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- [00:00]
Chris Cuomo
You want to know the truth about what makes you better as a person, as a parent or politics? Oh, boy, do I have the guy for you. Gary Vee. Chris Cuomo here. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. Gary Vee's got 45 million followers and he's one of the only people I can say this about. He deserves them. He is putting things out into the world that a lot of people don't want to hear, but they are the truth about how you tap into your own potential and how you help your kids, how you're hurting your parents, and how we can get to a better place, not just as entrepreneurs, but as citizens in a country that he has real concerns about. A special interview with a special talent, Gary Vanucuk. It's funny, I'm sitting here laughing with Gary Vanderchuck. It's great to have Gary Vee with us, you know, entrepreneur extraordinaire. Yes. But so much more. First of all, thank you for the show.
- [01:02]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Appreciate it, really genuinely.
- [01:04]
Chris Cuomo
You are one of the people, I can say you deserve your following.
- [01:08]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [01:09]
Chris Cuomo
Because, yeah, you're great on business, but you're about personal potential.
- [01:13]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [01:14]
Chris Cuomo
And that's why I wasn't afraid tonight. I'm not going to drag you through political mire, but this is an extension of how we see ourselves and what we become about. We were talking in the break that I have a 22 year old. I love her to death. She's more talented than I ever imagined my genes could produce. She and her friends are up against it. The idea that I was gonna wind up home after college, 0% chance I wouldn't have been allowed.
- [01:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah.
- [01:38]
Chris Cuomo
But they don't have the opportunities that were expected after the big education and the big bills. How do you see it that they.
- [01:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Have more opportunity than we had?
- [01:47]
Chris Cuomo
Really?
- [01:48]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Really. And I'll explain what I mean by that. Your point is well taken. A lot of people that are watching, by the way, this is why I was yelling about college 15 years ago in my content. Because the guarantee of that piece of paper to get you a job I saw even back in 2010 was declining. The world was changing. The world has changed. And so to your point, and to the point that people that counter what I say, which is they have more opportunity, which I'll get into in a second, is a lot of us and definitely our parents generation. You got the paper, you got a job. On the flip side, Chris, do you know how Many millions of 23 year olds are making millions of dollars on social media?
- [02:28]
Chris Cuomo
Right.
- [02:30]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What has happened is well to do kids that are going to good. There's a new economy like I'm sorry that upper middle class and wealthy kids can't just moonwalk into six figure jobs. But you know what's great about America and capitalism and merit is it constantly changes. And so there is unlimited millions, not hundreds of thousands, millions of kids that are using TikTok, that are using social, that are using Shopify, that are using all these new variables. Live social shopping has exploded. You've got a level of merit for every kid that comes from a well to do family that can someone on the hustle.
- [03:12]
Chris Cuomo
But you know, I see them more as. And please correct it, Gary. But I see them more as victims than as predators. In that new environment, kids can't watch a movie unless they're like this. And I'm like, are you gonna. If you don't like the movie, we'll watch another one. Oh, no, no, no. Nothing's happening right now.
- [03:26]
Gary Vaynerchuk
But you'll appreciate this. We had options too. Like I think people, I think us parents in this generation forget that our parents held us accountable. If we acted on things we didn't want, that they didn't want us to do. If we stole a playboy at 7:11 or if we drank alcohol, we got grounded. We are. The issue these kids are dealing with is a generation of parents that are not willing to have consequences and ramifications for their action. If you're a parent watching right now and you're completely pissed off about TikTok and you think it's bad for your child, tell them to take it off their phone. I'm gonna get a phone call in a minute. Be like, yeah, Gary, but the parent's gonna cry. They're gonna be like, but Gary, there's social pressure. Like, everybody's on TikTok. I don't want my kid to be weird. Our parents didn't do that crap, Chris. They didn't care about the other parents. We got grounded. Heck, you know this. We got spanked, slapped. Some kids that are watching got really. There was a belt in my house when I was a kid. Like, it's like, I just think that we gotten to a place.
- [04:26]
Chris Cuomo
Was that better?
- [04:27]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Look, my point of view is that purple's best and red and blue both suck. Right? So love this character. Was it better? Mom and dad are watching right now. The way Tamara and Sasha Vaynerchuk parented me was I knew there was consequences, there was ramifications. If I, I didn't even contemplate to disrespect my mom.
- [04:50]
Chris Cuomo
Chris, you think we love them too much? Is that what it is?
- [04:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
No, I think we. No, I think we overreacted to whatever we didn't like that we got. It's the same thing with politics. Like, good parenting is when you have. If you disagree with your parent or your partner in business and they're over here, the natural reaction is to go over here. But the reality is if you go here, you get the mission accomplished. I think that a lot of us went too far left and right. I'm telling you right now, these kids have more options, Chris. They have more options. It is so easy to make money if you're willing to stick with me here. Everyone work. The problem is, is that. Watch this. You're gonna love this. Your daughter, you said is 22.
- [05:32]
Chris Cuomo
22.
- [05:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
She's part of that generation that they didn't work in high school. They team toured, they sleep away camped. They like, did like people like. I didn't know a single kid at 15 in my neighborhood in Hunterdon County, New Jersey that didn't have a job. Now I don't know a 15 year old that has a job. Like, we have really overcorrected and we're over coddled 8th place trophies and all this stuff. And meanwhile, listen, I'm talking about merit. Like, you're back to my content. I'm Mr. Compassion and Empathy. Like, I love a good feelings. I love over loving. I like a lot of things that are soft. But we can't screw with merit. We can't screw with merit. Like, this is why business is so fun. To me. It's the closest thing to sports. Sports is the best because as all these parents on this beautiful island we're sitting on right now, they get involved in school, they get involved in all this stuff. Jobs I get. Do you know I had a kid who wanted his mom to come to his interview the other day. This is where this is going. Like, literally, can I bring my mommy to the interview? I'm like, I've got good news for you. You don't need to come to this interview. It's a wrap.
- [06:44]
Chris Cuomo
Yeah, you don't have to come.
- [06:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Sorry, brother. Like, we. But sports is amazing. Because if little Johnny from a townhouse on the Upper west side sucks at basketball, he sucks at basketball.
- [06:56]
Chris Cuomo
I'll tell you what though, we've seen something else with that also. I don't want to go too far afield, but I can't tell you how many friends I have who've sacrificed weekends, money and Vacations for years from when the kid is like 10 until when they're 17. With all these travel teams, the kids never play in college, never, never go pro. And some of them are good in high school and some of them still kind of suck unless they go to a small school, but they've spent all this time on them.
- [07:23]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Now you're getting to the good stuff. You want to know what's really happening that people don't want to admit? Too many parents use their children for their own self esteem.
- [07:34]
Chris Cuomo
Too many parents see I'm a self loather, so I don't have to worry about that.
- [07:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary, you're in good shape.
- [07:38]
Chris Cuomo
I just want my kids to not be like me.
- [07:39]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I get it.
- [07:40]
Chris Cuomo
Every time I see a sign they're different.
- [07:42]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You and I have been very lucky and in different ways to be around circle. You know, I grew up very fortunate. I was born in the Soviet Union. And so when I came to America, my dad is the hero. Took his family, took me as his only child at the time, but he also forced the whole rest of the family, like, we're getting out of the ussr. We came to the US first in Regal park in Queens, and then I predominately grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Like, the reality is that I grew up in very humble environments. And then later in the last 20 years, the way my career evolved, I've been in the dirt and I've been super in the cloud and the penthouse. You know, this. Like, there's a lot of ramifications with growing up in a wealthy environment. Like, these parents you're talking about, like, the concept of even being on a travel team was nuts to me growing up. Nobody had that kind of money. Like, and these parents, you know, these bumper stickers on the back, honor student, Harvard, you know, like, parents are overwhelmingly overvaluing the opinions of others about their children instead of watching who their children are and moving that way. The great gift of my life was that I was an immigrant that got D's and F's. And when other people had opinion about that in the Russian community because they were all trying to get A's, that's how you got out, right? Education's a way out. My mom could give a crap about what anyone thought about me. She knew who I was and parented me in that environment. And she reverse engineered me. She was like, this kid is not good at school. So she looked at me when I was 14 and says, you need to work now. You're not good at school. You work and I had to work in my dad's liquor store. All of a sudden the fun on the weekends and the summer vacations were gone. And those finding that middle. My mom made me think. I thought I was the greatest human that ever existed. But at any turn when I did the wrong thing, I had consequences. And so you can love your child and make them think they're great, but don't be delusional. My mom didn't tell me things like all these parents like, you can do anything. That's crazy. Most people can't do shit. They can't do anything. Like you can do anything. No, most kids are not gonna be in the NBA, right? Most kids are not Beyonce.
- [09:54]
Chris Cuomo
Follow your passion.
- [09:55]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Most people are not Zucks.
- [09:56]
Chris Cuomo
You should follow what gets you paid.
- [09:58]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You should follow the mix. In your 20s, you should take high risk, right? That's when you can. But again to your point, a lot of kids are coming home to mommy and daddy because mommy and dad are letting them come home. Our generation wouldn't let you come home. You go live with four of your friends in a crap hole in the Bronx. Like we have over coddled an entire generation.
- [10:19]
Chris Cuomo
We got questions for you.
- [10:22]
Unknown
I have a question for Gary and yourself, Chris. My observation, it seems like the younger generation, there's a lot of kids that are out there, what I call kids, you know, 20 year olds, 25 year olds, protesting for something. I don't think they really truly understand about what their protest seems like. They're every, you know, a lot of these young kids, they're looking for something to hang on to.
- [10:49]
Chris Cuomo
Yes, yes, I agree with you. So. So when you look out there, you see that I know where you're going with this. And I think about this all the time. There's an expression, a phrase that somebody gave me, Elica Laban, she was on the show the other night. She talks about Iran all the time. She's a UK trained lawyer, really bright. She's worried about us with fundamentalism because that's what took down Persia and created the democracy. That's Iran now. And she says appropriating oppression when you don't have a sense of purpose because you haven't had that drive of figuring out your hustle and your grind, you seek out what seems to make somebody else a victim and make it your own. That's right. So that you have kids running around in Los Angeles right now. And some of them aren't kids who believe that fighting for Palestine is a righteous cause for them, even though they can't find it on the map.
- [11:39]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah.
- [11:39]
Chris Cuomo
Is that an extension of what you're talking about?
- [11:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Of course, but that's an extension of many other things. I mean, that's an extension of. We have politicians on both sides of the aisle who talk like children. Like, the reason these children. I mean, I read just to give context to the audience because I have so many social media followers, I'm getting somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 direct messages a day. Many in this.
- [12:04]
Chris Cuomo
That's why you didn't get back to me.
- [12:05]
Gary Vaynerchuk
That's probably right. 15 to 35 year olds, heavy, but it skews the gamut. They're disenfranchised because, like, are we ever gonna, like, just take a beat from this moment we're in and I'll take a step back and, like, do we feel good about looking up to anything that's going on? Like, is this like proper civility? How are we telling our children to be nice? I mean, it's really weird. Like, with all due respect, it's super weird out there. Meaning, like, they don't have anything to look up to because everybody has weaponized fear, Chris. Everyone has weaponized fear. And I mean, let's be very frank. Kids have always protested nicely and rioted not nicely, about things they don't understand since the beginning of time.
- [12:50]
Chris Cuomo
Yes.
- [12:51]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Like, you know, it's funny, I was a bad student.
- [12:53]
Chris Cuomo
I was one of them.
- [12:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. Literally, I just said I was a bad student. Ironically, the one thing I was good at was history. I use history for AI right now. Everyone will talk about AI. Do you know that when electricity was invented, most people didn't put it in their home because the word on the street was there, demons in it. Demonization. That's where it comes from. This is real. Humans would not put electricity in their home because they were scared there were demons in it when it was invented. And so that's what's gonna happen with AI right now. Everyone's so scared of AI. What politicians, parents, bosses and corporations have done very effectively in the last 30 years is weaponized fear in a way that's profound. In fact, so much of what's going on with children right now is that parents are more scared than ever. You know, you start going back to when news became a business, not a public service. All of a sudden, you throw one case of a kidnapping in New York in the late 70s on the news and the ratings go through the roof, and everyone's like, you know, this is like real talk. Like, we have to dig back. But do I Think that people are looking for a place to belong? Yes, I do. Why do you think sports does so well? That's a positive version of belonging. Like, yes, I think we've lost our way in a lot of ways.
- [14:08]
Chris Cuomo
Doesn't that create an opportunity for people though, to create. Yes. Fear, demagogue. There's a reason that the Greeks didn't give us a positive opposite to the word demagogue. Right. Playing on fears, playing on prejudice works well. Hard to do it the other way. You see a riot, you never see a hugging. That's why Jesus's message is so powerful to so many, because of its demonstration. But is that an opportunity, is there an opportunity, Gary, for someone to do the opposite of playing to fear and to be about something big and positive?
- [14:39]
Gary Vaynerchuk
By the way, I don't know how Democratic strategists are confused about this. The only time Democrats win is when they sell hope. What do you think? Obama and JFK and Clinton. Yes, I mean, and by the way, there's a reason we build statues for Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Love is undefeated in the end, but it usually comes back late. Like the Pacers, you know, like, I think people, like, history is very clear on all these issues. Very clear on all these issues. My big thing for everybody who's watching this program is stop pontificating and debating on Facebook and start doing something like, we are in the greatest era of finger pointing and we hate a good thumb, Chris. We hate thumbs. It's everybody's fault. It's literally. I mean, I read social media at scale. I have a 3,000 person marketing company. We do. Like, this is what I do for a living. I get a pulse of where things are going. You want to know the real pandemic? The real pandemic is forget about the kids. This 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 year olds that are watching right now have been remarkably good at pointing fingers, not thumbs. Do you know that I tracked over 30,000 Twitter accounts, real humans, not bots, who have literally in the last 12 years, eight years, said they're voting for Trump, then they said they're voting for Biden, then they said they're voting for Trump. And it's all under the same theme. He didn't do anything for me the last four years. I'm going the other way. He didn't do it. Like, we are very far away from when JFK said, don't ask what I'm gonna do for you. What are you doing for the country? We are in a place where we blame our boss, our parents what about all the people that blame their parents in perpetuity? At what age do we become grownups? At what age does the trauma of your childhood become appropriate? That you are now capable to go to therapy, to surround yourself with more pos, like when are we grown? Is it 22, is it 30?
- [16:34]
Chris Cuomo
Taking own of what it is, looking at yourself, saying, what can I do?
- [16:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
We have 50 year olds sitting right now having coffee, blaming their mom, who's 80, about stuff like when do we take on accountability? Accountability is dead in this country.
- [16:47]
Chris Cuomo
I get. I also understand now why you want to buy the jets. Because they've sucked so long that you.
- [16:54]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Figure I got to take control, do.
- [16:57]
Chris Cuomo
Something, by the way.
- [16:58]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And I thought of this when I didn't even know.
- [16:59]
Chris Cuomo
Well, it also could prove that you hate yourself.
- [17:01]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Well, it could be. I mean, look, sports. You know what's so funny? As you know, I'm not. I'm. I feel like humans are so incapable of having a civil conversation that politics is so disinteresting to me. But the reason I understand it is because of sports. When I tell you how much I hate Patriot fans, Chris. I hate everybody in Indiana right now. As a Knicks fan, I hate them all. And I actually mean it. So now, like that's like, so I can feel it. So I understand why people get into these debates. But that's silly. That's not real life. That's sports. The fact that we have gotten so good at disliking each other and, and here's just my last thing on politics. The audacity to think the world should run the way you see it. People ask me like, why don't you go heavy? And I'm like, I don't have the audacity to think that everyone should live based on my reality. Back to the cursing that you guys showed a bunch when people leave me for that was Dusty. Dusty, thank you. Thanks, Dusty. I'm gonna get some DMs from that of like. I mean, I get it every day. I get messages like, Gary, I love your message, but I can't share with anybody. The cursing is devastating. It's disgusting. I don't get mad at them. I know that. I grew up in the streets of Jersey and this is just real life to me. And they grew up in a household that. I mean, I grew up in a household where Tamara Vaynerchuk so demonized drugs. She was so Nancy Reagan Ed out. I'd never contemplated doing a drug. But I don't look down on somebody who does Canada People live different lives. People have different context. Look, there's an overarching wrong and right in a lot of ways. And history will always be the judge and the jury. Yeah, but the idea that everyone should see the world the way. Plus, what about this one? This one I think you'll like. Based on I followed you for years. What about the capacity to change your mind?
- [18:50]
Chris Cuomo
Forget it.
- [18:50]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What is this? Double locked in line in the death sentence? I'm only interested in changing my mind.
- [18:55]
Chris Cuomo
Yeah, it's a tough.
- [18:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm only interested.
- [18:57]
Chris Cuomo
It's one of the oldest philosophical and stoic values where great philosophers said, I'm right until I'm not. I'm very much open to new information. So I can change my mind. You do that today in the media or politics, you're a dead man. Gary. You deserve your following. I literally could talk to you for a week and a half. You are always welcome. I know you're very busy. Anything I can ever do for you, I'm a call away.
- [19:20]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you, my brother.
- [19:21]
Chris Cuomo
Thank you for what you're putting into the world. Thank you for trying to make us better.
- [19:24]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [19:25]
Unknown
I appreciate you.
- [19:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you, brother.
- [19:33]
Chris Cuomo
Gary Vee. So good. He only goes by A last initial 45 million people pay attention for a reason. He is saying things that a lot of people don't want to hear, but that doesn't mean they're not true. Thank you very much for subscribing and following here at the Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for checking me out on News Nation. 8p and 11p every weekday night. Our substack, our free agent gear, it's all going toward allowing us to help people get to a better place. So let's get after it.