AI, Social Shopping, and the Future of Media | GaryVee Q&A with New York Post

Summary

Summary of "AI, Social Shopping, and the Future of Media | GaryVee Q&A with New York Post"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The GaryVee Audio Experience
• Host/Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
• Episode: AI, Social Shopping, and the Future of Media | GaryVee Q&A with New York Post
• Release Date: March 4, 2025

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Introduction to Live Social Shopping

Gary Vaynerchuk kicks off the discussion by highlighting the explosive growth of live social shopping, drawing parallels to the success of platforms like QVC and HSN. He emphasizes that while this trend has already generated "tens and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of live shopping happening right now" (00:00), it remains largely unnoticed by the majority. Gary urges creators to seize this moment before it becomes mainstream, likening it to "buying up real estate" during a pivotal market phase (01:40).

Notable Quote:

"People… you're in your moment. You have to go hard right now because the masses don't know yet. And in three years, everyone's going to know." — Gary Vaynerchuk (01:40)

The Rise of AI and Its Impact on Creators

Transitioning to artificial intelligence, Gary addresses concerns about AI potentially replacing creators. He contextualizes this fear by comparing it to past technological shifts, such as the advent of television replacing radio hosts. Gary maintains that AI will "rejigger the field much more than they're just gonna outright replace everyone" (04:34), advocating for a proactive approach to integrating AI into creative processes.

Notable Quote:

"The answer is to weaponize the opportunity instead of crying about it." — Gary Vaynerchuk (07:24)

Utilizing AI as a Strategic Tool

Gary elaborates on how he personally leverages AI to enhance his strategic thinking and efficiency. He describes AI as "my copilot… my partner in my strategy anthropology work" (08:02), illustrating its role in quickly accessing and analyzing information that would otherwise consume significant time.

Notable Quote:

"The current state of what AI tools are being built and what they're gonna do is they're gonna rejigger the field much more than they're just gonna outright replace everyone." — Gary Vaynerchuk (04:34)

Investing in Emerging Technologies

Addressing investment strategies, Gary advises caution against high-risk assets, emphasizing the importance of understanding market trends. He reflects on past investment booms, such as the dot-com bubble and NFT craze, highlighting the lessons learned from overhyped ventures.

Notable Quote:

"Don't invest in high risk assets with money that you cannot afford to lose. That's real estate, that's art, that's startups, that's your buddy's barber shop." — Gary Vaynerchuk (14:25)

Blockchain and NFTs: Beyond Collectibles

Gary delves into the transformative potential of blockchain technology and NFTs, moving beyond their initial association with collectibles. He envisions blockchain as a "decentralized server" that can revolutionize how assets are managed and secured, providing immutable records that transcend geopolitical upheavals (15:10).

Notable Quote:

"NFTs are contracts that you can't fuck with. They can't burn down in a building. They can't disappear off the face of the earth." — Gary Vaynerchuk (15:18)

Building VaynerX: An Operating System for Marketing

Exploring his business ventures, Gary explains the foundational role of VaynerX in his ecosystem. He likens the company to a "Death Star" in its strategic prowess, serving as the core that understands consumer behavior and deploys marketing strategies across various platforms (19:07). This infrastructure supports diverse projects, from direct-to-consumer brands to innovative NFT memberships.

Notable Quote:

"Whoever can communicate in a contemporary way of the moment, at scale was the winner." — Gary Vaynerchuk (19:34)

The Decline of Traditional Media and the Rise of Social Influence

Gary critiques the diminishing power of traditional media institutions, asserting that platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have shifted the dynamics of influence and information dissemination. He underscores the amplified role of "word of mouth at scale" through social media, which now rivals and often surpasses traditional media's reach and impact (29:54).

Notable Quote:

"Word of mouth at scale changes people's opinions. That's how it's always worked." — Gary Vaynerchuk (34:35)

Personal Insights: Growing Up in New York

Concluding the conversation, Gary shares personal anecdotes about his upbringing in New York, highlighting how the city's vibrant and dynamic environment fostered his entrepreneurial spirit. He attributes his success to the "balance" New York offers— a blend of non-stop action and deep humanity—which he believes is unparalleled elsewhere.

Notable Quote:

"New York is actually, in my opinion, the most balanced city in the world. And I love that." — Gary Vaynerchuk (40:57)

Final Thoughts

Throughout the episode, Gary Vaynerchuk emphasizes adaptability, continuous learning, and the proactive adoption of emerging technologies as keys to success in the ever-evolving landscape of media and business. His insights advocate for leveraging current trends to stay ahead, rather than fearing technological advancements.

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Timestamp Guide:

• 00:00: Introduction to Live Social Shopping
• 01:40: Importance of Seizing the Live Shopping Moment
• 04:34: AI’s Role in Transforming Creative Fields
• 07:24: Embracing AI Opportunities
• 08:02: Personal Use of AI as a Strategic Tool
• 14:25: Investment Strategies in Emerging Technologies
• 15:10: Blockchain and NFTs Beyond Collectibles
• 19:07: Building VaynerX as a Marketing Operating System
• 29:54: The Shift from Traditional Media to Social Influence
• 34:35: The Power of Scaled Word of Mouth
• 40:57: Personal Reflections on Growing Up in New York

Note: The timestamps reference the minutes and seconds in the provided transcript to locate specific discussions and quotes.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience. Have you seen the video of the woman in china? She made $8 million in like two seconds. Did you guys see that? When China. This has already happened. There's tens and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of live shopping happening right now. I also know that a lot of people don't know that. Yeah, it's in that perfect spot. This is what I look for. Always it's happened, but it hasn't happened in a way that 95% knows yet. In fact, only 5% does. QVC and HSN are doing billions in re. I think retail is about to convert into QVC in a very big way. So there's billions of dollars of stuff being bought in America on QVC and Home Shopping Network. Wow. And as you know this because you're in the media, we're just trying to figure out, like, what TV's going to look like. That's like the oldest school of tv, stuff like that. When I say that to people, they're like, what? And then they look it up, they're like, how is this possible? I couldn't implore all of you more to go look at what's going on on TikTok Shop. There are people. I was in this room actually a couple days ago. Last week, TikTok had an event here for 100 people that are doing live shopping at scale, making hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars a year and selling live on TikTok. Stop. Hundreds in here, they knew everything. As a matter of fact, I was yelling right up there to all of them, like, please understand, you're in your moment. You have to go hard right now because the masses don't know yet. And in three years, everyone's going to know. And you're going to be sad that you didn't go hard right now because this is your moment to land grab. It's like buying up real estate.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Like, if you know Malibu is going to be Malibu and you're just sitting there and the beachfront property is available for cheap, you were sad that you only bought one house instead of three. I think of attention the way I think about real estate. If you know you need to go all in. So they knew. They're already doing it. So I think live social shopping is gonna be a big deal. And so that's why I tend not to be surprised because I didn't want social shopping to happen. I've known about it for a long time. Cause I pay attention to what goes on in China and social. But when it happened. I was prepared for it to happen. And then I knew that this now required me to spend 50 hours of really being deep so I could be the strategist of the Death Star and pour it on everything. And I think social shopping is going to be a monster.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

What factors do you think have led to that?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That the attention sits on social?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't think people really understand how many hours of human attention social has compared to everybody else. I think people are holding on and don't want it to be that.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah, I think.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I think most people make emotional decisions. Sometimes they make a decision based on where they make their money. Right. Like if you're a hamburger joint and all of a sudden 50 years ago, everybody falls in love with hot dogs, but you were the hamburger king. Instead of what I would do, which is like, add hot dogs to your menu. Most people just keep trying to tell you why hot dogs are a fad.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

You try and dig in your heels.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's right. That's what humans do. And the ones that don't tend to do quite well commercially. I don't care what consumers care about. I just care to know it as quickly as possible and figure out what I'm gonna do with it.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So today, actually, someone sent me a new Google AI program where you can upload an article.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And it turns it into a 15, 20, however minute, however long podcast you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Want it to become.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And that was so wild. Cause it was such an impressive, interesting podcast that I enjoyed listening to.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I'm sure you're familiar with that. That just struck me though, is the most recent example of how AI could essentially replace so many creators. What is your take on that and other AI?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There's a lot to that. AI replacing creators. So the podcaster that that would replace also replaced a drive time radio host or a midday TV host. The midday TV host and the radio host potentially replaced the network TV personality because cable came along and that became. You go further back, there was no television. And when television came along, that replaced the radioman or the print. And so like, these things ebb and flow. Like at the end of the day, someone still wrote that. That article.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So the way my brain goes is that just sounds like actually the people that were sad 10 years ago, you know, the people that wrote articles because they were getting replaced by podcaster. It just sounded like the person that writes articles is now back in the game. This is the thing with AI, it's kind of like the tractor. When the tractor came out, there was a lot of Conversation in society many, many years ago that this was bad because 83% of people in the world worked on farms. What people didn't understand was the tractor was gonna allow people to and better things. This hysteria at worst, or curiosity at best, of what is this going to mean? Is this bad? Are people going to be replaced? The answer is yes. Ish. You know, don't forget somebody that feels like they're about to get replaced by AI to make creative works in Photoshop. The people that got good at Photoshop replaced the people that used to draw on paper, but the person that drew on paper was allowed to learn Photoshop. And so this concept that robots are gonna replace everyone here, that also could be in play. But the current state of what AI tools are being built and what they're gonna do is they're gonna rejigger the field much more than they're just gonna outright replace everyone. Everyone's gonna be looking at each other and we have a major problem. Could there be certain things? Of course there can. When Amazon innovated, that really hurt local bookstore owners?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, when Uber came along, that changed the game for people that own medallions in New York City. Right. There will be certain a big deal, but that's just the ebb and flow of everything. I mean, when, when supermarkets came along, they disrupted local markets in Main Street. And then you had Walmart come and disrupt the Kmarts and the Shoprites. Like, stuff's always changing.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Creative destruction.

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's what humans do. It's how the game is played. And so the question becomes, the real question is, are you going to grab a surfboard and ride this wave or. Or are you gonna put your head in the sand and let the surf the wave kill you? And so I think it's pretty amazing because I do think people are much more capable than they sometimes think of themselves. And I hope people see the AI thing as an opportunity versus the end.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So what is the surfboard in this scenario? How do you ride the AI wave? As a creator or as anyone?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By creating your own AI libraries, By using the products to be more efficient. Like today, there are people right this second, as we're filming this, who are being paid as a designer, and they're being paid in their normal rate. And the client on the other side is accustomed to them needing four hours to make something, and they're paying them that way. That person is capable as a creator to actually learn and use AI and get it done in seven minutes and then, you know, get the same fee for at least now until the market adjusts.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And then spend three hours and 53 minutes with, you know, their family or get 70 more clients. The answer is to weaponize the opportunity instead of crying about it. Fifteen years ago, I was doing this same interview about social media, and people were saying what was gonna be good about it and bad about it. And what transpired over the last 15 years was either people used it for whatever they were trying to achieve, or they made fun of it and got disrupted by people that used it to achieve what they achieved. And I just think that's what's gonna happen here.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay, okay. What ways has AI already changed what you're doing? Would you see using that tool for yourself?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, I'm. So what's. What's interesting?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Podcast what you're doing now?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, I mean, those are all things we're looking at for sure. But I'll give you one that's maybe kind of more interesting and might bring value to the other people on the other side. I, to a lot of people seem like I'm always talking because I do a lot of stuff like this and I make a lot of content.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

You can't post a video where you're just silent either.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So, though, by the way, silent content does extremely well on TikTok. The most followed person on TikTok in the world doesn't talk. Commie lame does. Like, so silent ironically works because it goes to every language. So there's actually some value in not talking in social media content. I did not know that, but that was a very nerdy fact. But I figured I'd throw it out there. Pretty cool, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Probably make a lot of money.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So I am seemingly talking all the time. In reality, the reason I produce so much content is a lot of what I do is actually listen. So I do a lot of consumer insight work. So I'm constantly, I mean, just at scale, thinking, pondering different things. Why have corduroy hats come into style? What is going on with this? Food trend, politics, sport? Like, literally. I'm just curious why, you know, why? Why are hats being worn more than they were 10 years ago, but then you go back 20 years, it was hoodies again, Food trends, movies. Why is the rabbi show on Netflix doing so well? Like, what's the deeper meaning of that relationship? Like, why, why, why? So I have for the last 15 years, spent a lot of time reading Twitter, reading social and using Google AI is saving me a ton of time of thinking. My copilot in thinking now is chatgpt. Perplexing I can ask much more distinct questions. Prompt engineering so I can ask a much more detailed question. If off the election the other day, it would have taken me longer to figure out when's the last time we've gone back to back with four years. Four years. Four years not involving Nixon, Ford. But it took me a second in asking it directly to ChatGPT with back in the late 1800s with Cleveland and all that. That would have taken me four minutes. I think on Google that's a wildly big deal. To have something that I really needed to know used to take me four minutes. That took me 15 seconds. That adds up a bunch of times. That's just information. Search can do that. What search doesn't do as well as what AI will do in this scenario is when I go very detailed of here's an example. Hey, chatgpt. Every parent right now is freaking about the phone because they don't like their kids don't make eye contact. I am aware that the Kaleidoscope had that same issue in the late 1800s. Can you give me the articles or the information that changed the trend where people realized that that is literally something I did. Wow. That is not something I can do in Google search to get me something good. So currently the way AI has changed my life is it is now my copilot. It is my partner in my strategy anthropology work. And I'm even sharper and more effective with clearer data and faster than I was a year ago.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Wow.

That's pretty compelling.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Cool, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I'm inspired.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's cool, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Totally.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, for you especially, it's monstrous. Yeah. Like you could literally on, you know, on election night, you're. You're doing your thing literally during commercial break. I don't know with on Amazon it could be. I don't know how the stream was, but you literally could be like what's the historical reference like when I like that is wild.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

It's like a research assistant that you would normally.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's better than the best research kids right now that like whoever the 25 best research kids that came out of the best schools and they are the ones they can't beat. You saying these are just insanely deep questions. Give me a historical reference when Iowa went Republican after my board like, you know, like you can't do that. You know. Yes. I'm in the wine business in my family. Like Sancerre's exploding on the back of when's the last time that white wine. And these are questions you can't ask anyone. And it's popping out. Like in the late 1940s in London, the Grenache roses got hot. That led to Bordeaux white. It's insane, and it's just starting. A lot of times I just said a bunch of nerdy stuff. Sometimes it doesn't deliver because you could see how what I'm doing, just for everybody behind camera and everybody on camera, I'm doing prompt engineering. If you go back 20 years ago, if you go back 20 years ago, 25 years ago, there's a lot of kids in the room right now, but, brother, remember when we had to learn. Remember when we had to learn how to use a search engine? I didn't know when I first saw a search engine. My only context before was the Yellow Pages and the Encyclopedia Britannica typing in wine regions. Enter. And you're like, what Again? This may sound silly to people under 35, but for everybody over 45, they might remember. It took us a minute to know how to use it again. Why? I love doing stuff like this, whether it's just with you or the people in the room or all the people watching at home, I'm excited that I know somebody was like, oh, wait a minute, I can use it like that. And if you're like me and you use history to predict the future and you use pattern recognition, I mean, there's not been a better tool ever created. So I'm very excited about it.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay, I love that. I love to hear a little bit more optimism about AI because you're right. There's been so much fear around. And anytime there's something foreign, people react and they worry it's going to take.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, look, we Even going back 25 years ago, anything new is always met with. And when the app, when the iPhone came out, every BlackBerry head was like, no way. And I was like, you will all be on iPhones. It's the Internet in your pocket now. We live in a world, as you know, there's just much more. Fear is a very popular currency right now. So you take the overarching thing that's going on in society and you plug it into new technology, which is always demonized and feared. And you have what we have right.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Now with AI, there are these waves and people get really exuberant about it. And, you know, they always say too, you know, technology is overestimated in the short term, underestimated the long term. You know, you're talking about, it's AI this year. So how do you think about capitalizing on something? You see that trend. But you don't go overboard.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, first of all, that's a great question. That's just good investing advice. First of all, please, if you're watching, please do not invest in high risk assets with money that you cannot afford to lose. That's real estate, that's art, that's startups, that's your buddy's barber shop. That is likely not going to work out. Like, you know, what happened three, four years ago was greed just ate up the oxygen. And it reminded me of Internet stocks 2000 and Pets.com was worth $6 billion. It had no revenue. But they were right. The Internet was going to be big.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And by the way in there, Amazon and PayPal and eBay, if you bought those for $3 a share in 2000 before all the splits and everything, you did really well.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And in the height of NFT summer I made videos that were 99% of these things are going to zero.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But people didn't want to hear it because they were in euphoria. Now bitcoin sits in a place by its own. Bitcoin is literally out there as a potential monetary thing that we have not seen since the American dollar. It's wild, like since gold. Like if enough people tip and believe in it, it just because it becomes, it's how the world works with money in the. You just have to look at history. The way things get value is everyone agrees. And so bitcoin, you know, when we say crypto, there's a lot going on. Bitcoin sits over here by itself. NFTs are, are non fungible tokens. They're contracts that you can't fuck with. They can't burn down in a building. They can't disappear off the face of the earth. If a country disappeared. You know, when, when the bolsheviks came in 1917 and took over the USSR, my great grandmother used to tell me this story all the time. Her grandparents had a fucking 500 acre farm that was taken by the Bolsheviks and it was gone. If that deed sat on the blockchain, my great grandkids could take claim to that land one day. That's not how it worked. So the blockchain's incredible. And NFTs are incredible. The NFTs that everybody knows were only about collectibles and art. That's only 1% of it. And just like collectibles, 99% of sports cards are worthless. Michael Jordan's rookie card is worth a lot. So people were just confused. It was Covid. There was greed, there was a lot of mockery but look, I think the blockchain. Let me take it up a level. Forget about crypto. The blockchain, a decentralized server. These are servers that not a company like Facebook and Google or even a country like America, Russia or China can control. It becomes a ledger. When you buy a house, you get a deed, the ledger. This is a ledger that is built on technology that nobody can fuck with. It is a profound technology. It's just early, okay? And so I think when we look back in 30 years, we'll laugh about and cry and judge around all the different behaviors. But I think the blockchain is profound and I think currency on it is seemingly one of the early use cases. I do think assets, digital assets will also find their way there. But when people were like, gary, this is so stupid. Like, that's money. Like, I wanna have my money. And I was like, where's your money? I'm like, where's your money right now? And this is why people don't study history enough. A great thing you can ask your chatgpt is tell me the history of the credit card. Because I promise you, these credit cards, I'll pull one out for fun. These credit cards were super not accepted in 1964. When I said, that's my money in 1964, everybody laughed at me. And every alpha dude was like, I'm never gonna give the fucking government access to my information. I need my cash. People don't get it. Technology is undefeated.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Reading your bio, it's a little overwhelming.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Think about you have your hand in so many different pies.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

But when you talk about it, it does seem like it's all interrelated. And so in a way, when you're thinking about consumers that has myriad applications, that has applications for content investing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Tell me more about how that's how you started layering on.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's a really good observation. It's why the marketing company is the center. It's the. It's the operating system. If Vayner X is the best at understanding consumers and knowing how to make music, make videos, make pictures, make content, and how to spend media to amplify it. If it is the best global company in the world at that. And I've always thought about Vayner as like a death star. Like if I'm a little bit of a Star wars nerd, I was like, I actually.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I don't know what that means.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's a Star wars term, the emperor, the bad guy. Which I'd rather think I'm a good guy. But nonetheless, he had this thing called the Death Star. And like, it was so powerful, it could like shoot a planet and blow up the whole planet. Very sci fi. But really, it was just this most powerful thing. And to me, 15 years ago, what became very clear to me was whoever can communicate in a contemporary way of the moment, at scale was the winner.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

A lot of what happens in politics and in business and in pop culture has played out the way I thought it might. So I went about building an operating system for it. My operating system was, I will build a human infrastructure. Not a technology, not a SaaS product, not a social network. I know me, I like humans. I like team. I knew that that's what I could build. I'm going to build a human infrastructure of the best practitioners in being the best contemporary marketers. How does that show up? It shows up with. Then I'm able to then deploy that against. Do you know Rezi, the restaurant app?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yes, of course.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I incubated that with the founder, Ben Leventhal, inside the Vayner machine. I started a direct to consumer wine brand called Empathy Wines. That was done by people that were trained at Vayner. And then that was a very big exit. Veefriends, my Pokemon that I'm building, it comes from the essence of this. My personal brand.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Built from the essence of this also. It built this. And so now I sit in a place where no matter what I do, my pickleball team. Right. My investments, no matter what I do, I have an infrastructure that can create demand. Most things fail because they can't create.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Demand, or they're created in a vacuum, like Quibi, where it's all these people sitting in an ivory tower who think, oh, this is a great idea. And they don't actually test it in a way. So you're able to sort of test things in real time.

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, Quibi is just like. That was funny you brought that up. Quibi was. I'll never forget the first time I was pitched it. I was. It was done. And I was like, you mean YouTube? Like they weren't solving a problem.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Quibi got caught in thinking that there was something in this short form video that was worth it. But the reality was they didn't recognize that you. It's kind of like dating apps. Dating apps are like, oh, I'm competing. I'm gonna go after Tinder. I'm like, what about Instagram dm? They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, well, where do you think dating is? Actually happening. Sometimes things are happening that you can't see because a product that isn't seemingly doing the thing is actually doing the thing. Right. Quibi thought they were competing with Netflix.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Huh?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Quibi was competing with something that was doing it better than they were doing it for free with no cost to them. Yo, everybody. Thank you so much. Just jumping in real quick, quick, in the middle of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. It would mean the world to me if you could leave a review for this episode. And I'm gonna get you back to your pod right now because you don't need me talking about that. But I realize I'm. I'm lagging on getting the support of my podcast listeners. So hope you, in this episode and overall would mean the world to me. Five star, four star, three star it two star. One star. Honest feedback's fine. All right, back to the show.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Why do you think YouTube was a competitor rather than Netflix?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Because the concept of short form, high quality videos that are five to seven minutes long is what YouTube is. It's a lot of other things. But many of the shows that Quibi tried to do are the shows that Mr. Beast and the other great creators do for free on YouTube.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I see.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And do it better.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And oh, by the way, YouTube doesn't pay Mr. Beast's production fees to do it. They subsidize. He gets subsidized by the advertising infrastructure because their platform. So nonetheless, yeah, you mentioned Resi, which.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Is interesting because when we were thinking about what we wanted to ask you for this interview, you've gotten in a lot of already very saturated spaces, which is interesting. So Resi came after Open table. Open table. And seemingly a lot of people look at that and say, oh, well, there's already an existing service that does this. How could I possibly compete? Even with the cloud? We're in fly fish right now, which is gorgeous. I was here a couple weeks ago and it was jammed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And obviously there's already a lot of.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Clubs in New York, good ones.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So how do you think about competing? How do you decide which space to compete in? And how do you get a toehold in such a saturated space?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I believe the world is abundant. I think this is one of the great mistakes that people make in life. Nobody's winning is coming out of yours if you're good enough. So when I think of. Think about what's happened with Nike. Look what's going on with footwear. Like, there was room for two new monster running shoes when seemingly it Was Nike right? Like, I think there's unlikely limited examples of dominant players and then being more room. I mean there was Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's and then Shake Shack's. Like we can do this now. They slightly elevated, but it was still burgers and fries. Totally right. So like everyone here has seen something come along that is a cooler, better version of what seemingly is dominant. So one, I just think that if you're good enough, there's always an opportunity for you to come in. Literally nothing scares me. Walmart doesn't scare me. Amazon doesn't scare me. Tesla doesn't scare me. Apple doesn't definitely doesn't scare me. Like nothing scary if you're good enough. That's one. As far as choosing, in both scenarios of Resi and Fly Fish Club, it was actually the passions, the deep passions of my partners that were a big part of it. Ben Leventhal, who by the way, I talk about incubating at Vayner, but let there be no confusion, I'm not interested in being like BJ Armstrong. I'm not taking credit for championships I didn't build. I was a factor in Resi, but he was the driver in Fly Fish. Chef Capon, Chef Conner, David Rodowitz, they're the active operating partners. They are restaurateurs. The timing with Fly Fish, look, Zizi's is incredible. Zero Bond is incredible, Cipriani is incredible. But this is New York City. Like honestly, a lot of them will fail, right? The ones I haven't mentioned are probably a little more vulnerable and are a little more vulnerable potentially. That's subjective opinion. I've been wrong plenty of times. But I think there will be like, if you like predict and I'd be guessing, this is not something, but this is a humongous. This is New York City. This place can handle 12 to 12. I mean, London is a private club market. I'm not educated on this, but I'm sure there's many, many private clubs in London that are doing well. So the other thing I think about is how big is the addressable market. I have a funny feeling that New York will have 20 successful private clubs in five years. I think so. I think so. I think in general, humans, there's just a lot to it. First of all, in a private club business model, because of the membership fees, you can really over deliver an experience. It's a different business model.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

No one would hope for paying that kind of money.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's exactly right. That's why when I look at this place, Like, I was blown away. And then I had to remind myself, well, of course, like. Like, it should be better than, like, a place you don't pay a membership for. Right?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

2. It's always high school. This is something people have to learn. Friends, it's always high school. Even if you go to a retirement home, it's high school. It's always high school. And in high school, people want to have. They want to be cooler. They want to feel like they're better than. It's human psychology. And, you know, I think club culture will help people scratch that itch. And then, by the way, you know this, you're a New Yorker. The club. Some of the clubs I mentioned, some of the other great clubs that I didn't mention, because there's plenty of great clubs I didn't mention. They also have their own vibes. Right? Like, they have slightly different vibes. Some overlap, you know, but. And then people have discretionary income. Look, separation of wealth in America is a concern of mine, even though I work really hard and I feel like I, quote, unquote, deserve it. Like, the separation of wealth in general is a historical reference point to bad things happening. So I worry. But in the short term, because I can't control everything. I'm also aware that that's why we're living through what I call the lvmh, ification of everything. There's so much money in a small group of people that. That's discretionary incomes. I mean, do you know many people are gonna have six memberships to clubs in this city and only use, like, four of them? They're the people that can afford to treat private clubs the way most people treat streaming services. There are many people, there's a lot of you right now that are signed up for six streaming services and only use two of them. You should cancel the other three, but they won't because they can afford it, thank God. And I. That's how humans work. And so there's just a lot of. I just gave you four things I randomly think about when I think about doing a business.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay. Okay, interesting. So you looked at this market, you thought, okay, there's. There's plenty of demand.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. And Fly Fish was obviously an NFT membership.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so it launched two and a half years ago. So that was a whole different thing. So there's just, like, always, like, different models, different things. There's just so many variables in business. Like, it's a. You know, again, I like thinking about business. Obviously, we're filming this right after the election. And I love thinking about business the way the, that the elections work, as you know, because you're in the business the next morning, even that night. Everyone loves to analyze the why it happened post mortem, the postmortem. Oh, Latino males. This and, and, and I don't. And I always am fascinated by people on tv, pundits, people in social media. They get surprised.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And I'm always like, how are you surprised? The only thing history will tell you is, is it's constantly changing. Temperament changes, humans change. Some of us in this room have changed our own points of view as a human, let alone groups of people and things of that nature. So what I think I'm good at and what I implore anyone who operates something it's actually tremendous parenting advice is if you are not prepared for things to change every day, it's over. It's over. It will not be good. You, you know, if you, if you're a parent of three children and you parent all three of them in the exact same way, I promise you one could be great with that. But the other two will fall and you need to parent them individually based on the reality and as a business, as an entrepreneur, as a brand. The post was not doing video content 15 years ago. I don't know if you heard things change and you have to adapt with that. And I love that. I'm built for that. There's a reason I was a bad student. I'm uncomfortable, incapable even in structured things of yesterday. That didn't work for me from K through 12. And it has been the foundation of my success since.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah, interesting.

Another kind of topical question I'm really curious to get your take on. Do you think traditional media institutions we know have permanently lost power?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, of course. But that, but that role did X.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Play as well in the election?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I think X played the same role that Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and TikTok played. I think obviously because Elon owns it, there's a little bit more like it's been the, it's been the punching bag or the champion, depending on what side you are. I think that. But this started with Obama's first campaign. Again, I have the luxury of watching it coast to coast from the beginning. I'm talking my stuff. Beast and Friendster. Don't worry about the door sound they hear in the back. They've heard door sounds before. You know, if you go back further, you know, the Obama campaign using Facebook is real life stuff. Like it's a little bit lost in the in the annals of history, I think. But that was a massive driver to the amount of young turnout that happened.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And then obviously Trump's first election. I was screaming to anyone who would listen to me. I'm like, it's not what the TV's saying. Social has the answers. So what role did it play? First of all, the thing that is wildly misunderstood by human beings is social media. Pipes are empty. They're mirrors. Nobody wants to believe it. They want to believe that Zucks and Elon and others and China are sitting in some sort of wizard of Oz room. And they're like, I'm going to make you think this about this part of the world world. Social media algorithms are written to feed you what you want. This is just what it is. And then they're like, oh, that's bad. How's that any different than you choosing what channel you're watching? Because I promise you, on election night, from watching you to everything else, I watched all 19 things because I love watching production and strategy and all this. Like, there's very different things going on depending on how you see the world. What role did it play? People's word of mouth makes people make different decisions. I love how everyone's like, ha, told you. Celebrities endorsements mean nothing, Right? Because they talk about a JLO or Taylor. What about the Joe Rogan and Elon endorsements any other way did that mean nothing? People's opinions make us come up with opinions. I think Americans today are wildly non accountable and I mean that people actually think that they're not in control. I think we've given so much power.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

They don't feel they have autonomy.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't think people think they're capable without somebody's help.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Huh.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I think there's a really deep underlining psychology that people are not tapping into, which is we're putting these people on pedestals, celebrities, politicians. We are. When John F K says, forget about what your country's doing for you, what are you doing for your country? That was a really fascinating framework. We are on the complete other side now. Literally 90% of Americans, 45 and 45 on the left and the right are just like, please, person, save me. We're in what I call loser shit. If you literally think that a governor or a president or your boss or your parents are the variable of your success and happiness, you've lost on impact. Of course there's great power, especially with the situation we're now in. When you have a president that has both branches of Congress now. Yes, of course there are things, and I'm not.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

There are exogenous factors, but that doesn't for the most part.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But there's exogenous factors that are bigger than politicians, Covid. Like whether your spouse dying of a sudden heart attack. That's an impact on someone's life, like terminal disease. Like, we've gotten into this place where we've been suckered on our. The we. That's why I'm saying it the way I'm saying I actually think they've done nothing different than they've been doing. I just think that we're living in so much prosperity for so long that we're softer and we don't realize our accountability. So nonetheless, people's word of mouth has always mattered. In 1988, I'll use 1992 because I like that one better. In 1992, some neighbor went to a barbecue and said, do you see Ross Perot's thing? They were planning on voting for Bush or Clinton. And they're like that guy from. And then they watched his little special that night and the guy co signing Ross made them watch. And then they voted for Perot. Like, things happen. And now that's happening at scale because word of mouth is at scale on social media. Yeah, right. Word of mouth used to happen at a barbecue or at the gym or something like that. Now it happens at scale on social.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so word of mouth at scale changes people's opinions. That's how it's always worked. What used to happen before was word of mouth was fragmented and media was at scale. So when Walter Cronkite sat down and talked, 60% of the country really heard. Now social media has scale, which means that attention and social has taken away from media. And so now it's more even. And so now what you have is the collective masses and media outlets are more in a joint. You know, it's disseminated among. That's much more parody, and that's where we find ourselves.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And social media is much more interactive too. So it's interesting because you, you mentioned in a way that you think the American populace is sort of abdicating responsibility.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's the, that's what has happened.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

But don't, don't you think in a way that people feel that they have more control because they can look for their information on social media.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes, yes, but what. Yes, I fully believe that a lot of people believe that. A lot of people also feel like we've lost control because of that. They don't want the merit of it. But I Feel like when you really dig deep in, what's really happening is people are overvaluing figures in society right now in a way that we have not historically seen. For example, if you just look at the human behavior in 1962, I'm just going to pick that year. The 26 year old that's walking around America values their grandparents opinion in a way that is unrecognizable today. Yeah, I think this will land for anyone, even the youngest in this group. Fifty years ago, a grandfather's point of view in a home carried a lot of weight. We have become so infatuated with youth culture. We now make fun of our grandparents for not knowing how to use TikTok. We've become infatuated with looking younger, acting younger and younger things matter. We're coming out of an era of hundreds of years of culture where the elder had the respect and now they have none. Well, when that elder had respect, that was someone you looked up to in a different way. With that void, we start to look into outside places.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Huh.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so there's just a lot to it. Also, who was famous in 1962? Astronauts, pilots. Like we were just in a different place culturally.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And so we're in an interesting time. I don't think it's bad. Yeah, I just think it is.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Well, it's interesting that vacuum you talk about where people are looking for wisdom in new ways because they don't respect authority, or at least culturally that's not a value anymore. And I've noticed a lot of people who come to you, a lot of the videos you post, you're obviously a CEO, you're a creator, you do all these things. But it seems like so much of what people look to you for is wisdom and advice. And I think that's really interesting.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, it's really interesting for me because I think I'm a big believer that what happens in social is more real than people realize. Meaning it's what I always gravitated to and it's what always was around me, my life. Like, you know, I was in my 30s before I started making content. So I got a little bit fortunate in some ways. I do think a lot about like what if I was fully me but just 15 years earlier? Like I would have had a different relationship. But by the time I started dealing with the ramifications of people knowing who I was, I was grown. Yeah, I wasn't 15. I was, you know, and so. But I also controlled what I spoke about, you know, I have produced more content than Most people on Earth, actually, over the last 15 years. But as you may know, not about my private life. That's not something I want to share. Not about other things. I'm comfortable sharing with what I'm comfortable with. I think the reason people come to me for that kind of stuff is because a lot of my content is about perspective. You know, like, I believe that it's really hard to be successful or happy if you're not in a good place. I believe it's hard to be in a good place if you decide to look at everything that's bad instead of being grateful for what's good. Right. Like, just, like, let me even break it down. Just looking at all of us, like, the fact that we're even in New York City working, like, right now, like, I just think, like, there's so many people that have so much adversity. It's so hard out there. You know, I'm on the board of pencils of promise. 800 million people on Earth do not have access to clean water.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

There are hundreds of millions of people who need a family member to walk for 12 hours a day with a bucket on their head to get to clean water. I struggle with not factoring that in when I'm upset about something.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So I think the reason people come to me is I think you pick your audience, not the reverse. So this is where people get confused. What you put out is what's gonna happen. So because I talk about perspective and humility and kindness and patience and tenacity and, you know, it's definitely a good mix of red and blue. Right. Then that's what I get. I get people that want to talk about, like, insecurity. Like, I have huge bros roll up and be like, dude, I'm insecure. And, like, I laugh. I'm like, this is insane. But had I never started talking about, like, don't judge a book by its cover. You think they're aggressive, what they're doing is they're hurt, and this is the only way they know how to disguise it.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I pick and product things that are more psychology or therapeutic. I come from a lens of business. A lot of even what I talk about. Notice what my examples were in the way I do prompt engineering. I want to know why people are buying corduroy hats. Because that's capitalism. It's commercial. But I do think the emotional intelligence stuff is the biggest driver to why people do the things they do. I tend to spend my time then thinking about that from a commercial lens. But obviously, that can be deployed into any category of behavior.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Interesting.

One thing that we're trying to do with this series as well is highlight some of the good things that are happening in New York. People who are innovating. And you've had such an incredible story and you talk a lot about wealth inequality and prosperity and all these things. And you were not born with a silver, silver spoon in your mouth at all. So I would love to hear you speak about, you know, growing up in New York and what opportunities that afforded you and why you've stayed here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, look, Regal Park, Queens is like the most important place in the world to me. It's where my family immigrated to. You know, it really means a lot to me. You know, New York is so, like, it's so cool. Like. So anyway, I was born in the Soviet Union. I came to the US in August of 78 or December and it was really rough. I actually don't remember anything about the Soviet Union, but I remember literally the first days of Queens. It's wild. I almost feel like the immigration process wiped out my memory because it's really weird. I literally remember nothing. Zero, have not one memory of the USSR and have like dozens of memories of literally the first six months in America. Wild. Nonetheless, you know, I grew up in Queens, then I moved to Edison, New Jersey. Then I moved back into Manhattan 20 plus years ago. This is, this is the place for me. Like I, you know, I. It's fascinating when, when everybody decided they thought it was a good idea to move to Miami, I literally couldn't laugh at them more. I understand taxes, I understand warm weather. But this part of the world. And I've been very fortunate. I grew up in the wine business, so I built one of the large E commerce wine businesses in my first chapter of my career. So I got to travel to wine country a lot, right? So I've been into Europe a lot. I've been to New Zealand and Australia a lot. Spain, like, I've really gotten to Europe and, and Chile and Argentina. And then I became a pretty successful public speaker and I really traveled the world for certain people. I know New York's not for everyone, but if it is for you, nothing else even is remotely close. I couldn't comprehend not living here for the rest of my life. It doesn't even dawn on me. And so what New York has is what I love more than anything, which is balance. So as you know, non New Yorkers, they'll look at, it's busy, it's dirty, right? And the people and what I see. Because, yes, it has that, but I like that because I love the action. I've seen more humanity in New York than any other place. Now, obviously, I live here and I'm here a lot, but I think people don't realize what happens here. New York to me, forget about its politics, what it votes. It's the most purple of it all. Meaning there's so much art, there's so much humanity, there's so much culture. There's so much more warmth than any people would ever realize. Just the sheer amount of people. And there is the grind. Like, I love that whoever wants to does grind in their office until 8:30 in New York in a way that is not obvious in many other places. And I think that's a beautiful thing. People think of that as burnout and hustle porn. And I'm like, do you know that person? Like, for that person, they may love it. Why are you. Why are you yucking someone else's yum? Right? And so New York is actually, in my opinion, the most balanced city in the world. And I love that. And what I mean by balance is spirit, warmth, grind, effort. Like the way I see the jungle. And that's how I like what.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

What opportunities do you think being here has afforded you? Like, if you had, instead of emigrating to Queens, if you'd emigrated to Oklahoma.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'd be a loser. I'm kidding. Oklahoma. Okay, okay. I'm gonna speak only from an individual level. What I didn't know when I was three and now I understand as I approach my 49th birthday next week is I love loud. I'm calm and loud. Like I sleep with a sound machine. Like, dead silence is like, I'm scared. Like, it's just. I don't like it. I'm not scared because I'm actually very chameleon. I can do anything. I'm fine. But I'm not happy. So first, it enabled me an environment that was conducive to me. Right. I like the action. I also love people. Like, that's a huge advantage for me, I think, over a lot of people. Like, I. One of my biggest pet peeves is that people don't default into liking each other. My only default is I like people. And so as you can imagine, New York is great for me because there's people everywhere. There's just a lot of people. I like that if I go further into my life. So first it established a framework that speed and energy, it just felt right. I was like, in my habitat. What tangibly, what New York is special for is opportunity. There's just like, it's not super complicated. When you live in New York, especially if you're in 20s and 30s. The foundation of much of what is good in life is people who you meet that you fall in love with, who you meet that opens a door for you, who you meet that creates an idea or a business development opportunity. As you can imagine. And this is something I think New Yorkers really enjoy. It is nice that if you're up for it, that at 10:45pm you can just start in a world where, I don't know. When I started getting older and went to the big cities in the world, I was like, what's going on? Like, like I remember the first time I went to Chicago and it was like 10pm I'm like, the fuck is going on? You know, like sometimes cliches are so real. Like the city that never sleeps. It's really neat that if you're in that place in your life, you're 24 and you want it and you're ready and you want it, that there is a place on earth that you can go 24 hours a day if you want to. I think that's special. And for some of us, that need to grow, that need to build, that need to provide, that need to play, that need it, well, that's the best field, right?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Other people don't need that. And that's beautiful. I'm sure you felt this way. Others in this room felt this way. There's times in my mind I'm like, man, I wish I was born with a lot less ambitious, you know, energy and all things. And you know what? And that's amazing. And there's people that are in there, you know. I love when people are like, gary, how do you like New York? I, man, when I go to my cabin in Vermont, I wake up and I'm alive. I'm like, I get it. It's called fucking New York for me.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And like, I think that's, I don't judge their cabin. I think it's awesome. If you want to live in a very rural part of a country and you want to milk goats and you want to hunt and you want to, or you want to ski or you live in a third tier city where you get a little bit of action, but by 9 o'clock it's over. Like, I don't know, like everyone's allowed it. But for me, there's no even distant second to New York. And I've been everywhere.