- That's super tactical, but I don't know where even to go.
Where do I start?
- What do you mean?
Go to eBay, completed item, eBay app, search.
Literally, fucking I'm gonna show you.
- I'm so freakin' new at this. - Ready?
You got your perspective.
I just wanna be happy.
Don't you wanna be happy?
(light music)
- Quite frankly, I think my little brother sucks.
I think just straight up the way we grew up
from how I grew up now is completely totally different.
- Because things got better financially.
It happened with me, too.
I had to buy my car at a garage sale, my younger brother...
My brother was 11 years younger than me,
what's the difference here?
- He's 15, I'm 26.
- Right, so 11 years, same shit.
I lived this life.
When I was 26, my brother was 15, but you don't need
to cast judgment on your brother.
Of course, I thought my brother was soft.
I worked every minute--
- That's the thinking I wanna change for myself.
- Yeah, don't cast judgment on him.
He's your fucking brother.
Spit knowledge to him, so that he can think for himself,
but don't judge him.
- How do I get him to listen to me, though?
- He's 15, he doesn't give a fuck about you.
He's like, fuck you, bro, I got my shit.
I'll tell you how you get him to listen.
I didn't cast judgment on my brother.
I love my brother and I was like this is what happens
in the streets, corporate and then I let him.
If he feels you're casting judgment on him,
if you're always playing the you're soft, I had it hard,
he's not gonna listen.
If you're like, yo, I just want you to be happy
because I love you,
let me tell you how this looks or that looks,
now you're giving him love instead of judgment.
Then he'll start listening to you
instead of saying fuck you, bro.
I don't need to hear you judging me.
I didn't control that I was born second.
- Because it goes deeper.
I'm his only positive masculine energy in his life.
- Okay, I get it.
- Single mom, four kids--
- I get it.
- We're part of that group, so it's like I was hustling
when I was his age--
- Look, look, look, look.
Listen, the hardest thing is when you love somebody
and you're putting them on also knowing it might make them
soft and they don't know how to go earn for themselves.
That's a fine balance that every brother, every sister,
every parent has to go through.
You just have to be thoughtful about it and be patient
about it and also remember how you were at 15.
He's got a million different things going through his dome.
- That's pretty much it, all I got, my man.
I appreciate you. - Just love.
That's all I got, man.
- Really nice meeting you, man.
Real pleasure.
- So, right now, I have a fitness app and I'm trying to work
on a fitness line and I basically do everything myself.
We've been building my website, everything.
My problem now is really just finding a team
and finding people that will actually care about it
as much as I do.
- They won't. I know.
- Nobody should care about it.
If you want her or him to care as much,
give them 50% of the fucking business.
They shouldn't care as much, and you gotta realize you work
for them, they don't work for you.
Scaling is about doing the thing that everybody thinks,
reverse.
You work for them.
They shouldn't care.
I don't expect these guys to care as much as I do.
You hire fast and you fire fast.
Speed.
You hire him, you think he's gonna be great,
he sucks shit, you fire him.
You hire him, you think he's gonna be great, he's great,
he gets to stay.
You hire her, you think she's gonna be meh,
then she's fucking awesome, she gets to stay.
It's about making decisions.
If you want it, that's what you gotta do.
- Obviously, content, content, content.
I'm watching a company that's based on all of this stuff,
all the hype, all the fashion focus.
Is there anything else that you would recommend
to accentuate my brand?
- More.
- Just more content?
- More content.
- It's so simple.
- It's so simple, but nobody wants to wait nine years.
- I know.
- You don't wanna wait nine years.
- Yeah.
- You don't wanna wait nine years.
- I'm in this for the absolute long run.
- So, there is no other secret.
There's make content and be good at distribution
and keep watching new platforms and do it on every platform
and rinse and repeat.
- At this point, we have 22,000 followers on Instagram--
- Whether you said zero or 22 million,
it would still be the same answer.
- It's the same shit.
So, you're doing better than somebody who has seven,
not as good as somebody who has 49
and that doesn't even mean anything in the first place.
It's just constant motion to what you're trying to achieve,
which I assume is for it to be a sustainable thing
for you to live your life by doing what you love.
- Yeah.
- Well, if you wanna do that...
People use followers or dollars as metrics.
To me, it's just about being able to be sustainable.
When I was building Wine Library, what I needed was $40,000
a year to pay my $2,000 rent and buy nothing else
and that's what was sustainable, so I was able to take
every other dollar to build bigger Wine Library.
- It's not about getting some fancy shit.
- I don't give a fuck about some 22,000 followers
or $22 million.
You can make $22 million a year
and spend 24 million and go out of business.
- Yes, exactly.
- Sustainability, got it?
- Alright, I appreciate that. - You got it.
How are you? - Pleasure to meet you.
- Good, how are things?
- Things are amazing.
It's a great thing to be here and to see you.
- Thank you.
- I have one question in regards to I hear you preach a lot
about just knowing you and doing your thing,
be great at that one thing.
I recently came across the term polymath,
which I realize is really more what I'm about.
My entire life, I've never been able to just focus
on that one thing.
If I get mad satisfaction from that one thing,
I always gotta then shift to another thing.
- I'm kind of life that.
- Yeah, I see that very much and my question would be
when you're a solopreneur, and you're trying to build up
and branch out in that regard, how do you delegate--
- Put 100% of your energy into something that takes 80%
of the macro, so that it gives you the stability
to go be conspicuous with your other 20%.
I always had Wine Library or Vayner Media as a foundation
that allowed me to be ridiculous about everything else.
Then it becomes practical.
Otherwise, if you never create a foundation,
then you're vulnerable.
- So, pick the thing that's gonna be the most practical
to start, build that, make it solid and then dabble
in everything else and let those build up over time?
- I like that, yeah.
Each shit to build a foundation, to let you play
in perpetuity.
- I've been a really big fan of you.
You really inspired me. - Thank you.
A couple months ago, I started an entrepreneurship club
at my school and I got everybody come to ComplexCon.
- I love it.
- I have a question.
When I grow up, I wanna be a clothing designer,
like Virgil and Sean Witherspoon.
And I was wondering what would be your advice--
- Go intern for Virgil or Sean.
Your whole life right now should be about getting
internships from people that you wanna be like
cause because the closer you get to the sun,
the more likely you could become it.
Your whole life for the next eight years should be
about interning for the people that you want to become.
It's the number one move.
You understand? - Yes.
Cool, do that and you're gonna start with Virgil and Shawn
and they're not gonna reply to your DM, but you're gonna
hit up Jerry DiLorenzo, couldn't get Lorenzo, next, next,
next, but somebody's gonna say yes.
And you start at the number 44 person you wanted
and then next summer, you get to number 22
because you worked for number 44, right?
Champion wasn't fresh three years ago, right?
So, be smart, you understand?
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
I really appreciate it.
(upbeat music)
- As a new flipper, what product do you think I should--
- Everything, at night, you should be laying in bed
at night searching hats.
How do you think I figured out Muglife?
I was like I see a lot of mugs at garage sales.
Do mugs sell for anything?
Search on eBay, mugs, completed items, sold,
sort by fucking price.
Holy shit!
There's $88 mugs, there's $63 mugs, there's $96 mugs?
Then go buy a bunch of mugs for a quarter, come home,
look them up, educate, educate, educate.
The key to flip life is the homework you do at night
from 10 to midnight during the week that you fucking then
leverage on Saturday when you kill it
with your fucking knowledge.
- That's freakin tactical.
That's super tactical, but I don't know where even to go.
Where do I start?
- What do you mean?
Go to eBay, completed items, search eBay app, search.
Literally, fucking I'm gonna show you.
- I'm so freaking new at this. Ready?
eBay, right?
Now, you're going to garage sales, you're like, oh shit,
I see a lot of salt and pepper shakers.
Salt and pepper shakers, you're like, I see a lot of them.
Then, you go to filter, sold and completed items,
sort, highest price and then you're like, oh shit!
- Oh shit! (laughs)
- $441, 600, 1,000.
This little bird is 325 bucks.
You're not buying this little fucking bird
at a fucking garage sale if you don't know.
It's $350.
- Who bought this for $350--
- Salt and pepper shaker fucking collectors.
Why would people buy sneakers for 500?
They collect them.
Why do people buy shirts?
They collect them.
Why do people by bracelets?
They like them.
People buy everything, everything can be flipped.
- Got you.
Got it.
- But that's the homework. - That's it.
You go to garage sales, you go to thrift stores,
you see a lot of things.
By the way, that's what you used to have to do.
Now, you can just do it at the fucking garage sale.
You're like, let me look that up in their mouth,
in the person's mouth, you're just looking it up
in their face.
- For sure, got it.
Thanks, Gary.
- You got it.