The reality is, most of the social that's out there isn't working because it's selfish. You want the likes, you want the money and we don't want that. You need to put out things that provide value and they can come in a lot of shapes and sizes. I'll tell you who.

I'm really fascinated by the people who are posting on a daily basis who have very tiny, tiny audiences that enjoy it to no end. This becomes a very simple game of why are you doing this You do it because you loved the thing that you're putting out there and it's part of the process you're gonna win. The problem is too many people want certain things and they want it fast and that's a disaster Framework: You're kind of in the middle of it right now, right? We're right in the middle of this incredible weekend that I'm sure because I know you've put a lot of thought into you've been excited about how are we feeling at halftime? Thank you! Um, so first of all, like our organization in the MBA um I'm just looking around to see Fairline moved here like a month ago just to sit at the Grand America for like a month to make sure this was going on. That sounds like a privilege.

The Great America's Great America is pretty sweet and then like we look at Caroline and everything she's doing with the Jazz and it's just been a community effort because you just very rarely get these moments that you know you're gonna be talking about like I was there 30 years ago. Yep, yeah, I was in the Salt House right here 30 years ago and like we know we're coming at it again and so I think we've all kind of taken the strategy. look. we're Folsom full sin all the way up to it falls in all the way through it.

we can sleep next week I Love it. I Agree. Um, let's talk about just the Journey of getting to this point. you know we we did a podcast recently and you made a point.

Uh, you know I am very loud for a very long time. rape my ambition to buy the New York Jets my great love in sports and you talked about being able to buy the team that you loved in a world where just even getting to the place of buying a team is so ludicrous. so needle in the haystack, so one in a trillion. But to then actually get your team is it's crazy do you pinch yourself in moments like this? So first of all, you're not going to be the whole time I Love to talk.

You can interview me the whole time. I'm ready. Um, first of all, it's not awesome. like 30 years ago being a kid in junior Jazz and like getting a ticket to coming here and like being able to be up here.

um about this journey um is interesting because just like you with the Death when we had this conversation, you can name every draft pick of offense alignments. it didn't work out over the last 15 years. And quarterbacks, there's a there's a lot of them but uh and um so look, there's a lot a lot that goes into that. But when when Ash and I like made a decision like hey and this is what we want to do and there's so much hurt because you know these opportunities don't come up and we originally had an opportunity that was extremely rare with another team and I was all I told the story I was all the way down to the end and she knew I was kind of on a solo Mission here like full with an artist right? and she's like what? what about her Jazz tickets and I was like yeah, what about him she's like, well games and I was like well, no, it really doesn't work that way.

you can't describe it. he's really it's like having a new child. you just fall in love and you're everything there and she's like no and the next week because I kind of decided about a two-week period the next week I knew that like I wasn't I wasn't getting a lot of attention and it wasn't communicating very well and I knew she was kind of like hey, um awesome Fortune but this is not right and so I remember calling Adam saying like this might be the only time I know 30 teams and it was super rare tiny threading but we're just gonna have to pass and he's like why? honestly because of the Jazz pass Wow and and then what happened this isn't after I I mean I was actually in this building and I sat down with an event like this open slopes I sat down the door I'm Gail right now I got it. This would be like you're sitting down with the Jets yeah forever and I said Gail this was February for 35 years and it's not anywhere else and I said cool, You're gonna give it an incredible job.

It's awesome but I had to kind of have that conversation before I went down the other way. sure because that was like option one. this is option 30. and we turned it down and we just I went back again and said hey, we're going to be the best sponsors and the supporters of their dads.

Do you have anything you need from us because we're all in on the team and afterwards too and in July or is that hey, are you still interested and I was like oh, you guys are thinking about carving a little bit out she's like well it was kind of like well they said it's kind of like the whole thing I was like you're joking, this isn't real and then I said yeah, that's how we're here is like it's just a stewardship. I was with you this morning at the Utah People know it's a little bit of a calling. like like a little bit. Yeah, it's like we know the responsibility of this.

It's as much a Community Asset is anything you'll be a part of. This is not a money maker. This is about doing good. It's about this.

It's about bringing the championship here. You would be saying the exact same thing and you no no no no no no you will be saying the exactly you will be the same exact same thing and I don't have an NFL team I need to grow up to the Dolphins I'm not available. The joy I have talking to your players currently because I talked to some of them just. it's just so fun.

Maybe bringing it to something that impacts a lot of us because you're in rarefied air here. There's nothing better than being in a family of seven in a small business of 23 in a corporation of 800 8 000. There's just nothing better than when the top is right. Everything stems from that and I think it just really I'm very happy.

You know, since you're in the Western Conference I'm a Knicks fan I have no feelings towards the Jazz that are negative which makes this quite comfortable right? Like the Bulls mascot came up to me, I was like trying to be you know, courteous because there was kids around and we took a photo. but when he when the basket left I was extremely upset I hate the Bulls I'm four. hold on let me get this off my chest. I'm 47 years old I'm a Knicks fan 47 year old Nick Fans have to hate the Bulls have to do.

it's a rule Yeah Fair enough. let's go. But hey I have to ask you a question. Okay, you came over my house yes yes and he said five.

He said five yes and you told one of the most amazing stories to him and it was one of those moments with my boy I was like I hope you're listening like I hope you never forget this because it was so organic like. It was always one of those moments where I was like what's going on here yeah I mean the it was. We had a great time, asked the kids it was just really nice before a game and I'm meeting the boys and what's your name and he says Jet and that really catches my attention and I'm like that's amazing and then just kind of. I've met other boys named Jet through the years but this was the first time I asked him I said what's your favorite number and when he said five it was just.

it was just like this incredible moment. I think about a lot. It happened recently and um so for me I was born in the Soviet Union and came to this country when I was three and the first couple years were extremely rough. We were extremely poor and when we moved in 1982 when I was seven to Edison New Jersey that's kind of when our American Dream started.

That's when we were out of like the gutter and and like it started happening and that's when I started. really to be frank, learning more English and becoming Americanized And you know for the raise your hands. If you're under 35, just raise your hands. So for you youngsters, first of all, that's Epic.

Second of all, something crazy happened back in the day. kids went outside and so I went outside and some kids were throwing a Nerf football and I came over and they're like you know My friend Eric Godfrey was says to me what team do you like and I'm like I have no idea and he's like you're a Jets fan and I'm like all right we're Jets fans, you're a Jets fan. It's true that sometimes I wish they were giant fans and said I was a giant fan because four Super Bowl rings would feel very nice. but I love the journey we're on.

I love the climb 100. that is told by The Neighborhood that is exactly how I became a Jets fan. That was the 1982 season I started watching that season because this is right before school in August the season started in September. a couple weeks later and I just started watching and I've never stopped but that but the Jets tricked me.

That was the 1982 season. The Jets made it to the AFC Championship game the game before the Super Bowl So I was like this is great This is what it's going to be like. Obviously we've luckily been able to get back to that game three more times in my lifetime. We've lost them all so that just have never been to a Super Bowl in my lifetime.

But where the story takes a turn. My friends all had Jets jerseys and I asked my mom to get one and we were just not buying those kind of things at that point in our life. the first seven or eight or ten years of America was shelter food. The end, No vacations, no to like, we just weren't buying things and so at night my mom while I was sleeping knitted me a Jets sweater a Jets Jersey and at that point already my favorite number was five and she put the number five on it.

and so it's just. it's singularly my prized possession. When I buy the New York Jets I'm going to take that sweater which I have locked up in the most safe place on Earth and I'm gonna put in the entrance of the super of the stadium with a little plaque that says from not being able to afford a Jersey to owning the whole team and I think you know I think I think a lot of us in this room many don't My father doesn't have this a lot of people I know don't have this but some of us in this room are extremely lucky to be the byproduct of an incredible mother. and when you are the byproduct of an incredible mother, you are really Unstoppable and so like Nothing scares me I think I can do everything and she's you know the beacon and Seed of everything that has worked for me in my life.

And so the number five. The reason if some of you have seen my social media the reason I put up the number five is that's a little bit of a head nod to the person that crafted me and that's my mom. Do that you can imagine I'm like you want to go shoot hoops he's like let's go to the stadium right? Talk to me about let's have some fun because this is a fun weekend. Give me some predictions on tonight.

Three points Slam dunk. Give me give me some observations from the first half of the Season which player or team is surprised the most? Let's have a little sports radio fun all right And he looked pretty calm and first of all, oh sorry if you guys all about that and and um the only thing he asked about it was hey what side am I shooting up You know let's just talk about that because I think we'll like the dunk contest is in yeah it's like interesting because I feel like the NFL decided to go very radical with the Pro Bowl this year they went in a completely different direction. Whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. they did a bunch of things.

Are we competing with the NFL right now? No, no well that was that was that that was that was a Razz Yeah, um no. but seriously I feel like the dunk contest knee is really worth debating innovating heavily like I've been thinking I remember last year when I was at it I was like what a dunk contest would look like if it was two people a team to do the dunk like Obviously people brought people out and they jumped over them and this that the other thing but it feels like we've gotten to a place where we either have to like, put at 11 feet or like do something like it. These kids can only do so much that we haven't seen as fans like you can't ask them to just like be Superman and just stay up there the whole time like there's only so much that can be done. Um yeah and I'm being serious I know what you're saying and I agree with that like and he's just incredibly entertaining to watch, but he's not gonna do any dunk that I'm like I can't believe that just happened.

It's just too hard to do something at this point in the dunk contest that hasn't been done and that was like good marketing I Like that as a as a businessman I was like that was cool yeah I mean look Listen, of course we've gotten into the Cedric Cevallos that D Brown and and Blake but it does feel like I don't know I don't know. Yeah, just exactly like you bring out some player that used to be on the team. like it just feels hard to innovate. It feels like there there needs to be some something.

like maybe a trampoline or something. Yeah, over I didn't see the same thing. Joey You've got some to-do lists this week. Tonight there's something I've never seen before.

What Joey Joey is claiming Joey Get up here. come on. Joey Let's hear it for Joey Come on. get loud.

Okay So foreign one more time for Joey Like that little Switcheroo Yes sir, real quick I Want to hear from your perspective I Want a little more basketball? Sports stuff? Which team um has surprised you most this year or what? Or you're sitting at these games. You're paying attention. What player do you think took the biggest step this year? Give us a little little basketball? yeah? What team or what player? Um, no. the team that is probably And the commonality between both of those is you.

You kind of really want the regular season. We got into the playoffs and it's super disappointing, right? And that's a hard, that's a hard thing to recover from. And I think for us, like going back into our second year where we were having won all the games in regular season and getting bounced early. Anything? um.

but then it's like how do you prep for the playoffs and on the regular season as much because you've got to be healthy. In our situation, we knew what it was like not being healthy and you had a lot of injuries this year. and so I think there's a few teams. There's a lot of teams who are way better than America right now.

but because they haven't been company I mean we're going to just finally see I mean I don't know what is it 10 15 games left that we're going to see a full Warrior's roster? Yep, right before, right? we haven't seen Phoenix yet. Yep, I don't think we've seen the Clippers right? We've seen Boston we've seen um Milwaukee but because and even they have a scary little things. So I think it's going to be an action-packed last part of the season. Um, from a player standpoint, um I mean he went to Europe this summer as being um like that was part of the deal that we did.

Yep, and so we we saw Ventura and the confidence of being the first option and then in fact translates um for the first time in his career when people come in the night before they're looking at the scoutings yes he's he's circled is number one like how do we stop louder So I remember the first couple of games this year where he started going on and it was crystal clear the other teams were focused on it. they were hitting him at every turn and it was just twice as physical for him and to see him be able to handle and acceptable on those he will be able to like run plays a highlight. audience like it's been an incredibly impressive and impressive and then watching others like JC step up and and you know we've made some moves but a lot of those moves were because we wanted to get more playing time to understand what do we have? What do we have? Um for the second half to really see what we've got and um yeah the Giants I hate with all my heart. hey this this here Okay the only thing I want to say is um okay because he's here this NBA All-Star would have been The easy thing is to say no like it's easy in life to say no in this situation to Innovation The hard thing is to say yes and you guys said yes which required so much more work for you all.

but as you Toms and it's the people here, this doesn't happen. everything going on doesn't happen and we would have been isolated to like three events and announce like a whole community. So the impact you're having from this and we're going to have from this is you know whether trying Smith or Gary or some little kid is sitting out there who's going to remember this and that's what it is about I Want to talk a little bit about like marketing? Okay right because with is a little bit of the magic but very as easy as a problem that wants to fix it. he's already playing in his head, the sweater out in front of the the stadium and he knows where it's going to be.

Um, but one of the things that we talk a lot about is how the future of marketing and these jobs which a lot of people are going to be tied to are in some way in a career especially the younger generation. And how you said you know CMOS which are the chief marketing officers of an organization is going to be different than anything that you've ever seen in with digital and everything is coming along. Like tell tell me about your vision and what you're doing with with your businesses and how you believe every CMO that's going to be in the future what have worked for you? Yeah I would say I was so blown away as we've got to know each other through the years. That last part is I think there's just a lot of enjoyment for us to see the people that come through our organizations go on and win.

To me, there's no Greater Joy than the thought uh to be to be ran a Super Bowl commercial that I think a lot of you saw this last weekend and tricked a lot of people is really clever ever. And to know that Nicole their head of marketing was behind that work that arguably and I think so was the Super Bowl commercial of the year was you know brought through the system of Vayner there's no like greater Pride It's not the same exactly as your children achieving, but it gets to like the close Next Level And so the reason I said the right is that marketing is changing so much and we're so at the Forefront in our Vayner world of companies that I know a lot of the CMOS in 12 15 years are going to come through our walls so that's what he's referencing to to make it relevant for everybody in the audience. So many people here whether it's to make their Barber Shop get off the ground like a young man I spoke to a couple hours ago. or maybe it's just because your nephew is running for mayor of your town.

or maybe you just want to raise a couple of bucks for a disease that took your parents life. Everyone here, especially with the way that the world is going, is actually in the marketing business. You know, as we all know, there's almost. There's very few 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds on Earth that don't either produce posts on a daily basis in Social or definitely consume it, right? So we're in a very different era than the radio era, the television era.

we are now in full pledge. mature internet era and marketing is changing dramatically. The biggest companies in the world, many of who do a lot of things with the NBA. The reason Sports is so dominant is there's so much attention.

you know it's funny you mentioned something Joey Adam Like it is astonishing to me how much I'm picking up what Joey's saying about the NBA I Think what Adam has done as Commissioners since he's been here on the shoulders of what David has done. It's pretty remarkable when you compare it to the rest of the sporting world. I Just I believe that to be true. And one of those things that they did, for example was Europe and the rest of World in proper football AKA Soccer has had branding on their jerseys forever.

That was like sacrilege in American Sports And who did it first? the NBA And by the way, in a world where we all know in here that we don't watch that many TV commercials outside of the Super Bowl brand, integration into the thing we're watching the game is very important. So whether it's things like the Patch or things like social media and streaming services actually eating up the majority of people in this room's attention not print, not Direct Mail not television commercials we grew up with, the landscape is changing dramatically and yesterday I was here and I had seven to eight meaningful meetings with CEOs and CMOS of very large companies and I was blown away by how every one of those leaders has completely accepted this new world compared to let's say 2019, you know, even in the beginning of Covid where big Brands still thought I've got to do the big television spot and you got to do the Big Brand campaign And so what comes natural to many people in this room under 25 because it's been their entire world YouTube Social Video game Streaming gaming Twitch like that is now getting to a level of scale and what we know is that there's a lot of people in this room who now know how to use QR codes and they're not under 20. there's a lot of people in this room who are not 20 who are consuming Tick Tock every single day and so the world is changing significantly. and whether you're a big business or whether you are literally a human in here that wants something to happen, understanding how to make the pictures and the videos and the written words for these platforms is the Battleground and that is for me.

The only thing I do for a living for the last 25 years, whether it was helping my dad's liquor store or doing what I do in marketing review friends or whatever I'm doing, it's really just trying to figure out where the attention is and how to be the best at filling that attention with information. You're basically saying hey Lord this is here is the biggest CEOs um and then we fast forward we're only two years plus and and this entire event like all weekend you you have you your fans here. This organization is very fortunate that you have. you are a digital native you yourself and and and that's what I think is so exciting about the NBA as well.

which is you Matt who just jumped into Phoenix right? I saw Mark Cuban this morning working out and it made me think of like yeah well we're working out you know we're trying to stay alive. um you know and and I saw him and I've been thinking a lot about this. like the NBA Ownership's progressiveness is profound. It's why the league is more digital and like look like there's no time machines I Know there's a lot of people here who have a lot of emotions towards digital that I don't like the kids on Tick Tock I don't like this I don't like that that people said that about the automotive people are like I like my horse.

It's true. Go read the articles about the television. We don't need the television. The radio's just fine right there was.

You know how many people here did not want to get email? Do you know how many people here once had a beeper and said I'm never getting a cell phone because my beeper's just fine. Do you know how many people here debated me only 15 years ago that they were never gonna go to the iPhone because their Blackberry had buttons on it and they needed the buttons. We have opinions. Technology doesn't care about our opinions, it's just going to continue to move and either we get on it or it takes us out.

Perfect. I've I've um I've been around you enough to know that your personality is authentic both. Who You Are Just walking around when there's no social and there's no camera and then when you're recording like during morning little video to the world and when you see people and you just tell random strangers like how much I love you and when we're walking by in here and he literally stop and say hey I can't wait to see you I'm looking forward to it. Um you've been in a positive like like this story.

how should I act down and who should I be and so I think that same thing, what am I supposed to be? Who should I act and it's not pulling out of everyone's best self. You manage to be positive and break that Gap in a unique way that people need help Those people who are out there going. hey, what's my social person and how to make those that distance? Because I see it when I'm sitting there on them. First of all, I know you.

you're not that person remotely that person. I I Think that you have to ask the simple question of why are you doing it The reality is most of the social that's out there isn't working because it's selfish. You want the likes, you want the money, you want to sell the thing and we don't want that like the reality is is that the reason people are struggling to your point. the reason people are faking it is because people are not confident in who they are, which is a very real reality.

And that's not a new thing that has been a human truth forever. But the reality is is you need to put out things that provide value and they can come in a lot of shapes and sizes. There's people like myself who've built large audiences and we can analyze that. I'll tell you who.

I'm really fascinated by the people who are posting on a daily basis who have very tiny, tiny audiences and enjoy it to no end. They enjoy it because they just want to share videos of them playing video games or cooking or things of that nature. This becomes a very simple game of why are you doing this If you're doing it because you enjoy it and it is a hobby no different than playing golf or sailing or skiing. You do it because you love the thing that you're putting out there and it's part of the process you're gonna win.

The problem is too many people want certain things and they want it fast. So now people like oh, I'm gonna do this because I'm going to become famous and get brand deals and I'm going to be a millionaire in a week because I'm big on Tick Tock and that's a disaster framework right? A lot of other people spend their time on there trying to scare and hurt people because they themselves are scared and hurt right? I Tell people all the time A lot of people are like I can't post anymore The negative comments crush me and I asked them of like do you ever think about instead of being upset for yourself being up being compassionate to the person that's leaving that if somebody takes time out of their day to come to your page and tell you you suck their life is horrible. don't feel bad for yourself, feel bad for them so you know for me what I would tell everybody here is to understand I Just want to do I just want to do for the world. Yep for you to say you're not dealing with this, you're like this is what's going on.

like life's great for you. like and by the way I say yeah I say I'm sorry you feel that way but you know nothing about my life. you think you do. You don't know how I got here.

you don't know what's actually happening. The biggest issue right now is America has fallen in love with pointing fingers the second you get into thumbs. It gets real good when people are accountable. The reason I have no judgment on anyone is because I know I don't actually know what's going on in their lives.

You have no idea if their mom just called and said their father's terminally ill. You have no idea about anything. you think you know you think you know and it makes you feel good to judge because it's a micro release of what you're feeling. So for me, when people say easy for you I'm like you don't you know? First of all, honestly I struggle to even get into you don't know me because I go into deep compassion of like damn you're gonna need to go there because you're not in a great place I hope that gets better.

You know, like you know I don't post content to get affirmation I post content At this point I've come to realize I'm posting content because I just wanna I feel guilty I feel guilty that I have such a remarkable mother who built me up and so I'm like screw it I'm gonna try to do for the world what my mom did for me and if like, somebody's willing to listen Good Awesome! That video did well. Well that's interesting. This is where I get to win twice. I'm doing what I'm doing because of my life, my life's journey and I just said it over here: I'm running the most Progressive Largest fastest growing independent agency in the world and so when I'm able to use the insights of the garyvee content or the V friends content or the wine text content to give us insights of the things that we need to bring to our Procter and Gamble or our Pepsi or our Ford client I'm looking at the data not only because I want to do a better when you're trying to do something good for the world.

You want all eight billion people to hear it. I want you all to hear it. So I'm looking at it to figure out the angles of the what we call sock strategic organic content. Too many people post without any thought of what is required to make a post do well.

What's the post-production What time do you post it? What's the copy that supports it? What's the first three seconds of the video? What's the overlay image? So I don't think people are putting enough strategy into it. So yes, I am looking at that, but that's a little bit more to feed the operational beast. and to give me in that back the next video to get as many people to hear it. look, they're about to kick us off.

Do you know that they're yelling at us because we're being rude? Because somebody else has to say so? Can you say goodbye? Thank you? Well then that's what I'm trying to tell you. We're done Okay, we're finished right? it's over for us. Say goodbye and thank you thank you guys! Thank you Foreign.