(quiet music)
- [Gary] You know asking for a 1% of 1% life.
So far I've heard, I didn't wanna eat shit and
put out stuff and deal with no feedback for a year or two.
I don't wanna spend the three or four hours to like learn it
'cause it seems like there's so much.
You have to realize when you're asking to do
to live a 1% life - yes.
that you need to do 1% things.
- Right.
(upbeat music)
- [Gary] You got your perspective.
(crowds cheering)
I just wanna be happy, don't you wanna be happy?
(mumbling)
- Um
- What's up my brother?
- It's a real pleasure. - How you feeling?
- It's an honor man, real pleasure.
- For real, man.
- Ollie, such a pleasure.
- I like the way you talk, man.
- I appreciate that.
- You gotta way with words man.
- Yeah, man, I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
It's a real pleasure to see you.
- We were just talking for a second
and you know I mean like,
him being like a living legend
and one of the people who could actually
touch Diddy, touch me, touch-touch anybody at the same time.
- I'm aware of all of it.
- He has all that leverage, he has his phone company,
and he wanted to talk a little bit about his phone company.
- Okay, let's go.
How did it start?
Who reached out to you?
- You need to be at the right place
at the right time. - Always.
- I'm a frequent in Miami a lot,
you know, the small community.
- Of course.
- I really wanted to get here because you-
there's a lot of you that I see that,
reminds you of myself, which is all of this.
- Yeah?
- Because that means you spread it so many different ways,
so how the fuck do you real all that shit back in?
And then, make it, make it work for you?
- The reason I think I have been able to pull it off
is sixty to eighty percent always go to one core big thing
and then I get my nut off on all my other stuff,
but I got one thing that's like, you know?
It's like a piece of, it's like food, like there's always a
steak or a chicken, but then I got a fuck-load of
Brussels sprouts and carrots, but there's always a core.
- Hold on one sec...
- Go ahead, and that was either the wine store,
in Springfield, Jersey, or Vayner media.
If we could figure out on Instagram or Facebook or Snap,
Snap... there's places like, for me, it's running ads
on the internet in lower income individuals,
targeting lower income individuals, who are more likely
to not have a plan in that sweet, kinda like
twenty to thirty spot, because if you're younger
a lot of times your parents are doin' it.
You hit them hard with a bunch of different messages,
like "Hey, don't worry about getting plan,
we can go month to month," like, you catch the right video.
You catch the right... you know, it's just like
a commercial, like on TV, there's millions of commercials,
but "Just Do It" or "Priceless" or "Where's the beef?".
You know like, that's the goal of my company, always.
What's the internet version of that?
Good, cool.
Let's do that next within the next thirty days.
Mike, let's take a photo real quick.
- We don't sleep, the money don't sleep.
Why do we have to sleep?
(hip-hop instrumental)
- So, I have put out a bunch of videos,
but very sporadically here and there,
- Yep
I get inspired every once in a while,
and I put out four or five videos like everyone else,
- Okay.
which is why I see why most people quit.
And then, nobody watches it.
So I think back more maybe to your wine library days
where you just kept pumping them out,
It took 5, 7, 8 years, is that what I'm facing really?
Is that just like yeah it's like 3-5 videos constantly...
- You're, you just care about short term feedback loops.
- It's like, I don't even have any feedback,
so how I'm trying to think, how do I...
- Well a couple things you could do,
you could spend money against the content.
- Okay, that I don't really have.
- Right, so then you can just be patient
and wait for it to come, and when I say you can spend money,
and maybe you don't have this either, but you're here, so
you should have this, I think.
Spending $200 bucks against a video highly targeted,
will get you feedback if that's what you're yearning.
- So your basketball example, Lebron James vs. Me,
I do, I spend $60 or $100, I feel like
- Yep, awesome.
I am gambling at the casino.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It's not a tool, so, then it brings me back to your...
Be a practitioner, spend three weeks and learn` and learn.
- Mhm.
When I go on youtube, especially youtube, it just feels
like there is so much out there, that everybody is saying
their different story, it's like hard to..
- I think the thing you have to wrap your head around,
is what you're asking for, think about this, you said "I.."
It's really important. I think you know where I'm gonna go.
"I wanna live a life where I can travel 3-4 months a year,
and still run my business and make money."
You're asking for a 1% of 1% life.
You're looking to build a personal brand,
so that you can travel 4 months a year.
- Yes.
- You have to realize, when you're asking,
to live a 1% life, that you need to do 1% things.
- Right, right.
- So far, I didn't wanna eat shit and put out stuff
and deal with no feedback for a year or two,
because it doesn't feel like its accomplishing anything.
That makes sense to me.
- No I don't wanna be, ten years
- Yeah! I don't wanna spend 3 or 4 hours to learn it,
cause it seems like there is so much, yeah man.
- So, it's just video after video, cause you know...
- Stick with me here then,
- Okay.
- You want to live a 1% life, like,
you have to do 1% things.
Like that's super hard.
To live a life where you get to travel 4 months a year.
That was outrageous what you just asked for.
I mean I'm asking for-
No, but think about it, this is everything,
this is the whole nut, the reason you haven't figured...
You're fucking out of your mind with what you're asking,
thus you have to do ridiculously hard shit to get there, and
you're not even giving it a chance- you're not,
you're bailing on the hardship within seconds.
Every data point that I have heard so far and
its okay, is like no chance. Let alone some chance.
- Right.
- Because I don't think you've quantified how ridiculous
what you're asking for, is.
- Ok
- [Guest] Can I just say, I do that.
I am the living example. I do exactly what you said.
- Which is?
- Travel 4 months a year and have a business,
and have it grow, and know the right people.
- [Guest] You're the oldest guy on the room.
(group laughs)
- Steve, you also had three fucking heart attacks.
(group laughs)
- [Steve] I didn't say I do it exactly like-
- And, and, to my point, how many years did it take us.
When did we do it, years?
Dude, I fucking worked in a liquor store for 15 hours a day,
7 days a week for years and
somehow people put that as like part of my narrative, but
don't give it the respect.
You wanna live a 1% life,
- I understand that, so I wanted...
- Cool so then, you wanted, you told me you wanted to build,
you thought building a personal brand is the way to do that.
The two core things of building a per- which is fine.
The two core things in a personal brand,
you've bailed on immediately.
Patience and practitioner-ship, you don't wanna do either.
I know that you no wanna take some photos, I need to just-
- Nah nah nah, you're gonna go.
- Well okay.
- Take this to your office.
- Cool thank you. I'll see you guys later.
Thank you guys, thank you so much.
Thank you.
- We're late.
- So one thing we wanna do.
What size T-shirt are you? I'm gonna grab you-
- Medium
- I'm gonna grab you a medium
- Am I gonna wear that?
- I'm gonna wear, I'm gonna give you that we just wanted to
take, before we start the programing, one quick picture
with the whole board
- Who're we missing? Simon Danny pad
- Hey man.
(crowds chatting)
How've you been? Great to see you.
- All well?
- Everything's good
- Makes me happy
(chill hip hip music)
We're here at Raise by Us charity event and organization
that helps organizations and their employees give back.
Really enjoying it, on the boards, super happy about it.
Here with this beautiful man Ben Layer.
Thrillest chairman of the Group Nine.
- [Ben] Hi, CEO
- CEO not chairman?
- I don't know, actually I'm not sure
- He's a METS fan.
- What's this for? Is this just a vlog
- Yeah you're famous now
- Aw God yes
- So important people, come up and say hi.
These are all highly supportive individuals.
My original co-founder Danny who uh,
(audience claps)
And Ariel and Beth, Emily and Ellie in the corner.
So thank you all for uh, so now we're gonna do
Yeah we should take the
Anyway, so we're gonna get some of the quick panel
uh, we seem to, there we go. David and Catherine.
- So we're gonna do this much more quickly than
most panels but we felt like because we have such an
esteemed group of, uh interesting
and wonderful board members
it would be disrespectful not to let them share
their advanced knowledge in particular Gary, Gary,
as you so Vaner media has been in hyper growth hiring
huge numbers of people for uh, years now.
Which is shocking.
(crowd laughing)
Are you, what's the thing that you struggle most with?
On a cultural perspective. As you, as you sort of needed to
build a team fast, uh how do you maintain that?
Where does it break down?
- Sure, so I think there's a lot of variables and
I'll use the context of your other answers in here you know.
This ecosystem a lot of faces I see I think was was
interesting is at, when I started Vaner I was coming from
investing, and kind of the tech ecosystem, and with Vanor.
Things had to be profitable, we didn't raise capital.
So, It's one thing to maintain culture when you can get away
with losing money every year.
It's another thing when you have to
make payroll every two weeks.
So, for me I agree with everything here
and on top of it, I had to be profitable everyday
since we've had it.
That's number one. Number two.
I didn't come from the advertising world
and so my biggest problem is,
For the nine hundred people that work for me,
I'm a little bit of enigma in a lot of my actions.
Because I'm also breaking the industry
and having different perspectives on creative and media.
So the truth is, you know everyday in the process of
what we're doing, we're, I'm fighting a market
that doesn't necessarily wanna buy what I'm selling.
Employees that are holding up the past on a pedestal.
So Ben everything's a problem.
(laughter)
- Does the New York Tech Community
have an obligation or responsibility to give back,
and why do you think that's the case?
And when does the New York Tech Community
(laughter)
- I mean, the answer is yes, because to me,
its not about the New York Tech Community,
its about every human and organization on earth,
if you have the-
there is a unbelievable misunderstanding
of how much abundance there is in the world,
and I think if your lucky enough to be in a position
to be able to, weather your a human individual here,
or an organization of start up,
the New York Tech Community,
the San Francisco Tech Community,
the Tokyo Tech Community,
the Fashion Community in Germany,
whatever you are,
I think there's a real deep need
to understand that there's an underlining obligation
if you've been gifted enough with the proper D.N.A,
and circumstance that something good is going on.
Ben, I would just wanna add one thing,
in the way that you ask the question of like,
how do you think about the R.O.I. of social purpose
its really interesting,
for me, I don't think about it at all.
I think one of the things I'm fascinated by
is when your giving, that should be it.
The thought that there's so many people
that are using doing the right thing,
as a gateway drug to a financial output,
I think has caused a lot of citizesm
and a lot of things that I've seen in startups
that make me upset, not happy,
because I've seen a front load of the profits
to make it look like they're trying to do good,
when there just trying to make money.
Like, when I give, I give. Period. Move on.
And so, I think that's an interesting conversation
that I don't see touched on,
and I think that's something that should be debated
a little bit.
I think to that point of that interaction,
I think in these scenarios-
and I think some of us have the luxury of being involved
on boards or being at these kinds of events,
like, when I think about my life,
so many times I've been in the audience,
compelled by emotional stories,
or things that I could help with,
and then the high of the moment goes away.
The next day comes, life takes over,
and you don't act,
and so I think, for us, you know,
for me, weather its silent auction,
or if your in a position where its not financial,
and you can volunteer,
I think what I'm doing here, to wrap it up,
is like here's my action above and beyond.
And I would, it would mean the world
to all of us associated through some hustle
as a volunteer,
bidding on something at the silent auction
that you can go flip on ebay later,
or however you roll,
or by making a donation
or getting your organization involved,
it would mean so much to us if you could
take action on today,
you know, and that's how I see it.
So thank you so much for being here.
(clapping hands)
- Thank you.
- Your welcome buddy.
(hip hop beat)