Advice to NY Creative Interns

So, good morning everybody. Super thrilled to be here. Uh, I've been trying to think about a lot of different directions of where I wanted to go with this talk. I'm very obsessed with the word context. It's uh, it's my single favorite word in the world. I think people pay way too much attention to content, which is massively important and I think a lot of us have heard content as king and all those kind of things. But I really do believe that context is the single most important word in the world we live in now because there's so much noise and understanding the room or the platform or the nuances of the event or anything in life is massively important. So the context of this talk is super important to me because a lot of you are in a different chapter of your lives than let's say a lot of the audiences that I normally talk to. So I'm going to take a little bit of a different turn with this talk today. How do I start with this? Um, so I suck [ __ ] at 99. 9% of the things in the world. And that's like a fun thing to giggle at, but it's actually shockingly true. I was a uh I was a solid F student in school. And I'm not kidding. Like I think when I tell people that I was a DNF student, um people laugh like haha because I've had success and they think I mean B's and C's. No, I mean like D's and Fs, right? I was really bad at school mainly because since the time I can remember which is like you know three I've always wanted to sell stuff right I'm a businessman through and I think about why have I been able to be successful even though everything that led up to let's say when I was 18 years old on paper traditionally the way we score lent itself to make people believe that I wasn't going to be successful and then I started thinking about the world we live in and then started thinking about, wow, you know, I'm living a 1% life. I'm financially ridiculously secure. I'm right now focused on buying the New York Jets, right? So clearly, I'm trying to become a billionaire. I've got all these great things. And why am I sitting back there and willing to give up everything that I've achieved over the last 20 years, call it, to trade places with any one of the people in this room. And I was thinking about why is that? And why is that really true? And I'm not kind of like giving you like [ __ ] like, oh, I wish I was you. Like, I really mean it. And the reason is because what I've realized was, holy crap, we live in the most ridiculous, ridiculous era of all time. This is what I mean. The cost, the infrastructural cost to do what you want to do for your life has collapsed over the last 10 years. There's this thing, I don't know if you guys heard about it, you may want to write this down. There's this thing called the internet, right? And it's something that wasn't important or really at scale when I was your age only 15 years ago, right? And you know, really the internet took off in the US when n Windows 95 came out. And so it's really only been about 17 years that the internet has been a consumerf facing product and only really over the last 5 to 10 at scale. And what the internet has done, not Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or Pinterest or Instagram or Snapchat, but the internet itself has done is created a scenario where there's really little to no reason unless you sit through all of today, and I'm going to apologize cuz I might ruin the whole day here right now. So, pay attention to where I'm going with this. Unless you're obnoxiously obsessed with the organization andor person during the rest of the day today, I think you have to seriously debate where you are in your life right now and give enormous thought to trying to make the thing that you love the most in the world work for you. Meaning there is never like as much as I'd love to right now like room up with like four of my buddies and sleep on the floor and eat [ __ ] chicken nuggets 24 hours a day. It's just not that practical. Meanwhile, it's ridiculously practical for you right now. A lot of you have been brought up in a way to be practical. have security and do the thing that you're supposed to do and have had a lot of mentors, parents, teachers, you know, tell you about the way it's going to be or should be. But I highly

massively the single reason I woke up today and have not and don't do weekend events cuz that's my family time and woke up this morning and got here today was to tell you one thing which is I recommend it very seriously that you go home and think about the fact that you should probably allocate the next 3 to four years of your life to try to execute on the thing that you want to do for the [ __ ] rest of your life. And the reason that is because you can just afford it. The reason it is starting at zero at 26 and 27. You just can. Now, you might not be scrappy enough. Like you might want [ __ ] a [ __ ] purse, right? Like you might like you might, right? Like and that's cool. Like and if that's what you need, then go get a [ __ ] job, right? Like I get that. But if you really want to do like the thing that drives you, that's when you get into the zone of like, cool, I don't need to live in the best place. Cool, I'll commute from a little further away. Cool, I'll team up with four or five people and sleep on a couch. And I think that to me is the part that's most interesting. The reason I'm willing to trade is because I know how awesome it feels to do what you love. It's what I've been able to do my whole life. And for me, that is something that there is absolutely no price on. And more importantly, the ability to go practical in two or three or four years is so easy. And so recently uh recently something weird happened. I'm doing this thing where I'm doing an interview every day uh this whole year. 365 interviews every day with people that have been fans of my work. So mainly really small blogs. Like my PR people and all my managers and handlers are really pissed at me because they're like, "Why are you spending 15 minutes doing these blogs that have six readers, you know, every single day and you're passing on the stuff that we're giving you to be on CNN or New York Times? " And the answer is because there's two different very different things you can do. for meaning at South by Southwest this year instead of giving a keynote to 4,000 people like I normally have, I set up a kissing booth style thing that was a Q& A booth and I stood in a booth for 5 hours and I answered every person's question one by one and it took me 15 minutes per person. So I only got to like 200 people but those 200 people I had a much deeper connection with, right? And so it all talks about like you know quality versus quantity, right? Do you want to go wide or deep? And I've been thinking a lot more about that. And I think that what ended up happening was I wanted to go deeper with my community. I wanted to give back to people that were fans of me. And so if they could leverage my name to build up their blog, that's why I'm doing it, not because I want something for myself. I'm going to get mine. I always get mine, right? This was about me kind of giving back a little bit. And so that's why I'm doing it. And I did this interview and in it I kind of went on this rant that I'm giving you right now. And I said something and I've never said it before because I'm complete improv. I have no [ __ ] idea what I'm about to say for the next 10 minutes, for example. And I said something that really kind of stuck and then the guy kind of took a made a poster out of it or a piece of micro content and put it out there and it's gone quite viral. And in it I said, I actually don't care about your next 10 years. I care about your last 10 years. So, let me tell you something really [ __ ] weird about me. I'm obsessed with very old people. Like, when I travel, which is almost all the time, I often will like literally in an airport roll up on some poor like 80-year-old couple and sit down and start bothering them, right? And the reason I do that often is I found something quite interesting. It's really fascinating when you talk to a 70, 80, 90 year old person, right? It's really fascinating because you start realizing what they're focused on and I haven't I have never heard a 90-year-old person ever say they wish they made more money. Never ever. Zero. And the things you hear are always very similar, which is they wish they like one guy caught me off guard. Really like conservative looking dude. We started talking a little bit. He looked me in the face. He goes, "I wish I didn't work at that [ __ ] factory for 50 years. " And I started laughing, but it really hit home. And then a lot of people also talk about how much they wish they spent more time with their family. And so you start realizing like if these people played the game, then why are we not listening to them? Listen guys, the second you breathe your first breath, you won. I don't know all your circumstances, but I'm assuming majority of you were born in this country. The second you're born in America, you [ __ ] won. Right? When you put it into context about what's going on out there, it is ridiculous the opportunity we have now because not only all the businesses

in place and all the things that can be done, but it has never been cheaper or more practical to try to build a career for yourself because of the infrastructure of the internet. So for me, what's most fascinating about everybody that's sitting in this room is how fertile and opportunistic this next chapter is for you. And what I really worry about is a lot of you looking back in 30, 40, 50, 60 years and thinking back to this exact speech and saying to yourself, why didn't I [ __ ] listen to him? Because what you have right now in timing and circumstance is this ridiculous, ridiculous 50month window to not be practical. 50-month window to not do it the way you thought you were always going to do it. 50-month window that if you go for it as much as you possibly go for it, that if you decide you gave it a good shot and you felt good about it, that if you started then becoming practical, you'd be far less behind than you think. See, that's the dirty little secret, right? the payoff or the thing that really scares you about, well, let me try to start my own blog or my own business or my own thing with my friends is that you think that, well, if it doesn't work, I don't want to be 27 and have given up those four years. The reality is if you're good, if you've got chops, if you've got any skills, it's not going to matter because in 12 months after you prove yourself within whatever organization you go in and be practical, you'll be exactly where you're supposed to be. And so that is the dirty little secret. The dirty little secret is that you have a full day of people here pring what they do and PRing where they work hopefully to acquire the great young talent that's in the room. And the only reason I think people should work for me very honestly and Vayner Media is because what I'm willing to do for them individually within or outside my organization once they come in because what I realized a couple years ago is everything else is a commodity. Having a couple of years on your resume from some [ __ ] agency or media company is a [ __ ] commodity. But what's not a commodity is the relationships and the people and the individuals that can actually guide you to the place you want to be. So what I'm basically telling you here today is [ __ ] everything you hear. Give serious thought to like what is it? If you really could do what you wanted to do, what would you do? Recognize that it has never been cheaper, ever been cheaper to be able to achieve that or do that. Recognize that the far majority of the people on the panels today are working for companies that have disrupted traditional media companies or agencies at far less costs. Right? When you look at Thrillist or Huffington Post or Daily Candy or all these platforms, I mean, Perez Hilton with no money years ago before the internet really was at scale to was a bigger media company than US Weekly at a point and he did it with zero dollars. I for a lot of you that probably don't know, I come from the wine business. More people were watching my wine show than were reading the wine spectator and they were the leader for 30 years and spent millions of dollars building that business. I just put out good content on YouTube and use Twitter and Facebook to promote it. It's just different. That's it. The reason I'd switch with you is it's just different. Like I wish that I had the scale and the breath of opportunity that you guys have. Drop your phone. I wish that I had the real opportunity that you guys do. You just do. I mean, I think it's very cliche and I'm sure you pe you know, you hear it and I don't want some like old dude telling you like that's what you know it is, but it's what it is. And so that's what I'm kind of fascinated by which is I'm far more interested in like what do you love more than life? Like what would you truly do if you hit [ __ ] lotto and could like do whatever you want and just did it every day? Like what is that? And I highly with all my heart and soul recommend taking a very serious about taking that at bat and trying to do that for the next couple years. And the only reason not to is if somebody captivates you today with their organization or who they are individually. That's it. It's really that quite simple. I'd far rather do Q& A right now with you guys and answer questions than talk about anything else because really fundamentally I don't think anything else is that important. Right? There's plenty of things going on. You know, social media is [ __ ] rad. You know, there's a ton of stuff going on. But the tr the true real fundamental thing that you need to think about is that because when I did write Crush It, which was 2008, it was harder, not easier, it was harder four years ago to do what I wrote about in that book. And that's what I'm talking to you about right now, which is if you have expertise or passion around a subject matter, like there was no [ __ ] way to make money 15 years ago about loving Millie [ __ ] vanilla, right? But some

dude this year is going to make $100,000 a year for [ __ ] loving Trinidad James and two jeans. It's just going to happen. And that's a real thing. And so that's something I think you guys need to think about because really very honestly I'm giving this talk for one person. Some one person in this room. I actually at some level am only giving this talk to one person in this room. I know that. I know that very few people here are going to actually take that at bat. I do because I understand all the scary reasons and you know one talk's not going to change you know 20 years of structure and thought process and what you know it's been sold to you the whole way through. However, I'm praying one person listens cuz I'm being selfish. I'm looking forward to in four years to get that email that says thank you and I was in the crowd and I listen to you and I make $100,000 a year talking about Trinidad James. I really get scared because as I sit and talk about it, I always wonder like what you're thinking, right? I always think about like, do you think I'm straight full of [ __ ] Do you think it's not practical at all? like why is he going this route? Do you think like that's fine but that's not real? It's just something that I I'm scared about because it's so obvious to me. It makes me so sad that we are in an infrastructure now that a lot of people work in places they work because they have student loans that taught them nothing that's actually practical about the way the world actually is. It scares me that I failed every one of my [ __ ] classes and I travel the country speaking at Harvard and Yale and the University of Chicago Business School and I walk in there and listen to the lecture before I speak always to get a little context and the [ __ ] professor is lost. Because the world is completely different in the last 3 years than it was 3 years ago. The world's different than it was 6 months ago. I spent 24 hours a day and I have pure talent for what consumers want and how to sell [ __ ] I spend 24 hours a day paying attention and it's different than it was 6 months ago. So, how the [ __ ] is some book going to teach people? And so, I think about that all the time. I think about how broken the system really is. I think about like why was I an F student? Because I promise you, if there was a business school for K through 12, right? Here's my thing, right? If you would have taught me why New Coke failed in 1984 in fifth grade, I would have got an A. Instead, you wanted to teach me how many [ __ ] rings were around Saturn. And I give a [ __ ] about that. Right. And that's it. Right. And I think we all know this and I think you know it. I just think it's scary. I I guess I would tell you that doing what you love is the number one thing that could ever happen to you. It's far better than stuff. And if there's any way that I could convince you to just go for it for the next 3 or 4 years, which is going to eliminate stuff and it's going to eliminate fun stuff like going out, right? like with your friends or like vacations or like it's not just [ __ ] purses but I highly recommend giving it a thought because the stakes are high and the and the reason the other people around you that you look up to unless you have young older slightly older brothers and sisters is they didn't have it like your parents didn't have this true infrastructure to take that at bat. It's not that they're wrong they just didn't have it. It wasn't practical. Being ambitious for what you want to do and taking an at bat at actually doing it is actually practical now. Just is you're not going to, you know, the way entrepreneurs took shots back in the day is they borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to start something that was physical and 99% of them went out of business. The cost that you're going to put into trying to do your own thing is just going to be your time. And the number one thing that you have right now over me, bless you. The number one thing you have over me right now is your time. That's why I'm willing to trade with you because time is the biggest most valuable asset in the world. And for all the cash and [ __ ] and connections that I have, I can't trade that for time. And so I highly recommend you take advantage of the thing that you have that so few other people have, which is the ability to go do something right now and the time to actually execute it. And that if you're going to be practical, find a place that you can be inspired. the people within that organization actually give a [ __ ] about who you are with and with within and without your walls of that organization. And be very strategic about it. Take a little less money to get the right mentorship and stepping stones because I'm obsessed with taking one step back for two steps forward. Way too many people take the best looking thing at 23 and 22 and then at 25 the game's changed. And so really give that a lot of thought as well. I would highly recommend auditing the opportunity

predicated on 3 or 4 years from now, not for the next 12 months. Very, very important. That's all I have to say. I'd much rather do Q& A. And since this is pretty good acoustics, you don't have to come up here. You can just raise your hand. I'll repeat it. But I'd love to do some Q& A. Please don't be scared and thank you for having me. Thank you. Do I have a few minutes for Q& A? Awesome. Who's got a question?