have to
give, that confidence and self-esteem was my drug
that allowed me to open up my opportunities which
led to awareness because I was never scared to taste
shit and I figured out what I was good at because I
never cared what you thought about my shortcomings because
they were my shortcomings. You have to figure out
what you have to give. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. - [Audience Member] What's up, dude? - What up, bro? - I love the passion that you
bring, it's super-inspiring, I wish some day I could
have the same amount. - [Gary] Thanks. - But I listened to a lot of your stuff, and I want almost the help
of reconciling of a lot of things you say, sometimes
I feel like they contradict other things. - [Gary] They always contradict. - Perfect. So, earlier you were saying-- - The whole conversation
we've been talking about today is listen to nobody, listen to everybody. - [Audience Member] Yes. - Have you been following along at home? Go reconcile that shit. Go ahead. Can I tell you, you know
where I figured something out, I'm gonna try to go there. I figured out, you know, I'm
reading every one of these comments, right? So I'm like, fuck, it is a contradiction, I'm a contradiction, the fuck is this? And I realized, oh,
because it's macro-micro. On a micro, I listen to everybody, on a macro I don't listen to anybody. So, it sounds like a contradiction because we think they're on the
same plane, but they're not. Right, I hate selling, yet
I'm a big-time sales person, it's 'cause I play
build-a-brand, so it comes to me, not send them emails and be
like, hey you should book me, it comes to me, macro branding, so I don't have to micro-sell. But go ahead. - Earlier you were saying, the hustle-- - [Gary] Yes, work
ethic is fucking insane. - Self-awareness, I would
say, situational awareness, what everyone-- - [Gary] A 100%. - And then, you also say that
we want to get technology in kids' hands, I think
that limits work ethic and they're not mature to
have situational awareness, that they ruin their
reputation and opportunity for future, how to reconcile that? - I think that's a romantic,
old, traditional man's point of view that you've
absorbed and I don't know why, but I couldn't
disagree with you more. I think what you just said is what people have been saying for throughout history about every advancement in
technology and they're always historically incorrect. But I could be wrong, maybe you're right, but I think that we are
very much shortsighted on thinking about technology
because what we're not recognizing is the
playing field of situational, experiential, changes
what technologies impact. I mean, for example, we
debate things based on anti-technology, yet we put
other things on a pedestal that do the same, aka,
we look down at texting and writing to each other,
but if somebody writes us a letter, we've now
put that on a pedestal, even though it's the same exact thing, it's just a thing that's
delivering is different. So, I don't know, I think
there's a lot of places where I contradict, but on that one, I think that, you know, we were told, there's people in this
audience, mothers that were told that Elvis was the devil
because he shook his hips or the Beatles have long
hair, or Madonna this, you know that's just defense, man. By the way, if you hold on
to that, I'm talking some because I want you to get
in here, I don't want it to be just, 'cause I'm up
here, we also don't know. And there's another
thing, we've been betting against humans as humans
for a long time, we're still standing, like I don't bet
against humans, we adjust. Right, technology changes us. Do you know what the
biggest fear in the world, in society was, in the late 1800s? The kaleidoscope. Everything you just said,
you want to have a real fucking funny thing, take
your phone out right now and read about the dangers
of the kaleidoscope. We are scared, we are scared,
and if I got my timing right, I think it might be the
early 1900s, we are scared that kids are looking at
technology too much and not looking at the real world,
because the kaleidoscope comes out and we're freaking
out and we're looking at it, and it's so crazy, that people
are walking around London and Paris, full time
because it was so pooh! That's how I see phones
now, phones are making kids more social, not less social,
it's giving plenty of people courage that they didn't have
in real life and just because it's not the way we grew up,
I don't see any romance of, you have to go up to the
bar and ask a girl out, that doesn't make you any more of a man, you can slide in through the DM. - [Audience Member] That's awesome. - I think we've put things
in the past on a pedestal because it's what we came up
with, you know what I mean? That's what I think, you're welcome. Yo. - [Audience Member] What up, dude? - What up, bro? - My name is Paul,
representing DB Sacramento, I'm one of the managers over there. - [Gary] Very nice. - Aside from managing, I
have a little side hustle, it's called Brosthetics Apparel. - [Gary] Brosthetics. - I started about two
years ago and Dutch Bros have been super awesome
because they have been super-supportive and they
have been really supporting my passion, anyways, you
always talk a lot about creating opportunity, and
making sure to be fearless, it's always going to be
a no unless you try it. - [Gary] A 100%. - What I did, I actually
made four T-shirts for you, I made a Brosthetics
collab for the Gary V. I did all the designing myself, printing and I did it for my T-shirts
and I was wondering if I could present this to you right now? - Yes. (audience applauding) Who's next? - You are so awesome, by the way. - Thank you. - So, I know how much you like the Jets, so I had to do a little color scheme, also I wanted to make sure
it's pretty presentable, so I made a thermal, because
it's really cold over there. - You mean in New York? - Exactly. - It's colder here. - You wear V-necks. - Yes, I wear this. - Three-quarter sleeve. - That's all right. - And then plain through,
all of this is a really cool like a swayed mixture, so to be honest, if you like it. - I'll wear it, I'll wear one. - I appreciate it, thank you so much. - D. Rock, come. Thanks brother, appreciate it. - Hey, Gary, my name is Carlos. - [Gary] Carlos, your
hair is fucking awesome. You said that, right, 'cause you're smart. Go ahead, Carlos. - I'm 18, I don't work here,
I completely snuck in here. - [Gary] Let's clap it up for the hustle. - I've been watching your
stuff for a long time, you've motivated me a
lot, I've hustled a lot, I've gone out, done social
media for different businesses, done all that, I'm here
really just to ask you if I could come to Vayner
Media with that other guy on a plane, if you could give me a ticket, if there's any way I could
talk to you or present an idea, a music idea, we
have patents for and stuff that you might be interested
in, kind of revolved around making streaming music profitable. - Okay, so let's do this. I love to shoot it straight,
why don't you do this, why don't you email me
first the framework, and then let me decide, right? So, gary@vaynermedia,
Carlos dude with great hair that snuck in, and then
just give me all the stuff and I will reply to you within this week. We'll start a relationship that way. - [Audience Member] Thank you so much. - You're welcome. - [Audience Member] How's it going? - Really good, man. - Good, so I'm Patty from Covalis. And as I came to speak for many of us, we are college students
and our friends down at UGNR as well. - Hold on, hold on, you guys,
your bro gave me his shirt and now you're fucking leaving? Flight? Let's boo these guys. Awesome. Thanks guys, have a good flight, be safe, all right, go. - Okay, so for a lot
of us college students. - Let's boo them one more time. All right, go ahead, go ahead. College. - College students, yeah,
we've got a long going on. - [Gary] I mean, I don't
know if we got a lot going on, bro, but go ahead. Those are the best fucking
four years of your life, you have nothing going on. I mean, you do, but it's
still fucking a vacation. - Yeah, okay, I'll give it to you. If we're not pursuing
franchising, this job is-- - [Gary] A stepping stone. - To the next place. - Which by the way, the
more I'm getting educated, I'm gonna do a little
more homework before I get caught up in the whole
nature of it because I've got my own version of that. If this is what I think it
is, this is where people should go for a stepping stone. When you have an organization
that is supportive of side hustle, like, cool
man, yes and you're lucky that you stumbled into it
because a supportive stepping stone is rare. - Yeah (mumbles). - By the way, it's just
smart for companies because he knows, sorry
bro, we'll get to it, but there's millions more behind you. The reason they're supportive
is because it becomes a deal flow, the reason I take
care of all of my employees is because it makes 10 more
want to come in the door once they know the truth. Being supportive as an
employer is fucking practical, it's actually smart. It's unbelievable, it's basically
the thematic of everything I've been talking about. Positivity and offense always wins. Historically, always. Go ahead. Just go ahead, go, go. - So, also earlier we did an
exercise with the other speaker about talking to someone
else about their weakness and what they're not good
at and it came up again and this is where I'm
gonna pose my question, there's this inherited fear
of failing in your career, your major, your degree,
your business, moving up in Dutch Bros management,
whatever it may be for yourself, what's your one liner
for just taking the leap and going for it? - You know, I hate repeating
myself, but I get it, and I'll do it until the day I day. Who are you afraid of, like what? What if you get fired
from Dutch Bros tomorrow? Which I can see is
pretty much gonna happen. When that happens, what are you scared of? Your dad is gonna be like,
I told you you're a loser, or your girl is like,
I can never trust you, I can never marry you, like what? It is a woo, tell me the thing, like what? This is why I'm petrified of
fucking eight place trophies. If you grew up where
everybody gets an eight place trophy, you're actually scared of losing and then you're fucked
because losing is real. I swear on my fucking kids'
health, I'm obsessed with losing and I fucking love losing. I love losing because I
know exactly what you're thinking about my loss and
I can't wait to stick it in your fucking face when I come back. I remember once my grandma
said I was lazy because after seven hours of fucking
dragging wood in my parents' backyard, I was like, I need
a break, because she's old school Russian gangster
and I remember laying there and her drilling me and
me thinking to myself, I'm gonna fucking stick it
to you grandma, like nobody has ever, I like losing. When the Yankees and Rangers
won their championships, I stopped rooting for them. People laugh at me,
like you're a Jets fan, I love being a Jets fan, I
hate being a Sea Hawks fan because you won, it's
over, the climb is over. That's it. What are you fucking fearful
of, your sister making fun of you because she's got a better job? Fuck her. That's my answer. Cool, don't forget my
friends, you could be winning 28-nothing at half time and lose. So, your older sibling that's
got a great fucking job, could be a crackhead next year. Could, could, because he's
had a whole facade the whole time of trying to suck
your parents' dick, right? And he's actually insecure
inside and something went wrong at the office and he starts
doing coke on the side, guys, don't you understand
how this is being played? This is real, I'm being serious. Who gives a shit if you're
losing when you're in college, you've got 80 fucking years
to stick it to them, bro. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - I actually have a whole
different new concept, I recommend fucking up on
purpose, I'm being serious, it's so much better to eliminate
expectations from the get. Then you're playing with
house money, if you're scared of other people's opinion,
you fuck up on purpose, then everybody thinks you suck shit, then it's all upside. I'm telling you, I'm
not joking, by the way, actually, you know what's fucking weird? This is what's fun about
talking, maybe that's what happened to me, maybe
what happened to me was because I got Ds and Fs
and every teacher and every friend's parent thought I
was going to be a loser, because, how many people
are 40 years or older? Raise your hands, good,
so for the few of us here, education was the only thing,
there was no entrepreneurship in the 80s, that wasn't a
conversation, I didn't even know what the fucking word meant. The first time I heard
it, it meant that you were kind of like a loser,
that didn't do anything, maybe that's what happened to me. Maybe the advice I'm giving
you man, is based on what happened to me, which was
because I sucked so bad at school and that's the only way that
we were graded back then that all expectations
were goose egg for me and all of it was upside,
so I was liberated to play in the fucking machine
and just went on straight fucking offense and fucking won. So, go fuck up. Are we done? Have we defeated the crowd? Oh, no. Hey. - Hey, Gary. Oh, sorry, I'm a coach,
so I never have a voice. I'm from Bent, Oregon, this is my crew. And I'm a mew assistant
manager in our franchise and someone once on a podcast told me the best thing you can do is find a person who encourages you and inspires you and just latch onto them. And I definitely have a
(mumbles), but I'm wondering who was yours, you're so
confident, so sure of yourself, but when you were just
starting, who was it? - [Gary] My mom. - Your mom? - [Gary] My mom. - What did she do for you? Everything? - When I was nine years
old, and opened a door for an elderly woman at a McDonalds, she reacted as if I won
the Nobel Peace Prize. - [Audience Member] Good mom. - What my mom did was
super-smart, she overreacted on everything that I was
doing, that was a good human trait and she held me
accountable for things that didn't matter, like grades,
I got punished four times a year, every year, from the
time I was in third grade, until my senior year of high school. Literally, I would get my
report card, I would take it out of the mail and
flush it down the toilet, this is true, which would buy me a week, then my sister finally broke
down and would tell on me, I'd be punished for two
weeks, no TV, no Nintendo, and we'd reset. My mom built huge self-esteem
in me and I feel like the biggest reason I am who
I am today, to everybody is because I feel so guilty
and so grateful for what she did for me, that I want to
do it for everybody else. Which is, guess what? You suck at a ton of shit,
good, so does everybody else, you're also probably pretty
fucking rad at something, try as many things as
possible, until you figure out what you're rad at and you
like and go fucking do that for the rest of your life
and stop giving a fuck about everybody else. - [Audience Member] That's awesome. - Thanks, cheers. Hey. - Hi, I'm Val. - [Gary] Hey, Val. - I'm here with Dutch Bros,
I didn't sneak in, but-- - [Gary] But you're
keeping it pretty shady. - What? - [Gary] I don't know,
aren't you supposed to say, I'm from Eugene, Oregon or something? - Let's go! I'm actually-- - [Gary] Corporate? - What, no. I'm here with Dutch Bros Rockland, formerly from DVAZ. We're all family here. - [Gary] Respect, go ahead. - My question is for you,
with how busy you are, I'm sure you have set some
boundaries so that you spend quality time with your
family, how do you disconnect? - Easily. Like, I'm aware that I
spend so much time doing me, that it's hard, actually, I
say easily, that first day is defragging, you're still on that drug of adrenaline and working,
but it's so important to me to win at extremities that I do my best. I would say 80% of the
weekends or 80% of vacations I'm good, I'm fucking there,
I'm in it, but 20% of time, something just happened or
I'm hot on this wine club that I'm building for my
dad, I'm just into it, I miss wine, and so this August,
when I was with my family, I probably did a little too
much wine club on the phone when I should have
disconnected, but it's similar to what I said, I don't judge myself. I'm not gonna be perfect,
I'm trying really hard, for all of us, some things
are better than others, but in reality, I think I
owe it to the whole system. Not just my kids and my wife,
I owe to the whole fucking thing, to really work hard
at checking out and being there, and I enjoy it. I'm always into the jersey I'm
wearing, do I love my work, does it come more natural? It does, it is more natural
for me to work every day for the rest of my life,
it's my zone, it just is, it is what it is, it's the truth. But especially my kids
are now eight and five, so now they're like actually real. When they were that little,
I'm like, fuck that, but when they become real
and they can say shit and now my daughter is like me, and I'm like, fuck, she's
like me, a girl version, fuck that's gonna be crazy. So, so, I enjoy it and
it's getting even better. For me, and everybody is
different, as they're getting older, it's even more fun
and then carving out more time with my wife. I'm back to Jewish
holidays, I text my wife on the air, I'm so pumped
for Yom Kippur because we can't do shit, we're just
gonna hug and lay together. And I'm trying the best I can,
too many people are letting other people judge their
parenting and relationships. This all comes down to
the same shit, right? People are allowing other
people to tell them how to parent, which is fucking
ludicrous because whatever is politically correct
now isn't going to be. I promise you, the way of,
oh shit, they did it right in the 60s, divide and
conquer is gonna be super hot in 2020. So, I'm not relying on
everybody else telling me how to do it, I'm gonna do it
the way that feels right for me, my spouse and
my kids and every day. If I walk into the house
tomorrow and my little guy goes, you travel too much, I
hate it, I will adjust, if I feel like I have to. If it hurts, then I'll adjust. Actions, back to the dude
about the weakness and story, words are bullshit. Actions, I took most of
August off, that's an action. I just did, I took
fucking 28 days in a row, that's more days than
what I took in my entire 20s combined off, not natural
for me, but it's actions and so just hacking, hacking every day. - [Audience Member] Awesome, thank you. - Welcome. Vera, can I say some shit? He's adjusting, I saw you
on the phone with Taylor, is he freaking? Good. All right, hey, who's up, oh sorry, bro. - [Audience Member]
What's up, Gary, I'm Matt. - Matt. - I'm over here with DVTC
from Caldwell, Idaho. So, I'm kind of, first off,
your energy, incredible. - [Gary] Thanks, bro. - Dude, we do this every
day, we get to vibe with you, thank you for coming out here. Also, going back to Logan
the Third, his marketing and social media, you
mentioned investing into that. What are some specifics,
that we could do money, do we need a specific person for it? What are some big-- - I think you can hire
some, where are you guys, Colorado you said? - [Audience Member] Caldwell, Idaho. - I think for $27,000 a year
you can get a full-time person that fucking dominates. Now, here's the
vulnerability, who's the judge of the person if they're good or not. So, if you run your shit,
the key is that you know so that you can judge. Too many people outsource
their social or anything, their finances, they
outsource to other people because they don't want to
do it or they don't know how and that's what gets them in trouble. So I think at that price
point, I think there's plenty of 22-year-olds
that know what to do, I was one, but I also think
there's far more that don't, but look the part because they're young. And there may be a
47-year-old that knows exactly what to do, so I think,
whoever is the judge and jury of the person who's
managing, has to be capable of understanding what the result is, and the result is not
likes and the result is not followers, I don't think
you're paying your dues with likes, you don't take likes, right? So this is the business
mind, a lot of people on social media, in the beginning,
they played on vanity metrics, people have their
self-esteem wrapped up in how many followers or likes they get, I'd rather have four people follow me and three of them buying than 2.3 million and none of them buying,
from a business standpoint. From an ego standpoint,
the second one is rad. But from a business standpoint,
those are specifics. - One more, time frame of
it, is it an every day, all day, 24-hour thing? - Yeah, now that person is
not gonna work 24 hours, but sure. The answer is always more. But then you go backwards,
so the answer is yes, now what's practical
and what can you afford, right, and wherever it
stops, that's where you want, shoot for the moon and
end up in the clouds, don't shoot for the mountain top and end up somewhere in the fucking river. Where the fuck does this
shit come from, thanks, bro. Did you get that one D. Rock? Thanks. - What up, Gary V? - [Gary] Hey man. - I'm Vayland, and I'm
from the Corvalis, DB. So, I'm going through a big
point of growth in my life, I'm 20 years old and I
know the next 10 years are gonna be a lot of progression for me, if you could give yourself
one tip when you were my age, what would it be? - Don't count anything. - [Audience Member] I feel that. - Do you? - I think I do. - Let me tell you what I mean, literally don't judge where you're
out for the next 10 years. Literally close your eyes until you're 30. Same advice I gave earlier. The biggest problem for
people is they're keeping score along the way, which
means they're looking back, which is allowing people to pass them. I went into a coma in my
20s, just like, checked out. I don't think what I did was
right, I checked out so extreme that I stopped talking to
anybody, I just went there, right, I think, in hindsight
there is a healthier balance, but I think everybody else is
too much in the other place, like at 30 I'm gonna be
this, at 22 this, and if I'm not the manager at 21,
then I'm gonna be this, if I'm not making 63,000 at 20, people are just counting
against themselves because they're so used to the
game of school and rankings and scoring and then you
get into the real world where it's detrimental, not a positive. Do you understand? - [Audience Member] I do. - And you're gonna wake up
at 30, I woke up at my 30th birthday, this is a real
story, drove to the store, looked myself in the mirror
and I said the next 10 years are gonna be really
important building years. You just do that at 20,
I promise you when you're at 30, you're gonna do the same thing. So, the answer is, it's forever, there's important years in your
20s, there's important years in your 30s, there's
important years in your 40s, and 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s. So, don't over-judge yourself,
do learn the work ethic and the skills that match your ambition. - [Audience Member] Thank you
Gary, don't stop grinding. - Hi. - Hi, I'm Hannah. - [Gary] What's your name? - Hannah. - [Gary] Hannah? - Yeah, I don't want
to say where I'm from, I don't want them to scream. - [Gary] Okay, does screaming
freaks you the fuck out? - Yeah, because I would
probably start shaking. I have kind of a broad question, though, I eventually want to get
to something creative, like marketing or something like that, and I stopped going to college. - [Gary] Awesome. - I think that was a bad decision. - [Gary] No. - You think I could
still make that happen? - A 100,000%. - Okay. - Good, Hannah, Hannah, do
you know that if you spend the next three months
emailing people that have businesses that have jobs
that you're interested in, one of them would say yes? - [Audience Member] No. - Good, that would happen. - [Audience Member] Free advice. - Free advice. - [Audience Member] Thank you so much. - You got it. - [Audience Member] What's up, Gary? - [Gary] Life is good, man, how are you? - Pretty good. My name is Alec Peter, I'm here
from Rosenberg with my crew and you can make as much noise. - [Gary] No, but the one
dude was doing some kind of crazy thing. I love it, respect. - First off, thank you for
giving us your time and I'm pretty stoked that I finally
was able to get up here, and ask you this question, I've been trying to focus
more on stop thinking and doing more, and this
is my one starting point, I'm here off to start
doing and stop thinking. Thank you. - [Gary] No worries, man, keep it going. - My question is, so you
do what you do every single day, you wake up and
you run your business, and you do your daily
vlogs and you go places, and you're a motivational
speaker for a lot of people and people look up to you
and they need motivation so they look up your shit. What drives you to do what
you do and just keep moving and don't stop what you're doing? - The gratitude for that situation. I'm completely driven by gratitude. Do you know how grateful I am? Do you know what did I do? My parents had sex at this
one moment and created me. Like, I'm being serious,
I'm being grateful, I have such a good thing
going, people like it, I like it, it's so
good, but what did I do? Do you know how lucky I was
that I was an immigrant? Do you know how much I'm driven
by a chip on my shoulder, do you know how lucky I
got that I was 4ft 11 when I went into freshman year of high school, all these things went in my favor, I don't know man, I'm driven by gratitude. Every morning I wake up
and I'm just grateful, grateful, grateful, I'm
42 years old almost, and unfortunately, three of
my four grandparents died before I got to know them, so not only was I born
in a communist country, where capitalism and
entrepreneurship is shit on, I went to the place where
it's post on a pedestal, I got the greatest mom in the world, my dad taught me work ethic and my word, which made me not a bullshit
artist, saved my ass. Right, but then on top of everything else, I've had very little death
or pain around me and I'm 42 years old, it's unfortunate
why that's the case, given the circumstances before,
but it's still my reality and I have a communications
style that for some reason, who knew, don't forget, I was 33 years old before I even made a video. I've never thought this could be real, it didn't even fucking cross my mind, I was a business man. Like, watching 20-year-olds
that are hungry and thinking about their lives, I'm excited because I'm
like, bro, you don't have any clue where this might fucking go, because at 31 years old,
I'm like, maybe I'll make one video on this YouTube
thing, you have no idea where it's going, so I'm
completely driven by gratitude, I'm so thankful, I'm so
grateful and it drives the shit out of me. - And that helps you to
not procrastinate and just be in a slump, if you
ever are, in a slump, I'm sure we all are. - Everybody is in a slump,
but here's my thing, man, nobody gives a shit. - [Audience Member] Fuck yeah. - You know what I mean, the
thing that people don't realize about slumps and depression
and things like that, you got to break them
down, for some people it's a real disease, it's
real stuff, but that's on a different plane, but being in a slump, everybody's in a slump,
everybody's got adversity, there's always something. To me, somebody has always got it worse. There's 7.7 billion people and unless I'm in some weird little
cage in some fourth world country, that means I'm not in last place, which means I've got
nothing to complain about, you know what I mean? - [Audience Member] Yeah. - You live in America. - [Audience Member] Fuck yeah. - The fuck are you complaining about? - I was just wondering,
you've spoken for a lot of businesses and people, I was
just wondering what do you think about Dutch Bros and
what we are and what we do and the questions that a lot
of the people have asked you? - Look, the biggest takeaway
for me is there is a lot of energy, it's young and
all that, it's all rad, to me, it's just really
cool that there's a smart operator at the top. And listen, you guys know
me, I don't know him, I don't give a fuck about him. I'm being serious. And the same way he does it
to me, but it's important for me to tell you this,
we don't know each other, we met three seconds
before I came on stage, it's just cool to see
somebody smart and building a framework that works
both for his organization and the people in it, I know
it because I do it as well and it's cool, I'm
hopeful that this becomes humongous because you need
examples of capitalism that is positive on both
sides, because I think that's a 2.0 version, right? The reason I'm excited,
that I'm cool to young kids, is I'm teaching them good
principles, not bad principles. All the other dickfaces that
are popular on Instagram and YouTube are flashing fucking cars and watches and fucking
clubs, and all this fucking shit down these 23-year-old dudes' mouths and it's fucking stupid
because it's short-term behavior, I am collecting
popularity because of gratitude and because once I get
them in, them in like, okay, listen, you want to
know what the real thing is? It's fucking hard work,
it's being respectful, it's being a good person,
it's being 30 years in the making and to
me, my energy of this, it's cool to see it because
you don't see it often and when you see it, you appreciate it. (audience applauding) Two more. I got to go, I apologize. - I'll keep it short, I
promise, thanks for staying. Gary, I'm Chelsea, I'm with the DBAZ. We're all getting tired. So, I love that you say listen to people, I get to be at a position
that's a little bit like your chief hiring officer in your offices, I've been in that gray
area for a while though, engagement, and player
retention, that kind of thing. - [Gary] Okay. - I wonder when it's
important to say I don't give a fuck about your opinion
and when it's important to say, hey I need to
coach you and guide you and actually pull you aside
from this path that you're on right now? - I think you know. How long have you been doing that? - [Audience Member] Six years. - Do you like it? - [Audience Member] Love it. - Comes natural, right? - [Audience Member] Yeah. - You know the answer,
it's circumstantial. Right, the fact that you
even asked me that way made me know that I
didn't have to answer it. You know what you're doing. The thing for you and I
and people that really give a fuck about HR and
people is it's tough, it's so emotionally draining, right, because when you see somebody
who's not self-aware, you know how tough, the
game is already over, right? I think the one thing I would tell you, you can see how I talk about these issues, I go that one extra place
where most people don't go, it's because that uncomfortable place, fuck you, mom, and this and
that, that uncomfortable place is where it is. Because what you're doing
as somebody who loves it and is good at it, and what I
was doing early in my career is you go right to the
edge, the problem is, that doesn't create the unlock. The unlock is when you suffocate it. So, I think about it
like this, I try to give a bunch of honey before
I deliver the vinegar, and I go back to the extremes of pulling, if I'm gonna have a tough
conversation, I'm gonna really set the framework,
which is like, look, I'll do anything for you,
you don't have to work here, I'll make it so awesome, and then I'll go, you're a fuck-face, and
you're a fuck-face because you're insecure and Karen
underneath is better than you, so you're suppressing
her because you don't want her to take your
job, because this is about as high as you're gonna
get up and you know that. So, what's happening is
you're manifesting bad behavior because you're
protecting your grounds, 'cause you got to pay
your mortgage, I get it. But it's not gonna work, so now what? So, that's the part that's hard, but when you really give a
fuck, if you're making decisions because you have to hit
a certain margin to pay to the mothership, that's
different, but I know that's not the case already,
so you're fucking lucky, you know how many people have
to make decisions on that? So, you're making decisions
on EQ, so you're just gonna have to go that,
if we're gonna have this moment together, six months,
six months going one step further in radical candor
which does not come natural to us. - [Audience Member] Or maybe Dutch Bros. - Or maybe Dutch Bros. Radical candor is tough and
I get it, and by the way, not maybe Dutch Bros,
everything I can tell already makes me know they're not good at it because I'm not good at it. When you're so EQ-ed out
and it's so good vibes, you're leaving money on the
table because it feels better. So radical candor comes hard,
but it's the evolution for him and me and our next
frontier, for us to take our companies to the next level,
we have to inject a little bit of that and the way
I'm doing it is a different version of what we've
been doing, this is now me talking to him, I'm
creating bigger severances, real packages, mascot jobs
that don't bother anybody else, anything if I have to deal
with 17 people that I'm emotional towards, that are
fucking everything else up, but not addressing it will
collapse the whole fucking empire and that's why I call
my organization the honey empire, the honey empire. It's not the empire of
honey, I will always chose people .1% more than the business, but after you get into
year three, seven, nine, you get to a scale where
your strength becomes your vulnerability, so yeah. - The leaders above me are great with radical candor, it's the millennials and the generation z that's coming up that seem
a little bit more sensitive towards that kind of thing. - Yeah, but I'll be honest
with you, that's a cop-out, I'm not gonna let the
millennial generation z be the conversation, I
actually think that we should be looking at ourselves, and not them, because it's easier to
be like you fucking kids, I don't believe in that bullshit, I really don't, it's us. You know? It's us. They are big boys and
girls and there's plenty of fucking people that are
soft as shit in their 40s, 60s and 80s too, that were lazy
as fuck and entitled as fuck and the same way with that
dude with the technology, we are using the millennial
and the gen z cop-out of entitlement to not address
it because subconsciously we've got our own things to work through. It's always our fault. (audience applauding) - [Audience Member] What's up, Gary? - What's up, bro? - My man, I've got to be honest with you, I've never heard of you
before until this day. - [Gary] I get it, I've
never heard of you either. - Dude, thanks, man. Well, we're hearing each other now. - [Gary] Here we are. - And I'm definitely
gonna look up your stuff, that's for sure, I'm gonna say that. - [Gary] I'm gonna definitely look up you, you're like straight
out of central casting. - Thanks. - [Gary] What's your name? - My name, oh, my name's
Kyle, but everyone just calls me by my last name, Rodo. - [Gary] Rodo, loving
it, let's do it Rodo. - So, I have two questions for you. The first one is about SnapChat. - [Gary] Okay. - So, I run the SnapChat
for my franchise, it's in West Valley Arizona. They all just left
except for her, they had to catch a flight. - [Gary] She's a gangster. - Oh, dude, I know. - [Gary] That's your girl? - Yeah, I'm dating her. - Oh, you're dating her,
like she's really your girl? Okay. That's not exactly where
I was going, but it makes it awesome, go ahead. - So, what can I be doing-- - [Gary] To make it better? - Not even to make it
better, damn, yeah, I guess-- - [Gary] Do you want people
to come into the store? - What's that? - [Gary] You want people to
come to the business, right? - Hell yeah. - Let me throw a really
interesting curveball at you. You should literally take
the account right now, look at it, and be like,
hey, guys, what can I do here to make it better for you? One of the craziest moves in
social that I find fascinating is just asking the
audience what they want, you'll be blown away by how
much feedback you'll get that will unlock. Literally, like, hey, it's
Rodo, I run the fucking shit for this store, what up,
I need you guys to tell me. And SnapChat is legit now,
you can just keep holding it down, so you're good, you don't
have the 10 second bullshit anymore, right? So, you're just holding
it down, it's Rodo, what up, I fucking run
shit here, what do you guys want on this SnapChat? And here's what's gonna happen,
80% of them are gonna be like, give us free shit, no shit. Which you can mix in, by
the way, I'm on a whole kick at Wine Library now, every
Saturday, we're just giving away $10 worth of gourmet
food and we're doing it, the ROI actually works. Giving away free shit,
people like to shit on it, it's kind of clever if
you've got something good, because the cost of entry is low. But look, you know this,
people want entertainment, and you're fucking entertaining
just on your fucking face. You know? I mean it. - Yeah, I hustle hard for that. - I believe you, so
remember when I talk about bet on your strengths,
not on your weaknesses, go fucking all Bill and
Ted's excellent adventure. Go all, I mean it, I can
taste it from this far away, you'd be entertaining as fuck,
and it will bring people. Make every fucking person
want to watch it for you and for Larry, the mop
guy, 'cause he's funny, create a fucking sitcom, bro. - Thank you. So, before I go to my second
question, would you mind if I took that SnapChat right now? - [Gary] Yeah, let's do it. - I appreciate that. All right, here we go, brother. - [Gary] Go ahead, bro. - What's up, DB, West Valley, I'm here with, (audience cheering). I'm here with Gary V, he's a
huge motivational speaker-- - [Gary] He never heard
of me before today! - I haven't, I haven't, but we're here, and we are curious to see
what you guys want to see or we're curious to hear
what you guys want to see on this SnapChat. - Tell him, tell him
what you fucking want! Can we do that, that's okay, right? It's okay, it's approved,
approved from the top. Yeah! - I'm posting that. - [Gary] I bet you are, Rodo. Okay, number two. - Everything you've been
saying about self-insight, and self-awareness moment,
I'm eating that shit up, I love it. - [Gary] Good, it's delicious, right? - Oh, good, dude, yes. - [Gary] What does it
taste like, cinnamon? Okay, go ahead. - So, I have so many-- - [Gary] Go ahead, we're
not going anywhere. - What you've been saying with
like, how you are constantly finding out new shit
about yourself every day, but also you have these-- - [Gary] Core principles? - Yeah, you were telling that
guy, fuck your girlfriend, like, love them, but don't
fucking listen to them, how do you, while you're
still constantly learning new stuff about yourself
every day, how do you keep this self-insight in check? How do I know-- - [Gary] You're right? Everybody wants to know if they're right. - [Audience Member] Yeah, well, I mean-- - You don't. - [Audience Member] Except sometimes. - No, dude, to me, this is
why intent has been brought up so much, my big thing is
I don't know if I'm right, I just know I'm doing things for the right reasons, and I'm okay with
letting the chips fall where they may. Let me tell you something
that didn't get brought up today while we're on this gig. One of the biggest reasons a
lot of you don't do the right thing is because you expect
somebody to do that in return after you do it. And that expectation, the reason I'm good is because I give with
zero expectation in return. And when you give with
zero expectation in return, it unlocks you, and I can
see some of you get this, it's a big one, I'm sitting
here and I'm jamming with you guys, I'm like,
ah, right, I'm always trying to break down the
formula, because it's never one thing, right? It's like wine, a good wine
has a blend of components, a lot of what works for me is
I do it for the right reasons, I'm all in, I don't mind if
I lose, I actually weirdly prefer it, and if I do great
for you and then I need you in a year, and you don't
deliver, I'm cool with that too, I'm empathetic. Maybe you didn't get it, maybe
you're not a good person, maybe you got some shit on
your mind that didn't allow you to come through. I think the expectation
of others and the opinions of others are disproportionately
guiding your life and I think that you will
end up regretting that in your older years. - [Audience Member] Thank
you, that was great. - I never have to rush,
anybody, are we done? - [Audience Member]
Yes, one more, one more. - Yes, let's do it. - [Audience Member] Hi,
so our company has done-- - What's your name? - I'm Shell. - [Gary] Shell? - I'm from (mumbles). So, our company is founded
on its culture and we hold it very close to our hearts, and earlier you were talking about
leadership and you were saying that selflessness and
empathy is everything when it comes to leadership,
and I just wanted to know how has selflessness and
empathy impacted your life and impacted your company
within your leadership? - It's allowed me to, God,
that's such a good question, Shell, it's almost like
asking me how has brown eyes impacted my life? I don't even know of anything else, what I think it's done,
it's created a stickiness and an emotion towards
me and the organization that has created its strength. I believe that continuity
leads to speed, speed leads to results. So, the reason I love
culture so much is it means we stick around with each
other longer, so we know each other's strengths
and weaknesses, we become a gelled unit and then we
can be faster in whatever we do, decisions, strategies, executions. I'm a retailer, when
it's busy on a Saturday, everything, everything. So, for me, man, I think
it's impacted, I don't there's an accident that
this company and my company have hyper-grown very quickly
in comparison to other people's companies, right? I think that, I feel
like there's only one way to make anybody besides the
person that owns something give a shit, which is to
give a shit about them more than they give a shit
about you, and in that, creates the stickiness
that creates continuity which creates speed and
my genuine belief about everything else in business
is that speed is the variable to success. - [Audience Member] Thank you. - You're welcome. Dutch Bros. Okay guys, so you sat down
and watched that entire marathon which is insane. So, the real simple
question of the day is, what was your favorite
part of this keynote, what made you feel the most, what part can you feel the most? (melodic music)
