How do you assign value? What is value I saw it you had Puma socks and I my brain goes to those are 37 Cent socks that he paid nine bucks for because it has four letters in the same order with the same logo and it means something. So you know for me, that's just how the entire world works. well. Gary It is such a pleasure to be here with you today here at Art Basil.

Thank you so much for your time, happy to be here! Thanks for having me, You know I Wanted to start off for those here at Basil, tell us about VSCO you know this event and what you want people to to walk away with here. You know in general when I do things with my companies whether it's veiner X which is the holding company that has vaynermedia and Vayner 3 which are two of the more prominent people playing at me uh or V friends which is my intellectual property out of T project. When we do things like Basil or you know, and being All-Star or Super Bowl or can or South by really what you're what I'm always thinking about is how do we reverse engineer uh, a scenario, an activation, uh, a collaboration or an event space or that creates Serendipity conversation, relationship building I Think of it from a Karma standpoint I Think a lot about um, intent I Think too many business people and companies when they're activating and things like this are too transactional, right? Like we're gonna do this thing and we're gonna bring our clients and we're gonna get the money. I Just don't think like I think humans can sense that and so I kind of go completely the other way.

which is like how do we do something that brings so much value to anybody that comes. Whether it's a personality that's there to mingle with other brands right? Uh, I mean I go so Extreme as like inviting competitors to see if they can like steal our like I get that crazy with it so you know what? do what do I think about? Like what? What's the punch line? The punch line is how much Karma can you put into the system during a time where a lot of people congregate to the same area? sure and and turning to the concept of Ip Yeah, you've been very vocal about that. How do you assign value? What is value when it comes to determining that that perceived value from a consumer perspective of any particular piece of Ip that you have whether it's V friends, whether it's you know this NBA All-Star it's it's the only thing I think about like your Puma socks like literally I already I saw I I like when we were just I saw you had Puma socks and I my brain goes to those are 37 Cent socks yeah that he paid nine bucks for because it has four letters in the same order with the same logo and it means something. so you know for me, that's just how the entire world works.

This is a bottle of water. This was free for a drillion years and then somewhere about 50 years ago someone's like wait a minute I'm gonna sell something that is actually free and if I can make the brand mean something, people will actually pay a lot of money for something that to remind everybody. Water was free and every faucet and so I think it's the only thing I think it's how monarchies or capitalism or democracy or communism or dictator's work I think it's how people parent all I think about is IP you know all I think about is comms and marketing and how things work and and then and then for me specifically in the journey I'm on my driver for building out my IP selfishly is about. Oh I think I can build a big business selflessly.

Um I think about if I can create 300 characters in a Pokemon Sesame Street marvel-like world where I can do what I've done for 15 years as Garyvee and pushed kindness, patience, empathy. Well, that's been hard. You know Garyvee is a very specific human being who's gonna work for some people and it's not going to work for others. but this patient Panda might be more effective of teaching people patience than me and so for me I'm really enjoying the building out of the intellectual property and I want to really leave a legacy.

I'm very very affected as I become more educated on how Jim Henson saw the world and what what his Muppets not only Sesame Street but Fraggle. Do you know Fraggle rocks? Absolutely. So Fraggle rocks. Brief: AKA When it was handed to the woman that started the process of deciding what Fraggle Rock was going to be, the brief like what are we trying to accomplish was stop War that's profound and I'm very affected by that.

and I think a lot about that. and so um, I think about IP as something that can really bring a lot of value to both the person that created it and to the people that are using it. For example, Stop War is very like up here. but Puma I Like that there's a brand called Puma that made a sock that like for you.

It's a form of expression right? Like you're like. all of us are dressed right now to communicate right? Tattoos to communicate right? That's a Nintendo reference like that that I'm I'm able to understand you more in a hyper second just by what IP you're communicating to me right now we're all walking Brands A hundred percent you've said several times. you know how does that translate to be friends and scalability and how you are taking this entire portfolio involved of of imagery Nostalgia and assets to that next level it it creates a North star of like I have a very good sense of what I'm up to I Desperately want the world to fall in love with a countable ant because I think accountability if you fall in love with it before you're 18 will lead to less anxiety and depression. So it's very clear then to answer your question then I start thinking about what brand like Why Forthright I struggled with Candor my whole whole life I'm doing a very cool collaboration right now with a very cool brand and it's the fourth Right Flamingo.

So cool. you could see vintage frames and it's rad and it's fresh and I'm gonna rock it and you can see the be friends that I've got glasses. Garyvee that's cool to me because I'm an entrepreneur. Five fine.

but over time it's like it's the fourth right Flamingo. It's the fourth right Flamingo and it's like wait a minute. Like is being forthright a good thing? Oh wow, it is. Actually if you keep it in balance and you deliver it with kindness and so like, there are millions of people around the world like myself who have struggled with Candor which has led to the things that have made them unhappy.

And if I can story tell through collaborations through you know, sneaker deals and and glasses or more directly, children's books um, movies, television, streaming services, toys with QR codes that let you watch a four minute video the Coco melon execution of all YouTube the The Adult Swim Rick and Morty execution of Television thing like Bart Simpson and everything in between Hello Kitty Well then over time for the back half of my life the next 47 years of my life I think I can leave a really meaningful impact and so I think very vigorously about every collaboration. Why what? how um, and who which which character is going to be my cereal I think about probably once a week once a week In my day-to-day navigation I will give three minutes to 40 minutes of meaningful time of like what's the one because I know it's gonna work because I know how to sell stuff and I'm gonna do that well and I'm going to sell cereal but I need to be very thoughtful of am I going to make that a very healthy, clean cereal that may skew for 25 year old Coastal Like you know thinkers of food that way or am I going to make a sugar cereal that's just a little fun. A little escapism for nine-year-old you gotta capture that. Nostalgia It's what resonates right.

It's it's what feels right. We've all grown up with these Collectibles the Pokemon cards, the Hot Wheels right and now we have this new technology. Nfts right? But it's not really different, it's just in a new medium and I think 100 is keeping getting rid of the labels to an extent you know, but still maintaining that tastefulness is something that I feel that you've integrated into everything. that you're doing what you just shared.

Want to extract that cultural feeling that a child, whether they're eight or ten years old, feels comfortable with? that? they can point and say I like this I don't know why, but I like it or especially especially if that eight or ten-year-old's like I like this I like this I like this. Oh wait a minute. This attribute of kindness is something I want to be about right? right? For a 25 year old it might be. You know it might be cooler like you.

For a kid, it might be I'm interested in this I don't know why for a 40 year old it might be like I'm interested in this I don't know why. To your point, it's all that integration And so what I'm most excited about is even before I launched it I gave a lot of thought to I'm going to build a very big universe so I can play with this canvas forever and so I didn't draw Mickey Mouse and then like like and then ha and then later I built Pluto or or Daisy Duck From day one there was 268 characters because I knew what I wanted to do which is build a universe that will leave a positive impact and it's execution of becoming pop culture. How does fashion play into the V friends ecosystem and what you're continuing to build out over time? I mean look I'm like this is a great answer to This question. First, the the humbleness and joy I feel of doing a high Beast interview speaks to how fashion plays.

Meaning, what does that mean? It means that fashion like music and Sport and religion and a couple of other things are is like one of the most foundational human experiences. I Would argue that the singular reason I knew Nfts will play out long term is because fashion and Art 100 we we communicate through the things we buy. Um, so Fashion Specifically has been probably the place I've been most aggressive. the brand is different is 18 months old Reebok Starter Kinshui right Carrots Vintage frames I mean like it's disproportionately ahead of almost everything out of anything else I've done so far I haven't done as many consumer package Goods I haven't done this much content.

Fashion collaborations have been the thing that I've been running fastest with because I because I because on strategy I myself have such a large audience 15 to 45. many of which like care about fashion and so and it's also been really fun personally to put on my collab. Partners I Also feel that I want to be the best collaboration partner. So to me, whether it's starter or carrots or vintage frames I have a very large universe and the fact that I'm able to bring that relevance and that audience to them excites me.

The fact that I'm gonna go downstairs right now and have lines of people who are going to come to collaboration, but then they're going to be like wait a minute I Like those glasses better than even the V friends glasses. That's good for vintage frames. That makes me happy. So Fashion's a fun place.

Plus with fashion and you know this and definitely the readers of this publication know this Limited is good and so you're able to do lots of little stuff. It's fun to do a buck 50 run of this or a thousand of that. and so um, it allows for almost like Tapas instead of like a big meal. like it's not like you could do it quick and thoughtful, but in six months something can be in Market in a great way.

Whereas when you're thinking about toys like I'm doing or I mean animation, it's like a three-year Journey for me, I'm like oh, be a hundred, you know, like, you know, so like so I think uh, that's another reason I gravitate towards it. Speed is an incredibly important thing to me. and I love that through collaborations, we can get into Market within a six or nine month period. So with with that, how do you define culture? We all use the word, We all throw it out there.

But what does culture mean to you? Garyvee culture For me? uh, my brain goes to putting the word pop in. like every time it's like this is culture and then my brain goes popular pop culture and then my brain goes popular culture and and what that means to me is people are interested in you know I think the word slang today speaks a lot about Urban culture speaks a lot about cool culture speaks a lot about it being a hype Beast actually a hype Beast but I but I do think sometimes people miss the bigger macro. so for example I'll give you a good example lately I've been thinking a lot about how I want to do things with be friends in fishing culture right? like like the millions of people who wake up at 5am across the country in the world and go fishing and it is the most important thing to them and so like to me like do I want to get fishing boots and with one of my C characters like that's a culture but I don't think we in a hype Beast way think of when we say culture we don't think that we don't think hunting and fishing we think cool but for a lot of people, hunting and fishing is the coolest and so like I Remember thinking that video games were going to be so much bigger than a lot of my friends saw I just knew I was like this is not a thing that is just for kids because we were growing up with it I'm like why are we still playing this in college and it's like even more important now than it was when we were nine. I'm like this is big, this is a culture so I think of it very macro so that's how I Define it.

Let's get into the why too, right always for the Y always to the Y producer needs to be a reason for it. and to that, how do you inject tastefulness in the Partnerships and collaborations that you enter into or bring these friends into? Hey, I'm not crippled by the concept of tastefulness because I know that it's everyone's subjective opinion, you know. And so one the way I bring tastefulness is I'm not scared of it where I think a lot of people are scared of it. They want it to be tasteful to taste makers I'm not worried about that.

uh I try to build bring tastefulness uh to the table through intent I Want to make a great product I want to make something that people really enjoy that they have it I have no interest in anybody buying it if it's not something that brings them value. So I kind of bring a very strong intent based energy and then the tastefulness in the way we. Define it is like I have a subjective creative opinion I think something looks cool. Uh I know that that means millions of others will I also know that that means millions of others won't think that's cool.

Uh, and that's fine. Um, and so I think a lot of people are crippled by taste, full and they become perfectionists and they become insecure and they become like crippled and they don't. Do you know to me, as long as I have good intent uh and value my opinion while recognizing that that opinion doesn't mean anything to 70 of the world uh in in every subjective call I make then that's great. That's fine, it's not vintage frames.

and and the upcoming event today? um what? What's most exciting you about this and and why Why so many people here you know I think the most exciting thing on the collaboration like vintage frames their DNA core. Like like what I really respect them is they come from the streets and hustle of garage sale flea market like I do. So that connection was right off the top. The fact that he is still out there going to like you know, estate sales and like buying seven glass I just can't resonate with that more.

So that was one two I Wanted to go into eyewear and play with it. You know there's a lot of categories I'm going to play in that I'm not a heavy user of I Don't wear glasses I don't tend to like. The number one thing most of my friends and family make fun of me for is I don't wear shades in the sun ever So it wasn't like oh, I need this for me I'm like I may not, but you guys do and so that was exciting for me. Um I Also spoke to and have spoken to tons of uh, creative, uh individuals in the fashion industry and really wanted to go on my intuition on who would be partners I wanted to work with one of the things that's interesting about this because I just spoke to this.

this took the longest time. Why? Because on the Vintage frame side, they wanted it right from their perspective and what I liked was even. you know it's funny. My macro thesis of why I want to do a lot of stuff in fashion collabs is the speed I liked when I started partnering with them where I could feel like oh, wait a minute, they're like no, no, we're scrapping that whole three months we are I liked that I respected their creative process so much that I was comfortable that it took us six months or nine months later than I had in my ideology.

The product came out great. The other most exciting part is any excuse I can have to meet up with people that want to go out of their way to say hello to me is something that's interesting to me. So I'll have my hardest core fans you know, down there. like obviously a group of 10 to 50 individuals that make me feel like I'm the Grateful Dead or fish I'm like they're everywhere, They're at everything and it's just like I don't even know how to express in words even though I'm a pretty solid Communicator What it feels like when people will go out of their way to show up anywhere and everywhere you are publicly to you know, get a few more minutes to say hello, to ask a question to take us they're 19 selfie it's it's profoundly humbling and then equally because that's over here.

Equally sending a text the last couple days to the 10 000 people that live within a 30 mile radius of this location which is actually roughly the numbers I have on my community text: Community The amount of people that reply to like this is gonna be the first time I'm ever gonna see you because I've not been able to travel or I can't afford to go to Vcon or go to the sports card convention in New Jersey I just happen to live 20 minutes from here I Can't wait to see you! That is profoundly exciting for me. So on those two extremes I Get very excited which is why I tend to probably do a lot of public events and that is very exciting about this collaboration. that was very important to me of like we were talking through. It's not just like we're going to sell the Sun.com let's have an in-person uh, partial of this.

Oh wait, your your HQ is Miami Oh wait. Basel is a big part of Nft culture. Oh, let's aim for doing something in December And now here we are absolutely my last last two questions for you: If you could change anything about the law surrounding IP and digital Collectibles What would you want to see changed if anything, you know IP I'm very comfortable with I Think that's established law for a long time I think with digital Collectibles I'm empathetic to the government I think humans just really love the on governments. uh I'm just empathetic.

I'm aware why we don't have clarification of law it's called Innovation is faster than government, but what would I like to see I would like to see in the next half decade. Very clear laws from The Sovereign Nations around the world on how they are looking to handle an Nft. Uh, specifically for me because that's where I have my passion. but cryptocurrency? like? let's get some thoughtful, logical Common Sense laws around the world so that operators, entrepreneurs, governments, uh, established businesses can start moving faster because when it's gray, people are not sure what to do right.

For those that may be attending our Basil for the first time or the younger Generations that are finally taking an interest in in art for For the First Time What advice do you have for them as they come into your event and this week you know this weekend? Festival What? what mindset should they be focused on? Two things stand out: one even for the most introverted, challenge yourself to say hello to as many people as possible. The number one Roi of things like Basel can South by Southwest is the Serendipity of relationship. And that is even more profound now because we're just getting out of a coveted era right where for two years there was no Serendipity We were very efficient in this meeting that meeting this morning, but the stumbling into somebody and becoming friends or business associates was eliminated. So if you're coming here, try not to just run in the same circles, expand your circles and Challengers say self to say hello to somebody and if they're they don't reciprocate.

That's an indication of them. not. You don't feel bad because somebody shoes you off or like hurts your feelings. Don't have your feelings hurt when somebody's not kind, That means they're not in a good place.

That's number one number two when it comes to art for youngsters at Ft's physical art: Collectibles Sneakers stop buying based on other people's opinions. Do Not buy things to keep up with the Joneses Do not buy things because everybody else thinks Andy Warhol is cool. You think any world's cool. If you think any more whole I'll give you a good one I think Jackson Pollock is now.

do I Really? I'm saying that a little bit to be like a little hyperbolized in a more truthful way. I Can't wrap my head around spending a hundred million dollars for a Jackson Pollock painting I Don't I can't wrap my head around spending ten thousand dollars for something that looks like a Jackson Pollock because I don't like that style but I may like a different style. so I think people have to get more comfortable liking what they like. Don't buy a V friend because Garyvee like buy a friend if you actually just like it like I'm into empathy and the empathy elephant speaks to me and I like Doodles I actually like that style of art more than something that's more polished or by a world of women.

Or buy an X copy or buy you know, a Robert Nava physical like buy what you like for as long as humanly possible because then it will become your natural place and that will be far more joyful than keeping up with the Joneses and needing a Rasheed because everyone has a machine painting or needing a board Aid Because everybody cool like that puts people in bad places. That's the reason people buy Mercedes and burka bags when they don't really even want it if they're just using it to signal and usually it's a signal of insecurity. Well, it's it's. that Why You know, even for lawyers, it's getting to the wine If you don't know your why you don't have to finish action and you're just wasting time.

100 reasons That's right Gary Want to thank you so much. Thank you brother I Appreciate it! Cheers Foreign.