I'm the kryptonite to the cynical, that's great! That's it! I'm gon na be a real bad thing for a lot of people who love to tear down and be cynical, i'm the one person they should stay away from because i'm gon na execute because i'm a executor and i've been my whole life garyvee. What's up my friends, thank you for uh. Thank you for joining me. Man sincerely appreciate it super excited to be here with you, my man.

Thank you brother. I got ta. I got ta start with the question that we get to be friends. We get to all the good stuff, but really quickly.

The question that i got to get off my chest and off my family's chest is: when are we buying the jets and how are we going to make that happen as quickly as possible? So i can avoid getting the every sunday text from my dad about how bad this team is. When do we get there? Only god knows my friend but boy, oh boy, am i giving it a real college? Try i uh, i often clarify for people that trying to buy the new york jets is my real, my real um like happy zone right that i'd love to buy the jets. But if it doesn't happen, it'll be more than fine i'll be more than fine, but the great enjoyment of my professional life has been trying to and i'm giving it a real at-bat from where i started. When i decided in fourth grade to where i am right.

Now gives me real hope over the next 30 years that i can pull it off dude. I believe you and i think that there's no one who's been who's, kept it real for that long through a lot. A lot of ups and downs, mostly downs, that they want to make that that's the goal. That's the end goal, but do you think, do you think that a regular fan or regular people - and i say, regular people - it's all relative, but will ever own a football team? I think the nba has made strides to make it part of like that aspirational goal.

Like own an nba team and you kind of see regular folk getting into the mix, do you think a group of fans or a fan or a regular person, will ever own a football team or you think, that's kind of like the old boys club it'll stay That way, forever didn't there's a way in no, and i don't think, there's a way in the nba or mlb or anything else either i mean just think about the sheer amount of wealth and just think about the sheer amount of units. There are right. How many we're talking about you take all three of those sports. You've got a hundred teams.

That means only a hundred people out of right: 330 million americans 8 billion people on earth. Like it's a ridiculous thing, i think the thing to look out for for the quote-unquote regular folk, which i'm one of - and i understand that i'm starting to build some wealth creation. That puts me in a different place, but you know i just bought a pickleball team. I own with the minnesota vikings ownership group, the wilfs, a big chunk of an esports team that has a call of duty and rocket league.

You know regular quote-unquote folk could have bought a football and a basketball team in the 50s and 60s. They still had to be rich, but it wasn't like what it is now, and so i think you have to almost look for the emerging sports. You know yeah. I think that the seeing the pickleball announcement and seeing that you're involved in a space that is still growing and you see that a lot in tech, especially where somebody finds something where there's a it's a little bit of a niche.

But it's got a really engaged community and really engaged fan base and that's kind of like a great starting point to get people into sports ownership. I think that that's a that's kind of a good segue. I want to talk, obviously, series two and i want to talk about everything going on with v friends and v con, but starting with community and building from the ground up. I want to talk v friends and the impact of series one.

I think that it's coming up on us one year anniversary in may, i think, just by the numbers, because i think most people outside of this space outside of web 3 they're going to look at success in the nft space. As you know, money metric you got half a billion dollars in total transactions, a top 20 nft all time by volume, uh around the 15th floor right now, which is around 50 thousand dollars, give or take 350 000 people in a discord um one of the most Active discords, you'll find anywhere just never-ending amount of conversation and commentary. That's going on so you're a positive guy. Everyone knows that you have a way of seeing the future in this kind of really bright way brighter than anybody else potentially would did you expect when you were starting to post those drawings like a year ago, a little more than a year ago, that you would Get to this point or did those numbers kind of exceed expectations? Did you see it getting to this point exceeded expectations, and i also think that has to do with the frothy nature of the space.

You know there's a lot of stuff: that's going to go to zero, that has 100 million dollar valuations or market caps. So i think i my project got caught up with the current of how much the hype - and you know i view it as my job is - to be jeff bezos to the best of my ability, obviously he's one of the best that has ever done it in Creating wealth from a company, but i don't see any reason why i shouldn't aspire to be at that level and amazon was 120 bucks a share in 99, and then it was six bucks a share in 2000 and then it's three thousand dollars a share and that's The journey i'm on, i think the numbers are enormous right now. I think that in a 20-year window, it's a you know my job is to make it a value play, but do i think that the market is so riddled with greed and things of that nature? I i do, and i think that corrections come along with that. Do i equally believe, i'm the guy i do and that will i'll either be right and i'll clip this in 30 years and be like see on the rally podcast with rob.

I told you i was the guy or i'll, clip it and say. Let me tell you why i was wrong. I wasn't the guy here's the mistakes. I made that's kind of what i've signed up for which is like who gives a of how successful i am financially there's been trillions of people that have been financially successful through the history of time.

I think what's more interesting is which humans came along, that actually genuinely deeply ingrained in their dna were interested in everybody winning alongside them. That's kind of what i've realized about myself and when i look back at my life building a business for my dad starting 50. 50 partnership with my brother helping so many of my friends, acquaintances, random people. I get a high on other people winning two, and so that's what i'm focused on and that's why i love nfts like all these holders of be friends, one and two will inherently ride.

The tailwinds of what i do well over the next 40 years, yeah and i'll say that you've done a really good job of being very transparent. About that. I think that you've talked about you know the nft winter and, what's going to happen that there will be those ups and downs, i think your community, in particular, has been understanding of temporary pullbacks or situations where it's not exactly what they expected, but they're. Looking at the long term, i think that's a a bit of the miss from a lot of nft projects and communities.

Right now was looking for an immediate flip, but seeing something at year end do what your project has done to this point is super inspiring for a lot of people doing new projects, and your community is so behind that long-term goal, which you've always said. I think uh, you know to to take it full circle before getting into series two, the team you have around you and the people that i've known through you over the course of the last like four or five years, starting with like uh. The first conversation with with nick dio, for example, we were in la and uh, maybe two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and he was out there. My girlfriend was with me: she met nick.

We hung out for a little bit the next day. She was like he's. The nicest person i've ever met their whole team is so nice and i'm thinking about it in terms of empathy, you get the most out of everyone around you and that's your community. The people that work with you, because because i give the most well i'll, give you that too, and you said it on instagram two days ago, you're talking about like empathy, a lot of people get big and they get money.

They get a little bit arrogant and they forget that, like the people that helped you build, it are the ones that are the most important. What's, how do you get the most out of the group around you, whether it's the community of three hundred thousand or so people like that, it's so simple rob like like. First of all, thank you for sharing. That story just makes me so happy.

First of all, it's it's about giving nick is the vp of my core relationships. His job for a living, and i pay him well - is to bring value to everybody that i tell him to or that he stumbles upon. Based on knowing me the end, do you know how insane of a job that is the craziest? I told him that i said, like the p, going to forge these channels and staying positive all day, doing it, it's something you do well, but it exudes itself from everyone around you too. The people around you believe it and they're on that journey.

You know. Well, look nick's been with me for eight eight nine years right. It's not you know. I also don't hire randomly people come into the vayner x ecosystem, there's a lot of strategy behind vaynermedia and vaynerx.

That's not obvious, which is yeah. It's a company and it yeah. It's a big ass company - and you know, vaynerx - is gon na - do well over 300 million dollars in revenue this year. So it's not a small company, but it's really my playing ground to teach to form relationships.

The trust level i have for alexandra, raffington lou tyler. Nick dio andy may she's insane, i trust may with my life. You know like and she's been only with me for four years, but i know when i know and i build and we build that's the move. I mean that and that leads me to series two.

So you have this, this huge community. You got this great team behind you. You have 15 new characters, uh a reasonable mint price. I will say which you can easily charge more for um.

I got to put that out. There never investment advice, but it is something that you see a lot of really crazy, mint prices recently to see the evolution of the project and where it's gone, where it's gotten to from both the the art and the team perspective uh, but also in terms of Conversation, it's so relevant. I think a lot of people come to me and they have a conversation about nfts. The first time they really heard about nfts and utilities associated with nfts has been v friends.

So now you have series two where's, this real evolution. It's a mix of kind of physical. You have v con coming up, you have the digital with the nft projects that go with it. How far do you think the physical product and the experience play into this iteration and then going forward with what will potentially be series three or the next iteration of v friends? How much of the physical world is going to melt with that nft going forward? What's everything to me, i think about the real world, almost more than the digital world.

You know, like the uno collaboration, the zero. You know obviously you're in collecting. I mean look at these zero coil prices, it's nuts, it's nuts, i mean it's like literally with national treasures and exquisite like well. It's like it's real stuff.

It's um! I think a lot about supply and demand. I've always been good at it from baseball cards to wine. I've just always been good at it, which is really paying off dividends, but i think about amusement park. I think about uh rob i've had an incredible amount of energy deployed against amusement park now amusement park.

Might be 13 years from now um, i think i mean i'm wearing like this hoodie, really matters like this ambitious hoodie that i'm wearing that wears it on the left, yeah that has the ambitious angel. I know this is all audio, but i'm showing you i'm going to sleep right like candy, actual candy, um, cereal, actual cereal toys, actual toys, um, you know iphone games. Tv shows stamps. How? How important is that nostalgia? Do you think, because i'm looking at series two and the characters have evolved from the original drawings and the doodles that you had that were in series one to where we are now? It looks like it lends itself to all these things like that 90s era cartoon and the candy is that, is that all part of the thought process, when you're, putting together new characters, 100 yeah in the 90s, were the 90s were a very specific moment, and this Feels like the perfect 90s in 2022.

You know what i mean: yeah it it and really because of my age. It has a real 70s, 80s and 90s to a tier point. There's a lot of nickelodeon in it. You know dora the explorer.

When i look at it sometimes like oh that looks right, then it's but then it's also like really thought about from a care bears smurfs snorkels. You know like um and then and then like hannah barbera tom and jerry, like it's definitely an impact. The last 50 years of pop culture, character, development and then and then i think, long term. Like look, i want to build that disney vibe, but i also want to build on top of kif palace.

You know off-white virgin may rest in peace like these iconic people that have come along in streetwear and fashion and at some point black panther anime. Adult swim so like at some point when i think about series three, four, five: six seven over next 50 years. Some of these characters are going to age up. You look at batman the way he was drawn in the beginning, the way he was cartoon eyes in the 90s he got grown up as yeah yeah like that simpsons.

Look too like everything sort of changes over time and it becomes more mature. You know yeah when batman's, when bane broke, batman's back in comic form, that's very different than what we saw in the 60s and if right, whether it was on comic book form or what we saw with adam west. So i think, in those terms, you know, i think, about what a logo a lego, superman, movie, superman looks like, and i think about superman on feature film and i think superman in a comic book. I think about superman in you know the action figures from the 80s that i collected superman in the 1970s migo collectibles, i'm a historian in pop culture collectibles.

I really am, and it's going to end up being all those hours of learning in the my teenage years. My 20s and all the garage sailing - i did it's just all, culminating yeah, i mean so again, i'm going to show you something. You know this is mainly audio but, like i go to random stores, look at this. I just buy stickers like nah.

I did the same thing: dude, that's what you got to do. It's just we're in a general, the same general age category, it's that nostalgia and bring it back to life. You know, look at this. It's crazy! I believe it yeah.

What do you have? Do you have a storage unit or something where you're keeping all this stuff right now yeah? I assume you have so much stuff where's the stuff. How storage? Also you know, whatever the i could figure out. You know what's great about it. All for me, the friends to the jets, is gon na work out for me, because i'm authentically both meaning meaning i'll, show you again because i'm in show-and-tell mode again.

I know this is audio but like i'm, actually a comic-con sports card kind of like i'm into that right. What everybody's listening to the podcast right now, what i'm, showing you know rob is a star wars, original package, greedo great killer. You know like this is like really like i'm about that life right, like i've been doing it the whole time. Thank god.

I got the receipts on the internet like when, when i talk about pop culture stuff, we can pull up all the receipts from trash talk where i'm like talking about hanna-barbera this or pokemon nah. Absolutely no question and that's something that i think we think about like at rally: we're always thinking about it in terms of like a mix of the the stuff that was relevant in the past. What's relevant right now. But what will be relevant in the future? And it's like that future nostalgia.

You have somebody now who's in between 30 and 50 years old, there's a very specific 70s 80s and 90s vibe. That goes with it, but it all comes back around so to see things that are digital, that have that digital sort of wallet that it's associated with. But it's got the physical feel of something from a different era that hits on all these different things that it becomes like. My wallet in the future will not be like my apartment and the extra room that i have that's full of collectibles.

It might be full of the same thing digitally, but thinking about in terms of a franchise, the way you're thinking about it. I think it could be omni channel. It could be anything to me it's both right. Like i mean, why did i grade my drawings that we're doing together yeah, i mean that's and that that lends itself to the real conversations i'm thinking about in terms of you said it.

Logan paul actually played a clip like two weeks ago. An old clip of you was from 2010 saying. You know what i'm really passionate about is virtual currency and that's before anybody even understood what you were talking about, but it's all come full circle and that now you have the physical you have the digital. You have digital currency that can be paid for either.

One of those you have it in a digital wallet in a physical wallet. It's all coming to merge right now. So like a few months back - and this goes to the to the series one original drawing on rally but a few months back um - there was this auction for the five of the original drawings at christie's and that's one of the premier auction houses, that's responsible for Some of the biggest sales of the last decade there's only two right, that's it and it's the five original garyvee drawings. They go for over 1.3 million dollars.

So now you have just to cut through a couple numbers quick and get your reaction. You have a basic andy, warhol sketch right now, around 20 000 give or take um a really good example of a salvador. Dali might be, might be 30. It could be if it could really be authenticated.

Um. You can get a great picasso right now, like a good. A really good sketch that led to a painting for like a hundred thousand garyvee drawing around 275 thousand dollars did art is polarizing right? Is this super subjective? Everyone's opinion is correct? Do you consider this art? Do you consider yourself an artist knowing the price of your art now commands in the open market? Do you consider yourself an artist yeah, but only because i i like in 40 years, like when people look at the sketches they're like this, but i'm like yo? Did you see the sketch of mickey mouse like it wasn't so or bart simpson like, or tom and jen, like they're, not so complex at first and then i think my art is that i can paint pictures, i'm a storyteller. I do it as garyvee and i've been able to storytell.

Remarkably, i i had a huge impact in a in a very narrow way in the wine business. Through my storytelling reviewing wine, it changed the temperature of it being snooty to being a little bit more blue-collar. I think, as far as the last 15 years of influencers and personalities on the internet, um i'm in the mix, i'm one of the people that came out of it. You know it's not like i'm on tv or anything else like i built my whole world there and, and i'm really proud of that and now as the architect of making patient panda an accountable aunt, and you know, sharing squirrel and all this stuff matter.

Teaching people good virtues through characters. I will do that in a very successful way. I know, for fact, when i go into the ground, hopefully in 55 years, like you know that people will say gary vaynerchuk, the creator of the friends. I actually believe that, even if i buy even if i buy the jets on the back of building v friends, my intuition says first line is creator v friends, because i think v friends is going to be my scaled masterpiece.

You know i think building garyvee has been profoundly satisfying for gary vaynerchuk, because i'm the architect of the strategy not even being the front man of it, but i only scale so much. I have a certain style that doesn't click for everyone. I'm a 46 year old white male that doesn't click for everyone, there's a million things that don't click my per like i'm competitive like i get it like for 30 of the world, it's the best for 20 of the world. It's solid for 10 percent of the world, it's okay and for 40 of the world, it's not like.

I get all those dynamics, there's 8 billion people, but v friends can be 100 penetration and that's my and that's my focus, and so let me ask you this and you've answered this before. But it's a question and i asked the art question. It was very loaded because in my mind, you just described art, it's emotion, it's polarizing. It gets people to sort of pay attention and build communities.

It's really what the output itself is. A is a thing. It's a tangible thing we can lean on, but at the same time the community built around it is what brings ideas to life. So to me it is art and when i think about you, know the polarization around it to me.

That's a good thing, but when you're in a situation - and i know you've been asked this before, if someone looks at you and sees your art and sees this piece that we're doing our rally or sees you on tv with a statement about the nft space and They go he's full of what do you? What is your response? Does it even affect you at this point, or is that something you just know comes with the territory i'm empathetic? You know when you rattle off all those names that, first of all, i assume and i'm not educated, there's a lot of sketches out there of those characters. This has a specific thing, with a small group of people that have been following me for 20 years, who do believe i'm going to build disney and either they're going to be right or wrong. So, that's why i think it commanded that kind of price my intuition on that is. Excuse me, my reaction to that is compassion.

I understand why people think that rob makes sense to me. I have no interest in convincing people that i it's right. I can only focus on executing to make it right. That's a killer answer.

I got ta give you that one, because i mean there's a lot of people who don't want someone to be right. They don't want someone who has a following to sort of be to be right, they want to say, oh you see it didn't work out. You know, like that's the thing it's prevalent, i'm on the kryptonite, to the cynical, that's great, that's it! I'm gon na be a real bad thing for a lot of people who love to tear down and be cynical, i'm the one person they should stay away from because i'm gon na execute because i'm a executor and i've been my whole life. Long before there was gary vee, i was a child and built a huge business for my dad with no money right like nobody gives a on madison avenue that i'm gary vee.

I walked into that industry as a liquor, store child and built the biggest independent agency. In the world like like, i wasn't an investor and i walked into the game: investing in facebook, twitter and tumblr and hitting like i'm the wrong dude to be cynical about. If you do not want to be wrong amongst your friends about being cynical, because so many people are not good at executing and will fail and are full of, you need to focus on them, because if you come down my path and be like this is he's Going to lose i've done 20 years of proving you wrong and for everybody who's listening. I will continue to do that in your face right in your mouth, for the rest of my life and trying to trying to trying to time uh a top on anybody is always a problem with you.

In particular, it's going to be very problematic. I could see the same thing happening, no question, so on that note i just i just am too good at this. I believe it i'm too good of a businessman. I have to i've too good of intent.

The mcdo story, like i've got this. This is what i do this like. When i remember i mean i wish we had social media. The way we have this when lebron came out, i was so bullish.

Lebron bought a shitload of his cards. It was the first time i came back into the game since 94.. That's documented, by the way documented. That's not that's, not that's not you're.

Seeing 2018, where again i doubled down on 2004. lebron already did it by then 2017.. Oh four, oh three! Lebron! I guessed! I had a feeling i also loved dwyane wade because i loved him in in the ncaa tournament, but that was more guessing lebron. I was like, i think this is it and he played his first game again.

I think against the clippers and dropped like 22 or 18. I was like this is it new took me out of retirement because i retired in 93, 94 from cards first time i bought in 10 years, missed that whole 10-year window, the mcguire's, all that and all of my friends who said he was going to suck. I wish they were on the record, like people just wanted to say he was going to suck, because everyone said he was chosen. They were right about jabari parker rob they were right about jabari parker, but lebron was the wrong guy, but you know how it is too.

It's like for every one one thing that somebody gets right, there's ten. They got wrong the problem or the other way around. All the way around exactly that's, what's gon na, say the other way around. What happens? It's tough! I i love when people say garyvee, you know when, when i nail something they'll be like yeah, okay, a clock gets lucky twice: i'm like yo, 15 years of content.

On the internet every day pull the clips, it's true, it's all documented, so i got ta. I got ta say that that so now we're at a point that a lot of this is combination. I'm thinking about vcon now and it's a this - is a stadium event. So i'm thinking about this as like series, one leading into series two, but also in a time where, like big in-person events, are just starting to come back.

I see this as like a web 2.5 play. What should what should we expect and what should holders expect of v friends that have tickets? Should they expect out of v con that they're not going to get elsewhere right now in the in person experience? Well, i mean this. Is i mean what i haven't even announced, some of the names yet like i mean this is way too, like here's, my answer, vcon 2023 is going to be like incredibly sought. After because the post mortem of 2022 is gon na get everyone, i mean it's the culmination of the nft culture, everyone's gon na, be there it's gon na, be fantastic, we're gon na care.

I've got back to my inner circle literally yesterday with andy the president, be friends like hey. I got ta give some of my nft tickets to like 15 of our inner circle, people at vayner wine library. I just need my family there, because anything that goes wrong. I need to be able to take texts and be like regav go.

Take care of this like i need my homies like we have incredible volunteers, incredible infrastructure, incredible people have been friends, but i was like andy: let's get 15 of the family members there, because i know i can rely on them because, if rob's having a bad like Something broke or anybody that's there is not having a perfect time. I want to be able to fix it, and i need to have my infrastructure there. So i think it's going to be phenomenal. You can't look the real world really matters.

I nobody's more bullish on the digital world than me. I've made my whole career on it, but it's an and game, not an or game. That's a great way. To put it, that's a good way to put it, and it's all like we're reopening our new museum in soho and we're thinking about like what in person events are going to be, and i think it's more of what vcon is, where it's curated in a way That it's not four million people begging for attention or trying to jump on a stage.

It's an event that it's it's a long ways in the making you're part of it early. You get to be part of it now, and it's also like incredible experience and and memory that comes from it that you can take elsewhere and say to your point: the 2023 version. What do we do right? What do we do wrong? How do we make this? Even bigger next year to do it in a smaller group to start and really well curated as a way to make that stuff happen. We think the same way here.

I love that listen. You know, i think, with the innovation that you you all have brought to the game like it's, so cool right, like wall street didn't exist at one point and either you owned a business completely or you didn't, and now i own a piece of netflix and tesla And it's really neat and, like i'm, really excited about this project, i picked the sharing squirrel because it's sharing yeah, you know - and i think it's gon na be really cool. I have real big ideas for that character, long term too. So i think long term.

The people with the huddle hands are going to really work out, but it's i'm really excited about. I really feel like people are going to be able to at a very low cost, be really in the game. When the floor of one of my series, one nfts is 50 000. When the when the supply and demand for the 1 000 series 2, like i'm very concerned, because i don't like bubble behavior how expensive they're going to be 24 hours later, when somebody's gon na be able to own the holy grail, which is the original art at The fraction price that you guys are offering like it's cool, like i like doing things that i would do as a consumer on the other side, which is why this was a yes, no.

I appreciate that and that's we always think about. I think the same way you do too it's the community is what builds this platform and what's done, what rally's done well, i think over time is making sure that you have that access, but also that we're here for the long term, so we're always looking for Assets regardless of what it is where there's like that long-term behavior and not that flipped behavior, that goes with it. So this was a natural conversation. I appreciate you doing it with us for sure i got to end with.

I got to end with one question so over the last you know three or four months. You've you've been on tv a couple times. You've had a lot of really great things to say and commentary on the space. What does it feel like to get asked? A gotcha question on tv and then have the exact right answer: queued up to just deliver absolute smoke to a journalist on live tv, and then i also want to know was that a premeditated murder or was that in self-defense, i'm not 100 sure after it became The meme i was reviewing it, i'm always self defense.

I never come in with negative intent, i'm a counter puncher, even though i look like somebody who would be the aggressor based on my energy, yet there's nothing better than to stay very narrow and talk about what you know. I'm very proud that i do that. I stay very narrow in my i talk about perspective and just like how a human has control of seeing the world the way that they can, if they understand kind of the human eq elements of being a human. I stick to business.

I stick to pop culture and sports. I stick to wine and marketing and i stick to you know web 3 nft kind of strategy and that's it, and so when i go and do an interview like that and out of nowhere you're caught off guard because now you're like oh, this is the tone. The journalist wants to take it, there's just no better feeling than when you are about your life, i'm not reading off of a you know off of a teleprompter, i'm not living off of a deck that my team made. For me.

I lived this 24 7.. I know it cold uh, and so that was a lot of fun and obviously, when your face becomes a meme for a moment, uh it's pretty cool. I think i got to give you credit dude. That's like you, don't have to study it when you're a student of the game and it just comes natural, so i think that's something that you've always sort of had that authenticity comes through for sure gary.

I appreciate it man. Thank you. So much looking forward to the the rally v friend offering on uh on our platform and looking forward to v con in series two thanks. So much cheers thanks dude, i'm gon na stop this and.