Well, this is gonna be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting this podcast. I literally said meeting this feels more like a business meeting Hard-hitting question. I've known you now for a few years a while now. Do you own a computer? You know what's funny?
I did not own a computer for four or five years it going into COVID So what year did you buy your first laptop? I went full phone because I didn't work within Excel or any documentation and it was all email meetings Social so I think I stopped having a laptop in 15 went to 19 without one, but I've had one since you know Those luxury brands were it's like quiet wealth or whatever where there's no label We found the podcast version of this which is that the richest guys who come on the pod They don't know how to use a computer. They're like assistant sets up a screen They just show up we have one guy try to share his screen and he was like honestly is like honestly guys This is bad. I don't know what I don't even know what I'm doing. We go just click and chrome because what's chrome?
I don't think I have one of those. I would actually aren't you know, it's so crazy to think about evolution So I went through those four years of the best like not having a laptop at the airport like it was the best and now it's completely The opposite right like my open claw computers like the most important thing in my life, right? They're just so fascinating wait What do you do with open clogger? I mean lots of things I think with open cloth specifically I'm using it as a capture all for all information What's been really fascinating even with three admins and chief of staff and all this? I'm still like I never got there like some of my friends where there chief of staff is with them in every meeting So there'd be like so much context lost right like in a meeting so much opportunity missed So one of the first things I've done with open cloth is it might even happen here I may literally take a photo of this screen sent to my open claw on text It's mainly for CRM for me right now relationship rap and then what's so amazing right is once it understands my relationship graph Now I'm just building you know logic and agents on top of it like keep me updated on when things are happening Like even sending you guys that email automatically in two years saying congrats on a trillion downloads because it knows I know you knows that was a milestone for you And I do want to you know say what's hey good job
You know like it's just like scaling all my favorite things about humans is definitely step one for me You just said something about relationships and you have this guy McDio. Yeah, I think you had a few still with you But yes this fascinated me. He does these really interesting things. He's like post these dinners almost like on behalf of Gary Who is this guy? What is he doing? So I'll tell everybody's listening. This is actually pretty this will be good
This is gonna be good for your crew Nick Dio is the VP of relationships He literally goes around the world and in essence he's been with me for 12 years as an intern group in VaynerMedia I trust him to represent me to some degree because I can't be everywhere and about two three years ago I realized my favorite thing about business is people It's probably why I ended up having an agency with 3000 people when that's not the best business model It's why I make so much content I just like the people part and Nick just became another version of that which is like I can't be everywhere and who's got a better job than Nick go around the world and Listen carefully if there's something we could do something for someone for karma, right?
No, our life like pay attention and Nick you know me so well You know we have so much to give just keep your ear to the ground You know figure out who's got the right intent figure out who's talking shit and not talking like who's good? Who's good? What it was like from my perspective I got him DM from you and I don't think I you could have said it and there's a chance I didn't read it closely But I said like hey, I'm gonna be an Austin doing a dinner Yeah I just said yes, and then I just got sent an invite and the invite like I said it could have said details But I show up and it's like 50 people it was at a very wealthy person's home this like Microsoft executives home And I'm like hey, where's Gary? They're like oh he's not here, but I'm here. I'm Nick Yours was felt like more of a robot don't yeah, no, but I don't think I read it There's a chance I did read it I remember that party because I was one of the bigger ones it was never eluded like I apologize we didn't work well But I remember the context like we weren't trying to trick you to me no I don't think so and I bet like I bet this cool dude in Hunter Do you know Hunter? I think it's what all he's got one leg and he like one parallopics
He was badass. I met like all these like it was like this athlete this Microsoft executive this person this person I met all these cool guys. It was awesome Which is the easiest way by the way to spread good karma and like you know add value is just hey Let me just connect you with 10 other awesome people versus what can I do for you right? That's the easiest way to do it Yeah, that is a that it was one and it was early in next world where I wanted him to get a broader like understanding of different people that were in the You know, what's tough about things for busy people that like you know Relationships is you just can't scale you're a human right and so like I end up with like these unlimited Business acquaintances that I wish I could take to the next step and Nick helps me scale that a little bit by decoding a little bit Because I trust his intuition has been with me a long time grew up with me and he represents me well and he's smart and and And I trust him so then when he hits me and says hey, this person really needs a new marketing person Like this is how when I'm long gone. I think good stories will come out like this is a true example Hey, this kid's got a good to TC brand. It's gone from zero to 20 million. We're not an investor in the company
I have no vested interest They just lost their head of marketing He was like over dinner talking in a group of 12 like he's stressed and worried and then three weeks earlier one of my best people I've been or came to me, you know after eight years and said I don't want to do agency anymore and like literally just putting that person in that company and everyone wins and literally I don't have a dollar in the company literally nothing literally no transact and like we do that in a way that I now do feel Three like in the last three years people are starting to understand Gary and Gary be a little more like we're doing it at such scale That eventually the truth becomes your actual reputation. I think to add on the surface It's like okay, great since this guy who's dinners that's cool. It sounds like he's got a mandate to spread good karma and just help people That's cool. I think this is actually unbelievable I can't believe you don't talk about this more This is like you know when that story came out a few years ago where said LeBron James spends a million dollars a year on his body Yeah, people with nuts and this went everywhere This is like a global thing other athletes turn onto this and I was thinking about it the other way I was like first of all obviously this guy's a billion dollar athlete for him to spend a million dollars in his body That's like let's use a trainer good chef and there's nothing He should be spending three four times that if anything second is what a great question everybody should ask themselves who wants to be great
Is what is your equivalent of spending a million dollars a year underbody and you know my executive coach? For example, he spent a million dollars getting coaching himself from the best in different disciplines He would overpay and say how do I get how do I go do an immersion with you? I know you usually do once a week I'm gonna do immersion because he's like I'm gonna be the best coach So I'm gonna go learn all the modalities from the best teachers of those modalities And I just think everybody should ask us and you're doing with Nick to me is the equivalent of LeBron James spends a million dollars He's Gary spends Gary spent probably at this point five million plus 10 million maybe developing relationships with people who he thinks are doing Good things in the world he wants with women their sales I have three full-time employees of VaynerX who host influencers that are merging to walk through the office and meet brand He all teams to maybe get them brand deals on pure corner Yeah, see that's amazing and I think that that type of investment it only comes from first principles doing good things for people is Literally the highest R. Y. And lowest risk thing and most people think it's the highest risk thing because when they're doing something good They're not doing something good. They're doing something calculated with the expectation or at least minimally the hope that something comes back to that
Well, but on the other side of that it could be like well I need to I'm spending money on these things. I have bills to pay That's what I'm saying to your point. I didn't do this the first 30 years of my career I got to a place where I could afford investing in that yeah But what I was gonna ask you is I think that you've always you from what I could tell you've always defaulted to hiring a lot of people I think that's like that it seems like that's how you operate and also you've defaulted to doing things that don't really make sense on Paper but because you're you it does appears though. It works out nicely in terms of profit How do you like justify doing some of these things that don't make any sense financially knowing that like when VaynerMedia Was five or ten years old and your margins were a bit tighter and you didn't have enough money to go around to do some of these wacky things And yet it still appears as though you did do them It's a really good observation. I think the very simplest clean You know this is now me respecting the audience because I think you have a sharp one It's because I think most things that are taught in business school are short-sighted and are tactical versus how humanity actually works and business actually works Like if you and then I would also say that I am inherently a marathon runner So I train for marathons in a world where most of my contemporaries on paper are sprinters
Alexis O'Hannon was at one of our events and he checked me in the best way possible. We were talking about Yeah, we wanted to get this great group together You know, we don't charge anything I pay for this whole event out of pocket like a quarter million dollars You're just out of this event and it's like look I asked nothing in return Which it's all about you know just having really bad everybody's like this. We're all like a generous through and he goes No, no, that's not it. That's not it. I was like, oh shit What is he about to say and he goes he goes? It's just a difference between short-term greedy and long-term greedy
He goes, you know I'm he was in the first YC batch and he goes one of the beautiful things about Silicon Valley's you learn the virtue of long-term long-term greedy people And he goes it's not a bad thing It's everybody obviously wants or interests, but when it's long-term greedy you're gonna play a totally different game than short-term greedy That's exactly right and I would tell you my nuance that I do see in some others Which is why I gravitate towards them is and then if you're a lot greed is about rainy day human stuff not money in your bank It becomes an extreme nuance of that what's rainy day human stuff? I mean I probably do everything I'm doing not to get into a deal in nine years Put a million to make forty million more for my daughter has an issue in nine in 19 years in her personal life And for some reason Sam's nephew can help her. I'm good enough to take care of my money part It's hard to run business that way being nice all the time because you have to make difficult decisions like firing someone they suck But you seem like you are really bad fire I've literally wrote a book because I was so bad at it I hit it when it was called twelve and a half and in the book the 13th principle was a half and it was called candor
And I spoke about my journey and I was only ready Sam to write about it You know you can only talk about your alcoholism when you're like you're really close to fixing it Right and by the way back to like alcoholism or what I was dealing with which was you're incredibly wrong Sam I wasn't a bad fireer. I was an all-time atrocious fireer Right like and I didn't see it right all of us currently the three of us and we're proud of ourselves in certain areas No, we can do but currently by far the biggest problem the three of us has is something we can't see I used to think of it as my ultimate strength Sam and it had so many beautiful effects It led to so much good, but it actually ended up leading to the worst of the worst meaning You know I've been really managing people since I was 18 years old right with the liquor store for real like truly like this 18 year old child is the boss, you know Because he's the boss's son in this liquor store and all the way up to where I am now And so I used to think my greatest strength was eliminating fear I had superhero syndrome right like I can take care of everything I got it and I had this day in my early 40s Which led me to writing the book where I realized I thought everybody was rolling with me with lack of fear But that many of my company were scared because they didn't know where they stood with me because I was unable to do candor
And on Friday, I was like Sammy get the best weekend my guy like have it like really I think you guys know me I'm a little lucky that way I'm like Sam You got the best weekend this weekend right and you're working for 30 years like I carry like you do it like Monday I'm like Sam you talk to your mother's book. Hey, so you know It's your last day and by the way, I've been sitting on this for a year and a half Right and today's your last day and you're like well like I like you've never said it like and then I would blame you I'd like Sanders you're so deluded like can you and I would talk to Sean be like Sean Can you say I'm like everyone company knows Sam's suck for last 18 months I was giving him a gift for last year of charity and he's mad at me I was coming up with an excuse so my candor was at a zero I re-brant so I have this real watershed moment where a group of former Vayner employees like we're in a Facebook group like not talking nicely about me And these were people I really had a lot of continued ironically like you know It's funny that person also over time realizes what they did so there was like a lot of them I bracken style with it a great way, but it was really hurtful But I knew I had to be accountable like why are these people or lovely people who I really went to bad for it a lot of great Things were who have really nice careers on the equity of their time with me Why are they shitting on me and it was all and I knew it because I just looked at the eight names
And I was like these were all sloppy exits. You know, it's funny is do you guys have you guys heard of obviously? Yeah, but Jensen hung the NVIDIA guy he has this great line where he's like, I'm not gonna fire you I'm gonna squeeze you so hard that greatness comes out of you And then interestingly day portnoid the founder of bar still he had another point where he goes I never fire anyone I refuse to fire anyone But we are gonna make you great like he said something like that I thought that was so fascinating because that's the exact opposite of what I think you know We had Neil Patel on and Neil was like I only hire people who have been there done that I only hire people who have built this thing already that I won't build it if I can't do it Then I fire them within a week Which is probably honestly the more common attribute of like just hiring people who have been there done that and then if they suck right away You know you're a higher slow fire fast I bleed into both those categories by the way and then have a third element Which is I'm the cliche girl that wants to date the bad boy because I'm gonna fix him Right, so if I didn't have entrepreneurial DNA I would 100% be a therapist guidance counselor or a coach, right?
Like and so I allowed both in my investing and in my operating too much in my 20s through mid 40s too much of my Non-profit therapy DNA into my day-to-day I've been able to clean it up in the last five years And let me say this to anyone who's struggling with being too nice, you know or because it was never that I was scared to not be liked It was that I thought I could fix it that I would squeeze it that I would make it but through love not like trashing You're like what you know and and so pretty was struggling with this like there's a better way like you know Can't let me say this way as long as you're delivering things with candor all of it becomes dramatically more palpable I was not I was holding it all in that became the vulnerability and I'm really glad as I've gotten 50 I'm now in that place where I could be a lot better and it showed up in the business results I've been a dramatically better CEO the last three four years where I've cleaned up my candor I rebranded it into kind candor it became the ethos of our company because I think candor a lot of times is used as an excuse to be a Dick vase and suppress people and so we had to put that word kind in front of it and it's it's worked for me and for my leadership and
It's been a big step over to my career You give a lot of coaching and advice to entrepreneurs around the world who do you learn from? So I learn from my mother's by far number one by country model because almost the far majority What I do is predicate on the people and emotional intelligence front more than the information I learned through Social media at scale right just like just consuming content at scale from random people that are farming carrots and Idaho to someone going deep Cut on what they're doing with Claude code to pontificate and it's truly like I am a product of this era like it was video Are you turning the sound on lately when you're strong Instagram? Honestly like I you know I'm pissed right now because I want to my favorite thing is to get flowers and the truth is It's so weird Sam like my brother for example would answer this epic He's got his ex so dialed in and he would sit here and talk about AI or live shop Like he would give you like seven names and he'd be like so good and I'm so shitty because the answer is I have seven active businesses That are doing more than eight figures a year in revenue where I am meaningfully involved
Well, which ones are those tell us about it? What do we got right about Vayner media Vayner acts which is 400 million revenue I am the day-to-day CEO and that owns all the other six no They don't it owns none of the other six next Vayner sports. It was a sports doing exactly Oh, they're sports to sports representation So we rep Kirk cousin sauce gardener Aiden Hutchinson Boba shit and I also have two now or just pros and I all at scale Yeah, probably 300 college athletes. Okay, so that's doing 10 to millions That's doing tens of millions in revenue. I have CR group, which is a restaurant group Which is if you remember famously at that NFT restaurant newsletter everyone. It's crushing. It's called flyfish club
We also have coupons that eat dough and five restaurants and and I'm actively involved texting with David Rodol It's all the time so BC our group tens of millions in revenue as a restaurant group I have V friends V friends is probably the thing I'm most like AJ and David Rodolitz are one a in the prior to businesses I am one a in V friends V friends is gonna do minimally 20 million revenue this year in licensing and selling comic books and coins and trading Cards I'm building a true brain like it that by the way that is a dark horse chance to be really one of my greatest roses because All the ashes of the NFT earth that I'm gonna get to the other side and be Marvel and Pokemon is gonna with everyone so heavy in 15 years Wine library people will be flabbergasted how involved I still am in the wine business my best friend runs it I'm definitely one B to my dad and Brandon's one a but I work on it every single day one that's really under the radar Vayner What I have a very successful TV production company that's kind of brewing right now called Vayner what we have a bunch of shows that have quietly just sold So like literally on Hulu and ABC and Netflix like you're gonna see Vayner what Vayner what pop up
And then finally and I'm sure not lost on you guys the the NIL and brand of Gary V I have a full massive team on it speaking in books and content and NIL do you have ads or just or is it monetize to be a speaking? I did deal with Stan store. I did deal with masterclass. I'm starting to collect. I'm starting to be open to Gary V I don't do like a brand deal I'll look at seven and eight figure NIL deals which really integrated potentially me doing a little consulting as well But I think you guys are probably writing a new book called the individual empire which talks about the me the Bartlett's the Alex Cooper's The rise of the creator on schmorgneogetomer creator as the next fortune 500 companies and my belief with AI blockchain Evolving social deeper, you know The centralization of Hollywood and Madison Avenue and Wall Street that the biggest companies in the world are human based Organizations where the human either has a partner that could operate or they're of me where they can be both Hey everyone really quick if you're enjoying this episode on CEO stuff So delegating having hard conversations with your team hiring then I've got something for you So the female HubSpot they actually went and put together a bunch of best practices that Sean and I use in our own companies
And they put it together and something that's really easy to read and understand And so if you want to just save yourself 10 years of headache and heartache then you should check it out I wish we had this one time ago would help me a lot But there should be a QR code in your screen that you can scan or a link in the description So check it out. It's totally free and totally awesome You just named like six or seven companies that are doing eight figures that you're like I'm either the one a or the one B and I think that's awesome because I too wish I had 96 hours a day And so you know walk us through what's the what does the day look like what's the time blocking look like for this right like What's the day in the life of Gary V to do all this you know I wake up at six or seven There's a workout session every day ish. I'm pretty much an eight to eight thirty to nine eight to nine a m start point Done between eight and ten p.m. Depending on the day, but there's not a single break no lunch no anything every minutes booked 60% of the meetings are 15 minutes and again, let's get to the point here right let's get to the point here This is 30 years of building equity and my secret weapon was hiring people and again You guys again This is fun talking to you then let's say a net new podcast where I interacted a little bit with you guys
I just feeling that I was gonna be able to have a lot of really good A and B players around me that would stay with me That could do bigger things could do things on their own but that the relationship and that they would believe in me and that they would say You know in the teen years I might actually make more money being Gary's number 13 versus me my own number I just had this into and that I could convert these into bees and sees into bees I just had this feeling that my superpower was the human relationship side and so the reason I can do this so yes I work a lot and yes I mean I'm uncomfortably efficient with my time and yes I'm on a boat which has seven holes and I put my finger in the one that needs it most for every parent that knows You're only as happy as your most unhappy child and so my ebbs and flows of like oh shit Binger sports me or shit Binger like there's all that but the real reason is because of the 50 people from Ryan Harwood or Kallandler Claude or JT or AJ and Greg Gensky or David Rodolitz and Connor Helen or Andy K and John and JT John Trowman in May and Rips some beef friends or Brandon Warnocky on Wine Library or Eric Wautenberg Bainer Watt on that and I got another one coming that I'll announce next year Standalone business and if somebody who's worked for me for 11 years
Just gonna be my co-founder and I had the experience with Rezi You know like people forget that I'm the co-founder and inventor of Rezi But I had been 11th all be the one a I was the one B and I was a hefty nine figure exit And I had empathy wines two former interns of mine who worked for me for 11 years And we started empathy wines in 18 months sold it for a almost nine figure half the eight figure deal the consolation brands in 18 months Just like you know it's like gruens. I'm like I did that not to not to one point two billion But it's because when I do things on a net new business the person is my family member. It's family business We know everything about each other. It's seven to ten years before we decided to do X Y and Z They roll differently than a lot of people trying it with net new people they hire randomly Well, I was listening to your podcast this morning and someone asked a question that a lot of content creators asked They said I'm doing live shopping and live streaming but I don't want to do this all the time And I'm nervous that this all relies on me and I want to get other content creators You have listed six or seven businesses doing tens of millions of revenue and it all is started off of you And I don't know what percent is run or you get customers still for each thing because of you But a lot of it's based on you and your content to get nervous about that or do not care
You think I just love it so much that I ain't going anywhere not only is that true Sam I think I'm the preview this is what's going to happen This is what is happening like if you look at the derivatives of all the people that are like kind of that crew right now What do you think is happening? And then of course there's Kylie Jenner and Haley Bieber wearing a business person to also be around But then there's also like I mean you guys are like in pot You know everyone has different hopes and dreams and Sam you've nailed it like to me Like I love this shit Bro, you know people go and buy a home and the Bahamas and ask and play golf and that and makers Bay and that's their escapism When they need an escape when I need a break from Vayner X Which I do a lot because client services suck shit I don't go to Aspen I go to two days off sites for V friends because it fills my soul And I do the comic stories of my characters You know or I go to a half day at Wine Library and talk to Brandon because he's my best friend I was 14 and I need it for my soul, but then we also fixed the business What what's going on in these 15-minute meetings because I suspect what you're doing in 15 minutes is taking most people an hour So maybe you have a format matter you bro. You took my shit
I was asked that I was about to say the thing that everyone else is spending an hour on This is gonna be one of the highlights that I know from this meeting this podcast everyone's gonna I love they said meeting this feels more like a business meeting That's why you guys are so successful Everyone's gonna say yes right now in the treadmill walking the dog in their car on a plane or however They're consuming this everyone's meetings or twice as long as they need to be if they're a winner and they know it You got some poetry snaps for me and I just went there I knew it subconsciously then I'm just you know then yours went on and became conscious and then I executed I have this huge prize about underrated as a businessman I am because what I just drop and you guys literally nobody really knows which is wild because I'm Gary Veen I'm talking all the time And I think I got there on the 15-minute meeting and the family business vibes of my partners and crimes at the top And by the way, it's not just one person like every company requires three or four family members for it to really work The way it works for me because you gotta have a backup and a backup and a backup because there's so many variables I can go into these things so the 15-minute meeting has been gangster for me game-changing for me I do think I'm getting three days of work in one day. This is all happening at a time where I'm spending more I mean more time with my family than ever, you know, I have teenage kids a wife
It's just like you could be so much more efficient if you have remarkable people around you and you're obsessed with not wasting time to fill the slot What percentage of those meetings are you making decisions or being informed? I would say 30% on being informed 70% of making decisions. That's insane. That's hard to the context switching that's challenging It's funny you said that I've got a bunch of new film people because all my people Like this feels incredible go on to these incredible things happening for a little while and get all these offers or certain things And so I constantly have a DRock coming through, you know every year to the number one thing Sam Every single new admin and every single new person that films me says is they do not understand the switching I think I clearly DNA. I wonder if growing up in retail. We're just switching like everything's just always on
Well, I actually think that sometimes when I say context switching We had a guy or one of our friends came on the podcast and like as we were doing the sound check He got a text from his daughter saying she didn't get into the college that she wanted to get into and it screwed him up Like the the rest of the podcast was kind of shaky because he was like, I'm so sorry I can't stop thinking about my daughter just texting this I'm so sad for her I think one it's it I come to learn it's unique to do that too now you're really talking about it That is definitely been even that is definitely been something I'm I got for my mother Which is being able to carry in the moment adversity and negativity and still show up Like I think a lot about that as a leader like I get a lot of bad news every day one I'm psycho and I'm in HR of all my companies and now we have so many goddamn employees Every day someone's dad is saying it's just like I want to know if somebody in my company is going through tough stuff And then there's just when our client services We went 60 months without losing a client at Bienorex were ripping hot right and then recently in the last 60 days We've lost two and the first one was not surprising second was a little bit and I was walking right into another thing And I was just like it's funny you say that I was like man I really got into that because I was pissed and like I want to fix it
But I knew I had to show up for this thing and this thing and this thing and then not to mention all the things that happened in my Personal life similar to the college thing There's always something just like being able to like eat shit and firefight is like a really strong emotional framework that is hard What about notification fatigue? I tease Sean all the time Sean. What's the joke? What's the stereotype if I want if anyone wants to get a hold of you? Do you know what that stereotype is about you Sean?
Call Ben. I don't know. No, you Sean will not reply getting a touch with Sean when you need to sometimes the pay of the bus with me I tend to reply but it wears me out. I get so exhausted because I feel like I want to like please these people I go to him and I say hey long time. No talk when I think somebody and I see that actually they have been talking And I haven't I'm like okay, I should even send this maybe I should just I would say I'm in between you guys I try to reply a lot I use flights quite a bit to catch up and then if they can't get me think of the admins have a good sense of my reality How do you decide what projects to go into because you know for the six or whatever you said that are working obviously Maybe a couple didn't work and then there's hundreds of opportunities. You're saying no to so what's the bar now?
What's the box? How do you think about that might tell me just go? Yeah, like I want to do this and I want to do with this person I'm very good Gary. Say it cute. I'm very Tell me tickles. You know, there's so much serendipity. You know it. I'm very comfortable
Dying on my sword, which is my intuition. I'm very comfortable Well, have you guys all ever came close to bankruptcy or or not be able to make payroll? You know, it's funny Make payroll resi was in trouble I had a personal money and that I didn't really have at the time But nothing I've ever operated as the one a you know I got trained by a Soviet immigrant father who didn't even let it all raise in capital forget it debt forget it literally didn't have a credit line And we were in the liquor business where you had a legally pay your bills on 30-day terms where you went on COD to the whole industry And you couldn't get product. So I think I got trained so well You know always have money in the bank for rainy day and 30-day terms legally bounded by the alcohol laws of America and no credit line That by the time I went to my own journey full-time. It was in my subconscious of like we always have that money. Yeah
Alright, let's take a quick break and I got a question for you when a buyer asks AI for a solution like yours Does your business come up? Most companies have no idea by the time they found out they've already lost that deal to another company that did HubSpot has a eo which helps you show up in the moments when the rag buyers are looking for a company like yours before the first Play before they fill in the form that is the moment HubSpot a eo is built for check out HubSpot dot com the agent customer platform for growing businesses You meet a lot of people who do you think is doing cool shit right now? What are you know, either businesses that are kind of blowing your mind? Maybe something that's taking off faster than you would have expected Maybe something totally unrelated to what you do, but wow, you know, you get exposed to stuff that the average person doesn't where you're seeing a lot of heat right now Other so many good areas. I mean like, you know, I'll answer a question that might bring I'm trying to think about how to bring the most value to the audience I'll go to places where people are betting on five years from now not to create an exit five months from now So that takes me to people that are really spending time on Advanced AI Like really knowing where the stigma is today, but won't be in five years, right? Like creating an entire agency of virtual people
Right knowing right now, it's a little weird, but let's survive three to five years and we're gonna have the CIA a virtual people They're all gonna be the most famous virtual people and we own it. You're in the IP business That's not the representation business that I like I love everything and this is my wheelhouse But I love everyone who sells something to the consumer that realizes what live shopping is doing e-commerce is what e-commerce did to real Comp like real life and so what I mean by that is like in six to ten years, you know I think he come now is what 25 30% of the market like in six to ten years live shopping will actually be 10 to 15% of all commerce and that is scary big did you invest in what not I did not I actually talk about what not It's not as possible. You've been talking about live selling for years So I'll love this anytime I've invested in something that I end up having to talk about a lot I make a lot of content I'm front that I'm an investor So the way you know if I'm an investor in something is I'm saying it I'm really on it because I never so you know what I'm sure everyone thinks I did and by the way it ran through my table Like I don't I wasn't actively investing at the time Which is the answer Sean to why I didn't and I know we crossed my desk
But I never took like a meaningful meeting with Grant, but I'm so happy for him So a great job. I'm happy for the people that invested I think Sean did they ask you to invest in the seed run your friends reply to the email No, no, no, that was that was a Not a finally one I didn't shoot myself in the foot somebody else shot me in the foot I met with Grant. I was like I love this my last business got acquired by twitch. I'm amazing I've I told you how amazing I am you gotta let me invest in the rounded like just close But a lot of times they'll let you in if they like you they'll open up or they'll they'll squeeze you in He was just like let me see what I can do and I didn't hunt to chase it ten times more and I just let it go And that was a that's a big miss I have a great email my inbox from Joe at bed at air bed and breakfast air bread Yeah, I'm trying to remember was it yeah air bed and breakfast calm that's a good one The other ones that you haven't talked about you know you have uber obviously that's a famous one Airbnb But I never saw the email so it doesn't hurt up interest I had a guy who was the CSO the chief strategy offer at Campbell soup who was like 60 years old said Gary You gotta look at the startup from Pennsylvania. That's how he said it my friends cousin knows the guy. I'm like, okay
It's like getting a script for Hollywood in Chicago, you know, I didn't even like contemplate it Yeah, so that was close in and but I got him later through Scott Belsky What a great investor he is by the way he invested in I think uber and Pinterest in the same couple of weeks both at a $3.5 million valuation both was like $25,000 checks when he had like He told me he had like he's like I had 75 grand in personal savings and I put 25 in each of those companies Yeah, it's like eight or nine figures and by the way, he's better than that even like he's got more wins and he's an operator He's one of the best. Yeah, I mean, I mean Matt, you know one of the reasons I'm starting my next thing is a lot of cpgs magic spoon a lot of good brands came to Vayner wanting us to be the people But we didn't take on those kind of clients some things I invested in some I didn't I want to be better at that But my biggest win that I don't deserve is gonna be liquid death Mike work that being remedied the day before he started Look with death as creative and he sent me an email said hey I'm leaving thank you for your time to learn a lot here by the way I'm doing this thing would you like to invest he was a creative?
I'm a cliche businessman that thinks creatives aren't business people right so I was like, you know, I didn't know well enough because We had a big company at that point. Well, he's also saying that he's launching a water company called liquid death Like that is like a silly thing on paper. You appreciate this the way I think about branding and marketing It actually fits me more than it doesn't for me the way I like stuff So that wasn't the crazy part. I was kind of agnostic about that part I thought it could work But I didn't think it was brilliant and I definitely didn't think what a lot of people thought which is it has no chance because I'm Super brands marketing is an astounding variable Especially for products commodity and water as a commodity right like water and plastic versus water and cans doesn't Really change the variable in fact the can is the advantage I understood that part it was more interesting why I invest it goes back to this nice guy theme a little bit I just wanted to invest because I want to support my employees on their own ventures So I literally did it for that reason only and you know, that's gonna be a box first check in This podcast is brought to you by my friends at Mercury. They make the world's best banking product I think you know this already I use Mercury for all my businesses I think I like maybe seven or eight businesses we use Mercury as our business banking across all of them And now they actually just want a personal bank account. So I have my personal account there
I moved off of Wells Fargo and Chase. I'm just all in on Mercury Why I like products that are easy to use I like products that get me and the problems I have so like it's very easy to make a joint account with my wife very easy to spin up virtual cards One click and I get savings yield It's just has all the stuff that I need in one place So if you're looking for the best banking product on market, it's definitely Mercury I will fist by anybody who disagrees with me on that go to mercury calm slash personal and learn more mercury is a FinTech not an FDIC insured bank banking services provided through choice financial group and call them an A members FDIC You're significantly larger than both of us But we sort of run the same world and there's less scammers and shady people in this like content and business world Like I've noticed that as we've gotten bigger I try to be very careful about who I associate with yeah being a nice guy Do you struggle to like say I don't want to be around this person like they have a background of doing X Y and Z Or they're they have political beliefs that I don't buy into I don't want to be so I'll be on it for you guys knows I never talk politics political beliefs won't throw me off because I'm very empathetic that people can see The world of I mean hate or like ridiculousness on both the left and extreme leftism and rightism as we know it today Sure, but like political beliefs know but I don't think they do honorable work sure I've struggled with that
And you know also, you know me being on the speaking circuit for so long Sometimes those you know those kind of characters might be the same place and they want a quick selfie and I don't want to Yeah, and you know this I you know, you're smart And so I know that question is grounded in you know that I've avoided a lot of stuff and association and that's the reason Yeah, of course, you never I mean there's people the amount of people that will take a cell Forget about people we know there are people that are tier 19 People that are trying to do this they're like four followers and they sell up $4,000 course and they're criminals, right? They'll take a selfie with me at the airport and then make a post and say that like we had a meeting at the airport to strategize They're mastermind. Well, they did when they asked you a question You do have to be conscious of that and you do need to worry about your NIL and your reputation is on my mind and now with deep fakes And where this is all going I think about that stuff all the time because when I take out the Epstein files Because I'm like a huge true crime fan and so I've seen the Epstein files like the J Mail, you know, you know, you go through his email I'm like I always want to be so careful about who I'm speaking with it kind of freaked me out Man, I will tell you and you guys know this I make a lot of content about my mom
And like it's just I can't help not say it like you just talked and everything that goes to my brain Well, you were just saying that thing on the Epstein thing because I think about it too I'm like who's even me all me through the years and what but the thing I can rely on Sam is I am not cliche human meaning I Don't say like things that are not nice Definitely not in writing, you know, like, you know, and so like I don't worry about that luckily and all those credit How I was raised like I really believe being the bigger person being a nice person You know, what's really interesting actually I want to ask you guys question this blows me away We are fortunate. We've worked hard We have talent where we're at and what that allows us to spend some time in private and public settings with other people that have won The thing that completely rocked me and what was happening to me in my contemporaries my era was how many winners and I mean winners They've got the girl they've got crazy money. They've got it Well, actually still spend most of their time shitting on other winners Out of envy or I don't even know what and I'm like this energy Like I'm like what I had to say this to a couple buddies not too long I'm like you guys are a bunch of 14 year old bitches like what are you talking about?
She should be happy for XYZ that they're crushing it. Yeah, he's not the nicest ever But he's not a piece of shit and by the way everything you're sitting on you guys do the same shit What is this like you're living like focus on winning if you're so actually sad that they want even more than you and you got feelings about it Why don't you take these three hours of bitching about this person like yet does and go build something With Sean what percentage of incredibly successful people do you know who you think are good wonderful people with good attitudes? I think they're good one of people with good attitudes, but they're definitely imbalanced in some core way, right? Like there's they're not well-rounded chill ass, you know people right like I think they should you're unlikely to be extreme winner Without some version of extreme personality sure and that'd be that's fair hundreds time since that he said there's no Reasonable people on the top of my numbers. Yeah I had a person kind of point this out to me about why this happens I don't know if you've ever read like the René Girard like mimeetic theories like Peter Tiles really big on this Basically the core thing you'll get this as a consumer guy which is that we don't want what we want because we want it We want it because other people want it. Yeah for whether it's your luxury bag that you're carrying or believe in that in fact
In fact, this is where all my gratitude comes from mother and DNA I want it for my process not because others want it and it makes me feel simple But it's very clear to me that most are the other way yeah So I think most people have the sort of medic drive right and this is why you see trends and fads catch on because I want to go Buy need those right now because all the other kids are buying need those and I want to say this because other people say this I want to wear Jordan's because they wear Jordan's right so that's like a normal thing and there's another term in that philosophy that's called a memetic rival and so I was on a I was on a plane ride and I had this embarrassing moment where I was admitting to somebody I was like, you know what like I feel stupid even saying this but kind of drove me nuts the way this guy was saying that I was Kind of bitches about somebody I rarely do but I was doing it and I was like honestly I was like guys I feel stupid saying this but like That shit bothered me and I bubbled up and he goes you know what you know what you do it was that person's your memetic rival Like what's a memetic rival basically? It's like I don't know if you saw when Bezos was launching like his rocket and Elon's rocket and they had this really passive aggressive thing it's in Elon's biographies very funny it's like congratulations to Jeff on the first suborbital He landed it and he's like congratulations on the first successful landing from only you know to make a ton whatever
It's like they added these little qualifiers they started blocking each other because for each other their memetic rivals right and it's Very strangely you think these are the most secure people on earth But we all have a poor part of us that has that it's have you learned attainment? No, it's funny I literally believe the reverse I genuinely believe that the far majority of people get to the top from extreme insecurity Hey, let me ask you one more question You could and you don't have to answer if you don't want to if it's too private But with the six or seven businesses that you've named they're badass and like I'm looking at the people you hired or I guess They're your co-founders. They're freaking awesome I was looking at some of your partners on your other businesses in order to get these off the ground Do you have to fund them personally or do you get backers for a lot of these things because it's not like I'm reading This deadline article and you have like a list of like five or six people and they're ballers and I'm like those guys aren't cheap And I'm like what's the velocity of Ross the owner to dolphins who's in danger media with me as well?
He funded that he wanted to be a part of that on the rest I Funded that's awesome like I was looking at that I didn't know but you had a restaurant and I was looking at that and it was like a membership club and I looked at the interiors And I was like no it was a meaningful build out like no, it's been really cool like I um I've been a really fun part of my career. I'm actually just use this platform This incredible platform So thank you for having me I'm talking a little bit more cuz I actually want to start talking a little bit more about me the juggler To your point earlier I am proud of what I'm doing and I you know no one really knows which is wild and I'm proud of that too right that goes to the humility But now I'm maybe ready for being like hey guys by the way I'm not a motivational speaker right might actually be a weirdly good operator at scale well So on Google flyfish club Manhattan or just flyfish club and please come when you guys are in New York you'll be blown I live here now Gary. I live in the West side. So like ASAP email me after this like ASAP ASAP I want you to see it It's it's a three story restaurant with a private office even like it's real But more importantly because you know this it could also be going out of business tomorrow meaning it's a like the business is extremely Bible in fact same now that you're here upper West side if you just go over to GW which I know is counterintuitive the
restaurant we opened in Bergen County, New Jersey called Cape ons Chop House We now know we're about to open another one in Westchester We're about to open 50 of those in high network neighborhoods of the biggest cities in the world We got the model we got it and don't forget This is the brilliance of what I think when when it's all written the Vayner X marketing machine impacts all these businesses Right, what's the model? It says it's a membership the model is open up the new version of Ruth's Chris and look like a bad steak house That has the most New York City vibes Just not in New York City and everyone in bridges and tunnels of the seven most important places on earth that have high net worth individuals Are gonna sell the shit out of these places. It's not a new invented model. It's a member Yes, it's just Cape ons is just a Ruth's Chris steak house 2.0 But we have a very strong what we do to Eugene's credit to Grutman's credit to Noah's credit Those places have mail cool right there's that nightlife element. We're going 20% less on that and 20% more on food We think the secret to retention LTV is just execute a food program that is so undeniable and a little bit of that sizzle
But your stakes gotta be right right right like our strategy is killer chicken parm Yes, actually that's kind of what people want you've got into this business GDS He decided to start a agency and a restaurant The two businesses on earth literally the two worst and again This is a great way to end it up Which is like I'm playing for what makes me feel good not just maximizing the dollars And then on the other side I'm gonna turn V friends into Pokemon and it's gonna be one of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world in 20 years Which in an AI world will have an extraordinary amount of value and will be the best kind of business someone can build Well, we appreciate you man. Yeah, well, yeah, well, that's it. That's a pot I feel like I can rule the world and know I can be what I want to Hey, let's take a quick break I want to tell you about a podcast that you can check out it is called the science of scaling by Mark Reberish He was the founding CEO of HubSpot And he's a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School the guy smart and he sits down every week with different sales leaders from cool companies Like Clavio and Vanta and opening I and he's asking about their strategies their tactics and how they're growing their companies as
You know, head of sales or chief revenue officer If you're looking at a scale company up if you're a CRO or head of sales Just looking to level up in your career I think a podcast like this could be great for you listen to the science of scaling wherever you get your podcast