And that's what i think is happening right now with nft land people are buying the newest mint, the newest, mint, the newest, bad, the newest influencer pump, and what you're looking for is the 4 to 5 to 15 to 75 really good projects. I believe the only way you even have a prayer is to make a judgment call on the founder all right, gary first off. Thank you so much for doing this. It's monday night at uh, 7 p.m.

I uh, so i appreciate you jumping on to record a podcast with me thanks for being it my here, so i got a bunch of questions right. I think one of the most obvious things is like people have heard about nfcs for a long period of time and most people it takes some period of time before they actually get it before it clicks in their mind. What was that for you? Was it the community? Was it just the the fact that you could now own something on the internet? Digitally like what clicked in your mind where you said holy? This could be huge that i believe that people communicate through what they buy more than anything humans do on earth, and that, once i understood the complexities, but actually the lack of friction with my anticipation that the tech infrastructure was going to get simpler by the day. That coinbase had gone public.

You know, i think a lot of people are confused, that it takes 67 ingredients for something to pop off that sports cards had had exploded in the last three years that the robin hood crowd was and reddit crowd was grooming and yet youngsters thinking of themselves as Investors as popular culture that the world of roblox and fortnite and 2k and madden points that digital currency candy crush these things mobile games, where you power up for digital. You know that that was happening, that social media had hit a crescendo where you're taking photos constantly to communicate to people oftentimes, alluding to things that you spent money on whether that's food wine a trip. The way you travel clothes i just had put in enough work in a concentrated period of time, where i realized. Oh people, going to buy these things because they're going to want to communicate with their friends and then once i understand the utility of the contract.

If you look at be friends which launches four months later, it's attached to a three-year physical conference, you know, six months later, i opened a restaurant that the membership is right, so it was not only the social behavior that i have watched humans do from the history Of time and here's a new outlet at scale and they're going to be able to use the social web 2 mature world to flex their web three assets, oh and by the way, there's a secondary, non-trivial part, which is this isn't about communication and human behavior. This is about utility contracts. Oh, there seems to be enough smoke around this um. My spidey senses are like we're getting close.

Let me go in deep, and this is gon na pop off sometime in the next year or two. I feel like it happened. Six months later, this summer, right, um, and so that's kind of why, from day one i wanted to strategize access and events with b friends, because i know when the hits the fan. If i just decide, i don't like what's going on, even though my contract currently obligates me to three v cons.

If i want to just add three because the market's and i feel bad for people that spend 30k to buy one and now the current market's eight. Well, i can do that. It's my huge preference, not to these things, cost 10 million dollars a piece to throw. I don't have a lot of time.

I'd like to like do other things, but if i want to, if i want to because 40 of my holders bought at the height of the market, and i feel like i want to oh my god, i can and that's very different once i understood that power And i knew myself, which was - i will never compromise my reputation for money. This is built for me. That's why joe i went full steam because i knew that i could protect myself by always providing value to the original holders in perpetuity. So the answer is yes.

Now that comes in a lot of forms, if i'm able to successfully like, i think, i'm going to over the next 30 years, build a pokemon like collectible ecosystem. Well, those characters are going to be a collectible because they're, the first alpha they're, the fossil they're, the one and there will be a collectible value into that. But i'll give you an example i'll give you another thing that i think about a lot. I think that there's a high chance that i will open a great adventure, busch gardens, you know disney world is a beast, so i don't you know as audacious as i like to roll with my confidence, but even at disneyland.

Well, if walt disney started today the way i'm starting today, don't you think that the original nft holders probably would have had lifetime passes to disneyland and disney world, because i can tell you right now, i'm putting it on film and audio. We both look young and by the time i execute this in 30 years. We won't look this good, so the split video that i make then is going to look funny, but every v1, the friends holder, will have a lifetime pass with that to the amusement park and that's like 26 years from now value creation, and i will continue to Provide value in how i navigate this, even if i horribly fail in my quest to make people care about these characters, i can turn these tokens into business partnerships, business, mentorships, access to me and a million other things. How do you think uh? This leads me to the next point, which is like the the macro view kind of stepping outside of just nft specifically - and i know you spend um - probably the majority of your time, thinking about nft specifically and how you can provide value to the people within your Project, but if we zoom out - and we just look at crypto, do you worry much about how bitcoin ethereum any of these other assets are doing on a day-to-day basis, or are you more focused on kind of just nft landscape and the rest will take care of Itself more number two um, though i'm a human being and i'm paying attention uh, i'm always paying attention.

Obviously, in the filming the time we filmed this we've had a real correction drop whatever you want to call it bearish event since mid-november early november um. No, i don't. I don't get fixated on the short term. There is no scenario where the consumer blockchain is not a part of our lives in perpetuity.

There's no scenario: the cat's out of the bag. They exist it's over now, yeah. I i think i probably agree with that for sure uh and one of the things that i give you a lot of credit for uh. Both here today and publicly is like you've, been very open and honest about the risk associated with this stuff right, and i think that uh that's a good thing, because ultimately, there is a lot of risk.

There's a lot of projects out there that are not providing any value really, and people are buying into them for the exact reasons that you mentioned earlier, that they just want to flip them. They're coming for profit, et cetera and you're, going to have that everywhere. Right, i don't think that means that nfts are worthless, but one of the one of the questions i got when i tweeted out uh that we were going to do this was people were responding and saying. Hey.

Look gary has said: 98 of these projects are going to go to zero right, they're worthless, and maybe two percent are really successful and they end up being worth a lot. What is there? Is there like an established criteria in your mind of hey? These? Are the things that i look for in a project to make it valuable of those two percent yeah? The only thing i look for is the founder. It's the only thing. I know how to look at meaning there'll be tons of things that are for mark zuckerberg.

First time founder right, like the google guys first time founders, sarah blakely first time like like, and you would have missed those but you're, okay with it yeah in something this volatile. This is so volatile that if you're really first of all a you, have to spend money that you can afford to lose like you have to like if you're listening right now, if you're investing in nfts, it has to be a sum of money that you can Afford to have to go to zero people playing with their real life on something this volatile are in a very vulnerable spot. What i worry about is that people don't understand the macro in the micro or the nuance. You could buy 17 projects of nfts.

All of those could go from you. Spending 900 bucks, a piece down to 12 bucks and nfts can still win as a genre. It's called sports cards, it's called comic books. You could have bought a million dollars worth of comic books in 1979 and not picked x-men and spider-man and superman and batman.

You might have just decided i'll give you an example. I invested tens of thousands of dollars when i was 18 into valiant and image comics. All of which have gone down to basically zero but had i take spent that same ten thousand dollars on vintage, x-men and spider-man and superman comics 20 years later. I would have done well.

I picked the wrong comics. I lived that actual life i at one. Actually, this is a really good one. I'm gon na use this a little bit.

I picked the wrong comics, but i was right about comics. I saw back in 1999 that nerd culture was going to become mainstream culture. I was right, i was buying toys and comics, but instead of buying a bunch of toy biz, invisible women and ice fan figures for 80, 90 and 100 bucks at shows. I should have been buying.

You know transformer gen 1 in package and that's what i think is happening right now with nft land people are buying the newest mint, the newest, mint, the newest, bad, the newest influencer pump, and what you're looking for is the 4 to 5 to 15 to 75? Really good projects, i believe the only way you even have a prayer is to make a judgment call on the founder. How do you think about people that look at nfts and say i get it, but do i have the time to dig deep in discord? Communities? Do i have the time to look at every project, just walk me through your thoughts to that person. I say: look it's so volatile early now, but you can decide if you want that, whether it's punks or apes, or be friends or cool cats or doodles or world of women, it's all very early. But there is a sub group that is slightly ahead of its peers and if you really really want to go there, you know you can set and forget, i'm i'm fairly set and forget.

You know one of the things i've loved about this space is my my wallets. Are public people can see my behaviors now, i'm also buying certain projects, because i want to support certain artists, i'm buying certain projects, because i do think it's high risk high reward. So i would say, there's a gambling component to the way i think about i'm like oh this project, i'm not even sure i like it, but my brain showed me the path to it being a smash hit. So let me just set it and forget it, and maybe it's 12 likelihood that it's gon na happen.

But if it does happen, it's so crazy and if i do eight of those and one hits it pays for the other seven and the reason i keep telling people not to buy what i buy is. I genuinely believe that ninety percent of the people are day trading they're completely day trading which, by the way this is a you know the world that most of the world is got freedom. Do what you want with your money. I surely can't set or tell people what to do with their money.

I also think that when you day trade, what i'm fascinated by is these day. Traders are mad at the founders of projects when their product isn't pumping every hour on the hour, and i tell a lot of founders. I'm like you're, listening to your discord and your discord is filled with people that are looking for. Super duper duper short term roi and you're building a project that you want to be your project for the rest of your life, those interests don't align.

I don't i, i don't think a lot of people are navigating their projects properly right now, because they're playing boy that cries wolf, because they're doing something every hour on the hour to appease people in the discord who are not their community. Who are there actually to do their own short term pump for their own value? And i think that a lot of founders are going awry by over listening to people that have their own financial vested interest in mine in a very short period of time versus the founder, navigating her or his project in perpetuity. Yeah i mean you're, an investor, you get this more than anyone. Everyone wants to be an investor right, there's a bunch of solo, uh capitalist.

Everyone wants to go out and invest money in in these companies, whether private or public or whatever. It is. How do you think about that shift from like? Should more people be focusing on the entrepreneurial aspect of this and building their own personal brands, or should is the investor route the right way to go? I think self-awareness is the right way to go like if, like, for example, a lot of my friends make fun of me, because i've had such a good investing career and they're like what are you like, 14 hours, a day of meetings with client? What are you doing and i'm like, i enjoy being an operator, and so i think you know i have a lot of friends, who've, transitioned and jumped up and down to both from operator to investor, from investor to operator, investor, operated investor operator, operator, investor and they've Done the whole nine - and i think i mean there's a lot of people listening right now - should that should never be either. That should be a number six at a great company.

There's i've talked about this in the past a lot and i've gotten incredible emails from people who sought out a great company calm. I remember somebody sent me an email they're. Like you changed my life, i was listening to a podcast. I thought i had to be a founder because it was cool and you said no just like be self-aware, i was employed number 13 at com.

This happened to me where i was employee number 27 at this epic cup like so. I i think to answer your question to get self-awareness like if you genuinely enjoy investing and you think you're good at it and it's enjoyable and it's fulfilling than the muscle tough for me, i'm very proud that at the age of 22 may of 1998 to now January 2022, 24 years straight every day, i have been the sole pressure on my back to make payroll of a business all every day, and i successfully built my dad's business. I built one of the largest agencies, independent agencies in the world. I co-started and sold resi.

I co-starred and sold empathy wines. I've got v friends which is which i'm operating um. I have a lot of pride in being an actual operator. I always smirk, because i've done such a prolific job with social content and social content is just like an amuse foosh.

It's not a real meal when people say funny things like what does garyvee even do. Meanwhile, i'm doing so many operating things at once. It always makes me laugh, but it means that i've prolifically shown the public speaker or the pontificator of ideas on social um. But it's not as obvious that i'm running a 1500 percent global agency holding company or that i'm running a 25 person, nft business or the rezzies and the empathies and the other things i've done - that have been derivatives of the vayner x infrastructure and and that and That is really where i have my pride, i'm an operator giving up the first 12 years of my career and i mean really giving it up seven days a week, retail, never getting paid a lot of money, building a business that i left at 34 years old.

With nothing and no ownership of is disproportionately the greatest accomplishment of my career because emotionally it strikes me on every tear duct i have in my body. I fundamentally changed the financial status of my parents and they're the two people that i most adore. I mean they did everything for me. They immigrated to a new country.

My mom is like the ultimate she built all my emotional graph. My dad worked every hour to make our american dream come true. It's something that i hope, as we end this podcast, that people can really, especially kids that are growing up in a family business can really take in because what i had is all that funny stuff that people laugh at me about of, like you got time, you're Young and all the jokes are like my videos about that. I lived it.

I was 22. I knew that i was young. I knew that i'd be young at 34 or whenever i left my dad's business and i didn't have the resentment or the angst of building it for him, and i built a business from a 3.8 million dollar business to a 65 million dollar business, which was game-changing For my family, yeah and um, and i left happy and accomplished, and i'm a 46 year old man now 12 years later, i feel so grateful that i did that because i played out my thesis i built for them and i have had enough time to build For myself and now at 46, i have the taste of both i've been able to do the noble, selfless altruistic son of a parent group that he loves so much move. That is like i'm extremely proud of in my soul, and i've been able to do the accomplish things for myself.

My selfish needs the things i need for me and it's a great feeling yeah. I i really respect, and i mean that was obviously a great answer, but i really respect everything that uh you your brother, your whole family is building right, because i see a lot of parallels in my life, where i get a ton of enjoyment out of doing Things uh with my family, with my brothers, with my parents right and it's like by far and away the most rewarding part of any of this is, is you know the money doesn't come with you right? So it's uh, it's obviously fun to win, but it's funner. It's more fun to do it together, it's the best like dinners laughing war stories like it's the best it's the best anyway, i'm overtime, i got ta, get to something else. This is i appreciate you, thank you uh and uh, we'll do it again sometime soon.

Gary. Thank you.