The Future of Entrepreneurship and Business Growth | Inventures Keynote 2025

Summary

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Episode: The Future of Entrepreneurship and Business Growth | Inventures Keynote 2025

Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Date: September 9, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this keynote from the Inventures 2025 conference, Gary Vaynerchuk ("GaryVee") explores the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship and business growth. With a focus on adapting to disruptive technologies—especially AI—Gary delivers blunt advice and motivation for founders, investors, and anyone navigating the future of work. He covers themes of humanity in business, embracing technological change, overcoming excuses, the reality of venture capital, Canada's path forward, and the paradigm shifts coming to social commerce and talent competition. The conversation is peppered with memorable metaphors, tough love, and actionable insights.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Humanity as a Business Advantage (00:00–03:14)

• Sustained success comes from caring, not exploitation:
  “The foundation of sustained economic success is actually by caring about others, not trying to extract every penny out of every deal, leaving something on the table for the other side, building an internal culture...”
  — GaryVee [00:10]

• Personal influences:
  Gary attributes much of his business success to values instilled by his mother, emphasizing empathy and ethics over hard-nosed tactics.

• Learning from living, not idolizing:
  He reflects that his greatest teacher has always been the consumer, not business icons:
  “I didn't look up to Steve Jobs or Bezos or Oprah or anything like that. I thought the context was too different. I believe too much in the now... My currency of learning is living in the truth. I think entrepreneurship is not something you go to university for. Entrepreneurship is learned in the trenches.”
  — GaryVee [01:58]

2. Pattern Recognition from History & Technology Adoption (04:10–07:03)

• Historical patterns help decode the present:
  Gary likens resistance to AI to the initial fear around electricity.
  “When electricity was invented... most people did not put it in their home because society said that there was actual demons in the electricity. Demonizing something... Right now... the majority of this room... is demonizing AI... Yet it will be like electricity—a profoundly good technology.”
  — GaryVee [04:27]

• Adopting new waves:
  “AI is an insanely enormous wave that is coming right at you... You are going to put your head in the sand... or you are going to grab a surfboard... and ride the largest wave that has come at us since the Internet.”
  — GaryVee [06:09]

3. Facing Fear, Laziness, and Opportunity (07:03–13:56)

• Overcoming inertia is critical:
  “Fear is the single worst energy in society. Fear is what dictates so much of your unhappiness... Please my friends, do not let the fear of another technology wave coming along hurt you.”
  — GaryVee [08:55]

• The urgency to act:
  Gary urges attendees not to wait:
  “This is your biggest opportunity truly since the mid to late 90s... You will be hurt if you don’t [adopt].”
  — GaryVee [10:18]

• Personal humility around change:
  Even as a tech enthusiast, Gary admits resistance:
  “You think I want AI? Don't clap because I'm in trouble... I've just spent 15 years building the largest independent advertising agency... You think I want AI to be here? I don't. I won.”
  — GaryVee [12:53]

• No escape from the technology shift:
  “Technology is undefeated, my friends. Technology is undefeated.”
  — GaryVee [10:30]

4. No Room for Excuses in Entrepreneurship (14:22–17:26)

• On excuses for hiring and growth:
  “Pay more or use AI like I just told you to, so you don't need to hire. I do not understand this concept of crying.”
  — GaryVee [15:03]

• Entrepreneurship is for the 1%:
  “When you were saying, 'I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I'm going to build a business,' you were asking for a 1% life... of course it should be hard.”
  — GaryVee [15:47]

• Move or adapt:
  “You can't hire because you're in Calgary. Move... There's no crying in baseball. There's definitely no crying in business.”
  — GaryVee [15:14]

5. The Reality of Venture Capital (17:26–22:33)

• Stop idolizing fundraising:
  “The celebration of the fundraise was very toxic to young entrepreneurs... It all became about financial arbitrage... professional fundraisers, not actual entrepreneurs.”
  — GaryVee [21:58]

• Profitability over growth:
  “We need to put pressure on the entrepreneurial community as a whole to start focusing on making money, not raising money.”
  — GaryVee [17:26]

• It’s been done before:
  “If you can point to someone who's done it, then it's been done.”
  — GaryVee [18:28]

6. Navigating Canada’s Economic and Political Future (23:04–31:40)

• On Canada’s dependence and talent strategy:
  “America should be one of Canada's biggest customers because it's one of the biggest markets in the world... What should Canada do? It should keep every one of its best entrepreneurs in Canada by creating rules that benefit the people, that actually drive the economy.”
  — GaryVee [23:41, 25:35]

• Talent as the new global currency:
  “The most talented humans in the world are about to become the asset. And whoever has the most positive tax laws and the most positive ways to keep them are going to win... Countries are about to replicate that.”
  — GaryVee [26:50]

• Policies over platitudes:
  “Every best entrepreneur in America could move to Canada tomorrow if you came up with a policy that said... 10 years of tax free business behavior in Canada, and we would all moonwalk to Canada.”
  — GaryVee [30:43]

7. Future Tech Opportunities: Live Social Shopping & The Next Platform (31:51–36:37)

• Biggest opportunity: live social shopping:
  “My favorite thing... that's a huge opportunity... is live social shopping. The QVC genification of social media is about to be a monster... in the next five years, 10–30% of every piece of content... will be somebody selling something live.”
  — GaryVee [31:59]

• Social media’s golden era is closing:
  “We’ve only got another five to 10 years of this golden era that built Connor's business... If you have not taken advantage of building brand on social media... you must go hard.”
  — GaryVee [34:08]

• Wearables will replace the smartphone:
  “I do believe that... in seven years... these [glasses] will become the primary device of our society, not this [phone], in the next decade.”
  — GaryVee [34:40]

8. AI Integration, Business Efficiency, and Trust in an AI World (36:52–55:02)

• AI increases productivity, not just cuts headcount:
  “My belief is that we're going to grow into efficiency more so than eliminate headcount... by making every one of my employees dramatically more effective by them using AI.”
  — GaryVee [38:08]

• Leadership and negotiation:
  “Being a good person doesn't mean doing behavior that puts your business out of business... it’s an intent more so than a tactic.”
  — GaryVee [39:08]

• Surviving tough deals:
  “If somebody's being predatory... you have a couple options: one, you suck it up and you take the deal because you have no choice, or you create other optionality... What's tough about business is it's not government, it's not academics... this is real life.”
  — GaryVee [40:50]

• Personal branding and the job hunt:
  “LinkedIn posting... is disproportionately the quickest way for you to get a new job. Much more than networking physically in this room. So I just want to encourage you to do that daily.”
  — GaryVee [42:18]

• You don’t have to be digital-first, but reality will force some change:
  “You will be forced into some stuff, but good news, you want to go to Home Depot and touch the wood, knock yourself out.”
  — GaryVee [44:54]

• Trust, deepfakes, and the blockchain’s new role:
  “There is no scenario on earth where any human... will be able to tell the difference in 24 months... Every single video that I'm making next year will first be minted as an NFT on the blockchain to prove that I made that video... It is a ledger that proves something is true and nobody owns it.”
  — GaryVee [47:49–54:32]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On embracing change:
  “Many of you are becoming your grandma right now.”
  — GaryVee [09:53]

• On excuses:
  “You can't hire because you're in Calgary. Move... There's definitely no crying in business.”
  — GaryVee [15:14]

• On risk and opportunity:
  “Scared money doesn't make money.”
  — GaryVee [23:37]

• On social media's unique potential:
  “Posting on social media is free and if you're good at it, it gets views.”
  — GaryVee [35:58]

• On deepfakes and trust:
  “...every video on the Internet, you will not believe what the person is saying because you’re not sure if they actually said it. This is called a deep fake video. This is one of the most important things that is happening in our society.”
  — GaryVee [53:10]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:10 – Why humanity is core to long-term business success
• 01:58 – Gary’s learning model: audience and end consumer
• 04:27 – How history (electricity) predicts current tech fear (AI)
• 06:09 – Adopt AI: "Ride the wave or get crashed" metaphor
• 10:30 – The inevitability of technological progress
• 15:14 – On excuses and the toughness required in business
• 17:26 – Venture capital and the lost art of profitable businesses
• 23:41–26:50 – Advice for Canada’s economic future and talent wars
• 31:59 – Live social shopping’s coming boom
• 34:08 – Social media as a rapidly closing window of opportunity
• 42:18 – LinkedIn and personal brand for job seekers
• 44:54 – Accepting (or not) technology’s impact on personal habits
• 47:49 – AI, deepfakes, and rising importance of blockchain for trust

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Tone & Style

GaryVee’s familiar, fast-paced, no-nonsense, and passionate delivery is ever-present. The conversation is filled with blunt advice, relatable humor, tough love, and real-life metaphors. Questions from the audience and co-interviewers keep the session dynamic and grounded in the practical challenges facing entrepreneurs today.

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For listeners and entrepreneurs alike, this keynote double-underlines the need to divorce from excuses, recognize the once-in-a-generation impact of AI, harness the closing golden age of social media, and treat talent and policy as critical competitive edges for the decade ahead.

Transcript

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

This is the GaryVee audio experience. I think the thing that I would like a lot of you to know is that in building a large business or in building something substantial, I do not believe that you have to compromise your humanity. I do not believe that sharp elbows are the only way to win in business. I wish more people knew that the foundation of sustained economic success is actually by caring about others, not trying to extract every penny out of every deal, leaving something on the table for the other side, building an internal culture that leads to so much retention within your organization that you are able to go faster and harder than your competitors because you have so much trust amongst yourselves. And so when I think about my.

[Interviewer]

Past.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What'S very clear to me is that the way my mother mothered me to be a good human being is disproportionately the reason I've had substantial financial success. You know, I think that, unfortunately, people really believe that business is dirty and you have to kill the other guy and all this. And listen, I love competition. I believe in merit. I believe in those things. But, yeah, it's very clear to me that if you're running a marathon and you're trying to do something significant and for the long term, the better you do it from a humanity standpoint, the more likely it will happen.

[Interviewer]

Did you have people that you looked to, Obviously, your mom's a huge influence. Did you have people in business that you looked at that you're like, that's it. That's the way to do it?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, I didn't. I idolized athletes and other things like Randy the Macho Man Savage, and I looked up to different kind of characters within business. Even to this day, I have a very unique framework. I'm very insular. It's me and the audience I always trusted. The audience to me was me. The thing that molded me was the end consumer. I didn't look up to Steve Jobs or Bezos or Oprah or anything like that. I thought the context was too different. I believe too much in the now. I believe things are moving too fast. I think there's tried and true principles that work. But I feel like I've been a businessman my whole life for context in this room, whether it was lemonade stands or trading cards and then working in my father's liquor store. I have been working since I was 6, 7 years old. A lot of the core rules of entrepreneurship were so natural to me. I don't learn really by reading or watching. My currency of learning is living in the truth. I think entrepreneurship is not something you go to university for. Entrepreneurship is learned in the trenches. And I agree. I bring my mom to all my talks.

[Interviewer]

She's great.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So no, I didn't. In fact, back to my opening line. The only time I've ever really been significantly booed in my career on stage was they told me not to curse at this talk. So I won't use the exact words, but I was at south by Southwest in 2007 or 8 and my opening line was F Steve Jobs. And everybody booed me because he was on such a pedestal at the time. The point I was trying to make is we don't have to be jerk offs to our employees to be successful. And so. And so, no, my teacher, my mentor, my framework was always the 8 billion people on earth on what they wanted to buy, why they bought things, what they were interested in. Why are they interested in those things? That has been where I spend my energy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. One of the things that I like that you said is you think about like, understanding history allows you to do pattern recognition.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Talk to me a little bit about that. And what, like right now, what are you recognizing? What patterns are you recognizing?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So electricity, it's here right now. Nobody here is thinking about that. Only a short period of time ago, electricity was invented. When electricity was invented, kids, most people did not put it in their home because society said that there was actual demons in the electricity. Demonizing something. The slang term came from us humans being scared that electricity had demons in it. And so we would still use candles in our home instead of bringing electricity because we were scared of new technology. Right now, the majority of this room, if they're really paying attention, is demonizing AI they are scared of what AI is going to do and how it's going to take their money. Yet it will be like electricity. It will be a profoundly good technology that will be omnipresent and will advance manhood and create more. More opportunity, not less. But because we are all right now in this room, in a place where it could hurt us in the short term financially, we are demonizing it. That would be an example of me using history to tell me what is happening right now. Thank you.

[Interviewer]

All right.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Also.

[Interviewer]

President, So talk to me about AI it's going to kill them. What should they do? What's your approach to AI how are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You thinking about it? The easiest analogy that every one of you should understand that I can really do in one minute that I hope gets you on the right side of this conversation. AI is an insanely enormous wave that is Coming right out. You, all of you have one of two options. Option one, you are going to put your head in the sand and your overall strategy is. Or two, you are going to grab a surfboard, which is called your time and efforts to learn how to use it, and you will grab this surfboard and you will ride the largest wave that has come at us since the Internet itself. And you will be highly successful and you will enjoy the ride.

[Interviewer]

Some of them will get smashed into the rocks.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I believe many people that I'm looking at in blue light right now will choose the first option out of fear, out of complacency, out of laziness. Which hurts for a room like this because they pride themselves in not being lazy. But being lazy in the form of curiosity and the work required in knowledge on something that is this large is way worse than being lazy and not wanting to come to the office or only working five hours a day, way worse. If you are here at this conference, you are who you are. This room, not one person that decided to spend their time to be in this room right now should be on the side of laziness on this issue. This room represents the people that should be riding the surfboards. But that is how great fear is. Fear is the single worst energy in society. Fear is what dictates so much of your unhappiness. Fear is what leads to the political, religious and all the other bad things that happen in our society when we weaponize fear. Please my friends, do not let the fear of another technology wave coming along hurt you. This is your biggest opportunity truly since the mid to late 90s to take advantage of the Internet and explode. But use the lessons of history and know how many people poo pooed or underestimated the Internet and allowed that technology to hurt them. You've got recent history on your side. Electricity demonizing. I taught a lot of you that here today. That's a long time ago. You may have not known that, but many of you just looking at the crowd, you were here when everyone said social media didn't mean anything or the iPhone. I mean especially in Canada, people thought the BlackBerry was going to win. You know, like you, like, like all of you in the again looking at the crowd, some of you have had 20, 30, 40 year careers right now. You've seen Internet come along, be underestimated, hurt and help people. You've seen social media be very underestimated 15 years ago. It is the foundation of the reset of geopolitics and commerce across the world. You've seen the smartphone come along. Do you know how many people in here, when the smartphone came along, said, now, keep my pager. I don't need anybody calling me when I like. We continue to demonize technologies, but this AI1, this AI1, this is not the iPhone. This is not social media. This is much more Internet. This is big, big. This is not a fad. This is the rest of your life. And professionally, it's going to impact you. But even personally, as a human being, you know how you make fun of your grandma because she doesn't know how to use some sort of app? A lot of you are becoming your grandma right now.

[Interviewer]

I feel that. I remember the moment that my mom was out on technology and scar and she thought it was very rude.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And she was basically.

[Interviewer]

She's like, that's it. And I felt that. I felt that my parents got on Snapchat. I was like, I don't.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't want to learn this. There are people literally becoming their grandma right now on this AI issue. And what will happen to them is the same thing that happened to grandma, which is you will have no choice. Technology is undefeated, my friends. Technology is undefeated. So if anything. If anything is accomplished at this conference today, me knowing that five to 10 people, based on how passionate I've been for the last five minutes, I believe that a dozen of you will now actually leave here who have been demonizing this, or kind of like hoping it's not coming, will start to allocate the hour. A day of research required and the downloading of apps and the testing of apps and learning, just like you learned everything else. You must do it. You will be hurt if you don't.

[Interviewer]

Is that how you think you navigate here? Doing it, making yourself try it out?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah, in, like, the realest way. Like, I think, again, this should work for everyone. I was one of these people. I was scared to learn how to swim. I was. I didn't want to drown. I was. I was late to swimming. I was late to riding a bike. Bike. I didn't want to skin my knee or bang my elbow. I was scared to kiss a girl. Like, I was. I went through those adolescence things. But you all know this. You know, having your first kiss, swimming, riding a bike, every one of those things. Eventually you just got to a point where you were like, fuck it. And you went, yes, I'm swearing now. I'm swearing. I've only been able. Friends. I've only been able to hold it for so long. You know, I think you can handle it. So I Think the same thing here. Like, I get it. Like, you know what's so funny about me personally as a human? Even though my entire career has been maximizing new technologies and winning on them, I, by nature am not. So I don't want it to happen either. I'm at the prime of my career. I've just spent 15 years building the largest independent advertising agency in the world. From zero to $350 million a year will do this year. You think I want AI? Don't clap because I'm in trouble. And the point I'm trying to make is you think I want AI to be here. I don't. I won.

[Interviewer]

You just figured this thing out.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I don't want this to happen either. I just realize I have no choice. I do not understand this idea. I do not understand this naivete that you think you have a choice on this issue. How many people are retiring in the next five years? And I don't mean you're gonna execute so awesome that you're gonna sell it and buy a private plane and whatever. I mean, you're old and you're finished. Raise your hands. I want you to truly raise your hands. I wanna see people retiring within the next five years strictly because you're actually retiring and going to hang out somewhere warm. Raise your hands. Yeah, there's about. I see you, lady. All right. There's about seven. There's about seven people here that plan on retiring within the next five years. What do you think this AI thing's going to look like in five years? My friends get on this and get on this. Like, in fact, I think everyone here should get up and leave this conference right now because nothing's going to happen here with me in the next 30 minutes. That's more important than them spending 30 minutes on learning how to download the right AI apps, using it, taking notes in every meeting, making content. Admin. Look, your admin. Who here has an admin? Raise your hand. Raise your hands high, please. If you have an admin. Right. They should be using it to make themselves more efficient for you to be more efficient. Like, this is real life. This is oxygen. This is oxygen.

[Interviewer]

I don't want anything because I think we can get a lot out of this. We already have some good advice. So while we're at it. And things I like is like a refusal to accept excuses.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. So let's.

[Interviewer]

I want to ride through some other ones that I hear a lot from entrepreneurs.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Interviewer]

How hard it is to build a business. To build a business in Canada, too. Hiring you know, lots of people are like, oh, it's hard to build out the team. I can't find the right people. I'm on the west coast Eastern time. What do you say to people, like, I just can't grow. I can't find people quit.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I mean, like, what do you want from me? Pay more or use AI like I just told you to, so you don't need to hire. Like, I do not understand this concept of crying.

[Interviewer]

You.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You can't hire because you're in Calgary. Move. But, but I'm getting to a point, like, there's no crying in baseball. They say, well, there's definitely no crying in business. What do you want from me? You don't think, like, it's easier to build a business in America, Go do it. Like, I love when people are like, oh, it's so easy. Everything is hard. Do you understand that? Everything that is great is hard. Love is hard as shit. Right? But like, but like, you're asking to build a business. When you were saying, I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I'm going to build a business, you were asking for a 1% life. You were saying, I am going to live in the 1% where I live on my own rules on my own back where I have full control. Where I do not have an employer, of course it should be hard. And if the market changes and it's harder to hire, well, build a business that can afford to pay more because that's one of the variables. Or leverage. Modern technology. Good news. The AI thing, you know, they say it's going to replace jobs. It is going to replace jobs. Some of those jobs that are replacing are the ones that you're looking to hire for. Learn how to use AI. You won't have to hire anybody. You don't need to offshore in the Philippines. Philippines. You can offshore to a bot. You like that? I think so. So, you know, what do I say to excuses? Tough. I mean it. Like, meaning, like, I'm not trying to give tough love here. Like, I think everybody knows that I'm right. Like, I don't know. Like, I. I worry about things all day long, but complaining about them like, you're. You're in 24. 7. Solutions. Solutions. Find a solution. And when I say move, I mean it. Like, if you're gonna sit here and be like, like, you don't get it, Gary. There's nobody in Calgary. I'm like, you don't get it, Rick. Move.

[Interviewer]

All right, we're gonna do another one. I like this. You don't have to move either, but don't make excuses, all right? I want to talk about venture capital. My turn to swear now. I fucking love what you have to say about venture capital. Calgary's doing pretty well now. There's some deals overall, you know, ventures slowing down all over the place. You said in the past that the emphasis on fundraising and pursuit of venture capital has caused us to fundamentally lose the art of building a real business, one that is profitable each month and can pay its own bills. We need to put pressure on the entrepreneurial community as a whole to start focusing on making money, not raising money. So talk to a room full of people who say there's not enough access to capital in Canada.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Move. I'm just kidding.

[Interviewer]

All right, this is having a wrong effect. Tell them they can do it premiere, because they can.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

The point of me saying move should inspire someone to say to me, no, I'm not moving and I can do it here because you can. Meaning. My big thing on these kind of issues is going back to the last question. This one is if you can point to someone who's done it, then it's been done. You know, like, like Spotify was invented in Sweden, Facebook was actually funded in Boston, not Silicon Valley. This whole obsession with Silicon Valley is laughable. Like there's unlimited high net worth individuals in Calgary. I have friends who LP raise from Calgary. The LP level real checks. I don't know if you know that there's, there's oil money here. Like, like, you know, like, like this concept. There's also like athletes that play for the Flames who get paid a lot of money a year. They might have 100,000 to give a startup. Like I, I, this is a perspective mind shift issue. What do I think? I think there's unlimited opportunity to raise capital when you have a company in Calgary. There's also things, I don't know if you heard about this invention. It's called a plane. When you live in Calgary, you can take a plane to Los Angeles or San Francisco or Vancouver or Toronto or New York, New York City or Dubai or Doha or London. Like this, like I, these, these, these concepts make me laugh. Like there's also something called a phone. You can call someone. Zoom exists. You can have a zoom meeting while you sit in Calgary with, you know, a human that's in New York City and she or he will give you money. Like, what are we talking about here?

[Interviewer]

You have to talk about revenue.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, yeah, if you want to talk about that part of the quote. Like that's like the concept of giving up a big piece of your business for money that you're then going to likely burn. Because when you have money in your wallet, you tend to burn it. It's always been foreign to me. I do think, look, capital matters. It helps some of the biggest companies in the world. The problem is it became cool. There's so many companies that raised capital that never needed to. They just thought they were supposed to. And and so I think you have to be. If you're building Uber or Facebook, you're going to need capital like Amazon. Yes, you will need capital. But I think when you have a small app or things of that nature, there is a way to think about monetization. Early on everybody was going for the 1%, 1%, 1% unicorn idea. There's a billion businesses that can be done. And in fact it's similar to the way I think about people putting mortgages down in their home. I don't mind raising capital. I think too many people raise too much capital. Like a lot of the businesses that are running around in this room really only needed $250,000, not $4 million. And then the other issue on that quote is everybody became professional fundraisers, not actual entrepreneurs. It all became about financial arbitrage. How do I get to metrics to raise the next round? And we got so unhealthy at a period of time where if you get to enough metrics in the series B, you could take money off. And so you were making money, but none of your investors made money. And there was all these bad behaviors. Luckily the economic tighten up that we've been through has actually cleaned this up quite a bit. That's what naturally happens. So I think we are in better behavior than when I was talking about that. But those are my thoughts on those issues.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I always tell my editor we could change the whole sector if we stop talking about people raising money and started saying that they borrowed millions of dollars.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

100%. Yeah. The celebration of the fundraise was very toxic to young entrepreneurs. And you know, and by the way, I don't cry for VCs because they're just trying to deploy capital and show returns that are fake to raise their next round because they're living on their 2 and 20. So like when people like want to like, you know, say who's default it is, it's the whole ecosystem. It's not just the founders and the entrepreneurs. The VCs were playing their own game and then the institutions and the LPs were playing their own Game and on and on and on.

[Interviewer]

Do you think we're in a good direction right now?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I like pain. Yeah, I do. I think, I think adversity is the foundation of success. I think when the money's flowing and we're just printing money, that that's a problem. And I do think that we, when we find the middle, we always do much better. And unfortunately, in entrepreneurship, in politics, in society, we become way too left and way too right when the center is always the answer to the quiz.

[Interviewer]

I want to get a little bit of political advice from you. We're in some pain. I think right now as a country in Canada, we sort of realize we've become overly dependent on the US As a customer, as a protector. We have a hard time defining what we're about, picking a thing. I've heard you use the term scared money a bit. Scared money doesn't make money. I feel like Canada has a bit of scared money vibes these days. When you look at Canada's brand, we've got a new CEO.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

What's the move? What's your advice?

[Interviewer]

What'd do you.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, I think, I think it's a really challenging question. Look, what has happened with these tariffs is unprecedented, was very hard to predict. And look, the reality is, is the US is one of the most important global markets in the world. And our relationship is historically and still like, let there be no confusion. Just like any country, you know, there's a big difference between a government that's operating a country and the people of a country. And we've seen that from time. I was born in the Soviet Union. Me personally, not my parents, not my grandparents, me, I, the human being, was born in the Soviet Union. I can promise you that the people that lived from 1917 to 1991 in the Soviet Union did not see America the way the government saw America. I promise you that if you went and spoke to the lovely people of North Korea right now, their point of view on the world, if they even knew what the hell's going on in the world, is different than how the government sees it. I think this is. If I'm running Canada, I realize that this is an incredibly short term blip. Two, even if it's long term, the reality is that you can sit on ideology all you want. The reality is America should be one of Canada's biggest customers because it's one of the biggest markets in the world. It's also Sweden's and Peru's and like, just like China is one of America's biggest Like, it's just a big market. Like, this concept of, like, let's just play within Canada is not going to do Canada any good, Meaning it's fine. And I do think that what the world is definitely all going to do right now is get more insular because of this. Every country, not just Canada, every country is now thinking about how do they grow their own economic situation, because now the cat's out of the bag. And, like, you never know when other tariffs and other things and people can see that tariffs and the economy is being weaponized. Right? We're getting away from dropping bombs on each other. It's more about economic behavior that is, you know, creating these variables. What would I do? I would focus on building the internal market as strong as possible. What do I think about that? I think this is a page that people should take from China and America. Why is China risen so much in the last 40, 50 years? It's because it's taken a more economic, American, entrepreneurial, capitalistic approach to their internal market. What should Canada do? It should keep every one of its best entrepreneurs in Canada by creating rules that benefit the people, that actually drive the economy. And by the way, I don't say this from a political lens of what do Republicans and Democrats or Conservatives and Liberals think on this issue. I say this to every government, including America. By the way, this is about to become a talent game. Because of technology, we can now have meetings in Zoom. And by the way, Zoom is like a beeper. In 12 years, 15 years, we're all going to be in VR glasses having meetings where we're not going to be together, but it's going to feel more like this than it does on Zoom. And so all of a sudden, you can live anywhere and conduct business, and you take into account private aviation and the costs going down and technology. The most talented humans in the world are about to become the asset. And whoever has the most positive tax laws and the most positive ways to keep them are going to win. London has a problem. The UK has a huge problem right now. They are losing their best talent. And by the way, the Middle east and other parts of the world are not fooling around. America was built on one concept, the American dream. That concept, literally, for 150 years, got all the best talent. No matter where you were in the world you were born. And if you were an entrepreneur and a creative and a maker and a driver, A driver, your dream, whether you were born in Cape Town or in Calgary or in Stockholm, if you were an A, your number one dream in life was to get to America. And America's immigration policy and the brand and the policies on taxing and how they kept their best talent is why they became the world power. Because they got the best talent no matter where they were born to go there. Countries are about to replicate that. And what would I do if I ran Canada? I would have a policy to get the best talent in the entire world. From Africa, from Europe, from Asia, from America. Like do you know many Americans would move to Canada tomorrow if they had policies that made it financially interesting. Do you know how beautiful this place is? Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal. This place is loaded with optionality. But I'm not paying fucking bullshit taxes.

[Interviewer]

You get health care though, you get health.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

But here's the problem and I really like Canada a whole lot. I'm going to say it nice and slow. You get health care to a point. Why do people come to America for the big boy surgeries. So like again, we are no longer in a place where humans don't feel like they have optionality and they have to stay where they're staying. We are now competing for the best talent in the world. And it's not just against Canada. You've got golden visas being put up every Portugal, you've got Saudi. Like this is real time. What would I do if I was Canada? I would keep my best people for damn sure. And I would create policies to attract the best people. I'll give you an example. What Canada did extremely well. I don't know if this is on everybody's radar. The level of Persian super brains that have come to this country in the last five years from Iran because of the policy on immigration is a huge win for Canada. These are, these are some of the smartest people from a country that has a lot of natural talent. And because your policies were better than their policies and you had more opportunities, people were willing to take a short term step back to be an immigrant here than their life there. Because long term it was more. And so now you have a talent infusion. We should replicate that at scale. The problem is we have this crazy game going on in the world where some countries are, and a lot of countries, we all know this, are going more nationalism, right? No immigrants. And then you have other countries that are like, we actually want the best immigrants and we'll make it really cushy. This will become the battle. That's what I would do if I ran this.

[Interviewer]

I like it. Because it's a battle about story, right? Everything comes back to story. What are you telling? What Is the story you're telling the.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

World about who you are. Story, but also policy. Yeah. I mean like again, I will say this nice and slow because it's interesting. This is how you recruit talent for your business too. Every the best entrepreneurs in a man America could move to Canada tomorrow if you came up with a policy that said we will have a process to evaluate the best entrepreneurs. And if you're one of those people, we will give you 10 years of tax free business behavior in Canada and we will all moonwalk to Canada. Is that where we're at or we not? You know, and those become. That's what's by the way, what's fun about me talking about this because I don't usually talk about politics is this is already happening what I'm saying, meaning countries have already started to make these behaviors happen. This is a talent warfare. And that goes back to the first question. How do you hire better make it better for the best people.

[Interviewer]

We gotta pay more for the country like that. All right, I'm gonna ask one more and then we're gonna go to the audience. Future living in the future.

[Audience Member Lisa]

What is the thing?

[Interviewer]

What is the technology? What are the companies? What are the areas of focus that excite you the most right now? What are you seeing?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm going to put AI over here because we've spent time on it. My favorite thing that's happening right now, that's a huge opportunity, especially for that bearded gentleman Connor that I like so much is live social shopping. So the QVC approach genification of social media is about to be a monster. Speaking of China, this has been going on for 10 years in Asia. Live social shopping. Basically, I believe in the next five years, somewhere between 10 and 30% of every piece of content that you see on Your feed on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter will be somebody selling something live at that moment. So this is an enormously big economy. How many people here sell something physically Raise your hands like you sell a product, Raise it high. Just curious. Great. Everybody who just raised their hand besides the AI hour, you should spend an equal hour on live social shopping. Literally going live on whatnot or TikTok shop right now, which are the two leaders in Canada and selling stuff literally on the show. The human behavior on the other side of buying stuff in this environment is crazy. People spend more and will buy things in a live shopping show on social media that they would never buy on a website or in a store. The entertainment of it all, the hype of it all the fun of it all. And so I believe that the biggest trend of opportunity for many people in this room is live social shopping. The other thing that excites me is the final chapter of social media. Meaning I believe we've only got another five to 10 years of this golden era that built Connor's business. The books I write, this social media world where everything is free, it's free. You can post on these platforms for free. And if your piece of content's good, it could get millions of views. And those views are earned because of relevance, which leads to consideration, which leads to people buying things. I do believe that for 100%, if I may just steal this for show and tell. I believe that everybody in this room in seven years is wearing these, and in these is the UI and ux and that this will go the way the pager and our entire world is being built through here. And in that world, I'm not sure how social works. You know, it may still work with a feed here, but I believe this will become the primary device of our society, not this in the next decade. And within that decade, when that happens, it resets all the rules of marketing and business. All of a sudden, physical loneliness, location changes. And so I. I think that meta on this Project Orion that they're working on is the biggest thing that's going on in our faces that no one's paying attention to. I. In the same way, how many people here are over 45 years old? Raise your hands. So for all of us that just raised our hands, I raised mine. Yeah, but you did that. Yeah, you did this. You were like, you did a very. For all of us over 45, we lived our entire childhood without the Internet and a phone. You know, I literally went to college without ever having a computer in my house, let alone being on the Internet, let alone having a phone. We are all like, it's inconsequent. I mean, do you understand what people would do right now if I just stole their phone right now from them? You would lose your mind. You would not know how to function. I believe that we will look back at this era as an era, but I do believe glasses are gonna win. I think it's coming. And so the thing that I implore everyone, if you have not taken advantage of building brand on social media in its form factor now, that you must go hard. Because this is a golden era. We've never had a platform that was free, that could build fame and marketing for free. Like, I would say the word again, you know, like, I do not understand how you do not understand this. When you buy a billboard, you pay for it. When you do direct mail, you pay for it. When you buy Google AdWords, you pay for it. Radio pay for it. Full page ads in print, pay for it. Television commercials, pay for it. Influencer marketing, you pay the influencer. Posting on social media is free and if you're good at it, it gets views. So that's the other thing on my mind.

[Interviewer]

Maybe we can combine live social shopping with our immigration policy.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Maybe.

[Interviewer]

Maybe. All right, I'm going to throw it over to you guys now. We're going to bring some people out to mic, say things and you can ask questions.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Go ahead, sir. What's your name? So my name is Hussein. I'm from a company called Tuniversity. How agentic AI is helping get ev or get these in pipeline or it's not helping or building. Well, it's going to help because I own my intellectual property, right. When you own your ip, when you know, both in veefriends, the world I'm building, which is like my Mickey Mouse, my Pokemon, but it's, it's, it's a super tool. It's going to a allow me to be dramatically more productive and extract more value. And so you know, again to me it's, I don't view it as I view it no different than I view social media, than I view apps, than I view the Internet. It becomes a tool that we will harness to extract more value on creating scaled demand, scaled awareness and scaled expectations execution. It's not like this separate thing, right. It's just an overlaying technology that will allow us to be more efficient and get a lot more productivity for a much lower cost.

[Interviewer]

Do you think you're going to reduce your headcount?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

My orig, my biggest business, VaynerMedia, the one that has 2500 employees globally. My belief is that we're going to grow into efficiency more so than eliminate headcount. My belief is that we're at 350 million in revenue now and that we should be able to get to 500 million in revenue without reducing headcount. But by dramatically slowing down headcount, by making every one of my employees dramatically more effective by them using AI. Thank you.

[Audience Member Mark]

Hi there, Opal Loudi, My name is Mark. I run a company called Sustainable Turning beer waste into a sustainable flour Love. Thank you. You talked about at the beginning how building trust and being a leader that leaves something on the table.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Audience Member Mark]

Is a great way to build business and move faster. How do you think leaders today can do that? Given the wave of change you've talked about through AI and all the other things, what do you think the top three things they could do?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Just keep the mic in case there's some back and forth work. I think it's different for every business. Right. I think it's an intent more so than a tactic. Meaning in your business. To your point, if you're feeling the impact of tariffs, if you're feeling the impact of competition, like being a good person doesn't mean doing behavior that puts your business out of business and then nobody has a job. Right. I think when I say leaving something on a table, I think that's in the context of negotiations, you know, so if you're negotiating with someone and there's some room in between a deal, a lot. I really do believe that whether it's negotiating a salary raise for an employee or doing a deal with a vendor or a customer, that both sides of the equation kind of have a sense of the way it went down. And if you have the intent to do the best you can for all three of those things that I said, I believe that energy is felt. If you have the intent to get every last penny, I believe that energy is felt. So I think, how do you do these things? I think it actually has to be your actual intent, whatever that you know, in whatever context that is. You know what I mean?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And quick second question.

[Audience Member Mark]

Just because asking for forgiveness is easier, if you're hitting a wall for the first time in your business because of potential other players seeing the opportunity, seeing you guys potentially heading towards a place of distress and then wanting a better deal, what would your advice be to the entrepreneur to manage that?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

That's a really good question, brother. I mean, you need to create optionality in that scenario. If somebody's being predatory because they can smell blood in the water and they know that you're in a pickle and you know, I think you've got a couple options. One, you suck it up and you take the deal because you have no choice, or you create other optionality, borrowing money, raising money, getting other customers. What's tough about business is it's not government, it's not academics, it's not parenting. It's not this blurry thing where you can make pretend this is real life. If you have a customer who can smell that you're in a tough spot and thus they're using that as a negotiation tactic to get a better deal, that's called business. And so what do you need to do on the other side. One, take the L and just deal with it and try to build back up to create those options. I told you. You. Which allows you to tell them to go screw themselves and then you've got to call their bluff.

[Audience Member Mark]

I like option two.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Appreciate you. Got it.

[Interviewer]

Think about asking another one. Okay.

[Audience Member Lisa]

My name's Lisa.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Lisa.

[Audience Member Lisa]

I'm actually unemployed.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Audience Member Lisa]

And for a product manager role.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

So I know you talk about Lisa.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

How much are you posting on LinkedIn?

[Audience Member Lisa]

I've kind of been just chilling out for the last.

[Interviewer]

And as that I came here specifically.

[Audience Member Lisa]

To make some connections. Like with Gary Vee.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yep.

[Audience Member Lisa]

And yeah, after this, I will be blasting away on LinkedIn.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good. Honestly, I mean, you're allowed to chill and that sounds like you. You. You wanted that and needed it for yourself. But the reason I'm asking is LinkedIn posting. Yes. You talking about your career, how you've done the role in the past. What you're seeing in the market, you know, is disproportionately the quickest way for you to get a new job. Much more than networking physically in this room. So I just want to encourage you to do that daily.

[Audience Member Lisa]

I will certainly do in that. So me being a little bit older than a lot of some of these people here.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Good. Good news. I can see the whole crowd. You're not older than a lot of people in this room.

[Audience Member Lisa]

So you talk about all these things with all the technology and VR and glasses and social media.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Audience Member Lisa]

I don't want to be on my phone and on a computer 24 7. I actually enjoy going to Home Depot and walking around and touching things before I buy them. I don't want to be shopping online all the time.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, you don't have to.

[Audience Member Lisa]

So how do you find that balance.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Or by not doing it? I know. Like. Like I don't like.

[Audience Member Lisa]

You see everybody walking on the streets with their heads down and there seems to be a lot of. I find lack of interpersonal.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Please.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Your subjective opinion on how society should be has nothing to do with business. Okay. So when I hear your energy about this, I also wish the kids were outside playing. I like 1983 a lot too. I think you're blurring your ideology into a conversation about business. So the reason I'm bringing that up is good news. If you do not want to shop, you're going to be able to do that. There's going to be certain things you're going to be forced into. Like many.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Many people here never wanted to use the Internet. I used to have unlimited people I did business with in 1999, where I would send them an email and their secretary and admin would print out the email and they would read it and we would have a phone call to go over it. And I would say, you're old. You're a dinosaur. This is ridiculous. And they said, this is how I'm going to do it forever. And then five years later, we were emailing back and forth. You will be forced into some stuff, but good news, you want to go to Home Depot and touch the wood, knock yourself out. You're welcome.

[Interviewer]

Just as a fast follow on that, do you think that business has any. Like, do we worry at all about business pushing too far in a negative direction? Like, is there anything that you see that you're worried about or you just can separate them?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, of course. I mean, I think the biggest issue in America is that capitalism went too far and became materialism and became, you know, like all these fake capital. I love all these. My friends in America who are like, I believe in free market and capitalism and little small government, and then they spend all their time, once they make money trying to pay off politicians to make rules to allow them to keep money. I worry about. Humans are flawed. You know that, right? You know, like, I worry about things, but I, but I. In the scenarios we're talking here, I worry that I don't worry about little things. And I think a lot of us worry about little things and have these micro ideologies that have nothing to do with the professional aspect of what's going on or the business stuff. So, yeah, of course I worry about anything out of balance. But do I believe that free market entrepreneurship, creativity strat. Like, do I believe in those things on its merit? Of course. It's the history of human spirit. Everything that we stand on today as humans came on the shoulders of humans that innovated and created things to allow us to do that. This is who's advanced our society. Somebody. Do you do understand that 80% of the world worked on farms before the tractor was invented? Do you know how profound that is? Like, they're like, you used to get compensated if you were big and strong because there were no machines. And so, you know, I think about those things a lot. Most things don't scare me. What scares me is when people use an ideology as a detriment to their advancement.

[Interviewer]

Okay, what's your name? Oh, Jacob.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Jacob, thank you.

[Audience Member Jacob]

So I was just going to relate that idea of demonization and AI.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes.

[Audience Member Jacob]

Though we used to Demonize electricity. There is still truth that electricity can.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Suck it and kill you. I mean, that's ludicrous. The reason I'm jumping in, brother, is I'll let you finish your point, but, like, that's where you're gonna go. Like, somebody might get shocked. Like, you do know the math around the likelihood of electricity killing you is quite low. Yes, absolutely. Okay, keep going.

[Audience Member Jacob]

So we've seen, seen this recent change in AI where it's getting harder to tell what's AI generated and what's not.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No, no, We. We are not in that place. There is no scenario on earth where any human in this conference will be able to tell the difference in 24 months. So let's just go to the full end. Nobody will be able to tell. Keep going.

[Audience Member Jacob]

So how will that trust affect the. The way that we sell on social media?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, what are you trying to trust? Let's play out. I like this question. What? Let's play it out. Give me example to help everybody understand something that you would struggle with an AI generated human being that looks like a human being selling something, but you're not sure if it's really a human being or not. Would you have a propensity to not buy that red jacket from something that you yourself would not be able to tell if it is or isn't a human? What. What does. What happens in Jacob's mind in that scenario?

[Interviewer]

I just want to propaganda back on it.

[Audience Member Jacob]

My idea is that if it becomes harder to.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Not harder. There will be not one person in this room that will be able to tell when they watch a human in a video in 24 months if that human even exists, let alone if it was generated by AI or generated by your hands in Adobe. You won't be able to tell if that human actually exists or not. That's happening right now, let alone 24 months. But I'm gonna give it another 24 months to get even stronger than it is now. Let's keep playing. You're in Instagram, you see somebody saying, this new red jacket is super awesome. You're going to have it in your brain that that human may or may not exist. What happens next in your mind, it's.

[Audience Member Jacob]

Going to be harder to tell whether I can trust that company.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Then.

[Interviewer]

What if I learned a product.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Let me.

[Audience Member Jacob]

Well, the whole statistics. If I don't see someone who's real, who's actually wearing a product or doing something with the.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Jacob, how old are you? Just turned 18. 18. So let me tell you something you'll find interesting. It's 2025. In 2003, something came along called online dating. And when it came out, most of the people in this room that were around judged it. In fact, most of the time, marriages that happened in 2001, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, that came through people meeting online, that couple would lie to their friends and family on how they met. They would tell them stories that they met at a bar or somewhere else, not that they had met online because it was so taboo. You would agree now that in your generation, Tinder and other aspects, that is now normal. It doesn't seem crazy for someone to meet on a dating app. You agree? Absolutely. When you are 40 and there's an 18 year old Jacob standing up here and they talk about AI humans and this, that they won't even know what the hell you were talking about. Today it will become the norm. You're going to. You, you may decide from an ideology that you think it's weird. It will just become. I know, I know. But good news, I think my flight got delayed a little bit. I want to finish this out because it's going to help. Jacob, you're not going to be able to tell. You will live in 100% distrust. You do know that, right? You right now should assume that some of the people you're seeing on social media don't exist because you won't be able to tell. You do understand that next year you must live a life where you don't believe any of it. You're following where I'm going with this. So my belief is that that won't be sustainable for you and you'll realize it doesn't fucking matter. Jacob, you're not gonna be able to tell. Thus rendering you to having to make a choice that you either trust nothing or you realize whether I, Gary, as a human am modeling this hoodie or whether it's an AI version of me that doesn't exist. That has nothing to do with you deciding if you think a hoodie is nice or not. If I may, if I may. I will. I'll get to him. Don't worry. I got a few minutes. I'm going to make another point. Jacob and everybody. You have to understand what I talked about the mundane with Jacob. Let's go to the not mundane. Your new CEO, our president, me, Gary Vee and everybody else. We are in a place in 24 months where every video on the Internet, you will not believe what the person is saying because you're not sure if they actually said it. This is called A deep fake video. This is one of the most important things that is happening in our society. For the last hundred years, video proof has been the judge and jury of our society. What that means is very important. What I just talked to Jacob about was silly. Do you buy a blouse or not? But what if every world leader, every human, every celebrity, every time you saw a video of them, you could not have the ability to believe this was true. Because you know, because we do know that there is technology now that allows people to make videos of me saying egregious things that I've never said. This is why the blockchain is one of the most important technologies in the world. World right now. Everyone's very caught up in what it means for bitcoin and what it means for cryptocurrency. And is our NFT is important or is it a fad? But what it is, is it's the single most important ledger in the universe. It is a ledger that proves something is true and nobody owns it. Not China, not America, not Canada, not Amazon, not Google. These are decentralized servers that no one controls and can be a source of truth. For example, every single video that I'm making next year will first be minted as an NFT on the blockchain to prove that I made that video. And there will be technology that comes along that allows us to see from the Internet to the blockchain and back. You need me off? I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. But I'm making a profound point here. This is a very big deal. And this is also the reason so many of you should be learning about blockchain technology. It is not about crypto meme coin fads. It is about a source of truth that will allow our society to go forward in the next century. Thank you, Calgary.

[Interviewer]

Thanks, everybody. Great.