- You can't get caught up in the game
that most nine to 11 year old entrepreneurs
are getting caught up in that I talk to.
(audience laughs)
Oh, what?
You don't see what I'm doin' on musical.ly?
That was funny, right?
My life's funny.
(upbeat music)
- Over there.
That girl.
- I've been working on this startup myself
and despite everyone being really nice,
I've always noticed that they're sort of like,
you're a bit too young to do this.
- [Gary] Yes.
- How do you get passed the stereotypes or limitations?
- I think you know the answer, Hilary.
I think it's in your own head, right?
The bottom line is
do you agree with them?
Great.
You're on your fuckin' way.
(laughter)
Right?
Like listen, is your mom here?
There she is.
You know, you've already won, right?
Your question,
do you want to hear something interesting Hilary?
I don't think you even believe
in the question you just asked me.
And that is the ultimate compliment.
Because spending time with you back stage yesterday
I think that's a cute question
but I actually don't think you give a shit.
Do you give a shit about what people think?
- Occasionally.
- Right.
I respect that.
(audience laughs)
(applause)
Hilary,
I'm gonna tell you something really, you're 12 right?
- (Hillary) Yep.
- Yeah, so I'm gonna tell you something super exciting.
When I was 12, I occasionally cared what people thought too.
That shit goes away real quick.
That's the answer.
Like, why?
Like, what?
Your teacher or your Uncle Rick fuckin'
thinks that you're too early?
It's just not gonna matter in the end Hilary.
Here's what's gonna happen,
either you're right, or they're right.
That's what's gonna happen at the end.
Spending any time debating who's cheering
for one outcome or one point of view
is a complete waste of your energy.
- Hi, I'm Bianca Rashel from California,
well, not California, San Francisco,
(laughter)
- [Gary] How old are you?
- I'm nine.
- It's so nice to meet you.
- It's nice to meet you too.
I'm a rapper and a business owner.
I come to events like Complex Con.
I come to network because I push myself
and create partnership with the brands.
Do you think I'm goin about it the wrong way?
- You are definitely not going about it the wrong way.
(audience laughs and cheers)
Little one, you might be going about it
the best fuckin' way here.
(audience laughs)
Are you enjoying it?
- Yeah.
- You love it?
- Yeah.
- What are you gonna do when you grow up?
- Well, I'm a rapper so I really, I really,
I dream about going on tours.
- [Gary] Yep.
- Everybody here they're comin' to see you.
I want them to be like that to me.
- I love that.
Listen to me.
Can I give you a real, real, real good piece of advice
that's gonna be really hard for you to take
but please remember it?
Hopefully when we chop up this video we'll send it to you?
- [Hilary] Mhmm.
- The number one thing you have is time.
You have something in here that all of us envy
which is an extra 30 years, and extra 20 years,
an extra 15 years.
Do you understand?
- [Bianca] Yeah.
- You can't get caught up in the game that
most nine to 11 year old entrepreneurs
are getting caught up in that I talk to.
(audience laughs)
Oh what?
You don't see what I'm doin' on musical.ly?
Listen to me.
That was funny, right?
My life's funny.
(audience laughs)
Listen, listen to me.
The thing that a lot of, you know,
single digit entrepreneurs are getting caught up with
is you care too much about how many subscribers
and followers you got.
If you promise me this it will help you so much.
If you just make the songs that are in your heart,
if you just make the content you want.
If I could get you to just never look at how many followers
you have for the next 10 years, you will win.
It's gonna be hard.
All your friends are gonna ask how many.
You know, everybody here cares about how many
and they're grown.
But if you can get to that place
where you don't care about that one thing
it will help you so much you could never imagine.
- [Bianca] Okay.
- Can I tell you something else?
- [Bianca] Yeah.
- If you talk about your real life,
which is obviously very different than our real life,
based on how you see things in the world,
it will be really interesting shit.
- Yeah, that's how my songs are.
I don't tell fake stuff
I really, I don't want to tell fake stuff,
I want to tell my life story and how I got here.
- I love it.
Keep gettin' your thing girl.
I love you.
(audience applause)
- [CJ] Hey, Gary.
- Hey bro.
- [CJ] How's your day been?
- I'm doin' really good CJ.
How are you?
- Good.
Okay, so I just turned 13 and I was wondering.
Or I've been doing YouTube for about two years.
- [Gary] Yeah.
- And the first year I didn't really get anything done.
- [Gary] Okay.
- But up until this.
- [Gary] Get anything done as in it didn't get traction
or you were bullshitting playing video games.
- Uh, second, both of them.
Both of them.
(audience laughs)
So, but then this summer.
- [Gary] This summer.
- I start to get more like, I quit video games
and I got a better view time and traction.
- [Gary] Yep.
- But I'm still like, I'm at one 42 right now.
So I'm wondering like what's one tip for kids my age.
- [Gary] One 42 meaning what?
- One hundred and 42 subs.
- Got it.
So what do you want to have, CJ?
- I just want to get at least 300 by the end of the year.
- Okay, well, first of all, we'll take care of that.
(audience laughs)
Right?
So like, now what?
- Just to inspire people.
- Good, so if you want to inspire people,
that's real, right?
If that's really what you're about
then you don't need to do anything but continue
to put out the content that you think will do that.
- [CJ] Thank you.
- I think the reason I said we'll take care of that
is what I don't want you to do that so many people do
whether they're 13 or 81,
so many people get into the rat race
of how many followers they have, right?
And that's just not the game that you wanna play.
Do you know what I mean?
Because the realty is that
that's gonna dictate too many actions.
You can't let your self esteem or your self worth
be wrapped up into metrics on YouTube
because it's one tiny proxy
in the realty of what you're up to.
Do you understand?
- [CJ] (sniffles) Thank you.
- You're welcome.
(audience applause)
Yeah, we're gonna throw a right hook right now.
What's the name of your channel CJ?
- [CJ] CJ Boling.
- [Gary] Spell it.
- C-J B-O-L-I-N-G.
- [Gary] Slower, because you actually want them
to actually fuckin' follow you.
(audience laughs)
CJ,
- B-O-L-I-N-G.
- [Gary] B-O-L-I-N-G?
It would really mean a whole lot to me if I've given
you one inch of value in my life
for you to follow this kid.
Let's think about how many followers he has on YouTube
by the end of this weekend.
- Thank you.
- [Gary] Get in here Ceej.
Come here.
- And my mom I didn't even know that,
I didn't even know that I was meeting you.
When I first saw you I was like.
I was just speechless.
- I'm so glad we got to meet little man.
You like the content?
- Mhmm.
- What are you gonna do when you grow up?
- I wanna be a YouTuber.
- My man.
Alright.
What are you gonna talk about?
- I don't know really.
- You'll figure it out?
- Yeah.
- Are you makin' some content now?
- Yeah.
- What are you talkin' about?
Your life?
Your interests?
- Yeah.
- The stuff you're into?
- Mhmm.
- What are you into?
- Like gaming and stuff.
- Mhmm.
I'm glad we met man.
Want to take a photo?
Let's do it.
- [Woman] Here we go!
One, two, three.
Alright.
- Can you do me a favor?
Don't ever, ever, ever, ever worry about
how many people are subscribed to your channel.
The number one reason kids lose on YouTube
is they care too much about
how many people are subscribed to them.
Just be patient.
Make good content.
Nobody was following me for a long long time.
Longer than you were alive right now.
Got it?
- Yea.
- You understand?
You promise?
My man.
- [Woman] Great, awesome.
(upbeat music)