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- [00:00]
A
The ability to understand how to create creative, to fill the pipes of the seven social networks that staggeringly dominate the attention of society is probably the biggest requirement of a business and is still something most people don't think about. The way you navigate it is through skill, strategy and understanding what's happening. I have 137 full time employees right now, hopefully working on just understanding what the thumbnails on Instagram posts need to do to maximize organic reach. 137 full time employees. This is the GaryVee audio experience.
- [00:50]
B
I'm really excited to have you here today and you obviously have spent much of your career talking to some of the biggest companies in the world as well as some of the smallest startups and founders. And earning relevance has been something that has evolved over the last decade, even the last couple years. So can you maybe just share with the audience what you've seen change and how you've seen it evolve in your conversations with leaders?
- [01:18]
A
It's a really great question. I mean, I think relevance is very understood by most people as the gateway drug to consideration which then gets people to buy. I think the biggest thing I've seen change in the last 15 years is we're going away from the one size fits all. The fragmentation of the media landscape, the acceptance of different ways to do it. I mean even the casualization, right, you know, a 49 year old businessman 30 years ago isn't wearing jeans and, you know, sneakers and a cap. I think that there's a real opportunity for Fortune 50s, let alone 5000s to understand that relevance at scale with as many different consumer segmentations is what the startups that are going from 0 to 100 million in B2B and B2C are doing proper that they struggle with. So I think the biggest change, I think is just the scale of understanding relevance to many versus creating a brand and forcing it down to many is the debate and in my opinion the opportunity. Great.
- [02:38]
B
And as you've thought about and looked at in the last kind of ten decade or so, consumers have also changed a lot faster here. Everyone has a cell room, they're on multiple different social media channels. What are you seeing that consumers expect of the brands?
- [02:54]
A
They interact with everything defined by them, Right? All of you know this. In this crowd, there's certain categories of products and services that you can right now, as we're sitting here together, you realize you ask very little of that, like you don't care, you're agnostic. How many people here are into wine? Raise your hands. I just want to See, raise it high. Don't be scared. So for the people that raise their hands, they have certain expectations when they drink wine that all the people that didn't raise their hand because for them it's just a white wine or a red wine. But for a nerd like me, there's so much. I expect then you get into the technology advancements of the last decade. Everybody knows the term convenience is king. I think convenience is kind of the cost of entry at this point. If you're inconvenient, if you're creating any level of friction in your, in your micro or even macro UI UX experience, you're in trouble. I mean, it's profound how entitled we've become with time. We expect everything so quickly, right? I was on a flight out here and the wi fi did not work on the plane and people lost their fucking mind. And trust me, I needed those four hours to work as well. And I get it. But maybe coming from such humble beginnings and being so well parented and having a good perspective, I was smiling at this incredible technology that was invented. We're literally in the air on a metal machine with WI fi. And you know, so I think our expectations are through the roof. We expect everything of certain things we care a lot about and we expect very little, I think, for all of our businesses and everybody here. You need to figure out those two consumer segmentations and how you think about them and then obviously the severity of your product. You know, I expect very much major, major execution from a surgeon versus a bottled water.
- [05:15]
B
And Gary, it's my least you mentioned wine and you were very successful at transitioning from a physical wine store into an e commerce environment early your career. And many of the members of the audience here today operate the branches, business stores and are in the journey right now with that transformation into a digital environment that also lends itself to a relevance in a different way, accessing different channels. What advice would you give to this year Biscuit Journey based on your experience?
- [05:48]
A
Being romantic about how you've made your money in the past is always the vulnerability, right? So I think first, knowing the audience makeup, you all know this has already happened. You're not talking about something that might happen. We're not sitting here talking AI robots mowing your lawn at a landscaping conference. The things that we're worried about have already happened. We're playing catch up. We need to be very real about this. And I don't think this is lost on anyone. It's just starting. Meaning the profound impact that the blockchain will have on this industry is really still very misunderstood. It's overly focused on Bitcoin and a couple other variables like, you know, look, I'm not an absolutist. I like a physical location. I do think it's a world of and I don't think it's like you're dead if you have physical locations. But you need to understand them. You know, the leases that you're paying are probably not as advantageous as they were in value 40 years ago. How do you program those physical locations to create higher touch things that this cannot create? What happens in seven years when this becomes or nine years or 10 years when this becomes the pager and we all live in a glasses world and ar does that give our physical locations an opportunity to be more valuable? So I think there's in that answer there's micro things and then there's macro long term things. But I think my first answer is the biggest one which is don't over romanticize and try to come up with some ideologies of why you would go slower going all in on digital if you're over indexed on physical because the consumer has spoken and the consumer does not care how you make your money. The consumer does not care how you make your money. We are all going to watch Google Ads collapse in our eyes here in the next 36 months. How many people have built their entire businesses on the back of Google Ads? What Google Ads did to The Yellow Pages, OpenAI and chatbots are about to do to Google Ads. This is a forever game. And so I think the mentality of putting yourself out of business before someone else does it for you is always a good strategy.
- [08:37]
B
You talk as if that an advantage.
- [08:42]
A
Yes.
- [08:42]
B
And that once itself is very execration.
- [08:45]
A
Yes.
- [08:46]
B
So what do you see as the best ever executing at this speed?
- [08:58]
A
You know, there's a lot of brands doing it in a lot of different sectors. I would say that there's a common thread amongst B2B B2C, even governments. There's just a different culture of valuing it. You know, I mean do you know how much time everybody in this room, including you and I spend in meetings that mean nothing? People often ask me why, how can I do so much? And I'm like it's called 15 Minute Meetings. When my contemporaries are having an hour meeting for the same meeting. We are not thoughtful about our time and we are not and I'm empathetic to this audience. Meaning there are regulatory speed is wonderful and I appreciated your sports joke to start this I do think about sports where speed it's incredible if you're nerdy about sports, how unbelievably impactful just a little faster actually means to results. And I think about that in business quite a bit. That doesn't mean you don't check three times before you cut. And again a lot of times in an audience like this when you talk about speed, they're quick to bring out the excuse card of regulation and things of that nature. This is a cultural mindset thing. Do you obsess over every minute spent on what or don't you do you understand that putting things out is actually knowing versus debating them in a boardroom which is guessing? It's a perspective and I think it really matters and it's very clear that it is one of the most significant competitive advantages. And I think the world we live in now is also conducive to going fast with the consumer. At the same time there's so much more opportunity to communicate with the end consumer and bring them along the journey then these never ending meetings that often lead to by the time you push out the product, the market moved on you.
- [11:21]
B
And how do you keep focusing about regulatory highs especially.
- [11:28]
A
How can you keep.
- [11:29]
B
Focus on the puck or the ball or where you need to go while you still have a lot of other things to focus like what would be your recommendation or things this audience are you talking about for balancing moving the speed while still making sure that you're dining all the I's, crossing the T's. What do you do here?
- [11:50]
A
Let's break it down into two things. If you're talking about regulation, my my big recommendation is don't break the law. Meaning? Meaning. Meaning you know it's funny, I grew up in a heavily regulated business. I was shipping wine around the country in 1997 and it was uncomfortably regulated and extremely challenging. And it was like I'm so fortunate that I grew up in that environment because to me it taught me that regulation is an excuse. Meaning no shit, you have to follow the law. That just table stakes for everyone here. I think the more interesting conversation here is 99% of things don't matter is the answer to your question what I what has worked for me? The organizations that I invested in early on that have succeeded and built some of the biggest companies in the world. The CEOs of Fortune 5000 or the startup founders. The common thread that I've been able to kind of see here at this point in my career is there are just people who understand most things don't matter. A great leader really can really impact an organization even starting in middle to upper middle management all the way up by her or his ability to prioritize and genuinely realize so few things matter. For me the thing that matters is what does the consumer want blindly and I think way too many of the meetings in here around what do we want our pnl and that is where we get caught because we start doing things for us versus the thing that actually allows us to get what we want which is what is the reality of what the consumer is looking for, doing, needing and whether that consumer is the end consumer or your B2B consumer. That's the only thing that matters.
- [13:54]
B
And you, you talked about the non digitally native consumers. Yes, and reaching them to the thing that they want. And so many in this room are so maddening. How do people get to those spaces? How do I engage with influencers? How do I get the right story and narrate in a different channel that typically you have our way through? So maybe could you give some advice about how you navigate different platforms and what works through those different platforms like LinkedIn or engineering.
- [14:27]
A
I would argue as we sit here today In September, late September 2025, the ability for a human being, you yourself on your personal LinkedIn all the way to the largest companies in the world and everybody in between that the ability to understand how to create creative, to fill the pipes of the seven social networks that staggeringly dominate the attention of society is probably the biggest requirement of a business and is still something most people don't think about. The way you navigate it is through skill, strategy and understanding what's happening. I have 137 full time employees right now, hopefully working on just understanding what the thumbnails on Instagram posts need to do to maximize organic reach. 137 full time employees. The first 3 seconds of your video. Is LinkedIn overvaluing pictures with a lot of sentences or videos today, not even this week or next month. The companies and the human beings in this room today who most understand how to make the pictures and the videos and the words reach the most amount of people on these seven platforms. LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, X, Snapchat, TikTok. They will have disproportionate financial outcomes. And I will say it's slow. Almost everyone in this room continues not to prioritize it anywhere remotely close to the severity of it. There are people in this room who debate that social media has ruined humanity and yet it has that power, but it doesn't have the power to Grow your business. These are the most important channels in our society and the people that understand how to do it. When I'm very passionate about it, it's basically been my obsession for the last decade. And there is an incredible correlation both on the B2B and the B2C side on those who are winning on. And this is like very. How many people are marketers in this room? Just raise your hands high. Just raise it high, please. So not that many. So good news, this is just for you. So everybody else can not pay attention for a couple of seconds. For the marketers in this room, we've the whole literally 80 years of marketing, we've been using the media dollars to amplify creative, often bad creative because we had to guess focus groups and other things like that weren't good enough. We're now in the era where you post your videos and pictures. Every business here, especially this room, should be posting three posts on LinkedIn every day. And when something does well organically so they post it gets 80 views, they post it gets 16, they post it gets 29 because you haven't been doing it. But then next week you post something and it gets 40,000. That's when you spend media dollars to amplify it. The social networks are testing the creative for us now because we no longer live in social media, we live in interest media. I think all of you know this. The era of you seeing content from the people you follow has been replaced with you seeing content of things you're into of the moment. I don't even think social media exists. I think we're an interest media. And I think every single person here, as a human being being and as a business should take this subject matter dramatically more serious.
- [18:22]
B
And when you think about storytelling and the posts that you're remnants it what makes a great story that captures in 2 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 10.
- [18:34]
A
20, 30 seconds has to do with tactics, understanding thumbnails, getting to the point in three seconds. These are really the strategies. But the essence of a good story is as old as time when they sat around fires and spit game to each other. You know, the reality is you have to bring value. Humor works, but so does deep, deep, deep information. You know, like there's probably not a lot of people in here that are wildly funny. There might be people, you know, there's some people that are solid, I'm sure. But the reality is that I think you need to play to your strengths as an organization and as a human being. I actually desperately want everyone here posting on LinkedIn at scale because I know that AI is coming and it's not fooling around. And I really do believe people are incredibly naive with their strategy of AI. I believe most people's overall strategy looks something like this. So I'm desperate for everyone here to start making LinkedIn posts about knowledge they have and, or things that they can share legally about just general knowledge, whether it's management style, things you learned, what a mentor taught you, something that happened, something about your subject matter. Because I'm trying to get everyone here to build just a little bit of micro brand, to be able to have their career advance. And then for the businesses, I'm obsessed. But it comes in all ways funny. Informational infographics to 45 minute podcasts, nine second clips that get to the point there's a million ways to do it. It needs to be true and it needs to provide value. And value comes in all shapes and size.
- [20:27]
B
Question, I see a question I got from a really close call. Really, really want you to ask.
- [20:35]
A
Okay, a little more personal.
- [20:39]
B
So he, he just wants to know how you stay up here all the time. Like how do you operate at this level?
- [20:49]
A
I did very little. It's called good parenting. I think that my mother is disproportionately the best operating mother that ever existed. And I think that she found a way to instill a level of gratitude that also came with my circumstances. I was born in the Soviet Union. When we came to America, I lived in a studio apartment with seven family members. I'm able to stay up here and thank you for whoever asked that if they're paying attention to how I roll predominantly based on gratitude. I'm also very good at doing something that most humans are very bad at, which is I don't let politicians scare me. And that's not a political. In fact, my biggest concern, and if you follow me on social, 40% of my content right now is about parenting. I think politicians aren't the only people in the business of selling fear. I think modern parenting is really good at selling fear. And so a lot of you are fucking up. You know what my favorite meme is right now? All the young boomers and, and, and older millennials and Gen Xers that continue to, on Gen Z. And I'm like, you fucking made them. Maybe if you didn't give out 8th place trophies, they'd be okay. You know, it's, it's. I'm very detached from my success and who I am and all these things. Really, really. I'm going to an Interesting point. To answer you, I'm very detached from it. I. I got. Because I know it's not me. I know it's my mom, my circumstances. My dad added some really good elements along the way. And so I'm just very grateful for the parents I had, the circumstances I had. And so it's just very easy to be here when every morning that you wake up, there's nothing here. I navigate with a level of non anxiety that unfortunately I find rare these days. And I think it's because I live incredibly simple. I do a lot of stuff. I'm chaotic. My energy is what it is. I have absurd ambitions. I want to buy the New York jets so I can fix it. I have these big goals and dreams, but I don't need them. I don't care. I don't need to be validated by the outside, which keeps you very humble too. You know, if you can't hear the booze, you can't hear the cheering. And ironically, it's the cheering that's more dangerous than the booze with that mics. Nice. All right. And also just by. Don't be lazy. Get up.
- [24:01]
C
If you had one hour a day to invest in bettering yourself in the future, family, etc. How would you set it to maximize your time?
- [24:14]
A
I would consume practical, positive stuff. I. I really believe that if I had an hour a day, you know, I'd probably maximize physical and mental value. I'd probably exercise for an hour and listen to podcasts and content that was both positive but practical. The issue with positive content at times is it's completely delusional. Right. It's just like an out like, yay, let's all be nice to each other. Oh no shit, dick. But what like so I would say if you can find outlets, individuals, platforms, we are all feeling right now in our heart and our soul and like how we're waking up completely dictated on what we're consuming. And so I would consume positive, practical content. You're welcome. I can go. I can go a few minutes over if you want, sir. Thank you, brother.
- [25:21]
D
What's your name, Mr. Be that that family when content Tik tok when you.
- [25:29]
B
Got quite a following.
- [25:30]
A
Right.
- [25:31]
D
So thank you for that and just do the kind of question.
- [25:38]
A
Here.
- [25:39]
D
So with influence right now, part B or where our Gen Z are looking, they're getting their content from influencers. What is one thing that we as banks need to do to stay culturally relevant for this right now?
- [26:02]
A
I would probably make a lot of content making fun of how bad the financial advice is coming from these influencers on TikTok. I'm actually being serious. Meaning look we're not going to be 22 year olds in our room who are going to be as native but there's so many things you can do. You could look at what Duolingo did, right? I'm a very big believer in mascots. I think every bank should consider having a mascot made out of AI and you should have your Jake from State Farm or your Duolingo owl. That character can play in social and compete very aggressively with what you're seeing with influencers. I also think you can replicate it organizations. First of all this concept that the influencer game is just a young person's game is really crazy and just not true. There's unlimited opportunity for every demo. In fact actually and you follow me so you know I like to try to see around corners. I actually think one of the biggest influencer sectors of the next decade is the 60 to 90 year old crowd spitting wisdom. I think there's a huge opportunity there. So my answer is get in the game. Whether it's through a mascot, whether it's through employees of the organization, we must communicate in these channels because if we we don't we become obsolete. Cheers. Nobody. Hello.
- [27:37]
C
I'm so excited to be here. This makes me person. I'm also a long time follower.
- [27:42]
A
Thank you.
- [27:43]
C
So you talk about parenting and good and bad which really resonates with me with my own children. Dwarf Right now 21, I'm 27 and.
- [27:53]
A
Cut down I so let's clap it up for keeping them alive. Solid accomplishment.
- [28:03]
C
The thing that I work at is a financial literacy based institution that we a kids ages 0 to 21 to help them to be unconventional adults. So I am combating that parenting style of others on a daily basis. How can you be that influence? Because there's not enough parents that are teaching financial literacy to their kids or really may even don't have the ability or diverse about those things that they need. So how can I help influence that?
- [28:39]
A
You don't. You go around them. Kids don't listen to their parents anyway. Like literally every 16 and 13 year old in the world is in my DMs on TikTok right now except my 16 and 13 year old. Like it's just the way the game works. We all know that. I actually think you don't. I do not think the parent is going to be the influencer of the child to learn this. I think what we just talked about with Nestor is the Punchline. I think you go to where the kids are. Kids are, you know, again, they are learning and consuming through these channels. Your bank needs to go there and needs to go there in a really big way. Like, I, I, I mean, look, my favorite thing around children, your kids are actually right in the pocket of my favorite subject, my favorite financial topic that I talk about that has gained enormous, enormous steam in the last two years on social is I have a real, real wake up call for how many parents in this room, by show of hands, have a child that is 18 and older, raise your hands. Okay. And who has children over 22 and older, raise your hands. Actually, if you're 22 and older, please appease me. It's good for your blood circulation. If you have a child 22 and older, please stand up. Stand up. All right, this is. Thank you, by the way. What a team. Good job. All right. Please don't sit. This is super important. This is potentially going to be really important in your life. And you, like, I think you may actually email me in a couple of years saying thank you about three years ago. So the reason I'm ahead of, you know, trends a lot is I read all my messages. Like, I'm flying back to New York right now and I've got only about an hour worth of email that I got to really bang out. And for four hours right now, I'm about to read thousands of direct messages from human beings. About three years ago, I started, maybe even five actually Covid maybe six years ago, I started getting a DM that was consistent, which it was from a 23, 24, 25, 26 year old. And the message would go, hey, Gary, I have a problem. I'm 27 and my parents are paying for my lifestyle. They pay for my Uber, they pay for my, they pay my credit cards, they pay my rent, my equinox, whatever it is. And I'm pissed. And I was confused by it. Like really, I really didn't understand. Cause shit, I wish my parents paid for anything when I was a kid. I'm an immigrant, I got nothing. And then I started going back and forth and something became real. Look, there's a lot of people standing right now. And listen, I love talking about parenting in the macro. I would never, ever have the audacity to tell someone how to parent their child. You all know there's too many nuances, blah, blah, blah. But I want you all to hear this, which is why I'm making a big to do about this. One of the fundamental mistakes that our Parenting generation, me included, has done is if you have a 22 year old child or older, you need to get them off the payroll. Let me, let me go deeper, let me go deeper. The people that are standing, you remember in our era, if your parents helped after you were grown, 18 or 20 or 22, at best, if they could even afford it back then, at best they lent you money for something important and we fucking paid them back. There's not a 23 year old on earth in America that knows what the fuck borrowing even means. But now let me get you to the punchline. All of you that are standing, that are paying for your 27 year old son's rent, you're well intended. Like, I have two children. You love them more than, like, I love them more than breathing. I would kill myself 500 times over for them to have a good day, let alone anything else. I get it. But let me tell you what I read from thousands of kids. When you're 26 and your parents are paying for your life, to them it means you think they're a fucking loser. Now this sucks because they're fucking assholes. Cause they're taking it. Like the one conversation for 20 minutes on a flight that really triggered this whole thing for me six years ago was I was going back and forth with this person and they're like, Gary, you don't even know. I'm like, they went really deep with me. Like, I'm depressed. I'm like going, because their parents are paying for their Mercedes. This was like, I was like. And then finally I was like, I can fix this. And like in all caps, she was like, how? And I said, and I made a voice memo because I didn't want my tone to be lost. I was texting, I voice memo Ed. I said, stop taking the money. My friends, we have a real, real issue on this one. Please. If this moment hit, it's like anything that's hard, like if you actually do something about what I'm saying, that first interaction is going to suck bad. They're going to be real upset and they're going to throw every move they have to make you feel bad and blame you for everything that's ever happened. But I'm telling you, they're not saying it to you, but they're upset with you because through your actions, you're telling them they're not capable. Podcast nation, big announcement, as you probably heard at this point, because I had John from Stan on the show. I am an investor advisor to an incredible startup called Stan Stan Store I'm sending you right now to GaryVee.com GaryVee.com Stan, go check this out. We've done a GaryVee Stan store challenge, which actually has a weekly call with me. This is built for everyone who's been affected honestly by my overall content. The tech stack, all these features, and the new minimal costs per month that Stan Store has built is really the tool that was needed for this world that I envisioned when I wrote crush it. When I wrote crushing it. And this overall thing I'm thinking a lot about lately, which is the individual empire, right? This creator entrepreneur slash entrepreneur creator economy that I think is gonna eat up the oxygen. Very honestly. The thing that so many of you want in your life and the reason so many of you not there yet, is you've got the strategy for me. You've got the ambition within yourself, but you don't have the tools for you to fully maximize it. And I believe you can find that at Stan's store. Stan Store. But specifically, I want you to sign up for it through my challenge because I want to get access with you. And plus, there's a bunch of cool things. So if you want to go see those cool things, go to garyvee.com Stan S T A N.