Why AI Will Force You to Grow | Aspire Keynote 2025

Summary

The GaryVee Audio Experience

Episode: Why AI Will Force You to Grow | Aspire Keynote 2025

Date: August 24, 2025
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk

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Overview

This episode features Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVee) delivering an electric keynote at Aspire 2025, focused on the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on business, brand, and personal growth. The conversation dives into how AI will rapidly change consumer behavior, why building a brand is now more critical than ever, actionable advice for seizing the social media moment, and Gary’s signature rallying cries for self-accountability, adaptability, and playing the long game. Gary’s frank energy and practical insights make this keynote both a wake-up call and a blueprint for thriving in the AI-powered future.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Unstoppable Rise of AI and What It Means for Brands

• AI’s impact is “bigger than you can comprehend.” Gary hammers home how AI will make daily life exponentially more convenient, with devices and agents automating decisions humans currently make—especially purchases and services.
• “Brand is the only thing left.” As AI intermediaries (like Alexa) make choices for consumers, only the strongest brands will be specifically requested; everyone else will be filtered out as generic options.
  • Quote:
    • “Whatever the fuck you think it is, it’s crazier.” (Gary, 00:29)
  • Example:
    • Instead of asking for “pizza” generally, the differentiation comes from requests like “Pizza Hut” or “Luigi’s.”
• The future is convenience. Gary notes that people exchange even money they don’t have for saved time, and AI will dramatically accelerate this trend.

Notable Segment

• AI Ordering Food & Brand Power:
  • [01:00–03:16]
  • “If you’re not a brand, the human is not gonna choose you … Brand is the only thing left in a world of technology at scale, and that’s what’s going to happen.” (Gary, 02:22)

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2. AI Is Here—Get Educated or Get Left Behind

• Action imperative: Spend 50–100 hours learning about AI, specifically experimenting with tools like ChatGPT and applying them to your business context.
  • Quote:
    • “What should everyone do tonight? … Start the journey of spending 50 to 100 hours of research time on what’s going on in AI and what does it mean for their business.” (Gary, 06:15)
• AI is not coming—it’s here. Example from real estate: an AI-powered bot achieving $100 million in sales in Portugal.
  • Quote:
    • “My friends, this isn’t coming. This is here.” (Gary, 05:52)
• People are hypocrites: Gary calls out the contradiction of telling children to get educated while adults ignore technological shifts out of laziness or fear.

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3. Social Media’s Golden Window (and Why It Will Close)

• Organic reach is “free—right now.” Gary emphasizes that the current era of social platforms giving organic reach is unique and won’t last.
  • “This era will go away.” (Gary, 14:54)
• Move fast. Don’t make excuses. Even those reluctant to embrace new platforms (like TikTok) must push past their own resistance.
• Success stories: Gary recounts how hiring a dedicated TikToker led to viral moments, major press, and massive business opportunity—underscoring the low cost, high leverage of organic content.
  • Quote:
    • “All of us with our phones can change the course of our life, our business, our passions.” (Gary, 15:38)
    • “You’re taking it for granted.” (Gary, 16:34)
• Complacency is the enemy:
  • “You just might suck at it, but what’s cool about being sucky is all of you sucked at walking—then you learned.” (Gary, 17:12)
• But everything changes: Crystal-ball prediction—within a decade, devices like glasses will replace the phone as the primary interface; the entire social dynamic will shift.

Notable Segment

• The Window Closing on Social Media Organic Reach:
  • [14:00–16:30]
  • “This era that we’re in is going to go away … Take advantage of the last five or six years of this window.” (Gary, 15:20)

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4. Excuses, Self-Accountability, and the ‘No’ Disease in Business

• No is the most dangerous word. In business and tech, shifting from “no” to “maybe” is critical to avoid being left behind.
  • Quote:
    • “If you say the word no in business, you’re already in trouble … the most dangerous word in business.” (Gary, 10:49)
• Excuses for not adopting new platforms (“China owns TikTok”; “I’m too old”) are simply laziness or rationalization.
  • Quote:
    • “People love to do some USA American fucking pride to disguise—you’re fucking lazy.” (Gary, 11:18)
• Work is non-negotiable. Gary addresses the misconception that he doesn’t do the work himself, recounting his years running his social media solo and emphasizing that all success is built on effort—not entitlement.

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5. Adaptation, Learning, and “Training for the Marathon”

• Learning and doing are daily disciplines. Being actively engaged in social prepares you for the next leap (like to AI or AR glasses).
• Don’t be left on the couch:
  • “Trying to get y’all to do shit every day … so you can then run the marathon.” (Gary, 29:17)
• Frame the challenge as pain avoidance and opportunity seeking. Once you see digital adaptation as necessary to avoid pain and unlock gains, taking action gets easier.

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6. Playing the Long Game and the VeeFriends Vision

• Gary’s philosophy: Playing the “marathon” in an impatient “sprinter’s world.” Refuses to maximize every dollar for speed—focuses on deep, long-term value.
  • Quote:
    • “I am building a Pokémon/Marvel-like world for real … your grandkids are coming to my amusement park.” (Gary, 34:37)
• VeeFriends, VaynerX, and more: He details work on his under-the-radar initiatives, from massive agency businesses to marathon projects like VeeFriends, built methodically, not for quick hype.
• Fear of regret: Even self-aware, Gary admits risk of playing so long-term and leaving so much on the table.

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7. Enjoying the Process, Not Just the Prize

• Loves the journey more than the destination: Uses his Jets ownership dream as an example—finding happiness in striving, not just achieving.
  • Quote:
    • “The enjoyment of trying to buy the Jets is dramatically more exciting … than if I actually buy the New York Jets.” (Gary, 42:04)
• Bored by the win—driven by improvement. Analogies to sports and vacations (anticipation more thrilling than arrival). Emphasizes the value of enjoying the grind.

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8. Radical Self-Accountability & Personal Control

• Stop blaming others—take 100% responsibility.
  • “All your unhappiness is that you’ve believed all the people that told you they’re going to take care of you and you’re not in control.” (Gary, 47:34)
• If you don’t like your newsfeed, change your clicks.
  • “Your newsfeed is not pushing propaganda on you … your newsfeed is exposing who you are.” (Gary, 46:29)
• Massive energy on taking action: Control what you can—move, quit your job, cut out negativity—even change your algorithm by intentionally shifting your interactions.

Notable Segment

• Seven-Minute Rant on Radical Self-Accountability:
  • [43:30–51:00]
  • “At what age is it finally time to stop blaming your parents and realizing you’re a big fucking boy and girl and can change the outcome of your life? At what age?” (Gary, 49:55)
  • “You have no idea how delicious it gets once you stop complaining and once you stop blaming.” (Gary, 51:41)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Whatever the fuck you think AI is, it’s crazier.” (Gary, 00:29)
• “Brand is the only thing left in a world of technology at scale.” (Gary, 02:22)
• “If you’re not actively researching and touching AI, you’re lazy or entitled.” (Gary, 24:53)
• “This era where you can post on a social network and it’s free … will go away.” (Gary, 14:54)
• “No is the most dangerous word in business.” (Gary, 10:49)
• “All of us with our phones … for free can change the course of our life.” (Gary, 15:38)
• “The enjoyment of trying to buy the Jets is dramatically more exciting … than if I actually buy the New York Jets.” (Gary, 42:04)
• “Your newsfeed is exposing who the fuck you are.” (Gary, 46:29)
• “At what age is it finally time to stop blaming your parents and realizing you’re a big fucking boy and girl and can change the outcome of your life?” (Gary, 49:55)
• “You have no idea how delicious it gets once you stop complaining and blaming.” (Gary, 51:41)

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Actionable Takeaways

1. Do the Work on AI:
   • Spend at least 50–100 hours actively experimenting, learning, and using AI—immediately.
2. Double Down on Organic Social:
   • Treat organic reach as an expiring opportunity. Post every day, on every platform, and get serious about improving your tactics.
3. Build a Brand—Not Just a Business:
   • In an AI-driven world, only strong brands will be specifically chosen by name.
4. Embrace Change, Drop Excuses:
   • Replace “no” with “maybe.” If you rationalize avoiding new tech, recognize that as fear or laziness.
5. Take Full Responsibility for Your Life and Feed:
   • Curate your digital diet by intentionally clicking/liking the content you seek. Own your journey.

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Conclusion

GaryVee’s Aspire Keynote is a high-energy, brutally honest roadmap for navigating the AI transformation of business and life. His urgent message: seize the current window of social media opportunity, build a brand that can withstand the coming automation wave, and above all, take radical responsibility for your actions, learning, and mindset. The future is coming fast—adapt, or risk irrelevance.

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Transcript

[A]

I was watching recently a video you were making on content. Imagine that. And you talked about something and I said, man, I want to ask you about this. You were talking about, you were having a conversation about AI.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And you said people are going to regret, not them, their brand. As AI is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And you were tying AI and what's going to do into you needing to make sure you have built your brand. What's the connection between those two?

[B]

The connection there is AI is I'm going to stand up for this because I got excited. AI is so fucking big that it's like almost hard to break it down. Whatever the fuck you think it is, it's crazier. The speed in which AI is going to really affect our lives is substantial. Let me give you an example. AI getting really strong and voice devices are gonna really confuse people. For example, the Alexa in your home. And I know a lot of people like shut it off. Cause they're like, it's spying on me. I'm like, that's fine. Jeff Bezos doesn't give that much fucks about you, by the way. But I think that when you come home and this is the world I see when you walk into your kitchen and you're like, alexa, my son is having a sleepover tonight. Three friends are coming over. One's lactose intolerant, one's gluten free, two of them love spicy food and one kid is Persian and I'd love for him to feel at home. Can you please order dinner for all of us? We're gonna eat at 7:30 tonight. Thanks. When that then takes that and orders from four different places and delivers you a perfect meal in what I just said, for real, you have to understand then in that scenario, Amazon has all the leverage because it's gonna decide where that sale is gonna go. That's called not having brand. Alexa, can you send me a pizza tonight? I have 20 people over. That's different than Alexa, send me Pizza Hut tonight. I've got 20 people. Got it. We are going into a place where all that's been happening over the last forever, but accelerating the last 30, 40 years is we choose convenience over everything. There are people here that are fucking broke ordering fucking $28 bagels on fucking seamless. That's how much we give a shit about convenience. Even when we can't afford stuff, we'll pay for time. AI is gonna make everything convenient. You're gonna have AI agents shop for you in the background. Like you have no idea how big this is gonna be. And so if you're not a brand, the human is not gonna choose you. You're gonna choose it generically. You're gonna talk and make decisions based on general principles. I need Sneakers versus I need Reeboks. I need pizza versus Pizza Hut. I need business advice versus I need business advice from Gary Vee. Brand is the only thing left in a world of technology at scale, and that's what's going to happen.

[A]

Wow. So in that example there, what you're saying is, because when you hit that example of AI, if they don't know your brand, you're basically leaving it up to whoever. Let's example Amazon to decide.

[B]

Whoever sits in the middle, whoever's the toll booth wins. Right? Seamless comes in. And now it has leverage. Uber Eats has leverage. You're not ordering direct from the restaurant. Cause we all remember if you're over 40, you remember, like, literally having a menu in your fucking kitchen drawer, getting the phone number, calling the fucking place. Kids, it was wild. Now we love an Uber Eats or a Seamless. That's so much faster. That's going to feel in 15 years, the way it felt to call a restaurant and stay on hold. Because AI is gonna do it for you in a way that's. We're gonna be so connected. You're gonna be wearing devices of your health. The fucking device is gonna order you food based on how you're feeling that minute. Friends, you're fucking robots. You just don't realize it yet. I'm being dead serious, brother. In 15 years, I believe most of us will be wearing some form of health device. And that device is gonna order us dinner, not us. And we're gonna love it.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So what happens in that sense? You're not making the fucking choice. You're not deciding to go to fucking Luigi's tonight and get pasta. But if you love Luigi's enough, or you give a fuck enough, you will override. We still are not, like, completely helpless to this technology, but I don't think people realize how few things they give a shit about. And that is going to play out. And that is where all the opportunity and all the vulnerability is as all of you, game plan for the next 10 years.

[A]

So on that note, I mean, the crowd is like, dead silence.

[B]

Well, people are like, fuck, what the fuck? They're like, gary, are the robots gonna kill my kids? Yeah, motherfucker. Better be. Ready?

[A]

So in an example there, let's. Can you break it down a little bit into what someone should be doing Then whether this is five years off, ten years off. I'm. I'm sick and tired of you being right and me, like, I don't know, maybe. And then I'm getting my ass handed to me five years later on some.

[B]

So it's. It's a big deal. Like, Like. Let me give you an example. Who's in real estate here, Hans? Have you guys seen what happened to the company in Portugal that created an AI bot and did 100 million in sales? Anybody aware of that? Make some noise. Yeah, exactly. My friends, this isn't coming. This is here. I really need you. Listen. This is super important. We are by nature as humans, hypocrites. You're gonna go home tonight and scold your children about. Get educated. It's important to have knowledge this, that, and the other thing. And meanwhile, this AI thing is happening and you're putting your head in the sand. What should everyone do tonight? They should go home and start the journey of spending 50 to 100 hours of research time on what's going on in AI and what does it mean for their business. And how do you do that? You do that by actually using AI. Download ChatGPT and be like, ChatGPT. What does AI mean to real estate? You know, like, we've got to put in the work. This is coming, and it's coming fast, and it's disrupting everything, and it's just going to be the same old movie. Some people here are winning on social, but they don't want to learn a whole new thing like AI or this. Again, this is just the way it is. And so I think that. I think people are very naive to what's going on out there. Let me give you another one. Everybody now wants to be a fucking influencer, right? Well, bad news. Virtual influencers are coming and they're gonna win. There's a lot of people here already following someone who's not actually a human being. They don't even realize that that's how good the tech is.

[A]

I've dated seven of them online. It's like, wait, you're not real.

[B]

And by the way, on that joke, in Japan, this is very advanced VTubers. There are people in Japan that are married to virtual people. Married? Forget about, like, getting tricked. And it's like an only fans thing. No, no, no. All the way. I am married to a person that doesn't exist. Most of the people in this room will have a grandchild who will date a non human. Thank you. See you next time. But you know what's Funny about that moment, like when you're like, you know what my favorite moment is when I say something like that right now. So many people in the audience were like, no way, Gary, no. And then I remind them that you do understand that if we went to your great great grandparents grave right now because there's some new technology and we can rebirth them by putting a little pill in it or fucking and sprayed the fucking thing and they popped up and they, let's say that existed. If we all went to our great great great grandparents grave right now, sprayed it, they popped up, they're alive, they would fucking wanna go back into the ground because the shit that we're living blows their mind. Listen, I was an atrocious student, but I was good at history and I never understood why I liked it until I got older where I realized how much I rely on it to make my decisions. The reason I end up being right when I do predictish is, is because I ground myself in history. Let me give you an example. I know a lot of you don't know this, but it would help you understand why I see the world the way I do. When electricity was invented, do you know that most people were scared to put it into their home and continue to use candles because the word on the street was there were demons in the electricity. And do I have to remind some of the 40 and overcrowd here who, who said they would never give up their BlackBerry? Cause it had buttons on it. That one hurt, that one stunk, I did that one. And again over 40 year old crowd let these 20 year olds know the stigma of online dating. In 2003, 4, 5, 6 people met on match.com and lied how they met because it was so embarrassing. Now it's the only way people do it, my friends. Shit changes whether you like it or not. And when I think about coming to things like this, I always think about like how do I bring value? Like why do people want to continue to listen to me? People paid, people stayed to the end. How do I bring value? If I can bring you any value, it's that if you say the word no in business, you're already in trouble. The only word if you're a no person that you're allowed to change that to is maybe because so many of you are going to lose or limit your upside because you're addicted to the word no. And that is the most dangerous word in business. With technology you must. With consumer trends, with the way the world moves, you must be committed to maybe not. Yes, that's where you get in trouble the other way too. You get too ahead of yourselves. And no has value in other places. Protecting your time, keeping you away from things. But when it comes to what's happening in the world, you can't use no. And so many of you love to use excuses to not do new shit. Do you know what was the big one last year? Two years ago, everyone's like, oh, Gary, TikTok, I can't do it. Fucking China. You know, people love to do some USA American fucking pride to disguise. You're fucking lazy.

[A]

Yeah, it's a crotch.

[B]

Yeah. That's a true American trait. Right now. We're lazy. Yeah. We're fucking soft because we've had too much prosperity. You must go do your 50 to hour, 50 to 100 hours of AI research or it will fuck you.

[A]

I got a little bit of a bone to pick with you, please. Okay, so we're gonna pick a bone. Okay. So about maybe seven months ago, you were at an event, me and you were backstage. I was talking to you. I said, okay, Gary, you see what we do? It's like your second or third event. I was like, what, what piece of advice would you give me of what we could do for marketing different. We are now, can you remember this yet or not? And you thought there for a second about like that we were like. And you said, I tell you what I would do. I would take part of your marketing budget and I would, instead of running ads, I would hire a full time TikTok only person.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And you said all I would have that guy or girl do is just tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. And you said, you don't understand. You're like, you have no idea what would go viral. Like the thing you think will go viral won't. And this stupid of like it's Magic Johnson dropping a cup goes viral. Remember this horrible story you told me? So I did that shit. Okay, okay, the dude's right here. We hired him from California. He moved to Florida to do Tiktoks. Okay, we're gonna fire him today. Now listen, I needed you to fire him. So check this out, bro. So we. He was, he's a great, he's doing great. And we've had some his chef hit. Bang bang, whatever he does aspire. He's doing something for me. Listen to this, bro.

[B]

We, we, we.

[A]

He had this video they wanted to shoot. I shoot this video for him. Yeah. Four days ago, this thing, it finally hit 2. Hit 2.2 million views, like 200,000 comments on this one stupid ass TikTok video that we shot. Then. Then People magazine reached out, say, we want to do an interview. Newsweek reached out, we want to do an interview. Today show reached out, said, we want to do an interview inside of this. So my issue is I should have done this like 20 years ago. Where the were you 20 years ago in my life? Because that's all free. Like, do you know how you, you know how hard it is to get on people?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Interview that shit. And it worked. It fucking worked, bro.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, look, I think for everyone here, I, I need to say this very, very clearly. This era that we're in right now where you can post something on a social network and it's free. I just need everyone to wrap their head around what I'm saying here. It's free when you post it. Of course you can run ads, but the story he's telling right now, it's free. This era that we're in is going to go away. And everybody here who's been listening, you know, when, when you just said, where were you? I was here, you were there. I don't know what the fuck you were doing. But I think a lot of people, like, a lot of people know I've been on this for 20 years and I've been very consistent. I wrote Crush it in 2008. Right. It came out in 09. We're talking about 17 years ago.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I've been, you know, if that made some of you feel old, trust me, I get it. So I've been here. This era will go away. The phone that a lot of you are holding right now is going to look ancient in a decade. We are literally within the decade of glasses or something else. Circumventing the phone. Once the phone does not become the primary device, the social networks and the feeds don't work the same. When the printing press was the most important, the people that wrote books and newspapers won. When the radio became the most important, the people that spoke in it and were listened to became the device. Then the television came along and completely changed our society. This social network moment is incredibly important for us. Unlike every other medium, there were gatekeepers and very heavy expenses to have big moments. Now, all of us with our phones in there for free can change the course of our life, our business, our passions. You know, I could literally end this talk right now on this rant. And I mean this from the bottom of my heart. The only agenda I have to get across to everybody here, regardless if you're the biggest fan of me and have consumed me for 15 years or you have no idea who I am right now as you sit here, is for all of you to understand how significant the opportunity is in front of us to take advantage of the last five or six years of this window that has created a level of democracy and meritocracy around opportunity that has never in the history of the world been accessible to a human being. I could not implore you. And for most of you, if not all of you, social has been around for long enough that you're taking it for granted. You're taking it for granted. And just like what you just felt a lot of you've been posting for a long time and the thing hasn't happened. And that's because you just might suck at it. But what's cool about being sucky at something is all of you sucked at one walking like you couldn't walk. And then you learned. And so the reason I've been doing what I'm doing and continue to be passionate about this is I know that once people in this audience get over their insecurities of worrying about people leaving negative comments or being insecure that they only get seven views and they think that that's bad or all the normal things that humans go through in their journey of getting to actual self esteem and comfort and self love. Once they get over that hump, which more than half of this room has not gotten over yet, then you get into the second part, which is the tactics. The reason I wrote my last book, Day Trading Attention, was I went very deep into the tactics. Thank you. And so, you know, look, I. I really don't know how else to say this other than if you do not attack the free social network. And I mean all of them. Another issue here is for some of the people that are winning, they're only winning on TikTok or Instagram. And I will tell you right now, the most important platform for me of the last month, for me and my team is Facebook. Proper, classic Facebook. So I think most people here are not on enough platforms. And definitely most people here don't take the thumbnail, the first three seconds, the copy, the strategies, the real skills of actually getting your video to get 500,000 views instead of 49. But all roads, politically, socially, and definitely in business and marketing, all roads. What's Today's date? The 13th, 17th, 17 would say 12. All roads on March 12, 2025 lead to social media, organic content, organic, not paid. All roads lead there. And regardless of what you want to accomplish in this room. Every person, sell something, get clients, become famous or something much more noble. Raise a couple bucks for your pta, win local office because you want to fix the pothole on main Street. Be a better father or mother. All roads lead to this distribution platform and I could not implore all of you to get more fucking serious about it. Thank you.

[A]

Okay, so you just said something that is very unique. So obviously social platforms have been around for. We're coming on 20, 25 years. They've really been around. You just said that in the last. Let's say the next. You know, there's crystal ball but within 10 years that you think this whole thing is going to change on his face. Basically, I do. So we're on the.

[B]

You.

[A]

You're saying we're on the back half and on the way down of the hill. On social media, it's.

[B]

It's not.

[A]

Not the growth of it, but. But it going away and changing something else.

[B]

Look, I. I get a lot of credit for predicting things. I don't predict things. I just am always on it and then I talk about it. Right. For example, right now, how many people here sell something physical? Can you make some noise? Just make some noise so I get a sense. So every person that raised their hand and made some noise, every one of them should be paying attention to live social shopping, TikTok shop whatnot, fanatics, live ebay, live. Like that is not me predicting whatnot's doing 3 billion in gross sales on the platform. Most people here have no idea who the fuck whatnot or whatnot is.3 billion. So I'm not predicting that live social shopping is happening. It's already happened. It's been happened in China for 10 years. And whether you sell T shirts or vitamins or bikinis or sneakers or banana chips, you should be really focusing on live social shopping because it's the next frontier of opportunity over the next 36 to 48 months. And first mover advantage really matters. I can promise you, like you, a lot of people here wish they got more serious about TikTok when I was yelling at the top of my lungs in 2017. I'm sure of it. So I'm not. You know, I don't like to predict. I like to move fast when shit's happening. But it is very clear to me that Meta Facebook Inc. Has a major agenda to get us off the phone and onto their device. And they are pot committed to these glasses. I also have the luxury to have witnessed future forms of the glasses by going out there and playing with it. It is very clear to me that whether it's them or whether or Apple or Google or Microsoft or a Chinese company, that we are only going in one direction in technology. Innovation continues to happen. I'm sure a lot of you are thinking about how AI might hurt you. Let me just remind you, technology is undefeated. It's undefeated. When the car was being made, the, the guy that owned 30,000 horses made fun of the car and said it wouldn't work. Not because he was dumb, but because he had financial vested interest in the car not winning. A lot of people here are making decisions about things because it isn't what they want to be happening. The only reason I think I've been successful in business is I know that business doesn't give a fuck about my feelings.

[A]

Zero concern.

[B]

So I don't want to predict, but I think it's unlikely that in 10 years that the mobile device, the way we know it is as primary as it is right this nanosecond. And if that's true, the way social plays is going to be different and that's where AR&VR and other things that are looming that we've heard about for a long time start to become serious. So yeah, I mean, I guess for me, more none of us know, but what we all know is that every day businesses and humans are going viral at scale and it's changing their outcomes or if you don't even go viral, if you're just good at it, your business or your financial impact goes up by 20 or 30%. Cause you're good at it. And that's good too. So I just want people to take it more serious.

[A]

Made me think of this. I was interviewing Mark Cuban a while back and it was in Dallas and I asked about AI, said what's your thoughts on AI? And his answer was he's like, how often do you use apps on a daily basis? And if you stop to think about it, it's like non stop. You're constantly. When you open your phone, then it goes to an app immediately, right? And he's. And his answer was, he said as much as you use an app on a daily basis, your life AI is 10 times more powerful and will be bigger than all those apps combined.

[B]

That was his point of AI. I'm sure he knows this. You know, it's 10,000 times, it's not 10. This is really big. And again, bringing it. We've gone pretty high level here today on the first couple things. If you decided to come to this, this is a good place to go if you're here. My brain goes to like, what the fuck are you doing here? Right? And where that goes next is this is a room full of people who are hungry and ambitious to do something. Right? Like you decided to fucking come. Like, I don't know. I don't. I mean, you didn't come here to fucking sit in dark and just hang out like. Like you fucking came because you're trying to make something happen. I assume what. What bothers me about something like that is just coming to consume this information isn't doing anything. You could have laid in bed and consumed. Please act. Please act. And so very simply, I'm gonna make this simple. This is like a foolproof formula, in my opinion. Pretty basic. And guess what? The cost of it is free. 99, what I'm about to tell you is free. But you have to do something. Number one, you must have a comprehensive plan on making content for social networks. There's seven of them. There's LinkedIn and YouTube shorts, not just TikTok and Instagram. Facebook regular is exploding again. There's Twitter. It fucking matters. And number two, you must do 50 to 100 hours of research on AI. You must touch it. If you do not have ChatGPT on your phone right now. The fuck are you doing? The fuck are you doing? And don't give me like, I don't believe in AI. No, you're fucking lazy. You're fucking entitled. Or maybe you're, you know, of a certain age where you're just hoping that you could just ride it out before it takes you out. No, really, People do that. They're like, gary, you don't get it. I'm 60. I'm like, what the. You're 60? Like, I'm like, are you retiring in the next three years? If they're like, yes. I'm like, okay. But even in the next 40 years of your life when you're retired, you probably want to use these tools to just make your life better. But people use these noble political frameworks to actually use as full pledge disguises to the truth, which is you're fucking lazy. Yeah, that's exactly right. Notice how the claps were not as strong on that. We love to tell everybody else to do work but ourselves. This is work. This is work. By the way, on the record. Technology doesn't come natural to me either. I don't like to do shit. Mean it. I get pissed when new shit comes along. Like, I get. I do well with it. But when I saw musical LY, which became TikTok. I was like, ah, fuck. Like, another thing I have to like, I'm not pumped either. Like, if the world would slow down, I'd be chilling. I'm winning, but it's just not the way it is. The game is not built that way. And what's crazy is it's high stakes poker. These new things that come along, you either ride them and explode, or you kind of put your head in the sand and they start to chip away. And you. And so please do not underestimate what's happening here.

[A]

Let me ask this question to you, because this is something that I, I, I would think a lot of times back in the day when I would look at you and you would say, right? And so probably, maybe some of the crowd is saying this to themselves, which was a hypothetical excuse for me to be lazy. And that was. I was like, yeah, but Gary has a whole. Right? Gary doesn't actually do social media. Like, Gary doesn't. He's not actually doing it. He's got 25 people he's out here doing. And I just, Just to be clear, I have seen you backstage on your phone posting, like, I've seen you do it.

[B]

There was also the seven and a half years that I did it every single day before I had one employee.

[A]

By yourself?

[B]

That's right. There's, you know, there's that part too. Y'. All, like, you know, like, people are just always, like, so confused. Like, listen, work is part of the equation. I know that we got, like, weird for, like, 10 years where people trying to convince you, like, work wasn't part of the equation. You know, I remember, like, people got mad at me for using the word hustle. I was like, fine, I'll change it to hard work. Like, work is part of the equation. But, yes, go ahead.

[A]

It was an excuse that I came.

[B]

Up with that or what people do. I apologize. Is not in my industry. Gary, you're right. But not in restaurants or. Gary, cool. But not. No, no, you. Technology is coming for you. You ever see Friday the 13th? That motherfucker is coming for you. Like, it's. I do not understand how people don't get it. And so one of the reasons I want you to use social is if you're doing social heavy, it doesn't make the jump to AI feel as hard when you do AI. You know, if you're staying on the sidelines, it just gets, it gets further and further away from you. It's hard to, like, go to the glasses when you're still on a flip phone, you know? And so we just need practice. I'll use this analogy. I'm trying to get y' all to do shit every day. Like you're training for a marathon so you can then run the marathon. It's hard to go, like, eating chips and fucking beef jerky on your couch and drinking beers and not doing anything physical for a year, and then just getting up in the morning and running the fucking New York marathon. That's what a lot of you are doing with your business by not doing all the steps every day. As the technology keeps moving, it gets harder for you and the gap gets bigger. You become more discouraged and it's fucking game over. But it's shockingly easy, even for the least discipline in the room when you realize how much pain is on the other side if you don't do it, and more importantly, how much. Once you look at it from a different angle, it becomes a lot easier. By the way, I lived this for the first 38 years of my life. Going to the gym and eating well was the worst. To this day, 11 years later, I still struggle. This morning, my trainer's like, I need you to get into the gym. I'm like, oh, but I gotta go to Florida. You know, Like, I'm fucking. When it comes to working out in the gym, I'm loaded with excuses, which is why I know when I see it on your faces. When it comes to business, in business, I have none. I'm a fucking robot. I can go 19 hours a day, every day. And this is why I talk about liking what you do. The reason I can do that, and this probably will resonate to you, because I feel like you'll have this angle. You may know this. I don't try to maximize for money.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Like, there's a lot of people, you know, that are similar to me, that are not at the same tier as me that maximizes for money way better than I do. I maximize for liking what I do, which then enables you to do it at all times. When friends struggle with this, I'm always like, well, what do you like the most? And, like, one friend will be like, I like to ski. That's my favorite thing in the world, right? I'm like, well, imagine if you skied for 15 hours a day for a profession. He was like, that's fucking awesome. I'm like, that's how work is for me. And so I'm very disciplined at work because I love it, but I'm not disciplined in the gym. Because I fucking hate it. But I do it because I'd like to live longer and a higher quality of life, you know, if you want things financially, being good at business is a good idea. Otherwise, shut the fuck up. And I'm serious about that. That wasn't a joke. That's the poison of complaining and entitlement. A big thing that's holding a lot of people back is jealousy and envy and pointing fingers. If you use the word that person is lucky, you've lost. If you weaponize luck, you fucking lost. Even the one that's so easy. Oh, that kid was born into a family with $100 million. They're so lucky. I don't know if you guys know rich kids. They're predominantly fucking losers.

[A]

Eddie.

[B]

Yeah, look, it's one of the most devastating things for somebody that comes from little. When they build, they see their kids. It's very hard to be hungry when you're constantly fed.

[A]

Yeah. Let me ask this question here. I'm gonna. I'm gonna piggyback on something you said and tied into a big piece I want to talk to you about a while ago you're talking about, which is very true of how you do this. You do not try to monetize everything that you do or a little. Every little detail. You don't. You do not play that game. When I look at you, though, I've never seen anybody play a better long game than you. You have a great long game. And when I think about the long game right now in your life, I think about V Friends.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And your long game on that is out of, like, I'm a visionary, but that is, like, wild. How far along you play, how many.

[B]

People here would consider they are a fan of me, follow my stuff, know me a little bit, just make some. No, thank you. I would tell you that 95 to 98% of the people that just gave me that love have no clue of what I'm doing with this Deep Friends thing for two reasons. One, I am playing long and I'm patient. Two, the NFT thing, the news cycle got weird. It got too hot too fast. And then all the greed and the scam came in, and the brand of that kind of tilted the conversation. But I sit here in front of all of you right now, and I'm telling you to your face that over the next 30 to 40 years, I am building a Pokemon Marvel, like, world for real. Like, your fucking grandkids are coming to my amusement park.

[A]

That's wild.

[B]

And I'm doing it. And I'm doing it day by day, quietly, which is weird because I'm so public. But to your point, you pay attention. Like, if you watch carefully, you can see it. Ironically, this May 7th, my Veefriend's Topps Chrome comes out, which is going to be trading cards in every hobby store in the country, which will be kind of like another brick in the process that may hit some people's radar. But yeah, I like marathons. This was earlier to the comment I made in 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, when I was doing it all by myself, 15 hours a day. Answering, I replied to every single person that tweeted at me from 2007 to 2011. I literally went to sleep at 4 o' clock in the morning every day. Like, literally did that. So that's what Veefriends is now, which is really fun. Because I'm such a public figure now, it's hard to do something in the shadows, which is ironically my preference. I'll give you another thing. For as many people that know me here, almost no one Here realizes that VaynerX VaynerMedia, my advertising agency. I don't think most people realize that it's 2,500 employees. I don't think most people realize it's a $400 million a year business that I started from scratch. Most of those people have no idea that I co founded Resy and like I do. It's funny for such a loud guy, the things that I'm kind of most proud about and do best, even my non profit work or things of that nature. I almost analyze myself as I'm halfway through this journey. Like, I think about being 100 years old and I turn 50 later this year, which is fucking insane. Happy birthday. Thank you. But it's in November and my mom would be super pissed that you wish me a happy birthday before my birthday. Big Russian superstition. Yeah. It is interesting how I play. You're right. I definitely think I play. I always say, like, I'm a marathon runner in a sprinter's world. Most of my contemporaries run fast. They're trying to make as much money as humanly possible as quickly as possible. And really, in a lot of ways, a lot of my contemporaries give no fucks about the collateral damage that comes along with that. And I don't judge, actually. Like, everybody has their own circumstances. I'm not even sure if I'm right, by the way. When. When you play long, I could be a very, very resentful old man. I'm being serious. I think about it a lot. I'm gonna be very vulnerable. Here I am playing so long, I'm leaving so much money on the table, so much on the table that if it doesn't work out, I could be 83 and be sitting there and be like, fuck, man, maybe I was too far to this side. And I think about those things. But at the end of the day, and I think this will resonate with a lot of people at the end of the day, for a lot of us, we are who the we are with all our strengths and our weaknesses. It's in my soul to play it long when.

[A]

When again, a lot of people talk about play the long game. Not everybody does. When you see the friends, Right? Yeah. Because I remember when I. I launched Money Is and I went to your office to do the first podcast, right. And I'm getting there to Hudson Yards, walking in and thinking. They gave me a tour and I was walking around this place thinking, what the fuck? Because I thought you had like 30, 40 staff people there. Because you never lead with all the other stuff.

[B]

Well, most people think I'm a motivational speaker and I like, you know, a public. Yeah. And I don't think most people realize how much of a side hustle Gary Vee the whole thing is.

[A]

It's a web that's huge of what's inside of it. I've tried it in research, and it's like there's so many different things that are happening inside of it in that just without getting into all of them. Do you play that daily CEO role of all of those?

[B]

I am the active CEO of Vayner X and of Veefriends, for sure. Vayner Sports is run by my brother, but I'm very involved. Then there's Vayner Watt, which is fairly new, which is a TV production company. There's not a. I mean, I have a lot of business, and in all of them, I am minimally an active chairman, you know, at a minimum. At a minimum. Right. The two things that I don't run day to day are Vayner Watt and VaynerSports. And I'm very involved in the TV production company, which is new for me. And you'll start seeing our logo on TV shows next year. It's super cool. I can't wait for that. But I'm. Yeah, I'm very in it. Look, I. I work. I work 12 to 17 hours a day, and I don't eat lunch or breakfast. And when I say I work, I'm looking at Dustin ironically. He knows when I say work, I don't do lunch. I barely go to the bathroom. Every minute is fully booked. And I love that. And that works for me now. But if I wake up tomorrow and I'm like, I don't want to do this. I working too much or this and that. And I've been flowed. I used to travel all the time post Covid. I travel less this year. I'm starting to travel a little bit more. You know, I think one of the biggest mistakes that people in this room make is they judge themselves negatively without realizing they could just change. Like, if I wake up right now and be like, what the fuck? If I look back at this clip in a year and be like, what, I'm an idiot. I should have spent more time family or this. Like, I can. Like, I don't know why we cry over spilled milk. I don't care how fucked up you are. That was yesterday. It's a really big deal. Like, it's very. This is really important for everyone here. Like, regardless of like. Like, I have no idea why you would ever not be your biggest fan. Like, everybody else is gonna boo you. Don't join them. Especially when you are actually capable of changing your shit. It's real talk. It's real talk. So, you know, that's where I'm at.

[A]

Very good. We'll be in here. Let me.

[B]

Can we go a little extra?

[A]

It's your world, bro.

[B]

Bro. Let's keep going. Do you have a visas?

[A]

No more business stuff.

[B]

I'll fucking do anything.

[A]

I was going to ask you on a different note. The Jets.

[B]

All right. See everybody? Yeah, the Jets. Oh, boy.

[A]

Number one. Do you still want to buy?

[B]

Yes, yes, I would love. I think it'd be really cool if I went from a Russian immigrant whose family didn't have enough money to. Enough money to buy a Jersey to go through life and get to a place through the American dream to buy the actual team, I think that'd be really cool. But again, to me, the enjoyment of trying to buy the jets is dramatically more exciting to me than if I actually buy the New York Jets. Like, people ask me a lot, like, what if? Blah, blah, blah. I'll give you a great example. What if my dream was to buy the Dallas Mavericks, right? I would have been like, okay, Cubans there. He's not that much older than me. Maybe when I'm 90, I'll be able to buy them for a couple of years if I outlive him. And then out of nowhere he sold, and I would have not been ready. If the Johnson family decides today to sell the Jets, I'm not there. You know, I've done really well. I'm very proud of my life financially, but I'm not in striking distance. I need another 15 or 20 years to really get there. So to me, what's been awesome about it is I will be super fine and very happy for the person that buys the jets if I'm unable to. But I really enjoy trying, and I think I just wish more people in this audience. I really do believe the unlock for you to get more financially successful is you fully falling in love with the trying versus the obsession of the achieving.

[A]

You know, it reminds me of Nick Saban. He's such big on. You have to. You have to enjoy the. The. The journey, the practice to win the championship. It's not about winning the championship. It's about enjoying that practice to make sure you hit it.

[B]

I think I'm so psycho. I don't even like the wins. Like, it's. My brother's really all over me on this. He's like, yo, you're broken. Like, good things happen. Like, we sell Resy for hundreds of millions of dollars or all these things that happen to me and I'm a little bit like, eh. I'll give you a good example. I don't know how you all roll with vacations, but when I have a vacation, the best part of a vacation is the weeks leading up to the vacation. Like, the second we get there, I'm like, eh, it's over. And so I got very blessed in that my hard wiring enjoys the process. I like the losing. I like the pain. Right? Like, I really do. Like, I'll use a fighting analogy. If I was a boxer, I would prefer to get knocked down in the first round and like, lose a tooth and like, try to battle up from that. Most people fold. And I've spent a lot of time, my life in the last 20 years, trying to get all of you to not because why. And I've come to learn so much of it is outside validation. I'm just shocked and devastated and pray that more people in this room could stop worrying about other people's judgment on their lives. Definitely strangers. The social media. Stranger thing Blue blows my mind. You are not following your dreams because Sally pants 96 leaves a comment that says you're fat. There are literally people here who are not chasing their dreams because Donny Knoxville463 said you're stupid. Like, people are literally. There are grown Ass fucking people in this room thinking they're still in fucking sixth grade. I don't want that for them. I don't even want them to listen to their parents or spouses or siblings. Imagine what I think about them listening to fucking strangers who don't know who the fuck you are. We gotta get insular. You gotta get into your cocoon. You need to get into your fucking place where it's fucking you and you. It's fucking you and you. And you need to realize you're the fucking best. You're also fucking human. So you will make unlimited mistakes. But good news, here's the secret. Everybody else sucks too, so you're good. And I need people to get into that fucking mindset. Because me telling you to do AI or social or all this other stuff, if your fucking foundation of the way you fucking feel about yourself is broken, you've lost. And I want to remind you that if you sit here right now and you do not have self, you don't feel good. That's other people putting that shit in you. And unfortunately you decided to listen. Get that shit out of your fucking body. Whether it's therapy, whether it's fucking meditation, whether it's canceling people in your fucking life, if your fucking sister is miserable, if your sister is miserable, maybe you don't need to talk to her four times a day. Maybe you can talk to her once every four days. I'm not saying cancel your mom or dad, but I'm saying you got to limit negativity. So many of you were crippled because you watch too much Fox News and cnn. Stop watching politics. Stop letting negativity into your fucking body. No matter what the source is. The news, social, your fucking siblings, your mom. And by the way, back to social. Unlike the news and your auntie, social is you. If you don't like what your newsfeed is sending you, start searching positive things on Instagram and liking it all. Watch your newsfeed change. Your newsfeed is not pushing propaganda on you. Your newsfeed is exposing who the fuck you are. It's real, my friends. I'm telling you right now, if you do not believe me, I'm telling you, fuck the. I'll even let you wait a couple weeks to do your 100 hours of AI. I need you to leave here, literally. Type in an Instagram search. Sunshine, rainbows, bunnies, puppies. Search it, click on posts like all of them. Wake up next week and be like, watch you open up my fucking Instagram. It's all fucking new York jets, fucking Sunshine, Rainbows, Puppy. It's fucking positive as fuck. China and Zucks did not give me a pass. I control my life. You control your life. And parents will while I'm on this roll. You don't like. Like, I get this DM every day. I don't like TikTok on my kid's phone. I'm like, good motherfucker, be a parent and delete it. Don't fucking yell at me. Be a fucking parent. If you don't think that your kid. You don't like that TikTok's on your kid's phone, delete it. And don't give me while their friends have it. Be a fucking. The second you realize you are 100,000% in charge of your life, you win. Back to what Florida's all excited about, that everyone moved here. That's what those people did. They didn't like paying state taxes. They didn't like the politics. They moved here. By the way, you don't like America, Good news, you can go to fucking Sweden. You don't like your boss, be a fucking big girl and fucking quit. You don't like your fucking dopey husband, divorce that motherfucker. I'm being dead serious. I need everybody to understand this. All of your unhappiness is that you've believed all the people that told you they're gonna take care of you and you're not in control. All of the happiness in life is realizing you are 100% in control of your life and you are capable of making tough decisions that might hurt for a couple of weeks and months but can lead to long term happiness. So stop fucking crying. Stop pointing fingers at everybody else. At what age? At what age?

[A]

42?

[B]

At what age is it finally time to stop blaming your parents and realizing you're a big fucking boy and girl and can change the outcome of your life. What is the age? Is it 18? Is it 22? There's literally 54 year olds sitting here right now that still blame some shit their mom did in 19 fucking 71. No shit. Everybody had parents that did dumb shit. You do dumb shit too. It is time to be fully fucking accountable and realizing you're in control. And then I promise you, my friends, once you cross over to the best side of the world, which is fully accountable side, every little fucking dream you have becomes achievable. And until then, you're going to keep going to conferences and thinking you're doing something.

[A]

When you look at. So listen, this is the truth, man. I've interviewed you, I don't know, six times now, and I've never interviewed you like this. Like, you are on fire tonight, bro.

[B]

I'm on fire. And I know I need to go. I'll tell you why. I feel a huge sense of responsibility. I got lucky that I am able to communicate, right? Some of you are just super attractive. Some of you are athletic. Some of you are, I don't know, good at carpentry. You know, I got gifted with the ability to communicate. What I just did for seven minutes is the most fucking universal truth. It is a hundred. It's a hundred. I'm not sure about a lot of things. I am super sure about the last six minutes of that rant. And, yeah, I feel motivated today. And I want it so bad for you. Honestly, I want it. You know, I just want it. You have no idea how delicious it gets once you stop complaining and once you stop blaming. You have no idea how good life gets.

[A]

I love the idea about the Even you said even before you do the AI, like, go change your news feed your fyp.

[B]

In a real way, bro.

[A]

That is like, in a real way, we get bombarded and we think, oh, man, this is what they're sending me. No, you clicked on that, and based off what you clicked is what they send you. That stuff inside of it. That is genius. And we don't ever think about it, though, is what. You know what I mean? Like, you never think about, like, oh, I should go click on puppies and just click on 15 fucking puppy posts. And I bet you in the morning when I wake up and watch a puppy run across the yard, I'll be.

[B]

Way happier in a way that would make your head spin. Stop, stop, stop. It's so easy to blame. It's so fucking easy to blame. That's why it doesn't have good results. Everything good in life is hard. Get to fucking work. I'm out of here, Kirby.