So are are you like All in on like Nfts? I I know I mean I'm all in on Nfts. The Nft technology is remarkable. It's insane. Why don't people see it? Gary Because a lot of people don't see it because the first year of people discovering it, they're scammiest friend made eighty Three thousand dollars selling a penguin with a penis in its eye. Of course people don't. Normal people don't get it. They're right. It's the same reason people didn't get the internet in 99. You had normal people saying how the hell is Pets.com worth 85 billion dollars. They haven't sold any stuff yet I'm not even sure Chewy.com has that valuation, you know? So like you know, they're because they're right. The greed took over the short-term flipping took over and that shadowed the incredible You know black and white of the incredible technology infrastructure of a global scaled Ledger that can affirm ownership that can unlock everything. Gary What's up man? welcome back to Bankless. It's so good to be with you guys. Thank you so much! Thanks for everybody who's watching. It's a rainy day here in New York City Indeed it is, but um, but uh, I'm grinding along. It's been a big day. Well, you know what grinding I think is a good theme, right? Because uh, we're at least in The Wider Crypto World We're in kind of this. this bear Market You know, Um, and so that's what people tell me anyway. I'm not feeling particularly bearish, but uh, some people are. Prices are down in a lot of areas. It's been about a year and a half I think you came on in May of some time 2021. Uh yeah in launching V Friends during kind of this this secular bull market that we had in Nfts and crypto like in general, um tell us what you've been up to since that time like catch us up and and give people a feel if you will Gary for like what is the V Friends project itself like what is the purpose of it and what have you been working on since we last spoke I mean since we last spoke a ton because that was just the launch of series One. Since then that August September I created something called book Games where if you bought 12 copies of my latest book you would get Nfts that I did on a mutable which then became like functional for something I did in January where there was an exchange and then that triggered advantages to get series Two, mints and special series twos that nobody else could get. Series two came out in May of this year. um uh or in April And then the big play. The original premise of the Friends was to establish intellectual property Smurf Scooby-Doo um all that stuff and um and Disney Pokemon like how substantial of a Sesame Street like IP can I create because it's something I've always wanted to do. If you look at you know you look at wrestling and toys and garage sales. this has been Obsession of mine I Thought I was going to buy a nostalgic IP This was something I talked a lot about in my career once: I saw the Nft uh, realities of 2021. It was funny when I saw Crypto kitties in 17 I was like huh but I just didn't I didn't really get there 2020 NBA Top Shot And then that brought me quickly to Crypto punks and I was like oh, and then obviously everything that happened that winter into 2021. Um, so the mission has always been building intellectual property things like the Uno collaboration like I've got to build these characters I Now at a higher level, the characters are meant to do what Gary vaynerchuk likes doing as Gary B which is spread positivity and kindness and compassion and patience but also tenacity and work ethic. And you know I think we've become so blue and red and I'm so deeply passionate about purple the world has become or it's really about. And and I have a substantial mission for beef friends to be a positive impact on the universe the way Marvel and Sesame Street and other intellectual properties have, um done so and so that's been the focus on top of that to make the initial cost valuable to people. I did a three-year super conference right called Vcon and so since we last talked I think I had one of the most substantial events in the space which was in Minnesota at U.S Bank Stadium We had seven eight thousand people there. It was an incredible four day weekend. We had an incredible amount of speakers and just enormous amounts of love and positivity and practicality. And you know to me, I'm very proud of the initial costs of the friends being valuable to the three events that people are going to. We'll be announcing Vcon 2023 probably this month, which is way ahead of what we did last year. We've learned a lot. Um, Uno Collaborations, Merchandise collaborations A Reebok sneaker collaboration that is coming. Uh, trading cards that if you go to eBay right now have completely dominated which has been huge for me. so you know, like little subtle things I keep trying to expand the IP like I grew up loving Flintstones Vitamins I did a collab with Mary Ruth Wow, that's awesome, you know and so you know I've been doing a lot. Uh, what I haven't been doing is look I said my piece I put out an obnoxious amount of content in the height of the height of the height and I received smile in there David So you know what I'm about to go I have unlimited receipts of saying 99 of the projects that were booming in the boom were going to zero. So why I believe that? because I saw the behaviors I didn't feel like I felt it was internet stocks I mean I said it constantly. You guys both know this. So what I've been doing is the thing I said I was going to do which is operate and work and build a forty five fifty person team. I've got another 30 hires I have meetings every day I Raise capital for me Andresen Horowitz because I want to be around I don't know how look we're in a bear Market I don't know who's excited? forget about Crypto. Is anybody paying attention to the severity of the war in Europe the macro politics there, the inflation, the underlining reports from FedEx housing's about to crash I Really believe that a lot of companies consumer confidence is down and so I don't know. like I don't expect the great winter you know and so like it's not like this. my my stock portfolio doesn't look good either compared to last summer and my trading cards don't look great and I don't know what you know people expect like the economies don't go on forever right? and so you know what have I been doing everything I said I was gonna do right which is like really work really really hard and I'm very proud of the work I'm doing and we've got a lot of work to do. and to get to the audacity of saying things like Marvel or Scooby-Doo or Hannah Barbera or Transformers that's going to take the rest of my career and that's what I plan on doing. This is forever for me and um I've got to create demand and interest and character development like I've got an ecosystem and then I have to do incredible um, interesting technology. Like one thing I've not alluded to at all. I know my Discord is about to blow up. Let me go into my Discord to see if any because I know a lot of them are watching. Um, you know I've been doing a lot of tech Innovation we have a hefty Tech Team who's been building something I'm very excited about. um that will hit the day of life this year and it's pretty Advanced Tech You know you got a lot of web too. A lot of web3. We're playing a lot of web 2.5 Do you need everything to be anonymous? That's how it felt 18 months ago. now. is username and sign in worth it to make the utilities of the things like? It's super fun and and then to your point, what else have I been doing? I've been staying mentally strong while the you know Market in the macro has been incredibly affected and I'm incredibly compassionate that there's anxiety and concern and angst and winter. Vibes um I You know I hope and pray that everybody heard rule number One which was consistent which is do not spend money you can't afford to lose in these high things. You know a lot of people did and you know I continue to try to provide value like I Love that you can continue to add utility right? I did this incredible Meetup at my dad's store at The Wine Library for people that have The Wine Cellar It was a great time. We've done some great stuff with my my pickleball team meetups. um and then unofficial things. I'm in Germany giving a keynote Let's go meet up with 200 be friends holders so just really focused. You know, just incredibly focused and focus like an athlete like my New York Jets who beat the Pittsburgh Steelers This weekend they were down by 10 points. Very late in the game, the fans in Pittsburgh were cheering with seven minutes ago laughing at my Jets The Jet fans were concerned booing their own players I have to be an athlete on the field I can't even my most Ardent Believers pre be friends have said things in Discord and Twitter that hurt my feelings but I understand why they have Financial losses on paper if they haven't been sold yet and it doesn't feel good when something's worth something and then it's not. but I have to stay focused on the field and tune out any positive or negative comments just like when I was getting the accolades last winter I didn't hear it I needed to focus on the mission and that's that's what I'm focused on like a falcon Focus Falcon's a big V front um I'm focused like a falcon and I'm gonna let history be the judge. Not me, Me. and definitely not Anonymous accounts on Twitter Who've got opinions who've never operated a paper bag, let alone a big company? Sure. Gary There's a lot of just Nft projects out there and some some like you said, have like you know, trended to zero. Others are keeping their head above water, others are doing fine. What What are you doing that you think is working like what? What's the secret sauce to make an Nft? Project work these days and what things might an NFP project need to jettison if it's not working? That's like, what? what things are we keeping what things are we doubling down on what things are we genusing I Don't I don't judge something working based on floor price? Sure, yes. but like and like Community Energy, community, community like engagement? You can't You can't value that either. Too many people are financially incentivized and everyone's getting smoked and then like, like, like it. Okay, whatever whatever criteria of success you want, well that's I'm setting it up right. Like to your point David I Think people are very confused about businesses like Facebook was a disaster this many months. in like I'm pumped for invisible people I'm pumped for you know creatures I'm pumped for world people are working. The problem is they're all publicly traded company DNA now right? like people care about it day to day. I Just want to tell everybody because I was close to these companies. They're the receipts right there. This is. This is like back to receipts I'm in the Robert salad. they're like this is an email from Uber thanking my brother for being the first Rider of Uber in New York Wow that's very cool. He's a receipts brother like and I can tell you right now, 18 24 months in none of these companies looked great I'm not willing to judge board ape yet I'm not willing to judge any of these projects yet and so I think like you know I don't know like what? what to answer your question The people: I'm building an organization I'm focused on the people the process. you know like there's there's missteps along the way. the gift goat has not gone as well as I want to I've jumped in and tried to work it but it takes months for these things to you know you know execute on so I focus on that. I'm excited about you know, like the people: I'm bringing in the talent you know I just uh, my partner in Empathy Wines John Troutman just finished his earn out a constellation is coming to consult with fee friends. That's a note and you know when you're a head coach and you're bringing back one of your assistants you know like I don't know I'm I'm focused out here. So anyway to answer your question, the things that are working, what you keep is the people on your team that can do what's not working, people that can't do and you've given them a chance, but they haven't. you gotta really go. and so I'm an operator like and I'm not willing to put my head up from the sea and see what the stock ticker says. it has nothing to do with anything for me meaning I'd love for everything to be Rosy but I'm not in control of that I didn't call Pooh and then say go attack Ukraine that wasn't me. I've got to focus on defense and what I'm doing is laying the foundation for a lot of people to care about these characters which will build a real company which will allow me to do incredible things for the people that hold the Nfts. What's interesting to me is right. So as you said, like, over 99 of these Nft projects are gonna die this bear cycle right? Like we have to be real about that. But one percent might survive. It might be a fraction of one percent. What's it gonna take? What What does it take to survive during the bear market? and Gary What's what's it going to take to restore confidence and entities? Like when are Nfts actually going to come back? Is there some feature that we have to unlock? Is there a focus area? Is it like all about utility? Now like what's the new meta and how do we get out of this bear? Market A couple things I Want to apologize to Dewey Perrin Who just said in the comments I think this guy's Inseparable insufferable. so I obviously I want to apologize for that because I don't want to make you really upset. Um, you know I think people have to provide value To your point when Marvel comic books came out in the 40s, right 30s? What have you? after years of cartoons and toys and other Comics people then cared and all of a sudden you cared to own. you know, a Spider-Man or a Superman in DC or Batman And and so if you're talking about collectible value like I just want to own this like a like a Andy Warhol or a Spider-Man number one or a Jordan sneaker that takes decades it you know. Which is why I made those videos about 99 to zero like it wasn't going to work like it went too high. more like beanie babies or stocks like Pets.com in in the me in the short term. To your to your point, it's going to be utility. What that utility is is access. uh, other items, physical items, you know, community events. The thing that I started to be friends with like be friends were sold with an underlining three-year super conference that justified the initial cost, then got crazy and depending on when you got in, it changed the variable. but the original layout was thoughtful to this moment. Because you need to provide value right? and so I think you know every project needs to think about. Can this is the beauty of the blockchain? Can I add more value for the person that's holding it? Value comes in a million different things. Uh, I just did something with the Gift Goats I mentioned that I'm not happy with. You know the gifts that I've been saying I need to do a better job I added Nfts as part of it early on and I think that might have with my psychology, but they want the gift and then I added a new thing this. October The Gift Goats and I are going to be in Atlanta for two hours in an epic basketball court right with Shaquille O'Neal That's just a very small group. probably only 100 to 200 of the 555 gift codes can make it because they're all over the world. You know, an intimate two hours of business. q a some fun and games, some photos, some hanging out. you know, like how did you get? how did you get Shaq on board I I use my business development skills, you know I also have a lot of relationships. This is why I'm confident. This is why I keep believing in myself like brother. I'm not going to stop until it's good like I don't understand how anybody doesn't understand that I'd rather die than let cynics be able to write the history of new friends not being a good project I Could do this forever I'm gonna do this forever. So are you like all in on like Nfts? I I know I mean I'm all in on Nfts. The Nft technology is remarkable. It's insane. Why don't people see it? Gary Because a lot of people don't see it? because the first year of people discovering it, their scammiest friend made eighty three thousand dollars selling a penguin with a penis in its eye. Think about that. Of course people don't. Normal people don't get it. They're right. It's the same reason people didn't get the Internet in 99.. your normal people saying how the hell is Pets.com worth 85 billion dollars? They haven't sold any stuff yet I'm not even sure Chewy.com has that valuation, you know? So like, you know they're because they're right. The greed took over the short-term flipping took over, and that shadowed the incredible you know black and white of the incredible technology infrastructure of a global scaled Ledger that can affirm ownership that can unlock everything. You know what's what's interesting about this market, and it's maybe different than other businesses you've run. But like you tell me, it's like people aren't used to the volatility of crypto. like it messes with their minds. It messes with them psychologically, right? right? We've seen the Internet before, but like it's hatching prices and tickers to these things is weird is like throws people around I'm empathetic. man. Money up things. Yeah I mean the highs are so high and the lows are so low. And the just the sense of like they have to play with money they can afford to lose. It's a volatile asset right now. Ever Changing Of course when this becomes normalized, you know of course. but I also think it changes in certain projects like it has to be able to do something. It can't be a speculative thing. This is why I've always liked Nfts I understood that the entrepreneurs could create the thing it does right. like whereas with with you know and that and currencies can too. but I just think too many people are relying on comic book and art and toy flipping and baseball cards not enough on operational business like you need to think like Amex black card and Chase rewards and Live Nation and tops and Mattel like you have to think bigger business. Are you seeing these big businesses like continuing to build during the Bear Market. So David and I just did an episode last week and like we noticed like Disney is hiring lawyers IP Specialists to specialize in their blockchain IP technology I mean Sotheby's just rolled out an entire platform for Nft art and these things during the the Bull Run uh I mean they were shattered from the rooftops. Everyone was talking about it now during kind of the the Bear run, some of the developments of these like companies are completely unnoticed. like no one even pays attention. No one cares. What are you seeing from your side are big companies entering the game? It's like you know my energy is very a matter of fact the men because like it's almost as if nobody heard all the logical conversation of last year for me or anybody else right? Like yes, this is one of the biggest technology shifts of the human race, but everything was so caught up in the short-term flip game that just clouded yes to your point. If you have Google alerts on Nft right now and you read what's happening day to day, you would be bullish. You're not bullish because you bought a Nft for eight thousand dollars that's now trading at six hundred dollars and you're mad and you're supposed to be mad I Get it. But I hope that you're also mad at yourself that you knew you were taking a risk like don't be mad at anybody but yourself kind of thing. Accountability is important like I have a ton of things that have gone poorly and I'm like ugh I got caught up I got excited but I also was buying for different reasons I was trying to learn. This is why I was petrified. The only thing I tweeted more than 99 of going to zero was don't buy what I'm buying because I know I was buying things because I wanted to learn how people were going to do things than if it was in my wallet see if they like I was in discovery mode. um supporting people that I just met on Twitter because I want to because I want to. That's not a good investment thesis, you know I like this person I want to support their art like you know so there are worse investment thesis out there than that though. Yeah there is. and I think thank you and I I feel good about it. but like you know, I'm in a curious spot I have a lot of eyes on me and so I'm empathetic to it. but yeah brother, like Disney's really not fooling around Mattel is not fooling around like like you know Pokemon's not like this is real stuff Gary I'll tell you one thing it's gonna happen because you guys announced it today. This is a big V friends announcement and this is on what we were just talking about. Big companies entering the game. Here you've got a collaboration of collectible characters with Macy's and Toys R Us Is that what's happening? This is a big deal for me. all all 400 plus Macy's around the country that have Toys R Us store within stores. We'll be getting the friends literally. you know, Right next to GI Joe and My Little Pony and Transformers and Pokemon be friends. End caps everywhere. Plush and collectible and then and then Blind Bags little ones. Uh, it's a huge deal. It's also huge. I haven't talked about I'm giving you kind of the exclusive. the flow code is gonna be a big deal right now. it's a preview page but long form content around the character development. think He-Man So He-Man came out as toys earlier than the cartoon was ready. so they put little comic books in the toy so that you could get into He-Man because there was no way to get into He-Man 99 of people that are going to see this in Macy's Toys R Us Stores around the country have no idea what be friends are so kids are going to kind of like, hopefully fall in love with the imagery. This wizard is super cool right? and so like You know, but the storytelling like I'm really on this Mission guys. So anyway huge Distribution on Macy's.com right now on pre-sale International It's coming in two weeks on V-friendshop We'll be doing the Fulfillment for international but this is how you do it. This is how you get people to start getting involved and like. The more people fall in love with the be the Bigger person character right, the more things start to happen. Where I can do something with those 260 holders of series 1 and Series Two big The Bigger person like this is super exciting. I Think people are missing what real operators are going to be able to do and I think real operators have to build Affinity in the characters, toys, books, cartoons, movies, but then also build technology and utility for the original Nft holders. and I'm on that. Journey So this is like this is like an IP play. Almost right. It's kind of like Marvel it's kind of like Star Wars So what's interesting about the way you're doing it right is like you start with the digital. the Nft yes and you're working towards the physical. whereas like traditional like a Disney or you know, some other big IP player, they're starting with the character and then moving to another direction. right? Well well, they started with whatever they started with Pokemon started with a card game right and then a video game and then a cartoon like Harry Potter started as a book. Yes, like magic. The Gather like like you know, like so no, you start with what you start with right? I've got a huge thing coming out with Reebok right? So Reebok huge collaboration coming out. So I've got you know with with again the aspiring alpaca like I'm really really trying to build this and so I just broke a V friend. This is very upsetting Guys live in the mirror. me trying to be cool so there's no Nft element to these things. they're just the Visa intuitive iguana. oh my. God What happened I did bad nothing. No, no surprise inside of there. what's it smell like? Okay, so with with these products, there's no Nft aspect. or like Web3 aspect. they're just a physical product of a metaverse Nft. My job is to bring value. Yeah, now, if you own these characters in Nft form, you're getting this stuff for free. But my. but I'm doing two things at once: one access if you own The Wine Cellar Background In Series two, you came to the store you got free wine, you got it for your Q A experience right and then building Affinity this collaboration. This execution is about getting many, many, many more people in the world to care about these characters, which manifests in many different ways. Ultimately for me, the catch-all is the people owning the Nfts especially Series One like I I stay up at night thinking about this. I've got 40 years, 50 years, you know I'm 46, 40, 50, 60 years and I've got to do as much demand creation much Affinity storytelling and I've got to do a lot of technology and utility. and and I've got to bring value. What's what's what's a typical V friend holder like I mean you've you must have met. You've probably gamut. You know, as you guys know. I brought so many new people into the space because I had a big audience and they run the gamut like true investors. Collectors, flippers, just people that have appreciated my content that just want to own one for collectible the same reason I collect Jets I mean why do I have this Carmelo Anthony he brought me happiness Carmelo brought me happy. you know the Knicks didn't you know he I like him so I buy that like a lot of people like that I taught them common sense and so they're gonna buy this. You know there's like there's a lot of different reasons but um, you know and then just other people in the space that you know I think there's a lot of people that are starting to realize during this you know, not as hot Market that it will come down to the operator like everyone's like the community, the community. Well what happens when the community loses 90 of its value? the community turns on the project and I think you know it's up to the operator to re-change that momentum and so I've been I've been quiet. you know I've been quiet because I've been focused. just very very focused on what I have to do here. in the Uh in the chat we got Brian Lowe and also me uh, asking this question. What would you say? What do you have to say for a 20 year old like me who wants to start his own Nft project? or perhaps somebody like bankless or uh, somebody who is in content or Media or just like adjacent and 48, it's like making an app. Everybody wanted to make an app when apps exploded everybody asked me Gary what app should I make I said one that brings people value, nothing changes. What should Bankers do like I don't know like you guys have a real show I Have a funny feeling that people would like to come and see it live. create an Nft that gives the you know access to the 12 live appearances in 2023 where there's a party and I think I can get Ryan Sean Adams to leave his house 12 times in 2023 at your house so you know I think I think yes to the 20 year old I Also would say to the 20 year old you know I worked in my dad's liquor store for 14 years building it for my dad and but I earned my stripes and learned operations. And so you know one thing that a 20 year old should consider is special right now where a lot of people are not hiring as much. they can probably use good young aggressive Talent Maybe go get a job at one of the top 100 projects and get paid to learn like I don't understand people. People are willing to go into massive depth for college to learn something fake. but like that normative companies when they don't pay him as much as they ideologically think yet they're learning a ton I'd much rather if I'm a 20 year old Curious in the space, get paid minimum wage to work for Doodles than to go into debt at Wisconsin I Totally agree. I mean the time to do it is now too. It's the Bear Market it's not during the book a hundred, it's always the bear Market That's awesome I'm so pumped pumped right now like I'm loving this like it's like nobody's like I'm just trying to like work, build and make good decisions. I mean I made a decision for Gift Goat this morning that won't manifest until August of next year and it's a good one that I really need for that micro Community But like they're not gonna, you know I'm not gonna get the benefit of that until August but that's what it requires and so you have to have the stomach to deal with like people being patient. So I'm excited. Like you you mentioned um you mentioned like technology a couple of times and I'm curious from your state as an operator as a builder in the Nft space like what still needs to be built out like what's hard like I mean we're trying to do things things that eliminate friction right? For example, we're gonna have a massive upgrade to our website like we're going password and email for the people that want to do it because and that's a web 2 function but that was like you can't do that 18 months ago it had to be all web three. So I think what? I call Web 2.5 a lot more web 2.5 strategies I think matter. but there's a there's a lot of things that quote unquote need to be built. Uh, warm wallets right? Like you know, like are starting to room like there's just a lot of cool stuff like unlimited stuff like uh, Nft readers QR Readers are nice now, right? Credit card with chip readers are nice right now. Both those didn't exist 10 years ago. in America you're up on the QR on the Uh chip right? Like that stuff's way better and so like. We need more of that, right? We need we need. Like could you imagine you have an Nft? There's a replicant made that can sit in a hot wallet that doesn't allow somebody to steal your actual Nft. That's validated that you go to Madison Square Garden right there. I'm looking at it and if you own the common sense cow, you can see the cows. the hottest band in the world perform a making up that the cows are now a hot band you know? But like you know, there's so much so much and wait to Apple and Facebook and Google like I mean I Don't know, did you see this? Gary So um, it's been a beta previously, but um, last week it looked like Meta just rolled out. Um, Nft validation for uh Instagram So now you can like and like That's huge man. I mean Instagram This was 1.5 billion something. Absolutely massive in terms of its reach. and they are now supporting Nfts. And this is happening during the Bear Market They're all gonna do it. They're all gonna do it. It's it's Look, the conversation isn't about the underlying Tech or the smart strategic operations. it's about speculation of pricing. It's almost like everyone's paying attention to the value of the comic books, not the ability to print. You know paper when if, like, if paper one wasn't invented yet like, like you know the analogy is like everyone's worried about. you know the the it's why Wall Street Me up. Like everybody worrying about the stock Pro All my clients of Vaynermedia have worse businesses than they could because they all care about their stock price every 90 days instead of building a real business. And so I Think that's my hope that more operators focus on not so many. You see this. you guys are paying attention. So many projects are doing such short-term things to appease a small percentage of people in their Discord who are fighting who aren't who don't necessarily. Uh, aren't necessarily doing the wrong thing. They're worried about their self-interest They should. They're human beings. but that's a bad job by the operator. Can you imagine every head coach in sports listening to the crowd and making his or her decisions on the next play based on that foreign steering? Uh, it's a tail wagon. The dog 100 and uh, it's only the operator that's gonna have the vision for the long term. how do you like corral your community or just like, get them to see the same vision that you do or are there? Is there a trick to this or or is it just like straight up being like raw and authentic Yeah and just like limiting I think I was too involved in the community early on. meaning like I was like part of it I almost forgot it was mine I was like you know I think for example Jaya we're just said hand waved away the only semi-technical softball question G is here to pump a bag Jay Edward said like I'm I'm really not I'm like like I because it's not gonna work I don't think people understand like there is no pumping like there is no pumping in this market This is why I've been so utterly quiet I just with you guys and like I had to go somewhere to talk about the toy drop right and I and I needed somewhere to like, allocate some time and talk about what I've been up to because I've been quieter but like my preference is to stay unbelievably quiet and I'll tell you why. What's cool about when you're quiet is the real ones who really believe, actually support and then you're pumped when you know you're got it. I know I got it. But to be like you think it's gonna matter what the anybody says anywhere, it's not gonna matter just like when I sit this weekend at MetLife Stadium and eat my popcorn and talk about Teddy Bridgewater it's not gonna stop Teddy Bridgewater from playing a good football game and so for me for me I don't I'm actually looking to get super duper quiet because there's an incredible feeling of knowing what I'm actually doing and then letting the people that held all the way through or the people that are coming in when it's least obvious like you're happy for that. The thing that only part that hurts me right now is watching people sell when they don't when they when for no reason, you know it's one reason somebody sold recently and I emailed him and said I'm happy you sold I think you need I get that you need it I was happy. but people that are selling out of just like some Randomness thinking that's going to mean anything like trying to well a lot of people I'm selling it because things drop. that's why they sell. Somebody emailed me and said Gary I'm emailing you I'm selling these three to make a point and I replied and I was like to make a point about what he's like well you need to be I'm like I am and then I reminded that gentleman I got on the call with him and reminded him that I've been building businesses for 25 years. What you what you want? The person operating to do is different than what an operator may want to do. When you say I am is that is that instant messenger. Okay a DM DM DM DM Okay right Okay, they just wanted you to be interacting with them in in the community. Do you? do you have a community manager who like fills the void in your absence? or is it actually? oh yeah. we have tons of mods. like but like but like I want to do a lot of the speaking but like Andy the President may. There's plenty of them doing some speaking here in their course, so many others Daniel Tyler um but I like doing the speaking but but I'm not so sold like that. You know you got to find the right balance of speaking. You know, like you you want to speak when there's something to speak about, right? You know? to me, speaking about the Toys R Us Macy's collaboration makes sense like it's a significant distribution deal. This is not a direct to Consumer thing that we've seen from every other project where you have to send your audience to your.com This is, uh, hundreds of thousands of people in the next hundred days during the holiday season are going to stumble on this. These characters click the QR codes. Fall in love Google Buy Nnft like this is real. Hmm yeah. I um you know I think the only thing that can be done at some point with all of the Skeptics and all the people who throw flood and shade is just like out. build them right and show them on the other side and sometimes that won't even shut them up. But um yeah. but I love. but I like that I like the fud yeah does it fuel you? Does it make you like more excited to build? Or does it like? because I know some people who just they see that negativity and they it discourages them? no no no that's someone who's gotta rethink why they're like what they're doing. Why should that discourage you? These people are entitled to their opinion. It's it's wonderful. Like freedom of thought. you know Gary who else is in the crypto World nft World creator world doing cool stuff that you like? All right what other projects are out there that Captivate capture your attention? um you know I'm not sure like I'll give you an example I know more what my mod Crystal does and her incredible talent in my world then I know what my homie Kevin Rose is doing with Moon Birds right now or or like me cheering heavy for World of women women of weapons Doodles like there's there's so many people that I hope are crushing I'm not in the phase right now where I have a great read of what you know, you know the projects are doing like you know. I'm aware of that. poobs. Nfts ninth on on on on open C right now because I can look I can look at ABC right now I can look at all this stuff I see it I Just you know I just don't have the time right now I'm not in collector mode like I was a year ago so I wanted to know everything about every project I'm in building V friends mode for real for real and um, and that's where I'm at Gary This has been a lot of fun man! Thanks for updating us on so many things. Last last question for you. just to kind of round out. we've been talking to Nfts. We've been talking Nft. We've been talking V friends, but um, zoom out to kind of, you know, crypto for for a minute if you will. Um, what's your temperature on? Like crypto assets these days, you know, like the Bitcoins the ethers of the world. Yeah, if you can look back to 18 months ago I've never really spoken about currencies I don't have a good read. you don't even have a read. Yeah I really don't I I own those two I own Solana I don't know what else I own and it's not where I feel comfortable because I understand branding and human behavior and what the creators of a project can do for utility. With currencies themselves, there's a lot of need for it to do something and I'm sure those things will come. It's just not my passion place. I'm never gonna Financial engineer It's not what I'm good at I Think the D5 stuff is super fascinating, but it's a little too math for me. I Love the art and the human meaning I love the math of it I think it's very fast. You're a community builder at your core. Yeah, I'm a Storyteller I like marketing I like I know why Nike is worth a trillion I know why that swoosh matters I know what I'm doing and what I'm doing and so I try to stay where I'm comfortable and that's a much more comfortable in Nft land than I am in cryptocurrency land. That's cool. Well thanks for stopping by and uh, so refresh us again. When can people see the friends at their local Macy's uh, mid-october October 17th I think is when they really start supposedly hit the shelves I'm a retailer so I know some people keep in the back until the next week but you know every Macy's that has a Toys R Us inside of it at Macys.com right now And and please Garyvee.com Discord Come and hang like that's where all the alpha, all the links you don't have the guests around or Google Quick question from YouTube will the toys be available in the UK yes we friends shop is gonna launch on the 17th. The day they physically hit stores with pre-sale and actually purchased for international so we're going full International as well.