How to Win in a Future with 100 Billion AI Influencers

Summary

Podcast Summary: The GaryVee Audio Experience

Episode: How to Win in a Future with 100 Billion AI Influencers

Date: March 12, 2026
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the future of social media and creator economies in an era where 100 billion AI-driven influencers are set to flood platforms. Gary Vaynerchuk and a panel of interviewers tackle existential questions facing human creators, strategies for differentiation, the importance of authentic community, and the evolving role of platforms and content formats. The conversation blends Gary's trademark directness, business insights, and no-nonsense encouragement for creators to embrace innovation rather than fear it.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Oncoming Wave of 100 Billion AI Influencers

• Gary warns: In the near future, the number of charismatic, "realistic" AI personas will vastly outweigh human creators ([00:00], [12:39]).
  • "100 billion people that are pretty and charismatic are about to join social media. Unlike you, they are not real. But like you, they will seem real, 100% real." — Gary Vaynerchuk, 00:00
  • The challenge for creators is to find ways to stay competitive, focusing on what gives humans an edge—especially community connection.
• Short-term strategies: Direct engagement, community depth, and offering real access to fans (e.g., replying to DMs/comments, hosting live Q&As) will differentiate humans from AIs in the immediate future ([00:30], [16:38], [18:06]).

2. The Evolution of Attention and Platforms

• Gary traces his journey from Wine Library TV to building a personal brand during rapid media shifts, emphasizing adaptability ([01:14], [01:39], [03:59]).
  • "Radio used to be the most important platform in the world... but the television was invented and that changed things... my comfort is that the world will never stop stopping." — Gary, 01:57
• Creators must embrace perpetual change—stagnation or wishing platforms/AI would go away isn’t strategic. Use new tools or be left behind ([03:59], [12:39]).

3. Authentic Value vs. Selfish Content

• Gary calls out creators who plateau because their content is self-serving rather than community-serving ([04:19]).
  • "So many of you come to me...and are like, I've plateaued. It takes me five seconds to look at your last 15 pieces of content...and when it's 15 out of 15 that it was selfish for you...what do you want from the audience?" — Gary, 04:19
• The importance of self-awareness, selflessness, and consistent value to audiences as a path to sustained growth.

4. Niche Content & Platform Diversification

• Evolution from mass appeal to niche engagement; creators should lean into their unique, even "dorky" passions ([06:03], [08:40], [35:54]).
  • "The more you go niche...if you look at my brand, I have a lot of different things. I talk about garage sailing...Wine, sports, mindset, parenting, live shopping..." — Gary, 06:03
• Gary stresses the urgent need for creators to post content on all platforms (especially YouTube Shorts), as AI like Google Gemini will pull answers based on platform data, not just traditional social feeds ([08:40]).
  • "Gemini is going to be a very major player in AI the way someone's going to show up of who should I follow for fashion advice?...Those answers are going to come from the content on YouTube and YouTube shorts." — Gary, 09:18

5. Long-Term Adaptability vs. Short-Term Virality

• The creators who last are those mentally and emotionally consistent, not just chasing trends or engagement spikes ([10:33], [24:00], [32:08]).
  • "The reason you're not consistent is you're not in a good place. You're worried. You're scared about what the post is gonna do. So I think mental consistency is number one." — Gary, 32:08
  • Focus on incremental average view growth and true audience value over chasing “virality.”

6. Handling Judgment and Audience Feedback

• Gary addresses vulnerability to both praise and criticism; over-valuing compliments can leave one overly sensitive to negativity ([26:44]).
  • "You're so addicted to the cheering, you're vulnerable to the booing." — Gary, 26:44
  • Advocates detaching from both negative and positive external validation to find true creative freedom ([26:44], [31:18]).

7. Human Community and “Analog” Value

• As AI and digital tools explode, Gary is “obsessed with analog”—real-life events, clubs, and personal interactions as unique human IP ([39:55], [41:38]).
  • “I could not be more bullish on analog. Real life, tangible pop up stores, pop up events, appearances...The human thing is about to explode in value and I could not push it more.” — Gary, 41:38
• Encourages listeners to say hello, make connections, and not let digital interaction replace physical community ([41:38]).

8. Business Models & Monetization Trends

• Affiliate and live shopping are now proven, not speculative ([12:39], [44:44]).
  • "Everyone here is going to be a live shopping host and an affiliate. Or at least try it." — Gary, 45:03
• Get the “jab, jab, jab, right hook” balance right—give value before selling ([45:03]).

9. AI Insights: Global Lessons & Human Edge

• Look to Asia (China, Japan, Korea) for early AI influencer and consumer behavior trends ([43:13], [44:17]).
  • The macro human needs and reactions are common everywhere. Culturally adapt but focus on broader human truths.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Most of you will sit and hope and pray that AI influencer doesn't happen. Most of you will sit around and talk dumb shit like AI influencers are bad cause it's not authentic while you peddle shit that you don't even like."
  — Gary Vaynerchuk, 01:57

• “If you're just trading on looking good, you're gonna fucking lose.”
  — Gary, 04:19

• “Be careful of everyone who's saying you're gorgeous and unbelievable...That's what's making you vulnerable.”
  — Gary, 26:44

• “If social media is fucking you up, delete the app.”
  — Gary, 23:13

• “I could not push you more to start posting content about other aspects of your life now...Round out your personality.”
  — Gary, 32:08, 35:54

• “Everyone here should get out into the real world, do more things with their fans...I could not be more bullish on analog.”
  — Gary, 41:38

• "You're allowed to be good at both [entrepreneur and creator], or just one. If you're only good at one, find your partner in crime."
  — Gary, 19:55

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:00 — Opening: The coming tidal wave of AI influencers
• 01:39 — Platform history: Adapting through media shifts
• 04:19 — Selfish vs. selfless content & creator plateaus
• 06:03 — Niche content, embracing all your passions
• 08:24 — Underutilized platforms, especially YouTube Shorts
• 10:33 — Longevity secrets; content adaptation process
• 12:39 — Live shopping’s proven success, and reacting to real trends
• 16:38 — Concrete tips: Fan engagement and building depth
• 18:06 — Human connection as a differentiator (for now)
• 19:55 — Entrepreneurs vs. creators: Know thyself, partner up
• 23:13 — Social media as scapegoat, personal responsibility
• 24:00 — Virality vs. incremental growth, algorithm control
• 26:44 — Handling judgment, vulnerability to feedback
• 32:08 — What will separate the top 1% of creators
• 35:54 — Multi-niche strategy without audience confusion
• 39:55 — Real-world ("analog") events and the barbell future
• 43:13 — AI lessons from Asia: watch, learn, adapt
• 44:44 — Affiliate marketing: Value first, sales second

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Actionable Takeaways

• Engage deeply: Reply to comments and DMs, host virtual Q&As – AI will struggle to mimic true human connection in the short-term.
• Diversify content: Share multiple interests; don’t let “the grid” limit your authenticity. Start new handles for new themes if necessary.
• Be on all relevant platforms, especially YouTube Shorts: Platform AIs will surface content based on their own recommendation engines.
• Consistency > Virality: Focus on reliable, value-driven posting habits over chasing big spikes.
• Develop resilience to external feedback: Detach self-worth from both praise and criticism.
• Explore analog: Events, clubs, and real-life presence matter more than ever in an AI-saturated ecosystem.
• Adapt business models: Embrace affiliate, live shopping, and new monetization forms as they emerge.
• Global perspective: Watch Asian trends for a preview of our AI-driven future.

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Episode Tone

Gary’s no-nonsense, motivational, and slightly irreverent voice dominates, with frequent reality checks and encouragements to value self-awareness, humility, and action over fear or complacency.

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For anyone navigating the creator economy in 2026 and beyond, this episode is essential. Gary methodically strips away excuses, lays out the new landscape, and offers both inspiration and tactical advice to stay relevant—humanely and profitably—amid AI disruption.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

100 billion people that are pretty and charismatic are about to join social media. Unlike you, they are not real. But like you, they will seem real, 100% real. So what are you doing right now to prepare to compete with 100 billion? There's 8 billion people on Earth. What are you doing right now to prepare for 100 billion influencers joining the ecosystem? This is the GaryVee audio experience. Let me give you an example of things that you could be doing. You could be actually replying to the comments and DMs you get right? It is scary how many people here do not reply to their fans at all. I built my brand by replying to every single tweet I got on Twitter from 2007 to 2011 for four years. All of them. Something that you can build is depth with your community. The other thing you could be doing is you could be not only DMing them or interacting with them, but setting up once a month a virtual Q and A for your fans where you just sit and answer people's question. You could start scaling access, something that will be harder and different for an AI influencer, at least for a little while.

[Interviewer 1]

So for anyone in the room who may not know, long before agencies or investors, you were filming wine, library TV, daily video episodes, reviewing wine on early YouTube at a time when most people didn't even see the Internet as a serious platform. There is no creator playbook, no monetization roadmap, no influencer economy. So looking back at that moment, what did you understand about attention back then that most people around you did?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Not that it's always changing, right? So I started long form YouTube videos 20 years ago, which is insane to say out loud. I mean, fuck, half this room wasn't born.

[Interviewer 1]

I didn't want to be the one to say that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And what I understood was that the radio used to be the most important platform in the world and that the television was invented and that changed things. But most people are only comfortable with thinking the world is gonna stop while they're alive. And my comfort is that the world will never stop stopping. And for example, I think that AI influencers are about to explode. I also know that when I say that a lot of people here do not want that to happen because that would take money away from you, that would take attention away from you. I have bad news. You have no choice. So you either realize, wait a minute, I'm lucky enough that I have a platform right now and I'm gonna make up an AI boyfriend. I'm. I'm gonna Create an AI dog and I'm gonna monetize that or you're gonna let somebody else do it. Most of you will sit and hope and pray that AI influencer doesn't happen. Most of you will sit around and talk dumb shit like AI influencers are bad cause it's not authentic while you peddle shit that you don't even like. So I think a lot about that. What I understood was in 2006 that that attention was going to move, that this YouTube thing had real legs. It was also Twitter and Facebook happening at the same time. And I had already learned that because I was doing email marketing in the late 90s and early 2000s. Again, this is such a young crowd. People thought email wasn't important and they'd rather do direct mail. So this is just a movie I've seen over and over. And when I sit at a room like this, everything I just said about AI influencers, I. I'm not trying to razz you, I'm trying to inspire you to not lose. And so what I understood in 2006 was the Internet was changing. It was becoming social, it was becoming democratized. Normal people were gonna be able to win, not just Hollywood deciding. And I wanted to take full advantage of it.

[Interviewer 2]

Well, we always say that because we remember 20 years ago a lot of brands and people did not hop on board with social because they were like, I don't believe in it, I don't get it. And they got left behind. And with AI, it's the same point of conversation. It's not about whether you like it or not, it's like happening with or without us. So like I think use it as a tool and leverage it is incredibly important.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And more importantly, all of you have to become incredibly self aware of why don't you like it? And the answer to give you the preview is cause it might hurt you. And that is just a very bad strategic framework. When you are making decisions selfishly for your financial or insecurity or fame wanting, you will always lose. So the more you are selfless, the more you will win, right? The more you actually care about your content, bringing value to your audience versus what it brings to you, the more you will grow. So many of you come to me on DM or in real life and are like, I've plateaued, It takes me five seconds to look at your last 15 pieces of content. And when it's 15 out of 15 that it was selfish for you, you wanted to look glamorous, you wanted them to buy something you posted it cause someone paid you. The fuck do you want from the audience? And I think that is a big concern of mine for almost everyone in this room plateaus when they're selfless. Selfish versus selfless. Framework gets out of whack. And to remind you all, you're all very fabulous, but there's other fabulous people. There's 8 billion people on Earth, and there's about to be 100 billion fake people coming into the market every day. And if you're just trading on looking good, you're gonna fucking lose. And so I want people to start thinking about the value they bring to their audience. That being said, you all look very good.

[Interviewer 2]

So, Gary, in your first book, Crush it, which we have here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Interviewer 2]

You argued that anyone with passion and consistency could monetize attention, even in niche communities. So looking at today's creator landscape, where were you right and where were you wrong?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, in this book, I'm uncomfortably right, right? I'm even like, surprised my own self. I mean, I wrote this. I wrote this. And lately, because this has become so real, this is getting referenced more, including me predicting live shopping in here. This was 2000. I wrote it in 2008. It came out in 09. In that scenario, I was very right. Just again, very young crowd. To give you context, this came out in 2009. You can actually go to Amazon right now, look it up, and sort by oldest reviews. People made comments like, this guy's a snake oil salesman. Nobody will ever make $50,000 a year on YouTube. A year? A year. So what no one understood back then was that I thought the attention was not only gonna move to social, but that attention was gonna be fragmented. And so in 2008, doing a TV show around handbags wasn't gonna work because there were not enough people that were into handbags to carry a show. Because back then there was only so many shows and you needed to be everything to everybody. Now, what I know is you can do an entire platform on just Prada product, let alone a handbag. It's gotten niche and niche and niche. And in fact, it has much more room. In fact, one of the most important things for a lot of you is to go even more niche, right? Because everything looks the same. You know that. And so the more you go niche, if you look at my brand, I have a lot of different things. I talk about garage sailing, which is like so left field to being like a early investor. Wine, sports, I go mindset, obviously, a lot like parenting, live shopping, anybody that consumes my content or has stumbled on it in this room. You know that it's bouncing around. You're told by bullshit managers and bullshit brands and bullshit experts to be very consistent. I'm telling you, you need to be you. And. And so like when you're fabulous, but you also collect Legos that Lego collecting that you're scared to show cause it's off brand is actually the thing that will differentiate you. But most of you don't have the courage to lean into the parts of your life that are not as cool.

[Interviewer 2]

I spent two hours the other day stalking a beekeeper and I thought it was so interesting, you know what I mean? And that's because she honed in on like what. What was niche about her. She has like 2 million followers and I don't know shit about these, but now I do.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And if she's also remarkable at baking brownies and also a savant at Bravo Television and also really into Prosecco, those things need to show up. All of you are so scared to put out a piece of content that doesn't get as many views as you're accustomed to that you are limited and limiting your upside. You're also misplaying platform and handle strategy. Almost everyone in this room is not on enough different social platforms. Most people in this room would explode in their business and impact if they were posting as consistently as they are on TikTok and Instagram, on Facebook, Blue Classic on Snapchat, spotlight their TikTok and Instagram on YouTube shorts. Actually, real talk, how many people here post as much on YouTube shorts? The same amount of content that they do on Instagram or TikTok raise your hands. Okay, so about 8, 11. I need everybody here to listen to me very carefully. We are going into a true AI era. AEO and GEO are terms that you're gonna all know. Gemini is Google's AI. Gemini is going to be a very major player in AI the way someone's going to show up of who should I follow for fashion advice? When they type into Gemini, those answers are going to come from the content on YouTube and YouTube shorts. That is going to become more and more of the behavior of the market in five years. Everybody here that is not posting the same content they're posting on Instagram or TikTok onto YouTube shorts. That's not doing that. Must leave today and change that forever. It is a defense mechanism from disappearing. Thanks everyone.

[Interviewer 1]

I feel like honestly.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But what happened? I'll tell you what just happened there that I want for all of you. The reason I get the luxury of thank you for having me and that I'm still relevant 20 years later is I've done two things well. I have consistently had the humility and the curiosity and the self confidence to put out content I want to put out, not what I think is going to get views 2 I have the humility to know everything will change every day. I just hired a full time writer for my personal brand. He has a journalistic background. This. This is his job. He will listen to this entire interview. It's being filmed by me right now, by Trane. He will listen to this entire thing. I may touch on something that he thinks is interesting. Normally I'm sure like all of you, I'm talking about the same topics for a month or two at a time. He will then come to me as a journalist and ask me 15 detailed follow up questions to something that I've talked about here today. And then that will be a long form. First party written post on substack, beehive, LinkedIn and Twitter x Longform because that's exploding. Everybody here who makes money should hire a full time journalist and writer, not just a full time film person. If your ambitions are to be matched by your actions, everyone's talking about being a big personal brand and building your individual empire and you're going to do this and this and this and then you're going to start a brand and a production company. This and that. Most of you will not achieve that because you post on one or two platforms and do nothing else.

[Interviewer 1]

I don't even know how to call. I have so much to do. Gary, you have been very vocal about why shopping and social commerce being the future in the US so especially as Asia has already adopted it at scale. Why do you believe so strongly in this shift?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Because it happened. I'm not in the business of predicting friends. I have a nice reputation for being good at predicting. I predict nothing. Even in Crush it that I wrote in 2008 When I predict live shopping I referred to a platform called Ustream and Justin tv. Justin TV became Twitch. USTREAM shut down but is in essence what we know as live today on social the reason I believe in this so much is because whatnot did do 8 to $10 billion in GMV last year. The reason I believe this is all of you know that there are many brands that have exploded on TikTok shop and dominate through affiliate and QVC live shopping. The reason I believe it is cause it's already happened. The thing that I do well is I just react to the truth of what's happened because of everything I've been talking to you about this morning. I just being romantic or ideological about how you make your money right now is always the preview of why you will not make money tomorrow. Right again, young crowd. But for some of the OGs in here, Tila Tequila and Dane Cook were crushing it on MySpace. There's always people. But if you pay attention to the people that are consistent or have stuck around, they adapt, right? It's almost like the Madonna thing, right? She always changed in all those five, 10, 15 years. That's basically what you're like. Friends, TikTok and Insta. In fact, how many people here followed me in 2018 when I was yelling about getting on TikTok even though everybody was on Instagram? Raise your hands of the people that raised your hands. How many of you listened and moved fast and that was the move that changed your career. Raise your hands. 6, 7, 8, 9. And then of the people that here, how many of you did not and and fucking wish you did because you left a lot of opportunity on the table. Now pay attention. Way more hands up the second time than the first. That is basically my overall thesis for all of you. You all are in the same place. I am with VaynerMedia. I have spent 15 years working my face off to build one of the great independent advertising agencies in the world. We have gone from zero, literally, me and my brother and two of his friends as interns in a conference room at another company because I had no money to this year the company will do 400 million in revenue. Not in valuation, in revenue. It's a real business, yet we make so much of our money making social media Content production In the next 24 to 36 months, AI is going to eat that up. I sit here in front of you with this in my face, so I'm dealing with the same thing you're dealing with, right? But what I'm doing is I'm spending all of my time on how we're gonna produce experiential live events, how we're gonna do live shopping production, how we're gonna do sampling of products and filming it for content. I'm already adjusting to what I know is going to hurt me. I'm gonna say this nice and slow. 100 billion people that are pretty and charismatic are. Are about to join social media. Unlike you, they are not real. But like you, they will seem real. 100% real. Not the shit you're seeing now that it's a little blurry and you can tell it's fake. In 36 months you will not be able to tell the difference. I mean, by the way, that's happening now. I'm just saying at scale. So what are you doing right now to prepare to compete with 100 billion? There's 8 billion people on Earth. What are you doing right now to prepare for 100 billion influencers joining the ecosystem?

[Audience Member 1]

Creating one?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let me give you an example of things that you could be doing. You could be actually replying to the comments and DMs you get right? It is scary how many people here do not reply to their fans at all. And I get creepy. Like, don't give me excuses like, no, Gary, they're creepy dudes. I get that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about fans, real comments, real DMs. I sit here today because the second book I wrote was called the thank you Economy Friends. Nobody was on social when I was building my brand, less than 10% of society. I built my brand by replying to every single tweet I got on Twitter from 2007 to 2011 for four years, all of them. Something that you can build is depth with your community. The other thing you could be doing is you could be not only DMing them or interacting with them, but setting up once a month a virtual Q and A for your fans where you just sit and answer people's question. You could start scaling access. Something that will be harder and different for an AI influencer, at least for a little while. Please.

[Interviewer 1]

That's what I was going to say. So I feel like it's so important to be building that community, obviously, because, I mean, you know more than I do. Do these AI bots that are coming in, are they going to be able to have that one on one, like human connection?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes. Long term, Long term, yes. Short term, not as much. But my big thing that I'm trying to bring energy wise this morning is I want you to continue to win. There's real stuff going on and I think you need to care about your community more. You guys talk about it, but you don't act on it. Like real talk, like from the bottom of my heart. You just don't. We're just not deep enough in our communities. Like we're taking all the views and all the things, you're looking at the metrics, but you're not in it with the people. By the way, I'm doing it right now. When you guys got on with me and Nick, you guys know, I decided to Fly overnight from LA to be here because I want to be in the trenches with the community. This is a version of me doing that. This is real life. I'm foregoing what I get paid for events. I want to be in the. I am acting on what I'm talking about here every day. Many of you have gotten DMs from me of like, keep it up, keep going. Like, I'm in it. And I'm telling all of you, a lot of you are much more vulnerable than you think you are. I'm not here to be Debbie Downer. I'm here to be like, here's the info. What are you gonna do? And I think we need to do more for our community. I believe most people in this room represent what I'm watching every day, which is we are taking our audience for granted. And I could not push you more to be a better human being to your community.

[Interviewer 2]

So, I mean, you spoke a lot about diversifying to different platforms, but I guess from like a quality standpoint, like what separates influencers from entrepreneurs? Like, what have you seen throughout your career that makes sense?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Differentiation, talent. But I think you'll appreciate this. There are many entrepreneurs that are trying to become creators and they suck at it. And there are many creators that are creative people, incredible on camera, very personable, but are not operating business people. And by the way, everything's okay. Like, you're allowed to be good at both. You know, you're allowed to be good at one or the other, but if you're only good at one or the other, and I heard it a little bit on the last panel, you must find your partners in crime. You know, I think everyone should try before you're like, don't beat yourself up and put yourself down before you're like, I'm not good at business, try. But like a lot of you are self aware enough to know, like, you hate selling, you hate managing people and that's beautiful. Like, you're allowed, but. But you must then find actual business partner and then the reverse. You know this. A lot of you have lived through this. Everyone's been told what I've been talking about forever, which is like the business person should become the creator and you know, once in a while they pop out and they're good. Some are decent, solidish, and others are really not great at it. And that's okay too. There's a lot of businesses that are massive that the founders are not known. And so I think it's a self awareness game. But I do believe that this Assumption that being an entrepreneur was so easy, whether it's a creator or just general society has become a thing in the last 20 years. Cause entrepreneurship got cool. Entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurship is incredibly rare. 95% of businesses fail.

[Interviewer 2]

I think we just see those success stories a lot. So maybe that's why.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Bro, this is what pisses me off so fucking much. All of a sudden we've decided to compare ourselves to like seven people. Like I talked to like young founders and they're like, yeah, but Gary, but Elon. I'm like, Elon, what the fuck? What the fuck does your direct to consumer pistachio brand have to do with fucking Elon Musk or other people? Like, but Gary Kiely, I'm like, she spent $13 million on plastic surgery. Like, you know, like, I just booed. We've decided to compare ourselves to 11 people on earth that are outliers versus realizing things I care about. For example, I am on the board of charity Water. Do you know that as we sit here right now there are 880 million people on Earth? Almost 10 over 10% of Earth does not have access to clean water. Defined as they cannot get to clean water within four hours. There's almost three times the size of America in people that right now are walking on earth as we sit here right now and cannot within four hours get to a glass of clean water. Why aren't you comparing yourself to that versus Elon and Kylie? This comparison envy micro jealousy place framework that has eaten up the oxygen should not be blamed on social media. It should be blamed on you.

[Interviewer 1]

We all blame social media. Like why don't we look at it one more thing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Oh my God. Social has become the most convenient thing to blame. I want to remind you, if social media is fucking you up, delete the app. Like, like we got there with alcohol. Like we banned alcohol in America. Cause we blamed it. And then we realized, wait a minute, it's not the alcohol, it's the people.

[Interviewer 1]

We're the problem.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

We're the problem. Like Facebook meta and ByteDance didn't make you a racist. It exposed that you were one.

[Interviewer 1]

So Gary, we are obviously obsessed with, with virality. You know, we look up to short term growth. It's something so important. But how do you think creators should think about that when they're building for longevity to not?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, I mean, look, I think all of us organic social media views is the most important currency in the world. A lot of you are winning and trading on that. I could not believe in it more. Being good enough to Post something that gets as many views as possible. And as you all know, following count is becoming less important. The quality of the content more important. I would argue that we've not been in social media for four years that we've been in interest media. I can know so much about all of you. If I just took your phone right now and looked at TikTok and Instagram, I will know what you're currently paying attention to. You know that I would also say back to not blaming the platforms. If you think your algorithm is depressing you, you can go into search and type in rainbows. Enter like three rainbows, Sunshine, Enter like three posts. Gary Vee, you know you can like three posts, you know. Right, right, right. So you're in control of your algo, but we're in interest media now. I would focus on incrementally getting more average views per post than searching for virality. I can speak for myself. I search for no virality. I search for things that I think are topics that bring value to people in my content. And I try to do best practices with my thumbnail first three seconds, my copy. I would also say, I'm gonna say it again. Everyone here is not on enough platforms. You're just not. And there's just so much opportunity and it's as big basic. It's not my favorite practice to just post the same video with the same copy on every platform, but at bare minimum everyone here should do that. And so I would look for more. How many views organically are you getting in the month overall and how many per post as a metric, more than having any relationship with virality. I have no relationship with virality. I'll take it when it happens. In fact, I don't celebrate. I try to, I analyze. When I get virality, I'm not like, yay, I'm cool. I'm like, fuck, why? And I spend a lot of time thinking strategically about it. That's where I'm at with that.

[Interviewer 1]

That's great.

[Interviewer 2]

All right, so the other day, like last week, you posted on socials a video highlighting how other people's judgments Sandy 1999 should not affect how you build your own individual empire or social media presence. And that like resonated with me. So to finish off our conversation, so what is your message to creators and entrepreneurs in this room who might be feeling scared, embarrassed or judged by random people?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That this room has the vulnerability of being over complimented. Yeah. Let me tell you what's happening, especially for this room, when you're this fab, like I understand. Like I see it. I mean, up close and personal, it's even more gorgeous. My friends, all of you are incredibly vulnerable to negative comments because you believe the positive comments. What I would say is that when you're getting complimented for your looks, for the words coming out of your mouth, for your content, when you're accustomed to complimenting, when you're accustomed to admiration, when you're accustomed, you become addicted to feedback and it becomes your currency, which means you're so addicted to the cheering, you're vulnerable to the booing. For me, I was raised a certain way. My DNA was a certain way, my circumstances were a certain way. There was so much going on with me that mine was the reverse. Everything for me early on was internal. By the time I was even 12 or 13, in hindsight, I am stunned by how unaffected I was by peer pressure, even in middle school, let alone as a grown up. Watching all of you still play high school breaks my heart. But all of you are still playing high school. And so what I would ask you, for me, it's funny, when I get my comments, I get 93%, 95% goat emojis. Legend you change. I mean, multiple people came up to me just now and said, I changed their life for real shit. You know, anxiety, depression, like I do real shit. And yet I still do not hear them. For many of you, that just came up to me and said, I helped your career, I started your career. I was foundational in everything that has worked for you. I still do not intake those accolades. I'm appreciative. It's humbling as fuck, but it does not make me think I'm better than. It is not what I am searching for. And I would say to you and I, everyone, what I'm really trying to get across in my content is you must start to detach from the admiration. Because what I am detached from is not necessarily the negative. Things are easy, friends. When somebody comes on your platform and says, you're not as smart as you think, or you're not as pretty as you think, or Botox or whatever, all the shit they write, right? Why are you feeling bad for you? This is a human being. I don't know if any of you do this. I have a feeling some of you do and you should change it. But the thought of spending some of my time to go to your world and leave a comment to hurt your feelings is just an indication that I'm hurting deeply inside when people shit on me, on my children's health. Bless you. There's a great Russian superstition that if you sneeze after someone says something, it's true. So I appreciate that. Sneeze on my children's health. When someone comes to me and says, scammer, you suck. Overrated. You talk too much. There is never a moment where I feel bad. For me, I deeply go into, like, fuck, man, that person's just in a bad place. So first, negative comments on your platform from a stranger, normally with a fake name and a fake avatar is really not it. And two, you need to be more careful of everyone who's saying you're gorgeous and unbelievable and the best and the smartest and the cutest. That's what's making you vulnerable. Thank you. That means you two have a lot of work to do. No, I've gotten better the last year. No, but. No, I'm paying you both a compliment when you're getting admiration. Listen, I had to go through it when my reputation became that. And it's especially vulnerable when it's physical. Right. And I just think it's something all of you need to give a lot of thought to. And once you get over the hump or even further, further along, you will have more courage.

[Interviewer 2]

It's extremely liberating. It really is.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to live your life on what you have in your heart and soul, not based on other people's opinions. We are going to open it up

[Interviewer 2]

to a couple of audience questions. I don't know who has the mic, but. Okay. All right.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This young lady completely exploded, so we should. Yeah.

[Interviewer 1]

Welcome to Miami.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm here often. Thank you.

[Interviewer 1]

My question is, in a world where everyone is accountable, creator, what will separate the top 1% of creators? Fight their skin.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

100%. Everything I just talked about. I believe the thing that will separate the creators are multiple things. One, the last thing I just touched on, if you are in a good place emotionally, you will then be consistent. The reason you're not consistent is you're not in a good place. You're worried. You're scared about what the post is gonna do. So I think mental consistency is number one. Number two, I cannot push you more to start posting content about other aspects of your life now, quickly. As some of you know, I have actually probably been one of the five to 50 most consistent content creators of the last 20 years because I go back so far. But as a lot of you know, I share none of my personal life. So when I say post more, I don't mean start Putting your relationship out to the world because then they own it. Or leveraging your children or your pets to get likes, which a lot of you do. I'm talking about your other interests, your other thoughts, the other things you're into. And so I would say consistency, but that's mental, not physical. And I would say, number two, you're gonna need to be known for more things than a singular niche. And I would also say strategy. More of you have to do written word, audio and video and picture, and on seven, eight platforms, not one or two. That is definitely the formula. You're welcome. We'll get you on this side, too. Don't worry.

[Audience Member 1]

I have two questions.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What's your name?

[Audience Member 1]

My name is Amber. For one, when you're talking about AI on the brand end, how would you say that brands should be, which I'm sure they already are, kind of strategizing for the next 36 months, but how would you say that brands should be shifting their strategies and kind of preparing for this influx of AI influencers and different. Differentiating them between regular and should they be looking into AI influencers or brand partnerships? And what's going to differentiate that from, like, a normal individual?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's a loaded question. I don't think we're going to be able to differentiate. I just need everyone to hear this. Like, this technology is real in 36 months. It's happening now. I would argue every person in this room has already consumed an AI human influencer that you did not realize was AI. You've definitely consumed ones that you know are AI because we know it looks a little fun, right? But the latest updates are so profound that I would just tell you that's already here. So brands only have to care about what humans care about. The biggest brands in the world will not be making AI commercials just yet because there's still stigma. Like, all of us humans are so scared about what AI is going to do to us that we're pushing back against it. And so the big brands are scared, right? McDonald's made an AI commercial, got murdered. It hurt them. So my clients are going to wait another 20, 36 months before they start really doing it. Small brands, DTC, small brands should be doing it now.

[Audience Member 1]

And my second question is, you say that we should be diversified, showing different parts of, you know, we might not be talking about. So how would you go about a strategy of implementing those things without kind of like your audience being super confused? And like, let's say, for example, you post about fashion, all of a sudden you feel that you're very educated in, you know, marketing. How would you start to integrate that content without shocking your audience and then being like wait, I don't follow you for this.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

By realizing I was the wine guy in America for five years and that I was willing to take one step backwards in my views for five steps forward to talk about my truth, which was I'm a businessman. You could also set up net new handles. So this is huge everyone. Five years ago the worst advice someone could give you is to create new handles. Today it's the best advice because we live in interest media, not social. What was your name again? I'm sorry. Amber. Amber. Amber in marketing. With zero followers on TikTok with your first post, being something smart can get 500,000 views or five. But we can now all stand up net new handles and make content there if we're concerned about shocking our audience. Let me remind you a couple of things. Your audience, less than 5% of their consumption for a massive influencer is happening on your grid. Yet the amount of time you fuckers think about your grid and making sure it's aesthetically to your subjective pleasing even though it's hurting you on getting views on your posts, blows my mind. Your content is gonna be posted in your Amber account or the people you work with. It's gonna get posted, it's going to be consumed in feed. Your audience is not your audience that follows you anymore. Your audience is the people interested in the content you just made. I would also argue that if someone follows you for fashion and you post a marketing video, they're just gonna skip through it. No one's gonna be like fuckin Amber. Yeah, like this concept that we've created for ourselves. When I post about collectibles and all of you want me for business advice, you don't stop in the feed where you could see Gary's about to talk about comic books. You could give a fuck about that. But when my next post is about live shopping strategy to grow your personal brand, you stop. You understand? Do some people unfollow? Now if you go into politics, be prepared to get unfollowed. If you go into certain areas, sure. But if I'm talking about especially things that I think a lot of you could really, really go to, which is like little niche fun things that just round out your personality. Like you love to make clothes by hand yarn or like you know, just little, maybe you can hacky sack. By the way, a lot of you are so precious and on a pedestal. Showing some humanity would really help you A lot of you in the this room are a little too perfect, AKA fake. You showing something that's a little bit dorkier or silly could do a lot of you a lot. And you know what the best part is? So many of you are dorks inside weirdos. Right? Like, and like you do really love to read manga. You really do like to watch 80s stand up comedy. You love to talk about authenticity and then we don't execute on it. And by the way, that hurts you when people meet you in real life and then you have to be an actor in every part of your life and that's fucking exhausting. Yeah. By the way, before, I don't know when I'm leaving but if we don't go to this side too, like we're going, they're going to kill you. Yeah, I'll stay a little bit longer. Yeah, go ahead.

[Audience Member 2]

Hey G, everybody. What do you think the relationship of this room with the event industry? So with like fireside chats, like I'm in the speaking industry but I feel like that is one way I've seen that people can kind of confirm. It's like, oh, you're real.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Oh, I can leave you.

[Audience Member 2]

So I feel like for this room there's such a crazy opportunity.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Juan, I'm very happy you asked that. Yeah. Let me jump in. Couple things. The world is about to be a barbell. We're going extreme digital. AI VR is not far away and ar like we're going extreme digital. And I think one of the biggest opportunities for this room that can combat the AI influencers that I'm sure you're now thinking about is real life. I am obsessed with analog by the way. Watch this story. You're a beauty or fashion influencer, but you also love running. You listened to GaryVee in here and you started to make running content. Now you have a whole new world of people that kind of associate with you because they do love fashion, but they also love running. And now you matter more to them than the other person. That's just fashion. Now you're building. Now this analog world comes. Now you decide to start a running club where your fans can run with you and you're charging them and it's a business. I'm obsessed with analog. I think everyone here should get out into the real world, do more things with their fans, do more events like this. I could not be more bullish on analog. Real life, tangible pop up stores, pop up events, appearances, you know, listen, some of you are introverted, some of you listen again One thing that sucks about being fabulous, sometimes you have weird shit going on, right? You're worried about safety. I get it. But all of that included, there are workarounds and you can do it. I always tell people that use that. I'm like, there's more fabulous people than you. And they figured it out. You can figure all those things out. I would highly recommend people getting more analog and out there. And so I'm very bullish on it.

[Interviewer 2]

That's why we're here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That is why we're here.

[Interviewer 1]

AI can't do that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's right. Only we can do that. I could not believe in this. What is happening right now. More. I would also say for all of you, when I get up and leave and you transition and again, it's ironic, this is the crowd that tends to be bad at this. Friends, say hello to somebody that you don't know. In this room today, more than one person. People are what create the opportunity. I know a lot of you are introverted. I know a lot of you are scared of rejection. But I could not push all of you to say hello to one or two people. Especially. I know a lot of you are fans of each other and you might be timid to say, what's up? Please say hello to people in here. The human thing is about to explode in value and I could not push it more. 2.

[Audience Member 3]

First of all, thank you so much. So I'm gonna like.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What's your name, brother? Juan. Juan.

[Audience Member 3]

I do politics, I do international relations. One of the classes that I took in FYU was about AI and the theoretical perspective. Look, in a couple of years, you were talking about content creation. So many of us do laptop content creation, but we also seen and thought we you touched important points. Is Asia global AI space. We also have avatars right now in Korea, Japan, China. How does that look like Blackstone Content creator looks like if AI is doing the same thing as Blackstone, so does that mean, like me as a lifestyle marketing creator, do I have to create an AI avatar and have it in a page or.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You don't have to. Yeah, you don't have to. But I think all of you were going to. You understand, like the market's gonna be the market. And to your credit, this is why it's been very easy for me to know what's going on. This has already happened. It's called Asia always. You know recently though, right? Forever. The west brought everything to the rest of the world. Right now, China in many categories is leading and bringing. You can see the preview of the human behavior there to here. Everybody here is going to be interacting with AI significantly, definitely for content creation and efficiency and assistance and all that. But also in the actual creative output over time,

[Audience Member 3]

please, in a business point, do you think for preparation or relation to the AI working towards seeing, do you think that looking at those countries like Asia, like China, Japan, Korea should be important to have like a better outlook on how we can sell those businesses?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Of course, yeah. The human consumer behavior is the same. There's cultural differences, right? Every, every market has its cultural differences. There's different things that are cool, but the macro, human truth are the same. And that's how you want to analyze those markets. You got it? All right, last one, last one. Anybody?

[Audience Member 1]

Hi Gary, this is Karina.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Hi Karina.

[Audience Member 1]

Okay, so my question is about affiliate marketing.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Affiliate? Yeah, obsessed.

[Audience Member 1]

A lot of affiliate marketing. And I feel sometimes, and I know I'm not talking about me, just me, I feel like I'm selling and selling and selling every single day.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So put out more content. So put out more non selling content.

[Audience Member 1]

Okay, that's it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's really is. That's it. You're right. Some people, you all know this. You've all gone through this. At first a lot of you sold nothing. You were just posting and then it happened and then brand deals came and all this. And so we all go through pendulums, right? I wrote a book called Jab jab jab right hook in 2013. The concept was give good content. Give good content. Give good content and then occasionally ask for a sale in return. Get your ratio right. If you're feeling in your tummy that you're too much, sell, sell, sell. You need to push yourself to say no a little bit to some selling. And you need to add more content that's bringing actual value. And the ultimate value that you can all bring is access. This is why I talked about replying to some, some of your DMs and comments. This is why I talked about going on zoom and interacting with your community. So makes sense. Everyone here is going to be a live shopping host and an affiliate. Or at least try it. Everyone here, right? In fact, many here are going to be far more successful as live shopping hosts than as content creators because they're good at selling. Others will not be as good. But when you go into selling, selling, selling, you must up the ante on value, value, value, whatever that is. Make sense?

[Interviewer 2]

All right, on behalf of Valen, myself and the entire next gen community, guys, let's give Gary another round of applause.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Thank you so much, everybody. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.