The Future Won’t Wait: How to Build When Everything’s Changing | GaryVee Samsung Keynote

Summary

The GaryVee Audio Experience: "The Future Won’t Wait: How to Build When Everything’s Changing | GaryVee Samsung Keynote"

Release Date: April 29, 2025

In this compelling keynote addressed to Samsung executives and industry leaders, Gary Vaynerchuk delves deep into his personal journey, leadership philosophies, investment strategies, and perspectives on the rapidly evolving landscape of technology and marketing. Drawing from his immigrant roots and diverse entrepreneurial experiences, Gary offers timeless advice and actionable strategies for navigating an ever-changing business environment.

**1. Immigrant Roots Shaping Business Acumen [00:36]

Gary begins by sharing his early life story, highlighting how his immigrant background profoundly influenced his approach to business. Born in the Soviet Union and immigrating to America at a young age, he recounts his father's relentless pursuit of the American dream through hard work and determination.

"I was born an entrepreneur, so by the time I was six, I was three, four lemonade stands running at the same time." [00:36]

This entrepreneurial spirit was instilled in Gary from a young age, transitioning from profitable ventures like selling baseball cards at twelve to working in his father’s liquor store at fourteen. This experience taught him the value of hard work and resilience, fundamental traits that would later propel his numerous successful business ventures.

**2. Leadership: Kindness Over Fear [04:36]

A significant portion of the keynote focuses on Gary's contrasting views on leadership, drawing from his observations of his father’s fear-based management style.

"The single statement that I hate most in society is, nice guys finish last. I think it's a very poisonous concept. And I believe that kindness is the foundation of my financial success." [07:12]

Gary emphasizes that while fear can be an effective short-term motivator, it is detrimental in the long run. He advocates for a leadership style anchored in positivity, accountability, and empathy, arguing that such an approach fosters loyalty and long-term success.

**3. The Power of Intuition in Business [03:36]

Gary underscores the importance of intuition in his career decisions, asserting that it is often underestimated in today's rational-focused society.

"I would argue that intuition is disproportionately the most underestimated and misunderstood attribute in society today." [03:36]

He credits his intuitive sense for recognizing the potential of the internet early on, leading to the launch of one of America’s first e-commerce wine businesses in 1997. This venture grew exponentially, illustrating how following one’s gut, complemented by hard work, can lead to monumental success.

**4. Investment Philosophy: Betting on the Jockey and the Horse [12:56]

Gary shares his investment strategy, emphasizing the dual focus on both the entrepreneur ("the jockey") and the business idea ("the horse").

"When I'm an angel investor to bet on the jockey and the horse, meaning at my best, I will like both the entrepreneur, her or him and her or his idea." [12:56]

This approach has led to significant successes, including early investments in Facebook, Twitter, Snap, and Coinbase. Gary candidly discusses a missed opportunity with Uber, reflecting on the lessons learned from passing on its early investment stages.

**5. Content Creation and Social Media Strategies [17:20]

Gary provides actionable insights into modern content creation and social media marketing, advocating for substantial investment in organic content.

"I believe every company on earth as we sit here today in late March 2025 should be spending 20% of its entire marketing budget on just organic social, creative." [17:44]

He argues that with the evolution of algorithms, content now reaches audiences organically without the necessity of follower counts. By committing resources to high-quality, relevant content across multiple platforms, businesses can significantly enhance their marketing effectiveness.

**6. The Future of Technology and AI [27:26]

Addressing the future trajectory of technology, Gary discusses the transformative impact of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies on society and business.

"I believe that AI is about to be here as we can feel it. I think it's going to be dramatically more advanced, even as a group like this feels it today." [27:38]

He remains optimistic about AI’s potential to free up human resources for more creative and advanced endeavors, despite acknowledging the inevitable disruptions it may cause in various industries.

**7. Building Adaptable and Scalable Teams [11:53]

In response to creating resilient teams amidst global changes like tariffs and economic shifts, Gary emphasizes the importance of focusing on controllable factors and fostering a collective effort.

"When your competitors have to deal with the same thing. Obviously, there's issues where a domestic competitor, like, I understand those variables, but for me, like, for example, my biggest financial booms of my career have been during recessions, mainly. Cause I go into double offense in those moments, and most people go into defense." [11:53]

Gary encourages leaders to adopt an offensive mindset during economic downturns, leveraging challenges as opportunities for growth and innovation.

**8. Personal Branding and Diverse Roles [34:14]

Gary reflects on his multifaceted career, balancing roles as a serial entrepreneur, investor, marketer, influencer, and philanthropist. He stresses the importance of living a fulfilling life by embracing diverse interests and passions rather than focusing solely on financial gain.

"I try not to maximize for money. I try to maximize for the enjoyment of my day to day. That has led me to being a lot of things." [34:14]

He highlights his project Veefriends as a legacy endeavor, aiming to create meaningful content that promotes self-esteem and accountability among children.

**9. Accountability and Self-Esteem in Parenting [22:26]

Gary passionately discusses the critical role of accountability in modern parenting, arguing against the overemphasis on achievements like straight A’s and popularity.

"Instead of over focusing on straight A's in school... how about we actually build actual self esteem which is the only way they will combat all the things that scares the crap out of every parent in this room." [22:26]

He advocates for nurturing genuine self-worth in children to prepare them for the challenges of the world.

**10. Final Reflections: Kindness and Self-Compassion [38:01]

Concluding his keynote, Gary urges the audience to practice kindness and self-compassion both personally and professionally. He emphasizes that self-grace is essential for maintaining balance and effectiveness in all aspects of life.

"If you do not deploy grace to yourself, who's gonna do it for you. Everyone here is trying, and I wish you loved yourself more." [38:06]

He also caution against judging others and fostering a culture of understanding and empathy.

Conclusion

Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote at Samsung is a masterclass in blending personal narrative with strategic business insights. From his immigrant upbringing to his forward-thinking approach to technology and marketing, Gary offers a holistic view of what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing world. His emphasis on kindness, accountability, and intuition provides a refreshing perspective on leadership and success, making this episode an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone striving to stay ahead in today’s dynamic environment.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to another episode of the Gary Vee Audio Experience. In today's episode, we're sharing a special keynote that Gary delivered for Samsung. In this wide ranging conversation, Gary opens up about how his immigrant beginnings informed his business sensibilities and ultimately led to the creation of numerous successful business ventures. He shares insights on leadership, why kindness and accountability matter more than ever, and how intuition has been the foundation of his biggest career moves. If you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or someone looking to stay ahead in today's fast changing world, this episode is packed with timeless advice and real world strategies. Let's dive in.

[B]

Look, I was born in the Soviet Union and that was a tough place to be born. I got very lucky to come to America when I was very young, three, four years old. My father got a job as a stock boy in a liquor store making $2 an hour, which was minimum wage in New Jersey in 1981 and and built his American dream by working in that store, eventually becoming the manager, saving money for almost a decade, and then buying his own store in Springfield, New Jersey. I was born an entrepreneur, so by the time I was six, I was three, four lemonade stands running at the same time. By the time I was 12, I was making $1,000 a weekend selling baseball cards in the malls of New Jersey. And then when I turned 14, being the oldest son in an immigrant family, I was dragged into the store, my dad's store, and then he started paying me two bucks an hour. So I went from making 100 bucks a weekend selling baseball cards to making two bucks an hour bagging ice and stocking shelves for 15 hours a day. It was child labor. It was Soviet energy. My dad was. My mom is an angel of sunshine and, and unicorns and empathy and compassion and joy. She is the hero of my life. She is the foundation of my success. I only sit here because of the way she parented me. It's true, my dad is my man. We're so close. But it was a shock to my system. He was tough. He was not kind to his employees. It took me about 20 years to understand. He grew up in a Soviet environment where everyone stole from the businesses. Unless you're from Cuba or the Soviet Union, it's very hard for you to understand the culture where every citizen is stealing from the government. So he didn't trust anything. He today struggles with it at 72 years old. So it was a shock to the system. But I got very fortunate. About a year or two into working in the store, I realized that people collected wine and that was able to connect to my passion around collecting trading cards and memorabilia. And by the time I was 17 years old, I knew everything about wine went head deep. And just like in that video said in my freshman year of college, I saw the Internet and I knew that was gonna change the world intuitively, which has been a huge compass in my life. I would argue that intuition is disproportionately the most underestimated and misunderstood attribute in society today. And I think we've spent a lot of time trying to take that out of people. And it's too bad, because I can tell you all of the great things that have ever happened to me have been based on that intuition. And that intuition led me to understanding something was about to happen. And I follow my intuition and I follow it up with a lot of work. And in 1997, I launched one of the first E commerce wine businesses in America. And for context, my father's business was doing $4 million a year. Top, it was running on 10% gross profit. So $400,000 before expenses. This was a family business. And in a five year window with no cash infusion, no raising capital, not even having a credit line from the bank because my dad didn't believe in it, immigrant stuff. I grew that business from a 4 to a $65 million business. On what is what I do for a living now, which is I day trade attention. I as a marketer, as an operator, as a boss, as a creator. I try to pay attention to where the consumer's attention is versus where we think it is. And I try to become great at storytelling within it. And back then that was email marketing, having a website and doing Google AdWords. Today it's understanding how to do organic, social, creative AI influencers and other things. But that has been the beacon of my career.

[C]

I love that. I also love what you said about your family and you spoke about your parents, but you've also said that your dad is your true mentor.

[B]

Yeah. You know, it's funny, if my dad was sitting here, he's at a point in his life where he would interrupt you and tell you that I'm his mentor and it would make me emotional. And it's the biggest, it's the biggest compliment I walk on earth for. But the reason I know my father's my mentor is for all my mother's rainbow and sunshines and positivity, she also did a remarkable job in keeping me accountable. One of the great missteps of modern parenting is that we are over coddling our Children, we are not creating consequences. Yeah. And there are people in the crowd who are clapping right now who are still paying for their 24 year old's lifestyle. My parents did not have that problem. But my mom appreciated my gift of gab, my creativity. And that's great to a point. But my mom let me get away with a lot of lying and fibbing because she thought it was cute and clever and she knew how to manage me. However, it put me in a place at 14 that all my charisma, all my dynamic capability to communicate, my dad really saved the course of my life. Because I believe if I had a different father who also didn't see the world the way he does, which by context, my father thinks a slight embellishment is the great lie of society. He's just like, just a hardcore. Like, I remember very early on, I was like, dad, you know, we were driving home, like, dad, I sold 86 bottles of what you wanted me to sell. The next day he came home and he was like, he looked super scary and he was angry at me. And I was like, he's like, you sold 84? That's who he was. And I will tell you, because I did fear my father at that point in my life, it scared me straight. And I will tell you that I don't think that I would have been who I am nor been able to navigate this public life for the last 15 years without that addition of understanding that you've gotta keep it real. And I'm very grateful for that because I think a lot of people born with my level of gab go the wrong way. Cause it's easy. Cause you can get away with it. And I'm very grateful for that.

[C]

Yeah. And I like how I see a number of your videos, and in a lot of them, you talk about being genuine and authentic and kind, which I really admire.

[B]

I would tell you, as I sit here with all of you today, the single statement that I hate most in society is, nice guys finish last. I think it's a very poisonous concept. And I believe that kindness is the foundation of my financial success.

[C]

That's great.

[B]

And I think people are confused about that. You know, somebody, you know, thank you for those accolades, but I'm empathetic enough to know someone sitting there right now thinking, you know, I've been kind, but people have walked all over me my whole life. If you believe that in this crowd, you have to ask yourself, were you being kind or. Or were you trying to manipulate a situation? A lot of times people give with Expectation. True kindness is giving without expectation. When you're giving with expecting something in return, that's closer to manipulation than kindness.

[C]

How do you see that in terms of a leadership style, especially in a work environment where you need to demand, you need to deliver?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, you know, right before we did this, I asked you, who's in here? CIOs, B2B partners, sales, marketing, tech. So I was like, wow, what a diverse group. But the one thing I can tell you is for anybody here who has an employee that reports to them, that connects all of us in this room. I think a lot about management. You know, I by nature believe in positivity and some of the stuff you're starting to sense for me on stage. On the flip side, I told you earlier, my father navigated management with fear. So I came in my natural self that believes that optimism and hope and kindness is best leadership. And then I watched up close and personal. In my formative teenage years, somebody who navigated leadership through fear, like, would come upstairs and curse at employees and be like, I'm going to fire you. And I watched it up close, and I got to see both contexts. I have an agency, I have a marketing agency that has about 2,000 people in it right now globally. It's 15 years old. The company's only 15 years old. And we have over 100 people that have been at the company for over 10 years in the agency business. That is the thing I'm most proud of. The only way I think you can get that is by everyone here in this audience who has an employee underneath them to understand that fear. And this is really heavy by show of hands, who's in sales, this is gonna really resonate for all of you, whether it's direct, and I'm sure you've had bosses like that, or whether it's indirect. Cause people are clever. You know, the concept of, like, if we don't hit the numbers this month, who knows what's gonna happen? No, that stuff works to a short term. Fear is an incredibly effective tool for the short term. It is an incredibly vulnerable tool for the long term. And I think parenting, politics, and bosses are very good at deploying fear. And I think for me, it's very obvious that that is the wrong path. So I believe accountability. I believe in that. I believe in candor. Something I've actually am great on on stage, but have struggled as a manager through my career. But I think we need to. I think optimism and hope and joy is a much better weapon. Number two, I will tell Everybody. For the ones here that feel like they're a good manager or good leader. The thing I tell all my direct reports and my leadership is I don't need peacetime generals. No crap. You're nice when all the numbers are coming in. I want to know how you act when it's bad. I think one thing that I would challenge everybody to debate in here is if you want to get to the highest levels, you need to be at your kindest, you need to be at your warmest. You need to be at your best when the shit is hitting the fan. Thank you.

[C]

Well, let's stay on leadership. We're talking about leaders. We're talking about style of leadership. We have a number of leaders in here that are working towards and all of us within our organizations are navigating through a lot of changes that are happening. Tariffs, a lot of things that are happening. Yes, yes. How do you think of creating highly scalable, adaptable teams by not crying about.

[B]

Things you can't control? And one of the good things about macro changes like a tariff is like, you know, obviously there's some variables to this, but I never cry when we're all in it. You know, when we're all in it. When your competitors have to deal with the same thing. Obviously there's issues where a domestic competitor, like, I understand those variables, but for me, like, for example, my biggest financial booms of my career have been during recessions, mainly. Cause I go into double offense in those moments, and most people go into defense. And so I personally root for economic demise.

[C]

Well, let's talk about the investments that you're making. You are a serial entrepreneur.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And so some of the investments that.

[B]

You'Ve made have been good.

[C]

Have been really good.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So let's talk about some of the positive approaches in terms of how you make some of those investments. What you're looking at?

[B]

Well, I'm a big fan of when I'm an angel investor to bet on the jockey and the horse, meaning at my best, I will like both the entrepreneur, her or him and her or his idea. At my worst, I am only picking one of those things, obviously, especially for the people that really know my career. When you invest in Facebook and Twitter and Snap and Coinbase, I've had a lot of big wins, and they tend to have the same thing, which is I've observed that there's something brewing. But then when I sat down with the leader, it solidified for me. When I invested In Facebook in 2007, I put every dollar I had in my savings account to invest in that company. And that happened three minutes into having dinner with Mark. It was just black and white to me that he understood consumer behavior. And Facebook was far enough along. It wasn't like I was seeing it at the idea phase, so that was easy. I wish I had more money back then, but I tend to look for the jockey and the horse.

[C]

That's great. One of the things I love working about Samsung, and we've been talking about R and D, how much we invest in R and D and innovations. One of the things I also love is that we're not afraid of any kind of failure. We love trying new things, especially within marketing. I love that about my role, that we can try new things. So in terms of failure, there's always so many lessons that you learn that you then are able to. To deploy and come back stronger, better. If you have to talk on the flip side in terms of some of the failures, because you've seen investments like Facebook, but you've also seen investments like Uber, for example.

[B]

Uber hurts. I actually got into Uber fairly early, but I missed the first year and a half, and that cost me somewhere in the ballpark of $400 million. I was investing 25 and $50,000 checks at the time. If you go back to the first book I ever wrote up there, Crush it, it's the first business book I ever wrote, so it's important. As you can imagine, I literally acknowledge my whole family and one random human being. Travis, the co founder and CEO of Crush it, because he was in between gigs at the time, and he read the book and gave me some good feedback, and I thought he contributed, so I wanted to shout him out. So if I wrote my normal 25 or $50,000 check, depending on the size of that check today, that would have been worth Somewhere between 3 and $700 million, which, you know, on $25,000 to get 3 to $400 million, that's a pretty good ROI. I missed it, and I shouldn't have missed it. What I learned was what I talked about earlier, which is I need to live my truth and eat my own dog food. When Uber came around and I met with Travis, and to Travis credit, I passed. And he then came back to me at a talk I did in San Francisco, met me, and asked me again to invest in Uber, and I passed again because I was playing defense. I had just bought my first apartment, significant apartment in Manhattan. I'd been less liquid than I'd ever been in my life. And unlike when I did Facebook, five or six years earlier, I just had a child and I played defense and it cost me. And I'm very mad at you for.

[C]

Bringing it up, but where I was going with it.

[B]

I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

[C]

Is how.

[B]

In fact, I'm sorry to interrupt. Just to bring value. In fact, it's the best. First of all, in general, the way I live life is like, okay, I would have made that investment. Clearly with 500 million more dollars in liquid, my life would be different than it's been the last seven years. And I always say to myself, cool, I could have made that investment, but that might have led to me being in different places at different times and, and maybe while I was crossing the street in San Francisco at a meeting, I would have been hit by a car and I might be dead right now if I invested in Uber. I mean this, I know it's like a giggle, giggle, but that's how I think about life. Like the butterfly effect. Like you never know. And so like, I don't know. As I sit here today, happy everyone in my life is healthy. I'm thrilled I passed on Uber twice and missed out on $500 million because I'm alive. Thank you.

[C]

Well, I'm glad I brought that up. Well, let's switch gears to social media.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Clearly you're one of the OG influencers. You have so much content that you build. We have marketers in the room. We all build content. We are all building our personal brand. How do you think about content and building content?

[B]

I don't think a single person in this room either if they're building their personal brand on LinkedIn or if they're a marketing executive for Samsung or another company is spending anywhere close to enough money on social.

[C]

Why do you say that?

[B]

Cause it's underpriced. Because let's use Samsung, such a big company. Because I see too much from you in other places and not as much as I would want if I own this company. Within social. Let me give you an example. Who here runs the marketing budget for whatever business you're in? Like you're pretty close to how much you spend on working and non working dollars. Raise your hands. Just want to say hire. Don't be bashful. That's a good thing. All right, nine, 10 for the 10 people. For example, for the 10 people, I believe every business on earth, small business, owning one pizza shop all the way up to Samsung, B2B, B2C, B2G, running ads and doing creative in LinkedIn. I believe that every company on earth as we sit here today in late March 2025 should be spending 20% of its entire marketing budget on just organic social, creative, not social media, just the content that you post organically. As you know, because you're a marketer, that is a staggering number to the way most companies run it right now. What people don't understand in Fortune 5000 land is, is that when you commit that level of monies to making pictures and videos and written words across the eight platforms right now that have all the attention of society from TikTok to LinkedIn and everything in between, the algorithms now work in a way where people in this room who've never posted once on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or Twitter X or YouTube can get many views with no followers. Followers is no longer the primary metric. In fact, I don't even measure my followers or my clients followers at all. I don't even look at reports with followers because people don't even follow anymore because the content is coming to you. In fact, I would argue that we no longer live in social media. We live in interest media where the content's coming to you. Anybody? I see all your heads, you all know this. Anybody who's on Instagram, Facebook or where TikTok now knows you're getting content coming to, especially TikTok and Instagram. The content that you're most into right now is coming to you. When you know that and you know how to do that science, what ends up happening is when you start with social, organic, creative and that level of financial commitment to get that much out Again, Samsung, just let's use one division, the appliance division. The Samsung appliance division, I think should be putting out 20 pieces of organic new creative a day.

[C]

Gary, I love that. That's your new KPI.

[B]

Let me, let me, let me. I want to get to the punchline of this because when you see every 18 of those 20 posts get a thousand views, because that's your norm. When you see the one that gets 18,000 or the one that gets 400,000, I'll give you an extreme one. I don't know if you guys know what Miralax is, but they're a client of ours right now. If you know what it is, this won't surprise you. They get 363views on average on their social posts. We have a post this week that got 15 million views. You can see the impact on its Amazon sales rank. You can see the impact already on in a week. You can see the financial Impact when you then know that that creative. Don't forget that creative can't get views unless people like it or are interested. Marketing is built on relevance, my friends. Relevance leads to consideration when you consider then you might buy. For 50 years we've been trying to figure out if the creative's good. In meetings with me and you, focus groups, animatics, fake reports, the algorithms have solved this problem for us. What happens when you start with that? Now the 80% of money you have left, now you can amplify that creative. Now you can turn that into a campaign. Working media, the ad dollars has spent the last 60 years disguising bad creative. It can now amplify great creative. This is the biggest shift in marketing since the advent of the television.

[C]

That's great. Beloved. Well, I want to talk a little bit about content. You create a lot of content and in terms of your personal brand, what you're putting out, especially LinkedIn, some of the other social media, what's the most meaningful content that you've produced or that you like producing?

[B]

Probably the one that's putting pressure on parents to create self esteem, not fake trophies. I think the content I make that challenges modern parenting around, hey, instead of over focusing on straight A's in school, which is not a proxy to happiness or success in society, with that, you know, hey, instead of focusing on their popularity or how good they are at sports, how about while we've got these little ones for this very small window, how about we actually build actual self esteem which is the only way they will combat all the things that scares the crap out of every parent in this room. That content, especially when it hits and gets 50, 30 million views, when I know that the audience got the message, that's the most fulfilling because that's real life. Your bank account from Uber or not Uber is not real life. The health and well being of your family and their general happiness and content, that's real life and that's disproportionately the content that I'm most passionate about.

[C]

That's great to hear. I want to shift gears and we spoke a little bit about, you know, you spoke about the Internet coming and then we spoke about social media. You're talking about the seven different platforms. I look at gaming in a big way. So Twitch, TikTok, of course, a fast growing channel especially for gaming. What do you see happening? What do you see next? Of course, AI. We've been talking about AI all morning and the different tools that are available. We talk about social commerce.

[B]

What'S next that's like. Is always when the distribution changes, right? Like when the printing press was invented, it changed society, right? Now you had books, and for example, a staggering percentage of the first 10 million books ever made were religious books. And that reinforced the fact that we have a religious society. Then the television. Excuse me, Then the radio came along. I mean, Winston Churchill's speech over the radio cannot be underestimated on how it potentially changed the world. And that's how the world ran. Who? Whoever was winning on radio had incredible impact. Then the television came along as recently as the 1960 presidential election. For the people at home that listened to the debate between Nixon and Kennedy, they felt that Nixon won the debate, but the people that watched it on TV felt that JFK won the debate. I don't know if you know this, but JFK is dramatically more handsome than Richard Nixon. And then cable came along, and now we're in the Internet era, and we're in a mature Internet where social media, whether the people in this audience like it or not or have a political point of view or think it's bad or good, it is the dominant force of our society delivered through a phone. I do not see a world where a phone like you make and your competitors make is the primary device of our society. In 20 years, I find it unlikely. Obviously, Facebook has been very aggressive in developing glasses. I would never underestimate Samsung and its competitors on what they're up to in the R and D labs that nobody in this room even knows about because you got to do the retina scan and there's only six people that even know.

[C]

Well, we just spoke about that. Funny you mentioned that just this morning on something exciting that's coming up.

[B]

So I believe that the next big change will probably result in when the phone that we carry the way we know it today gets challenged the way that phone did to the television. And just like, obviously you have a very big TV business. These things aren't winner take all. They're just a process of where attention goes. So that's on my mind long term, short term. I'm infatuated with a lot of things. For example, influencer marketing, if I go very nerdy on marketing is a very big deal. In fact, that's another thing you guys and gals should be doing more of. But also, while that's growing, AI influencers are growing even faster. Many of you have seen people in your feed that aren't real people already, and we're just getting going live. Social shopping, the QVCification of social media in the west is clearly here. This has been a dominant play in mainland China for a decade. I'm sure it's not lost on anyone who's worked in that market. But we are here now in the US and Europe with whatnot and TikTok shop, and I'm sure Meta and Google are working on that as well. So there's a lot of trends I'm paying attention to.

[C]

And you mentioned AI. So what are you thinking in terms of when you look at adoption of AI? I know we had a session before as well where we're talking about AI itself and what it's going to do. What are you most excited about, or how do you use it today?

[B]

Well, I use it every day. What I'm most excited about is that the robots are going to kill our children. That should be fascinating to watch. What am I most excited about? I'm most excited about that when the tractor trailer was invented, almost 80% of the world worked on a farm. And everybody was scared because now there's this invention and we don't need people to work on farms. What are all these people going to do? I would argue that the most underrated thing in the world is the human race. We are incredibly good at underestimating our collective selves. I believe AI is about to be here as we can feel it. I think it's going to be dramatically more advanced, even as a group like this feels it today. And I believe that it will open up an extraordinary amount of hours for the human to do the next chapter of what she and he does, which is advance our race. And I'm very excited about it. I'm wildly optimistic. I am not naive. Like, everything that has ever happened, there will be shortcomings. But I'm not crying for the job. Reallocation. Nobody cried for all the yellow page salespeople that got blown out by Google. Some Poor SAP bought 4,000 horses. The day Henry Ford's like, I've got an idea. This is how it is. Like, you know, you guys destroyed Sony and televisions. It is what it is. It's called business, like and good news, now we're clapping. And just with all due respect, somebody's gonna come and kill you.

[C]

Hey, hey, hey. Let's not go there.

[B]

What I'm saying is, look, it is what it is. Like again, back to can't cry about what you can't control. We all need to woman and man up. This is innovation. This is technology. Technology's undefeated. So many of my friends and contemporaries are putting their head in the sand with this AI thing. And you know what people do now, this new phenomenon as the world has become more political, people use politics as a proxy to why they want to be lazy. For the people that wanted to be lazy and do Facebook and Twitter marketing, they just made fun of me and. And said, that's for kids. But now that TikTok came around, the people that want to be lazy, they're like, China, you know, like, AI. I don't believe in AI. You don't need. You ask them two questions. I'm like, how about this? And this? They're like, what? I'm like, you don't not believe in AI. You don't understand AI. You're not taking this to a higher plane. And more importantly, does anyone here think, like, this AI thing is just gonna stop? Like, what are we doing here? And especially if you're under 30 in this audience, you should be spending every free moment educating yourself on this. This will be your reality. And by the way, and if you're in your mid-40s and 50s and have a good career, you better study it even more. Cause this thing will make you vulnerable. And you've worked hard for 30 years to be in this spot. This is what it is. And I watched it with my own eyes. I'm now old enough to watch in my own eyes how many people completely disrespected and did not want the Internet to happen to their peril. And I ask all of you on a professional level, but even on a personal level, for you not to underestimate. This is the biggest thing in our world. It is going to change absolutely everything. And there will be opportunity and carnage in the professional world. Cause that's what always happens when there's big advancements.

[C]

I love that. And I already see that. I've been using my Galaxy Ring and my phone and my monitors, and it's already how the interconnectedness of all the technology and how it works, you know what keep me going?

[B]

I was a really bad student, but for some reason, I got really good grades in history. And I never understood it until probably about 10 years ago. I'm like, wait a minute. I use history for pattern recognition to see where things are going. We were once cavemen. You know that, right?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, well, now we are here today with our technologies and our advancements. Of course, we're gonna be robotic in 300 years. So, like, what do you think? Time just stops when you happen to be alive? So, yeah, this is all coming.

[C]

It's coming.

[B]

Whether you like it or not, you.

[C]

Like it or not, but we're still gonna be here. Samsung, we invest in R. All right, well, we're coming up to time.

[B]

What's funny about that, if I may?

[C]

Okay.

[B]

This is an iconic company, but I say this to my clients all the time. I'm like, bigger companies than you have gone out of business. Right. I think that we need to quadruple down on our R and D. I think we need to quadruple down on our contemporary marketing. This is the battleground, and it's getting more and more obvious that these two things. I mean, of course we need every aspect of a business, but the R and D and the marketing are incredibly important. And I just, I'm fascinated by the missteps of many companies. One of my real admirations for this organization is I've always felt that it was really strong and cared about such. And kudos to y'all.

[C]

Thank you. We appreciate that. I'm glad you turned that around really well.

[B]

By the way, if you know me at all, I'd be more than happy to not turn that around real well. I leave in seven minutes. Like, I like to talk about the truth, and that happens to be the truth. But like I said earlier, I really, really want to see you invest a lot more in social organic because your 80% acts like 120% when you get that machine down because you mitigate the risk of the creative variable, which is marketing.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. And don't worry, I've given Gary the KPI. He's on it. We will work on that. I want to kind of wrap this up. I know you play many roles. You're a serial entrepreneur, you're an investor, you're a marketer, you're an influencer. You play these different roles. You're a speaker. Is there one that you gravitate towards or who is Gary Vee? Is it all of that?

[B]

All of it? Just like everybody here, obviously, I live my life a little bit more publicly, but, you know, there's like, I look in the crowd. You're a mother, you're a sister, you're a daughter, you're an executive. You might be part of a. You're part of your church. Like, all of us have so many different variables and versions of ourselves. I try not to maximize for money. I try to maximize for the enjoyment of my day to day. That has led me to being a lot of things. Many of my most successful billionaire friends like to make fun of me because they're like, man, if you, God forbid, ever Just focused on one thing, it would be the greatest thing of all time. I'm like, that's nice for you. I want to be a Renaissance man. I want to wake up and say, for example, one thing we have not touched on this is very left field. I'm currently in year four of building what I think is gonna be my biggest legacy business, which is Veefriends. Veefriends was an NFT crypto project that I've now made full multimedia. It is a positive Pokemon. It is my marvel. It is my Disney. I associate more as I sit on the stage today with Jim Henson and Walt Disney than I do with tech founders or marketers. I just literally flew from Rochester, Minnesota to be here because I've been on an off site for a week developing the storylines for comic books for Patient Panda and Accountable Aunt. And yeah, I mean, and for me, getting parents and children to fall in love with a countable ant through kids books and comics and TV shows and trading cards would be a tremendous accomplishment for me. Because back to the earlier conversation, my obsession with parenting. I believe the lack of accountability has destroyed our society. We have become remarkable at pointing fingers, but we're bad at pointing thumbs. It's your parents fault, it's the government's fault. It's your spouse's fault. It's the system's fault, it's the algorithm's fault. My question to all of you in the world is, when is it your fault? And so I have a real strong mission on it. And so right now I'm working on that. At the same time that VaynerMedia, my marketing agency, is at the tipping point of becoming one of the most significant independent marketing companies in the world. So all the people around me in that world are like, no, no, no, no, no, like three more years. But I'm like, but that doesn't make me happy. I understand that that might. And not that I'm not working on that, but I ebb and flow. And who am I? It depends on how I wake up tomorrow. I have a sports agency, I have a TV production company. I have a lot of businesses. I own a pickleball team and I want to win a championship this year. And then I'm a father and I have a family, and I have an obsession to use my gift of communication both on a stage, in book form and in social, to leave a positive impact on a world that's been very good to me. I'm all those things. And most of all, I don't beat myself up when I'm short on any version of myself. My relationship with myself is what makes everything tick. I'm a human. There's not a day that doesn't happen where I'm not making a mistake. Sometimes a big mistake. And if I leave all of the people in this room with anything is. You need to be kinder to yourself. You. If you do not deploy grace to yourself, who's gonna do it for you? Everyone here is trying, and I wish you loved yourself more.

[C]

I love that.

[B]

Thank you. Do you know why I wish that? Because everybody else sucks, too. Like, really, though, please do not put other people on a pedestal, especially if you don't know them. You don't know them, so whatever fantasy you came up with in your mind of how great they are, it's not true. It also means you need to stop judging people. Like envy and jealousy is the fastest way to unhappiness. Stop judging people. You don't know them.

[C]

Well, on that great note, we're actually going to conclude this session. Just for the record, if my husband watches this later, it's always your fault. But, Gary, I just want to thank you for this engaging conversation. It's been an absolute pleasure. Everybody. Give it up. Gary Vee. Thank you.