- [Male] Gary Vaynerchuk, come on, G.
We're gonna give you a round of applause.
(group applauds)
- Hey, I sent you those videos.
- Casey, slide over a little bit.
We're gonna make this nice and intimate for you guys.
The biggest thing, like everything we've ever done here,
everything I've been a part of with these guys
is a two way conversation.
So if you've got questions, raise your hand.
We'll dedicate a portion at the end to take your questions
but I think you're gonna be stimulated in a lot of ways.
Now for Gary,
I'm gonna give him a brief intro
but you're gonna do it as well.
First and foremost, self-made.
Just like a lot of you guys as athletes,
that lonely work when it's just you in the backyard
busting your ass,
this is what he's done his whole life.
Guy from former Soviet Union, an immigrant,
came to the east coast and he's been busting
his tail ever since.
He took a family business from 3 million to 60 million
like that.
Busted his tail,
then created his own entrepreneurship company around media
which is what everyone of you do every time
you turn your phone on and it is a global company.
He's doing multiple things in the sports world,
entertainment world, storytelling world,
but most importantly the thing I love most about you, bro,
is that you wanna give and that's what tonight is.
It's about giving you guys every tool that we possibly
can think of over the next hour.
So, first and foremost, Gary,
I wanna know your mindset at a youngster.
When you were a teenager, when you were 17, 18, 19,
like some of these young kids here before they got to campus
when you were like, okay,
I'm gonna go compete and I'm gonna create something
I'm gonna own.
- Mine goes back, first of all, thank you for having me.
Mine goes back a little bit further.
So I was born in Russia.
I came to the US.
I couldn't speak English,
went outside one day when we moved to Edison, New Jersey,
bunch of kids throwing around a Nerf football
and literally I learned how to speak English
by watching the New York Jets play football.
So like it's fun for me to be here and like somewhere
around third or fourth grade,
after falling in love with the sport,
Unlike everybody in this room,
somewhere around third or fourth grade I realized
that I was more likely to buy the Jets than to play for them
and so really by the time I was in,
like if you go open up my fifth grade yearbook,
everybody's like occupation and I don't know why in the 80's
everybody wanted to be a fuckin' architect
but everyone's like architect, architect, architect
and mine just says owner of the New York Jets.
(group laughs)
So 17 and 18 like,
unlike a lot of people in this room as well
'cause you wouldn't have gotten here no matter how good
you are but I was a straight D and F student, right?
So education was the way out for us immigrants.
So it was crazy that I was so bad at school
but by fifth grade,
I was making two, $3,000 a weekend selling baseball cards.
I knew I was an entrepreneur from the get,
before it was popular and cool like it is now
and so at 17, 18, I was like,
I didn't give a fuck about girls,
I didn't give a fuck about school,
I didn't give a fuck about anything.
I was like, I'm gonna go fuckin' work,
I'm gonna put my head down for fuckin' five decades
and I'm gonna buy the Jets and win seven Superbowls
and call it a fuckin' day.
(group laughs)
- Not a bad life plan, right?
- But you know like,
you know what's fun to talk to athletes,
like I feel like you guys,
it might be different but it's the same
like I just didn't care about anything.
It was like this narrow.
- Well, it's interesting you say that because how many of us
think we're gonna play forever?
Right, like the hardest part,
at least for me as an athlete and Casey I wanna get
your point on it is you're so focused to be great,
to even get a seat in this room that you have to be
that dialed in on your craft.
Sometimes you can mix --
- Basically, it's tunnel vision.
You gotta have a certain amount of tunnel vision
like we all do.
When I was in high school,
I wrote down I wanted to go to the NFL,
literally in a class wrote it down,
kept it in my back pocket, in my wallet,
all these different places.
That was my tunnel vision.
That's all I focused on and that was the mindset,
you know what I mean, but to his point earlier,
it's like you don't,
it's not about just writing it down and just kind of
waiting for it to happen like, you know what I mean,
there's was a lot of hard work to go get it
but it kind of set me up everyday.
I had a mindset, I had a focus.
Like he said, I wasn't focused on other things other than
what I wrote down on that piece of paper.
So I think that's the key to remember.
It's like you gotta have a certain amount of tunnel vision
but at the same time you wanna understand the big picture
at the end of the day too.
The big picture at the end of the day in our sport
is we can't play forever and Thomas talked about it
a week ago about we all have an expiration date
when it comes to playing football but while we're in it,
we're locked in.
So that's the only difference between being an athlete
and kind of different occupations is that literally
you cannot play this forever but while you're in it,
you're in it.
So you gotta grind like there is no tomorrow.
- The other thing you guys have is it's the religion
of our society.
Like when you're in it, you have unlimited leverage,
unlimited and when you're out of it, it goes away.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
Like I have no time,
I can't meet anybody but I'll give you a quick little story.
Dexter McDougle, third round pick of the Jets from Maryland,
he like hit me up,
DM'd me on Instagram or Twitter or something
and I said to him,
I was like, look,
you better take this meeting soon because when you get cut,
because he wasn't playing well (laughs),
I'm not taking this meeting.
So like what's amazing about football,
and sports in general,
but football more than anything in America,
it's not only, it's crazy, when I got older I was like,
wait a minute, it's better to be a business man
than an athlete because I started meeting like 30 year olds
who were done, right?
And it's like, wow, that's crazy.
Your whole life you've just been like this
and then you're so young and you've gotta reset
and think about it different.
What's crazy and you can probably speak to this better
than I can,
it's crazy how smart this generation of athlete is.
They think about entrepreneurship,
they think about the platform,
they think about building their brand,
they think about investing.
It's crazy what's happen, I mean,
you two have a better perspective than I
and I've reverse engineered it backwards
but the advantage,
back to these three letters as you were framing it,
like the leverage of this brand is bonkers.
- Yeah, well think about it.
When I was in college,
the best advice I got from our fifth year quarterback
was get three business cards everyday after practice.
Right, you guys have alums that want to get to know you
that are doing amazing things in the universe
but those three business cards now are as many as you want
because it's the internet.
You guys don't know this about Gary
but he was one of the first investors on all the things
that are on your phone -
we're talking Twitter, we're talking SnapChat,
Tumblr and on and on and on,
his list of businesses are insane that he saw early.
So the goal for today when you walk outta here
is you think about okay,
how could I cultivate opportunities
while I'm a student athlete with those three letters
when I walk outta here unlike,
unfortunately for Casey,
he scores a great touchdown in the Rose Bowl
to win the National Championship against Michigan,
Twitter and Instagram don't exist!
His platform is way different
than what it coulda been if he's, where's Deonte,
last year scoring a touchdown in the Rose Bowl, right?
You've noticed, obviously, your platform has altered
and that is a beautiful opportunity for you guys.
So I'd be curious if you could give them some thoughts on --
- It's real simple.
The same way you're slipping into the DM to get something up
there to accomplish,
you need to be doing for business.
It's the same thing!
Right, you're just reverse engineering what you want.
You just have unlimited tools.
Unlimited.
And so like everybody here is going through their screens,
creeping on what they wanna do,
do that same practice for business because you're right.
It's crazy what I'll do for the Jet,
if Tanner, if Tanun Perder, fucking DM'd me right now,
the long snapper of the New York Jets,
I'd meet him tomorrow.
If the CO of a $500 million company emailed me tomorrow,
it'd take four months for me to meet with him.
That's what you have and that's crazy
and you can mad bank.
- [Male] (inaudible) But what can you tell us in this room
as athletes, current athletes, about our social capital
and being able to leverage that?
Like you're saying,
(inaudible) so like tomorrow when we walk outside
on this campus we're doing that because we have a year
and we have four years --
- Yeah, I mean, look, I think first of all,
the NCAA shit is so fucking bullshit but you gotta navigate
through that, right?
So you've gotta be careful
and like coming from Communist Russia,
fucking NCAA's scarier than that.
(group laughs)
So but the reality is that's your reality, right?
Like you know that that's the reality but to your point,
there's nothing against collecting business cards.
Like it's only about relationships.
You need to dap it up with as many people as possible.
Life is only about the people.
I made tens of millions of dollars
because I became friendly,
I thought Twitter was gonna be important
and I made those relationships with those founders
and that's what opened up everything.
Everybody you talk to ever, ever that's made it,
that really made it, it's just relationships.
You miss some, right?
You go find my first book somewhere, Crush It,
I thank my entire family and one random person.
One.
Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber.
My boy!
And I passed on Uber twice.
If I put in my normal 50,000 that I put into companies,
I would've made $400 million.
I fucked up!
Right?
I missed it but having the relationship,
playing checkers with him at some conference
was the reason I even had that at bat.
I fucked up but I got the at bat.
You right now in Los Angeles with these three letters
and for a lot of you,
you don't go to the league
and get another one of those at bats.
This is one of the closest things to having
that kind of leverage.
This is religion for a lot of people,
a lot of people that run shit and you're,
so my advice is real simple.
That was incredible advice by the fifth year quarterback.
I would meet every single person, siphon and learn.
They wanna see you 'cause they wanna take a selfie
and show their 14 year old son they know you.
You wanna see them because you wanna win life.
- I think it's,
you gotta have a balance to it too though
because let's all be honest in here.
You have to be able to balance the two because you guys
wanna do one thing which is the NFL, right?
Most guys' goal in here is to wanna go to the NFL
but like we talked about,
the other side of it is the business side,
the relationship side, the networking side, alright?
So how do you balance the two?
Well, you workout,
you only can work out so many hours in the day, right?
So it's like what are you doing on those other times?
Are you chilling at the house,
are you just on your phone looking at stuff
or are you out meeting people,
shaking hands or are you just,
do you want to see what everybody else
is doing in the world?
I'm victim of it too 'cause I watch a lot of his stuff
and especially in the morning and some of y'all know,
I send you all stuff in the morning time,
I like to have something that's gonna get me goin'
through the day that's gonna motivate me
and that's gonna set me on that right path
but at some point I gotta put it down, right?
Like I can't just be a slave to this phone all day.
Like I gotta actually go out and shake somebody's hand,
go out and talk to Yogi,
maybe he can introduce me to somebody or go out
and have lunch with this person.
So the other thing is is like balancing the two
because like I said, we workout at six o'clock,
six to eight maybe six to 10, if you got class,
maybe you come back and throw, maybe you got a study hall.
So you got a bunch,
24 hours in the day just like everybody else.
Y'alls might be occupied a lot different than his
but at the end of the day,
there is a window of opportunity
like Baxter always talks about, right?
You got a window of opportunity at some point in there
to go do something other than watch SportsCenter or TV,
maybe it's having that dinner, maybe it's say, hey,
I'm free at 8 P.M. tonight.
Can we get together for dinner?
So I think you guys live in a generation now
where it's a challenge almost to kind of balance the two.
Like Yogi was saying, I ain't had,
I didn't have that problem when I was in college
because we didn't have cell phones and Twitter
and all the distraction --
- It's not a problem.
It's straight opportunity.
You wish you had it.
- Right.
- You have it so good.
Listen, your balance needs to map your ambition.
You don't have to do anything we're talking about here.
You don't.
The thing that I'm most fascinated about
is people run their mouth and then they don't back it up
with their actions, you know?
Your balance needs to be predicated on your hunger.
- I think it's a good point.
You guys are all such hustlers, right?
I mean, you think about the way you work
with Ivan downstairs and the strength staff,
the way you study, the way your prepare,
here's a self-proclaimed hustler.
You love that word in your world 'cause you do, right?
So I think it's the idea of I have all these tools
as a student athlete, as a football player
'cause we see them play out every Saturday.
We see them play out everyday in practice.
How do they play out in the other side of your hustle?
How do they plan out what you're interested in?
I mean, Sam, we just talked earlier
about you love Christopher Nolan, the director.
There's an element of that of okay, cool,
you can build your story that we all have around elements
that you're interested in.
I'm curious, Gary, of your thoughts on how these guys
can shape their interests into their daily reality
which is the voice that they have on this simple phone.
- I mean if Sam texts or DM's anybody, they're replying.
Like it's just the opportunity.
I don't know, like for me it's real simple.
Like I think about things at a macro.
There's 7.7 billion people.
When I look at these men's faces right now.
I'm like they're fucking way up there in the ranking.
I wish there was a world ranking of every person
and I wish you could see where you sit right this second.
It would blow your fucking face off.
It would!
It would blow your fucking face off on how good
your life actually is.
It would be humbling.
You'd get real hungry.
You'd realize how real lucky you are and so, I don't know,
I just can't imagine Sam not having any single person reply,
whoever.
Like just, that's just unbelievable, that's special.
Now, everybody's got their own personalities.
I don't Sam, I don't know anybody here.
You might be introverted, you might be quiet,
you might be focused on this.
You might be having family issues.
You don't have that energy for that.
There's a million things going on in everybody's dome
right now but it doesn't take away the fact
that this is actually what's happening
to your life right now and you can speak to this,
you both can speak to this.
That window closes real quick.
That's it.
That's just the truth.
- You guys both dive into the idea
of self-awareness a lot, right?
We know how we feel when we wake up.
You guys check in with your strength trainer.
Okay, this is what I'm feeling.
This is what my body's saying.
I think the same thing can be said for your social
and how you craft the message that you want to be shared
'cause it gets picked up by guys like me
when I'm gonna call your game,
it gets picked up by people like him.
Obviously it gets checked by your coaches.
Curious when you've seen messages kind of bounce
all over the place or ones that have stayed consistent
because it's not as though
you become a rockstar over night, right?
Sometimes people think that happened.
People think that happened with his career.
Clearly not the truth when you busted your ass for so long.
Same thing with Casey.
All of a sudden you make a catch in the Rose Bowl
and the whole country knows you.
- Yeah, remember that night?
- But you've been doing it for four years
when you're on campus.
Curious your guys' point of view on shaping their story
on their respective social media platforms
versus doing what people want them to do
on their social media platforms.
- I mean, I think the key is is to --
- You're trying to think about being a coach right now.
- I know, right?
(speakers laugh)
- I always think it goes back
to being the truest form of you.
The first thought you have is your truest thought.
- I should, listen, everybody sees everything.
Like everything that's going on is happening, right?
Like as you know, probably both of you know,
like two years ago I bought a sports agency
and we recruited a class last year so I've gotten
into this game that you guys now know.
So the first year it was like, started recruiting, right?
Like just looking people's names up.
It's crazy what kids do like leaving comments,
the way they treat girls on Instagram.
Everybody sees everything.
People are acting like it's not real and so,
and you can also tell when somebody,
like everybody knows,
everybody's social is like the PR'd version
of themselves, right?
Like we even have people now make pretend
they're taking private flights, right?
Like there's all sorts of shit going on
so there's cynicism on is it real, is it not,
what's it up to?
What I would say is a couple things.
It's not about overthinking like I'm a media company.
How do I do this right?
I think once you start overthinking shit,
it's probably like the way you think about sports, right?
Like when you start overthinking, you get slow,
and then you're in trouble, right?
So overthinking is disastrous too in the way
you build your image and stuff like that.
You just need to,
basically what worked for me was 10 years ago I saw Twitter,
I'm like, fuck, this is gonna be the next thing
and it started the kind of transformation
to the mobile device and social media
and I remembered thinking,
10 years ago, I'm like fuck,
everything I do is on the record.
Like there's no hiding anymore, right?
Forget about you posting shit.
What about when you're out, everybody's got a fucking,
this is 24/7 so I think the best thing is to just
let it go.
Be you but also, at the same time, know all eyes are on it.
- Yeah, so I think it's like
there's no private moment anymore
and really with that being said is like
just understanding that,
having that mentality and not saying that you gotta be quiet
as a church mouse and walking around
with your button all the way up and whatever
but at the end of the day,
you are being watched and followed
and when we're talking about branding,
we're talking about the USC brand,
we're talking about Nike as a brand,
we're talking about you as a brand.
It is gonna be scrutinized to a certain extent
by others good or bad and you wanna be in control of it.
So when you press send and when you put something out,
it's having that mentality that, okay,
what is the person on the other side,
and although you might not mean for it
to mean a certain thing,
perception is not always reality so that's the good
and the bad side of it.
- I think most people, Case, take the defense on this
or the flip side.
Anybody here love fishing?
Great.
Fucking post that shit 'cause the day you become eligible,
somebody's gonna,
you're gonna be in a position to get 50K from fucking,
I don't know,
some fucking fishing line fucking company, right?
So like to me it's like you gotta speak your truth.
Like you love Cheerios?
Post that shit.
Doesn't mean dick now but when you go to the league,
it might and so like painting your truth,
you know everyone's like oh,
don't post something like that's gonna get you
put on blast, fine.
You don't wanna be LaBar Bell like getting blown up
like that I get it like all that but there's the flip side
which is the offense of it and so like,
you should be thinking about that.
You don't have to.
If you don't wanna do what I just said, cool.
Like if you love every precious picture on your Instagram
and it's, that's fine, but you're leaving opportunity
on the table.
- I think it's (inaudible),
like every Friday night when I'm broadcasting
one of your games, I take five guys on both sides
of the ball and I just take a deep dive on your social media
and I can usually predict your performance.
Like if it's a random one word about a girl,
I'm like oh man, curious how focused this guy is.
What happened on Thursday night on campus?
If it's totally dialed in, I mean,
you can kind of start to tell and even if I'm wrong,
it shapes a story that I'm gonna tell on Saturday
when we go on air and I've always found it really fun
because I'll go through and I'll be like,
I can't believe he just wrote that.
Like are you serious?
I'll send that to a couple of my co-workers.
I can't believe he just wrote that.
What I want you to dive in, Gary,
next is you talk about how your dad taught you
about the power of your word.
I think it's a radical story because you all have that power
and I think you'll be able to assimilate his story
to your own lives.
- I didn't see my dad until I was 14
'cause we came to America and he got a job
as a stock boy in a liquor store.
We had to make it.
So he'd leave at 7 A.M. and come home at midnight or 10
and I just never saw him.
Like straight up never saw him and then he saved up
enough money to buy his own liquor store.
I was, like I said earlier, a real hustler kid,
lemonade, baseball cards, car washin',
like I'd rip your fucking flowers out of your yard
and sell it back to you.
I was really like interesting.
Anyway, I came to the liquor store when I was 14
and I was straight full of shit.
I would say anything to sell something.
Anything.
My dad's old school Russian dude like he's all about like
(spits), you know?
And he's scary as fuck and he kinda like looked me
in the face and said, like he saw me do something,
and he like changed my life.
Like I really believe I will achieve,
I feel like I'm the cliche kind of that guy
that's like slick, like pure DNA, I feel like I'm that guy.
The one that like seems fun at first but is kinda like
a fuck face and will do whatever it is for him?
I actually believe that but I think I got lucky enough
that I had such a hardcore dad that he remolded me
when I was just young enough where it became my truth
and that's why I think so much good has happened for me,
that contradiction of like selfish and selfless,
like just honorable but like storyteller.
Like it just worked out, it just worked out and so yeah,
it was the transcending moment of my life
that he told me word is bond and like fucking yeah,
that's where I'm at.
- I want you both to answer this - the idea of the hustler.
You reference the founder of Uber.
Clearly you have to know people high up
if you're gonna invest in other social platforms
whether it's Snap and it's a young CEO,
guy that's not much older than some of you
fifth year seniors in the room.
Is there commonality between some of those and,
Casey, for you,
you've seen at the highest level of coaching and playing
and if you could boil it down
into one of those two categories.
- Just the hustler mentality?
- Yeah.
- I think, when I think about hustling,
you think about sports, right?
You think about hey, hustle to the ball.
We talkin' about hustle.
What does that mean?
That's like, that means we're getting there.
We're doing that last little bit, that extra, right?
So you think about hustle mentality,
it's like he's gonna do what he has to do
to get to where he needs to be
but having that hustle mentality is saying like
if I wanna get, my focus is getting to the league,
like I'm gonna hustle my ass to get to the league
like how am I gonna do that?
If I'm gonna get a 3.5,
if I wanna meet such and such and LA Live or whatever
and work for this firm or whatever,
how am I gonna hustle to do that?
Because it's not like I think
and it's just gonna happen like,
you have to navigate to it and hustle in my opinion,
when I think about hustle, I didn't have Gary V. growing up.
The one I had was Diddy.
When I thought about Diddy back in the day,
he was the ultimate hustler to me.
Puff Daddy, Diddy, all you know what I'm saying, right?
So when I was coming in college,
he was always talking about hustle and grind
and this and that and in my mind, it was like okay,
I'm not in the music world but I'm in football.
How can I take that mentality and put it over here?
So I'm gonna workout here at 6 A.M.
I'm gonna go workout later on over here with this person.
I'm gonna study film on this.
I'm gonna get myself to the best of my ability
and study and do all the things I gotta do
and that's what I think about when I think about hustle.
- The common thing about all the winners I've seen in life
and this is interesting 'cause this is probably not
the best advice for a complete athlete
but I'd like you guys to hear it.
I think it's interesting.
I think they're the people that under strengths
and didn't dwell on their weaknesses.
I think about myself and all the other people
that I think have won.
They zoned in our their strength and they maintained
their weaknesses and I've always thought about that
with athletes too 'cause I think about business like sports.
I'm always wondering, the guys in this room are,
you know obviously if you have a fatal flaw
that can't allow you to be at this level or next level,
you gotta close the gap, right?
Fix that but I've always wondered if the ones
that really have excelled,
did they have the three or four things that they zoned in
that naturally came to them and then they tripled down
on that instead of looked around the room
and be like oh, that dude's better at this.
Let me try to get better when, as you guys know,
so many things in life are natural,
I think we fight DNA a lot
and so I've just been very curious at a macro level
what's the difference in life when you go triple all in
on your strengths instead of dwelling on weaknesses.
- And to piggyback off of that, me as a football player,
my strengths compared to some of the dudes I played with,
my strengths might've been blocking
and we've talked about this,
I talked about this a couple of weeks ago to somebody,
I don't know who I was talking to
but I was gonna block my ass off, right?
I was gonna be the best blocker.
Every team I've been on, I've been the best blocker.
I wasn't always the tallest, the fastest, or whatever
but I was the best blocker, most consistent,
my routes were this way.
I had the most consistent routes.
Those are my strengths.
So those kept me in a role all the time.
On any team I've been on, that was my role.
- Were you triple downing on or were you like, fuck,
I need to get a little fast,
'cause it feels like you're more scared
about what you don't have 'cause that could be
the one data point 'cause the league's crazy, right?
The Combine's, it's ludicrous, like the decisions
that are made on some shit that doesn't even map
to what's going on.
- To his point, that's another point.
Combine, right?
And I'm not advocating this,
I'm just telling you my story and what I did.
At the Combine, I didn't do everything at the Combine --
- You didn't, huh?
- Because I only did my strengths.
Why?
Because I knew I was gonna be in front of every team,
every GM, every scout.
Why am I gonna go out there and do, get on,
stand on the box where they wanna see how flexible you are
and I know I'm not flexible.
So I don't want them to look at me and say,
oh, he's not flexible.
- That's interesting.
- I don't want to give them anything negative
to say about me, right?
- It's interesting.
- So I didn't do everything at the Combine
and I had an agent who was savvy enough to tell me, like,
okay, this is what you should do.
This is what you shouldn't do and basically I did,
I double downed on my strengths at the Combine.
All I did at the Combine was run routes.
I didn't the 40.
I ran my 40 right out here because there, like I said,
I'm not advocating this for everyone.
I'm just telling you my story.
I didn't like the timing of it.
They shuttle you in to Indie, you're in there,
you gotta get warmed up on their time when as,
when you're working out of here for Pro Day,
you're working out on your own time.
You kinda got your own routine.
There it doesn't feel the same so all I said was,
you know what?
I'm just gonna run routes.
I'm gonna stretch.
I'm gonna do my height and weight.
They were like, you don't wanna get on the box?
They make you sit on the ground and they wanna see
how flexible, I was like, I don't wanna do that.
They said, you don't wanna stretch?
I'm like, no, I'm good.
I said I literally came there to run routes.
Why?
'Cause I just wanted to show my strengths.
- By a show of hands,
how many of you guys hang out with people
outside of the athletic department
and would you say that population is more than 30%?
Anybody?
30% of the people you hang out with, or more,
are outside of the athletic department.
Not a lot when you look around, right?
For a guy who went to grad school here,
Casey, obviously, went to school here,
Gary, you've got a really diverse group.
I'd love to talk about the opportunity you guys have
on this campus 'cause you're around,
those three business people don't have to be three people
that have crazy Fortune 500 companies right now.
They could be people that you partner with.
You said something smart on one of your podcasts
it's get to know your roommate when you get to college
that maybe isn't a football player.
I think there's so much collaboration and magic
on this campus that when you lean into someone
maybe 180 degrees away from you,
you might have the next Uber
and this dude might invest the next 50K in it.
- I think the way my mind works
is I reverse engineer regret.
Regret scares the fuck out of me.
I'll give you a real weird thing to do.
If you wanna do something kind of off the beaten path
that will make you feel good
and you'll get even more in return,
go spend one day in a retirement home.
Go talk to five 90 year olds.
If you really listen, all you're gonna hear is regret.
They're gonna talk about a lot of stuff they wish they did
and so for me, when I'm thinking about you,
you gotta keep up your grades to do your thing.
You clearly gotta, like you're busy, right?
'Cause you're an athlete and a student.
There's just still a lot of time that's put into Madden.
There's still a lot of time put into other dumb shit
and how it plays out,
99% of the time is you're 29 and you're like,
fuck, I wish I.
That's it, that's all,
that's what I trade on and not because I'm smart,
just 'cause I talk to a lot of people
and I just listen, right?
- Yeah, I mean --
- Like I wish I, you're right.
The amount of people that are gonna go on to do things here,
but listen it's not for everybody.
I don't wanna be the guy sittin' up here,
the 40 year old talking to you
and be like say hello to people,
all this dorky shit like I get it.
It's still gonna play out that way though.
- I'll say this, the one thing,
I don't regret anything about my football experience here.
Fortunately, I was like, I was on it,
committed and I was around a group of guys that were.
The one thing I do regret though is that I didn't network
with people in my class as much as I should have.
I knew people on campus but just like what Yogi is saying
is that how many of your classmates
are you really cool with?
You guys come into class, you sit in certain seats.
- And they wanna say hello.
- Yeah, no doubt.
They'll talk to you --
- Like everybody else on campus has the problem
of having no leverage.
You've got nothing but leverage.
You just gotta be like, yeah.
- All you gotta do,
if you introduce yourself to anybody in your class --
- You ain't gotta do shit.
- And that's what I didn't,
that's the one thing I will say I do regret somewhat
is that I didn't use the network.
Now as I've gotten older, that's the thing about USC though,
and this is not an excuse,
I'm not telling you to put it off until you're 35 years old
but with the brand,
I am a Trojan for life, right?
So I can still tap into this network to this day
if I choose to.
Now a lot of guys, former players,
they don't choose to as much or they don't
but now I do it a lot more.
It might be older guys that graduated
or even some of the newer generation,
tapping into the network,
but while you guys are in it though like he's saying,
you could be chillin' with the next Uber person in class
or whatever and that could be your boy
and you do go make it to the league
and you have a little piece of change
and you can invest into that company.
- But the thing that kills me is look,
if you're an introvert and you're shy, that's one thing
but if you're rollin' in there with your Beats on
because you think you're fucking cool,
you're a fucking idiot.
Because most of those people are gonna beat you.
It's math
and that's just stupid.
Like when you think about it, when you break it down,
it's fascinating.
Like just 'cause you're winning 14 nothing
in the first quarter doesn't mean you're gonna win.
- I was just at the opening
that a lot of you guys participated in
and you've talked to Eric Thomas before, right?
You've had him on your show.
- Yeah, he's fucking crazy.
- I don't know if you guys are familiar with him.
His videos go viral.
He's pretty rad and he talked about
how all the other athletes that weren't invited
to the opening,
their chip just keeps growing and all the other athletes
that didn't sign at USC,
their chip keeps growing and all the students
that don't get to get their classes first,
their chip keeps growing and yours,
will always grow in football we hope,
but doesn't keep growing in other ways.
So a challenge may be for the rest of the summer,
take three students randomly in three of your classes
and ask 'em if you were gonna partner with me
on any idea or partner with anybody,
what would it be and go have a 20 minute conversation.
See where your mind goes 'cause it might go
to what's next in the future.
- And this is where I think technology's an advantage
because like I trade on real,
the reason I invested in all those companies
is I trade on human behavior.
Like I know that you're gonna be interacting with Alexa
and like your car and like I already know
what you're gonna do before you do it.
That's why I make so much money, right?
So I also know that not everybody here is gonna roll up
on people and be like yo
but this is where technology comes through.
Like saying what's up to three people,
if you're not gonna do it face-to-face,
do it on a DM.
Like you know who's in your class,
I don't care how you do it, just do it.
I think technology's the gateway drug
to real life interaction.
Like everyone's like oh these kids, they don't know,
I think they do know how to interact.
You interact differently.
This is how it is but then that's what leads to you
having a cup of coffee or a conversation.
So you don't have to like, hey, like fine,
but just figure it out.
Just get into that conversation because you're right,
like the quality of students that go to this school,
that go on to do things, even if you,
even if you go on and have a nine year professional career,
a stunning percentage of the kids that are in your classes
are gonna create unlimited opportunities for you
that all you had to do was say what's up
when you had the most leverage as a football player
at this school at this moment.
- I'm curious, to open it up a little with you guys,
just raise your hand and we'll call on you
but when you think of the internet, what do you think about?
What's the first thing that comes to mind?
Yeah?
Information.
Who else?
Talking.
Yeah, right on.
Keep going.
Anybody else?
- [Male] Communication, man.
- Opportunity.
Yeah?
- [Male] Access.
- Access, now we're talking, yeah.
Same thing?
Cool, cool.
You've been cutting edge on a lot of things.
You just talked about what's next.
When you think of the internet,
you've often said the internet is what TV was to the radio.
When you think about it now where it's going
and how these guys can utilize it in their lives.
- It's so crazy for me, right, I'm 41.
I'm old, right?
Like I remember the world pre-internet.
Which is just like so batshit crazy
'cause when I think about internet,
like when you said it, I was like oxygen.
Like to me it's just like, it's oxygen.
There is no life without the internet.
I don't think people understand.
Let me tell you something you will do 25 years from now.
You will wear contact lenses and you will live
in a real world, in an augmented world, and a virtual world.
In 25 years from now, when you'll be young,
you will put on contact lenses or something will be invented
or will be put in Lasik'd into your eyes
and like the same way all those SnapChat filters
and all that shit?
That will be real life.
There'll be a fourth dude right here virtually
or you can go completely into a virtual or,
like this shit just started.
We just started.
Uber and Amazon and Facebook and SnapChat,
that shit's basic.
Your car's gonna drive itself for you.
YOu're gonna be like loungin' in your car.
The things we're gonna be doing.
Your beer's gonna be reordering itself for you.
When you have one beer left in your fridge,
it's gonna reorder it for you.
You're gonna have technology in your body.
All this plays out to the robots killing off all of us.
We probably won't see it but it's coming
and so this is just starting.
Think about what was,
when we laugh like that it's fun for me
because if I told you 10 years ago,
like 10 years ago if you did online dating,
you were a fucking dork.
Like now all that's going on is that.
That is the infrastructure for it, right?
If you told a parent 10 years ago, here's what's up.
Your 14 year old daughter should go into a stranger's car
to get around everyday,
they would've laughed you out of the room.
That's what Uber is.
So I don't think people understand.
When I think about the internet, I think about it as oxygen.
It's just the framework that we now play in and when you,
to make it real life for you instead of some heady shit,
the opportunity for all of you is exponential.
It's so compounded.
You could network in L.A. when you played here.
You can network with the fucking world.
You can literally go on your phone right now,
put in hashtag USC, see anybody that gives a fuck about it,
and you can engage with that
and basically have anything happen, if you choose to.
That's just bonkers.
- Let's dive into the responsibility that comes with that.
When that happens.
'Cause Gary does a nice job and, Casey,
I've known you for a long time, you're amazing at this.
You guys remain at least you're perceived
to be really authentic.
Like you haven't varied even though --
- 'Cause I know I can't hide.
You're just not gonna be able to hide, right?
- And that's because --
- It's 'cause we live in a world where Danny Amendola,
the night after winning the Superbowl,
banged some chick and she uses it as her Tinder profile.
We just live in a world where you're on the record, right?
- Well, I also think on top of that,
say you did only PC posts.
At some point, you gotta become your voice
which is why we asked you guys
if you think you're storytellers 'cause every single
one of your SnapChats,
like when I look at some of you on SnapChat versus Twitter,
it's like they're two different people 'cause SnapChat,
I'm in your world.
I'm in it, real time and I see what's going on on Thursday
or wherever you may be and on Twitter you might just say
something really nice about a teammate who's blessed
to get a scholarship offer or be up for an award, right?
- But everybody's full of shit.
You ever look at Facebook?
Everybody's got the best marriage, best kids, best vacation,
like everybody's PR-ing the shit out of themselves
so what happens is, everything's about, it's sports.
Everything's about adjustments, right?
Tight ends become fucking basketball players,
you gotta adjust the safety position.
There's a reaction to reaction.
Social media didn't exist.
It came out, everybody was saying everything.
Then we got conditioned that people would react
and all of a sudden we got weird
and started PR'ing ourselves.
Now everybody knows that everybody's full of shit
so there's a counteract.
That's how SnapChat happened.
Everybody shared everything, where was the opportunity?
Something private.
So like everything's about countermoves.
Like right now, I don't give a fuck about social anymore
'cause everybody's on it, everybody's lookin'.
That's why I'm looking at voice.
That's why I'm looking at Smartification (inaudible)
'cause everybody's looking, you got a problem, right?
And that's what's happening with social.
Nobody believes,
when I say I'm watching what you guys are doing,
I'm not paying attention to what you're posting,
I'm paying attention to what you're double tapping.
It's so funny, guys are like PC-ing themselves on Instagram
like me and my moms and then they're like fucking
double tapping every booty chick on the fucking internet.
So like it's real funny and it's real true
that's why everybody's laughing 'cause everybody knows
and it's real fucking great.
I love it.
(group chattering)
- Casey, what have you noticed as a,
(group chattering)
yeah, these guys are like un-double tapping right now.
(group laughs)
Casey, I'm curious what you've noticed as a coach.
I mean, you recruit the entire country,
you guys are lucky enough to be here
and have a scholarship offer or be on this roster.
When you're diving in to next year's class
and the next year's class, what are you receiving?
What are you pulling from these kids
that are trying to PC on one side and double tap
the daylights out of something on the other?
- That's the funny thing.
I think for me,
especially being younger and kinda in social media
like most of y'all, right,
when we see recruits or we see y'all writing certain things
or doing certain things and like you're saying,
it's not true, I shouldn't say it's not true but you end up,
you see another side and then you get on campus
or your parents are around so now you're the recruit
and you got both parents in here so now you're all,
you're sitting straight, you got this and I'm like brah,
I was on your page the other day.
So it's like we understand what the real is
and the whole facade is like, it's really,
there's no point of it.
Like you said, it ends up coming out.
People will know if you're authentic or not
and whether you're real or not so at the end of the day,
you can try to like kind of dress certain things up
but I think as from a coaching standpoint,
especially when you guys are already our players,
we try to protect you in the sense of what your,
educate you on what you're posting
and all that type of stuff but for recruits,
we're kind of looking at 'em and kinda trying
to see where their mind is,
where their mindset is 'cause we do understand
once you guys get on this campus,
it's gonna be all the distractions and you got parties,
you got girls, you got alcohol,
you got all kinds of other stuff.
So we want to know or we try to anticipate
if that athlete might be,
have a problem or might dive in the problem
once they get to the campus.
- Yeah, the reason I asked him that is to give you
the idea of recruiting, right?
Whether that's an NFL executive, Gary, what do you have,
over 1,000 employees in all your companies combined, right?
The recruiting side of thing never really stops.
So I want you to dive back into something you said earlier.
You said you just gonna be you.
You're gonna be authentically you.
Give these guys a strategy on their social.
Take it a step further.
- I think they're better off being them.
Like you're 18, 19, 20, 21 year old alpha male dudes.
You know what you don't know at 19, 20, you know this,
when you're 41, you're still 20.
Like you're not tricking anybody and they're empathetic.
They know who you're supposed to be.
Like as long as you're not doing something crazy
and murdering fucking people and as long as you're not
doing crazy shit, I actually think people should go
more into who they actually are because people know
that's what you're supposed to be anyway.
You're so worried about the edges, right,
like you're supposed to be you.
- Can I say this?
It kinda ties to him.
I swear to you,
about a month ago I saw one of his videos for the first time
and I liked it.
Boom, got my hair standing up and I got to the point
where I was like, damn,
I wanna repost this but in my head
and I had my coaching hat on.
I was like damn,
he's cussing though and I was thinking like,
well, what if a parent,
a recruit's parents is on my page and they're like,
and you know what?
At the end of the day, you know what I said?
- Fuck it.
- Fuck it and I reposted it.
(group laughs)
Straight up.
Because in my head I'm like it's the message --
- If you lose a kid 'cause his mom's mad
that you reposted a cursing video,
that fucker shouldn't be at USC anyway.
(group laughs)
- That was the point to me.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
It's a true story.
- I believe that!
True story and this is the first time I've met Gary, right?
But true story, I was just like damn,
I'm supposed to be an example for y'all and blah blah blah
and I'm like everything I put up and this, that,
like I'm not gonna put the twerking video up, right?
But I'm like he's actually sayin' something that's dope
because he said the F word, does that make it wrong or bad?
I was like, man --
- And things are getting redefined, right?
Like look what, like rich people dress differently.
Here's what I always worry about -
you're trying to get positioned for the world
that you think it is but then the world moves on you.
Like all those 40 year olds that got straight A's
that came up with me and went to Princeton
and went to fucking Wall Street and everything,
they all DM me, they're like fuck and I'm like yeah,
because you thought the world was gonna stay still.
By the time you're 25, 27, doing your thing,
the world's gonna redefine.
Facebook's gonna come out and entrepreneurs
are gonna wear t-shirts and sneakers.
That's not what I grew up with.
That's not what 41 year olds looking ridiculous
with bullshit socks and shit?
Like that wasn't real.
The world's gonna move.
The Mendoza Line's gonna move.
What Miley Cyrus did twerking on MTV is lame
compared to every fucking post on Instagram now.
The world moves.
So trying to conform, to me the reason I am me,
do you know how much money I lose for cursing, for example?
We had a company not give us a $5 million account
because somebody on the Board didn't like that I cursed.
Good!
Because I got plenty more money in return
for actually being myself and, again,
you can't break rules and all that.
That's just the way it is, right?
But like being yourself always plays out.
Always plays out.
- [Male] To piggyback on top of that,
so I work at a winery --
- You do?
- [Male] Yeah.
Wine is my second love after --
- Well, we need to talk about that.
- [Male] Yeah, I was actually going to --
- That's my first career.
- [Male] But, how, if that's me and posting it on Instagram
and people looking at it like okay, he likes alcohol,
he likes wine --
- Are you 21 yet?
- [Male] I'm not 21.
- Yeah, so you need to be careful.
- [Male] Okay, but --
- When are you 21?
- [Male] In March.
- Great, go fucking crazy in March.
(group laughs)
- [Male] Alright but in terms of maybe not posting the --
- Drinking of it.
Yeah, are you like working at the winery?
Yeah, and like if you wanna be triple cautious,
you can be like,
can't wait until March when I can actually start,
like you can play with it, right?
You can be, you can play with it but like,
and you know wine, what's funny about wine,
and you know this, it's definitely still not Cognac or beer
like you're gonna get away with it.
It's more fucking bougie shit.
Let me say something to you, the truth is undefeated.
The truth is undefeated.
If you're passionate about wine culture
and you're not fucking drinking bottles to the face,
you're gonna be okay regardless of what somebody thinks
and let me tell you something
now that I've gotten in the game a little bit.
These NFL executives, you can speak to this better,
they're big boys and girls.
They're not real confused.
Nobody's not drafting you because you put a fucking picture
of Napa Valley.
- [Yogi] Yeah?
- [Male 2] Um, so the people I grew up with,
so I grew up in South Central so there's a lot of people
who smoke, drink, party, this and that.
So like I'm posting,
what if I just wanna post a picture of people
that I grew up with,
people that I'm cool with and like on their pages --
- Mm Hmm (affirmative).
- Different than my stuff and people kind of like attack me
and think I'm surrounded or doing the same thing.
What would you say about that?
- I say, personally, and I'm glad,
I was actually about to go there
'cause it brought me to that
and I'm glad you brought that up.
To me, personally,
I don't think that you should hide from it
just like he's saying.
There's no need to hide from that
because there's nothing wrong with that.
That's where you grew up.
Now, I'm saying, you're not engaging, you're not,
in the video with a blunt in your hand or drink.
I'm not sayin' that but it's nothing wrong
with those being some of your friends
and having a relationship with them,
in my opinion.
Now you might tell me I'm wrong.
You might say it's wrong.
- You should go look at Robby Anderson.
He's a wide receiver for the Jets.
I think he's done it real smart.
Like you can tell that's his crew and where he came from
but the pictures he chooses to put up, they're,
you gotta be smart about the settings of it, right?
Like outside in the barbecue, cool.
Like everybody fucking blunt to the face playing video games
and that's the background of your picture with them,
not gonna work.
Just not.
You know that, right?
So I think you can't hide from where you came from,
nobody wants to do that in your situation
but people are gonna make assumptions.
I don't think you'll get hurt by looking,
if somebody goes down the rabbit hole,
looks at all the kids you tagged
and they're doing all that in their photos,
I think you can escape that if you're smart
about how you position the content with them.
Go ahead.
- [Male 3] So as far as Twitter,
say somebody like they tweet you some stuff like,
oh, what's going on tonight?
I'm tryin' to turn up, do do do do do,
like and you kinda forced to reply
'cause you already put on the platform
to where you're like how do I reply to this?
- Direct message.
- [Male 3] I don't want the NFL scout to be like oh,
I'm about to go party tonight.
- You always gotta, I feel like you always have an out.
So you don't, first of all,
you're not forced to do anything.
- [Male 3] Yeah, I know you're not forced but --
- You can go direct message.
- Listen --
- Hey, we gonna be at 30th Street tonight on DM
as opposed to the big social thread where everybody's like,
there's ways around it.
Like he's saying, they're big boys and girls up there.
They gonna understand that NFL, college,
people are gonna go out and have a good time.
I mean, it was just fourth of July.
Everybody had a barbecue, everybody had a probably a drink.
I don't really drink but everybody had a drink
in their hand for the most part like just in the world,
just in general.
So the fact that you might be, it's not the fourth of July,
it's not a holiday,
it might be just a random day or your friends
might be doing in on a random day
or you going out on a Tuesday --
- Listen, people need to be smart in this room.
I got more air cover than you
because I'm an empathetic coach and, listen,
dudes are punching girls in the fucking face
and going in the second round.
Let's talk real talk.
You need to be smart.
If you've got all the pieces in place
that makes you a first round pick,
you know exactly the truth which is,
you can get away with more shit.
If you're fucking fringe, seventh round, UDFA,
you better really fucking smart
if you wanna be in the league.
That's just the truth.
Might get me in trouble but it's the truth.
You'll never get, ever penalized for somebody,
take that tweet and have it be three people
holding a fucking ounce of weed
and you still won't get in trouble for that
'cause if you,
I'll give the same advice over and over
and I've really dissected this now,
the truth is undefeated.
You don't need to have a social media account.
If you're fucking snorting coke in the bathroom,
you're gonna lose.
- [Yogi] I think you've gotta be able to answer
the how and why.
All the NFL executives I talk to,
when they see something like that
they would go on a rabbit's hole
of everybody attached to it,
they'd learn all about 'em
and if you can stand right in front of them,
if I'm Pete Carroll, John Schneider, name an NFL coach,
why'd you kick it with them?
I've known them forever.
What is your relationship?
How do you operate when you're around them?
If you can answer those
and it's not I do participate in those activities
when you go down that rabbit's hole
and find out what they're about,
then you're good.
If you do participate,
then don't engage in that relationship
'cause his point is fair.
The truth will always come out.
- 100%.
- [Yogi] But I always go back to how and why.
It's how I operate as a journalist,
how I try to operate my life.
If you can answer the question how and why you're even
in this chair right now,
how and why you kick it with somebody,
how and why you're dating somebody,
how and why you respect that girl, then you're good.
If you can't answer it or if it's bullshit
and it's not the truth,
then I think you're in a world of hurtin'
and your life's probably in a world of hurtin',
your game's probably in a world of hurtin'
and you're probably gonna be an undrafted free agent.
- So like when he's talking about scouts
and all that Combine stuff,
a lot of the times at the Combine and the NFL,
they're gonna ask you questions
that they know the answers to.
- (laughs) Every time.
- They just wanna know if you're gonna tell the truth.
- 100%.
- They wanna see if you're gonna tell the truth.
- 100%.
- They're gonna know if you've tested positive
or they're gonna know if you smoke and all this stuff
and they're gonna say, hey, do you smoke?
And you're gonna be like nope.
No, I've never smoked but they already know the answer.
They just wanna see is he lying, is he telling the truth?
Yeah, I used to smoke.
There was this one time or I used to smoke.
I grew up blah blah blah in this neighborhood
and I smoked but you know what?
I stopped.
I've been training for the Combine.
I've really been focused and last year,
they wanna know what you're gonna say
and how you're gonna react to it.
- 100%
- So to the point of those being your friends and all that,
it is what it is and like Yogi's saying
they might ask you about that when it comes to the point
and you might say well, yeah, I grew up in South Central
and this is the block I grew up on
and these are the boys I grew up in the street
playing football with that got me to this point
and these are my boys and then they might walk away
like man, that's a loyal dude.
Man, he's loyal to his friends.
- 100%
- So they might take that,
you might look at it as like damn,
that looks bad on me but they might say that's a loyal guy.
- What you don't know, even as you get older,
the cover up and the lying is always,
there's only a couple things,
the most extreme things that are worse than the lie
'cause then that just breaks the trust
and then they're just scared about everything.
I mean smoking or hanging out with the wrong,
that's the norm.
They know that.
They're not naive.
You think you're tricking them?
You think you're tricking
a multi-trillion dollar organization?
You?
(group laughs)
- [Yogi] I'm curious, Gary,
'cause I wonder if you guys deal with this at all.
- Spraying shit in your room?
Get the fuck out of here.
(group laughs)
- [Yogi] I wonder if you deal with this at all and, Casey,
you probably dealt with this as well,
as you get older, you do.
Relationships evolve in high school, through college,
through your professional career.
Sometimes you'll just move on and you're around
an environment that may take you to different rooms,
different places, different businesses, different teams
and that's just a reality of when you go through this --
- 100.
- And I'm curious because you probably dealt with a lot
of your boys from whether it's the wine business --
- I went to Mount Ida College.
50% of the kids in my college went to jail.
I went to a hood, I slept with my wallet every night.
I'll beat everybody in c-low and spades
and all that shit in here.
I went to a hood college.
I keep in touch with those friends
but when I started my business,
I wasn't taking any of those fucking gangsters in it.
They're my boys and I'll help them but like, that's life.
That is the cliche conversation.
I had a weird business man conversation like that
but the cliche sports conversation is like kids come
from rough neighborhoods and things of that nature
and you could still be tried and true but what's tough
is like what we don't talk about now
is post that last collective bargaining agreement,
rookies aren't making that much money.
You're making money.
I mean, when you got nothing, hundreds of thousands is real
but like you start gettin', you guys, everybody knows,
everybody knows the stories,
you start getting those 47 phone calls.
Jalen Reeves-Maybin, linebacker from Tennessee,
kid that we represent now at VaynerSports,
fourth round pick.
His phone blows up when he gets drafted.
Fourth round!
You know what the economics of that now look like?
So it's tough and so like, yeah,
life evolves but there's ways to be there for people
without just being their piggy bank and it's tough, man.
I don't sympathize with everybody coming at you like that,
kids that have been with you in rough spots
from along the way,
family members, family members that helped you.
It's hard but that's what being a grown ass man's about.
If you actually can say no for the first three years,
put in the work, stay, you know what's tough?
You get to the league and you think that was it, right?
Like you know it's not but you still think it is
'cause now high school, of course, you get to this.
You got the fucking bullshit NCAA
so you're still not making bank.
Now you're in the league and you feel like at some level
you've made it but the truth is the money's not there
until that second contract that can really get you
to be like (exhales).
So the key is actually locking down
in those first couple years and really being smart
with those, making those investments.
Hopefully you stay healthy and get to that second deal.
- [Male] Can you give us an example of like what one
of those conversations would be like for someone
dealing with that,
like if one of your best friends wants a certain amount
of money or how would a conversation like that go?
- Sam, honestly, listen,
like honestly I think sometimes you should give it too.
You gotta be you.
Listen, I don't know.
Money, like I just love the game of like,
it worked out for me but I was not making a lot of money
in my 20's and 30's and I was like helping my friend,
like this whole, so I didn't take Moose or Tokyo Joe
or fucking Dustin to my business
but I was wiring them money.
My friend Dustin fucking was bringing so much ecstasy
from fucking Holland to L.A., you can't imagine.
He went to jail, he needed help.
I gave him money.
I'm not gonna judge you because some guy that had your back
from the get needs money and you're worried
about some executives or people judging you.
I think it comes down to individuality here, right?
I think it's okay and like, look,
I think everything becomes
the product of your reality, right?
First round quarterbacks get paid different
than fifth round cornerbacks.
There's just, everybody's got their real life,
and so like there's different pressures
and then some families,
first round quarterback doesn't have those pressures
that a fifth round corner,
everybody around them feels like
it is the first pick in the draft.
So there's a million different things here.
I think the key for all of you
is you need to be good with yourself
'cause then you'll have the strength for the yes's and no's
that will dictate the fucking outcome of your life.
- I think that's key though,
like being able to say no and yes because you are gonna
say yes at times and you are gonna have to say no
and it's harder to say no than it is to say yes
'cause you gonna get asked for random crazy stuff.
Trust me and you gonna do it sometimes
and sometimes you might not even feel like you should do it
or you really wanna do it, you gonna do it anyway --
- 100%
- And you're gonna let it go but there's gonna be sometimes
where you're gonna say, you know what, man?
I can't do it this time or like hey man --
- And that's when you find out what's really happening.
- Yeah, because --
- You put somebody on twice and then you say no
the third time --
- How that person reacts after that, if they still with you,
if they still, then that's your folks
because at the end of the day,
if you're helping somebody,
you're helping them out of the goodness of your heart.
I learned something a long time ago.
My pops told me, he said don't give something to somebody
that really you can't do without.
So if he tells me,
I'mma loan him $100 and he says he's gonna give it
back to me and I'm gonna trust him to give it back.
If I loan it to him, in my head, I'm like,
man, you know that?
If I loan this 100, if he don't give it back to me,
I'm cool and if he gives it back to me,
cool 'cause he said he was.
Remember like he said his pops spit on his hand,
shook my hand but if he doesn't give it back to me,
I can still function and work and I'm gonna be good
but at the end of the day too even on the side of giving it,
sometimes you gotta just kind of like distance yourself
and just kind of,
you'll read people and understand and you'll see
when it's a real situation
and when it's not a real situation
and then it'll be an opportunity for you
to help them grow in situations as well.
- You know what's a thing I've sniffed out real quick
from the outside?
Veterans when you get there.
It's been interesting that some of the kids
that I've been fucking with,
they're like the veterans were the ones that gave 'em
the courage 'cause you know, they're in it, right?
You can look at that guy right next to you in the locker
who's in your nine,
I would tell you and this is probably what happened
here too and you guys can all speak to it more than I can.
It's why I go hang out with 90 year olds.
You learn so much more from people that have been through it
and did it than anything else.
So if you're lucky enough to get to the next level
and dealing with some of those pressures,
I would attach yourself to that vet,
be that annoying rookie and get all that wisdom
and that halo that protects you.
Two kids have already told me the reason they had courage
to say no was they leaned on old man, old man 30 years old,
but to them.
So that's something to think about
from a strategy standpoint.
- Sometimes, it's too, it's just learning how to do it.
Literally learning how to say it
like whether it's framing it and it's an answer
and you just stick to it like my budget is set this way.
I'm allocated to, I gotta do this, I gotta do this.
I can only give out so much and then you just stick to it
and that's your answer and then you,
they're gonna say well, I'm gonna give back.
I'm like well, you just gotta stick to it.
- It's hard.
- 'Cause what happens is,
as soon as you tell somebody no and you can't do it,
they're gonna come with another plan
to why you can do it and well,
how about this much or they're gonna come
with something else and you gotta just stick with it
'cause it's hard.
Like I said, they're gonna keep coming.
You gotta just stand firm and be like, man,
I can't this time.
If I could --
- It's tough.
- I mean I can but it's like my situation doesn't allow me.
Yeah, I might,
financially I might have it literally in the bank
but I just can't do it because my overall picture,
my goal Car-rie Ko-pert plan or whoever we are,
it just doesn't fit within that plan.
- And everybody's reading headlines, right?
They're reading what Google told 'em about your contract.
They're not looking into what's guaranteed.
They're not looking into the cost now to maintain your body.
They're just like, right?
It's tough.
- [Yogi] I think it's important to remember
that disagreement doesn't mean dislike.
That's one of my favorite phrases.
We can disagree, doesn't mean I don't love you.
- 100%.
- [Yogi] Any other questions?
I wanna ask you, both you guys,
when you look at competition,
how do you frame it and I say that,
you guys may not know this
but I encourage you to check it out -
there's a new show on Apple Music called Planet of the Apps
where basically somebody comes down
with a 30 second elevator and they literally
have to give a pitch on their new app
and Gary's one of the judges,
Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Will.i.am.
It's a pretty cool show
but that's one of the more competitive industries
and you guys probably get a boatload of ideas.
I want you to leave here with, okay,
we just got a lot of knowledge.
How can I put this together in one of my ideas,
one of my collaborations with a friend
or with one of my teammates?
- So I'm sorry I apologize,
I wanna make sure I understand the question.
- [Yogi] I wanna see how you view competition
'cause you see it on a show where people are literally
coming up with some of the more creative ideas
that maybe you've seen.
- I mean, I spend no time on competition.
I don't think about competition.
I hate my competition.
I wanna slice their fucking throat
but I spend no time on them.
I've got no time for them 'cause I'm not worried about them.
I'm gonna do my thing and I'm gonna make them react to me.
I like, I love when I meet business people
that I'm supposed to know and they can taste
that I don't know who they are, you know when you know?
You know when you know and you're like,
yeah, nice to meet you.
I love that feeling that they know that I don't know
who they are even though I'm supposed to
because that's how much I disrespect that fucker.
(group laughs)
Because I'm in my shit.
I'm in my shit.
By the way, doesn't mean, by the way,
(inaudible) may beat me and, by the way,
I'm good with that 'cause that's the game.
You gotta take your L's.
I wear my loss on Uber or my other,
like I fucking own my L's but they're mine, right?
And so my, I'm only driven by competition.
I'm a business man because I wasn't gifted
with your guys' athletics and I needed to get that nut off
in a different way and that was business, right?
And so when I was making $80,000 a year,
that was enough for me to live.
I'm not fucking fancy.
I came from zero.
I don't need shit.
I don't need a watch or fucking dumb shit like that.
I need the game and my game is business
and the way I treat it is,
I'm gonna do me and I'm gonna make them react to me.
I'm not gonna fucking watch film on them.
You don't get away with that.
You've gotta watch film.
I get it, it's different but like, for me,
I don't have to watch film.
I'm gonna do my shit and I'm gonna do it so fucking hard
and so loud that I'm gonna make them spend time
focusing on me instead of the reverse.
- I think, for me, and I've talked to Deonte about this.
As far as competition,
now we're talking about I'm a receiver
and I have other receivers that I'm competing against
in the world.
Say we're getting ready for the draft and they got me raised
as the seventh receiver and there's six other guys
in front of me.
I'm not looking at them six guys, like he's saying,
'cause I'm worried about myself.
We're all different individuals.
Now when it comes to like the reverse competition
like when I'm getting ready for a game,
I'm gonna respect the person I'm playing against
but at the same time I know that if I'm at my best
and I'm prepared, it doesn't matter who I'm playing against.
You really have to have that mentality,
especially if you wanna play on Sundays
because on Sunday you gonna be playing against somebody,
that somebody every week.
So whether it's Champ Bailey this week
and Asante Samuel this week and it don't matter,
you're playing against somebody.
So that name, that don't matter.
I already know he's gonna be at a certain caliber and level.
I just know that I gotta be at a certain level myself
and how do I get myself there?
By studying him as a number, okay.
This is why I was talking to Deonte.
Oh, this is how he likes to step at the line of scrimmage
and he likes to hard press.
He like to, whatever it is as an individual,
I'm getting to know him but at the end of the day,
I'm already constructing a plan in my head
like this is how I'm gonna tackle him
because it's really about me though, it's not about him.
It's about me beating him.
So --
- Because what's great about sports and business
is it's gonna play out.
There's no subjectiveness in what you guys do for a living.
Somebody's gonna win, somebody's gonna lose.
That's why you gotta focus so much on yourself
because it's not subjective.
It's not a painting or a bottle of wine
that like a couple of critics are like, it's good, it's bad.
It's just, wine's a lot of fun 'cause it's subjective.
That's why I did real well in it
because if I story told well,
I made you think it was good before you fucking drank it.
We don't have that in business and sports.
If you lose 31 to seven, you fucking lost.
There's no like, well, no.
(group laughs)
So that's why it's so insular, right?
Back to what connects me with this world.
I don't know anybody in the sports agent world.
Everyone's like oh, do you, I don't know anybody.
I don't know a single fucking name!
I don't give a fuck about Athletes First
or fucking Roc Nation.
I know, sure know Jay Z's not doing shit, right?
It doesn't matter.
I have to do my thing and so like
that's how I think about competition.
- [Yogi] Before we let you go, clearly Gary and Casey,
you guys have known it for awhile.
You guys live on that razor's edge.
I'm curious how you cultivate and recultivate
that everyday for you?
- I mean for me, like I said,
I'm not playing anymore, right?
So I have to recreate some type of way,
that's why I said in the morning,
if I send you guys something in the morning it's probably
because I just watched that shit
and I'm trying to get my juices flowing.
Y'all going to get into a workout,
you're gonna get on the field,
you're gonna put the helmet on.
There's certain things that's gonna happen in your life
or that you guys are doing like playing sports
that that juice is gonna flow naturally.
You don't even got to create it.
I gotta create it.
I gotta manufacture it a little.
So I'm watching his video.
I might be watching ET.
I might watch whoever and for me I do that
'cause I'm setting my mind like, T. Will, he know.
We talk all the time.
We send each other videos, quotes, pictures.
I mean, that's my other brother back there, right?
So we stay on each other
because if I see something that I like
that's gonna get me goin',
that's how I'm kinda trying to create it.
You guys live in a world where naturally if you got,
like if you're a self-starter,
I consider myself a self-starter.
When I was in a workout,
I didn't need a coach to get on my ass
and yell at me and tell me get goin'.
Once I was out there, let's go.
It's go time.
So I feel like you guys are kinda in that world where,
yeah, you might have to turn the music up.
It might be a song.
Why is everybody turning music up in the weight room?
Because they wanna get hyped or everybody's listening
to headphones before the game
'cause they wanna get juiced up.
Naturally, I'm ready, I listen to music before a game
but really I can just go out there and play,
let's go but nowadays,
I'm doing stuff like I'm watching what other,
it might be something that he's saying,
it might be something that somebody else
is saying that's just gonna kind of stir it in me
because it's in me.
I got that natural juice, that competitive nature in me.
It's just gonna stir it up and that's all I need to go.
- For me, it's gratitude.
I'm super grateful, man.
I was born in a shit place,
got out of Russia when nobody was getting out, got lucky.
I'm grateful.
If I wake up and everybody in my family is alive,
I'm so fucking fired up.
I don't watch shit.
I don't listen to shit.
I'm just like, I'm so grateful, Yogi.
I just know, I don't know what else to say.
I'm just super, I'm part of this non-profit,
Pencils of Promise.
I took some of my people, we went to Ghana.
Went to Ghana, landed in Accra and then drove four hours.
This is a place where people walk an hour
to get fresh water.
That man's water bottle,
they would fucking die for that shit.
I just think everybody's lost perspective
and I'm real empathetic to this room's lost perspective.
You're a football player at USC.
Your perspective is broke.
It just is.
So I try to unwind.
My perspective is I'm a white man in America
and I'm rich as fuck.
My perspective is broke.
So I'm trying to rewind it back to just be grateful.
I'm just grateful.
So the way I stay on the edge and just like, gratitude.
It's just gratitude.
One life, one at bat, one time.
I just don't wanna see that regret in my eyes
that I see in so many and that's why it's so fun
for me to come and talk to you now
because like straight up for 90% of you,
this is the greatest year of your life right now.
That's just the truth.
You can be mad at me.
You can be sad at me.
You can think I'm stupid.
I'm telling you straight to your fucking faces,
for 80, 90% of you, this is it.
This is the fucking pinnacle.
So you better squeeze the fuck out of this thing
because if you're smart and you do,
then it won't be.
- [Yogi] Yeah, I couldn't agree more there.
I tell you, the coolest thing --
- It is, it's 'cause it's true.
It's not like I'm smart, I'm just looking at data.
I'm just looking at history, just talking to people,
just being a student of life.
It's true.
- [Yogi] As we kind of wrap this thing up
and Gary, Casey, and myself,
we're gonna hang around if you guys got any other questions
and I think there's dinner for you as well.
What these two guys do,
Casey, I've known him for 10, 15 years now.
Gary, just observing his content from afar is they give
and Coach Carroll was the same way when he was here.
He just gave and gave and I think that's really the lesson
is the more you give,
it's gonna come back.
Just don't expect it.
T. Will's done it a million times.
Everybody in this audience has done it.
Whether it's to kids, whether it's through your own social,
whatever it is, give the unique stuff away
and it'll come back a million different ways.
- You won me over so big.
You said one thing that I live on.
I have zero expectation.
Do you know why I'm so happy?
I have zero expectation of others.
Nobody's ever let me down.
When I do, I do it, Gary V-E-E, on Instagram and SnapChat,
hit me up.
You don't need to sign with my firm.
You don't need to be drafted by the Jets.
I will give 'cause karma is practical.
Giving is practical.
That shit always works out.
That shit, karma, always is practical.
It always works out.
So if I can help you in any way, Gary V-E-E.
Anyway.
- [Male] You gonna follow me back?
- Maybe.
You want me to?
- [Male] Yeah.
- Bet.
Done.
(group laughs)
- [Yogi] Good question.
- You gonna leverage it?
- [Male] Yeah.
- [Male 2] Follow me back too!
- (laughs) Okay.
(group laughs)
- [Yogi] Alright, fellas.
I appreciate it.
I know your time is precious as is Gary and Casey's.
Give it up for them, please.
(group applauds)
- I love that.
That hundred dollar thing, that's the realest fucking shit,
'cause you give and it's only a bonus
if somebody comes through.
- [Male] Thank you guys.