← The GaryVee Audio Experience
The GaryVee Audio Experience
Why Accountability, Substack, and Live Shopping Are the Keys to Winning 2026
00:53:25
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- [00:00]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I have bad news for everyone. All the excuses have been eliminated. Whatever you tell me, I'm like ChatGPT, information is completely commoditized. It's free, Everyone has it, and the only thing left is accountability. Are you in a place where you're going to blame everybody, or do you realize that 100% of your happiness and 100% of your unhappiness is 100% your fault? This is the GaryVee Audio Experience.
- [00:25]
Event Host / Announcer
Aspire Fort Lauderdale. Get up out of your seats. Make some noise for Gary Vaynerchuk.
- [00:31]
Interviewer / Moderator
Okay, Gary, we go. We got a brand new year, 2026, January. You got room full of entrepreneurs and so forth. Do you get into vision boarding, planning out your year? What's your goals? Do you do any of that type of stuff in a normal basis?
- [00:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Historically, I'm not super passionate about a New Year's resolution or things of that nature. I think that a lot of you come to an event like this or make a vision board or make a list, and you're tricking yourself that you did something. And this is an important point. It's a funny way to start. But, you know, I love events. I speak at them, I go to them. But I'm always scared that people that go to events make vision boards, make a New Year's resolution, are getting tricked. That that was the action. You go here to start the neck. The thing you do when you leave is the game. And so historically, no, But I'm sure you're asking that question because you got a very different version of me backstage right now than you're accustomed to. I'm like, in psycho mode.
- [01:50]
Interviewer / Moderator
Like in all the times I've ever seen him. He's running at a different level right now.
- [01:54]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah, I literally called my brother an hour ago because we had a scheduled meeting and before we even started the meeting, before I even said hi to him and that I love him because that's usually how we start our calls. I literally asked him, what season was Jerry Rice's? He was the best wide receiver in football history. What was his best season? And he's like, what the fuck are you talking about? He's like. And he looked it up. He's like 95. And he gave me the stats. And I'm like, I have a weird feeling that 2026 is gonna be my greatest season as an entrepreneur. And the reason I, like, I literally told Andrew, I'm like, I weirdly think I might have accomplished more in 2026 already than in 2025. And I'm not bullshitting you. Obviously not in volume. We're four seconds in. But I had some downtime during the holidays and got, you know, we all know this. You get clear sometimes. I did it with my health and wellness. You look back at some old, you know, pre 2000 where we pre2015 videos of me, like I had a nice little chunk. Like I was in a different place physically. And just on a flight one day, Houston, I just changed my mind. It was just the moment. And I got better at my eating habits and I started to work out. I've been here 10 years later. I made a motto for myself this vacation called intentionality and impact. Everything for me right now is I and I. I keep showing the me and my inner crew just keep sending each other the eyes emoji to represent I and I, I'm just super fucking locked in. I have just sat down and fully wrote out all my companies, all my top hundred employees and I'm making intentionality and impact list underneath it. What, what do I want to accomplish? 2, 3, 4 things because I have like, I don't how many people here know a little bit about me, have a sense of who I am for the people that just made noise for the people that don't know who I am here I have like 700 fucking companies and like for real too. Like Vaynerx, my advertising agency is 2,500 plus people, 450 million in revenue. It's a big ass business. Veefriends tens of millions of dollars in revenue in collectibles, digital and physical. Vayner Sports is a top sports agency. My restaurant group with fly fish Club, the NFT restaurant with multiple restaurants were opening like I don't want to bore you. There's another six meaningful eight figure a year revenue businesses that I am either the active CEO of or the active chairman deeply involved in. So I just needed to create that kind of level of clarity of what I want to accomplish. But even more importantly, I have like 50 to 70 employees that work with me that have been with me for 12 of the last 15 years when I transitioned out of my dad's liquor store. And they're family and they're running loose the way I run loose. And so when you run osmosis and family business vibes, you can have years that are remarkable. Cause the magic was the magic and you can have years that are shit and you did nothing. And me giving them, you know, I trained them all to be that way. I took them all as like they were all youngsters in their 20s, and I've trained them to be those kind of executives, but me giving them that clarity as well. And so I don't know, bro. I'm like, I'm fucking gonna have a very serious year.
- [05:08]
Interviewer / Moderator
Yeah, you're running hot. Like, I almost thought you started taking Adderall or something. You were hyper focused on, like, what you're gonna do, how you're gonna do it instead of it. Let's go to another. Let's go to the people here. One of the things people always want to know from you, they're entrepreneurs, influencers. Is there a new thing? Is there a new social media? Is there something? There's always a thing. Is there a thing right now going on?
- [05:31]
Gary Vaynerchuk
There's always. You know, my last book that I wrote was called Day Trading Attention. I finally figured out, like, what do I do for a living? I day trade attention. Which is why, you know, if this was 25 years ago, I'd be sitting up here talking about having a website and you'd all be like, what is that? You know, you know, stuff that would make the kids in here, like laugh, like email and Google AdWords. And then obviously most people got to know me when I was pot committed to social media. But within social media, there was the moment to go after vine or there was the moment to go after. You know, a lot of you remember how much I was asking you to go on TikTok in 2018 and 19, before COVID and a lot of you didn't listen. Cause you said it was just teenage girls dancing. And now you're pissed. You missed that moment right this second. There's nothing astonishing. It's not like what I was yelling about Twitter and Facebook in 07 and 08. It's not like 2017. TikTok. There's nothing like revolutionary. But there are a lot of micro interesting things. So first of all, how many people here believe that they are better at writing than they are at making videos for the Internet? Raise your hands. So for everyone who just raised their hands, I could not push Substack more on you. So I think Substack, you know, all right, three employees of Substack here, Real Talk. Because I think humility matters and learning matters. Like, how many people here have never heard of Substack or know very little about it? Raise your hands high. It's a lot. So I'm excited because a lot of hands just raised their hands. Substack is an unbelievable platform for people that are good writers. It's a little bit of Like Twitter. It's a little bit of like Patreon that you can charge to subscribe to you, which is like you, you know, the writer's version of OnlyFans, you know. And so, you know, it's a really interesting place where a lot of creative people that are more journalistic or fictional writers. Like, that's cool to me that there's this new place. It's got a lot of Twitter elements with notes. It's very interesting. I'm going very serious on it. I've hired two full time journalists on Team Gary, my content team that just started. That's another thing I'm excitedly invigorated by. They're gonna watch this entire interview right now and give me follow up questions on stuff I talk about. Like they're interviewing me and then that will become my first person written content. Cause I can't write for shit. But I'm not gonna leave any place that has attention on the ground. So I'm going to build infrastructure around me to be able to do it. So Substack, I think is a monster for people here. And literally I will get. Let me see how many people here. I will literally get four emails in two years from four people in here who will literally send me an email that just says thank you so much. I was in the audience in early January 2026 down in Florida. I had never heard of Substack. I always love to write and I just made $44,000 this month on recurring revenue because people follow my articles about surfing. So that I'm excited about. For anybody who's followed me for the last year knows I'm completely ballistic, completely out of my mind. Super excited about Live Shopping. I mean, if you're an influencer on earth and you're not paying attention to TikTok Shop, TikTok affiliate whatnot, eBay Live. I can't believe how big of an opportunity this is. I really believe Live Shopping is in the place that social media was in 2009. It had already happened, but it was gonna be much bigger than anybody thought. I was like, but like, I think it's very big. I'll break it down for you. How many people here are familiar? Actually, the reverse. And please raise your hands high because I want people to get a sense of how early we are. How many here are not familiar with what the app whatnot is? Have not heard of it, don't know. It should be. Most of you raise your hands. What? Not what? N O T. So 60, 70, 80% of this room to give you context of how big live shopping has already become. Whatnot, predominantly collectibles, trading cards, comics, Pokemon, Funko. But there's fashion, handbags, beauty on it. But whatnot we don't have. It's a private company. Lot of fundraising. We're trying to decipher it. I'm not sure if they're really putting out their numbers, but they roughly did last year. Somewhere between 7 and $12 billion in GMV. GMV stands for Gross merchandise value. That means last year in America, $10 billion worth of shit sold on whatnot and nobody in this room knows what the fuck it is. You know what I mean? Yes, I know you do. I get it. But you know what I mean, it's still early TikTok shops numbers are crazy, so I could not recommend. And again, we now live in an AI world. Anybody here that's like, but what about this? What? Any question you have, put that shit into Chat GPT. Go do three to five hours of research with ChatGPT or Google, Gemini or Perplexity or whatever your choices and ask the basic questions. Hey, literally, here's the prompt. Hey, I'm at a conference where Gary Vee's talking all about live shopping. I don't really fully know what the fuck he means. Where do I get the product? How do I ship the stuff? Like, ask the questions. I have bad news for everyone. All the excuses have been eliminated. Whatever you tell me, I'm like, chatgpt it. So now we're. Information is completely commoditized. It's free, everyone has it, and the only thing left is accountability. Are you in a place where you're gonna blame everybody or do you realize that 100% of your happiness and 100% of your unhappiness is 100% your fault? And what I know is we're in the greatest era of saying it's everyone else's fault. We've gotten really good at blaming our parents for everything. We've gotten really good at blaming politicians for everything. We blame everyone but ourselves. And that is fundamentally the most obvious reason that most people don't have joy.
- [11:48]
Interviewer / Moderator
Ayo.
- [11:48]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Ayo is right.
- [11:51]
Interviewer / Moderator
What would you say, by the way?
- [11:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Can I say, because I know a lot of people here don't know me, that doesn't mean wrong didn't happen to you. You think? I mean, I've lived life like. There's people that have had horrific things happen in their childhood. In this room, there are kids that grew up to incredibly challenging situations. I was born in the Soviet Union. I was born in a shithole. Both of my parents lost. My mom lost her mom at 5 like my dad lost his dad at 15. Everybody had alcohol issues in the Soviet Union because everyone was depressed cause they lived in a jail like we came to America. My grandma got mugged within three seconds of us hitting the US floor. I lived with cockroaches and eight family members in a studio apartment in Queens. And by the way, that's nothing compared to some of the abductions. And just there's shit. But I'm saying something very important that I need you to hear. You taking accountability when you become a grown up to get to your happiness doesn't dismiss that shit happened. But if your mind is fully indwelling and blaming, you have zero fucking chance to get out of that mud. And I'm just trying to get people to get out of rolling in that mud. And by the way, the only people listening to you when you talk about that shit is other fucking people that are losing or your mommy because she's an enabler. None of it's going to be productive. And that's why so many people are struggling right now. Because we're just a bunch of pusses.
- [13:28]
Interviewer / Moderator
Clip it. Tell me about. You know, things sometimes go in cycles, right? Like in different genres. Podcast. Is podcasting dead now? Is it growing now? Is it in a growth spurt? Is it worth still starting a podcast? Where's podcasting at in your level?
- [13:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm very bullish on podcasts. I'm sure it's not lost on anybody now. Podcasts are hitting tv, right? We got podcasts on Netflix at scale like I'm incredible. Look back to substack. Back to short form video on social. It's never been better for you to make clips for social media than today. But a lot of people are like, oh it's over or I missed it or there's a billion people doing it. Podcasting, substack writing, newsletter writing on LinkedIn, short form content, long form MrBeast, YouTube videos, everything. I'm gonna say anything you can do. It's better today than it's ever been because attention is coming from every traditional place. Television, print, radio, and going into this, it's better than ever. On the flip side, you're competing with everyone. My problem is when I hear entrepreneurs or people complain that there's too much competition when they claim they love capitalism. I'm stunned by the hypocrisy. We are competing with everyone. And don't blame the audience. You know what my favorite Thing is, they're like, I'll get this. Sometimes, Gary, bro, you don't get it. Like, yo, I'm so fucking advanced, they don't get me yet. You know, I'm so, like. So, like, the audience doesn't get me, dawg. I'm like, they get you, dawg. They're not interested. So, you know, I. You know this about me because now we're getting to know each other a little bit. I like anybody else as a personal brand in my businesses, there's peaks and valleys. There's years where I'm red hot. There's years where I'm head down or don't have my shit together enough to break through. And it goes back to sports. In a career of 15 years, if you play in any league, not every season's the same, right? Some years, you twisted your ankle, you tore your acl, you're getting back from rehab. Some years in business and the stuff we're all doing, your head's not right. You're worried about your mom's not feeling well. You know, sometimes everything's fine around you. You just didn't click. You made some bad. Your decisions were just okay, and you missed the moment or you were hanging onto a moment that's passed. You know, luckily, most people aren't posting every day on MySpace, but that's how I think about it. Like, some people hold onto some shit. Usually you don't jump on the new shit fast enough because you think it's a fad and you value your time. That's worthless too much. That part. I'm stunned by how many people that don't have a fucking dollar to their name and no one gives a fuck about them. And they're like, but I don't want to waste my time. I'm like, your time's worth shit. People talking to me about my time is valuable, and they don't have anything that's called lazy and delusional. Friends, it's super simple out here. 100% of everything's on you, regardless of what's going on outside. And you get there and you feel empowered all of a sudden. Because if you really believe the governor or the mayor or the president or your mom or your boss is in control, you're sad. If I thought anyone was in control of anything, I'd be fucking devastated. I love when people talk about presidents and how much money they make kids just for a history lesson. Like, when I started my professional career, I made a fuckload of money with Bill Clinton, and then Bush won I made a lot of money with him right then. Obama won and I made money. Trump money, Biden money. Trump money. If you fucking say anything about how you're making money or winning because of a president, I promise you, you're a loser. Yeah.
- [17:42]
Interviewer / Moderator
It'S so funny. It's funny because it's so true. Like, you see, everybody's like, oh man, it's a down year for me.
- [17:50]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Bad year. Cuz Biden me. How, how the did Joe Biden. You shut the up.
- [18:00]
Interviewer / Moderator
You see, all the time.
- [18:03]
Event Host / Announcer
I'm like.
- [18:04]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm a fucking psycho. I like follow some of my friends or acquaintances and see shit like that and then like, I'll save it. And this is usually when I come back out. I did it over the holiday. A couple of fucking idiots that have lost their way and believe in all this shit. I'm like, yo, you're still sucking. And Trump's been in place for a year. The president has no fucking impact on your ability to be a fucking winning entrepreneur. 0, 0.0. And if you think it and you believe it, it's why you're not winning.
- [18:42]
Interviewer / Moderator
Talk to me about. Shift gears. Talk to me about. You know, obviously a lot of people follow you and I obviously follow you. And for a long time there was this giant craze that skyrocketed called NFTs.
- [18:54]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [18:55]
Interviewer / Moderator
And it was the coolest fucking hype in the world of people buying digital art that a five year old drew and then that's a dick at mine.
- [19:04]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Mine were very five year old dudes.
- [19:06]
Event Host / Announcer
So.
- [19:07]
Interviewer / Moderator
And then you kind of watch from the outside, right? You kind of watch the market kind of crash. The whole NFT market crash fully. Tell me about the NFT market. Good, bad, indifferent.
- [19:18]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Great, great, great. I mean, look, I was very at the forefront of it. I believe in the blockchain tremendously. Ownership matters. This is digital ownership. It's how bitcoin works. It's how NFTs work for the people in this room, which I'm sure is a small percentage that really watched the whole thing with me from 20 to 24. I got very excited about it. I went all in. I collected the premier project, CryptoPunks. I still believe in that. I think that's the Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock. I started my own veefriends and then at the height, August 2021, the height, I started making videos that 99% of NFTs were going to go to zero. And I took a lot of flack from the NFT community, but no one was Listening to me because everything was going up, up and up. And the reason I said those, made all of those videos was I lived through the Web 1.0 Internet stock market crash of 2000. I was there with my wine retail e Commerce site in 97 and I watched Pets.com go up to $7 billion in market cap on Wall street and they had zero revenue. April of 2000, all of them crashed. I watched Amazon go from 150 bucks a share to $4, PayPal 100 to $2. You know, these are rough numbers, not exact, please don't quote me but. And I saw the same thing happening with NFTs. I'm like, fuck, this is real. But the greed has taken over. In the Internet era, the greed was on Wall Street. In the NFT era, the greed was on social media, Twitter, social media and Twitter. And so it was the same pattern today. In fact, it's a weird time for you to ask me this question. Literally over the last month you can see like heavy indications of a lot of growth. The last couple of weeks in Crypto Twitter, on OpenSea, you have some really nice projects that what we needed to get into is collectors, not flippers, right? The reason trading cards do well is you have flippers. But there's so many people that collect. They want a Dan Marino rookie card and they want it. They want it. They don't buy it to sell it in a week because they think it's going to go up. Same in comics, sneakers, same in watches, NFTs. The flipping and the greed got ahead of the collecting. Now you're seeing the collecting aspects and you know this because you collect like because I have comic books and people are falling in love with the characters because I have a big trading card deal with Topps and they're in hobby shops around the world like Pokemon, like Marvel. Now people are falling in love with the Vfriends. Now they want to buy the most important original collectible, which is the nft. And that's how it's gonna play out over the next decade. So there'll be five to 10 projects. Four day pudgy penguin, good Vibes Club. I don't know which one. Doodles. God willing, I'm healthy and can navigate this business for the next 20 years. I will make feature films and I will make theme parks and I will do all the things that I think I'm capable of. And you know, when I look at an audience like this, I'm like every person in this audience. Grandkids in 40 years are gonna wear Veefriends pajamas.
- [22:15]
Interviewer / Moderator
Let me. Let me go at a different path. You asked.
- [22:18]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Did the pajamas throw you off?
- [22:20]
Interviewer / Moderator
No, I love it, bro. I have a baby girl. I'm like, yeah, I can see her wearing that. She wears Valentine's at Christmas. Give me a pair, damn it. Like, I mean, make them quit talking about it. All you do is talk, talk, talk. Gary, I need.
- [22:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
For me, it's really fun. It's my most selfish and selfless business. Selfish. I don't know if you guys know this. You should chatgpt right now to get the confirmation. You'll be blown away. Pokemon's worth $100 billion. 100 billion. So I believe in the AI era, the big winners are intellectual property and copyright, so I've built my own. On the flip side, Veefriends is very important to me because the lead character is patient panda, ambitious angel, accountable aunt. These are 250 characters that are taking the good virtues that my mom taught me that I spit on stage as Gary Vee. So I'm trying to leave a positive impact. I believe a lot of the cartoons and IP that kids have today are not helping parents along. I wanted to bring a little bit of that Jim Henson, a little bit of that 1980s I used to watch he. Thank you. So, like, it's like, I wish you could see my goosebumps. It's really cool. Like, I have this very altruistic, like, I want to save the world energy because the characters represent that the stories are about that. I don't know how many 80s babies are here, but how many people remember He Man? So remember when we watched he man, like young kids, there was this cartoon he man, right? He man would do the show, and then at the end, the last, like 40 seconds of the cartoon, he man would pop up on the screen and talk to you. He was Adam before he was he man. And be like, hey, kids, I hope you liked the episode. And he's like, and remember, kids, be nice to your sister. And I was like, oh, fuck, be nice to my sister. We're not there anymore. The garbage that kids consume now is garbage. So I want to make all these characters famous as fuck huge as possible. And I think a lot of you, I will say this very humbly, and I'm really poking at you because I want happiness for you. I believe almost everyone in here is whatever percentage is unhappy, Whether you're fully in a very dark place or you got pieces is 100% around accountability. I just believe it. And as you can Imagine, I want Accountable Ant. Kids, books, comic books, video games, and cart. I want kids to love Accountable Ant. This little fucking ant that's always accountable. I want them to like and love that character as much as they love Spider man or hello Kitty. Because it's called Accountable Anthony. And so by the time you're fucking 19, you can just be accountable, which is the greatest issue in our society. Hey, everybody. Hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy.
- [25:14]
Interviewer / Moderator
A couple interviews ago, or maybe the last one, I can't remember, we had this unique conversation that you said something. I thought, dude, that's. That's really, really unique. There's different, like, industries that are out there. And one industry that you said that is coming, like, is a going to be making a new, like, normal, everyday topic conversation. Is this thing called collectibles, where it becomes like the weather, it becomes like a thing that we do, like a normal conversation.
- [25:38]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [25:38]
Interviewer / Moderator
Talk to me about the lane or the industry of collectibles.
- [25:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's the coolest thing I've been watching for a decade, I think collectibles. And again, I view this as a business and entrepreneur conference. So I'm bringing up this stuff with the hopes that this opens up some paths to add to your business or create a whole new business. I believe that collectibles is starting to get dangerously close to joining music, sports, fashion as a lifestyle genre. We are getting dangerously close to almost everyone collecting something. And you could see it, right? You look carefully at why Labubu happened, right? You look at what's going on with watches. I'm sure it's on the radar for many of what's happened the last five years with sports cards. You're starting to see it with, like, old stuff like vhs tapes and CDs. And humans hoard. Humans have always collected. Almost everybody in this room's great, great grandfather collected stamps. This is what we do. But now with social media, people are sharing their collections. It's creating tribalism. It's allowing people to flex. Why do people buy a BMW? They need the fucking logo to make themselves feel better, Right? Why is fashion so huge? It's a form of expression. Everybody literally, literally are sitting here with a haircut and their outfit for a reason. You may not even realize it. It's subconscious. It's a form of communication. It's also creating tribes. I don't know if You've ever been to a Comic Con. But, like, you know, like, it's a sense of community. It's why sports works. I was like walking in the airport today and saw a guy wearing a Jets hat. I'm like, that's my brother, right? You go to a sporting event or college, it's religion, it's real. We need to feel like we're a part of something. And I think as we get, as we spend more time by ourselves with our phones, stuff like this is important. In fact, the best thing you could do at this conference when you leave right now, forget about all the content that you've had on stage that hopefully has been good. You saying hi to two or three random people is dramatically more valuable. A lot of people are introverted. A lot of people are insecure to do that. They're worried about somebody not reciprocating a hello, which stops us from doing it. But it is the highest value thing you could do here. One relationship too. And so I think collectibles has all the different ingredients. You notice how I think about things. Three dimensional collectibles because of community and loneliness. Collectibles because everybody, because we have a gambling pandemic right now. And it's a form of gambling. Collectibles because of sense of tribalism, investing. You know, it's getting very sound and very real and it's a lot more fun. It is much more joy for me to buy a rare Pokemon card and have that go up than 40 shares of Tesla. It's more enjoyable. It's more interesting. Antiques and art used to sell like crazy. They're not as interesting for my generation down right. We'd rather have a rare this or a rare that. And so, yeah, it's very obvious to me it's a big. And I would say any way that you can incorporate collectibles in any way into your business, I think it could be a factor. And if you definitely collected as a kid, you should do 20 hours of homework of what's going on with those things. You know, Lisa, Frank, you know, like Trapper Keepers, you know, like. And you know, nostalgia brings you back to a good place. Life was simple when you were nine. When I was nine, my biggest fear was I didn't want to pee my bed because I was already nine, you know, and I peed my bed forever, man. I think I stopped peeing my bed at like 11.
- [29:21]
Interviewer / Moderator
Let's talk about that.
- [29:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Okay? I prefer not to substack that. Why? Peeing your bed into double digits is a precursor for being A good entrepreneur.
- [29:36]
Interviewer / Moderator
The Pee Able Penguin.
- [29:39]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary P.
- [29:45]
Interviewer / Moderator
Gary, what'd you say to you Got obviously giant room of entrepreneurs here.
- [29:49]
Gary Vaynerchuk
What's funny about what I just did?
- [29:50]
Interviewer / Moderator
Let's go that way.
- [29:51]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So I just did that on purpose. That whole last minute I did on purpose. Because I so struggle with what parents struggle with. Like, there's a parent right now who literally has an 8 year old boy who's still peeing. And I'm telling you, it's a good thing. Yeah. And if that little two minutes can give you that sense of like, wait a minute, it might be a good thing. That's just like a better day. And it's definitely gonna be better for your kid. Cause I promise you he's gonna stop peeing one day. Right? It's like grades. There are people here that are anxious about their children getting good grades. It's fucking 2026. The fuck are we talking about? Amen is right. Like, look, lack of discipline, lack of accountability. That's scary, right? You should ground your kid. Every report card, if they get bad grades. My mom did. You should look at your kid when they're 14 or so and they get bad grades and tell them they gotta start working because they're clearly not a scholar. So you better get to fucking work. There should be accountability, there should be repercussions, there should be adjustments. But this, like, you're grown, you know that grades have no indication to happiness and success. So why parent that way, Right? Why? Because you're worried about the judgment of other parents.
- [31:14]
Interviewer / Moderator
It's so crazy. You know, I just had this, you know, I had this baby girl. And it's so weird walking into a parent world where it's like, I overhear these conversations, like, weird. Where it's like, oh, is your baby gonna be an early walker?
- [31:28]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Right?
- [31:28]
Interviewer / Moderator
I don't give a. I guess she'll walk when she wants to walk. But it's like this hyper weird. We set these like expectations, Andrew.
- [31:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's the punchline of life. If you were living your life for outside validation, your life is not as good as you think it can be. Like, as if someone's. As if some little kid walking before your kid needs anything.
- [31:52]
Interviewer / Moderator
Right?
- [31:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You know, if, like some parents said that to me, I'm like, I'm gonna punch your kid now. What? Like, it's just so stupid. Like we're always stuck in high school. I don't understand how grownups live middle school their whole life. I do not understand it. Like, literally living your life based on the judgment of People you don't even like. It's the great mistake of the human being. And I get that people are born in. Listen, I've said this publicly, but a lot of people here don't know me and others, I don't say it often. Why I have clarity is because my parents are complete opposites. And I got to see up close both versions. My mom is straight confidence, straight bundle of joy. Pure optimism. Trust is given until you fuck up nine times. Then maybe we'll talk about it. My father, who I love and this is not a razz. Cause I knew my grandma very well who raised him deeply insecure. Cynicism to everything. Trust has to be earned. And it's not as fun. It's always fucking heavy. But life is binary. You're either in practical optimism or you're in delusional cynicism. And most people are in delusional cynicism right now because of the combination of contemporary parenting in the last 30 years and an incredibly good job by politicians that are all a bunch of fucking losers. Scaring the fuck out of all of you. That's what's going on.
- [33:37]
Interviewer / Moderator
Yeah. Coming over the last minutes.
- [33:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And by the way, on that note, so there's complete clarity. Both red and blue play the same card. They just use different context. They're just scaring you. They're just fucking scaring you. And by the way, I don't blame them. They've always tried to scare you. I blame all of you. You've started to believe them. Ah, see, not as many claps, right? Oh, yeah, the politicians blow. They suck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, it's my fault. It's just accountability. Go ahead, go ahead, I got you. No, but the key.
- [34:34]
Interviewer / Moderator
In it, for real, man. Are we coming to the kind of last minute here? Last question.
- [34:37]
Gary Vaynerchuk
No, no, remember, we kind of. We're going to add a little bit more, remember? Yeah. Should we go a little longer?
- [34:43]
Interviewer / Moderator
How do you feel if I get a couple questions? The crowd?
- [34:45]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I would. I mean, you game for that? I prefer you weren't even here. And it was just me and I felt it.
- [34:49]
Interviewer / Moderator
I felt it, just to be honest with you. And so let me get a couple questions of the crowd. I'm gonna take. Let me hop up and get it. Give me this guy right here. Right here.
- [35:02]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Come here.
- [35:02]
Interviewer / Moderator
Right here, man. Give me this mic right here. Okay. Right behind you. Right behind you.
- [35:08]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you, Gary. Thank you for being here. You're welcome. What's your name, my man? Eric Wilson. Eric, quick question for you, please. You Were talking about moving into the potential of feature films and stuff with all of your characters. Yes. If you need a voiceover artist, I'm here for you. Let's go, my man. I love it. Just a straight right hook. That was it. No jab. He doesn't. Eric doesn't. He doesn't fuck around. He's like, give me my money.
- [35:32]
Interviewer / Moderator
Go right here, man. Here, picture.
- [35:36]
Podcast Host / Substack Creator
Gary, I'm a huge fan of yours. I've been following you for a long time.
- [35:40]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [35:41]
Podcast Host / Substack Creator
I have a celebrity entrepreneurship podcast. Eddie was there already, and with over 30 million downloads, I would love to invite you and to be my guest. And I have a substack with over 120,000.
- [35:52]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Is that right?
- [35:53]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Yeah.
- [35:53]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Good for you. Tell them. Tell them about how meaningful substack is. Let's break it down. This is real. I like this stuff. Let's get into the reel of the real. Like, explain when you started substack how it's impacted.
- [36:07]
Podcast Host / Substack Creator
So I have over 2 million followers on Instagram, and any brand that launches, any platform, they reach out to me right away, and I'm the first ones to try. I was kind of skeptical at first because I had a huge email list, and I was doing it because over years, you know, I had it, and they were like, well, you can transfer all the emails to substack. I was like, well, it's fine. So they let me import all my emails, and I started doing it. And of course, you have to be very constant on it. Like, you have to post, of course.
- [36:35]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Just to jump in. I apologize. Like, friends, everything's consistency. It's all discipline. I said to my trainer yesterday morning, literally yesterday morning, I'm like, we're doing something. I was like, man, if I was fucking disciplined in the gym and with what I eat the way I am in business, I'd be a fucking Adonis, you know? Again, back to mom and dad for me, professional life versus health and wellness. Like, I've gotten much better. Like I referenced earlier, but the delta, by the way, I go to the gym seven days a week. Seven days a week. You know, two or three of those are a lot of soft tissue, you know, like, you know, it's not lifting every day. I'm. I'm wild seven days a week. But, like, it's like the next. Like, all of you work. You all go to work. But what do you do between 9 and 6pm, 9am to, like, I'm fucking, like, a fucking. Like, you understand? Like, I'm fucking on it. I don't Fucking have lunch. I don't fucking have a minute. You know, all of you, you want to get better in business. All of you have two hour meetings that should have been 17 minutes. This is like, I apologize. This is all discipline. This is all discipline. It's all on you. You're it just you. And so the results are the results. And can I, can I really help some of you right now get the word luck out of your fucking mouth? Luck is the weapon of choice of losers. No one's lucky. Of course there's serendipity. Of course there's things that happen. But my friends, that's saying you manufacture like luck. If you're sitting on like, well, she got lucky. If you're like looking at her right now and she got lucky, you're finished. You're fucking finished. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
- [38:41]
Podcast Host / Substack Creator
So, yeah, with substack, I know many people make like close to 100,000 if you set up a paid subscription. Oh, if you set up a paid subscription. Many people do make like close to 100,000. Some of my friends like content creators. And if you just start the substack, you should start the paid subscription because you can charge for your content.
- [39:03]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So between substack and charging people monthly for your newsletter and live shopping and selling stuff, we're going into an amazing era for people that make content because we were all in that era for a long time of just get followers and hopefully brands will reach out to you and there's things. Or you could start a business. There are now really viable financial models for the individual empires that I think people are building. You can send me an email to garynermedia and I'm happy to look at your podcast. Thank you.
- [39:33]
Interviewer / Moderator
You can see over. Here we go there.
- [39:36]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Hi, Gary. So I am. It's Joanne, Joanne Burgess.
- [39:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Nice to meet you.
- [39:42]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
So I'm a hypnotherapist, but what I say to people is, I'm not hypnotizing you. I am. I'm unhypnotizing you. So I believe, like, I'm a little bit oppositional, so I kind of oppose. I feel like you have similar qualities. How do you stay unhypnotized?
- [40:03]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I just believe my mom. I mean it. I mean, it's kind of funny thing to say, but it's funny when you said that, I don't know if you heard me. I whispered, I'm like, I like that. It makes sense to me. Like, I don't. Honestly, this is why I probably even sitting in this room right now, I am so driven by gratitude and even a percentage of guilt that the DNA I was given, like, I didn't control. My parents had sex that night. Right?
- [40:31]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Right.
- [40:32]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The serendipity of my life. I didn't control the fact that I was born in this terrible place. Americans don't even realize what the USSR was. The USSR that I was born in wasn't Iran, it was North Korea. You weren't allowed to leave. Nobody had a passport. It was jail from 1917 to 1991. You were not allowed to leave the country. Not like Iran, where people won't take you. Like, you know, like. So I wasn't. I didn't control where I was born. And I got fortunate. This lucky thing happened with America and Russia, where a couple hundred thousand Russians got out and I came to America. I didn't control that my mom is the greatest human being of all time and she's the one that parented me.
- [41:14]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Right, Right.
- [41:15]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I didn't control that. I grew up my whole life having very little, but had so much love in my life. So I knew as a child that money had no correlation to happiness. I didn't control that I grew up in New Jersey where we fucking fought each other every day after school. So I'm completely a fucking person that's willing to fight at all costs.
- [41:34]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Yeah.
- [41:35]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And so, you know, I'm detached because I was never in.
- [41:40]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Yeah.
- [41:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
You know, when my fourth grade teachers said I was gonna be a loser cause I was getting bad grades, my brain said to me that they were losers. You know, I did not need validation from the pretty girls in my school or the coolest guys around or any grownup. I just got fortunate. Which is why I'm so desperate to communicate the steps to get more of it. I got more of it along the way too. Right. I had to work to become a more stronger. So how do I stay detached? I don't know. Because I've never been attached.
- [42:13]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Exactly. Exactly. And I have an 18 year old son and he started selling candy when he was 12. At 6 school, he dropped out of high school because he has adhd. He's very high on the spectrum.
- [42:25]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes.
- [42:25]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
He bought his own Tesla, brand new, when he was 17 years old.
- [42:30]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So listen, like, the reason I won't clap for that is not because I don't like your son.
- [42:36]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Right.
- [42:36]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's because you just told me the only thing I know to be true.
- [42:40]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Right.
- [42:40]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Which is if you're lucky enough to have the DNA that doesn't conform with the bullshit academic system that's in place right now. You are likely gonna be good at making money. Right. My point to the world right now is being good at making money should not be what we put on a pedestal. I want to know how kind your son is.
- [42:59]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Right? He's 18. He's getting there.
- [43:02]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Yeah. But. But now I'm gonna. And I'm sure he's lovely, but I want to say this. I was uncomfortably kind at 18.
- [43:09]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Okay.
- [43:10]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And I think we need to change the calculus in our society of what success is.
- [43:14]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Yes.
- [43:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Because I know unlimited millionaires that are straight pieces of shit.
- [43:19]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Yeah. He took me out for dinner on Mother's Day.
- [43:22]
Interviewer / Moderator
I like that.
- [43:23]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
To me.
- [43:23]
Gary Vaynerchuk
All right now. I like that. It's awesome.
- [43:26]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Thank you.
- [43:26]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Thank you.
- [43:27]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
Thank you.
- [43:30]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Hey, Gary.
- [43:30]
Audience Member / Author
Hi.
- [43:31]
Interviewer / Moderator
Yeah, go ahead.
- [43:31]
Audience Member / Author
I'm sorry. Hi. My name is Claudia Laurent. And I. I just. I'm in the process of launching my brand. Okay. At 55, I quit corporate America, started menopause.
- [43:42]
Podcast Host / Substack Creator
Okay.
- [43:43]
Audience Member / Author
And completely did a 180, wrote six books. I'm launching the first of a series of four called the Quantum Omni Mindset. Let me ask you what your opinion is on this. There is a saying where people say, there's nothing more concept than change. I think that's what's wrong with our society. Why do we have to change? Because change could be for the worse or it could be for the better. Why not flip that and call it there's nothing more change than evolution?
- [44:07]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I think that's semantics.
- [44:08]
Event Host / Announcer
Yeah.
- [44:09]
Gary Vaynerchuk
So it doesn't really make any difference. The same thing, really. But you evolved.
- [44:13]
Audience Member / Author
You evolved for the better.
- [44:14]
Gary Vaynerchuk
No, I get it. But you literally said the same thing, just used a different version of the word.
- [44:17]
Audience Member / Author
Okay, well, thanks. That's what I need to know.
- [44:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
And by the way, I think that's great, but I think. Let me even go deeper because it might help everyone. I think people, when you get into entre, my point to you is actually a little bit different. Which is it doesn't matter what you call it. Do you know what McDonald's is? No, but do you know what McDonald's is? Yes. It's a junk food restaurant. You know it, right?
- [44:43]
Event Host / Announcer
No, no, wait.
- [44:44]
Gary Vaynerchuk
The name, though. If you didn't know McDonald's, if you heard the name, it sounds like an Irish pub. Like, what is Google? The fuck is Nike? The amount of people in this room that are overthinking things that don't matter. What you're talking about does not matter. You know what matters? What you're going to execute against it. My personal brand name Publicly is the stupidest name of all time. It's Gary Vee with two silent E's. You feel, my friends, it's just execution. It goes back to how I started here. If you think coming here today was you doing the thing, it was not. It might be the lubricant you needed to do the thing, right, but too many people do all the proxies and they don't do the thing. It's kind of like, you know, does anybody have that friend that like picks up something new like tennis and then goes by like goes and buys like an $8,000 racket and gets fucking the sneakers and like back to content creating. You get the best fucking camera and you get the best fucking lighting, but then you fucking suck at it. Buying the things, getting the lighting, all that stuff, that's not it. And then you start using excuses. Well, I don't have good equipment. That's why I can't make. I'm not good at content. I'm like, motherfucker, you have an iPhone. This is the game, my friends. It's all this, it's all in your fucking head. All of it. And it all comes down to, to the most important part, which is, do you like yourself? Like, where you at with you? Because I promise you, if you don't think you're awesome, you've already lost. You might as well knock it out the gate. And let me tell you how quickly you can get into feeling good about yourself. I've got a secret that will make your fucking head spin. Everybody else sucks too.
- [46:46]
Event Host / Announcer
Yes.
- [46:47]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Oh, I'm gone. There's, I'm looking around this room. There's people that are more attractive than others. There are people that are stronger than others. There are people that are, you know, smarter in memorizing. Some people are more emotionally intelligent. Some people have scales, capabilities. Other people are operators. Life is about being self aware. Life is about leaning into the humility of loving who you are versus wishing you were someone else. Life is realizing you might be tricking other losers, but you're not tricking winners.
- [47:21]
Event Host / Announcer
Uh huh.
- [47:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
For all of you peacocking and posturing, we see you. We see right through you. You're not tricking me with your fucking facade. All I've got is intuition. I can see right through you and so can the other winners. So have fun tricking everybody by putting entrepreneur in your Instagram profile. But you're not an entrepreneur if you're not doing it. You're not at anything unless you're doing it. And most of all, you don't need to be doing it for people that can see it or can't see it. You need to do it for you. You have to do it for you. And when you start actually doing it for you, shit gets weird. I'll give you an example for the people that do follow me at the height of my personal brand, and now I'm starting to show up in search results with all sorts of crazy characters who've built bigger businesses than me. Bezos. And I'm fucking on fire in 2016, 17 Davos, and getting offered the billing. I'm turning down Shark Tank.
- [48:22]
Event Host / Announcer
I'm doing.
- [48:22]
Gary Vaynerchuk
It's. My career's crazy. I wake up one morning because I'm just reading my DMs and emails and I decide, you know what I'm going to do with my personal brand? I'm going to start filming myself going to garage sales. Yeah, they're my favorite too, because they're me. Like, I was just getting too many emails saying, bro, I don't know how to make a thousand bucks. The fuck are you talking about? How do I make my first hundred dollars? I got nine, like, literally DMs of like a screenshot of a Wells Fargo with $8.09 in it. Help. And I was like, okay. Like, I saw it enough that I was like. Cause me telling them to invest in the next Twitter wasn't gonna cut it. So I was like, fuck it. I will show them what I did when I had 20 bucks and I literally started trash talk and making videos on YouTube of like, literally going to garage sales, buying something for 3 bucks and selling it for 50 bucks, buying something for $7 and selling it for 99 bucks. And I put it out and I said, now what's the excuse? And by the way, they still had excuses. The comments were filled with like, yeah, but what about the gas. Ebay fees? You're either a complainer or you're not. And on real talk, most of you motherfuckers that I'm looking at right now complain too much about. You don't even control. Everybody's walking around like they're the head of the un. I don't know. That's what I got.
- [49:57]
Event Host / Announcer
Gotti.
- [49:57]
Interviewer / Moderator
Gary, last question. You want to give a. You're out of time. You want to give a last piece of advice for 2020 or going into 2026?
- [50:04]
Event Host / Announcer
The fuck do you think I just did?
- [50:06]
Interviewer / Moderator
I'm just. Your last question is up.
- [50:08]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm already one minute over.
- [50:10]
Interviewer / Moderator
You're good.
- [50:10]
Gary Vaynerchuk
I apologize.
- [50:11]
Event Host / Announcer
I know a Lot of Daddy. Can I. Can I get a very quick one here? Can I have a very quick one?
- [50:15]
Gary Vaynerchuk
A very quick one, yes.
- [50:17]
Event Host / Announcer
Gratitude and love to you. I'm a film director and a storytelling coach. And 10 years ago I was making commercials, making a lot of money in New York City. The very easiest fit in the planet. I'm from Argentina and I lived in India. And I always wanted to find how to live a fulfilled life. And a friend of mine, Nicolas Casabeki, a very prestigious film director, told me, look at this guy. Ten years ago, you and you appear. Boom. Okay. I don't know. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Show yourself. Show yourself. Go to the street. Do what you're okay, okay. Are you okay? I'm doing commercial for McHenry song Big Traveling the world, Japan. And I'm. I said, okay, let's do what Gary Vee said. I'm going to the streets of New York alone with my film camera and a big microphone, without crew looking at. Okay. I'm going to find my fulfillment. I'm going to find my happiness. Looking at people in the eyes in Union Square. And I start to stop people and said, it's a social experiment. And I did 20 episodes of one minute. Are you happy with life? Are you scared of death? What is important for you? And people start to cry. Hug me. It's a beautiful series. And I said, wow, I'm the new humans of New York as I'm a filmmaker. And I thought, this is going to be viral. It was not. It was not the series called Dreaming New York. Let's live my dream in New York. But I put it and I have like 200 views. And I go to a party and the sister of a friend of mine, a COO of a foundation, Marcelo, I've seen your. Can you do that for my company? Because it's emotional. I don't know anybody. I said, fuck, Gary B. What the fuck? And I closed $125,000 doing what my passion. And since then, get ready for this one. I said, happiness. I made another city of happiness and another one. And I interviewed Talvin Shahar and Mogao that and stuff. And happiness became my light. And I became now a film director, but a storytelling coach, connecting with people's happiness, soul and branding. And you are a huge inspiration. So gratitude for your crazy beauty, honesty. You have to have a big pair of beitzim. It's in Hebrew, so whenever makes sense. I would love to maybe interview you one of my series, if possible.
- [52:41]
Gary Vaynerchuk
All right, two things. One, I am so proud and happy for you. It means the world. I'm so happy for you two. You are so full of. You said it was gonna be short. And I was. Long as. I've gotta go. Love you guys.
- [52:59]
Interviewer / Moderator
Thank you. Thank you.
- [53:03]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Give it up, everybody.
- [53:05]
Event Host / Announcer
Yes.
- [53:06]
Audience Member / Hypnotherapist
My last one.
- [53:06]
Event Host / Announcer
You.
- [53:15]
Gary Vaynerchuk
Everybody. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.