← The GaryVee Audio Experience
The GaryVee Audio Experience
The Barbell Effect: Navigating the Future of Extreme AI and Analog
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- [00:00]
Vitaly
Study and play come together on a
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Gary Vaynerchuk
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Gary Vaynerchuk
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- [00:57]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Let me tell you why you like AI. Humans forever, for the rest of time, a thousand years from now when they look very different, will always choose convenience and will always buy time. This is the GaryVee audio experience.
- [01:16]
Konstantin
You're in the front of a room where 90% of people can actually pronounce Gennady Alexandri's name. Let me give you more details about this room and what we're up to here next four days. We have more than 150 high level entrepreneurs founders here. People who know how to build, how to operate, how to scale businesses. But sometimes with business success it becomes more challenging to find rooms where you can be more transparent, honest, vulnerable about challenges you're facing in a business and find communication that's non transactional but still useful. And that's what we are building here. Business event but in very intentional setting on top of community layer. And it seems like lately people don't want to listen more and more things because it's actually easier to find anything in your eyes stuff now. But people have a lot of demand for safe environment. Is this something you observe as well?
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I think, I don't think anyone here is confused. Like standard information is a commodity. You know, intelligence information is at our fingertips and now with AI it's nuanced and contextual. Back to safe environments. I think also to this room everyone's incredibly aware that there's incredible emotion in society today. There's unprecedented level of judgment. People have always struggled with judgment but now so many people live a far more public life than they have in the past because people are putting themselves out there digitally. And so yeah, I think safe environments is what all of us have always gravitated to. Normally that's a mother or a father or a best friend or a spouse. But then when I think about what's going on here for so many of us here, when you're an operator, when you've achieved something, for many of us here, when you've achieved something, from zero to something meaningful, finding other people that have been through those journeys, dealing with the same things. You know, for a lot of people that come from zero and achieve something and now they have children who are spoiled, being able to talk to someone else who's going through that same thing, it's a connection. And so, yeah, I think safe environments have never been more important. On the flip side, what I also know about this room is being vulnerable doesn't come as natural to our culture as other places. And so, you know, finding the strength to be able to be vulnerable and tell people in here the truth, not half the truth, is a challenge for a lot of people. But I think when people get over the hump, and that's why one of the reasons I'm here is supporting events like this, because this is a rarity. I know you know that and I'm happy to be here.
- [04:32]
Konstantin
Appreciate it. You've personally navigated through massive paradigm shifts simultaneously while having massive pressure on you. You're running huge. The largest independent media company in the United States, almost 3,000 employees, offices from Singapore, London, Manhattan. During same time when AI reshaped content creation media algorithms. You also run another company, we will touch on that later. That built partially on layer of digital collectibles. While blockchain regulations are not clear still yet. So how do you personally operate during times of constant change, pressure forma and keeping focus and clarity?
- [05:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
This is so special for me to be with all of you because there's a real answer to this question that most people would not understand. But I think many of you will. The way I navigate through all the turmoil is because I'm not scared to go back to Babrusk and live in a little shed. You know, I don't know. You know, again, I don't know everyone's story here, but there are two versions of people that come from very little and achieve success. The ones that get there and become scared to ever go back and the ones that have absolutely no fear to go back. I'm in the second group. My ability to navigate everything I navigate is because I'm not scared to lose everything. Because I don't think everything is money and notoriety. I think everything is health and my family. And I appreciate that. And I will say, I also don't judge the people in this room that aren't in that place. In fact, I'm compassionate and empathetic for the people that are not in that place. I also understand not being in that place, you know, but for me, I have no interest in success to buy fancy things or do fancy things. The only reason I do what I do for a living is because it is my favorite game. You know, I don't want to be successful to go golfing or to go sailing or to buy a boat or to go fishing or to go hiking or to go to a sporting event. I don't want what this game of entrepreneurship can get for me. I want the game of entrepreneurship. So, you know, so to explain, I mean, you saw what I'm doing in there. I'm working. Like, I have 3,000 employees in just one of my eight most meaningful companies. That's global. Like, five minutes before I came here, I'm literally texting with people about problems, right? Like, you all know this. The more that happens, the more problems you have, right? Like, it's not complicated. So. But. But a lot of us in this room like the problems. You know, some people are just firefighters. I like to fight fires. I like to play the game. So I don't even know how to live any other way.
- [08:03]
Konstantin
I like your full concept of. You call it practical optimism.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
You just think, yeah, I mean, I'm incredibly optimistic. My mother is incredibly optimistic. My father is incredibly cynical. Hey, everybody. Hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. You know how many people here have very opposite parents? Positive and negative, just by show of hands? Raise your hands if you're one of those people. So for 20%, 30% of this room, you know, maybe at this point in your life, maybe you don't know, it's a huge advantage to have two very opposite parents because you can see the world completely. And so I've been successful because I have incredible optimism. I have my mother's DNA. Plus, she raised me, so it was compounded. But I can't see the world without hearing my father's voice. That is incredibly classic Soviet class. You know, everybody's fucking you and stealing. Everything's bad. Everything's fucked up. Everything's a conspiracy theory. So it's impossible for me to be delusional. But inherently I'm optimistic. And so I call it practical optimism, because I always am optimistic. I'm always hopeful. The other thing is, I'm also very fortunate that I lack what many have, which is insecurity. So it's very easy for me to give to people because if someone fucks me, I don't care. I mean, if someone fucks my father, he's. He hates them for life. For me, I don't see it that way.
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Konstantin
Yeah, I'm glad we touched on that. You always have a lot of practical optimism to borrow for whole room. I want to touch on another question of yours. Intellectual property. Yeah, before that, you wanted to acquire previous intellectual property and flip it that really fascinating idea as well. But recently you created your own company, and while operating many businesses, you call this specific company potentially your legacy company.
- [10:20]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
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Konstantin
Can you tell our audience what is intellectual property? Why you also have so much conviction in that and introduce us to be friends as well.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
So for everyone here, you know, especially given the talent in this room and looking around the room, I can even sense many people in this room are going to have another one or two or three businesses in their life. I cannot push you harder for intellectual property. I'm sure this room is fairly educated enough to know what's going on with AI And I have a funny feeling you all know this is not going to stop today. It's just going to keep going. If you play out the chess of AI, one of the few things for sure that will be left and quite lucrative is owning intellectual property. Whether that's your masters on music or whether that's the image and likeness of characters or stories for everyone in this room who's creative, and I'm very creative, but no one really knew that publicly for a long time because that's not what I was talking about. But behind the scenes, creativity, ideas, stories come very natural to me. It's why I'm a good communicator. So I couldn't push more of you. I hope I inspired just one person here that if you've had a character in mind or idea or a story or a movie, to really create it. I created Veefriends five years ago because I wanted to create something that looked like Disney, that looked like Pokemon. I mean, Pokemon is worth $90 billion, you know, and it's fun. And so, you know, another thing that does not come very natural to our part of the world, I think grownups do not have enough joy, do not laugh enough, do not act youthful enough. And so five years ago, when I saw that the blockchain was starting to get to a place where I thought consumers could start understanding it a little bit because I was very active in the blockchain in 2014. 15 Ethereum, Bitcoin. But as you know, because you know my content, I didn't speak about it often. You could find a talk here and there. Because I don't like talking about things that I don't think are ready. But when I thought it was ready five years ago, I created this universe. You're right. For anybody who knows what Scooby Doo is, or, you know, Care Bears or Transformers. What's that? Yeah, exactly. You know, those were the things I was thinking about. Things that used to be important. Cartoons, characters, Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Woody Woodpecker. I wanted to buy one of them for 100 million, 50 million and refurbish it. Make movies, toys, collectibles. But when the blockchain was ready, I made my own universe. Thank you so much. I see the characters at the table, you know, and so. But honestly, as much as I'd love for you all to learn and collect vFriends, what would be much more interesting is if one of you here is very creative. Your whole life have been thinking about a character or a story or an idea. I could not push you harder right now to do it because owning intellectual property is one of the very good businesses of the next 25 years.
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Konstantin
So AI is stealing our jobs and fictional characters stealing our businesses?
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Gary Vaynerchuk
No, I think AI is, at least for the next decade, is exposing the truth. I think what AI is going to do in the next decade is going to be very beneficial to a lot of people here. I think AI is an incredible exposer of the people that are actually creating the value versus the people that are a small piece of the process and are a commodity. And I think AI is going to eat up in the short term. It's very hard to predict how far this can go in a 10, 15 year period, but at least for the next five or so years, I think AI is the accelerator of the most strategic and the most creative. And I think a lot of us in this room will benefit greatly professionally. However, every one of us also needs to be prepared for AI to kill us and our businesses. And that's a very interesting relationship, because when the Internet did that in the late 90s, it took a long time. If the Internet was going to kill you like a bookstore with Amazon in 1996, it took seven to 10 years. AI can take 17 months and kill you and so we all have to be prepared for how fast this new game is. And I'm very prepared. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about both extremes. This could be the great, you know, look at Veefriends. I can make a Veefriends movie that looks like Pixar in 24 months for a couple hundred thousand dollars. That would have cost me $90 million to make. On the flip side, VaynerMedia, my $400 million a year agency, we make most of our money by making content. That's a problem. So, you know, just living life. So whether AI takes me to the moon, right, like our astronaut here, where is she? There she is. Or if AI takes me back to Babrusk, I'm ready for either.
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- [16:52]
Konstantin
You also have been talking a lot lately about rise of so called analog business. Why so? And what specific formats of businesses, communities, events you think are underrated now and might have momentum in the nearest future.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm very excited for a lot of you about this. So I've been talking about something called the Barbell Extreme. Digital AI. More social. More digital. More digital. More digital. But what it's creating is the beginning of analog. Analog bougie coffee shops, drive in movie theaters. Look what we're doing right now. If you pay attention to Gen Alpha 12, 13, 14 year olds, some of you may have children in that age. They saw what their older siblings have dealt with with digital and they're pushing back a little bit. They don't want smartphones as much. They're asking for dumb phones. Right? You're seeing this if you look at the data around concerts and sporting events and golf and bowling and pickleball, it's very clear to me that over the next 10 years, what are we in 2026? I think in a 20 year window in 10 years it'll be 2036, but I think it's going to feel more like 2066. I think the technology is going to be very fast now, but I also think that people are going to be acting more and more like 1966. So I think this next 10 years is going to push us into extreme digital, extreme analog. And in that is incredible opportunity. If we start going into more four day work week now you have three days of leisure. If we're so efficient that we could be done at 3 o' clock because our agentic agents are doing our work, what are we doing from 3:00 clock to 10:00pm? And so I think there's incredible business opportunity in the real world. I have a restaurant group that's going very well. We've got about seven, 10 restaurants. The next restaurant, I'm obviously more like the chairman, not the active day to day. I'm pushing my group to open a restaurant where when you walk in you have to put your phone in a locker and then you have to go sit at communal tables. I think this is coming. I can see even by some of your. We know it, we can feel it, it's coming. And when you know something's coming and it's still not here, that's when there's money to be made.
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Konstantin
It's basically subconscious push to the extreme digitalization and it's already happening.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
You know this because you know my content. The number one thing I believe in, number one is humans. We are the most adaptable ever. Everyone's like, oh, this is going to kill us. That's what they've been saying for 17 trillion years. You know, we are so adaptable that we are sensing what's coming with AI and so we're starting already in our actions to do things that are analog. And I think it's going to be beautiful. I actually think it's very interesting to live in that kind of world, right? The incredible advancements of what AI can do in effectiveness, efficiency, output, innovation. But then the disconnect. And I think the last 10 years we've been closer to the digital stuff and that's why people feel burnout and things of that nature. And I think you can see the early signs.
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Konstantin
Thank you. Great stuff. Let's open up to the questions please. I Know a lot of people here.
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Moderator
First of all, let's clap your hands. Thank you for this introduction.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Okay, guys, let me also say real quick, I apologize on the questions. Obviously, we just talked about what we talked about. I also know that I've been putting out content for 20 years, and some of you have seen some of that or have different businesses and questions. I'm thrilled to talk about anything, not just what was talked about between Konstantin and I. So please and thank you for having me. What's your name, my friend? Max. Max. Have you been bankrupt in your life? Have I been bankrupt in my life? No, sir. Okay, thank you.
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Moderator
Okay. IRS guy. Thank you.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
I do want to build on that question because it's a great question by Max. Can I tell you why I've never been bankrupt? I've never. You know, it's very funny, Max. A lot of people think I do very high risk behavior, and I do by standards, but I've never bet everything. And I've always lived within my means. From 22 to 34 years old, I never made more than $60,000 a year, but I lived like I was making $25,000 a year. Right. So I've never been bankrupt because it's back to being very practical. And I don't think business is gambling. Oh, I've been broke. I was. I mean, when I started VaynerMedia at 34 years, my father. I built my father's business from 3 to 65 million dollars a year, worked at his business 100 hours a week, and he paid me 60,000 a year. So it depends on what you define as broke. Right. But when I started Vaynermedia, my biggest company, have I ever been up and down? No, because I don't gamble. You know, I invest and I build. I don't tend to do things that I think have a high chance of not succeeding and put too much in. So everything's been kind of more like that. You know, I went through a divorce. So, you know, so there's that part. But no, my behavior doesn't speak to. It's more. I'm a marathon runner more than a gambler.
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Moderator
Okay, thanks so much. Okay, next question, please.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Hi. Hi. Can I ask in Russian?
- [22:55]
Moderator
Yes, you can speak Russian?
- [22:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. No. What's your name? Life is a self aware game, right? Like at the end of the day, like, the number one thing you need to do is this. You need to play for you, not for anyone else. The second you understand that everything is possible. Does that make sense?
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Moderator
I'll translate it later. For her.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
What's that?
- [23:43]
Moderator
She asks if she can have one more question.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Oh yeah, of course.
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Moderator
So I mean, in the world of AI, which AI you specifically use in your business and maybe you already use some AI to replace some of the, of the boring human in your.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
And the number, the number one thing. Yes. I mean there's definitely, I mean, I don't know. So a couple things. Replace is not even where I'm thinking. I just had a meeting with, with all 3,000 of my employees in the marketing company and I told all of them I have no interest in replacing any of you because I'm going to be competing with companies that have people and AI I'm going to. AI is not going to replace you. People that use AI when you don't use AI is going to replace you. So, but for me personally, my Open Claw is my life now. How many people here are using openclaw, like for the people that raise their hands? We know it's fucking harnesses personal computer. I mean, it's absurd what's going on with me and my Open Claw. We're gonna fucking dominate the world. And so obviously I use everything that any normal modern human is using, whether that's Claude or OpenAI or Gemini. But the Open claw, the harness, the personal computer, that's the step everyone in this room is going to take in the next 24 months that is going to open up unprecedented opportunity.
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Moderator
Thank you so much.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
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Moderator
Okay, next question.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
It's exactly what exactly is possible. Infrastructure company. And you see. Investor. Divided. I got most of it, but I want to make sure I don't lose it.
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Moderator
I mean, he said like sometimes he has a project with a big idea, big scale idea, but the venture investors, they try to focus him on something smaller, divide in a smaller problem. Should he like keep fighting one big investor for the whole problem or divide it?
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Couple things that I think about. Number one, when you're asking for money, you're not in control, right? So if you're asking investors to give you money, you see, you know, what's that Russian saying about whoever pays for the music gets to pick the song? That's right. So you're asking investors for money. They're gonna, they're always, if you're the big thinker, they're a fucking investor, right? They're not the innovator, they're not the operator, they're not the dreamer. They're always gonna want to make you go smaller. You have two choices. You keep asking more people for money that see your vision or accept the truth of the smaller project and then once you have the money, do the bigger project.
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Moderator
Next question. Hello there we have Priest Studio. It's Dubai chocolate for.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Very nice. Thank you, brother. Yes, thank you my friend. Bribe is always welcome. Always. Like a true Russian, you never come without a gift. Hello Gary, how are you?
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Alex
I completely agree with you that these legacy protection systems are currently the best bet against AI and why I call them legacy protection because I'm afraid that governments or just market practices could take them away. I mean IP protection, I mean patents, I mean trademarks and copyrights.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
There's some parts of the world that don't honor the protection now.
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Alex
Yeah, yeah. And currently I bet against AI with my ip. And I completely agree with you that this is my competitive advantage here.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
And you will be able to use AI to enhance your ip. Sure, sure.
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Alex
But at the same time, currently, for example Apple and Google and especially Apple, if I come to Apple with my patent, they just take away any competitors that infringe our patent. So there is no problem there. But afraid that one day these legacy systems could leave us and then we're done. Basically entrepreneurship is not awarded and these first initiative is not awarded with. Market rewards.
- [29:40]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Basically.
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Alex
What do you think about that? And should we be afraid of that? That governments and corporations do not protect us?
- [29:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What's your name?
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Alex
My name is Alex.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Alex, I think you're too scared.
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Alex
Yeah. So basically don't.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Don't be afraid.
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Moderator
Don't be scared.
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Alex
From 100 to nothing.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
Let me, Let me break it down for you. Sure. If what you just said happens.
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Alex
Yeah.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
And let's just say America has gotten to a place where. Where corporations have so much power that they're able to not have to conform to the law. You're going to worry about a lot more things than your business idea. Sure.
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Alex
I'm afraid that law changes.
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Gary Vaynerchuk
You're afraid of what?
- [30:29]
Alex
That law changes.
- [30:31]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes, I understand that. I'm going to say it again. If law changes to that. Mm. Which is an unprecedented shift.
- [30:40]
Alex
Yeah.
- [30:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
In American history. That we are now going to reward a couple of corporations and deincentivize millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of human beings, you're going to be worried about a lot more than business, my friend. Alex, it's important what I'm saying to you. The number one reason most people don't achieve what they want in life happiness financial is because of fear. Is politicians and leaders have become very good at weaponizing fear. You need to stop being so scared.
- [31:24]
Konstantin
Thank you so much
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Moderator
so next question from. Actually another. Our speaker you will see later today, Oscar Hartman.
- [31:33]
Oscar Hartman
Yes, I'm Oscar. Thank you very much. I have a university and I see some scary stuff. Brothers and sisters that grow up together but don't know each other.
- [31:44]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah.
- [31:45]
Oscar Hartman
So my question is about attention. Parents don't get attention from the kids. Kids don't get attention from their parents. The latest statistic is that best friends, whoever you consider your best friend in life, you spend on average now less than 80 hours per year.
- [32:00]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [32:00]
Oscar Hartman
Together. So, so my question is about companions. AI companions. What is your like? Nobody gives nobody attention. Yesterday we had this game where we just gave each other five minutes attention. Everybody felt like it was hard work. Yeah. So my latest investment is an AI co founder. A lot of solo founders now. So do you think that people will value the attention you get? Infinite attention from an AI companion. Right.
- [32:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The answer to your question is what I talked about. I think you're right. But I think there is a breaking point. I believe in it. But I need everyone to hear this. There's a simple framework I have that has been very successful for me that I would like to challenge all of you to debate. Curious. If this is how you see it, if you see it differently. I am obsessed in what I'm about to say. I believe most people on Earth overvalue or this or that. And I know it's and this and that we are spending all of our time of like, it's all this, it's all that, it's, or, or, or it's. And I believe that in seven years, based on what I just said about the barbell analog and extreme. I predict in 10 years that all of us will have meaningful relationships with an AI companion, but that our elevation of having real life time together will actually go up from today, not down. Okay.
- [33:37]
Oscar Hartman
Do you have feelings for your open claw?
- [33:40]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I don't. I, I, I don't. Because I don't I yet. But I will tell you why I don't have feelings for my AI agents. I do not use my AI agents for therapy. And most people do.
- [33:54]
Konstantin
Okay, but Larry, you still call it chatty. I heard it.
- [33:58]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes. I call it chatty. Yeah, of course. But like, I do that a little bit for show, if I'm being honest. I do that for show. I don't. Even if you notice, I've stopped doing it in my content because at the time I was trying to show people like, you can build a relationship. But I do not use. I have not put one prompt, not one prompt. In four years, I've been pretty active. Three years. Not one prompt around something personal. I have not needed it for that. You know, this is a strength and a weakness. I want to be vulnerable. I normally am in my own head with myself, with most of my emotions. In the last five to seven years, I've become better in communicating with my partner or my parent or my employee or my sibling if I'm having a conflict. And I'm also very open, especially with my wife, to use therapy if I need it. So I think the reason people feel quite emotional towards their AI is a lot of people are using it for therapy. A lot of people are also using it to validate their feelings. One of the reasons people love their AI agent is your agent gives you positive reinforcement. You're right, Susan, Your husband's an asshole. I'm not looking for validation from anyone, let alone an AI companion.
- [35:30]
Oscar Hartman
My wife put our entire chat history in ChatGPT.
- [35:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Who's right and it's and who and. And you know what's so funny? And if you did the same thing, both of you would be right. And that's the problem right now.
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Moderator
Let's just then talk to each other, these two chats. So, guys, until you send your dick pic to your AI, you're good. Okay, Go ahead.
- [35:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Hi, Gary. Good to see you again. My name is. Yes, I have a question. The world is so saturated right now and we have so many things. What is something that young generation is focusing on that will not matter in five to 10 years? Everything. You know, that's just the common flight of man and woman. Almost nothing matters, my friend. The sooner. How old are you? I'm 18. Beautiful. The sooner you understand that if this is the moment, you understand that absolutely nothing matters except love and health and your family. You will win.
- [36:29]
Konstantin
Thank you.
- [36:29]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're welcome.
- [36:30]
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- [37:01]
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- [37:34]
Vitaly
Hey Gary. Yeah. We briefly spoke about the analog business
- [37:40]
Gary Vaynerchuk
that I hope everyone, when they go to Naples, Florida goes to your coffee shop.
- [37:44]
Vitaly
Yeah. So my question is, you just shared the idea that in the future, in the next 10 to 20 years, there's going to be big advancement in AI and also in analog businesses.
- [37:55]
Moderator
Right.
- [37:56]
Vitaly
So my question is, do you think that those analog businesses are actually going to be like big tech companies underneath? So in the front they're going to have like great customer experience in the product.
- [38:07]
Vlad
Something.
- [38:08]
Vitaly
But everything of that is going to be powered by AI and tech.
- [38:12]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Some, some again I think, look, let's look at this beautiful place we're at. I think there's going to be a big rise of people going to places like this that will not be tech powered. But then let's talk about your business. You may know this because you're smart. There's coffee shops in China that are fully tech enabled that have, that are coming to the US that have a huge advantage and are very dangerous to Starbucks, maybe not to you because you're going very high end. But I think it's gonna be both.
- [38:41]
Vitaly
Just thinking like there's gonna be like I'm investing into experience and the product, so I'm not trying to cut that off.
- [38:48]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Correct.
- [38:49]
Vitaly
But at the same time like developing ideas on like how can I use AI more or maybe develop some of the things that's gonna just increase the experience of the.
- [38:59]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, look, let me tell you why we like AI. Let me tell you why you like AI. Humans forever, for the rest of time, a thousand years from now when they look very different, will always choose convenience and will always buy time. Right. So of course the customer experience. If I go into a very high end coffee shop and I love everything about it, that makes me want to pay three times what I would pay somewhere else. But it takes me a long time to get my coffee. You're dead. So you're going to take, right, you're going to use technology. Now maybe we go so extreme that I pay more for waiting. I'm being serious. This is worth debating. Notice how you did the exercise for five minutes and everyone was like, fuck, this is hard. We may go so far that we might go reverse. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we're going to pay to slow down Right. We know we do that with meditation and escapism and all that. I don't know if we'll do it for the mundane day to day where we'll be excited to be in line for 13 minutes, I don't know. But technology is undefeated, Vitaly. Technology is undefeated. It never goes backwards. So it's an inevitable consumer behavior, social norms, they ebb and flow. And so that's how I'm thinking about it.
- [40:28]
Vitaly
Thank you.
- [40:29]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're welcome.
- [40:34]
Konstantin
Hey, Gary.
- [40:34]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Hey, Paul. My name is Mike.
- [40:36]
Konstantin
I co founded manychat and I think that some of your creators use us for Instagram automation. I had one question.
- [40:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What is the one question that founders
- [40:48]
Vitaly
are not asking you, that you wish
- [40:50]
Konstantin
that they actually did, that you think that they should have asked you?
- [40:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I think most founders that are very sharp, very smart don't ask enough questions about managing people. Like, it is staggering to me watching some of the best companies in Silicon Valley through the last 25 years fail because of the leader's lack of humility, because of the leader's lack of emotional intelligence, because of the leader's inherent selfishness. I remember, you know, this is a funny Soviet story. My father had a small liquor store. I started working there when I was 14. And we lived 45 minutes from my dad's store when we moved in high school. So we drove there, worked all day, drove back. I as maybe you can tell, especially if you know my content. I like to talk. My father doesn't talk at all. And so I would talk, talk, talk, and then back, talk, talk, talk and talk. One day, my dad, when he did talk, it tended to be complaining or being negative back to how he, his DNA and how he grew up. He told me that, you know, I was talking about, we had seven employees, we were a small liquor store. I was talking about the good things about our employees. And it was bothering him, which made me want to do it more. Mike. And then he said, you know what though? He goes, none of them work as hard as me. I was 16 years old. I will never forget this day. My whole life I looked at my father and said, why the fuck would they work as hard as you? It's your business. Owners are very interesting to me. Operators, founders, they have audacity. I think they lack humility on the human element. They ask questions about maximizing their product, product market fit, go to market strategy. They do not spend anywhere close to enough time on understanding that the top three people that surround them will trickle down. They don't think about human design. The Emotional frameworks, how it really works, how real life works. And I think any founder here, if you're unable to keep retention of your best people, you will always be vulnerable. And so that's what I wish they would ask more about.
- [43:22]
Konstantin
Thank you so much.
- [43:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you, thank you.
- [43:23]
Konstantin
I love that you have chief heart officer role in your company.
- [43:28]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. For VaynerX, the 3,000 person marketing company. There's me and I didn't realize this because I came from family liquor business and then I went into this part of my career. Now I have a corporation. I didn't realize in corporations that the CFO was actually the boss. I thought the CEO was and I didn't realize that hr. I thought HR was for the people. I didn't realize that employees hated hr. They were scared of hr. They were there to do the dirty work. So in my company I created a new title called Chief Heart Officer. Claude, she's the head of hr. She has more power than the cfo and it has been fundamental to who we are as a corporation.
- [44:22]
Moderator
Yeah.
- [44:23]
Vlad
Hi Gary, my name is Vlad. Vlad, I'm running digital like advertising agency and I have a question for you. As for marketing agency owner, I do my main focus, my main services now is Facebook, Google influence, Instagram advertising and it's exactly what you did 20, 20 years ago. So. And I feel that it's pretty outstanding. So outdated. Sorry, outdated. And my, my main question is for you is what is in your opinion number one service? And I'll give you three, maybe three is better.
- [45:04]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'll give you three things that I
- [45:05]
Vlad
would add and the same number one value for client. For me it's the same service from Heard.
- [45:13]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Number one, value is still what you're doing. Whoever knows how to do the best content organically and whoever knows how to use paid media against the winners in organic is still the number one way to really dominate marketing today. Value the three things you should be building that I think will help you grow a lot that will become more and more valuable. Bless you. Number one is what I just talked about. Analog Experiential being a production company as an agency to do live events for clients, it's going to grow a lot. Number two, making content for the sole purpose of showing up organically in GEO and AEO and winning the LLMs to show up in the results for your clients in Claude, in ChatGPT and Gemini. Number three, becoming a strategist and production company and creative agency to do live social shopping services for your clients. One of the most interesting things all of you should be paying attention to as entrepreneurs and investors is live social shopping Whatnot. TikTok Shop. Selling product on social media that looks like QVC and Home Shopping Network is one of the most important things in China. This year it will be $1 trillion in GMV of products sold through live shopping. It's exploding in America and Europe. I could not push you more to know what's going on with TikTok Shop and whatnot. Meta's about to do it. So it's going to show up on Instagram and Facebook and then Google's going to do it and it's going to show up on YouTube. Humongous opportunity. Those three services you add while you're still doing what you're doing, you'll be in a nice spot for the next three to five years.
- [47:14]
Vlad
Thank you so much.
- [47:15]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're welcome.
- [47:15]
Moderator
Thank you.
- [47:19]
Maria
Hello, my name is Maria. I just want to thank you for wonderful presentation and wonderful speech with Constantine and sharing all the insights with us today. You mentioned you still believe in humans and we talked a lot about technology today and I'm sure everybody now discusses technology most of the time. But I want to dive deeper into human being side and ask your advice. What humans, what muscle we as humans need to train nowadays?
- [47:52]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What should we train in?
- [47:53]
Maria
Yes, I mean like it can be mental muscle or physical one.
- [47:59]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's a really good question actually, Maria. One of the things that I'm really passionate about that I would like to challenge all of you to think about is I believe one of the most substantial places we can all go as humans is, is to start to tap much more into our curiosity. I think curiosity is a word that I would elevate very high in your life. How many people here feel they're inherently curious? Raise your hands. Makes sense, right? One more time. I'm just curious. One more time would say they're inherently curious. Yeah, it makes sense. I think there's a much bigger correlation to business and even life success around curiosity than the world talks about. If you think about where we're going with AI and the information being commoditized, it is the prompting and the input that becomes incredibly valuable. One of the ways to stand out and be distinct in this next 36, three to six years is coming at things from different angles from a prompting framework. Whether it's creative or strategic. The way to actually be unique is to inherently be curious and go down paths that have not been formed yet by others. So I think curiosity is very, very large. But it's very funny. You asked this question after I just made that thing for Mike about founders. It is very clear to me that in the next decade, the humans that are accelerating in emotional intelligence are going to outperform the ones that are not. It is going to be around leadership, humanity, the ability to retain people because of who you are as a person. I think it's very fascinating. I think we're in society right now, we're being a nice person. So seemingly seems less valuable than ever. And I think it's very clear to me that it's emerging as the most important thing going forward. And that makes me unbelievably emotionally optimistic. And I know that a lot of you may not see it or even agree with me right now, but I have a funny feeling you'll be emailing me in seven years asking me how I saw that.
- [50:24]
Maria
Thank you so much.
- [50:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You're welcome.
- [50:28]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Hi, Gary, I'm Alex.
- [50:30]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Alex, first of all, your coat is awesome, bro.
- [50:32]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Thanks so much.
- [50:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [50:33]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
I've been working with the robotics for the next last decade or so, and you've been right on the digital arena for a long time, even when a lot of people doubted you way, way before. So I've seen a lot of investment going into robotics right now, specifically humanoids, and with the intent of replacing what humans do. Yes, I know, that's why people say it publicly. But in my world, that's what we're doing.
- [50:55]
Gary Vaynerchuk
We're replacing what's happening.
- [50:56]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
We are, we're creating machines that we exponentially do everything that we can do much better than we can. So is this a trend for you? How do you see that movement and how that fit into the analog and digital world?
- [51:07]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It. First of all, I think it's inevitable. You know, to me, that's like we had horses and now we have cars. Couple things. So is it a threat? Everything's a threat. And everything's an opportunity for everyone here. When the tractor was invented, a shocking amount of people worked on farms. So is it a threat? Sure. You know this better than I do. I'm trying to pay attention. You're in it. I think there's a couple things. Timing, right? Affordability, scale. You know, I have been right a lot, but when I was a kid, thank God I wasn't making videos when I was a kid. When I launched winelibrary.com in 1997, if I was making content, I would have made videos. That said, by the year 2000, all of you are gonna buy everything on the Internet. I didn't understand timing So I think, you know, I ask you back when I, you know, you heard what I said. When it gets to scale, when it gets to affordability, Obviously there'll be B2B and then there'll be B2C. It'll be a progress. When's your prediction that humanoids are at enough scale that we're feeling extraordinary social and financial impact of that scale? What's your guess?
- [52:33]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
48 to 60 months.
- [52:34]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What's that?
- [52:35]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Four to five years.
- [52:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Four to five years.
- [52:36]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
It mostly depends on five challenges that we have right now. A lot of them to do with running a language model on a machine. One challenge. Another one is material engineering, processing power. It's not a problem anymore, data collection. And we don't have younger people to work on this as we have in digital world right now, because we outsource a lot of this to China.
- [52:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Here's how I look at it.
- [52:54]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Would you buy one?
- [52:56]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Would I buy one?
- [52:56]
Alex
Yeah.
- [52:57]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Are you intending to buy one?
- [52:59]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I couldn't imagine me not buying one. Now will I be the first one to buy it? I don't know, because, like, there's definitely gonna be like 1% of me. Like, is that fucking robot gonna turn on me and shoot? Like, you know? So I think I'll be a fast follower. I'll let my friends here in Silicon Valley have them first for a year to get comfortable. My belief is that it's going to be one of the great things that happens to the human race and that it is gonna elevate all of us to do much more profoundly interesting things. And that like any big technology, some people will get very hurt by it in the short term. But long term, I'm bullish. And again, my great hope is that more people could be in my mental place if I got hurt by. This is actually very interesting. I want you to hear this. I want all of you to hear this. How many people here love entrepreneurship? They believe in entrepreneurship, capitalism. They believe in it. My point of view is if you believe in it, you must be prepared to be killed by it.
- [54:02]
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- [55:02]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Yep. I just hope it's fast. It doesn't hurt.
- [55:05]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I get it. But you know what I mean. Like you can't believe in free market and capitalism and entrepreneurship and merit and then change your mind when an innovation comes along. That fucks you. Right? So I'm actually very excited about it.
- [55:24]
Alex (Robotics Expert)
Thank you.
- [55:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [55:26]
Moderator
Okay, thank you, Gary. We know we are very sort of the last question. I hope it's short and. Yeah, go ahead.
- [55:33]
Vlad
We'll try to make it simple. My name is Russ. Thank you, Gary, for your presentation. So out of things that you said, something triggered my question is I'm running a marketing agency. We finished last year 100 million revenue.
- [55:47]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Congrats.
- [55:47]
Vlad
This year we're hitting for 400 million. That's the goal.
- [55:51]
Moderator
We can clap the guys actually, I mean 100 million sounds impressive. Okay, not bad.
- [55:56]
Vlad
Even though we're pacing 150. But you said you have agency that generates 400 million and that's where my question comes from. Any advice? Anything.
- [56:05]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What does your agency do?
- [56:06]
Vlad
So it's a performance marketing agency. We do lead generation. We generate leads for financial services. Mainly for insurances.
- [56:13]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [56:13]
Vlad
Auto insurance is one of the most like the main products.
- [56:18]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So is your art. So most of your ARB is happening mathematically in the platforms that have the most attention.
- [56:26]
Vlad
Yes, yes, you can say so.
- [56:28]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So I would say your opportunity is to. You have to make a decision because you have the ability to do more services. Right? You just heard me say to a gentleman, here are three added services you could do. All of them will eat into your short term ebitda. Right? Because you're playing in a very math game that works quite well. If you start doing things that are a little more analog, more people, less math, you'll start to eat into your ebitda. But it will grow your top line revenue. That's one option. The other option is how do you get your customers right? I assume word of mouth. I assume you're running performance marketing for yourself to get more customers. The other way you go from 100 to 400 is to build brand. Right? Vayner, my company, we don't do any RFPs. None. I've built so much brand, it just gets handed to us. So it's either brand expanded services because it's not grinding out what you're doing milking anymore. You're at such scale that you've fucking squeezed that you've squeezed that orange. You're trying to get more customers, more services so you can get more money from the people that are already paying you for performance or brand. So more people come to you that can't find you by doing a Google search or seeing you on Facebook.
- [57:58]
Vlad
Yeah, for everything what you said question. No, it's not.
- [58:01]
Gary Vaynerchuk
No, no, I want to hear it.
- [58:02]
Vlad
For everything what you say. I have some additional questions, but because we're running out of time, maybe we'll talk later.
- [58:07]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Do you need me to go?
- [58:08]
Moderator
No.
- [58:09]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Ok, go ahead.
- [58:10]
Vlad
I'm just saying there's a lot of things that I wanted to clarify with you, but maybe later on we can chat.
- [58:15]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm literally Gary@VaynerMedia.
- [58:17]
Moderator
Actually, guys, on the screen actually.
- [58:19]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [58:20]
Moderator
Scan a QR code.
- [58:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Scan that QR code. I'm literally flying back right now.
- [58:24]
Vlad
Thank you.
- [58:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Five hours back, I'll answer. Pleasure. Congrats, man. That's incredible.
- [58:28]
Moderator
Thank you so much. Gary Kantina, before you go. Thank you so much again. And before you go, we have some gifts from you.
- [58:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Besides, I'm Christina Mashrabo, 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.
- [58:48]
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- [59:18]
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- [59:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
See you later.