AI, Algorithms & A Social Media Marketing Playbook | GaryVee w/ Money Buys Happiness Podcast

I'm scared every day. If you're an entrepreneur, you should be scared. But in any big technology, you either take that sword or that sword will kill you. Either you go to the gym or you think about going to the gym. Either you go to the gym or you read about how to do the proper exercise. But until you're doing, you're not doing. Every, all you five youngsters, must be interacting with AI apps every day. Must. At bare minimum chat GPT and thinking and talking. You've been saying that in the next five to 10 years, followers won't matter as much. Yes. Why is that? Because they don't matter as much right now. And what do you think's happening? Why can't it happen? You know, just to kick off the show right away, like I don't predict. Yeah. I talk about things that are actually happening that I'm aware that I might just be a little faster to the observation because of what I do when I wake up in the morning. In the same way that I know some people are skinnier or stronger or better at golf. When I wake up in the morning, as I did this morning at 4.30 a.m., which is unusual. I actually believe in seven to eight hours of sleep, but I was in Oklahoma City for game one. Even on the way to the airport, you know, at 4.45 in the morning, I'm looking at what's happening in culture. Like, how's this Trump Elon beef going? What's going on with the boo-boos and that ******* toy? Like, what are the it girls doing? What are the ******* golfer bros from Yale doing? Like, what's the lacrosse girls at Duke doing? What's the Jamaican bros that like skate? Like, I am a cultural anthropologist. And then, where does that culture play out? Well, it plays out in social, right? So then the next thing I'm looking at is like, what are the platforms doing? What's the algo doing? You know, is there a new feature? What's happening with live? Why is this happening? Why is this person popping off? Why is this person declining? So that all leads to when I started saying like followers don't matter as much, that started happening three years ago. That happened when I was yelling about TikTok in 2017. That's why I was yelling about TikTok in some reason of 2017 and 18, which was, A, I knew that a lot of tension was gonna go there and that was good for all of you. Like, oh, you missed Instagram? You missed ******* Facebook and Twitter? Well, here's your chance. Ironically, and not ironically, so many people that had 80,000 on Instagram that were crying that they didn't have a million couldn't go over to TikTok and get to their million because they had the insecurity of having no followers there. And they didn't want to start over, right? Whatever the **** that means. All that life is is starting over. Every day is starting over. Like real talk, especially for winners. So I think that, you know, I think we're there. I mean, like, and I actually think we will continue to decline, I think, meaning, now, actually, actually, if I was sitting with, you know, Facebook, MetaZuck, the product team, TikTok, I would say, yo, you need to go to the extremes. On the left, like, I think when I open my feed, there should be a toggle, two options. Left side, full interest graph. Just give me nothing, which is where some of the platforms are heading. Just give me nothing, but at this moment, I give a **** about trading cards and comic books because of V Friends, the Knicks, the Jets training camp starting, wine. Like, give me my, the 80s, nostalgia, give me my ----. And then on the right, let me have 150 followers that I can have, but I wanna see every ******* post from them. You like that? Like, that's what I would do if I, like, ran TikTok or Instagram or Twitter right now. That would kill. And I actually think there's no outcome that that doesn't become possible because I think it's pendulum swings. We only got content in 2008, nine, 10, 11, 12 from who we followed. Now, we're starting to get to a place that I think it's gonna keep going where you're just getting ---- from whatever's popping to you. And I think for all of us, even when I said it, I could feel you two and the other three dudes in the room, everyone's like, yeah, that'd be fresh because I'm pissed that I'm, I mean, every day I get 50 comments in my feed that say, yo, Gary V, Gary V, where you been? Like, ****, man, this is awesome. ****, you know, like, so like, and I feel that way about people I follow. So anyway, that's why I say it, bro, because it's already real. Yeah, you've been calling it interest media. Yeah, I think that's where we're at. You know, social media was like your social graph. The people in your social circle, that's where this came from. I think we're fully in interest media now. When I open my app, I get stuff I'm into of the moment. And the second I start to deviate and get into something else, that ---- starts to show up. The AI is getting that strong. Yep, very strong. Okay, I wanna ask you this. This is a little more personal to us. I'll say so. We're just telling Zach off camera. He's been seeing it. We recently launched this thing on our social media where we're giving away $1,000 every single week. And what we do is we pick a random location all around the greater Toronto area. It's where we're from. We really niched into there. And we pretty much pop up with a reel being like we got $1,000 cash. We're gonna hide it in a secret location here in Brampton, whatever. First person to show up, 1,000 bucks is yours. Or we've recently integrated something where we said first 32 people to show up are gonna participate in a rock, paper, scissors challenge for the 1,000 bucks. And in six weeks that we've done it, once a week, we've already grown a text community of just under 5,000 people who are waiting for the hints. And obviously these- What app are you using, Community or something else? Just MailChimp right now, MailChimp Basic. And so I wanna actually show you one if you wanna pull it up. And I just want your opinion on, obviously we run the podcast, we do some other content series, and then we've really dialed in on this. And it's just been super viral. We've been getting more corporate sponsorships, like sports teams wanting us to do their halftime show. Things like that, right? So we just wanna, I wanna know what you think about it. And what the future of it could be. $1,000 cash, we're gonna hide it in a secret location in Toronto. Be sure you where we put it. Shout out my guy, Josh, for making this happen, okay? If you guys know where this is, share it with- Why, Josh is the one that put up the money? And the money is- You guys are just sitting in the middle. Do you tag Josh? Yeah, of course. Collab with his page. So this thing has like two million views, 15,000 shares, like ridiculous engagement. So we do it every week. And it's been growing rapidly. So it's kind of a double-ended question. One, are we like, do we say **** it to everything else right now and just go all in on this? Because it's like- Well, I think, you know, I think there's a couple things. My first reaction, and we can talk, let's break it down, because it'll be fun for everybody. My first reaction is the audience is not high value. True. Right, like as a shopper, like size of wallet. Right, LVMH has become a huge company because their average shopper spends $40 trillion. And like, you know, other companies are struggling because their average ticket size of what they sell is like $1.30, right? Because they sell pizza. Yeah, true. So I think one thing to think about is you're very young right now. And is volume always the most interesting thing? Would you rather have 50 people who are million dollar customers or 500,000 that are hundred dollar customers? True. So, but by the way, I'm gonna say something also that's very important. Ish, to what I just said. Like, I won't find 1,000 bucks. I'm a human being. But my intuition is that you've got people who've got time on their hand, because **** you running around Toronto to find some ---- and play, right? Who, you know, who that 1,000 is, that $1,000 is worth their time. It's entertaining. Look, you guys are smart. You don't need me. What I would tell you, like, let me teach you how to use AI. **** Gary Vee. Go, hey, we're doing this. Upload the video. Be like, we're aware that this has been done a hundred times over the last decade. What has transpired to those people? What businesses were built? What worked for them? What didn't work for them? I'm teaching you guys how to prompt engineer right now. I can give you my opinions. I can give you my angle that I see it from. That has been valuable. That is what's been me. But this is where AI is gonna become really valuable. I just gave you a prompt that you can do that will really help you and think it through. I think that's what you need to think about. Look, personally, on just gut, I would not go all in just on that. I think that's campaign energy. I think that my intuition tells me that you guys have the talent to build something more sustainable and bigger. Okay, so with that being said, we kind of use it as a marketing tool right now as well, like a campaign. You have an agency, and we do have the network that we started, like we spoke about last time. So it is a big marketing play. That's why I like it. But I don't go all in on a campaign. For sure. And I think it's fair. By the way, do I think that could lead to an $8 million a year business? Could. Yeah. But all that energy, all that time, and again, it's what brand positioning is that doing for you? For sure. Today, again, I think too many people, let me say where I'm actually going, and then you guys can think about it. I think too many people are binarily addicted to the views and the followers without really breaking down the next part, right? Not all views are equal. Not all followers are equal, right? And so you want to just break it down. And would you wake up in five years from now and being all in on this, and if everybody in the Toronto area around the world, like, hey, you guys are to hide the cash, guys. It's a lot of work to rebrand for another day. It's a lot to think about. I think we see it as it fitting into the money buys happiness brand already, because of the name, obviously. I get it, of course. So I guess that's the way we're, and the text message community is a big thing that we believe in, because if we build that thing to like 30,000 and we can pull up somewhere and 20,000 people are there, I think that as marketers, we see that as power. I agree with that as well. Right? I just don't think you need to go all in as like, this is our business. I think you'll be able to achieve all those things as you're doing now in parallel while you do other things. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense? No, no, it makes sense. It just, we're just got excited. The biggest excitement is the fact that like, we would literally with one Instagram post and one text message, we can have 500 people show up annual. Of course. So it's like, we're looking like, we see these massive streamers. I show speed and all these guys, if they go anywhere outside an IRL stream, they have a mob of people and look at the power that, that. Of course. But they actually have that power. Yes. This is a, this is a, a, a. Kind of like buying the power. You're saying it's a gimmicky thing? It's not gimmicky. It's those people are there for the money. Yes. And, and, and, and you've seen it already. It starts to become a little micro community. It like. Yes. But it's, you know, when I show speed shows up in the middle of Brazil, like they're all there for speed. Correct. So keep that in mind. Just find a way maybe to bridge that gap. Yeah. And like find a way to bring more value as you have that text community, instead of just keeping throwing them around the greater Toronto or Canadian area. What about putting out a meaty piece of content that can really help them? That could help someone who needs a thousand bucks. Like the ---- I do with like garage sale or like flipping from a dollar to a hundred. Like start thinking about how to provide value. Got it? Okay. So that's what I mean. Yeah. Like it's good. Yeah. But like, don't get, you know, like there's a lot of it. It's like everything. Everything is so nuanced. There's, you're right. Like, that's why like this clip, you know, five second world we live in, the advantage is going to be for the people that are thoughtful. You know, the advantages for the people that can get under the hood of the headline. True. The advantages for the person that doesn't overreact quick on just like, you know, you know, a little, a little thoughtfulness, a little before I decide who I hate or who I like or what I'm going to do. Like, you know, go into your, go do like the OGs, go in your den, ******* put on some classical music, pour some Scotch, pull out a cigar and just think for five hours. That's what I think has ultimately been my advantage. I don't do, I don't do that scene. My thinking is happening kind of weirdly always. It's kind of like, even while I'm here, there's a part of my brain that's somewhere else and definitely flights and showers and long drives. You know, I think I'm in my feels a lot more than people. I think I'm more thoughtful. It's funny, V Friends, there's 250 characters. Every character you know, it's an ape, it's a shark, it's a duck, it's a hedgehog, it's an alien, it's an alligator. There's one character called the thoughtful three-horned harpic. In fact, we have our comic book coming out that tells the origin story of him. He's the only character I made in V Friends that is not a character that exists. There's no such thing in the world as a three-horned harpic. And I did that on purpose because I knew I would develop this character and I wanna impose on a generation of kids and young men and women that thoughtfulness. When the **** do any of us see the word thoughtfulness in a clip? Zero. I've never seen it. This clip is gonna be the first time. We're popping cherries in this ******* podcast. We're not thoughtful. Everyone's so ******* triggered. Hot takes and everything's, like, even Elon Trump, like this. Literally people in a hundredth second decided whose side they're on. No thoughtful, like, everyone, like, what, like, my name gets, I love him, I hate, like, nobody's, like, in it. So I would just say to get deeper, and that's how I was breaking that down. Notice what I was doing, and that was four minutes. Yeah, you're saying go deeper. Like, just think about all the things I said in four minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just want you to do that for four weeks, and then you'll make better decisions. Makes sense. Okay, one more question before we, I wanna crack open some cards with you. Because we come across this all the time. We'll start a project or a content series or a business, and we love it at first. And then you don't. But it's still making money. Yep. So how do we decide whether to? By realizing there's something called opportunity costs. Yeah. Right? I know, yeah. You know where I'm going. You're making 4,000 here a day, a week, a month, a year, and it's costing you this much time, but you hate it, and you don't realize, and this is why people should quit jobs and go for their dreams. You don't realize that if you cut that $50,000 a year thing, all that time, even the hours you spend being upset about it, given back to you, will make you 100K. Even the time, forget about even the time you need to do the thing, whatever that thing is. The time you get back that you're spending on like this, ****, I don't want next Tuesday, gotta do the consulting thing that, you know? Yep, yep. And so you would suggest cut it off as soon as you feel that way? Yes. Well, again, thoughtfulness. Of course, yeah. As soon as you know now, right? You know, my team knows, I call it smoke and then fire. I'm always like, I'm always talking to them. I like teaching them this thing. I'm like, for me, it's always like, nothing's happening. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there's smoke. Starting to get these feelings, smoke. Like, wait, do I wanna be doing that? Wait, is that the right price to charge for how much I charge for speaking? Wait, do I need to be involved in every meeting of this? It used to be way more important, might be less important. Smoke, right? Week later, I'm like, yeah, I need to raise my speaking fee. I'm talking to myself. A couple days later, I'm like, damn, three people said no to the current speaking fee. And I'm trying to say, I gotta go up. Am I right? Next day, I'm like, no, I'm ******* right. And you're, smoke, smoke, smoke. And then it goes into fire. When it goes into fire for me, I start to act. In the stories that I'm telling right now, I'd be like, yo, Zach Nadler, who runs VaynerSpeakers. I'm like, I'm up. Put another 50K on it. I don't wanna really be speaking. I'm in my ******* BeFriends bag, right? And so, I'm up. And I start to act. The fire starts to cook. So, you know, sometimes that ---- takes three days, that whole process. Sometimes that ---- takes four months. Sometimes that ---- takes four years. Smoke, fire. So, like, you just wanna keep checking yourself, you know? Self-awareness, a lot of self-awareness, always. And then, how old are you? I'm 29, 31. Like, you'll see, like, at 39 and 41, here are the secrets. One, you're gonna feel exactly the same. I'm straight up. Like, for real. Maybe not physically, you start to lose a step on the court, but, like, mentally, you're gonna feel the same. You're gonna be just as hungry, promise. I'm real ----. You might have new dynamics in your life, love, children, whatever, you know, those things that happen between 30 and 40, but, like, in your soul, like, it is who you are. But you're gonna have more pattern recognition. You're gonna know yourself better. Like, these gray hairs, they come with real value. Like, we really, you know, we've been so obsessed with youth culture, everything's about looking younger, you know, acting younger, dressing younger, being younger, and we've really lost our way on putting the OGs on a pedestal. You know, 100 years ago, 15-year-olds weren't the culture. 151-year-olds were. You know, like, you know, when you come from immigrant DNA, like, we put those ******* OGs on the pedestal. But we've lost that. We now make fun of 80-year-olds because they don't know how to use TikTok. Meanwhile, those motherfuckers know how to live. They know what life is, and we ******* make fun of them. It's crazy. I actually want to see the rise. In fact, I'm thinking about starting a company, both human and AI-influenced versions of only 70- to 90-year-olds. I think ******* podcasts with, like, 80-year-olds that are still, like, look, there's plenty of 80-year-olds that are, like, pretty non-vibrant and, like, it wouldn't be good content, but I know so many 80-year-olds that are still doing it, let alone vibrant. Those motherfuckers would crush, and all the motherfucking kids that listen to this should listen to that person. Not do what they say, but just hear wisdom. Perspective, too, yeah. That's what ended up happening with me. Because I had, like, a 10-year head start in this whole game, I became that person. I became worth listening to, because people were like, damn, Gary was there in the MySpace ******* Facebook, Twitter, like, you know, it became, and, you know, as I continued to stack things that made sense. Trust built. Right, and so, like, you know, so. How do you balance building something you genuinely love with making sure you're not leaving money on the table? Selling out. Well, I don't know if it's selling out. I actually think it's selling in, what you're saying, right? Selling out's the reverse, at least the slang cultural term that we've all used, right? I think selling out is, like, if I decided to just become a ******* Wall Street executive, because that would be me maxing out money. I think, to your question, how do you do it? By knowing going in, and this is my life, I knew going in from the get. I'm talking 18, I'm talking, my watershed moments are 18, 22, 34, you know, going into college and just, like, really not wanting to be there and being like, I'm really gonna build my dad's business while I'm in college, launch the website, all that. Then 22, actually doing it. And then 22 to 30, 30 was like, ****, man, I have no money, and I built a huge business for my dad, and my dad's not a bad person, he's an immigrant. He's like, I'm not gonna pay you, because I'm not really paying myself either. It wasn't like my dad was making a million and I was making 50,000, but the business was getting all the money, but he owned the business. Like, you know, he was able to do ---- with that asset. I was like, hello? And then 34, when I started kind of going on my own and doing my own ----, every one of those chapters, I knew going in that I was gonna leave a lot of money on the table. When I wake up in the morning today, I know I'm leaving money on the table. But that's because that's the combo I'm having with myself. How do you do it? By being honest with yourself. I think one of the big issues for humans is they struggle with their relationship with themselves. Like, they're deeply, you know, so many people are insecure, at least minimally insecure. All of us are insecure in some things. And I think we're delusional and I think we sell ourselves bullshit because we're selling other people bullshit and we start to believe it. So I think for anybody who wants to go into passion, there's millions of people who've done this. There's millions of people who've decided to be public servants who know they have some money-making talent, who decided they're gonna serve God or serve children as a teacher or serve the local community as a cop who are leaving money on the table. But it makes them tick. Listen, I understand those people heavy. I'm a little weird because I make a lot of money anyway, but ****, man, I leave a lot of money on the table. In a real, real way, you know? And I'm not even talking about like not compromising by doing like a $5 million deal for like a cannabis on Mars company. I'm talking about like, oh, I could do a private equity firm or I could be a hedge fund manager or I could be a VC full-time or I could just raise capital all the time or you know what I mean? Not like selling out, more just like making a decision that I'm gonna spend my day-to-day to maximize dollars. I spend my day-to-day to maximize my happiness that I believe is my happiness. Happiness I define as what I know will make me happiest-ish today, 70, 80%. And that what I believe will make me happiest that I did it five and 10 and 50 years from now. So it's like a mix of like enough, like a lot of happiness today, 60, 80. And the reason I say 70%, last year, I would argue that when I woke up, I was happy in the macro, but my day-to-day grind last year into the first half of this, into the first quarter of the last 15 months leading up to the launch of this, I knew that this is coming. I know Be Friends is coming, but I also know that VaynerX is a ******* $350 million business that I've gotta get proper and put the pieces in place. So last year, you talk to Zach and Mike, you ask them like, what did Gary do last year? They're like, he was in that office in the corner from nine to ******* nine every day. That was it. And by the way, that's why I wasn't on a lot of podcasts. Like if you look last year, almost all my content, like for the hardest core GaryVee fans, most of my content last year was refurbished from prior times. That's why I've been popping off a little bit more in the last month because I'm back, you know, I'm back. And I'm really coming back post-Labor Day, like really coming back. So I think 2026 is gonna be a year of GaryVee. 2024 was the year of Gary Vaynerchuk, the operator, the businessman. And so it ebbs and flows. And like when I'm more creative, when I'm more chopping up with you guys, look at even the goosebumps. When I'm being more creative, I'm happier. But I have the resilience and the understanding and the lack of entitlement and the ******* grit and the ******* patience and all the ---- I talk about to have had to have these last 18 months because that's what I ******* signed up for. I'm comfortable sleeping in the bed that I ******* built, right? People go out and ******* have a child with two different people and then, you know, don't marry either of them and they're 25. And like I have some ******* character homie friends. Like not all my friends are bougie. I grew up ******* kind of a certain way. And then like my boys are like, yo, this is fucked up. I can't chase my dreams. I'm like, bro, you fucked a bunch of girls and created a bunch of babies. You have responsibilities. You didn't have to do that ----. Sleep in the ******* bed you made. People ******* complain about ---- that they created. People complain about ---- they created and then start looking for who to blame. The government, their dad. You know, if my dad didn't **** girls, like, you know, like as if every son follows the exact path of every dad. Not true. So what, you know, of course, you share DNA, you see what you see. But like, that's the ---- I think about. Self-awareness aspect of it. And the accountability, right? To your point, it starts with self-aware. If you're not aware, if like you can't see that you're fucked up, you're in trouble. Once you understand that, and you'll see it over time, everybody eventually sees it. Are you ready to like own it? Or do you believe you can trick everyone into not seeing that you are that? Okay, that is interesting then. I want to ask you this question because I've been going back with Ernesto about this. So, I drive a Range Rover back home, right? And I've been recently considering downgrading because I just personally am looking at it like. You're listening to too much Gary Vee content. Why, I'm like, why is there like, why is this massive car payment and insurance payment coming out of my account every month? Like, can I afford it? Yes. But also, I don't really know if I care for it. But then on the flip side, I have this like thought process of like, well, I'm an entrepreneur. Money buys happiness. Maybe it's not a part of the brand, so. Well that, there's a, let's break that down. Money buys happiness. If it's not your happiness, I mean, I've never had a nice car. I've zero happiness on that. But, I'll buy a ******* six figure trading card. Like, I buy, I bought, like I bought millions of dollars of things but yet have never had the jewel, you guys know me, enough-ish. You know, like, money buying happiness needs to be defined on what's your happiness. Now, the next part is also a problem. The brand. Look, you're sitting with a very popular entrepreneur. I'm comfortable, and I say this with all humility, but I'm in the mix as like top 25 known entrepreneurs. I'll go there. And I feel like I've got a little bit higher than that. I don't do that ----. So, and I'm not saying, by the way, I don't think I'm right. I don't judge. People, sometimes people come up to me like, yo, **** you, Gary Vee. You always say like, Rolex and Lambos, **** you. This is what makes me happy. I'm like, could. If that actually makes you happy, do you. But if you're doing it to get ******* girls or if you're doing it to ******* posture and disguise or if you're doing it because you think that people will then join your mastermind, well, then we gotta talk. That's different. That's different than you really know what a Porsche feels. Like, I would not know what it feels like. Like, I don't get off on like driving stick and understanding the smooth ride. I don't give a ****. But on the flip side, I know owning one of the only Spider-Man rookie cards from 1966 Donnerist gets me off, and I have a very funny feeling, 99.99999% of the people that just listen to that sentence are like, what the ****'s he talking about? That's stupid. And that's awesome. That's what life's about. Some people wanna spend their money on sitting courtside because they both think it's good for the brand and it's bougie, but they actually **** with basketball. And then I see people sitting courtside that are there for the selfie who couldn't tell you any of the 10 players on the court. That ---- is what I'm interested in. Everyone's allowed to, first of all, by the way, on the record, my subjective opinions mean nothing. I'm one human being. Like, I don't think I get to say how to do it. What I do and what I talk about and what I'm passionate about is I've lived a little bit of life and I see who's happy and who's not. I just see a lot of people that look happy on Instagram ******* taking drugs every night to just go to sleep to get the voices out of their head. That fucks with me. And I do not want others to go down that path. And I want the ones that are in there to break the **** out and get to simplicity. I do think materialism is a problem. Do you think as a business owner at the beginning, there is an image you want to kind of have when you're dealing with people that might be signing big contracts for you or big clients? Do you see what we're- It depends on, yeah, of course. It depends on what you're selling. But let me give you a story. We sell marketing, let's say. Yeah, but let me give you a, I wish AJ walked by right now. Do you know what the ultimate story of Vayner is? Tell us. In 2011, we signed a huge deal from a, not one of our biggest clients, we had much bigger clients, Pepsi, Campbell's, but it was like a mid-size, it was a magazine. How the **** do I know that? I don't remember what. Dude calls AJ, because AJ, I took the meeting, but AJ was in the meeting, I was traveling. Dude calls AJ, AJ texts me, he's calling me. I could tell it was good. Because we always are like, if something's bad, like, call me, heart, so I'm good. You know, like it's, guys, please text with context. Everyone's ******* everybody up. Like, if you really call me, like, give that person, like, they think your mom died. Like, you know, like, **** it, like, give people context out there. We gotta fix this, it's a pandemic. Anyway, he's like, call me, I'm excited, because I knew it was good, because of the way he, whatever emoji he put in or what he said. I call him, he goes, bro, we got the ******* thing. I'm like, we got the ******* deal? It was a good deal at the time, hundreds of thousands, which was big for us, we were small. And then he goes, guess why? Like, I have no idea. He goes, the dude said the reason I went with you is because your offices were a piece of ----. And I know that you spend your money on the right stuff, and that's who I wanted to work with. So in that story, it was the reverse. Literally the actual reverse. Now, there are many people that look at it the other way. Look, if you're doing marketing services, the reality is, is you're actually only, and this is something, you know, I'm very comfortable saying, because I've lived it and watched everybody else for the last 15 years in this space, your work is gonna be the punchline. Like, real talk. Like, if you're gonna build something big, and that's why I've always focused on, like, we need to be the best. That's, by the way, that was a lot of what last year was about for me, getting VaynerMedia and the Sasha Group, which is the other big agency in my holding company, to get ******* great. Because social was changing. Marketing was changing. I had to teach them about live social shopping. I had to get everybody on board with ******* using influencers and creators in addition to the content we make. I had to get everybody on board with AI tools. I had a lot of things to get 2,000, 3,000 people from here to London to LA to Mexico City to Toronto to Amsterdam to London to ******* India to *******, you know, Malaysia and Australia all aligned. That's work. Yeah, it's true. Okay, so let's talk about AI a little bit. Do you think it's dangerous for humanity? Of course, it can be. Like, if Russia and China and America and Saudi and India create AI-enabled robots that act like humans that can police and fight war, like, that's some, you know, gnarly ----. Yeah, it could get real scary that way. Yeah, I mean, I think, I don't really even see an outcome of where they wouldn't do that. Fair, true. Like, that's what governments do. They try to protect their sovereign soil and they try to control their citizens. Okay, but from the flip side, as a, let's say, somebody in the marketing space or the creator space. Oh, you want me to go way down? Yeah. You got, like, 10 levers down, go ahead. How are you leveraging it? I know you've spoken about, like, podcast hosts are gonna be AI, creators are gonna be AI. A, what do you think is the timeline on that? I don't know. And if you're a creator, do you be scared? Like, or how do you set yourself up? I'm scared every day. If you're an entrepreneur, you should be scared. If you're a creator and it sounds, you're an entrepreneur, right? You're trying to make money by being a person. So, now, I wouldn't use the word scared. I would say, am I awake? Am I woke to it? Am I focused on it? Did I spend three hours on a flight yesterday looking at three different tools that could do tasks that my employees do, which eventually means my clients will expect, like, do I think about those things? Yes. Like, do I think about people, do I think about, you know, understanding how to police and maintain my intellectual property and my copyright? Yes. I mean, you think about these things, but yeah, like, I mean, look, in any big technology, you either take that sword or that sword will kill you. So, what I would say to you guys is, you can be like, ****, just as we were ******* getting going, this ---- came along, ************, or you can be like, we're gonna keep building our brand, which is always gonna matter, and doing this, while over here, we're gonna create a podcast with two girls that talk about fashion. You're allowed to do that. You're allowed. True. So, right, you could take the sword and be the one that wins. Yes. What if I told you, in four years, you're making three times the money that you make on this podcast with that girl's podcast that you just write the script in the morning for 15 minutes, and that's life? That'd be amazing. Depends. For me, that'd be devastating. I'd be like, what the **** else do I do with my other 23 hours? I'd be like, ****, now I gotta start 10 more of these, and I'm gonna go garage selling in the middle of the day. So, it just all depends on what one wants, but what do I think? I think it's very big. Like, big, big. Yeah. Like, big. And you're just saying, just take the sword yourself. Yeah, I mean, I think for you two young dudes, everybody in here, everybody, Mike, you, man, Zach, you gotta kinda spend an hour a day, chat GPT, like what I do every day, I go to chat GPT, I'm like, what's the 10 best image apps created by, you know, AI apps that were created in the last 30 days? Then I click them, then I download them, then I play with them. Like, either you go to the gym, or you think about going to the gym. Right? Yeah. Right, you got it? That's the analogy. Understood. Right? Makes sense. Right, either you go to the gym, or you think about going to the gym. Either you go to the gym, or you read about how to do the proper exercise, but until you're doing, you're not doing. And so, like, every, all you five youngsters must be interacting with AI apps every day. Must. At bare minimum, chat GPT and thinking and talking. Last night, me and AJ, at one in the morning, after a game, we're doing ---- like, who's Curtis Martin's WWF comp? Who's LeBron James' NFL comp? Who's Lamar Jackson's NBA comp? Who's Gary Vee's cartoon comp? Like, my NBA comp stream on Green by the way, I was like, I like it too, I'm so that person. I think that you guys need to use it every day. Of course. Okay. Wanna open these cards or what? Yeah, let's open cards. I wanted to bring you a gift. Please. And we went to our friends at Mint Inc. Yes, they're fast. Right? And he goes, I go, yo, we need to get him a gift. He's like, he got everything he wants already, all right? I said, why don't you crack some cards with him? So I would love to crack a pack of these with you. I would love for you guys to open a pack and read the back. Yeah. Here's what I wanna talk about to everybody who's listening. I'm gonna assume, let me do a public service announcement for Vee Friends. All of you have to go to eBay and type in Vee Friends and go to Completed Sold Items. It will blow you away. I'm actually, genuinely, really building the next Pokemon in Marvel. And I'm doing it in everyone's face. But because everyone's so distracted about Gary Vee of it all, they don't even see it. In the same way that a lot of people think I'm a motivational speaker. Isn't that crazy? Like, like really. And I'm like, like when they come here, they're like, what the **** is this? I'm like, the company. They're like, what company? I'm like, Vayner. They're like, what's Vayner? I'm like, you know, $350 million a year revenue. Revenue, not valuation. Revenue business that I run, that I'm the active CEO of. Like I actually run it. And I actually run Vee Friends. And I'm actually massively impactful on the VCR group, my restaurant chain. And I'm massively impactful on Vayner Sports. One of the hottest, biggest emerging sports agencies in the world that my brother runs. And I still am super involved in my dad's wine business. And Vayner want my TV production company. I'm a businessman who happens to do content charity for the kids out there on a daily basis. I want you to focus on the back of the car. So anyway, these cards are red hot. These boxes were $99 when they came out six weeks ago. They're selling for $550 a box on eBay. Oh, I should have sold this thing, man. You guys talking about making money, you're ******* glowing it. Now, check this out. This is why I'm so excited about it. If you look at the cards, creative crap, but look on the back. You'll, this is where, this is, so you guys have probably not gotten deep enough, but you know me, you're gonna like this. You know what VFriends is? It's 250 characters that I'm gonna use to expand on what I'm trying to get the world to think about as Gary V. I can't get to everyone. I'm not everyone's cup of tea. I don't look the part for everyone. If you're like, you know, I'm still kind of hanging in, being cool to the kids, but **** man, I'm 49. Like, like it's not gonna, like, I don't even know how this has gone this far. you know, 68 year old me, I gotta be empathetic that if you're like a 16 year old, you know, Puerto Rican kid in the hood, like 69 year old me is like doing my thing. Like, there's a, there's a place where that just, I'm not gonna be able to penetrate. Plus there's been many audiences I've never been able to penetrate. Maybe a mom that doesn't like cursing. Yeah. Right? Maybe, you know, somebody who's like, wants to look up to somebody that looks like them. So they're an Asian woman and like, this white dude's not gonna do it. They gotta find, but V friends, these characters can get to everyone. From the corners of Brazil, to ******* Melbourne, Australia, to ******* Tokyo, Japan, to Belgium. I can get to everybody with these characters. And that's why I'm building it. And then that's why like, when a kid gets focused Falcon, read the back of Focus Falcon. Focus Falcon, competitive advantage, laser focused on every goal, soaring with precision and discipline. Focus on the goal and everything else becomes secondary. And then quote. Yeah, that was a quote. Oh, that was a quote. Sorry. Everything else becomes secondary. But like, now let's think about it. There's a bunch of us in here right now. Nine year old us, reading that, that ---- gets interesting. What about a parent who's trying to get their kid to focus a little more, and now they have something that looks cool as **** to them. And they're like, all right mom, I'll ******* focus. Like I'm very, this is the most selfish, and selfless business venture of my career. It is selfish, because, you Fatshubt? Yeah. Use it right now, I want you to do something. Okay. Type in, how much is Pokemon worth? Whoa, this is scary. Scary numbers. How much is Pokemon worth? Enter. Okay, we're searching the web. Oh, okay. Which cards did you get? I got Creative Crab, which is. That was your mule. Love it. Right? I got the Capable Caterpillar. Love. Tough to beat a worm from the dirt. That's my guy. This is a scary number. You ready for this? I want everybody here. How much is Pokemon worth? As of 2025, Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise in the world, with an estimated lifetime revenue exceeding 150 billion dollars. It's a big number. So, this is the most selfish thing. I'm trying to build the next Pokemon. Even if I get halfway home, I have a 75 billion dollar entity. But it's also the most selfless. I'm gonna do it, and I'm trying to build this for me and my family, and we're all allowed. But the fact that what I'm selling has the potential to have a substantial positive impact on modern parenting, on mental health, on the mindset of a generation, that ******* gets me going. Because as these comics and cartoons and movies develop, and I start teaching people about Decisive Duck. Do you know 90% of my questions are like, people just asking me for permission to validate them to make a decision? Because they're scared. So no ---- Decisive Duck has upside. You know what I mean? But you found a beautiful balance. Yeah, because I believe that we're allowed. I believe that everyone's allowed to, I hate when people demonize people that are trying to make money and be entrepreneurs. Especially for us men, we are built, wired, to provide for our families. We used to go out and ******* hunt and kill a wolf and bring back the meat. And today, financial is one of those things. Like, I don't know. That's all I've ever known is to help my family with my capabilities. You're allowed. You're allowed to buy jewelry and join an expensive country club. You're allowed. But, for me at least, I don't judge others who don't want to give back to society. I really don't. Honestly, I just don't have a lot of judgment in me. I don't give a **** enough. To be honest, and I'm too empathetic. It's actually the extremes. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't give a **** enough because what does somebody else's life have to do with me? But I also have empathy. Just because you made money, I don't know you. You might be secretly paying for your sister's care because she was born completely non-functional and nobody on earth knows that you have a sister who's been in a facility your whole life, right? And you pay for it. And so what? I'm gonna judge you that you didn't donate at this charity event even though I know you have some money? What if I don't know that you're paying 150,000 a year to give full care to your sister that you've never had the emotional strength to communicate about? I have that level of compassion and empathy that so few people have. And I don't say that braggadocious. I say that as thank you, mom, for giving me that DNA and then being the parent that, she not only gave me the seed, she ******* watered it. So I don't talk from a place of I'm cool, I'm talking from a place of Tamara Vaynerchuk is cool. She made me like this. I know that story I just told. Most of the fuckers in this room and definitely on the podcast had never even thought a thought like that in their life. Ever. That, to me, is empathy elephant. That, to me, is compassionate catfish. That is what I'm gonna teach because that makes your life better. When you eliminate envy and jealousy, because why would you sit at a charity event and waste your energy judging someone who didn't donate that you know makes money? It's because you're jealous of them. Right? Because you're like, I just gave 5K and ******* Rick makes much more money than me. They're triggered by Rick makes much more money than me. But I sit there and I'm like, literally, literally, actually, I'm like, man, I hope everything's okay with Rick. Now Rick might just be a straight dick and wants to buy a ******* other golf course and not help the kids. Everyone's allowed. I have no judgment. I like that a lot. Everyone's allowed. That's a hard pill to swallow. It's a hard pill because everybody is too audacious and thinks that the world should be the way they see it. Now, people are not allowed to murder. No, but I mean, I need to say this, unfortunately, because people like clip it and they're like, what about rape? I'm like, no, people are not allowed to do that, dick. No ----. People are, you know what I mean? People are allowed, but people are allowed to live their life with their money that they accomplished the way they want. But for me, I need to give back. I need to still make content. I need to be on nonprofit boards. I need to try to help all you fuckers that are coming up because I was one of you fuckers and I wish I had me. Gary Vee is who Gary Vaynerchuk wished existed at 15. Yeah, man. Because I had nowhere to look. I didn't have the internet. My pops was like an OG dude, like different. If I had Gary Vee, if Gary ******* Vaynerchuk at 15 had Gary Vee, I'd be happier and more successful. I'm motivated by that. I want to give back to the game that gave me so much. You know what I mean? So that's where I'm at, boys. I gotta go. Hold on, final question. Does money buy happiness? Absolutely not. And of course, money is such a foundational part of our world. I believe that what buys happiness is living within the money you make. Got it? So if you make $49,000 a year, you can be remarkably happy if you have humility and you live a $37,000 a year life. If you live a $90,000 a year life and get into debt because you're trying to keep up with the Joneses, even though you're not capable of making that kind of money, you're gonna get hurt. It's like sports. If I went on an NBA court right now and tried to play basketball, it would be bad. That would be bad. It would be ugly. I'd get hurt. I would get uncomfortably embarrassed. And that is how I feel like when people are spending money on Rolexes and vacations and going into debt. You're not good enough to buy a Rolex. Live within your means and you get very happy. Thank you Gary. Thank you. Nice reply.