What is your advice for like absolutely zero to roof over your head the quickest way to go from $20 to 10,000 I Genuinely believe is genuinely people of the Universe I Bring to you Gary V What's up Universe yeah dude I decided to go woke Are you woke? No, not not even but uh but ladies and gentlemen and it occurred to me you know, leave some people out and while I don't want to be woke I do want to include absolutely everybody I Love that. So so that's why you're doubling down on Universe yeah yeah yeah everybody in the universe yeah, all shapes and Si yeah all you little like uh oh steo is woke like suck a fart out of my butthole and chill out like uh, we're we're light, we're easy, we're having a good time and this is Gary V Good to meet you pleasure brother Real pleasure me you Honestly, you're a real legend. Thank you for having me. You guys are about the same age Yeah, how old are you I'm 49 yeah I just turned 48 and you 46 Jesus Christ 40 40 sorry it's a lot of gray.

You look phenomenal if I now that I've now that you react that way and I'm looking closer to the skin I might have went 38 but if if the gray was black, you're 38. No I know I'm gr Yeah, of course it's just harder to hear that. I I I met up with Simon Eddie at the at the wedding and uh he's like are you 50 now I'm like 50 now it's just it's normal human behavior. the gray over indexes it and but the cool part is you're fully in control like you're you mean I have my hair well yes which is amazing I think what saying is you're in control.

it's not too late to to move your body. yeah, it's not too late to put down the pasta I know I bet you equally you get good compliments on the Silver Fox thing. Yeah well yeah, so you're just I'm It's the choice of going bald or gray I'd rather go gray a th% 100% The question is do you want to color it green? no black no and then you're F enoy I enjoy going Silver Fox but you're going to get some 44s instead of 38s for sure. sometimes even yeah, sometimes.

whoever that which is crazy cuz the face is too baby. but that's nothing. 44 and 38 same yeah. I'm at the age where like uh people are starting to like Mis guess my age and I'm like oh it's happening I'm getting older.

Well the worst part was when you you know we're all going through this, you're still a youngster like that flip where like you know, like I Me and a lot of my friends were babyfaced. so when we were at 26 you'd go to Vegas and you get card. you be like yeah you still got it All of a sudden you're like 34 and you're like you 40 Like what just happened? why did I just age 20 years in a seven-year window? Yeah, age is undefeated fellas that's correct man. and and I I could stand to uh put down some food and and move my body around a little bit too I'm oh I got it.

I think at 40 it it it becomes more of a health issue than like a vanity issue. Yeah you know I I was at Dr Drew's house today how that and I I love Dr Drew and I think we we should get him back on but but that's another conversation for another time. and uh with with Gary ve not um candidly? yes Gary you're you're so uh, specialized in in uh, business, being an entrepreneur, financial success and and we've always enjoyed speaking with our guests about like what what their various revenue streams you know, like love to hear guest top three revenue streams without being invasive about numbers but uh but you want me to answer or yeah never so I think I think I operate and invest and so what I mean by that is I actively am always running a company from you know from my childhood from being 22 to 34 I did that from my dad's liquor store. those were not super successful Financial years because I was building the company for him and we were an immigrant family and you don't get paid a lot but it was epic and one of my Great accomplishments.

So when I say I operate and I invest right now I'm the CEO of a company called Vayner at Vayner Media is the big company in that I Love this yeah a modern-day Communications company. So basically Madmen 2023 my company does the marketing for companies like Pepsi and Chase and all these Fanatics and all these big Brands and we do different. Some people we do all the social media content, some people we do the Super Bowl commercial we killed Mr Peanut Oh wow we were the agency that worked on Planters when we killed Mr P during the Super It's an ad agency but it's 2024 version. Almost every client we work with we're like do you understand how important it is to do social media right? You know that kind of I mean look this is actually very meta Liquid Death.

Yeah! Started by Mike The job he had while he was building Liquid Death was at Vayner Media in La Wow Sent me an emails like I'm ready to do my own thing. Do you want to invest? I'm like yeah I wanted to support him. he's a good dude I was like here's a couple bucks. I'm going to make a fortune on it because he's a beast and he built Liquid Death.

he Mike Cesio is a very very impressive guy of Liquid. That's right, and literally the job. The second before he was the CEO of Liquid Death, he was a Creative director at Vayner Media. No kidding.

Yeah, he is absolutely a creative. Have you heard of hot sauce for your butthole? Do you want this to explode and you want me to help you out Make Yeah, Honestly, No. Honestly, no it would be great enjoyment. whether right after this podcast and we got a couple minutes or let's get on.

Zoom The Joy: I Would have to tell you to do six or seven different things to quadruple the out of this business would be a great pleasure of mine. You don't have to say that twice. Yeah, happy to do it. So anyway, uh I don't want to be longwinded I'm always driving something Vayner media.

The other thing I do is vriends which is like my Pokemon meets uh Marvel meets Sesame Street an intellectual property Nfts trading cards, apparel. um coming out with animation. Uh here you can see it so be friends is really exciting for me. You guys are quite creative so you can imagine how exciting this is for me.

like literally as a baseball card collectible comic book kid. I Can't believe I actually have like I can go on eBay right now and go to complete it. Actually you guys are doing this here if you go on eBay and go to completed items like it's crazy to me. if you type in V Friend now I saw you make a post about your V friends and you said that you were going to make it as big as Pokemon That's right, that might let me let me clar like and even sometimes I need to do a better job C for the next 50 years I'd like to make it as yep, keep scrolling you're good whoever this is Beast there it is completed and sold.

Hit them both. There you go. Look this is like I Just got to say as someone who like has been on eBay since 1998 and just loves garage selling and finding and buying and pop cultures why I with you heavy like looking at this like blows my I Drew these things three years ago and now it's like a full pledge real thing. Okay, we're looking at trading cards at the moment.

trading cards that sold on eBay um and which is distinctly different from Nfts. You know what's funny I I Think wildly, not different. but I get where you're going I Understand Fible and non-fungible Very smart. Well, Nft is strictly digital.

Correct? Correct? Yeah, okay. I I Was telling my dad yes that that like My Philosophy or my understanding of Nfts that it's like here. like anybody that wants to bring it up on the internet technically can have it, but the person who, uh, who buys the Nft actually owns it. That's right I said Dad this is like uh, tell telling a woman you know yeah, like any woman in the world can have my wiener but my we is actually yours.

Okay, that makes so much more sense. That was how you got your dad to understand. Well yeah, just like that's my way of saying anybody can have it but like one person's supposed to like have ownership of it just sounds like so anyway these are the two companies I run I Also, do you know So let's talk about it. Every is different because I do a lot of investing.

so obviously one day Liquid Death will sell to Pepsi or Coke and I'll get a check for that investment. Yeah, do you think that's G to happen. Are you an investor? Yeah, Nice. Uh I I don't know.

Uh I I'm sure at this point anybody with you know between that and Prime energy drink, there's some big beverages running around there that are independent that I'm sure the Cokes and the Pepsis and the biggest companies are looking at. I think next two three year you'll see more and more M&a activity. but the place I make my most dollars is being the CEO of VOR Media. It's a 2,000 person, $300 million plus business.

I'm the founder operator so that's that world that's in Vader X um this I mean speaking is big for me Stebo Okay, good yeah. I'm a I'm a I'm a pretty substantial public speaker and like my fee is pretty bananas. and if when I we're getting close enough to the end of the year, that may be the second biggest of my Revenue. So you book your um your speaking engagements which would be considered a personal appearance.

That's right, uh with through an agent. So I was with Ca for a long time and then 5 years ago I started my own speaking bureau Vayner Speakers W So if you're looking to make you know I can make you some money on the sauce I can make you some money on the speaking. There you go Yeah you have a story. This is turning out to be a really good you no you know I'm I'm I'm fascinated with your you said you have a very big speaking fee yes but that wasn't always the case.

Does that come with a self-worth thing or like no supply and demand of of of it's a great question. Do I think people, whether they're doing standup comedy, whether they're doing anything you know cutting hair you can cut it for 12 bucks you can cut it for 50. Like sure there's that game of do you know what you're asking for but the market is the market. like when I first started 34 years old.

really speaking well I had pretty good confidence I'm like I really think I'm good but the market hadn't said that I was worth what I'm worth now. Okay so I think it's just supply and demand un you know speaking is funny and personal. appearance is funny for the human and you've been through this and for people who go through it or think about it, it seems crazy that you could be compensated so well for a short period of time, but in reality there's something happening on the back end. so I could be like oh my.

God I'm getting flown to Madrid and I'm going to speak for an hour and it's I Can't believe the economics I'm making. It's not like the world is Puffy ideological Yay Yay! The organizers of that event in Spain are making money on the fact that I'm there. Sure, you know and so it's It's very much supply and demand Sell for's a good question. Do I believe a lot of people listening right now mowing, lungs, cutting hair, public speaking Super Famous Not known at all doing a service business? Do I think most people don't know how to ask for a little more money the next time to keep upping their fee? Yes, I do and I'm glad you asked that question.

Um, when I go do a podcast like this I'm like okay, this is an epic show with icons I'm going to come on. we're going to talk about our subject matter but like if I can leave in like three to seven people here. one little tidbit and all. whatever the we chop up at and it becomes a good thing for them.

Like the thought that somebody right now actually that does something he's like yeah and like they charge a 100 bucks for whatever the we're talking about right? babysitting? 12 bucks an hour? Yeah and tomorrow the neighbor goes, how much are you and you're like $15 an hour because you listen to this and they say yes Then we had a good podcast that's great. people will say you know I know and by the way people say no and don't change your price back to $12 an hour, get 10 Nos and then you're like okay I'm delusional. My big thing is get 10 NOS before you go back down. Too many people like are scared to go up.

Try one time someone says no like see Gary I was always 12 Yeah, you get what you pay for yeah. I'm glad that you said that too because when I initially was saying you know what I started to say I was uh going to express a sensitivity that uh speaking to my audience you know about like like I wanted to make it relatable to people and you just did that for me I honestly no like I've got lots of passions but and I lots of things I want to talk about but you know I'm very selective of what I do and when I do it I always think it's only about them. like I Don't need people skipping this podcast for you I don't want to you up I don't want people to be like that Suck. that's not for me.

If you can't make it contextual and relatable to who's actually going to listen, then what the are we doing here right? Like I'm more than capable of trying to build my own audience on my channels I Think when you go into someone's home you take off the shoes. you know what I mean like to me. The only thing I'm thinking about right now is how to respect y'all and more importantly, even more than you is your audience and so like look, take me wherever you think I can bring value. but the good news is like I'm aware of y'all and I'm a fan and like I I like and more importantly like cool I'm a businessman but like like I'm also a human being like what do you think me and my buddies did in Jersey in the 80s and 90s? Dumb and like you guys are legends to us.

They're like oh, all the dumb we were doing is like real like that so like this is fun to be with you Cool I Love it, Thank you for that. Um what's the probably a very blurry line like uh what? Viner Media? yes um an ad agency and a production company? Yes. God So we have a production company. You can pull this one up.

Eva Noam Eva Noam How do you remember all these names? It's two separate words. They'll probably it's Eva Space Noad Dam Nosad dam Eva Space Here we go. there, we go. It's there.

Um, so this is Madison AB spelt back WS Oh um, this is our production company for our commercials in New York in New York at La and I own this as well. This is part of Vayner X Vayner Media is the agency. even Noam is the production company. Now to your point.

the world you grew up in production was heavy like big. It was real And so our commercials our Super Bowl We do here our agency as the creative Department They're also producing actual social media ads so that's the twist that we did to the industry forever. 70 years you had an ad agency that came up with the ideas and then that's what you got paid for. and then there was a production company that would make this merch Madness by little baty B that we did for Fanatics We still do that as you can see here with Iaos Sadam and Vayner Media.

but inside of Vayner Media, the ad firm everybody in Creative also makes social media creative and that was the Twist And that's how we changed. The industry is one of your uh, contemporaries or your Rivals at um Vayner Media a company called Sher Ability? Are you familiar with them? Yes. I Think that got brought up to me the other day. Um, um, maybe.

um. one thing. I don't do. It's either my strength or my weakness.

I'm almost oblivious to competition. Good. Blue Ocean Strategy Yeah. I've heard that as well.

What is that? It's just like there's no competition. There's no red in the there's no blood in the Water By the way. I Love competition. Like if you guys were like let's THB wrestle I'd get like super serious right now.

Yeah, yeah, but you have the mindset. there's like enough for everybody and it's abundant. And by the way, if somebody's like wins something, you're absolutely I Don't think that they took it out of me. I By the way, that includes like we're in a pitch right now for we're not, but I'm going to use it because I love them if we're in a pitch for New Balance Yeah and we're against Droga 5 and sharability and widen and Kennedy and we're It's four of us and we lose I'm aware that one of those three people won M but that's the micro in the macro.

I'm going to get mine for sure. We're good enough and honestly, weirdly I even like when other people first of all, I Kind of weirdly like losing like I'm like, you know there's a level of like leaning into your own humility and like you should never always win. And the Merit and trying to figure out how to get better at it. Um, but yeah, Blue Ocean def for me it's always abundance for sure.

It's like nobody stopping me but myself. If I spend a minute trying to figure out what everybody else is doing, that's a minute. I'm not figuring out the consumers and I don't have time for that nonsense. Um okay so let's uh, take some.

That being said in your world. Vayner Watt Vayer V. Y N R Wt.com this one I'm excited about this is a new company for me about a year old now and this is maybe some way we Jam together in the future. So we started a production company.

good and so this is a production company not for commercials, scripted, non-scripted The guy that left there Eric Wattenberg It was at Ca for 20 years, then he did Wheelhouse for the last five or six years and we've teamed up and we're just now pitching our shows. That's pretty fun. I Like it. Um, for for somebody who uh, doesn't know what they want to do, who isn't even necessarily employed.

Yes, you know H having financial difficulty? Like what is your take on that? Well what is your advice for like absolutely Zero to roof over your head? It's the reason I started making garage sale videos so you can pull up Trash Talk Gary ve I'm just you could see I'm getting addicted with this this pretty awesome I might need to live like this so um this this lady was amazing anyway I this is my advice so I started getting those emails and I was like you know what so for the people listening I I have good back to different audience cross I know a good amount may not know who I am I grew up I was born in the Soviet Union I was born in the USSR Belus. thank you my man So I came here when I was three. We lived in a studio apartment the size of this van with like five six family members like real humble beginning M and so you know I didn't grow up with much and you know in my teenage years I I started going to garage sales and then going to the flea market and flipping I was always into like Collectibles that's why the Vs thing is fun and all that. and then when my brother's 11 years younger than me when my brother was like 13 I could tell my mom was trying to make him a lawyer I'm like no no no like AJ come with me.

we're going to go garage sailing and now this new thing eBay I'm going to we're going to sell it on this thing MH and so how old were you I was 22 at that time time or 23 at that time when I was teaching my brother. That's when eBay had just come out a few years earlier and I watched my brother go from zero to like $10,000 in cash in in a summer because we would buy video games for 50 cents and sell them for 20 bucks on eBay or a shirt or anything nostalgic pop culture things like that. So my advice is first of all, I'm going to go macro and micro in the micro right now in America and obviously it's in some other parts of the world, but garage sailing is bigger here in America the quickest way to go from $20 to your name to 10,000 which creates some sort of breathing room of some sorts. I Genuinely believe is thrift stores and garage sales? genuinely? because because it's a place where you can buy things for a quarter 50 cents in a dollar and get 20.

you can't do that in many other places. Yeah, but I feel like like the G for sure You're right. Okay, but if you're starting out at a thrift store on Melrose no no way, that's that's Bouie Thrift I'm talking Goodwill like you can go to the Goodwill It's very interesting. it's very interesting all over the country.

Yeah I bought some cool STS and in Oklahoma at the thrift store like and these are like brick and mortar places where you can go and purchase something for like 50 cents a dollar and then. but then you take it online and you you've got such an infinitely larger audience. Yeah and it's not even your audience for was listening say I don't have an audience no no no you just listed on eBay you just list it on post Poshmark you just list it on these places Mari there's all these places now so a00 the most logical place I see is garage sales so so it's the Tal's oldest time is like get a product and sell it. that's the one like I Think about this a lot because somewhere along the line I kept telling the stories about like early in my career after which was 10 15 years into my career after I saved some money I made these good investments in 2006 they were called Facebook Twitter and Tumblr and of course it changed my life and I would talk a lot about it talking but then I just started getting enough emails saying like yo bro I with you Gary I love you but like I don't have $25,000 to put in some sort of startup so what do I do and finally after because I read all my DMs and email especially back in 0789 10 11 I was really doing it because I could manage it I was like they're right I got to talk about some other and that's how I got to this and so to answer the question in the micro I believe the answer genuinely is garage sale Flipping? Are you still doing garage sailing to this day? Yeah, that's me like a couple weeks ago.

now at this point I'm donating what I buy and what I sell for to charity cuz I'm in this place in my life but no bro V like honestly I like doing that more than almost anything I do in life here. Okay so so this is great and and the problem with most people is they're not motivated. Yeah, that's right. and and like I I I had a a product in 2006 that I was selling in retail I invented this thing and I sold it and uh, go me, don't do that.

Tell them what it is. So I invented a workout towel, a workout towel the velro pocket so you can keep all your in there while you go to the gym. towel safe I like that. so so I don't it's not even around anymore.

but uh people I mean it's it's it's a standard Gy and you know like I totally understand that was by the way that was the easiest thing to understand of all time. that was smart. Yeah you fixed, you fixed the micro pain, found a problem yeah I would like that's smart but my my theory was people were like how did you do it It's like I think any product is a good product. It just depends on how passionate that person is because how do you execute and how.

Yeah, of course that. but and how much drugs you're doing and how much drugs you're doing at the time. Always a correlation. But but but the hardest part for me is like so back in 2006, I stopped listening to music when I was driving I listen to motivational books to keep myself that hungry and happy.

Now now you're now. you're talking about why Gary Ve exists right? Like so I was going to answer in the macro and I love you for going to where I This is all about people being comfortable in their own skin, not everybody. To your point, let me tell you something about me: I'm motivated when we're talking about business I'm motivated when we're talking about kindness or like people skills I'm not motivated when you're talking about filling out a form for sure like I'm in serious no no. I'm going to say this nice and slow.

I am borderline incapable of administrative duties of administrative duties. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you for sure. We're creative. Yeah, look for everybody who's listening if you do not understand yourself and you're listening to like me or your mom or your dad or your buddy and they're like just you can't do that That's like telling me like just shut the up I can't I need to talk like we have to reverse engineer truth MH So to your point when I put out all these videos, the comments are like yeah, but the gas cost 20 bucks I'm like but I made $800 they're like yeah but the eBay fees I'm like yeah but I made $800 but those are just the the weakest people that aren't survival of the fittest like it's not.

You don't have that drive to do that. then what's interesting about that and I see where you're going is I'm fascinated by what the internet does to change the variable of how many don't have to be the weakest. The option I'll give you a good example of this in culture right now. everyone wants a on Jenzy entitled lazy this that and like there's plenty of that like look when the government prints unlimited amounts of money during Co and gives it to people for staying home It up people yeah like it confuses people about Merit That being said, when I hear like some entrepreneurs tell me like Gary this gen Z I'm like bro, you're asking them to work for $13 an hour for 10 hours a day in your store I Got news for you A lot of these kids know how to make $230 a day in Tik Tok ads like they could sell some T like there's these kids have options M like like sorry they don't want to work at Kmart for eight bucks an hour for 53 hours a week like I Don't blame them if they know how to make it a different way, they're going too.

Yeah, and so what? What is that? What was all that about that was about? There's a lot of options and I think there's a lot of people right now who are listening to us with a blunt in hand and chilling and saying like yeah, I'm just not Mo I'm just chill I'm just chill. My argument is yeah, but there's some you give a about something music something. yeah and by the way, this is so meta you and your crew that wasn't monetizable 20 years earlier. It's true.

It's very true. You guys became famous and Rich doing that, you couldn't become famous. and Rich for 20 years earlier than when you did it and they had to get somebody to say yes, the internet is like yo I'm here I'm open for business. What do you want? Now the problem is, the internet is also Fair Meaning when people are like Gary I'm shadowbanned on social media I'm not doing well I'm like bro, you're not shadowbanned.

You just suck like everyone's always got an excuse like yo instag Do you think Shadow band's a real thing though sh so you you think Shadow band doesn't not % of 1% it's not real for the guy who's been posting the same for 20 weeks and nobody gives a and he's like I'm Shadow banned I'm like you're not Shadow banned Nobody thinks you're funny. Yeah and so and bro on some real I love when my content doesn't do well when I post something and it underperforms literally I'm like yep you Gary you thought it was good, they didn't learn next. Yeah, so the Internet isn't necessarily Fair it's just highly Democratic Yes and the blockchain's even more de you know the internet's got its variables, things work differently. But here's the punchline.

Most things are more fair than people. want to think. People want to blame a president. People want to blame their parents.

People want to. People want to blame blame blame. We've gotten remarkable at pointing fingers. Nobody wants to do this for sure.

People have like almost cut their thumbs off like people don't want to do this Steve like guys like and to me I'm not trying to be like motivational or rough. It's just very very obvious to me there's a direct correlation of happiness and accountability I love that. that's that I love I've I've Loved a lot of things that you said. that's my favorite thing so far.

Thank you man. That's what change my life was when I went through the step work and you like what's my part in it and then you start getting into the habit of like looking at every problem in your life and being like Oh I Let me be vulnerable here a little bit. I I've done well but like you know at five six years ago I was like hey this is me talking to myself Hey if you're such a nice dude and like you don't care about the money and and you really give a about your employees hey dude, why then are there people that used to work for you that don't like you? You see that little Facebook group where they on you for employees. You've seen some of these things that they said you've gotten emails from people that had the courage to tell you to your face why So I did the work you know I kept because it bothered me I'm like man I really want to be nice I really think I'm nice like what am I doing wrong And finally enough things happen both personally and professionally.

where I'm like oh Gary ve in a podcast with y'all he's canderous cuz he's not actually talking to any. he's talking to everyone. But if I cared about you I struggled to deliver cander Believe it or not Gary Vaynerchuk the businessman my whole life I would have very sloppy firings because I couldn't tell because I become friends with my employees right? and then when you had to get like if something wasn't working for a long time it would be like all up and I didn't tell them along the way like maybe occasionally I'd say something. but now the last five six years there's like a real process to how I do it like if 6 months in it's not working I I have the strength now to sit down in front of somebody I like and say hey Johnny hey Susan like this not working let me tell you what you're doing wrong cuz there was still time to fix it right I wasn't over the bubble of resentment but you know and so like I get like being accountable I sit here and out loud say to all the people that have ever worked for me or interacted me where I had to fire them where they're like what the dude last week you were saying everything was great and I'm like you're right.

like I wasn't strong enough yet oneon-one to be able to talk about it because I thought I was scaring you but I thought I hate fear, Are you a people pleaser? yes but not that bad. it's more that I hate fear and I thought if I sat someone down and said hey, shit's not going well that they'd be scared. they go home that night and drink and cry and go on LinkedIn and try to find a new job and it wasn't about that yet I was trying to find different ways to help them but the lack of cander created a vulnerability and then ultimately especially if I had to let them go and I wasn't able to figure out a different way without ever telling them which I did a lot but a lot I didn't it became sloppy and I regret it and I and I own it and it sucks. But but I try to be better.

Now how many people you think you fired thousands? I mean I've employed You know, lots and lots of people. Like you know, probably 10,000 people have been employed at Vayner through the years. The wine store probably had hundreds and hundreds. it's definitely thousand, you know and and I directly had to do hundreds, not thousands.

But but but at the end of the day I Always say to my people this is just true Everything At Vayner Media my companies is my fault and by the way, at Vayner Media everybody who gets fired I have to sign off on just to make sure my managers are not up. So at the end of the day it's still my decision. the the I heard a guy say that like he was a CEO that fired a lot of people and he said you know the one pattern that I found out uh that was consistent was as soon as you get that thought of like oh this person's got to go. he's like they're he's like and you you won't fire them because you feel bad or whatever you give them a chance.

He's like within three months they should. He's like, that's the point where they should have been gone already. Yeah, that there's a lot of Truth to that. I Think what we've gotten better at in our company: I've been surprised how many people have been refurbished.

We call it kind cander. If you're able to with compassion take tell not hey Johnny you suck, you better get your act together we'll you better get your together. See you next week You know like no, no if you're like hey style there's a great boxing term Styles Make Fights Y What it really means for everybody who's listening is you could have the two best boxers in the world fight each other. but because stylistically the way they were, all of us as fans could be bored for 12 rounds you see in UFC as well styles Styles Make Fights I use that a lot with people I'm like hey, Styles make fights just cuz it's not working from the subjective opinion of me and four or five of your bosses.

It doesn't mean we're right, doesn't mean we're wrong. It's six people that think you're up. Yeah, but that doesn't mean you suck like it just means maybe you're not doing the right thing here. Now What I've been surprised about is some people are like whoa I might get F like actually it changes them, it changes them.

But other people we've changed. We've changed positions within the company. Other people are like, you know what? I it's actually beautiful when you can do kind cander. Had a dude recently say you know what Gary I've been wanting to write like I need to write I need to write and like this you know obviously I pay my bills with all this but like this is the sign I needed like I know I'm not showing up proper this year because I've been distracted because I'm writing because it's work from home and I'm probably not working most of the time and he was just honest about it I was like cool bro like love like it's not so back to Blue Ocean I Don't view my employees as my property as my competitors like bad I view them as family and sometimes you have that's not working out and it's okay.

Mhm yeah what about hiring family members? I believe in it. You believe you ever had a fire family member? um not really. but I've had to have like conversation like to me the reason I like hiring family members is first of all my dad has fired both me and my sister. So big shout out to Sasha Vaynerchuk who has no problem firing family members.

um uh I got fired for one day my sister permanently sorry Liz um I think that uh to me I like I think people tell you know that old saying right? don't hire family or friends Yeah? I think it's a mistake I think it works a lot I think if now I would say 48-year-old Gary is far more should hire family and friends now than 25-year-old Gary because the lack of cander led to resentment and awkwardness. So I think it comes down to do you believe you and the person you're hiring has a communication structure and what I've always done with family is I'm like listen to me I and running this business for everyone and I can't create an eptisa effort into finding a spot for them I do that for anyone. You came in as an account manager. maybe you should be a creative.

You came in as a creative. Maybe you should be a back office per like: I think companies give up on people too fast. Um, would you be a 50-50 partner with a family member? I have been. Did it work out? It worked out because me and my brother are pretty remarkable at this and I'm going to tell this story because I hope this helps someone my brother and I my brother comes out of school he's 22 I'm 33 we start this company Bayner Media.

we start off 50-50 I had all the cred I had all the credibility in the market I had the money like I was the guy but I still went 50/50 because because I had just come out of forming not resentment. but I just went through building a big company for my dad and owning nothing. So I was overly empathetic for my brother plus my brother I already knew was T did and I had no clue how it was going to play out. but we did something smart and I hope this helped someone.

We said to ourselves, Day one, we're going to go 50/50 and we have no idea what's going to happen. But whatever happens, we trust each other enough that we'll adjust in the future to try to make it as good as we can as good as we can or as Fair as we can. You know I would use both of those words similar to the best of our ability: loving each other and trying to communicate. Let me tell you what happened correctly.

You're saying? Well, we'll start 5050 and as we go, we'll adjust it to what's appropriate. but you can't adjust it so easily because there's tax implication. There's a lot that comes along with that, right? It couldn't be like my dad. My: if let's say I wasn't doing anything like here you go AJ Here's 30% of the company.

He has to pay taxes on it. Like it it it would become so challenging. So yes and you can do that. But for everyone listening, do your homework on how tax law works and all this it's not so easy.

Let me tell you how it played out I thought cuz I was the older brother and I had other aspirations as well that I would work with him for a while and eventually he'd become the CEO and I'd go do the next thing and he would run it. My brother has Crohn's disease at about 25 about 3 26 about three four years in maybe a little bit further five six, seven years in he has a tough uh spell and he has to take like I think 12 inches out of his intestines. has surgery I come in and he's like yo like he's in the hospital comes I could see who was shook about I I don't remember perfectly but a couple months later maybe within the year he comes in and he says I want out and I was like okay like first of all my my I'm 11 years older than him so first my older brother slfa intins come in I'm like I got you then I'm like then I settled down from that I was like yo we need to talk about this yeah at this point he says he wants out how big is the company pretty big I mean it's bottom line is I had to buy my brother out for real money Then we started a company called Vayner Sports this is but you have to hear the most important part of uh of this story. Yes I have to buy him out and yes I was a big impact on how much we were doing overall and were we 5050 we were not and I feel comfortable if AJ sat here he would say Gary did more and was a bigger impact.

but then we started vayer Sports and to my brother's credit Jee he's working 100% on this I'm impacting it and recruiting and different things like this but this is what we're doing and look at our guys this by the way. weird moment Sidetrack in the time of this filming the Jets which are my entire life I love the New York Jets more than anything are playing the Falcons this weekend and it's the first time my team is playing one of my quarterbacks and I'm very weirded. Is it still a huge goal of yours to own the Jets Yes sir. Yeah! anyway I'll finish this to move on to next part we start this company.

my brother's GNA be on fulltime and I think if I remember at the beginning I got 85% of company. he got 15 because we were going to work on trying to make it fair and but he's putting in more Sweat Equity yeah and what? So how what are you bringing to the table at 85 and he's at 15 making up for what happened on Vayner media Oh now I'm also me I recruited most of the like I'm a beast and I'm right, that's what you're bringing to the table. but but even but to my brother's credit I want to give him his flowers even if I never spent a minute on this company I would own 85% of it because that was him holding his bargain of his word at 22 that we would see what would happen at Vayner Media and we would always adjust And we're But how was that conversation talking about splitting shares at the time for this one? Yeah, easy because me and my brother got lucky and I want everybody hear it again. If you feel like you have a family member who if you set out to like will always try for each other that leaves a lot of room for you never talking to that person again Well my my people always ask me like uh you know I have a thing with a business partner and uh what I say is like if if somebody asked me if they want to go in the business with a friend or whatever I say if you're going to do that because you have to make sure your operating agreement is so explicit that it everything.

There's a step for anything that can up cuz like what do you do if you know he goes on drugs? Yeah, you got to assume the absolute worst and address. By the way, you two just crushed the out of that last. you're not the bad guy. both are unbelievably right and comma.

so we don't live in fantasy land and it's still going to be gnarly No matter what, you could have the perfect plan in place with everything covered, you could assume the worst and I promise you N9 years later when there's real money involved and it's not even the money, it's the feelings I worked every Friday night like like I'm even getting the Goosebumps I always get these when I know we talking about something important like just assume and then you and then to your point. Here we go. We spied it out for the last s minutes you decide it's on you. Has it worked for some? Yes.

Does it not work out for most? yes and you're not the bad guy. the piece of paper is the bad guy. but you know this even with that changes a decade later like please dude, you don't understand I just had a bad couple I went to rehab dude I'll I'll make up for it. It's like dude and there's you Don't think about when you both started out as Brothers cousins, whatever you wen't in relationships.

now you get married, one of the wives has a point of view on some and and by the way, even if it's not that gnarly, what if it's not even weird like the wife has a point of view. Two sisters start a company, the husbands get involved and they're both beautiful. perfect marriages. and and it's all good feelings.

but one of the sides of the marriages just want a different level of work life balance with their two kids than the other side and have different goals. and Ambitions it's all good. But what do you do now you're 50/50 and one person's saying I want to work 9 to 5 4 days a week So cuz I want to with my kids and the other side's like whoa, we're about to explode I want to double down? Now it's now. What now are do you have the you have a shotgun clause and you can buy out the original like there's this is.

it's complicated. But let me say this to someone who's spent his whole life working with his father and his brother. It's the best when it's right. Yeah, but okay, so here's the question.

no no, go ahead well I want to say Can can you be clear to the to the audience members or whoever you're speaking to like don't do a handshake deal always put it in writing right If you do a handshake deal which I've done those things too, it will almost always end up with anxiety at the end. almost always. Yeah. So yes, I think you're giving people very good advice.

If you make a very detailed contract, you always have something protecting the relationship. The paper the contract can be can take some of the energy. What's interesting I'm saying this mean Steve have handshake deals but I'm just saying like if you're going, you guys have confidence each. it's this is a different like like we understand each other very well.

No, but I'm going to say it again. you just sat here and said you understand each other differently I Just sat here and said me and my brother and this is what I'm saying there's no one Siiz fits-all Are there a billion relationships that got totally because of business? Yes. Are there tens of thousands that work beautifully because they understand each other? Yes, you just have to be accountable. What you are walking into and have your eyes wide open? Yeah, fair enough.

Yeah. Okay, the the question that that's burning on the tip of my tongue is uh, who surfaced the number 85 and 15 So on the record it's it's good news. it's somewhere in that range. by the way, it might have been 8020 I don't recall.

this is 78 years old who surfaced it I believe it went down I'm not remembering because obviously it went so well and easy. It's not something I remember so vividly I believe my brother said hey, of course we're going to whack this up up in a different way based on what's been going on with Vayner media because that's what we talked about and I think if it happened right this second, here's what would have happened and I think this is how it went down and I would have said cool, why don't you come to me with what works for you and then and then that's what I remember happening here. Here's here's my uh, what my gut tells me: please when you're negotiating with somebody and and you need to to arrive at a a split, um, it's always going to be better for you to to tell the person to suggest what they're thinking and less about the number Landing For me, I've learned even when we did Vayner Sports which was seven or eight years ago I've learned that money isn't my driver because I'm capable of making it and because I like the game more than the trophies so it's always works for me that way because I'm less likely to be upset about five or 10% less than I think I was worth. but I don't want the other person that feel that way because they may get up because for a lot of people they don't have the same mindset as I do H and again, here's me giving advice that I don't take myself because I'm always like I'll give you this yeah, he likes to give out percentages before he sees P&l statements because I get it bro.

it's I Honestly bro. I'm not a great negotiator by any stretch. I'm about Vibes and people and stuff like that I'm a good businessman I'm not like whatever but I get it? I get but do you have a shark on your team that does that: for you? No. but I have Mark Yudkin who's my guy.

he's my lawyer, he's my CEO he's like my consilier. He definitely like provides a even my brother represents that for me a lot. They're definitely more straight and like. try to keep it in Pocket The problem is, everybody knows like push comes to shove I won't listen to anybody meaning like they TR There's been plenty of times where I'm like and they're like dude and I'm like and I'm like and they're like dude I'm like d and they're like dude and I'm like like you know, like now There's also plenty of times where I'm like and they're like dude I'm like yeah, you're right I got to you know, like so that's how it works yeah I like well we do that with Steve a lot but when he's so dead set on that I Honestly, just like dude, well you have the vision we got you.

that's it and that's it and that's it. And and like this is great I'm so pumped that a lot of people are listening to this right now because this is going on a lot right now with a lot of people are listening. They've got their crew. They're trying to figure out these Dynamics and look I'm sure you guys will say this and I'll say it.

There's no right way. There's some great principles. We've talked a lot about them for the last 10 minutes, but like honestly, let me give you the last point on this. unless you guys keep talking about it, just try like hell to remember you love the other person like your boy, your like if somebody if my dad was here and you asked him why did you and Gary work out even though there was potential for it not to work out family business are hard and he would say cuz we just loved each other.

just a little bit more than our feelings towards every issue. And that was right. We loved each other. Just a couple percentage points more than what was pissing us The off.

First one, the love wins 100% Love you for that. That's absolutely right. Yeah, and when you're 90, none of this shit's going to matter When the person that you're mad at right now is on their death bed, right? It's real man. like.

could you imagine if somebody calls somebody right now that they've haven't talked to for seven years because of a bad business breakup like a brother or sister-in-law or Mom and reconcile the relationship. How cool is that that we did that? Sure, Yeah, um Ste was like I don't give a I think that's great but but I'm just I'm just very very fixated on something that you just said, um that nobody's going to. None of this is going to matter when you're 90 years old and then for me and I know this is important to Scott as well that come when you're 90 and and it doesn't matter but then you die in your life review you experience all of the uh feelings that you cause other people in every circumstance. Have you ever heard of that Like we're big into these YouTube videos that um near experien people.

people recount their experiences having died and come back to life and they, what do they say they uh so they they go through when they you know when they die, they go through the tunnel, they meet their guide or whatever and uh, this right here that uh, near-death experiencers undergo a Life review in which the meaning of their life is presented to them but also how their life affected other people as well as an awareness of the thoughts and feelings of those people you experience whole life as honestly I have literally my whole life up into this Nanc wanted to live forever I'm so looking forward going through that. It'd be interesting when I tell you when I die and go through it and they review all the that you just showed me. I'm going to be smiling like a I have so much more Goodwill towards random human beings, human beings in general than anybody I've ever met and I say this because it's an outlandish statement as a compliment to my parents, predominantly my mother. What did I do they made me I am stunned on a daily basis How Lucky I Am of how nice I feel towards every human of all shape sizes and angles especially in the world we live in now where everyone's just trying to at all cost around anything it we ran out of to be mad at each other for religion, race, gener now we're on Generations now we're teaching humans Okay hey everyone, if you're in gen Z you have to hate Boomers and hey Millennials you have to hate like I'm like watching all this and I'm like so anyway seeing this for the first time I'm pretty fired up I'm looking forward to it I'm gonna grab some popcorn have God show me my and I think I'm going to crush it you said you once said something that really uh struck a chord with me was uh I want to be remembered for giving more than what I took when I tell you I it similar to what we're saying here and maybe you've heard this as well I'm not sure I haven't said I used to say it all the time I haven't said it recently I Literally literally live my life based on how many people are going to show up to my fun funeral I Believe most people do not show up to funerals unless it's really really really that person like I think back to my life and watching like funerals and being like I cannot believe X wasn't like you know like obviously like to compel someone to go to your their funeral.

you had to have a real impact. yeah like actually and like look I've I'm very fortunate 48 I've been to I've been unfortunately I've been to a lot of funerals in the business world and boy I've I remember when I was 19 I went to this one funeral and there was like nine people there and I was like makes sense he just was not nice you he laughing it was like Honestly though it was very real to me I was like this guy was profoundly successful in the business the liquor business that I was a part of but he was just genuinely not kind and like and I saw it all manifested right there and I'm like mm I'm going to do the reverse of this yeah and I'm and I was such a I'm like and I'm going to build a much bigger business with with the the This Life review thing. it's the saying is you see your life flash before your eyes I know everybody's heard that and it's like like like all of these people who have had near-death experiences are are are describing the same thing and what's crazy about it like to make you even more excited and maybe the rest of us less excited is that is that the the the construct of time is something that like only really applies in this physical realm but like on the other side the way they describe it it's just like there's just there's not uh uh it's not in the confin of so the detail like you can feel like like from like the perspective of a misquito that's off like 300 yards over there. like the the detail like the the the detail of the experience and without any uh constraint of time is like so like beyond our compreh can you please stop talking because I literally like am getting too excited and I still got a ton of do die right and and I I I feel very strongly that I've done more good than bad but man do I have a something I think you'll enjoy I think you're going to enjoy this because I think about this as well and now you just said it and Trigger something I am so excited to give you this these flowers that I'm about to give you we're all living life you're a public figure um in the business World moving and shaking 20 times in the last 20 years I am so excited to tell you I love the way people talk about you that actually know you w cool man thank you yeah you do good business for the most part and like and it's funny it's sometimes not even like I'm very talkative and extroverted and talk to a lot of people.

even one I remember is like how you treated someone at a restaurant. Okay, they told me they they were actually paying me a compliment comparing me to you the way you also treated them nice. Oh that's cool. Yeah so definitely business like.

he was great on the Sho or this and that. but like people are watching we're affecting people and not just people that are known all of us every human. like if you're a human walking by and another human that doesn't have any followers or one they're not nice. you feel that it's really funny.

I'm like I do this a lot it's my natural state I've been doing it since I was eight I really enjoy smiling at people like it's really interesting. man like no no like hahaa or whatever. just like real talk like just like seeing somebody at Dunkin Donuts getting coffee and they're in front of you line. you just look at them.

you're like like a little I like to do a little hand and like people really like it. Well there's some funny Reactions where if you smile at somebody then they look away and they they smile. you notice that they like weird out but they look away and they realize and then they smile as they're looking away. it's just it's really sad like I feel like Civility and loving your neighbor like some of the that was actually really.

I've been thinking about this a lot the last month. Oh this the this. how I think about stuff. Oh, we've put youth on a pedestal.

Youth: Yeah, these kids know technology. Jenz has a say they're going to be better than us and we've really started to disrespect our elders. They don't get it. They up the world for us.

They don't know how to use technology and for all these years it was the reverse, right? right? Respect your elders. I Saw something that me up the other day. These three kids good dudes. they weren't trying to do.

they weren't like Hans but they were just sitting on the F at the airport on these three chairs and this 80-year-old lady like clearly was looking for a I was on the phone having a business call but I was watching it and I was like dude, how the is nobody getting up for this lady and like that would have never happened. In 1954, every person would got up. Yeah, I've done that. The other thing too is that old people serve as a reminder of our mortality.

and if we don't want to think about our mortality I think there's some validity to that I Just think we underestimate wisdom? Sure. I Just think we do. Okay, how about this, um, the uh, the the idea of having children. Yes you know, back in the in the beginning of the country and and and in and work on the farm times? Yeah we needed them workers.

Yeah you needed workers and you wanted to have more children so that when you in your like end of your life you would have these children to care for you. It was the you were setting yourself up with caregivers. That's right. and somewhere along the line I'm going to guess it was somewhere between the Boomers and the Gen xers Y that uh that that that that shifted to where children uh were no longer uh, future caregivers.

They the children became really expensive pets and and that's all it is. As a kid is like you have have children now you've got really expensive pets. Yes that you have to take care of at fully into their adulthood. like I Saw I saw a statistic um in 1940, um like over uh over 90% of every kid.

um would uh be more successful than their than their parents. Then in 1980 that became a 50-50 coin flip 1980 it became a 5050 coin flip. So what is it now? what percentage do you think of Jen's ears have 15? That's the general area. We're going to find out we more success do better than their parents.

You know. Um, Oh wa jenzy. Most likely to say they're doing better than their parents. Okay, that doesn't tell us anything.

Well yeah, what were? Um, did you have a stat in mind that you're going to say I I don't know I only know I only all I saw was 1940 I think what you're saying is like cuz most geners are like dude I can't even afford a house now. Well right I mean and that's the thing. like I got out of ectomy because uh, you know multiple reasons but very major uh influence on me getting the sectomy was what I considered to be just dwindling opportunity like they you hear people say the American dream uh you know isn't what it would used to be Yeah, you know I'm a I'm more optimistic than that I By the way, I understand all of that and there's plenty of validity to have that conversation. I think there's a couple problems first.

I Think it's hypocrisy. Let me explain. You have all these Gen Z kids saying like my parents, they up and they're 24 and they're on the payroll right? Like Like So first it's really s hard to say. well I can't do it or this sucks and you're not changing the narrative for yourself.

meaning our lack of patience of eating for a period of time to get to where we want to get to is Gone Gone Gone The reason so many people were able to make it was you thought that it would take 15 years for you to make it MH Now you tell someone who's 21, it's going to take 15 days to make it way and they're like nah man I ain't got that time I'm like bro, all you got is time Now a couple things. one I'm generalizing I've met an ungodly amount of 18 to 22 year olds who are on fire who want to do it. Plenty of that but it has become because some people popular culture is up people because Mark Zuckerberg could in seven years because of the internet get to a tril everyone's like yo you know the top 1% in America the richest country in the world, the top 1% Mak 650,000 a year Lot of money but every kid that's 19's like if if you tell them well you're only going to make a million year they like damn I suck. They think it's like so easy it's impossible YouTube influencer money.

That's right and so every everyone's confused. So couple things I get that I understand why that's happening. Separation of wealth is an issue. it's all Roman Empire But here's my thing.

as a human. don't be discouraged meaning okay the American dream listen I Love America I Immigrated here from the Soviet Union I Love this place. But really, as a human, it's all about accountability. If someone if I was 19 and somebody told me bro 10 years from now, it's a wrap.

Nothing can happen here. My next question would be like where does it happen and if they were like Australia I'd be like let's go like like to me it's like okay, like honestly you know it's like I there's always an option like I'm so pumped Next year's an election year mainly because all my buddies and friends and acquaintances and business associates are all going to say the same dumb if x or y, whichever one of the two wins I'm leaving I've been doing this for 20 years. there's not a that moved to Canada Yeah, do you want to be in the frying pan or the fire this time around neither. neither.

neither the the ice box eating some. I think 2024 is going to be a good year because I think the fed's going to start dropping the rate because it's an election year. Bitcoin Having I think the crypto markets are going to start popping off. so then the real estate where you at with the real estate market if they're going to be dropping the rates.

Do you think though that there's going to be more inventory? I don't One thing I like is I speak with a ton of conviction of what I know and I tread lightly where I don't know, don't know real estate I Watch it I'm a human being I like business I Like pop culture, it's all part of it. but no I don't have the expertise I think what I do have is I'm good at history and of course to your point if interest rates start coming down starts to happen of course people aren't going to buy when money's got an 8% big on it and it did like like this is very historical. um there's also Trend changing meaning shit's changing like where people want to live how people want to live. Now it's Zoom life like it's like when some kid the other day said Gar I'm just going to live around the world and do all my meetings and I'm like I get it and they can and they can I'm like get it I'm like yeah you like van life yeah bro like I'm like I get it like like like to me everything's like why not like everyone wants to look at yesterday without understanding where tomorrow's going.

like why can't you be a kid and by the way, once you make that shift the places you can live if you love the outdoors and you're a little bit more Rural and stuff like that like some of the like sometimes I get weird and just Google I'm like 900 acres and weird in like weird do it right now 900 acres in Pennsylvania like watch this right you ever do this Zillow porn yeah it's like it's like just click anything like I don't know there you go the first one I don't give a pay the ad fee l.com um like some of this play. figure it out. I Believe you, you've been very good at navigating this. He's A, he's a genzer.

Look at this. This shit's crazy to me. Here we go: 845 Acres look at this 88 now that's 11. Do do me what I'm looking find me like three acres for like $4 Go like least Price: 800 acres for a million.

Two: that's like 800 soccer fields That's crazy. Isn't this like I Look at this stuff. So I Think about somebody who loves the woods. Actually let's just use this 878 acres in.

Alabama You got it right there. Bottom left, third, fourth, one down. If you don't mind with the river not that one. go down, left, down down that right there.

that's pretty the creek. Let's just look at this for a second. look. $3.5 million is a ton of money.

Let's put things into perspective. Comma 800 78 Acres So if you're someone who genuinely loves that life and you needed and you wanted to live in New York City and work in New York City And to get this kind of thing you had to go to the Hamptons where it cost $8 million for a half a acre or you could just chill in Odil Alabama what the this is and have 878 hunt every day work. live off the food in the land and the whole that and like. but you could go on Zoom all day from your and that goes for San Diego And that goes for some tropical place that we can probably Google Now like the world's changing and I love that and so I'm not like honestly I'm not worried about my mom made more money than me or the American Dreams done.

Here's the punchline. The American Dream has been going on for a 100 years and there's been unlimited who've