Every single person here has probably missed out on the best thing that ever could have happened to them in their lives. And the second you accept that truth that the millions of decisions you've already made in your life have probably kept you away from the best thing that could have ever happened in your life, the love of your life, the idea of your life, business oper, the money made like all of it. then I think you can start leaning? Into The Human Experience We don't give ourselves enough room and it goes back to patience. How do you do both by knowing you have a lot of time to do both? And as far as fomo, you're never going to know how it would have been anyway? Plus the thing I always think about to make myself feel even better about the fact that I've said no to the best things that ever could have happened to me is knowing that it also would have changed the course of my life.

So yes, maybe I would have said yes to going out with my friends this night and I would have saw something and it would have led to the idea of my life. But maybe then while I was executing that idea something bad could have happened. Attention is the number one asset. First of all it's such a pleasure.

It's good to see everybody you know. 14 years ago my brother and I started a company so not too around the same range as you guys and the goal was to be able to effectively communicate everywhere in the world at that point in my life when I was 13 14 years ago, when I was 3334, I had a sense that I finally started to understand what I was good at. I' you know, built my family's uh retail business up and I realized I loved the marketing more than selling the product and and I was very good at it and I was doing things early I was doing you know I did e-commerce in 1996. you know majority of this room wasn't born in 1996.

I was doing email marketing in 1999 when I could get 90% of the people on the email list to open the email I bought Google AdWords the day the day Google AdWords started I started a long form YouTube show in February of 2006 you know I was an early investor in Facebook and Twitter I was there and and so I wanted to start a Communications infrastructure because I wanted it to be at my disposal I thought of it as the most important remote control of my life that whatever business I started whatever uh things I was passionate about uh if I wanted I always kind of knew myself. so I said you know if I'm 84 years old and somebody I love is taken by a disease I'm going to want to cure that disease and yeah, I could raise money, but that's been proven to me as not the most effective way. The most effective way is to get the world to care. And I figured if I could build a Communications infrastructure, Sure, whether I wanted to sell sneakers or I wanted to cure diseases and everything in between that that would be important as my remote control.

And so I started that company 14 years ago and slowly but surely we're building enough scale that we able to expand into other places. I've been doing personal content for a long time. I was very early Snapchat I've always had a pretty strong you know presence uh among Snapchat users in Saudi cuz I was pretty early making content. so I've always wanted to get here.

As you know, I've been to the overall middle east region a lot. We've tried to get here multiple times. I'm always very in andout I leave tomorrow like I just got here, you know? Um, so I'm just very excited to be here and obviously I don't have to tell anybody in this room. It has been remarkable to watch the expansion of opportunity and creativity and growth in this country in the last 12 to 18 months and I can't even wrap my head around what the next decade looks like.

And so you know the way I talk about Africa the way I think about Korea There's just certain parts that I am interested in investing more time into because I haven't fully gotten in uh in there yet because I think you can't story tell unless you respect and listen and so before I think about those things I want to spend a lot of time doing those things and so I'm excited to be here. Well you know it's uh, it's definitely a pleasure having you here and uh, it's a it's an honor of course I want to ask you a question if you don't um you know, uh, it seems like a lot of your success. Um and from what you what you just said happened because of because you're an earlier ad doctor, you made right decisions with Right company right? Investments Early on, um, had words when it first came out you that you made content before people started making content. Uh, you on YouTube you are um, you invested in Facebook and how how did you make these decisions? What helped you make these right decisions? I think two things when I think about it cuz it's the thing that people ask me the most about.

and and I've spent a good last 10 years trying to understand it I think there's a lot of things that worked out for me. one um I'm incredibly curious I didn't it wasn't something I really knew about myself, but especially when it comes to people you know I could have like you know, a very different true answer to my last question is because I genuinely like people and I'd like to meet them all and I think the only way you can do that is if you go. and so I I've always had a very strong curiosity of people. even as a child 7, 8, 10 years old I was disproportionately the kid in the class that had the most friends I wanted to be friends with everyone I was interested in everyone I liked everyone and so curiosity about people has always been a thing.

On top of that, I've always been a Salesman I always wanted to sell candy or lemonade or trading cards and so if you're going to sell, you have to pay attention. So I think the things that work for me is I'm curious about people I'm I'm very willing to waste time. This is a big one I think one of the reasons I'm good at what I do is I'm willing to waste time so I'm curious I see something What I saw six years ago musically. so I see musically and I see wow It's a very young social network and it's mainly 13-year-old girls right now and they're dancing.

But what I saw because I spent 20 hours on it at a time when people as busy as me wouldn't spend 2 minutes on it cuz they would dismiss it was huh? I Think the music and the app is making it easier for these young girls to make content. As you know as all of you know, anything that makes it easier for people to make content is always powerful. It's like training wheels when you learn to ride a bike. So I was able to through my curiosity which is why I even saw music Al But then my humility of my own time I Think too many people value their time too much.

when it's not that valuable, people get fancy. They're like I'm too busy I'm like, no, you're not, You're too lazy. You're too Cur you're too lack of curiosity. You're too.

uh, audacious. You're too complacent. You're too passive. I None of those things apply to me when it comes to business.

And so I think I use those things. and then the other thing is I am not. This would be interesting in a room full of smart creatives. The only thing I have conviction about is that y'all are right and I'm not.

The only thing I have conviction of is that the audience and humans are more right than me. I Think one of the challenges with very creative people or very ambitious people is you have strong opinions which are quite powerful, right? The ability to say no or to have conviction is incredibly powerful. I Do think a lot of people miss out on opportunity because they don't have the humility to understand the audience is more right than them and so it's a very fine balance of having conviction of what you see, especially creatively but also respecting and for you and for a lot of you when you're native YouTube When you're native social, it's a lot more interesting because you can't hide the results speak. You know when you do a commercial in television, the things we both agree on are dead.

Well, you can hide behind the Press saying it was a good commercial or you getting an award, right? But actual consumption in Social and digital numbers don't lie, numbers don't lie. And so I think that my level of humility to me I Think regardless of how successful I've been for the last 30 years of my career, tomorrow can become the day that it starts declining. If I don't stay humble and curious and uh, I focus on that. I'm also not romantic about how I make I'm not attached to how I'm making my money now.

So if Netflix and YouTube and Tik Tok are important to me today, I'm always ready for them not to be important tomorrow, even if that means that I might have to take a step back financially in the short term. I Think the biggest thing that hurts people is they get stuck on how they make their money and then they're not willing to deviate and follow the consumer. They're following their comfort and their wallet. I was going to say uh, one of the things that you have been very effective at is you you really focus G on uh, pop culture yes, like how to be relevant in culture and pop culture TZ Also, I Saw is very strong.

They started their company C3 Creative Culture Cat Culture Catalyst Because they believe that if they're not being a catalyst for culture and relevant to public culture, so you both have that in common. Why is pop culture so important to your? DNA I Think it's this I Think it's potentially the most significant currency that lives in the world, you know I I said I I almost said it was and then you know you know me well enough. I'm a pretty big fan of love so I think I'll put love ahead of it. but gez the fact that pop culture is very close to love when I think about the currency of the world, you know I I think I think it's incredibly naive to not make a huge commitment to popular culture to me I You know it's really funny.

It's almost like saying like why is water and oxygen important That's like when you ask the question I'm almost struggling to articulate. I I'm I'm shocked that 99% of the world continues to not see this like why is he wearing Vans why is he wearing Air Force Ones Why? Why? Why everything is so important and it's so obvious Um, I Think it. You know, even when you go out to dinner, the friend that knows the emerging you know artist of music or is most on top of why people are wearing a certain fashion I Think about everything. Like even when I sit in an audience like this I'm analyzing like the denim jacket or what the hairstyles are like it.

Everything matters to me. Everything because we all make decisions. We don't think about it. but everyone here literally is subconsciously making decisions on what they're wearing headphones around the neck.

This is all profound to me. It's profound to me. it's how the world works. and so I spend an uncanny amount of time trying to stay on top of which artist.

And and here's why. What's really cool about pop Culture is it's like cooking. Pop culture is like cooking. You know why Cooking is fascinating.

We can all have the same ingredients here, right? but the way we all cook it would be different and some would be delicious and some would not. I think the most interesting thing about pop culture is Vans vans originally were really made for California surf and skateboard kids. but then with the way the way pop culture works, all of a sudden black kids in the ghetto started wearing it as a cool thing and I remember watching that and look, look what's even happening right now like I'm literally getting Goosebumps look at this as I'm talking. Here's why: the manipulation like ingredients like cells coming together of pop culture is the most interesting thing in the world.

Something starts as something. It's why I Love people in the world. It's why I Love what the world's doing now. All of our grandparents lived in a world where the way media was.

they told us how to feel about each other. The world used to tell us how to think about each other. Now because of the way content works, we can discover each other for what it is. I love that.

that's the world. That's chemicals. that's the fusion. I'm talking about.

There's nothing more interesting into why something becomes popular. And you know this. things that become popular today 20 years ago were inconceivable. And and in 20 years things that we find popular today or how we everybody will look at photos of the way they look right now in 20 years and laugh at what they were wearing hairstyles.

It's just amazing to me. and so I keep a real attention on that because I like how things come together and create something new. So speaking of things that you know, uh, becoming popular and how things become popular? Um, and you spoke on on content and listening to the audience. And that's one of the most important things when creating content.

What's your take on creating something new, creating new trends? Um, you know, giving the audence something they didn't know they needed? Well I Think that that is a ever game that humans are incredibly capable of. This is why we're such a superior species to a worm or a bird. We have that incredible creative power I Believe it is a huge to me and I love the way you're asking that question when I'm paying attention to things. I Don't think that that curtails my ability to do something new I Think it empowers it because the reality is something new has always been motivated by something in the past, right? But we are individual humans with our individual experiences and laying at night and in the shower thinking and brush.

You know it's amazing how that works. So I think it's the most true thing. but I love when people are like this person's you know somebody like this person. a Movie Maker an artist, an athlete.

They're like this is an original and I think about it. Ah, let me give you a very interesting way to answer this question. How do I think about it? There's a documentary I think all of you should watch about Little Richard Little Richard is a very famous musician. If you go into it, you'll basically leave watching the documentary thinking and being completely affected by and and this has been long believed by many people who are passionate about music that Little Richard is truly the father of rock and roll.

Okay this black man from Georgia truly and you'll watch it that the Rolling Stones and Elvis there's unlimited content showing them saying I was in inspired by Little Richard. However, so this whole movie is a documentary about Little Richard It's filled with unlimited content from David Bowie to MC Jagger to Elvis Presley saying to you know to to The Beatles Little Richard Right, it's clearly a pro pro. Little Richard is the king of rock and roll and how does the movie start in the first 13 15 minutes of the film 20 minutes of the film talking about his childhood. It literally shows you the 11 people that impacted him to be become him.

It was very small. It's back to the thing I talked about. They were very small ingredients and he had his own DNA his own life. The timing right timing is everything.

I have a funny feeling. your wrestling film acts very differently 20 years earlier because the country was in just a different world. The world's different. the distribution's different.

You don't even get it made a year earlier, right? right? So I think what's really powerful of how I think about that that is. That's how the world will always work right. And so even though I'm listening to the comments I'm I get a lot of credit for doing a lot of original things when I broke out in my industry I was so in wine in America I was so like he's so different I would watch it back to wrestling I was like wait a minute I'm different and I also love standup comment Actually two things we just talked about I was so affected by Richard prior and Eddie Murphy and by Randy the Macho Savage the wrestler that my communication style you know I didn't realize it. but then like 10 years later I'm like wait a minute this I you know and so it's clearly not me doing them, it's it's their little seeds are in me.

and then there's 90% me. And that's how I think original thoughts get done I think and just building on the question too like they put out content movies TV shows that type of thing and people are used to a certain thinking. go F So they don't want to just do what the consumers want, they want to create for they're not creating for the market, they're creating for themselves I Think that's right I I think that I Think that's right, comma. Back to popular culture or listening.

If you're doing an hour 30 film and you decided you're going to do it about this subject matter that none of the comments have told you that you wanted, however, in the writing or in the Improv of the acting or in the directing or producing of the film, if you're making three to four references from things that you know are happening in popular culture, it's going to land. That's exactly what we did. And so I think of that as like right there you go. So I think of that as taking advantage of what you do, what they do for a living and doing so much content and understanding pop culture.

But when they go to a bigger production like they've done, it's using those elements as spices and side dishes, not the main meal because they the main dish is what they wanted to make. I Would like everyone in the audience to get a chance to ask Gary something. I If you have other questions, feel free. do it together.

Anyone want to ask something? How to fight the feeling of impatience when you have too many plans? Thank you for asking me that. It's you're You're right. It's my number one. It's my number one.

It's my number one. It's my number one because it goes back to listening 30% of my hundreds of thousands of direct messages that I get a year. Uh, if not, Millions at this point are based on this. You know? Look, I think there's a couple things, even the way you set the story to your point.

One of the things that I know is that the generation of parents that parented you and definitely their parents and on and on. the there is an overvaluing of status and profession as something that those parents brag to their friends and their parents about. So you have an entire generation of Asian and brown kids and Eastern European kids who are pushed who are pushed very heavily into engineering into medicine, into law, into the cliche things and so this is pounded into people's heads. What I believe that does is creates an incredible vulnerability for those kids to resent their parents to not be happy.

And that's why I produce so much content about that. What it also does is when you were a student, you were on a track. You're a robot. You go up every year you get grades, you go up, you go to, you go to bigger School higher School University It It's it's a fake game.

Life is a real game. Life is a real game. So people are impatient because the first 18 22 years of their life every year they move up a level. It's just it's like playing a video game.

Then you get to real life. and real life is not linear like that. And those kids even though they might have resentment or anger or have reconciled with their parents about out. Don't worry about other people's opinions, You just want me to be a doctor because your sister, your best friend meanwhile they themselves are worried about other people's opinions.

There is no reason to be impatient if you are learning every day and feel like you're on the right track. The only thing that can dictate that is outside forces, right? Because the reality is if you're happy and you feel like you're learning every day and you're on the right track, the only other parts of the world are outside opinions and the things that you physically want. Do you want a Lamborghini Do you want a nice apartment? Do you want a watch? My argument is the faster you can get away from wanting physical items and wanting validation from other human beings that are not living your life, the quicker you lack the ability to be impatient, you have to ask yourself and I believe the reason people want things 95 5% of the time is for outside validation. I'm not so sure that people want a Porsche for the Porsche or for what people think about them when they have a Porsche and so I'm very passionate about outside voices.

I think if you you know when I hear your story of like you wanted to do this then you were pushed this way. Now you found yourself back and you're this young and I know that people that are 27 don't think they're young because 27 you're starting to smell 30 and when you're 20, 30 feels super world. My cousin, my cousin worked for my father. when I finished University I was 22 he was 30 and that I remember the first day I walked into the store and I've been working with him for a long time.

but I remember when I was 22 and he was 30 I thought he was a thousand 30 When you're 22, how old are you my friend? How old 25 when you're 25 When you're 23, when you're 22, 30 feels like it feels like a big number. but when you're 47, you know how laughable that is because at 47 I feel 25 I feel ex I remember 25 like yesterday it was the year 2000. um I had to go to the store and make sure Y2K didn't break the computers I remember the day I was his age and when I tell you inside my stomach, inside my soul, inside my ambition, inside my dreams and hopes and wants I feel exactly like he does so you can imagine how not worried I am at 27 but you have to start genuinely looking yourself in the mirror and asking how much of your impatience is predicated on outside opinions. and I would argue almost all of it when I see others succeeding I ask myself why am I not at that place yet You have the wrong definition of success.

Let me explain what I mean by that I think you're right. but I would also ask you if you're in the process of accomplishing that you're actually in the best place. The process of accomplishing it is often better than accomplishing it. I would argue for people that have pulled off making films that if we really ask them, the day of the seed of the idea is even more exciting than the day it airs.

When you a maker, the process is more enjoyable making it like. As a matter of fact, almost all of my most challenging days is when something I was excited about has been finished. Many think it's the day. It's when you sell it, it's when it happens.

It's when you're awarded. It's not the fun part I Understand you want to make a movie. It makes sense I'm just asking you you don't know anything about that person's Journey You're making assumptions and more importantly, you need to figure out here's a good one. This is a very unique take on what you're saying.

I'm curious if this is going to bring you value. I'm going to go in a very interesting place Dustin You've never heard this from me. It's something I've been thinking a lot about I've always been fascinated by perfectionism. You know people are like I'm I'm a Per Gary You don't get it.

I'm a perfectionist and I always knew that wasn't true I always knew that it was insecurity that they were scared to put it out. that's why they were using Per but but be. But saying you're insecure is not as cool as saying you're a perfectionist, but it was the same game. I've always been fascinated by people who position themselves as being tough in themselves, especially when they are quick to bring out that.

everybody around them always says that they're too tough on themselves because it means they've been effectively storytelling to the people around them that they're too hard of themselves which is actually a very on paper admirable kind of positioning. I would I would ask yourself when you go to sleep tonight and you think about this: are you interested in positioning yourself to the people around you as someone who is hard in themselves? or are you hard in yourself? Do you understand it's it's interesting work. Yeah, look inside. You have to look inside because I think it's a smart way to position yourself as a protection mechanism to give you time on your journey so you're not judged while you're on your journey.

I Thought you would I like it too. It's something I've been thinking about. Anyone else have a question for please please. Sometimes people get intimidated by my facial expressions.

Do you have any advice on how to approach that? Yeah. So let me think a couple things. one on the second one, it's you know I love that you are aware of that. all you need to do is act on that empathy and insight.

Meaning if you are quick to physically react if somebody's throwing an idea and you're like or like whatever it may be, If you feel like that's detrimental to you and I'm sure you're you're a human being. You also want to be empathetic to how it makes the other person feel. you just need to be on the off offense to communicate the context meaning one thing I Do a lot. I'm also very intuitive, very quick.

If I feel like I react to something and I can tell that it does not land I will immediately recontextualize it in the moment. I Think you need to use your words I Think you need to use your words. Your words will offset your face, but you have to be active on it. You have to acknowledge if if you're if you're recognizing that you need to be aggressive about that, especially when you know you're thinking the opposite.

the first thing I would tell you to do is when you're feeling the opposite. Uh, when you're positive about something, you're excited about that you can never leave an interaction without without overc communicating Your Enthusiasm because that will then offset that scenario. Look the first one to your point. How to lead conversation with strict parents who don't support what I'm doing.

The only thing that ever works is understanding the to your point. the move out. That's a Band-Aid Get into a fight with them. That's a Band-Aid Set them straight.

That's a Band-Aid The only thing I've ever seen really work in this game is understanding the alternative will create a worse relationship with you and your parents. Meaning the biggest challenge kids have that love their parents or are frustrated with their parents of not accepting their journey is understanding that if they the child compromises and appeases the parent that within a decade you will have such high levels of resentment towards your parents that your relationship for the rest of your lives will be negative. And so what? You're deciding because you love your parents is that you're willing to Bear your teeth and grind it out and be inconvenience and struggle with it in the short term for the greater good because in this scenario 50% of the time it works out and parents always then rewrite history and are very proud and you know how it is and even if it doesn't work out, even if the child that's on a journey does not succeed, they have put themselves in a position to not blame their parents because they gave it their full effort and they'll never have that resentment or regret. So I think the answer to your question is in your scenario where you feel like you don't have a lot of options and you're not going to change their mind with words.

The only way you're going to do it is by changing their mind with actions. It's just going to take you 10. This goes into patience. It's just going to take you 10 years and you have to in your mind go very high level and say I'm willing for it to not be ideal for the next three 5 10 years because if I quit this and do what I want them to do well there's no outcome that it's going to be healthy.

That was telling me the story today about him and him and I started creating content and they were like sitting in the rooms and filming and editing and doing these comedy shows. And their parents were like what are you guys doing of course expected until the content went viral on WhatsApp and then the parents. Somebody shared it with the parents and then he's like oh, that's my son who made that of course like I said I saw Zach laughed. Parents are incredible in rewriting history.

Oh I've always believed you can do it. You know it's look. parents love their CH As a parent, you love your children so much that it makes you delusional. You love them so much, you love them so much that you're not rational and parents do overvalue other parents' opinions too much.

That's why I Hope this generation all of you. The biggest thing that frustrates me is kids live it like almost all your parents had the same frustrations with their parents. but then they're doing it to you so don't do it to your. That's right, My my hope is that this generation becomes the generation that isn't a hypocrite, breaks the cycle, breaks the cycle.

Any other question Questions: how can I figure out if I have the idea for the next Mega hit? Yeah there. There's only two ways to do it. One, the way they've always done it, which is blind conviction you don't know and you just have this burning desire to tell the story and you just got to go. The new way that we're all very fortunate to do is there is subtle ways to play with it in Social where you don't give it away, but you're able to thematically get a feel if there's something that's resonating.

and I think in reality, everything in the future given the structure we have is going to look like a little bit of both. Right? Like there's a reason many people will do a little bit of both. Um, you know my team. When I think about my content Dustin's sitting here.

he knows how true this is. there are. We have a very good understanding of best practices. the first three seconds, the thumbnail, what time to like.

We're very much in the science of the art and we're in the art of the art. Yet there are many things things that I said here today. Definitely what I said to you because I've never said it before that when the team will take the raw footage right now and they'll clip it into best practices so they'll try to edit what we just did for a minute and I'll reply to the team when they give it to me and say no no, that one was special to me. Play it and it's full and it'll be 3 minutes and 19 seconds.

and I know that a lot of people won't watch it I know that that video will get 47,000 views instead of 800,000 but I don't care cuz I want to say it got it and so you know Now there's there's a very interesting line there of Commercial Success right? With like your own passions, you know you obviously get a lot more freedom long term to do what you want with commercial success. but I do think the way like you know when I think about the exciting things I Heard about Cinema here and when I think about what's going on with Netflix I I Think we could probably all agree here. we're probably not very far away from and this has been flirted with for a long time, but I believe in the next 15 years we will have a massive hit of direct to Consumer movie that will really transcend our industry I Believe someone that looks the profile of y'all When I See This Crew I'm like okay, that's an evolution of what I see when I go to Hollywood that's more blended into what I believe in and what they're doing. it's a it's back to that blend right? mhm I Think that somewhere in the next 15 years, maybe maybe y'all or maybe an evolution of what you're up to.

Somebody's going to sell 40 million copies of a movie $9 on a website. The technology will be there that they could actually get 40 million different people like. The things that we all know is like the blockchain is going to be profound. The blockchain right now is confused because of Nfts and the scamming and all.

but like the technology is profound. for what I just said. that on the blockchain versus the internet is a whole different thing, right? because you can prove it like there's just so many things going. augmented reality AI VR the Met Like there's a lot going on so I think that we're all going to be able to be in a place and I think you're going to end up doing both I think every creative person in in the future and starting now will probably end up doing both.

doing some stuff for commercial success and just like I'm doing with my content. Many things I do because I know it's going to work and I believe in it and we'll do it the best way we can and I'll get 4 million views. but I'm very proud and I show it to my team because I want them to learn from me I'm like no no no I know this is not going to do well. but for the seven people that I mean I know the exchange you and I had about that I'm too hard on myself that's a convers because I study this stuff.

What I said to you is not what people talk about when they talk about that I know that there's 29 people on Earth that are going to watch that video and it's going to start. They're going to be ready to hear that a 100 of them like no Gary cuz they don't they're not ready right? But for the 29 that are ready and it's worth it. and I think that's how you have to think about your sci-fi thing. Is this something that that you can't go to the ground in a 100 years? God Willing that you never made it that you'll be devastated? Or are you okay because you got nine other stories that you're equally Curious By those are things you have to decide for yourself.

The film industry in Saudi Arabia is just starting is now the time to experiment or to figure out how to build it. I I Think they're one and the same. Okay, because I Think what you're saying from experimenting is really the thing that fascinates all of us as storytellers. which is, do you know how many films were made that had all the science and polling and analytics behind it and flopped? Math is not undefeated when it has to dance with art.

You understand math is undefeated when it plays with itself, but when it plays with art, it can lose too. So I think what I would say is on both of the ways you asked it. Both should go as hard and as fast as it can because this is unprecedented times, right? Whether you experiment or you go with something tried and true or however you define that, the fact that you all starting with the founders have put in the 11 years relationships that were formed before came together like look, it's really exciting for me who likes to root for people to know the position you're in at the time that you're in. and I think I think for all of you for all of you, the timing in this incredible country in this genre is unprecedented.

It's really special and so I I Think this is you don't want to do what a lot of people end up doing which is in 30 years realizing how unprecedented it was and you're like why did I leave at 6 o' and just go play video games like this was the time I should have went as hard as possible. There will never be a time like this again because people are going to come like use this moment. What am I doing here people are going to come. This is an unprecedented time.

Go as hard as you can. So you said that. you know maybe you should have conviction for something. If you want to experiment you have hard conviction, you have scut feeling need.

It needs to come out regardless of the commercial. Maybe um how can we make a maybe an educated guest using you know, living in the in the social age where we're connected, where we use data use feedback. how would you? Yeah let's let's use the film that you educated me on that did well. There is especially with your network and how you understand it there was.

There's an incredible opportunity for you to disguise what you're working on, yet still talk about the genre of wrestling and put that content into social with not the same characters with not the same stuff, but you can actually get validation to the interest around a genre by putting it out there in disguised form. I Do that quite a bit, You just could. It's not a perfect match, but the reality is is you can. You really can.

You really can do clips and little mini you know, like you know, um, one, two, three, four minute clips that play with the themes of the show. Or I'll give you a good example. Maybe when you were writing it, you know? I Don't know the film obviously. but maybe there's a big storyline of the relationship of the wrestler with his grandmother.

I'm just making that up. Well, there's a lot of ways you could do interesting social content to 33 million people in this country of of around relationships with Uncle relationships with grandfather, relationships with grandmother and actually look at the data and the feedback and be like wait a minute. Actually nobody's really talking about the the uncle Dynamic and it seems like that really caught a lot of people's attention. Maybe let's rewrite it and make it about the uncle's relationship instead of the Grandma's That's how I think it can affect it.

What to do if you start losing your authenticity I Love that you know I've always felt that the thing that helps me with that the most is having the capacity to step away and step away is not as literal as you know. moving out of a house or stepping away. It doesn't mean you have to step away and go for six months to the mountains and come back. It means stepping away in actually creating more time for yourself to think and be around the elements that were who you were.

I'll give you an example with me when I feel like I'm like a little bit more detached from the center I tend to go back to spending more times with my friends from high school or college or starting to narrow in my circle. Usually the reason you're getting away from your authentic place is the Human Relationships around you and they don't even have to be bad. I'll give you a great example that might be similar to yours I Realized three and a half years ago that I was getting worse at marketing. CU I hired too many people from agencies and even though I was the Alpha and the CEO and dictating their energy was starting to bleed into me.

And so what did I do? I made a big to-do about it and said I'm not as good as I used to be. Started spending more time on my content started a I had the power to do this started to trim out some of the people that I thought were bringing too much of the tradition in a respectful nice way. um I Think you have to protect your energy. You have to really no different than a lot of us going through work.

You need to figure out what in the job, what in your personal relationships, what in the content that you're consuming, what in the people that you're talking to, who who can you re and how do you get into that place you know, like it. it's getting back to those roots I I think if it's funny how you asked the question I would spend as much time as possible on who were you with and what were you consuming at the time that you were like the way you wish you were. One of the more interesting emails I get from people that consume my content is titled like I'm back with you now that I've been doing it for a long time. I Get a lot of people who say you know I I Stopped watching your content 5 years ago and I've started consuming it again 6 months ago and it's really helping me and it's a version of what I'm talking to you about right now, which was they reset and tried to think about when they were happier or when they were more, what they want to be, what were they doing, what were they consuming and who were they with and I think it's that's an audit you need to consider.

Does that make sense in any way? It's it's hard. you know. The thing that's hard for all of us is it's in the subconscious. but I I think that that's what I would do if I was when I'm in a rut I like that I try try to go back and like I do funny things like I go garage sailing um I remember one time specifically I even worked in my dad's store for a day just to like I I'm get back to the I'm telling you I I know it's I notice how I asked you does that make sense I knew you were going to like it's not easy what I'm saying but I do think if you can go very literal and say okay I was most authentic sell phone I was watching these kind of videos because you can even though you're a different man than you were 5 years ago 3 years ago, you can start to do that.

It's something worth thinking about. We have one last question and then we need to want to give a how do I balance seeking more opportunities and striving toward my number one goal. I Would say that every single person in this room I'll let you finish the second question but let me jump on this one. Every single person here has probably missed out on the best thing that ever could have happened to them in their lives.

And the second you accept that truth that the millions of decisions you've already made in your life have probably kept you away from the best thing that could have ever happened in your life, the love of your life, the idea of your life, the business Opera the money make like all of it. then I think you can start leaning Into The Human Experience I'm telling you, that's what it is like. We we, we don't give ourselves enough room and it goes back to patience. Like you know, how do you do both by knowing you have a lot of time to do both and as far as Fomo, you're never going to know how it would have been anyway.

Plus, the thing I always think about to make myself feel even better about the fact that I've said no to the best things that ever could have happened to me is knowing that it also would have changed the course of my life. So yes, maybe I would have said yes to going out with my friends this night and I would have saw something and it would have led to the idea of my life. But maybe then while I was executing that idea, something bad could have happened. Maybe that would have brought me to a meeting in LA and I wasn't paying attention and a car hit me and I'd be dead right right now I Think people are fascinating in their inability to understand how much of life you don't control and that like everything is, everything is fomo.

you need to flip it instead of think thinking of it literally, you need to think of it much bigger. like that's happening every day like every like do you understand like you're thinking about it as like should. I Go do this project. Should I do this.

You're looking at the big things I Think it's even if you left your house 5 minutes earlier, tomorrow your life would be different. It's really, really big. You know what I mean like I know it may sound silly, but what? I think it's done for me and when I see why it works for others, it actually liberates you into not thinking that you have to make these perfect decisions. I Don't think I make any good decisions I'm being serious like I I just think I'm making decisions to the best of my ability at that moment and sometimes it's going to be very good and sometimes it's not going to be.

but you're putting too much pressure there's. listen to the questions. we're just very good at putting pressure on ourselves to acheve achieve something that's not achievable for what Actually, you know what based on the questions and then I'll I'll let you ask a second I have one very good recommendation if you can find yourself in the next year or two to have a conversation with somebody extremely elderly that is not a family member of yours, Do it. Maybe you can even have like a grandparents Exchange program I really mean this I think that the thing that I do well is I My parents always told me stories as a child that when I was three and four I'd go outside and I'd hang out with 90-year-old people and like genuinely like hang out with them and I always thought it was a funny story and then as I've gotten older I'm like oh okay like I think I do believe in this old soul stuff like you're attracted to certain energies I think all I'm doing now is telling you the things that 90y olds know I think you need more of that in your life like like you know I think the way to attack truly having Fomo is flipping it and understanding everything is Fomo.

everything's in play. You're missing out on everything all the time which then will make you comfortable with it. What was the second part Yeah, like how how open should you really be at the work. It's like how transparent should you be As transparent as your bosses allow, right? The answer to that is like at Vayner me at my company I can tell you that people are pretty transparent because I've established in 15 years that I don't fire people if they insult me There's a lot of places where people get fired for the smallest things because the leadership is either insecure or traditional.

I Think the reality is is there's a lot of ways to think about it. The literal answer to your question is as much as the leadership has allowed you to be. The deeper answer is as much as you want to be because do you want to be in a place where you don't feel like you can be transparent. On the flip side: I Think some of the modern thoughts that we all have like the world works on non full transparency.

You know privacy is valuable too. Like holding in certain thoughts has value as well. So I think what the world struggles with is balance and so you know I think I Think What I'm worried about with the word transparency is that a lot of people don't realize that they're weaponizing it for judgment. I I Also think to Gary comes from a context at V the media and how he believes that it's the role of the leader or the manager to make the employees them safe.

So safety is a very big thing in leadership. So in in the Arab business culture it's not that the in the American Business culture good news. In the American Business culture, it's not common Yeah, but just like that feeling of can we be transparent like there's always this feeling like should we share or not share? Should we do the full way or not So there's always that feeling. So the way I face living and working here for 2 years.

By the way, if you interviewed all 2,000 employees of V media, they tell you the same thing. They have it better than everyone else. But when you are an employee, you're always thinking is this good or bad for me for my job That's just the reality of like it's also being a public figure I Literally am thinking it every time that I'm one sentence away from having a problem, right? It's just. it's the real like it's the way the world.

Works To me to me, I Think the the bigger question is are you building the relationships that allows your transparency to land right? The key to that question is you don't want to be transparent for the sake of transparency. You want to be transparent for the sake of trying to make the thing better. To me, building relationships with leaders, contemporaries. your direct reports parallel to you above you below you I think we need more relationship building in the world and I think that's a thing to be thinking about if I could just build addition.

it's also about trust. You want to feel that the person you're being transparent with you can trust them with your either vulnerability and and to the point, you can't form trust without having a real relationship, right? So, this kind of all hand in hand and I think that's it's a really good question and it's also something that I feel like and Gary's always uh talking about being and it's not either. or it's always and like can you trust and develop the relationship so that you have that sense of trust I think it's important, it's A it's a it's a forever challenge for everybody. It's a huge challenge around the world.

It's you know as we travel the world as I travel the world. The thing I'm most interested in is cultures, subcultures. Traditions Every single part of the world thinks their part is different than everybody else, but all of it ladds to the same human truth. You know because you all know this, there's Saudi Arabia.

Then there let's start even higher. there's the Middle East Then there's Saudi Arabia Then there your company acts different than the company next door. Then it's your actual boss is even different than some of the bosses in the company. There's always more context and I think that's what you need to be thinking about your the answer is based on the relationship and the DNA of the people you want to have that conversation with.

But back to who you're sitting next to and a good theme for everyone. Words are powerful and using words words is a really important thing. Most people have unhappy professional careers because they don't use their words.