My god amazing so cool. We're set now dustin. We're set now with with the puff and productive puffin. Like the whole concept of v.

Friends was for to build a universe of characters that spoke to the things that i've been speaking to as garyvee knowing that i'm limited as one human being to get out the message that i really want i wanted to create my pokemon. My disney. There was a these books when i first came to america and learning how to speak english called uh. Sweet pickles and they were like these alliteration characters.

And so that was like a big inspiration in my whole life and then when i was going to this i'm like oh that'd be cool and so i wanted to do the alliteration thing and so productive. You know i you know i was just looking up all sorts of animals like the puffin just looked. I mean like the beak. It just looked cool and just looks focused and so um.

It's kind of an esoteric random character like i don't think like people love elephants and lions and giraffes like nobody's rolling around and like you know the puffin is my guy so i kind of felt like there's something about that underdog mentality. That allows the character to be productive. Which is why i wanted to do the puffin. Yeah.

The whole thing's like it's really well done someone behind the camera. Asked what excited you about collaborating with paul. I mean you know not to embarrass him in front of him. But like you know there's it's we like the answer is like what what doesn't you know as we started getting to know each other virtually digitally through social through the years.

I mean. He's a truly an actual icon in his craft. And i think the way he was just referring to i needed to look outside my own craft to be like wait lebron does this like kobe did this i've always kind of done that you know because i i didn't have the luxury of being an athlete even though i loved it so much so for business. I would always look to sports and other places.

And i've just always really you know appreciate a very specific thing. Which is someone that's great at something and is nice and i just loved through the years nike executives ran you know just you know i read so much of people talking like even when we first got connected. I remember vividly early early twitter. When twitter was super small somebody tweeting.

Like i mean super. Small less than 100 000. People. 500.

000. People so you saw like everything somebody in san francisco tweeting that they ran into him and how nice he was and it just took note that's fine. I believe in that so i think what made it interesting was i knew that collaborations were going to be a big part of be friends and i wanted to do it with people i admired brands that i thought were interesting obviously. Ben is so close we try to be very thoughtful of like what are the right brands.

What represents what we're trying to do obviously his interest in the subject. Matter and like when he brought paul was that's exactly right like and so just became very it became very easy mentally to be like that's exactly what i want to do oh. A long time a long time finally get to meet the guy in person really. It's super nice.

I mean like you know people love to on technology. Oh social's bad for this internet's bad for this up. Everything. Like this is the first time.

We're meeting. Yeah. I feel like i've known him for 15 years like like people love to look at the negative. I tend to look at the positive about things like it's crazy.

The emotion and the energy. I feel and that would not be possible without social and the internet and so i just wish people chose to look for the good. I think we're on a there's a lot of momentum right now to choose to look at the bad. And i think we got to get out of that and so this is a perfect real life example of how much good digital infrastructure.

Can do because relationships are the most important thing in the world acquaintances friendships family love so it's nice nice quick question. Yeah were you always prior to social media. Were you always like a social person yes always around yeah. Yeah.

I was and i was and the way. I show up in social is very much how i showed up in life. I am addicted to human interaction and all of it i really liked 80 year olds. When i was a kid.

I would sit with my grandparents at the park and talk to them i had a very unique kind of like you know i grew up in the 80s and 90s where like high school and junior high like like it was very like you couldn't be popular unless you were willing to compromise and pick on people and like do that thing and i really kind of like skated my way through meaning. I just never compromised on being kind and was able to hang out with the cool kids as much as like the nerd kids. And you see that in social media. Now like the extremes.

People are willing to go just for attention. Just for views. Just for whatever like well people people need outside people people need outside validation. Which is the framework that i'm trying to talk to more people.

About which is like why why thank god like you know if you can understand why you're looking for it. And what it you're trying to scratch and what hole you're trying to fill you can start reverse engineering. It and doing it in a healthier way than looking for it out of flexing or having stuff or compromising. Who you are to get the laugh or the or the head nod.

Yeah. I think about that a lot. Yeah. Man.

That's cool. Yeah. Well you were lucky to be born with that disposition. I was born i was introverted shy kid super shot didn't and that's why i think i gravitated towards skateboarding right.

It was it's it's it's little league everything. But like when i found skateboard. I can just go when i want do what i want i didn't have to like interact too hard with anybody. I was just so introvert so when social media.

First came around i didn't really get it i didn't grasp it makes sense who's going to care about what my food. I had today like like i don't why do i want to post a picture of the food. I had or whatever i was just so like i don't get it and then slowly. But surely surely my partner heath put me on to it and made me get instagram and do all that i get it yeah.

I get it it's funny um. I'm the reverse the reason. I think i'm an entrepreneur is i like to make things for the world. I want everybody to interact with my stuff um.

But it's cool. It's also cool to evolve right like you know for a lot for my all my extroverted dna. I love a good flight where nobody can bother me i love the shower shower is my favorite damn place on earth but nobody's gonna bother me i can't even be my my phone will get up in here this is a good place so like you know it's about understanding. What makes you tick.

And one thing. I've been really thinking a lot about lately is letting people feel comfortable to reframe their identity. So i've noticed some people kind of always be known by being snarky and cynical and introverted and they've changed their mind in their late 20s their 30s their 40s. But they're almost scared to go there because they're known as this and so i'm trying to think about how to talk about that more which is like changes.

Yeah because if social media wasn't around naturally. You're going to be a different person from 20 to 30 from 30 to 40 look at snoop dogg. Yeah that in 1992. The snoop dogg that i discovered is very different like changes yeah.

100. And i think you know certain people do it. Gracefully. Snoop dogg's a really good example and they just do it.

Because i think they own who they are hundred percent and they just move they just let the evidence 100 and people kind of it almost happens like unnoticed. But but you know it's it's hard because in snoop scenario. And for some of us in here. A little bit older majority aren't in the 90s.

If you were going to be in hip hop you had to make pretend you were hard even if you weren't there was only one thing that worked in hip hop. You know timbo's starter jackets and like killing. People like it was just super. Like that and so for a lot of people if they love skate or bmx or food or wine or business.

There's this the culture of the moment has a certain thing. And it's hard to be an individual within it when you love a genre. It's a really interesting challenge for a lot of people but the more we pound. It the more we can have creative things happen absolutely like in skating.

It was kind of like um. The taboo to work out and train like a real athlete. There's like man just skate bro that's right that's your workout. You skated today.

Like and then you know that's why you're 25 years old. And you feel like you get back yeah and you're like yes. Because you don't know what a foam roller is guys like you don't know soft tissue work. Yeah like like fascia next thing you know oh great i'm 37.

I still feel great like cool cool all right who's upset now his bum. Now you just have to i guess that long term vision will carry you past. All that uh you know makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense someone behind the camera asks to paul what does it finally mean to meet gary in person after observing him on social media for so long oh.

I'm i'm tripping out right now. It's scary. I'm tripping out we're here in the skate park and he's here standing in the skate park and we're talking about a collab. We're doing together it's crazy because there's so many i mean as with so many people in the world like you just go on gary's page in any one of his socials and you just catch a snip and you're like holy that's what i'm going through right now like and you're talking to some kid or somebody who just came up and you just it's impressive to me like how like no matter.

What the subject or what the question is you just have a straight stream of consciousness for whatever. It is boom here's what he learned like how is he so clear minded on that answer right there instantly and i'm. It's so impressive to me you know back to the correlations. It's why i get other people that are great at certain things like for the last like four years.

I'm like man if i had a sense even an ounce of rhythm soul or any music capability. I could be a crazy rapper. But i have zero it comes to me. But there's like a like all the words like it's how i talk it all works and then the pipe of any musical capability at all doesn't exist in my body and thus it breaks and then i watch people do it and i'm just so impressed like lil wayne going into the booth and just spitting from the top of head and leaving is how i do that there is literally nothing that anybody here can come up to me and talk about that doesn't come super simple to me because it's complete clarity for me on life that's crazy.

But i can't do that of the things i want to say under the genre of the context of music and i want to and so like when people want to do like the way. I speak or this i'm like i get it i'm like i'm not sure. But like for you like the the symmetry or like seeing it or innovating like innovating. I think comes from that as well like when you can see something that nobody else can see and then you do it everyone's like completely taken aback.

But for the person. That's doing it you're like you're like what do you mean yeah like it's like waking up. Yeah. Like and so i'm very flattered by that and i think the thing that i'm most passionate about is getting everybody understand that they should fight to figure out what that thing is for themselves.

And even if it's something small to the world. It's big to you for example. My thing and your thing actually and let's talk video game skateboarding and entrepreneurship 1987. I was 12 you're looking at the world of what do you want to be what do you want to do there's not one person you can look at that is an entrepreneur.

The word didn't even exist. There was like business people. But they were like oh they're like 80 year old like there was nothing cool there's no skateboard you know you couldn't really you couldn't really look at things. And that's why i keep pushing people like the thing that you are great at right now that you like maybe somebody watching this right now is incredibly gravitated towards floral arrangements like they just can't help it they just like go to the nursery and like they're obsessed.

If you're 17 right now and you're like i like the thing. That is the most important to me comes the most natural to me the thing. I want to do all the time is be crazy with doing floral arrangements. It's going to be hard for you to see the rock star of floral arrangements.

They exist. There's people that do weddings and stuff. But it's not like we like none of us can name the lebron of floral arrangements. My argument is but you couldn't do that with tony hawk you couldn't say tony hawk or you or others in 1982.

If skateboarding was your most important thing it hadn't happened yet with video games booga for fortnite that guy didn't exist. My son knows who booga is for fortnite. But in 1987. When we all with video games.

There wasn't a single famous video game player so like for everybody at home right now that has something that doesn't seemingly look like it's the thing. It might become the thing and why compromise and become a lawyer or a skateboarder or an entrepreneur. When you're the greatest floral arrangement person of all time and just keep going with it because it because the world might come to you i think i think it will i think i believe in like the law of attraction. And i do if if you're that obsessed with something you're that great of something the world will re organize itself.

I agree you become you become the torchbearer of the thing and if nothing else life is the world is big and the world is small if nothing else you'll just enjoy what the you do for the rest of your life. And your little world will with you you'll be the best floral ranger of the thousand people that you know that do floral arrangement that's why i feel really good about like i was a single child growing up and i was you know super shy as i said. But that's why i feel like that helped me in the sense. Because like whatever i fell into whatever.

I was drawn to and i became obsessed with i had nobody else around me to tell me yo. That's whack is stupid stop thinking about that oh yeah. That's dumb. Why are you doing that like i had nobody to tell me this is cool or not cool.

It was just like i was just drawn to what i was drawn to and i would go into it full heartedly and i would run its course. And i'd go on to the next thing or whatever and then i found skateboarding. But i never had an older brother or cousin everybody all around to tell me like you're an idiot. Stupid.

You can't do that or whatever. It was just like open road. It's funny you say that i i'm the oldest and i i think a lot about had i been the youngest would things have been framed up for me differently and especially being an 80s child. It wasn't even your parents you just went outside and discovered.

Yeah. Yeah yeah. And i think a lot of my friends who have siblings. The youngest.

One is the toughest one of course because they got everybody beating them down this one is the sissiest one well not me i'm much tougher. I'm kidding thank you bro thank you i'm so excited about this you can't even imagine.