This is the greatest era to be alive

what is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers to fight for happiness people do not fight for happiness enough people have decided to lean into cynicism and to blame and to Envy into jealousy history media social media pessimism like people are selling all of you a bunch of [ __ ] the world has never been better period this is the greatest era to ever be alive I would switch with all of you in 10 seconds and unfortunately that's not what people think so my advice to you is to fight for happiness try to understand why I'm telling you that go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you a badass Bulldog I want to know more is it a meme character and then is Vayner Sports getting into U. S soccer the inner Sports has thought a lot about getting into uh representing female soccer players in the female soccer league it's been a station so that's that we have not talked as much about MSL MLS excuse me we've but we've talked about English Premier League and going global so a lot of conversation on proper football at Vayner sports but I think if I had a guest basketball is going to happen before that so it could be three four five years um badass Bulldog you know truth is I'm spending a lot of time right now on character development you know I've always hot take I've had it skewed towards Meme and like fun stuff but as the word badass now is like more mundane like I feel I can do a badass Bulldog toy for six years old six-year-olds and it's not like a bad word and so a lot to think through Bulldogs are incredibly globally popular and so I want to be very thoughtful with that character and its development you know be friends for me is my Pokemon my Sesame Street my Marvel my Star Wars and character development is probably the most precious part of all that and so given a lot of thought and my question is what is your walkout song Just Gonna know who you are and if you thought of that um yeah the only one that I've ever really used consistently for my Keynotes has been first of the month by Bone Thugs and Harmony um mainly because it's a song I once listened to 853 times in a row and it gets me pumped it also is like a really kind of like rugged Hustle song it's like so there's always just been a very like from the dirt kind of part of it plus I've always loved that like 93 of the world has no idea what the [ __ ] Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are saying in their songs so it was felt like I was on an inside like club and actually knowing it so I would go with first of the month by Bone Thugs and Harmony honestly I love that but yeah man you talk a lot about um being the guy that you wish you had as a kid um and what would you say to yourself if you were a resident right now like going through the program just starting out at Vayner um from Ireland obviously you know I get it I have a real thought on this because I know it's what I would do I know myself I couldn't recommend all of you becoming friends with all of you more we're going to teach you a fuckload I'm gonna be who I am but your relationships with each other going through this is everything all of you are going to be so far ahead in the world of business and marketing because you're coming up Vayner at a time where vayner's like apple in 1986 like you're on it you're at Facebook in 2010 you're like a Tesla 12 like you know those are much bigger companies than we will ever be but we are disrupting and are historically correct about advertising there are literally people on this call right now who in 21 years are going to be the CMO of Coca-Cola literally and so like what would I tell myself or what would I be thinking that I need to make sure that I get everyone's LinkedIn Instagram Tick Tock email from this group and go out of my way to be friends with everybody on slack and create common ground with them around upbringing interests like at all costs there's nothing more valuable that will happen at Boehner than you taking advantage of you guys and gals are part of this little micro crew and that makes you connected in a different way and that all of you are coming into a company that is going to accelerate your opportunities whether within it there are literally people in here that are gonna be the bosses of people in here and by being friends it's going to be just a much more enjoyable life in three years there's also people here in 19 years who again are going to be CMOS of the biggest companies in the world that may help your child get an internship at that like this is it what is your greatest advice for us outside of our careers to fight for happiness people do not fight for happiness enough

people have decided to lean into cynicism into blame into Envy into jealousy people really like the world has done a really good number on the world mainstream media social media pessimism like people are selling all of you a bunch of [ __ ] the world has never been better period this is the greatest era to ever be alive I would switch with all of you in 10 seconds and unfortunately that's not what people think so my advice to you is to fight for happiness try to understand why I'm telling you that go look at facts instead of headlines that are built to scare you uh as agen's year we kind of grew up with the social media boom yep and uh we kind of understand the consumer of mentality and the social media first mentality yes so my question is how did you come up with that before or like understand that disruption before any of us understood it so one of the advantages of being older is timing so when Myspace and even before that Friendster came when I was Myspace was very clear to me in 2005. how old were you in 2005 six beautiful so when you were in kindergarten trying to desperately like figure out what the world is I was sitting in a liquor store desperately trying to figure out like why is the internet changing and what is this and this feels different this is not the last 10 years this has something to it and like look how cool like oh wait Rick Ross and Dane Cook the comedian and Tila Tequila the model um like they're winning on this thing there's something happening and so I took very big no and then very quickly YouTube Twitter and Facebook came out and I was like okay something's [ __ ] up and then right then and they are right behind that the iPhone came out and I was like okay this is a series of things that make sense to me and the radio used to be the most important thing and then the television was invented and the television only used to have three channels and then I had 13 and then at 36 and then it had DirecTV this makes sense to me and so I followed my intuition but and this is important for all of you with AI VR nfts not only did I have intuition I immersed myself in it so I was 31. 30 when I made my first video and I made a video tasting wine because it's what I knew um and so I just put myself out there and made sure I tasted it and was a practitioner you can only learn by doing you can't talk about it in theory and so you know I think I have good consumer intuition and I have good willingness to become a practitioner and so it was obvious to me because I was in it you know yep that totally makes sense and so like all of you can read the emails going back and forth at the company about Ai and chat GPT and Jasper and mid Journey or you could go and use it right thank you so much thank you um my question for you was what does success look like for someone in a junior position at Vayner well I think success is very different money for all of you right like some of you were built in a very Alpha home where like and very good at school and type A and youth and you you'll deem success as getting promoted right getting the full gig and then getting promoted like and I understand that for other people success has some sort of financial number in their mind right some people here have like a specific number in mind if I get to a hundred thousand 500 000 if I get to a million that's fine you know for me success is actually truly waking up on a Monday morning and smiling with no anxiety in your chest and whether you make forty thousand dollars or four billion dollars that anything in between boy oh boy if more people woke up on Monday morning smiling cheek to cheek with lack of anxiety in their chest the world would be epic and that is the framework that I'm trying to create that's what this is that's why all of you reacted the way you did when Claude came on here you know like we're putting a lot of effort into that and so we won't get it perfect but we're trying our hardest and so success for me is whatever you want success to be you know what I mean and I'm there's some of you sitting here right now that want my job and very honestly I'd like one of you to be the global CEO

of the Soul holding company because I I'm getting old I need one of you to rise up and take this throne and so that's great and then there's other people who've realized and can look around the company and say whoa that person looks happy and whoa they work nine to five days a week and have time for their kids and everything like I want that and that's beautiful and so like or some of you are coming here to like get as much knowledge as possible and then you're gonna jump and start your own vaynermedia and that makes me happy for you too like I want success to be your success but I want your not what I deem success not what your mama deemed success not whatever's cool on Tick Tock team's success like figure out what the [ __ ] your success is and be ready for it to change what you get the [ __ ] about at 22 changes at 27 and 31 and 39 and 52. so you may have a success in your mind right now and then you might scratch that itch and you might realize I don't like it that much you know and don't be disappointed by that because a lot of people get depressed when they reach something they no be invigorated by that and realize you're on to your next success thank you you're welcome so my question is you know obviously everything the Vayner kind of like family of companies encompasses you know like the social landscape the media landscape the ads landscape they're all constantly fluctuating constantly changing so you know it can kind of be a lot sometimes to like take it all in at once so my question is how do you prevent yourself from you know like getting burnt down from it all what do you do to kind of like keep the pace with all this stuff I love myself let me explain I don't judge myself when I don't feel like I've got it all grasped you're absolutely right the shit's moving super fast it's okay to not be great at knowing how Snapchat works it's right if you've never downloaded Pinterest it's cool if you have no [ __ ] clue what the [ __ ] going on LinkedIn you just keep trying every day I think the biggest reason I don't get burnt out is because I don't beat myself up by far one of the biggest issues that so many people have young old Left Right black white is people beat themselves up and by the way do not get it twisted I'm not talking about not holding yourself up to a standard but it's just a little patience back to the earlier question I've been doing this every day for 17 years good at it now some of you have never thought about these Platforms in this context prior to when you started here you're using it to hook up you know so like you know I just have empathy for yourself right that's how you try and you really like and I think you sense it here like we have ambition we're building a honey Empire but like we're gonna give you a lot of time as long as you're trying you know what advice do you have uh for someone who's about to turn 30 who has two young kids and they're trying to like exponentially grow their professional career in this space by realizing that patience is your only Ally when it seems like it's your biggest foe gotcha right like the problem when you're trying to do something fast because of circumstances right imagine right you're part of this residency class 90 of your contemporaries or kids right out of school that's a framework where immediately you're like [ __ ] I'm so behind that all that whatever's going through your mind the problem is when you're trying to speed it up like you trip yeah the faster the you run the more likely you're gonna trip and so it's about the discipline of understanding first of all I'm so pumped you're in this program I've had two or three people that I've spoken to in the last six months who had similar situations where they were quote unquote a different age from the majority of people in The Residency class who 18 months later really were like oh wait a minute I didn't have to rush this was exactly right um and uh you know patience is your ally in this brother like the Merit of your work is going to be the variable of your success not how fast you politic it it's awesome thank you got it brother how did you get to a point where you can trust your creators to just say Hey look make what you want because I've worked for teams in other media companies where I had no Creator freedom I just do it and shut up and what I can appreciate is I can just kind of give my passion in what is sports I wanted to build a good company I'd rather grown slower on something that I

knew would bring value to my employees than grow faster with something that sucks [ __ ] really hard to get people to wake up on Monday morning smiling and having no anxiety in their chest if everyone's just making [ __ ] with no say that's [ __ ] soulless and not fun yeah totally thank you appreciate it you're welcome brother my question for you is uh going back to Taylor is that how do you wake up early in the morning on a Monday and to stay hungry you know um I'm 27 and I'm trying to keep myself going every day and I kind of struggle sometimes so what is your take on that what do you struggle with brother I think just being motivated to get to my angle you know what's your end goal honestly six figures have a big house I'm being a little materialistic but well that's what that's why you're struggling yeah I mean I would have bet the I mean you couldn't have walked into that more that if I paid you to say what you just said you're literally the hypothesis I have of why people are unhappy you just made up an arbitrary goal for yourself based on material things without realizing the second you walk into that home and you make six figures nothing's changed you know have someone be honest with me you know so I'm even better brother I'm telling you from the deepest levels of love that you can even imagine I know you I've met a thousand of you all of them have lost the second they got there you're you've got you've been able to turn your perspective to something that's very easy the world is very good at selling this it's just super not true bro I appreciate it thank you and kind of go in adding to that like what like what should we do you know or like yeah I mean I think I the alternative to that is focusing on doing things you like I wanted to say from the lemonade stand to the winery to now successful entrepreneurships both serial successful entrepreneurships what do you think is like a singular thread that you pulled through from the beginning that you still have now that makes you successful that I reverse engineer the person I'm trying to sell something to and I come from it from a place of good intent like I really tried to make good lemonade for 10 cents like when people came to my dad's liquor store and they wanted Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio which used to sell for 12. 99 and once I knew my [ __ ] and knew there was a better Pinot Grigio named Chris Kris peanut Regional for 7. 99 I fought like hell to get them to try it because I knew they'd get a better bottle of wine for five dollars less Vayner is a success because we're trying to get people to stop wasting money on dumb marketing and spend it on good marketing when you have the customer's intention in mind everything you want selfishly will be there in the end so I've spent like I'm 25 and I've had a little bit of work experience and it could be research and then I try to switch to strategic Consulting then I switched to like supply chain and then Farmhouse and now I'm here thinking that this is what I need and I think a lot of the reason behind that is because I had it took me like four or five years to accept that I am someone who likes to put themselves in a completely random situation every two years and that's Foreigner X so my question to you is like as someone who's just starting out how do I moderate the line between specializing in something right now within vaynermedia and maybe going for those opportunities later to explore analytics brackets within the other companies within the interacts uh would I get that opportunity to kind of explore that a little bit or get inside in me I love that question look there's it's very hard to answer that question because there's so much Serendipity that goes into that but the fact that you can speak to this question the way you just did as long as you're over communicating with pet and all your kind of like Champions that you interact with the kalins um you know whoever you work with on these projects um I think you'll find yourself in a very good place what I'm most proud of like we're not bound to what I think most agencies and companies are we're not rigid we're not type A and so this is all about communication and sometimes you should stay and sometimes you shouldn't but not me not you only God knows if that would

have worked out I think what you can't be is crippled by the decisions you make don't think that you're being Brash or things of that nature or too fast you're just following what feels right in your stomach and maybe you'll do a couple things at Boehner X and then the third thing you're like wait a minute this is it and you might do that for five years and then five years in one day you're like this is not it anymore and that's fine too so I would just continue to communicate um take feedback balance that from people who might say you're moving too quick stay another year try this for another six months make decisions live in on those decisions and just keep navigating great thank you I guess like I feel like from past experiences I feel like there's slight negative connotation to this like I've been badgered by interviewers like why do you stretch all the time tell them the truth yeah tell them you're curious tell them you're trying to find something that will fulfill you I promise you don't want to work anywhere that use that as a negative anyway yeah exactly okay thank you so much I have a funny feeling that wasn't a big issue at Boehner yeah definitely that's what makes me want to ask you this question and it's a really difficult question to ask to anyone else to be honest so yeah I mean I think it's a very normal um track for the curious and haven't found that home yet I noticed you know you have so much on your plate as far as like all the hats you wear with every company that you started or are a part of currently what keeps you passionate to keep going when you have so much going on only asking because I don't have as much as you but I have like organizations I'm president of and I sometimes feel myself kind of like not being passionate to give my all to every role that I'm in so I just wanted to know like what keeps you passionate in every role um accountability sometimes to do things that you know I think one of the things that the world is struggling with is being able to deal with inconvenience I think it's a real issue opportunity we've been programmed parented we've been fortunate in a lot of ways in the macro obviously many of us can grow up with difficult situations but we've demonized the capacity to be inconvenienced and when I make a commitment even though I hate going to that meeting or I don't want to do it I've learned how to tolerate short term or midterm inconvenience that's number one number two I'm also very comfortable similar to the last question of changing my mind it's okay to unwind a commitment as long as you do it graciously you could walk into the next meeting and say hey I need to resign at the end of this year from this committee I just want to give everyone nine months now you've created a light at the end of the tunnel which almost weirdly makes you even better those nine months you know what I mean you know I'd rather you be great on my board for nine months or committee than be below average for three years um so I think it's a balance of willing to deal with inconvenience and also willing to graciously change your mind both of those things keep me passionate I know there's an out if I do it graciously and appropriately and I know that sometimes I have to sleep in the bed that I made thank you you're welcome uh my question for you is you know obviously being in this program just for like what like a little over a month um so far I've just been able to see that like obviously there's a lot of like love and care directed towards us and directed towards teaching us and kind of guiding us uh along our way and so my question for you is just like frankly like why do you care so much about like us and like younger people and why do you guys see us as such an investment uh going forward I think it's the right thing to do you know I think when you are blessed there's a sense of responsibility and I think you know so many of my business big boy big girlfriends laugh at the concept of how much we put in an upfront on this and how vulnerable we are for people leaving and I just don't see it that way I know you know I think we have the best culture in the world so I think a lot of people will stay so that's good for the business but even if people didn't stay we can afford to do it it's a nice thing to do it leaves a positive impact on the business world I want more people to be affected by the way we see business and I feel great that we get to show you how it should be you don't have a CL when I tell you the greatest thing of this whole program for all of you is knowing this exists you know many people work for 25 years and have no idea that you can do it

right you know many of your parents and friends and relatives and friends at school and cousins think you're completely full of [ __ ] when you talk about this company and that you're just drinking from some weird Kool-Aid that I made up you know um it's just the right [ __ ] thing to do bro you know it's awesome I love that yeah appreciate it I believe yeah and it goes back to the thing I said earlier Luke which is like when you do the right thing by the other side all the things that you want will happen I call it 5149 if I give all of you 51 of the value then 49 will be just fine by me and I think too many companies try to get somewhere between 80 and 100 of the value and once you figure out the model for 49 you're good you know yeah that's great I appreciate that thank you anyway I love you all hope this was fruitful hope it helped always available yeah thanks everyone you're welcome cheers everyone thank you love you thank you that was [ __ ] tight that was [ __ ] sick that was amazing best meeting ever no for real I feel rejuvenated I feel reassured it's good okay me too okay bye guys that's all you know my favorite thing to do is make pretend I leave to listen to what actually is being said and I can tell you right now that felt [ __ ] amazing I really did not log off because I was like let me I love you guys have a great day cheers bye-bye everyone love you foreign