- [Announcer] Get up on your feet, Gary Vaynerchuk.
(cheering and applause)
- [Man] Thank you, you changed my life.
- [Man 2] I love you, Gary.
- Love you back, thank you.
Thank you.
(cheering)
- [Woman] Love you, Gary. (cheering and applause)
- Thank you, Vancouver. Thank you very much.
Thank you, let's do this.
I mean look, we could stay here all day and do that,
but I want to bring some value.
Yeah, so listen I think we're doing a pretty cool format.
We're gonna go 20-20-20.
I'm gonna yap here a little bit,
then we're gonna do a quick little fireside.
Then we'll do some questions with you guys.
Thank you for the love.
I think that that moment in itself is something
that I think everybody should think about.
A funny thing happens when you do the right thing.
A funny thing happens when you over-deliver
to the others and try to take less.
A funny thing happens when you deploy patience
and run a marathon.
A funny thing happens and what happens is you start
building equity, you start building legacy,
you start building leverage.
That reaction I appreciate and I know and have seen it
for others.
But I know the reason I get that reaction
and it's not because of my skill set on a sporting field
or how I sing.
It comes from the fact that I'm desperately,
and I mean desperately trying to figure out how
to bring value to you.
I've been thinking about it a lot which is like hey,
why am I playing this patient?
Why am I not looking for anything in return?
Why do I like it better if I give you a whole bunch
and you never give me anything?
And I mean that.
And by the way I'm not this great human being.
It's not that I'm the nicest guy in the world.
There's something behind it.
I'm a businessman, I have my own goals and ambitions.
So I've been really trying to reverse engineer like
why is this my state?
What makes me different in this way?
And the other people that I see do it,
why do they do it?
I think it comes up to this, my friends.
I think first and foremost, and this is so important
for so many of you to hear and I've been saying it
a bunch and I know there's by the way a lot of engagement
on social so I know a lot of you have context on me.
I spend the first 13, 14 years of my career
building a business and not worrying about building
a personal brand and not having a social media account.
I was building an actual business.
I think the real reason I give away my content for free,
I engage with all of you. I answer, I give love.
I think the biggest reason I do that is 'cause I don't
need your help or money to accomplish my goals.
I have enough talent to build businesses that are not
predicated on turning admiration or attention
into short-term dollars.
I think this is very important because if this conference
is positioned as how do we build things
and have great impact, it starts with only two things.
There's only two things.
Listen, my whole talk given the framework
that they've created for this conference is actually
very simple. I was thinking about it,
I'm like okay let's make it contextual.
Let's talk about something slightly different.
It's actually very easy if you're sitting in this audience
to achieve the ambition of the context of this conference,
which is to do things that are also then good
for humanity. It's actually very, very simple.
It's two things.
It's intent and this is a big one and we don't
talk about it enough in our business world,
entrepreneurship, tech, solopreneur, intent.
Like what are you actually up to?
What are you actually trying to do?
Is your intent to actually build a great business
and give back to the world?
Or is your intent to disguise
that you want to make money
by saying that every time somebody buys one
of your granola bars you donate a granola bar to the hungry?
And I'm glad that eight of you laughed over there
because I'm going to tell you something.
As somebody who was there and saw Blake early on
when he formed that TOMS shoes model
and as somebody who's an angel investor in 2013 and '14
and looking at every single company,
I saw an ungodly amount of 23-year-olds claiming to me
that because they're Millennials, this was the best,
this was my favorite pitch.
Because they were Millennials they cared
about the world more and so they both wanted
to make money but also they cared more about the world
than Gen X, which was really cute.
Then I would look at their business model
and whatever the fuck they were selling that they
were then donating one to somebody that was so
fucking needy, right?
And literally, if you pressed them on why it was going
to this country, if you even asked one question
why it was going to this country,
you pretty much ended up
realizing they just threw a fucking dart at a map.
(audience laughter)
Then I just want to remind everybody I'm a businessman.
I understand that I put out content,
but I'm a businessman.
So it wasn't very difficult for me to look at the P&L
and the projections to realize that they were selling
this granola bar, or umbrella, or sneaker for twice
the price that it needed to be so they could afford
to actually give the sneaker.
So what you were doing actually was your intent
was to look like a good person
but still make as much money.
Every dollar that you would have if you didn't
have the bullshit model that you were donating something.
So what you were were completely full of fucking shit.
(audience cheers and applause)
And I have great news.
I searched a lot of accounts on my long-ass flight
to Vancouver last night of people using hashtags here.
These are wonderful people that are in the audience
using the hashtag and they're going to change the world
and bring to humanity.
And some of you are full of shit.
(audience laughter)
So if we're going to accomplish something
from this conference these two days of inspiration
and good stuff,
if you're gonna actually accomplish something
when you walk out there and go back to your normal lives,
I promise you step one of the idea really good part
of the strategy needs to be your actual intent.
I want to remind everybody that it is very okay
to be selfish and build something and do it in parallel.
You don't need to disguise your ambitions and wants
and needs with horseshit that you're going to donate
to the rain-fucking-forest.
(audience laughter)
You don't have to do that.
You're capable of both, and I am that.
I live it.
I tell you from, I always talk about stuff
that's real to me.
I am an assassin, killer,
ninja, selfish winner
in business and I can separate that from who I am.
I want to remind everybody my favorite all-time thing
of doing good is when somebody called me out on Twitter
for not donating to things or doing GoFundMe's
on social media. That I was a bad guy.
And I literally DM'ed this person and met him
at Starbucks where I stopped in between that meeting.
This is back in 2011.
I stopped at my accountant's, picked up my tax,
yeah picked up my tax returns.
You like this story, this is a good one.
This is my favorite but I don't tell this story very often.
But it's good under the context of this.
He said, "GaryVee, why don't you donate and do good causes?
"You're just selfish, you just care about yourself.
"Why don't you do things like your friends on social media?"
And he mentioned some social media influencers.
I DM'ed him, I said, "Hey fuck face, meet me at Starbucks."
(audience laughter)
I went to my accountant's, I picked up my tax returns,
I showed up to the Starbucks.
He walked in, he shit that I was actually there.
And then I showed him my tax return.
Then I said to him, "Young man here's the difference
"between you and I.
"You're still of the age where people trick you easily,
"where people use social media to PR themselves
"and are using causes to build themselves up
"that they're good people, and you're confused.
"When you do good you stay quiet about that shit."
I showed ...
(audience applause and cheers)
You guys know me, you guys know me.
I'm very comfortable to be loud and proud of my vanity
and my kind of like accomplishments.
And I self-promote.
But the things that I'm most proud of you don't know
jack shit about, you don't.
So I showed him my tax return which you know,
shows your donations and how you actually roll.
And he was like, "I'm so confused."
And I said, "You're confused because you don't understand
"what's actually happening."
That's the point of this intent talk.
Nobody in here is tricking the one percent of winners
with their bullshit.
So if you want to actually accomplish the thesis
of this conference, you need to make sure
that your intent is pure.
Your intent, the way you make your money,
the way you make your money is something you're proud of.
That you're not bottom feeding, and most of all
if you're going to do good for the world, just do it.
Don't use it as your PR engine to make money on the side.
Intent. (audience cheering and applause)
It's true, and I'm sure you've sniffed it out.
Number two, the only other way to do this whole thing
is my favorite part.
The doing the work.
You know, before you can help the elephants
and before you're going to help carrots,
you actually have to be in a position to help.
The way you do that is create the means
and the infrastructure to help.
Whether that is a voice and an audience,
whether that's the financial means,
whether that's the relationships, everybody here,
and when I say everybody here I don't mean this conference,
I mean the whole fucking game.
99% of people are so quick to get to this thing
that they don't lay a foundation down.
You gotta actually build a business
that gives you that air cover.
I wanna remind everybody here, and it's really fun
because I always love when the mix of the crowd
is 18 and 88. (audience laughter)
Because if you're under 26 years old, you've not,
27 years old, you've not lived through a tough economy yet.
It's been all upswing since you've been in the game.
Just has, 2008, '09, like call it what it is,
in 2010 it was already on it's way up.
Simple as that.
So you're looking in seven, eight years,
really means you're actually 30
and you haven't really played.
I look around and I see people more my age and older.
We've been through some shit, couple of cycles.
We know what happens.
Do you know how excited I am for the world to collapse soon
so I can get rid of so many of you fake fuckers.
(audience cheering)
Do you know how pumped I am?
I dream at night, last night I fell asleep at two o'clock
and I go, one day that kid's gonna have to change
his profile from influencer to bank teller.
(audience laughter)
Can't fucking wait.
So, intent, don't be full of shit
cause you're tricking the 90% that don't matter
and you're losing equity with the 10% that do.
Number two, do.
You gotta work, you feel super inspired from this weekend,
you can't wait, what happens next Thursday?
What happens next month?
You have to actually work a lot.
You know zero people, zero people
that have built something big
that haven't put in a ridiculous amount of work,
and the bigger it is the more they worked.
So many of you have your mouth way ahead of your actions.
Really, you're gonna own an island
and you fucking go to Cochella, fuck you.
(audience laughter)
Cause it's the truth.
It's the truth and the reason you say that
is cause you, like me, have been through
a couple of these cycles. We know exactly what
we're living through. All of my 48-year-old
executive employees were trillionaires in 2000
cause of the internet and the stock market prices.
You know how many people here, have a startup,
raised money, and have not had one month in their lives
where they were profitable?
Let me remind all of you startups that have raised money,
it doesn't take a hero to lose money each month.
And there's a problem, and I'm coming with you with this,
and this is positive fire. I'm not razzing you,
I'm trying to give you love because I know what's happening,
I live in that world.
VC money is clamping up.
VC money is clamping up, so I'm sitting here and telling you
to do, if you are not making money yet with your business
figure out why.
Change your model.
Cut your overhead.
Shit's coming.
Practicality is my religion.
That's why I push patience on so many of you,
'cause it's practical. It is a marathon.
Unless you die it's gonna be long.
So why are you running so fast, why do you need it so bad?
Let me tell you what really sucks.
It really sucks when you bought a $20,000 watch
and shit hits the fan and you can't sell that
piece of jewelry for $4,000 'cause everybody's
trying to get a job.
And so everybody is not investing.
Let me tell, and by the way, I eat my own dog food.
From 20 to 30 I built a business to $45 million a year
business kicking real profit, and I was paying myself
$47,000 a year living in a one bedroom apartment
and driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was nice,
but it wasn't a fucking Beamer.
And I did that cause I was
investing in the business for a foundation.
And everybody's trying to make a buck
and they're pulling it out.
You're making money and you're buying nice suits.
Stupid, short term, insecurity.
(laughs)
(audience applause)
People getting naked in the front row.
But I mean it, but I mean it.
Right, like there's that meme, you know it's funny,
it makes me smile and I hope people are getting something
out of it. There's that meme from Jay Z on Instagram,
right, like two pictures of him, one with a ton of jewelry
and then one now with just a black t-shirt,
and it shows one, he was like worth a million dollars,
and now, but really, that's just real.
And the thing that I don't like, and I've been
bringing it up here and I'm gonna bring it up again is,
people are fronting for people that aren't going
to be the impact on them.
I met with a kid for 20 minutes today, loved him,
he's got it, but he's doing, but, thank you,
but he doesn't, but he's doing something
that's gonna hurt him.
And I told him, I said, "Look, you're doing something
"that is not going to win. I would eliminate you
"from consideration to do business with
"based on this behavior other than I don't think I'm shit
"and I shouldn't be judging people, but most of the majority
"of my contemporaries are doing that."
I'm just confused by the behavior of the current system
because so much of it facade, so much of it is short term,
so much of it is fake, and I don't know, I just know how
I got here today.
I know how I got the luxury
and the enormous,
enormous feeling of admiration,
and it came from tried and true.
And it comes from tried and true for everybody.
And what we do is we sit around and look
at the .000001%
of a guy that creates Instagram,
or a guy that creates Facebook, or Elon Musk,
and we start mapping towards these anomalies,
yet 99.99999% of people that have been successful,
it took them 20, 30, 40 years, tried and true, hard work,
and so I try to impose on you here today, my friends,
through sheer will trying to force it down your throat,
that first and foremost your intent needs to be pure.
If you wanna build a good business
and you wanna give back to the world,
then that's what you actually have to do.
You know, you're not gonna trick, right,
and then, you know, I don't know, I'm just,
I'm just very, very, very passionate about this
because
you're living through the greatest era
that human beings have ever lived through,
and I am not confused to the macro political issues
that we're living through. And I understand all
the scenarios that we're living through across the globe.
It's just that humans have never had it better.
Like your life is better
than your great, great-grandparents.
There's a lot of shit going on with political presence
and things of that nature, yet it's still better
than if the Black Plague was running through us right now.
Like, we are so fortunate, the fact that you're even
at this conference puts you at this, such a small percentage
of people in the world, we have 7.4 billion people
in this world, and you have it so good. I am so grateful.
I am so grateful, right, I am so aware of what's actually
happening here, and I don't mean for me.
I mean for all of you.
And so, I can't wrap my head around wasting
the one at-bat we have, unless somebody here
has got some real interesting data, we don't come back.
And you know what, I'm super fucking pumped
that I ended up being a human being.
It's much more fun than being an elephant.
And so if you take into account the ridiculousness
and the utter quadruple miracle that it is
that you're even sitting here in a human
and have all this opportunity that you were a human
during this era, and you're not willing to deploy
the patience, and the work ethic, and the tried and true
that it takes to live, you know how many people here
want to be a millionaire?
Do you know how rare that is?
Have you run the math?
You have this enormous audacity, you have this enormous
audacity, yet you're not putting in the work
to get you there because you think
somehow you've been tricked
by yourself or somebody else
that there's some system,
that there's some fucking shortcut.
There's no fucking shortcut.
You've gotta put in the work.
Lots of it.
And that comes at the expense of golfing all the time,
and that comes at the expense of going
to every god damn event.
And it definitely comes at the expense
of watching one more motivational video,
and three more books, and seven more pod, you have to do.
Doing is the game.
(audience applause)
The remote control of society.
If you sit in this room and you do not know
how to make written words, audio sounds, or videos
for this device, on the 7 to 10 platforms
that dominate it,
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat,
then you are invisible to society.
I'm gonna say it one more time.
You know, the first 80% of this rant
felt really good for the 50-year-old plus.
The next two minutes are not gonna feel so good.
(audience laughter)
If you live in the world today
and you do not, at scale, produce written words,
audio sounds or videos for this device,
you do not exist,
and you need to wrap your head around that.
So, the theme of this, in actuality, is the following.
The answer is self-awareness.
Know who you are, know what you do,
and then tell it in the way
that comes most natural to you.
If you're a writer, great.
Start posting on Medium,
I've got a great little recommendation
that a lot of people aren't talking about.
If you like to write,
write long posts on Facebook and Instagram.
Get in a company picture,
and write a long-ass blog post.
How many people here are writing a blog right now?
Raise your hands high.
Tomorrow, write on Facebook,
in addition to, or move your blog to Facebook.
It will change your world.
Tomorrow.
Audio, how many people here have a podcast?
Raise your hands.
Couple.
If you don't like to write,
and listen, even though I've written four
New York Times bestselling books,
I can't write for shit.
If any of you've gotten an email from me,
can't put two sentences together.
God bless ghost writers, I love you Stephanie Land.
But I can talk.
And so, if you don't want to be on video,
'cause your conscious of that, but you can talk,
and you're not a good writer, you need to start a podcast,
and you need to put your content on SoundCloud
and Spotify tomorrow.
And, if you've got the gift for gab
and charisma, and you like the camera,
and it lights you up like it does for me,
then you need to make videos tomorrow
on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram.
Tomorrow.
If you do not communicate that intent,
and then when I say go do,
you've gotta build a business or content,
but it needs to live in here.
There is no other world,
and it is the modern version of this.
Affiliate marketing and search and all these things,
they don't play the same way on this,
and there's nothing else.
I don't even have a computer any more.
I've lived the last 18 months of my life with only this.
I look at laptops like what is that?
The world is shifting faster than it ever has before,
but the way to win is as old at time.
Do the right thing,
and put in the fuckin' work.
Thank you.
(audience applause)
- Oh, we're gonna go right up to the front.
- I want to get real close.
- All right.
Shit, look at this. Thank you.
- You're welcome. - Thank you, brother.
- How incredible is this guy?
(audience cheers) Holy fuck.
- I'm only incredible because I'm saying the thing
that so many of you think, but you do things to cover it up.
You know your buddy's full of shit.
I just tell my buddy, you're full of shit,
and then they have a decision to make,
and so many of those buddies are like you know what?
I am, and I can deploy this charisma and gift for gab
if I just swallow it for three or four years,
I can actually be big, bigger than I would have been
by selling this short-term bullshit,
and feel good about myself.
I'm not doing this 'cause this makes me feel good
and I'm like ah, ha.
I'm doing this 'cause I want you to feel good.
I feel good.
(audience laughter)
- All right, so when I was in New York and we connected,
you talked about, you know, business man Gary
and then like Batman Gary. - Right.
- Right, and I absolutely loved this idea, this concept.
So, just for a second I want to talk to business man Gary.
When you're looking at investing in a company,
like investing in a business that's up and coming,
what are some of the key things that you look for?
What's like really important?
- Only two things I give a shit about.
One, do I believe in your thesis?
If you walk in and say I'm building a website
that really does well on a laptop
and sells ice cream in Alaska,
I'm like oh, that's a shit thesis, I'm out.
Right?
So, I have to believe in your thesis.
I believe that meditation over the next decade
is gonna be the big consumer space, right?
I feel like, thanks Mom.
(audience laughter)
But what you and I know
is that physical health has been a 30, 40 year trend,
it is time to talk about the mental part.
It's the whole game, it's all I've got.
By the way, if you dissect me, I'm so basic.
It's just EQ, it's just very basic things,
it's self-esteem, it's insecurity, right?
It's very simple, what I actually talk about.
I update it by the current state of the world,
but the thesis is as simple as it gets.
So, what you and I know is that
I believe every single person here
will be spending meaningful money on meditation,
whether going to meditation studios, 'cause it's trendy.
Whether getting an app so they sleep.
But it's gonna be great. I'm really excited.
I really, I'm excited to be like 70, 80
and see the full cycle of it,
'cause it's gonna help so many,
so many people here would
benefit from mental games, right?
So if you come in and have a meditation,
if you came in and said I want to start the clothing brand,
like, remember Tap Out for UFC?
I want to start the clothing brand for the meditation space,
which seems ridiculous,
'cause the meditation space in itself isn't fully baked,
and you want to be the clothing,
which has nothing to do with it,
you know, what is it gonna be, a headband?
I'd still be interested,
(audience laughter)
I'd be interested, because I believe it's gonna happen.
Then comma, and equally as important,
probably slightly more important to me,
is do I believe in her?
Can she do it?
Can she, when shit is tough,
thirteen months in and money's bleeding,
and she has to fire her best friend,
and she's not doing well, and it's lonely,
and she knows that her parents told her to go to Harvard,
but she did this, and now she's on the brink,
does she have the stomach to get through it?
The biggest issue right now, in 2017,
is entrepreneurship has become so popular
that characters like me take selfies
that everybody thinks they have to be one,
but it takes a certain kind of makeup,
and everybody's about to get punched in the mouth,
and most of them are gonna fold
like a bunch of fuckin' losers.
- All right, that's some real talk.
That's some real talk, we'll take it.
- So when I invest, I'm like okay.
If she walked in
and I believed in the meditation app she's building,
and I really liked her, I would say okay,
shit's gonna hit the fan,
probably before meditation gets big,
but there's something about her that makes me think
that when that shit hits the fan,
she's gonna turn it into a cupcake company
and we're still gonna make money.
That's what I'm looking for.
I'll fuckin' sell hot dogs tomorrow
if nobody wants to buy social media content.
I'm just telling you guys the truth,
that's what I would, I mean,
better than going out of business.
Love it when people are like
we're gonna go out of business.
I'm like, you're a bullshit entrepreneur.
Like, you didn't even try for a second.
The second adversity came you folded like a cheap chair.
Loser. (audience laughter)
- So let's talk about that.
Let's talk about adversity, 'cause I think,
I think this is something that-- - I love it.
- All entrepreneurs can relate to.
And I mean, yeah, so how do you deal with adversity?
'Cause it's gonna happen. - Happily.
- Yeah. (laughs)
Just the one word answer.
I love it.
- Definitely not complain.
I love when people compain,
like somebody walked in my office the other day,
she's raised $100 million,
her company's huge.
She sits and complains.
I'm like, my friend.
I'm like, you've raised $100 million,
you've paid yourself a nice salary for the last six years,
you've lived on your own terms,
you've been on the cover of magazines,
I'm struggling to cry for you right now.
Like, you made your bed, lay in it.
So, I deal with adversity happily.
I know exactly what to do.
Meaning, you cut your expenses
and you maximize your profits.
And if you were smart, you knew it was coming
and you're not too over bloated in one way or the other.
I'm definitely not at the reliance of somebody else.
So, no VC's, or I've never raised money for my businesses.
I make money,
I don't give pieces away of my company for money.
Thank you. (audience applause)
And so, I don't know, I just like it.
I think battle scars are attractive.
- Like it. In terms of like building Batman
building this like personal, building this like
personal brand that you have that you put out,
which is why a lot, you know, a lot of us are here today.
I'm curious, you talk about document don't create.
- Yes
- How important is it to have something to create on?
Because I think, what you talk about is
you talk about a lot of these Millennials
and a lot of these younger people who are trying to
take the selfies and build an online profile,
but they don't have something to actually document.
So what does that look like in your business?
- By the way, it's not just Millennials,
there's plenty of 40, 50-, 60-, 70-,
80-year-old non-executors, too.
The reason I came up with document over create
is for people that don't have something big already.
Like you should document your journey.
The first episode should be like,
"Hey, it's me, Rick."
(audience laughter)
Yeah, so, I kinda realized last night that I'm full of shit.
And, you know, my t-shirt company isn't fucking Nike.
You know, and so I'm just gonna talk about my journey.
And I'm gonna go to the gas station and fill up my car.
I mean like you... (audience laughter)
I think the only thing that really sells is truth.
And people always email me when I say that
they're like look at this guy they were a scumbag
I'm like yes, that person eventually goes to jail.
People are just looking, I don't,
dude I'm struggling out here.
I'm not joking, I'm struggling out here.
Like, really we're at a place now where kids think it's cool
if somebody goes and takes money out of a bank
and puts it on their fucking bed, and takes a picture of it?
Like what the fuck is the matter with you?
(audience laughter)
It's gonna be bad and it's gonna be fucking good.
(audience laughter)
- Alright, so I wanna back the train up a little bit
because meditation is something that
I think is really important, that mindfulness
in the workspace as entrepreneurs.
We had Moment out here which is like a tech company
here in Vancouver that represents
meditation and meditation in the workplace.
And I think it's really important.
How do you integrate that with your employees
and with your team, I'm really curious as to like how do you
build that within like the corporate infrastructure?
- Meditation? - Just mindfulness in general,
or if you haven't done it yet,
do you see it becoming a part of all work environments?
- I'm a funny entrepreneur.
I'm a bigger fan of capitalism than communism.
And so, I tend to like really let my people do their thing.
You know, I don't like doing things,
you know, I think of myself as the federal government,
and I think of my business leaders as like the states
using the American system, right?
So I don't actually manage, push down a lot of things
into my company because you know,
I think companies get very politically correct
and of the moment. I don't wanna like,
now everybody has to meditate, I've meditated once.
Because I invested in the company.
(audience laughter)
And I fucking hated it.
Doesn't mean that I don't think it's gonna be huge.
You know, I just don't wanna do it!
(audience laughter)
So, that's the truth like, listen I feel good
like maybe if my mental status changes, maybe I'll be like,
oh maybe that can help, I don't know
right now, I'm actually scared to meditate, bro.
I'm so happy I'm like, that meditation shit
better not fuck me up.
(audience laughter)
I think companies
do politically correct things and look stupid.
I love when big companies thought
by putting a foosball table and giving free cereal out
that that made them like Google.
I'm not a big fan of tactics, I'm a big fan of religion.
Here's my religion: I give a shit about my employees.
(audience applause)
I don't need to give them a foosball table, I don't know,
if Rick wants to go on vacation eight times a year,
we have unlimited vacation policy, unlimited.
Now, if you take eight weeks of vacation,
and you're not dismantling it
the rest of the year, you're fired.
But, unlimited.
I don't think Millennials like work-life balance.
I have nothing but 22-year-olds who are like
"I want more money, dick," I'm like okay.
(audience laughter)
I'm like work, you know, like you know I love, you know like
so I think people impose too much stuff, it's all tactics.
It's what I talked about with you guys.
The majority of people here that are solving the world
are in tactics not religion. They don't mean it.
They're posturing, companies do that.
They come up with happy hours and foosball tables,
and free cereal to make pretend they give a shit.
So, I talk about my truths, you know
we'll bring in somebody maybe speak about meditation
but they can or can't I don't judge on that.
I wanna reverse engineer every person one by one.
I'm not imposing my will on them.
Kid walked in the other day he goes,
"Gary, I'm gonna be the CEO of this company."
I'm like, bro, good now here's the problem,
you've already wasted too much time.
So, you know, whatever.
(audience laughter)
Like you're not gonna be the CEO of this company
when you took 4.3 weeks vacation last year, and you're 23.
You need to work 19 hours a day and learn.
- Yep, it's amazing.
- Here's what's fun - Okay, keep going
- You know what's fun about it?
It doesn't matter what I'm saying up here.
Like, all I'm repeating is what the market's doing.
Right, this isn't my opinion,
It doesn't matter that I'm saying it in a funny way,
sitting a funny way.
This is what the market does, I'm just saying
it's not me, this is what the market does.
Like, that's what people don't understand
I have no opinions, I'm just observing the market
and just reiterating it.
That's why it's fun, I don't take it personal,
like, I don't care for the three people that are gonna tweet
here, after this conference, tons of good
and there'll be three people like
I don't like Gary his ego's too much.
I'm like I don't care 'cause they're gonna be right
or I'm gonna be right. Maybe they're right.
Maybe my ego's too much and my head will explode next week.
(audience laughter)
I have a funny feeling I'm gonna fucking win.
(audience cheers)
And by the way
(audience laughter)
We all have it, right? Like we all still have
our chips and fun, I'm really enjoying this
Planet of the Apps thing.
Re/code wrote an article that said, Planet of the Apps coming
with Gwyneth Paltrow,
celebrity mentors Gwyneth Paltrow
Will.i.am, Jessica Alba,
and others.
(audience laughter)
And I was so pumped.
Like, I love adversity, My man, nobody in this room
you could be tied with me, but nobody in here loves more,
losing, adversity, difficulty. I'm a wartime general.
I hate this peacetime, these good times, meh.
This shit that's about to come, carnage.
Oh God, I'm ready, I'm so ready man.
- Because you've built your business out of that adversity.
- Guys, do you know what I did?
Do I have to remind the eight of you
that knew me seven years ago?
I was at the height, I was one of the 50 most followed
people on Twitter when there was no other networks.
I had just invested in Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr,
I was the guy, I was hanging out with Mark Zuckerberg
every week that he was in New York,
I had all the relationships, I was this
genius predictor of where the world's going,
and I started an agency.
This is not my words, these are my actions!
Who gives a shit what I'm saying, watch what I'm doing.
At the height of my career to be fancy,
I went and decided to do client services
and eat shit and have clients.
'Cause I wanted to built a marketing machine for the future
I decided, let me take a step back
and build something for ten years, eat shit
make lots less money, have lots less fun
not cash in on all these great things I did,
let me build a foundation for, you know, 50 to 90.
So, like, I don't know, like I know I talk a lot
but I promise you, I'm doing way more than I'm talking.
- How do you, it's interesting 'cause watching your journey
it's almost like you have this cognition
of what's coming.
How have you developed that?
'Cause I think that for a lot of us
it's challenging to see what's coming.
How do you cultivate that? I think it's so important
it's such an important skill.
- I got a good answer for you, I lack ego.
Let me explain what I mean by that, I know that's funny.
(audience laughter)
But I'll tell you how it happened.
And what I mean by that.
I was one of the first top 50 followed people on twitter.
Ego, kept a lot of those people staying on twitter
when other things emerged.
They didn't want Instagram to happen.
Do you know how many people in here loved
affiliate marketing web 2002?
Ego kept them out of social media.
Ego, do you understand?
I know that I ain't shit.
That the market is the king and the queen
and I respond to it.
So the reason I'm good like that,
is when new shit emerges
and then I go taste, and I make judgment calls.
One thing a lot of you know is
I talk about consumer VR being farther away
than a lot of people think, Why?
Because two and a half years ago I jumped into VR,
when I tasted it's beginning, and I used it,
and then I watched it and now I'm using my experience.
Which is what I love about 40-,50-,60-,70-,
80-year olds, we've seen it.
You haven't 27-year-old Pat, you haven't seen it yet.
You will, so I saw it and I'm like wait a minute
this is internet 1990 the technology's here
but the consumer behavior's not.
There's not a person in this audience that
knows somebody that spends two hours a day
consistently living in VR.
So, you know, that to me is what's really exciting.
Other than people that are in the industry.
And so, you know, normal people don't.
And so we're still a further way away.
And so I taste things and then I make judgment calls
And that's why, and it comes from lack of ego.
It doesn't matter that you won the last thing,
there's a new thing here.
Didn't matter that I won email,
email wasn't gonna stay at 90% open rates.
It didn't matter than I won Google AdWords.
Google AdWords weren't gonna stay at five cents a click
and be the only thing.
And so I just lack, I just don't read my own press clippings
I just think I'm as good as my last at-bat.
I think I'm super fancy now
and that if I make seven bad decisions
nobody's gonna give a fuck and say
I told you so he was a huckster.
By the way,
that's how the market does it.
- I'm curious, I wanna shift gears a little bit.
You're talking about virtual reality.
I'm a huge nerd with AI-- - Okay.
- and I'm curious how you think AI,
we already have A&I here,
how do you think AI is going to shape
and shift technology in our communities and everything?
- It's real.
I call it third and half base.
Anything that AI and machines can do
to get us to third and a half base will be done,
and then we're gonna take it home.
Anything that's being done now by humans
that computers can do will be eaten up,
and let me just remind all of you.
That's a lot.
Driving cars and all sorts of shit
that we didn't think about 10 years ago,
so I'm a big fan.
Every single customer service job
that is in the business of emailing back
customer service answers is out of business.
Over the next three, seven, nine,
12 years, I'm a huge fan.
I'm also very fascinated by voice.
I'm obsessed with Alexa and Google Home.
Listen, we care about time and convenience
and that's it.
That's it.
If I can just be brushing my teeth,
remember something,
it's quicker for me to say,
"Hey Google Home," or "Hey Alexa,
"Remind me to buy tomatoes,"
than to grab my phone and type it.
Just faster. Speed.
Speed wins everything.
Speed wins everything,
speed is absolutely
one of my two or three religions in business.
Speed. Fast.
Everybody's too precious,
you're overthinking your content.
You're overthinking your decisions.
You're better off doing 16 times of being right three times
than not doing anything at all.
You're pondering.
You lack the confidence
because you're worried about what people say.
I like losing.
That's why this is all so easy.
I don't give a fuck if you said I lost.
- [Man] Woo! - It's true.
It's an important thing, bro.
- [Man] Fuck yeah!
- I love your beard. - [Man] Thanks.
- Beard dude there is reacting to the right thing,
and I'll tell you why.
By not worrying about what other people think,
it allows you to do things.
By doing things, you either win
or you learn from your loss,
and it creates speed.
It's the absolute mental difference
between the people that are executing winning
versus the people that aren't.
It's the fear of others.
I don't want to lose,
but I'm definitely more disappointed
than your opinion in your blog post about my loss.
- I got one last question for you.
- Cool.
- When we chatted last,
you said that your daughter
has the edge.
She's got the entrepreneurial spark.
- No, she has charisma and storytelling.
I don't know if she has the entrepreneurial spark.
Maybe her environment of being rich as fuck
is not gonna let her be that. (audience laughter)
I'm serious.
By the way,
look, she may look at what Daddy did
and she's gonna look at that mountain and say, "Fuck that,
"I'm gonna give all his money away
"to people less privileged,"
and I will support the shit out of that.
I don't want her to be me,
I want her to be her
and whatever she does,
I'm behind her one billion percent.
(audience applause)
And I can tell you,
and I'm happy 'cause she's gonna watch this
one day when she's doing it.
She will win because she's got
the empathy and the charisma,
so whether she's raising funds for the needy
or she's trying to climb Daddy's mountain
and say, "Fuck you, Daddy, I'm doing it bigger."
She will win 'cause she's got it
and it's gonna be cool to see.
It'll be a fun experiment.
Maybe I was me because I had nothing
and when I wanted toys,
we didn't have the money for that,
so I had to go sell,
shoveling people's snow and lemonade,
and that's what did it.
Maybe 'cause she has everything
and has already done things in her life
that I didn't do until three years ago
and she had to be on that private plane with me
'cause we had to go and things like that.
Maybe she won't have that hunger.
What she'll have,
I have gratitude and empathy.
Maybe she's gonna have guilt
that she had it so crazy good,
and that manifests in giving back.
I don't mind.
If she wants to paint with tomatoes, great.
I just want her to be fully pure in what loves,
the way I am.
Then, it has a funny way working out
'cause I'm gonna remind everybody one more time.
Being an entrepreneur was not cool
when I was growing up.
It was just the only thing I knew.
- Amazing.
Well, we're gonna open it up
to Q&A. - Let's do it.
- I'm gonna jet out the stage.
I'm gonna leave them for you.
I'm just gonna remind everybody
that there are 1,350 people in here
that wanna ask questions,
so try and keep your questions brief
because there's a shit ton of people
that wanna ask questions.
We're gonna have mic runners.
I'm gonna leave the stage with you,
with these monsters,
so good luck. - Let's clap it up.
- Thank you. (audience applause)
- [Gary] I'm not in control of the questions,
people with the mics are.
Let's do it, who's got it?
Go ahead, grab someone. You're in.
I'm not picking.
- [Man 2] I got a question,
but before I go into it,
I just wanna take a minute and pay tribute to you, Gary,
because I think that 10 to 50 years from now,
you're gonna go down in history
as one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world
like Walt Disney, Thomas Edison.
Give it up for Gary.
- I really think you're right.
(audience laughter)
No ego.
- [Man 2] My question is,
I run a video marketing company,
and in a lot of your keynotes,
I watch all your keynotes online,
you talk about the importance of redefining an industry.
What would you recommend
for someone like me in that industry
as a way that we can redefine it?
- Do you wanna redefine it?
- [Man 2] Yes. - Why?
- [Man 2] Because it's boring.
- I think that there's a couple things here.
Redefining it is fun for a lot of reasons,
mainly because you have the audacity to have legacy, right?
That's fun.
It tends to make long-term money versus short-term money
'cause if you're right,
the video trends are obvious, right?
There's 360, it's out there.
It hasn't clicked the way people thought it would,
but it's still got a long way to go.
All the action is gonna be in VR in 20 years.
You're young.
I would commit my whole world to VR video,
wait 'til it becomes a reality,
eat the shit over the next seven to 12 years
because it's not gonna be there
and you're gonna be selling it,
but nobody's gonna want it.
Do whatever you have to do,
sell hotdogs and cupcakes to get there.
Then when the market's there,
you were a pioneer.
Guys, nobody wanted social media
when I was talking about it.
I just knew it was gonna happen
and I was willing to eat shit for a decade to get there,
so that's what I would do.
Cool.
Who's next? How many mics are there?
Go ahead.
Is there one in the middle?
Why don't you go to the middle?
Two? Got it, okay.
Hey.
- [Man 3] Hi, how are you? - Super.
- [Man 3] Hi, how's it going, Gary?
Thanks for the keynote, great information as always.
- Thank you.
- [Man 3] I watched your Hamburg keynote,
which was just about a week ago,
and you talked about,
much like what you're saying today,
how we've been through a cruel period
for the past seven or eight years,
and it's gonna come, the time's gonna come.
- I've been talking about this for six months now
because I feel it.
By the way, it still could be two years away.
It just doesn't feel like it's gonna 10 years away.
- [Man 3] Exactly, and I'm totally on board with that.
My question is,
for a motivational, inspiration blog
which is what I have right now,
which is my startup,
we have an ever-growing social media presence.
We're past that infancy stage
and we're starting to really grow,
and we doubled down on social media marketing.
We're putting out Facebook ads at scale,
Instagram, same thing.
We're putting out stories, content
and I've been doing it all day.
My question is, for someone that has doubled down
on social media marketing,
when that time comes,
whether it's today, tomorrow, two years,
given the landscape of the market right now,
how would you prepare in terms of a contingency plan?
- I would do more social media marketing
when shit hits the fan.
- [Man 3] Awesome. - Because that's what
you learned from the first internet bubble.
Everybody saw the internet bubble,
but it crashed
and then people walked away from the internet,
but consumers still were using it.
Just 'cause the stock market's gonna collapse
and then everybody's gonna react to that
and the economic meltdown will happen,
doesn't mean people stop using Instagram and Facebook.
The real question is, are you making money
and can you afford to operate during a shit time?
Because let me promise you what goes away
when shit time comes.
Shout-outs.
Coconut companies disappear,
so they don't have money to give you
the fit person $1,000 to post on your Instagram,
so the money goes away.
Can you make money when the money goes away?
'Cause there's still money,
it's just left for the A-players.
- [Man 3] Cool, awesome.
Thanks, I agree with that so much
and you just totally reaffirmed
social media marketing for me,
so thank you. - You got it, bro.
Yo. - [Man 4] Yo, hey, hey.
So you've alluded to a healthy body and
a healthy mind, but you've also said that
you were open to PED use, for, you know,
performance enhancing.
Have you ever used nootropics? I wonder if you are
on any of that kind of stuff to get through those long
18 hour days?
- Right, I have no idea what you just said.
(audience laughter)
- [Man 4] Well, you were on Joe Rogan
and you mentioned--
- Oh, so that I know, and Joe Rogan,
I don't know what nootronics is, so I've never used.
- [Man 4] Nootropics, modafinil, perazitam,
any of the things the bullet proof guy talks about taking,
to get through those long days.
- No, so, real quick just hold the mic,
because I want to jam on this.
So, it's really funny, how many people here are first
generation immigrants? Raise your hands.
So, I don't know if you guys have these same things,
I grew up in a Russian family where, if you had
a fever, you had to go to sleep.
Like, that was the answer to fix it.
So, it's really funny.
My parents, or wife, or sister, if they were here
right now, they'd be laughing.
I actually get knocked out if I take a single
Tylenol. - [Man 4] Okay.
- So, what I was saying to Rogan is I'm fascinated
in that all, as I've gotten, now that I'm in the gym
all the time, I'm fascinated that in 50 year,
or 20 years, people will say that steroids wasn't as bad as
it was positioned, right?
The way marijuana or alcohol, but I'm undereducated.
I've never, I don't even take supplements.
Because, I always think the people selling it
don't fully know. And I'm like, fuck it,
like I'm not taking it. So, I haven't.
I don't know if that's right or wrong.
- [Man 4] It's a dirty secret of
Silicon Valley that they all use Piracetam.
- Well, you know what's really interesting about that?
In these comments on all these videos I put up,
everyone's like, this guy's on coke, right?
(audience laughter)
- [Man 4] No, I'm not saying you are,
I just wanted to know what your thoughts are.
- No, my thoughts are, I don't really judge people
for doing shit, right?
I don't think that's my place.
I don't do anything,
but I don't know if that's right or wrong.
- [Man 4] Do you know anyone who does it?
Have you been around it in that world?
(audience laughter) Not coke.
- Oh, I know a lot of people that do coke.
(audience laughter)
I know way more people that do coke than do steroids, bro.
I don't, listen I think, listen.
Bro, we're living in a school system that is
pushing medicine down kids throats.
Of course they're gonna be 23 and do shit.
They were taught that they were too "ADD"
and had to go on fucking medicine, because big
pharma figured out their way in.
Fuck that.
I aint taking shit ever mother fucker.
(audience laughter and applause)
And so, you have parents that lack self esteem
'cause they worry about what the other parents
say about their kids that get D's and F's,
and they put their fucking kids on medicine,
you fucking loser parents.
(audience applause)
One man's point of view.
I gotta go with the mic, where's the mics?
Somebody talk with a mic.
Mics, you gotta make decisions here, let's go.
- [Woman] Hi. - Hi.
- [Woman] Hi, Gary I love you. - I love you, too.
- [Woman] What is one thing that you
believe to be true that most people think is crazy?
- Oh, that's a good question.
What do... One more time?
- [Woman] What's one thing that you believe to
be true that most people think is crazy?
- Most of it.
That's a really good question.
You know, usually can answer these pretty quickly,
I don't know, I think that,
so I think the truth is undefeated.
Like, I actually believe that it all works out in the end.
I think people are very cynical
and think that a lot of people get away with things.
But, I think that people don't understand, like,
the macro of things.
They might've gotten away with the way you judge,
which is they made a million bucks.
But, I know they don't sleep at night,
and their lives suck.
So, I would say that I blindly am optimistic,
and I believe that the market is the market,
and the truth is the truth, and so I believe
in that and I think most people don't.
(audience applause)
Questions?
Mics, only, where are the mics?
- [Allie] Hi Gary. - Hi,
- [Allie] Down here, straight ahead.
Straight ahead.
- I see you now.
- [Allie] Okay, hi Gary I Allie Davis,
lovely to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- [Allie] I wanted to speak to you
particularly about family business.
- Okay.
- [Allie] We've got an interesting
and unconventional dynamic evolving.
- Okay.
- [Allie] I'm the 50-year-old,
and I've only just gotten into digital.
- Yes.
- [Allie] We took our son, who's 13 out of
school because... - 1,3? Thirteen?
- [Allie] 13. - Keep going.
- [Allie] We took him out of school 'cause
we don't believe in the system, and we're educating in
alternative ways. - Okay.
- [Allie] He's starting to get involved in
the business doing the digital stuff, which this
50-year-old struggles with.
- Yes.
- [Allie] Now, so, he's interested in it,
he's getting involved, he's only 13.
So, we've got this unconventional family business
thing evolving with a 13-year-old, and a
50-year-old, and what's most important to me is
my family. - Of course.
- [Allie] So for you, who's been involved
in a family business, for many years, what's the
most important thing for me to know and do,
as a parent of a 13-year-old, who's already wanted to be
involved in business?
- That's a great question, thank you for asking it.
Hold the mic for a second 'cause there might
be a follow up.
So, I got involved in my dad's business in a very
serious way at 14, probably not as serious as this
sounds, because I only worked every weekend and
summer vacation, there's a chance he could be
involved day-to-day. - [Allie] He is.
- There's one thing my dad and I did, that in hindsight
I can't believe most family businesses don't,
my dad and I loved each other more than the business
by one quarter of a thousandth of an inch.
(audience laughter)
So, your answer's very simple,
no matter what, no matter how big it gets,
you just need to actually back up your words,
if you actually just love your family more,
then it should be very easy.
- [Allie] It will be easy, because you're right,
I'm dedicated to my business, but I'm devoted to my family,
they'll always have the edge.
- Now, I'll say this and I love this,
it gets hard, because what happens is
people don't realize, it's not about the money
after a while.
It's about respect.
And that gets blurred.
Like, me and my dad, both sort of stunningly
don't give a shit about money.
But, respect, and honor, and who did it,
those things can get blended and that's where it gets hard.
So, keep an eye out for that, because that bleeds
more into family, 'cause people think it's a
money thing/family thing, it's not,
the money's completely not the factor.
It's the way you guys interact.
And by the way, your relationship with your
son, will never be the same, you know that right?
- [Allie] Yeah.
- When you go into business with somebody,
it changes everything forever.
You'll have a different relationship.
And by the way, my dad and my brother,
both my partners in my two businesses,
we have phenomenal relationships,
and I would never do anything different.
But, it is different.
And it's gonna change.
And, so you need to be prepared for that.
- [Allie] Thank you, and I see it
changing already, and him being the leader,
because he looks over my shoulder when I'm
watching some of your videos, and this whole
digital thing, 'cause I'm from a conventional
business background, has been quite scary for me.
And, one day he looked over my shoulder while I was
diddling about, oh god, (mic cuts out)
and he says, Gary Vaynerchuk would say,
just fucking do it.
(audience laughter)
- I love it.
Amazing.
Next question, yep.
- [Elijah] Hey Gary. - Hey.
- [Elijah] My name is Elijah, I too, ate shit.
So, we've got that in common. - I love it.
- I read a story about you when you were young.
One of the first, kind of, engagements you had
with Ricky Henderson. (Gary laughs)
And, how you kind of described it as you changed from
being a fan to being a fanatic.
- Yes.
- [Elijah] I wondered if you could
kind of describe that, as well as like,
what does it translate on a day-to-day basis,
with what you're doing today? - Got it.
So, you've got me completely pegged.
It's one of the signature moments of my career.
I went to my first baseball game in 1985,
Ricky Henderson was an outfielder for the Yankees,
he was coming off the field and he winks at me.
Now, important part, the crowd's big,
like watch this, 40 people think I just winked at them.
(audience laughter)
So, I'm hoping he winked at me,
but, I'm not completely sure.
Here's what happened, basically, for the next seven years,
I bought all his baseball cards, it was the t-shirt that
I bought. I talked about him, I became his biggest advocate.
In the same way as me growing up listening to
Richard Pryor, and Chris Rock, and Eddy Murphy,
has clearly affected the way I communicate on stage,
(audience laughter)
I do believe that somewhere, and when I wrote that article,
that you're referring to, it was when I realized,
holy shit, the way I'm treating social media,
is probably because ...
All I'm trying to do at this point, besides operate,
when I do the GaryVee thing, I'm trying to figure out
why I did it, how I got there, and then I'm trying
to tell you, so you can do it too, right?
So, I'm really getting in myself, really.
Like, I'm starting to hit up high school friends,
junior high friends, grammar school friends, lately,
on social and try to ask them if they remember anything.
Like, I'm really trying to bring out more stuff.
You don't need to hear the same shit over and over.
I'm trying to bring value.
Yeah, there's a big reason I'm liking everybody's comments,
and replying and DM'ing you randomly.
I think it's impactful. I think it feels nice,
if Randy "The Macho Man" Savage in 1992,
liked one of my tweets I would have lost my fucking mind.
- [Elijah] Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah.
- [Elijah] A follow up to that,
or just expanding on that,
what did, I know you described it, I don't know if
there's a difference in Canada, what's the greatest
arbitrage in social media today, and I'll let you go.
- Oh, it's the same in Canada.
Facebook ads, Instagram influencers,
there's nothing close.
You should spend all your money on it,
if you're marketing, to anybody under the age of 65.
Like 50 to 80-year-old Canada data on Facebook is crushing.
Like, you can reach most 72-year-old Canadians,
on Facebook.
At the cheapest price.
It's not that you're going to reach all of them.
Not all of them are on there, but if you
actually want to get to the most, at the best price,
it's called Facebook.
- Cool, who do we have?
Awesome, let's do it.
- [Man 5] Yo, what's good homie?
So my question is, how do you know when
your ego's in the way of things your doing?
- I'm not sure, like for every individual person.
I would say that,
I would say that if you're allowing your ego
to get ahead of your humility and
self-awareness it's clearly going to be in the way.
I think you need to pull very hard from both sides.
They both matter tremendously.
And it's just, you can't believe how truthful
it feels in my heart and stomach
when I say, I aint shit.
And I agree with the kid that says
I'm gonna be one of the greats.
I just believe in both of them, I just do.
I just do.
I also think that if you're one of the great
entrepreneurs of a generation doesn't
necessarily mean you're so special.
It means you were good at that craft.
What I'm trying to do is be a little bit special.
Nobody goes to somebody's funeral 'cause
they made $40 billion.
They go to the funeral because
that person did something that made them
feel like they should have went to the funeral.
So I'm trying to do both.
And so I would say,
that ego gets ahead of a lot of people.
But I think it's really hard to analyze that from afar.
Here's what I would say,
if you aren't 100% happy,
something's wrong so start auditing everything.
Cool.
Yo.
- [Man 6] Hey Gary, first of all
I just wanted to say, when I first heard you,
man, I thought you were a snake oil salesman.
- I get it.
- [Man 6] And I'm so glad
I didn't give up on listening to you because you're...
- Why didn't you?
- [Man 6] You know it was when you
started talking from the heart that really it,
something about it touched me and
I just really appreciated what you were saying.
- So wait in the same video, you're like
fuck this guy he's a snake oil salesman and wait a minute.
- [Man 6] You know what?
The first video I stopped watching and
then somebody I know posted a link and
I followed that one through and
loved what you said on that one and
since then I've just gone down the rabbit hole.
- Let me talk about that for a second.
- [Man 6] Yeah.
- That's what I mean by the truth.
It doesn't hurt me if people think that
because I know my personality and
it makes sense to me why somebody would think that.
It also doesn't bother me because
I know how it's gonna end up.
Go ahead. - [Man 6] I'm not even sure
why I started that way other than
just to tell you how much I appreciate what you're doing.
- I appreciate it man.
- [Man 6] I'm working on an idea right now.
- Actually watch this, how many people
in this audience started off not liking me?
(cheering)
Stand up, I want everybody to see it.
(audience laughter)
Let me tell you what that is.
That is either very quick consumption where they just
caught one sound bite where I was being
my ego self, and/or, they didn't want
to face their truth and I was suffocating them.
Go ahead.
- [Man 6] So I guess I'm asking
you this question cause I know
you get a lot of ideas come your way.
- By the way I'm never doing that again, that fucking hurt.
- [Man 6] Yeah sorry, buddy.
(audience laughter) - It still hurts.
- [Man 6] I didn't mean to hurt you.
- Still hurts, Jesus.
- [Man 6] Everybody in here loves you now though.
- I get it. Go ahead.
- [Man 6] All right so, I'm looking
for a way to use fitness tracking
to create monetary opportunities for people.
- Okay.
- [Man 6] Like to raise money
with your running, your walking,
your cycling though pledging.
- Interesting. - [Man 6] I'm just curious if
you've seen anything come across your desk
like that or if you've?
- Sure.
I've seen a ton of things that are, do this action
and that action will create the funding.
- [Man 6] Right, I'm looking for the unknown unknown.
Like what should I be looking at to figure out
where I need to go with this thing?
Like I'm pretty early in my hustle on this.
- First and foremost you should get very serious
about B-to-B not B-to-C. - [Man 6] All right.
- So big companies like to support shit like that
'cause it makes them look good.
- [Man 6] Yeah. - Right?
Most people don't give a fuck.
Right? - [Man 6] Yeah.
- Like I mean, but there's one place I would look.
Go reverse engineer and study everything
about what Charity: Water did
when they did donate your birthday, right?
They found something there technology-wise
and theme-wise, right?
So I would say two things, case study on
Charity: Water donating your birthday.
Know everything about the psychology of why that worked.
And number two realize that the only way
you're gonna get past the first inning
is get corporations to subsidize the donations,
'cause most people won't do it.
- [Man 6] Right on, thanks a lot Gary.
- Cool, you got it.
Hey.
(audience applause) Can I go late?
Can I go late?
(audience cheering)
I can go late a little bit.
Yeah? Yeah, cool.
Hey. - [Laura] Hello.
- Hello, hey.
- [Laura] What's up? - All good.
- [Laura] Okay, I'm gonna come up closer
just cause I want to speak to you face-to-face.
- Okay.
- [Laura] First of all I gotta say
this feels like being at a wax museum
when you see those famous people in person.
Yeah, except you're much better looking in person.
- Thank you.
I thought you were calling me waxy.
(audience laughter)
Okay. - [Laura] My name is Laura.
Just to give you a little bit of context
before I ask my question, what really resonated
with me a lot about your life
is that I'm a first generation immigrant.
And when you said that you couldn't afford
a Jets jersey and that's your dream
to own New York Jets.
For example, myself, I never owned
a single brand name handbag in my life.
- Right. - [Laura] Up until last year
when I got to manage
the number one top volume handbags floor
in one of the top department stores in North America.
- That's awesome.
- [Laura] So from there, currently aside
from managing the handbags floor at a department store,
because we are a public company I can't share that.
When I get off my work I work for the VR Association
'cause you touch a lot on virtual reality.
So I spend about 15 to 20 hours a week
unpaid marketing work, doing marketing work
for VR Association and I just recently got a job,
another job, my third job, at a VR company.
And I kind of want to see, my job,
my goal is
to connect retail experiences with virtual reality
and for you before, within your lifetime
for myself to come up with a solution
that you don't have to go into a store--
- Okay. - [Laura] To shop for clothing,
and my question for you is,
so I come from a family background, as an immigrant,
where it's been tough financially.
And I'm at a place where I'm making my own money
but my parents have a lot of debt.
So for me to start my own business my family
thinks that it's very selfish.
- Okay - [Laura] I get it.
I went through the traditional route where
I went to a credible post secondary school.
I paid, well my parents paid $25,000 a year
on top of my brothers tuition, which was
another $30,000 a year.
That's reality.
- So what's the punchline?
- [Laura] I'm just saying,
is it selfish for me, for example...
- Do your parents want you to get a job and pay them back?
Let me understand what you're saying.
- [Laura] I'm just thinking,
I take that as my own burden as well and
do you think that that's something that
my parents should deal with?
- [Gary] Well did you guys discuss it before it happened?
- No, but it's just.
- Are you asking me if you should pay your parents back?
- [Laura] Yeah. - Yes.
- [Laura] Well in the long run yes,
but it's just. - Yes.
But if you decide to take, do I think you should
get a job and pay them off slowly
while the interest compounds versus
taking the risk to build something big?
- Well in terms of short run,
for example my mom works right now.
She's like 55 years old, 57 years old.
She makes $10 an hour and every now and
then I'm trying to make my own money and
trying to build money to start my own business.
Where every now and then she'll ask me,
hey can you pitch in for my rent?
And I've been paying for her rent and it's hard.
- Look, I'm not here to give people family advice
'cause it's hard. - [Laura] Right.
- I think you need to, so we can move on here,
I think you need to answer one question.
What's gonna make you feel good about yourself?
That's what you should do.
If it feels better, to me this should not be very difficult.
You should pick and choose different moments
when you feel like you want to pitch in on rent,
pitch in on rent.
When you feel like, fuck that I want
to save so I can do my thing, do that.
- [Laura] Okay. - Awesome.
- [Laura] I just have one more question.
- No way, not with that fucking long question.
(audience laughter)
Hey.
- [Simsai] Hey Gary, Simsai here.
I just want to say that unlike half the room here
I fell in love with you when I read
Crush It! many years ago.
- Thank you. - [Simsai] Totally connected.
Before I ask my question I want to thank you
for liking my Bret Hart comment on YouTube
at 2 A.M. yesterday. (Gary laughs)
My question is, you always talk about the long game.
- Yes.
- [Simsai] And it's worked for me.
- Go figure.
- [Simsai] I did 11 years of
paycheck to paycheck and my 12th year
I became a great success.
- Good.
- [Simsai] Unfortunately, a lot of my clients,
family and friends in the same space
are struggling and they have the same hopes
and dreams that I do. - Okay
- [Simsai] And many of us, a lot
are talking about depression and suicide earlier.
- Yes.
- [Simsai] And I struggled with it.
It almost cost me my marriage.
- Yes. - [Simsai] And what can you tell
to others because you are the influencer of influencers,
what would you say to this room?
Because I have a lot of friends here
who struggle with it or have struggled in the past.
- Listen man, everybody's struggling with something.
My mom loves to tell the story about her dad,
who I met but I don't remember because
he died when I was like two and a half.
That he'd, basically the Russian term
would say like everybody's got their problems
in their rooster hen.
Like basically everybody's got shit.
What I would say is this,
you know this is the reason I don't like
fake entrepreneurship.
Because I think it leads to people feeling down
on themselves in a game that they were forced into
by the narrative when they weren't cut out for it.
So what I would say is like, most people
get depressed because they're worried
about external factors not internal factors.
And I don't know a lot about psychiatry and
all that stuff but people need an outlet
to get their poison out of their stomach.
So the only tangible thing I feel comfortable saying is,
if you're struggling, you need to communicate
that to somebody who isn't one of your
three closest family members 'cause you're
just putting your baggage on them.
That I believe in.
And so they need to find that outlet.
- [Simsai] All right, thank you. - You got it.
(audience applause)
- We staying here, where we going?
Thanks brother, nice shirt by the way.
Purewow's a company I invested in.
I'm giving Ryan a shout-out.
He's very happy right now watching this.
- [Woman 2] Hi Gary. - Hey.
- [Woman 2] So you said earlier that the truth
is what sells.
- Yes.
- [Woman 2] My question is, is there such thing
as being too honest?
- No. - [Woman 2] Okay well.
(audience laughter)
- [Woman 2] I know you don't like hypotheticals.
- Is it a hypothetical or are you disguising?
- [Woman 2] So I'm going to go.
I have a background and I've been an entrepreneur
since I was 19.
I've worked for myself since I was 19.
- Okay.
But my background is in the adult entertainment industry.
- In the what?
- [Woman 2] Adult entertainment.
- Adult, porn?
- [Woman 2] No.
- I'm sorry, adult entertainment.
- [Woman 2] Dancing and escorting.
- Respect.
- [Woman 2] And then I now own an online virtual
assistant service to high-end escorts
where we do, or basically female CEOs
as I communicate with them. - Okay.
- [Woman 2] But my concern is I'm making the transition
into a more public, I have an alias there
and my real name,
blah-blah-blah, everything's legit.
My concern is you know you say the truth sells.
I'm concerned about being really honest.
But what happens when I work with clients?
I'm transitioning into coaching.
- Okay.
- [Woman 2] Working with women and people.
When I share my story they have breakthroughs.
But my question is more in social media.
Where is the agreement reality in the marketplace
and the trend for that type of truth?
Yeah so look, I think that it's crazy.
There are people that will judge you and that won't.
I just think you just got to roll with your truth.
It would be insane, if you were pitching me
a business right now, that wouldn't even run
through my mind as a negative.
And somebody sitting next to me would think
that's the worse thing that they've ever heard
and never want to talk to you.
You're going to have to play out and let the chips
fall where they are, right?
Meaning you don't even need that on your head
and on your chest worrying about people finding out.
It's just better for you to own it than to let somebody else
own it above you.
(audience applause)
- [Woman 2] Thanks. - You're welcome.
Let's do it.
You're about to, I think.
- [Braxton] Okay, Braxton. - Braxton.
- [Braxton] Yeah, so I'm starting an energy drink
with a strong point of differentiation.
I'm just sort of, it's got a dilemma if I should
develop the brand as itself or if it should have
a strong personality behind it, like with your brand,
for example.
You're inextricable from your brand.
Not least of which your name is in it.
But when I think of your brand, VaynerMedia, I think of you.
Right? - I'm listening.
- [Braxton] Same with Steve Jobs with Apple.
Whereas if you've got like Google you don't think
of Larry Page or Sergei Brin.
I'm curious if you have a preference?
- Notice how both work.
- [Braxton] Yeah, but I'm wondering if you would think
that one or the other would be better if it was
different than how it is and what your general
explication on that would be.
- Nope, so both work.
Both have worked forever.
There's plenty of quadrillionaires
that you've never heard of and you don't
associate them with.
I think your bigger dilemma is you're going
into the beverage industry.
(audience laughter)
I'm not, meaning you know how hard that is, right?
- [Braxton] I will I guess, yeah.
- Well let me give you a preview.
You're going up against the biggest companies
in the world who basically have the best model down
which is they pressure any retailer when any drink
gets any leverage to kick them out
or then they don't subsidize the trade dollars.
They've basically, it's really one of the most gangster
businesses in the world.
- [Braxton] I see with like Richard Branson,
they did that with his Virgin Cola.
- Yeah, and I feel like he had a better start than you.
(audience laughter)
- [Braxton] It's possible.
- But you know what's awesome about the market?
You might be that one,
but I think before you worry about
should I build my personal brand and coinciding with that,
you need to realize you're going into a gunfight
with a pebble.
- [Braxton] I'll aim well.
- And that's right, so you should be spending zero time
on that which clearly has been historically played out
that both work, and you should do you.
And you need to figure out how you're going
to distribute and make this product profitably
in a world where you're going up against very difficult
political infrastructure.
- [Braxton] Cool, thanks.
(audince applause)
- [Mary] Hello Gary. - Hello.
- [Mary] Hello, I'm Mary, I'm really glad to meet you
and I'm really nervous right now.
- Don't worry, I'm super far away.
(audience laughter)
- [Mary] Now that they're all looking at me.
I'm a marketing consultant
and I help clothing stores.
- Okay.
- [Mary] So clothing retailers and I'm going to ask
a selfish question. - They normally are.
- [Mary] Do you have any ideas or tactics on how
I could reach them and give them value?
- So reach them and give them value so they hire you?
- [Mary] Eventually yeah.
- Do you know the names of the people that would hire you?
- [Mary] Yeah.
- Great, so I would follow them on every social network.
Figure out what they care about outside of their job
and then I would talk to them on social networks
around their interests, not their job.
Don't talk to me about social media,
talk to me about the Jets and Bret Hart
and you'll get to me quicker.
- [Mary] All right, thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
(audience applause)
By the way, that tactic I just said, everybody should do.
Anybody that you're trying to sell to you need to follow
on every single platform.
Know who they are, and then exploit that to get their money.
- [Beard Dude] Hey Gary. - Hey man.
- [Beard Dude] Beard Dude.
- Beard Dude, I'm glad you came out.
- [Beard Dude] Thanks, so my question is the reason
I love you is because you talk about eating shit.
- Yes.
- [Beard Dude] And it's the hardest thing to do.
- That's why so few people win.
- [Beard Dude] Exactly, and you talk about the joy,
you love failing.
You love losing and that's a mentality that's so important.
So I was wondering if you could just spend a little
more time talking to us about what it takes
to re-engineer our neural relationship to pain and losing?
- I don't know, I think that's a really
interesting question. I don't know how to create that.
I don't know why any time I watch a sport
that I root for the underdog, every time.
I make fun of all my friends who are fans
of the best teams because I'm like really?
You need to jump on a
bandwagon to feel better about yourself?
Like, you're really wrapping your self-esteem up
into a team that you didn't care about
but they just won and you bought their t-shirt?
You're the ultimate loser.
So I don't know why I do that.
I don't know how that happened.
I do believe some of that is upbringing.
I do think that's the underdog entrepreneur,
immigrant thing.
I do think that's there.
I definitely am not the person that knows how
to engineer that, but I do think that I'm adding
to the conversation.
There's not a lot of people out there right now
that look like me that are talking about
the love of losing.
Then if you capture admiration maybe then
they think that's good.
I'm very driven by Steve Jobs' narrative.
I just want everybody to know.
Him becoming the famous person of Silicon Valley
when I was really deeply in it and the narrative
that he was tough on his employees
and treated them like shit.
I watched smart, nice kids start treating their employees
like shit because they looked up to Steve Jobs
and they thought that was the right thing to do.
The reason I'm talking about all these true things
is I hope there's a 15-year-old girl that's looking
up to me on the internet right now
and she tries to treat people better because she thinks
I'm cool and that's my system.
(audience applause)
So I don't know how to do it,
but if I'm actually going to be influential
and if I have a big responsibility with all the
attention that I have right now, I think just in the fact
that I'm talking about it has already impacted
others to think about it.
Thanks man.
- You're kicking me off, huh? Can I get one more in?
- One more. - Alright, cool.
(audience laughter)
- [Man 7] Hi, I'm--
- You know I'm going to get more than one, right?
(audience laughter)
- [Man 7] (laughing) I was able to.
I am very thankful to be able to speak with you
and thank you for being here.
I got this ticket because, I'm going to ask you a
question that in a sec, but I have to thank you
because two years ago, I was paralyzed
and I couldn't walk.
(Gary sighs)
I am actually still walking with a brace.
(audience applause)
No, it's (laughing)...
(audience cheering)
I've been training martial arts for 21 years of my life
and to have lost everything and my ability to walk.
Man, there was three people who helped me, my family,
close friends and your videos, man.
(audience cheering)
- Thank you, man.
- [Man 7] Yeah, fuck.
And (clears throart) it was a video actually you were
talking about, you know, what are you 20, 30-years-old,
like what are you going to do with the rest of your life?
You still have time, do something
and honestly, it was so motivating.
So thank you man.
- Thank you man, means a lot to me.
- [Man 7] Thank you, my question is,
is now I started a company for self-defense
because there was a lot of sexual assaults
that was happening in and around UBC and SFU
and I was tired
of people being a victim like I was, I guess.
- Sure.
- [Man 7] And I wanted to do something about it.
So, I made this self-defense company
and I have a great deal of students and one of things,
one of the challenges that I face all of the time
with some of these students is anxiety
and how I can help them--
- Yeah.
- [Man 7] See that they are, you know,
they can do more than they think
and that they're stronger than they know.
How would you, hiring someone who is new, say,
and you see that they have this talent
and potential, how would you articulate
or explain to them--
- You know how I'd do it. I'm doing it.
I'd put pressure on the true answers.
I'd ask them why, did their mom fuck them up?
I'm being serious.
Insecurity is the seed that creates all these issues.
- [Man 7] Absolutely.
- And so I'm trying to figure out why
they didn't build self esteem,
who didn't build self esteem.
And the reason I bring up mom, is like, Jesus,
it's such a big percentage of it.
Mom or dad, is like 80% of it.
It's just, you know, I do this a lot.
Listen, my dad, listen, I don't talk a lot about this,
that's what happened to my dad.
My dad, I am so impressed by him.
The way my grandmother parented my dad,
it's unacceptable. That's the only word I can think of
and not only that, they did it and then,
you know I have a lot of empathy for my grandma.
They did it in the worst place in the world, Soviet Russia.
So, I'm fascinated by it because I had the reverse.
I'm so perfectly parented by my mother, I'm unstoppable.
So, I look at that and I'm like, how, like, I feel,
I,
I feel guilty that I'm so emotionally grounded
and strong, that's why I'm giving it to you.
What do you thinks happening up here?
I feel guilty that I have it so good mentally.
There's nothing anybody can do to my mental state.
It's insane.
I am so weird, guys.
(audience laughter)
Nothing hits, it's like I'm numb
and so I go right to the core.
I do it when I see it sometimes.
I'm like, hey, you are unbelievable
and you think you're shit, that's bad.
We need to talk about this,
tell me everything about your childhood.
(laughs) Like, you know, and I just go there
and you know sometimes you get a little break,
but what's really fun is they start thinking about it
and it changes behavior.
I get an email every day that says
that they disconnected from somebody
in their inner circle and for the last six months,
they're breathing for the first time in their lives.
It is not easy to break up with your brother.
It is not easy to break up with your spouse.
It is not easy to break up with your father,
but that's actually the binary move,
if they're the poison of your life.
And we don't talk about that, none of us,
but it's the truth and we all know it.
So, A, if that's your reality, you need to think,
'cause guess what you have one life and you don't want
to be 73 when your parent passes away
and finally start breathing.
B, if that is not your life,
you need to drive home right now
and kiss your parents in the face.
So that's what I do.
(audience cheering)
- [Man 7] Thank you, man.
Thank you, man, thank you.
- Thank you, man.
- Alright. - Alright, one more.
- I got to rope you off. - One more, one more.
- I got to rope you off, man. - One more, one more.
- I got to rope you off. - No, no, no, no, don't.
- I got to rope you off. - No, no.
- I got to rope you off. - Okay, fine.
- These people got to go. - Thank you.
- They got to go, give him a round of applause.
Stand up, stand up.
(audience applause) Stand up.
- Thank you
(audience cheering)
- Thank you
- Got the selfies, oh my god, the selfies.
Holy smokes.
It's like the bomb rush.
Okay, hold on, hold on, before like sheer chaos ensues.
Before sheer chaos, oh my god.
We got something for you though.
- [Gary] Thank you. Boom, there we go.
- [Gary] Alright.
- We're going to have time, don't worry, don't worry.
- Bye guys.
- Alright, I got something for you.
- Okay.
- I got something for you, hold on.
Remember those nice kicks that you liked?
- Ew, these are fucking fly.
- So that's from 604, I know how much you love kicks.
- Yes.
- From 604, a local company.
- Amazing.
- Got them done up for you,
a limited edition from a local artist.
- Fucking rad, thanks so much.
- Awesome, thanks brother. Thank you.
- Thank you guys for your attention.
("Space" by Jura Kez)