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People continue to look at AI as a job killer. I continue to see it as an accelerator for people that are on that grind. What I've been yelling about for 20 years about social media and building a brand again has often not hit every industry and every sector. Cause they didn't believe it mattered to them. You sit in the death star of your AI ecosystem and you can do the work of 25 people by yourself. That's what's coming. And so the quicker you learn what the fuck I'm saying, the quicker you can make more money. This is a full battleground now for attention. Attention has always been the asset. But what has changed is attention used to be available to a small group of companies that had a lot of money prior to 1990. To get attention, you had to be a very big company and spend big advertising budgets on billboards or radio or television or direct mail or print. The individual personnel is about to build a billion dollar corporation. If you look at the Rogans or the Alex Earls or Coopers or MrBeasts or me or Bartlett, like, it's incredible. Once you amass attention, what it can be deployed against in your career and building your empire, how did you make sure to stick to your own intuition and gut and not to make sure your judgment was clouded by anyone else? It is so much more fun to die on your own sword than someone else's. This is the GaryVee audio experience. Please welcome to the stage founder and CEO Vayner X and VaynerMedia Gary Vaynerchuk. Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Full disclosure, I'm incredibly excited right now. My son's basketball team just won their championship a few minutes ago, so I'm in very good spirits. It's a real honor to be here, especially because I associate so much with this audience. Right. First, I have so many friends in this business and obviously the other thing that I really admire from a lot of this audience is just kind of the grit and the hustle and just the mindset that goes into the competitive nature of the industry that you're in. And so most of my talk here today is going to be predominantly Q and A. So we're going to have a runner and I'm going to open up the questions because the reality is, is that so many of you have multiple verticals. Because I was talking to a bunch on DM on the way out here and know that some people might bring up other genres of flipping that might not just be tickets. It might be around Collectibles or things of that nature. And I definitely want to open that up for everyone here because we are living in an extremely interesting time where the competitive landscape is changing quite a bit because of the convergence of social blockchain and AI all at the same time. And obviously there's some OGs in here. Actually, for context, by show of hands, how many people have been in this business for over a decade? Raise your hands. So a lot of OGs. Respect. Obviously all of you know that so much has changed in this industry over the last decade and how much has happened with technology. And so I think for me Personally, the last 10 years of technology shifts are going to seem slow compared to the next 10. The amount of people that are going to be using AI agents and AI bots and agentic agents. How much does anyone here want to build a personal brand or not as a moat and as a lead gen machine? I think is very important. And just in general, like what other things, very honestly, from my standpoint, can your skill set bring other opportunities in the business world? I would say a couple things that I think about. Number one, everybody in this room, me included, and pretty much everyone in this hotel, this city, this country, we're all battling right now for the same thing. Even though you might not think you're in the same business as someone else, this is a full battleground now for attention. You know, attention has always been the asset. But what has changed is attention used to be available to a small group of companies that had a lot of money prior to 1990. To get attention, you had to be a very big company and spend big advertising budgets on billboards or radio or television or direct mail or print. The fact that like, as I look around this room and just look at the individual people in this room, I'm actually writing a book right now that will probably come out next year. It's called you'd Individual Empire. And basically the argument that I'm making is that the individual person now is about to build a billion dollar corporation. If you look at the Rogans or the Alex Earls or Coopers or MrBeasts or me or Bartlett, like, it's incredible once you amass attention, what it can be deployed against. When I come to a talk like this and think about this sector and think about, especially because, you know, I'm 50 now, not a kid, you know, I was buying my tickets from resellers like at the stadium, physically, before the game started 30 years ago to where we are now, a lot of shit has changed and there's ebbs and flows of who has the leverage. All of you know it's a game often of like cops and robbers with technology, everybody's looking for their arbitrage. One argument I'd like to make to everyone in this room is the only arbitrage you can rely on long term is the brand you build. Either the brand you build either for yourself if you are comfortable and interested in being out in front of or putting those energies to building some sort of brand equity in a brand that you create, which is incredibly foreign to a lot of people who really come from the angle often of just sales and arbitrage and flipping. And it's just a extremely worthwhile conversation for everyone in this room because I will say it again, please do not underestimate what is happening in the modern technology stack. How many people here by show of hands, this will actually be good and please participate even if you're a little lazy. By show of hands, how many people in this room now will go to ChatGPT or some other or Gemini to look up something that only 18 months ago they would go to Google search for Raise your hands, raise it high. Hi, I just need people to look around, especially front row to see what I'm looking at. Let me save you some time because I see some of you are not that athletic. It's, it's fucking everyone. This has happened, as you all know in the last 12 to 18 months, right. There's an incredible amount of things going on in the macro that is going to fundamentally impact how you make your money. My interest in being here and really where I'm trying to guide the conversation though, again especially since I see a shitload of people walking in right now when we go to Q and A. You can come at me with anything you've historically seen or any way I can bring you value. But me here guiding is I want you to control your outcomes. Technology takes us often out of that control. There's technology like this conference, the infrastructure that's great. I'm talking about where technology shifts the end consumer's attention. I believe that every one of us needs to start thinking more and more about brand, not less. What I've been yelling about for 20 years about social media and building a brand again has often not hit every industry and every sector. Cause they didn't believe it mattered to them. I believe more day by day it will. And again my intuition back to my thesis of where the world's going in an AI world, back to your individual empire. I believe a Lot of you are going to have more opportunities to do more things. People continue to look at AI as a job killer. I continue to see it as an accelerator for people that are on that grind. And you are going to be able to do more and get into more. And all of that going to lead itself to a question of are you building a brand or are you building a personal brand? And if you're not doing either, the person sitting next to you is going to and they're going to take more market share. So that is my marketing plea to a sales DNA because I believe in both separately. I think the biggest thing that I'm fascinated by is how bullish I am on experiential, which I think fits incredibly well to everyone here. I believe it is very clear what's going on in society which is we're going into a barbell. On this extreme side is extreme technology. AI, AR and VR are not. Are now within a decade striking distance and then all the way on the other side with nothing in the middle. The winners are going to be the people that are living in real life. You know, I think events are going to explode over the next decade. I think you'll see more events stand up. I think one thing that I'm paying a lot of attention to as an investor and again thrilled to answer any questions that people want to go with this is alternative sports. I think if you look at what's going on with alternative sports, I mean the sailing league, the golf, the new golf leagues, pickleball, all this stuff, there's just so many sports standing up because the attention of social media and streaming services has allowed more opportunity. I think that experiential and events, marathons and punchline being more tickets will be sold because of how long the tail is going to be of events over the next decade. So I think that's going to sit extremely well for this audience. So I think these are the themes that I'm thinking about. Then I get into the other thing that I would love to answer questions. How many people here have multiple employees? Raise your hands. How many people here have more than five? So the other thing that I'm happy to go into the Q and A is how to build out teams and incentivize. Right now I know a lot of you, if you even know who I am, are aware of my content in social this part of my life. What a lot of people don't know is that I'm the active CEO of a 3,000 person advertising agency called Vayner X has three agencies underneath, including VaynerMedia. And so like I was sitting in my hotel room since 7am doing calls until about 15 minutes ago to come here and having meetings with hundreds and hundreds of employees in different group settings. And I do think a lot about team building and how to manage and how to get the most out of blah, blah, blah. So again, what I'm trying to do here in the upfront of this and team, by the way, do I know where the runner is? Is that in the back? Oh, the very handsome man there with the mustache and the red shirt. Beautiful. You want to stand up? Let's clap it up louder. Keith, what is it? Love it. All right, so about five more minutes, but I really just want to go into the details. I don't think people need to hear my macro spiel. I want to get into the dirt. But I will say for the people with the hands, like team building, brand building, entrepreneurial opportunities, you know, again, because I think I'm going off of the DMs I got for this talk, I'm incredibly bullish of what's going on in the collectibles universe. I think we haven't even begun to see what's actually happening. I think it leads to my thesis about the real world when you see hundreds of thousands of people show up to Comic Con and the National Trading Card Convention and things of that nature. So if you look at the Labubu phenomenon, if you look at kind of what's going on, I think collectibles is a huge green shoot for the next decade. And a lot of people think it's already happened because trading cards and sneakers and watches, comics and vintage clothes reselling and all that is so hot. I think the data is very clear that it hasn't even begun. My personal intuition is that a lot of you have that same skill set and it could be an expander. So happy to go into that. I know a lot of you are already doing it based on the DMs I got. And then if anybody wants to go into this, this is a little bit potentially more left field, but might play for you. I think the other thing that I'm incredibly obsessed with and happy to touch on if you have any questions, is live shopping. I think what's going on with live social shopping? The QVCIFICATION of social media in China. 700 billion. I'm going to say it again. $700 billion worth of stuff sells in China on live social shopping platforms in the us, in the west, in Europe. It's just getting Going TikTok shop is cooking now with gas. There's a startup called Whatnot that I'm sure some of you are familiar with. That is what not. You know, the numbers are blurry because they're private, but 7 to 11 billion dollars in GMV gross merchandise value sold through Whatnot last year. How many people here, which is appropriate. How many people here have no idea what whatnot is? Raise your hands, raise it high. I want people to look. More than half this room has no fucking clue what the app is. And they did. 11 billion in stuff sold through it speaks to the speed and the power of what's going on in that. So happy to talk about that. And then finally, anything random in entrepreneur land or operating land, I'm here for you. So I want to. I want to go massively into Q and A. So thank you for having me, everyone. Let's go. Who's got questions? Oh, he's making you run on the first one and you don't have socks on, but you're stylish as fuck. Please stand and give me your name. My man. Hey, Gary. I'm Gabriel. Daniel or Gabriel. Gabriel. Such a pleasure, bro. So we're in a little bit of an industry where people like to hate on a TikTok generation, where people hear 20 second sound bites and love to hate on brokers or resellers. They don't understand the value for 98% of the events. You know, you're a branding genius. You know, if there's a lot of different things, value that we provide, how can we as an industry, as individuals bring that to the world without. It's a great question, Gabriel, and I'm aware that that is true. And I think it's a. This is why I talked about what I started with, which is my hope is that there are dozens and dozens of people at this convention, but overall and potentially our hosts here or other people in the industry that need to fight fire with fire. Like every time somebody puts out a sound bite, TikTok that says you're a piece of shit because of Taylor Swift, you need to put out content of like, that's cute. But what about the 99% of events that desperately need our infrastructure or they wouldn't exist? Like, you either say it or you don't. Communication and marketing and branding has always been the same. You're either saying it or you don't. I think a lot of times when an industry gets attacked, there's a natural sense to go on back foot. And here's where I Think things are complicated. This is why politics is so fucked up, Gabe. Nothing's 100%. So I think a lot of people here may agree with the 1 to 3 or 4%. That is fucked up. And then that makes them rendering to not feel like they want to go on the offense. So whether it's a trade association that makes content, whether it's individuals that want to have that fight, you know, the truth is the truth is the truth, right? That is the best part of the social media era. Everyone's pissed because we didn't want to face the fucking truth, right? Everybody's super mad at social and thinking it's all fucked up. Social didn't change you. Social exposed you. And so this is a true mirror. It's, you know, the information's out. There's a lot of truth to what you said. We need to make content as an industry about the positives. And as you know, most people don't want that heat. They're like, fuck it, I'm not dealing with that shit. I'm just going to sell my tickets, which I respect, but if no one does it, this is what's going to be the outcome. Appreciate it. Thank you, my man. Who's got a question? My name is Jordan. Jordan. So did you ever have any capital issues growing any of your businesses? And if you did, what were your solutions? Did you just push through it until you got through it? Do you. Did you ever seek any investors? What was really your solution? I always did. My fucking dad didn't even have a credit line for our liquor store because he was so immigrant. When I started VaynerMedia 14 years ago because my dad didn't pay me anything while I was building his business. I had to start VaynerMedia in another company's conference room because I didn't have capital to pay for rent and I didn't want to dilute my company. My super. How many, actually, how many people here are familiar somewhat with my content? Raise your hands. I appreciate it. So the people that raise the hands, you guys know this. I pound content around. Patience. Pound it. I believe in it. How old are you, Jordan? 20. Fuck. So, you know, it's crazy. Actually, four days ago was the 20th anniversary of my first wine video on YouTube. Right? Like, I was literally starting to be a social media content creator and you were literally in your mother's stomach. You know, like, for me, there's two. I believe in general, most people get fucked up when they want something too fast. And I get really worried because I think a Lot of people in this room, the world, want to get a lot of things fast, to close the insecurities of the judgment they have from the outside. You want to get the paper to show everybody. And so for me, me, Jordan, I just waited. It was all patience because I didn't want to dilute, I didn't want to overextend, I didn't want to get into debt. I just ate the shit that came along with not having the paper and built and built and built and really didn't start until 34 and kind of did it over the last 16 years. Listen, raising capital is not a bad thing. It's very strategic for a lot of people. A lot of people raise capital for no reason other than they're impatient and they want it faster. Obviously, when you need capital to get the inventory, to resell it. I get the game that you're, you know, I get that there's a lot of different ways for you to think about it. I'm not against raising capital, but I'm very against not knowing why you want to make more money. And I know that sounds super weird, but like, if you're living your full life, I need to understand what these 6 and 12 and 24 month windows really are. And I think a lot of people run into it. And so especially at that young of an age. But if you're missing out on opportunity because you have access to something, you just don't have the capital to make the arbitrage. Borrowing, selling other shit or being patient. All are in play equally with raising money and giving up a piece of the action to someone that put up the capital. It's a, to sum it up for you, brother, every person here has their own journey on this answer. It depends what's going on inside, you know. Thank you. You're welcome. My man. Questions? I know there was a young lady here. Yeah, you were just there two seconds ago. 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. Thank you. Nikki. What's your name? My name's Cody Kobe. Cody Kobe? Yeah. No, with a D, C, O, D, Y, C, O, B, Y, Y. With an E. Got it. A couple of us went to the Intercom convention in October. I'm sorry, can you. Sure. A couple of us went to your the convention in October with Intercom where we talked a lot about AI and agenc agents and that being the future of. In New York. Yes. Thank you. CEOs of the future being people who know how to operate AI agents and really leveling up that tech support. My question is, and real quick to that, if I make. I apologize just real quick on this AI thing, at least for the next half decade, like, AI is not taking your money or your jobs. People that know how to use air. So this is the fucking computer. This is the Internet. This is the mobile device. This is like the same old game over and over and over. Whoever doesn't demonize the new technology and weaponizes it outflanks the majority that demonize it and fear it. But go ahead. Yeah. My question is, for industries like ours that are implementing AI agents in several different aspects of our industry, what advice do you have for combating the resistance to interacting with AI agents and being able to deploy those agents in a manner that create a good experience for the business owners as well as the customers that they're interacting with? I mean, I understand what you're saying. Everybody here who's scared that AI is going to fuck up their paper are going to get killed. Thanks, everyone. See you next time. You know, there is like, this is not very complicated. It's very emotional. I understand why people. Do you think I want AI? I'm pissed. I'm at the top of the fucking game. I don't need this fucking robotic fucking crazy shit to fuck me up. But I have no choice. Sorry that your parents had sex and created you, but you live here now. Like, we're in. This is it. This is when you were born. Good news. You weren't born when the Black Plague happened. You weren't born when you had a fucking storm, Normandy. This is when you were born. And you're gonna have to deal with this shit. And the answer is, like coming up with a bunch of bullshit excuses over drinks tonight at the, you know, at the tables of why AI won't work because secretly you're scared that it's gonna fuck you is not a good business strategy. So the answer to your question is learn it and figure out how to use it for you, because it's coming for you. And again, it's not it. It's the 17 fuckers in here who are happy that no one's doing anything. Cause they're gonna use it and they're gonna dominate. It's the people using the tool, not the tool yet. You know, do I think most of you will have grandchildren who marry robots? I do, but that's a different topic. For a different day. Let's dig in. I really believe that, by the way, on the record especially, this is a very young crowd looking around. I think a lot of you are going to have grandkids that marry AI robots. So get ready for that insane shit. I'm laughing because humans are so fucked up. We get fucked up with marriages between race and religion and gender. That's going to be child's play to when your fucking granddaughter brings home a fucking AI robot. Dude. Thank you. Questions? That shit's going to be crazy. Hey, Gary. My name is Matthew. Matthew, yeah. So I know you were an early investor in Facebook and you're talking about AI. What AI companies would you suggest investing in right now? I haven't invested in any of them. Because unlike when I invest, my first three investments were Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Right? I came out the gate like fucking rookie of the year. Then I fucking got high on my own supply and fucked away a lot of money. I've been smart with AI. A lot of my friends have lost a lot of money already. And there'll be some big wins. But the problem with AI, how many people here would say tangentially, they're following the AI stuff? Nano, Banana, like, raise your hands, Anthropic, one more time, just hi. Oh, a lot of you. So you all know what I'm about to say. Unlike the last 30 years that I've been in the game and then the history that I've learned, this shit moves too fast, right? The reason I haven't invested in anything is you get three smart kids and they're like, we built this. And then like an hour later, Google's like, we built this. That's 10 times better. And then like a day later, Anthropic's like, fuck, Google's thing. We built this. And it's like the speed in which the tools and the apps are being built are so fast. So I don't want to bullshit you. I've literally not deployed any capital. I'm waiting. And I also think the incumbents are gonna be the big winners. How the fuck do you compete as a startup when Zucks is paying $150 million signing bonus to an AI engineer? This is gonna be a Microsoft, Google, Facebook. Like, there'll be startups, but I haven't gotten deep into it. Cause a lot of stuff that I like is just going to get destroyed by the bigger platforms. Thank you. Of course, man. We got one here in the way in the back. My man in the cut back there. What's up, man? It's Brett. Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you again. You, you know, you talk a lot about AI being a tool. Yep. Obviously, in our business, the biggest tool is probably us, you know, the person and what we bring in value. And you also mentioned earlier about other things that tie into our skill sets and where we tie into selling different products and flipping, I guess. Where do you see in learning about what we do, where do you see us translating to in some of those different areas you mentioned earlier? All of them. How many people here think they're good at buying and then reselling something? Raise your hands. You fuckers just stumbled into tickets. Like, literally this skill set that you sit on, all of you, is one of the single most important skill sets in the world. It works. It's real shit. The reason I said yes to this talk is I identify as a salesperson. I also identify as a marketing and brand person. Sales is what you do when you're not great at marketing and brand. When you're great at marketing and brand, it comes to you. And that's what I want for all of you, comma, that's a different game. And we can get into that. I just think that anything that you put your mind to, to learn what the arbitrage is, is in play for you. And I believe there's an enormous amount of buying and selling arbitrage that is now going to be in play because of AEO Geo Live shopping. We're literally E commerce and social are resetting. Think about what fucking E commerce and social has meant to the world for the last 20 years. So now it's getting reset with all this change. And when shit resets, that's when opportunity comes. And so that's how I see it. Yeah, bro. When I first heard cuckoo, you know, fucking Jordan wasn't even fucking born yet. Like, I was like, shit, this stuff is gonna really fucking matter. Do you know my number one plan when I was 17 was to open up 100 liquor stores? That's what I was gonna do in life. And then I heard that thing and I was like, fuck that I'm doing this. I didn't even know what the fuck it was. I just knew the information superhighway was gonna be a thing. And then that's been the course of my career. I always have a good sense of the thing and I'm. And here's something I would say to all of you that I think is very important right at this moment. I'm always most interested in putting myself out of business before someone else does it. And that's what I'm thinking about while I'm right here with you. Yeah. Or as you start playing this out and things start happening, whatever that might be, I just like you all realizing your buyers and sellers, not a ticket broker. And like, how many people here have flipped sneakers in their life? Great. How many people here flipped sneakers when I started making content in 2018, saying, the sneaker kids are about to go into trading cards. Raise your hands, raise it high, just so I get a number. So these seven, 20 people, you. You saw it. I saw that this thing was coming. And the same skill set that worked on flipping Yeezys or rare Air Force ones was going to work, but there was more scale coming in, cards, easier, more arbitrage. That financial boom has been significant. And just, I think that's gonna keep repeating itself. And if you, if you and everybody else gets good at managing your AI, you'll be able to flip everything. Not just sneakers, not just tickets, not just cards, comics, coin, like that's what I'm hoping for. Some of you, right, you sit in the death star of your ecosystem and you can do the work of 25 people by yourself. That's what's coming. And so the quicker you learn what the fuck I'm saying, the quicker you can make more money and go downstairs and fucking blow it all because you're all psychos like me. You know, it's just our DNA. That's why I'm here. All right. Yep. So, hi, my name's Tony. Tony. So I'm working on this product called Seed Sentry. And we build solutions and tools for brokers to actually scale their business and do better and buy more tickets and, you know, faster monitor restocks and stuff like that. So outside of going to these conferences to kind of market our product, what would you suggest we do to, you know, get more brokers on our platform? So you've heard of social media, but let me tell you what that joke is meant to do to set up. How many of you are aware of what I'm about to say, which is social media died four years ago, and for the last four years, we've been in interest media, which means you no longer get the content on your feeds from the people you follow, like your fucking cousin or your best friend from middle school. You get content based on what you've recently been into. Does everybody agree with that? Raise your hands. So this is your biggest opportunity, brother. It's super crazy where we are in social. Do you Know that if you went outside right now and made a video of eating a banana and drinking a rum and coke and posted it, that people that have a high propensity of interest in bananas and rum and coke might be the first people that see that content. All you have to do is make organic social media content. That starts with why every ticket broker should use this over and over and over again in as many different ways as possible across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, LinkedIn, different thumbnails, different hooks. Complete insane psycho discipline. Hopefully the product's good enough that when you acquire, you're getting LTV and getting word of mouth, but your whole business, you can actually reach these people in their feeds by making the contact organically without them even following you. You need to become a psycho at that. Question. Hey, Gary. My name is Chris. Chris, just go a little closer, brother. This work. Yeah, brother. Thank you. All right, my question for you is about like a lot of people in this room are young entrepreneurs, maybe with one company, maybe with a handful of employees, maybe none. How did you go from. Or do you have any advice for people very early in their entrepreneurial endeavors, like going from one company to maybe two and being able to wear those different hats. And now if we even look at the screen, all of the different companies that you're a part of. For me, that screen, like most of my richest friends, shit on me for how I do it right. That screen represents not maximizing dollars and maximizing what I'm interested in. I like juggling. I like the chaos. I'm like really involved in a lot of, if not all of those business. Here's what I would say, brother, if you actually, if that is scratching your itch. So what I'm trying to say with my first answer is you don't need to do more than one company. In fact, a lot of people should only do one company because they struggle with the juggling. I don't know who the fuck the best juggler in the world is right now because I'm not into circus shit. But whoever that person is, I am a business version of that. I'm very good at this. This is all built on turning employees into family. The reason this works is because my brother runs our sports agency and somebody I've known for 20 years runs my TV production company. And resy. How many people familiar with Rezi, the restaurant app, how many people here had no idea that I co created, invented and ran that company? So like, there's so much shit I do, like that was done Because I had dinner with one of my best buds in business, Ben Leventhal for seven years. We had a really strong relationship and I just started a fund and he had just left NBC and over dinner on December 15th, we invented Resy, which was the restaurant app. Like the Uber of restaurant apps is how we first thought about it. And then we evolved and evolved. Every single thing there veefriends is run by two kids that have been with me for 15 years. Right. Everything there is based on my first core business that was my own VaynerMedia building it, building employees that stayed there for a long time because I cared more about them than I cared about myself. And then I had the emotional and financial leverage to create more opportunities with them. And so if you want to go into a lot of stuff you can't run, you can be the. I am the CEO or chairman of all. And how many people here have more than three children or three or more children? Raise your hands. So the people that just raised their hands are going to understand this. You know, when you have three or more children, you're giving your energy to the child that's most fucked up at the moment and you bounce around. Same with me, right? I'm driving. But my weeks, my days, my months can go into different places. That works for me, that does not work for everyone. It's not even the most efficient thing for everyone. But it will be creating family members. The way you do that at this young of an age is really give a shit about the other people too, you know, to start building that longevity. I love football, American football. Like I think about offensive lines that have continuity always leads to good stuff. That's how I think about businesses. I want continuity. But ultimately for everyone in this room, the biggest financial upside is on the other side of the self awareness rainbow. Do you know yourself? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you're good at? What I knew was I was in a nice guy's finish first. I knew I was going to be good to people, which allowed me to build a huge human infrastructure. Most people in business are straight dick faces to people. They can't build that same thing, but they could build something else. And so it's a self awareness game. You got to know yourself. But if you want to do a lot of different things, you're going to need real relationships. Because if it's just based on the money that's being made, it will break. Thank you. Thanks for all the questions, everyone. My man, I'm Randy. Randy. This summer I'll be a 50 year old G. So you are twinkle at the time. Can't wait to see you there, bro. Anyway, my thought is this, is the customer always right in your world and if they're not, what do you do about it? The customer has been right 100% of the time in my entire 30 year career. Because my opinion that they're wrong based on my emotions or my financial status is always wrong. This is sports. The customer's always right. I mean they could like you can. I'm going macro when I say the customer's always right is your business results. Are your business results. Do I like in the individual instance, can a customer like do the wrong thing? Of course they can commit fraud or lie or do the wrong thing. But in the macro, if my shit's not selling, that's on me. So that's what I spend all my time. So I don't have an answer for you of when they're wrong. All I think about is product, market, fit. The results are the results. This is sports. It's my favorite thing about sports. Randy, do you know why everybody loves sports? Because everything else is fucked with politics, university, corporations, sports. It's sports. That's why I love ufc. It's the best version of sports. Nobody can get knocked the fuck out and then in the post game be like I won't. But we do that in life all the time on some bullshit. And that's why I love sports the most and business second most. It's the closest thing. It's quiet. My man. Hey, what's going on? Gary, it's Greg. Pleasure. So as you started multiple companies and met more and more successful people, how did your views and mindset on money change? On money? Yes. 0 my relationship with money has been the exact same my whole life, which is, I'm aware of it, I understand what freedoms and leverage it creates. But I got really fucking lucky bro. Like genuinely lucky, both DNA wise and circumstance and how it all played out. I've just had a very healthy relationship with it my whole life, which is, I really don't think. I definitely do not believe that my self worth is wrapped up in how much of it I get. And so thank you, thank you. Thanks randy. See us 50 year olds know what the fuck is going on. You know what I mean bro? Like I have, it hasn't really, you know, I've gotten more strategic. Like I've learned along the way from like being a street kid with like oh, like this is how you can raise money. Like I've learned things about it, but it, you know, has always been the same thing, which is I've always lived within my means of it. Like, how many people under the age of 28 in the room? Raise your hands. You're going to like this one. Youngsters from 20 to 28, the most money I made in a year was $54,000. I just lived in a fucking shitty apartment and didn't do shit, so. And I was fucking pumped. I was building a huge business for my father. He was fucking me, but he's my dad, and so I was fine with it. Plus, we're immigrants. Like, he wasn't really fucking me. Who here is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant? Raise your hands. You know what I'm about to say. My dad wasn't really meaning to fuck me. For context, everyone. I started running my Dad's business at 22. I was working in the liquor store since I was 14. It was doing 3 million a year from 98 to 2005. I grew it from 3 to 65 million, and I didn't get paid shit. But my dad wasn't trying to fuck me. He just thought I would inherit it because that's what immigrants do. He was like, you'll get this when I die. I was like, dad, you have remarkable genetics, and I'm 20 years younger than you. I'm gonna inherit this shit at 70 fucking 8 years old. And that's why I left at 34 after I built it and kind of did my own thing. But, you know, like, so in my 20s, when I think a lot of people are fucked up with their money, it just not. And I know that you live in a world now where everyone's, like, flashing what they're flashing on social and all that, but, like, the outside world has never been a factor. And how I've navigated my life and my relationship's been really healthy with it. I also am a psycho, bro. Do you know Rocky 5? The weird one where he goes back to Philly because he, like, lost all his shit? That's my favorite Rocky. Like, I. This is real. This is now some therapy shit. So just bear with me. I, like, secretly want to lose it all, to just start all over and build it up again. So I'm. I've got some problems. There's a little bit of that. Questions. Hey, Gary, it's Ari. Ari, how are you? Good. So I see you invested in the pickleball team. Yes. You own the Fives. I'm a big fan, Annalee. And the squad thank you. Question. How did you decide to get into pickleball? What. What got you to that? And if I wanted to invest in pickleball because I love playing it, is it too late? And if not, like, where would I start? I invested because I have a business partner in the Vayner X world. I bought his company, you could see on the purple screen called Purewow. His name's Ryan Harwood. He played number one singles tennis at Penn. He's like a tennis fucking nerd. Like, he's got. He's got real problems. He named his son Roger. He loves Roger Federer and talks about him every day and claims that he did not name his son Roger because of Roger Federer. So he was interested in pickleball. He kind of brought the opportunity to me. I did some homework on it, Ari. What caught my attention was how many views pickleball was getting on social organically when no one knew what the fuck it was seven years ago. So I was like, this is interesting. I thought it could be a good TV sport. The team only cost me $500,000. Not only it's a lot of money, but like, to own a whole fucking sports team in a league. Teams are now selling for 16 to 20 million. So I've done well on paper. It could all fold. Is it too late? Not if you think what we think, which is like, it still has. It's early, but, you know, sports is so high risk, high reward, you know, like to become a real league. But there's so many ways to invest in it. Do I think people are gonna play it forever? Yes, I do. And so you can invest in the gear companies, the racket companies at the league level. You'll have to wait for the league to go public or you'll have to have real paper to be able to get into the league. There'll probably be more leagues that pop up. There's Padel that's got a lot going on. So there's individual units like pickleball, locations that you could invest in. I think the sport has real legs mainly because, like, people watch it. Thank you. You're welcome. My bro. Hey, Gary, what's up? My name's David. David. David, yeah. Pleasure. I have. Being a ticket broker, obviously, I think a very big, important part of the business is sharing leads or sort of like collaborating with other brokers. Okay. Find out how to expand your business. Yep. I've personally been burnt in the past by another broker by personally giving some deals over and not really receiving. Yep. It's come to the point where I'm obviously successful, but I want to also expand my business. How many. How many times has someone really. You like that? It happened once, and since then I. Yeah, that's fucking unacceptable. Yeah. But it happens and it's going to happen and it's going to keep on happening. But, like, you're letting fear dictate your business. Right. So how do you not. The question is you have to. Not. You have to. But you should collaborate with other brokers. So the question is, how do you do it the right way? Where by stop being a bitch and try it again. So stop being a bitch and try again? Yes. Okay, so what would be some tips that you can give me to stop being a bitch and try again? By not being scared of getting fucked again, but also trying to rely a little bit more on reputation. I assume there are people in here who have a very good reputation in collabing and so doing a little more homework on reputation, you know? But why I went there with you is. Cause I'm just trying to help everyone. Like the. I just said it with my Rocky Balboa thing. Like, I'm just never scared to get fucked up. I need to put that into context. I mean, I'm not scared either, so. But you are, right? And I want to help you because it is. I'm proud of you. Because you can feel that it's limiting you. You're taking one bad experience and deploying it. And to me, it's like, if I was sitting out here and 13 people here fucked me, I'd be like, who's number 14? That's just where I'm at with double you, you know? And so I just. I just think you're. You're good, brother. I hope this interaction gives you the ability to leap again, because do not take one person, bro, that had nothing to do with you. That had to do with them being a piece of shit. That should not stop you from growing. Right. Okay. Thank you. You got it. Hey, Gary. Name's Tim. Tim. Congratulations on being by a lot of people. You said you. You secretly want to, you know, lose everything. Yeah. If you could, with all the technology, AI and everything. In 2026, if you were to lose it all, you know, what would you go into and. And start today? And second question. Being in Vegas, I know you're a huge jets fan. Lines at five and a half games this year. Are we going over or under? We're fucking Nepo. Patriot fans are such fuck faces. I think we might go under. We have a. We have a Tougher schedule this year. A little bit. I still think we're rebuilding. But a nice little trade today that I thought was strategic. It. Tim, it's so funny you asked me that question. I've already referenced it once. No bullshit. If I got wiped, I would literally do this. The first skill I have to go from zero to something is to buy something for less than I can sell it for. Like, if I really went to zero, like, let's just go to the full extreme. And my face got ripped off while I went to zero, so I couldn't even leverage my personal brand. Remember that weird movie like Nicholas Cage and Troll? Like if my face. Yeah, Face Off. Thank you. If my face got ripped off and nobody would believe that I'm Gary and I'm like dead zero. I'm literally going to fucking flea markets and garage sales and the goodwill and buying shit for fucking two bucks and selling it on eBay for seven. Buying and selling, I think is one of the great gifts some of us are given. My admiration for all of you having that is very high. I am literally here because of that. Cause I'm picking and choosing the places I want to speak to. I want to be in my Gish books, I want to be in my crew. That's what I feel towards all of you. And ironically, it is my safe haven when all else goes to zero. I can buy and sell shit. Awesome. Thank you. Yep. Hey, Gary, Mike, Gao, thanks for all the content you put out. Thank you for a long time. Thank you, brother. What are the most important qualities you look for in hiring people? You've obviously got a lot of people that you surround yourself with to help you be successful. Number one, I did two hiring meetings today. Like literally the entire meeting is if you are insecure. This is literally me talking to the person on Zoom today. If you're insecure, you need to know that that is the seed for you being political in our company and you will be fucked. So the number one thing I look for is people that are just naturally content or self confident, not rearing with insecurity. You probably know this. A lot of people are very good at things because they're insecure, but it's short term fuel and it runs out. And so a lot of people get confused and hire people like that. Or some of you are literally running on that fuel right now. You're making money because of your insecurity. But bro, I don't know if you know this. All of this shit, this whole world, it's all Star Wars. It's All Jedis versus the dark side. They're very close. But I don't know if you know this, like, Darth Vader loses, Emperor loses. Like, you lose with that. So I focus fully on self esteem versus insecurity. And then I. Then I look for people that are capable of communicating and being communicated to. Because once you're in our family, I'm desperate to make you successful. I. I'll give it everything I've got. And we will give you kind candor if we're like, hey, this, that. And so insecurity and confidence and then communication capabilities. Everything else I can train. Got you. Hi again, it's Brett. Two part question number one. With all these entities and everything you have going on, how do you personally stay focused and do one thing at a time yourself? I don't do one thing at a time. Okay. And then the second part of it is how have you incorporated mental health and awareness and stuff that's important to you in that area, to your. All your companies? So back to the question about money. I think a lot of mental health issues are around money, but I don't think it's not having it. I think it's not living within it. And so detachment matters too. Like, I think it would surprise people in here how little I give a fuck about my companies, my bank account, and my personal brand. So it's very easy for me to prioritize my mental health and my family, because it's what I prioritize. But that doesn't mean, like, literally, you saw my opening. You know how fucking pissed I am that I'm here. My son's team lost their first three fucking games of the year. You think? I thought they were going to rattle off 11 in a row and get to the championship. So when I booked this, I thought I was safe, but I was fucked. And so I'm dead in the green room right now. So it's not like I choose family over, like, I could have canceled this. I can't. Because the way I was raised is I couldn't make this commitment and not be here. But it crushed me today. Cause I missed a moment that I would remember for the rest of my life. So it's, you know, but it's. But then I'm okay with that because I don't think my son's gonna fucking hate me his whole life the way modern parents think they have to be at every fucking thing, right? So, you know, it's just having balance, you know, having balance and trying to make the best decisions. I Can and being okay that I'm a bro, you know, many things I fuck up. Like I don't understand how everybody here doesn't understand that we're all humans. For everybody who beat real talk, let's be a little vulnerable for a second. Just out of curiosity, who feels like they beat themselves up pretty good when they fuck shit up? Raise your hands. Good. Cause I don't. So this is. I'm pumped right now. I need you to listen to me one more time. Every hand up friends. Everybody else in this room fucking sucks too. I'm serious. I do not understand why we're putting other people on a pedestal. Everybody back to sports. Not every game, not every play, not every season is good. We need to be, we need to have more self love. So, you know, all of that's, you know, back. I'll wrap up your whole thing and how I run these companies. I have three full time assistants and two chiefs of staff. There are five human beings whose full time job in life is to maximize every minute of mine. So it's a lot of infrastructure. Two, I'm doing the thing I said earlier. I'm giving the love to the thing that has the most offense or the most defense needs. I never play in the middle. Makes sense. So I'm always looking at like, where's the biggest opportunity or biggest down or biggest vulnerability. So I'm playing there. And then. Mental health has always been super easy for me. Cause I'm utterly detached. Even the joke that I'm making about, you know, being rocky, it's because I'd be okay and I would secretly, you know why this is like, you know who I would have been great as being a visiting athlete in a stadium, booing the fuck out of him. I would have loved being that fucking person. There's something about that that I love. And. And so the reason I secretly want to lose everything is so all of you make blog posts and social media posts saying that I was never really that good and I was always full of shit because I enjoy rebuilding up in the adversity. I love the fucking dirt. And then, you know, from a human standpoint, I just trying the best I can, you know, when you know you're trying the best you can if you can actually get there. Now some of you may be beating yourself up because you know, you're not, you know, you are being selfish. You know, like that's different that you've got to work through. But for me personally, I'm trying. Thank you, bro. Hi. Hi. I'm Allison Allison, so you talked about being detached. Yes. I also know you talk a lot about empathy. And so I'm curious how you're able to. I'm detached from my selfishness. You know what I need because I'm good. And then empathy comes, you know, empathy's a gift, you know, and there's a reason. There's three different words. Compassion, sympathy, and empathy. They're different. Do you know why I'm a good salesman? Cause I know what you're thinking and feeling. That's a fucking gift. And you can do a lot of damage with that gift or you could do a lot of good. And I just had a world class mother that made sure I went down the good path. But empathy comes natural to me. I always think about the other person, which is why back Chris, why I was able to build that. Right. Because I did care about like, I'm not saying it to be. I don't even know if it's cool. I'm not saying it to be cool up here. I'm saying it because it's really what happened. So empathy, just like, you know, I see to my son when he was four, they're outside playing when another kid falls and cries. He stops and comes over and he's like, sad. I'm like, fuck, that was me. I just feel it. And you, is that you? Yeah. So it's hard for me. It's hard to balance. Yeah. You know, it's funny, it's harder for me to be detached, you know, for other people than it is from my own success. It's hard for me too, when you're overly empathetic. But honestly, I've learned how to, to the best of my ability. Because you have to protect boundaries. What's that? Boundaries. Yeah. And you gotta do things that are uncomfortable. Right. Like, I used to struggle giving people feedback because I thought I would scare them and they thought they would get fired. And I sucked at it, which created entitlement, which fucked up everything. So, like, you live and learn. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Gary Frank here. Pleasure. Congrats to your son, first of all. Thank you. I'm sure we all really appreciate. He had three late. So I'm super fired up. I got to see the highlights in your career and building your empire. What? How did you make sure to stick to your own intuition and gut and not to make sure your judgment was clouded by anyone else? Came easy to me because I have a very big belief and I'm really happy you asked that question because I think you're going to help somebody in this room, especially the youngsters. I need you to hear this. It is so much more fun to die on your own sword than someone else's. So I got lucky. I was a kid, and my dad had this local business. And at 14, I'm, like, stocking shelves and bagging ice for 10 hours a day. And about three weeks in, because I'd been slinging baseball cards for three years. I tell my mom one day in, like, sixth grade, I'm like, mom, I think I'm a better businessman than dad. Like, just knew, just fucking knew that I was better. And what ended up happening was in my late teenage years, when I was kind of running the business with my dad many times. Cause I was a kid, I would have to kind of go with what my dad wanted to do versus me. And it would always not work. And it fucking sucked, and I hated it. And so I just promised myself when I would get to a place, that I would never do that again. And it's one of the reasons, even with my brother in vaynersports right now, it's sometimes a struggle for me because I'll also never be that guy. My dad did that to me. He would come in, even though I was working 15 hours a day, he'd come in and try to make a change. And I was like, I'm in the trenches. My brother's in the trenches on vaynersports. And so I'm the 1B now. I'm big bro and I'm me and all that. But there's many times where we do things that he wants to do, and, like, it kills me. And when it doesn't work, it triple kills me. So how did. How. Because of the way I grew up. It was always instilled in me that I'm dying on my fucking sword. And I promise you, everyone, it's way better. It's way better. Now, if somebody around you is right three times in a row, that might just mean they're better than you. Like, if somebody was right around me four times in a row, I would start only listening to them. That just hasn't been the case. Not because I don't have good people around me or better people than me around me. It's just that I don't make decisions by guessing. And I'm in my shit. I'm not some executive that's living some sort of bougie life, fucking playing golf and shit. Like, I work and I'm in my shit, and I know my shit. And so when you Know your shit. The fuck would you listen to someone else for? Thank you so much. I got time for one more. I apologize. Hey. Hey, Gary. I'm Noah, by the way. I'm sorry to interrupt you, brother. Anybody who didn't get their question asked, I'm flying home tomorrow. The phone number there is a platform I use to answer people's questions. If it's a burning question you need it, you can take a photo and text me. Go ahead, bro. I know you've been passionate over the last many years about NFTs. And yes, thinking about your take right now. Where's where our NFTs blockchain, crypto. And especially in a world that's becoming more competitive with AI around actual physical energy infrastructure. Yeah, how do you think about that in the future? The energy infrastructure is above my pay grade. I spent a ton of time, like, reading about, like, the big tech companies and all that stuff, but honestly, like, I got Fs in science for a reason. So, like, I won't talk about that. I will talk about a couple of things. One, everybody here is about to realize why the blockchain matters. The blockchain is a ledger of proof. Every video on the Internet in 48 months is going to be fake. Every one of you. I just need everyone to wrap their head around this. Everybody in this room, me included, will not believe a single video they see on the Internet in three years. None. You will not believe it. So the blockchain is gonna get important, like minting the original. Like, we're all gonna know everyone's official public address. There's a little bit of tech there that I don't fully understand, but I believe the blockchain is gonna really help us in AI comma. I'm obsessed with digital collectibles. As I stand here today, I'm aware that 99% of the world thinks that NFTs are scams. I'm also aware, because I'm in it every day, that $11 million worth of NFTs were bought by collectors last week. In a world where everybody believes it's a scam, literally 99% to sell $11 million in a week is profound. Just like in the. Oh, Randy fucking left. Who's over 50 in the room, raise your hands. Thank you, OGs. Oh, geez. Remember when the Internet stocks in April 2000 all went from $150 to $3 and it all crashed? And all the articles in the Wall Street Journal was. The Web was a fad for the kids in here? Jordan, you will not believe this shit. In April 2000, all the Internet stocks were overvalued because Wall street got greedy on this new profound technology and everyone got ahead of their skis. And literally pets.com was worth $4 billion and had zero dollars in sales and went from $130 a share to zero. Amazon, eBay and PayPal were there and went from 200, 300 a share to 3, 4 bucks. That's what happened in NFTs. Digital collectibles are going to be real forever. But 99.9% of NFTs were always destined to be zero. Just like 99% of sneakers are not collectibles and 99% of watches are not collectibles. And 99% of comic books and trading cards are not. But I'm buying more NFT stuff now because it's a shit market waiting for the other side. Can I just ask, what is it? What's interesting to you in the NFTs that you're buying? The only one that I believe 100% is IronCloud, is Cryptopunks because it's got history on its side. The other ones are characters like me with me Friends. Who's the Vince McMahon and Dana White and Walt Disney and Jim Henson that over a 10 or 15 year period can get people to give a fuck. The, you know, that's hard right now I'm taking a bunch of different bets, but I know I'm going to do it. But the problem with me, like the problem with someone here, when people are like, Gary, should I go crazy on vee friends? I'm like maybe like I know I'll do it in the next 25 years and make it Spider man and Superman. I know it. But I can also die tonight, especially in this fucked up town, you know. And so anything you, you know, it's just like an artist, right? Like you're betting on the artist, you're betting on the operator. But There will be seven to 10 projects collectibles in NFT land right now that are 3, 4, 7, $800 apiece right now that will be the Jackson Pollock, will be the Andy Warhol's, will be the Spider man first appearance in Amazing Stories, will be the Mickey Mantle rookie card. And I know veefriends is going to be one of them if God gifts me with enough health to let me get through it. And I think you would all know that too if you went to ebay right now and typed in veefriends and saw hundreds of trading cards and comic books sell every day. And the ultimate collectible in that world is the nft. All right, I got to run, everybody. Thank you, 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.