- Just in the green room of "Food Loves Tech."
- Hi, I'm Priscilla.
- How are you?
- Tech table.
- [Gary] Yes, my God, of course.
- How you doing?
- There's a lot of people in loveless marriages.
It's an epidemic.
("Drive" by Noah Lopez)
There's you.
What are you?
- [DRock] I'm gonna to rock.
- Hey, how are you?
- Good to see you.
You too, congratulations.
- Thank you.
- Hi, how's it goin'?
- [Gary] Hey, how are you?
How you feelin'? - Good.
- Thank you so much.
3D pizza, huh?
DRock.
Awesome, thank you so much.
- [Woman] Yep.
- One thing that I think is very fascinating,
is that I've never been to a green room that's green.
- Hi, I'm Marcella.
- Hi, Marcella.
- I am such a huge fan.
- Oh, thank you.
- [Marcella] You are amazing.
You inspire me everyday, seriously.
- Take a picture?
- Yeah, picture.
Sorry, I'm shaking.
- Don't worry, I'm so flattered.
- I'm so excited.
- Hey, man. - [Gary] How are you?
- You're the fucking man. - Thank you, buddy.
- Let me get a hug, man. - You got it, brother.
- You have no idea, man.
- Thank you, man.
What's your name?
- [Kavon] Kavon. - Kavon, a great pleasure.
- Great to meet you, man.
- How you doing? I know.
- Dude, I'm so excited.
- Feel like it's a long time comin'.
- I feel like we gotta trade some wine stories.
- I know, right?
- Dude, I'm so pumped to finally meet you.
- Same, same.
- This is awesome.
- We did, and I just reached in my bag,
and I realized like, "Oh, I've got ham in my bag."
(laughs)
- [Gary] Bless you.
- [Woman] Smell it, smells really,
I don't know if you're a vegan, are you?
- I love it, it smells phenomenal.
- [Woman] Yeah. - You never know --
- It's great.
You never know when you need --
-When you're gonna smell some bacon.
- How are you?
- Gary, I'm Zach.
- Zach, how are you?
- Pleasure to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, man. - You're an inspiration.
- Thank you, my friend.
- Appreciate everything you do.
- Thank you so much.
- Before you, there was no one that was
in the business sphere, that showed himself this way --
- Yeah. - Opened himself.
- Yeah.
- It was inspiration to people --
- Yeah. - To give that much vision.
Mark Cuban could be like the only guy you could think of,
but he never opened himself up, the way you do.
- Thank you, my friend.
- So, I think you're a visionary.
- [Gary] Thanks for being here, thanks for saying hello.
- Thank you, Gary.
- Do we like it?
- I love it.
(laughs) Awesome.
- Like 10 of 'em.
- We'll get people in here. I gotcha.
- No, I know that.
I was gonna ask more like, how does it feel to be
so attractive and so capable about what you guys do?
(laughs)
Just curious, how humans like that actually felt.
- I thought you woke up with the
same mentality, every morning?
- I do.
- Yeah.
- That my family's gonna die, and that I'm grateful.
(laughs)
That's what I do, I don't know how you roll.
- [Voiceover] Far seat for you, right?
(applauding and cheering)
- [Gary] Thank you.
- [Voiceover] J-E-T-S, yes, yes, yes, yes!
- Yes.
That's how I like it.
I think technology exposes who we actually are.
Right now, one of the favorite things of so many of you,
is when you go out, and you see a couple sitting there,
and they're both on the phone the whole time,
you love to judge, don't you?
Right?
You love to say, "Hey, look.
"Look how sad that is."
For me, technology has done that couple a great service,
because 20 years ago, that same couple, sat at that
dinner table, and didn't say a goddamn word to each other.
Now, they actually have technology to escape into a world.
I actually look at couples that sit there and look
at the phone the whole time,
as a major positive, not a negative.
Thank you.
(audience laughter)
It's true.
You know why he said that's a good one?
Because this man, through his career,
saw unbelievable amounts of couples
just sitting there, not saying a word.
- When I'm with my wife, I'm not looking at the phone.
- Well, 'cause you love her.
(audience laughter)
There's a lot of people in loveless marriages.
It's an epidemic.
I think the biggest trend right now
is fast casual, premium fast casual.
I'm actually completely fascinated,
that when the market goes completely one way,
that actually, all the opportunities in the other.
We all went social media open with Facebook and Twitter,
the opportunity actually ended up
being Snapchat, of disappearing it over here.
It was actually happening here.
I'm actually weirdly fascinated, I'd love to get
your opinion on this, this is bubbling up in my head.
As everything's going fast casual, and the greatest chefs
of the world are trying to produce, you know,
a different, very casual, low-priced food alternatives,
I actually think super premium, and quite super fancy,
is an open space again because it's just a momentum game.
For me, when I see a market going one way, it starts making
me understand that there's an opportunity
in the other direction.
What was old, becomes new, all the time.
So, weirdly, I think that there's a pent up demand,
potentially, for super fancy, experiences in big cities
like New York, and San Francisco, and LA.
That's running through my mind.
Thank you so much, everyone.
Have a good night.
- Thank you.
(applauding and cheering)
- Can I take a pic?
- Selfie?
Yeah, for sure.
- Thank you so much.
- Awesome, really nice to meet you.
- [Woman] Nice to meet you.
- I really appreciated your speech and everything.
It seemed very down to earth, and very raw --
- Yeah. - And real.
Which, you don't get it from a lot of people you know.
- Exactly. - No, honestly.
- Thank you.
- A lot of people have this built up,
kind of, prepared speech-- - Yes.
- Like they're gonna give word for word,
and you just kind of went with the flow,
and said how it was.
A lot of the points you made really true --
- Thank you.
- For this generation, and this society --
- Thank you.
- And I really appreciate that.
- That's very nice of you.
- It's nice to meet you. - Thank you so much.
It's nice to meet you, too.
- Hi, that's alright.
- Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Sandra, this is Alexis.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Hi, how are you?
- It was really wonderful, everything you said.
I've been following you for years --
- Thank you.
- [Woman] Hey, Gary. - Hi.
- [Woman] Hey, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - I'm Alanna, from Tech Insider.
- How you doing?
- Hey, I'm doing great. - [Gary] Good.
- [Alanna] How are you doing? - I'm doing really well.
- [Man] How you been, man?
Good seeing you. - [Gary] Thanks for comin'.
- [Woman] It's gonna be quick.
Pic with Nick, then we go.
(laughs)
- That's it, get out of here.
(laughs)
- [Gary] Love you, brother. - Love you, too, man.
- [Gary] Thank you so much for everything.
- You're the man.
- No, seriously.
- I do it for you, brother. (kiss smacks)
- [Man] You're the best.
- I love these kind of events.
Vayner co-produced this with Edible Magazine, New York City.
Really just excited, Jose Andres,
one of the great culinary monsters, chefs, in the world.
Should be a fun fireside chat.
Just a good day, Friday.
Last couple Fridays, I've been half-daying them,
and going out to, out with family, and spending time,
so it's a nice grinder today, which, I feel good about.
Did a one hour operations meeting
with James Orsini, our chief integration officer.
It was productive.
I really think quick decision making,
and then reacting to the reality is quite important.
Lately, a lot of my executives are talking
about the speed of my decisions
Mainly, 'cause I'm not crippled, and I have experience.
But, most importantly, making decisions is the win.
Way too many people watching this right now,
are crippled to make the call.
Adjust to your calls.
I had a really good session with Arianna Huffington.
I was really glad that I was able to clarify, kind of,
you know, it's what you do when you're awake,
not how much sleep you get, kind of thing.
It was fun to get Emily, who I adore,
has been with the company a long time,
to get that selfie, or that picture with Arianna.
That was a lot of fun.
Do you want to thank me personally?
- I first, don't understand how this just happened.
I've been talking about Arianna Huffington for, like,
literally months and how much I wanna meet her,
and Gary was like, "Hey, Arianna,
"can you stop and meet Emily?
"I'll take a picture."
I was just like --
- Wow, what?
- It was just like, "Be cool, please be cool,
"like, please don't fangirl, this is it."
Yes.
I'm like within tears of a verklempt.
- Did you text them the picture?
- Yeah, I was like, "Mom, this is what happened."
- [Gary] Mom. - Mom.
(laughs)
That's exactly what happened.
I said, "Yep, casually meeting Arianna."
That's auntie.
Just me, cheesing with Arianna.
What?
- [Voiceover] Is she your idol?
- What?
Oh, okay.
Go through all of my texts, sure.
Go all the way through.
- Just wanting to make sure that you
and Jordan are not conspiring too much.
(laughs)
It's just a good, great day.
Lot of meetings, lot of operations stuff today.
Staffing, new client, which, I don't think you got any of,
but timestamped it, into like, boom, three hours.
A lot of stuff we can't show you, like real client work.
It's funny, I talk about being CEO of Vayner.
Obviously, there's a lot of stuff we can't show you,
because of NDAs and client stuff of that nature,
and I apologize not being able to show every aspect.
Just not fully in control of everything,
but lots of hours being put into operations staffing.
- Hey, my name is Russ.
I've been at Vayner, on the accounts strategy side,
for about four months now.
Just had a great chat with Gary,
just about goals, and dreams, and visions.
It's just amazing how, you know,
we get that access with him, and get to sit down,
and kind of pick his brain for a few minutes.
- If you're good enough, you'll win.
That's what it is.
So, like, I'm the extreme --
- [Russ] Right.
- And, thus, I should have extreme results.
- [Russ] Right, which you, yeah.
- But like, not everybody should have what I have.
- [Russ] Right.
- It's super okay to make 450 a year,
fuckin' have the greatest life of all time.
It's just, you have to make choices.
- [Russ] Yeah.
- It's just talent and hard work.
- [Russ] I still feel like I'm figuring out, for me,
like, how far I want to push that, you know?
- Yes, and it's gonna, by the way,
it's gonna change at 22 and 27 --
- [Russ] Right.
- And 29, and 31, and 40 --
- [Russ] Exactly, priorities change, yeah.
- You're gonna fall in love, (mumbles).
Something bad will happen in your life, and fuck.
Something bad happened to me tomorrow?
I don't give a shit about anything.
I don't want to buy the Jets, I want my mom to get better.
- [Russ] Yeah, that's true, yeah.
- Do you understand'?
- [Russ] Yeah, I think about that shit, too.
- Yeah, don't get crippled.
You have tons of, dude, I'm 18 fucking years older than you.
- [Russ] Yeah.
- You know, you were four, 18 years ago.
- [Russ] Yeah. (laughs)
- Can you wrap your head around that?
I mean, listen, I know I look old to you,
but I'm not that old, you know what I mean?
It doesn't feel that crazy.
- [Russ] No, no, and I think that's something --
- Do you know what I mean?
- As through our culture, though.
It's like we all feel that, kind of,
that's what you get when you push that hard.
- It's equally fucking pushing it, as it is being patient.
If you push from those two extremes, you fucking make shit.
- [Russ] That's what I've learned so much more recently.
I think I've been on one extreme or the other.
- Everybody's on one extreme or the other.
- [Russ] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That's why the people that push from both extremes win.
- [Russ] Yeah.
- That's why there are so few people that win,
'cause it's much more fun to pull
from one side or the other.
- [Russ] Yeah.
- It's easy to talk about it.
You could fucking talk about it.
- [Russ] I'm a good talker.
- Me too. (laughs)
Me too, but backing it up. - [Russ] Yeah, exactly.
- But, you know what, you can't even be judged yet.
I didn't even think about judging myself at 22.
You have time.
Talk to me in four years,
when you'll still be a fucking kid.
- [Russ] Mhmmm.
(thud) Damn.
(laughs) I love it, man.
Thank you so much. - Yeah, man, good luck to you.
Keep working.
I get a real, kind of, 360 full day.
I just love the action of going to these meetings,
architecting, just architecting at scale, so much fun.
Just enjoy the marathon of this all.
To me, you know, I don't know if this becomes
a non-descript episode, or becomes one that gets a theme.
I know you're always challenged by that, Staphon.
Big shout out to you, in the last couple that you've edited.
That's right, Staphon's edited the last two.
Maybe even three.
What I think I like about today is, it's just
a good, old fashioned day, of running businesses,
doing media opportunities, doing event marketing,
interacting with my team.
Jesus, is this from you?
- [Voiceover] No. (laughs)
- [Voiceover] Aww. - [Voiceover] Uh, yeah.
- Your reaction was terrible, get out of my face.
- [Voiceover] Oh, no.
I sent you an email today.
- You did. It was very nice, thank you.
(laughs)
I have the best.
I mean, what CEO gets, like, love letters all day long?
You guys never wrote me a love letter.
Not one of the four of you.
This is something you should look deep inside yourselves.
- [Tyler] Every single day is my love --
- Everybody out.
What do you want?
Just good.
Good.
Love the action.
I'm addicted to the action.
The action is my oxygen.
I wouldn't trade it for the world.
- [ Woman] You too. (kiss smack)
- [Gary] Bye, guys.
Have a great day.
- Bye. - [Gary] Goodbye, good night.
Alright, signing off.
Headed to spend some time with the fam,
and get some sleep, like all of you should.
Times Square, baby.
(instrumental hip hop music)