– We really need to have a conversation in here about judgment. (logo whooshes)
(logo clicks) The far majority of you
will not go home today and start posting more
on Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter. I love when people be like, Gary, I didn't grow up
with this technology, I don't get it. I'm like, that's nice, Sue. You didn't grow up driving
and you figured it out.
(audience laughs) It is very cute that you tell me you
didn't grow up with this and that's why you don't get it, I am wildly smart enough to understand that you are bright enough to spend two hours on
an app to figure it out. The reason you're not posting or doing is 'cause there's insecurity
about what you're gonna say. (chill upbeat music) – Yeah!
– Hey! – You got your perspective. (audience cheering)
(upbeat techno music) I just wanna be happy,
don't you wanna be happy? (chill RnB hiphop music) The fact that we sit here in 2020 in the maturity of the social
web and these opportunities and there are still two
platforms right this second that requires $0 for you
to start communicating what you want to happen in the
world I think is remarkable.
That doesn't even take into account the fact that Facebook
ads, YouTube pre-rolls, this new Spotify ad product
that is gonna have hosts read live reads like the old
radio game for podcasts, Facebook or Twitter. Twitter's appropriately priced but everything else I
just mentioned to you, the ads are underpriced. The cost of spending
$1,000 on these platforms to get people to see
something is underpriced. I really am desperate. With even the tone and tenor
that I'm bringing to this talk, I'm desperate for people to
understand how wild this is.
I wanna remind everybody, for everybody who raised their hand in the first group like myself, the way you built a business
or brought awareness if you're 43 and older
in the way we grew up was by spending a lot of money. Ads cost money. Direct mail, newspaper,
radio ads, television, they cost money. It was a very high cost
of entry to build brand. Brand is the whole game. I think when I analyze what's going on in the business world and with people, I think most people are transactional.
How many people here are entrepreneurs? Raise your hands. I believe the majority of
the hands that just went up that when I look at the delta
between the ones who've won and the ones who won
less than they wanted to, I put them always in my
mind into two groups. One group is transactional, a.k.a. deeply care about
the money in the short-term, and the second group is
looking to build brand, a.k.a. reputation in perpetuity and are more concerned about
playing it out in the longterm. What is exciting for me right
now is that this device, this device, the fact from
this young man down and up, every one of us has a device
in our hand that is a computer that is actually more powerful than the computer that Ronald Reagan had when he was running the free world. It really is interesting. It really is. I think, again, what I'm
really trying to establish in this talk this morning, is I don't think people have
quantified the opportunity.
I struggle, regardless of circumstance, with people dwelling or complaining in a world where the internet is free, has no idea who you are, could care less, it's right there and it
becomes a game of skill, not necessarily finances, to actually win. It's interesting to me. It's interesting to me that you can be in the
retail business overnight by setting up a Shopify
account which costs nothing when that same action to
sell something 30 years ago meant that you have to sign
a lease and build out a store and rely on the local
traffic that walk by. It scares me and excites me that the biggest music
company in the world, Spotify, was built in Sweden by a kid. And on and on and on,
you've heard every story. But more importantly, for
every ridiculous story we've seen of Instagram or
Facebook or Uber, Spotify, there are hundreds of thousands of stories of people with wins
that are micro versions.
I actually think the most unhealthy thing in entrepreneurship and opportunity is the big stories that everybody
thinks they have to build a billion-dollar company. I think we do not talk enough about the practical $150,000 a year, $300,000 a year, $700,000 a year business that you genuinely love what you do and you can live your life being
happy and financially sound and what the cost of entry
to be able to do that is in today's environment, which, once again, let me say, very slow, between putting out a media company, if you decide to put that on
a WordPress or Squarespace, a retail company on the back of a Shopify, you could start a radio
show that is global on the back of just uploading
something you record on your memos on your phone
and upload onto Spotify and Apple and SoundCloud. My friends, distribution is free. I know it's a nerdy thing. It's not some big, profound statement but let me say it nice and slow. Distribution is free, it
used to cost a fortune.
Now, what you put inside of it is the variable of your success, not your financial capabilities
to create the distribution. I wish we could zoom in. I literally have goosebumps
on my neck right now. No, but really, I really do. I will live my last breath trying to get people to
understand, this is remarkable. This is a game of perspective.
Are you educated or capable of seeing it from the lens that I'm
speaking about today, which is, the barrier
to reach the end person, whether you're a financial advisor and trying to get to a client, whether you sell bow ties. How about the fact if you wanna be a professional football player and now there's all these websites where you can upload your film because the scout didn't
come to your tiny, tiny town, and now, you actually can be discovered? Everything has changed. My question and my
dream every time I speak is can I get one person in
this room to get their piece? For me, if you are not
disproportionately happy sitting in this room professionally, which will trickle into your actual life, you have to take a step back and understand this perspective. So, I think we're living through the greatest era
ever for opportunity.
I think it's on the back
of the current internet, which is wildly visual. I'm very aware that the audio revolution of our society is coming. What do I mean by that? Is how many people here have a Google Home or an Alexa in their house? Just raise it high, I'm curious. Raise it high, I want people to see this. Google and Alexa, look around. Some real number. Now, granted, most people
are just telling jokes with their Alexa or listening to music. (audience laughs) But I wanna remind everybody
that the first killer app on the iPhone for the
first year was that app that looked like you were
drinking a beer, if you remember. It takes some time for the apps
to catch up to the platform but we're all very
close to being in an era where we order a pizza or
where we get our plumber or how and where we navigate
by talking to a voice device, not to our phone.
As voice becomes the platform
and less happens on this, which seems foreign now
because we all live in it, but I wanna remind you,
we used to not live in it, and I wanna remind everybody
here, technology likes to move. When, when. Not if, when you start
doing a lot of things that you do on your phone right now start happening on a voice device, it will no longer be visual and written which will lead to less
opportunity to grab attention to the current opportunity landscape, which I'm gonna remind
everybody, is quite remarkable. Because if you've got a local bakery now and you can do a really good job on LinkedIn and TikTok for free
or on Instagram with money, when in a decade, we go
into voice and I say, Alexa send me six muffins to the office, Amazon gets to decide which
muffins come to the office. Now, if you did such a
good job building brand and I knew about Carol's Muffins, and I said Alexa, send me six
Carol's Muffins to the office, You've now accomplished your task.
I spend 100,000% of my time on brand. I want people to know my name, I want people to know the
name of the things I do, VaynerMedia, my agency. When we killed Mr. Peanut yesterday, which a lot of you heard
about, that is us doing brand. That makes you think about Planters. You weren't thinking about it prior to what we did yesterday. We think about it. It's all brand. And so, I just want you to
get your long tail of it. And this is what's led me to the most interesting
conversations of my career because as a businessman, I never thought I would
get into categories like parenting and
insecurities and self-esteem. But as somebody who just spoke all that and has done that pretty much
every day 600 times a day on the internet for the last decade, it has led me to realize, wait a minute, there's the other component
of everything I said.
I can show every one of you what to do. I've just sat here and
told you 100%, not 99, the two attention arbitrage platforms of our society right now. If every person here went home and made five to seven
pictures and videos a day on both TikTok and
LinkedIn, within a year, something good would happen
for the far majority of you. 99% of you won't post on
either once after this talk. The question to me became why. That led to the next part. We really need to have a conversation
in here about judgment. The far majority of you
will not go home today and start posting more
on Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter.
I love when people like, Gary, I didn't grow up
with this technology, I don't get it. I'm like, that's nice, Sue. You didn't grow up driving
and you figured it out. (audience laughs) It is very cute that you tell me you didn't grow up with this and that's why you don't get it. I am wildly smart enough to understand that you are bright
enough to spend two hours on an app to figure it out. The reason you're not posting or doing is 'cause there's insecurity
about what you're gonna say.
You go very deep into who's
gonna care what I'm gonna say. What would I say? Who cares what I think? Or even worse, the thing that
breaks my heart the most, you actually do post something, somebody leaves a post that you look ugly and you cripple and
fold like a cheap chair. So, that's what I spend my time right now: trying to figure out how
to get people to realize that the judgment of others has zero actual impact on their lives, they have zero context
on your actual life, and how do I get you to
understand that perspective, which would then lead to you speaking? And when I say speaking,
let me break this down. Let me take out the
other excuse of why you for yourself and your
business aren't posting. Not everybody is great
on camera, I get that. Not everybody is so wildly charismatic and very good looking, I get it. (audience laughs) However, on the flip side,
I am incapable of writing. It's not my natural skill. I struggle with reading and
writing, it's not my skill.
Plenty of people here
are incredible writers and it is an incredible opportunity to go write six to 15 sentences together around the thought on
LinkedIn and hit post. Others can work in Photoshop
and make a picture. Others enjoy, I don't. I was born in the Soviet Union and grew up in a very
Eastern European household. I think there's eight pictures
of me in my entire youth. We didn't take photos, so it
doesn't come natural to me. On the other hand,
there are people in here who took 97 photos on
their iPhone yesterday. (attendees laughing) There are plenty people here who are great at taking photos. My question here today, my
friends, is very simple. When are you gonna start talking? What are you waiting for? If you are not communicating,
you don't exist. I believe that. If you are not communicating,
you do not exist. More importantly, communicate
about what you love. What scares me about the
long tail of the internet is I know there's somebody sitting in here who's watched every episode of "Friends", deeply loves "Friends", can't get enough in their own mind of debating Rachel and
Ross, loved the show, watched it every night to go to sleep too, and I know they make 49,
62, 88, $103,000 a year doing something they don't like.
And I know that if they started a podcast about "Friends" everyday
when they went home instead of consuming content to escape the fact that
they don't like their job, if they created content
around the thing they love, that after 24, 36, 48 months, along could've came Netflix and then a sponsor of that podcast that would allow them to
actually leave that job they hate and now be a full-time
"Friends" podcaster. You don't believe that, I understand that. That seems like a
far-fetched story to you. The problem is you don't live my life because I wrote a book in
2009 called "Crush It!" that laid this out and I get
to live the best life now where I get three to six emails a day of people that tell me this exact story, whether it's about pickles.
(audience laughs) People like pickles. I eat pickles like crazy. "Star Trek", E-sports,
don't even get me started 'cause I still push it a lot and people have gone completely
and made real careers now. Just stuff. I just really, really, really
hope you hear me today, whether it's for yourself, whether you're a top
executive in your organization and the company still
does direct mail or print or still sponsors the town fair instead of running content and ads on Instagram and Facebook. Guys, it's 2020. And don't give me this not in
my town, not in my industry. I'm watching, your town, your industry. And so, that's where we're at.
The biggest opportunity in
the history of humankind to do what you want to do and yet, you will continue to find reasons not to. And I think that comes under the categories of
self-esteem and self-awareness and I think we need to
make those words important in our society. You can work hard all you want. If you're insecure,
you're gonna be vulnerable 'cause the second there's pushback, and there's always
pushback in the journey, you won't go there. So, that's my framework. Those are the things I think about. I spend a lot of time thinking about that. And then, I have a company that helps Fortune 500 companies navigate that world, and I see it every day. Just going back to the Planters thing 'cause I know it's on the radar today, there was a real debate
if we could get America to know that Mr. Peanut was dead so that we could run the Super Bowl spot that were running during the Super Bowl, and if we couldn't, the
spot won't make any sense.
I and VaynerMedia knew
that the internet is real. We knew that if you went on
Twitter, like we did yesterday, "The Daily Show" will pick it up at night and it will be on all the
recap emails this morning and in the papers and the
AP and the "USA Today". The internet is real
life, this is fake life. (audience laughs) I know where the giggles come from. And by the way, an enormous amount of
people hate that thought. I live in life. I know how we are doing such a great job currently demonizing technology. My favorite is my friends
who are parents who, 'cause they know where I sit on tech, and they're like, Gary, I'll be hanging out with
them and they'll be like, Gary, this tech is terrible,
my kids are on it too much.
But the second the kid comes over and bothers our conversation
over a glass of wine, they throw the iPad at that kid like it's the cure to every disease. (audience laughs) The hypocrisy that we have
around technology is fascinating. We, as humans, are incredible at romancing the past and
demonizing the current. And so, these are trends I watch. But I will say this. If you are a vibrant, active,
ambitious human being, which there is zero reason for you to be at this conference
if you're not, zero, and you do not, for
yourself, or your company, produce in the ballpark of seven to 25 different pieces of content across three to nine
different platforms a day, you are making a fundamental mistake. And I'm gonna say it again because when you're talking
about 25 pieces of content a day in a world where 98% of this room is not making 25 pieces of content a year, we have a very big disconnect between where I sit on this
and where you sit on this.
I am giving this talk for one reason. Because D Rock is filming
it, and I'm gonna air it, in a decade on whatever
the current platform is when it has been completely accepted that everything I just
said was 100% right. (audience laughs) I have zero interest of you actually taking
the advice I just shared. I don't know you, I've
got my own problems, (audience laughs) I prefer it. I'm speaking at Harvard tomorrow, I have a couple of meetings there, I gotta go Dallas to Boston, land at 1:40 in the morning, and then those kinda flights, I like reading the emails of you saying, hey, I saw you in Mobil in 2020, it's now imaginary 2023, I finally listened, I was
passionate about X, Y and Z, I did do an Instagram account or a podcast or a YouTube show, and now, three years later, this happened. I love that. That is the big win for me in this room.
But you won't. You won't. And I know that 'cause I've
lived this life now for a while. What is more likely is you're gonna email
me in six years and say, I wish I did 'cause this happened, because I was the leading lawyer in town and this other person who didn't. The emails are funny, right? I mean, they come in all shapes and forms. Gary, I wish I listened to you. And you start reading it 'cause I read 'cause I want the qualitative
feedback to learn. Heard you four years ago at
the Atlanta Business Summit. You said the thing. I didn't believe you, I thought you were loud and obnoxious. I'm not cursing today
because Maggie asked me, but, you cursed, it turned me off. (audience laughs) I'm a Jersey boy. Meanwhile, this upstart
kid, he listened to you, and then my favorite line, no matter what it is,
lawyer, doctor, real estate, but, he's not even good at being a lawyer but he's killing it on Facebook and he's hurting my business.
What do I do now? And I smile. I smile the same way that
I saw some of the kids on the field yesterday that
didn't go with VaynerSports that we know we were in
the final two with them and they went in a different direction. I see them, I root for them. I'm a kind person, my mom did a good job. But I'd be lying to you if I didn't say when I look at their faces, I smile knowing they
made the wrong decision. 'Cause I love merit. I love sports. You either make the
right move or you don't. I've already won by articulating
my thoughts here today. Either you're gonna actually use this talk as the final piece to
actually get out there and finally do this because
you cannot be in this room and not know what I'm
saying is actually right. Or you're not and then you lose and then I get to see you
'cause they're both good. I did it or I didn't do it, I both enjoy 'cause I actually
love the merit of the game.
I mean that. So, I hope you do it. I don't need you to do it. As a matter of fact, I'll
get really technical on you. A lot of my smartest friends
always ask me why I do this because if these people
start making content and start running ads, it's gonna be harder for you to build what you're building,
Gary, and they're right.
The feed of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, it's just one feed. It's just supply and demand. If all of you start posting, that's just more content, less attention, less opportunity for me to
build what I'm building. That's where it's going. So, I hope I've articulated the punchline. I don't think I'm supposed
to be doing Q and A now but to be very frank, I
gave Maggie the no cursing.
I'm taking the Q and A. So I'm gonna take a couple
of your questions right now. (audience laughs and claps) Because to be frank, I think
I've articulated my point. And it is the point. I was a terrible student but there was one class I was decent at, it was called history. And I finally figured out why. I like history 'cause I know
that things repeat themselves and humans are consistent,
and I like context. If you listen to my talk right
now and immediately ran home and read a book or articles
about the transition of America from the radio to the television, everything I just said
would make sense to you. My friends, we have transitioned from the newspaper and
television to the internet. It's happened. It's not going back, I'm sorry. It's not my fault. (audience laughs) It has happened. It's never going back. This is why the mainstream media will always be wrong
about their predictions 'cause they look at the wrong data. They will always be wrong. Watch it again. They'll always be wrong. It's like, big companies, why my company's exploding because they worked with other agencies for the "Mad Men" era,
they're always wrong.
It's based on subjectivity, politics, ego. We're here. I want you to take advantage of it 'cause if you don't, somebody else will. There's 330 million of us
out here in this country, and 7.7 billion. Yes, sir. – [Brent] Yeah, so, Gary, as
a person that runs a company– – What's your name? – [Brent] My name is Brent. – Brent?
– Yeah. – Nice to meet you. – For a person who runs a company, and we have first ads on our social media platforms accounts. – The company?
– I have one for– – [Gary] They're personal. – Yeah, for their business, how do you divide up content? Do you cross-pollinate there?
– Yes. – What would you
recommended to the person? – Brent, I think you can do both. I do. I'm Gary Vee but my family wine business, Wine Library has an account. Empathy Wines, my direct-to-consumer
wine brand has an account, VaynerMedia has an account. We cross-pollinate. Obviously, if you're a big personality, and big comes in a lot of senses. Let me rephrase, I'm not gonna use big. If your personality that brings value in whatever shape it's formed, you're gonna see more following.
People like to follow
people over businesses. But it's all about value exchange. But no pressure to this, but
there is no right or wrong. Really, there's not. I would say the only thing
that you can do wrong is not being yourself. I see a lot of people scared
to actually be themselves 'cause they're scared who's watching. I hate looking at all
your LinkedIn accounts. You've got a suit and tie,
looking all professional. You think something bad is
gonna happen if you're normal. I look like a mess up here. (audience laughs) I'm wearing a Tierra Whack sweatshirt. The results always win, and I think a lot of people
hold back their natural self, the market doesn't care in the end.
Somebody may judge you but
the market doesn't care. Yes, sir. – Hey, Gary!
– What's your name? – Tucker.
– Tucker. – [Tucker] So, I started a podcast called "Behind the Grind Show". It's on Instagram, LinkedIn. Everybody, listen to the podcast. It started in October– – Thanks for your commercial, next. (audience laughs) Go ahead, guys.
– So we started in October and we interview entrepreneurs and high-performing individuals and we've had a decent amount of growth in the short period of time.
– That's awesome. – [Tucker] All because of you. – All because of you. You executed.
– Yes, sir. We just recently got reached
out by a couple of people that are willing to become sponsors or have their bosses that
are entrepreneurs on.
So, my first question is, when is the right time to start monetizing?
– To monetize? – [Tucker] And then second,
we just got reached out to potentially do a live audience podcast. There's people on Pensacola, Florida. Studer Community Institute,
they reached out to us about potentially
brainstorming on that idea. So, would that be the recommended
thing for the podcast now? – Everything you said is yes and no. And it's important for you
at this young of an age to understand that. No matter my level of success is or different people's
levels of experience, the punchline is it maybe yes or no. The key is to not do something
that you're so locked in that once you taste it
and you realize it's no, that you can't get out. The wrong thing to do with whoever you just
talked to in Pensacola is to sign a two-year
deal to do it live there and after a second one, you're like, this sucks, I don't wanna do this. So, you keep flexibility. The audience won't be mad
at you for monetizing. They'll be mad at you for selling out.
And that's a very big difference. But it's so exciting, right? 'Cause I go through this spiel. How long have you been doing it? – [Tucker] Since October of last year. – You mean four minutes? (audience laughs) If I'm correct, with October and you factor
in Thanksgiving and Christmas, you're talking about nine seconds. (audience laughs)
Right. It's important for you to see. Now, for them to get
that level of reach out, they just might be good. There is a variable in
everything I've just said. You may love talking about basketball, you might just be boring. So, you've gotta be self-aware about it. But my big thing is, you may be boring but
it makes you so happy. My big thing is, people don't
like their jobs or lives and then they go and
consume things to escape and I'm trying to get them
to create to get happy.
You may never become Stephen A. Smith but if you start a podcast
about the Pelicans, even if it gets a little juice, maybe some free tickets to a game, now, you're pumped, you like the Pelicans! It's a lot better than watching an entire Aaron Hernandez
Netflix documentary. (audience laughs) Yeah, I had to go there. I hate those guys so damn much. I saw Bill Belichick on
the sideline yesterday, I wanna punch him in his face. (audience laughs) Jets fans, you know. Cool. – [Attendee] So, I'm a runner of a small real estate
company in Birmingham. We do a flash mob where essentially, a new way to attract
them in our local market but I'm seeing nationally
that it's growing quickly, a lot of people aren't
really accepting of it. However, I have this vision in my mind– – Real quick, a lot of people
aren't accepting of it. Let's talk real quick. Who's not accepting of it? – [Attendee] Well, not
necessarily at work.
These are industry professionals. I'm worried about the consumers. – Correct. The people that aren't accepting of it are the ones whose commissions and margins are getting affected. That has nothing to do
with the end consumer. I haven't had a single
competitor ever love me. (attendees laughing and applauding) – [Attendee] I guess my point
is as we try to scale it, my disconnect is finding
the next connection to find someone that can
show us how to scale that in a way that we can maintain culture but also keep the consumer mindset first. – Well, first of all, I'm pumped that you're
thinking about that. You're aware of what I've done with Claude and Chief Heart Officer. Do you know what I'm saying there? Look, even hearing you
deliver that sentence, I think for some of the veteran
businesspeople in this room, we weren't talking about
culture 20 years ago.
It was just get the results done. So to scale, I do
believe you need culture. At 1,000 people, we have
offices in Singapore and London and Chattanooga, Tennessee, you've gotta really have culture. I think the fact that you're
even thinking about it already means you have a shot at it. It means you're gonna throw money at it and you're gonna have an HR department that cares about the employees, not as a disguise for the
finance team to fire people. It's just intent. Just even hearing how much you know, talking, senior vibes in the
crew, this is just intent. The reason I always win
is 'cause I have intent. My employees first, my
customers second, me third. That's a very easy way to win in business. I think we all know that's
not how most people do it. If you're sitting here
right now saying to me, I'm gonna start this
business to buy a boat, two, customers because they're the people that are gonna give me
money, three, employee, you're gonna build a very small business.
Yes, sir. Yup. Stand up, bro. – [Ahmed] I'm sorry,
I'm kinda freaked out. – Don't freak out. (attendees laughing) – [Ahmed] My name is
Ahmed, I'm 19 years old. I'm not really a huge business guy. – No worries. – [Ahmed] Okay. But, my question was, I
know you say the people who don't know what
their passion or anything to try a lot of stuff, my thing is where do you start with that? – Okay, let's play. You're 19, which I'm so thrilled
you asked this question, it's super important. This thought that you
need to have your life figured out this age is laughable. This thought that we've created
in society that 18 or 22, you need to know. We've literally built society backwards.
When you first get out
of the school machine which maps zero to real life, you're supposed to go play real life to have a chance to
figure out what you do. So, where do you start? You start with what are you consuming and paying attention to
when you have leisure time. Do you play video games? Do you listen to music? Do you like to go out and eat weird food? What do you like? That's where you start. So what do you like, Ahmed? What are you about? – [Ahmed] I'm kind of a geek. I like reading comic books. – Good, let's start with comic books. Do you wanna create comic books? Do you wanna sell comic books? Do you wanna buy comic
books and flip them? Do you wanna work at Comic-Con? All of those things would be
a good place for you to start.
Cold email and DM 850 different people that are players in the comic book world and one of them might reply to you and that starts your career. You could literally
work for Funko tomorrow. You could literally work
for Marvel tomorrow. You could, you just have to
write 137 compelling emails and DMs and LinkedIn things. (attendees laughing) What's up with that? (Ahmed speaking faintly) Bro, you can literally do that. (audience laughs) Who's 43 and older? We couldn't do that, Ahmed. (attendees laughing) That's not how it worked when
we were coming up the game. You didn't just like say. Actually, ironically, once in a while, I come across an OG who's
like, actually, I did do that, I wrote 800 letters.
It took two months for
me to get a response instead of two hours, but yeah, man. In the comic world,
there's the movie aspect, there's the actual skill of it. If you like the drawing of it, you could. Look, let me tell you
one thing about winners. A lot of winners didn't
get there by accident. So when you write a winner an email, your favorite illustrator at DC Comics, hey, Sarah, I will bring you
coffee, get your laundry, grind and bleed just to
intern or work at minimum wage just to see how you do it, one out of 800 of those
people, that's how I hire.
I hired D Rock 'cause he
emailed me three times. And now, he's D Rock and people call their video people D Rock. (attendees laughing) That's his story. My man. – [Christian] So, my name is Christian. About a year and a half ago, I started Quarterback Development Company in the Northeast area. – Love it. – [Christian] Listening
to a bunch of your stuff, I've always been kinda in the world of wanting to create content for things but my surrounding people
just wasn't about that so, I wanted to say thank you, first off, for being that person
that motivated me to go. So about a year and a half ago, we started doing the podcast,
live podcasts on Facebook, kinda started taking off. We started getting messages,
the company started growing. About a week ago, we got
a contract for the AYF, which is American
football in the Northeast to do all of their camps and clinics. So, it's been super awesome. Also, my name came up for
some high school coaching job, the works has been kinda going crazy.
I'm super happy right now. – No, that can't be. (attendees laughing) – [Christian] So, my question is, and it's just crazy that
a year and a half ago, I dreamt about this and now, this is actually coming out my mouth, but my goal is to get into
the NFL as a coach one day. And right now, I see myself
in the point of struggle between maintaining the company
and then having to go over into putting 100% of my
effort into the coaching– – Maybe, don't try to make the company as big as you know you can because you can't allocate
110% of the energy to it. You're not looking at the company from the perspective of
as an alpha, as a winner, as an ambitious young dude. You're like, I'm building this. You don't have to build it. So many people in this room, how many people here
own their own business? Great. This is gonna really hit for a lot of you.
There's a lot of people that
you can talk to afterwards. If you guys see this man afterwards, tell him that build companies, and they built it, let's say from zero to a million
a year or half a million, and they loved it, life was awesome, but from a million to a million
five, that screwed it up. There's a Mendoza Line where
people don't understand this. This is why I push happiness so much. I'm thrilled that your
business now does three million instead of 1.6 million but you used to love your life at 1.6 and you hate it now 'cause you're managing or you're doing this or
that or you're stressing.
I think you need to control
the size of your business. You can also bring someone in. You can bring in a partner, you can bring in a big time employee that gets bonus on net profits. There's a lot of hacks
for you to go at this. You also can be very patient. – [Christian] Oh yeah, I'm super– – Good, so then, you
shouldn't be stressed. How old are you? – 28.
– Great. If you say, I'm gonna be in the
NFL when I'm 42, guess what? It gets a lot less stressful when you're thinking in 14-year terms. It gets a lot less stressful when you're not reading other headlines, when you hear some
26-year-old got the look to be the number two on
the offense at the Bengals. I wanna say when you're frustrated, don't worry about anybody else. Just like those friends around you, they're like nah, nah,
nah, that won't work. Don't worry about the 26-year-old wiz kid who's on Buffalo right now.
That has nothing to do with you. Take it from 44, 42 is plenty young to get your first NFL coaching job. – Gotcha.
– You understand? – Yeah.
– Our relationship with time is something we really
have to start talking about in our society. It will take a ton of
anxiety out of the system. Bro, in 18 months,
you've accomplished more than a lot of people ever
accomplished in their life. – I appreciate it, Gary.
– Got you, bro. Yes, ladies. Lady, either, whoever. What's your name? – Rosie.
– Rosie. – [Rosie] I am a financial advisor. And I'm new in the business, I've only been in it for three years, but I'm the only female in the office.
I have, no offense for the
white-haired men in the room, but I have an office full of that, so they don't understand, we need to be doing this,
we need to be doing that. And the other thing that we face is because the financial industry is very heavily regulated of
what you can say, can't say. – I'm very aware but people use regulation as excuse to not do. – [Rosie] Well, that's what I'm saying. So how do you combat– – You execute.
– How should I combat the– – By not talking to those old dudes. (attendees laughing) Very simple. Don't look for permission,
focus on execution.
My whole life, I was told
what I was doing was wrong. It was crazy to launch an internet site for a liquor store in 1996. People thought the internet was a fad. Forget about this TikTok a fad. Some of the OGs here know, we've debated if the
whole thing was a fad. And then I did email instead of catalogs and that was not smart. What's email? And then I bought Google AdWords and I was spending more
money on Google AdWords than I was spending on
direct mail and newspaper ads and that was stupid. And then I sat down and started filming a wine show on YouTube a
month after YouTube came out and people thought I lost my mind, let alone that it was stupid.
And then I took all the
money I had in my life, that I saved my whole life, and invested in Facebook and Twitter five years before they
became public companies and all my financial advisors and family and everybody else
thought that was stupid. I'm only excited when
people tell me it is stupid. That's when I know I'm
about to do something smart. (attendees laughing) Yes, sir, in the back with the wild shirt. – [Ethan] I'm Ethan Lesley. – Ethan?
– Yes, sir. We launched yesterday. (attendees speaking faintly) – You said you launched yesterday? – Yes, sir.
– First day? – Yeah.
– Epic, go ahead. (attendee speaking faintly) – [Ethan] Basically, I'm 23. I started watching you
last year as a staple, and so, I wanna know the platform that people can achieve their dream because, well, I've always
thought that I could and I lost it.
And so, essentially, why I'm here is I wanna schedule a meeting with you. (attendees laughing and applauding) It's not about what you can bring to us, it's about what we can bring
to you in your community and what we can do for people that once they get their dreams,
they pursue their dreams. (attendee speaking faintly) – Agreed. So, in a world where I've got
a lot of things in front of me and as you can imagine, this pitch though, much more fun in real life,
happens 8,000 times a day, here's what you need to do. You need to email me. I'll read it tonight
'cause I have long flights, Gary@vaynermedia. You need to put in the title. I'm the dude with the weird
shirt that launched today. (attendees laughing) 'Cause then I'll see it, right? I'm the dude with the weird
shirt that launched today. And you need to articulate what you mean on the value exchange. And then if it's there,
I'll fly to New York. – Perfect.
– Good. Yes, sir.
(attendees applauding) – [Will] My name's Will.
– Will? – [Will] Yes, I own an apparel company. – Awesome. – [Will] And so, my idea for
advertising, as you said, it's still defiant. And I just kinda wonder
if it's a good idea. – I'm listening. – [Will] I hand out pieces of my apparel and you all have that
Instagram account, pretty much. So I'll hand out a piece of my apparel, a shirt or something, and I'll say, listen, put the shirt on, do something badass in it, okay? So that's kinda how
I'm getting my ads out. – I love that. Yes, that is a very good idea. – [Will] Can I give you a shirt? (attendees laughing and applauding) – Yes, I can do that. (audience applauds) You can definitely give me a shirt. (attendees laughing) Is it a medium? – [Will] I think it's a large. – I won't wear it. (attendees laughing) Nope. – [Will] Somebody else can have it. – Get me a medium and I'll wear it. – [Will] I'll get you a medium. Where am I gonna send it? – How should we do with D Rock? You know what, D Rock's
right in front of you.
– I've been messaging him on Instagram. – I get 80,000, he gets 8,000. It's all screwed up. D Rock will give it to
you right now the info. D Rock, send it to attention
Lou and then I'll wear it. – [Will] Can I get a picture? – Yeah, you can.
– Yeah, okay. Yes! (audience laughs) (attendees applauding) – This guy's fuckin' huge. (attendees laughing and applauding) How are you? – [Colton] Hey, GaryVee! My name is Colton.
– Colton.
– This is my brother Cody.
– Cody. – And we come from a father-son company. Our dad started B2B, medical
distributor 20 years ago. So now, we're kinda taking that over. And we still do a lot of direct mail, a couple thousand pieces a month. We started LinkedIn this year. We used to do–
– Yeah, what are you seeing? – What's that? – What's happening on LinkedIn? – Good, so we got about 4,000 followers. We get about 5,000 views on our videos. – How often are you posting?
– Once a week. – Once a week.
– So we need to do– – Nine a day. – Yeah, my question is about targeting. We're all B2B so we–
– I'm very aware. As you know, you can run LinkedIn ads against
people's job descriptions. – Okay.
– Have you done that yet? – No, that was my question.
Is that something that we can understand
ourselves and learn? – Yeah, I got a great way
for you to learn this. If you guys wanna learn this as well, I'll give you the website. It's G-O-O-G-L-E.com. (attendees laughing) But what's really pumped, why I'm really excited about this is you guys clearly, you're capable, this is crazy, you can literally go to Google and say, how do I target specific
professionals on LinkedIn ads, enter, and have unlimited ways
to figure out how to do it. It's not the tactics. It's the knowledge of, the knowledge of knowing that you can target people on LinkedIn. LinkedIn makes direct mail
look like child's play when you understand it. Then, when you really understand it, and you realize that you
have to do different content for different doctors
in different sectors, in geographic, gender, race,
mindset, it gets real gnarly.
You understand? – [Colton] And you can target
specific companies too, right? – Yeah, you can, and the way you do that is you target a specific company, all the employees and the ad,
the piece of content starts, does your head buyer know? Does your accountant know? You see where I'm going? So what you're trying to
do is get the employees to forward it to the CFO or the CIO or the head medical device buyer, I don't what that terminology would be.
You see where I'm going? You can literally write the words to say, if you're selling fast financial services, you can literally write along
with the video or the PDF or whatever you want, you
gotta try different stuff, does your CFO know that she can, because you even know that CFO
in that company is a woman, you do such smart stuff people don't. All of this is just like
health and wellness.
Would you like to be
healthier and better shape? Let me help you. Eat well and exercise. (attendees laughing) Everyday. Meanwhile, people like
ass implants, steroids, apple cider, celery. People are looking for the hack 'cause people don't wanna put in the work. Yes, sir. – [Michael] My name is Michael. – Michael. – [Michael] 25, from
Scotch Plains, New Jersey. – Get out! That's awesome. – [Michael] I see your
garage sale all the time. – I go to the Scotch Plains. By the way, that's my
favorite other thing, side hustle life. You can make 20K a year on garage selling on the weekend selling on eBay. If you need some side cash, garage sales. Anyway. – [Michael] I say I watch all your content but you always tell us not to. Go out to do, so that's
what I tried to do. Mine is kinda like a two-part question. Since I'm so young, I'm 25, I kinda have the pressure
of get job, get out there. You see Instagram,
everyone's doing everything. And then you say, go out and taste. And for me, that hit me a little bit later for me to go out and taste. I did it, but I'm in sports.
Sports management, what I majored in, then I went back home to do
this real estate with my father, trying to do that, and really felt like that
wasn't for me and my passion. I wasn't happy.
– Good for you, good. – [Michael] So, I'm trying
to go back into sports now. I'm still trying to find my way there so I don't have
responsibility and all that. – Exactly. – [Michael] So my thing is it's like there's different avenues that I've always, what
makes me happy, I thought, acting, military, sports,
like they're all old. So my question is, my
two-part question is, I always feel like somebody
has to allow you to taste, you know what I mean?
– Yes. – [Michael] To say, oh, I wanna do this, I wanna go out and do this.
But someone has to hire you
if you're gonna do that. Someone has to read my resume to do that and getting past that barrier trying to, oh, I wanna try this but I have to get through
somebody to do that. It's the first question,
the second question is– – The answer to that is yes and no, right? First of all, back to some of the things
I've already alluded to here, back to Ahmed, whose question, I said, notice what I said to him that he has to reach out to 137 people. People come at me and like, Gary, I wanna be a sports
agent and I tried really hard. I'm like, cool, Barry. How did you go? He's like, well, I
submitted to three places. I'm like, three? Yes, there are gatekeepers
for certain jobs potentially for you to taste. There's also 7,000 of them.
So A, have you asked all 7,000? That's A. B, in the world of content
creation and zero startup costs, one could potentially,
if they can afford to, one of the reasons, it's funny that we're segueing
off to the garage sale thing. One of the things that a lot of people, get a job at 7/11 or do garage sale just to maintain your lowest
possible cost of living so you can start the thing
that makes you happy.
And to your point of 25, seven years from now,
you'll be 32 years old. Do you how know how young 32 years old is? Anyway. (attendees laughing) – [Michael] The second
part to that, is like, I have to get on the
entrepreneurship thing and I think that for self-awareness
you're always preaching, I've always tried to look
and work in self-awareness is a while ago and I still
saved it on Instagram that I always will keep it is to find out what kinda person I am. You always say, for a puppy or dog, someone that's been fed
doesn't know how to– – Correct. – [Michael] And that
kinda hit stuff for me. Now, I'm fortunate enough to have– – Yeah, yeah, that's right. You were. Of course, you were. Of course. Both, both. Long before I came along or anybody else, the nature-nurture thing
has been established. When I was five, it was not
necessarily that my parents, we were very poor and immigrants but I still thought it was more fun to go shovel people's
driveways when it snowed than build a snowman
because I wanted a dollar.
That was my chemicals. Then I was conditioned because
when I was 11 and said, "Mom, everyone is getting Nintendo." She said, "Great, go buy it." I was like, "All right, gotta go to work." So, for you, potentially, it's the complete
opposite which is amazing. Maybe you didn't have those chemicals, and then on top of it,
you had the great fortune and there's nothing wrong with that.
None of us picked our
paths where you were fed. So, yeah, it's probably more unlikely that you wanna go and grind it at zero and build something for yourself
and deal with all the fear and anxiety and loneliness
and grind the dirt and blood that comes along with
being an entrepreneur, not the popping bottles and flying in private jet entrepreneurs that you see on Instagram that are completely full of shit. Sorry, Jim. (attendees laughing) – Thank you.
– You got it, bro. – [Attendee] You've been
a huge inspiration for us. We created a content creation
videography production media. – Love. – [Attendee] It's actually
our two-year anniversary so it's crazy.
– Congrats. – [Attendee] My question
is you talked about posting a ton of contents
on multiple platforms, and, a lot of times, you
don't know that to post.
And one thing we've seen,
and (speaking faintly). Is a lot of times, when we post, personal content, personality content, where it's like Freestyle
Friday or X, Y, Z, it gets a lot more
attention, comments, shares. – Humans like humans. – [Attendee] Yeah, and is that something that a lot of what we
should be focusing on as we build that brand? – If you like it. A lot of people are
very shy and introverted and don't like the
attention from other humans.
I don't think they
should be making videos. (attendees laughing) – [Attendee] Second part
of the question was, can we take a selfie with you? – You can. Real quick 'cause I wanna give an answer that'll help a lot of people. Did you ever see that interview I had where I came up with the first time of documenting Don't Create? I really think people
need to think about that. Just make. People overthink. Even the way you structured it, you're like, freestyle, you're making everything
like shows or structuring it. Stop thinking, start making. Cool, get up here. Let me get on this side. Yes, ma'am. – [Attendee] Hi, I'm a Jersey girl. – Love. – [Attendee] And watched football there. – You grew up in Jersey? – Yes.
– Where? – [Attendee] South Jersey, Sicklerville. – Yeah, I know it. – [Attendee] And I cheer for the Jets. – Amazing. I'm listening.
I can multitask. Entrepreneur over here. (audience laughs) (attendee speaks faintly) – [Attendee] The people, the media, the broadcasting, I just started recently. (attendee speaking faintly) And I just got started. I got so many people here, I was just saying hi to everyone and just putting myself out there. – Good for you. – [Attendee] But I wanna know
about two things, actually. YouTube versus TikTok, would you just– – Both. – [Attendee] Got it, thought
that was gonna be the answer. And two– – But know this. TikTok is a crazy place
right now, in a great way. In a great way. I have given the same
advice my whole life. I am very basic. How many people here
follow me on Instagram? Thank you. So you guys know. I love putting up videos 10 years ago, a little chubbier, younger version of me saying the same stuff
I'm saying right now. So I'm saying that for the
people that don't know me.
What I'm about to say same matters a lot. In the history of my career, the organic reach thing
that nobody knows who I am, I wanna talk about Alabama football, nobody knows who I am,
I have zero followers. Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, Socialcam, Vine, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, none, not a single platform has
even been remotely close to what's happening on TikTok
when you post your third post and 800,000 people watch it. Now, it's already, I don't
know if you notice this, D Rocks, it's already declining 'cause here comes the content. 'Cause there was so much
attention compared to content but you would destroy it on TikTok. – [Attendee] Thank you. – Yeah. If I were you, I would
make three TikToks a day. – [Attendee] Okay. – The way I think you get
to the question they had which is like, what do we make? I think you look at what's on the explore like the trending page.
And the biggest mistake
people make is they hear this, they go home, and they're like,
"Screw it, I'm gonna do it. "I'm motivated, Gary's so motivating. "I'm gonna do it." (attendees laughing) And they're like, they've download TikTok, and they're like, "Now what?" Two things. One, back to that crazy
website Google, it's crazy. It's an epic one. What works on TikTok,
enter, read for three hours, but way more importantly, consume TikTok for five hours
and then make a decision. Don't call your 11-year-old
niece and be like, what's this TikTok thing about? She's gonna tell you from an
11-year-old's perspective.
You're here for business
for building a brand. You're coming from a different angle. Consume it. That will help you know what to make. – [Man] What's your username? – What's that? – [Man] Her username. – Do you have a TikTok account yet? – No, I don't. Malena, M-A-L-E-N-A Brown. – Love it. – [Attendee] Thank you, man. – You're welcome. – [Attendee] I love attention. It's really hard for me to talk to you 'cause I admire you so much. I've done this a couple of times.
– Thank you.
– So I'm freaking out. And I'm obsessed with adding value, right? Guy with the shirt, I wanna help you, man, I'm obsessed with connection also. As I came in to your content, man, and how you're like the Pied Piper for, you don't have to be a jerk to win, and empathy and like the
alpha guy that preaches. – Kindness.
– Value and kindness and it's what I've been doing all my life so I dove in two years ago. I'm like the butt of your old joke and like the hero story of the news, and coddled by parents, I had
to completely unlearn that. My man over there, you gotta unlearn it, you gotta get dirty, you gotta eat. I don't wanna cuss
'cause I know that your– – Maggie will beat us up, yeah. It's tough.
– And then restart again
and iterate, right? – And real quick, I apologize. Let's not demonize, none
of us picked our spots. I didn't pick like, hey,
I'm gonna be born in Russia and then come to America. Let's definitely not over demonize people that had great fortune
of being in a situation. They just have to decide what
they want in their lives. We really need to deploy self-awareness. Not everybody is supposed to go on and be at alpha number one
and build something big. There's a lot of ways to skin it. But nonetheless, I just wanted to add that 'cause I didn't want that
theme to get too far away.
Keep going. – That being said, man, the
big connection point for me, I'm like yelling 'cause I'm Hispanic and I yell and you're close, whatever. The big connection point for
me was like when I realized that content is like
networking on steroids. – Correct.
– Everything you do person-to-person–
– Correct. – And I put on content and put it out, I'm learning so much from you and then I'm reading the
Steve Jobs book and I'm like, bro, I'm just learning from you like it was an audiobook
everyday all the time. – That's the plan, for free. – And then you release a
library that's searchable. Man, I want you to like talk
about that searchable library. It's so valuable for
people that can see that and how you put that together. There's two people: The people that can make content, people make a ton of content, they don't know what to do with it so to categorize will be amazing.
– So thank you. – I now wanna give you a bean. I know you like it.
– I do. – This is from the charger that
we gave you last night, bro. – I love it, thank you, man. I love you, bro. So, the search engine, we
transcribed all my words into metadata from every single video I've ever put out in
the history of my life and then put it into a database
and made it searchable. So we have a search engine on our website. I'm still not even promoting it. You know what's so fun
about playing the long game? You're hardcore enough in my content that you know it exists 'cause I promoted it for one day. I don't even really know where it is. I think it's on my website. I believe it's gonna be
the biggest thing I leave because the earlier thing I talked about which was the voice device. – [Attendee] You can find it on Google. – Yeah, of course, I heard. I'm so excited that I'm
gonna have an Alexa skill in 10 years that's gonna allow you to be walking through the
kitchen or in the office and say, Alexa I need to speak to Gary.
And like, Gary, what should I do when a manager is doing this? And I'll actually reply because the data has been structured. That's gonna be rad. So, that's why I did it. That's what I'm anticipating,
that's what we're building, and I think a lot of
people are gonna do that with audio information, I think. We love speed. There's a lot of things you're doing now that you said you would never
do because you like speed. Many of you here 10 years ago
said you would never text. You now text. Many of you five years ago said that you would never use
emojis, this is stupid. And now you send poop emojis. (attendees laughing) The reason you do that is 'cause of speed. The emoji is literally
this is quicker than okay. All of you are gonna use
voice devices in your home and office 'cause it's gonna be faster. That's all. We choose convenience over everything.
We don't care about privacy. Everybody loves talking about privacy. You guys love talk about privacy. What about privacy? What about it? You put your credit card all
over the internet all day long. The IRS was completely hacked. Every single Social Security Number in this room has been compromised. What's happened? The Russians kidnapped you? (attendees laughing) We don't care about
privacy 'cause it's fake. We love convenience. Yes, sir. – [Attendee] So– – You look great.
Pretty sharp, bro. Like that tie clip. – [Attendee] We're scaling like crazy. (attendee speaking faintly) – I remember. (attendee speaking faintly) – [Attendee] It was a huge market. We got stadium, we got cars everywhere. And so we're deploying capital like crazy, therefore, we're raising
capital like crazy. And I feel like we're talking about when the champs met with the internet, we gotta have to raise a
billion dollars to do that. I don't feel I have to do that
but my question is right now, here we got successful
business people all day, 'cause I'm posting on
LinkedIn all the time, being like, hey, this is really
taking off, I wanna invest.
And so we're raising 100k at a time, when do I make my move from
private money, thrown-in money to a big VC firm that I partner with? – Hopefully never. VCs are bleh. The second you do deal with VC is the second you lose control. – [Attendee] How would you
target angel investors? – I would do what I said
to a lot of people here. I think you've got enough
juice going on right now that you're probably better off going to an extremely high net worth individual. I'd much rather you take $8 million from a guy or a gal that is
either third generation wealthy or made it themselves and believe in you because they'll give
you a lot more control than some kid that went to
Stanford and likes Excel sheets.
– [Attendee] When you do valuations, what do you do with that? – As much as they'll give you. – [Attendee] Yes, cool. I just closed that 10 mil and
something like that is insane. I was like, "Well, we did it." – You could have said 12. – [Attendee] My name is Jen,
I'm from Auburn, Alabama. I still work on corporate America, but I'm trying to break into the industry.
– You're trying to what? – [Jen] To try to get
into sports industry. – Break in through
sports industry, got it. – [Jen] But the issue is
when it comes to LinkedIn or any type of social media, having to, I wanna say conceal it, but I can't post or really
dig into it publicly. My boss or whoever obviously,
being an accountant, I have to be careful who I work for. But it's really difficult to manage both. – It's one thing if you
put on your LinkedIn, I hate this job, I'm
looking for a new one.
– [Attendant] Well, I wouldn't do that. – No kidding, you wouldn't do that. – [Attendee] Sport-sided, I
would love to do more of that. – You feel like it would be
disproportionately frowned upon in your organization if you started talking about your passion about sports? – [Jen] Actually, I have a coworker like– – What's that? – [Jen] A coworker of mine reported that I said something about
sports of whatever on my– – What's her name? (attendees laughing) (attendee speaking faintly) What about getting a
different corporate job? – [Jen] I have applied, so I'm gonna get to the interviews.
I don't wanna have 'em all. – I mean, here's the good news. That's what you have to
do if you're telling me that the culture within the four walls. Every organization is different. My company has so many
side hustles going on, I'm not even sure if people have their own secret VaynerMedias that compete with us going on. (attendees laughing) If you were my sister, I'll be like, hey, you know where I'm going. How many places have you applied? Are you so passionate and slash unhappy? Are you willing to get a job that pays you even 5,000 less a year because you're gonna
eat a little more crow? Happiness over everything. But right now, if you're painting the picture you're painting, you have no answer unless
you go somewhere else because it sounds like Sarah
in accounting is a real issue.
– [Jen] I feel like doing it anyway 'cause I know this is my work– – Yes, you should do it anyways if you're prepared to get fired. – [Jen] Yeah, okay, I might. – Well, great. I mean if you're prepared
to get fired, do everything. Go punch her in the face. (attendees laughing) Let's start with that. Yes, ma'am. – Hi.
– Hi. – My name is Emily.
– Emily. – I'm a health coach.
– I'm sorry, health coach? – [Emily] Health coach. And so, I see this trend right now where people are talking
about social media fasting, making yourself fast, finding that balance between
connection and space, and also having that
connection with people online. I wanna kinda pick your brain about it and get your thoughts about
how you have found balance by putting out so much content but also trying to stay
connected at the same time. – It's been super easy.
For example, I'm the most
public-private person of all time. You guys know nothing
about my personal life. I post a trillion piece of content but I put it in my professional world. People was like, Gary, I don't
wanna do that, I'm private. I'm like, you don't even
know what my kids look like. I'm like, I know what your kids look like and you're private but you've
already posted them six times on your bullshit Facebook. So, I found it very easy. – [Emily] Because when
I'm coaching clients, I always find that they
find this artificial world is almost too much for them to– – My point of view is that
it's not the artificial world that's too much, it's the world, period. They're incapable of judgment. So if they're appeasing people
on Instagram, that's fine. They're appeasing people in real life too that's why they're leasing
Alexas that they can't afford 'cause they want people to
think they're successful. People fronting 24/7, 365
'cause they're insecure. And if you're insecure, getting off of Instagram
is not gonna help you.
Why don't we take the
conversation up a notch and talk about why you care
about your neighbor's opinion? Or your mom's opinion? Why? So, interesting where
you going, that's great. And I honestly, I think
it will be a huge trend. I think we're gonna use
technology so much more than now, the world always swings. I think there'll be incredible businesses. I think there'll be incredible– (attendees laughing) I think there'll be incredible
businesses of detox centers where you go to the woods for four days. I've actually been doing
a lot of work lately. I've never been into buying real estate but I've started the process
of looking at major cities and seeing what the most
rural, one-hour drive is and what the cost of the real estate is because I feel like
buying a bunch of trees an hour outside of any major city that is literally has no cell service is like a good business in 10 years 'cause people are gonna want
it for three days or a week.
That's great but there's a
much bigger issue at hand which is are you capable in dealing with other people's opinions? 99% are not. That is because of the last
30 to 50 years of parenting, DNA and many other variables, and that is why I'm so passionate about the things I talk about. Because when you get quiet,
and it comes in both forms, the biggest breakthrough, I
think, I've said that I like, almost as the consumer of me, is if you can't hear the cheering, you can't hear the booing.
I'm sure for a lot of you
that have no idea who I am or haven't seen before, you've
seen people come up today and give me some nice
compliments in my impact. I don't hear that in the same way that I don't hear somebody
saying I'm full of crap or snake oil salesman. I keep it (clicks tongue). Not too high, not too low. And that's helped me quite a bit. And I think the reason people struggle is you love Instagram when
they say you look real pretty but you hate it when they say you're ugly. You love it when they say that's fresh but you hate it when you see somebody else having a fresh time and you're at home. People are getting too high and too low and so we need to have
conversations with ourselves.
Limiting our time on
TikTok is not gonna do it. Jim, one more because I saw it up there. I didn't even know you were up
there but I love you so much. Let's go. What's your name? – [Attendee] I wanna start a food truck but I wanted to do that in college town so I'm wondering what you think in terms of budgeting and all of that, what's gonna be the best since its gonna be
catered to college kids, things like that that I'm going for? – I think you should go to
campus and search Twitter and Instagram in that 10-mile radius and pay attention to what they like. Before you guess, I think you should figure
out what the demand is. – [Attendee] Well, I'm from
Texas but I've moved to Alabama and one thing that I'm always
finding with meeting people is that like Tex-Mex is
not a thing in Alabama.
Obviously, not type of the market. – I've heard. – [Attendee] Mexican food in Alabama is nothing compared to
what it is in Texas. People are like, yeah, when
I was in Texas, I loved it. – So, you're gonna break, I love that. So by the way, that's a great
counter and something I love. The introduction of
something that you know humans like in one place, as long as it's not so foreign
and doesn't hit the palette, and I think that connection's a layup. So okay, so you figure out
what you're gonna make. – [Attendee] Yeah, so,
I'm gonna do Tex-Mex but my goal is to go in the
next three to five years from having a taco truck to having a place like a restaurant.
Do you think that's like that
something that's smart or– – I don't think it's smart or not smart. I think it's not smart to
put yourself into a jail. You're saying to yourself
I'm gonna do this in three to five years
is gonna lead to anxiety. Do it in 12 months, do it in 12 years. Oh, by the way, it all depends
on what the arbitrage is. You might realize after
a year, wait a minute, why would I open a restaurant where the leases are too expensive? I wanna open up nine more trucks. Stay fluid. Don't create an org chart. Here's what you focus on. Let me bring this Tex-Mex
delicious food to these kids and then let me react to what happens. If that leads to a location, great. If that leads to 13
more food trucks, great. If that leads to a big
company coming in and making, trying to turn it into a national chain or a product that's sold
by a frozen food company, keep it open because a lot of
people at their young stage make these arbitrary decisions
of three to five years, I'm gonna do that, they
actually stick to that, and then they don't see
all the other opportunity because they're on this narrow
thing that a lot of times ends up not being the right thing.
– Thank you.
– Awesome. Thank you guys so much. (attendees applauding) Thank you. (calm music).