The $460M business empire Gary Vee built while you were watching his content

00:00:00Bro, this is going to be one of thehighlights that I know from this meetingthis podcast. I love that I saidmeeting. This feels more like a businessmeeting than is why you guys are sosuccessful.>> Gary, let me ask you a hard-hittingquestion. I've known you now for a fewyears, a while now.Do you own a computer?>> Uh you know what's funny? I did not owna computeruh for four or five years it going intoCOVID.>> So, what what year did you buy yourfirst laptop?>> I went full phonebecause I didn't work within Excelor any documentation and it was allemail, meetings,social. So, I I think I stopped having alaptopin 15, went to 19 without one, but I'vehad one since.>> You know those luxury brands where it'slike quiet wealth or whatever wherethere's no label? We found the podcastversion of this, which is that therichest guys who come on the pod, theydon't know how to use a computer.They're like assistant sets up a screen,they just show up. We had one guy try toshare his screen and he was likehonestly he's like honestly guys this isthis is bad. I don't know what I don'teven know what I'm doing. We go justclick in Chrome because what's Chrome?He didn't even know what Google Chromewas.

00:01:16He goes I don't think I have one ofthose.>> It's it's ironic. I would actually argueyou know it's so crazy to think ofevolution. So, I went through those fouryears it was the best like not having alaptop at the airport like it was thebest and now it's completely theopposite, right? Like my Open Lawcomputer's like the most important thingin my life, right? It's just sofascinating.>> Wait, what what are you doing with OpenLaw, Gary?>> I mean lots of things. I think with OpenLaw specifically, I'm using it as acapture all for all information. What'sbeen really fascinating even with threeadmins and chief of staff and all this,I'm still like I never got there likesome of my friends were there chief ofstaff is with them in every meeting. So,there'd be like so much context lost,right? Like in a meeting, so muchopportunity missed. So, the first one ofthe first things I've done with OpenClawis it might even happen here. I mayliterally take a photo of this screen,send to my OpenClaw on text. It's mainlyfor CRM for me right now, relationshipcrap. And then, what's so amazing,right, is once it understands myrelationship graph, now I'm justbuilding, you know, logic and agents ontop of it like keep me updated on whenthings are happening. Like, even sendingyou guys an email automatically in 2years saying congrats on a trilliondownloads because it knows I know you,it knows that was a milestone for you,and I do

00:02:31want to, you know, say what'shey, good job, you know, like like it'sjust like scaling all my favorite thingsabout humans is definitely step one forme.>> You just said something aboutrelationships and you have this guy,Nick Dio.>> Yes.>> you had I don't know if he's still withyou, but this fascinated me.He does these really interesting things.He's like host these dinners almost likeon behalf of Gary.Who is this guy? What is he doing?>> So, I'll I'll tell everybody who'slistening, this is actually a prettyThis will be good. This is going to begood for your crew. Nick Dio is the VPof relationships. He literally goesaround the world and in essence, he'sbeen with me for 12 years, started as anintern, grew up in VaynerMedia. I trusthim to represent me to some degreebecause I can't be everywhere. And about2 3 years ago, I realized my favoritething about business is people.It's probably why I ended up having anagency with 3,000 people when that's notthe best business model. It's why I makeso much content. I just like the peoplepart, and Nick just became anotherversion of that, which is like I can'tbe everywhere. And who's got a betterjob than Nick? Go around the world andlisten carefully if there's something wecould do something for someone forkarma.>> Right.

00:03:46>> Like no KPI, no ROI. Like Like payattention, and Nick, you know me sowell. You You know we have so much togive. Just keep your ear to the ground.You know, figure out who's got the rightintent. Figure out who's talking [ __ ]and not talking [ __ ] Like who's good?>> Well, let me tell you what it was likefrom my perspective. I got a DM from youand I don't think I You could have saidit and there's a chance I didn't read itclosely, but it said like, "Hey, I'mgoing to be in Austin. Do you want toget dinner?">> Yes.>> Yeah. I just said yes and then I justgot sent an invite. In the invite, likeI said, it could have said the details,but I showed up and it's like 50 people.It was at a very wealthy person's home,this like Microsoft executive's home.And I'm like, "Hey, where's Gary?"They're like, "Oh, he He's not here, butI'm here. I'm Nick and I'm hosting it onhis behalf." And I met like>> You were supposed to You were supposedto felt like more of a robo dub?>> Yeah. No, but I I want to give youcredit. I don't think I read it. There'sa chance I did read it, but I get thereand I met like>> I remember that party because it was oneof the bigger ones. It was never alludedlike I I apologize if we didn't word itwell, but I remember the context. Likewe weren't trying to trick you to meetNick.>> think so. And I met like I met this cooldude named Hunter. Do you know Hunter? Ithink his name is Woodall. He's got oneleg and he like won the Paralympics. Hewas badass. I met like all these like Itwas

00:05:01like this athlete, this Microsoftexecutive, this person, this person. Imet all these cool guys. Um it wasawesome.>> Which is the easiest way, by the way, tospread good karma and good and like, youknow, add value is just, "Hey, let mejust connect you with 10 other awesomepeople versus what can I do for you?"Right? Is that's the easiest way to doit.>> Yeah, that is a that>> was one of And it was early in Nick'sworld where I wanted him to get abroader like understanding of differentpeople that were in the you know, what'stough about things for busy people thatlike, you know, relationships is youjust can't scale. You're a human, right?And so like I end up with like theseunlimited business acquaintances that Iwish I could take to the next step. AndNick helps me scale that a little bit bydecoding a little bit cuz I trust hisintuition. He's been with me a longtime, grew up with me, and he representsme well, and he's smart, and and and Itrust him. So, then when he hits me andsays, "Hey, this person really needs anew marketing person." Like this is howWhen I'm long gone, I think good storieswill come out. Like this is a trueexample. Hey, this kid's got a good D2Cbrand. It's gone from zero to 20million. We're not an investor in thecompany. I have no vested interest. Theyjust lost their head of marketing. Hewas like over dinner talking in a groupof 12 like

00:06:16he's stressed and worried.And then 3 weeks earlier one of my bestpeople at Vayner came to me, you know,uh after 8 years and said, "I don't wantto do agency anymore." And likeliterally just putting that person inthat company and everyone wins. Andliterally I don't have a dollar in thecompany. Literally nothing. Literally notransact And like we do that in a waythat I I now do feel three like in thelast 3 years people are starting tounderstand Gary and Gary B a little morelike cuz we're doing it at such scalethat eventually the truth becomes youractual reputation.>> I think to add on the surface it's like,"Okay, great. So, this guy hostsdinners. That's cool. Sounds like he'she's got a mandate to spread good karmaand just help people. That's cool." I Ithink this is actually unbelievable. Ican't believe you don't talk about thismore. This is like You know when thatstory came out a few years ago where itsaid LeBron James spends a milliondollars a year on his body. And peoplewent nuts and this went everywhere. Thisis like a global thing. Other athletesturned on to this. And I went I wasthinking about it the other way. I waslike, "First of all, obviously thisguy's a billion-dollar athlete. For himto spend a million dollars a year on hisbody, that's like a masseuse, a trainer,good a chef, and it's nothing. He shouldbe spending three, four times that if ifanything." Second iswhat a great question everybody shouldask themselves who wants to be great iswhat is your

00:07:31equivalent of spending amillion dollars a year on your body. Andyou know, my executive coach forexample, he spent a million dollarsgetting coaching himself from the bestin different disciplines. He wouldoverpay and say, "How do I get How do Igo do an immersion with you? I know youusually do once a week, but I want to doimmersion." Cuz he's like, "I want to bethe best coach, so I'm going to go learnall the modalities from the bestteachers of those modalities." And Ijust think everybody should ask this.And you what you're doing with Nick tome is the equivalent of LeBron Jamesspends a million dollars a year on hisbody. Is Gary spends Gary spent probablyat this point 5 million plus, 10 millionmaybe, developing relationships withpeople who he thinks are doing goodthings in the world. He wants win be thewin in their sales.>> I have three full-time employees atVaynerX who host influencers that areemerging to walk through the office andmeet brand deal teams to maybe get thembrand deals on Pure Karma.>> Yeah. See, that's amazing. And I thinkthat that that type of investment it itonly comes from first principles.>> Doing good things for people isliterally the highest ROI and lowestrisk thing. And most people think it'sthe highest risk thingbecause they're when they're doingsomething good, they're not doingsomething good, they're doing somethingcalculated with the expectation or atleast minimally the hope that somethingcomes back to them.

00:08:47>> Well, but on the other side of that, itcould be like, well, I need to I'mspending money on these things. I havebills to pay.>> That's Sam, to your point, I didn't dothis the first 30 years of my career.Like, I got to a place where I couldafford investing in that.>> Yeah, but I what I was going to ask youis I think that you've always you fromfrom what I could tell, you've alwaysdefaulted to hiring a lot of people. Ithink that like um that it seems likethat's how you like to operate. Andalso, you've defaulted to doing thingsthat don't really make sense on paper,but because you're you, it does appearsthough it works out nicely in terms ofprofit. How do you like justify doingsome of these things that don't make anysense financially knowing that like whenVaynerMedia was 5 or 10 years old andyour margins were a bit tighter and youdidn't have enough money to go around todo some of these wacky things, and yetit still appears as though you did dothem.>> It's a really good observation. I thinkthe very simplest clean, you know, thisis now me respecting the audience cuz Ithink you have a sharp one, it's becauseI think most things that are taught inbusiness school are short-sided and aretactical versus how humanity actuallyworks and business actually works. Likeif you're And And then I would also saythat I am inherently a marathon runner,so I train for marathons

00:10:02in a worldwhere most of my contemporaries on paperare sprinters.>> Alexis Ohanian was at one of our events,and he checked me in the best waypossible. We were talking about howlike, "Yeah, we wanted to get this greatgroup together. There's You know, wedon't charge anything. I pay for thiswhole event out of pocket. I pay like aquarter million dollars a year just tohost this event." And it's like, "Look,I ask nothing in return. We're It's allabout, you know, just having a reallyAnd everybody's like this. We're alllike a generous crew." And he goes, "No,no, no. That's not it." And I was like,"Oh, [ __ ] What is he What is he aboutto say?" And he goes He goes, "It's justthe difference between short-term greedyand long-term greedy." He goes, "Youknow, I'm He was in the first YC batch,and he goes, "One of the beautifulthings about Silicon Valley is you learnthe virtue of long-term long-term greedypeople." And he goes, "It's not a badthing. It's everybody obviously wantstheir interest, but when it's long-termgreedy, you're going to play a totallydifferent game than short-term greedy.">> That's exactly right. And I would tellyou my nuancethat I do see in some others, which iswhy I gravitate towards them, is Andthen if your greed is about rainy dayhuman stuff, not money in your bank,it becomes an extreme nuance of that.>> What's rainy day human stuff? What doesthat mean?>> I probably do everything I'm doing notto get into a deal in 9 yearsand put a million and make 40 million,

00:11:17more for my daughter has an issue innine in 19 years in her personal life,and for some reason Sam's nephew canhelp her. I'm good enough to take careof my money part.>> Sometimes it's hard to run a businessthat way, being nice all the time,because you have to make difficultdecisions, like firing someone if theysuck. But, you seem like you are reallybad firer.>> I literally wrote a book because I wasso bad at it. I hid it, but it wascalled 12 and 1/2, and in the book, the13th principle was a half, and it wascalled candor, and I spoke about myjourney. And I was only ready, Sam, towrite about it. You know, you can onlytalk about your alcoholism when you'relike feeling like you're close to fixingit, right? Like And And by the way, backto like alcoholism or what I was dealingwith, which was you're incredibly wrong,Sam. I wasn't a bad firer. I was anall-time atrocious firer.Right? I And I didn't see it, right? Allof us, currently the three of us.And we're proud of ourselves in certainareas and know we can do. But,currently, by far the biggest problemthe three of us have is something wecan't see.I used to think of it as my ultimatestrength, Sam. And it had so manybeautiful effects. It led to so muchgood, but it actually ended up leadingto the worst of the worst, meaning

00:12:34You know, I've been really managingpeople since I was 18 years old, right?But, the liquor store, for real. Liketruly, like this 18-year-old child isthe boss, you know, cuz he's the boss'sson in this liquor store. And all theway up to where I am now. And so,I used to think my greatest strength waseliminating fear.I had superhero syndrome, right? Like Ican take care of everything.I got it. And I had this day in my early40s, which led me to writing the book,where I realized I thought everybody wasrolling with me with lack of fear,but that many in my company were scaredcuz they didn't know where they stoodwith me cuz I was unable to do candor,and on Friday, I was like, "Sammy,you got to have the best weekend, myguy." Like have it Like really, I thinkyou guys know me. I'm a little go-luckythat way. I'm like, "Sammy, have thebest [ __ ] weekend this weekend,right?" And you work with me for 3years. You're like, "All right, Gary,like you too." And then like Monday,I'll be like, "Sam, need to talk to youin my office." I'm like, "Hey, so, youknow, it's is to be your last day. Andby the way, I've been sitting on thisfor a year and a half.>> Back to your point, Sam. Right?>> And today's your last day and you'relike, "What bro? Like I Like you'venever said anything Like And then Iwould blame you. I'd be like, "Sam,you're you're so delu- Like Can you Andthen I would talk to Sean and be like,"Sean, could you believe Sam? Likeeveryone in the company knows Sam suckedfor the last 18 months. I was giving hima gift for the last year of charity andhe's mad

00:13:49at me?" I was coming up withthat excuse, so my candor was at a zero.I rebrand So, I had this real watershedmoment where a group of former Vayneremployees like were in a Facebook grouplike not talking nicely about me andthese were people I really had a lot ofcontinue Ironically, like, you know,it's funny that person also over timerealizes what they did. So, there waslike a lot of them I reconciled with ina great way, but it was really hurtful.But I knew I had to be accountable.Like, "Why are these people who are alllovely people, who I really went to batfor, did a lot of great things for, whohave really nice careers on the equityof their time with me, why are they[ __ ] on me?" And it was all And Iknew it cuz I just looked at the eightnames and I was like, "These were allsloppy exits.">> You know what's funny isHave you guys heard ofobviously have, but Jensen Huang, theNvidia guy? He has this great line wherehe's like, "I'm not going to fire you.I'm going to squeeze you so hard thatgreatness comes out of you." And theninterestingly, Dave Portnoy, the founderof Barstool, he had another point wherehe goes, "I never fire anyone. I refuseto fire anyone.But we are going to make you great."Like he said something like that and Ithought that was so fascinating becausethat's the exact opposite of what Ithink. You know, we had Neil Patel onand Neil was like, "I only hire peoplewho have been there, done that. I onlyhire people who have built this thingalready that I want built and if theycan't do it, then I fire

00:15:04them within aweek." Which is probably honestly themore common attribute of like justhiring people who have been there, donethat and then if they suck right away,you know, you hear a hire slow, firefast.>> I bleed into both those categories, bythe way, and then have a third element,which is I'm the cliche girl that wantsto date the bad boy cuz I'm going to fixhim.Right? So, if I didn't haveentrepreneurial DNA, I would 100% be atherapist, guidance counselor, or acoach, right? Like and so I allowed bothin my investingand in my operating too much in my 20sthrough mid-40s, too much of mynonprofittherapy DNA into my day-to-day. I'vebeen able to clean it up in the last 5years and let me say this to anyonewho's struggling with being too nice,you know, or cuz it was never that I wasscared to not be liked. It was that Ithought I could fix it, that I wouldsqueeze it, that I would make it butthrough love, not like trashing you likewhat you know, and and so for anyonewho's struggling with this like there'sa better way. Like, you know, can't Letme Let me say this way. As long asyou're delivering things with candor,all of it becomes dramatically morepalpable. I was not. I was holding itall in. That became

00:16:19the vulnerabilityand I'm really glad as I've gotten to50, I'm now in that place where I couldbe a lot better in it and it's showed upin the business results. I've been adramatically better CEO the last 3-4years where I've cleaned up my candor. Irebranded it into kind candor. It becamethe ethos of our company because I thinkcandor a lot of times is used as anexcuse to be a dick face and suppresspeople.And so we had to put that word kind infront of it. And it's uh it's worked forme and for my leadership and it's been abig step forward in my career.>> You give a lot ofcoaching and advice to entrepreneursaround the world. Who do you learn from?>> So, I learn from my mother's by farnumber one by a country mile becausealmost the far majority of what I do ispredicated on the people and emotionalintelligence front more than theinformation.I learn throughsocial media at scale, right? Just likejust consuming content at scale fromrandom people that are farming carrotsin Idaho to someone going deep cut onwhat they're doing with Claude code topontificate and it's truly like I am aproduct of this era.>> Whose video are you are you turning thesound onlately when you know when you'rescrolling on Instagram?>> Honestly, like I you know I'm pissed

00:17:34right now because I want to my favoritething is to give flowers and the truthis it's so weird Sam. Like my brotherfor example would answer this epic. He'sgot his X so dialed in and he would sithere and talk about AI or live shoppinglike he would give you like seven namesand he'd be like so good and I'm soshitty because the answer is I haveseven active businesses that are doingmore than eight figures a year inrevenue where I am meaningfullyinvolved.>> Well, what which ones are those?>> Tell us about it. What what what whatwhat what we got?>> Break them down. VaynerMedia VaynerXwhich is 400 million in revenue. I amthe day-to-day CEO.>> And that that owns all the other six?>> No, it don't it owns none of the othersix. Next. VaynerSports>> And what's VaynerSports doing exactly?>> Oh, VaynerSports does sportsrepresentation. So we rep Kirk Cousins,Sauce Gardner, Aidan Hutchinson, BoBichette.>> And and and NIL stuff too now or justpros?>> NIL at scale. We have probably 300college athletes.>> Okay, so that's doing tens of millions.>> That's doing tens of millions inrevenue. I have VCR Group which is arestaurant group which is if youremember famously I had that NFTrestaurant. News alert everyone, it'scrushing. It's called Flyfish Club. Uhwe also have Teaponds

00:18:49that Eto and fiverestaurants and and I'mactively involved texting with DavidRodalitz all the time. So VCR Group tensof millions in revenue as a restaurantgroup.I have VeeFriends.VeeFriends is probably the thing I'mmost like AJ and David Rodalitz are 1Ain the prior two businesses. I am 1A inVeeFriends. VeeFriends is going to dominimally 20 million revenue this yearin licensing and selling comic books andcoins and trading cards. I'm building atrue brand. Like it That By the way,that is a dark horse chance to be reallyone of my greatest roses because all theashes of the NFT era that I'm going toget to the other side and be Marvel andPokémon is going to [ __ ] with everyoneso heavy in 15 years. Wine Library.People will be flabbergastedhow involved I still am in the winebusiness. My best friend runs it. I amdefinitely one B to my dad and Brandon'sone A, but I work on it every singleday.One that's really under the radar,Vayner Watt. I have a verysuccessful TV production company that'skind of brewing right now called VaynerWatt. We have a bunch of shows that havequietly just sold. So you Like literallyon Hulu and ABC and Netflix, like you'regoing to see Vayner Watt

00:20:04Vayner Watt popup. And then finally, and I'm sure notlost on you guys,the the NIL and brand of Gary V. I havea full massive team on it. Speaking andbooks and content and NIL deals.>> Do Do you have ads or just or is itmonetized via speaking?>> I did a deal with Stan I I did a dealwith MasterClass. I'm starting tocollect I'm starting to be open to GaryV. I don't do like a brand deal. I'lllook at seven and eight-figure NIL dealswhere it's really integrated,potentially me doing a little consultingas well. But I think you guys areprobably I'm writing a new book calledThe Individual Empire, which talks aboutthe me, the Bartletts, the Alex Coopers,thethe rise of the creator entrepreneur andthe entrepreneur creator as the nextFortune 500 companies. And my beliefwith AI blockchain, evolving social,deeper, you know, decentralization ofHollywood and and Madison Avenue andWall Street, that the biggest companiesin the world are human-basedorganizations where the human either hasa partner that can operate or they're ame where they can be both.>> Hey everyone, really quick. If you'reenjoying this episode on CEO stuff, sodelegating, having hard conversationswith your team, hiring, then I've gotsomething for you. So, the team atHubSpot, they actually went and puttogether a bunch of best

00:21:19practices thatShawn and I use in our own companies.And they put it together in somethingthat's really easy to read andunderstand. And so, if you want to justsave yourself 10 years of headache andheartache, then you should check it out.I wish we had this a long time ago.Would have helped me a lot, but thereshould be a QR code on your screen thatyou can scan or a link in thedescription. So, check it out. It'stotally free and totally awesome.>> You just named like six or sevencompanies that are doing eight figuresthat you're like, "I'm either the 1A orthe 1B." And I think that's awesomebecause I too wish I had 96 hours a day.And so, you know, walk us through what'sthe What does the day look like? What'sthe time blocking look like for this,right? Like, what's a day in the life ofGary V to do all this?>> You know, I wake up at 6:00 or 7:00.There's a workout session every day-ish.I'm pretty much an 8:00to 8:30 to 9:00 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. startpoint. Done between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m.depending on the day, but there's not asingle break. No lunch, no anything.Every minute's booked.60% of the meetings are 15 minutes.And again, let's get to the point here,right? Let's get to the point here. Thisis 30 years of building equity, and mysecret weapon was hiring people.And again, you guys Again,

00:22:35this is morefun talking to you than let's say a netnew podcast where I interacted a littlebit with you guys.I had this feeling that I was going tobe able to have a lot of really good Aand B players around me that would staywith me, that could do bigger things,could do things on their own, but thatthe relationshipand that they would believe in me andthat they would say, you know, in 15years I might actually make more moneybeing Gary's number 13 versus me my ownnumber. I just had this intuitive andthat that could convert D's into B's andC's into B's. I just have this feelingthat my superpower was the humanrelationship side. And so, the reason Ican do this So, yes, I work a lot, andyes, I'm in I'm uncomfortably efficientwith my time, and yes, I'm on a boatwhich has seven holes, and I put myfinger in the one that needs it most.But every parent that knows, you're onlyas happy as your most unhappy child. Andso, my ebbs and flows of like, oh [ __ ]VaynerSports needs me. Or [ __ ] Like,there's all that. But the real reason isbecause of the 50 people from RyanHarwood or Kaylin or Claude or JT or AJand Greg Gensky or David Rodalitz andConnor Hamlen or Andy K and John and JT,John Trautman and May and Rips onVFriends or Brandon Warnock E on WineLibrary or Eric Wattenberg, VaynerWatt,on that. And I've got another

00:23:50one comingthat I'll announce next year,stand-alone business. And it's somebodywho's worked for me for 11 years who'sgoing to be my co-founder. And I had theexperience with Resy. You know, likepeople forget that I'm the co-founderand inventor of Resy, but I had BenLeventhal be the 1A, I was the 1B, andthat was a hefty nine-figure exit. And Ihad Empathy Wines, two former interns ofmine who worked for me for 11 years, andwe started Empathy Wines, and in 18months, sold it for a almostnine-figure, hefty eight-figure deal toConstellation Brands in 18 months. Justlike, you know, everyone's like,Gruen's. I'm like, I did that. Not toNot to 1.2 billion, but it's becausewhen I do things on a net new business,the person is my family member.It's family business. We know everythingabout each other. It's seven to 10 yearsbefore we decided to do X, Y, and Z.They roll differently than a lot ofpeople trying it with net new peoplethey hire randomly.>> Well, I was listening to your podcastthis morning, and someone asked aquestion that a lot of content creatorsasked. They said, "I'm doing liveshopping and live streaming, but I don'twant to do this all the time, and I'mnervous that this all relies on me, andI want to get other content creators.You have listed six or seven businessesdoing tens of millions in revenue andit all is started off of you and I don'tknow what percent

00:25:05is run or you getcustomers still for each thing becauseof you, but a lot of it's based on youand your content. Do you get nervousabout that or do you not care? You thinkI just love this so much that I ain'tgoing anywhere.>> Not only is that true, Sam, I think I'mthe preview. This is what's going tohappen.This is what is happening. Like if youlook at the derivatives of all thepeople that are like kind of that crewright now, what do you think ishappening? And then of course there'sKylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber wherethey need a business person to also bein round.But then there's also like I mean youguys are like in pot it you know,everyone has different hopes and dreamsand Sam, you've nailed it. Like to melike I love this [ __ ] bro. You know,people go and buy a home in the Bahamasand and play golf and that and Baker'sBay and that's their escapism when theyneed an escape. When I need a break fromVaynerX, which I do a lot cuz clientservices suck [ __ ]I don't go to Aspen. I go to two daysoffsites for VFriends cuz it fills mysoul and I do the comic stories of mycharacters.You know, or I go to a half day at WineLibrary and talk to Brandon cuz he's mybest friend since I was 14 and I need itfor my soul, but then we also fix thebusiness.>> What uh what's going on in

00:26:20these15-minute meetings? Uh cuz I suspectwhat you're doing in 15 minutes istaking most people an hour. So maybe youhave a format, maybe>> I'm mad at you, bro. You took my [ __ ] Iwas about to ask that I was about to saythe thing that everyone else is spendingan hour on.Bro, this is going to be one of thehighlights that I know from this meetingthat this podcast everyone's going to Ilove that I said meeting. This feelsmore like a business meeting that is whyyou guys are so successful. Umeveryone's going to say yes right now onthe treadmill, walking the dog, in theircar, on a plane, or however they'reconsuming this.Everyone's meetings are twice as long asthey need to be if they're a winner andthey know it.>> You got slam poetry snaps for me.>> And I just went there. I knew itsubconsciously then it becamejust, you know, then years went on andit became conscious and then I executed.I have this huge pride of how underratedas a businessman I am because what Ijust dropped on you guys literallynobody really knows, which is wild cuzI'm Gary V and I'm talking to all thetime. And I think I got there on the the15-minute meeting and the familybusiness vibes of my partners in crimein the top. And by the way, it's notjust one person. Like every companyrequires three or four family membersfor it to really work the way it worksfor me. Cuz you got to have a backup anda backup and a backup cuz there's somany variables that can go into thesethings. So, the 15-minute meeting has

00:27:35been gangster for me, game-changing forme. I do think I'm getting 3 days ofwork in 1 day. This is all happening ata time where I'm spending more, I mean,more time with my family than ever. Youknow, I have teenage kids, I have awife. It's just like you can be so muchmore efficient if you have remarkablepeople around you and you're obsessedwith not wasting time to fill the slot.>> What percentage of those meetings areyou making decisions or being informed?>> I would say30%I'm being informed, 70% I'm makingdecisions.>> That's insane. That's hard. The contextswitching, the that that's challenging.>> It's funny you said that. I've got abunch of new film people because all mypeoplelook, this feels incredible, go on to dothese incredible things after they filmme for a little while and get all theseoffers or start their own things. And soI constantly have a D-Rock comingthrough, you know, every year or two.The number one thing, Sam, every singlenew admin and every single little newperson that films me saysis they do not understand the switching.I think I clearly DNA. I wonder ifgrowing up in retail where you're justswitching like everything's just alwayson. I don't know.>> Well, I actually think that sometimeswhen I say context switching, we had aguy our one of our friends, came on thepodcast and like as we were doing thesound check, he got a text

00:28:51from hisdaughter saying she didn't get into thecollege that she wanted to get into andit screwed him up. Like the the rest ofthe podcast was kind of shaky because hewas like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I can'tstop thinking about my daughter justtexted me this. I'm so sad for her.">> I think one, it's it I've come to learnit's unique to do that. Two, now you'rereally talking about it. That hasdefinitely been even that has definitelybeen something I'm I got from my motherwhich is being able to carry in themomentadversity and negativity and still showup.Like I think a lot about that as aleader. Like I get a lot of bad newsevery day. One, I'm psycho and I'm inthe HR of all my companies and now wehave so many god damn employees.Every day someone's dad is sick. It'sjust like I want to know if somebody inmy company is going through tough stuffand then there's just when you're inclient services,we went 16 months without losing aclient at Banner X. We're ripping hot,right? Uh and then recently in the last60 days, we've lost two. And the and thefirst one was not surprising. The secondone was a little bit. And I was walkingright into another thing and I was justlike it's funny you say that. I waslike, "Man, I really got into that cuz Iwas pissed and like I wanted to fix itbut I knew I had to show up for thisthing and this thing and this thing andthen not to mention all the things thathappened in my personal life

00:30:06similar tothe college thing. There's alwayssomething. Just like being able to likeeat [ __ ] and fire fight is like a reallystrong emotional framework that is hard.>> What about no notification fatigue? I Itease Sean all the time. Sean, what'sthe joke? What's the stereotype if Iwant if anyone wants to get a hold ofyou? Do you do you know what thatstereotype is about you, Sean?>> Call Ben, I don't know.>> No, you Sean will not reply. Getting intouch with Sean when you need tosometimes is a pain in the butt. Withme, I tend to reply but it wears me out.I get so exhausted because I feel like Iwant to like please these people. Sean'slike>> worst part is I go to him and I say,"Hey, long time no talk." when I thinkof somebody and I see that actually theyhave been talking and I haven't and I'mlike, okay, I shouldn't even send this.Maybe I should just>> I'm I would say I'm in between you guys.I try to reply a lot. I use flightsquite a bit to catch up. Um and then ifthey can't get me, they get to theadmins and the admins have a good senseof my reality.>> How do you decide what projects to gointo? Because, you know, for the six orwhatever you said that are working,obviously maybe a couple didn't work andthen there's hundreds of opportunitiesyou're saying no to. So, what's the barnow? What's the box? How do you thinkabout that?>> My tummy.Just gut.>> Yeah. Like I want to do this and I wantto do it with this person.>> again, Gary. Say it say it

00:31:21cute. Likeyou said tummy.>> I don't have gut instincts. I got I gottummy tickles.>> You know,it's just>> There's so much serendipityto it. Um I'm very comfortabledying on my sword, which is myintuition.I'm very comfortable.>> Well, have you guys all ever came closeto bankruptcy or or not be able to makepayroll?>> You know, it's funny butmake payroll Resy was in trouble. I hadto put personal money in that I didn'treally have at the time.But nothing I've ever operated as theone A. You know, I got trained by aSoviet immigrant father who didn't evenlittle raising capital, forget it. Debt,forget it. Literally didn't have acredit line.And we were in the liquor business whereyou had to legally pay your bills on30-day terms or you went on COD to thewhole industry and you couldn't getproduct. So, I think I got trained sowell.You know, always have money in the bankfor a rainy day and 30-day terms legallybounded by the alcohol laws of Americaand no credit line that by the time Iwent to my own journey full-time, it wasin my subconscious of like, well, youalways have that money. The end.>> You meet a lot of people. Who do youthink is doing cool [ __ ] right now? Whatare, you know, either businesses

00:32:36thatare kind of blowing your mind, maybesomething that's taking off faster thanyou would have expected, maybe somethingtotally unrelated to what you do, butwow, you know, you get exposed to stuffthat the average person doesn't. Whereare you seeing a lot of heat right now?>> Oh, there's so many good areas. I mean,like, you know, I'll answer a questionthat might bring I'm trying to thinkabout how to bring the most value to theaudience. I'll go to places where peopleare betting on 5 years from now, not tocreate an exit 5 months from now.So, that takes me to people that arereally spending time on advanced AIlike really knowing where the stigma istoday, but won't be in 5 years, right?Like, creating a entire agency ofvirtual people.Right? Knowing right now it's a littleweird, but let's survive 3 to 5 years,and we're going to have the CIA ofvirtual people. They're all going to bethe most famous virtual people, and weown it. You're in the IP business, notthe representation business.That I like. I love everything, and thisis my wheelhouse, but I love everyonewho sells somethingto the consumer that realizes what liveshopping's doing to e-commerce is whate-commerce did to real com like reallife. And so, what I mean by that islike, in 6 to 10 years

00:33:52you know, I think e-com now is what, 25,30% of the market? Like, in 6 to 10years, live shopping will actually be 10to 15% of all commerce, and that isscary big.>> Did you invest in Whatnot?>> I did not. I actually talk about Whatnotall the time. It's not an investor.>> You've been talking about live sellingfor years.>> Sean, you'll love this. Anytime I'veinvested in something that I end uphaving to talk about a lot, I make a lotof content on product that I'm aninvestor.So, the way you know if I'm an investorin something is I'm saying it a lotearly on, cuz I never So, you know, I'msure everyone thinks I did. And by theway, itit ran through my table. Like, I don't Iwasn't actively investing at the time,which is the answer Sean to why Ididn't. AndI know it crossed my desk, but I nevertook like a meaningful meeting withGrant, but I'm so happy for him. He'sdone a great job. I'm happy for thepeople that invested.>> I think Sean, didn't they ask you toinvest in the seed round and you forgotto reply to the email?>> No, no, no, no. That was a that was auh not a finally one I didn't shootmyself in the foot. Somebody else shotme in the foot. I met with Grant. I waslike, I love this. My last business gotacquired by Twitch. I'm amazing. Haveyou Have I told you how amazing I am?You got to let me invest. The round hadlike just closed, but a lot of timesthey'll let you in if they like you.They'll they'll open it up or they'llthey'll they'll squeeze

00:35:08you in. He Hewas just like, let me see what I can do.And I didn't hunt to chase it down like10 times more. And I just let it go. Andyou know, that was a that's a big miss.>> I have a great email in my inbox fromJoe at Better>> Airbnb and Breakfast?>> Airbnb Yeah, I'm trying to remember wasit Yeah, Airbnb and Breakfast.com.That's a good one.>> Do you have any other ones that youhaven't talked about? You know, you haveUber. Obviously, that's a famous one.>> Airbnb, but I never saw the email, so itdoesn't hurt. Uh Pinterest. I had a guywho was the CSO, the chief strategyofficer at Campbell Soup,who was like 60 years old, said, "Gary,you got to look at this startup fromPennsylvania."That's how he said it. My friend'scousin knows the guy. I'm like, "Okay."That's like I'm That's a Yeah.>> Yeah, it's like a guy I got a guy.>> That's like getting a script forHollywood in Chicago, you know? I didn'teven like contemplate it. Yeah, so thatwas close. And then but I got in laterthrough Scott Belsky. What a greatinvestor he is, by the way.>> He invested in I think Uber andPinterest in the same couple of weeks,both at a three and a halfmillion-dollar valuation, both was like$25,000 checks when he had like>> right. That's exactly right.Of course.>> He's like I had 75 grand in personalsavings and I put 25 in each of thosecompanies, whichit's like

00:36:23eight or nine figures.>> And by the way, he's better than thateven. Like he's got more wins. and he'san operator. He's one of the best. Yeah,I mean him. I mean Matt, you know, oneof the reasons I'm starting my nextthing is a lot of CPGs, Magic Spoon, alot of good brands came to Vaynerwanting us to be the people, but wedidn't take on those kind of clients.Some things I invested in, some Ididn't. I want to be better at that. Butmy biggest win that I don't deserve isgoing to be Liquid Death. Mike worked atVayner Media the day before he startedLiquid Death.As a creative. And he sent me an emailand said, "Hey, I'm leaving. Thank youfor your time. I learned a lot here. Bythe way, I'm doing this thing. Would youlike to invest?" He was a creative.I'm a cliche businessman that thinkscreatives aren't business people, right?So I was like, you know, and I didn'tknow him well enough cuz we had a bigcompany at that point.>> Well, he's also saying that he'slaunching a water company called LiquidDeath. Like that is like a silly thingon paper.>> You'll appreciate You'll appreciatethis. The way I think about branding andmarketing, it actually fits me more thanit doesn't for me, the way I like stuff.So that wasn't the crazy part. I waskind of back and forth about that part.I thought it could work, but I didn'tthink it was brilliant and I definitelydidn't think what a lot of peoplethought, which is it has no chancebecause on consumer brands marketingisn't a stunning variable, especially ifthe product's a commodity and water is acommodity, right?

00:37:38Like water in plasticversus water in can doesn't reallychange the variable. In fact, the can isthe advantage. So I understood thatpart. It was more interesting why Iinvested. It goes back to this nice guytheme a little bit. I just wanted toinvest because I want to support myemployees on their own ventures. So Iliterally did itfor that reason only and you know,that's going to be a fun It was firstcheck-in.>> You're you're significantly larger thanboth of us, but we sort of run in thesame world and there's a lot of scammersand shady people in this like contentand business world. Like I've noticedthat as we've gotten bigger, I try to bevery careful about who I associate with.>> Yeah.>> Being a nice guy, do you struggle tolike say I don't want to be around thisperson? Like they have a background ofdoing X, Y, and Z or they don't theydon't or they're they're they havepolitical beliefs that I don't buy intoand I don't want to be associated with.>> Political I'll be honored for you andyou guys know this I never talkedpolitics. Pol- political beliefs won'tthrow me off because I'mvery empathetic to people can see theworld different. I mean, hateor like ridiculousness on both the leftand right extreme leftism and rightismas we know it today, sure. But likepolitical beliefs, no.But I don't think they do honorablework, sure. I've struggled with that andyou know, also, you know, me being onthe speaking circuit for so long,sometimes those you know, those kind ofcharacters might be at the same placeand they want a quick

00:38:54selfie and I don'twant to you know,>> That's what I'm talking about, yeah.>> Yeah, and you know this. The I I I youknow, you're smart and so I know thatquestion is grounded in you know thatI've avoided a lot of stuff andassociation and that's the reason. Yeah,of course, you never I mean, there'speople the amount of people that willtake a self- Forget about people weknow.There are people that are tier 19.People that are trying to do this. Theyhave like four followers and they sell a$4,000 course and they're criminals,right?They'll take a selfie with me at theairportand then make a post and say that likewe had a meeting at the airport tostrategize their mastermind.>> Well, they did when they asked you aquestion. I guess that's the>> it's really you do have to be consciousof that and you do need to worry aboutyour NIL and your reputation. It is onmy mind and now with deep fakes andwhere this is all going.>> I think about that stuff all the timebecause when I think of the Epsteinfiles cuz I'm like a huge true crime fanand so like seeing the Epstein fileslike the J mail, you know, you can likego through his email. I'm like I alwayswant to be so careful about who I'mspeaking with. Like it kind of freakedme out.>> Man, I will tell you and you guys knowthis. I make a lot of content about mymom and like it's just I can't help notsay it. Like you just talked andeverything that goes to my brain

00:40:09whileyou were just saying that thing on theEpstein thing cuz I think about thattoo. I'm like, who's emailed me throughthe years and what But the thing I canrely on Sam is I am not cliche human,meaningI don't say like things that are notnice.Like I definitely not in writing. Youknow, like you know, and so like I don'tworry about that luckily and it all goesto credit how I was raised. Like Ireally believe being the bigger person,being a nice person. You know what'sreally interesting? I actually I want toask you guys a question.This blows me away.We are fortunate, we've worked hard, wehad talent, we're at where we're at. Andwhat that allows us is to spend sometimein private and public settings withother people that have won.The thing that completely rocked meand when it was happening to me and mycontemporaries, my era,was how many winners, and I meanwinners,they've got the girl,they've got crazy money, they've got it.Will actually still spend most of theirtime [ __ ] on other winnersout of envy or I don't even know what.And I'm like this energy. Like I'm likewhat do you like I had to say this to acouple buddies not too long. I'm likeyou guys are a bunch of 14-year-old[ __ ] Like what are you talkingabout? You should be happy for XYZ thatthey're

00:41:24crushing it. Yeah, he's not thenicest ever, but he's not a piece of[ __ ] And by the way, everything you're[ __ ] on, you guys do the same [ __ ]What is this? Like you're winning. Likefocus on winning. If you're so actuallysad that they won even more than you andyou got feelings about it, why don't youtake these three hours of bitching aboutthis person like Yiannis and go buildsomething.>> Well, Shawn, what percentage ofincredibly successful people do you knowwho you think are are good, wonderfulpeople with good attitudes?>> Uh I think they're good, wonderfulpeople with good attitudes, but they'redefinitely imbalanced in some core way,right? Like there'sthey're not well-rounded, chill-ass, youknow, people, right? Like I think theyactually you're you're unlikely to beextreme winnerwithout some version of an extremepersonality. Sure. And that I thinkthat's fair.>> Hunter S. Thompson said that he saidthere's there's no reasonable people onthe top of Mount Everest.>> Yeah. Gary Gary I I had a a person kindof point this out to me about about whythis happens. I don't know if you'veever read like the Rene Girard likememetic theory. It's like Peter Thiel'sreally big on this. It's just basicallythe core thing. You'll get this as aconsumer guy, which is thatwe don't want what we want because wewant it. We want it because other peoplewant it.>> Yeah.>> For whether it's your

00:42:39luxury bag thatyou're carrying or>> I believe in that. In fact,in fact, this is where all my gratitudecomes from. Mother and DNA. I want itfor my process, not because others wantit, and it makes me feel simple, butit's very clear to me that most are theother way.>> Yeah. So so I think most people havethis sort of memetic drive, right? Andthis is why you see trends and fadscatch on because I want to go buy Nikesright now cuz all the other kids arebuying Nikes, and I want to say thisbecause other people say this. I want towear Jordans cuz they wear Jordans,right? So it's So that's like a normalthing, and there's a another term inthat philosophy that's called a memeticrival. And so I was on aI was on this plane ride, and I had thisembarrassing moment where I wasadmitting to somebody. I was like, "Youknow what? Like I feel stupid evensaying this,but god, it kind of drove me nuts theway this guy was saying that." I waskind of bitching about somebody, which Irarely do, but I was doing it, and I waslike, "Honestly, I was like, guys, Ifeel stupid saying this, but like that[ __ ] bothered me." And I blah blah blah,and he goes he goes, "You know what? Uhhe he goes, "That person's your memeticrival." I go, "What's a memetic rival?"Well, basically, it's like I don't knowif you saw whenBezos was launching like his rocket andElon's launching his rocket, and thenthey had this really passive-aggressivething. It's It's in Elon's biography.It's very funny. It's like,"Congratulations to Jeff on the firstsuborbital

00:43:55launch." And then he's likeElon landed it, and he's like,"Congratulations on the first successfullanding from only ayou know, two megaton, whatever." It'slike they added these little qualifiers.They started blocking each other cuz foreach other they're mimetic rivals,right? And likeand it's this very strange thing. Youthink these are the most secure peopleon earth, but we all have a core part ofus that has that. It's have you learnedto tame it and live with it.>> it's funny. I literally believe thereverse. I genuinely believe that thefar majority of people get to the topfrom extreme insecurity.>> Hey, let me ask you one more questionand you could and you don't have toanswer if you don't want to if it's tooprivate, but with the six or sevenbusinesses that you've named, they'rebadass. And like I'm looking at thepeople you hired or I guess they'rethey're they are your co-founders.They're freaking awesome. And I waslooking at the some of the your partnersin your other businesses. In order toget these off the ground, do you have tofund them personally or do you getbackers for a lot of these thingsbecause it's not like I'm reading thisdeadline article and you have like alist of like five or six people andthey're ballers and I'm like those guysaren't cheap and you have all thesethings.>> one Steve Ross, the owner of theDolphins, who's in VaynerMedia with meas well. He funded that. He wanted to bea part of that. On the rest,um I funded.>> That's awesome. Like I was looking atthe I didn't know about the you had arestaurantand I was looking at that and it

00:45:10lookedlike a membership club and I looked atthe interiors and I was like>> No, it was a it was a meaningfulbuild-out. Um like no, it's it's beenreally cool. Like I umI've been a really fun part of mycareer. I'm actually I actually justused this platform, this incredibleplatform, so thank you for having metalk a little bit more cuz I actuallywant to start talking a little bit moreabout me the juggler.To your point earlier, I am proud ofwhat I'm doing and I you know, no onereally knows, which is wild, and I'mproud of that, too, right? That goes tothe humility, but now I'm maybe readyfor being like, "Hey guys, by the way,I'm not a motivational speaker. Right. Imight actually be a weirdly goodoperator at scale.">> Well,John, Google Flyfish Club Manhattan orjust Flyfish Club.>> And please come when you guys are in NewYork, you'll be blown away.>> here now, Gary. I live on the upper westside.>> So, like ASAP. Email me after this. LikeASAP. ASAP. I want you to see it. It'sit's a three-story restaurant with aprivate party room that is real. Butmore importantly, cuz you know this, itcould also be going out of businesstomorrow. Meaning it's a like thebusiness is extremely viable. In fact,Sam, now that you're here Upper WestSide, if you just go over to GW, which Iknow is counterintuitive, the restaurantwe opened in Bergen County, New Jerseycalled Capons Chop House,we now know we're about to open anotherone

00:46:25in Westchester. We're about to open50 of those in high-net-worthneighborhoods of the biggest cities inthe world. We got the model. We got it.And And don't forget, this is thebrilliance of what I think when whenit's all written, the Bain Capital Xmarketing machine impacts all thesebusinesses, right?>> What's the model? It says that it's amembership.>> The model is open up the new version ofRuth's Chris and like the beststeakhousethat has the most New York City vibes,just not in New York City, and everyonein bridges and tunnels of the seven mostimportant places on Earth that havehigh-net-worth individuals are going tosell the[ __ ] out of these places. It's not a newinvented model.>> It's a member? You have to be a member?>> is just Capons is just a Ruth's ChrisSteakhouse 2.0, but we have a verystrong Well, we doto Eugene's credit, to Grutman's credit,to Noah's credit,those places have real cool, right?There's that nightlife element. We'regoing20% less on that and 20% more on food.We think the secret to retention LTV isjust execute a food program that is soundeniable and a little bit of thatsizzle, but your steak's got to beright, right,

00:47:40right.>> Like our strategy is killer chickenparm. It's like, yes, actually, that'skind of what the people want.You've gotten into this business genius.He decided to start a an agency and a arestaurant. The two best businesses onEarth.>> Literally Literally the two worst. Andagain,this is a great way to end it up, whichis like I'm playing for whatmakes me feel good, not just maximizingthe dollars. And then on the other side,I'm going to turn VFriends into Pokémon,and it's going to be one of the mostvaluable intellectual properties in theworld in 20 years, which in an AI worldwill have an extraordinary amount ofvalue, and will be the best kind ofbusiness someone can build.>> Well, we appreciate you, man. You're the[ __ ] Yeah.>> Farewell. Wish you well.>> That's it. That's the pod.