- [Gary] Well, of course.
Of course.
Why do you think I want them to do it on TV?
Because by the way, I don't need our discipline to win.
Creative is variable, right?
I'd be thrilled if TV won and
proved out to be a better medium for them.
I'm thrilled. Let's see it.
Show me.
(light music) (partial conversations)
- Gary, I liked our cadence yesterday of I just tweeted at
you and then you called me. It was great.
- Sometimes funny things happen.
- Alright, let's do this. - [Gary] Let's do this.
- [Man] Good, how are you? - [Gary] What's up, man?
- It's a pleasure.
- How are you? - Doing well. You?
- Nice to meet you. - Yeah, great to meet you.
- I'm doing great. I appreciate it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- So tell me what's up.
- I'm doing a lot in my little small world called lacrosse--
- [Gary] Yep.
- but I have been just like adamant and growing and
through the internet and now in events and then learning how to
operate as a company I've now started kind of following you
in a way of doing some angel investments and now doing more
venture investments in the tech/sports space.
- [Gary] Using the platform to take it to the next level.
- It's just the influencer platform.
- [Gary] Of course.
So let's reverse engineer.
What do you want to happen?
Like in a perfect world in a decade, what does it look like?
- [Paul] For me? - Mhmmm.
- [Paul] I think--
'Cause I think that's,
I didn't even, I talk about it more now
but I'm stunned how
patient and how focused I've really,
everything I've done has been towards like if I'm going to buy
a very expensive sports franchise all my behavior
including massively underselling this company knowingly a piece
of it to Stephen Ross 'cause he was an NFL owner and
that would be an important piece of the process.
- [Paul] Right.
- When you have the humility and patience to leave tens of
millions of dollars on the table for what you believe in,
that's when you know you when you're fucking all in.
- [Paul] Cool. - Pleasure.
You want to take a photo you said.
- I enjoyed it.
- That's the most important.
That has grand slam potential.
You could have 2.8 million followers on Musically.
- [Paul] I have to figure out--
- You can't have 2.8 million views on Snapchat, you can have
2.8 million views on Musically in six months.
Figure it out.
- Hotel right at the airport, wake up and
take a car or would you rather-- - No.
- 45 minutes you stay in the hotel--
- 100%. I'm already, I'm all momentum.
So I'd rather go. - [Tyler] Okay, cool.
I didn't want to offer that but--
- [Gary] Offer that.
If they come and see me Friday in the Hamptons,
I'll 100% see them. - Okay, cool.
- [Gary] If they don't, I can't guarantee it yet.
- [Man] So I always have two questions, one is what is not
happening here that you want to happen here?
Where can I sort of insert myself or even just a
large team as a whole, where can we build ourselves
out to make your vision happen?
- [Gary] The normal answer to that question is a lot more
tactical. It's these specific principles or revenue,
they're tactical. I don't give a shit about that.
That will happen in due time.
This is a company that in five years has
gone from 30 to 650 people.
We know what the fuck we're doing.
What's not happening here is something
that's very important to me.
What's not happening here is that we have 615, 650,
it's fluctuating, people and not every single one of them
realizes that this is an all-time special place.
And that's what I want fixed.
In a world where out of 615 I feel like there's 150, 200
people that are out and out all bought in.
That's far from where I want it to be.
The fact that there is 100 people that are struggling and
don't like it and may not like it, that breaks my heart.
And then there's 300 that are and I want,
I don't think people realize what's actually happening here.
Good. - Thank you so much.
- [Gary] Yeah. I wish you well.
- Thank you.
- [Gary] Yeah, I'm ready.
(light music)
When? Yeah.
Okay.
- So I had us and Revlon that day.
New bid.
(light music)
- [Gary] Yo. - [Everybody] Hey!
- 'Sup guys? - What's happening?
- [Gary] 'Sup? How are you guys?
Is data sciences his entire backbone based on an eraser
board that says do not erase that anybody can erase?
- Yes. - Have a great day guys.
Can somebody get Tyler to get my phone?
Can you get me my phone?
Hey. - How's it going?
- [Gary] Really good, how are you?
- Good.
I was on your Instagram yesterday.
- I know.
You saw my Beyoncé post. - Yes, because I was there.
(light music)
- Three years. - Is that true?
- Second.
- The first time in my office and this is the second?
- Yeah. - That's it?
- It feels like yesterday.
- I feel like our courtship at SXSW six years ago felt like a
good amount of time so maybe that.
(laughter)
Well, cool.
The first part is look I think one of the great ways to build a
relationship with me and I'm sure everyone else on earth is
like post game results and things of that nature.
It's super impressive what you're up to.
I'd love to dig a little bit deeper and understand
where you're at.
I have a lot of thoughts (censored) on to the next level
and thrilled to talk to you about it.
I'll probably need some questions answered so I can
actually give you some value.
The 45 people,
the 17 people that really run your company with you,
the seven you need to know everything.
You need to have dinner with them. You need to give a fuck.
The biggest mistake people make
is not having real relationships,
tough conversations, easy ones,
having the ability to have years, like, years,
a year where it's not
black-and-white, then good years.
That's a big, big piece of advice that I think people are
gonna lose on.
- [Man 2] That would be good. - [DRock] I agree.
- Yeah. Alright.
- [Man 3] How we doing, sir? - Really good, man.
It's good to see you again.
- [Man 3] Last time I got to say hello to you was in the airport
at Turks and Caicos a couple years ago.
- I remember that, brother.
That was really funny.
- (inaudible) was like, "Who the hell is that guy?"
I said, "Don't worry about it. You'll never get it."
(laughter)
- [Gary] I remember that, man. That little tiny airport.
I love losing.
- [Man 3] I heard you say that the other day.
- I fucking love losing.
You can't win as an entrepreneur unless you love to lose.
- [Man 3] I love and I hate it.
- [Gary] Well listen I mean, of course.
Of course.
Anybody watching this or hears that quote,
I get 400 fucking emails,
the amount of fucking emails I get when people are like,
"You're wrong GaryVee, losing sucks."
I'm not wrong, you don't understand.
If you're scared of the game, you've lost.
I'll never be a good dancer because I'm scared of what
I look like when I dance.
I know what this is about.
If you are scared, you have lost.
Don't even start.
That's why I don't, I'm not trying to go to hip hop class
and get better.
It's not going to happen, I'm scared of it.
Absolutely.
- [Man 3] Listen ever run our--
- [Gary] I will. I'm hundred percent going to stop by.
- Let me know, I would love that.
We'll set something up.
- [Man 2] So I had to get you this.
- [Gary] Dude, this is fucking awesome.
This is somebody who's paying attention to my world.
This is a meaningful gift.
These headphones, I love it.
Thanks guys.
Take care, man, stay well.
Hey. How are you doing?
- Really well. - Really good.
What's that?
Call? Where's the call?
In here or? - [Tyler] Yeah.
- Are incredibly important.
(light music)
- It's just a funny thing to say.
- [Zak] There's going to be a lot of people who about to
be disappointed when they're not going to reach what they
consider being successful.
I want to make sure that we are starting to have a real
conversation about these expectations.
It's too common for people to think that they have to make or
raise millions of dollars to be a successful business person.
- 'Sup Pam?
Hey Pierce. Nice sneaks.
'Sup Alex?
Do you play tennis?
- No, I used to when I was little.
- You should play Tyler. - No, I cannot play.
- [Tyler] Forehand is nice. - Yours?
- [Tyler] Oh yeah. - [Gary] Can you play?
- [Tyler] Fuck yeah. - [Gary] No way.
- [DRock] I'll beat you. - [Gary] You can play tennis too?
You guys are real tennis players?
- [Tyler] I can play tennis. - I'm not.
- [Woman] Congrats on the house. - House is amazing. Congrats.
(woman on street sneezes)
Bless you. - [Woman 2] Thank you.
- You doing okay? - [Gary] I'm better than good.
Allison, don't get crazy tonight.
(laughter)
- [Woman On Phone] She's been sitting by the phone
to hear from you.
If you could call it would be amazing.
- Oh God. Missed it.
Use my replay.
- [Woman On Phone 2] Okay so no way, right?
- Hello?
- [Woman On Phone 2] Hello, how are you?
- I'm very well, how are you?
- [Woman On Phone 2] I am like fantastic.
- Are you having a good day?
- [Woman On Phone 2] Yes.
Close the door.
(laughter)
I'm having a great day.
Get out of here.
- I just wanted to say hello and I appreciate you paying
attention to my stuff and I'm thankful and
I hope you're doing great.
- [Woman On Phone 2] I love your stuff.
Thank you so much for putting all that you put into it.
Honest to God.
- I wanted to say hey and hope you have a great day.
- [Woman On Phone 2] Thank you so much.
- You're welcome. Bye-bye.
- [Woman On Phone 2] You're awesome, talk to you later.
- I promise you, Jordan, we will meet.
Thank you so much, my friend. Have a good day.
- GaryVee! - Yes.
- How are you? - [Gary] Good. How are you?
- Good. - Good to see you.
- Dan Golden, I met you like, I don't know,
five years ago. - It's a pleasure man.
- Conference in Chicago. - Awesome man, how you doing?
- I'm doing well. - Good.
The quintessential, can I get a selfie with you?
- Yeah. No worries man.
Were you heading out?
- I'm headed to actually just headed in.
I'm going to Google event right here.
Let's see how this works.
- [Gary] Awesome, man. - [Dan] Thanks, man.
- Real pleasure. - I appreciate what you do.
- Good to see you.
I think I'm speaking at this thing.
- [Announcer] Please join me in providing a very warm
welcome to Gary. Thank you very much.
(applause)
- [Gary] Thank you.
My mom would be so pumped if she was sitting here.
(laughter)
- Thanks for having me.
I think what would be fun is maybe I'll do a little spiel,
a little context of where I come from in detail that I think
actually brings you value instead of just spewing old facts and
then, honestly, since it's such a small room I'd love to do Q & A
if you guys want to talk about that if there's anything that
I speak about right now that brings value.
Every time I speak I try to reverse engineer the room,
try to understand what people in
the room would actually care about
and so I think to that bio the thing that would be interesting
in this room is that when I took over my dad's liquor store it
was called "Shoppers Discount Liquors" I rebranded it to
"Wine Library" and this was 1996.
I launched the site in 1996, I took over in 1998.
From '98 to 2003, in that five-year window,
the business was doing
$3 million a year in top line revenue,
10% gross profit
so $300,000 before expenses
which meant not only did I build it from three to $60 million in
sales in five years during that time which was a very young
internet for the people that have been around,
I did it with no money.
I think the one difference that continues to sit in my head
compared to what I think is going on in the ecosystem is
I'm completely agnostic to the platform where one markets.
I recognize that creative is the variable.
I'm obsessed the context of the platform to create the variable.
But I think there's an enormous amount of romance and tradition
and things that people hold on to.
I'm okay when it's in the
best financial interest of that person.
At least that makes sense to me. Right?
I get more weirded out when it's literally just ideological.
And this is the way that it used to be or the way that
I'm comfortable with it being.
And so what I mean by that is
I've come to sum up what I do for a living by saying that
I think now day trade attention.
In 2009, I started VaynerMedia because I thought that social
media was going to get misbranded and it has.
I would sit here and tell you that I think social media is the
single worst branded thing in the world.
And what I mean by that is for all of us in this room,
me included, in our ecosystem and in the world's ecosystem,
definitely in the marketing world, social media too all of
us and to our clients is a footnote, a sprinkle,
an afterthought.
Everybody here if you're here is smart enough to take one step
back and deploy common sense and if I ask you
"What is social media?"
"What sites make up this term?"
I think we would all agree they are the sites that
dominate this device.
I view social media as the current state of the internet.
Thank you. (applause)
- [Man 4] Fantastic. - [Gary] Thank you.
- [Announcer] Thank you very much again.
Ladies and Gentleman, enjoy your dinner.
(crowd chatter) (light music)
- [Gary] Thanks for having us.
- [Doorman] You're welcome.
- I'm getting an uber.
- [Driver] My first day on the job.
Where may I take you?
- [Gary] Is that right? - [Driver] It is.
- [Gary] That's awesome, man, congrats.
Well, that's fine.
I'm super comfortable with that conversation because if you're
testing one TV execution against
one Facebook execution
that's a very viable outcome.
And how much in creative and all that?
So I mean what do they want me to do?
Tomorrow Bridg, do they want me to explain?
Do they want me to give them ammo?
Do they believe that this is the right execution for them?
(light music)
- 'Sup buddy? - 'Sup man?
- 'Sup brother? Good to see you.
How are you? - Good.
- How are you? - Good.
- [Gary] The thing I find fascinating about
reverse engineering is
if you know where you're going you have a better
chance of getting there.
(light hip hop music)
You know, if you've been following my
stuff over the last three, four years especially the last couple
years I speak about reverse engineering all the time.
It's just it's how my brain works and I truly believe
it's how a lot of the people that win do things.
I do think it's massively important to know what you're
trying to accomplish first,
not waver from that,
make that the North Star,
cut out all the other bullshit,
know it's black-and-white,
forget the gray, forget the distractions,
forget the what if's, forget the subjectiveness and
address the finish line and then reverse engineer it.
When you know what you want, when you know where you're going
and you are not emotional about it and you don't care what other
people think and you don't get distracted, you can get there if
you focus on it 24/7/365 forever.
And so I just always want to always know
what the hell I'm focused on.
And where I'm going.
What I want to do and how do I want it and within what budget
and how and how many,
it's just reverse engineer what you want to happen.
The problem for so many of you, the reason so few things are
happening for a lot of people is they're confused.
They don't know what they want.
They want 8,000 things.
They're just confused.
Stop being confused.
Figure out what you want, reverse engineer it and get it.
(light hip hop music)