Fireside Chat with Gary Vaynerchuk and WeWork Stories

it go so when we talked about this you know the wew work teams like you want to come and give a keynote and I was like not really right especially for how fast this thing sold out since I tweeted it I you know I'm assuming a lot of people have a lot of context and like how many [ __ ] times can you hear that I made $4,000 onell baseball cards so you know I thought it'd be far more interesting to answer your exact questions as deep or is you know now so I wanted to open up so let's go there's one over there let's go there Mike wait for the mik cuz I want to make sure we get it and what's your name it's I know that and thank you so much for the sparkling wine you're welcome I will drink that whole bottle I'm joining um I wanted to know how many you got the first time you did wi Library like the first episode of wine L yeah uh I think it was 27 um and I was [ __ ] pumped I was like 27 people watch this holy [ __ ] this is awesome I mean listen I'm telling you there is a complete ridiculous awful thought process in our startup environment right now like when you have 98 followers on Twitter 98 people 98 human beings want to hear your dumbest [ __ ] random thoughts do you know how thankful you should be and so I mean it like it's funny I haven't thought about this thank you for asking this question I was pumped because first of all one thing you going to know like do you know why I want to buy the New York Jets it's a long journey right I love the journey I don't like [ __ ] I don't want to buy stuff I don't want a car all my friends are like I want a Tesla [ __ ] Tesla you know I want you know like I don't want those things I like the journey so 27 meant tomorrow I better get 49 right like I'm the kind of guy who hates going backwards you know what I fear going the other way like I don't like winning a lot I don't like where I'm at right now in some weird way I like when like I loved coming into the agency World cuz nobody knew who the hell I was right they're like oh that's like you know like I love that I'm like good sleep on me [ __ ] you know like I like that that's who I am I don't like this like oh you're good and like you're great like I hate that you know like I mean let me start over I love it I love the admiration I love the engagement I love that it gives me an opportunity to engage with people and see people that I've like I love it I do love that but boy do I really love the climb I love the climb and so none nobody give a [ __ ] about me nothing a year and a half forget about that let's talk about real [ __ ] a year and a half and not a lot was going on it was slow it would listen things were tougher to get viral at some level social wasn't in place Facebook was kids and school edu only Twitter wasn't here yet right like you know yes I could get like a Blog mention on you know but I wasn't good enough like I didn't get life hacker right that first time when I went outside and tasted wine in the snow and like I was like if this doesn't get me on dig I'm going to kill somebody and it did thank God but you know it was like things like that and it was just being strategic right like you know obviously Kevin Rose and Alex alre were doing a bunch of stuff for all the techies in here on dignation it was trying to figure out how to like get into that Circle of video bloggers and so um it took time and by the way it was happening while my business was starting to go stale for the first time ever because I wasn't paying attention Doom anymore in the store I was trying to build my brand so it wasn't happening when I was 22 and had nothing to really worry about other than maybe you're sharing apartment and with your friends that you maybe can't go out as many nights as you can mine was I'm supp to lose money and so like it took like a stomach to like be like this is right yeah what does your intuition tell you about line in the future for what it will do for Branding what was that what does your I got I'm extremely bullish on Vine um in a big way so first of all I think that time is our biggest asset um and what Vine the app does is gives you a promise that this is only 6 seconds of your time it's a much bigger deal than most people are making it out to me you've got to promise that you're not going to be spending that much time you know when you hit that button you know where you're at so one I love that two I believe in human creativity much more than most people anybody in your circles are like what can you do in six seconds or how do you tell a story in 6 seconds they're fools they don't they're not paying attention we had this conversation around what you can say in

140 characters that ship is sailed we know that works so I know you can tell stories in six seconds I'm watching them every day I've been spending an enormous amount of time on Vine I'm up to some [ __ ] on Vine um I'm very bullish on it I think Vine does to YouTube what Twitter did to Facebook which takes a core feature makes it the whole thing that it actually does and brings a lot of value when you start understanding how many people watch YouTube for a couple of seconds and then move on if they don't like H you start getting into a very fascinating place the thing I find most interesting is divine celebrities that have popped up that have never been famous anywhere else not a YouTube Star you know there's people have three 4 500,000 followers on Vine right now I have 7,000 right so just because you killed it somewhere else doesn't mean you're going to kill it here and I love that I love the capitalism of a new creative genre that you have to be as good as you can on that platform to succeed I think from branding you're going to see a ton of great branded content and in 6 seconds it's not going to piss you off and so that gets into like that could be interesting Brands might actually be able to get away with doing some stuff that you may actually want to watch I also think is a dirty little secret that Vine's going to change the pre-roll industry I think that once everybody understands you can tell a story in six seconds that you'll never see a 30 second and 15sec pre-roll again we'll start seeing 6 seconds which makes everybody happy here and you know so I think it's a very important platform I think it's grossly underestimated by a lot of thought leaders I think a lot of 8 to 18yar old kids know what's up I think this is going to be the summer Vine for the normal kids and I think that um come the fall people to be paying attention in a very big way hey what's your name I'm John I've read all your books I'm a huge fan thanks BR I recently just started a vlog and I'm actually interviewing you in August so I'm really excited for that and right I'm doing an interview Series this year where a day 365 different interviews One A Day for blogs and I only tweeted it out and only wanted my fans or friends or people that paid attention to me I didn't want mainstream stuff so I really appreciate that I didn't think I was going to get ped so super excited about that thanks man looking forward to it I will bring it be ready I'm going to be ready I'm excit um one of my questions is like I said I just start a blog and I've read all your books and I'm all about giving back but I also work fulltime yeah I was wonder if you had any advice like how to scale to give my best to my job that's where I'm making my money right now and eventually yes I want to do my Blog full time and teach people how to network but how can I give the best to both by putting in the time I it's the only asset you got right like that's your asset like you know and you know this if you read the books I'm obsessed with this notion of 7:00 p. m. to 2:00 in the morning like you know listen I complain every day like [ __ ] man I need to lose some weight and like this that the other I yell at like my new assistant Mike I'm like you got to skip but the truth is I'm not putting in the work I at time like when I tell everybody that they can sleep one hour less if they want to build a business I can sleep one hour less to hit the gym right so you know it's what you put in man like you need you know what I like about this though is work takes up a lot of time and energy but when you're actually doing something you love it's a little bit easier to put in that 10 p. m. 11: p. I mean listen a bunch of us I see a couple of guys here at VOR media were in the office the other day the 2:00 in the morning the 1:30 in the morning it's the latest I've been there why because from 9: to 1:30 in the morning we were working on my brand for the first time in a long time because the book is coming and guess what I love my brand you know I love me and that was it was easy I wasn't tired I didn't want to go to sleep and so um you know the thing that I would tell you to do that gives you the best prayer for this to work is make sure you're really in tune and self-aware that this blog is around the thing that you like the most you know don't make it about interviewing internet peeps like unless that's the thing you want unless you grew up one day I want to be Charlie Rose unless that's right but you know if one day you wanted to like ride dinosaurs make it about [ __ ] dinosaurs cool and then just a quick thing like the first question you were saying that only like 27 people watched your um first my library video um how long how did you stay positive when you first started like for me like I have like 100 followers yes I'm grateful but like I read a lot of other things like oh like you should be going a lot faster and stuff like that but like I'm kind of about like the quality of them but I was just wondering if you had anything to say about I'm patient you know like stuff doesn't happen as like you know the problem is Kevin Sy [ __ ] annihilates it sells Instagram in 2 years for Billy and everybody's like [ __ ] that's what we need to like what the [ __ ] is the matter with people like right for every one

instagram there is 9 billion [ __ ] got it but yeah we just all want to be that and think that's going to happen we're never living in a better time where you have an opportunity to build a business because the business opportunities now are often predicated more than ever on talent and time and effort you put into it because the internet this amazing invention that came along and all these amazing entrepreneurs that are building things on top of it are creating efficiencies that don't cost us money and they give us the time and effort and our skill to storytelling create you know but we just need to be patient you know like but nothing you asked me I'm grateful I mean think about how you asked me that question I'm grateful for those 100 but [ __ ] but take that out of your equation and just do your [ __ ] great thanks so much I appreciate you got yeah what's up uh Jeff Ramos oh yes Jeff what's up man what's going on it's good to see you too um so I had a quick question there's the one thing I could never figure out about like product development is um I like to teach people how to learn things the thing I'm trying to teach people right now is something that everyone's so [ __ ] pumped to learn but like no one actually [ __ ] goes to actually learn or do it and it's DJing right everyone wants to become a DJ and I actually saw the Tweet you said about DJing is probably not what people should be doing like not being creators by creators but I mean it's I say that I said there was a value of money against that right that if you're the core creator of it there's a different value prop that you know DJs are killing it in let's call it music get paid a lot but the royalties of the creater the songs are an interesting money Trail to follow it's happening in internet as well right so I believe in it DJ I mean yeah DDM I mean DJ is at its height right so plenty of cash um so I didn't say that's not the right thing to do it's a different value CR it's all go ahead cool so like in terms of like even when you're like trying to pitch an idea to yeah a company they want to do something how do you get people to actually invest in the idea and sell them on something they already want to do but they're just not taking that first step especially with like learning products I've seen other friends companies have so much trouble with that but how do you get people to bite I mean you know to answer your question directly because I'm the greatest salesman of all time right and I'm joking but what I mean is I'm a good salesman like I but here's why I always start with the finish line for the other person and let me say that again CU it's really important the reason I'm a good salesman is cuz I always think about the finish line for the other person not what's in it for me that's the best way to be a good salesperson but nobody wants to do that that's why it's hard to be a good salesperson um so I would tell you that if you're not getting traction for what you're doing you need to ask a hell of a lot more questions I would go backwards to everybody that you ever tried to sell it to and ask them why they didn't buy it and create a safe environment where they're not going to hurt your feelings because you need to figure out why thank you hi Pamela hey Pamela I was just wondering if you heard of data Miner and what you think of it I have heard of data minor so he's out today and got yeah so I'm an investor in data minor um so part of it uh that was so fun to sit on um so I know they I mean I had sign papers last week knowing this news was coming so is the question what do I think of them or yeah it's a friend of I mean you know money where your mouth is right I believe in those guys quite a bit they're extremely smart I like investing in things I'm not a you know I respect data in a way that you could never imagine um but I prefer EQ over IQ so it's fun for me to invest in data driven companies because I like staying close to those things it was that was a very obvious one for me um I thought they were very smart I'm very deep into Twitter as many people here know they were one of the first people that I think really thought about Twitter the way I did but from the Yang I thought about it from the heart they brain EQ IQ um so they felt like my brothers just you know looking at it from a different lens I'm very bullish on that company I'd be dumbfounded if that is not a billion dollar exit company that's how ahead they are and that's how important what they do is and I'm pumped you ask me that because now we have the video of he's saying that so when the do go for a 1. 3 billion I'll chop this little piece and put out a micro content and see told you [ __ ] thank you man do I love I told you so by

the way go read all the comments and crushit Amazon reviews back in 2008 about my thoughts on Tumblr and how I was completely out of my mind and didn't know what I'm talking about if you don't think I went back the other night and emailed all those people I just want you to know who you're dealing with went back and emailed him and said yo now what so I love the I Told You So I live for think it's why I put so much out there hey G Michael um hey man what's your name Michael apologies if you already talked about this I can't late you worri you mentioned something recently about doubling down on content yes and apparently having I guess someone following you yes fulltime and I was going to see coming if you could elaborate on that or I know someone picked that up kind of Rand with bit and I guess you kind of came back so this not yeah it's kind of a good example of like you know I'm a master communicator and all this stuff but I think I dropped the ball in that article you know I don't I think dory's a really good reporter this whole notion that I'm going to have you know somebody following me 24/7 like reality show and where like betab be and other people took it it's just it's not the truth right Steve's back there he's here right very handsome man you should meet him but you know Steve sent me you know something last night he's like what do you think about this a conversation I'm like no you know like he we you know we talk about stuff but it's more about I'm very unorganized I have so many ideas that fly in and out of my head and I'm not good at taking it even taking my phone out and writing it down is not something I'm capable of it's probably why I failed all my classes right I know a lot of people that are running successful companies that are successful people that are artists and taste makers and create amazing content better than me right they're also very similar so I think as content becomes more and more important I do see this world where you know somebody calls you at the end of the day or you know why Steve's here somebody's going to ask a question there's been some good ones here some different ones than I'm talking about and he's taking note I'm taking note and it's just a backup service to you know kind of infrastructure a human infrastructure to be like hey that was such a great question by him should we do something I need that push a little bit it's I when I do work out only with a trainer I'm just not self motivated in a lot of places I believe in content so much I believe in it so much I feel like I'm letting a lot of good stuff get away and out of my brain and by having that discipline with another person it's helping me remember it create more he also has a huge wine background I'm missing wine so yeah I mean I do think that people are going to be doubling and tripling down on content and I do think it's going to be a trend and I think creating content is the cost of relevance in our society right now I really do I really think content is amazingly important I think that's Baseline I think if you're not creating content cont you're in trouble and then I think what happens next context or how talented you are I have no concern about the quality quantity debate because I know my filter I'm not going to put out crap right and more importantly the market decides what's crap and not plenty of people in this room think the Kardashians are crap but enough consumers say they're not and good for them you know what I mean plenty of people drink Yellow Tail I think it's [ __ ] good for Yellow Tail right so I mean I think that I love how everybody all of a sudden thinks they're holier than now to decide what is quality in our society you know what quality is what people [ __ ] buy period consumer always is Right consumer always right period thank you hey Gary Sam sheer hey man how are you good to see you um you good uh What super well um what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given there's two that stick out only two and I have I'm really bad at being mentored I think I have a lot of flaws that's one of them I like to like I'm in myself I'm in my own cocoon you know I'm undereducated I think but I think all that stuff actually helps me because a lot of my stuff comes from like a naive a that becomes very authentic and maybe a different way to look at it so it's become a weird Advantage um in a world where information has become a commodity um there's two the best one is the one my dad gave me when I first started when I came to my dad when I was 14 I was a full of crap salesman I would have told you anything about any baseball card or wine just to make sure you bought it and my dad really taught me word is bond he told me you make a commitment you stick to it really stuck to me and it came at the right time I was probably only one or two years away from never being able to fix it and I'm very

grateful for that me being dragged into my dad's liquor store that one thing saved me it's why a lot of people I'm sure people in here when they first consumed me might have thought I was like an infomercial huster salesman I'm I'm over the top right and like very easy to dismiss because of my energy and Insanity right and I think that comes with being a [ __ ] salesman and I had that in me and I think my dad really writed that course and that's huge the other one came from an old salesman my dad had a liquor salesman we had so I was buying from him one point who was like 83 years old right old dude great guy and one day we're just sitting there I'm buying and I was talking about hiring or something of that nature and he looked at me and said Gary let me give you a piece of advice and I'm like you know I hate advice so I was like yeah were you at time right I was 16 and he said uh he said 17 I just want you to know one thing he had this scen voice I go what's that he said you don't know what you have until you sleep with it and it was interesting right I was like oh well dirty man but as my life has gone on with the way that I hire invest with the way that I make friendships you don't know what you have until you sleep with it you know I reverse I'm a coach that makes adjustments at halftime doesn't overstress the game plan the week before and that's what that saying is about which is you can plan everything you want you can have everything lined up in a row but then stuff happens then there's something you didn't see in that person that existed and it's what you do next that matters much more than what you did to get to that moment I'm proud that I'm really good at adversity halftime adjustments I feel like I'm if I was a coach I'd be a coach known for being down 21 nothing and winning 2721 because I'd probably prep a little less on the upfront and catch our team off guard but I know exactly what to do once I tasted it thanks yeah we have time for one more question is that it but then Jesse is going to talk to you again so it's okay why more questions lots more questions hold on like 10 more sorry I'm just checking I think the baby's is the baby here holy [ __ ] my sister had a baby hold on boy or girl girl amazing so amazing all right it's going be tough to recalibrate hey how are you doing well I had a quick question for you in regards to the Q& A a day that you've been doing yes just wanted to hear about how that's going and what you've learned from it so far great so two things one Manisha you shouldn't have taken the mic away from all these lovely people because you're in the office with me every [ __ ] day and you could ask me that tomorrow that's number one um number two um how's it going it's going extremely well I have gotten to a place in my career where I can get with right if I want to go on CNN or CNBC or do a Fast Company article I'm in a crazy place so thankful I can get nothing but press they love me I'm a quot [ __ ] right all that stuff right so they're in I can get it with distribution High you know awareness what I really wanted to focus on with this is depth I really am thankful for my community I really am I don't say 100 but you know I I'm thankful and so I wanted 365 of them who and it was interesting for me when Jo brought that up I knew that a 100 people would start a blog just to interview me literally start their blog to get me to be on their interview because they wanted to spend the time and plenty have I'm getting little to no awareness from all this time 15 minutes every day when I have a billion things going on for a Blog that's going to be read or watched by six 9 11 people but that's not why I'm doing it because I wanted to thank people I wanted them to leverage my name to build their blog I wanted to spend 15 minutes with them because they've been watching and consuming and retweeting and sharing and reblogging my stuff for 3 four years and I knew this was a way that I could thank them that meant something that and that's why I did it and so you know why it's going great cuz it was great from the second I decided to do it that ship sailed I was good because it wasn't for me Qui question this might what's your name Eddie pleasure this might be a little broad but where do you think creative Innovation is headed

to I think where is C I mean it is a little broad um but let me take it where I can take it right I think that and let me ask you a question Define cool something that I can relate to that I you know I really passionate about yeah and so like if we asked everybody and I'm sure everybody's doing it through their mind right it's a tough thing to explain but I actually think creative has to be cool and I think where cool comes in for me is relevance is a very core piece of that relevance really matters so here's what I think relevance plus value equals where I think that world's that's all I think about how do I bring value I could have came up here did my thing for 45 minutes dropped the mic gave you the same thing that I normally do and a lot of you would have been pumped cuz you would have said oh I finally got to see it in person and it would have felt different I've been shocked I'm so thankful that people have seen my keynote nine times and still love it you know it's like that comedian you like listen I'll go see Chris Rock 38 times in a row I get it but you know what brings more value what we're doing right now like you know I love Jess but I didn't want him to like I want you to get this is value I think access is going to be a very valuable thing going forward above content but I think relevance really matters swag you know context knowing what's happening like you know that thing is so valuable right and I think Brands and businesses and entrepreneurs and everybody not they have to be cool but the definition of cool for the demo they're trying to sell you just have to know what's up wine libr TV back to the people that are here for that it really worked because I was reviewing wine but I was throwing in HP culture references that were happening in the world at that moment that made it for the younger demos seem a little cooler here's a wine guy that talks about X like I was talking about fart you know Bass from Gossip Girl at its height that mattered to a lot of people especially me and so you know so I think that's where it's going I think that the cost of being a successful creative has been pushed very heavy into relevance and value and less on just pushing something down someone's throat thank you I'm actually really happy to hear you say that you believe in young people pretty amped about that um but as AOW I don't believe in higher education uh neither do I that's why I'm here to change it actually um but as a fellow climber what could we be doing better to improve those uh college students that are graduating coming into your doors to work there it's such a this is such a topic I mean I uh I get to go around the country and speak at colleges that I never could have ever even thought like that if I would have applied they would have punched me in the mouth right um and I and I go there court and I actually listen to the curriculum and now I'm talking about business schools which is obviously clearly different than a lot of other professions I just can give you an answer to my context and I sit there and I sit through uh the curriculum to create context and I like literally sit there and say my God these poor people are paying $200,000 in debt to get this information that has absolutely positively no value right because and it's not their fault by the way there's a ton of entrepreneurs and full-time business people that are trying to keep up with the world guys the world got faster like that's not an apparation the world is much faster things are evolving so much quicker because of the INF structure of this thing called the internet and so where I think the biggest thing you could do to help them is to talk to them like whatever it takes to story tell to them about what actually matters is really important you know I made a video recently A lot of people took in a weird way about me saying a lot of number two threes and fours or starting businesses every single IB league student right now thinks that they're going to put on a hoodie and sell a billion dollar company and most of them and this is me stereotyping many of them have never been punched in the mouth and when you're an entrepreneur you get punched in the mouth every day and so I've watched a lot of startups from kids from Brown and Yale and Stanford fold quickly over before they started because adversity and all these other things so you know internships are fine and you tell them to go Network and all that you know I don't know I think the problem is by the time you get them [ __ ] is sailed you know I think we need to go back to a world like here's what I'm

scared about mesa's four and Lizzie knows I'll let her do anything she wants and how we raise our daughter except one thing Misha will never be in a league where people don't win and lose somebody that comes in sixth place gets a trophy period right and so I think there's a lot of things going on right now that are intriguing and I don't want to be like the old school guy cuz I'm plenty new school you shouldn't go to a school where ninth where nine-year-olds can smoke weed I'm in but winning and losing that stuff matters that's stuff matters for one simple reason cuz it matters cuz that's what really happens later and so not preparing peeps mentally for what's going to happen I struggle with and you know higher ed I mean I don't know like you know my biggest problem is you can declare bankruptcy by doing everything wrong and getting a clean sleep except your student loan right like the game is whack period end of story and most of all has no equal equation to success of being an entrepreneur than if you would have just dropped out of school at 14 and so we need to have healthy debates there's a lot going on with this but anything you could do to make them understand what's real versus what's not I'll give you another one that I actually think really does work getting them to go do an internship or a mentorship with the person and starting with number one and then if it's number eight fine but with the person they most want to be and like I mean I understand how people don't realize the value it is to work I think one day I'm going to get paid to have an intern by them I promise you right now [ __ ] Harvard 200,000 give me 50,000 I'll make you a fuckload more money so I think we're living in a really interesting world where people are confused about how it the business World works and I think at least from that context it's going to be very interesting hey Gary Greg hey um I have a question so as a startup entrepreneur uh and if you want to build Partnerships with larger Brands how do you hustle your way up to big guys and play in big leagues and prove to them that even though you're small fish they should pay attention to you and do business with you and what some of the I would say the number one tip there's a couple ways to do it number one of the great things to do is to offer what you do for free to the biggest people because if they take you up on it now you've got the logo and the learnings to do it number one if you can do that number two Relentless pressure you know I'm telling you right now if you want to get to me and I'm glad my assistant's not here if you want to get to me you can here's what it takes email me 47,000 times until I Buckle I mean it and sometimes I buckle on the first email and people tweet Gary's the best first email and then somebody sees it like what the [ __ ] I emailed him 38 times already right because you know it's Serendipity it's Ser I'm on the flight I'm in a mood I'm like I have a flavor and I'm like yeah let's do it you right and so relentless pressure on what you want with tact right you don't want to come across stalkerish you know too tough but like if you've got value proposition then you need to tell that story but giving I'm stunned by the enti ment of this industry spec work go talk to designers about spec workk how evil it is how is it evil that you get a chance to prove your work to somebody and then if it works you like we have gotten very romantic we've gotten very soft you know and so I would say spec work Vayner media I had just built a $70 million business I was getting paid $25,000 to at that point in my career I was signed a million dooll book deal I could have done any television show I wanted I started a client service business and did work for people for nothing that's how Vayner media was built and then when we killed it for the NHL and campel and other things people were like oh and then I charged more awesome thank you yeah man you good on time I don't know you have a little niece now I know but I'm waiting for my car we're good cool more questions hey guy how's it going I'm doing really well uh Thomas pleasure do you go by Thomas like you like drilled that home yes like nobody can call you Tom you can I don't want to I'm curious in real life uh professionally Thomas but in they say like this Tom I don't really here like with your friends it's like big daddy T yes all right go ahead all right um if you find yourself unfortunately in a market that's really

oversaturated what are like some key points that will really make your personal brand stick out to people who are booking you or hiring you like I'm an Entertainer so that's a big deal for me so here's the hard truth Big Daddy te number one this is a crazy thing to say because it's so the truth and it's such a tough thing to deliver number one Talent yeah you know like everybody's like oh it's harder to break through on YouTube and Twitter now you did it in ' 06 I'm like yeah it's harder but people do every day they're just talented and you're not right so you know so I would tell you Talent is a shockingly intriguing thing but a lot of people have talent that don't necessarily win it's about exposure it's about how like it's about at bats how do you created as many at bats for you and your story to as many people that make the decision as possible and so when I started how do you get paid $50,000 to speak at a conference easy I did 23 conferences for free right I made sure those videos were on YouTube I spoke on people that blogged about speaking I emailed speaker dudes. com and I was like yo you want an interview he's like all right you know and I gave an interview and four people read that article right so it's at bats it's putting yourself in the best position to succeed to tell your story right and so you know that can mean a ton of things so what do you do you're a comedian what uh I tour College I was doing a comedy magic show right so like you know you really need to think about there's two ways to play the funnel do you go after the people that book or do you get go after the actual consumer and make them push you up so like one more time college tours comedian show yes are you on Vine yeah I'm on Vine how many Vines have you made cuz I will look it up and don't lie to me I will call you out for right [ __ ] you got it there's got it there are comedians right now comedians online are massively over indexing massively they're killing it and there's 40 of them who went from zero in the world to hundreds of thousands of people following them and they're getting asked to book every second got it so you by being here have enough knowledge about the world that we live in you need to go all in on it can I offer V media complimentary magic and Cofe show maybe let me think but most likely and you know what that's what it takes right like I'm already a little more interested you know like that's what it takes but more than anything often I'm not lucky enough to be able to give very practical granular advice because I like to get more context on what you're actually doing than doing you know than being wrong if you do not start making two videos a day on Vine if you do not leave here tonight and spend if I me if I have spent 300 hours in the last couple of weeks on Vine trying to learn it then you should have spent 600 that's what it takes you got it I'm pumped I really think you can kill mine I hope you're really talented because if you are and you figure out how to storytelling 6 seconds that is one fertile ground for dudes like you it is fertile [ __ ] is fertile I'm fertile good job I do Gary my name is Shai pleasure yeah um I'm actually from close to where you live I'm from Elizabeth New Jersey yep not too far away actually know seen the whole line Library Thing have you been to Bayway Liquors many the time [ __ ] yeah it's they know what they're doing yep uh yeah so um actually my cooworker and I Johnson Joseph and I had the same question he out in the back of there man uh yeah we both uh were curious about I mean from my perspective from coming from a small town and you know running like a your dad's company coming into your dad's company what was the creativity that you brought to the table as such a young person coming in like you know it's pretty ballsy to come in and just turn around a company or to put your efforts in and make it from a $3 million company to a $30 million company you got to remember like you know I think people gloss over the stories even though they know them like when you're making three $44,000 a weekend you know at a mall in New Jersey selling baseball cards you know business like I walked in there like what like I'm about to like I walked in there with straight bravado like I know how to sell it was just very easy for me I just asked clums I was there since I was 14 every weekend and every summer vacation so I didn't just Walt in at 22 after partying for 4 years in school and like all right what do we do here like I was in I worked the floor of my dad's liquor store for 12 and 14 hours a day

for thousands of days before I ever ran the operations and spoke to actual customers that actually bought things and asked them so many questions could you imagine me at 16 you imagine walk into a liquor store and seeing the 16-year-old me don't even look at me because I'm asking you 87 questions to try to sell you stuff right so I built up so much knowledge that you know I walked in there with context too many people in this room and when I mean this room I mean the world jump into businesses that they know nothing about not of people that start a startup like yo let's start a music startup because I listen to music are you an [ __ ] you're going into the music business not listening to [ __ ] ASAP Rocky you dick you know so I think that we need to start being smart about those decisions I think too many people are jumping in too fast starting companies without knowing the space the hurdles and they get caught and they get into trouble now they get great learnings and very honestly if you're between 21 and 27 28 I don't know what the right number is but be risky as hell make a ton of mistakes it is the time it's perfect sleep in a little cot of four Dudes do it like all in like go really raw cuz the learnings are tremendous on the flip side you could also go work for some place that you actually are passionate about that industry for a year or two and learn a lot and be in a much better position to succeed so the naive in the market is many people think my story is wild and how I came in and blew it up so fast I was ready I was a loaded gun I knew everything about everything like I went up to mounta college in Boston I was a [ __ ] student I never went to class once you know what I was doing I was driving around Boston going to Cappies going to Marty's going to all these like in school like everyone's like you going to the party tonight no I'm going to some random liquor store 2 hours away to walk around for 2 hours that's who I was I put in the work you know I don't know if Malcolm GL was right about 10,000 hours and all that stuff but I did it I knew everything I walked in 22 with the knowledge of a 55-year-old so it was easy and so I don't think we're putting in enough work peeps read Tech Crunch and think they know something hey hary my name is Mike KOA Mike first of all I am so sorry for the cursing he's quite you this is Mandy koala hey Mandy Hi how are you Amanda is Mandy is 9 years old I think to these events there's you know I think our schooling system has a lot to change I think you're right and as a parent and an entrepreneur I own a couple different businesses and I constantly am working with her what advice would you have obviously as a sucessful entrepreneur if you could talk to Mandy right now for two minutes what would you tell her Mandy don't listen to a word daddy says listen man I'll be very honest with you I'm super inspired by you I almost feel completely inappropriate for me to tell Mandy anything I think what you're doing is incredible I have a four-year-old daughter named Mesa that you know I aspire to have on my lap and things like this and have these kind of conversations and raise her in not an unorthodox way but in a way that I think will become the future you know I've always lived in the future right and that's where a lot of My Success comes from I think that Mandy I think that you may not to answer your question Mandy I think you may not understand what I'm about to say but luckily this is on video and one day you'll watch it you are very very lucky to have a daddy like this and I think that he really cares and is being thoughtful about how to create a better life for you and I think you should kiss him on the cheek Hi Ian barbery by the way please email me at Gary gamer media. com while you're watching this I know that it's 11 years from now but I won't delete that account just so you email me and I cannot wait to get your email Hi Ian Barber I met you at your office during open c i remember and uh you said something that day that was profound that everybody said and I think everybody had a different meaning for it what does it mean to be native to the platform I mean it seems like that's a big yeah like catchphrase it's becoming like a cliche has no meaning here's what it means to me and it was back to the conversation we had about being cool I think being native to the platform is so Brands and businesses and Business Schools and higher education and all that stuff likes to create these scenarios of know your voice right know your voice and then pound it I think which I believe in know your story

but I know when to wear this gear and talk like I'm talking because I know my audience right I know that you know that I go to different conferences and I know the things I can and can't say I know when I'm on television I don't curse it's not going to work for me you know out well when I go out to dinner with my parents I'm a different version of who I am when I go out to Vegas with my boys for the weekend I'm a different version of who I am and I think we all need to start respecting the context of the environment and so what that means being native to the platform is if you're a business if you're an Entertainer and you're jumping on Tumblr you better know a couple of things you better know how to be pretty damn cool cuz Tumblr is pretty cool it's Young You Better Know That animated gifts is how you tell the story not GIF something you know and so I think you know you need to know that if you go to Pinterest you're speaking to a female demo and you need to come across with your copy and your pictures in that way you need to know that when you're on Vine you're making videos for 8 to 18 year olds right now they'll get older and you need to make them laugh not a 38-year-old so I'm going to make wine videos on Vine but it's not going to catch on I'm doing it because in four years when everybody's on there I'll be there got it so you have to know the flavor of the room how to dress how to talk what's appropriate for that setting when you very different on Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram Snapchat very different got it so telling the same story in nine different ways because those platforms demand it and more importantly the psychology of everybody here when they're on those platforms is different depending on the platform something we don't spend enough time talking about hey uh Gary it's daab I also met you at your office I don't know if you remember the trophy of course anyway um they're amazing trophies thank you um my question is I know you talk so much about uh you know never just always pushing and uh doing as much as you can what about uh now that you're a dad how do you turn it off when you get home easily my family is everything to me right by the way the only reason I always talk about pushing and like you know this whole warp life balance thing is I know everybody you know you're listening to me for 2 minutes and 37 seconds on YouTube the rest of the time you're pushing very often in the other direction we're all worried about life work life balance it's the by the way it's the only thing I care about this was tough for me today this was this moment has been very tough for me I'm sitting through a tough moment right now now that this is the fourth child between my sister and I know that you don't have to be there right that second to still have it but if this was her first like I wouldn't be here I would have canceled like i' learned a but like you know like you're always battling you're always making decisions do I let we work down and all the people that wanted to be here tonight is that the right value exchange for being there an hour or two earlier like you're going through these every day like I'm struggling with it every day but I'm also not struggling with it which is meaning we're all doing the best we can right and nobody can tell you that like for everybody's like oh I spend more time with my family I'm like yeah but that guy spends more time than you so who won did he win like we're all different we all listen my wife Lizzie is amazingly independent she's just amazingly independent woman who like is very similar to me and like in her stuff and like loves her stuff like she doesn't need me there every second she probably doesn't want you know and so right and so like but it's a balance but I will tell you this there is one answer there's one real answer communication heavy over the toop Allin communication I check in with her we talk about stuff the rest of my family members and friends you just have to talk a lot and like cuz you're feeling things what are they feeling I you know for a spouse you know heavy communication for your children when they're younger it's hard you can't have that talk necessarily but I'm super aware of the lack of time I spent with my dad growing up I didn't know him until I was 14 I know what it felt like to be the only kid in my league to not have his dad come to his little league games I know what it feels like so um and it was fine by the way you know like that's just who I was cool with that I was like dad's trying to make it like even at that age right and mom was enough and like it was fine I was scared of my dad anyway and so you know I just think it's communication my man it's a very touchy subject I talk a lot about hustle and Allin I always get worried that people you know luckily I think people have a sense of where I sit on family but like you know I mean and it evolves I'm taking every day except for six off in August this year to go up to a house in Connecticut and

spend time with my family that's more days off than I took for 11 years in a row combined right so you evolved and different things happen what I don't want to tell you and Nate's laughing is I'm probably going to be emailing every one of you individually in that month asking you to buy my book you know and so like I'm going to hustle as well but I'll be hustling with them around and so you got to evolve there's an evolution to this can you stay in touch with AJ on the car thanks man hey man what's up how you doing I'm James um you once told me uh never take the first dollar when there's a $20 bill W down the road yeah um is that what JZ just did by giving up the Nets and going into the sports arena well he took both dollars so how does that apply like can you expand on not chasing that first dollar and going after I mean I think I think you know it's all the context right jam and I don't very honestly I apologize I don't completely remember the context of where that answer came through it comes into a lot of different plays my man it comes down like this your time is your asset you know Vayner media we're a premium agency we get hundreds of emails of people that want to work with us but can't afford us cuz we've gotten expensive because we've got enough demand for the supply now if you don't have a lot of demand or don't think there'll be take that first dollar but I think a lot of times people jump at that first dollar when there's where you can build a little bit more just a little more there's plenty of people that have sold their all you know how we celebrate companies that have exited you know we read Tech runch or out yeah they've sold sometimes like boo I'm like one more year two more years YouTube wishes they waited understand and a lot of people do there's now plenty of people wish they took so you have to be self-aware but I you know but I think if it's predicated on your time you need to be very smart SM about it because every time you take something you just said no to something else I have one question sure so two parts Mark Sanchez or Gino Smith and what's the state of New York Jets in 2013 great so I think from The Mark Sanchez goino smith thing I think that thing plays itself out right like whoever wins this preseason I'm fine with you know capitalism I think every quarterback competition should be capitalism it's the most important spot it's a CEO job um the state of this year's team we'll see I think that unfortunately their schedule is a little harder than I'd like it to be um I think that they'll probably be a little bit better than people think because their defense is going to be really strong but um I'm concerned anybody else there's got to be other questions don't be scared hiis I'm taking pictures thank you so much left side um you were talking about all these platforms but beond bu uh probably not Snapchat um is there anything where you actually feel that you're too old for um for example I mean I can be on Vine just if it takes me you can't be on Vine consuming the videos because they seem too young for you it's just yeah it's like having ad for me yeah I get it um no because I don't actually think of myself as a customer of any of these platforms I don't use in a real way this is my career and my job and just like it took me two and a half years to unwind from being in the wi business every day to now it's guys it's so weird I actually go out now and like drink wine like a normal person like I enjoy it like I used to 5 minutes I used to drink wine like for my whole life and think it was like a chore I drink it i' be like oh how they do that like what how much does this cost should I buy this and sell you know should I review this on the show it was like a job and that's how social is for me I don't use Snapchat like most people use Snapchat I use it trying to figure out what the business uses are so I don't consume Vine for my entertainment I consume it as some who's trying to figure out the architecture and opportunities around it so I never feel old as a matter of fact I spend most of my time trying to spend time on the young stuff because I never want to be the guy that I make fun of I want to be very in tune I'm I've got an office full of 200 employees that are 27 and under and I'm the youngest guy in the building for my usage I just am I'm also the busiest just want you guys to know that I'm younger and busier and hustling more than you guys so Step Up kidding not really hey all by the way

thank you so much brother um by the way I'm really into what you're doing with your hair and please keep it going like I need to see you like another 24 months from now you got it thank you um so you put out a piece of content I think it was a video where you mentioned that people should treat their businesses like their second child rather than the first child yes and so obviously when you have your first child you don't have that mentality so um from a business perspective where can you draw the line to say okay now you can start treating your business as a second child because you have those things that you've learned that you can now apply there so where do you draw the line I tried to use that analogy to make I could have said this I like analogies you know me right so that's why I made that video was fun I was thinking about this I was coming out of a meeting where I was proud of myself which happens often with the way I feel about myself but something happened where it really worked out for Vayner and I was just so happy again cuz everything on paper said that we should have worried about X Y and Z and I didn't and it really worked just reminded me again like God damn it people are spending too much time worrying about the things that don't matter 1% of the things that are happening in your business matter one and like now I don't know how to like teach I'm not good at teaching what that 1% if I work if I join your business I'd tell you in two minutes right 6 weeks in I'd have it it's why Vayner Works cuz I think I'm good for the businesses we work in forget the social I think I know how to run their businesses better um so that's what that meant what I've learned after having a second child is we're not micromanaging every little thing that we did with the first job mean Xander walk I mean Xander like on the street we're like cool you good act good you know like Misha couldn't like go one step if like I mean you know we she would sleep and we'd look at her face for an hour right so um I mean I went into Misha's room 700 times in the first couple years like just making sure she was breathing right like you just get scared it's just like intense love with business I was mature already with mne Library back to the baseball card stuff I knew and I'm just trying to help young entrepreneurs to just like take a step back and realize like okay like I'm always telling my team like okay end good they'll fire us we're still rolling we have plenty of new business I care more about your feelings don't get too pressure like so I just I'm just trying to figure out you know I'm always taking stabs at trying to tell a story in a certain way that might hit that one was actually directed towards a little bit of an older crowd cuz they have had two children and they know exactly what I'm talking about cuz the first child you know like was perfect the second one's like eating dirt outside while you're inside right and so that's you know obviously when you're going through it your first time you don't have that context of what that is but you're gaining context right away when you're into your business you can look back at all the things you worried about that weren't that serious try to imply the past into future decisions I think we're going to give the mic back to Jesse we'll ask a couple more questions and we'll wrap up yeah and I know that we were supposed to do a video can I come back and do it another time cool cuz if you said no I would have made you feel so guilty we'll come to you what's that come to you yeah come to me we want to shoot some filter out their VES um so I know you're on your way I had one question you brought up probably a 100 times this conversation storytelling something that you are a m or maybe how many think about how many people here know lemonade and baseball cards and like things that people know in like ingrained in their mind um it's super important so the question and I think it could benefit the whole audience is especially me is uh how do you what is your perfect story what is the best story to you how do you tell it what are the ingredients that go into it that really get your point across and that's a good question I think the first one starts with the truth you know too many people telling stories that aren't real so I think the truth really matters because people's [ __ ] Radars are much better than we give them credit for so I think that matters I think that you know I don't really know how to answer this question right I've always been good at it's the same reason I'm a good salesman I think I'm a good angel investor I just always think about the other person and so if I can give you a tactical thing if you can I think scratching your own itch is a very good place to go so I curse a lot and act like I do on stage because I loved growing up watching Richard prior and Eddie Murphy I watched a lot of them all the time 247 when I got my car I didn't listen to music I listen to them on my tape cassette I'm old all that stuff right and so you know you can see it in my style I'm scratching my own itch I'm giving business Keynotes the way I think they would almost in essence do a standup routine even my rhythm delivers in a joke a lot of times

and a punchline so that's what I was inspired by I would tell you think about how you would want a story told to you and tell it that way reverse engineer what feels good to you cuz a lot of people look like you I my fan base are versions of me Academia is not rolling up in here saying yeah except brilliant Academia people you know so you know who rolls you know who likes me people like me because I'm storytelling to me I want the truth I want the raw truth I feel so bad to people that pitch me like they get I'm sure like especially when it matters because they're trying to get money or getting me my business they take a lot of time and they practice and they think about it and they walk in they're like all right here I'm like good next like I'm out in like 4 seconds cuz I got it like I don't want you to waste my time like yes okay you're a mobile company I get it yes I understand There's an opportunity like get to the hook right and so yeah scratch your own itch tell the story the way that you would want it told to you I think is a very good fundamental way to think about it cool thank you guys so much