SlossTech Gary Vaynerchuk Fireside Chat | Alabama 2016

- [Man] What is the one element of traditional corporate culture you can erase that gets in the way of developing startups? - [Gary] You know, politics. VaynerMedia in the last five years, I've grown the company quite a bit so we're very fortunate. Whether it is Under Armour, Pepsi or Turner, GE we're working with the biggest brands in the world and one thing that's holding them all back is politics. The game is built where people's vested interests are not aligned with the organization's. Their bonusing people and they're were rewarding people on a very certain task that is completely against investing three to five years from now. Every decision is predicated, especially in big companies, on 90 day terms. Because you're in a Wall Street world where every 90 days they judge you and all the money that everybody has humans from the CEO down are involved in is the actual stock price. And if the stock price goes down people get sad. If you look at what Jeff Bezos does and even Mark Zuckerberg to a degree but not as well as Bezos in my opinion is they completely disregard Wall Street and they're willing to have wild swings. But then you look up every three to five years and things are phenomenal. The thing that holds them back is the scoring system they've created for themselves which is they're in 90 day terms. And there's nothing that makes sense to invest in startup culture, VR like Scoble just showed you, no company's going to invest in that 'cause that's 90 days away from today. That's not real in 90 days. That's real in two years, five years, nine years. And so for me, a lot of entrepreneurs and me, myself I've been successful because I mentioned earlier it's gonna probably end up being the theme of this which is I plan on doing business for the next 40 years so why wouldn't I bring you value? Corporations are stuck they're being financially rewarded in 90 day windows which is the antithesis to investing in where the world's going. Shit is deep, right? (audience laughter) But it's just the truth. People in here and I saw people shaking their heads and I love that I can see you guys the people that have been in it they know this truth. Which is smart people may not agree with what they're doing but they're doing it because their money is tied up in that. I have clients tell me every day that they wish they could take the money from a television commercial and put into Facebook video 'cause they believe me but they can't because the way it's scored inside their organization they would be vulnerable if they ran Facebook over television so if the brand goes down and doesn't do well as long as they're running TV they're safe. But if there were to take a chance and run television, run Facebook and the business went down even if it had nothing to do with Facebook or TV part they would be vulnerable to lose their job and I don't blame them. They have mortgages, they have kids support, they have their lives. They're not being put in a position to take risks whereas in my life, entrepreneur land, everything on my shoulders, everything on me, I'm only being rewarded to take risk.

- So all that what the tipping point for dollars to quit getting pissed way into television? - Death. When these companies die, guys, big companies die. There's a lot of people in this room that remember Sears being number one retailer in America. There's a lot of people in this room that remember tons of things being number one and are no longer number one. Back to tech, we all remember Yahoo being number one or Microsoft being number one, IBM. This is what happens. Big companies go out of business and then a new regime comes and they win because they took advantage of the arbitrage of marketing or innovation that was underpriced while the incumbent was spending money on overpriced activities or infrastructure so this is just the way capitalism has always been. I always laugh when people say, I'm not saying anything interesting. I may say it interesting with a little bit of flair and a little big of Jersey and a little bit of cursing but if you break down what I talk about, it's super tried and true. It's just When I predicted three years ago that everybody would use Snapchat and everyone's like no way. That was just me doing the same thing doing what I do with Facebook eight years earlier, right, which was when there's enough people of enough people, if there's enough people, enough 13 to 18-year-olds using the same thing, if a platform ever wins an entire generation it will drag everybody else down into it. And so Twitter never did that, right? Other platforms never did that but Snapchat did. Two-and-a-half, three years ago every single 14 to 18-year-old was on it which meant which it was just a matter of time. So I think I get a lot of credit for common sense which I'll gladly take and keep giving it to me but I don't think it's all that complicated sometimes. I think what I do well and what allows me to sit here and have people want to take pictures and be nice to me is the one difference I think I have from a lot of people in this room is I'm not romantic about how I make my money. And let me be very clear about this. I won email marketing in 1997 for Wine Library. I didn't want email to get spammed out and not be as effective. It's what made me all my money. But in 1999, in 2001, in 2003 when all these other people started doing email marketing and I saw the conversion rates coming down Web 2. 0 coming up I was okay to kill myself and my own business models 'cause that's much more interesting than having somebody else do it for you. Right? I, as a lot of you know, really did well on Twitter. That was my coming-out party. I had a million followers on it. I wasn't excited about what I saw in 2011 and '12 that it was starting to lose it's attention. That when I would tweet less people would convert into just the awareness or a sale or whatever I was up to. So I started investing in other platforms like Instagram and paying attention to Snapchat. A lot of you in the tech space you know this I was really at the height of Twitter, right? I had it. That wasn't fun for me but I was willing to put myself out of business and spend more time on other platforms because I saw it coming. I think the biggest mistake people do as they try to hold onto something that doesn't exist anymore. And that has been a very big factor in my career.

- That's a perfect transition to a question from Robin Hunt with Big Data Solutions. Technology changes so much there's always a learning curve how do you self scout, self teach yourself to be ahead of the curve? - By doing it. Meaning I just do it. We know that Pokémon Go is happening. Right? We know it's happening right now. You can say it's a fad or it's stupid or who cares I need to understand it not because I care if Pokémon Go will be here in three years but because this is the coming out for AR. A million apps are being developed right now. Literally all of Silicon Valley is sitting in board rooms right now creating their AR app and we're all going to shop and go to football games and do all sorts of stuff through that environment. You have to use it. The reason I did well on Vine and Snapchat was because of SocialCam. How many of you nerds remember SocialCam? Raise your hands. Good, six of us. (audience laughter) SocialCam was an app that was hot for like 47 seconds. It was vigged by the Facebook newsfeed, it got millions of users, I jumped on it, I used it a bunch and then it died. It died the way that Plurk Vine in some ways has. Things come and go but I'm not crippled by putting in the work because that understanding is then applied on something else. There's people in here that are like I'm never going to do anything with Pokémon Go. That's fine but you're going to do something with AR and so you need to use it. It's like trying to run a marathon without prepping for it. You're gonna lose. And a lot of you are losing opportunity and success because you're not anticipating what the next chess move is even though I didn't grow up in the era of Pokémon and I'm not as emotional about those characters, I mean I know Pikachu that's where it ends. (audience laughter) And my brother grew up with it and he loves and he's using it. I don't care about the entertainment value, I care understanding the consumer and human behavior around it. - As a startup founder how do you maintain a positivity and a

healthy culture through the different stages of growth especially when it's fast-paced growth? - Vayner went from 30 to 650 people in four years and from one to five offices including London and the way I've kept culture is dictatorship. (audience laughter) It's just the thing that I care about the most. Here's how you keep culture when Kristin in the office is upset about something and I'm on my way from Connecticut in to New York to do a new business pitch potentially worth $5 million and I detour and skip that pitch to go and talk out with her that issue, that's how you maintain culture. Guys, life's very simple. There's the things you wish you were doing, there's the things you're saying that you're doing and then there's the things that you actually do. The way you maintain culture is the same answer as the question prior to this. You do it in your actions. I don't meet with every single employee that works for me for 10 minutes three months in to check the box and seem like a personal CEO. I do it because in those 10 minutes I want to create some sort of connection that makes them feel comfortable to say hi to me to in the elevator or to come with a problem to me. I do it because I asked them where their hometown is so I can make a joke about the Cleveland Indians in the elevator to show them that I was paying attention. I do it because I want to know if they have siblings how they roll what interests are they in because if I want to surprise and delight them because they're crushing it that I can get them Coachella tickets, right? I do it 'cause it has purpose. I maintain culture very simply dictatorship, my actions, and the number one and two other options are meritocracy, letting talent speak for itself and then finally firing the most talented people if they're not willing to care about their teammates more than them thinking they're fancy. My ego is so big that I don't think I need anybody that works for my company and so thus they're all expendable if they're not willing to treat each other with respect and love. - And I hear you talk a lot about, I think one of the

reasons they respect you, follow you as a leader is because you are a practitioner. You're in the trenches. - I stand in front of the 500 or so 25-year-olds and I'm like the best at social media in this office, right? And I mean it. And that's because I use it more than they do. They're using it to hook up, I'm trying to sell shit. (applause and laughter) And I mean that. I think what's interesting about that is where I got really lucky with VaynerMedia and I don't know how you feel about your agency but what happened for me is I don't care about the creative, it's subjective. awards. I don't want to win a Cannes Lion. I want to sell stuff. And at some level, somewhere within the organization eventually somebody cares about that too. You know? We don't win business because they care about their job and they don't want to do social over TV, respect. Some people are worried that I'm too busy doing other things, respect. You can think anything but at the end the day, again, back the other two things results are results. We take over Sour Patch Kids as a client and they become the fastest-growing candy in the category. That's real. There's no debating. You didn't like that I cursed along the way or that we did some weird new things, Mazel Tov. But the fact of the matter is results are results and so that's what I live on. I know what our intent is, we're not worried about our profit margin mainly because we think we're going to get it all at the end of the day. Making 8% percent margin on $400 million is a hell of a lot more interesting than making 20% on $30 million and so I'm playing the long game. I always have. It's why a lot of you have good relationships with me. I see you at different places, I know who you are, I care, I interact with you. Life is simple. The truth wins. You may be confused 'cause times are tough and the media and there's always issues in this country and we got flaws and all that stuff. You're more than welcome to look at a pessimistic aspect of society and life. I choose to in my 80, 90 years hopefully on earth to understand that I got to be a human being which if you want to talk about big data and math the rarity of actually becoming a person is insane. And just way too many people don't understand that and appreciate it and I do and so I'm playing the long game on all this stuff.

- We're pretty lucky. - Super lucky. And you live in America? - Yeah. - You could have been a rhinoceros. (audience laughter) Or like a tree. Fucking tree. Next question from Dan (inaudible) another local success story. On CNBC's "Follow The Leader" you said nobody outworks me. - I really believe that. - I do too. - How do you maintain that without exhausting or killing all of those around you? - Oh, that's a great question. Overcommunitcating. It just comes to communication. I have to talk with Lizzie a lot. The kids are getting older. I do think, I do think this will be I'm getting into the end of an era like 17 and 18 hour days because my children are now seven and four and they're just more stuff that comes along with that so I think that's fine and that's great but it comes down to communication. I think people talk about work life balance a lot, ever since I started doing DailyVee, which is my video vlog daily kind of vlog thing, and Snapchat I think a lot of you have followed me for several years have started really realizing I wasn't joking that I was working this much. I think prior when I would talk about hustle I think people were like yeah he works hard but when you get to see that it's fully documented and there's no cheating and I'm working 7 AM to midnight every single day, every single minute it becomes intimidating. It's my natural just like some of your some of very smart and some of you are very pretty funny it's my natural state to hustle that hard. Not being born this country, coming up with nothing, feeling guilty that you have certain talents, there's a million reasons that it drives me. But what I love about this question is it's not how do I do it it's how do I keep the people around me in a healthy place. - And how does that happen? - It's a super intense thing, man. I never judge anybody's work life balance. As a matter of fact here's a good opportunity for me, I always want to clear this up, I don't think you should work 15 hours a day. I think if you're, here's my punchline if you're complaining about your life, you need to look at what you're doing. So for example, I have friends that are making hundreds of millions of dollars in their careers and tens of million dollars a year and they're complaining that they're not spending enough time with their family, then spend time with your family, dick. (applause and laughter) And then I have people emailing me every day complaining that their business is not taking off and I go do one quick Twitter search and they're 6 PM tweet is hitting the links with my buddies. You're not going to win and build a big business if you're watching "Game of Thrones" and playing Pokémon Go all day. Nobody's won on just talent. Hard work is part of the equation. I don't judge anybody. I think I get judged 'cause I put myself out there and then I deserve to be judged and when people hit me up and say you're gonna regret this, you're gonna regret this and I get that. I get those emails. I reply all the time, I'm like you don't know me. I respect why you're saying that because one thing that some of you who really follow me know is my wife and I have decided not to share our family life on social. So unlike a lot of my tech friends who use the cute pictures of their kids to get more likes on their social media, I'm not interested in doing that with my children. I'm going to let them decide. Misha's already, I think she's gonna have a YouTube show in a week. It seems like she wants to do that, great. But I don't want to do that and so it feels even more extreme, right? I always ask people that really call me out on it I'm like if you're paying attention to me so much why haven't you noticed that I put out zero Snapchat content over the weekends. Why don't you really pay attention? What do you think I'm doing between 6 PM and 9 PM when you see nothing? I'm documenting every moment I'm in it. I'm spending far less family time than most but there's a whole 'nother aspect of family time. I have a lot of friends from high school that like to critique me because it's the ying and yang of yeah, you're making money but I'm a family man. And I say to them I'm like cool but I know you and you come home at 6 o'clock at night and you go to your man cave and drink six Budweiser's and go to sleep so fuck you. (laughter and applause) So, just 'cause you're in the same house as your children doesn't mean your parenting. - Amen on that. - Yeah. - So have you started, I know for a while you've been talking

about hustling until 6 PM going home for three hours and then getting back after. Have you enacted that? - Yeah so this September and honestly it doesn't feel good to me right now, I don't feel like I'm ready for it but I'm really trying to sell myself which is I'm saying publicly to come home during the weekday, I'm such a momentum guy, you know, I'm so momentum oriented so the thought of coming home at six in the middle of my day and that's my middle day and spend an hour with the kids and then kind of switch the brain to be in kids mode school, what's going on in the world, and then reset back to being back and trying to stab people in the face and win is hard but I'm gonna have to pull it off. It's important to me I'm getting a lot of time with my kids on the weekends and we're taking a lot of vacation time now. I'm really in a much better place than I was several years ago but I'm feeling uncomfortable with the idea of how consistently I can go four or five days in a row with being in New York seeing them zero. It just doesn't feel as right as it did 18 months ago, 12 months ago. I'm a smoke than fire guy, right? What I'm doing right now is I'm selling myself more than telling you a story this is something I want to do. And so I'm beating on my own brain to get there.

- It goes back to what you said too, switching your mindset from business mode to family mode a lot of times if you're at the house from 6 to 9 but you're not present-- - This is happening all day. I think what you're sensing and I'm sure a lot of you don't deeply know me, I'm very comfortable in my own skin. I'm comfortable with my politically correct shortcomings because it is my life and my kids' life and my wife's life. I know what's happening inside our four walls. I just wish more people would feel comfortable. I think if you're happy so much more happens. So I know a lot of people, this one woman is the CEO of a company that I invested in, she's amazing. She feels the need to check the box to the world, to her mother, to her friends that she comes home and spends more time with her family. But every minute she's in that house I'm getting emails from her on questions about the business. She's not there and I told her and she's not perfectly happy because of it 'cause she doesn't want to be home. She wants to be running her business. She loves her family, she just on fire and she wants it. And so I don't think people understand how long-term life is. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Everybody has her own way. You're looking at a kid, not anymore, but guy whose dad I didn't see from the ages of seven until 14 ever. My parents were together it's just that he left before I woke up and he came home after I went to sleep and I love my dad more than breathing. Me and my dad have it awesome. I think we've gotten into a very hard-core politically correct zone where for some reason between social media and just the topics of the day everybody wants to impose their point of view of the world on other people and I think that's stupid. (applause) So on the work life balance thing, I've got my thing. It's what feels right. I think everybody in here has to keep themselves happy first, then you can make other people happy. And it evolves and it changes. I'm not convinced that I might not just one year wake-up and just check out for a year. Just 'cause I might. Just I don't know. It's funny to me that it runs through my head sometimes maybe in-between businesses if something happens. I don't know. But right now I can tell you hustling, producing for my family, producing for myself, producing for my employees and my team and producing content for you guys I'm as happy as it gets. - Awesome.

Let's talk about Birmingham for a second. - Okay. - This question comes from Michael Gerard executive vice president TechLinks what is the one thing we can do here in Birmingham as a community to grow the technology community? What local entities need to be involved? What can we do to make it be successful? - You need a win. And what I mean by a win I mean not win you need a win. And so, I think a lot of communities, and I've spent a lot of time, obviously we opened an office in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I helped kick off Big Omaha. It was a canceled conference that I committed to and it's gone on to become a big deal. I got email from a kid yesterday in Oklahoma City 'cause I went there in 2009 that a bunch of leaders in the market said holy crap wait a minute we all started our business after that Gary V talk. Bringing in Scoble and things of that nature, this is unbelievably important. So many more people are asking me about questions about you guys today, right now, on social why are you there and what's going on? But you don't need to bring anybody me, Scoble, anything the real win for any community is you need to support each other and get a win. A company coming from this town that makes a global or at least a national impact on the scene is what it takes to take a city and put it on the map. That's just the truth. - We need a big exit. - Look, LA was a, it's not that you need a big exit and I don't want to play the VC game. You don't need a big round, you need a big impact, right? Need a big impact. Guys, Snapchat coming out of LA has changed LA tech and LA is a big city. Right? But these things matter. GoDaddy in Arizona, these things matter. Even Dowalla a lot of these companies start in places, what you need to figure out, what the city needs to figure out is I'm positive and you guys know me I'm not pandering to you I don't give a shit how you feel about me, I'm positive that something amazing will come out of here. My concern is as soon as it starts happening you're going to move to San Francisco. And that's what happens. Facebook was started in Boston. Pinterest was started in Pennsylvania. The key is not only to fester the community to help each other tech wise, marketing wise to have a win but then what can you guys do from a city and state level to make that person or that team want to ground themselves here for the long haul and everybody that comes a smaller town than a top-five city always feels like they have to go to one of those cities to make it because of the tech talent or the venture capital. I believe that to not be true any more because the infrastructure around the internet marketing world today. That's the truth. You can do a lot of events, marketing, but what you need is a win. - We need a win. - And I think if you get really back to the opening line here today 51-49, giving more to others, if you've got a business in this community that is not a direct competitor of your business and you have more marketing chops or you have more technical chops cross pollinating and helping each other is exactly what small towns can do better than big towns and I highly recommend that southern hospitality that is deeply rooted in your DNA to begin with that you figure out how to use that in a business environment as well because the impact of one of those people popping and winning will have a bigger ROI on your business as a halo effect than if you do it separately. - That's awesome. (applause) - It's true. And you know it's cool of being here it's true thanks for the claps but what's even more interesting is I think it's, back to stereotypes, I think it's more natural in you. I can tell you right now there's not a lot of people from Jersey that are just going to hook it up. I do think that you should take, I think everybody should bet on their strengths and I think that sense of community that you guys have is very real and you should take full advantage of it. And I think the entrepreneurs in the audience get into the sharp elbows entrepreneur DNA and leave a little bit of that DNA of southern hospitality on the side and I actually think they should go completely the other way. - Yeah, culturally we have a lot of advantages because that is

the culture. - 100%. - And technology makes it where you can level the playing field from Birmingham, Alabama. - 'Cause it's leveled. I think there's a lot of things. I think it's just momentum. Again being somebody who's kicked off and been at the inaugural conference of a lot of small cities by comparison to New York, San Francisco it's stunning what something just like this that's unbelievable. I'm so proud to be here. I definitely think with all the stories I get to tell my children and grandchildren one day the fact that during this 20 year era that I went and used my micro-fame within the community to go to places that were not New York and LA and San Francisco and in any small part because I'm just flying through it's you guys, it's you guys that are actually making it happen but to even be. 0001 of the narrative of being at the first conference, bending changing my schedules, doing it for less, all those things it feels nice and I'm proud of that. - Cool. Let's get back into-- (applause) agency grind, the VaynerMedia grind. - Okay. - This question's from Alex Kistler what are a few ways that you mentioned meetings are quick efficient lively amongst clients, internally, employees and clients? - If I'm in them they're all that. So that's easy. After that, the truth is I don't. I hope through osmosis and people seeing how I want them. I have three-minute meetings with people. I think the number one flaw in client services is you book a 30 minute meeting it's actually eight minutes of work but since your Google calendar says it's 30 you just are a human and you waste 22 minutes. I'm big on four-minute, seven-minute, 11 minute meetings. AJ is the best at this he tried to mandate it and cut things. I think that I try to inspire it through my own actions. I'm very aware of human tendencies and shortcomings and you just try to bring it up every so often but it's a very difficult challenge. I think most humans are just not smart with their time management. - Next question from Jacob (inaudible) what has caused the

rise in live streaming media while the market has shifted to delayed consumption like Netflix, Hulu? - There's two micro kind of trends. They both work. I always say to people I really believe that you will watch a 5 1/2 hour movie. I think that if, how many people here if the next Star Wars is 5 1/2 hours would be thrilled to go watch it, raise your hands? That's insane. (audience laughter) Five and half hours. Nerds. I've run there opening night. Midnight to 5 in the morning and go to work. In. I think great content can make somebody watch for 5 1/2 hours. I also know there's a ton of people in here that stopped watching a six second Vine after three seconds. The length of your content is not the variable of its quality. And so, we're gonna always want watch two hour movies and one hour TV shows. But we also want to watch live streaming. So there just two different macro trends. I don't that they're conflicting. I think one thing we have to recognize is we only have 24 hours in a day and so if you're allocating three, six, whatever hours to entertainment they may come in the form of Netflix, live streaming, they may come in the form of searching Instagram all day. It's incredible the length of time some of you are spending in Snapchat stories, right? I think the bigger issue at hand is that the cell phone is just so much the remote control of our lives. And I think sooner than later will control we watch on TV more and more. Obviously things like augmented reality definitely social and video in there. What's allowing it is just tech infrastructure. As Wi-Fi gets stronger, as bandwidth gets stronger and more powerful and you're not buffering when you're watching high quality video from the over the top networks it's time, right? And so, back to Star Wars I flew from New York to LA and watched somebody sitting next to me watch the entire latest Star Wars on their phone on the flight out. And why I thought that was super important is everybody in Hollywood's like no big theaters and you need the right set, this guy watched it on his phone. People grossly underestimate how much we love the story. We love production, we love a lot of things but we love stories. And stories can come in any form. I broke out on YouTube in 2006 doing a show called Wine Library TV and I don't know, how many of you ever saw Wine Library TV? (light applause) Thank you. Thanks mom. (audience laughter) And so as some of you might remember I look like a hostage in the Middle East. There was no audio. I never wore a mic. There was no lighting. It wasn't the production value that made it work. It was the content that was coming out of my mouth. And so I think that we get caught up way too, so many people get caught up in the production value. And look, DRock's come into my life and clearly has taught me there's plenty of value in that as well but it's not an either/or. And you don't have to do both every time. And so I don't think there's anything without the story. If the story blows you don't care about the special effects. - At your core is that what you are, a storyteller? - 100%, 100%. Whether I was storytelling the wines of New Zealand, Australia and Spain before anybody in America. Where I was story telling me and whether I'm storytelling businesses around me that's exactly what I am. And for me I got lucky because I think the world in a direction that matched my natural skill set and storytelling. I'm comfortable in very fast off-the-cuff raw, real, authentic. It's matched me so I'm very grateful to be born in this era because I wasn't moving to Hollywood in 1974 to make it. Right? I was 32 years old, I was 31 years old when I started Wine Library TV. It was the first time I ever made the video for the world. I wasn't in the mindset of I'm going to become a personality. I'm a businessman. Who happens to be a little bit charismatic. - So as a storyteller do you think

you say you day trade attention-- - Yes. - is that an evolution of the storytellers just in today's market? - To be a great storyteller can't just be great at the story you have to understand where it's being distributed and how. Way too many storytellers stink at the context part of storytelling. You have to know where it is being delivered. What I have done very well and when I say I day trade attention it's back to me not being romantic. I follow you. I don't get to say that Twitter lasts forever. Netflix lasts forever. I'm just paying attention to your eyes and ears and I'm watching you 24/7/365. (audience laughter) And while so many of you talk about what you're not gonna do, I make bets on what you're gonna do. How may people here thought or said in the last three years that they were not going to ever be on Snapchat? Snapchat was stupid, it was for kids sexting, raise your hands. Raise 'em high. Of people those people how many of you are now on Snapchat? That's what I do for a living. - Alright.

This question is from Aaron Albright talking about Snapchat what are your thoughts on the memories feature? - Love it. - Does it add to, does it take away or add from the sort of in the moment? - Guys, it's going to be the same game forever all of these things start as a niche, Facebook's a college social network. Snapchat is disappearing content. Musical. ly is dubbing music songs and things of that nature then they hit scale and then they give you every feature because they go from being a niche app to being a content platform. Got it? Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat in nine years I'll be credit for being right about Smooga but all I did was deploy that thesis. Meanwhile everyone's like this is what now ruined Snapchat. The memories feature just like newsfeed ruined Facebook. (laughter) - How'd that work out? - Great for Facebook, shitty for that person that's wrong on the record you can Google it and see that they were fucking wrong. (laughter)

- Are you seriously are you, I hear you're a businessman and we like you say that. We know you are a businessman but you are equally motivated, in my opinion, not only by the game, earning, hustling but also by being right. Talk about that for a second. - Dammit. Yeah. And honestly I'm not proud of it is quite vain and not super, I don't think it's a good trait but boy am I driven by saying I told you so. And it's just the truth. I'm really truly not proud of it. I actually don't think it's a very attractive characteristic but I get off on it. I do. I love, I love being underestimated. I hated Tiger Woods then America hated him then I loved him. I'm an underdog, I love underdogs. I loved when I got into VaynerMedia and Adweek wrote Twitter boy is coming to the agency world. Let's see how that works out. I'll tell you Adweek how that worked out, I fucking destroyed everybody. (laughter and applause) A very funny thing happened in the liquor business when I got involved in my dad's business a bunch of sons had come into the businesses of a lot of other liquor store owners about five years earlier than me. And they didn't win. They weren't good. And so when I came there was a lot of people were like oh, here's another one, right? My dad was part of a group of 10 or 11 guys or gals that had good stores in New Jersey. I loved being underestimated. I loved when all those people told me to open a second liquor store instead of this fad internet thing that I'm doing. Right? I love that. I live for that. As a matter of fact, the reason, why do you think I opened VaynerSports? I don't think CAA and Rock Nation are worried about me right now. But they will be.

- That's what I was about to ask you. Does that, you think about Drew Rosenhaus sitting there. - I'm going to kill Drew. Now, now you have to understand something if Drew is good enough, this is how I think about life, I want to build the biggest building in town. Got it? town so when I say I'm going to kill Drew I don't want to kill him. I mean I want to win. I want to build the biggest building in town. However, the reason I think that I'm likable in business circles of people that really know me is here's my thesis on building the biggest building in town: by going out and town. If you look very carefully at a lot of other business people their theory on big building in town is by tearing down all the other buildings around them. If you understand that little story you'll understand me completely and you'll understand my belief of what a purebred entrepreneur is. I want everybody to win. I want Drew's business to get 10 times bigger. I want all of you to build bigger businesses than me but I want to build a bigger business than you and what I love about America is for all of our shortcomings this is still the best playing field to let meritocracy rule and I love that. And I love that feeling. And when-- (applause) And when my homie Travis from Uber Chris Sacca becomes the best VC and goes on "Shark Tank" and they beat me I'm the most pumped for them, they deserve it. And then I say but it's not over yet. And that's who I am.

- Awesome. This question comes from Tucker Austin BBVA Compass where do you see social media going next? Can we do this in Birmingham, here once and for all? There's no social media. It is a slang term for the internet. (laughter) Tell me what social media is. People call Pokémon Go social media, there is no social media. Robert, we called it Web 2. 0. Robert wrote blog posts, so did I that said Web 2. 0 site Facebook looks really good. There is no social media. It is a slang term to make it easy for us to refer to certain things but I don't know where is it going? It's the internet and the internet is going in a lot of places and a lot of things are happening but what we want to always stay in touch with each other at scale and communicate with each other and produce content? The answer is yes and whether that goes on the internet and goes into a VR environment or something we can't think of today the answer is yes. We like to communicate with each other. We drew pictures in the side of a cave, we stood on mountains and made smoke signals, we communicate. It's what we do. It's never going away. - Awesome. (audience laughter) I think you just killed social media in Birmingham, Alabama. - I love it. It's just a term.

- This question's from Jennifer Skjellum president of Tech Birmingham who you met. - Yes. Awesome. - As a very self-aware person with thick skin how do you determine what that react to and what people or comments you actually take to heart versus blinders? - That's a really interesting question. The truth is I think it's complete serendipity and randomness. Sometimes the day of the week, the moment for example I'm quite testy after a New York Jets loses so if I think about my scrum up on social a lot of them happen on Sunday night. It's random. Here's what I would say, I think most people are unbelievably awesome. I'm the most bullish person on human beings. Again, it's becoming a more of an intense feeling because were living through a tough time in the US where I think that we have to look at ourselves really long and hard. We've got real issues and I believe in those issues. I do believe they're issues. However, I think we have to take it at a macro level. It is stunning that we are still here. We invented bombs that wipe us completely out. out a long time ago. A half a century ago. What's that? - [Man 2] And we actually have enough to do it. - Right. So the fact that we're here I'm a big fan that human beings are the number one underrated thing in the world. We're gonna spend all of our time talking about those small percentage that creates terrible things like what happened in France and Dallas and the individual cops that do these bad things. I understand why and they populate as our main stories but I'm bullish on human beings and so the things that I react to are the following. There's a lot of people that say things about me because I've put myself out there. Most of them I have a lot of empathy to why they think that. They didn't like my ego in that moment. They didn't like something I said. They didn't like the confrontational aspect of my East Coast Jersey thing and I think they're right. So it's very easy when somebody takes a shot at me that for me understand where they're coming from. The things that I sometimes engage with is when I think the intent was really mean. Bad, like evil. I think 99. 999% of things that are said about me that I don't like come from a good place. It's that person's point of view on me and I'm very empathetic. I think once in a while somebody comes along and is just genuinely dark in the core and I want to fight that was some light in return. And usually I start with understanding. Some people just really, you know, I don't know it's actually very easy for me. You know? - You've talked about EQ. - IQ is decreased in value because of technology but EQ is greater than ever. Emotional intelligence really, really matters and I look for that in anybody that I surround myself with. Do you actually have empathy and gratitude and self-awareness and care and all these warm and fuzzy things that I think are the essential infrastructure to be successful in business.

- You want other people to be big fans of humanity as well? - Yeah, you know, I'm gonna struggle to the day I die of allowing yourself to look at glass half empty. I just feel like I feel like now I understand it's DNA and its wiring and if you grew up with a mother who's extremely negative it's a really tough situation to break out of. It's just proven. I've understood. You grow up in a tough town, I get it. There's a couple of issues with that, number one, nobody cares. That's the big punchline. Everybody's got stuff. The problem is nobody cares. And once you understand that nobody cares and you're complaining to empty air you start going in a little bit of a different direction. Yeah, I like putting out positivity. I like that, I love that my trainer Mike who spent the last two years with me is going through some weird depression thing right now 'cause is not around me 24/7 and he's like I miss the positivity. That's a good thing and I want other people to have that people, you know what guys, I want to say something right now. Getting a little bit of a bigger plane. What's happening right now in tech, in business and society is the small minority of people that are mad and angry and hateful and dark are much louder than the big percentage of us that are happy and excited and feel great and because the way technology works they are much louder than they had ever been before. And so I feel like as somebody who's got full of bright light and happiness that I need to start getting louder about that as well 'cause that the only way were going to combat it. (applause) And you know what? That right there in real time is what it's all about because if that's the thing that's gonna get the loudest claps so far from this conversation that's what we need to be focusing on. And this is something I'm focusing on inside of VaynerMedia with all my friends and this is something I want to bring to this network. Listen, let me be really blunt with you over the last five years until about 18 months ago when I came back out with a lot of content for three years there I was fairly quiet for me if anybody's been following me since 2006 it's because I didn't want to be a motivational speaker. I didn't like the part that made people rah-rah because I was so proud that I can actually build businesses and I think the thing that a lot of people look at when they see motivational speaker is there's fluff behind and a lot of times are bad behind it and I wanted to disassociate myself from that world. But I feel more responsibility than ever as somebody who is happy and wants other people to be happy, genuinely, to get louder. It's an interesting time in our country's history and just in human society and so if you leave with anything, I'll get you tactics on social you'll remember Scoble's amazing VR thing if you leave with anything for any of us please, please take on the sense of responsibility that if you've got good and you feel good to start sharing that content as well. Because the world needs more of it. (applause)

- You mentioned people that have followed you for a good while have differently noticed a change in the tone and more effort towards being positive and putting out content that encourages people to be positive. Do you ever get down? What gets you down? - [Man 2] The Jets losing? - (Gary laughs) As long as the 8 to 12 core people in my life are healthy I struggle to really get down. I just don't know how to do it. Here's the game I play, I'm on the cover of Time magazine and it says he did it. Right? That's me holding a Jets jersey. Right? And then I get a phone call and it's my sister usually, I don't why, telling me that my mom died and I'm crushed and I'm so in tune with my feelings that I genuinely can get into teared up devastation mode, my brain, by the way I think the brain is so underrated and we don't know a lot about it. Seven years ago I decided that I would never get sick again and I haven't been sick. Just a random fun fact. So the feeling even right now telling you this story and not even fully doing it I don't feel good. I feel nauseated. Why would I live my life any other way? Why in the world would I live my life allowing my business wins and losses to really impact me anywhere close to the health and well-being and happiness of the people that I love the most. I'm just not capable. I lose business every day. I win business every day. People say I'm the best, people say I'm full of shit. All of it happens. But at the end of the day the rewards that I'm getting and I'm getting plenty of them, the rewards that I'm getting in life are just massively secondary to those people. And that's how I live my life and so when you live your life that way losing a big account or somebody calling you out is just not that painful. You just put it in to context. I usually just take it. You know, this is so interesting, I think you'll find this interesting, my favorite scene in movies is always when somebody gets punched in the mouth and they take the punch, they spit their tooth out and then a look back at the other person, I don't know if you've seen that. There's always some version of that scene. That's who I am as a fucking human being. I'm built to get punched in the mouth, I'm gonna spit my front tooth and I'm gonna look right back at you and be like, "Now what, bitch? " (laughter and applause) That's how I feel about life. And that's it.

- A lot of folks want to ask you questions so lets get rolling with audience participation. - Awesome. Let's do it. You guys ready? - Who's first? - Let's do it. - Scoble. - And then this guy over here. - [Robert] On Monday a guy came up to me after a conference and said I never met you, I hear you posted on being sexually abused. And that night I had a discussion with my wife about being sexually abused. And I've been thinking about that conversation ever since. It's a highly rewarding thing. How do you get people to help other people? (inaudible) that drug is the strongest drug I've ever had and I'm chasing that. - Yeah. - [Robert] How do you chase that as a community? - I think you and I are just doing it right now. The courage for a man to say he was sexually abused in our society today is extreme and I applaud you and these are the things I try to talk about too. I made a video Robert about who are you worried about letting down. It was a one the big insights I figured out on the road. I like huh people aren't taking chances not because they're scared but they're scared was their mom's gonna think. They're scared what their wife's husband is gonna think if they fail, when they fail and I made that video, it's me talking to somebody in London and I mean thousands of interactions. I think the truth is the game. The truth is live streaming isn't really ruining America. America doing the wrong things hurts America and I'm thrilled. I'm excited about living over the next 10 years in society where we as a society in America are gonna take one, hear me out now, a step backwards because it's time for us to deal with our issues. We're gonna take a step backwards 'cause of Facebook Live. but we're gonna take two steps forward stuff 'cause the truth is always better. So I think what we do Robert is we continue to tell stories of truth, our true stories and give other people courage and it's a momentum game. You were able to do that, that helped that one individual do that and that's why I'm spending a lot of time. I've been time is inner cities I did a morning show called The Breakfast Club a couple months ago that when extremely viral. And even looking around seeing minorities shaking their heads. It went viral. The interesting thing is a lot of people don't know about me is I went to college with a 90% African-American college. I spent a lot of time in that ecosystem and that is who my best friends are. I have a lot of empathy but still I'm not black, right? When I went on that show and is before the flair up that's happening now, I wasn't talking about racial issues I just said nobody cares and it was insane what's happened in my inbox. That same thing I just did for everybody here and said nobody cares, nobody cares. Everybody's got shortcomings and one of things I've told so many my friends, I always tell my friends you're right. I tell all my female entrepreneurs all the time There's a male prejudice, you're right. It is harder for female entrepreneur to get funding from VCs. It is harder, it is harder for minorities, that's true. But I always ask them now what? And so I think that we just have to have more real conversations instead of just pandering. I did a conference where somebody asked me about, it was a female entrepreneur conference, I've done a lot of investing in that demo and they said Gary is there a difference between men and women? And I said yes. And people got upset. I was like what the fuck is the matter with you? (audience laughter) There is a difference between men and women. I just think that were in a very funny time. Look, I think empires fall. You know I think empires fall? 'Cause all of them have fallen. And they fall after too many years of good. Just want to give you a news alert if you're under 40, you've been real privileged. Your grandpa, my most viral Instagram post ever happened the other day. I think that something like your grandparents, your complaining about not getting a bunch of likes while your grandparents went to war. Right? We've just gotten soft. As a collective, you may not be soft, I definitely don't think I'm soft but, you know, as a collective and even I, you know what, I don't think I'm soft. It's a lot easier to work 19 hours a day than live in the Great Depression. It's a lot easier to work 19 hours a day then be drafted and going to Europe. What the fuck is the matter with us? It's time for us to reconcile that we've had two generations, everyone's like this generation it's so too bad. They're gonna be the first generation that is not going to have a better life than their parents. We deserve it. We got soft. The data is pretty clear. There's a lot more for 13 and 14-year-olds that didn't work in this last generation than the generation before it. Maybe they're too soft 'cause they went to camp every fucking summer. (laughter and applause) Maybe you're not winning because your biggest issues growing up was you didn't get the new Jordans. What's the matter with people? So anyway I don't remember what the fuck I was talking about but let's go do shit. - The guy over here. - Yeah. Truths Robert, truths. Your truth helped that man. You know what I mean? I think it helps female entrepreneurs and minorities more to say yes there's a difference, now what? That a truth. I wish it wasn't the case but I only play in the market that I live in. You know?

- [Man 3] Hey. Earlier you said to maintain you own compass is really important, right? - 100% believe in it. - [Man 3] I think the best way to do that is to keep utilizing (inaudible) people and the best way to maintain happiness, I think, is to invest in relationships with others, right? - Real quick, real quick. - [Man 3] Okay. - That's your DNA. I can tell you that is not how my dad rolls. - [Man 3] Right. - And my dad's his best when he does what's best for him. So I think that idealistically exactly right and you're looking at a guy who so thankful that that's how he's wired but not everybody's wired that way. And that self-awareness matters. And it's important. - [Man 3] I agree.

The next part of that is being an entrepreneur is often, by nature, a selfish endeavor, right? - Yep. - [Man 3] So how do you maintain being an entrepreneur at the same time pouring into others more than you care about yourself? - By doing it. I feel comfortable making money and being successful. As comfortable as I am being there emotionally for others and doing other things. By doing both, it's just actions. Nobody should beat themselves up for trying to do good for themselves. That's insanity. And so I'm just comfortable. On Tuesday I'm just rolling and selling stuff and making it happen and winning, yay, right? DJ Khaled all I do is win, win. Winning, right? And then on Thursday I go speak to kids or give back or donate a bunch of money to somebody, I don't know. Every day is different but I'm not in the business of critiquing myself. Here's the problem, my man, everybody is trying to project to the world a PR'd version of themselves. Do you, do the right thing and everything has a funny way of figuring itself out. Robert was an absolute mainstay in the world that I wanted to jump in. In 2006, I wanted to be part of Web 2. 0. I was in left field. They were all in San Francisco all from Tech TV and blogging. I had a liquor store in New Jersey. What I did was I put my head down and I worked. I just worked. I did smart things, I used the product better, I gave back to my and I was chipping away, chipping away. That's what it is. How do I reconcile that? By doing both. Sometimes I'm selfish and sometimes I'm not. And sometimes I'm selfish for a month and sometimes I'm not for a year. You just roll. I don't over micro analyze that. I know what's in my heart and then I know that if I can map, the biggest thing I fear is that I can't match in my actions the intent in my heart. I battle for that because if I can pull that off, I'm good. All-time good. Yo, this dude here by the way also in the hat. - [Man 4] What I wanted to ask you answered it. - Did I? - [Man 4] Yeah, it's more of a psychological type question. Is it the early bird that gets the worm or is it the bird that matches the sleep patterns of the worm who gets the worm? - Both. - [Man 4] Okay. - You know? There's so many ways to win. Right? Look, there's people that have made the NBA that worked their face off but had a little less talent. And then there's guys that just had so much God damn talent that yeah they worked but there's just so many different ways to do it. The key is which bird knew themselves best. Got it? That's the bird. The bird that's like fuck it my wings are short but I'll wake up earlier. You know? (audience laughter and applause) That was good. This is why DRock's around when this random shit comes up.

My man. - [Desmond] Desmond, what's up? - Desmond. - [Desmond] There's a lot of growing undertones of gentrification within the city,-- - Yeah. - I was wondering what is your opinion on how to close the disparity gap and how to infuse more of those entrepreneurial initiatives in lower income areas? - That's a really good question. Desmond, I did something really smart three years ago. I promised myself that I wouldn't talk about shit that I don't understand. As I started going to conferences and hearing people talk about social media and I was like they're wrong. They're wrong and they're experts and they're supposed to be experts. I don't know is the real answer to your question. I mean that. I have no god damn idea because I don't understand city politics, tax, there's a lot of other things going on. That don't allow me to answer your question as much as I'd like to. The real answer, and boy this hurts me, is I don't know. That being said, I care about this issue personally. That's why I went on "The Breakfast Club. " I care about this and I run content against minorities because I want to inspire them to understand it's not going to be the town and the government that's gonna do it. The second you understand nobody's gonna do it for you and you go and do it and then, listen, here's my promise about money. Let me make you one promise about money. Money never cares what the person looks like that's making them money. Do you understand? They don't care. They just want the money. And so I think the way we get female leadership, minority leadership, Latino leadership, all that is just having more wins. It's the same answer I gave you about this town. How does this town win? Have a winner. How do you get more diversity? You have more people win. How do you more diversity in the NBA? I don't know. The white kid's got to be good. (audience laughter) I don't know. The market, the one thing, there's a lot of things in America, companies, politics, school organizations a lot of them that will not allow the white kid to be in the NBA or the black VC but business is different. The internet did for you. Right? The internet did it for me, man. Everybody thought I was a loser. I got D's and F's. I was a loser, immigrant loser but then the market allowed me to do me and now I'm a fucking hero. Right? We're all born with different natural talents and different things but I think the answer is predicated on doing it. That's why I said crap I don't know how to fix the gentrification of all those town this a lot of that going on. It happened in Brooklyn, my area. I don't know that's a little bit in different plane and I, I just don't know. But I know of I get seven kids to build big businesses that if they are then examples for other kids that can look and be like I look like that and I can do that. That's how you have to do it. That's what I'm trying to do my little contribution to that community and those communities and by the way there's a lot of poor white and there's all sorts of stuff. To me, is actually more of a financial and opportunity thing. One of the big things back to "The Breakfast Club", you talk about your story, mine's less noble than yours I talked about how eBay was an unbelievable opportunity for somebody with no money. Right, go to the dollar store, go garage saling, buy stuff, sell it on eBay. I've gotten thousands in the last two months of emails and DRock's shaking his head because he sees them just ungodly, you can go to Twitter and search my name. Go search my name GaryVee and eBay 'cause I want you to see it, it's crazy. People literally tweeting things like I make $200 a week, this is very really needing money and I made $400 this weekend selling on eBay. Unbelievable stuff. I think it's just, I'm a motivator and I can some reason get people to do stuff and people that are not hungry or not as hungry. All shapes and sizes go and do. I don't know how to answer your question for this but here's what I can tell you. If you build the best company this town, Silicon Valley, New York City, they'll take you. - [Man 5] Gary, (inaudible) Iron Truck Fitness. I've watched your fitness journey-- - Yes. - [Man 5] over the last few years. I gotta assume but I would love to hear you elaborate on that 18-hour hard work before are not as productive as 18-hour hard work now because of your fitness journey. So I want you to explain that if it's true and then maybe talk to the entrepreneurs in this room about how important it is to have a culture of health and wellness in their business. - It's not true. (audience laughter) You're asking the question and I'm like, ugh, this guy seems like such a guy. This is gonna suck. (audience laughter) I will tell you that my energy level is exactly the same but that's because I think, my big belief and I should probably do this to be able to answer this once and for all, I think I have some weird chemical imbalance with adrenaline. Right? It's just easy for me. I really generally don't feel it. Now, let's keep going. That's right now. Do I think it's been smart that I've lost 40 pounds of fat and gained 15 pounds of muscle in the last 24 months? Yes, I think the math of that is gonna work itself out, right? I think later down the line I think it's going to be beneficial for me. The other thing, my friend, look, you don't need me to anoint to this audience, if you are not common sense enough to understand physical health is a good idea than you've already lost. Let's just start with that. Number two, the thing that I'm actually passionate about in parallel and a space that I'm going to be betting on very heavily financially and culturally is mental health. So I'm obsessed with meditation. I think meditation is going to be a huge play in the consumer behavior that we're going to have a lot more conversations about the brain over the next 20 and 30 years and I'm excited to really work on being both physically and mentally the most healthy I can 'cause I think they work more hand-in-hand than I think people realize. To finish off your question, of course I would recommend everybody to take care of themselves better. I'll give you one that is real. I like the feeling of grabbing my suitcase off the top of an airplane 'cause I'm on them every day and it feels lighter and my back doesn't hurt. It feels fun to pick up Xander and walk eight blocks in New York City with him here and his little face next to mine 'cause I can actually hold him whereas before I could only go a block. There's a lot of, I would tell you that one walk that I'm referencing where I carried him for 11 blocks and I got to kiss his face 40 times was worth every second that I've put into health. (applause) - [Man 6] Gary? - Yes? My man? - [Man 6] I'm grew up in New York, big Jets fan. - I love you. - [Man 6] (inaudible) If you owned the Jets-- - When. - when you own the Jets,-- (applause and laughter) how much do you pay Ryan Fitzpatrick? - In this situation right now? - [Man 6] In this situation but put it on the other hand, you're his agent, how much you ask for? - It's an interesting question. This very nerdy. This is probably interesting for four you, I'll try to go fast. (audience laughter) So if you're as big of a Jets fan as I am the Jets are in trouble because they don't have a lot of young talent. They've invested all on the defensive line. I just saw texts as I was getting on here that Moe Wilkerson just got a big contract which Moe is literally probably my favorite Jet and I'm against that signing because I don't think you pay that kind of money for defensive lineman in today's NFL. I would pay Fitz as the Jets owner for the next two years because there's enough, they have some chance of a miracle Super Bowl run if there's a lot of injuries with Brandon Marshall. with Revis, with Decker, they're top heavy with older guys so here's what I would say to you. I would sign Fitz to a two-year deal and pay him 12, 14, fine. His agent is asking for that range fine or and I'd have to really, there's a couple things I don't know how healthy are my old guys this and that. There's probably couple things that I don't have a data point on. There's only one thing, there's only two moves for them: either sign Fitz for two years and try to hope to hell there's enough injuries that lets you sneak in because the talent is tier two not tier one to win or blow the whole thing fuckin' up. What I'd probably do is trade Revis and Marshall. The problem with the NFL is with a salary cap you don't get anything for these guys. What am I going to get for Revis or Marshall or Decker? You're gonna get fourth, fifth, sixth round, it's crazy. Real talent but the way the cap is the money against the cap is too valuable so they're in the rock and a hard place. - [Man 7] Hey Gary. - Hey man, how are you? - [Man 7] I'm doing well. Good to see you again. - Thank you brother. - [Man 7] I want your take on something. I saw a video that you did a couple weeks ago. It was kind of spontaneous, this lady stopped you as you were getting into an Uber and I literally when I saw the video I came out of my chair I went like this. (inaudible) I sincerely mean that but the reason it stood out to me is a quick background and I kinda want an inflection point in your life. - Yeah. - [Man 7] So I left the Marine Corp in 1998, went to architecture school, (inaudible) and had a. com behind it. - Yes. - [Man 7] And made a complete left turn. what did you think about computers when you never owned one but I knew that's a revolutionary moment and I wanted to be a part of that. - Same thing happened to me. - [Man 7] And so that comment you made to that lady that spoke to that moment. - Real quick just get everybody aligned, somebody rolled up on me as we're leaving a conference, luckily having DRock around we capture these moments she came up to me, I roll down my window, she's like can you just in my selfie video with me can you just say three words that would motivate me forever or something like that. I said you're gonna die. (laughter and applause) Again, similar to that bird thing I just said I don't know where it comes from. That's what came out of me but it motivates me every day. It's funny I think I really hit that one for me. That's what motivates me which is that's true. And so why wouldn't you live like you only have one life. Go ahead. - [Man 7] So when was that moment for you? 'Cause for me I know exactly what it was and was there a moment where it was like a lightbulb? - Where I was optimistic in the way you were? 'Cause mine's the same. I was in the dorm room my freshman year of college in 1994 and I saw the internet and I was like oh my God and I'd never owned a computer and I've been on a 28 hours of my life because I was an F student and I didn't even know what the internet was I said something like is information superhighway? I didn't know what was going on. I just knew right away that my life had changed at that moment but I also think there's a lot of different things. Guys, I have a book that I'm writing that I'll eventually put out called "I Wish Everyone Was An Immigrant" and it's not too different than what I told D over there in corner which is it's an advantage. I have an advantage that all my grandparents died in Russia except for one. Everybody died in Russia, do you know why everybody died in Russia at 50 and 55 and 60? Because nobody wanted to live. Do you know what Communism is? They didn't want to live. All my grandparents, both my grandfathers went to jail because they were Jewish. 'Cause it was post-World War II Europe. And I don't mean jail like locked up for the night I mean 10 years. I feel like I came out the womb knowing I was born in a shit place I got lucky as hell to come to America, my mom is the greatest person on earth and she parented me. My dad taught me not to be full of shit and that saved me. I think that moments been in my heart from the get to be honest with you. - Think we got time for one more. - How about that lady all the way at the end, let's go with her. You, yep. You. I like how you turned around. Who? Me? - [Terri] Okay now you're all probably gonna laugh at this question. It might be somewhat superficial. - What's your name? - [Terri] Terri. - [Terri] Number 651 wine on a plane was my favorite Wine Library TV episode, what is yours? - That's awesome, thank you. My favorite episode of Wine Library TV? God. This is a good opportunity to reminisce about something that's so near and dear to my heart. I don't think about Wine Library TV that often these days so I thank you Terri. It's funny how like not as serious as everything else but you just brought me a lot of happiness. I love the episode when I did it outside in the snow. Because that was a fun episode to get a little nerdy for you Scoble and the others that was my first episode to make the front page of digg. com and if you remember that was such a big deal for the internet if you get on digg that was like (impersonates exploding sound) that got me a lot. I love the episode that I had with Jim Cramer from "Mad Money" because everybody was calling me the Jim Cramer of wine. I thought that was a funny meme. AJ's first episode when he turned 21 that something, the fact that me and my brother in 40 years can sit down and with all of our grandkids put on a screen or wherever we're living in those days and show them an episode of AJ turning 21, super cool. The episodes with my dad were super fun to me. Again, similar stuff when he's gone I can have that content. You know what? My favorite episode was the episode where I ate all those different foods. The first episode to go really viral. I ate like dirt and cereal and cherries. That episode caught the attention of Conan O'Brien's producers and then I did Conan and you have to remember this Scoble, right? This was 2007. - [Robert] Stinky socks. - That's right, socks, dirt. Conan O'Brien's producers emailed me and said we'd like you to do the Conan O'Brien show. Now this is 2007 most people don't even know what YouTube is yet, right? I looked very careful at the email address because I thought it was my friends playing a joke on me. (audience laughter) I emailed them back, I held my breath, it was real. This is how tight knit the entire internet community was in 2007, I announce that I'm going to be on Conan the whole internet had my back. Gruber from Daring Fireball, Boing Boing, Digg, Reddit, everybody. All of the few people that were on Twitter at that point, everybody. I felt, I don't know if I've ever felt more professional pressure than being in the green room looking at Twitter and this again 2007 early and just seeing basically the entire Web 2. 0 and remember I referenced it earlier tonight, I was a newcomer to it. I was this kind of different thing and they all rallied behind me. iJustine and Ze Frank and these early video bloggers they all were like you did it for us. You're going to be on. A video blogger on the Conan show and I was sitting there I was like and I had never been on TV. So like here I am never been on TV and I'm going on this big stage and what I found out later Conan doesn't, I didn't know this, I didn't know there was anybody who did it different, Conan doesn't rehearse. When I went on to do the Today Show and Dr. Oz and Ellen Degeneres and all that, they rehearsed. Conan's improv. Luckily, I ended up being improv but I didn't know that about myself. Literally, I'm just like sitting there behind this curtain just like this and they're like your go out in three, two and I'm saying shit I have to deliver big for the whole Web 2. 0, video blogging community, not just for me. I get pushed out I don't know if any of you have seen it, it crushed. I got Conan to eat dirt, he's unbelievable. I probably get paid the best compliment I'll ever get paid which was it ends, the crowd goes crazy. Conan turns to me, I didn't realize how notoriously tough Conan was on his guests. These are I learned later in life he looks he goes that was phenomenal. He goes so where do you perform? And I go what? He goes where do you do your act? And I was like oh I'm not a comedian. I'm a wine guy. He goes get the fuck out here. (audience laughter) (applause) And so I would say the cereal I think it was like 148. Maybe the cereal, the dirt, the cigar because that became the blueprint for the Today Show, Ellen Denegeres, Conan which no question gave me even more street cred in the web community which led to a very big change in my life. - Was that an amazing 90 minutes? (applause) - Thank you Birmingham. Thank you so much. I love you guys. Thank you. (applause) - [Man] Gary's gonna sign a few books so you can catch y'all in the lobby. - [Gary] See you in the lobby.